SailorStar9: Figured was about time I updated this. So, after getting Chapter 85 out, this is Chapter 86 of this fic. (Sighs) Guys and girls, is it too hard for you to leave a review, instead of just putting this fic up on your favorited list and story alerts?

Disclaimers: I own nothing, except for the plot bunny and my OCs.

Chapter 86: The Dragon King

"What was that, jerkass?" Natsu snapped. "Say it once more!"

"Jeez, I said you're too fricking noisy, Natsu." Gray fired back. "You're stifling me!"

"Wanna make some of it?" Natsu glared.

"You wanna make some of it?" Gray retaliated.

"Go for it, Natsu!" Happy cheered his partner on.

"As always, they've more energy than they know what to do with." Carla sighed. "Right, Wendy?"

"One's a wizard that controls fire and the other's a wizard that controls ice, so…" Wendy mused.

"Well, I suppose we can't expect them to just get along." Pantherlily shrugged. "It's even deeper than that."

"Alright, that's enough!" Lucy declared, Ulyo breaking the fight by trapping both elemental mages within a water bubble. "Anymore and you'll destroy another pub!"

"Well, the Grand Magic Games is taking a break tomorrow." Mirajane reminded. "So why not let them blow a little steam?"

"Mira, that's not the point." Lucy sighed.

"Men," Ulyo muttered as she maintained her water prisons. "Can't live with them, can't live without them. Remind me again why we put up with them?"

"Master!" Lucy protested. "Is it okay to let them go at it?"

"I'll tell them off." Makarov assured. "Natsu! If you're gonna do it, go all in! show me the fire of a Dragon Slayer!"

"Hey!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Why do I even bother?" Ulyo slapped her forehead.

"That's right." Elfman concurred. "When the wielder of Dragon Slayer magic cries! That's a man!"

"You don't gonna tell me that!" Natsu grinned. "I'm gonna make you cry, Gray!"

"Shut up!" Gray retorted. "You're the one who's gonna cry, Natsu!"

"Thank you for the food!" Happy was about to bite into his fish when he was caught in the middle of the crossfire. "That's terrible!" he exclaimed, frozen into an ice cube while his fish was charred black. "How can you treat me like this?"

"Sorry about that." Natsu apologized.

"But stay outta the way." Gray reminded.

"What the heck?" Happy chided. "I'm a Fairy Tail wizard too!"

"My danger senses are tingling…" Ulyo muttered, seeing the trembling Erza after Happy's burnt fish destroyed her cake.

"I have a bad feeling about this…" Lucy shivered, taking refuge behind Ulyo and Juvia.

"Would you stop it?" Erza demanded, slamming both duelling mages on the head. "Morons. We're in the middle of the Grand Magic Games, to decide the stronger magic guild, and the final game is right before us. We made a great comeback, from last place to this, but none of the other guilds here are pushovers. At a time like this, when we need to be focusing our energies, you jackasses… smooshed my cake! Sit up straight!" she summoned a sword. "I'll have your heads! Don't run away, you bastards!"

"Gajeel!" the Exceeds turned to the returning Iron Dragon Slayer.

"Yeesh, I finally made it, for crying out loud." Gajeel muttered.

"Where have you been?" Happy asked.

"That's right." Natsu recalled. "You blew off the match!"

"Hey, I wouldn't…" Gray chided.

"Look!" Gajeel glared at his fellow guild mate. "Because of your idiocy during the match, I fell underneath the coliseum!"

"Is that right?" Natsu blinked.

"You forgot about that?" Gray sighed.

"That must've been tough." Natsu noted.

"Like you had nothing to do with it!" Gray snapped.

"Forget about it." Gajeel sighed. "More importantly, come with me, Salamander. There's something I wanna show you."

"What exactly is down here, Gajeel?" Wendy asked, the Iron Dragon Slayer leading them below ground.

"Just be quiet and follow me." Gajeel cut her off.

"Why only us?" Natsu wondered.

"Does it have something to do with Dragon Slayers?" Happy mused.

"Probably." Pantherlily agreed.

"Although we do have spectators." Carla added.

"There's some guy named 'Spector' here?" Gray retorted, causing Ulyo to sigh and shake her head.

"After all, I'm curious." Lucy remarked.

"This is it." Gajeel stopped.

"What is this?" Wendy gaped.

"What the hell is that?" Natsu was shocked to see the giant graveyard.

"Animal bones?" Lucy echoed.

"Dragon bones…" Natsu realized. "It's a dragon graveyard."

"Are all of these dragon bones?" Happy gasped.

"There are so many!" Carla was stunned.

"This place confirms the existence of dragons." Pantherlily stated.

"What is it for?" Gray asked.

"Hell would I know." Gajeel retorted, leading the group deeper.

"What's going on here?" Natsu pressed. "All of these dragons…"

"I wonder if something happened here?" Lucy looked around.

"Maybe Igneel is here, too…" Happy stated. "Sorry!" he apologized.

"That's okay." Natsu assured. "He's not here."

"Our dragons disappeared 14 years ago." Gajeel reminded. "The remains at rest here are much more ancient."

"Milky Way…" Wendy recalled the spell. "It's one of the Secret Dragon Slayer spells that Porlyusica taught me. I thought it was a kind of attacking magic, but maybe this is what it referred to. Milky Way may be magic that lets me hear the voices of dragon souls. If I can hear the voices of these sleeping dragons, maybe we can find out what happened here. And learn what happened to our own dragons that disappeared. I was right." she nodded, putting the finishing touches of the magic circle. "I thought this was an attacking form of magic, so these characters are different. That'll do it." She finished the magic circle. "Everyone, please back up a bit. Wandering dragon souls," she chanted. "I would receive your voices. Milky Way!"

"The bones…" Lucy gaped.

"Are you okay, Wendy?" Gray looked at the spell-caster.

"I'm looking for the dragon souls." Wendy replied. "The wandering residual thoughts there are so ancient and tiny… I found one!"

"Is that a soul?" Pantherlily inquired, seeing a light orb coagulate in the air.

"That's…" Gray gaped when an image of a dragon manifested through the light orb.

"Out of all dragons, it just had to be him, didn't it?" Ulyo muttered, the others freaking out.

"Seeing that shocked look on human faces never gets old." the spirit of Zirconis laughed. "My name is Zirconis, but I'm also known as the Jade Dragon. The spell you used to summon my soul belonged to Grandeeney, the Sky Dragon, yes?" he inquired. "Where are you?" he looked around. "Cute!" he gushed, spotting Wendy. "The little Dragon Slayer summoned me?" he peered for a closer look.

"Get away from Wendy!" Natsu demanded.

"Forget it." Zirconis fired back. "I'm going to eat this girl. I'm kidding, of course." He relented. "You stupid species. Look." He let his finger pass through Natsu's body. "What can an astral body do?"

"What's up with this playful man?" Lucy muttered.

"He's not a man." Gray reminded. "He's a dragon."

"A dragon's soul, anyway." Gajeel pointed out.

"I am Zirconis, otherwise known as the Jade Dragon." Zirconis continued.

"What happened here?" Carla asked.

"There are a lot of dragon remains here." Happy added.

"We summoned your soul so we can learn the truth." Pantherlily explained.

"I have nothing to say to humans." Zirconis retorted. "Go away!"

"You will suffer me!" Ulyo trained a glare at the spirit. "Or have you forgotten my face, Jade Dragon?"

"You…" Zirconis gasped. "Mercury-sama… Okay then, it happened over 400 years ago. Under the orders of the Planetary Senshi, we dragons were once overseers of this world. We thrived, flying through the air, racing across the land and swimming in the sea as we watched this world progress; as humans developed. But, there was a foolish dragon who objected what we were doing. That one spouted nonsense about building a world in which we could coexist with humans. Eventually, between the dragons who agreed and those who disagreed, a war begun. I fought as one who disagreed. I have no fondness of humans. That is, unless, we're talking about food."

"You're talking to food." Natsu teased.

"Hey, I don't like when it talks back, either!" Zirconis retorted.

"Zirconis!" Ulyo glared. "What happened with the war?"

"It heated up." Zirconis replied. "The battles between dragon and dragon tore up vast areas of land. Eventually, the dragons who were for coexistence devised a stupid strategy. They involved humans in the war by giving them Dragon Slayer magic that could destroy dragons."

"And that's the origin of Dragon Slayers?" Happy realized.

"Dragon Slayers have tremendous power." Zirconis added. "Victory for the dragons who chose to coexist with humans was imminent. However, they had made one miscalculation. The Dragon Slayers, who had been given so much power, killed even the dragons who wished to live peacefully with them. And there was one man among the humans who bathed in the blood of too many dragons. I fear to even say that name. He continued to destroy the dragons and bathe in their blood. Presently, his skin turned to scales and his teeth to fangs; he transformed into a dragon himself."

"A human… turned into a dragon?" Lucy echoed.

"That's what Dragon Slayer magic leads to." Zirconis sighed. "The dragons resting in peace here were all murdered by that man. Though human, he became the Dragon King. The Dragon King initiated another war. That was the Festival of the Dragon King. The king's name is…"

"Acnologia, isn't it?" Ulyo finished. "A dragon with pitch-black wings, unlike any other dragons us Planetary Senshi sent to Earth."

"Acnologia?" Lucy gasped.

"He was originally human?" Gray echoed.

"Ridiculous!" Gajeel snapped.

"He slaughtered most of the dragons." Zirconis continued. "That was 400 years ago. You people did this…" he trailed off before vanishing altogether.

"You didn't tell us everything!" Gajeel shouted.

"That's it." Wendy voiced. "All the souls of this place have gone. In Eastern terms, I suppose it would be called 'entering Nirvana'."

"That was a hell of a history lesson." Gray noted.

"The scale's too big for me!" Lucy exclaimed.

"If you use too much Dragon Slayer magic, you turn into a real dragon?" Natsu echoed in shock.

"That would be bad!" Gajeel agreed.

"What should we do?" Wendy panicked.

"After all this, and they're worried about that?" Ulyo exclaimed.

"That's impossible." Arcadios voiced, standing on a ledge. "I overheard everything. Our research is in accord with historical fact. You people know about Zeref's Demon, don't you? Acnologia is similar to that. We believe that Zeref turned a Dragon Slayer into Acnologia. In other words, destroying Zeref, the root of all evil, will be the first step in the subjugation of Acnologia."

"You're Yukino!" Lucy recognized her fellow Celestial Mage.

SailorStar9: Now that's done, read and review.