Rhodes sensed he was on the verge of grasping something crucial, so he stopped reading.
Experience had taught him that demons and other malevolent entities loved exploiting human nature, curiosity, impatience, greed, as the foundation of their traps.
The closer a person got to the truth, the more dangerous that impulse to rush became. Even if holding back meant struggling against nothing, it was still better than stumbling into a snare because he couldn't wait.
So he stopped where he was, kept to his established rhythm of caution, inspection, and daily routine, and only resumed reading gradually.
It wasn't until the end of the month that he finally found what the book had been hiding.
"In the year X780, Erza attained S-Class. Natsu threw himself into training with the single-minded goal of reaching S-Class himself, convinced for reasons he couldn't articulate that becoming strong enough would somehow let him see Igneel again.
(The chronicle of his relentless training, the endless challenges issued to Gildarts, Laxus, Erza, Mirajane, and the rest, and the beatings that followed each one, is omitted.)
In the year X781, Mirajane attained S-Class. Natsu still hadn't qualified to sit the exam.
That year, Loke joined Fairy Tail. A peculiar figure named Mystogan also reportedly joined the guild around the same time, though Natsu never once caught a glimpse of his face.
(The chronicle of continued training, continued challenges to Laxus, Erza, Mirajane, and the rest, and continued beatings, is omitted. Gildarts had departed on a long-term high-difficulty mission, leaving Natsu one fewer opponent to throw himself at.)
In the year X782, Lisanna set out on an S-Class mission alongside her older sister and brother.
Lisanna did not come back.
Natsu quietly built a small cenotaph for her. He was certain he would never see his best friend again.
That same year, Mystogan attained S-Class.
Natsu trained harder than he ever had before. He had one fewer demon to challenge, and one more person to protect: Mirajane.
In the year X783, the old man took in a person named Rhodes.
That guy started from zero. Trained without complaint. Loved picking fights.
Natsu decided he was decent enough.
On their first mission together, Natsu realized that for all his talking, Rhodes was a genuinely good person, and surprisingly reliable.
Most importantly, the Void Crab was awesome."
I'm actually in it.
The realization hit Rhodes like cold water. It was one thing for a four-hundred-year-old tome to contain the names of people from the future. But why would it include someone like him, someone who had no business being part of this story at all?
He read on with forced patience, and found that most of the passages involving him matched his own memories. The few discrepancies were easy enough to explain: time had worn certain details thin, and besides, the book was written entirely through Natsu's eyes. Of course it would diverge somewhat from Rhodes's own recollection.
That same logic applied to everything that came before. Every event recorded here, every name, every moment, it was all filtered through Natsu's perspective.
The Book of END, was it literally Natsu's book?
Driven by the need to know, Rhodes read all the way to the end.
Or rather, what could tentatively be called the end.
Because the book had no conclusion.
Roughly halfway through, the pages went blank. But on the last page that still held text, words in black and red, written like living flame, were actively generating in real time.
Rhodes watched a new line appear from nothing before his eyes: "After finishing today's training, Natsu went to Lucy's house to use her bath and fell asleep in the tub."
He believed it without question. He had no desire to go and verify it in person. The credibility was simply that high.
Then, moments later, another line:
Natsu was jolted awake by Lucy's screaming, or rather, kicked awake by Lucy herself, and in the chaos that followed, Lucy's towel ended up on the floor.
It actually appeared.
With minor differences in the details, as it turned out: Levy was staying over at Lucy's tonight. The two of them had planned to bathe together, only to find Natsu already occupying the tub. Levy's presence added a new element to the disaster, though it was Lucy alone who bore the consequences of it. Once the initial shock passed, Levy's primary contribution was mockery.
Rhodes closed the Book of END.
He turned to the person closest to him. "Lisanna. Go to Lucy's house. Check who's there, then come straight back and tell me. This is important."
Lisanna wanted to ask why, but one look at his expression told her this wasn't the moment for questions. She moved first and asked nothing.
Lisanna gave a light hop, shifting mid-air into a large green-feathered bird, and beat her wings toward Lucy's house.
Mirajane tilted her head with a puzzled look. "Why send Lisanna specifically?"
"It's late." Rhodes considered it for a moment. "It wouldn't be very polite for me to show up at a girl's house at this hour."
"Turning up uninvited at Lucy's in the middle of the night isn't polite, sure," Mirajane laughed, "but it's Lucy. She wouldn't mind."
"Should I thank her on your behalf?"
"Please do!" Mirajane said brightly. "Should I head over too? I have a feeling something entertaining already happened."
"It probably already has," Rhodes said. "Let's wait for Lisanna to get back."
Mirajane thought for a moment. "Is this connected to those floating words?"
She had been at a distance each time Rhodes opened the book, but the glowing text was visible even from there. And the power woven through those words was one she recognized.
"Yes." He nodded. "Give me a moment."
He crossed the room in a few quick steps, returned to where he had been sitting, and opened the book.
He read the new entries and frowned. "So it really does work that way."
The book had already recorded Lisanna's arrival at Lucy's house, including the exact words she had exchanged with Natsu.
When Lisanna returned, Rhodes asked her a handful of questions. Every answer she gave about Natsu matched what the book had written, word for word.
The conclusion was unavoidable: everything in this book was true. The text generated on its own, updating in real time according to Natsu's experiences.
This book was, in every sense, Natsu's book. Its contents were his life.
Over time, it even trimmed and compressed minor events automatically, preventing the record from becoming bloated. Rhodes suspected that if the pages ever filled completely and Natsu's story continued, the book would simply produce new pages and keep writing.
There was only one way to pull off something on that scale: a form of Living Link Magic bound to the book itself.
No. Something far beyond ordinary Living Link Magic.
Rhodes didn't know what the ancients had called it, but by modern classifications it deserved a name of its own: Super Living Link Magic.
And beyond generating text, it retained the core function of ordinary Living Link Magic, it tied Natsu's life directly to the book.
If Natsu died, the book would vanish. That part wasn't the problem.
The real problem was the reverse: if the book was destroyed, Natsu would die with it.
The moment that landed, Rhodes went cold.
Thank goodness. Thank goodness Mard Geer had kept this book so carefully guarded.
If Rhodes had damaged it during their earlier battle without knowing what it was, he would have been killing Natsu with his own hands.
"Why did your face do that just now, Brother-in-law?" Lisanna asked, studying him. "Stuff like what happened at Lucy's happens all the time, doesn't it?"
Mirajane seemed to piece something together. She reached out and took his hand. "Is this book a serious problem?"
Rhodes exhaled. "I'm not sure whether 'problem' is the right word yet."
Another possibility had already begun forming in his mind: under the effect of this Super Living Link Magic, if the text inside the book were altered, could it change Natsu's past and present along with it?
The Annals of Time: Natsu, Single-Person Limited Edition?
...
STONESSSS 💎💎
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