Much time has passed since the Dragon Lands heard of the incident in the Sun Giant Graveyard, and Igneel had a fatherly heart-to-heart chat with his son Natsu over his actions. The next day, Igneel prepared to make his annual trip to the Veronica Plains. Thanks to Duke Cream, Igneel and his group of dragons were given permission to host its 100th anniversary party of the Veronica Plains, celebrating the history of the land's discovery by the ancient Fire Walkers. The Veronica Plains' best sight of all is the Éclair Gorge, the largest canyon in the Dragon Lands.

While the dragons continued supervising the festivities, Acnologia and Natsu were making their way down into the gorge. Earlier this morning, Acnologia managed to convince Queen Grandeeney to let him take Natsu for a walk. They walked a good way until they descended into the gorge, where the sun didn't shine as bright and a cooling shadow covered the canyon. Finally, Acnologia took his nephew to stay at a rock underneath a small tree.

"Now, Natsu, I want you to wait here," Acnologia instructed. "Your father has a marvelous surprise for you."

"Really?" Natsu asked eagerly. "What is it?"

Acnologia smirked, "If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise now, would it?"

Natsu replied slyly, "If you tell me, I'll still act surprised."

Acnologia chuckled naughtily, "Oh, you are such a naughty boy! That's the best thing I like about you."

"Come on, Uncle Acno. Can't you tell me?" Natsu pleaded. "Please?"

"No, no, no, no, no, no, no," Acnologia shook his head. "This is just between you and your daddy. It's a sort of father-son… thing." Natsu looked a little resentful of Acnologia's dismissive attitude, but shrugged it off. "Well, I'd better go get him."

Natsu jumped off to follow him, "I'll go with you!"

"No!" Acnologia said quickly. Realizing how abrupt he had been, he laughed and said in a normal tone, "I mean, no… Just stay on this rock." Natsu frowned as he went back onto the rock. "You wouldn't want to end up in another mess like you did with the Etherious, would you?"

Natsu asked in surprise, "You know about that?"

Acnologia stated, "Natsu, everybody knows about that."

"Really?" Natsu asked, slightly embarrassed.

"Oh, yes," Acnologia nodded. "The entire Dragon Lands have to know about the well-being of their beloved prince. If something did happen to you, their hearts would be broken." He then smiled, "Lucky Daddy was there to save you and Wendy, eh?" He placed an arm around Natsu, "Oh, and just between us, you might want to work on that little fire breath of yours. Hmm?"

"Oh, okay," Natsu said, feeling self-conscious. Satisfied, Acnologia turned to leave, until Natsu called out, "Hey, Uncle Acno, will I like the surprise?"

Acnologia paused and looked at Natsu with a smirk, "Natsu, it's to die for."

Feeling more excited than ever, Natsu sat on the rock and began waiting patiently for his father, while Acnologia walked away, an evil grin on his face.


High above the cliffs where Natsu was waiting, a large herd of Wyverns stood around, contently grazing. On the far side of the field, Jackal, Ezel, and Yakdoriga were hiding under a rock arch.

"Man, look at them, all that juicy meat," Ezel stated, his arms magically transforming into sharp blades. His stomach growled, "My stomach's lookin' for a nice, big—"

Jackal interrupted, "Nobody's eating anything today."

"I can't help it," Ezel complained. "I'm so hungry… I gotta have a Wyvern!"

Jackal ordered, "Stay. Put."

Ezel pleaded, "Come on, Jackal! Can't I just pick off one of the little sick ones?"

"No!" Jackal shouted. "We just have to stick to the plan."

Reaching into his fur, he took out two halves of a round blue stone with the image of a phoenix engraved, with its wings spread and its neck craned down.

Jackal explained, "See this, guys? That's a rare Phoenix Stone. When its two halves are joined together, it'll summon the Phoenix, a massive, nearly-indestructible magical killer beast. Its rampage will never stop until it devours one thing and one thing only… a fully-grown adult Fire Dragon."

"Yes, yes, and the Phoenix will suck the Fire Dragon's life force dry, and it will disappear into smoke," Ezel added with a groan. "We all heard that story before. Can we eat some Wyverns now?"

Jackal snapped, "Save the eating for later! We gotta fix the Phoenix Stone and let the Wyverns loose. But first, we wait for the signal from Acnologia."

All three Etherious looked up and saw Acnologia appearing above from a nearby cliff, signaling that it was time. "There he is," Jackal confirmed, and he turned to Ezel and Yakdoriga, "Let's go."


Ten minutes had passed and Natsu was growing bored. Staring off into the gorge, he said sarcastically to himself, "Little fire breath." He then scoffed.

Just then, he heard little footsteps and turned to see a pink polka-dotted goblin passing by. Seeing an opportunity, Natsu inhaled strongly, then exhaled a small torrent of flames from his mouth. But the flames didn't hit the goblin, who paid no attention whatsoever. Natsu jumped off the rock and exhaled another fire breath, which proved to be a little bit big than the last one. Still, it didn't reach the goblin. Determined to intimidate the creature, Natsu took his strongest breath, concentrated, and jumped in front of the goblin.

WHOOSH! Natsu's third fire breath was strong and large enough to reach the goblin, the attack mixed with a loud, encompassing roar. Feeling the heat, the goblin let out a frightened squeak and quickly skittered away. Natsu grinned proudly as his roar echoed throughout the gorge's walls.

Suddenly, Natsu felt the ground beneath him start to shake, the pebbles on the ground jumping around. Hearing a loud roar from above, he looked upwards to see a stampede of Wyverns charging straight down into the gorge and were heading Natsu's direction.

Natsu's eyes widened in horror, and he immediately took off. The stampeding herd followed close behind, trying desperately to escape from Jackal, Ezel, and Yakdoriga, who burned, slashed, and snapped at their heels unmercifully. The Etherious finally stopped when the last Wyverns disappeared over the cliff side and stood at the edge, watching the helpless Natsu trying to escape the stampede.

Jackal smirked evilly and turned to his friends, "Time for Phase 2."


On the other side of the gorge, Igneel was taking a stroll with Erza riding on his shoulder, when they heard a low rumbling and noticed clouds of dust coming from afar.

Erza assumed, "Look, sire. The herds are on the move."

"That's odd," Igneel said, trying to get a better look.

Suddenly, Acnologia ran up to them with a panicked look on his face. He cried, "Igneel, quick! There's a stampede in the Éclair Gorge. Natsu's down there!"

"Natsu?!" Igneel asked horrified.


Back in the gorge, Natsu was trying desperately to outrun the stampeding Wyverns. The herd soon caught up with him and he had to maneuver between the large beasts as he jumped and stumbled over each. In a last ditch attempt, Natsu jumped up and clung onto a low hanging branch of a nearby tree. However, the branch was weak and bound to break as Natsu struggled to hold on.

Meanwhile, Igneel, Erza, and Acnologia flew to the gorge as fast as their wings can take them. Erza dove into the canyon, searching for Natsu, before she found him clinging to the crooked tree and flew over.

Natsu cried out, "Erza, help me!"

Erza shouted, "Your father's on the way! Hold on!"

"Hurry!" Natsu shouted frantically, feeling the branch shake more and more.

Igneel and Acnologia arrived on the opposite ledge and looked desperately for a sign of Natsu. Erza flew over to them and pointed down from the ledge, "There! There! On that tree!"

Igneel spotted his son hanging from the branch and gasped in panic. He shouted, "Hold on, Natsu!"

Just then, a Wyvern rammed the tree, nearly breaking it and causing Natsu to scream. Seeing no other alternative, Igneel jumped from the ledge and swooped down into the herd with his wings, joining the stampede.

"Oh, this is awful!" Erza screamed frantically. "This is awful! What will we do? What will we do?! WHAT WILL WE DO?!" She then got an idea, "Oh, I'll go back for help, that's what I'll do! I'll go back for—" She was cut off when Acnologia smacked her hard against the wall, where she fell unconscious.

Meanwhile, Igneel struggled to get past the stampede, each Wyvern knocking him from side-to-side and roughly to the ground. He kept his eye on Natsu and gasped when he saw a Wyvern run right into the tree, breaking it in half. A screaming Natsu was flung off the branch and into the air where he almost fell into the stampede. Luckily, Igneel stretched his wings and managed to grab Natsu with his mouth.

"Dad!" Natsu shouted in relief.

"Hold on, I'll get us out of here!" Igneel cried with his mouthful. But before he could fly off to safety, the Dragon King's back was rammed by a Wyvern, causing him to accidentally throw Natsu back into the stampede. Natsu struggled to stand up and watched fearfully as the Wyverns began closing in around him. Before a Wyvern could run over him, Igneel broke through with his enormous strength and grabbed Natsu out of the way. He scurried over to a nearby ledge and set Natsu down carefully. Unfortunately, another Wyvern struck Igneel and swept him back into the stampede.

"Dad!" Natsu yelled out.

When Igneel disappeared into the chaos, the stampede had already disappeared, leaving a large trail of smoke behind. Natsu scanned the smoke for a sign of his father, hoping that he hadn't been trampled. Suddenly, there was a large burst of smoke rising up into the air, and Igneel appeared out of it. Using his wings as fans, the Dragon King blew out all of the smoke until the surrounding area was clear.

"Dad!" Natsu sighed with relief, running over to his father. "You're okay!"

Exhausted by his ordeals, Igneel collapsed into the ground, groaning and rubbing his head, "Ouch... I'm getting too old for all this."

Acnologia silently observed the scene from the ledge, and all of a sudden, a wicked smirk appeared on his face. Why was he smiling, although Natsu and Igneel survived the rampaging Wyvern herd?

As Igneel began to recover, he sensed that something was amiss. The Wyvern stampede wasn't the only thing that's happened. "Wait... something's wrong."

He then eyed a mysterious flash of light appearing from above the gorge. This could only mean one thing...

"STAND BACK!" Igneel screamed to his son.

That tremendous surge of magical power indicated that the three Etherious united the two halves of the Phoenix Stone, and that glow symbolized the Phoenix's awakening. Like an egg about to hatch, the Phoenix Stone erupted until its size grew to large proportions. The Stone then inflated like a balloon, emerging out of its remains a huge, metallic, avian oval monstrosity: the Phoenix. Though it doesn't resemble a real firebird, its Magic Energy is off the charts, ten times significantly greater than dragons.

This was the beginning of the second rampage, even worse than the Wyverns. Acnologia and the three Etherious watched with satisfaction.

Extending its metallic arms, the Phoenix summoned a ring of magical blasts and fired them into multiple directions. The blasts destroyed the surrounding Veronica Plains, consuming them with fire. The Phoenix came about, rampaging through the plains, burning innocent animals alive, and tearing apart herds. With every surrounding grassland razed to the ground, the Phoenix leapt down to the gorge to resume its never-ending quest for destruction. During the chaos, the monster eyed the only thing that could satisfy its thirst— a Fire Dragon.

After a few seconds of recovering, Igneel finally stood up and looked up at the Phoenix in anger. He bellowed, "You filthy beast! You dare to attack my kingdom and my son?! Do so, and you will anger me, the mighty Igneel!"

With a mighty roar, Igneel charged at the Phoenix and struck it down with all his might, but no matter how many attacks he dealt, they proved to be highly ineffective because of its armor. The Phoenix responded with a few attacks of its own, such as launching fireballs, claw attacks, and lasers. Igneel used his agility and ferocity to dodge most of the attacks, although some were able to connect, their sheer power overwhelming the dragon.

In the battle's final moments, Igneel's body was badly scarred and bleeding by the Phoenix's claws, and his wings have been ripped apart. The Dragon King was left in a bad state, much to Natsu's shock and Acnologia's delight. Gathering his last bit of strength, Igneel erupted into a body of flame and, despite his grievous injuries and his torn-off wings, leapt out of the Phoenix's way. The flames carried him high to the side of a rocky wall and he managed to grab on before putting his flames out. Natsu let out a sigh of relief and began climbing up the slope to meet up with his father.

During the struggle, the Phoenix's chest split up into a hatch. It generated a magical black hole, designed to absorb a Fire Dragon and consume its life force dry so that it can disappear from existence, as per its nature. Feeling the force of the black hole, Igneel struggled to get to the top of the ledge with all of his remaining strength. As he did, he looked up to see Acnologia standing overhead.

"Acnologia!" Igneel cried, his grip slipping. "Brother, help me!"

Acnologia looked down at his brother silent for a moment, waiting for him to grab onto the edge of the cliff. Then without warning, Acnologia slammed his claws down, digging his sharp nails deep onto Igneel's hands. Igneel screamed in pain, before he looked up at Acnologia. His expression slowly turned into horror as he realized what his brother was about to do. Acnologia smiled wickedly, uttering four bone-chilling words.

"Long live the king."

And with that, Acnologia shoved Igneel off the cliff. Hearing a loud scream, Natsu turned to see his father plummeting towards the Phoenix's wide-open hatch, before he finally fell in and the hatch closed. In an instant, the Phoenix's body glowed bright red and exploded in a flash of ethereal light.

"NOOOOOOOO!" Natsu screamed, his eyes wide with horror as he watched his father consumed by the Phoenix.