The moment Levy's report came through confirming Marly's arrest, Lahar finally understood the real reason Rhodes had sent her.
Miss Levy genuinely had a dependability that felt slightly out of place with Fairy Tail.
Setting aside Gajeel, who was technically contracted labor.
That idiot Doranbolt had been working at the Council for years and still hadn't absorbed the basic principle that during a live operation, important developments needed to be reported up the chain.
Lahar pushed the thought aside and issued his orders. "All enemy officers down. Every unit, push forward. Let none of them escape."
"Yes sir!"
Several branches of the dark cult had been holding a joint gathering today, which meant no reinforcements were coming from nearby. The Council's side was running on momentum now. What remained was not in doubt.
Wendy stepped back from the front line once the most pressing spells had been cast, turning her full attention to treating the seriously wounded. The soldiers hit by the Dark Sword needed the corrosive magic purged before any proper healing could take hold. Because of her, the casualty count in an operation where they had been significantly outnumbered came out as low as it possibly could have.
The arrests wrapped up. Lahar's work, however, was nowhere near finished.
Beyond organizing prisoner transport and managing the villagers' concerns, he also had to address the clock tower.
In all his years at the Council, across more field assignments and battles than he could count, this was the first time he had ever signed off on a compensation bill this large. Every previous operation had either taken place in uninhabited terrain or left nothing worse than broken doors and overturned furniture.
Compensating for an ancient structure was something else entirely.
Even if it was technically a rebuilt ancient structure.
The large holes and cracks across the walls could be explained as unavoidable damage sustained during active combat. People could be asked to understand that.
But the bite marks.
Bite marks, carved into the only remaining section of original ancient wall, the section with historically significant text engraved into the brick.
How was he supposed to explain that to the village chief? "We regret that the wall was accidentally bitten during the fighting" was not a sentence he ever anticipated writing in an official report.
He didn't need to think hard about where the bite marks had come from.
That idiot Doranbolt.
Across the courtyard, Mest, who was helping bind prisoners, felt a sudden chill run down his back. The distinct sensation of killing intent.
He looked around at the captured cult members.
Still not giving up even after being arrested. Determined lot.
"Make sure the bindings are tight," he reminded the soldiers nearby. "Double-check that every Magic Sealing Stone is properly secured."
"Yes sir!"
"Mr. Doranbolt is always so thorough!"
"This operation was acceptable."
That was Wolfheim's official assessment.
Lahar and the others received it with quiet satisfaction. From someone as consistently demanding as Wolfheim, acceptable functioned as high praise.
Though Lahar was careful not to take too much credit, given how heavily Fairy Tail's presence had tilted the outcome.
"Hey, everyone's still here."
Rhodes had received the message and come to collect his group. He glanced over the wounded soldiers and scattered a few Ocean Heals across them without ceremony. "Good work today."
Wolfheim said, "Since you're here, you might as well help transport the prisoners back to headquarters."
"Sure. Levy, you're coming with me to sort out everyone's injury subsidies and mission bonuses."
The gratitude that followed was immediate and, if anything, more heartfelt than what his healing spells had earned him.
With the Flying Gate, the transfer to headquarters took seconds. A number of prisoners hit the floor on arrival, unprepared for the subspace transition. Rhodes paid their discomfort no particular attention.
"Turn them over to the Interrogation Department. If none of them are talking after a while, reach out again. Our guild has people with experience in that area."
Lahar waited until Rhodes had moved slightly ahead, then nudged Mest sharply in the ribs with his elbow. "How does your guild have someone for literally everything?"
"Number one guild," Mest said, with a slightly strained laugh. "What can you do."
Rhodes had already raised a hand without looking back and guided his group toward the office to handle the paperwork.
Behind him, Mest doubled over and grabbed his side. "Why did you hit me that hard?"
Lahar said, face perfectly neutral, "It was an accident. My apologies."
Mest stood there thinking about it. Had he done something to offend him recently?
"Stop standing around," Wolfheim said. "There's still a great deal left to do."
Three officers and roughly three hundred cult members had been taken into custody today. On its face, that was meaningful progress.
According to the intelligence on hand, the cult still had one high priest, three officers, and approximately a thousand members still at large. The harder problem was that they were scattered, with no fixed location to target.
They would need to interrogate the people taken today to extract the locations of other cult members or their means of internal communication. Even if everything went smoothly from here, an operation targeting that many dispersed individuals would take considerable time.
They were going to be occupied for a while.
The Fairy Tail training camp kept running without interruption through all of it.
"Move, move!"
"That pace is embarrassing!"
"The way you lot are going..."
Lucy cut in before he could finish. "I know, I know. Even the old lady selling ice cream at the gate moves faster than us."
"Good answer, but I don't want you having breath left to talk back!" Rhodes turned and called out over his shoulder. "Hey, add a water obstacle up ahead. Focus it on the one giving commentary. Yes, that one. Aquarius, open the Gate of the Water Bearer!"
Lucy was about to point out that shouting like that would obviously accomplish nothing.
Then the key at her waist began to glow gold.
Aquarius materialized fifty meters ahead of the running group, wearing a serene smile as she watched them approach.
The moment people recognized her, the mood shifted. "Hey, hey, hey, Lucy, control your Celestial Spirit!"
Lucy was also somewhere between baffled and horrified. "Why are you responding to someone else's summons? And you're only supposed to appear where there's actual water!"
Aquarius pointed calmly at the ground beneath her feet, then lifted her urn.
Everyone tried to dodge. It was already too late.
A torrent burst from the narrow opening of the urn and expanded into a wall of water in an instant, crashing down across the entire group without mercy.
In the last moment before the wave hit, Lucy got a clear look at what Aquarius had pointed to. A small, decidedly unclean puddle on the road.
"You always say you hate dirty water, you absolute hypocrite, glug glug glug..."
She managed one final observation before the water took her under.
"I do hate dirty water." Aquarius's smile remained perfectly pleasant. "But this is entertaining." She vanished.
Those with water magic, Juvia and Lisanna among them, came through in reasonable shape. Everyone else ended up in roughly the same condition as Lucy.
Including Erza.
She had managed to trigger her Requip Magic in time, but for reasons she could not immediately account for, what she changed into was not her Sea Empress Armor. It was a swimsuit.
Contending with Aquarius's torrent on swimming ability alone proved to be unrealistic, and this became Erza's lowest moment since the training camp had begun.
"Faster!" Rhodes kept calling out from ahead. "Reach the finish line and we get to start today's sparring session!"
The enthusiasm in response was limited. Most people were tired enough that the prospect of fighting didn't hold much appeal.
Rhodes added, "I'll be one of the participants."
Still limited enthusiasm. After this many weeks of training camp, only a certain kind of person would genuinely believe they had a shot at beating him.
Rhodes tried a different angle. "Laxus and Erza will also be participating."
The reaction was immediate.
Rhodes, Laxus, and Erza all fighting at once? If Laxus and Erza actually coordinated, today might be the day someone got to watch Rhodes take a real hit.
The pace picked up noticeably.
They were destined to be let down.