A week after Gildarts returns, Alex finally returns to Magnolia too. He has just finished his job and has no idea that Gildarts has returned. So he's surprised to see the middle-aged man inside the Guild Hall.
"Yo, Alex, Meteor, you've really grown, especially you, Meteor. Hahaha! You barely fit the door." Gildarts says while leaning onto the bar. Well, when he left, Meteor was still the size of a big dog, but now he's even bigger than average fully grown bears.
"..... Where did you guys capture this thief? And why don't you report him to the Guards?" Alex asks the others and they laugh very loudly while Gildarts is really annoyed.
"T-thi-..... You sure have gotten more annoying too, huh, kid?" A thick tick mark appears on Gildarts's forehead while the corner of his mouth twitches in annoyance.
"Oh! I'm sorry, turns out this is the Great Gildarts who hasn't returned for 2 years. You've gone for too long that I've forgotten how you look. Did the quest you took maybe about being a thief or maybe even a pirate? Because you certainly look like a pirate now."
Alex says it with an exaggerated fake worried tone and expression while approaching Gildarts, making Gildarts even more annoyed while the others laugh even louder.
"Seems like you don't just train your magic but also your skill at irritating people when I wasn't here, huh, kid?" Gildarts still try to hold back even if he is already very annoyed.
"No, no, no. I'm still lacking compared to you, teacher Gildarts. My skill at irritating people is nothing noteworthy." Alex smirks as he stands right in front of Gildarts.
"Ho? Does that mean your magic skill can be compared to mine already?" Gildarts raises an eyebrow while smirking.
"There's only one way to find out." Alex just smirks back.
Both of them stop talking and just look at each other while grinning. The funny atmosphere inside the Guild Hall suddenly turns cold and everyone suddenly feels oppressed by strong intimidating pressures that come from Gildarts and Alex even though they do nothing but stare at each other.
They don't even release even the slightest bit of their magic power, yet everyone can already feel the strong pressures that come just from their aura. It's so scary that everyone forgets to take a breath for a moment.
"HAHAHAHA! You sure have grown a lot, kid."
"You're not bad either, old man. I'm glad that age doesn't weaken you that quickly."
"Huh!? Still trying to pick a fight, you stinky brat?"
They are quarrelling as they've always done in the past, but they sure are having fun.
"Then, how about we see how strong you've become now? I heard you have a new transformation after I left, so I want to see it." Gildarts asks for a spar with Alex after so long.
"Hmm, I don't mind, but will Master allow it? If we fight, the surroundings will be destroyed even if we're not serious."
"You absolutely can't." Makarov finally shows up.
"But Master, we can do it in the forest or a mountain away from here." Gildarts still want to fight.
"Absolutely not. Each of you possess the power to destroy even a mountain and I'm sure both of you will get too excited to hold back once you fight, so no." Makarov is serious, so Gildarts can only back down.
"If you really want to fight, then you can do it after the S-Class exam. You can take a really difficult job together. Maybe something like a Dark Guild subjugation, then you can spar on their base as long as it's located far from towns. We can just report it as the fight with the Dark Guild being too intense because they are very strong."
Alex is quite surprised that Makarov even has such an idea because he always reprimands them for causing too much destruction in their jobs. But now he basically asks them to just destroy everything around them while working.
Anyway, now with Gildarts already back, he will participate in this year's S-Class exam as an examiner. Alex was actually hoping Gildarts won't return before the exam so that if he still fails to stop Acnologia, then the Guild will still have Gildarts for the next 7 years.
'Well, I always hope that we won't need to be frozen for 7 years, but the next opponent is someone who ended the era of Dragons singlehandedly. It still makes no sense to me how Acnologia is defeated in the series, but the series are the series, this is my reality now. I can't hope everything will go as they were supposed to be in the series. The Dragon Slayers might still be unable to defeat Acnologia with the same method as was shown in the story, so I can't be sure that even the result of Tenrou Island's battle will be the same either. It's fine if everyone on Tenrou Island gets frozen in time for 7 years. But there's always the possibility of us just being massacred instead by Acnologia. So maybe Gildarts presence is necessary to increase our survival rate.'
Everything has been smooth sailing till this day because there wasn't anything too dangerous yet. But Acnologia's appearance is something on a whole other level. He's basically the strongest creature on Earthland now, so the danger he brings is incomparable to anything that Alex has ever experienced.
Furthermore, there will be Zeref showing up on Tenrou Island if things still go similarly to the series. Grimoire Heart that will also show up is nothing compared to the threat brought by Zeref and Acnologia.
"Hmm? What's with your left arm, old man?" Alex obviously knows that Gildarts lost his left arm because of Acnologia when doing the 100 Years Quest. But the prosthetic arm and leg feels quite different from what he imagined.
"Ah, I lost my left arm and leg because of a Dragon that suddenly appeared." Gildarts tells Alex what happened while drinking. He has told the others in the Guild, so they aren't surprised.
"I see, a Dragon, huh? So it's true that Human Magic isn't effective against Dragons. That's why Dragon Slayer Magic was developed. Hmm, I can understand that part. But what's with your prosthetic arm and leg? They somehow feel familiar. I have never seen prosthetic arm and leg, but they give off a familiar feeling somehow." Alex rubs his chin confusedly.
"That's because we use the same material as that Dragon-like weapon you destroyed on Edolas." Laxus suddenly joins in the conversation.
"Huh? How did you even get the material?" Alex asks curiously.
"Edolas Alex told me to pick up some parts when we were disappearing. Everyone's attention was gathered on you and Mystogan, so I could take the biggest part of that Dragon-like weapon and store it in another dimension using Requip Magic by treating it like armor. Well, Edolas Alex told me to use it to make weapons from the blueprints he gave, but we still have plenty of remaining materials, so it's used for the old man's prosthetic limbs too." Laxus explains.
"Wait! What? Blueprints? Edolas me gave you blueprints? This is the first time I've heard about it."
"I forgot about it when we have just returned and only remembered when you have left to do your job. The blueprints he gave me were for some Magic Weapons and Vehicles."
"V-vehicles?"
"Yeah, a Magic Car, a Magic Bike, and a Magic Airship. Well, we can't make them, so I don't know what to do with them. As for the weapons, there are some types, but he told me to use the Dragon weapon material for Bisca's Magic Rifle, Al's Magic Pistols, and something for Erza because I told him those 3 use Magic Weapons. Erza chose a spear by the way."
"I see. So even after making those weapons, there was still enough material for the old man's prosthetic limbs, huh? What about the vehicle blueprints though?"
"We plan to sell them to a manufacturer, but he still doesn't know which one to choose. We can't make them and the technology of Edolas's Magic Vehicle is ahead of Earthland's technology, so we need to be careful." Makarov feels a lot of headache just thinking about it.
"Hoh, then why don't you ask Lucy? Her family has a big merchant group. They are also partnering with Mermaid Heels, so they are used to dealing with Mages, and we can trust them, I can vouch for it. But before selling them, we must register patents for them so it won't be stolen by the manufacturers. Also, we'll get a lot of shares from the productions just by having the patent."
"Oh, that's a good idea. Alright, I'll ask Lucy later when she returns from her job."
Lucy is now working with Natsu and the others. Those who wish to be selected for the S-Class exam are working hard to be recognized now and she is dragged around by her team. Then before long, this year's S-Class exam finally starts.
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Ch. 178. Art of Holding Back