"We should strike while he is still badly injured."
The Iron Dragon Metalicana expressed his view.
This time, the three of them had come out precisely because they wanted to work with Marco to get rid of the Black Dragon.
If they had known earlier that Marco possessed this kind of strength, they would definitely have appeared immediately last time.
"You, plus Igneel, Grandeeney, and me, along with Weisslogia and Skiadrum. Five dragons and one human together should be enough to deal with a badly wounded Acnologia, even without taking Gajeel and the others along."
Metalicana's plan was reasonable.
He did not even intend to bring Gajeel, Natsu, and Wendy with them.
This matter was still too dangerous. It would be better for them to handle it.
"Skiadrum? Weisslogia? Are they the dragons inside the other two children who came with Natsu and the others? Where are they now? Can you contact them?"
Marco did not respond to Metalicana's suggestion.
Instead, he asked about the other two dragons.
They really had not heard any news about those other two. Perhaps they simply were not famous.
"We can contact them. The two of them are already on their way."
The Fire Dragon King Igneel answered.
Clearly, these dragons had their own methods of communicating with one another.
"What kind of dragons are those two? I haven't heard of any other Dragon Slayers." Marco continued asking.
If a mage debuted as a Dragon Slayer, then as long as they had even a little fame, they would definitely be connected to Fairy Tail in people's minds.
After all, Fairy Tail had far too many Dragon Slayers, while other guilds had none.
"One is the Shadow Dragon, and the other is the White Dragon. The two children they chose are both still young, around Wendy's age. It isn't strange that they haven't made a name for themselves yet."
Grandeeney explained.
Not everyone could be like Wendy, gaining some fame at such a young age.
"It's good if they come. Although there's no rush to challenge the Black Dragon, it's still better to gather all the usable combat strength first."
Marco nodded.
If nothing else, Fairy Tail was about to pick up two more Dragon Slayers for free.
The chance that those two already belonged to a guild was not high.
If they were in any proper guild, and that guild had two Dragon Slayers, it would be impossible for them to remain completely unknown.
At the very least, there should have been some news about them.
After all, Fairy Tail had three people who had spent years collecting every rumor and piece of information related to dragons.
When the guild members went out on jobs, they also helped collect information and rumors. There was probably no guild in the world more concerned with dragon-related information than Fairy Tail.
Naturally, Dragon Slayers were included in that search range.
"Mm. Then we'll wait until they arrive before discussing it further."
Seeing that Marco did not want to go and fight the Black Dragon immediately, the Fire Dragon King did not rush him, nor did he try to force him.
He knew this matter had to be voluntary. Otherwise, it would only cause trouble.
This was a matter of risking one's life.
"Let's deal with the Eclipse Gate first." Marco looked toward Anna.
It had truly been difficult to learn where this Eclipse Gate was. So many things had interrupted them along the way.
"That place isn't easy to find. I'll take you there."
This time, Anna was straightforward.
After all, Marco's strength had already been confirmed by Igneel and the others, so she naturally would not continue doubting him.
"Good. If you don't need to rest, we'll leave now."
Marco was even more direct.
The sooner they handled it, the better, in case further complications arose.
"All right. We'll set out immediately."
Anna cooperated and led the way at once.
In truth, even she had to search carefully for the location of that Eclipse Gate. After all, four or five hundred years had passed.
That location was probably completely different from how it had been in her era.
...
And so, Marco followed Anna outside and searched for nearly half a month before they finally found the Eclipse Gate buried beneath yellow sand in a vast desert.
"Time... can bury everything."
Looking at the desert before her, Anna could not help sighing.
Four or five hundred years ago, this place had clearly been an oasis.
People had lived here, and there had even been a prosperous oasis city.
But under the flowing sand of time, everything had become history. It had even been forgotten entirely.
Now, this place was a forbidden zone for life, beyond civilization, somewhere no one would normally set foot.
"But it can't bury truly powerful creatures." Marco made a casual comment.
Just look at the Black Dragon. Look at Zeref.
Weren't they still alive and well?
"...True."
Anna was instantly speechless.
If the Black Dragon could simply die of old age, then they would not have had to go through so much trouble trying to get rid of him.
Buzz!!!
As he spoke, Marco directly threw a punch.
Terrifying energy erupted, a power completely different from magic.
Seeing the strange power Marco used, Anna finally understood.
No wonder Marco had been able to severely wound the Black Dragon.
'So this man doesn't use magic power or magic. He fights with another strange kind of power. This power clearly isn't on the Black Dragon's list of resistances. It really is the Black Dragon's natural counter!'
At this moment, Anna could fully imagine how the Black Dragon had felt when Marco struck him.
His expression surely would not have been much better than hers was now.
He must have been completely stunned.
Crack!
Under Marco's attack, dressed in golden armor, the Eclipse Gate rapidly dissolved into its most primitive particle state, as though it had never existed in this world at all.
[Ding! Mission complete.]
[Mission Name: Eclipse Gate!]
[Mission Progress: Destroy the Eclipse Gate — Complete.]
[Mission Reward: Random Gold Cloth.]
[Do you wish to claim the mission reward?]
The moment that Eclipse Gate was destroyed, the mission completion notification appeared.
A new Gold Cloth was about to be obtained, and Marco's strength would once again increase.
This was much faster than slowly grinding away through daily training.
The reason the Fire Dragon King Igneel did not believe it was only because he had never seen a real example.
He had never seen Marco.
He had never seen what a life with cheats looked like.
"All right. Now I can finally feel at ease."
Marco clapped his hands.
He was not in a hurry to claim the mission reward.
He would do that after returning, and let the inexperienced Fire Dragon King broaden his horizons properly.
"You... what power are you using, exactly?"
Anna came closer, her face full of shock as she asked.
"I call it Cosmo, the inner universe of the human body."
Marco smiled as he explained.
This ability was useless no matter how clearly he described it.
Because the people of the Fairy Tail world had no way to awaken Cosmo.
Even Marco himself had only successfully awakened it after being baptized and transformed by six Gold Cloths.
Others did not have that kind of treatment, so naturally they could not awaken it.
There was nothing Marco could do about that either.
He had been forced into being the only practitioner of his own system. Even if he wanted to teach it, there was no way to do so.
If there were anyone in this world who might awaken Cosmo in the future, it would probably only be Marco's descendants.
Anna blinked, feeling like a hopeless illiterate.
She clearly recognized every single word, yet once they were strung together, she could not understand the meaning at all.
She had no idea what Marco was talking about.
"All I can say is, those who understand will understand. As for those who don't, there's nothing I can do. This power runs deep. You people can't handle it."
Marco casually spouted a few nonsense lines, brushing off Anna Heartfilia, whose face was full of thirst for knowledge.
"..."
Anna looked utterly speechless.
What kind of incomprehensible words were these?
Now she understood even less.
This guy really was strange.
"Let's go."
Marco did not answer any more questions about Cosmo.
He grabbed Anna and directly activated teleportation, moving away from the desert.
Buzz!
Her vision blurred.
Only when she felt the difference in temperature did Anna realize that they had left the desert in the blink of an eye.
On the way here, they had traveled aboard the Corvus aircraft.
After all, Anna herself had not been certain of the Eclipse Gate's exact location.
They had needed to search along the way, so naturally they could not use teleportation.
"This power of yours... actually has this many functions..."
If it had only been teleportation, Anna would not have been so surprised. Spatial magic could achieve similar effects too.
The problem was that Marco's power called Cosmo could be used in so many different ways.
That terrifying destructive power from before, the ability to reduce things to particles even more frighteningly than Crash Magic, the ability to summon and control giant crows, the power of perception, and now teleportation—he had accomplished all of it using Cosmo!
If one tried to understand Cosmo through a mage's way of thinking, then it was equivalent to magic itself.
It was like mastering one principle and thereby mastering countless others. It was no longer restricted by different categories of magic, but could freely make power realize whatever goal he wanted.
"Too terrifying..." Anna shuddered.
No wonder he could even drive back the Black Dragon...
The more time Anna spent with Marco, the more she understood why he had been able to repel the Black Dragon.
She could also understand where Marco's confidence came from.
If she had this kind of ability, she would be confident too.
Marco's current state was practically the ultimate pursuit of every mage.
This was true mastery over "magic"!
It could only be said that Anna's horizons were still somewhat limited.
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