Canceled? Radio!

The first night of the GMG had been a loud and happy affair for the Wizards and people here to watch the games. Every bar in the city was filled to capacity and everyone was in a festive mood. All good things must come to an end though and the following morning there was an announcement by the King himself that threw cold water in the faces of everyone who had come to participate.

"Attention citizens of my great kingdom. It is with a heavy heart that I must announce that we cannot continue with the games. There has been a break-in and a theft in the palace last night and we need all the guards that can be spared to help recover the missing item. This includes the mages we had on staff to set up the games. We thought of just postponing the games but we have no idea how long the investigation will last. The guilds participating will be compensated for their time, and the tickets will be refunded. We hope to see you next year at the same time, it is my hope that we can turn these games into an annual event and hopefully there is nothing that gets in the way next time. I thank you all for your patience and understanding in this troubling time", the king announced via projection above the city.

"AAAH POOY! This isn't fair! We were winning!" Mavis shouted childishly.

"Well that's lame", Warren commented. There were many such comments in the group as everyone just sort of stood around, unsure of what to do next. The entire city seemed to be stuck in a foul mood after the announcement.

"I wonder what kind of treasure could have been stolen", Mira commented idly, her eyes boring into Alex. "Beats me. This whole situation doesn't make any sense", Alex responded. He didn't know if there was a legit break in after he had left, or if this was an excuse by the crown to cover up and investigate whoever destroyed the eclipse. Alex pondered on the subject for only a few minutes before realizing that he didn't actually care what the crown did or said, Eclipse was destroyed and all the events linked to it would be undone.

After explaining his thoughts to Mira via a sound domain, they both joined the rest of the guild in making preparations to head back to magnolia. If the games were truly over, they were no longer needed here and could get back home.

"Alex! Don't leave without me, I'm gonna go get our 'compensation' from the palace and then we can leave", Mavis said as she exited the inn they were in. Alex didn't even have time to respond to her before she was gone. "Yes master!" he said sarcastically with a mocking salute. Hearing Mavis's words, many of the other Wizards in the guild asked if they could get a ride back too but Alex just laughed it off. They all knew he wasn't going to take any of them, aside from Bisca and Alzack, Bisca because she was pregnant and Alzack because he was her husband. It didn't take long for the small party to make it back to the guild. Mavis had been pouting the entire time because the compensation was only one million Jewel. The prize would have been twenty times that, and she was certain that fairytail would have won.

It was only after getting back to the guild and seeing it empty that Mavis realized she shouldn't have come back to town with Alex. Deciding she would rather be a third wheel than be alone at the guild, she joined Alex and Mira at their house. As they were drinking some tea in the living room, Alex casually asked Mavis if she would like for him to remove Zeref's Curse so she could try to have a relationship with him again. He also said he could remove the rest of her curse so she could start aging again. His questions had completely short circuited her brain and it took her a little while for his words to sink in. She eventually said she wouldn't hate the idea, but it was all so uncertain. Alex told her to think about it and he would help if he could. He had plans for the near future to go on a dragon hunt and was debating doing it before or after the Tenrou team came back. He was leaning more towards doing it before though, if he went after Acnologia alone he wouldn't have to hold back his Fel-fire in fear of hurting his friends. He was also not confident in his ability to beat Acnologia without Fel-fire.

The next couple weeks passed in a whirl-wind of activity. Mira was focusing almost exclusively on her music and Alex was working with Sorcerer weekly to set up a 'Radio Station' and different shows they could air on the radio. Alex had many ideas to pitch to them and even showed how the radios were already equipped to deal with multiple different transmissions at the same time. Though they were only tuned to the single transmitter, it took little effort to add the option of doing simultaneous transmissions. The popularity of the radio had skyrocketed after the single day of the GMG's and Jason's own reporting on the search for the stolen item the royal family was looking for. Demand for the radios vastly outstripped the supply and the factories had to start actually charging people for them because they would lose too much money by stopping production on other things to make up for the demand of the radios. People didn't seem to care much though, so it was seen as a non-issue.

Setting up the radio station had taken more time than Alex was expecting and he was happy that it was all finally over. The chaos and press of people that wanted to be involved made him happy that he had come to a decision about how to deal with Acnologia and could avoid people for a while. He would go after the calamity on his own. Since his goal was to kill the dragon and not just to fight it, he decided there was no point in handicapping himself by bringing allies. In order to get information on his target he had to do something he was quite loathed to do, talk to the magic council.

Fortunately the council had been very eager to help him, though whether it was because they were hoping Acnologia would kill him or he would kill Acnologia, was left unsaid. From the council's archive wizards and their surveillance network, he found out Acnologia was last spotted heading towards the northern reaches of Alikitasia. 'No wonder nobody can ever find him, he's on a different continent and probably stuck in a cave somewhere avoiding humanity', Alex mused internally.

It took Alex a couple of days to convince Mira that he needed to do this on his own, in the end she did relent, though she made him spoil her relentlessly for a few days straight. She was still not happy that he was leaving without her, but could accept his reasoning. Mavis and the rest of the guild were not told the real reasons for his departure, Alex didn't find it necessary to worry them needlessly.

Alex was in Alikitasia in a flash and instantly headed for the capital of Alvarez. He wanted to see if August had any additional information on Acnologia's whereabouts. He didn't think the aged Wizard would help him, but he knew he lost nothing by asking.

On the outskirts of Vistarion, Alex saw a sight that gave him pause. A small partially destroyed hill with a cube-like building in the center of the rubble, was hanging out of place, seemingly being reclaimed by nature. 'Who destroyed Tartaros's guild hall? Hopefully the demons are still alive, I haven't been able to collect the full set yet", Alex thought as he recognised the building and rubble of the floating island.

He was able to enter August's office with the same ease as the first time he was here. Though this time there was no skulking assassin in the shadows. "Hey old man! Do you mind if I ask a few questions?" Alex asked curiously without warning. He had dropped his stealth and closed the door, only asking his question after the door was fully closed.

"Hmph! Youth these days have no respect for their elders. What do you want, boy?" August asked in a gruff voice.

"Acnologia", Alex answered simply. Upon August's prompting, Alex told him of his quest and goal. He mentioned how he planned to use his broken fire to rid the world of this menace once and for all. Eventually, August told him what he knew about the possible hiding places of the calamity class dragon. August's knowledge matched up with what the Ishgar council was able to come up with, it also narrowed down his search immensely. Alex thanked the man for his assistance and proceeded to leave the room. On his way out though, he stopped himself and asked about Tartaros's guild-hall. Alex was a little annoyed to find out that all the demons were dead, or 'out of commission'. The Spriggans hadn't taken kindly to these demons showing up on their doorstep asking for help to stop a monster that was trailing them. The two Etherious Demons that are part of the Spriggans, proceeded to wipe out all the remnants of the Tartaros guild, returning them to the books that they were created from. They then proceeded to burn them all, leaving not but ash.

Alex was a little bummed out that he didn't get to be the one to kill them, but didn't dwell on it for long. Before leaving August's office, Alex had a final question he wanted to ask, "Have you told your king that Fairy-Heart has been revived yet?"

"No. King Spriggan has not been back to Vistarion since our last visit", August said plainly.

Nodding to his words, Alex vanished from view. He had a Dragon to hunt, and less than a month before Fairy-Sphere would reach its minimum time limit.