Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.
Fairy Tail—The Master and the Dragon
Chapter 25
Gracie stared in disbelief at Nikolias before turning her attention to the man on the hill. "No way. That's Gorn? The same Gorn from 800 years ago?"
Gorn bowed low. "A pleasure to meet you."
"But…how? How can you be alive still?" Gracie asked.
Gorn laughed. "You don't honestly think that I would pass up the opportunity to inject the Red Eye virus into my own body, do you? It's a miracle cure for humans after all. I'm actually envious of you, Nikolias. You look no different from all those centuries ago whereas I have put on a couple of decades."
"Shut up," Nikolias hissed.
"I can't do that just yet. I mean, it's been almost 800 years since we last saw each other. I want to relish this reunion. C'mon, let's talk. There's so much I want to tell you."
"Not interested."
"But you should be. It would answer a lot of questions that I'm sure you've had for a long time."
Nikolias glared at Gorn, but the possibility for answers cleared away some of the rage. The shadows around him died down, but his gaze never left Gorn. "Fine. Talk."
Gorn chuckled. "I knew that you couldn't pass that up. So where should I begin?"
"I don't care," Nikolias stated. "Just talk before I tear your head off."
"My, so violent. And here I am going out of my way to give you valuable information. You could be a little grateful."
"I'll never be grateful to you. Not after what you've done."
Gorn sighed. "Suit yourself. I suppose I'll just start from the moment we met."
"Just start."
"Calm down, I'm starting. When all you Half-Dragons first arrived at my laboratory, I was ecstatic. I couldn't believe that all of you would actually show up for such a simple task. It was too good to be true. Eradicating you monstrosities all at once was no longer a dream. I couldn't believe my good fortunes. But then, as soon as you walked into the building, I could tell that you felt uneasy. It was as if you sensed what was about to happen. I began to panic. I thought that everything that I had worked for was over and done with before it could even begin. Fortunately, you were the only one who sensed anything. None of your friends were even a little suspicious and even though you weren't fooled at all, it was clear that you didn't want to worry that precious girl of yours, so you kept your mouth shut. I have to thank you for that.
"Once you were all inside my special room, I knew that I had done it. I had erased the greatest threat to humans. None of you could survive the Red Eye. I was so sure of that. However, I'm a scientist, so I made sure that I could monitor everything." Gorn hugged his body. "And what a rush! Watching all of the Half-Dragons writhing on the ground in pain with their skin tearing open and blood shooting out was better than imagining it! And watching the life leave all of your eyes was simply orgasmic!" Gorn began laughing. "I even heard that girl of yours whimper your name! It was so deliciously pathetic!"
Nikolias' body began to tremble in anger. "You fucking bastard."
"Now, now, I'm not finished with my story. Where was I? Ah yes. After feeling satisfied that you were all as good as dead, I decided to continue on with my plan. The first step was to inject myself with the Red Eye virus. And my God, what a feeling! The power was incredible! Like nothing I've ever felt before. Anyway, the next step of my plan was to go to the town's council and tell them that you all had perished. They were thrilled and immediately began spreading the news. I was, of course, paid very handsomely. With that money, I was able to buy and enhance weapons that could carry the Red Eye virus to hunt dragons. I called them Dragon Hunters for very obvious reasons."
"So you're the asshole who made those things," Nikolias hissed.
Gorn grinned. "But that's not even the best part! The prototype was used to kill the dragons that lived in the mountains by Shile."
Nikolias' eyes went wide and his body tensed up. "You…"
Gorn laughed. "You bet! The dragons, including your father, were all killed by me and the Red Eye."
"How? All of the dragons…no way. They're too strong for you to take on!" Nikolias roared.
"Oh? Is that so?" Gorn asked. "Tell me then, Nikolias; what do the dragons get from humans when they go through that vile Dragon Spirit ritual?"
Nikolias growled. "How the hell do you know anything about the Dragon Spirit?"
"I've done my research. I mean, I have had nearly 800 years to research it and better understand it. Now, can you answer the question?"
Nikolias kept glaring at Gorn, but didn't answer.
"I can tell by your silence that you don't want to say. Very well, I'll refresh your memory. The dragons obtain higher level emotions after going through the Dragon Spirit. So, when I approached them and told them that all of their children were dead, they were overcome with sorrow, an emotion that they weren't familiar enough with to control."
"What the hell are you saying?" Nikolias said in a threatening tone.
"I'm saying that the all-powerful dragons were sobbing putty in my hands as I slew them all with the Dragon Hunters! In two days time, I killed 26 Half-Dragons and 26 dragons! Or so I thought.
"You, my little friend, were the wrench in my perfect plan. A week had passed since I had slain the Half-Dragons and dragons and left Shile behind when some interesting news reached my ears. Do you know what that was? Apparently, a dragon completely destroyed the town of Shile a few days prior. I was positive that any and all dragons or dragon-like creatures were vanquished by my Red Eye, so I traveled all the way back to Shile to see for myself. When I got there, I saw that the entire town was lying in ruins and corpses were strewn about. All the evidence pointed to a dragon attack, but I still couldn't believe it. Since I was in town, I decided to check my old lab for evidence. And guess what I saw when I got there? 25 bodies. I was one short. I examined the bodies and immediately knew who I was missing; the Prince of the Dragons. Apparently you had been passed out for days before actually waking up. You had survived.
"My good name was in jeopardy. I was revered as a dragon killer, someone who could kill dragons with 100% accuracy, and yet you had to survive and completely erase my perfect record. I wouldn't stand for it. I had to kill you in order to save my reputation. But strangely, I couldn't find you. It was as if you had fallen off the face of the earth. I searched everywhere to enact my revenge, but I came up with no leads.
"A couple hundred uneventful years had passed by and the only thing I had done was further enhance my Red Eye virus. But it wasn't enough. I couldn't have the one failure running around. This was to be a perfect product. And then, my luck seemed to change. News was spreading that in a town called Argon, a dragon had appeared and destroyed everyone and everything. Well, I knew that there was no way for it to be a coincidence, so I ran as fast as I could to Argon. Alas, I was too late. You had already disappeared.
"So I began to think. What was the correlation between Shile and Argon? What could have pushed you over the edge during these two seemingly unrelated events that were separated by so many years? What happened to the calm Prince? The more I thought about it, the clearer things became; you must have gotten overly emotional, which automatically triggers the Red Eye. You see, the Red Eye responds to high emotional levels in order to protect its host. Now, I could guess what happened in Shile; seeing your friends and your love dead at your feet both angered and depressed you and triggered the Red Eye. But what about Argon? What was the connection? I hypothesized that your heart was broken again. But how could I prove it? I needed proof to validate my hypothesis. I'm a scientist, after all."
"You're a lunatic is what you are," Gracie shot at Gorn, since Nikolias was too frozen in anger to even think about responding.
"Again, I prefer visionary. Anyway, I asked around, seeing if anyone knew about Argon. After a couple months of searching, I came across a couple who told me that they had moved from Argon about 9 months prior because there was a monster living there. I knew instantly that they were talking about you. I asked them about you and they said that you had married the town doctor. They then informed me that this wife of yours refused to leave you despite what you were and despite the townspeople begging her to leave you. That was all the information I needed. I felt comfortable in my conclusion of the events; something bad happened to your wife and the Red Eye once again activated without your asking it to. Am I correct?"
Nikolias glared at Gorn with the same unyielding expression of anger, but didn't respond.
"Don't feel like talking, huh? You don't want to talk about…oh what was her name again…Michelle, right?"
Shadows erupted from Nikolias' body. "DON'T YOU DARE SPEAK HER NAME, YOU PIECE OF SHIT!"
"Oh, that got a reaction. I'm going to just assume I'm right, 'mkay? Now, on with my story! So, while satisfied knowing the connection between the two incidents, I still needed you dead by my hands. You were the surviving mistake, after all. But yet again, as soon as the attack was over, you disappeared again. Finding you was once again a challenge. As I searched and the years passed, I stumbled into Earth Land and learned about magic. I immediately became fascinated with it and practiced it. As soon as I was proficient with it, I began to investigate how I could incorporate magic into further developing the Red Eye. It was, of course, no issue. I quickly found a way to boost magic using the Red Eye. I kept on developing it, growing more and more excited to finally face you and destroy you. I even built a guild around it called the Bloody Moon guild. But, as you know, I couldn't find you. Until a few years ago.
"Some of my followers told me that a dragon had appeared in a random town alongside a young girl. I was skeptical that it was you, however. For one thing, you were with someone else, which didn't seem right after all that had happened to you. And another thing was that the town wasn't destroyed. In fact, I was told that there was only one casualty and no other injuries. Well that definitely seemed off to me. So, I ignored it, figuring that it couldn't possibly be you.
"And then my right hand man, Severo, informed me of a non-magic using Dragon Slayer. And the alarm went off. Only Half-Dragons could use such abilities without magic. Then I heard that this same boy transformed into a dragon. It was you. I finally found you. What was surprising to me, though, was that you had involved yourself with a guild. A loner like you surrounding yourself with others, attempting to be close to them? I couldn't help but laugh. Your emotions have always been your weakness."
"That's not true!" Mira shouted. "Nikolias' emotions don't make him weak. They make him stronger! You'd be wise not to underestimate him."
"Oh, I would never underestimate this one. He has made me look bad for centuries, so I'm aware that he's no easy kill."
"You're damn right!" Gracie shouted. "He'll totally destroy you!"
"My, you have quite the little posy, huh?" Gorn said with a laugh. "Hopefully these friends of yours don't leave you behind."
"What the hell do you mean?" Nikolias growled. "You're the one who took my friends away from me all those years ago!"
Gorn sighed. "I suppose I should tell you something that I left out earlier." He then flashed an evil grin. "Say Nikolias, have you ever wondered why you survived when none of your friends did?"
"How could you possibly know that?" Nikolias hissed.
"I told you that I researched my Red Eye virus for centuries, right? I used some of that time to figure out how you could have possibly survived. And after a few years of intensive tests and research, I discovered it. I found the answer. The reason why you survived was because you willed yourself to live."
Nikolias' eyes widened. "What?"
"You willed yourself to live. You didn't want to die. Even if it was just for a couple of seconds, that fighting spirit strengthened your body enough to endure the Red Eye until your body could eventually accept it and bond with it. Your will to live gave your body enough time to absorb the Red Eye's power before it could officially kill you. And you know what that means, right?"
Nikolias' eyes widened as his body began to tremble. "You're wrong."
"Ah, so you see where I'm going with this," Gorn laughed. "Sorry, but I'm right. The reason why your friends all died is because not once did they fight for their lives."
"You're wrong!" Nikolias roared. "My friends wouldn't have given up! They were stronger than that! They wanted to live!"
"The pain was too great. They just wanted the pain to end. They didn't care about living," Gorn said before chuckling. "They begged for death."
"I'LL FUCKING KILL YOU!" Nikolias shouted as he charged forward with speed that surprised even Gracie, shadows dancing violently around his body.
Gorn laughed as he watched Nikolias get closer and closer. "Did I say something wrong?"
Nikolias leapt into the air and cocked back his right fist. Shadows enveloped it as he descended closer to Gorn. "SHADOW DRAGON FIST!" Nikolias threw a high speed punch right where Gorn was standing. However, Gorn quickly dodged at the last second, forcing Nikolias' attack to collide with the ground. The hill that Gorn had been standing on collapsed from the force.
Gorn landed far away. "Damn, what a punch! That would have hurt."
From the dust cloud, Nikolias shot out towards Gorn, his black blades protruding from his forearms with shadows surrounding them. "SHADOW DRAGON SWORD SWIPE!" Nikolias slashed at Gorn over and over, but somehow he was able to dodge every strike.
Gorn laughed as he dodged. "My size would lead you to believe I'm slow. Fortunately for me, the Red Eye has allowed my speed to increase exponentially. Observe!" Gorn made a quick sidestep dodge and threw an incredibly fast and powerful punch at Nikolias. It collided with his head and sent him crashing into the ground several feet away.
"Nikolias!" Mira called out.
Nikolias shook his head and spat out some blood before standing back up. "I'll admit, you hit hard for a scientist."
"What a stereotype," Gorn said with a sigh. "You think just because I'm a man of science I can't fight? Well, that mistake will be the end of you."
"You can't fight," Nikolias threw back. "It's just the Red Eye virus. Without it, you're weak."
"Ouch. That hurt my feelings."
"Shut up." Nikolias bent over as shadows began flowing into his mouth. "SHADOW…" He threw his head back as he inhaled deeply. "…DRAGON ROAR!" Nikolias unleashed a massive vortex of shadows, larger than any Roar that anyone had ever seen. It hit the ground with immense force, destroying the ground where Gorn was standing. Nikolias ceased the Roar and stared intently at the dust cloud that was created. Suddenly, Nikolias felt a presence behind him. He turned his body in just enough time to see Gorn throw a heavy punch. He managed to get his arms up to block, but the force still sent him sliding across the ground.
Nikolias lowered his guard as he stared at Gorn. 'Red Eye or not, how can he move that fast? It's not natural.'
Gorn laughed. "Is that really all you've got? I was hoping for more."
Nikolias snarled at him. "Alright, you want me to step it up a bit?" He quickly collected shadows in his hand and condensed them into orbs. "My pleasure. SHADOW DRAGON PULSE!" Nikolias fired Shadow Dragon Pulse after Shadow Dragon Pulse at Gorn. As soon as he fired one, he would quickly create a new one and thrust it towards Gorn to continue the rapid fire of Pulses.
Gorn dodged Pulse after Pulse as he began running across the plain. "Your aim is off."
Nikolias growled as he continued to follow Gorn around with his Shadow Dragon Pulses, but he was destroying nothing but earth.
All of Fairy Tail watched in awe.
"I've never seen Nikolias fight like this before," Erza said.
"It's incredible," Lucy said. "He's firing those Shadow Dragon Pulses so quickly."
"Niky's strong, all right," Gracie said, "but I've never seen him fight with this much intensity before."
"I'll go help!" Natsu exclaimed.
"We should all help," Mira added.
"I agree. He may need our help," Makarov agreed.
"NO!" Nikolias bellowed, causing everyone to freeze.
"But Nikolias…," Mira began.
"I appreciate it, Mira, but this is my fight!" Nikolias shouted. "I will kill him with my own hands!"
Mira wanted to say something, but no words came out.
"Master, what do we do?" Erza asked.
"We let him do this," Makarov said. "We must have faith in our guild mate."
Everyone wanted to help, but because of Nikolias' words and Makarov's order, they stayed put and watched.
Gorn smiled. "Yes, this is between the two of us, Nikolias. No one else needs to get involved."
Nikolias ceased firing his Shadow Dragon Pulses and once again fired a Shadow Dragon Roar where Gorn was running.
Gorn stopped on a dime and leapt away before the Roar could hit him. The ground where he would have stood was pulverized. "Your power is intriguing, but it's not nearly enough." He landed gently on the ground and created a magic circle in his hand. "Here's how you kill someone. BLOOD BULLETS!" Gorn faced his palm at Nikolias as small droplets of blood shot towards Nikolias at break-neck speed.
Nikolias narrowed his eyes at the incoming projectiles and began deflecting each bullet with his blades with incredible speed.
"Not bad! Your reflexes seem sharp," Gorn said. "Let's see what happens if I make them a smidge bigger." With that, Gorn increased the size of his magic circle and fired even larger blood projectiles.
Nikolias kept on deflecting the projectiles, but it resulted in the blood bullets breaking apart and acting as shrapnel. Pieces of blood tore through Nikolias' skin. He hissed in pain but never slowed his movements.
"Impressive," Gorn said as he ceased his attack. "I thought that would be more effective than it was."
Nikolias panted as blood ran from his multiple wounds. 'What the hell should I do here? Close range is difficult because of his speed and strength and long range is too difficult to aim.' Nikolias allowed shadows to dance around his feet as he charged forward. 'I'll just stick with close range!'
Gorn chuckled. "Interesting choice. Let's see what you've got this time around."
Nikolias leapt straight at Gorn with unbelievable speed. "SHADOW DRAGON FIERCE KICK!" Nikolias directed his feet at Gorn and sent a bone-shattering kick straight at Gorn. Gorn was able to block the kick with his arms, but the force of the kick shattered the bones in his forearms. Gorn cried out in pain and Nikolias immediately saw an opening. Shadows enveloped his body as he crouched low to the ground. "SHADOW DRAGON ASSAULT!" Nikolias leapt off of the ground with such speed that he was seemingly invisible as he struck Gorn multiple times in various locations.
Gorn tried to block the attacks, but he couldn't see Nikolias at all. "Most...," he began before he was interrupted by a blow to the stomach, "…impressive. I can barely…" He was stopped once more by a sharp blow to the face. "…see you. But enough is…"
Suddenly, Nikolias became visible once more facing Gorn, his lips curled back and his foot shrouded in shadows. "SHADOW DRAGON FIERCE KICK!" Nikolias was able to land this attack squarely in the middle of Gorn's chest, cracking each and every rib. Gorn coughed out a large amount of blood as he was sent flying across the field. He crashed into the ground, leaving a large impact as he lay broken in the dirt.
Natsu jumped into the air. "He got 'em!"
"That was incredible!" Mira clapped.
"Atta boy, Niky!" Gracie cheered.
Nikolias stared at Gorn. "Lay there and die, you son of a bitch."
"An interesting thought," Gorn said as the sound of bones snapping back into place echoed across the plain. "However, it's you who will be lying dead on this battlefield." Slowly, Gorn pushed himself off of his back and pulled himself to his feet. He stared back at Nikolias with a wicked smile. "I'll give you credit, though. That was a hell of a combination of attacks. Never saw it coming."
Nikolias grit his teeth. "Damn it. I thought I had you with that last one."
"Please. You can't kill me, creature. With the Red Eye flowing through my veins, nothing you throw at me can destroy me."
"We'll just see about that," Nikolias hissed as he began gathering shadows in between his hands. "Let's see how you handle this!"
"Oh, another new attack. I'd love to see it, but I'm done playing around. Time to get serious." Gorn created a red magic circle in the palm of his hand and pointed it at the Fairy Tail members. "First, I'll erase your friends so that I can have your full attention. END GAME!" An enormous blood-red blast, much like what was fired out of the Main Cannons of the Bloody Moon guild only much larger, shot out of the magic circle towards the spectating Fairy Tail members.
Nikolias noticed this and immediately redirected his right hand towards his friends. "SHADOW WALL!" Upon command, an enormous wall of shadow shot from the ground and blocked the blast completely.
And then a sharp pain shot through Nikolias' chest. He could even see blood fly up into his sight.
He slowly looked down and was shocked to see Gorn's arm going through his chest deep enough to protrude out of his back.
Everyone in Fairy Tail was in shock.
"Niky no," Gracie whispered.
Gorn grinned as he lifted his arm, suspending Nikolias in midair. "It's like I said before; your emotions make you weak."
Nikolias grabbed at Gorn's arm with both hands, trying desperately to pull himself off, but he simply couldn't. He coughed, sending out large quantities of blood onto Gorn. "D…Damn it."
"I honestly don't see your thinking there," Gorn said while scratching his head with his free arm. "You could have easily kept channeling your attack and fired it at me while I was stationary. However, you willingly chose to refocus your power to save your friends. Why? Why do something like that?"
Nikolias vomited up more blood. "You…could never understand."
"What, bonds? Oh, I understand bonds, but from what I've seen, they only make people weaker. If people focused more on strengthening themselves rather than focusing on keeping themselves surrounded by others, they would be more powerful. They would be more successful. Their lives would be meaningful."
"Their lives," Nikolias wheezed, "would be boring. I found that out…" More blood shot out of his mouth with a violent cough. "…the hard way. I tried to distance myself, but I found myself drawn to friendships. I found myself drawn to love. It's what I wanted and it took me too long to realize it."
Gorn laughed. "Friendship and love, huh? No wonder you lost. You care too much for those around you."
"You're wrong!" Mira shouted over to Gorn. "Nikolias hasn't lost! He'll still defeat you!"
Gorn laughed wildly at Mira's remark. "You think he can still win? My, how naïve are you? Allow me to let you in on a little secret, girl. Do you wanna know how to beat the Red Eye's healing factor? It's really quite simple. You must create a severe wound and find a way to prevent it from closing. Now tell me, do you think Nikolias' wound can close while my arm stays in his chest?"
Mira was in shock and so she didn't answer.
"I take your silence as realization of the inevitable. Nikolias' heart has been ruptured by my arm and it cannot heal because my arm is preventing it from closing. He'll be dead shortly," Gorn explained.
"No," Mira whispered as tears began to pour from her eyes. "He's going to be okay. He promised that he'd always come back to me. He won't die."
"Foolish girl. Once again, proof of what I just said shows itself. Emotions make people weak. Nikolias' emotions got in his way and thus got him killed." He returned his attention to Nikolias, but doing so made his smile fade and caused him to raise an eyebrow in confusion. "What the…?"
While gripping Gorn's arm with his left hand, Nikolias's right hand was raised high into the air, his index finger shakily pointing to the sky. Everyone in Fairy Tail couldn't help but tear up at the sight. Nikolias coughed out more blood before turning his head slightly to look at them and speaking. "Don't cry for me, everyone. This was my fate. I was never supposed to survive the Red Eye in the first place. But I'm glad I did because it meant that I got to meet all of you." He looked at Natsu. "Natsu, take care of Lucy and keep training hard. I know that you can become a great Dragon Slayer who could even rival a Half-Dragon."
Natsu nodded as he tried to hold back his sorrow.
Breathing was getting difficult, but Nikolias continued and turned to Gracie. "Gracie, you saved my life ten years ago. I was set to wander the world alone forever, but you pulled me away from despair and darkness and showed me the light. You gave me faith. You helped me to believe that even cursed beings could live full lives."
Gracie's tears were falling like heavy rain. "Niky, please don't go," she begged, her voice raspy from crying.
Nikolias turned his attention to Mira. "Mira. There aren't enough words for me to express how thankful I am to you. You showed me that I could love again, that I could find happiness again. You saved me as well, Mira. I love you with all of my heart and my greatest regret in this life is not telling you sooner. God, I wish we had more time together."
Mira fell to her knees, her sorrow draining her of strength. "No, you promised. You would come back. You promised me."
Nikolias took a slow and deep inhale, blood still pouring from the corners of his mouth. "Everyone, fight on. Be strong." He gave them all a warm smile. "Live lives that would make me proud."
And with that, Nikolias' arms fell limp by his side and his head nodded forward.
Gorn sighed. "What an annoying and heartfelt speech. Pathetic." Gorn cocked back his right arm and tossed Nikolias' body across the plain. His body ripped itself off of Gorn's arm crashed into the ground. His body bounced a few times before resting lifelessly on his stomach.
Everyone stared in disbelief, tears rolling down their faces. They couldn't believe it.
Nikolias was dead.