When Makarov hears what Phantom Lord did to Alex, he becomes furious. But Alex manages to calm him down and prevents from making this into a big problem.
Alex has given Jose some good punishment, after all, and he will be very impressed if Jose can recover from that. He even swears he'll clean Jose's shoes if that guy still dares to do anything against Fairy Tail after what he went through.
"The best way to handle this is by bringing this issue to the Guild Masters annual meeting. They will surely not tolerate such an act. Bringing it up to the Magic Council won't really help because they will just give Phantom Lord a disciplinary punishment and some fine at most."
"Hmm, you're right. The meeting will happen very soon too, so it will be the perfect chance to bring up this issue."
As Makarov says, the meeting will be held next week. Alex has always followed Makarov there since he became an S-Class. Makarov doesn't bring someone else because they don't have good manners like Alex.
Well, Laxus knows how to behave himself in such a place actually. He brought Laxus once, but the meeting was very boring, so Laxus never followed his grandfather there again. Even Alex also finds the meeting boring, but he still follows Makarov because he can meet Ur and Ultear there.
Also, he can see and check the Masters of other Guilds. He likes to use them as benchmarks for his growth although he can only compare the amount of their magic power at most, not skills. Full comparison can only be done through battles, but there's no way he can fight them without any reason.
So he is actually quite happy now that Jose attacked him because with this, he can see the real gap between him and Jose, a Wizard Saint. Although well, that battle didn't go properly because Jose brought some underlings, so Alex couldn't see Jose's real skills and power.
Well, his victory still shows that he is stronger than Jose even when Jose wasn't alone. But Alex is still disappointed that he couldn't force Jose to show all of his skills. Alex often prolongs his battles just to see more of his opponents' skills because it's fun for him.
Now, while waiting for the meeting time, Alex does some training with his Guild Mates. The young ones like Natsu, Gray, and Elfman are often training with him. He also takes the new guys to his training, including Lucy.
Alex is really surprised by Lucy's power and skills. She is much better than he thought and remembered from the original story. He can guess that it's because Layla is still alive to guide her in using the Celestial Spirit Magic.
Lucy's leadership skill is good and she is also very observant, for a newbie that is. Her skills at using magic are good, but her lack of experience is really clear in Alex's eyes. He can see that she only trained in safe places before.
She has just taken a few jobs too because it wasn't that long since she joined the Guild, so her experience is still low. But she is teamed with Natsu, Wendy, and Carla now, so she should get a lot of experience.
That team often took difficult jobs for their levels because of Natsu, after all. Doing difficult jobs will surely help Lucy grow very fast. She also has good basics already now, so she only needs to gather experience.
Nevertheless, Alex enjoys fighting the Zodiacs, especially Capricorn because he is a hand to hand expert combatant. Alex can fight Capricorn without transforming into any Tailed Beasts and hones his hand to hand fighting skill.
Even without transforming into the Tailed Beasts, Alex can match Capricorn's skills. It really impresses Capricorn, especially because he can sense that now Alex has more power than him, but Alex holds back to have a fight of pure skills.
Well, Capricorn's power in Earthland depends on his contractor's power. So it makes sense that Capricorn's base power is much weaker than Alex because his power depends on the magic power he gets from Lucy and Lucy is much weaker than Alex now.
That's why Alex limits his strength to have a pure skill fight. He rarely can fight people with equal power and skills with him. So he will sometimes limit himself like this to make his battles more difficult so he can improve himself even when his opponents are weaker.
Anyway, while waiting for the Guild Masters annual meeting, Alex trains with Fairy Tail's young Mages. The training also becomes time for Gajeel, Totomaru, and Juvia to blend in with the other members.
Then after a week, the time for Makarov to go to the meeting comes. The meeting will last quite long because the Guild Masters have many things to discuss. They also won't agree on things easily because they have different interests, making the meeting last even longer.
This year's meeting should be interesting though because there will be an attack. Well, it won't be the first time the Guild Master annual meeting gets attacked. There are many Dark Mages who want to use the meeting as a chance to kill the Legal Guilds' Masters, after all.
But Alex is anticipating this year's attack because it will involve a Demon from the Book of Zeref, Lullaby. While he doesn't need the demon's high amount of magic power to break the seals, absorbing an Etherious demon's magic power still helps to increase his magic power significantly.
Somehow he has a great compatibility with Etherious Demons' magic power. He has killed quite a lot of them that sometimes are hiding among Zeref Worshippers or even lead their Dark Guilds that he subjugated.
When he absorbed their magic power, he found out that it increased his magic power quite nicely. He tried absorbing normal magical creatures' magic power, but they didn't increase his magic power at all or maybe it was so small that he couldn't notice it.
The Tailed Beasts assume that it's because the Etherious Demons' magic power is quite similar to theirs, most likely because these Etherious Demons are beings made of magic power, not actual living beings, just like them.
That's why Alex always hunts Etherious Demons, to absorb their magic power. Although their magic power is full of negative emotions, Alex isn't affected by it thanks to the Tailed Beasts that can remove those negative emotions.
Actually, the negative emotions are like treats for the Tailed Beasts. They don't need to eat, but it doesn't mean they can't eat. Those Etherious Demons' negative emotions are like good tasty snacks for them that they can enjoy once in a while.
That's why they are also anticipating Lullaby's appearance in the Guild Masters annual meeting later. It has been a while since they defeated an Etherious Demons, after all.
Before going to the meeting, Alex checks the quest board. But he doesn't find the quest involving Eisenwald, the Dark Guild that will use Lullaby to attack the meeting. Maybe it will be posted after he and Makarov leave for the meeting, but it sure makes him worried if there won't be any attack.
Well, there's nothing he can do about it now. He just needs to wait and anticipate the attack. If it doesn't happen because of the changes he made, then he just needs to search Lullaby's whereabouts later.
He can't leave that demon alone because it is a dangerous entity. Even more so because its form is a tool. People might mistake it as a normal magic tool and use it without knowing its true form as a demon which can cause a disaster.
Alex finally leaves for the meeting with Makarov and Meteor. He is walking while Makarov rides on Meteor that also carries some supplies and gifts for other Guild Masters. They don't show it in the original story, but there are etiquettes that need to be done here.
On their way there, Alex and Makarov talk about how they'll bring up the matter about Phantom Lord to the Guild Masters. Alex still hasn't heard about Phantom Lord's disbandment, so they should still be active.
"It will be very impressive if Jose comes to the meeting. I might give him a reward if he really comes." Alex jokes around with Makarov while eating on the train.
"What kind of reward?" Makarov asks curiously.
"Hmm, some lovely fists?"
They joke around but also talk seriously sometimes on their way there. Their talks make the trip feel faster and they finally arrive at the meeting place.
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Ch. 158. Futile Struggle