August and Irene Belserion exchanged bewildered looks.
Compared with August, who had at least heard Marco explain part of the situation, Irene was completely lost.
"What exactly is going on? Who is this man?!"
"Marco Dreyar," August said quickly. "He's Marco Dreyar!"
He had no idea how to explain the rest, so he settled for giving Irene the one piece of information she absolutely needed.
The moment she heard the name, Irene's expression changed.
"Marco Dreyar..."
The Guild Master of Fairy Tail.
The man widely known as the strongest person in Ishgar.
The one who had supposedly protected his entire guild from Acnologia and even driven the Black Dragon away.
"Honestly, your information is painfully outdated," Marco said. "That happened years ago. Acnologia's corpse has already been dismantled and returned to nature."
It was now X788, yet the two of them still seemed trapped in X784.
To Marco, August and Irene might as well have been open books.
A single glance was enough for him to see what they were thinking, and their outdated assumptions gave him endless material to mock.
August possessed a similar ability of his own.
His so-called Divine Ears allowed him to hear the thoughts of others. It was rare, though hardly unique. Cobra of the Oración Seis had possessed something similar.
Against Marco, however, the ability was useless.
Trying to read his mind was like listening to a black hole. August received nothing at all, as though Marco did not exist.
That was one reason he had refused to believe anything Marco told him.
With other people, August could hear their true thoughts and judge whether they were lying.
With Marco, he had nothing except the man's words.
Once someone grew accustomed to relying on an unfair advantage, suddenly losing it was deeply uncomfortable.
August had become so dependent on reading others that his first instinct was now to distrust everything Marco said.
"Acnologia is dead?"
Irene stared at him in shock.
The news affected her far more deeply than it did August.
August was only a little over eighty years old and had never personally lived beneath the Black Dragon's terror.
Irene had.
"How could that possibly be true?!"
This was Acnologia they were talking about—the monster who could destroy everything with ease, the dragon even Lord Zeref had been unable to defeat.
The shadow Acnologia cast over Irene's life had never truly faded.
More than four hundred years ago, Irene had fought to protect humanity from hostile dragons.
She created Enchantment Magic and used it to place a dragon's power within a human body, giving birth to Dragon Slayer Magic.
She was the mother of all Dragon Slayers.
Belserion had originally been the name of a wise dragon who helped her complete the spell.
After Acnologia killed him with ease, Irene took his name as her own and swore that she would one day avenge her friend by destroying the Black Dragon.
Unfortunately, by then, the side effects of Dragon Slayer Magic had already begun transforming her into a dragon.
Everything fell apart after that.
In an age when humanity lived in terror of dragons, Irene's gradual dragonification brought her nothing but suffering.
She was betrayed by the people closest to her and by the very nation she had sacrificed everything to protect.
For three full years, she endured imprisonment, torture, and relentless abuse until her mind finally broke.
Once her transformation was complete, Irene destroyed the kingdom she had once defended and everything within it.
Unable to accept that she had become a dragon and could no longer return to a human appearance, she fled into the mountains and remained hidden for centuries.
The brave, composed, and fiercely principled mage who had once risked everything to protect both humans and peaceful dragons had been reduced to someone bitter, unstable, and broken.
To be honest, Marco did not feel much sympathy for the kingdom Irene destroyed.
They had brought that ending upon themselves.
Still, the fear of that age could not be ignored. In a world ravaged by dragons, watching a human slowly transform into one would have been terrifying.
Things were different now.
Dragon Slayer Magic was known throughout the world, and even if someone began undergoing dragonification, people would not react with the same blind panic they had four or five centuries ago.
Buzz.
Marco did not bother explaining further.
He simply teleported away with both of Alvarez's greatest mages still trapped inside their crystal prisons.
No one in the empire could have imagined that its two strongest pillars would be captured within minutes, without either of them managing even the slightest resistance.
They would have been even more shocked to learn that their emperor was already dead.
Zeref had unified the entire Western Continent.
Who could possibly imagine that such a ruler had quietly passed away?
Then again, not everyone on the Western Continent would mourn him.
The unification of Alvarez was still relatively recent, and brutal suppression campaigns had continued until only a short time ago.
Countless refugees had fled east toward Ishgar to escape them.
Many people would probably celebrate the empire's collapse, especially the surviving nobles and loyalists of the kingdoms it had conquered.
Whether unification benefited ordinary citizens was debatable, but it had certainly brought nothing good to the former ruling classes.
Otherwise, they would not have continued risking their lives in repeated rebellions.
Uprisings broke out frequently throughout Alvarez, giving the empire the atmosphere of a dynasty nearing the end of its rule.
The only reason those rebellions never spread far was that the empire's military power was overwhelming.
Irene had played a major part in suppressing them.
The woman who had once fought for humanity had changed completely. She was now cold, ruthless, and terrifyingly cruel toward rebels.
Many refugees who escaped the Western Continent still trembled at the mere mention of her name.
Buzz.
Marco brought August and Irene to the forest east of Magnolia and left their crystal prisons there.
Whether August should meet Mavis, and whether Irene should meet Erza, had not yet been decided.
The other two people involved deserved a choice.
Buzz.
Marco appeared before Mavis and Erza, who were already waiting together inside a room.
He had contacted them through Telepathy beforehand. At his current level, distance no longer mattered.
He could speak directly into anyone's mind from anywhere in the world.
"Marco?" Erza looked at him curiously. "What exactly did you call us here for?"
He had been deliberately mysterious and claimed he had a major surprise for her.
That naturally made Erza curious—and, for reasons she did not entirely understand, a little excited.
The moment she saw that Mavis was the other person waiting with her, however, she quickly calmed down.
Clearly, she had misunderstood.
If this involved what she had briefly imagined, Mavis would not be here.
Mirajane and Juvia would.
Even Erza's imagination did not stretch far enough to believe Mavis was involved with Marco in the same way they were.
Marco might be outrageous sometimes, but not that outrageous.
Besides, Mavis and Zeref's history was no longer a secret within Fairy Tail.
Marco had brought Zeref straight into the guildhall, and everyone had immediately understood that something existed between them.
Marco had later told Erza, Mirajane, and Juvia about the promise Mavis and Zeref made before his death.
The story had moved all three women to tears, so Erza trusted Mavis completely.
"Ahem." Marco looked between the two women. "What I'm about to tell you may be extremely shocking, so please prepare yourselves."
"Just say it already!" Mavis demanded, her large eyes widening impatiently. "Stop dragging it out!"
She did not believe there was anything left in the world capable of making her lose her composure.
"All right. I'll start with you, Mavis."
Marco spread his hands in surrender.
"Yes! Mine first!"
Mavis remained completely confident that she could handle whatever he said.
"I found your son with Zeref. Do you want to meet him?"
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