Chapter 530 - 530: Setting Zeref Aside, Mavis Cannot Be Allowed to Just Pass Away Like This

While everyone upstairs was bustling with fiery enthusiasm, each guild member contributing their part to the airship, down below, Noah, Mavis, and Makarov were making significant progress in their research on Mavis's physical body and the surrounding lacrima.

"The magical lacrima perfectly isolates her from all external influences, preventing anything from outside from affecting the First Master's body. At the same time, it continuously supplies her body with life force, healing her injuries and aiding her physical recovery. This lacrima is, quite frankly, a phenomenal piece of emergency medical equipment. Precht truly spared no effort in his desperate attempt to save the First Master."

Noah analyzed the lacrima's properties, noting its rarity as a life-saving magical artifact. With this crystal, as long as a person wasn't killed instantly, their life could be preserved, allowing them to fully recover inside.

Hearing Noah's words, Makarov and Mavis both looked deeply sorrowful. How could a man who cared so deeply eventually fall into darkness?

"It might be my fault. In his desperate attempts to revive me, Precht likely exposed himself to the darkest aspects of magic, which ultimately led to his downfall," Mavis said, her voice laced with guilt.

Looking through the later chronological sections of his research logs, she had found extensive data pertaining to dark magic. It was obvious that once Precht realized that standard, light-aligned restorative magic couldn't revive her, he had turned to the dark arts. However, after inadvertently creating Fairy Heart, Precht was too terrified to study it further. After leaving the guild, the dark knowledge he had accumulated began to draw him in, eventually consuming him entirely.

Mavis had originally thought Precht's fall was entirely his own doing, but after reading his logs, she realized she likely played a significant part in it.

"This has nothing to do with you, First Master. It was his own choice," Makarov consoled her.

"Exactly. I've come into contact with my fair share of dark magic and forbidden knowledge over the years. Do you see me falling into darkness?" Noah added. He had studied plenty of dark magic concepts, yet he was perfectly fine. It was simply a flaw in Precht's own character.

Seeing that Mavis was still blaming herself, Noah deliberately changed the subject.

"Based on this lacrima's capabilities, a person with normal injuries should heal in no time. Even someone on the brink of death would only take a few months to fully recover. However, according to Precht's logs, the life signs he detected from you only began to stabilize and become apparent years after you were sealed inside.

"Keep in mind, during that time, Precht was actively trying to save you. He pumped you full of restorative potions and healing magic. Combine that with the lacrima's innate healing properties, and anyone else would have fully recovered long ago. I've thought about this a lot, and there is only one logical explanation."

Noah paused before continuing, "Zeref's Curse of Ankhseram inflicted catastrophic damage on you. It practically killed you outright. When his curse erupted, it directly damaged the very core of your life force. Because of that, your own Ankhseram Curse—which grants you immortality—couldn't heal you. It could only barely keep your spark of life from extinguishing.

"If Precht hadn't intervened and applied emergency stasis exactly when he did, you would have truly, permanently died. All of Precht's efforts during those early years were simply trying to patch up the fundamental damage done to your life source."

"Are you saying the reason the First Master never woke up was because her core life force was damaged?" Makarov asked.

"Not just that. The eruption of the curse also caused massive trauma to her spirit. So, even after her physical body eventually healed, her mind had not fully recovered. It wasn't until recent years, when her spirit finally stabilized and healed, that she was able to awaken as a projection," Noah explained, shaking his head.

"That theory is highly probable," Mavis said. Pushing thoughts of Precht aside, she began to rapidly process the data. After running a few mental calculations, she realized Noah's explanation perfectly accounted for what had happened to her body.

"Actually, this reveals a crucial piece of the puzzle. If you want to kill someone afflicted by the Curse of Ankhseram, one of the only viable methods is to find someone else who bears the same curse, and have them fall deeply in love with the target.

"What happened to the First Master proves that even absolute immortality can be overridden and destroyed if struck by the Ankhseram Curse from a similar source. The more you love someone, the more violently the curse steals their life. That is the Curse of Ankhseram; the ultimate paradox. The solution to dying... is to be truly loved," Noah said, shaking his head with a heavy sigh.

Mavis and Makarov were stunned into silence.

"As long as you love him, you can kill him; as long as you are loved, you can be killed..." Mavis murmured. In an instant, countless mysteries unraveled in her mind.

So, the death Zeref had been desperately seeking for centuries was actually that simple—yet impossibly difficult.

Just finding someone else afflicted by the Curse of Ankhseram eliminated 99.9% of the population. You couldn't just choose to get cursed; it required a very specific, tragic set of circumstances. Mavis had never heard of a third person with the curse, and neither had Noah. Furthermore, that cursed person had to genuinely, unconditionally fall in love with you to trigger the lethal paradox. Achieving both conditions simultaneously was nearly impossible.

Mavis smiled bitterly, shaking her head. The fact that she perfectly met all the criteria was nothing short of a cruel joke played by fate.

"Then, since the eruption of the curse can kill the afflicted, why didn't he die? It's simple," Mavis sighed mournfully. "Because at that moment, my love for Zeref wasn't strong enough. But Zeref loved me deeply, which is why his curse instantly stripped away my life. Because my love wasn't profound enough, my curse failed to take his."

She finally understood the complete truth of that tragic day.

"First Master..." Makarov didn't know what to say. For such a twisted curse to fall upon two people who loved each other... there were simply no words. Yet, if not for the curse, the two of them might never have met or fallen in love in the first place. It truly was the cruelest irony of fate.

"First Master, this is just one method of breaking the Curse of Ankhseram based on the data we've currently gathered. Actually, by analyzing what happened to your body, I've conceptualized a second method. But I'll need to do more research to confirm if it's viable," Noah told Mavis.

"Alright. I look forward to seeing your alternative solution," Mavis smiled.

Even if she was immortal, the curse passively stole the lives of everyone around her. That was unacceptable. She desperately wanted to lift the curse so she could happily and safely live alongside her guild. If the curse wasn't broken, even if she revived her physical body, she would live in constant terror of accidentally killing her guildmates.

However, Zeref—a peerless magical genius—had spent centuries trying and failing to break the curse so he could die. Noah had only been studying magic for a little over a decade; logically, it seemed impossible for him to find a cure. But as his comrade, Mavis inherently trusted his genius. She believed that if Noah said he could do it, he would.

"We can worry about that later. Right now, our primary objective is to bring you back to life," Noah smiled, shifting the topic.

Solving the Curse of Ankhseram wasn't something that could be done overnight; it required immense research and preparation. But setting Zeref aside, Noah absolutely refused to let Mavis just pass away as a casualty of this curse. It was unacceptable.

In the original timeline, Zeref's actions caused Mavis to both love and hate him. When she finally resolved to use the Curse of Ankhseram to kill him, her underlying love triggered his curse to kill her simultaneously, resulting in a mutual double-suicide. It was essentially a lover's suicide pact. After all, generating enough power to kill Zeref proved exactly how deeply she truly loved him.

But now, Noah fully intended to lift her curse and allow her to live a proper, happy life in Earthland, surrounded by her Fairy Tail family—a life she had been denied because of Zeref. As for Zeref himself... Noah would decide whether or not to cure him depending on how things played out.

"Although the scans show that the First Master's physical body has fully healed, with Fairy Heart active and her spirit detached, we have no idea if simply shattering the crystal will actually allow her to wake up," Makarov pointed out.

"I actually have a hypothesis regarding that," Noah said to both of them. "Because the physical body has been constantly transmitting magic to her spirit—allowing her to operate in her current state—the connection between her body and spirit remains incredibly tight. If we apply a stimulus to her spirit right now, would her physical body react in tandem?"

"Are you planning to attack the First Master?!" Makarov immediately whirled around, glaring at Noah.

"Grandpa, you're missing the point. It's a hypothesis," Noah sighed helplessly, staring back at the bristling old man.

"I've run the calculations. Noah's theory is highly logical. I want to test it," Mavis interjected, raising a hand to stop Makarov.

"Because of the lacrima, even if the First Master's spirit is fully awake, she is physically locked out and cannot re-enter her body," Noah continued explaining. "If her spirit and body are still tightly linked, then applying a sharp stimulus to her spiritual form should trigger a physiological response in her physical body. If her physical body reacts violently enough, it could shatter the lacrima from the inside, allowing her spirit to slip back in during the breach."

"But that lacrima is incredibly durable. To force the physical body to react violently enough to shatter it... you'd have to inflict a massive amount of pain on her spirit. Won't that harm her?" Makarov asked. He couldn't refuse since Mavis wanted to try, but he was deeply concerned.

"That's exactly what we need to research," Noah explained. "Ultimately, reviving her requires forcing her spirit back into her vessel. If stimulating the spirit triggers a physical response, our job becomes much easier. We just need to stimulate her spirit, monitor the connection, and the moment the link hits the critical threshold—the exact frequency where her spirit can safely snap back into the vessel—we shatter the lacrima from the outside. We don't actually need to wait for her body to break it from the inside."

"Alright, let's run a test and see if your theory holds up," Makarov conceded.

Noah immediately began setting up the test. He calibrated all sensory equipment to focus jointly on Mavis's physical body and her spiritual projection. While non-guild members couldn't see her spirit, the highly advanced diagnostic machines registered her projection as a dense, localized cluster of magic shaped vaguely like a young girl.

Because Mavis was spectral, physical attacks would just pass through her. Noah had to use magical attacks. Under Makarov's incredibly watchful (and threatening) gaze, Noah started small, using incredibly weak, basic spells to avoid hurting her. As expected, they had absolutely zero effect. He gradually increased the output and tried different elemental spells, but still, nothing happened. He obviously wasn't going to use high-tier destructive magic for a simple stimulus test.

Finally, Noah switched to his highest mastery: Light Magic.

He extended his index finger, generating a tiny, ten-centimeter beam of highly concentrated light. He carefully pressed the tip of the light beam against the palm of Mavis's spectral right hand, slowly increasing the magical output, causing the intensity of the light to rise steadily.

Quantity and density proved effective. As Noah continuously pumped more magic into the localized beam, Mavis slowly began to feel a burning sensation in her spectral palm.

Simultaneously, the diagnostic machines spiked. A microscopic but definitive neuro-muscular twitch was detected in the right palm of her physical body inside the crystal.

Seeing this, Noah instantly stopped the spell.

"Just as I hypothesized. If the spirit receives a strong enough stimulus, the physical body mimics the reaction," Noah smiled.

Mavis and Makarov broke into wide smiles. One was thrilled at the genuine prospect of coming back to life, and the other was overjoyed that their founding mother could be saved.

"But Noah, what about the Curse of Ankhseram? Will Fairy Heart be affected?" Makarov asked, his joy sobering as he remembered the underlying threats.

"That reminds me. You mentioned earlier that you had a theory on how to temporarily suppress the Curse of Ankhseram. I think it's time you shared it," Mavis added, looking at Noah expectantly.

~~~

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