Fairy Tail: You Call This Celestial Spirit Magic?!

"I could invite you to visit our guild." Marco proposed.

Self-justification was tedious—no amount of lavish praise for Fairy Tail could compare to letting the old man experience its familial atmosphere firsthand.

Marco believed the guild's warmth could move anyone's heart, for he knew with absolute certainty that Fairy Tail was the greatest guild of all.

"Apologies, but I cannot leave this place." Roubaul shook his head, declining the offer.

"..."

Marco looked exasperated.

This old man was really troublesome—this wasn't allowed, that wasn't allowed either.

That left only one option: finding Jellal.

If all else failed, he could just expose the old man's secrets—tell Wendy that everyone here was a Thought Projection?

Marco briefly considered it but ultimately didn't act on it.

After all, the reason Roubaul refused to let Wendy leave was essentially because he didn't want to betray Jellal's trust.

Even if his secrets were exposed, he'd probably still insist on keeping Wendy here.

"When did Jellal leave? Which direction did he go?"

Without further hesitation, Marco decisively asked.

In any case, he had to find Jellal.

Once he did, he could just invite both of them to join the guild, neatly completing the task and securing both rewards.

"He hasn't been gone long—about three or four hours. He headed south. If you hurry down this path, you might catch up with him."

Roubaul pointed in the direction Jellal had gone.

'To Crocus, then?'

Marco nodded, already piecing it together.

The direction Roubaul indicated clearly led to Crocus.

This rundown village wasn't exactly close to Crocus.

On foot, three or four hours wouldn't even cover a third of the distance—and that was by Marco's standards.

When it came to physical fitness, Marco had absolute confidence that Jellal was no match for him.

His steel-forged body, built through sweat and effort was no joke.

Even during these past few days in the forest, Marco hadn't neglected his daily training.

He firmly believed in one principle: sweat on his face during training mean sweat on his enemies' faces afterward.

"Wendy, wait here for me. Once i find Jellal and come back, I'll take both of you to Fairy Tail. There's a kid in the guild named Natsu—like you, he's a child of a dragon. He's also searching for his dragon's parents. I think you two will have a lot to talk about."

Before setting off to find Jellal, Marco crouched in front of Wendy, gently patting her head as he spoke softly.

He had decided to play his final card—the 'Natsu' card.

At this point, holding back was pointless.

Better to give Wendy one more reason to come with him.

"R-Really?!"

This card was Marco's trump for a reason.

Hearing this, Wendy's big eyes instantly lit up.

"Of course it's true. Just wait patiently for me to return." Marco smiled, gave her head another light pat, then stood up decisively and left without further explanation.

"Big Brother! I'll wait for you to come back!"

Watching Marco's rapidly retreating figure, Wendy cupped her hands around her mouth and shouted with all her might, as if putting her whole body into it.

Marco didn't turn back, merely waving a hand in response.

"..."

Roubaul watched all this and couldn't help shaking his head.

He was just trying to help—why did it feel like he was the villain here?

*****

Setting aside the old man's little grievances for now, Marco's search for Jellal turned out to be unexpectedly smooth.

After leaving the dilapidated village, Marco quickly picked up Jellal's trail—mainly because it would have been hard not to notice it.

The distant horizon was engulfed by intense fluctuations of magic power, the sky choked with dark, ominous clouds that made it look like the end of the world.

From Marco's perspective, it seemed as though a hole had been torn open in the sky, a void threatening to devour everything in existence.

The oppressive density of magic power was unsettling even from a distance, radiating an unmistakable sense of foreboding.

Whatever magic was at work here, it was certainly nothing good.

The reason this phenomenon was linked to Jellal was because Marco could sense his magic power—or rather, the magic power emanating from Jellal's staff.

Jellal was casting a spell, fighting against the anomaly in the sky!

Without hesitation, Marco rushed towards the source of the disturbance.

He was genuinely surprised—Jellal's staff seemed far more powerful than he had imagined.

The magic power it released was unlike anything an ordinary magical items should possess.

The sheer volume of the magic was staggering, forming a magic circle that was actively countering the terrifying phenomenon in the sky.

Otherwise, Marco wouldn't have noticed it from so far away.

Logically, a lacrima storing this much Magic Power should be highly unstable, making it impossible to use in a magical tool.

"This is strange," Marco muttered to himself as he pushed through thickets and dashed across the mountainous terrain, swiftly arriving at Jellal's location.

*****

In the cliffside.

Jellal stood at the edge, his staff raised high.

An intricate magic circle extended from his feet, expanding outward, while a smaller circle pulsed at the tip of his staff, channeling magic power upward into the "hole" in the sky.

What kind of magic is this? I've never seen anything like it.

Marco stared at the anomaly, his expression grave.

Now that he was within its range, the physical and psychological pressure had intensified.

His own magic power was restless, surging erratically within him.

This spell felt incredibly dangerous.

His arrival caught Jellal's attention.

"Marco?! What are you doing here?! It's dangerous—get out of here now!"

Struggling to keep his staff raised and maintain the magic circle, Jellal shouted at Marco with a strained, almost desperate expression.

"Save the lecture. What do you need me to do?"

Marco ignored Jellal's plea to leave, his tone was firm.

He wasn't about to turn back now—not when the magic was this dangerous.

Leaving Jellal to handle it alone was out of the question.

"Marco! This magic is deadly! If we fail, we die! This is my problem—I don't want to drag anyone else into it!"

Jellal clenched his teeth, still trying to persuade Marco to leave.

He wasn't confident he could reverse the spell.

"Your problem? No, this isn't just your problem."

Before Marco could respond, a familiar voice suddenly spoke up from behind him, startling him into turning around to look at the person speaking.

"Grandpa?! What are you doing here?!"

Marco's eyes widened at the sight of the short, stern-faced old man—his grandfather, Makarov.