Although the guild members were filled with heroic spirit, Laxus still brought up a realistic problem.
"Still, since Zeref has an immortal body, how are we supposed to deal with him?"
"Leave Zeref to me!"
Natsu excitedly patted his bandage-wrapped right arm.
"What exactly is going on with that right arm of yours?!"
Kurnugi finally could not hold himself back and asked again.
Erza and Lucy also could not help looking at Natsu. After all, gossip was human nature.
"It's a secret! That's what makes it a trump card!"
"Stop acting mysterious over there!"
"What secret are you hiding in that right arm?!"
"Lord Kurnugi must know today!"
Kurnugi, Gray, and Gajeel were not the kind of people who would indulge Natsu. The three of them surrounded him and immediately started wrestling with him.
Wendy blinked.
"If Natsu-san says that, then it must be some amazing finishing move, right?"
Happy showed a smug smile, his tail swaying nonstop.
"Looks like you know too."
"Aye!"
"It's not even your secret weapon. How can you look so proud?" Carla shook her head helplessly.
Natsu bent his right arm and slapped his biceps hard.
"Anyway, this move can only be used once. It's a power that exists to defeat Acnologia and Zeref."
"Once."
Kagura nodded thoughtfully.
"A true trump card in every sense," Ultear said, raising an eyebrow.
Natsu's confidence did indeed encourage the guild members and gave them motivation.
As for the power hidden in Natsu's right arm, Raizel knew what it was.
It was the power Igneel had left him.
The power of one who had already died.
It was indeed an effective weapon against Zeref, because it contained the power of death, and it was powerful enough.
As for whether it would work against Acnologia, that was uncertain.
If it truly did work, then it could only be said that the firepower was overwhelming.
...
Alvarez Empire—
Zeref looked somewhat surprised.
"Seven people? For a sudden summons, quite a few of you came."
"Um, actually, Lord Neinhart has also arrived at the palace, but..."
Yajeel, who was leaning on a cane, spoke beside Zeref.
"It's fine."
"How could it be fine?"
Invel adjusted his glasses, a cold light flashing in his eyes.
"To dare defy His Majesty's command damages the honor of the Spriggan 12."
"Don't be so stiff, Invel. Why don't those of us who arrived start first? A smaller elite group is more convenient anyway."
Ajeel swung his feet directly on top of the table, looking completely unrestrained.
With a smile at the corner of his mouth, Zeref slowly said,
"I believe all of you have noticed. We are about to march on Ishgar."
"What a pain." Brandish muttered quietly.
She had straight green bangs, a purple cross on her head, white cross earrings, and a yellow chain collar around her neck.
Her outfit was revealing, with blue-purple feathers and hexagonal patterns decorating the collar and hem of her brownish-yellow clothing.
Brandish used Command T, a Magic that could alter the size and shape of any object, including people.
"Don't say that, Brandish. You promised to obey my orders, didn't you?"
Brandish glanced at August.
August gave her a slight shake of his head, and she pursed her lips with far less confidence than before.
Zeref then turned toward Serena and gave a soft laugh.
"God Serena, will trampling your homeland pain you?"
The former leader of the Four Gods of Ishgar, a man with orange hair styled upward into two wing-like tufts on either side, a horizontal scar across the center of his face, and a somewhat youthful appearance, stood up.
"Not in the slightest! God!"
Serena spread his arms and shouted loudly.
The meeting room instantly fell silent.
Brandish and Dimaria both looked at Serena as if they were staring at an idiot.
Amid Brandish's muttering, Serena covered his eyes with one arm and struck several more meaningless poses one after another.
"Thank you, Serena."
"Your Majesty, should you perhaps reconsider this more seriously?"
August lowered his head slightly, asking Zeref for his opinion in the gentlest tone possible.
Zeref narrowed his eyes and stared fixedly at August.
"I have already considered it thoroughly, August."
"In other words, the objective is the body of your former lover? This is truly a deeply sinful act."
Wahl Icht, the Judge, also spoke.
Zeref's tone held neither joy nor sorrow.
"No. Fairy Heart is Magic. It is not a person. And the goal is not only Fairy Heart. Ishgar must also be annihilated. Humanity must be destroyed once."
A trace of gravity appeared almost imperceptibly on August and Brandish's faces.
As for the others...
They were extremely excited!
Zeref rejected Ajeel's request to go out alone.
"It cannot be left to you alone. Everyone will attack."
Ajeel slapped the table and stood up, speaking arrogantly.
"The strongest person on that continent is God Serena, right? In other words, I alone am enough to annihilate it!"
'We haven't even fought, all right?!'
Serena ultimately endured it. After all, he had only just joined the Alvarez Empire.
Zeref looked at Ajeel and shook his head.
"If that were truly the case, it would be wonderful. Unfortunately, it is not."
Zeref did not explain to him that Ishgar still had someone like Raizel.
He merely continued, "Everyone. Everyone will attack together. Only then will it have meaning."
Under Invel's direction, the members of the Spriggan 12 began their strategy meeting.
However, they still could not move for the time being.
Larcade Dragneel had yet to attend and August looked completely uninterested.
And the other one of the two pillars who stood alongside August, Irene Belserion, was nowhere to be found, leaving behind no information whatsoever.
This was something Invel found extremely unexpected.
Irene had always stayed in Akilos City.
For some reason, she had suddenly disappeared. Even Heine and Juliet, who usually stayed by her side, had vanished as well.
In the past, even when Irene went out, she would at least leave them behind.
Invel faintly felt as though the place had been emptied out entirely.
"Where could Irene have gone?"
Zeref's eyes flickered as he murmured softly.
August, the only person who knew where Irene had gone, lowered his head and remained silent, his eyes lowered as if he were meditating.
When Raizel and the others had entered the Alvarez Empire openly, imperial soldiers had discovered them and reported it.
However, August had suppressed the matter in the end and erased the soldiers' memories of Raizel's group.
Raizel went to meet Irene and then took her away.
August did not stop him either.
Although he did not know whether Irene would become Zeref's enemy afterward...
'If she does, then I will be the one to stop her.'
August silently thought this in his heart.
This was the only thing August could do.
He did not want to seize Fairy Heart, nor did he want to betray Zeref.
...
Everyone else had already boarded the ship.
Raizel looked at Ur, Makarov, and Precht standing opposite him.
"Then we'll be setting off."
Makarov clasped his hands behind his back and sighed.
"We should have been the ones going. Yet in the end, you youngsters are the ones working so hard."