Chapter 297

Chapter 297: Chapter 297

"My name is Mavis Vermillion... Um, could you tell me how you know who I am?"

"Ah, well, that’s a rather long story. I’d have to start all the way back when I was a little kid, and explaining everything would take ages." Marshall grinned and waved dismissively. "Actually, forget it. I’ll tell you some other time!"

"?"

Mavis blinked in confusion as Marshall cheerfully patted her on the head.

Although he was willing to interact openly with the future First Master of Fairy Tail, he wasn’t about to start revealing everything he knew about the future.

Time travel was an extraordinarily mysterious phenomenon, and even with his current understanding of Time Magic, Marshall was still far from comprehending all the principles governing it.

He certainly wasn’t foolish enough to assume that traveling into the past meant he could do whatever he pleased without consequences.

Through his years of researching Time Magic, Marshall had gradually developed three fundamental principles concerning temporal travel.

First: History cannot be changed.

Second: Time travel must form a closed loop.

Third: Beware of temporal paradoxes.

Until his understanding of Time Magic advanced considerably further, these were the principles he absolutely had to follow.

Violating them could have consequences far more serious than simply altering a few historical events.

In the worst case, his interference might create an entirely new parallel world, separating him from the original timeline and making it impossible to return to the people he had left behind.

For Marshall, that possibility was genuinely terrifying.

Therefore, even though he had somehow traveled a full century into the past, he couldn’t afford to interfere too heavily with history. Ideally, he should avoid interfering with it altogether.

He understood perfectly well that the fourteen additional years granted by the Heart of Time weren’t some unexpected vacation for him to enjoy.

He needed to use that time to train, conduct research, and improve his strength as quickly as possible, not wander around changing the course of history simply because he happened to know what would happen next.

That was why Marshall had no intention of revealing too much to Mavis.

He had already introduced himself, and that was more than enough.

From now on, he planned to behave like one of those mysterious people who spoke in riddles and refused to explain themselves.

Other than his name, he wasn’t going to tell her anything about his origins.

"Then... why would a powerful Mage like you come to a little island where there’s practically nothing?" Mavis asked, apparently unconcerned by his evasive answer. Her large green eyes blinked curiously as she waited for him to respond.

"Yeah... Why did I come here, anyway? That’s a good question. I’d like to know myself."

Mavis tilted her head again.

"?"

This time, Marshall wasn’t entirely trying to brush her off.

His thoughts were genuinely in a mess, and he hadn’t yet decided what he was supposed to do next.

After witnessing Acnologia’s terrifying power firsthand, he was under more pressure than he cared to admit.

The Black Dragon had lived for at least several hundred years, and its magical reserves were so enormous that Marshall couldn’t even obtain a meaningful measurement.

For an ordinary Mage, accumulating one million Magic Power generally required several decades of dedicated development and training.

Even a remarkably talented individual couldn’t expect to reach that level overnight.

Marshall was already an extraordinary exception.

With his unusual talents—and, admittedly, the enormous advantages provided by his abilities—he had increased his Magic Power from a few thousand to well over a hundred thousand in approximately eight years.

That was an astonishing rate of growth by almost any standard.

Yet even if he maintained his current rate of improvement, he estimated that breaking through the million-Magic-Power threshold would still require another ten years or so.

In other words, by the time the Heart of Time completed its fourteen-year cycle and sent him home, Marshall might only just have entered the million-level category through natural growth.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t nearly enough.

Makarov and Gildarts were both powerful Mages with reserves around the million mark, and neither had stood the slightest chance of defeating Acnologia.

In the Black Dragon’s eyes, someone at that level might as well have been an ordinary roadside opponent.

Marshall suspected that Acnologia possessed at least ten million Magic Power.

Its actual reserves might reach several tens of millions, and he wouldn’t even be surprised if they exceeded a hundred million.

The uncertainty alone was frightening.

How was anyone supposed to fight a monster that possessed such ridiculous magical reserves, could resist magical attacks almost entirely, and also had a physical body so powerful that it could smash his Gundam apart with a casual swipe?

The more Marshall considered the problem, the more hopeless the matchup seemed.

If the Heart of Time hadn’t activated, he might already have been preparing to take everyone he cared about and run as far away from Acnologia as possible.

There was simply no point in fighting an enemy you had absolutely no chance of defeating.

Avoiding the Black Dragon would have been the only sensible option.

And even now, with fourteen additional years available to him, Marshall couldn’t quite shake that pressure.

Fortunately, he could think of one possible way to break out of the situation.

Recharge the Heart of Time and travel through time again.

If fourteen years weren’t enough, then he’d simply have to find another fourteen years—or however much time he needed.

When ordinary training couldn’t close the gap, he could use time travel to make up the difference.

And there was another intriguing detail.

Acnologia had recognized him.

The Black Dragon had spoken as though the two of them had encountered each other centuries earlier, despite Marshall having absolutely no memory of such a meeting.

Was that because Marshall would eventually encounter Acnologia during these fourteen years in the past?

That was certainly possible.

But if it wasn’t, then the implication was even more interesting.

It would suggest that Marshall was destined to travel through time again at some later point, eventually encountering the Black Dragon during another period of history.

Of course, he couldn’t prove that theory yet, but it gave him another reason to believe the Heart of Time might play a much greater role in his future than he had originally imagined.

Besides, there was one enormous advantage he possessed that most other Mages didn’t.

He couldn’t die.

As long as the Curse of Ankhseram continued sustaining his life, Marshall theoretically had all the time in the world to improve himself.

If a few decades weren’t enough, he could train for a century. If a century wasn’t enough, then he’d keep going until he finally surpassed that damned dragon.

’Seriously, if I live for several hundred years and still can’t beat that black lizard, I’ll eat my own words!’

Thinking about it from that perspective, the situation suddenly didn’t seem quite so hopeless.

Marshall was still under pressure, of course, but it had become a more manageable sort of pressure.

The immediate crisis remained unresolved, yet at least he could imagine several routes toward eventually overcoming it.

With that in mind, he finally relaxed a little.

"Anyway, I don’t really have anywhere else to go right now. Would it be all right if I stayed on this isl—"

His expression suddenly changed.

"Oh, shit!"

It was coming!

Marshall immediately activated Spatial Magic and teleported horizontally, putting more than a kilometer between himself and Mavis in an instant.

The next moment, the Curse of Ankhseram erupted.

A gray wave expanded outward from his body, sweeping across several hundred meters of the surrounding area.

Wherever it passed, living creatures were stripped of their vitality, leaving behind lifeless remains as an enormous quantity of Life Points was drawn into Marshall.

It was another uncontrolled outbreak.

And once again, a terrifying amount of life had been taken simply because Marshall couldn’t prevent his own Magic from activating.

The spatial coordinates he had recorded throughout his original timeline were useless in this era, leaving him unable to rely on his old network of teleportation anchors.

Fortunately, short-range Spatial Magic still functioned normally, allowing him to teleport away from Mavis before the curse could reach her.

Marshall looked back toward where the girl had been standing and felt a cold sweat break out.

’Holy shit... That was close.’

He had almost killed Fairy Tail’s future First Master!

What an absurd way to create a historical disaster that would have been.

To his surprise, however, Mavis came running after him almost immediately.

Her bare feet carried her across the ground as she hurried toward him, and when she finally stopped nearby, her large green eyes were filled with curiosity rather than fear.

"Was that... the Curse of Ankhseram?"

Marshall stared at her.

Mavis continued thoughtfully, "The Curse of Contradiction. I’ve read about it in a book before."

"...You even know about that?"

Marshall was genuinely impressed.

"I didn’t expect you to be so knowledgeable. But if you know what that curse is, why are you still coming closer? You could die, you know."

Mavis blinked.

"But didn’t you immediately teleport away from me when it started activating?"

She tilted her head.

"According to what I read, the more someone loves and cherishes life, the more lives the curse takes away."

Her expression softened.

"If the curse keeps erupting around you, doesn’t that mean you’re actually a very kind person?"

Marshall laughed and shook his head.

"Hah! You shouldn’t believe everything you read in books. I’m not some wonderful person, you know. I just haven’t learned how to control this Magic properly."

He smiled as though the matter weren’t particularly serious, but privately, he was reassessing the little girl standing before him.

They had barely spoken for a few minutes, yet Mavis had already demonstrated remarkable intelligence and perception for someone her age.

She had recognized the Curse of Ankhseram from her reading, connected its supposed mechanism to Marshall’s behavior, and drawn a conclusion about his character based on the fact that he had deliberately moved away from her.

More importantly, she hadn’t allowed fear to cloud her judgment.

’As expected of Fairy Tail’s First Master. She really was ridiculously clever even as a little kid.’

Marshall couldn’t help feeling a little impressed.

"Well, as you can see, I’ve been cursed by this world," he explained. "I urgently need to find an uninhabited island where I can concentrate on training, and honestly, this place looks pretty good."

He glanced down at Mavis.

"Unfortunately, there’s still one unnecessary little brat living here."

Mavis immediately puffed up.

"I’m not the only one living on this island!"

She turned around and waved enthusiastically toward the forest.

"Zera! Zera! Come over here!"

Before Marshall could ask what she meant, Mavis had already begun explaining.

"Actually, there used to be a Mage Guild on this island called Red Lizard. But five years ago, another guild called Blue Skull came here and destroyed it."

Her voice became slightly quieter as she recalled what had happened.

"A lot of people died during that battle. Afterward, there was hardly anyone left on the island, and now it’s just me and Zera."

Almost immediately, her expression brightened again.

"Hehe! This is my best friend, Zera. She’s a little shy, so please don’t mind if she doesn’t talk much!"

"..."

Marshall narrowed his eyes.

Mavis was enthusiastically introducing her best friend, gesturing toward someone apparently standing beside her.

The problem was...

Marshall couldn’t see anyone.

From the beginning of the conversation until now, there had only been one little girl standing in front of him.

Mavis.

Nobody else.

"Oh, come on, Zera! Don’t be shy!" Mavis said encouragingly, turning toward the empty space beside her.

"This Mage looks like a nice person. Why are you hiding?"

Her expression was completely natural.

There wasn’t the slightest hint that she was joking or deliberately trying to deceive Marshall.

Judging by her behavior, she genuinely believed that another person was standing right there.

Marshall frowned.

’What the hell is going on?’

’Is there a ghost here?’

He examined the surrounding area again, but his ordinary perception still failed to identify another person.

’No... Something isn’t right.’

The situation felt strange in a way he couldn’t immediately explain.

After thinking for a moment, Marshall slowly closed his eyes.

When he opened them again, a faint layer of pale blue light covered his pupils.

This was a new ability he had developed after advancing Life Magic to LV5.

His improved understanding of life had given him a special form of magical vision, allowing him to perceive the location of a person’s First Origin—the fundamental point connecting body, soul, Magic Power, and the world.

In Marshall’s terminology, that point was the Life Point.

Ordinary sight couldn’t reveal such a thing, and even most magical detection techniques wouldn’t be able to distinguish it from the surrounding magical structure of a living being.

But with his current Life Magic, Marshall could observe it directly.

He turned his gaze toward the empty space beside Mavis.

And this time, he saw something.

A Life Point was floating there.

Its condition was extremely strange, unlike the Life Points Marshall had previously observed inside ordinary living creatures.

Yet the more closely he examined it, the more certain he became that something really did exist in that position.

The problem was that no matter how carefully he looked with his normal vision, there was still absolutely nobody standing beside Mavis.

A Life Point was present without any visible body attached to it.

Marshall sucked in a breath.

’What kind of Magic is this?’