Alex helped in feeding Zeref as he snacked on an apple, while making a pick-up for a full feast as Zeref sated his stomach and paused in waiting out for his body to fully settle before he breathed and reached out a hand as he spoke. "I will now take the Book of E.N.D. back and rewrite it so that my brother... Natsu is no longer bound to my life." Alex nodded as he spoke with leaning forward.

"It's okay to be unsure of addressing your own brother, this is a big change and you can't be always sure of it." He nodded as Alex looked about before he spoke. "Tenrou Island, though, no one would expect there to be once a guild here and that it now serves as the resting place for the First Master, nowadays, Wizards of the Fairy Tail hold their S-Rank Trials here to be be ranked among the greatest Wizards in their guild once a year."

"Really?" Zeref mused before humming as Alex nodded as he felt the book forming in his hand, his mind finally clearing of the countering facts that plagued him for so long. "Curious, is Natsu among them?"

"Not yet as he has yet to learn true humility, he is headstrong and stubborn, but I hope that he does learn through me or his 'mentor' Gildarts." Alex tossed up the apple a few times as he spoke with taking another bite. "The S-Class Wizards on the roster, however, are Gildarts Clive, a master of Crush Magic and had recently headed out to encounter Acnologia, but that is a later tale." Zeref nodded as Alex continued. "Laxus Dreyar, the Second Generation Lightning Dragon Slayer and Makarov's grandson, Erza Belserion who goes by the last name Scarlet who is a user of Requip and her stockpile of armors and weapons." Zeref's eyes widened at that as Alex continued. "Mirajane Strauss who uses Takeover Magic with Demons, and Mystogan, our enigma of a Wizard as he never shows his face, always puts the Guild to sleep in getting a job, and he simply wanders elsewhere."

Alex breathed with leaning back a bit as he spoke. "i hope my brother can cull Laxus, we recently found out that his dad, Ivan Dreyar, was subtly changing him into a more terrible person, all in the name of getting all of the power and even with him being excommunicated form the Guild, only meant for the more harsh offences, and he had sensitive information against the guild, he didn't have the heart or the love like Makarov does." He huffed as he continued, munching on the apple. "Sometimes, I just wonder the purpose of Magic if all it is to people is simply the surge for more."

"I don't know..." Zeref answered, his palm forming the Book and he cracking it up with a breath before rewriting it, his shoulders weighing heavily before he noticed that he now had ice pauldrons on them and it reduced the intense heat from the book. "I was surrounded with love, with others who warned me of the dire conditions, I think that there are many that would misuse the magic, but then there are those like Fairy Tail, who use their power for the good of others, they may do requests, but it is in the name of their guild and in the name of hope. Mavis shared in that and I could see her devastation at what she had been ladened with, she loved life and it was stolen from her."

The Black Wizard continued with Alex nodding. "Still, it will be... a change, to not constantly feel the surging decay of life around me, now bound to being mortal once again, it is coming to be a strange, but welcome change." He hissed as he felt the heat burn his body, but he had accepted the task and he will see it through, his magic hostile as it was his immortal energy countering his mortal breath. "That said, my magic is being quite hostile against me, it must see me as a unknown entity."

"Well, in the brief time of minutes, probably an hour, you have changed in your roots of energy." Alex answered with reapplying the pauldrons. "Your Curse had become an integral part of you in creating these powerful objects and beings that it seeped into their creations to mingle with your own presence, that is why their roles as killers of killer were changed to prevent that, as they would have fail safes to keep them alive, the Demons turning to servants while Natsu's life is bound to the book and the book is bound to you." Alex hummed as he inspected his work while Zeref's brow sweated in clearing through the book. "But that is a debate to discuss much later and in more civil quarters to be frank, i wanted to ask about something that caught my attention about Natsu Dragneel and Gajeel Redfox."

"Ah... those..." Zeref breathed in finishing the book. "Anna cast the memory spell on the Dragon Slayers to make them believe that they had been living within our current time frame, all in the name of destroying Acnologia, those blocks were meant to be perfect in conjunction to the Eclipse Gate bringing them forward, but there was a mishap." He breathed in closing the book, it no longer bound to either of them and was just an ordinary book now. "Anna sent them forward with the power of the twelve Golden Zodiacs, but the receiving side opened it with only eleven Golden Zodiacs and her own life force, instilling Celestial Magic traces into the blocks and seeding a interest in the Heartfilia Family line."

"I see..." Alex hummed as he nodded in his quiet thoughts to it as he spoke. "Can they be removed normally or require a Celestial Wizard?"

"They are long overdue to be dispelled, removing them would be wise as they linger with some essence of Anna's time, but also doing so with make them remember parts of their past, more exactly of those fellow Dragon Slayers that were with them." Zeref answered with taking a seat while Alex got up, searching the sky for a moment. "I take it you wish to leave now?"

"Only if there is nothing else pressing at the moment..." Alex answered with narrowing his brow, there was a growing power coming right for them, cutting through Fiore from a high altitude. "Who else knows about us being here, Zeref?"

"The only one that should be know would be Irene, I did wish for her to be relieved from her immortality as I send her a request to trace my presence back to this island."

"Explains everything..." Alex answered as the clouds were getting cleaved and soon, he focused on the growing figure of a white-scaled dragon with red colorings trailing across her back and neck, the wings just as well as they pounded through the air before she focused on Tenrou Island and dove for it as Alex spoke, his hand dropping to his pocket. "Let's hope that she is reasonable..."

"Among my Spriggans, she is second in command, she will listen and she is, by far, the best Wizard there is to enchantments." Zeref spoke with joining Alex, his hand holding the book as Irene came in, the gales surging across the both of them before she landed and spoke.

"My Emperor, what is the purpose of your request and..." She cast a glance to Alex as she continued. "Why is there another here with you?"

"Irene, I realize that you may find this a waste of time, but young Arcturus here is willing, hear him out." She paused before nodding and Alex breathed as he removed his hand from his pocket in speaking.

"I have researched and have practiced my medical skills to a great extent, my request, by behalf of your Emperor Zeref, is to remove your Dragon Root." She puffed as she made to speak.

"Please, what purpose does..."

"The Dragon Root acts as the Dragon's source of immortality." Alex spoke with scoping out Irene's draconic body for the Root, tethered around her spine. "If I remove it and you place it into a vessel of your choice, you may still use Dragon-Slayer abilities, but you will no longer be bound to being immortal any longer, you will finally age once more." She paused as she glanced between Zeref and Alex as she spoke, an edge of uncertainty in her voice.

"If this is a trick..."

"I expect you to be wary, either way, but after four hundred years, wouldn't you welcome the chance to do so." Alex's words cut into her as he continued. "What happened was blind fear and terror, you didn't deserve that sort of treatment, not when you brought malice among the Dragons to an end, with a few slipping through the gaps. You overtaxed your Seed to the point of it growing, trust me when I say... I will remove the Root for you..." Irene looked down to the side, the offer sounding too good to be true, she closing her eyes in telling herself that all he was saying was a lie, a trick to slip under her guard and stab her for being a Dragon and for scaring him into a hidden panic...

But, looking back at him, he held true to her gaze, his body sweated to the hot climate that flowed around them, and her Emperor was... sweating as well from the heat, an act that surprised her as she was certain that he was plagued with the Contradictory Curse, but he was expressing emotions and the land was not decaying or dying to him. With that in mind, she changed, her body changing back to her human form, donning her usual attire and stave in hand, as she spoke. "I don't trust you, but I am willing to give you that chance to prove it, I will know if you seek my life."

"Not shocking, but hate and spite are not part of my task." Alex answered as he swept his hand and the ground changed into a sizable hut for all of them before he dashed, Irene barely catching it before his hand touched her side and volts surged through her as she slumped forward in surprise before carrying her over to a large table, Zeref nearly bolting to help her as Alex spoke. "I needed to numb her whole body before I begin, ice will not stop her body from numbing out as, while she is the Sage Dragon, her more prominent element in Dragon Form is fire, for some curious reason." Zeref blinked in confusion as Irene was placed on the table with care, but with restraints binding her wrists, hands, legs, and feet as Alex pulled up a mask in switching out his bounty hunter attire for a medical attire and headphones on as he spoke. "Brace yourself, this may be more painful and loud than anything either of you have faced."

With a breath, he started his work, Irene's voice screeching in pain as Zeref covered his ears fast to prevent the banshee scream that emitted from Irene, his body hurting from the sound alone so he wondered on how much pain the young Wizard was in for being the one removing the Root as blood flowed from the openings that he was making, at first being random spots before he started to pull up tendrils of some scaly plant from her body, ice coating the areas to lesser whines and screams, but she was still in pain, pain that even dwarf her pain of both giving life and giving her up to keep her safe from Irene's broken state...

Mavis disappeared from the guild and reappeared on Tenrou Island, only for her ears to be assaulted by the screams of a wounded woman, she wincing at the volume before she moved to find it before another voice spoke. "Mavis..." She paused and turned, standing there from a general direction of the screams was him, Zeref, his hand gripping a book titled 'E.N.D.' tightly as Mavis replied back with wide eyes.

"Zeref...?" He breathed in taking steps toward her, his face showing a joyful emotion as she spoke. "You... you are free from...?"

"Yes...!" He dropped to the ground in relief, his hands hitting the soil as he dropped his head to it with tears in his eyes. "Yes... I am free..." She walked over and paused to rest her hand on his shoulder, but she steeled herself to do so and he breathed. "Ah... right, a Thought Projection..." Her hand slipped into his shoulder a bit as she frown in pulling back and speaking.

"I am sorry..."

"It's alright..." Zeref breathed as he got back up with his knees under him as he spoke. "You are here, well, not here here, you're here, the you that is..." He groaned in rubbing his face and speaking. "Nevermind, I should have answered..."

Mavis snorted a bit as she spoke. "That was the most emotion I have ever seen from you, so I think it is fair that you are really free from the Curse and everything..." She looked to the distance where the screams were coming from as she spoke. "What is happening?"

"Oh, that..." Zeref huffed as he got up in answering. "Alex Arcturus is here, on the island from a teleport and, after he freed me and some food and drink, I inquired Irene to come and have the Dragon Root removed from her body by his hand, she's... taking it hard." Both winced to another loud screech before it faded to whimpers and sobbing. "It was bound around her spine and he had to cut through her skin that was hardened in dragon scales, he had promised that he will do it, but it has been stressful." Mavis looked and raised her hand to his head, he closing his eyes to her touch.

"Do you know that I am here?"

"I can sense you and feel your touch, but my eyes..." He opened them again to empty air and only knew where she was from her voice and her touch. "I can only hear you, your Projection must be connected to the mark of Fairy Tail, I am sorry for being too warm for you now..."

"You have made mistakes, but you are willing to make up for it." Mavis answered and, while she could be upset, angry even at Zeref for what his works had done to the world, she could tell that there was a deep change in Zeref, liberating him from the Curse's grasp has perhaps lifted the silence and the pain that he carried in his body, he no longer felt like his mind was jumbled with both what he wants and what is the opposite of it, a relief as it proved that it was truly removed. "Maybe, he will also help me, but I am certain that it will be a challenge to even free my childish form to age again." Zeref snorted this time as he spoke with a cupped mouth.

"Considering the last time we actually met, I doubt your childish form." Mavis ballooned her cheeks in red as she almost stammered out an answer before the air stilled and both looked to the direction before Zeref spoke. "We should see what had happened." Mavis nodded in following, Zeref's trail leading them to a earthern house before Zeref breathed as he pushed the slab open and both saw the damage.

Blood stained the table and such, but it covered Alex like a coat of paint while he sewed the wounds back up and breathed in healing them, a surprise as Alex never exhibited Healing Magic in the Guild, to Mavis's knowledge while in a large cylinder of a clear material was a plant that was scaly and it pulsed like a heartbeat as Alex breathed to healing the last of the back wound up. "So... you met the First Master here, Zeref, how nice..." She floated over as she inquired.

"Are you alright...?" Alex stood up and washed his hands, the water channeling through his clothes to suck up the blood and store it into the plant's container.

"It was deep, Mavis, deep enough that I feared that I had been threatening her life a few times, even a studied hand like mine was nearly faltering in getting it out and to help her heal, but my ears are ringing something mild, even with the protections on them, I pretty much have spilled a gallon or two of blood on me for it, and Tenrou Island couldn't withstand her voice's power, as you could tell from the cracks outside and across the hut itself." He held to the basin, unmoving in the medical attire he wore. "Even now, things are not the same anymore, suddenly, all of the powerful players, the most powerful in the world, whether it is the Dragon of the End or the Black Wizard, their power is missing in the air and only tales of the Dragon remain and tools turned self-serving remain of the Wizard." He breathed as he finished. "I just wonder... what will happen next..." He hung his head for a moment before he straightened up again and spoke, with raised fingers. "I shouldn't worry for now, there is still some things that must be handled." He snapped just as the last of the blood drained into the container and sealed itself, disappearing as Mavis breathed.

"Alex..."

"He hides a breaking heart, I wonder what he feels or sees in those moments that he carries..." Zeref mused with a frown, his task now to tend to Irene, but also rebuild his strength in his returned mortal body...

Alex returned home and huffed in taking off his attire and donning sleepwear, he packing his usual gear after the surgery, but he pushed too deep...

He took to the bed and lightly closed his eyes in tiring out, but it didn't ease his mind or heart, her screams haunted him as they echoed to the only other memory she had that closely matched.

Her tears of her refusing to turn her daughter into her new vessel and leaving her behind, a breaking heart at what she had been reduced to...