Wings & Mages (Version 2)

Chapter 13: Return of the Armored Maiden

Recap:

Jean closed his eyes. "One of you who has enough courage to travel to her dimension must volunteer and bring her back before the portal closes in our dimension."

"I'll do it," Gray valiantly volunteered.

"Are you prepared to be stuck there forever? You might be misled to a different dimension," Jean attempted to discourage him, telling him the consequences.

"My decision is final. I'll take that challenge," retorted Gray, with determination filling his eyes.

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"I have noticed that Titania is missing," said Jean, "Where is she?"

"She went out on a request," Levy replied with a smile.

"Is she coming back within the week?"

"Surely she is."

"Good... because she'll be playing an important role to this entire thing."

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Since Juvia has been missing for more than a week, people in the guild are doing the best they could to recover her. They weren't having much rest by then. Also, since they don't want to burden the other guilds about their dilemma, they kept in secreted in their guild.

Only Fairy Tail knew about this except for their visitors, Jean Luc and his crew. Their visit only lasted for a day since they have to return home immediately. They helped Fairy Tail by giving them knowledge about the Nebular Paradox and the Nebular Sphere itself. Because of them, they now knew that they have hopes in recovering Juvia from a different dimension.

While they were waiting for the right time to arrive, the time where they can perform the ritual that will reopen the Nebular Sphere, they went back to their normal lives.

The guild has been relieved from tense, but not Erza. She wasn't there when Jean Luc's crew stopped by. So now, she's doing the hardest she could to work on the request she accepted, gain knowledge about entering other dimensions, and return to Fairy Tail the soonest she could.

Apparently, the job she got was simple. She just has to mine trenches since there were no workers available and the end of construction period was imminent. The price for it was around 5,000 jewels together with some information about other dimensions. It was a perfect job for her, seeing that her strength is immense and the price was just what she needed.

Erza, in a construction worker's outfit, ran around the area while shovelling the soil and hard rocks away. She did that in only less than three hours.

After having accomplished her job, she went back to the remaining man at work and asked vigorously, "What else do you have for me to do?"

A few droplets of sweat trailed down her cheek and she wiped it off with ease, keeping the energetic smile on her face even with the torn stuck deep on her chest. Truly, she worries about Juvia and feels uneasy as the time runs out fast.

Everyone was staring at her in awe and disbelief. They couldn't take the fact that a certain woman could do more work than them in a shorter period time. Of course, that is to be expected from Titania! She wouldn't get that title just for nothing.

One of the men from the farthest broke the silence, laughing in an awkward way, rubbing the back of his head. "Go ahead miss," he said, "I think you should take a break."

"I'm not tired," Erza argued, "I can still do work!"

Men started chattering about her, pulling each other's head together in a group conversation. Erza sweat dropped, confused by their actions.