Guardian?

At the headquarters of the magic council an urgent meeting was taking place regarding an incident that occurred in the Worth Wood-Sea.

The destruction and forest fire hadn't gone unnoticed by their agents and informants.

"Let us bring this meeting into order" a big man at the head of the table called out. Quickly the room became silent.

A short elderly man started the meeting "Now, please tell us everything about your report. Leave nothing out" he said to the only Rune Knight in the meeting.

"Of course council member Yajima" the knight said respectfully.

He went on to give a full report of the incident from their base at the edge of the Worth Wood-Sea.

The entire council listened with rapt attention, it was only recently that they had gotten word of a dark guild possibly searching for the location of an ancient weapon that changed the world 400 years ago.

Said to be hidden in the Worth Wood-Sea, they had sent a contingent of soldiers to the edge of the forest to routinely check it for suspicious activity.

For a month they did there job diligently with nothing of interest happening.

They did note a small village near the mountains that seemed to house a small magic guild.

It was not a registered guild but they had no suspicious behavior so they did not interfere.

Nothing of note happened at this small guild until they had a visitor 2 days ago, this in its self would not be noteworthy if the incident hadn't directly followed his departure.

The day after he left the small guild the 'calamity' happened.

Nirvana was awoken from its slumber.

The soldiers sent video footage from their camp but didn't dare get closer so the face of the one responsible was still unrecorded.

Upon receiving the footage the council panicked, the couldn't allow Nirvana to walk the world once again and sent out an emergency request to all the guilds with S-class mages and even the 10 wizard saints.

The 4 'Gods of Ishgar' as usual didn't mobilize, but the council pulled some strings "for the good of the continent" to force the others to mobilize.

The panic turned to confusion when they started getting reports, "too soon" that indicated something or someone was trying to destroy the city on the weapon.

Their confusion turned into elation the next day when the entirety of Nirvana was bathed in green flames that didn't seem to go out.

The panic returned in full force as they received images and reports of an intense heat coming off the inferno, the trees closest to it quickly caught fire.

The fire spread rapidly with no signs of slowing or stopping. As Nirvana burned all night they could do nothing but monitor it, because of the intense heat they couldn't get close, even if the surrounding forest wasn't on fire.

There was also no new action from whatever caused the fire, this fact confused them the most.

They couldn't come up with a reason why they would start the fire and then just leave, were they so confident in the weapons destruction?

Were they unconcerned of the forests destruction?

Just what could cause such a fire?

These questions plagued the council members minds as they watched the fire spread throughout the night.

The next morning everything changed.

They thought it was a change for the worst as Nirvana fell.

The explosion of debris and fire ignited much more of the forest in a very short time and was quickly reaching 'unstoppable' sizes.

Then many things happened at once, clouds rolled in from nowhere getting thicker and thicker each second.

Covering the entire area it started raining heavily, quickly bringing the blaze under control.

At the same time, the green flames grew in intensity, it was like the fire and rain were having a competition on who was better.

The council members breathed a collective sigh of relief as the last of the fire was put out by the rain. Quickly organizing a unit of soldiers to go investigate, they needed answers.

The soldiers found nothing but charcoal and ash among the dismembered limbs of nirvana.

No evidence was left to identify the mystery water wizard or fire wizard.

"I guess we have a mystery guardian watching over the forest" a young lady said in a light tone with a small laugh, once the report was concluded.

"Indeed, it was quite the feat" the young blue haired man sitting next to her commented with a smile.

"We need to find the ones responsible as soon as possible, someone with that kind of power could be a threat" A grumpy looking man said in a stern voice.

"Calm down Org" Yajima started. "While I agree the fire mage needs to be found, I also agree with Siegrain and Ultear. This water mage needs to be celebrated and rewarded for their timely intervention" he finished.

"We will monitor all the guilds closely, if we find a water mage powerful enough to do this we will approach them.

We will also keep a look out for any mage using green fire, it is rare enough that it shouldn't be too difficult.

If found they should be brought in immediately for questioning. Do not provoke unnecessarily. Dismissed." the big shadowed figure spoke, effectively bringing the meeting to a close.

Worth Woods-Sea

When Alex made it back to the Cait Shelter guildhall, he was greeted with a sad scene.

Wendy was crying her eyes out as Roubaul explained the situation to her.

Even the usually stern Carla looked sad as she tried to comfort the crying child.

Alex didn't interrupt and let them have their moment, he wasn't good with mushy feelings and usually just felt awkward.

When Roubaul noticed Alex, he released Wendy from a hug and turned to him.

"You actually did it" he said with a big smile. "you have freed us from our past".

Sending an awkward smile his way, Alex scratched the back of his head.

He didn't originally want to destroy it in order to right some wrong and it felt weird to be praised for that. "

Yeah..." He said as if unsure how to continue.

"I just wish I could have done it a little cleaner" he continued after a moment.

"You needn't concern yourself with the forest" Roubaul said, clearly misunderstanding his thoughts.

"Forests are resilient, it will recover in time. Nabura" he finished.

Not wanting to correct him as it would do him no good, Alex simply nodded and turned to Wendy.

She was only crying louder as she was literally watching her friends and family turn into light particles.

The illusion was also lifted from the 'village' as they turned into old broken huts.

"Please Honor our agreement and look after them" The old spirit said as he was dissipating.

"Of course, I am a man of my word. I will find them a new home or build them one myself. Rest easy old man" Alex said with a smile.

All he got as a reply was a giant toothy smile and a small chuckle, Roubaul was gone.

It took a while for Wendy to cry herself to sleep, placing her in a pile of his furs from his {Inventory} he turned to Carla, she had not bothered to talk to him but he could feel her eyes on him as he tucked the child in.

"We need to have a talk about the future" Alex started as he sat down on a bearskin rug.

Sitting in front of him Carla could only agree "very well" she said in her usual stern voice.

They started discussing plans for the future and if she wanted to accompany him on his adventure or just be escorted to the nearest town.

He knew Carla had a motherly love for Wendy and could easily convince her to do pretty much anything she wanted, her love for the child kept her from abusing this however.

During their talk Carla suddenly stiffened up and her eyes went wide.

She froze temporarily before her eyes re-focused and she started looking at Alex in fear.

Alex had felt her magic wash over him when she froze and knew it was probably her clairvoyance activating.

He knew she had no control over it right now, and didn't even know what it was.

Seeing an opportunity to possibly help with the internal struggle she was always in and hopefully change her stuck up attitude a little, he spoke in a threatening and harsh tone.

"Listen Kitty!" he spat out venomously. "It is extremely rude to use Divination magic on people without their consent" he finished.

"Stay away from me Monster!" Carla panicked before his words registered in her mind.

'I wonder what she seen in that vision' Alex thought at her response.

"W-w-what do you mean by divination?" she stuttered. "I can't use that kind of magic" she finished after calming down a little.

"First" Alex started, "Tell me what you saw in your 'Vision'."

"It was a floating Cube-like building and an ocean of green flames" Carla replied, hope evident in her voice.

'Maybe I can finally learn more about my contradicting "Mission" ' she thought. Usually her "implanted memories" had to do with Edolas and the Dragon Slayers, this was the first time she saw something that involved just this world.

"Within the flames these... Things, were screaming out in pain. They were clearly not human but you were there. In fact you were the one burning them" She said, not taking her eyes off him for a second.

She was not a saint, she didn't feel anything for the "things" getting burned in the vision, it was the fact that the one her future was temporarily tied to, was the one doing it without a hint of remorse seen on his face that had her worried.

'I wonder if she is talking about Tartaros? I did fully intend to put my Demon Hunter title to use on them, but I know I am not ready to take on a guild like them yet' Alex thought before answering.

"I am not too sure what your vision entails, but if I'm using the green flames its very likely my victims are not human" he started.

Carla simply nodded, they didn't look human to her either.

"As for your magic, It is a branch of divination magic. The fact that you can't seem to actively control it I would say it is probably Clairvoyance" he finished.

"Are you sure?" Carla asked hesitatingly. 'What does this mean for my mission? Is it real?' she thought doubting her "implanted memories" for the first time.

"Of course I am sure, I felt the magic wash over me as you froze. It reeked of Divination magic and even had a hint of time magic mixed in" Alex replied.

He was making up the fact he could identify these two types of magic, but it didn't matter. He already knew what her magic was after all.

Alex and Carla talked for a few hours, she had lots of questions and even brought up her so called "implanted memories", Edolas and what she thought was her mission all these years.

Alex answered the best he could, even going so far as to tell her what he knew of Edolas and his own thoughts why she was having visions about it even though she was in Earth-land.

The conversation made a lot of sense to the young Exceed and even cleared many of her doubts.

Alex left her in thought, as she had a lot of things to work out herself, and started meditating. Eventually Wendy woke up.

"C-carla?" she called out, clearly still sleepy.

"I am here child" Carla said as she ran over to her.

"They are all gone" Wendy sobbed out after looking around and having the memories return.

"All my friends weren't real!" She said staring at the ground, tears still falling.

"That is not entirely true Wendy" Alex chimed in, startling the poor girl.

It appeared she didn't seem to remember he was here.

"W-what d-do you mean?" she asked, trying to calm her hiccupping sobs.

"Do you not remember what your master told you?" Alex asked patiently.

"Your guild members were all spirits of an ancient civilization, that bound themselves to the forest in order to correct a mistake they made" Alex said.

"Spirits they may have been, but they all had a personality and emotions" He continued.

"Now that their mistake has been taken care of, the anchor holding them to the world of the living was gone. Instead of mourning your loss, you should cherish their memories and remember their sacrifice." Alex finished to the now calmed down girl.

"He is right child" Carla agreed. "We must move on and can make lots more friends, we will honor the memories of our guild by living life to the fullest" Carla said, trying to 'pump-up' the little girl.

"You're both right" Wendy said after a moment.

"I will never forget the love and kindness you all showed to me! Thank you! Goodbye!" she said with conviction towards the location the old guild building was located.

"Well, if you're done with your goodbyes we should probably get a move on. We have a long trip ahead of us after all" Alex called to the two after giving them some time.

"We will just need to pack up our things then we can leave. We have a small cart behind our hut" Carla said as she headed towards their home.

Her attitude towards him had changed immensely since they had their talk.

"It won't be necessary to put it in a wagon, I can use re-quip magic so we can just store it all" Alex quickly called out.

Walking was out of the question, and it would be annoying trying to carry a wagon while flying.

"Okay, that works too" she said after a moment of hesitation.

They would be together for a while so some trust between them was necessary.

"Where will we be going first?" Wendy asked catching up to then.

"I was thinking Margaret Town to resupply, then head to a place I built to train and make plans" Alex said as he was helping them organize what they were taking.

"Could we not just stay in Margaret Town?" Carla asked curiously.

"If you really want too, I will not stop you.

I don't have much jewel on me but will use everything at my disposal to help you get set up if you choose to stay.

However, I was hoping to be able to train with you two for a little while.

I have heard of a Sky Dragons ability to heal and use buffs and am very interested to see it in action.

I also have some ways to help you control your clairvoyance" Alex said to them both, turning to Carla at the end of his speech.

He had given them options and would let them make their own choices.

Yes he wanted to learn healing, but he would not force them to do anything.

Carla and Wendy talked amongst themselves as they were packing up their belongings, they were discussing the pros and cons of going with Alex versus staying in Margaret Town.

Eventually they decided that they had more to gain in the long run staying with Alex.

They were sure they could leave whenever they wanted and were both curious to see what he had to offer.

After a final look back at the place they once called home, they set out.

Flying at a fast pace towards Margaret town, Alex made sure to tell Carla not to push herself.

He also told her, if she needed a break to let him know right away.

He could easily carry the 2 of them and would when she got tired.

He was using this as a way to help improve her stamina while carrying Wendy, as well as training her magic pool.

They made decent time to Margaret town, even at a slower speed than he usually flies.

Landing before the entrance as to not cause a scene this time they headed for the market.

Shopping was done in record speed and they were back in the sky, making their way "home".