After the meeting, Alex keeps taking Dark Guild Subjugation jobs. He is venting his annoyance for being unable to find Lullaby onto these Dark Guilds. There are many S-Class jobs to subjugate Dark Guilds, after all, so Alex doesn't need to worry he can't find Dark Guilds to destroy.
If he is lucky, he will find Etherious Demons among the Dark Mages. Some Zeref Worshipper Guilds are controlled by Etherious Demons. Most of them are subordinate Guilds of Tartaros too, showing how coordinated those Etherious Demons are, which is scary.
But the scarier thing is how many of those Etherious Demons exist in Ishgar. Many of them are also very intelligent like humans, not just some mindless monsters.
Well, there are many mindless Etherious Demons that act like wild beasts among those that Alex killed, but there are also many intelligent ones and most of the ones that Alex found in the Dark Guilds are intelligent.
Anyway, many of those Etherious Demons are behind the Dark Guilds affiliated with Tartaros. So Alex often takes the jobs to subjugate them. He's sure that now he is in Tartaros's most wanted list because he has destroyed many of their subordinate Guilds.
It's proved now when he takes a Dark Guild subjugation job a while after the Guild Masters annual meeting. He barges into the Dark Guild's base and the Dark Mages immediately recognize him.
It's not so strange for an S-Class like him to be quite known. But it surely is strange when the Dark Guild he's supposed to subjugate has a special procedure to kill him, which is blowing up their base.
They try to run away, but some of them are still caught in the big explosion, mostly because they tried to hold Alex back. It's a price they are willing to pay to kill Alex who has destroyed a lot of their allies.
These guys are also heretics who don't care about their own lives anyway as their lives are for their Lord Zeref, so some sacrifices are normal for them. The sacrifices even smiled when the explosion happens.
Too bad though, their determination is useless now because that big explosion doesn't kill Alex. He reflexively transformed into mini Shukaku and covered his whole body with a very thick layer of sand that's also very hard to protect himself.
Alex's transformation is very quick, almost like he transforms in an instant. That's why he could transform into mini Shukaku in no time and protect himself using Shukaku's absolute defense that could block that explosion.
However, that explosion was so strong that it destroyed big parts of the thick sand ball shield that Alex made. This Dark Guild has really prepared well to kill intruders that are too strong for them.
Fortunately for Alex, his body is made out of sand after he transforms into Shukaku. Some parts of his sand body including his face are blown off, but they regenerate quickly as he takes more sand from the ground to fill the destroyed parts.
"What a way to welcome a guest." Alex is quite pissed by how he falls into that trap. So he vents his anger by beating up the remaining Dark Mages. Too bad, there's no demon among them, so he can't get some good magic power to absorb today.
Alex hands the living Dark Mages to the Magic Council as usual. Then from the squad that takes the Dark Mages from him, he hears that Phantom Lord has been officially disbanded by the Council after the Guild Masters asked them and they investigated it.
"What about Jose?"
"He is removed from the Wizard Saint rank. We will investigate and judge him. However, he has run away because we can't find him anywhere. The members of Phantom Lord Guild also don't know where he has disappeared to."
Alex frowns when he hears the news from the Squad Captain. He doesn't know what happened to Jose after Phantom Lord's defeat in the series. So he doesn't have any clue at all about Jose's whereabouts now.
"I see. So this makes him a fugitive, right? Can I kill him if I meet him by chance?"
"W-well, I recommend you to just immobilize him and hand him over to us so we can judge him properly. We'll still investigate this matter even without his presence so we can make a proper judgment when we find him."
"What if he attacks me? I won't be surprised if he holds a grudge against me and tries to kill me when he has a chance. He might even be planning to do that now."
"Hmm, if that's the case, then I guess you can kill him if that's the only choice. If he attacks first, then you are just defending yourself. While we still prefer you catch him alive and hand him over to us, we obviously prefer the life of a strong Legal Mage who has done many good works for us than a fugitive."
"Alright. I'll try to keep him alive even if he loses his limbs then."
"P-please keep it in moderation." The Captain knows well that Alex will really cut Jose's limbs if they meet. He has worked with Alex for a few years now because the Council always sends him to take the Dark Mages that Alex caught, so he knows Alex quite well.
Alex very rarely kills the Dark Mages from the Dark Guilds he subjugates. But it's not rare for the Dark Mages he caught to lose some limbs or be in severe conditions. It's like he just barely keeps them alive because the Council prefers them alive.
Though well, the Squad Captain also understands that sometimes it's not easy to catch the Dark Mages alive. Killing them is easier most of the time because the Mages need to hold back if they want to avoid killing the Dark Mages.
That's why the rewards for capturing the Dark Mages alive are higher. The risk is higher, so the rewards are higher as well. Not many Mages can capture the Dark Mages alive like Alex too, making him famous in the Magic Council.
Though that makes the Council members wonder why such an excellent Mage can stay in Fairy Tail that's known to be an unruly Guild. After all, he has a good attitude and knows manners, unlike his Guild Mates. He keeps the Council's opinion of them quite well singlehandedly.
Anyway, Alex keeps hunting Dark Guilds after that to find some hiding demons while waiting for Edolas Arc to happen. It should happen a while after Gildarts return, but it might change too because of everything he did.
So he doesn't know when Edolas Arc will truly happen now, so he just does what he can for now. He wants to talk with Mystogan about it actually, but that guy rarely shows up in the Guild, so it's hard to meet Mystogan.
Until he finally realizes it, he can just leave a letter for Mystogan. So he writes a short letter and leaves it to Makarov. The old man mostly stays in the Guild and he interacts with Mystogan the most among everyone in the Guild, so the letter should arrive on Mystogan's hands soon.
Alex's plan works well because Mystogan suddenly comes to meet him a while after he returns from his job. Well, he wrote something that would really pick Mystogan's interest, after all, so there's no way Mystogan won't come to meet him.
"How do you know?" Mystogan suddenly asks that when he has just arrived.
"You sure you want to talk about it here?" Alex asks because they are now on the 2nd floor of the Guild building that's exclusive for S-Class Mages. Only the 2 of them are there now, but this is still not a private place. They finally go to the forest near Porlyusica's place to have a private talk.
"How do you know?" Mystogan asks again.
"About what? The Anima or Edolas or your true identity?" Alex asks playfully.
"Everything. How do you know all of that?"
"Hahaha, well, I have my way. What you should know is that I don't have any bad intentions toward you. Instead, I want to help you."
Alex's answer makes Mystogan frown. "Help me? But why? You don't have a reason to."
"I don't have a reason? Are we being friends not enough of a reason? Well, if that's not a convincing enough reason for you, then I'll give you another one. It's because Magnolia and everyone in the Guild will be in danger if I don't help you. Not just Magnolia, maybe the whole continent will be in danger if we don't do anything to that Anima."
Mystogan is surprised that Alex knows that much. But he still doesn't know how much Alex knows about Anima. So he asks about it and Alex explains everything he knows about Anima and its danger.
"H-how-?!" Mystogan really can't understand how Alex can know that much about Anima.
"It's not important how I can know that much. What's important is how we will handle this problem. You surely know that a very big Anima will soon be used in Magnolia, right? It will suck the whole town to Edolas, endangering everyone here. So we need to do something or everyone will die after being turned into pure magic power."
Alex can't be sure that everything will end up fine like in the series because of all the changes he made. It will be a disaster if it doesn't go well like that and everyone ends up being turned into pure magic power in Edolas, so he needs to do something.
"Alright, if you really can help me, then I don't have any reason to refuse." Mystogan finally agrees after thinking for a while.
Alex smiles. "Good, but I have a condition. Don't worry, it will be very simple."
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Ch. 161. A Miracle (+ A picture of Alex's character design)