Mavis Vermilion

Earth Land, Ishgar, Kingdom of Fiore, Magnolia.

June 2, x788.

After arriving in Ur's office, Alfonzo, with Elicia by his side, sat down on one of the couches. At the same time, Irene and Brandish took a seat on the opposite couch. Meanwhile, Ur took a seat behind her desk while Gildarts stood next to her.

"So, what's this big news you have to tell me?' Alfonzo asked while making eye contact with Ur.

"*Sigh* It's news that I really wish I didn't have to tell you." Ur said while shaking her head. "*Sigh* A few days ago, Magnolia received a visitor. One that, had he been hostile, the entire town might no longer be here."

Hearing that, Alfonzo's eyes opened wide. Then, the image of a giant black dragon with white feathered wings appeared in his mind.

"Did… Did Acnologia fly over or something?" Alfonzo asked in a shaky voice. "No… That's impossible. If he had shown up, he would have noticed all the dragon slayers and killed everyone without hesitation."

Hearing Alfonzo's guess, Gildarts, Ur, and Elicia, the people present who faced Acnologia on Tenrou Island, shuddered in fear. Meanwhile, Irene wore a leisurely expression, confident that if she had to, she could kill Acnologia. Brandish, on the other hand, who had never seen Acnologia before, looked around with confusion on her face.

"Luckily, that wasn't the case." Ur said while wiping a bead of cold sweat from her forehead.

"Yeah, if that was what happened, you would have more than likely returned to a smoking crater, and not Magnolia." Gildarts added with a stiff smile.

"Like there's any way Acnologia would have shown up without any hostility." Elicia said, grabbing onto Alfonzo's arm in apprehension as she spoke.

Realizing that everyone was right, Alfonzo nodded his head slowly in agreement.

"I don't know why you're so worried about Acnologia." Irene said in a confident tone. "I could kill him if I really needed to. I would just have to go all out."

Immediately, Alfonzo, Elicia, Gildarts, and Ur snapped their heads in Irene's direction with incredulous expressions on their faces.

Seeing the expressions the four were wearing, Brandish did not know what to think. However, she also looked at Irene quizzically.

"Irene, how strong is Acnologia really?" Brandish asked. "I mean, if you could beat him like you said you could, would they look like that?"

Waving dismissively in response to Brandish's question, Irene eventually looked around at the gazes she was receiving.

"Trust me, I'm a lot stronger than you think." Irene said, still confident in her strength.

"Have you ever fought Acnologia, Irene?" Gildarts asked, already knowing the answer to his question.

"No, never." Irene replied while gently shaking her head.

"Of course she hasn't." Alfonzo said while smiling wryly. "If she had, the fight would have only ended when one of them died, after all. I mean, you all know how Acnologia feels about dragons. And if I'm not mistaken, Acnologia's [Dragonization] happened after Irene's back then."

"That should be correct." Irene replied. "and since dragons grow stronger with time, I should be stronger than him."

"I really have to disagree.' Alfonzo replied while shaking his head. "I've seen both you and him in your dragon forms. And I can tell you without a shadow of a doubt, you can't hold a candle to him."

Irene's expression changed immediately. With a deep frown marring her beautiful face, she glared at Alfonzo with anger rising in her eyes.

"Look, I'm not trying to insult you, Irene." Alfonzo said after noticing Irene's plummeting mood. "But I fought that big son of a bitch up front almost four years ago. And the most damage I could do was breaking a few scales on one side of his body. And that was after casting a spell that was able to send a ten ton ball of Techno Organic Metal out of Earth Land's atmosphere."

That statement was enough to make Irene retract a large part of her anger. Still, she was unconvinced that she would not be able to defeat Acnologia if she gave it her all.

"On top of that, pure magical attacks have no effect on him." Ur added in a solemn tone. "Like most dragons and Dragon Slayers, Acnologia is immune to a type of magic. However, instead of a particular element, Acnologia seems to be immune, or at least highly resistant, to magic as a whole."

"So, what would your [Sage Dragon Slayer Magic] or [Enchantments] be able to do to something like that?" Elicia asked, following up after Ur.

That question was enough to make Irene stop and reconsider. As she said, she had never fought Acnologia. So, she did not know the properties of the [Dragon Slayer Magic] that turned him into a dragon.

"But to be honest, none of us had even unsealed our [Soul Armament's] first seals back then." Alfonzo said, breaking the silence Irene's contemplations brought with it. "Plus, we're all a lot stronger than we were back then. So, the fight probably won't be as one-sided as it was back then, either."

Reaching that point, Alfonzo stopped to take a deep breath while everyone's eyes landed on him. Then, he continued in an extremely solemn tone.

"But I still can't see any way of winning against him, even if everyone in the guild went all out." Alfonzo said, finishing his thought.

'Luckily, if everything follows the canon, we won't have to fight him again until x792.' Alfonzo thought to himself.

Hearing that, Irene finally understood the power gap between herself and Acnologia… At least, from the perspective of those who fought him four years ago. But she was still unconvinced that she could not defeat him if she used her full power.

"Anyway, if it wasn't Acnologia who showed up, then who was it?" Alfonzo asked, getting the conversation back on track.

"Emperor Spriggan." Brandish replied in her usual, too bored to care, tone.

Though she sounded as if she did not care, a tinge of fear could be seen in Brandish's eyes. As a former member of the Spriggan 12, she had some idea of how strong Zeref was. And the fact that she was now declared an enemy of the Alvarez Empire worried her quite a bit.

Alfonzo, on the other hand, opened his eyes wide. However, it also made sense to him that Zeref would appear. Though, he did not expect it to be quite so early.

"And what did he want when she showed up here?" Alfonzo asked.

"He wanted to confirm the states of me, Brandish, and Jacob." Irene replied, her mood having returned to normal by now. "But… Had he been hostile, I'm not sure I could have stopped him from wiping out the guild."

"You say that, but you think you could have defeated Acnologia by yourself?" Ur asked in a dumbfounded tone. "I'm not saying I know how strong Zeref is, but I know that what I felt from him while he was here was a lot less than what I felt from Acnologia back then. Not that I'd be able to take him on, either."

That statement finally caused Irene to open her eyes wide in surprise. As she had only learned [Magic Power Detection] recently, she had no way of comparing the magic power Acnologia and Zeref possessed. However, she knew that Ur would never joke around about something like that. So, her confidence just took a massive hit.

"Anyway, he didn't ask to have that Jacob guy back?" Alfonzo asked in a somewhat confused tone.

"No, he didn't request anything." Irene replied after snapping out of her daze. "The only things he did were walk through Magnolia, approach the guild hall, look it up and down a few times, find me watching him, come to my house, have a cup of tea, tell me that Brandish and I were officially enemies of the Empire, and leave."

Reaching that point, Irene could not help letting out a little giggle.

"Oh, and he tried to teleport out of my house after saying everything he had to say." Irene said while suppressing even louder laughter.

While Gildarts, Ur, and Brandish looked at Irene with strange expressions, Alfonzo and Elicia also had to hold back their laughter.

"I don't get it." Gildarts said, confused by the three laughing wizards.

"Neither do I." Ur added. "Must be some kind of inside joke, or something."

"What exactly is so funny?" Brandish asked while her gaze switched back and forth between Alfonzo, Elicia, and Irene.

"Well, one of the things I added to Irene's house when I made the blueprints was an anti-teleportation barrier." Alfonzo replied after getting his laughter under control. "So, I can only imagine the awkward expression on Zeref's face when he said everything he wanted to say, stood up, and tried to [Teleport] away like a badass."

Though Gildarts and Ur had never seen Zeref's face, they still could imagine how someone would look when their moment was ruined. Brandish, on the other hand, who had seen Zeref's face, that calm, completely unchanging expression of tranquility he always wore, immediately burst into laughter after imagining the expression he must have made when his [Teleportation] failed.

Like that, Ur's office was filled with the sound of laughter for a short while. However, everyone eventually returned to a serious mood as they continued their discussion.

"Although telling you about what happened while you were away was one of the reasons we called you up here, Alfonzo." Ur said, regaining her solemn tone. "The other reason was that we, the strongest members of the guild, could discuss countermeasures in case Zeref shows up unannounced again."

Hearing that, Alfonzo smiled wryly. Then, he shook his head gently.

"The real question is, what can we do?" Alfonzo asked. Then he looked at Irene and continued. "Irene, if you were to go all out against Zeref, could you win?"

"No." Irene replied succinctly. "Though I might be able to overwhelm him for a while, I would never be able to defeat him. He is immortal and undying, after all."

"That's right. Defeating Zeref in a frontal clash is impossible… For now, anyway."

That response did not come from any of the six wizards present in the room. Instead, it came from the figure of a young-looking girl with long, pastel yellow hair and green eyes who floated up through the floor.

"Master Mavis.?" Ur said, standing up from her desk. "Why have you come?"

"Because dealing with Zeref is imperative for the continued existence of Fairy Tail." Mavis said in a solemn tone. Then, she turned her attention to Alfonzo as she continued. "and those [Soul Armaments] you created are most-likely the key."

"What do you mean?" Alfonzo asked with a serious expression on his face. Though, he had an idea of what Mavis was referring to.

"I'm not sure if you all know this, but there is a reason for Zeref's immortality." Mavis said while looking around at the six wizards present. "And that is because he was cursed by Ankhseram. Just as I was. Though, his curse is much more severe than the one I was inflicted with."

Immediately, Alfonzo and Elicia put on feigned expressions of shock. And those expressions perfectly matched the genuine ones Gildarts, Ur, Irene, and Brandish wore.

"Master Mavis… You…" Ur said, her words coming out very shaky. "You were… Cursed by… Ankhseram?"

"Yes, it happened a long time ago." Mavis replied calmly. "Back when I saved Makarov's father, Yuri, using an incomplete Grand Magic."

The room fell into silence as the people who were not aware of Mavis' current state of being processed what they just heard. However, Mavis was in no hurry to break the current atmosphere. Instead, her gaze landed on Alfonzo, the most talented member of Fairy Tail to ever exist.

"What kind of curse were you inflicted with, Master Mavis?" Gildarts, speaking in an uncharacteristically respectful tone, asked.

"*Sigh* As punishment for saving Yuri Dreyar, I was cursed with taking the lives of those around me if I were to care about them too much." Mavis replied in a depressed toen. "And because of that curse, Yuri's wife, Rita, lost her life while giving birth to Makarov. On top of that, I stopped aging from that point, as well. That's why I still retain this child's body."

That revelation caused a wave of shocked gasps throughout the room. However, Alfonzo and Elicia seemed to be quite calm, as they exchanged glances. And Mavis did not miss that.

"Wait… Retain a child's body?" Gildarts asked in a confused tone. "But I heard that you died a longtime ago."

"Oh, that was false." Mavis replied as she looked away from Alfonzo and Elicia, turning her gaze towards Gildarts with a smile. "My body is actually still alive. So, what you see now is not a ghost or spirit. Rather, it's a [Projection]."

Everyone, other than Ur, wore looks of surprise on their faces. Ur's expression, on the other hand, showed that she already knew about that fact. Because, she had already been shown the [Fairy Heart] when Makarov passed her the position of guild master a few years ago.

"So, you were cursed by Ankhseram, huh?" Alfonzo asked in a contemplative tone. "If that's the case, we might be able to do something about that."

All heads in the room snapped in Alfonzo's direction upon hearing that. Then, they remembered how Alfonzo helped the Elric Brothers and Izumi negotiate with Ankhseram to regain what they had lost after attempting [Human Transmutation].

"But won't you need a Philosopher's stone] to do what you must be thinking?" Ur asked skeptically.

"Yeah." Alfonzo replied with a nod. "But since I have one, there's no problem."

"Huh?" Gildarts exclaimed in confusion. "But I thought you used the last of the one you had when Izumi negotiated with Ankhseram."

"Oh, when we took care of the rest of the homunculus, we found a few more in their hideout under Crocus." Elicia replied casually while shrugging her shoulders.

Once again, everyone looked at Alfonzo and Elicia incredulously. And there were two reasons for that. First, the fact that they had more Philosopher's Stones and never told anyone about them was frustrating. However, what was even more frustrating was the fact that they attacked the homunculus on their own without telling anyone.

"*Sigh* Lici, we were supposed to keep that a secret, remember?" Alfonzo asked in an exasperated tone while wearing a tired smile.

In response, Elicia opened her eyes wide in shock as she covered her mouth with her hands. Then, while trying to look as cute as possible, she tilted her head to the side and knocked on the side of her head with her knuckles.

"Oops." Elicia said in the most innocent tone she could muster. "Then, I guess it's a good thing I didn't mention that we took Erza and Marin along with us, huh?"

*Smack!*

As soon as Elicia finished speaking, Alfonzo face palmed hard enough that the smack could probably be heard from the tenth floor. Meanwhile, Gildarts, Ur, Mavis, Irene, and brandish looked at Elicia as if they wanted to say something, but had no idea what to say. A moment later, Elicia realized that she said something else she was not supposed to.

["I'm amazed you haven't let the fact that you're a reincarnater slip yet."] Scylla said in a tired tone from Elicia's inner world.

Normally, Elicia would try to defend herself, even a little bit. However, she knew she had said way too much today. So, she just kept her mouth shut.

"Anyway…" Alfonzo mumbled, trying to change the subject from Elicia's slip of the tongue. "We'll need either the Elrics or Izumi to make a [Human Transmutation Circle if we wanna help Master Mavis break the curse. But we'll need to know where her body is before any of that."

"Don't worry, Ur already knows." Mavis replied. "And since we're planning to do something about my curse, there's no longer a reason to keep it secret. But we'll need someone else to cast a spell to get me out of it."

"What spell?" Brandish asked curiously.

"One of the three Great Fairy Magics, [Fairy Glitter]." Mavis replied.

章 589: Mavis Vermilion

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章 589: Mavis Vermilion

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