"I don't think there's any need to keep hiding it from the current Natsu."
After thinking for a while, Marco finally made his decision.
They had hidden it before because Natsu was still young and had not yet formed a complete view of the world.
But the current Natsu would not be shaken by these things.
He was already an excellent mage who had gone through plenty of experience and had extremely firm values and beliefs.
"All right. I agree." Igneel immediately answered.
He thought the same way, some things were not suitable to keep hidden forever.
...
Buzz!
Without hesitating much longer, Marco immediately brought Igneel back to where Natsu and Happy were.
"Marco! Igneel! You're back!"
Seeing Marco and Igneel suddenly appear, Natsu immediately came over. The curiosity on his face could not be hidden at all.
"Natsu, there's something we need to tell you."
Before Natsu could say much, Marco got straight to the point.
That made Natsu freeze, and he even wondered if he had misheard.
"It's about your background."
Marco ignored Natsu's reaction and continued explaining.
Very quickly, he laid everything out clearly and directly shoved all the information into Natsu's head at once.
"..."
Natsu froze.
Happy froze too.
The brains of both boy and Exceed crashed under the massive amount of information.
"Aye?!"
Happy was the first to react, letting out an incredibly shocked cry.
Natsu, the person at the center of it all, was also jolted awake by Happy's voice.
He scratched his head, his face full of confusion and disbelief.
"Natsu, this is the Book of E.N.D. Do you want to keep it yourself, or should I or Igneel keep it for you?"
Seeing Natsu gradually recover from the shock, Marco took out the Book of E.N.D., which was protected by Crystal Wall, and asked him.
They had to respect Natsu's opinion on this.
After all, this book was basically Natsu's life.
"I... I'll let you keep it."
Looking at the Book of E.N.D., Natsu instinctively took a step back.
After hesitating for a moment, he decisively chose to let Marco keep the book.
Natsu trusted Marco and believed Marco would never hurt him.
It was not that he did not trust Igneel.
It was just that Marco was clearly more convenient for safekeeping. No matter how one looked at it, Igneel was still a giant dragon.
"All right."
Marco nodded.
"I... I'm really Zeref's younger brother?"
Seeing Marco put away the Book of E.N.D., Natsu swallowed and still could not help doubting whether everything Marco had said was true.
It just sounded far too unbelievable!
"It's true." Igneel spoke.
"If Zeref wasn't lying." Marco added.
After all, Igneel had only heard these things from Zeref. He could not guarantee that everything Zeref said was true.
Unlike the matter of E.N.D., these things did not have a system mission to prove them, so they could not be confirmed one hundred percent.
The only thing that was certain was that Natsu was E.N.D.
As for everything else, it could only be said that it could be reasonably inferred backward.
...
"..."
Even Natsu was having trouble holding it together now.
He scratched his head in confusion, feeling like maybe he would have been better off not knowing this background at all.
More importantly, even after learning all this, it was still hard for him to suddenly feel any "brotherly affection" toward Zeref.
"Whatever. Fairy Tail is my home. If that Zeref really wants to destroy the world and make an enemy of Fairy Tail, then I'm definitely not holding back against him!"
After struggling with it for a while, Natsu quickly came to his own conclusion.
That just how he had always been.
Straightforward, honest, and saying exactly what he thought.
Even if Zeref really was his older brother, and even if Zeref really had revived him, everything Natsu had experienced growing up told him one thing: good and evil could not stand together.
He would never allow Zeref to keep doing evil deeds.
"All right. We've told you everything about your background, so there's nothing else for now."
Marco smiled and patted Natsu on the head.
Natsu's reaction was pretty much what he had expected.
Honestly, this was normal.
For most people, the ones who raised you mattered more than blood.
No matter what kind of person Zeref was, he could never surpass Igneel or Fairy Tail in Natsu's heart.
In fact, because Natsu had no memories of Zeref at all, it was even harder for him to have any good feelings toward him.
After all, in Natsu's mind, Zeref had always been a terrible villain.
And based on what Marco and Igneel had just said about Zeref, especially things like creating a huge number of demons and letting them roam free, Natsu really could not accept him.
No matter how you looked at it, that was not something a normal person would do.
Seeing that Natsu had stopped overthinking it and quickly adjusted his mindset, Marco did not stay any longer and directly left with Instant Teleportation.
He had no plans to get involved in Igneel's special training for Natsu.
After all, what they were mainly training was Fire Dragon Slayer Magic.
The dragons had each taken their own Dragon Slayers away.
They wanted to teach the children all the secrets of Dragon Slayer Magic, train them personally, and push their strength to the next level.
Marco returned to the Fairy Tail guildhall and began thinking about how he could continue unlocking the Gold Cloths.
At this point, Marco had already collected eight Gold Cloths, and his understanding of Cosmo was now infinitely close to the Seventh Sense.
He could basically be called someone at the peak of the Sixth Sense, or perhaps a pseudo-Seventh Sense.
He was only one step away from breaking through to lightspeed.
Based on Marco's own estimate of the Black Dragon's strength, his current power was already enough to kill Acnologia.
In fact, he had more or less reached that level back when he was in the middle stage of the Sixth Sense.
Now, unless something unexpected happened, he should have the fight firmly in hand.
Even so, Marco still wanted to be safer.
Since they had not found any trace of the Black Dragon yet, he naturally wanted to keep increasing his strength and make sure that when the time came, he could crush Acnologia completely.
...
Three months passed.
There was still no news of the Black Dragon.
"Taurus, Aquarius, Virgo, Scorpio. These are the four left. As long as I unlock any one of them, I'll be able to access the Seventh Sense."
During this time, Marco had been consolidating and getting used to his new abilities, familiarizing himself with a battle style that was infinitely close to lightspeed.
At the same time, he had also been thinking about how to trigger new missions.
"As expected, breaking through to the Seventh Sense on my own is still too difficult. This isn't something I can do overnight..... I still need the system to add points for me. No need to suffer just for the sake of suffering! Saint System, let me see your limits!"
Marco's goal was clear.
He had to unlock all the Gold Cloths as quickly as possible.
However, the requirements for triggering missions had grown higher and higher, especially for missions that rewarded Gold Cloths.
Missions that rewarded Bronze Cloths or Silver Cloths were still fairly easy to trigger.
Over the past three months, Marco had unlocked a few more Bronze and Silver Cloths, but the boost to his strength was already tiny.
Better than nothing, but not by much.
"Sure enough... do I have to look at that 100 Years Quest?"
In the end, Marco's gaze still fell on the 100 Years Quest.
There was no helping it.
This was the most direct method he could think of right now.
"With difficulty this high and mission details this mysterious, the reward should be decent, right?"
Marco did not hesitate and directly went to take the 100 Years Quest.
This mission that no one had ever completed, this mission that most people could not even return from alive, would be completely ended by him.
...
Slap.
Marco came to the front desk and placed the 100 Years Quest request sheet down.
With a smile, he asked Mirajane to register it for him.
Even though he was now the Guild Master, the proper procedures still had to be followed.
Or rather, he had even more reason to follow them.
He had to set a good example so the others would follow.
"Marco, are you really going?"
Seeing the 100 Years Quest request, Mirajane hesitated.
Worry appeared on her face. Even though Marco's strength was terrifying, this was still the 100 Years Quest, a mission no one had completed in so many years.
There had to be something dangerous about it, so of course she could not help but worried about him.
"Don't worry. I'm not even afraid of Acnologia or Zeref. Why would I be afraid of some Quest? Just wait for the good news."
Marco promised with a confident look.
Hearing that, the other guild members all gathered closer.
"The Guild Master is finally going after the 100 Years Quest?!"
"If it's Master Marco, he can definitely do it, right?!"
"Will he complete it?"
"He'll complete it!"
The guild members began discussing it excitedly.
Overall, they were all full of confidence in Marco.
Many people in the guild had already begun to blindly believe in him and his invincible strength.
Seeing Marco's firm attitude, Mirajane did not try to persuade him any further.
Although she still could not help worrying, she also could not imagine what kind of enemy could cause trouble for Marco.
If even the Black Dragon and Zeref could not do anything to him, then surely the 100 Years Quest would be completed by Marco with ease too.
"..."
The corner of Marco's mouth twitched.
Although everyone's trust in him made him happy, the atmosphere right now reminded him of something bad.
The last person everyone had believed was invincible and placed all their hopes on had ended up dropping the ball hard.
Marco shook his head.
...
Amid Fairy Tail's shouts of "invincible," "he'll win," and "if it's Marco, there's definitely no problem," Marco set off on the road toward the 100 Years Quest.
The location of the 100 Years Quest was on the northern continent of Guiltina.
Marco had truly never been there before.
After all, the Kingdom of Fiore was located in the southwest of Ishgar, quite far from the northern continent of Guiltina.
Fiore was relatively closer to the western continent of Alakitasia, so it still received quite a few immigrants from the west.
The people there also knew a thing or two about the Alvarez Empire, since the two sides had nearly gone to war.
But Fiore was basically completely unfamiliar with the northern continent of Guiltina.
On top of that, Guiltina's isolation policy was even harsher than Alakitasia's.
It basically had no contact with the other continents at all.