[ If you want to read an extra chapter ahead, go check out the p@treon
Search for foresight_geek or https://[email protected]/c/foresight_geek,
you can buy a membership for the entire month just for -- 1 $ ]
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Mavis POV
Standing on the edge of the stone battlements, the freezing wind whipped my hair against my cheeks as I stared down at the valley.
Below the ridge, three hundred heavily armored siege troopers moved into a tight phalanx. Behind them, their engineers locked the iron gears of four massive magic cannons into the dirt, channeling raw Ethernano into the iron barrels until the air around the weapons began to hum.
Four years ago, a sight like this would have made my stomach twist. I used to look at troop numbers and see lives; now, I just saw angles, attrition, and friction. Four years of matching wits with greedy capital lords and cutthroat mercenary captains had permanently stripped away the naive bookworm who thought war could be won cleanly. My eyes didn't track data points anymore; they tracked desperate human behavior.
They're bunching up the entire center row just to shield those heavy barrels, I thought, my fingers pressing hard against the cold stone ledge of the battlements. They've spent three days hauling those heavy cannon weights up the mountain pass, and their vanguard is already dragging their boots in the mud. They think we're terrified. They think we're going to cower in the trenches and let them shell us.
A cold, dangerous calm settled into my chest. I knew exactly how their general's mind worked. He wanted a textbook, stationary siege.
I wasn't going to give it to him.
I took a slow, deliberate breath, centering the Ethernano inside my container until the raw pressure began to strain against my limits. It was time to break their line before they could even pull a trigger.
"Illusion Magic: Phantom Legion!"
An army of over five hundred glowing, heavily armored Fairy Tail ghost soldiers erupted from the mud, screaming war cries as they charged directly toward the enemy's center line. The mercenary general took the bait, ordering his engineers to pivot all four spell-automations toward the eastern flank to obliterate my vanguard.
But I didn't stop there. I pushed my magic container past its normal limits, forcing the Ethernano to condense until the light itself gained physical mass.
"Manifestation: Transient Reality!"
The illusion shifted. For a brief, five-second window, the five hundred ghost soldiers didn't just look real—they became solid. The phantom swords they carried gained actual weight, and their iron boots slammed into the mud with crushing momentum. The vanguard hit the mercenaries' eastern flank like a real wave of steel, their blades cutting through armor and shattering shields before the enemy mages could even complete a defense circle.
Before the general could even process why his vanguard was being slaughtered by ghosts, the five-second limit expired. My illusion dissolved back into light particles, leaving their entire eastern flank broken, exposed, and in total chaos.
"Now!" I called down the ridge, my voice echoing across the battlefield. "Warrod! Precht! Yuri! Clear the board!"
Yuri POV
The second Mavis's ghosts vanished into light, the entire valley split wide open.
"On it, Master!" I yelled.
Warrod didn't waste a breath. He slammed both palms flat into the wet clay of the trenches, channeling his mastered Green Magic deep into the bedrock. Massive tree roots exploded out of the dirt directly beneath the four iron spell-cannons, snapping the wooden gears and flipping the multi-ton artillery arrays straight into the muck before they could fire a single shot.
The mercenary mages tried to scatter and fall back, but Precht stepped out from the smoke. He snapped his wrists forward, launching a web of heavy iron chains across the entire width of the canyon floor. The moment the links bit into the stone, he dropped a crushing wave of pressure that slammed the remaining sixty vanguard troopers flat into the mud.
With the entire enemy army pinned to the dirt, I became a pure streak of golden current.
I compressed my lightning container down into thin, high-frequency piercing threads that hummed along the edge of my blade. I blitzed through their pinned rows at blinding speed, my sword leaving a line of golden sparks as I cleanly shattered their staves, punctured their armor joints, and knocked out their elite vanguard in one continuous run.
By the time I sheathed my blade, the mercenary general was the only one left standing, his knees shaking as he looked at his dismantled army.
"We... we surrender," he wheezed, dropping his staff into the mud.
Merlin POV
Right as the mercenary general hit the dirt, a heavy weight of Ethernano descended upon the valley from the western road, freezing the air solid.
A platoon of fifty heavily armored guards wearing the silver-and-gold ceremonial robes of the newly formed Magic Council marched onto the field. Standing at the front of the line were three high-ranking Council representatives, their faces grim as they looked over the shattered spell-cannons and the defeated mercenary guild.
"Fairy Tail," the lead Council representative spoke, his voice amplified by a wind rune as he held up a glowing parchment scroll. "The four-year conflict in this province is officially over. The capital noble coalition has been stripped of their titles, their private mercenary contracts are hereby banned, and their assets have been confiscated under high treason decrees."
He unrolled the scroll, the golden runic seal of the Council flaring to life.
"To prevent the continent of Ishgar from collapsing into permanent chaos, the Magic Council officially decrees the establishment of a sovereign order: The Ten Wizard Saints. Let it be recorded across the kingdom that Fairy Tail's victory is recognized under sovereign law. Your territory is absolute, and your names are cemented among the founding pillars of continental order."
Mavis stood on the battlements, her face serious as she officially accepted the Council's decree. The trade war was over. Fairy Tail wasn't just a small startup guild anymore; they were a battle-tested superpower that the entire kingdom was officially terrified of.
Up on the roof tiles of the newly built, massive wooden guildhall, the evening sky was finally clearing. I was sitting cross-legged on the ledge in my white-and-purple coat, casually spinning Odin's staff as the sounds of a rowdy town celebration echoed from the tavern windows below.
They had won their four-year war without me lifting a single finger. Yuri and Precht were down there slamming tankards together, Warrod was laughing with the Mayor, and Mavis was finally smiling across a table of clean ledgers. They had grown into absolute monsters on their own.
Solomon, I thought, letting a tiny golden swirl hit my eyes. Give me a quick continental sweep. Let's see how the rest of Ishgar is looking now that the Council is playing politics.
[Notice: Regional scanning complete. The establishment of 'The Ten Wizard Saints' has successfully stabilized the local mortal factions. The geopolitical boundaries of the Fiore kingdom have been updated.]
[Report: Individual 'Mavis Vermillion' has been officially recorded across continental intelligence lines under the historic title: The Fairy Tactician.]
I let out a low chuckle, a lazy smirk hitting my face as the flower petals of my passive magic drifted away into the starlit sky.
"The Fairy Tactician, huh?" I muttered to the night air, resting my staff against my shoulder. "Not bad for a bunch of treasure hunters. Let's see what kind of mess you kids get into next."
======================================================
[ If you want to read an extra chapter ahead, go check out the p@treon
Search for foresight_geek or https://[email protected]/c/foresight_geek,
you can buy a membership for the entire month just for -- 1 $ ]