Chapter 278

Chapter 278: Chapter 278

Ultear really was an exceptionally dedicated mole.

Whenever Grimoire Heart had anything important going on, she somehow managed to get the information back to Marshall.

This time, however... wasn’t the news a little too important?

Marshall immediately sent her a message.

[Where are you? Can you talk right now?]

Less than a second after the message went through, Ultear called him directly.

Her anxious face appeared in the projection.

"Marshall! You haven’t replied to any of my messages for ages, and I thought you were angry with me, but this is really important!"

"..."

Marshall suddenly remembered something.

On the day he finally woke up after sinking into the ocean, he had sent a mass message to everyone worried about him.

He had deliberately excluded Ultear.

She hadn’t known he was missing in the first place, and Marshall hadn’t wanted to create another problem for himself by explaining the entire situation.

Then he’d spent the following days completely absorbed in his research.

In fact, he’d become so focused on tinkering with Diligence that he’d somehow gone nearly ten days without replying to Ultear at all.

It genuinely hadn’t been intentional cold treatment.

He’d simply forgot.

Somehow, after spending so much time working on Diligence, part of his brain had almost started treating it as though Ultear herself had been nearby.

Which she obviously hadn’t.

Fortunately, Marshall disappearing from conversations for long stretches wasn’t exactly unusual.

He had ignored Ultear’s messages plenty of times before, so she probably hadn’t thought too much of it.

Even so, Marshall felt a little guilty.

He rubbed his nose and immediately decided to pretend none of this had happened.

What Ultear didn’t know couldn’t hurt him.

Marshall noticed that the projection behind her showed a dense forest.

"Where are you?"

"I’m in the forest near Grimoire Heart’s current position. Don’t worry, I left the others before contacting you." Ultear glanced around cautiously. "Hades is extremely skilled with Telepathy Magic. I’m worried he could intercept my communications if I contacted you from inside the guild."

"Got it. So what exactly happened? Why did Hades suddenly lose his mind and decide to attack us?"

Marshall frowned.

"Wasn’t he Fairy Tail’s Second Master?"

"Hades is after the special Magic Power on Tenrou Island. And there’s something else."

Ultear’s expression became even more serious.

"He believes that Zeref is very likely to appear on Tenrou Island at exactly that time. If Hades can obtain Zeref, he believes he’ll finally be able to realize his dream of creating the Great Magic World."

Marshall stared at her.

"He’s still going on about that Great Magic World nonsense...?"

The more Marshall heard about Fairy Tail’s Second Master, the more he suspected the old man had simply lost his mind with age.

It sounded like some ridiculous fantasy he’d spent far too many years convincing himself was real.

Unfortunately, ridiculous dream or not, the threat itself was very real.

Fairy Tail’s S-Class Promotion Trial would begin in only two days.

And Grimoire Heart wanted to launch a surprise attack during the exam?

What kind of timing was that?

Worse, Marshall currently couldn’t safely appear around other people at all.

He suddenly thought of something.

"Ultear, did you ever use that Magic Power detector I gave you? How much Magic Power does Hades have?"

The question made Ultear’s face turn pale.

"I did."

There was a hint of lingering fear in her voice.

"Marshall, Hades has approximately 1.58 million Magic Power in his normal state."

Marshall’s eyes widened.

"The combined Magic Power of all Seven Kin of Purgatory doesn’t even reach his level. And Vice Commander Bluenote has around 530,000."

Ultear took a breath.

"But that’s not even the most important part."

"Hades possesses an external magical storage device. That’s actually where the name Grimoire Heart comes from."

She lowered her voice.

"As long as that external heart remains intact, Hades effectively has an inexhaustible supply of Magic Power."

Marshall sucked in a breath.

’One point five eight million?’

Was his detector broken?

After obtaining Gildarts’s data, Marshall had already upgraded the device once.

Its theoretical upper detection limit was now two million.

He had assumed almost nobody in the world could actually approach that value.

And yet Fairy Tail’s former Second Master was sitting at 1.58 million?

As for the 530,000-Magic-Power vice commander...

Marshall barely cared.

That was basically another Jose-level opponent.

Some roadside miniboss.

Nobody important.

Just let Gildarts bite him.

Hades was the real problem here!

Who exactly was supposed to deal with someone at that level?

Makarov’s normal Magic Power was only around eight or nine hundred thousand.

Even if the old man pushed himself beyond his usual limits, Marshall doubted he’d exceed roughly the million range.

Gildarts was only at 1.11 million.

There was still a substantial difference between that and more than one and a half million.

And unlike the Oración Seis incident, this time they couldn’t simply rely on Gildarts as an emergency fallback.

He might actually lose.

Marshall rubbed his forehead.

What the hell were they supposed to do?

Then an idea suddenly struck him.

’Wait.’

’What if I use the Curse of Ankhseram?’

Could he simply teleport straight into the middle of Grimoire Heart and let the curse kill everyone?

He could appear right in their base, lie down, and wait for the black wave to erupt.

Wouldn’t that instantly produce the perfect ending?

Marshall hesitated.

’Although... killing that many people in one shot might be a little too evil.’

And if anyone discovered what he’d done, explaining it would be difficult.

More importantly, the curse was completely unreliable.

What if he teleported into Grimoire Heart’s headquarters and then sat around for two entire days without the damn thing activating?

Wouldn’t he just be feeding himself to them for nothing?

If only he could consciously trigger the curse.

Unfortunately, Marshall still had absolutely no idea how to do that.

Technically, repeatedly exhausting his stored Life Points by killing himself should accelerate the next outbreak.

But Marshall wasn’t a masochist.

He had no interest in torturing himself just to recharge an uncontrollable attack.

So that idea was out.

He sighed.

This was getting troublesome.

They had successfully planted a mole deep inside the enemy organization, yet the enemy leader’s raw strength was so absurd that it almost didn’t matter.

A lot of problems disappeared when you were simply stronger than the other side.

Unfortunately...

this time, the other side was stronger.

Then Marshall suddenly looked back at Ultear.

"Wait! Where exactly does Hades keep that external heart?"

His eyes lit up.

"If we destroy the heart first, his combat power should drop dramatically, right?"

Ultear nodded repeatedly.

"Yes! That’s exactly what I was thinking."

"Hades’s heart is his greatest weakness. Grimoire Heart has a massive magic airship that serves as our actual headquarters, and the heart is installed somewhere inside it."

She immediately began operating her terminal.

"I’ll send you the airship’s blueprints right now and mark the heart’s exact location."

Marshall grinned.

"Excellent work, Ultear!"

Now this was what a competent mole looked like!

If they destroyed the external heart that functioned as Hades’s magical core, his effective strength should fall considerably.

Then, if Fairy Tail attacked him together... maybe they could actually win.

Except...

Marshall’s expression stiffened again.

If it turned into a huge group battle, he couldn’t participate.

What if his curse erupted while everyone was gathered around him?

Instead of wiping out Grimoire Heart, he might wipe out both guilds at once.

Marshall’s head started hurting again.

Only now was he truly beginning to appreciate just how troublesome the Curse of Ankhseram was.

Why did an enemy this powerful have to appear at the exact moment he became unsafe to stand next to his own friends?

"Marshall?"

Ultear noticed his expression.

"What’s wrong?"

She hesitated.

"Is there something you can’t tell me?"

"..."

Marshall fell silent.

Oddly enough, he felt fewer reservations about telling Ultear than he had with Erza and the others.

It wasn’t because Ultear occupied some uniquely special place in his heart.

Rather, Ultear had already revealed practically everything about herself to him.

The two of them had also made a contract long ago under which Marshall had promised never to lie to her.

And truthfully... Marshall wanted someone he could talk to.

So this time, he didn’t hide anything.

"Ultear."

His expression became unusually serious.

"I’ve been cursed by Ankhseram."

Ultear froze.

Marshall forced a crooked smile.

"Yeah. That curse. The same one Zeref has."

He looked away.

"So now... maybe there isn’t that much difference between him and me anymore."

A dry laugh escaped him.

"Haha..."

Ultear’s face instantly lost all color.

"What?!"

She stared at him in horror.

"Marshall, are you serious?!"

Her voice began trembling.

"You mean that legendary curse? The most vicious curse in existence?!"

Then panic completely overtook her.

"No. No, this isn’t okay!"

"Marshall, wait there! I’m coming back right now!"

She abruptly shook her head.

"No—forget that!"

Her eyes locked desperately onto his through the projection.

"Come get me! Please! Right now! Come and get me!"

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only 2 Chapters per week from now since the author only upload 2 everyday.