Fairy Tail - Twilight Empire

Chapter 0.1 - Heart

START OF ARC 0 - TWILIGHT

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Waiting four hundred years for near imminent failure was, in Zeref's mind, simply another piece in the great joke Ankhserham had in mind for Zeref's immortal life. Finally, after so much peace and quiet, after being near the formation of the very guild that would one day take in his brother, Zeref watched on helplessly as Acnologia simply whisked all his hope away. It sank into the dreaded sea, along with the soul of Fairy Tail itself.

Precht, ironically, brought that about. He'd never really sat right with Zeref as one of Mavis's close friends. He understood she loved him, in her own way, as the others came to respect him. The rest of Fiore certainly respected him. Since Mard Geer liked to keep Tartaros out of everyone's hair, Hades was the most known and feared of the great Baram Alliance.

Well.

Not anymore.

It would be easy to blame him for Natsu's death. Their war and the confluence of magic it wrought caught Acnologia's attention. Hades's magical output, thanks to his little devices on his ship, was a near certainty to bring Acnologia around. And as the beast did, he simply destroyed what was in his path. No questions asked.

It left Zeref with a problem.

Natsu wasn't alone down there. Wendy and Gajeel were there, too. They, with Sting and Rogue, had been flung forward to defeat Acnologia. Clearly, that wasn't going to happen.

Zeref would have to do it himself.

But that would require power. A great mass of power, a swell of power that was hitherto unknowable. For the most part.

As his thoughts churned and the clouds revolved around the sky, days went by. He was adrift, on a spare piece of the destroyed ship. The sun blared down on him, but a cooling spell kept him from the overwhelming heat. The waves rocked him around violently, but he wasn't going anywhere, thanks to his friction spell.

Zeref folded his arms.

Natsu.

The poor fool had no idea of it, but it was his second death. He was two-for-two at dying at the hands of dragons. At least this time, Zeref knew the dragon's name.

Natsu's elimination ruined everything. He was still not strong enough to kill Zeref, but he'd been around. A proper fit of training paired with Igneel's return and his ability to willfully enter Dragon Force would probably do the trick. Flames of the Fire Dragon King and Dragon Force would produce the magic power necessary to completely torch Zeref's very soul.

Neither Sting nor Rogue possessed such a power, so even if Weisslogia and Skiadrum could help, it'd be fruitless. Acnologia had raw strength, but what Zeref needed was something more deliberate. Something he'd helped design.

Zeref was, simply, immortal. He would not perish and would see the world to its final age. What a bore. What a disappointment.

He envisioned a world where, as he lay dying, he could see his brother in glorious flames of their battle, finally achieving a destiny laid out for him. Natsu would live as Zeref could finally stop.

Land appeared in the distance. How long had he been adrift?

His heart ached at the idea, but, knew that by the time he touched Fiore again, by the time he was back, he would have a plan. It was a plan that had been formulated for a long time, ever since he first took up the title "Emperor."

A plan stifled by Etherion and by the new White Magic the Magic Council worked to create, though, one that would not harm Tartaros, as he understood it.