Another chapter? AND SO SOON? Have I gone mad? Maybe, but that's not important for the story.
Enjoy!
For anyone that saw the first dragon in the sky, there was a small thought in every one of them. This is a dream. There couldn't possibly be an actual dragon right above the city, it was preposterous. The heroes would have done something by now, wouldn't they?
Any and all notion of the dragon being a figment of the imagination vanished when titanic roars shook buildings, shattered glass and wrecked cars. People couldn't remain standing from the ensuing wave of dust and debris, nor the heat.
Then there was panic. People scrambling to and fro, shoving one another out of the way in a pitiful excuse to save themselves. Hysteria had set in as a second, larger, more demonic red dragon rose into the sky. Whereas the sheer magnitude of pressure and unyielding killing intent from Acnologia had the masses pissing themselves, fainting, screaming and even killing themselves on the spot.
Natsu instilled primal fear of reminding them how truly pitiful they were in the scale of the world.
Just as the pillar of fire had ended did the new form of Natsu appear in the sky. As his appearance was revealed, fire swallowed the world and lightning blinded all who bore witness.
There was something instinctual when facing a force of nature. A being of a different caliber that would never consider the value of a mere human.
Across from the apocalypse stood a natural disaster incarnate.
Fire encircled the red dragon's form in tendrils as lightning rained from the sky and arced from the beast's own body. Unyielding destruction fell to the city below. Buildings were leveled in an instant, charred bodies and burning cars littered the streets as a hellscape became reality.
Natsu didn't even glance down. He couldn't hear much other than his own heartbeat at that moment.
He was a large dragon. Much bigger than he ever really expected. His scales were a crimson red with a tan underbelly and matching inner wings. Across his chest down to his groin was the massive scar from closing his wound from before. Guess that kind of stuff translated over.
Black tribal marks circled his scaled arms, neck and legs. His claws, horns and the spikes along his back were obsidian black. Each of which being razor sharp and made for puncturing.
The general build was much the same of Acnologia's. Wide shoulders and chest that thinned to lithe, powerful legs. A thick tail swinging behind and wings. The similarities ended there however.
Natsu's wings were double jointed and had claws protruding from the upper joint, pointing forward. The webbing of the wings themselves ran from his shoulder blades down to his upper thighs. In comparison, Acnologia had two wings only from his shoulder blades. Natsu would be better at crashing full force, but the difference in wings gave the Dragon King much more mobility and a clear advantage. Somehow, he would have to figure out a way to get in close to prevent Acnologia from dodging all he threw at him.
That wasn't all. While both dragons did have massive tails, Acnologia's resembled that of a three pronged javelin. Natsu's ended in a standard point.
Two large horns stretched down his muscled neck from the base of his skull. His neck was thick and had several layers of dense scales that would protect the vital area.
Natsu was able to gather that his new body would be much better at close combat, with his muscle density. But that wasn't all. Natsu's only advantage in the ensuing battle would be the fact that he still had both of his arms, whereas Acnologia had lost his left arm to Igneel.
This made Natsu smirk.
Even with the destruction that his dragon form caused to the cityscape below, it didn't particularly bother him. For one, he caused much the same accidental damage to the towns and cities he was in for jobs all the time. Burning buildings wasn't anything new for him. Secondly, he couldn't bring himself to worry about the lives below. It was a strange feeling for him, especially with the smell of charred flesh hanging in the air.
He didn't dwell on it for very long, as the wind from the storm he created quickly swept the stench away.
Glancing around himself once more he took in the fire that swirled and writhed along his body. Whenever he beat his wings lightning would spark and crackle around them, the same for his tail. Flexing his arms and legs made the fire flare out in all directions, further melting the land and surrounding buildings.
It seemed with his transformation, there was another seal on his power that was lifted. Neat.
Might as well test it out!
Taking in a deep breath, he began to build up his magic. The lightning that sparked from his wings and tail quickly condensed at his mouth. The flames around his arms and legs further encasing the built up magic. Natsu wasn't satisfied yet. Igneel hadn't been able to harm Acnologia with his breath attack in the past, but he didn't have lightning behind it. So maybe with more magic, he had a chance.
Adding more fire and more lightning increased the size of the attack another two fold. This seemed right, and he let it loose. He was even kind of curious to see what would happen.
"Lightning Flame Dragon King's ROAR!" Natsu released his attack with a titanic bellow. From his mouth tore the flames of the sun. So bright and hot that if you were to even glance at them you would be blinded. If you were too close you would be instantly turned to ash, but none of the citizens would know that. Any witnesses of Natsu's arrival alone killed anyone within a three mile radius.
Acnologia's view consisted entirely of fire. His field of vision being limited to heat and pain. He furled his wings around himself in an attempt to brace against the force of the roar alone. The heat made him feel like his scales would melt right off.
Then the lightning kicked in. It made contact with his body in violent, bone shaking explosions. Each bolt felt like he had been stabbed with a superheated barb. At a glance, he noticed that where the lightning had struck had cracked and even pierced his scales. His eyes widened at this, no attack had done something like this before. But he had never fought a hatchling Dragon King before either.
Opening his maw, he began to inhale the magic that threatened to swallow him whole. Feeling slightly more full he unfurled his wings from around his body and stared below in a search for Natsu. Only, there was nothing there. It was then that Natsu's hulking form collided directly on top of Acnologia's own.
The force behind it was colossal. Natsu had flown above and dove back down all before Acnologia even started to eat the roar. He only had one chance to pull this off, and so he opened his maw and bit down on the Dragon King's neck. Hard. His body followed quickly and collided solidly with the black dragon.
Natsu's fangs had a solid hold on his opponent's neck and he made sure to have an even better hold on his enemy's wings. With Acnologia's head immobile, he pressed his torso to Acnologia's arm and pressed it into his body, keeping it trapped. That was when his clawed hand reached forward to grab a wing, digging said claws in until he pierced the dense scales. With his left arm, he reached back to gain control of the tail, wanting to avoid that spearhead at all costs. He really didn't want to find out what kind of damage that thing could cause.
Finally, with his new tail, Natsu swung it under Acnologia's body and wrapped it around as much as he could. It wasn't much, reaching only to the other wing on the black dragon's left side. But it gave him a better chance of holding on, he knew he was in for a ride.
Acnologia thrashed the whole while. His head flailed at every angle in an attempt to loosen the jaws clamped onto his neck. They hadn't pierced his scales yet, unlike the claws that tore into his wing. He quickly realized his tail was being restrained and that they were both falling. Fast.
Their bodies made contact with the ground and cratered from the combined weight of two dragons. Debris blew the fresh ash on the ground back into the air as the flames continued to roar in the area just beyond the crater.
Natsu kept a tight grip on Acnologia's body, even when he began to take a deep breath. The dragon of the apocalypse unleashed a tremendous roar. It erased everything it made contact with. As he thrashed his head around, gorges were carved into the earth from his attack. The clouds above were split in two, revealing the crisp blue sky just beyond. It was swallowed back up in an instant by Natsu's storm.
Lightning roared from above, somewhat hiding the quaking of the wrestling from the two dragons below.
The hellscape that threatened to swallow the mighty titans on the ground would have anyone watching gobsmacked at the sight. Tremendous beasts out of fantasy were using their world as a boxing ring and they were the unsuspecting audience. As burning ash fell from the sky at the same time that lightning flashed menacingly behind the dark clouds above.
That gave Natsu an idea.
The new Fire Dragon King unleashed a roar and not a second later, a bolt of lightning crashed down. It was blinding in a new sense of the word. The crater that sat in the ground below blackened instantly. Acnologia roared himself, but only in the way that every nerve ending felt as if they were set ablaze at the same time. Practically ignoring the scales invulnerability against any magic. The heat from the lightning and the flames were cooking him alive.
Acnologia felt as if he were in a furnace. He couldn't breathe. Then he realized the burning he felt in his wing and neck. They were getting hot. Boiling. Melting.
Natsu's claws and teeth were heating up to incredible temperatures. They began to glow bright red, then white hot. That was when Natsu's teeth pierced the scaled neck of Acnologia. As the dragon of the apocalypse below unrelented in his attempt to escape the hold on him, the red dragon dragged his claws through the wing in its grip. The superheated weapons glided through the thick wing like butter.
A deafening roar erupted afterwards.
The claws didn't quite cut all the way through, but the deep gouges were enough to cause what damage he could.
There was a small window at that moment. In which both dragons could hear a very distinct sound. That of glass shattering. Natsu recognized what it was first, as he had been the one to arrive through the Ravines of Time first.
His eye glanced to where the sound came from and the first thing he saw was long white hair. He couldn't have missed it if he tried. Almost immediately he realized it was Mirajane. Here. Now. He was told everyone was dead.
The lightning that hadn't ceased in the onslaught of hell from above, suddenly stopped altogether.
That was the moment that Acnologia pushed up in a single burst of explosive movement with his legs. He flapped his wings with all his might in a near desperate attempt to save his life.
Natsu's life seemed to go frame by frame for a moment. He had been pushed back on his butt and now supported his upper torso with his long arms. His jaw hung slack and his mind ran rampant.
Acnologia was a number of things. A monster, a dragon, a dragon slayer. An ancient mage from 400 years ago, an egotistical megalomaniac and even a murderer. But one could never call him a liar.
When Acnologia had been telling Natsu of what had happened to Ishgar, he had been telling the truth. How he knew, he couldn't say in all honesty. There were still a few things about this dragon stuff he needed to figure out.
Everyone he knew was dead, presumably killed by the Dragon King himself. Yet, there was Mira, falling out of the sky… right towards Acnologia.
Then the world truly knew the meaning of hell on earth.
The lightning that rained from above no longer fell sporadically and without direction. Now before any bolt struck, there was a series of smaller arcs spreading across the sky before lighting up the night with much larger, denser, more destructive lightning rained down. Whereas before each bolt may have hit a car and left a burning and charred hunk of metal behind, now the lightning would hit large buildings and only left smoking and sparking craters.
Natsu was back on his feet in an instant. He took a deep breath, forcing the fire in the area to no longer have the freedom to leave nothing but ash in its wake. All of the surrounding flames coalesced in the air to meet his form as he took flight, wrapping around his arms and legs as the flames did before.
His dragon form surged forward with more speed than he initially expected but he wasn't complaining in the slightest.
Acnologia raced to the small form of the barmaid in free fall. She was limp, unconscious. His clawed hand reached out and closed around her body. She fit into his grip easily enough, but now he had no free hand to fight off Natsu.
Speaking of the hatchling, the King turned his head and saw the charging mass of scales and fire heading straight for him. Acnologia smirked in turn, he saw an unmistakable look of murder in his opponents eyes.
"Let's just see how badly you want to return to your nest little dragon." That was all the dragon of the apocalypse said before cleaving his tail through the sky itself. Unlike with his roar that erased everything in its path, the pronged tail seemed to slice the very air in half.
In between the cut, a murky miasma of magical energy flooded outwards. Acnologia turned to make his getaway and entered easily.
Acnologia felt something push against his clawed fingers then. He bit back the urge to crush the witch at that moment. But that would ruin the hunt. A dangerous gleam appeared in the empty white eyes of his dragon form.
White hair popped out of the grip. Then a face. Mira looked to see the black dragon securely holding her in place before biting her lip. She had failed. Tears threatened to fall when she felt heat washing over her. It wasn't uncomfortable, it reminded her of home.
Mira looked over the edge of the dragon digits to see another dragon heading straight for them! It looked dangerous. Fire flared in barely controlled bursts around the dragon's arms as lightning fell in a waterfall of light behind its form. She trembled slightly as all she could see was solid black eyes meeting her blue ones.
Her heart froze as she recognized them.
The tears freely fell now.
Fairy Tail's resident Fire Dragon Slayer had grown up more in one year than she gave him credit for. Looking past the intensity in his eyes, reflected his own desperation to reach her.
She didn't think herself that lucky. She had to tell him all she could, all her luck was long gone by now.
"Natsu! Everyone needs you! We can't beat him…" She began to sob now.
"I-I don-don't know what happened to Fairy Tail." She admitted with clear guilt in her tone as she choked on her words. "We need you Natsu." Mira looked into Natsu's eyes with a desperate desire to not be here anymore. Not be in an endless battle. She was tired.
"Natsu… Lisanna is dead." Her body trembled as she tried to control the flow of tears that threatened to choke her own voice.
"Foolish witch, they are all dead." Intoned the dragon that currently held her firmly in his grip.
The take-over mage's blood ran cold, even as Natsu continued to get closer and the fire could be felt crisping her skin slightly.
"Problem witch? All out of curse power? Magic all gone? Powerless? Loss of hope? Let's see how this hatchling's own ambitions hold against true loss." Acnologia threw his head back in raucous laughter. His shoulders even shook in amusement.
Mira's blue eyes turned icy and cold, appearing less vibrant compared to a few seconds prior. She looked from Acnologia's laughing face, down to Natsu's pained and strained expression. A final glance told her that he would succeed. He really had grown into a fine mage.
A single tear fell down her cheek and Natsu stared intently into her eyes as the rift began to enclose on Mira and Acnologia.
"Save me, please." She begged.
Staring back through, Natsu had only just managed to make it as the gap in the sky shut entirely.
He was left there with his arm outstretched to her. She had been right there.
His head swam in a haze of anger and disbelief. He'd let them down when he needed them most. AGAIN!
How many times… how many times did he have to lose the ones he cared about before he could do something about it?!
First Igneel, even if he wasn't really gone but nonetheless. Then Lisanna, yet she turned out to be alive in Edolas. Yet again, during the Grand Magic Games final day when the Lucy from the future was killed by future Rogue. And today, he had lost his whole guild, Igneel had come back only to die in front of his very eyes.
He'd trained for a whole year just to be of use to his guild. To not let them down anymore, to be strong enough for them. To protect his family.
Now…now all he had left was Mira. He couldn't describe the unbridled rage that wanted nothing more than to lay waste to the world in a sea of fire and lightning. But he couldn't succumb to his baser desires. His own instincts screamed at him for some kind of action. To just do something, anything!
So he did something.
Building magic into his fist, he layered multiple layers of lightning and fire around the scaled appendage. The timing wasn't right. He breathed deeply and reared his left fist across his body to his right shoulder. Tensing every muscle he could, his breathing steadied and his pupils dilated.
A silent signal was given in which Natsu swung the dense magical energy at the space in the sky where Acnologia had taken Mira.
To Natsu's own astonishment he felt like he hit something solid. The pinky side of his fist solidly held the sky in place it seemed. He surged his condensed magic further and felt the solidity of the wall give.
Spiderweb-like cracks began to radiate from the center of Natsu's hand in the air before expanding even more so. The glass-like material that was the sky began to fall away like a broken window as the same murky magic could be seen and felt on the other side. This was his only chance.
Reaching into the ravine he grabbed onto what felt like a large rock or boulder and using that as leverage, pulled himself through the thick magic.
Moving through the substance felt like he was changing his clothes while someone watched him. Maybe that was how Lucy always felt when he showed up randomly at her place? Food for thought.
He made his way through the magical sludge and ended up back where he should have expected. The Ravines of Time in all their warped glory met his draconic gaze.
Unlike the last time he was in this space, he had magic in excess and felt free to exude said magic. Even after his clash with the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse, Natsu felt fresh out of bed. He was too wired. A single mission had been planted in his mind subconsciously by himself.
Save her at all costs.
Compared to his inner self that relentlessly pummeled him into getting ready to fight for his own life and win at all costs. Now, however, he had someone else to protect. The only difference between the rest of Fairy Tail and Mira was that he saw her. Alive. She was the only constant from his own time, besides Acnologia and that wasn't a pleasant thought.
The only question he had was, 'for how much longer?'
Acnologia never seemed like the hostage type. He had something else planned. What though, Natsu hadn't the faintest idea.
Before he even realized it, Natsu had walked quite a distance lost in thought. He… had no clue where he was. This wasn't good. Sure time worked weirdly in here but he wasn't even sure if Mira was inside the Ravines of Time at all!
He grumbled loudly under breath and puffed a small flame from his lips. That was when a thought occurred to him. Why was he still a dragon?
Maybe I just have to think about changing back? Yeah, no luck on that one. He strained as much as he could until he practically shit himself but nothing was happening. Aside from the stray lightning bolt that sparked off and blew up a random glowing crystal. These crystals also seemed to be the only decoration the Ravines of Time possessed. The sky itself was more of a haze of dense magic that shifted and glowed ominously above.
Natsu wasn't too keen on trying to fly through all of that.
Having given up on trying to return to his human form he trudged along. Something was definitely off about that one. What could possibly be holding him back from changing back? He groaned internally, but maybe not as internally as he originally thought.
An arc of lightning struck another of the large crystals that littered the path before him. He saw something very interesting happen after that. This crystal was thinner than others and shattered from the impact of the lightning. Among the fragments some were still sparking with the magic energy from the lightning.
Inspecting them, he saw glimpses of the outside world. His eyes widened as he lowered his massive skull lower to the ground to see the details better. Due to the shattering of the crystal, some of the pieces were rather small, especially for his new size. Still, with his enhanced senses he could still make out an image through the crystal.
He saw the night sky. Stars. A tree's leaves being blown in a silent gust of wind he couldn't hear through the image. He snorted some fire through his nostrils at the crystal in sheer amazement.
Imagine Natsu's own surprise when the flames didn't melt the crystal but instead went through it.
On the other side of the image a small light could be seen lighting up the base of the tree trunk before the tree burst into flames.
His eyes widened drastically. He looked around the rubble of the broken crystal, only searching for fragments that still had sparks of electricity around them. In each of them a small image could be made out. But nothing on the ones with no electricity.
Natsu had an idea forming. He looked to the dark sky above and ignored the falling sensation he felt in his gut. He smirked a little warily but bit back his concerns.
Maybe risking a small flight wouldn't be as bad as he had originally thought. Natsu took to the hazy sky within the Ravines of Time.
Love it? Hate it? Let me know in the reviews or through PM!
If you guys made it through the chaos that was the world of My Hero Academia, my sincerest thanks to all who stuck around. If you got the Whitebeard reference then you also have my thanks. Now get ready for why this story is rated M in the next chapter.
Favorite, Follow, and Review!
Until next time, keep L-I-V-I-N'
Published 22 October 2021