"And what about you two?!"
Seeing Lucy and Hisui take off, Gray, Natsu, and the others were stunned.
Since when had those two learned how to rewrite runes too? Had this magic suddenly become trendy or something?
"I guessed a long time ago that Freed might pull something like this, so I learned how to rewrite jutsu shiki from Levy in advance. I'm still not very skilled, but It'll managed! You all can stay in there and wait!"
Lucy laughed happily, proudly showing off her foresight.
She was wearing the Cygnus battle armor, and with a swing of her fist, she used Diamond Dust to freeze the surface of the sea.
Then she and Hisui ran off together. The two of them had really come well prepared!
"Damn it! Take me with you! I can freeze the sea even faster!"
Gray plastered himself against the rune barrier, watching Lucy and Hisui run farther and farther away across the ice.
He looked like he was about to cry!
They were all Marco's disciples—shouldn't they be helping each other out?
Not bringing Natsu was one thing, but why not bring him too?!
Gray howled inwardly.
If Lucy had left by herself, he wouldn't have had anything to say. But since she'd already brought Hisui along, then bringing one more wouldn't have mattered at all!
"Damn it! Always messing around with pointless tricks!"
Natsu gritted his teeth and fiercely complained, but he didn't act recklessly.
Instead, he waited with the others for the rune to end.
Natsu was determined to pass this exam, so naturally he didn't want to waste magic power for no reason.
If he smashed the barrier, everyone else would be able to rush out with him.
As for the others, whatever—but Natsu shot Gray a sidelong glance and saw that Gray was looking right back at him, clearly hoping Natsu would be the one to break the deadlock.
"In your dreams," Natsu muttered.
There was no way he was going to be that fool!
Soon, the five minutes were up.
Natsu, Gray, Gajeel, Juvia, Bickslow, Elfman, and Cana were finally able to leave the ship, and they immediately used every method they had to set off.
The Natsu-and-Happy combo naturally flew over just like before, with Happy flapping his wings and hauling Natsu straight into the air.
Gray stuck with skating, and he was incredibly fast too. He had even practiced extra hard just for this day.
"Haha, I'm off too!"
Bickslow used Stardress: Doll Possession magic and rode one of his wooden dolls through the air, moving at great speed.
Juvia didn't hesitate at all and jumped straight into the sea.
Though calling it "swimming" wasn't really accurate—it was more like the seawater itself was propelling her forward.
Having turned into a water elemental, she vanished into the ocean in an instant.
Gajeel, Cana, and Elfman looked at each other, and then came three splashes in quick succession as they dove into the water too.
The three moved at different speeds—Elfman in front, Gajeel right behind him, with Cana falling behind at the end.
"Tsk."
Seeing that scene, Marco couldn't help clicking his tongue.
Looking at Cana's unwillingness to admit defeat, he felt a little bad.
There was no help for it—compared to the others, Cana really was somewhat weaker.
Buzz!
Marco's figure vanished, and in the blink of an eye he was already on Tenrou Island.
Standing on the island, Marco closed his eyes.
Just by standing there, it felt as though magic power was constantly pouring into his body.
Tenrou Island itself was already overflowing with magical energy, and with the addition of the guild mark's effect, members of Fairy Tail really were strengthened here and could bring out even greater power.
Marco had been studying this phenomenon every time he came to Tenrou Island before.
He had always wanted to turn Magnolia into something similar—make it so Magnolia itself could strengthen everyone in Fairy Tail too.
That would be a true symbol of power.
"Too bad there's still no real progress."
Marco sighed, his brows drawing together as a restless feeling welled up inside him.
"I don't know why, but I feel uneasy."
He rubbed his brow.
He knew this wasn't normal—it felt more like some kind of warning, a premonition born from his psychic powers.
Buzz!
Without hesitating, Marco directly activated his precognition ability.
When in doubt, just use precognition.
Although Marco still couldn't peer into every possible timeline, and the amount of time he could see ahead wasn't very long, if something really was about to happen, then seeing even a few hours into the future was enough.
Soon, all kinds of scenes began appearing in Marco's mind.
They were all related to the exam, all related to Fairy Tail's members, and at first glance, nothing seemed out of the ordinary.
Until a strange figure appeared in the visions of the future, and Marco's attention finally locked onto something.
It was a young man with black hair, wearing a black robe with a high collar. A pendant hung at his chest, and over the robe he had wrapped long strips of white cloth.
He wore black boots, and his whole demeanor seemed somewhat dispirited.
"Who's that? How did he get in here?"
Marco had absolutely no impression of this person, which meant the man wasn't some famous wizard.
But for him to be able to find Tenrou Island, and actually get onto it, was not something an ordinary wizard could do.
The area around Tenrou Island and the land itself contained powerful magic power, cloaking the entire island in mist and making it difficult for outsiders to discover.
Ordinary wizards simply couldn't see through Tenrou Island's disguise.
Marco frowned, and the visions continued.
That strange man was no longer the key focus, because another group rushed onto the island.
Unlike the strange fellow wandering around alone, this group immediately clashed with Fairy Tail as soon as they arrived.
It was obvious they had come with hostile intent.
Buzz!
The visions ended abruptly.
That was as far as Marco's precognition could currently see, but it was already enough.
"Ultear..."
Marco had seen that woman—the escaped Ultear.
And with that, the identity of this group became obvious.
"Grimoire Heart!"
Marco's expression turned serious, and then quickly shifted into a cold smile.
"So they really came. I just didn't expect them to find their way all the way onto Tenrou Island!"
Marco wasn't surprised at all that he would eventually run into Grimoire Heart.
A battle between them was inevitable.
What he hadn't expected was that it would come this soon, not long after they had just finished dealing with Oración Seis.
"Could it be that the whole Fairy Tail story is going to wrap up completely in X784? Isn't that a little too rushed? It's already December. Don't tell me we're supposed to beat Grimoire Heart and then immediately go fight the next one right after."
Thinking that, Marco couldn't help clicking his tongue.
Fairy Tail really did have it rough.
Was this what it meant to have protagonist treatment?