His meeting with Zeref makes Ben has more understanding of his current level. In terms of raw power, he is surely stronger than Zeref. But he knows that Zeref's magic is very troublesome and the difference in raw power can be ignored.
Still, at least he knows that he has a chance to defeat Zeref. The only problem left to do is severing Natsu's connection to Zeref. After he's done with it, there won't be anything that prevents him from killing that guy.
Ben works on this problem as soon as possible, so he starts his research 2 days after he meets with Zeref. He is working in his hidden lab that future Lucy mentioned. This lab is connected to the underground training room under his house through a teleportation door.
The hidden lab is very big and its location is deep under Cait Shelter village. Its location is also the reason why one of its entrances is in the cave that was used by him & his sisters to train in the past. But Ben only uses that entrance when he isn't home.
Jarvis is also connected to this lab because this lab is connected to his house. Jarvis's presence was the reason why Ben didn't explain many things to future Lucy. She will know anything she needs to know from Jarvis who will recognize her and the magic mark he made.
Currently, Ben is opening some black books in an isolated room. He is trying to find a way to sever Natsu's connection to Zeref, so he is researching the Books of Zeref that he collected. Ben has read through them all, but he tries to find something different, so he checks them again.
"Damn, it seems the only way is by finding the E.N.D book. If I just remove the Demon Seed in Natsu's body, then he'll die. It is his core of life, after all, so I can't just remove it. However, if I let it be, then it might change him into an evil Etherious and remove his personality," ponders Ben.
Ben has inspected Natsu's body thoroughly a few times when the idiot slept. He could feel the Demon Seed clearly because of his Devil Slayer Magic. But Natsu's Demon Seed is dormant and didn't show any activity.
Even so, Ben is worried that the Demon Seed suddenly gets activated and grows. Natsu's Demon Seed is different from the ones that Devil Slayers have. He is a demon to begin with, while Devil Slayers are humans, after all.
Ben knows that right now, there's a Dragon's energy inside Natsu's body. Of course, Ben knows that energy is Igneel's energy and soul. He found a similar case in Wendy's body, after all, so Ben knows it quite well.
Igneel's energy is suppressing both Natsu's Demon & Dragon Seeds' growth. However, a Dragon's energy will only remove the Dragon Seed's Dragonization effect. The Demon Seed will not disappear and it will get activated again once the Dragon's energy is depleted.
Ben knows it so well because this is also happening to him. He also has a Demon Seed in his body as the effect of his Devil Slayer Magic. And of course, his God Slayer Magic also created a God Seed in his body.
But his Seeds are unique because rather than being 3 different pieces, there is only one piece. So that one piece of Seed has the power of Sun Demon, Sun Dragon, and Sun God in it. Ben still can't understand why the 3 power merged in that one seed which was just a Dragon Seed in the past.
The unique Seed has 3 colors on its skin and is also surrounded by 3 same colors of flame-like energy. There is a blood red color that represents his Sun Devil Slayer Magic, a gold color that represents his Sun Dragon Slayer Magic, and a black-gold color that represents his Sun God Slayer Magic.
It is really strange, but it also makes Ben relieved rather than worried because all those 3 types of power are negating each other's effects like Demonization and Dragonization. But Natsu's case is different because his Dragon Seed is getting weaker. Unless Igneel's energy destroys the Demon Seed too, then a Demonization might happen on Natsu.
"Sigh, problems keep appearing one after another these days. Let's not think too much about this for now. I can always suppress Natsu if his Demon Seed suddenly grows. Besides, I don't need to worry as long as Igneel's energy is still there. So at least I still have time to solve this," says Ben, deciding to stop thinking about this matter for now.
There is something more important for him to do now, after all. He goes to a massive room which is also a part of his lab. This room's original size isn't that big actually, but he uses Space Magic to increase its space size, so the sizes inside & outside this room are different.
Well, it's confusing, and the easiest way to understand it is that this room has a lot of space. It is big enough to fit 3 dead Dragons inside and there is still a lot of empty space. These 3 Dragons are the ones that Ben killed in the Eclipse incident.
Ben stored them in another dimension using his Space Magic. That's why they didn't return to the past like Atlas & Zirconis. The other dimension's time isn't affected by this dimension's time, after all, that's why these dead Dragons are still fresh.
Currently, Ben is extracting all their blood and he stores the blood in 3 different containers. All parts of Dragons are very valuable, after all, especially for a Dragon Slayer like him. He can use them to strengthen his power which will help him a lot to defeat Acnologia.
Many cables & pipes are also connected to the Dragons' bodies. They are used to extract all remaining magic power inside the Dragons' bodies. Ben doesn't want to waste anything even the remaining magic power that he still can use to enhance his power.
Maybe because his Seed is unique, Ben's overall power actually grows when he defeated Demons or Dragons. So killing Demons or Dragons will also affect his Sun God Slayer Magic. The effects are higher on the magic that matches the slain enemies, but the other magic still gets affected.
"Jarvis, how's the blood extraction?" asks Ben.
{It went well, Sir. We will finish in 4 minutes and 46 seconds.}
"Good, let's start preparing for the next procedure in the meantime," says Ben as he goes to the center of the room.
In the center, there is a big round hole with a 1-meter depth. Many small glowing blue magic circles are placed all over the hole. Even more magic circles are also placed on the ceiling above the hole. These all are Anima magic circles that Ben uses to gather magic power from another universe.
4 minutes later, the blood extraction finally completes. Ben then pours all the extracted blood into the hole and makes it a blood pool. Then he strips and floats on the center of the blood pool naked.
"Jarvis, start the procedure," says Ben as he dips into the blood pool.
{Understood. Please get ready, Sir.}
{Initiating Project Ultimate's procedure!}
Suddenly, all the Anima magic circles glow brighter, and more magic power pours in. A magic barrier made of complicated magic letters also appears around the pool and isolated it. Many small black magic letters also appear on Ben's whole body.
Ben suddenly flinches before he screams, "AARGH!"
Suddenly, Ben feels great pain all over his body as the Dragons' blood starts to evaporate. Blood red mist fills the inside of the barrier room and Ben disappears from sight. There's only Ben's scream of pain that can be heard from him. Just what happens for someone like him to scream painfully like that?
______________________________________________
You can read up to 35+35 chapters ahead of my fanfics and more pictures on my Pa_treon page if you are interested.
Voting for this book is highly appreciate. Cover image is the MC, artist's ig: @fatmaqn_
I've uploaded:
1. Chapter 381 of Fairy Tail: Sun Eater
2. Chapter 392 of Transcended as Lord Buggy
3. Pictures of both stories (ex: bounty poster & magazine cover) by fatmaqn_
https://www.pa_treon.com/CaptMermain
(the web didn't use _underscore_, it's to avoid censorship)