A magic merchant infiltrating Fairy Tail

All three of them possessed considerable strength and influence, so no one objected to them becoming deputies.

Even with these three forces combined, it took Acnologia himself considerable time to persuade them to surrender. Even in the current world order, with them in power, Giltina remains the strongest continent overall.

"no!"

Jelf shook his head and replied, "So far, the Eclipse is still the same as always. Apart from continuously absorbing the magic power generated by the 'Demon's Heart' that provided it with energy, it has not caused any abnormalities, and it cannot even be opened!"

The Gate of Eclipse has always been kept deep within the Palace of Lights, Melculias, and is normally guarded by special personnel. No outsider can get close without Zeref's permission.

As the creator of the Eclipse concept and the person in the world most familiar with the Eclipse Gate, Zeref quickly realized something was wrong after Lucy pushed open the Eclipse Gate, because this was different from the 'time travel' phenomenon he had originally designed!

The thought, 'Something must have gone wrong,' flashed into his mind within seconds.

As it turned out, his guess was correct. Not only did Lucy disappear without a trace, but the world also remained unchanged, which meant that the mission to 'travel to the past to change history' had gone wrong!

But by the time Jelf realized this, it was too late.

There is no way to open the Eclipse Gate, even if all twelve Zodiac Spirit Keys are gathered. If it weren't for the fact that it is still absorbing magic, everyone would think that it has now become a pile of real, useless lumps of iron!

Upon hearing Zeref's words, everyone present fell silent, feeling sorrow for the blonde girl who might never return.

For the sake of their companions who are lost in darkness, they are willing to travel to unknown territories, searching like headless flies for a solution that may or may not even exist. What courage and conviction this is!

Chapter 758 Second Cycle of the Mutation

It is precisely because they admire, appreciate, and pity Lucy's determination to sacrifice for her friends that they repeatedly tolerate and back down from the trouble caused by Fairy Tail. Besides knowing that it was not their intention, the main reason is for Lucy's sake!

If Lucy #1 knew all this, she might be moved to tears.

"Since the symptoms of this world being reversed haven't improved, it means that the little girl named Lucy didn't do anything to affect the past, right?"

Not everyone knew Lucy, including three of her deputies from the Northern Continent. The one who asked the question was none other than the Moon God Dragon Selene, who sat in the deputy position.

Her striking long golden hair cascaded down naturally, and her half-exposed Japanese-style low-shoulder kimono accentuated her graceful figure. Her delicate hands gently waved a small round fan, exuding an air of elegance and nobility.

Selene narrowed her almond-shaped eyes slightly, a hint of curiosity appearing on her delicately made-up face.

"Then why don't we just leave that eclipse gate alone?"

Even now that she has joined the side of justice, Selene is still a dragon who knows how to enjoy life. Her favorite thing to do is to take a bath, drink wine, and admire the moon, and she does this almost every day.

In her view, there is no mutual hostility between dragons and humans, no oppression and exploitation between people, and no dragons fighting over territory every day. This comfortable, leisurely and peaceful life is simply paradise!

Therefore, Selene simply couldn't understand why these humans had to make such a fuss about this matter, as if they couldn't show that they were maintaining world peace if they didn't do something about the eclipse gate.

"The power of a solar eclipse is immense; if it goes wrong, the destruction it will cause to the world will be unimaginable!"

As the creator, Zeref has almost absolute authority to speak on this matter: "And I can say with certainty that this destruction began the moment Lucy opened the Eclipse Gate and stepped inside!"

"If what you say is true, why haven't there been any abnormalities yet?"

"That's exactly what I'm worried about! If the world isn't immediately destroyed at that moment, then it's very likely that the destruction is cumulative. It will slowly accumulate over time, eventually leading to a qualitative change and bringing about a horrific destruction that could have a huge impact and possibly spread throughout the entire Aslant!!"

Selene smiled slightly upon hearing this, glancing sideways at Acnologia, who was standing beside her with a serious face, looking like an oblivious and unromantic man, and asked, "Terrorist destruction? Can it compare to this guy?"

Jelf shook his head, and just as everyone breathed a sigh of relief, he said again, "It might be much more than that!!"

What?! Really?!

Not only Selene, but also the other emperors and their deputies were stunned for a moment, and they all looked in the direction of Jelf.

Jelf's confident answer left them somewhat puzzled. Most importantly, they didn't know if Jelf was serious or just exaggerating. While the former seemed more likely—after all, he wasn't the type to boast—was this solar eclipse really that powerful?

Just as everyone was whispering amongst themselves, a soldier in armor, carrying a spear, stormed into the council hall, silencing Jelf who was about to say something.

"Something terrible has happened! Your Majesty!!"

Imber frowned, displeased with the soldier's abrupt entry into the meeting hall. As a loyal follower of Jerf, he naturally regarded such reckless behavior as an offense against the emperor.

Fortunately, Jelf himself didn't say much, but smiled gently at the soldier who ran over and said, "No need to rush, speak slowly!"

Jelf's smile was so friendly and approachable, almost too approachable, like a friendly older brother next door, making people feel like they were basking in a spring breeze.

"Your Majesty, the Eclipse Gate is responding!!"

"What?!" ×N

Everyone was startled, thinking, "We're still having a meeting here to deal with the eclipse gate, and it's already reacting? Isn't the timing a bit too coincidental?"

"No need to rush, Jelf!"

Acnologia called out to Zeref, whose expression had suddenly changed and who was about to rush out. Among those present, only Acnologia, with his absolute strength, could command him.

Twenty minutes later, led by Jelf, the four emperors, along with their deputies, arrived deep within the palace, in the basement where the Eclipse Gate was stored, and finally witnessed the changes to the Eclipse Gate before them.

The dark magic was like a thick black fog, penetrating everywhere, enveloping the gate of the solar eclipse from top to bottom and inside to outside, leaving only some metal steel bars on the very edge and the key to the zodiac in the lock.

Yes, in this world, the twelve zodiac signs were also gathered in order to open the Eclipse Gate. However, Lucy did not take them with her when she entered, because closing the gate required the power of twelve keys. So they were left here, and no one touched them for a year.

"What's going on?!"

At this moment, the black magic that came into everyone's view was emanating from the Celestial Keys of the Zodiac, but most people did not know what this meant.

"This power is... the magic of the solar eclipse??"

Zeref recognized the nature of the magic at a glance. He had been in contact with the Protoss Realm for over four hundred years and was the person most connected to the Protoss Realm among all those present. Therefore, he knew what this strange power meant.

"What's going on, Zeref?" Acnologia asked in a deep voice.

A single 'Nirvana' has already turned the world upside down, and he doesn't want to see anything chaotic happen to this thing that Zeref mentioned, which could affect the entire world.

"The worst has happened!"

A few beads of cold sweat trickled down Jelf's face as he quickly replied, "Probably somewhere we can't see, the power of the eclipse has already caused enormous damage to the flow of time. This damage hasn't manifested itself, nor has it been resolved in time, so it has been accumulating in the shadows until now, when it has finally erupted!"

"The fact that the Zodiac Key has turned into this means something terrible has definitely happened in the Celestial Spirit Realm!!"

"Moreover, it's not just the Protoss Realm that's affected! The Protoss Realm is just one microcosm of the entire world's time flow; what's truly affected is time itself! If this problem isn't resolved, the entire world may very well suffer an unprecedented catastrophe!"

Seeing how serious Jelf was, everyone lost their composure.

Even though they didn't know as much about Protoss or time as Zeref, they knew that Zeref wouldn't lie about such things, because it wouldn't benefit him at all.

Besides, Zeref is now a gentle and kind-hearted guy next door; how could he possibly lie?

"Then what should we do, Your Majesty?" Imber asked.

The anomaly caused by the solar eclipse has affected the entire Aslant region, and all four emperors who rule Aslant are present. Logically, they should discuss the matter together, but Inbell only asked Zeref, making his intentions obvious.

Even Diablos's guild master, Jorg, who had always acted without thinking and was good at solving problems with brute force, saw through the little scheme of this Ishgar governor and gave a disdainful snort.

Imber ignored it.

What kind of mage are you, Jorg Lysen, that you dare to be ranked among the twelve lieutenants with me? If we're talking about strength, aren't we, the original twelve shields, and the dragons on the other side, all stronger than you?

If it weren't for the fact that you're the mage representative of Giltina, would this position even be yours?

To be honest, even now Imbel still can't understand why Acnologia would choose such a reckless man as her deputy. Does Giltina really have no one else?

"Jereff, is this problem serious?"

Under the influence of 'Nirvana', the darker and more evil an existence is, the more radiant and kind it becomes after being reversed, which is why Acnologia became the most dazzling character present.

Basically, they are kinder than kind people, more righteous than righteous people, and more enlightened than enlightened people!

Therefore, he now seems somewhat impatient for the anomaly that Jelf mentioned, which could cause a world-class catastrophe.

"Yes!"

Zeref replied, "In the preceding months, disasters have been raging throughout Ishgard, especially in the former Kingdom of Fiore, with widespread flooding, farmland drying up, landslides, and meteorite falls."

"If not dealt with promptly, these disasters could very well occur on other continents in the near future!"

Hearing him say that, Acnologia immediately became dissatisfied: "How come you never mentioned something so serious and obvious before?"

You know, Zeref hadn't mentioned any of this before! If he had known earlier that the eclipse would cause this kind of thing, he would have thought more carefully about whether or not to help Lucy enter the eclipse gate.

However, Zeref clearly misunderstood. He thought Acnologia was referring to the fact that he hadn't mentioned these disasters at the regular meeting. In his view, these matters involved Ishgar's internal affairs, so it was normal for him not to mention them at the meeting.

"Because of the appearance of Fairy Tail mages at these disaster sites, and the misleading information from other events, I always thought that they were the ones who caused the destruction. But now it seems that may not be the case!"

With that, Zeref slammed his fist in frustration: "Damn it! I was too careless! We all wronged Fairy Tail!!"

Hey, hey, hey...does it have to be so obvious?!

We all know you're biased towards Fairy Tail, but saying this is tantamount to directly blaming all the destruction they caused in Ishgar over the past few months on the anomaly caused by the solar eclipse!

Chapter 759 How could such a genius do something so stupid!

Everyone present saw through the act but kept quiet, each keeping their eyes and mouths to themselves, pretending not to hear anything, and silently watching Jelf's clumsy one-man performance.

"Imbel, when you get back, add 'only live' to the hunt for 'Fairy Tail'..."

Hearing Jelf still rambling on and on, oblivious to any awkwardness, Imber could only resort to a tactical cough to remind him: "Ahem... Your Majesty, what's important now is the impact of the eclipse on the world!!"

Jelf suddenly realized: "Oh right, right... I almost forgot! This is the important thing now!!"

“First, we need to know the situation in the Protoss Realm before we can make our next plan. I’ll leave this investigation to you, August. Based on my guess, something’s wrong in the Protoss Realm. Protoss beings may be swallowed by darkness after being touched by the power of the Eclipse. If you face the Protoss King, be careful.”

Celestial Spirits need a key to appear in Aslant, while the Celestial Spirit King requires a Celestial Spirit Mage with certain talent to summon by destroying a key. Moreover, the Celestial Spirit King's existence and strength are limited by the summoner. In that case, its combat power is only at the level of Maldo.

Therefore, Zeref specifically sent August to fight the Protoss King in his full or even stronger form, without damaging the Protoss Key and with the battle taking place in the Protoss Realm.

August understood Zeref's command, immediately tightened his grip on his magic wand, and respectfully said, "I understand."

Next, Zeref ordered Inbell to implement corresponding disaster prevention measures for other possible natural disasters, dispatch magical troops to various places for support, and intensify the search for Fairy Tail's whereabouts throughout the empire. Although there was some personal emotion involved, he almost perfectly fulfilled the duties of an emperor.

……

"The principle of the solar eclipse is to use the difference in the flow of time between the two worlds to achieve the purpose of time travel. Therefore, its successful operation is essentially based on the 90:1 time difference between Aslant and the Protoss Realm."

"After Lucy enters the Eclipse Gate, everything she does will cause time to become abnormal, and the resulting spacetime will affect the operation of the Protoss Realm, plunging the Protoss into darkness."

Three days later, August presented his findings to Zeref. Of course, he wasn't going to talk about things everyone already knew; he was going to give a report on the missions he had been working on for the past few days.

"But now the eclipse has clearly not worked successfully, and the only way to deal with its impact on the Protoss Realm is to go there in person. So I collected a few silver keys and, through studying spatial magic, found a way to get to the Protoss Realm."

It is almost impossible for non-Protoss beings to travel to the Protoss Realm unless they can wear Protoss clothing. Ogas made many attempts to do so and sought help from Selene, Irene, Timaria, Ultear, and others before they finally found a clue.

"As Your Majesty predicted, the zodiac spirits and the spirit kings of the twelve zodiac signs have fallen. The former is relatively easy to deal with, but the spirit king's power after going berserk is very strong. Even I had to put in a lot of effort to defeat him. However, in the end, we managed to awaken him without any major incident."