{A New Path}: Let The Training Begin

In the middle of the deadlands there stood a colossal white tree. Despite having no leaves or any signs of being alive, it was full of vitality. It never dwindled and right now, Luna and Fairy Tail stood under it and admiring its strange beauty.

"This is the only safe place in the deadlands for humans. This tree radiates so much vitality that it's suffocating for the beasts of these lands to be near it. As long as you stay near this tree, you can sleep soundly. This will be the only safe spot you can utilize during your stay here."

"Excuse me, Lady Luna. But, would it be possible for me to meet, Amell? I should think I am not to be counted into this training camp." Makarov was oozing with excitement and nervousness. He wasn't sure how to address Luna, but he tried to be as respectful as possible because of her dangerous nature.

"You're right. You and Young master Gildarts are going to God's mountain. But, currently, Lord Amell is not there. He went out to destroy an ant guild. He should be back soon enough."

"He's destroying a guild? Alone? Is it a dark guild?" Erza was gripping her sword unconsciously because of the memories surfacing in her mind. She watched the serpent goddess nod and smile seductively.

"Indeed." Luna let her hand stroke up the side of her body. "Tartaros, I think. They attacked Lady Cana, so they sealed their doom. I should think they have already been destroyed." The more she talked, the faster her hand travelled up and down her body. Her body was slowly heating up and her gaze landed on Gildarts as she started breathing heavy.

"TARTAROS?!" Makarov fell backwards on his ass with a terrified expression. "We know almost nothing of them. How does he know of them?"

"Here, we know of everything. You ants probably have no idea how many threats to Fairy Tail and Ishgar we have taken care of for you. We have been here longer than you think, there is nothing Sir Sebas doesn't know."

"Luna! That is enough. They do not have the authority to know of our inner workings." Yuri Alpha suddenly appeared behind the mages. She pushed her glasses up the bridge of her nose and glared at the serpent.

"Ah, Yuri, so you're the one to come and get us." Gildarts rushed in for a hug with his arms stretched wide. But, instead of feeling the soft embrace of a woman, he felt a sharp pain in his abdomen.

"Lord Gildarts, what did I say about manners? Have you forgotten it all?"

"Wait, you guys, stop! You said Cana was attacked." Lucy looked at Luna. "Was it Tartaros?"

Yuri looked at Lucy with an interesting look. "Indeed. They broke some of her bones, she had some internal bleedings, but everything is fine now. She is on God's Mountain and resting. You can see her when your training is done." There was no negotiating possible from hearing her tone. It was stoic and detached from any emotion, very robot-like.

There was a momentary silence as everyone reinforced their resolve before this training. "If we are gonna prevent that from happening to our family members, we need more strength. Let us all try our best during our time here. If you haven't improved at all when we're done here, you will spar with me until you do. And, if you die, none of us will forgive you." Erza said in a horrible attempt to be motivational. The discomfiture swelling out and covering the safe-zone after her little speech made it evident to anyone but her that it had no effect.

"Let's just get this over with and try and not to die," Lucy said to save Erza, and that short sentence garnered more of a response from the group than Erza's whole short speech did.

"I will teleport Makarov and Gildarts to God's mountain. The rest of you will stay here. You're training begins after we leave. This training camp will be over ones we deem you have successfully increased your power to satisfactory levels."

"Wait, so what's the actual point in being here? Are we supposed to do something, or get somewhere?" Elfman yelled out before Yuri could disappear.

"Ah, yes. Once you can defeat an Overlord's lieutenant, we will contact you again. Finding them and increasing your teamwork and strength to the level of being able to handle their power is all up to you." With that, she disappeared in a flash with Gildarts and Makarov in tow.

Natsu stretched now that all that complicated talking was over with. He looked at Mira and asked, "So, when does the fighting start?"

----

As they appeared on the top of God's mountain, Amell also came flying towards the castle. He saw the glow from Yuri's teleportation magic and noticed his son and guild master appear beside her. With a smile, he flew towards them, with Alora sleeping against his head. Her arms resting against him. He made sure she was stuck to him through the use of sticky-magic. It worked similar to glue as you would never lose grip from a surface as long as you kept supplying magic continuously to the spell.

"Makarov, welcome to my home." With his signature grandpa-smile, he floated down behind them. His surprisingly mighty voice and quiet approach made the guild master jump in shock. He hadn't sensed them closing in, and he was too mesmerized by the land he stood on to pay attention to the sky.

"Sir Amell! Thank you kindly!" With a grateful smile, he bowed a complete ninety degrees. "I have dreamed of the day where I would step onto this place. I have heard rumours and legends about this place you wouldn't believe."

"Most of which are probably false."Amell bluntness took the guild master down a few peg as his cheeks were tinted slightly red. Recognising how stupid it was to be enthralled by legends and rumours about a place no one had visited. Especially when you stood face to face with the man who the legends spoke of.

"Not most. All of them are false." Gildarts chimed in from the side. "I've heard my fair share of em, not on is accurate. Some are on the right track, but no legends about this place accurately describe what kind of place it is. Most think it's a paradise isolated from all dangers. When in reality, there is no place with a higher chance of death than this island."

"Are my kids gonna be okay? Y-You're not gonna let them die, right?"

"Depends, Makarov. If you've trained them well enough, they'll survive. Otherwise, who knows." Amell flashed a grin that made it impossible to know if he was truly serious or not. "But, worry not about that now. I shall take you on the tour around my house."

"House? Isn't this a castle?"

"Isn't it the same thing?" Amell looked back at the awe-struck guild master.

"Wildly different. I don't know anybody, except you that would call this a house. It's a magnificent structure. Did you construct it?"

"Nope, I did," Alora said lazily from her favourite spot on his shoulder. Her aura was suppressed so Makarov had barely noticed her despite her very exposed placement.

"Oh, little one. You are one talented mage." Makarov nodded his head approvingly.

"Guild master." Gildarts placed a hand on his shoulder. "One small tip for you. Around these parts, you definitely do not want to judge by appearance. Alora there is the third strongest in this place. So, calling her little one is not doing you any favours." He smiled despite seeing the ever-increasing panic on Makarov's face.

"Ohoho, I apologize, Lady Alora. It was my mistake."

"Don't worry about it. Everyone gets one freebie. If you do it again, I will have to take an arm or a leg. Whichever you prefer." She said it so casually that Makarov couldn't pick up on the teasing undertone.

"Thank you," Makarov answered with his body upright and stiff as a board. The fright was more than stirred in his heart from the innocent death-threat.

"Why don't you follow me inside. I will give you a very exclusive tour around my home. It's not something you want to miss, I promise you that." Amell reached down and pushed Makarov forward. With a smile and a nervous nod, the guild master walked ahead as Gildarts followed just behind them.

-----

Luna had left the group by the tree and now they were just sitting around trying to organize some form of plan. Except for Natsu. He was being held down by Erza because he had tried multiple times just to rush into the dead forest around them. His soul was brimming with anticipation and determination to grow stronger.

Mirajane sat on a small rock with her legs crossed over each other. She had been dubbed the leader of the group by everyone except Natsu. He nominated himself, mostly so he could escape and force everyone to start "training". She wasn't the only one that felt the powerful auras around them, they knew this area was surrounded by beasts. They could feel them just waiting for the mages to leave. All beasts here, deadlands or not were a lot smarter than your average magical beast. In the Land Of The Living, the beasts had intellect rivalling humans and some surpassing them in certain areas. The beasts there were very skilled in manipulating human emotions, because of how easy they are to trigger.

"We could group up in teams and explore in intervals. This would make it so that we would always have people outside, making progress in exploration while the standby teams are ready for support should anything happen. This way, everyone would get sleep as well." Levy was known for having quite the calculative mind so this was the first rough draft of a plan she could come up with.

"I like it," Mira said calmly. "Then, the difficult part would be how to team us up. We don't know the strength of these magical beasts, but we know they are all at least S-Class if we rank them as mages." Luckily this group consisted of Fairy Tails most prominent members. Otherwise, it would make dividing them into teams a lot more difficult.

"We will make three teams. As we need variety but also sync in battle, we can't divide us randomly. Erza and I will hold small spars against you and make the teams after analysing your capabilities." Mira stood up and transformed into her satan-soul.

"Natsu, since you are so eager to fight. You are first up!" She smiled, but her kind smile naturally twisted into a devilish one because of the soul she was possessing.

"HELL YEAH!!" With a fire in his belly, literally, he jumped against her without any hesitation. Immediately the area started to heat up as their spar began.

----

It took them the entire day to finish the fights. Now Mira and Erza sat by themselves with a pen and paper and wrote up the teams. They all had supplies with them, so they did have all the day-to-day necessities one would need while travelling. Tents were also set up around the area dividing it up between the males and females.

"Do you think we will be on the same team, Gray-Sama?!" Juvia stood behind him with a complete love-struck expression. She stood on her tip-toes, hovering gently over him as he rested against the giant white tree that protected them.

"I don't know. Go away, I'm trying to sleep!" With clear annoyance that Juvia didn't even register, he growled fiercely. People that ruined his naps were the worst. Especially now that he was sore all over. Erza had not been kind to him in their spar. She hadn't shown mercy to anyone, not even Levy or Wendy who were both hesitant of fighting her.

"How can Gray-Sama be so cold!?" She fell backwards on the ground while exaggerating her fall trying to garner some concern from the target of her obsession. But, cold as he was, Gray had already fallen asleep

Not too far away the Straus siblings sat and watched the funny emotional wreck that was Juvia. Lisanna and Elfman had both fought their sister and lost miserably. She had not given them any time to rest as she fought them back to back. They sat there now with wounds all over, as their bodies ached.

"Elfman, are you scared? I'm kinda scared. I hope they were kidding when they talked about dying here. I still haven't married a successful mage yet, I have so much to do that I haven't done yet." With a sigh, she rested her head against his arm.

"A man doesn't fear anything! Don't you worry, Lisanna, I'll protect you no problem!" He was oozing confidence. But, that was only for those that didn't know him. She could feel the fear slowly creeping inside him. She wasn't exactly surprised about it, the only ones who didn't seem afraid were, Natsu, Erza, Gray and Gajeel. Erza only seemed cautious while the dragon slayers seemed too happy to be here.

"I guess I'll hold you to that. I hope we're in the same team as Mira." She looked at Mira and Erza as they sat way in the back of this clearing with their pen and paper. They looked to be arguing and from time to time you could hear Erza yelling something and that followed with Mira shutting her up with a stern audible scolding. 'I'm not surprised they disagree a lot, given their history. I only hope they come to a conclusion before they start fighting like old times.'

Another hour passed, and now finally the two S-Class mages came back with satisfied grins adorning both of their faces. Mira held in her hand a piece of paper and she coughed to get the groups attention.

"So, we are finished dividing the teams. Listen closely as I will announce the teams now." She held out the paper as she started rabbling off the teams in an orderly manner.

"Team one: Natsu, Lucy, Gray, Juvia and finally Erza." She took a little pause and continued. "Team two: Wendy, Mest, Lisanna, Elfman, Cana and myself." She looked at her siblings and smiled triumphantly. This was likely the reason why she argued so long with Erza. "Team three: Evergreen, Gajeel, Levy, Bickslow and Freed."

"Wait, hold on here! Why does Erza have to be with us, and why the hell am I in the same team as Flame-brain over there?" Gray had not one, but two annoyances on his team.

"So she can keep an eye on you two. Natsu and you have great teamwork, whether you choose to believe that or not. So, these are the teams we're going with."

"First of all," Erza began with a stern tone. "This is a trial period to see how well you all work together. Since there are only two official S-Class mages in our group we tried to divide evenly. Many of you have the approximate strength of an S-Class mage, despite not officially being one. So, I trust you all to cover each other and make sure you have a plan in mind before exploring the Deadlands.

"Ayaye!" Happy yelled out with a celebratory warcry. "Natsu, we're on the same team, right?"

"Of course! Let's kick some ass!" From his mouth came flames of excitement as his blood was pumping absolute confidence.

"GRAY-SAMA!!" She launched herself at him with all the force she could muster up. Instead of receiving it and wrapping her in an embrace of love like she imagined, he moved out of the way so she face-planted in the dirt. "G...Gray-Sama!!" Her firm but saddened tone as she stared up in disappointment almost made him feel guilty. At least until he saw the perverted smile on her face as she laid and squirmed on the ground. "Graaaaay-Sama... Love meeee..."

"I WANT TO SWITCH TEAMS!!"

"Impossible. This decision is final!" Erza didn't even hesitate. She didn't seem to notice his struggles as she was making up formations and plans for the exploration to come. She had studied some of the beasts they had seen on the way here. Because of Luna, they had that one chance to prepare themselves for what they might encounter here. To say she was nervous was an understatement. The beasts were all terrifying in their own right, and she wasn't confident in taking them down alone.

"Okay! We will rest tonight. At dawns first light, Team one is up. The job, for now, is simple recon. We will need food when our supply runs out so priority is to find out what here is edible. If the beasts are edible, we will have one team dedicated to that, while another will be in charge of mapping out the area. We are playing the long game here, so everyone will have a chance to contribute." Mira said.

"For now, get some sleep. Especially, Team one. You have a long day ahead."

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End