When the Fairy Tail guild marched towards the battlefield in chapter 496, it was unknown to them that Invel is watching over a nearby hill where he is able to witness all that has transpired during battle. The scene will take off with Invel finally joining the clash by jumping to the field. As soon as he brings chaos to the open ground, Natsu greets the former with his Dragon fire, and the match begins between the two mages.
Several speculations have already been raised by fans. In a discussion thread posted at Reddit, user SirSamuel016 shared his piece of predictions for chapter 497. As soon as Invel reaches the field, he first attacked on Romeo who immediately gets flash-frozen. As soon as Natsu and company sees their comrade's frozen body, they come to realize it is only Invel, The Winter Wizard, who can do such magic.
Invel then introduces himself to the Fairy Tail by admitting what he had done to Romeo. Macao then tries to attack the former, and orders him to release his son. But Invel reminded him he can easily cut Romeo's life off, and Macao suddenly halts.
When Gray tried to attack the Winter Wizard with his Ice Devil's Zeroth long sword, Invel tries to counter it with his Ice Sword which cracked and surprised him. He then tried to use something against the guild by revealing that Natsu is the one who killed Gray's father. Upon knowing the truth, Gray attacks Natsu.
Just before the fight between the two comrades commences, Invel then freezes majority of the guild members using his Ice God's Bellow. As he tried to walk away from their frozen bodies, he is confronted with Natsu's Flame Dragon's Iron Fist and the battle between the two warrior starts.
Meanwhile, straying away from Invel and Natsu's match, user somasora7 predicted in the same post the battle between Minerva and Rogue and Wahl and Bradman. He predicted the latter duo will be defeated by Minerva and Rogue using their Shadow Dragon's Dark Dominion.
Chapter 497 is entitled, "The Winter Wizard." More details will be revealed as soon as the manga is out, so readers are advised to take everything with a grain of salt.
For other predictions for the upcoming chapter, watch the video below.