User blog comment:IamJakuhoRaikoben/Chapter 450: Alone in all the World, Review./@comment-26138717-20150831092542/@comment-9595671-20150831161742

That's what it looks like to me. To Zeref, Mavis was hope, but her death made her into a Hope spot and gave him despair.

For that one moment, he didn't feel alone. He felt he had someone his curse couldn't take away... and then despite being immortal and that he couldn't kill her, he actually does.

Zeref has been a victim all his life, the kind of victim that becomes a villain not entirely of his choice, but his powers and how all view him.