Rhodes thought it over. "I can't map out a concrete plan yet. There's too little information to work with."
"That said, the first step should be alerting the Council to keep watch on Alvarez's movements and pulling whatever intelligence we can from them."
Makarov shook his head. "No. This is our fight. We can't drag others into it, not even the Council."
Rhodes sighed. "You're thinking about this too narrowly, Master."
"Hmm?"
"Whether others get pulled into this is largely not our decision to make. It depends on what the enemy chooses to do."
"The enemy?"
"Yes." Rhodes nodded. "Set aside the question of their objective for now, meaning, don't factor in the Fairy Heart, and look purely at the tactics available to them."
"If they go with a decapitation strike, sending a small number of elite mages like the Spriggan 12 directly to our guild, then there's not much to discuss. We meet it head on, win or lose, and bear whatever comes. At most we'd have the surrounding residents evacuate beforehand."
Makarov considered that possibility and gave a slow nod.
Rhodes continued. "Even then, the moment the Council learns the Spriggan 12 have crossed into the country, they won't sit on their hands."
Diplomatic ties between the two continents had been severed for a long time. The Spriggan 12 setting foot on Ishgar soil to deal with a single guild was no different from a declaration of war.
"But if they judge that a small strike force won't be enough, or if their plan calls for something larger, and they commit to a full-scale assault, then whether that army drops on Magnolia from the air or comes by sea or overland, it will put the entire Kingdom of Fiore on high alert. The whole continent of Ishgar, for that matter."
"An army that size cannot cross foreign airspace or territorial waters unnoticed. At that point, every neighboring nation and the Council finds it impossible to stay out."
Makarov asked, "What if they announce upfront that they aren't coming to invade, only to deal with our guild?"
"There's a story from my homeland about a king who asked to borrow a neighboring kingdom's road, promising only to pass through on the way to fight a third party." Rhodes gave Makarov the short version of it, then said, "The neighbor agreed. The king marched his army through, defeated his target, and conquered the neighbor on the way back."
"Even if Alvarez swears it's only about Fairy Tail, which king would genuinely believe them? Would the Kingdom of Fiore feel safe letting a hostile army march freely within its own borders? Would Fiore's neighbors feel at ease with a force that size camped next door?"
"Once an army breaks a thousand, it becomes Fiore's problem. Past ten thousand, it becomes a regional crisis. Past a hundred thousand, it belongs to the entire continent."
"So regardless of how powerful they are or what operational plan they choose, it is simply not possible for our guild alone to handle the full weight of the enemy. That's not a matter of strength. It's determined by the state of the world and the nature of war itself. What we personally want has very little bearing on it."
It seemed... hard to argue with.
Makarov frowned, sensing that he had been approaching the problem far too narrowly. The moment Alvarez chose to start a war, it stopped being Fairy Tail's business alone.
Still, one concern lingered. "What if they reveal their true purpose outright? If they admit they only want something our guild is holding?"
"Same outcome," Rhodes said. "Anything worth mobilizing that kind of force to take is not something the other nations will stand by and let them have."
"If they expose the secret of the Fairy Heart directly, it will bring its own complications for us, yes, but it will also unite everyone against them. Because anyone with a working mind can see what happens once that kind of power falls into the hands of the enemy."
"Their leader is, after all, the Black Wizard Zeref."
Makarov still hesitated. "Even so..."
"The short version," Rhodes said, "is that unless they somehow steal the Fairy Heart without anyone knowing, this is going to become a war between two continents. There is no version of events where it isn't."
Makarov's frown deepened, the weight of it plain across his face.
After a long silence, Makarov let out a slow breath. "The truth is, I had originally planned to disband the guild."
Rhodes stared at him. His mind stalled completely. "What does that have to do with any of this?"
"Because I intended to go to Alvarez alone to negotiate. If something happened to me, I didn't want the guild's continued existence to give them a reason to come after the rest of you. Disbanding it first would have kept everyone safe."
"Wait. Wait, wait, wait." Rhodes held up a hand. "Let me actually follow that logic for a second." He couldn't. He pressed on. "What are you talking about? Alvarez isn't after Fairy Heart just to have it.
They want to use it for something. Think about what they already have: the Black Wizard Zeref, the Spriggan Twelve, over seven hundred mage guilds, and an army of more than a million soldiers. They command all of that, and they still need Fairy Heart to take their next step. So what is that step?"
He didn't wait for an answer.
"If their goal was something that benefited the world, they could have approached us and talked. They didn't. They've been building toward war for ten years. Whatever they're after isn't good for anyone, and it definitely isn't good for us.
Together, we can stand against them and find a way to stop this. Scattered, all we'd be doing is waiting for the worst to happen and dying without having tried. Disbanding would accomplish nothing."
"Rhodes said it well."
Mavis materialized in the room without a sound.
Rhodes blinked. "First Master?"
Makarov looked equally caught off guard. "Why are you here?"
"Tenrou Island gets dull when you're there all the time." She clasped her hands behind her back. "Kinana and Coco mentioned they wanted to ask me about magic the last time we spoke, so I came out to stretch my legs." A small note of disappointment crossed her face. "They don't seem to have arrived yet, so I thought I'd find you first."
Being sought out for her knowledge was one of Mavis's quiet pleasures. She genuinely loved the chance to clear up confusion for guild members.
Makarov nodded slowly. "Then you heard all of that?"
"I did." She turned to Rhodes. "Your grasp of the larger picture is exceptional." Then, to Makarov: "On that front, he has you beat."
Makarov didn't look the least bit embarrassed. He laughed outright. "Haha! Rhodes has always been called the Fairy Strategist of the new generation. That's exactly why I've had my eye on him as a successor."
Rhodes froze.
Not good. Is this actually happening?
He redirected before the conversation could go any further. "First Master, what's your read on Alvarez?"