Four years have passed ever since Nicolas became an S-rank mage and it is now the year x781.
In the year x778, The Strauss siblings arrived in Fairy tail. Nicolas immediately decided to put Elfman under the same regimen as the others because he didn't want the Lisanna incident to happen.
Elfman had it even harder than the others because of his personality. Although he didn't want to train with Nicolas and the others at all at first, after being coaxed by Nicolas that he would need power to protect his sisters, he decided to join voluntarily.
Mirajane seeing the hellish training her brother was put through, wanted to stop him multiple times but seeing Elfman's determined face, she couldn't help but relent.
For 4 years, he trained Elfman much harder than the others slowly transforming his timid personality into the "Manly man" personality he had in the anime.
From time to time, Nicolas would also bring magical beasts back to the guild for Elfman to take over and would be beaten into submission if he wasn't able to control it.
Nicolas even brought back the infamous Beast King and Elfman was able to subdue it successfully.
In the same year, Natsu, Wendy, Sting and Rogue all got their Exceeds. It turns out that the eggs were sent directly to the coordinates of the dragon slayers, not just randomly found eggs.
Nicolas and Gajeel didn't get eggs for some unknown reasons.
Also, after 4 years constantly fighting S-rank monsters, Nicolas was finally able to surpass Makarov in Magic power. Although not quite at the level of the four heavenly kings of Ishgar.
...
Nicolas was now preparing himself to follow Gildarts to the Guiltina continent.
Although he didn't have any intention to do the 100 year quest for now, he had multiple objectives in going to Guiltina.
The first being, learning the dimensional magic "Aqua Era".
He wanted to learn that Magic because he wanted to freely go to Elentear. The ethernano in Elentear was so dense to the point where the world would be destroyed by it so he planned to go there to train.
The reason why they went 400 years in the future was to go to an era where ethernano was abundant in the first place so he needed to learn Aqua era and bring the others to train there too.
He could also use that magic to run away in case something goes wrong. He also learned teleportation magic from Mest for the same reason.
He could probably learn Aqua era from Elefseria since his Law dragon is supposed to know all information about the magic in the world.
He wanted to learn with Selene but finding her would probably be hard since she was most likely in Elentear and out of reach.
If possible, he also wanted to learn water dragon slayer magic from the water dragon god Mercphobia since he isn't hostile to humans like Selene.
His second objective was to see if it was possible to create a body for Carbos and the other dragons using Alchemy.
Since the dragons were still alive although in spirit form, it wouldn't count as playing with life and death and won't be cursed by Ankhseram, right?
He also needed to talk to Elefseria about that since that old man was the law dragon's dragon slayer and probably had magic knowledge about curses like that.
And his third and final objective was to contact the dragon slayer guild Diabolos and buy some Dragon Lacrima or even poach some talents from there since they were all dragon slayers.
….
"Gildarts speaking. I've arrived at the Magia dragon guild. Over." Gildarts said on a communication Lacrima.
"Aight, I'll be there. Over."
As Nicolas said those words, he suddenly appeared next to Gildarts.
"Yikes. Intercontinental teleportation really eats a lot of magic power." Nicolas complained.
"Tch. You damn kid. You already hitched a free ride and still complaining. I had to ride a boat for a week and I'm not complaining." Gildarts grumbled at Nicolas.
"Hahaha. Don't be so grumpy old man. It's not good for your skin."
Nicolas had used Gildarts as a coordinate for his teleportation since he needed coordinates to teleport. And he didn't want to travel for days on boat because of him being a dragon slayer.
The both of them then made their way to the guild.
They looked around but the guild seemed deserted and destroyed but still made their way through the gate.
As they entered the gate, they saw a giant dragon.
Gildarts immediately took a fighting pose and turned to Nicolas trying to tell him to run away but was caught off guard seeing Nicolas's unbothered face.
The dragon then spoke:" Welcome, 98th heroes. I am Elefseria, The dragon of law. Can you grant my wish?"
Gildarts quickly deduced that this dragon should be the client of the 100 year quest so he finally let his guard down.
"So the client this time is a dragon" Gildarts said cheerfully.
"That's not a dragon. It's a human in dragon form." Nicolas said to him.
Elefseria then jumped down from his position as he transformed back into his human form and said that Nicolas was correct.
Elefseria then asked if the two of them were truly ready to take the quest since it would most likely cost them their life.
Gildarts responded positively and cracked his knuckles to show his determination but Nicolas just responded.
"I'm not here for the quest. I'm here to ask you something."
Elefseria was surprised and asked him what he wanted know.
Nicolas then asked him if he knew and could teach him Aqua Era.
Elefseria responded "I do know the spell but why do you want to learn it?"
Nicolas then explained his plan to go to Elentear in order to train.
Hearing the word Elentear, Elefseria immediately refused Nicolas's request.
Knowing the reason why Elefseria refused, Nicolas put his arms around Elefseria's shoulders and said
"You're worried about Selene right? Don't worry about her. She probably won't stop me from training there.
She's easy to talk to and it's in her interest that dragon slayers become stronger since she probably want to get rid of the other dragon gods, right?"
Elefseria was once again surprised to hear that Nicolas knew about the dragon gods and couldn't help but ask if he knew what the quest was about.
Nicolas just nodded to confirm that he knew.
The confused Gildarts then interjected and asked
"Hey kid, so you knew what the quest was from the beginning? Why didn't you tell me what the quest was about?"
"To be fair with you, this quest is impossible for you, old man." Nicolas said
"Don't underestimate me, you brat. I might look like this but I'm still Ishgar's strongest mage." Gildarts responded while flexing his muscles.
"I'm not underestimating you, Gildarts. In fact, I think you are strong enough to beat normal dragons even without dragon slayer magic."
"Then why do you say that?" Gildarts asked.
Nicolas then pointed at Elefseria standing beside him and said
"You see this old man right? You should've already felt that his Magic power is much stronger than yours and he has dragon slayer magic on top of that. But it's been a 100 years and he still couldn't beat those five dragons."
Seeing Gildarts's unconvinced look, Nicolas decided to use his trump card, changing the subject.
"Gildarts, you've got a daughter waiting for you to come back home so don't throw away your life and go take care of her instead."
"Huh?! Since when did I have a daughter?"
"Since 15 years ago, although it seems that she is planning to become an S-class mage before announcing her identity to you."
Gildarts was trying to jog up his memories and a name finally came to his mind "Is it…"
But before he could say the name, Nicolas interjected and directly said that it was Cana.
Seeing Gildarts stunned face, Nicolas then said:
"I'll send you back to the guild now. I'll try to find a solution so that you can become a dragon slayer and take this quest too in the future but in the meantime, take care of your daughter."
Although Gildarts wanted to argue about being sent back to the guild, he didn't argue because he needed to confirm things with Cana.
Nicolas then put his hand on Gildarts and teleported back in the middle of the guild.
"Bye." As Nicolas said those words, he disappeared once again.
He then reappeared next to Elefseria and said
"Well then, old man. Let's make a deal."