Chapter 38
Natsu flew towards Zeref at full speed with Happy on his back, he was ready to end this war and kill the black wizards. As they approached the valley that the army was marching down they could see the sheer size of their foe.
"it's like they're a black carpet" Natsu commented as the duo approached their enemy
As they were closing in on the army a lightning bolt struck Happy's wing and forced them to crash, "did they see us coming?" Natsu asked as he pulled himself up, "you ok Happy?"
"I'm fine I don't know what happened" the cat answered as he got up
"you really are stupid" Kalex appeared in front of Natsu
"so you shot Happy down" Natsu realised, "don't try to stop me, I'll kill Zeref"
"I'm not here to stop you" Kalex told him, "I'm here to give you a hand, you don't want those soldiers getting in the way"
"thanks" Natsu said
"sure thing, you look for that bastard by air and I'll get their army's attention" Kalex disappeared as Happy took Natsu back up
Kalex appeared a few feet in front of the Alvarez army, much to their confusion, he pulled out his long sword and stabbed it in to the ground, "as long as I'm here none of you will cross this sword" he declared, "I will give you invaders one chance to run but if you don't take it then all your heads are forfeit"
"who the hell do you think you are?" A soldier asked as a few started to advance on him
"black storm god, guild slayer, the general of death" Kalex unwrapped his katana, "I have been known as these but you might know me as the head hunter"
In one movement Kalex drew his sword and cut off the heads of several soldiers, he wasted no time and started cutting through their ranks. The soldiers pointed their spears at the lightning slayer but nothing happened.
"I can't use my magic" a soldier said just before Kalex cut his head off
The soldiers close to Kalex started to panic as they found that their magic didn't work and they could barely keep up with his speed, "of course you can't, corpses don't need magic so I took it from you" Kalex kept on slashing through them, "this sword stops anyone in a 5 meter radius from using magic of course that means me as well but I really don't need it to kill you"
"HE IS THE HEAD HUNTER" A soldier dropped his spear and started running, "NO ONE TOLD ME WE WOULD BE FACING HIM!"
"I gave you a chance to flee" Kalex grabbed the soldier and cut him down, "now all your lives belong to me"
"we shouldn't let him have all the fun" Natsu said as he circled overhead, "drop me down there Happy"
"whatever you say" Happy let go of him
"FIRE DRAGON GOD BRILLIANT FLAME!" Natsu landed with a giant explosion, "I think I just took out twice the number you have in that one blow Kalex"
"yeah it's easy if you use magic" Kalex kept slicing through the soldiers as they started to run away from the two demons attacking them
"THEY'RE DEMONS RUN MEN RUN!" they screamed as they fled, "THEY'RE MONSTERS"
"you wanna show them a real monster?" Kalex asked as he sheathed his sword
"yeah let's show them what Fairy tail can do" Natsu said with a grin, "DEMONIC FIRE DRAGON GOD…."
"DEMONIC LIGHTNING DEAGON GOD…." Kalex pulled his head back as he breathed in
"ROAR!" the two unleashed a deadly torrent of fire and lightning that combined to decimate their enemy
As the smoke cleared they could see that the ground was melted away by their attack and many soldiers were either dead or severely injured, "how many of our men were taken down?" one soldier asked as he stared, horrified, at the massive crater left behind
"10,591" a black sphere appeared in front of the two fairies and started to grow, "we still have 989,409 men left"
The black sphere soon became the black wizard himself, Zeref, "this is your fight" Kalex said before disappearing
"you came sooner than expected" Zeref said, "but I wanted to see you as soon as possible, Natsu"
"yeah but we're gonna be saying good bye reall soon as well" Natsu started unwrapping his right arm, "Zeref"
"move back a bit" Zeref ordered his army
"hey Happy fly away from here" Natsu told his best friend, "you to Kalex"
"I'll be fine right here" Kalex sat at the top of the valley, looking down on the fight, "I'm not gonna miss the fight of the century"
As Zeref's army retreated and Happy flew away,Natsu and Zeref faced off, "we ain't handin' over the first" Natsu told Zeref
"things unfolded like this because you were unable to destroy me" Zeref replied
"I can never understand what the hell you're saying" Natsu dropped his bandages, "but I really don't care about that"
Zeref was surprised, on Natsu's right forearm he had a mark in the shape of a dragon, giving off massive amounts of heat and magical power, "let's do this" Natsu charged forward and punched Zeref, sending him flying back
The black wizard soon came to a stop and he fired black energy at the fire dragon who burned it away, before Zeref could react to that Natsu appeared in front of him and punched him in the gut. The black wizard was being thrown around by Natsu as the Fairy tail wizard, Zeref managed to get a hit in, grazing Natu's right cheek and leaving a large cut, Natsu responded by punching the Black wizard away from him.
"what is that power of yours?" Zeref asked as he skidded to a halt, "it caught me off guard"
"I inherited this power from Igneel" Natsu told him
"Igneel's power?" Zeref said in surprise
"this is the last of the power Igneel left inside me" Natsu explained, "it took 10 months of training to unleash this"
"power granted from the dead" Kalex whispered to himself, "that might be enough to kill an immortal"
"this is a one time deal only, once I use this power it is gone forever" Natsu told the black mage, "this power is Igneel's undying tenacity"
Zeref stepped back as he realised what this power could do to him, "BLAZE DRAGON KING MODE!" scorching flames rose around Natsu as he unleashed his power, the earth around the two becoming fire
"this power…" Zeref looked around in amazement
"this is the end, Zeref" Natsu charged towards the black wizard
Zeref could feel a small smile tug on his lips as he watch Natsu approach, "after all this time my wish is going to be granted; thank you Igneel, Anna, Layla, Mavis and…." he stood there as Natxu drew closer, "most of all you, Natsu"
Natsu put all his power in to one punch as everything around the two was blown away by a massive explosion. The smoke started to clear as Natsu fell to his knee out of exhaustion, the smoke cleared further and Zeref could be seen standing in slightly charred clothes.
"please Igneel, lend me your strength for one last attack" Natsu stood again to face Zeref
"you've become a lot stronger, Natsu" Zeref said as Natsu gathered his strength, "I believed you would be the one to stop me but you are too late I have chosen to destroy the world and not myself but seeing you now maybe your next attack will prove that I am not immortal"
"but there is something I would like to tell you while I still live" Zeref looked straight at Natsu, "my name is Zeref Dragneel, I am you brother"
"what the hell?" Natsu couldn't believe what he was hearing
"400 years ago our parents were killed in a dragon attack, you were also killed" Zeref revealed, "I did all I could to bring you back and in the process I created the etherious"
"what kind of bullshit are you spouting?" Natsu asked
"and that's when I created you, etherious Natsu Dragneel" Zeref continued, "E.N.D"
"that would explain why Igneel didn't want the book destroyed immediately" Kalex thought as he looked on
"DON'T LISTEN TO HIM!" Happy shouted
"yeah I know buddy" Natsu said, "first I'm your brother then I'm dead and now I'm E.N.D, I've had enough of your bull"
"Igneel couldn't destroy E.N.D but he could have easily destroyed me" Natsu said
"it's not that Igneel couldn't destroy you, he couldn't bring himself to destroy, he loved you too much" Zeref answered him
"well E.N.D created Tartaros" Natsu pointed out, "I think I would remember doing that"
"Mard Geer created Tartaros, he just picked this up and made it seem like E.N.D did it all" Zeref held up the book of E.N.D before he dropped it on the ground, "but maybe in some sense you did create Tartaros"
"I'M NOT E.N.D SO CUT IT WITH YOUR BULLSH…." Natsu was stopped when Zeref shot through the book and Natsu felt a pain in his chest
"NATSU!" Happy called out worried
"you never were a good listener" Zerfe said, "you didn't even want to learn to read or write, I would talk about it with a friend of mine…. Igneel"
"Igneel you friend?" Natsu questioned as he stood up
"I met him while I was out getting herbs for my research, he was a dragon that didn't want to kill humans" Zeref told the fire dragon, "he told me about his plan to teach you dragon slayer magic, along with other dragons they would use their dragon soul magic to become a part of you, you would then be sent in to the future to eventually defeat Acnologia"
Natsu looked at the black wizard with pure hatred as he held his chest, "why go to the future you ask?" Zeref knew what he would have asked, "the dragons were weakening so they needed as much eathernano as possible to regain their strength; 5 children were chosen for this, Natsu, Gajeel, Wendy, Sting and Rouge"
Natsu really couldn't believe what he was being told but Zeref continued anyway, "I gave permission for Igneel to use you but I really didn't care about Acnologia I just needed you to become strong enough to kill me" Zeref told him, "we used the eclipse gate, a celestial spirit mage called Anna opened it for us, we didn't know where we were sending you but we only needed to follow Anna's plan and you would end up in a time where the eathernano concentration was high"
"the gate was opened on the other end by another celestial spirit mage called Layla on the date July 7 x777, that wasn't the date Igneel went missing it was the date you awoke on, you and your friends are from 400 years ago"
"I TOLD YOU TO CUT IT WITH YOUR BULLSHIT" Natsu ran towards Zeref, "I'M DONE LISTENING TO YOU!"
"you are a demon from a book of Zeref" the black wizard told him, "if I die then you die too"
"LIKE I GIVE A SHIT" Natsu put all of Igneel's power behind this punch, "I CAME ALL THIS WAY TO STOP YOU SO THAT'S WHAT I'M GONNA DO!"
"then do it" Zeref could feel tears in his eyes, "goodbye little brother"
As Natsu aimed for Zeref's face Happy swooped in and lifted Natsu away from the fight, "WHAT THE HELL" Natsu struggled against the cat's grip, "PUT ME DOWN HAPPY"
"I don't wanna….." Natsu stopped as he saw the cat crying, "I DON'T WANT YOU TO DIE NATSU"
"HAPPY LET ME GO BEFORE IGNEEL'S POWER FADES" Natsu could see the dragon mark fading as he said this, "THIS IS OUR ONE CHANCE TO DEFEAT ZEREF"
"YOU'RE MY FRIEND!" Happy was crying his eyes out now, "DON'T YOU THINK OF ME AS THE SAME?"
"of course I do you idiot" Natsu whispered as the dragon mark disappeared completely
"then we need to go back to the guild together" Happy said before he flew off with the dragon slayer
Kalex appeared next to Zeref, "you should really change your clothes" He joked as the black wizard turned to him
"will you not rejoin us?" a bespectacled manwith long white hair in a ponytail wearing a high collared jacket over a shirt and tie walked up behind the emperor
"you know I never really fought for you" Kalex said as he walked away, "plus you were always too much of a stick in the mud for me Invel"
"there is no one capable of stopping me now" Zeref told him, "you should take the kind offer"
"we'll see" Kalex said before disappearing
End of chapter 38