Chapter 490: Fairy Tail is the Absolute Best Guild!
Noah shook his head inwardly. Precht was far too self-righteous and delusional.
How could he possibly look at the incredibly diverse, vibrant, and ever-evolving magical society of the present day and dismiss it as a "fake" world, while genuinely believing that his apocalyptic "Ultimate Magic World" was the only "true" reality?
Furthermore, claiming that this Ultimate Magic World was the era Zeref originally lived in was factually absurd. Noah had no idea what twisted, mistranslated historical texts Precht had been studying to reach such a ridiculous conclusion.
If Noah remembered his history correctly, the era Zeref was born into—roughly four hundred years ago—was the Age of Dragons. Back then, Dragons ruled the skies, the oceans, and the earth. Humanity was absolutely powerless against them.
The situation in Ishgar (the Eastern Continent) had been slightly better, as a faction of Dragons actually desired peaceful coexistence with humans. Furthermore, the dragons who didn't want to coexist generally kept to themselves, avoiding human settlements, so full-scale massacres were relatively rare.
However, the Western Continent of Alakitasia was a completely different story. The dragons there viewed humans as nothing more than livestock, food, and disposable toys. They routinely slaughtered and devoured humans for sport. The humans of the Western Continent lived in perpetual, unimaginable agony.
Eventually, the Western Dragons invaded Ishgar, triggering the catastrophic Dragon King Festival.
Zeref's parents and younger brother had been slaughtered during a dragon attack. Driven by unimaginable grief, Zeref had attempted to resurrect his brother, thus angering the god Ankhseram and receiving the Curse of Contradiction. That was the true beginning of Zeref's tragic, agonizing, immortal life.
The Dragon Slayer Magic was also created during this era, leading to the deaths of countless dragons. Eventually, Acnologia appeared, slaughtering nearly the entire dragon race and bathing in their blood until he transformed into the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse. The war ended not with a human victory, but with the near-extinction of both sides.
That war had utterly annihilated human civilization, wiping out centuries of cultural and magical knowledge. It took humanity a very long time to slowly rebuild from the ashes.
And Precht genuinely believed that blood-soaked, apocalyptic era was a utopia? The "Ultimate Magic World"?
Noah sighed silently. The moment he heard Precht claim that Zeref was "sleeping" and needed to be awakened using "keys," and that Zeref's original era was some kind of magical paradise, Noah knew the old man's research was fundamentally flawed.
When your entire foundational thesis is based on grossly inaccurate, mistranslated historical texts, any conclusion you draw from it is guaranteed to be wrong.
Shaking his head to clear his thoughts, Noah pushed Precht out of his mind. He had just received a telepathic notification from the Thought Projection he had sent to the airship. The projection had finished securing the vessel and neutralizing the remaining Grimoire Heart personnel. It was time for Noah to finish his end of the job.
"Grandpa, I'm going to start," Noah said, turning to Makarov. He then glanced at Mavis, who had remained entirely silent since Precht was defeated.
"Mhm." Makarov nodded slowly.
Seeing Noah look at her, Mavis offered a small, solemn nod, but remained silent.
Noah didn't say anything else. Since Precht no longer bore the Fairy Tail emblem, he couldn't see or hear Mavis anyway. Judging by Mavis's sorrowful expression, she probably didn't know what to say to her former friend, even if he could hear her.
Noah turned back to the task at hand.
"What are you doing?" Precht croaked. Startled out of his daze by Noah's approaching footsteps, he tensed slightly.
"Nothing much. I'm just here to permanently sever your connection to the Devil's Heart on your airship," Noah replied casually, stopping right next to the battered old man.
"What?!" Precht gasped, his eyes widening in shock.
"Did you honestly think we were just going to let you fly that airship back home? Grandpa might be letting you live because of your shared history, but I owe you absolutely nothing.
"Furthermore, you invaded our sacred ground and attacked my family. You owe us reparations. Since that stealth airship is a highly advanced, incredibly expensive piece of magical engineering, we'll be confiscating it as payment.
"However, having that grotesque, pulsing organic reactor in the basement is a massive eyesore, so I'm dismantling it. After we haul the ship back to Magnolia, we'll renovate the interior and slap a Fairy Tail emblem on the hull..."
As he spoke, Noah began absentmindedly designing the new interior layout of the airship in his head. Actually, no, I'll just leave the interior design to Erza and the girls. They'll have way more fun with it.
"Sever my connection to the Heart? If you had said you were simply going to smash the reactor to pieces, I would believe you. That is a simple matter of brute force. But you claim you are going to surgically sever the intricate magical tether connecting my soul to the Heart?" Precht laughed, a bitter, mocking sound.
"That reactor is the absolute culmination of my life's work! The magical engineering behind the Devil's Heart is so profoundly complex that even understanding its foundational theories would require years of dedicated study! You honestly expect me to believe you found a way to safely sever my connection to it in the few minutes since our battle ended?!"
Precht was incredibly proud of the Devil's Heart. It was his masterpiece, the pinnacle of his magical genius. The idea that a twenty-year-old kid could reverse-engineer his life's work in a matter of minutes was insulting.
"I didn't just find a way. I've already mapped out the entire process," Noah shook his head, staring down at Precht.
"My Thought Projection found all your private research notes and blueprints in the Captain's quarters on the airship. That saved me a significant amount of reverse-engineering time. Although, even without your notes, it only would have taken me an extra twenty minutes."
Seeing the stubborn disbelief on Precht's face, Noah didn't bother arguing further. He simply extended his hand, hovering his palm a few inches above Precht's chest.
Precht instinctively flinched, attempting to raise a hand to defend himself. However, he quickly aborted the motion, letting his arm fall back to the dirt. He had just gone all-out and lost to Noah while at his absolute peak. Now, broken, battered, and practically out of magic, attempting to resist was utterly pointless. He could only watch as Noah went to work.
A brilliant golden magic circle materialized directly beneath Noah's palm, rapidly expanding to cover Precht's entire torso.
A second, smaller, far more complex golden array materialized directly over Precht's physical heart. The two arrays began rotating in opposite directions.
Simultaneously, dozens of tiny, intricate golden runes materialized across Precht's arms, legs, and forehead, pulsing in rhythm with the main arrays.
Precht stared at the spell in absolute shock. He immediately recognized that Noah was utilizing high-tier runic structures and magical formulas that he had never even seen before, let alone studied. His arrogant disbelief instantly evaporated, replaced by genuine, rising panic.
"Sever."
Noah's voice was calm and absolute.
At that exact moment, Noah's Thought Projection aboard the airship activated a corresponding spell directly over the Devil's Heart reactor.
The invisible, metaphysical tether connecting Precht's soul to the massive organic reactor was cleanly, surgically severed.
Instantly, Precht felt the massive, rushing river of external magic power that had sustained him for decades vanish entirely. Even worse, the immense, unnatural vitality that had kept his body young and strong evaporated.
Without the reactor forcibly pumping life force into his veins, the true, crushing weight of his biological age—over 110 years—slammed into him all at once. An overwhelming, suffocating wave of exhaustion and frailty washed over him. His vision blurred, and he nearly passed out on the spot from the sheer physical shock.
The tether was gone. Noah had actually done it. In less than ten minutes.
"When I severed the link, I utilized several advanced magical theories that have only been developed within the last decade. They're incredibly efficient.
"You shouldn't always assume that the ancient, primordial era was the pinnacle of magic. Times change. Humanity evolves. New magical knowledge is constantly being discovered and refined. You spent so long digging in the dirt for ancient ruins that you completely fell behind the times."
Noah retracted his magic, the golden arrays fading into the air. He stood up, looking down at the broken old man.
"Oh, and for the record: my Thought Projection didn't start analyzing the reactor until after I knocked you out. So, it actually took me even less time than you thought."
Precht's eyes bugged out. His entire body went rigid. Seeing the absolute, casual certainty on Noah's face, his last remaining shred of pride shattered. He slumped heavily into the dirt, completely defeated on every conceivable level.
Not only had he been crushed in combat, but his life's work—his greatest intellectual achievement—had been effortlessly dismantled and dismissed as 'outdated' by a kid a fifth his age. The absolute certainty with which he had pursued his goals was gone. Makarov's earlier words echoed loudly in his mind, gnawing at his sanity.
Seeing that Precht had spiraled into a deep existential crisis, Noah ignored him and walked back to Makarov and Mavis.
"It's done. I've completely severed his connection to the Devil's Heart. He no longer has access to that infinite magic or longevity. I'm going to construct a small wooden boat and set him adrift. I checked his physical condition; despite his age and injuries, his base constitution is strong enough that he'll survive the trip back to the mainland."
Before the tether was severed, the Devil's Heart had been passively healing Precht's injuries. While he was heavily battered, none of his wounds were immediately life-threatening anymore.
"Mhm. Do as you see fit," Makarov nodded slowly.
Sparing Precht's life was the absolute limit of his mercy. He certainly wasn't going to offer the man a luxury cruise home, nor was he going to ask Noah to personally escort him. Setting him adrift in a rowboat was more than fair.
Receiving Makarov's approval, Noah didn't waste any time. He clapped his hands together, using Wood-Make magic to construct a sturdy, simple wooden rowboat on the water just off the coast.
He then levitated Precht's limp body into the air and dropped him unceremoniously into the boat.
Precht grunted as he hit the wood. He slowly pushed himself up into a sitting position, wrapping the white towel tighter around his shoulders. He didn't say a word.
Noah didn't offer any parting words either. He simply gestured with his hand, generating a strong, steady gust of wind that caught the boat and pushed it rapidly out into the open ocean.
Within minutes, Precht and his little wooden boat disappeared over the horizon.
"Grandpa, First Master, everything is settled here. Let's head back to the others," Noah said gently.
Makarov and Mavis nodded. With heavy, tired steps, Makarov walked back to where the rest of the Fairy Tail mages were resting.
"Good work out there," Ultear smiled warmly as Noah approached. She and the others had watched the entire process of Precht being set adrift.
"It was nothing. The surgical extraction was actually much simpler than I anticipated," Noah shrugged dismissively.
"You placed a tracking spell on him, didn't you? Don't even try to deny it; I know exactly how you operate!" Sorano pointed an accusing, knowing finger at him.
"Of course I did. I never said I didn't," Noah laughed, waving his hand to summon a holographic Archive screen. "For someone who successfully infiltrated our sacred ground and nearly destroyed the guild, constant surveillance is mandatory. I placed the tracker on him the exact moment I severed the tether."
The screen displayed a detailed map of the surrounding ocean. A glowing red dot labeled 'Precht' was slowly moving away from Tenrou Island.
Noah turned to Meredy. "This tracks his exact location, as well as his vital signs and magical signature. If his vitals drop and he dies, I'll be the first to know, and I'll inform you immediately."
"Thank you!" Meredy bowed her head, her eyes shining with profound gratitude.
"See?! I told you Noah would definitely leave a backdoor to monitor that bastard! I was totally right!" Sorano cheered, incredibly proud of her deduction.
"Mhm!" Meredy nodded vigorously, a bright smile on her face.
"Noah... I'm starting to regret letting him go," Makarov suddenly spoke up from the side.
Noah blinked in surprise, turning to look at his grandfather. He noticed Makarov staring intently at him and Meredy, a look of deep conflict and guilt etching his aged features.
Noah immediately understood. Seeing Noah's extreme precautions and Meredy's tragic history had made Makarov question whether his decision to spare Precht out of personal sentiment had been a betrayal of his guild members.
"Grandpa, you have absolutely nothing to feel guilty about. Your decision was perfectly fine," Noah said firmly, stepping forward and placing a reassuring hand on the old man's shoulder.
"Precht abandoned his morals and attacked our home. That is entirely his sin. You chose to spare him because of your personal history with him. That is your mercy, and it repays whatever debt of gratitude you felt you owed him for raising you.
"However, from this moment forward, that debt is settled. If he ever dares to do anything that harms this guild again, we will not hesitate to annihilate him. I beat him once, I can effortlessly beat him again.
"Grandpa, you have sacrificed so much for this guild and for all of us. You've always put our feelings first. It's only right that we consider yours as well. Your peace of mind is vastly more important to us than Precht's pathetic life."
The surrounding Fairy Tail mages nodded vigorously in agreement, offering Makarov warm, supportive smiles.
They all knew exactly how much Precht meant to Makarov. That was precisely why no one had objected to letting him go. Makarov had given them everything; letting him spare his former mentor was the least they could do.
"You brats..." Makarov choked out. Tears rapidly pooled in his eyes, and a thick stream of snot ran down his nose as the dam finally broke.
"Alright, Grandpa, blow your nose. You're ruining the moment," Laxus sighed affectionately, pulling a tissue from his pocket and handing it to the sobbing old man.
"Besides, Precht is no longer a threat," Noah added, ensuring Makarov truly had nothing to worry about. "Without the Devil's Heart, his physical body instantly reverted to that of a frail, battered centenarian. While he still possesses a large reservoir of magic, his crippled body physically cannot handle the strain of using it. He is entirely incapable of fighting or causing trouble. His only priority now is finding a quiet place to hide and desperately trying to stay alive for a few more years."
Makarov took the tissue, blew his nose loudly, and nodded firmly. Since Noah was absolutely certain the threat was neutralized, Makarov finally let the guilt go.
"Fairy Tail has truly blossomed into a magnificent guild," Mavis murmured softly, a radiant, tearful smile gracing her ethereal features as she watched the profound love and absolute trust shared between the guild members.
"Of course it has! Fairy Tail is the absolute best guild in the world!" Sorano cheered loudly, throwing a fist into the air.
"YEAH! FAIRY TAIL IS THE BEST!"
The rest of the mages roared in unison, throwing their hands up in celebration.
They looked at each other, surrounded by the family they had fought so hard to protect, and burst into bright, joyous laughter.
~~~
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