Chapter 611 - 611: Mobilizing for War

"...So that's the situation. We need to select a small team to enter the Old God Ruins and pursue Dimaria. There's also a good chance we'll have to fight our way out from inside the Alvarez Empire."

Fairy Tail's entire membership had gathered in the guild hall.

The scene looked almost exactly like the old days, when Makarov would call everyone together to announce an important job.

The only difference was that Makarov now stood among the people listening below, while Ankh was the one onstage assigning everyone their roles.

Once he finished explaining the Magic Council's decision and the broad outline of the coming operation, the hall immediately erupted.

Everyone wanted in.

To an adventurer, few places were more enticing than ruins left behind by powerful ancient races. They offered priceless treasures, lost knowledge, and sometimes opportunities capable of increasing a mage's strength dramatically.

And if there was one trait Fairy Tail's younger generation had never lacked, it was a hunger for adventure.

Natsu's hand shot up first.

"Obviously our team should go! Isn't it always us?!"

"That's exactly why it shouldn't always be you!"

Gajeel immediately snapped back.

He wanted to see what kind of treasures were hidden inside the Old God Ruins too.

Gray, who had still been at odds with Natsu two days ago, instantly joined Natsu's side the moment someone threatened to steal their spot. The two began arguing with Gajeel as though their recent conflict had never happened.

Laxus's eyes lit up as well.

A divine inheritance was enough to interest even him.

Juvia nervously pressed her fingers together.

"Juvia… would also like to go."

Mostly because she wanted to stay with Gray-sama.

Lucy and Levy, meanwhile, stood together and wisely remained silent.

A place called the Old God Ruins sounded exactly like the sort of nightmare destination both of them preferred appreciating from a very safe distance.

Ankh rested a hand against his chin and began sorting through possible candidates.

Hyberion had left the exact composition of the ruin-expedition team to him, since the Council currently regarded Ankh as Ishgar's foremost expert on divine power.

But the group needed sufficient mobility and overwhelming combat strength.

Their mission wasn't merely to chase Dimaria through an unknown divine ruin. Once they emerged inside Alvarez territory, they would need to coordinate with the Council's external assault force and potentially break through the Empire from within.

That meant the team couldn't be too large.

And everyone joining needed to be at least S-Class in combat ability.

After thinking it over, Ankh made his first decision.

"Erza, Natsu, Gray, Lucy, Wendy—you only just returned from Elentear, and none of you have fully recovered yet."

"You'll stay with the main force."

Erza immediately looked disappointed.

Lucy and Wendy, on the other hand, quietly breathed sighs of relief. Neither had been particularly confident about diving into a divine ruin buried somewhere between Ishgar and Alvarez.

Natsu and Gray looked as though someone had just stolen a fortune from them.

Gajeel responded by laughing obnoxiously in their faces.

"Laxus, Mirajane, Juvia, Gajeel."

Ankh pointed toward them.

"You're coming with me."

"Yes!"

Just as expected, Gajeel had made the cut.

He pumped a fist in triumph, while Panther Lily on his shoulder looked equally eager. By now, everyone simply treated a Dragon Slayer and their Exceed partner as a single package when counting team members.

Laxus nodded with obvious satisfaction.

Juvia, however, immediately lowered her head and began quietly crying.

She had gotten exactly what she had asked for—

and somehow still ended up separated from Gray-sama again.

Gray stared at her in confusion.

"Weren't you the one saying you wanted to go?"

Juvia shook her head through her tears, completely unable to explain herself.

Mirajane smiled from beside them.

"How nostalgic. Fairy Tail Team B from the Grand Magic Games gets to work together again."

Ankh paused.

'Huh.'

She was right.

He hadn't even noticed that detail.

Erza noticed something else.

"Wait."

She frowned.

"Why does Mira get to go when she was in Elentear with us?"

That earned an immediate complaint.

Unfortunately, this particular choice involved a little selfishness on Ankh's part, and he couldn't exactly explain his reasoning to everyone.

The most obvious characteristic of the ruins they were entering was duality.

Good and evil.

Sin and merit.

If gods chose divine inheritors according to compatibility with their authority, then the people most likely to resonate with Yuluye or Falutbeth would presumably be people whose lives contained that same complicated duality.

So Ankh intended to use this expedition as an opportunity.

If he was entering a place that might contain two divine inheritances anyway, he might as well bring guild members who had a chance of receiving them.

Laxus, Juvia, and Gajeel had all come dangerously close to walking the wrong path at some point in their lives.

Mirajane was an even more obvious contradiction. Around Ankh and her companions, she was often sweet, affectionate, and occasionally adorably absentminded.

Put an enemy in front of her, however, and she could become an utterly merciless demon.

It was admittedly a loose interpretation, but all four possessed some degree of complexity between "good" and "evil."

As for sin and merit…

Ankh intended to bring every member of Crime Sorcière.

Their pasts were drenched in wrongdoing, yet they now risked their lives constantly in pursuit of atonement.

If anyone had a chance of resonating with a god who judged sin against merit, it was probably them.

So the excuse about everyone needing to recover after Elentear was exactly that—

an excuse.

Ankh simply wanted to stack the odds and drag as many valuable opportunities back toward his own people as possible.

Erza still wasn't happy about Mirajane getting to accompany him.

She tried another angle, arguing that the expedition needed more combat power.

Ankh immediately countered that Crime Sorcière would be supporting them.

Erza ran out of arguments.

With no choice left, she returned to the others with her face visibly drooping.

Mirajane watched her go with a tiny, victorious smile.

Ankh pretended not to notice.

He cleared his throat.

"As for everyone else, I'll assign some of you to the different Magic Council units and choose another group to remain here and defend the guild."

This operation was essentially a special-forces strike preceding the main army.

Ankh's team would secure the critical objective first, then use that success to support the larger offensive.

Which meant the people fighting on the main battlefield also had to be selected carefully.

Ankh had no intention of sending his companions into a continental war merely because they were enthusiastic.

Enthusiasm didn't stop someone from dying because they weren't strong enough.

...

Once everyone dispersed to prepare, Ankh returned to the Guild Master's office and began sorting through lists of members.

After staring at names and estimated combat ability for a while, he muttered,

"We really should introduce a more detailed ranking system for mages…"

"Assigning people based mostly on instinct is way too sloppy for situations like this."

Makarov, who had come over to help, looked curious.

"What kind of ranking system?"

Ankh answered without looking up.

"Something beneath S-Class."

"A-Class, B-Class, C-Class, that sort of thing."

"It'd make handling more complicated missions a lot easier."

For years, Ankh had already mentally divided mages into rough A, B, and C tiers when assessing them.

But those categories existed only in his own head.

Fairy Tail—and the magical world in general—didn't formally use anything similar.

Outside of S-Class jobs, ordinary requests weren't subdivided into more detailed difficulty levels either.

Ankh was beginning to think that if Fairy Tail gained enough influence in the future, he might push for a standardized system across the profession.

Jobs could be separated into clear difficulty ranks.

Mages could be classified by proven capability.

That would make it much easier to match the right people to the right work and manage large-scale operations without relying entirely on personal judgment.

Something like the ranked mission systems from those ninja adventure stories.

As for whether assigning formal ranks would damage the human side of guild culture…

Ankh wasn't particularly worried.

At least not in Fairy Tail.

If anything, introducing visible ranks would probably create an entire pack of overexcited idiots treating promotions like achievements they had to grind.

Makarov leaned comfortably against the chair and chuckled.

"See?"

"This is exactly why I'm relieved you took the job."

Ankh glanced sideways at him and smiled.

"Don't relax too much."

Makarov blinked.

"Me?"

"Laxus, Mira, and I are all leaving."

Ankh handed him another stack of papers.

"So while we're gone, I'm still counting on you to keep an eye on the guild."

Makarov's relaxed smile vanished.

"...WHAT?!"