User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail 535: The Greatest Power, Review/@comment-29778526-20170513015909/@comment-5303512-20170516235156

Not necessarily, since we saw what happened to Lucy, it is likely what would have happened to Mard too if he had tried to tamper with it. It is most likely meant for Natsu to use it.

Or Acnologia was afraid and didn't want to admit it, Igneel had no reason to lie.