ZEREF PLOTLINE:
*Parents: Laura and Alaric
X363:
Laura (28) and Natsu (6) are killed during a Dragon Invasion to their village. Alaric and Zeref (9) arrive at home 3 days later, after having gone on a hunting trip, only to discover the bodies.
*Alaric, devastated by his wife's death, abandoned his surviving child. Desperate to bring her back, he begins his search.
X367
*Alaric finds a dark spell that can bring back the dead. His attempt fails because the spell is incomplete and he is cursed by Ankersam, the goddess of death, for his crime of breaking the balance in nature.
*Meanwhile, Zeref is living with Igneel, the king of the fire dragons and a family friend.
X374
*Zeref (20) learns of the same dark spell that could bring his brother back to life. He uses Natsu's body that he kept for all those years and attempts the spell, but also fails.
*After being cursed by Ankersam, Zeref finds out that his father has fallen to the same curse he has, but unlike him, Alaric was seduced by the darkness and became evil. Zeref also discovers that the dragon war that's currently undergoing is Alaric's fault. (revenge because of Laura's death)
*Zeref vows to keep trying to find a way to bring Natsu back to life and to stop his father from killing more dragons and people.
X394
*Zeref manages to turn Acnologia into a dragon and convinces Ankersam to tie them together with a powerful spell. She obliges since Alaric's doings had caused the balance in nature to be broken and he needed to be stopped and punished
*The Dragon War ends as Igneel is one of the only dragons to survive.
X494
*As the years go by, Zeref begins to lose his sanity and the wish to die grows stronger. He creates many monsters in hopes that one of them might be able to destroy him, thus breaking the curse of immortality, but it doesn't work.
*He begins to be known as the dark wizard because of his monsters that he can't control
*While being aided by Igneel, Zeref meets Ethan Redfox (Gajeel's father), a fellow dragon slayer. They become good friends.
*Ethan has two sons: 7 years old Gajeel and 3 years old Ryos. Ethan and Zeref grow apart since the dragon slayer prefers not to leave his children near the dark wizard.
*Zeref finds the true spell that can bring back the dead: Torna All Vita. He's reluctant to use it since it requires taking someone's life and he knows that will only make him fall deeper into the curse.
X495
NATSU'S BIRTHDAY
*Ethan visits Zeref after a while and reveals that he's dying from magic defficiency sickness and has left his children behind years ago.
*A dying Ethan convinces him to use the spell and so Zeref connects him to Natsu's body and delivers the final blow on his friend.
*After Natsu is brought back, Zeref turns him into an Etherion, with the intention of having Natsu kill him in a few years, when he's grown strong enough. He also sends Natsu to train with Igneel.
*Meanwhile, Anna Heartfilia is designing the plan to send the other 4 dragons slayers into the future so that they can defeat Acnologia. She has an agreement with the four dragons that are looking after Sting, Rogue, Wendy and Gajeel.
X499
*Acnologia learns of Anna's plan, but it's already too late since Wendy, Sting, Rogue and Gajeel have already been sent to the future.
*Seeing an opportunity to get revenge on Zeref for trapping him, he decides to do the same with Natsu.
*Zeref seeks out his younger brother after he goes missing, only to find Acnologia has him. Before Zeref can stop him, Acnologia opens the eclipse gate and shoves Natsu into it. When Zeref tries to cross it, he isn't able to.
*Acnologia, tells him that the curse prevents them from escaping through another time. Otherwise he would've gone back to prevent Laura's death.
*Zeref realizes the only way he could see his brother again is if he lives all the centuries before reaching Natsu's new timeline. So he decides to do so because he wishes for him to be the one to end his life.
X681
*Zeref meets Mavis. The two of them fall in love as he teaches her and her friends magic.
*Mavis uses the law spell, despite Zeref's warnings, and is cursed by Ankersam.
*Zeref leaves after discovering that poison is the most effective way of killing someone and even he's affected by it. He begins to design his plan to make an Etherion that can transform water into poison.
X691
*Zeref and Mavis meet again and he learns of her curse. He explains the full details of it to her and they vow to find a way to cure themselves, together.
*Zeref tells her that this is the first time he's loved someone so much and she admits her own feelings towards him. They share a kiss, but the effects of the curse cause for her to die.
*After Mavis' death, Zeref is traumatized and filled with guilt and self hatred. He hides in Tenrou Island, away from the world.
X741
*After 50 years of hiding, Zeref decides to begin his search once again, the desire to die being overwhelming.
*He continues seeking for powerful water mages.
X750:
*After finding out about Zeref's search, Acnologia traps him on Tenrou Island, ironically his previous safe haven. Zeref is unable to escape, having been weakened during the 40 years of mourning while Alaric has only grown stronger.
X770
*Zeref manages to escape the island, with the help of his demons, who had been trapped on the books but eventually escaped
*Once he learns about Juliet Heartfilia and her legendary powers, he begins seeking her.
X774:
*After 4 years of searching for Juliet, he finds her daughter and captures her. He attempts to have Juvia tell him where Juliet is. She doesn't and eventually he realizes she's dead, so he decides to use Juvia.
*Silver appears on Tartarus' headquarters after following a lead from Deliora. After learning he's a demon slayer, Zeref decides to keep him trapped and turn him into one of his allies.