Chapter 333: The Demon Guild

Ren felt this deeply. Having transmigrated alone to this world, despite his familiarity with it, he didn't know what he would be like now if he weren't in Fairy Tail but in a strange guild.

Whether a person is happy or not is not because of power, but comes from the heart. If the heart is in chaos, the person will also follow into disorder.

Good and evil are just a thought apart. Although everyone in the guild didn't give him much help in terms of power, as long as he returns to Fairy Tail, he has a feeling of coming home.

"Wait, you mean?!"

Natsu's loud, energetic voice suddenly shattered the serene, contemplative atmosphere. He pointed a trembling finger at the tree-like wizard sitting across from them, his eyes wide with absolute disbelief. "You are even older than the old man?!"

Natsu suddenly thought of something crucial, his brain working unusually hard to process the historical timeline. The eccentric man sitting before them was one of the legendary founding members of the Fairy Tail Guild, while their own old man, Makarov, was only the third-generation Master.

By simple logic, that meant the other party was significantly older than Makarov.

Makarov's age was already approaching ninety, a venerable number by any standard. So, this strange, joke-loving old gentleman's age must definitely be over a hundred.

"Hmm... let me think for a moment," Warrod hummed thoughtfully, stroking his bark-like chin. A small, vibrant green sprout suddenly popped out from the top of his bald head, swaying gently in the breeze. "I should be 110 years old this year!"

"What?!!"

Several people were entirely shocked to hear this. Natsu, Lucy, and Happy's jaws practically hit the lush grass. Over a hundred years old—isn't that basically an old monster?! To humans, living past a century while still retaining such immense magical vitality was a miracle.

Ren was also a bit startled to hear this concrete number. Even with his vast knowledge, one hundred years old is truly an incredible figure for a mortal Mage.

Of course, Ren had also seen the Black Wizard Zeref with his own eyes—a man who had lived for over four hundred years, cursed by the god Ankhseram. But that kind of immortal guy could no longer logically be called human.

"Hehehe! It's just living a bit longer than most, that's all," Warrod chuckled softly, his kind eyes crinkling. "While my old bones can still move, I plan to do what I can to green the desert a bit. I want to make the environment better for the future generations."

Hearing this noble goal, several people couldn't help but feel a profound sense of admiration for Master Warrod. The world is never just black and white, filled only with destructive battles and loud guild brawls; there are also people who contribute silently to the earth like Master Warrod, using their legendary power to nurture life instead of taking it.

"By the way, I heard you mention Tartaros during the day, and I remembered some deeply troubling things." Warrod's playful demeanor slowly faded, replaced by the heavy gravity expected of the fourth-ranked Wizard Saint.

"Tartaros is a very ancient, highly secretive Dark Guild that existed even before Fairy Tail was founded," Warrod explained, his voice lowering to a serious murmur. "They are a truly hair-raising guild. No one in the light knows their true face, and the location of their headquarters and the total number of their members are also completely unknown to the Magic Council."

He paused, a dark shadow crossing his ancient eyes. "However, several undercover informants who once witnessed their dark gatherings told us terrifying stories about them before they disappeared. Those people said that their gatherings were fundamentally different from other Dark Guilds. They weren't just gathering for wealth or conquest... they were worshipping demons."

"Although this is only a dark speculation by us, The Four Gods of Ishgar, we heavily suspect they might possess powerful demons from the Books of Zeref."

"Demons from the Books of Zeref?!"

Lucy's face changed drastically, draining of all color. Her hands trembled instinctively as a cold sweat broke out over her skin.

Demons from the Books of Zeref had brought countless, unspeakable disasters to the Ishgar continent throughout history. The memory of the flute demon, Lullaby, and the apocalyptic beast, Deliora, who had been frozen in eternal ice on Galuna Island, flashed vividly in her mind. Deliora was just one single member of the demons from the Books of Zeref, yet it had taken the life of Gray's master, Ur, just to temporarily seal it away.

If the core of Tartaros were all entirely composed of living demons from the Books of Zeref, how terrifying would their combined strength be?

Moreover, their guild seemed to have already offended the other party by getting involved in the Sun Village incident. What if this ancient, demonic organization comes looking for them in Magnolia to exact brutal revenge?

"Alright, there is absolutely no need to worry about that."

Ren said in a relaxed, casual tone, breaking the suffocating tension. He leaned back against a tree trunk, his arms crossed behind his head, looking completely unfazed by the horrific lore drop.

For Ren, the raw strength of the demons from the Books of Zeref—the Etherious—was indeed quite strong compared to the average Mage, but it was just about the same level as an average member of the Ten Wizard Saints.

This level of power was fundamentally nothing special to him. In the grand scheme of the original timeline, Zeref had painstakingly created them and then discarded them at will in his basement precisely because these guys were far too weak to fulfill their one true purpose: killing the immortal Black Wizard himself.

[Akarin's Note: The Etherious are an artificial race of Demons created by Zeref Dragneel from his books. They were designed solely to be strong enough to kill him and end his cursed immortality. Most failed.]

However, although Ren logically looked down on these guys due to his own god-tier system abilities, for most normal people, Tartaros was still very dangerous. Not counting himself, no regular guild on the entire continent could possibly match them in a direct war.

"Hmph! If I find them, I don't care if they're demons! I'll beat them until they puke!!"

Natsu waved his fist aggressively, blazing flames instantly igniting around his knuckles. For those vile guys who easily trample on other people's lives and treat humans like toys, Natsu Dragneel hated them most of all.

"Hehehe, then I'll wait and see your fiery spirit in action, young man."

Warrod smiled warmly, the tension leaving his wooden shoulders. He hadn't encountered a single member of Tartaros in all these years, and he hadn't even found a trace of them when he deliberately went looking across the continent.

Not just him, but the other supreme members of The Four Gods of Ishgar were exactly the same. They had all hit dead ends.

After all, keeping such a highly dangerous, unpredictable Dark Guild around is definitely not a good thing for the safety of the Ishgar continent. But they all returned empty-handed every time. The other party seemed to be deliberately and skillfully avoiding them, and couldn't be found no matter what tracking magic was used.

However, looking at these energetic, destiny-bound youths, he had a strong premonition that these young people from Fairy Tail might be the ones to finally encounter them. Fate always leads the way in mysterious patterns, just like this Giant Village freezing incident, which seems exactly like a predetermined trigger for a much larger war.

Magic Council ERA.

Inside the grand, towering dome of the Magic Council headquarters, the atmosphere was incredibly tense. Magical monitors floated in the air, displaying various reports from across the continent, while the supreme Council Members sat in their elevated, circular seats of power.

"Fairy Tail won the Grand Magic Games!"

"The Tenrou Group just returned from their seven-year absence, and they immediately became like this. As expected, it's an incredibly attention-grabbing, chaotic guild!"

"Speaking of which, these guys have caused a massive amount of trouble again! The structural damage to the capital city of Crocus was unprecedented! Even after seven years of silence, this guild is still so unbelievably troublesome!"

"But now... we can't easily abolish the Fairy Tail Guild like we used to threaten."

"Yes! He is absolutely right! After all, Fairy Tail now officially holds two dominant seats among the Ten Wizard Saints, especially the First Seat, Ren! This young man's strength is completely unfathomable. If pushed too hard by our regulations, the resulting catastrophic losses to the Kingdom would be immeasurable."

Several Magic Council Members were having a heated meeting and had unconsciously begun to discuss the Fairy Tail problem. At first, years ago, they only felt that Fairy Tail was a guild of thugs that liked to cause trouble, and they had frequently entertained the idea of forcibly disbanding Fairy Tail to maintain public order.

But now, they simply didn't dare to say it easily. Fairy Tail has two Ten Wizard Saints protecting it, and Ren's sheer, monstrous strength can even easily destroy an entire country overnight if he so desired.

If Fairy Tail were forcibly disbanded by political mandate and Ren were provoked into violently retaliating against the government, the entire military might of the Magic Council might not be able to stop him. He was a walking natural disaster that they had to appease.

Thump thump!!

Council Chairman Gran Doma forcefully tapped his heavy magic staff against the marble podium, his booming voice echoing through the massive chamber.

"Everyone, silence!"

The bickering councilors immediately quieted down, turning their attention to the stern, imposing chairman.

"Today's primary agenda is not Fairy Tail. It is about Tartaros."

A heavy, suffocating silence fell over the room at the mention of the final pillar of the Balam Alliance.

"As everyone knows, over the past few days, a highly disturbing pattern has emerged. Seven independent Dark Guilds considered to be operating directly under the command of Tartaros have been completely wiped out." Gran Doma stated grimly, projecting magical images of obliterated guild halls and scorched earth.

"Although it has not yet been officially determined who did it, the eradication of these criminals is technically a good thing for us, while also being very strategically troubling."

Someone in the council guessed aloud, "If a regular, light-aligned guild did it, it might also be for revenge against their past crimes."

"Could it be another good deed done by Fairy Tail?"

Some Council Members also nervously guessed that it was done by Fairy Tail on their way back to Magnolia. There is a massive historical precedent for this; in the dreaded Balam Alliance, both Oración Seis and the mighty Grimoire Heart were both completely wiped out by Fairy Tail's interference.

"Wanting to show off one's powerful strength after winning a tournament is a normal psychological trait for battle-crazed Mages like them."

This guess was also quickly agreed upon by several sweating Council Members, who preferred to blame the devil they knew rather than an unknown variable.

Org, an elderly council member with a prominent beard, frowned deeply and shook his head. "It's not very good for our intelligence division to blindly link everything to Fairy Tail like this without a shred of hard evidence."

"Master Org is indeed exceptionally partial to those destructive fairies!" another councilor sneered dismissively.

"No, in terms of possibility, it is also highly possible that Tartaros, as the leading guild, actively absorbed its subordinate guilds by force." Org countered analytically, stroking his beard.

"And the reason for doing so?"

"Who knows, maybe it's to strengthen military preparations, or maybe they want to discard grassroots personnel. There are many possibilities."

The other Council Members looked at each other and then all burst into laughter, making Org feel extremely embarrassed.

[Akarin Note:

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