Zeref Dragneel (ゼレフ・ドラグニル, Zerefu Doraguniru) is the central antagonist of Fairy Tail who is mentioned early in the series as the most evil wizard in history called the "Black Wizard" (黒魔導士, Kuro Madōshi).[ch. 21] He makes his first appearance at the end of volume 24, although he is not identified until the following volume.[ch. 200, 210] Eventually, it is revealed that Zeref is Natsu Dragneel's centuries-old elder brother, made immortal and unaging by a curse called the Black Magic of Ankhselam (アンクセラムの黒魔術, Ankuseramu no Kuro Majutsu), which randomly kills everything around him whenever he cherishes the value of life. Years before the series' present, Ankhselam curses Zeref for trying to resurrect an infant Natsu, who is earlier killed with the rest of their family in a dragon attack. Becoming suicidal, Zeref eventually succeeds in reincarnating Natsu's dead infant body as a so-called demon dubbed "Etherious Natsu Dragneel" (E.N.D.) in the hope that Natsu would be capable of killing him.[ch. 436] He then places Natsu under Igneel's tutelage and sends them 400 years forward to a magic-rich era through the time machine Eclipse in order to properly cultivate his powers.[ch. 465] He eventually befriends Mavis Vermillion 300 years later, which develops into romance after she acquires the same curse until he inadvertently steals her life.[ch. 450]
Living in solitude on Sirius Island, Zeref becomes disillusioned by the atrocities committed by Grimoire Heart in his supposed name as a mass-murdering embodiment of evil, leading him to spend the next seven years contemplating the eradication of humanity.[ch. 209, 250, 340] One year later, he resurfaces as the emperor of the Alvarez Empire, a military nation he has constructed over a century under the alias of Spriggan (スプリガン, Supurigan) to counter the threat of Acnologia.[ch. 450] Zeref leads a large-scale invasion of Ishgal in order to obtain Mavis's limitless power of Fairy Heart with which to perform Neo Eclipse (ネオ・エクリプス, Neo Ekuripusu), a spell that would enable him to relive his own life and undo the actions caused by himself and Acnologia, while also erasing the existence of countless people in the present.[ch. 530] Zeref succeeds in absorbing Fairy Heart after Natsu's failure to kill him, but Natsu incapacitates him after negating his attacks with his own fire magic, after Mavis took the E.N.D. book away from Zeref and give the book to Lucy, Grey and Happy.[ch. 532, 536] Zeref then dies after Mavis rekindles her love for him, allowing their mutual curse to kill them both.[ch. 537] By the end of Fairy Tail, a young man identical in appearance to Zeref named Alios (アリオス, Ariosu) appears and encounters Mio, a girl who resembles Mavis.[ch. 545]
Mashima had not given the character a name upon his first physical appearance in the story, and considered several possible choices before deciding to make him the previously unseen character Zeref;[vol. 24:172] he intentionally avoided providing any hints to his identity beforehand, wanting it to be a "complete surprise" to the readers.[vol. 24:167] Aiming to avoid portraying Zeref as "a typical bad guy", Mashima cultivated and inserted numerous elements into the character that made him "really highly complex".[26] Mashima stated that Zeref "has really become a popular character" after the revelation of his identity, also calling him a "really dark" character who would "never make a silly face."[vol. 26:187]
