Layla now has Leo's and Aries's keys after defeating Karen. However, she doesn't give them to Lucy yet because she thinks that Lucy is still not ready to make contracts with more Zodiacs with her current strength.
Also, Layla is worried that Karen will come at Lucy if she has both Leo's and Aries's keys when she isn't strong enough. So Layla wants Lucy to get much stronger first before handing over those 2 Gold Keys.
Because she lost both her Gold Keys very early, Karen didn't die like in the series. She surprisingly still works as a Mage in Blue Pegasus. But she now doesn't use Celestial Magic anymore and her personality also changed drastically after her defeat from Layla.
She is actually banned by the Spirit King to make contracts with any spirits after Leo and Aries were freed from her. The Spirit King always cared about the spirits, but he was always limited by the Spirit World's rules.
That's why he used a roundabout way by letting Ultear stay in the Spirit World for a while and asked her to save Leo and Aries without breaking the rules. Now that both of them are saved, he banned Karen from contracting other spirits.
So Karen can't be a Celestial Mage anymore and was forced to learn different magic. The inability to use her prided Celestial Magic shattered her confidence. She becomes very quiet and only stays in Blue Pegasus to work as she rarely socializes with her Guild Mates.
Well, she almost never causes problems now, but Layla is still worried that Karen will attack Lucy as revenge for Layla. That's why Layla wants Lucy to get stronger and joining Fairy Tail seems to be the best choice because there will be Alex who'll protect Lucy there.
However, Alex is nowhere to be found when Lucy joins Fairy Tail. Lucy is looking for him as soon as she joins the Guild because he is her reason for choosing this Guild. She sees him as her older brother figure, after all.
"Heh, so Alex was working for your family for a year, huh? I haven't joined at that time." Lisanna is talking to Lucy now.
"Yeah, he worked for my family without getting paid because he said it was a payment for my mother's help."
"Your mother's help? What did she help Alex with?"
"It wasn't really him who got help, but his very close friend that he also saw as a little sister."
"Ultear, right?" Gray suddenly joins in.
"How do you know?" Lucy is quite surprised.
"Ur was also my teacher. Alex and I were taught by her when we were kids."
"Oh, so you are the one who learned Ice Magic from Aunty Ur."
"Yeah. 3 of us learned Ice Make Magic. Only Alex didn't learn it, but somehow he became stronger than all of us with the magic he learned himself."
"Wow, as expected of Big Bro Alex. But where is he? Everyone keeps saying he isn't here and won't return for a while. Is he busy with something?" Lucy asks again and Mira answers her.
"He is taking a very difficult job that will take quite a long time to finish. It's so dangerous and difficult that he doesn't bring anyone but Meteor with him. He has gone for a month, but there's still no news of him coming back anytime soon. So you will need to wait."
"A-a month?! Just how difficult is this job to take that long to finish?"
"Hmm, I might as well explain about the job ranks to you now."
Mira starts explaining about the job ranks to Lucy, starting from the normal jobs to the most difficult jobs, the 100 Years Quests. She explains their difficulties and dangers along with the rewards they offer.
"And now, Alex is doing the 2nd most dangerous quests among these ranks, the 10 Years Quest."
"WHAT?! T-then, that means it's a job that hasn't been cleared for 10 years?"
"To be correct, 10 Years Quests are jobs that haven't been cleared for more than 10 years but less than 100 years. The one that Alex does right now is a quest that hasn't been cleared for 69 years. If it's not cleared in 31 more years, then it will become a 100 Years Quest."
"69 YEARS?! AND NO ONE HAS EVER CLEARED IT?"
Yes, Alex is doing a 10 Years Quest right now and it's a quest that hasn't been cleared for 69 years. He has done many S-Class and even SS-Class jobs. So he wants to try doing a 10 Years Quest to challenge himself.
He was actually hesitant at first because it was almost time for the main story to start when Makarov asked if he wanted to take the 10 Years Quest. Someone took it before but failed, so the Quest was being posted again.
Alex was hesitant, but then he decided to take it because 10 Years Quests are very rare. There might not be another chance to do this level of Quest anymore in the future, so he decided to take it because it's also a chance to see how strong he really is.
The quest is located in Pergrande Kingdom, a Kingdom located far to the East of Fiore, on the easternmost part of Ishgar. It's a very large Kingdom, the largest in Ishgar actually.
As for the requester, it's the Kingdom itself, or in this case the King himself is the one who issues the quest. After all, the content of this quest has become big enough to be a National problem as it hasn't been cleared for almost 7 decades.
The quest is to destroy an underground labyrinth that has caused a lot of damage to the Kingdom because monsters keep pouring out of it in large numbers. They have made fortresses around the labyrinth, but the casualties are always high every time the monster wave happens.
Those monsters are beings made of magic because their bodies disappear when they die. So they believe there must be something inside the labyrinth that creates those monsters and the only way to stop them is by destroying that something.
However, conquering the labyrinth is very difficult. They have sent many of their Mages and Knights in the past. But the labyrinth's structure is very complicated and the caves are too narrow for many people to move inside.
The labyrinth is also full of traps and the monsters are moving much better than the humans inside the labyrinth because it's their home. They've failed many explorations with almost everyone they sent died and only some survived.
The Kingdom has tried many ways to clear the labyrinth, including posting quests on Magic Guilds. Their quest is even posted on other continents, but nothing worked, everyone who took this quest failed so far.
Pergrande Kingdom is very desperate now because the damage caused by this labyrinth is getting bigger and bigger. A really wide area around the labyrinth has become a wasteland with many destroyed fortresses and towns caused by failed defense over the years.
Even The King seems like he has given up on this problem because when Alex comes to officially accept the quest, the King asks Alex if he's really sure and seems to pity Alex when he insists on taking the quest.
Alex only smiles before going to the labyrinth. He doesn't care if the King and everyone in the castle thinks that he will die inside the labyrinth. It's not like they can help him anyway, so he doesn't need to mind them at all.
His meeting with the King happened almost a month ago and now Alex is inside the labyrinth. He had been here for almost a month and still can't find anything that creates those monsters that attack him almost every hour.
It's no wonder that everyone who took this quest before had failed and died. After all, this attack frequency is ridiculous and those monsters are powerful, on par with at least A-Class beasts with some S-Class beasts appearing once in a while.
Their relentless attack waves make anyone who enters this labyrinth unable to rest. The Mages who took this quest before were most likely died because of exhaustion that made them unable to fight properly anymore.
Even Alex is also troubled by this. Their neverending attacks force him to leave the labyrinth before he can even find anything useful. He can't stay inside for too long or he will run out of magic power and can't return because he'll still need to fight many monsters on his way back.
This labyrinth is much more complex than the dungeons in those generic isekai stories. This labyrinth has many layers and each layer has complex maze structures. Furthermore, the structures change daily, the walls can self-heal, and the monsters are powerful.
These problems are the reasons Alex can't finish this quest quickly and why it hasn't been cleared for decades. But after trying many things, Alex finally gets many clues and finds a method that might just work.
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Ch. 150. Zeref vs Acnologia