Chapter 467: The Black Mage Zeref
"Don't listen to his nonsense," Ultear huffed, glaring at Noah as she spoke to Lucy.
"I left something inside my gravestone," Mavis chimed in, drawing the group's attention. "Whoever manages to find it will receive what's inside. Consider it my personal reward to whichever guild member succeeds."
"What did you leave inside?" Wendy asked curiously. She had just finished treating Juvia and Gajeel and had overheard the conversation.
"A single-use authorization for Fairy Glitter," Mavis answered without hesitation.
"Fairy Glitter?!" Lucy gasped. "I read about that in the guild's archives! It's one of Fairy Tail's Three Great Magics!"
"Spot on," Ultear confirmed Lucy's realization.
"Fairy Glitter is an incredibly powerful spell. Having access to it, even just once, will be a massive asset to whoever finds it," Noah added.
"But why didn't you just tell them that from the start?" Lucy asked, bewildered.
"Because their primary goal is passing the S-Class trial. The spell is just an extra surprise. There's no need to bait them with it," Mavis explained.
Lucy nodded in understanding.
"Let's see how they're doing," Noah suggested, noticing that Laxus and Mirajane had finished consoling the eliminated candidates. The others immediately gathered around, eager to watch.
Noah didn't waste any time. He raised his hand, and five holographic screens materialized in the air, each displaying one of the participating teams.
"WAAAAAH!"
A terrifying, massive maw suddenly filled one of the screens. Yukino shrieked in terror and reflexively scrambled behind Sorano, clinging to her older sister.
Sorano quickly hugged Yukino close and shot Noah a vicious glare.
"My bad, my bad! Wrong angle and distance. Let me adjust the camera," Noah apologized quickly. He tapped the air a few times, and the perspective on the five screens rapidly pulled back, providing a much wider view of the teams and their surroundings.
Everyone immediately noticed a trend: almost all the teams were either being actively chased by gigantic monsters or were frantically trying to hide from them.
The sounds of panicked shouting mixed with thunderous, beastly roars echoed from the screens, making several of the spectators' hearts skip a beat.
"What are those things?! There are monsters like that on this island?!" Wendy asked in panic, pointing at the terrifying beasts.
"Oh, those are just some of the local fauna. They live here naturally. They're decently strong, so surviving them is just part of the trial," Noah chuckled.
"That's way past 'decently strong'! Can't you see the candidates are running for their lives?!" Lucy yelled in exasperation.
Wendy and Yukino nodded vigorously in agreement.
"Well, when you're out on a job—especially an S-Class quest—the environment is rarely safe. Sometimes, the surroundings can be downright apocalyptic," Noah reasoned. "A true S-Class mage needs to know how to adapt and complete their mission even under the worst possible conditions. This is just a simulation of that. Let's see how they handle it. Besides, isn't there one team doing things completely differently?" Noah smiled, pointing at one of the screens.
Everyone immediately zeroed in on that specific feed. Sure enough, one person was handling the situation in a completely unique manner.
Instead of hiding or running, Natsu had walked right up to a massive, terrifying monster blocking his path and punched it squarely in the jaw, knocking it flat on its back.
Not only that, but he was actively interrogating the beast, demanding to know where the First Master's grave was.
The most absurd part was that the monster actually replied, crying that it didn't know. Even Happy, hovering nearby, looked completely baffled by the exchange.
"Only Natsu would ever do something like that," Lucy sighed, massaging her temples.
"Th-The monster actually talked..." Wendy gasped in surprise.
"That's a Cubi, a giant herbivorous dinosaur native to this island. Some of them possess enough intelligence to understand human speech, and a rare few can even speak it. Natsu got lucky running into one he could actually interrogate," Noah explained. "However, getting the location of the grave out of them is impossible. The graveyard is protected by an illusionary barrier that repels any creature without a Fairy Tail Guild Mark. The monsters literally don't know where it is."
"Is the grave at the top of that giant tree?" Lucy asked, watching Natsu and Happy fly up toward the canopy of the Tenrou Tree.
"No. It's on the ground. They're going in the completely wrong direction," Noah said bluntly.
"Ah... well, it looks like Natsu is going to have a really hard time finding it, then," Lucy couldn't help but smile. If you're going in the wrong direction, running faster only takes you further away from your goal.
"Lunch is ready, everyone!" Mirajane called out, checking the time.
It was already midday. Seeing that the candidates were all either running for their lives or hopelessly lost, it was clear no one was going to find the grave anytime soon. The group at the base camp had split up the chores earlier and quickly whipped up a simple but delicious meal.
Everyone grabbed their food and sat down beneath the hovering screens, enjoying their lunch while watching their guildmates fight for their lives. Seeing the others struggle so comically made the food taste even better.
After the base camp finished eating, the five teams on the screens finally managed to catch a break. They each found a relatively safe spot, pulled rations from their spatial storage, and ate their own lunches. After a short rest, they resumed their search for the grave.
Back at the base camp, most of the group settled down for a nap. Noah, however, sat cross-legged on the ground, meditating and adjusting his magical flow to ensure he was in peak condition for whatever was coming.
"ZEREF!"
Mavis's sudden, shocked gasp shattered the quiet atmosphere. Noah snapped his eyes open and followed her gaze. She was staring wide-eyed at one of the floating screens.
Noah looked at the feed and saw a young man with short black hair standing in a clearing. Simon and Kagura were standing directly opposite him.
"Zeref?! You don't mean that Zeref, do you?!" Ultear, who had instantly woken up, asked in shock.
The rest of the group also bolted upright, their faces paling instantly.
The name 'Zeref' was far too infamous. There wasn't a single person in the magical world who hadn't heard of him. The vast majority of apocalyptic disasters and horrifying dark magic born into the world over the past centuries were directly attributed to that single name.
"Yes. That is exactly the Zeref you're thinking of," Mavis confirmed. Her initial shock had vanished, replaced by an expression of profound, chilling severity. Her eyes remained locked on the screen.
"That's the man I saw in my vision!" Carla announced with absolute certainty after studying the young man's face.
"What is someone like that doing here?! No! I have to go there right now!" Makarov panicked the moment he realized Mavis wasn't joking. Simon and Kagura were standing right in front of him!
Every historical record painted Zeref as the ultimate evil, the progenitor of the darkest curses known to mankind. Furthermore, his power was supposed to be unfathomable, having supposedly lived for over 400 years. For Simon and Kagura to stumble across such a terrifying, evil entity was a catastrophe. Makarov had to act immediately.
"Grandpa, let me go. I'm the fastest, and I can fight or retreat instantly as needed. You stay here. If I need you, I'll teleport you over," Noah offered. He seamlessly split off a Thought Projection to maintain the surveillance screens while his true body stood up.
"Be careful! If it gets too dangerous, run immediately!" Makarov agreed with Noah's logic but couldn't hide his deep anxiety.
"Understood," Noah said, and vanished. A second later, he appeared on the screen alongside Simon and Kagura.
The rest of the group crowded tightly around the monitors, their hearts pounding in their chests as they watched the tense standoff.
Mavis stood silently to the side, her gaze fixed entirely on Zeref. Her eyes were impossibly deep, swirling with complex, unspoken emotions.
A few minutes prior, while searching for the First Master's grave, Kagura had spotted a man wearing a black toga with white cloth draped over his shoulder standing alone in a clearing.
"Brother, there's someone over there," Kagura whispered to Simon.
"Be careful. He doesn't look like anyone from our guild," Simon frowned, instinctively stepping in front of his sister.
Fairy Tail had members who wore all sorts of bizarre outfits—or no outfits at all—but he was absolutely certain he had never seen this man before.
Just as Simon and Kagura noticed the man, the man noticed them.
"Humans? I thought this island was uninhabited..." the man muttered, his voice incredibly soft and melancholic.
"Who are you? Only members of our guild are permitted on this island," Simon challenged, his stance defensive.
"A guild? I see. So this island is managed by a guild..." the man's voice lifted slightly, as if finding a small spark of joy, before immediately sinking back into profound despair.
"You..." Simon took a cautious step forward.
The man instantly threw his hands up in a desperate, warding gesture. "NO!"
Simon jumped at the sudden shout. He instinctively grabbed Kagura's arm and leaped several meters backward.
"You cannot come any closer," the man warned, his expression turning completely desperate.
"What is he talking about?" Kagura asked, thoroughly confused.
"I don't know," Simon shook his head, keeping a hyper-vigilant watch on the stranger.
The sudden appearance of an unknown, erratic man on their sacred, heavily guarded island was simply too suspicious. With his sister standing right behind him, Simon refused to drop his guard for a second.
"I understand. I will leave immediately. Please... just do not come any closer to me," the man pleaded, lowering his hands. His voice was laced with an agonizing sorrow.
"What is his deal?" Kagura peeked out from behind Simon, staring at the strange man. Everything about his words and actions was incredibly bizarre.
"I don't know, but we can't just leave him wandering around the island. I'm contacting Noah and the others," Simon decided.
A complete unknown infiltrating the guild's holy ground was way above the paygrade of a mere promotion trial. Bringing in the S-Class mages was the only logical choice, especially since he needed to prioritize Kagura's safety.
"No need. I'm already here," Noah's voice suddenly echoed beside them.
He materialized out of thin air, his eyes locked dead on the man standing across the clearing.
"Thank goodness you're here," Simon exhaled deeply, the tension leaving his shoulders at the sound of Noah's voice.
"Who is that guy?" Kagura asked, also relaxing significantly with Noah present.
"The Black Mage, Zeref," Noah stated bluntly, dropping the name that struck terror into the hearts of the entire magical world.
"WHAT?!" Simon and Kagura gasped in horror, fully understanding the catastrophic weight of that name.
Noah quietly assessed the man standing before them. The most infamous dark mage in history—and the man most intimately connected to Fairy Tail's darkest secrets.
He had short black hair and wore a high-collared black toga draped with white cloth, dark boots, and a pendant resting against his chest. His face bore an expression of profound, inescapable melancholy.
Visually, he didn't look anything like the most brutal, terrifying, and evil dark mage in human history. He just looked like a depressed, harmless young man. He exuded absolutely no aura of overwhelming power.
But that was exactly the problem.
Noah and Mavis had personally overhauled Tenrou Island's entire defensive and sensory grid. The surveillance systems were active 24/7, monitoring every inch of the island with absolute precision. Yet, the barrier had never once registered this man's presence. They only discovered him because the camera happened to be tracking Simon and Kagura.
To completely bypass a sensory grid designed by a magical anomaly and the legendary First Master herself... that alone proved his power was absolutely terrifying. He was truly worthy of the title 'Legendary Black Mage.'
"N-No... stay away... it's coming..."
Suddenly, Zeref clutched his head violently, his face contorting in sheer, unadulterated agony.
His entire body began to tremble uncontrollably, and his voice hitched in panic.
"The... the Death Predation... it's coming..."
Instantly, the lush green leaves on the trees surrounding him withered into gray ash, dissolving into the wind.
A thick, undulating wave of pitch-black mist erupted from his body, rapidly expanding outward to consume everything in its path.
~~~
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