Facts proved that Rowan had been completely right.
Persuading August was far easier than persuading Irene.
After meeting August, Rowan convinced him with only three sentences.
The first was:
"I know that you are the child of Zeref and Mavis."
The second was:
"Although Mavis is dead, her soul still wanders around Tenrou Island. Your father, Zeref, is also there."
And the third was:
"Would you like to meet them?"
August seemed to possess some kind of magic that allowed him to distinguish truth from lies. After confirming that Rowan was not lying, he willingly followed him to Tenrou Island.
After bringing August onto the island, Rowan soon found Zeref hiding there.
He then brought Zeref to Mavis's spirit.
Standing before the two of them, Rowan pointed at August and said,
"Your biological son."
Then he turned around and left, abandoning the two petrified parents.
As for what kind of touching reunion the three would have afterward, Rowan did not care.
Instead, he returned to the Alvarez Empire on the Western Continent and transformed himself into August.
Because Rowan had used the power of a Devil Fruit, no one in the Alvarez Empire managed to see through his disguise.
Using August's appearance, Rowan approached the members of the Spriggan Twelve and copied their magic one after another.
There was only one exception—
Larcade Dragneel.
After all, Zeref's full name was Zeref Dragneel.
That alone demonstrated how special Larcade was.
He was a demon created by Zeref and served as a secret weapon intended to oppose the Black Dragon Acnologia.
As an experimental subject created during Zeref's attempts to resurrect the strongest demon, E.N.D., Larcade possessed White Magic that could manipulate desire and the soul.
He could stimulate his enemies' desires to destroy their ability to fight and could also attack using white crosses.
During the war in Ishgar, his Desire Magic caused the allied forces to lose their combat capabilities. It even affected Irene, another member of the Spriggan Twelve, forcing Zeref to personally stop him.
August had always believed that Larcade had stolen his father's affection, so he treated Larcade very coldly.
Even when August summoned the Spriggan Twelve, Larcade was usually absent.
Therefore, approaching Larcade while disguised as August and attempting to copy his magic would make it easy for him to notice something was wrong.
So Rowan simply skipped Larcade and visited the others instead.
He exchanged only a few words with each of them, patted them on the shoulder, copied their magic, and immediately left.
Before they could even realise what had happened, Rowan had already succeeded.
Thus, his disguise was never exposed.
He effortlessly copied the magic of nearly every member of the Spriggan Twelve.
Among them, the magic that satisfied Rowan the most belonged to Dimaria Yesta.
As one of the Spriggan Twelve, Dimaria was an undisputed battle fanatic known as the Goddess of War who raced across the battlefield.
Yet the magic she wielded was Time Magic.
She could stop time and could even inflict every injury her opponent had suffered throughout their past upon their body all at once, torturing them with accumulated pain.
It was extremely impressive.
Next was the magic of Brandish μ.
This woman, who bore the title of "Nation Destroyer," possessed Command T, a magic that altered an object's shape and mass.
She could completely shrink any object or person.
With a snap of her fingers, she could reduce an entire island to the size of a small stone. She could even continue shrinking something until it disappeared altogether.
Conversely, she could enlarge a stone until it became as large as an island.
Naturally, she could also enlarge living creatures and even human bodies.
It was an exceptionally terrifying form of magic.
Rowan felt that it was incredibly useful. Combined with his other abilities, he could produce countless unimaginable effects.
After obtaining all these forms of magic, Rowan returned to Tenrou Island.
He intended to find August and copy his magic as well.
After all, Rowan had helped August reunite with his parents. August probably would not refuse him.
However, when Rowan returned to Tenrou Island, he discovered something unexpected.
Zeref was dead.
This genuinely surprised Rowan.
Zeref had been cursed by Ankhseram and turned immortal and eternally youthful. He could not even take his own life.
To find a way to kill himself, Zeref had caused all kinds of trouble. He had created numerous demons and even used his younger brother's corpse to create the strongest demon, E.N.D.—Etherious Natsu Dragneel.
So how had he suddenly died?
After asking August, Rowan finally learned what had happened.
When Zeref and Mavis discovered that August was their child, both of them became extremely emotional.
However, at that moment, Zeref's curse activated.
As mentioned before, Zeref suffered from Ankhseram's Black Magic, an ancient curse also known as the Curse of Contradiction.
The more the cursed person valued life, the more death energy they released.
Conversely, if they stopped caring about life, the death energy would not be released.
Thus, when Zeref's curse activated, terrifying black waves erupted and attempted to erase August.
Fortunately, August had prepared himself and avoided the curse immediately.
But that did not mean he was safe.
The curse could activate again at any moment.
At that point, however, Mavis, who suffered from the same curse as Zeref, also began releasing death energy.
Her guilt toward her son and her love for Zeref caused Mavis's death curse to surpass Zeref's.
In an instant, it killed him.
And so, Zeref died just like that.
Well…
That was something Rowan had never considered.
He never imagined that Mavis would unleash such tremendous power to protect her son and accidentally kill her husband.
For a moment, Rowan did not even know how to comment.
Was this what people meant when they said that a woman might be weak, but a mother was strong?
Hmm…
It was not entirely unreasonable.
According to August, however, Zeref had actually appeared relieved and happy at the moment of his death.
Because he would finally no longer be forced to kill living beings.
Therefore, August did not resent Rowan.
Instead, he was extremely grateful and agreed to allow Rowan to copy his magic.
Thus, Rowan copied every form of magic August possessed.
Rowan had to admit that August truly deserved the title of Magic King.
The sheer number of spells he knew was astonishing—so many that Rowan could hardly keep track of them all.
In the original story, August had displayed many incredible forms of magic.
However, those had merely been the tip of the iceberg.
Only after copying all of August's magic did Rowan truly understand what it meant to be the Magic King.
The title carried immense weight.
Fortunately, after copying August's magic, Rowan could now also call himself a Magic King.
After thanking Rowan once again, August departed Tenrou Island and returned to the Alvarez Empire.
Although his parents were now gone, August still decided to protect the empire his father had founded until the day he died.
Rowan also left Tenrou Island and returned to the Fairy Tail Guild.
He informed Erza and Makarov of Zeref's death.
After hearing the news, Makarov could not help breathing a sigh of relief.
With Zeref dead, the greatest crisis threatening Fairy Tail had effectively passed.
As for Tartaros, Edolas, and similar threats, Makarov did not consider them major problems.
With Ishgar's strength, suppressing such disturbances would require little effort.
As for the Grand Magic Games and everything connected to them, now that they already knew what would happen, they naturally would not allow those events to unfold.
There was only one truly troublesome enemy remaining.
The Black Dragon Acnologia.
He was the greatest and most unstable threat in the entire world.
Rowan asked with a smile,
"Would you like me to help you kill the Black Dragon?"
With his current strength, killing a single black dragon would not be difficult.
Acnologia's greatest trump card was his ability to reduce all magic back into raw magical energy and devour it.
In other words, he was immune to magic.
In a world filled entirely with magic, magic immunity was practically the greatest possible cheat.
Without that ability, Acnologia would merely be an exceptionally powerful monster.
He would not be invincible.
And Rowan, a traveler from another world who wielded power systems entirely separate from magic, happened to be Acnologia's perfect natural enemy.
However, after hearing Rowan's offer, Erza seemed to realise something.
"Are you planning to leave?"
Rowan hummed in acknowledgment and looked at Erza in surprise.
"How did you know?"
"Whether it was dealing with Zeref or offering to deal with the Black Dragon, you've been acting as though you're preparing to leave and want to settle everything before you go."
Hearing this, Rowan could not help laughing.
"Your observational skills are impressive, Erza."
In truth, Rowan had already remained in this world for quite some time.
The Golden Gate had also connected to a new world.
Driven by curiosity, Rowan genuinely wanted to visit it.
Therefore, before leaving, he intended to resolve Fairy Tail's remaining problems.
Seeing that she had guessed correctly, Erza's eyelids trembled slightly.
"After you leave, are you planning to come back?"
"I'll return whenever I have the time," Rowan replied.
Erza smiled.
"In that case, I'll leave the matter of the Black Dragon to you."
She understood the situation very clearly.
Zeref had already been taken away by the First Guild Master, Mavis, and the two had left this world.
If Acnologia descended during the guild's S-Class Mage Promotion Trial, without Guild Master Mavis's Great Magic, Fairy Sphere, to protect them, every member of the guild would be killed.
Of course, there was another possibility.
Since Zeref was no longer on Tenrou Island, perhaps Acnologia would never be drawn there and would not descend upon the island.
But did Erza dare gamble on that possibility?
After questioning herself honestly, the answer was no.
Because if she lost that gamble, the price would be the lives of her guildmates.
Therefore, Erza's reasoning was simple.
Rather than gambling on something so uncertain, it would be better to let Rowan kill Acnologia and eliminate the threat once and for all.
Rowan raised his thumb.
"As expected of Erza. You've thought everything through."
"Leave it to me."
~~~
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