This is the 1st time a new Wizard Saint gets the 1st rank upon receiving the title. But no one can object to it because he is without a doubt stronger than the other Wizard Saints.
Not even the 3 Gods of Ishgar dare to say they are stronger than Alex after seeing his battle with Acnologia. The intensity of that battle scared even them, so the other Mages felt even worse.
Many were scared shitless seeing that battle. That was the first time for most of those Mages to see power that could destroy the world. They even thought the continent would be destroyed by that battle.
If Alex didn't bring the battle very high to the sky, the destruction would be even greater. Even when they fought very high in the sky, the destruction on the land was still very devastating.
After seeing his power in that battle, there's no one sane who wouldn't agree with the claim that he is the strongest in Ishgar now. Even God Serena, their former strongest Mage was killed by Acnologia, yet Alex defeated Acnologia.
So by that logic alone, he is obviously stronger than God Serena. That also means he is stronger than the strongest Mage in Ishgar, so now he becomes the strongest.
Though the Council can't approve 2 Wizard Saints from the same Guild. It will give too much power to a single Guild, so for Alex to be promoted, Makarov needs to resign from his position as a Wizard Saint and he happily agrees.
Makarov happily signs his resignation paper despite Alex's objection to his promotion. Being a Wizard Saint is too much work, so Alex doesn't want to be one, even more so become the 1st rank, a God of Ishgar.
His peaceful days will come to an end with these new titles. He can't do anything as he pleases again. Luckily, the Council doesn't give him any job and only asks him to protect Ishgar when needed.
When they bring up the matter of protecting Ishgar, Alex immediately talks about Alvarez. He tells them that Alvarez will most likely send their army to invade Ishgar.
When they ask where he obtains this information, he tells them that he heard it from Zeref, the Emperor of Alvarez himself. He just says Zeref told him when they fought after defeating Mard Geer.
It's an easy excuse to say. No one was watching his battle with Zeref. So he can just say Zeref blabbered about the attack plan during that fight and tried to recruit him to Alvarez even though Zeref said nothing of the sort.
"It might just be a strategy to recruit me, but we can't be certain that it's not true either. We better investigate this. Maybe by sending spies. They have records of attacking us a few times, so it's not entirely impossible. Better safe than sorry, right?"
"Well, just seeing from past records, it's almost certain Alvarez will attack us again. The question is when. So if what you heard from Zeref is true, then our preparation time will be very short. 1 year is a short time to prepare for a war." Draculos doesn't disregard Alex's words and thinks that it's highly possible.
"Can't we stop them before they reach Ishgar? We've done this before, so we can do it again, right?" A rather old Wizard Saint asks.
"I doubt they will fall under the same trick again. Furthermore, they have been silent for quite a long time. Without a doubt, they must've prepared a lot of things and if they attack again, it must be because they are very confident they will succeed. Being so confident that we can stop them will make us unprepared for their unexpected improvement." Jura thinks very rationally.
"We have threatened them using Face last time and they backed off. If they dare to attack again, then they might have found a way to neutralize Face. We already found out that Tartaros knew how to neutralize and even used Face against us. It made us realize that Face is more dangerous for us than the enemy. We've also used Etherion against them. I don't think they are stupid enough to not know that they need to stop Etherion. So I think they also have found a way to stop Etherion. If those 2 weapons are stopped, then what other weapons will we use? Because we are in the passive position that waits for the other side to attack, we can't make as many preparations as them. Our information about Alvarez is also lacking, so we don't know much about them. Being uninformed is very dangerous. At the very least, we need to know their overall strength so we can prepare for any attacks."
Warrod is very serious when talking about Alvarez because a war with Alvarez might be more dangerous than the fight against Acnologia. Their total power might be weaker than Acnologia, but they have strategies, and their sheer number can make everything more difficult.
Besides, unlike Acnologia who only attacked for fun, Alvarez has purpose and they have strategies. A big army with good strategies is more difficult to face than a single ultra powerful individual who just attacks with no strategy.
At least Acnologia only wanted to fight. The damage caused by his action was not by purpose. But in a war, Alvarez will deliberately destroy properties and kill people to achieve their goal.
"Say, why don't we attack them first instead of just waiting?"
"WHAT?!"
Everyone is surprised by Alex's suggestion and they should be. After all, he is proposing to start a war and no sane person will just agree to that.
"Rather than waiting to be attacked, why don't we be the ones who attack? If we get attacked, it will be our people who suffer. Our properties will be destroyed, civilians will die in the process. They will also lose people, but all of them are soldiers, not innocent children. If it's guaranteed they will attack us, do you think it's better if the battlefield is our place or their place? Will you prefer seeing your children die or other people's children die? Well, that's an extreme example, but you know what I mean. Why should we suffer for their ambition?"
Alex clearly doesn't want Ishgar to be the battlefield if Alvarez attacks again. It's not like he knows everyone in Ishgar, but everyone he knows lives in Ishgar. They will be safer if there's no war in this continent.
The other Wizard Saints and the Council's high ranking officials also start thinking deeply of Alex's opinion. They surely also don't want Alvarez to attack Ishgar, destroy a lot of things, and kill their people.
But Ishgar doesn't have the principle to attack other nations first. They prefer to have a peaceful relationship with other continents. Still, it doesn't mean they should just accept the attack with open hands.
"Then, let's do it this way. We'll gather information about the Alvarez Empire. If we find out that they are preparing to attack us, then we'll attack them first after gathering evidence. Our evidence needs to be very concrete. That way, our attack will be justifiable and other nations on Alakitasia can't blame them. It'll be a problem if those other nations start to lose their trust in us because we have a lot of important trades with them."
Everyone agrees to observe and investigate Alvarez for now. Once they find concrete evidence, they will attack Alvarez. They obviously don't want the war to happen on their continent, which will cause more casualties on their side.
Anyway, after that, the news of Alex being the new Wizard Saint and the 1st rank at that spread everywhere. The whole Ishgar is shaken by the news of Acnologia's defeat as well.
Most people in Ishgar obviously know Acnologia because he was the one who killed their former strongest Mage. Now, the one who fought Acnologia back then alongside God Serena and miraculously survived has managed to kill that nightmare.
Magnolia's citizens are celebrating this occasion and throwing a festival. Makarov initiates this actually. Alex even suspects that Makarov actually just wants to celebrate his newly found freedom after being relieved from his duty as a Wizard Saint.
He only needs to take off his Guild Master title, but no one is willing to take it. So he will still stay as Fairy Tail's Guild Master for years to come. Fairy Tail won't be disbanded now, after all, so his duty as the Guild Master won't stop.
There is a chance in Fairy Tail though. Mest has returned. He has removed the memory manipulation he cast on himself and remembers that he is a Fairy Tail member. But now he manipulates the memories of Magic Council members so they won't remember him as Doranbolt.
Alex takes a rest for a while before continuing his usual activities. Training, taking quests, beating his Guild Mates, etc. He is preparing himself to fight Alvarez. But there is something very important that he needs to do fast. Solving the END problem.
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Ch. 281. Spirit Arts