Chapter 64 - Laxus returns!

(Earthland, Fiore Kingdom, Magnolia town in December of the year X778.)

(Arthur POV)

You may wonder what has been going on for the past months since July, well allow me to enlighten you!

First of all, Mystogan got decked with a dozen different staves that all reached the Unique tier! He keeps them inside of a spatial ring he made to store his many items, it too is a Unique tier item that took him a while to make. It has around a 7x7 cubic meter size, so it's pretty decent at storing stuff.

The only reason he could make so many unique tiered items was because I supplied him with hundreds of items to work with, he had leeway to throw certain items away when they turned out as a lower grade than what his highest was.

I had Mystogan create many rings of flight that he gave to me to distribute to whomever might need them, my decision was to give them to anyone that has reached S class. Else I'd wait for them to either reach it or when they need it. In other words, I'd give them to others if some kind of battle between us and an enemy faction starts.

Like that captain guy! Or someone else, we'll have to see what the future holds.

Unless there's something like that going on, then the members of Fairy tail would have to fight up to S class by themselves, if they can't do that without the items then they wouldn't deserve the rank.

The rings of flight were all Unique tiered ones and with the amount of magic power they could store, the users were able to fly for about twenty minutes at a time before needing to wait for the recharge.

It might not seem like much, but remember that this is to be used for combat! Not travel.

Twenty minutes is far more than enough to defeat an enemy, and even if they can't win by that time the ability itself could save them in some way.

If we want to have longer periods of time, we'd need to wait for Mystogan to learn how to reach higher tiers of enchantment which would take a while... A Mythic ring for example would probably be able to allow the user to fly for hours on end, that would definitely help out the S rank guildmates and whoever else might join our team in the future.

For him to learn how to reach higher tiers, he needed to practice with his ability. However, he still needed to work and make money... So, in order for him to continue his job I funded his enchanting practices and making of items for the S class through my own pocket!

I had well over fifty million jewels by now, making money was beyond easy for me as even an S ranked job request could be finished in minutes here in Fiore.

Hmm... Maybe I should buy a nice house one of these days? I'll have to see about that...

Anyways! Mystogan worked around the clock and slowly got better at making Unique tiered items, I had him practice by asking him to start adding stuff like self-cleaning clothing and armor for the S class, making them gain resistance to the elements and self-repair.

They still had the Elemental resistance clothes at hand, just that they weren't as good as self-cleaning clothes when it came to day to day life and easy jobs.

It would have to wait until Mystogan was able to make Epic tiered items for the two to be combined.

Other things we had made were... A physical strength buffing ring and an Ether storing bracelet that could be used to replenish some magic power in the middle of battle, albeit it's not that much when looking at the big shots Ur and Gildarts!

The add on for them was rather negligible, Ur only got about a 5% revitalize while Gildarts didn't even reach 1%…

Whelp, these two are wizard saint level so it's not too surprising... that enchantment is definitely going to be more useful later on the at higher tiers for them though, so at least there's that.

For someone like Erza however, the bracelet easily brought back nearly 60% of her total magic power! She was still on her way to growing up into a formidable warrior, yet a Unique tier didn't fully revitalize her!

If you gave it to Natsu or gray then they'd be able to use it nearly half a dozen times!

She was definitely an S class combatant in this case.

In any case what the three of those got was still amazing, they all enjoyed the flight magic to no end and loved the armored clothing! They also all had a ring that could create a barrier, the barrier was geared to be a last resort defense so it could only be used three times but its quality was definitely not questionable!

Erza herself ended up getting a bunch of Unique tiered weapons and armors, each with their own abilities that she could swap through with her Requip, like in the original timeline.

We made some armors that increased strength and others that increased speed or defense.

Another thing we made was a replica of her Empress sets, the elemental ones!

She has been getting used to them over the months, getting through all the tricks on how to use them best and what not.

The last item I had Mystogan practice on with making was a real life saver for me...

I had him make an item that would be given to each and every guild member! S class or not!

Such an amazing item should be distributed to everyone of course!

Yes indeed...

Mystogan was tasked into making a bracelet that fixed any damaged terrain! The Unique tier of this item could fix nearly thirty square meters of a damaged area!

I AM FREE!!!

…

Back to the present and to December...

Months had passed with no attacks or anything from the Captain's team, no Zeref calls or anything. I've been keeping my Clairvoyance and hostility detection up for so long now that it's not even a problem to keep them up. I can focus on my Arcane Domain training without those two abilities making a difference on my concentration.

It's actually been a sort of help to me in the end to be honest!

As for guild matters... One of the guild members became a father on this month! the 2nd of December to be precise.

Macao had a son, his name was Romeo. The kid who was always fanboying over Natsu in the original timeline, it's quite nostalgic to finally see the little guy appear! Reminded me of the beginning of the anime and the whole Vulcan incident Macao got himself in.

Anyway, the birth was a happy occasion that we celebrated all night long, Macao was the center of attention for once and he got completely wasted by the end of the night. I'm sure he had lots of fun!

Aside from that little tad bit of information, Laxus also finally came back!

He arrived on December 5th, walking through the Fairy Tail guildhall's front door while covered in a grayish hooded mantle.

And let me tell you...

He definitely was way stronger than before!

…

"Yo, I'm back." Laxus exclaimed as he walked through the door and removed his hood.

All of the guild members turned to him and began welcoming him home, Laxus the grandson of Master Makarov had returned from his rigorous journey of self-training! It was obviously an occasion worthy of throwing a party once more.

On one table stood the Strauss siblings, seeing the man for the first time only now.

"That's Laxus? Doesn't seem like much." Mira said in contempt while crossing her arms.

"From what I heard he's rather strong though?" Lisanna commented.

"Yeah, he went toe to toe with Erza during the S rank exam from what I heard." Elfman also commented.

"Laxus! You're finally back!" Cana exclaimed from another table where she and the others were sitting at.

"Oh, here comes the big shot! wonder how much he's improved?" Ultear commented.

"A lot I'd reckon, but I'm sure you can handle him Ultear!" Lyon pitched in.

"Welcome back you lightning bastard!" Gray grinned as he stood up, missing quite a few of his clothes.

"Laxus! Come over for a drink!" Wakaba yelled out.

"Yeah! Drink with us dude! I have a son now you know? You know?" Macao yelled too, still excited since the past days.

"Laxus! Welcome home!" Evergreen appeared.

"YEAHHhhh! The boss is back!" Bickslow yelled.

"LAXUSSS!!! You're finally home!" Freed said with a tear running down his eye, he got emotional.

Many others welcomed Laxus back, earning a smile from the returning traveler, "I'm hom-" However he was cut short from the heartfelt return.

"Laxus! Fight me!" Natsu screamed at the top of his lungs while rushing towards Laxus, only to get chopped on the head and knocked out.

Laxus could only sigh as he looked at the midget under his feet with irritation. "I'm not fighting you, you idiot..."

The guild fell in silence for a moment, before erupting in loud heartfelt laughter. "Hahahahhahahahahahaha!"

I myself went up to the guy, looking forward to seeing how he's been. "Yo Laxus! Been a while hasn't it-" However, I got interrupted by a punch towards my face.

I obviously dodged, moving my head to left, but a quick kick was already on its way towards the back of my head!

I used my hands to guard against it, the impact from Laxus' kick was enough to pick me up into the air and move me a good three meters away from my original position.

"..." Everyone was silent again, surprised by the sudden attack.

"You didn't get weaker on me, did ya Arthur?" Laxus grinned with his smug face, readying a fighting stance.

"Hey! is that how you greet someone after being gone for a whole year? Come on Laxus! You can kick harder than that!" I grinned and rushed towards Laxus who did the same.

We haven't had a bout like this in a while, the guy had seriously! And I mean SERIOUSLY improved over the last year!

To call him the same man would be rather questionable really...

All his moves were sharper, his instincts were honed and his physical ability was way above what it once was!

I was still physically superior of course thanks to my demonic attributes, even if I wasn't in my demonified state I still had some buffs to my physical strength.

However, Laxus wasn't far behind...

Is such improvement really possible in just a single year? He might be stronger than he was when he tried to take over Fairy Tail in the original timeline...

The brawl we started ended up causing more havoc across the guild and more fights began, it went on for nearly five minutes before Erza came back to see all the racket and stepped in to end the brawls.

"Stop it all of you! What are you? Children? Get a grip already!" She said while knocking multiple people out left and right with her fists.

About a third of the guild was out cold by the time the others reacted and stopped fighting, trying to escape the wrath of Erza.

You know... You're not giving a very good example by doing that Erza...

Luckily Mira got held back by her siblings and Ultear, Gray and Lyon. None of them wanting the two to face off against each other. So, because of that Erza was able to smoothly stop the fighting.

However, she didn't even try to stop mine and Laxus' brawl, she simply stopped and looked at our fist fight.

Neither of us had managed to land a good hit on the other, based on simple brawling we were equal at the moment.

A ring of people soon ended up forming around the two of us, everyone was shouting and even betting on who would win!

"Go Arthur! Punch his face in!" Someone yelled.

"Laxus! You got this! I'll win a bunch of money if you do!" Another yelled.

"Laxusss! You're the man!" Bickslow yelled with his tongue hanging out.

"Arthur! Show him who's boss!" Gray pitched in.

"Beat his ȧss Arthur!" Natsu shouted.

"Knock him down Laxus!" Evergreen yelled.

"Arthur nii! You'd better slam him into the ground real quick!" Cana shouted.

"LAXUS! YOU CAN DO IT! I BELIEVE IN YOU!" Freed cheered like the fangirl he is.

Everyone was shouting and cheering, the guild was getting rather lively once more even after Erza's purging.

"What's all the racket about?" Gildarts walked in through the wall.

"Oooh!" Ur flew in through the hole that Gildarts made, "It's a fight!" She exclaimed while floating above the crowd.

She really enjoyed that ring huh?

"Oh my! Laxus came back ey? This outta be interesting..." GIldarts mused

"Arthy shove a table up his bum! Show him who's really boss!" Ur yelled from up in the air.

Seeing how well Laxus was faring a few of the guild members betted on him while most still chose to trust me.

A wise choice as I finally found an opening through the barrages of fists that the both of us were throwing and moved in next to his outstretched hand for an uppercut to Laxus' chin! After sending him into the air, I grabbing his foot while he was flying up and slamming him into the ground with as much force as I could!

A hole ended up forming on the wooden floor, Laxus was inside it however he was mostly unscathed.

"Oooooh!!" A loud reaction sounded from the crowd, anticipating what would happen next.

I however put my hands down and relaxed, seeing as Laxus seemed to be done.

He jumped back on his feet and looked at me, "Damn it, you win! Again! I'll get you next time you pine sized brat!" Laxus said with a rather irritated look on his face, probably because he figured that he couldn't win even with a whole year's worth of training only the gods knew where he had done.

And also... Who are you calling pine sized?! You're only a little taller than me at this point!

"You're welcome to try anytime, I've been missing a brawling partner this past year you know? Definitely looking forward to it, hahaha!" I laughed heartily.

Eh, guess I can let that one slide.

"Yeah? Well you'll taste the dirt the next time! So stop being so high and mighty!" Laxus shouted, "I'll go see gramps now... But first, Bickslow! Evergreen! Freed! Wait for me outside, I have told talk to you three privately." He said.

"Oh, sure thing man!" Bickslow replied.

"Make it quick alright?" Evergreen said.

"Right away Laxus!" Freed lightly bowed.

Are you a butler dude?

Laxus went up to gramps who had been patiently watching and waiting this entire time.

"Are you done finally? Come back after a year of not contacting me and the first thing you do is turn this guild upside down? I might as well through you out on the street!" Gramps pouted angrily.

Laxus hadn't sent even a single letter, driving gramps into worry for quite some time.

"Sorry geezer but I was rather busy with my own training, hope you can understand. And hey, I had to give it a shot at fighting Arthur after all this time. The brat is still as good of a fighter as ever I see... But I'm gaining on him... I'll shove his head in the floor sooner or later!" Laxus smirked at gramps.

Oh yeah? Care to try me out when I'm not holding back mister electric cable?

"Shut up already! Come on to my office, we'll talk there about what you've been up to." Gramps said and hopped down to the floor from his seat, walking towards the office.

"As you wish gramps." Laxus replied and followed him nonchalantly with his hands placed behind his head.

The two ended up spending about thirty minutes inside, and since they simply talked about what Laxus had been up to the past year I decided not to snoop or anything like that too much.

Once Laxus got out, he went out and left with his squad, I wonder what he's up to?

Hopefully not trying to take over the guild, I'd be rather disappointed in him if he tried that still...

Oh well, the S rank exam would be a little over a week from now... As things stand, Mystogan won't be chosen since he's been busy. Laxus is definitely going to pass the exam if we're looking at his current level of strength.

I'm quite eager to see him use his Dragon Slayer magic, I can only really estimate the increase in strength so it'll definitely be fun to watch!

Another year is about to end... This one was eventful for sure...

Let's hope the next one is at least a little bit better shall we?

Yeah who am I kidding...

Bring on the problems X779!

…

(Erza POV)

The idiots here really made a mess of the place... At least I stopped them sooner rather than later, although I couldn't really end those two's fight like with the rest now could I...

I was rather shocked after all...

-"Lazarus, Laxus has improved... A lot..."- I spoke through telepathy.

-"Yes, I never expected Laxus' magic power to raise by so much within a year..."- Lazarus spoke.

The quantity of growth was insane, I could see his magic power amount through one of Lazarus' skills so I knew just how much he'd grown...

Laxus' magic power had increased by almost two dozen times since the last time I saw him!

How can someone improve so much in a mere year? I don't understand...

I'll have to ask him about his methods sometime... But honestly, I doubt he'd share even if I did, knowing him...

Guess I'll have to wait and see how he does during the S rank exam.

…