"Your Majesty, welcome back from your journey! You seem… happier than words can express."
An elderly man hobbled forward on his cane, but as he drew near, he suddenly froze, eyes widening, and quickly stepped back.
Zeref understood at once what the man feared.
"Relax," Zeref said quietly. "Ankhseram's curse has been stable these past years."
The old man gave a strained laugh. "Aiya… even half a step closer could mean death."
This was Yajeel, minister of the Alvarez Empire and grandfather of the Desert King, Ajeel. He had followed Zeref since before Alvarez was even founded—once a boy too young to understand the world, now an aged man nearing the end of his life. And yet Zeref, unchanging, looked as though no time had passed at all.
"Invel," Zeref ordered, "summon the Spriggan Twelve. Gather as many as you can."
"Yes, Your Majesty!" Invel bowed and departed.
When Zeref appeared in the streets, a single face in the crowd stiffened in shock.
"Zeref?! The Emperor of Alvarez is… Zeref?!"
The figure trembled. "No… I must report this to the Magic Council!!"
He slipped into a side alley, vanished in a flash of teleportation magic.
That man was Mest Gryder, a Fairy Tail mage. Once, at Makarov's orders, he had infiltrated the Magic Council by erasing his own memories and even posing as a Fairy Tail member during the S-Class trials.
A year ago, when Makarov became a Councilor, Mest's cover was no longer needed. His memories restored, Mest had remembered the truth: he was Fairy Tail's spy, tasked with gathering intelligence on the Western Continent.
Though invited to return to the guild, Mest chose otherwise. The more he learned of Alvarez, the more he realized the danger looming over Ishgar. So, for Fairy Tail's sake, he went alone into enemy lands.
Through memory magic, he rewrote the lives of an elderly couple in the capital, becoming their distant relative. From there, he quietly lived, observed, and sent reports back to the Council.
The Magic Council — Era
The chamber was heavy with silence. The Councilors—mages of the Ten Wizard Saints—sat grim-faced, a report spread before them.
"Everyone has seen this intelligence," said Hyberion, the Council's chairman and strongest mage of Ishgar. "Tell me what you think."
Hyberion's blood magic allowed him to drain life without ever laying a hand on his foe. A little left one dizzy; too much, and death followed. His power was dreaded, even among the Saints.
"I still can't believe it," said Warrod Sequen gravely. "Zeref—the Emperor of Alvarez?"
Warrod, one of Ishgar's Four Gods, was ancient, well over a century, and had long since retired. But in times of crisis, he had returned to lend his strength.
"It matters little whether we believe it or not," Wolfheim grunted. The orc-like Saint slammed a fist into his palm. "What matters is what we do about it."
Makarov, seated among them, frowned deeply. "I've met Zeref before, on Tenrou Island. He is… contradictory. The most feared black mage in history, yet… at that time, he did not act the monster. But make no mistake—he and Acnologia are the greatest threats in existence."
Zeref had built Alvarez into a fortress-empire. Why, no one yet knew. But the timing, the expansion, the movements—they could no longer be ignored.
Hyberion spoke solemnly: "Even as we are now, with all the Saints gathered… if war breaks with Alvarez, our odds are near zero. The best path would be to seek peace."
"The odds…" Makarov murmured. He had learned much of Alvarez in the past year. A militarized nation, its army numbered in the millions. Its elite guard, the Spriggan Twelve, each wielded enough might to wipe out an entire country. They were monsters—akin to dragons.
If Ishgar had any hope at all, it wasn't in the Ten Saints. Perhaps only in that troublesome boy, Su Yan.
Jura thought the same. Su Yan's power eclipsed even the Spriggan Twelve. But beyond them stood Zeref himself—the strongest, most cursed mage in history. One man, no matter how strong, could not fight an empire forever.
They needed more.
"…What of God Serena?" Jura asked suddenly. "Why is Lord Serena absent from the Council?"
At that, silence fell.
The three remaining Gods of Ishgar exchanged uneasy glances.