Chapter 526: We Might Have to Fight an Entire Empire?
"Infinite magic... that explains why the telemetry data spiked past the absolute maximum detection threshold the moment I scanned the First Master's body," Noah noted, his eyes scanning the impossible numbers scrolling across his digital Archive screen.
Even though it was only a preliminary, non-invasive scan, his arrays were calibrated to measure magical capacity up to five times his own current, monstrous maximum limit.
Currently, aside from Acnologia and Zeref, Noah's magical reserves vastly eclipsed every single human mage he had ever encountered. The fact that the scan instantly blew past a threshold five times his own maximum proved that the magic contained within Mavis's body wasn't just "vast"—it was literally immeasurable.
"And yet, all of this incomprehensible power is perfectly, flawlessly contained within her physical vessel. It truly is a miraculous magic," Noah marveled, shaking his head in awe.
Despite the infinite magic violently churning within Mavis's core, the anomaly inherently restricted the power, preventing even a single drop from leaking into the surrounding atmosphere. Unless actively triggered or unsealed, the infinite magic would remain dormant forever.
Noah couldn't even begin to imagine the apocalyptic fallout if that infinite wellspring were suddenly unsealed. The sheer atmospheric pressure alone would likely vaporize Magnolia, rip Fiore off the continent, and launch the entire landmass of Ishgar into the stratosphere.
"Which is exactly why you must exercise absolute, paranoid caution during your research," Makarov stressed heavily, his eyes boring into Noah's. "I do not want to wake up one morning to find that the guildhall, the town, or the entire kingdom has suddenly blasted off into orbit."
"I understand," Noah nodded seriously. He closed his Archive screens and turned back to the two Masters. "Grandpa, First Master, I'm going to need to bring some specialized diagnostic equipment down here to properly assist my research. I assume that's acceptable?"
"Yes, that's fine. We anticipated you would need tools when we decided to tell you. Just be incredibly careful when setting them up around the crystal," Makarov agreed.
Noah nodded. He naturally understood the risks.
The crystalline lacrima housing Mavis's body and Fairy Heart was functionally an apocalyptic bomb. It required absolute isolation from external interference.
Previously, when Mavis was asleep, the chamber remained completely undisturbed. Makarov only visited occasionally for routine visual inspections, which posed zero risk to the anomaly. However, since Noah was actively setting up a research station, he needed to implement extreme safety protocols.
Noah raised his hand, drawing a glowing sigil in the air. A flawless, golden spherical barrier materialized, enclosing the massive crystal with exactly one meter of clearance on all sides.
With the primary containment secured, Noah's figure blurred and vanished, teleporting back to his private laboratory in his Magnolia home.
Before grabbing his equipment, he sent a rapid telepathic message to Jude Heartfilia, providing a detailed list of ultra-high-end, custom-made magical diagnostic tools and rare alchemical reagents he needed procured immediately.
He then grabbed the most advanced sensory equipment currently available in his lab and teleported directly back to the subterranean chamber.
However, Noah didn't immediately dive into his research on the crystal. Instead, he gathered Makarov and Mavis to discuss a massive overhaul of the underground security grid.
He completely rebuilt the containment wards sealing the chamber, massively amplifying their spatial-isolation properties. The new wards were so absolute that even Noah's own Spatial Magic couldn't bypass them; he could only teleport to the hallway outside the chamber and manually disengage the lock to enter.
He vastly increased the physical and magical durability of the surrounding bedrock, ensuring the cavern could withstand catastrophic, point-blank impacts.
Furthermore, he installed a hyper-sensitive, multi-layered detection matrix covering the entire subterranean complex, from the hidden staircase down to the chamber doors. If any unregistered magical signature—no matter how faint—breached the perimeter, the matrix would instantly transmit high-priority emergency alerts directly to Noah, Makarov, and Mavis.
Previously, the underground wards drew their power by siphoning ambient Ethernano from the ley lines beneath Magnolia. To ensure absolute stability and independence, Noah installed a massive, dedicated Lacrima battery array exclusively to power the new security grid, guaranteeing the wards would remain active even if the local ley lines were disrupted.
While Mavis was inside the sealed chamber, the proximity to her physical body strengthened her soul's tether, granting her spectral form a faint trickle of magic that allowed her to cast minor illusions or interact with physical objects. However, if she left the chamber, the massive, newly reinforced isolation wards would completely sever that connection, reducing her magic to the absolute bare minimum required to sustain her ghost.
Noah offered to adjust the isolation wards to allow a controlled 'leak' of magic, ensuring she retained some power even while wandering the guildhall upstairs.
Mavis immediately and firmly refused. She didn't care if she couldn't cast magic outside the chamber; being a powerless ghost was perfectly fine. However, intentionally creating a 'leak' in the ultimate security ward risked exposing Fairy Heart's signature to the outside world. She ordered Noah to make the containment absolute.
Noah agreed, sealing the chamber flawlessly.
Even after the security overhaul, Noah still didn't touch his diagnostic equipment.
He clapped his hands together, channeling a massive surge of Earth-Make magic. The empty, cavernous voids surrounding the floating pathway leading to the crystal rapidly filled with dense, magically reinforced earth until the floor was perfectly level. He then transmuted the newly formed soil into solid, indestructible bedrock.
With the floor stabilized, Noah unpacked his advanced sensory equipment and arranged it meticulously around the golden barrier enclosing the crystal.
Once the equipment was positioned, Noah dropped his temporary golden barrier and powered up the diagnostic machines.
VMMMM.
The machines hummed to life, projecting a complex, interwoven web of sensory lasers and scanning arrays that formed a new, highly advanced containment field around the crystal. This new field was exponentially more stable and provided real-time, microscopic telemetry regarding the internal state of the anomaly.
Confirming the field was flawless, Noah finally stepped back and began analyzing the flood of new data scrolling across his Archive screens.
Makarov and Mavis stood quietly to the side, watching the young genius work.
"We revealed this secret to you primarily because we want you to see if you can extract any practical applications from it," Makarov stated, his voice heavy with concern. "Acnologia is our ultimate enemy. And based on historical context, it is highly probable that Zeref will eventually become our enemy as well. If we don't drastically increase the guild's overall strength, we might not survive the next encounter."
They had only escaped Tenrou Island because Noah had spent weeks secretly building a dimensional escape hatch. If Acnologia or Zeref launched a sudden attack directly on Magnolia, the guild members might be able to flee, but the innocent civilians of the town would be slaughtered.
"You have already done an incredible job strengthening the guild," Makarov continued. "You built the training facility. You stocked our library with priceless, lost knowledge. The enchantments on our guild marks provide constant, passive benefits.
"You have single-handedly utilized every conventional method available to boost our combat effectiveness. So... the First Master and I decided it was time to look beyond conventional methods.
"We want you to study Fairy Heart. See if you can safely reverse-engineer its properties—just like Precht did—to create something that can empower the guild and give us a fighting chance against those monsters.
"However," Makarov's eyes hardened, "you must never resort to the horrific, unethical methods Precht used to build the Devil's Heart. Absolutely never. Do you understand?"
Makarov had read Noah's preliminary reports on the Devil's Heart. He knew the fleshy engine was built using grotesque dark magic and human sacrifice. Even if he desperately wanted Noah to harness the infinite power to protect their family, he absolutely refused to let Noah corrupt his soul to achieve it.
"I understand, Grandpa. I swear I won't," Noah replied firmly, without a moment of hesitation.
Simultaneously, a wave of gentle, incredibly warm golden magic radiated from Noah's body, washing over Makarov and Mavis, filling them with a profound sense of peace and reassurance.
Makarov smiled, nodding in relief. A mage's magic was a direct reflection of their soul. Noah's magic was warm, protective, and pure. A soul that produced magic like that could never stoop to the atrocities Precht had committed.
"There is another matter we must discuss. A very grim hypothesis that the First Master and I recently pieced together," Makarov said, his smile fading, replaced by profound solemnity.
"What is it?" Noah asked, pausing his data analysis.
"When I was recounting my history with Zeref earlier, I omitted a seemingly trivial detail," Mavis spoke up, floating forward. "One year after my curse activated, when Zeref found me wandering the forest... he casually mentioned something.
"He told me that he had recently founded a nation on another continent, and that he ruled it as its Emperor. That was roughly eighty years ago. I had completely forgotten about it until Makarov brought up recent geopolitical events."
"Are you referring to the Alvarez Empire's attempted invasion of Ishgar in X781?" Noah asked, immediately connecting the dots. "I remember that. You actually had me monitor the Council's response to the crisis."
"Yes," Makarov nodded heavily. "Following the invasion attempt, I found the situation highly suspicious. I dispatched Mest to infiltrate the Magic Council and gather classified intelligence on the Western Continent.
"Because Alvarez had completely severed all diplomatic ties with Ishgar, gathering concrete data was incredibly difficult. However, Mest managed to confirm a few crucial historical facts.
"The Alvarez Empire isn't an ancient nation; it only began its rapid, aggressive expansion and consolidation roughly eighty or ninety years ago. The timeline perfectly aligns with Zeref's statement to the First Master. Furthermore, Zeref explicitly stated his nation was on 'another continent.' The Western Continent fits that description perfectly."
"So, your hypothesis is that the Alvarez Empire is the nation Zeref founded, and that the legendary 'Emperor Spriggan' is actually Zeref himself?" Noah concluded, his mind racing through the geopolitical implications.
"Yes. According to Mest's intelligence, the Emperor of Alvarez earned his title by violently conquering and subjugating all 730 Magical Guilds on the Western Continent through sheer, overwhelming martial might. Given Zeref's apocalyptic power, conquering an entire continent single-handedly is entirely plausible," Makarov stated grimly.
"I agree. For the immortal, 400-year-old Black Mage, unifying a continent sounds like a casual side project," Noah nodded.
"But if Zeref is truly the Emperor of Alvarez, a massive, terrifying question arises: Why did his empire suddenly attempt to invade Ishgar four years ago?" Mavis asked, her spectral eyes narrowing.
"If he has ruled the empire for nearly a century, he could have launched an invasion decades ago. Ishgar possesses absolutely no military or magical force capable of stopping him," Mavis reasoned. "So why wait until X781 to suddenly launch a massive, unprovoked assault?"
"You think he discovered the existence of Fairy Heart, and the invasion was his attempt to claim it?" Noah deduced, looking at the two Masters.
"Yes. After discussing the timeline, that is the only logical conclusion," Makarov nodded. "Zeref is a 400-year-old immortal. Wealth, territory, and political power are completely meaningless to him. The only thing in this world that could possibly motivate him to mobilize a continent-spanning empire for war is something that directly pertains to his curse."
"Infinite magic," Mavis stated softly. "Fairy Heart possesses infinite, perpetual magic. Zeref has spent centuries desperately searching for a way to break the Curse of Ankhseram. I strongly suspect he believes that by harnessing the infinite power of Fairy Heart, he can finally shatter his curse."
"So, Zeref learns about Fairy Heart, mobilizes the Alvarez Empire to invade Ishgar and seize it, but is ultimately forced to retreat when the Magic Council threatens to fire Etherion and deploy Face, realizing the collateral damage might destroy the Heart before he can secure it," Noah summarized the geopolitical puzzle perfectly.
"That is our conclusion. It is the only theory that aligns with all the available facts," Mavis nodded.
"If Zeref discovered the secret... he almost certainly learned it from either Precht or Ivan," Noah noted grimly. They were the only two living people who knew of Fairy Heart's existence and were deeply entrenched in the dark magical underworld.
Hearing this, both Makarov and Mavis lowered their heads, profound sorrow flashing across their faces. Precht was Mavis's chosen successor. Ivan was Makarov's own flesh and blood. The fact that the ultimate betrayal had likely come from someone they loved was a bitter pill to swallow.
"Well, if this hypothesis is true, the geopolitical implications are rather amusing," Noah said, a sudden, dark smirk spreading across his face.
"We are essentially declaring war on an entire, continent-spanning Empire. If Zeref is the Emperor, his word is absolute law. If he orders his nation to march on Ishgar to claim Fairy Heart, they will march. We're going to be fighting a literal world war."
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