[Ultear, tell the monsters to hold off on rampaging for now,] Raizel transmitted telepathically.
He had just encountered several massive beasts blocking his path while he was searching the jungle for Jellal.
[I can't do that right now. I need to communicate with them face-to-face to give orders, but I am currently standing guard at the Tenrou Tree,] Ultear replied.
[Don't worry, I only told them to obstruct the candidates. The members aren't in any life-threatening danger. Besides, as long as they muster the courage to fight, they can handle the beasts easily.]
...
"Seriously, we have other missions! Why are we always being chased by monsters?! That's not manly!" Elfman yelled.
"Shut up! Keep your voice down!" Evergreen hissed.
Evergreen and Elfman were running for their lives through the thick underbrush.
While frantically looking backward to see if they were being followed, they failed to notice a steep drop-off.
With a yelp, they fell through a hole leading downward and landed hard in a sunken, flat clearing.
The soft sound of footsteps crunching on dried leaves echoed through the quiet grove...
Hearing the noise, Evergreen and Elfman, who had been busy arguing while dusting themselves off, froze and turned to look.
Standing before them was a young man clad in a dark robe with a white cloth draped diagonally over his shoulder, a simple circular pendant hanging from his neck.
He looked somewhat surprised to see them.
This was Zeref, the Black Wizard naturally exuding a thick melancholic aura of isolation.
"People...?" The loud argument had woken Zeref from a brief rest.
Thinking it might have been an auditory hallucination, he had decided to step out and check.
"How could there be people on this island?" Zeref muttered to himself, his eyes widening in distress.
He had been staying here for quite some time, precisely because he was absolutely certain the island was uninhabited.
"I thought for sure there would be no one here."
His dark eyes drifted downward.
"A Guild Mark, is it?" Zeref noticed the Fairy Tail emblem proudly displayed on Elfman's thick neck.
"A black-haired youth... dressed in black... a white outer robe... he seems... to perfectly match the description..." Evergreen whispered, her face draining of color.
Evergreen and Elfman exchanged a terrified glance before looking back at Zeref.
Seeing their tense posture, Zeref completely misunderstood, thinking Elfman was preparing to attack him.
"Please, stay away from me! You absolutely must not come near me!" Zeref cried out, frantically raising a hand to stop them.
"I mean no harm! I just thought there was no one here and wanted to stay for a while!"
"I understand! I will leave, so please, I beg you, do not come any closer, okay...!"
Suddenly, Zeref gasped.
"No!" Zeref's headache flared up again with agonizing intensity, his hands flying up to clutch his head tightly.
"It's coming! Death Predation... it's almost here!"
"Should we run?!" Evergreen panicked.
"A real man doesn't run!" Elfman roared, striking a defensive stance.
But Evergreen's magical senses were screaming at her.
She sensed something was horribly wrong...
In an instant, a pure, suffocating wave of dark magic power erupted directly from Zeref's body.
He was quickly enveloped by a swirling black mist, which began to spread outward in a violent, expanding ring of death.
The lush green grass swept by the black mist withered instantly, crumbling to ash as it lost all life.
...
"Found him!"
High above the canopy, Raizel—who had used his unique Take Over: Jesmon—finally pinpointed Zeref's exact location the moment the massive surge of dark magical power erupted across the island.
...
Down in the clearing, Evergreen and Elfman knew they should have run, but their legs completely refused to move.
Paralyzed by absolute terror, their bodies were no longer under their own control.
The black wave of death was inches away—
"Get down!" a familiar voice roared.
Natsu came flying out of the jungle like a missile.
With a desperate, flying tackle, he slammed into Evergreen and Elfman, pressing down hard on the backs of their heads and forcing them flat against the dirt just as the deadly wave passed over them.
The three of them slowly lifted their heads and stared blankly at their surroundings.
As far as the eye could see, with Zeref as the epicenter, the once vibrant and lush jungle scenery had instantly turned deathly silent and withered.
Whether it was the towering ancient trees or the soft grass on the ground, absolutely everything had turned yellow, withered, and slowly faded away into dust, as if life had never existed there at all.
"Natsu..." Zeref gasped, unable to hold back his tears as he looked at the pink-haired boy in the dirt.
"Natsu... why are you here...?"
Evergreen finally let out a shaky breath, feeling the overwhelming relief of having narrowly escaped certain death.
"You saved our lives, Natsu."
"Yeah..." Elfman agreed deeply, still trembling.
"Natsu! Why did you suddenly run off?!" Happy yelled, finally flying out of the tree line after his partner.
"I'm not really sure either," Natsu grunted, pushing himself up. "I just smelled something incredibly terrifying."
"Wh-what's going on here?!" Happy belatedly noticed that all the vibrant plants around them had withered into ash, the massive tree trunks now totally bare and rotting.
"Is it that guy's magic?!"
"Everyone! Leave this place immediately. Leave it to me to handle it!" Raizel, still in his Take Over: Jesmon, dropped from the sky and landed heavily in the dirt directly between Zeref and the three candidates.
"But—" Natsu started.
"No buts! Listen to me and leave!" Raizel ordered, his sharp tone brooking absolutely no argument.
"Listen to Raizel, let's leave, Natsu!" Happy cried, frantically tugging at Natsu's scarf to pull him back.
"Let's go, Natsu!" Evergreen and Elfman each grabbed one of Natsu's arms, forcefully dragging the stubborn Dragon Slayer away from the dead zone.
"That's good... you've grown up so well..." Zeref whispered, tears streaming down his pale face as he watched Natsu being dragged away, still furious and struggling.
Zeref completely ignored Raizel standing imposing in front of him.
"I've been looking for you, Natsu..." Zeref's voice was far too soft to carry over the noise.
And with Natsu constantly shouting and fighting against Elfman's grip, the boy couldn't hear him at all.
But Raizel, who was standing right across from Zeref, heard every single word with absolute clarity.
'Natsu... his younger brother.'
'He has been searching for him for so, so long...' Raizel thought.
'So long that Zeref has already forgotten exactly how much time has passed...'
Seeing the candidates safely away, Raizel released his Take Over magic, reverting to his normal human form.
This surprised Zeref somewhat—he had fully expected the armored mage to attack him for causing such destruction.
"Zeref. How about we talk?" Raizel offered calmly.
"You know me?" Zeref asked.
"Fine. But please, keep your distance from me." Zeref's calm, dark eyes only flickered slightly to show surprise before returning to their hollow, melancholic state.
He was only momentarily surprised that Raizel recognized him, but what did it matter?
As the infamous Black Wizard, it wasn't unusual for people to know his face from dark legends.
Moreover, Zeref didn't detect even a single ounce of fear in Raizel's eyes, especially after the man had just witnessed the horrifying aftermath of his Death Predation.
It seemed... only Mavis had ever looked at him with such calm, fearless eyes before... But eventually, even Mavis had ended up being afraid of him too.
Raizel was truly fearless.
He knew Zeref's Death Predation couldn't catch up with his teleportation magic, so Raizel had absolutely nothing to fear.
Furthermore, the current Zeref wasn't acting like a neurotic madman—he could still communicate normally and rationally.
Raizel casually leaned back against a large boulder and sat down, while Zeref chose to slump against a dead, withered tree.
The Death Predation curse had taken a heavy toll on his physical body, but since he was immortal, he just needed to rest for a little while to fully recover.
"I know you are Zeref Dragneel," Raizel started softly. "Let me introduce myself first—I am Raizel Bael, a Mage of Fairy Tail. This place is called Tenrou Island. It belongs to Fairy Tail, and it is the sacred ground of our guild."
"Wait... Fairy Tail?" Zeref whispered, rarely showing such strong emotional fluctuation.
There were very few things left in this world worth Zeref remembering, but Fairy Tail barely counted as one of them.
Suddenly, Zeref's head began to ache uncontrollably again, as it often did whenever he heard familiar, beloved terms that triggered his curse of contradiction.
Finally, he gave up fighting the pain and the splitting headache slowly subsided.
"If I cover my head and begin to lose control," Zeref warned, his voice shaking, "please... leave quickly..."
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