The beginning of the end

by gammafueled

Contains spoilers up to chapter 464. My take on how the war with Alverez could go. Story plot goes crazy and OP Natsu. Natza fic. Chapter 12 now up, starting second half of fix, more focus on relationship as war is over.

9. The Book of END

Chapter 9 The Book of END

Prologue

Fairy Tail's revival comes at a cost, the consciousness of the First master. All of Fairy Tail is now alive and well, ready to face off against Mage King August and Zeref. Levy has woken up to see the Book of END staring her in the face as Natsu begins to charge Zeref in the fight that will truly carry the fate of humanity.

Chapter 9

Natsu PoV

"Yes, I will kill you Zeref. My family and I will live, and you will die." I do a quick glance around me, seeing everyone starting to gather around me. "My family is what makes me strong Zeref. I cannot beat you alone, along the way I have had help from everyone in the guild. And I have had help from Igneel. Even though I can no longer use his power, I have enough to kill you, enough to save my friends. That is all I have ever asked for."

"NO!" Erza shouts. "I won't let you die!" I look over at her, she is on one knee. "You are the heart and soul of Fairy Tail. There must me some other way!"

"There is no other way Erza. If there was then the first would have already come up with it, and we would be using that method."

"Maybe we could just capture Zeref! We could do that right?!"

"No. Erza we can't do that."

"Why not!?"

"Because, just like Jellal, and Grimoire Heart, and Tartarus, and Avatar, someone is going to worship him, and someone is going to free him."

"We could protect him! Keep him locked away! We are immortal! We can keep watch over him forever! And we are so strong that nobody could beat us!"

"Erza, do you want your life to be defined by the person you are protecting? Living your life to keep Zeref in chains is a miserable existence. Especially when that existence never ends."

"I don't care!" Erza says as she is squeezing Natsu tightly against her body, with nothing but the bandages of her Crimson Sakura armor to cover her upper body. "You need to live. You need to live Natsu. You don't die for your friends, you live for them, remember?"

"I remember Erza. But sometimes there just isn't a way out of it. Sometimes, you must die so that your friends can live their lives to the fullest. And that is what I am doing."

"Enough! I am getting board. Either fight or get out of our way Fairy Tail. We have had enough of your talk and the Emperor wishes to finish this. We have more pressing matters to deal with." August angrily addresses the children standing before him.

"Erza, Gajeel, Wendy, Lucy, Brandish, Guildarts, Juvia, Grey, Elf-Man, Laxus, Mirajane, and Freed you must take on August head on, the rest of you support them. Brandish I think you can use your size altering powers when there are so many people distracting him. So use it on my friends. This is my last and only request from you. Please follow through."

"I will Natsu." Brandish replies.

Erza, still holding on to Natsu is crying even more now. So that a tear of two drips down her cheek. "Natsu, please don't die. I love you."

"No you don't Erza, you just don't want me to die, and that is friendship, not love."

Erza feels a small pressure on her shoulder, but doesn't turn around. Natsu feels the change in pressure and looks over Erza to see Grey with his hand on Erza. A small nod of understanding was exchanged between the two slayers and Grey then said, "Erza, we have a job to do. It is time to go, we need you focused or we won't be able to beat August."

"Grey." Natsu says as Erza begins to release him. Lucy can be heard in the background crying and hugging happy as she witnesses the scene unfold before her.

"Yes?"

"I need you to fight with me. I won't be able to beat him on my own, you know that, not without Dragon Force. Do you know what I mean?"

"Yeah, I get it Natsu." Grey pulls out a special crystal from his re-equip storage space and holds it before Natsu.

"That's it."

"I know Flame-brain." Grey hands the stone to Natsu but as Natsu takes the stone Grey doesn't release it. Natsu looks Grey in the eyes for a few seconds before Grey speaks.

"Try to survive Natsu, you stopped me from sacrificing myself once, I don't want you making the same mistake my master did. "

"I know but-"

"You mean more to the Guild than you know, especially to her." Grey nods down to Erza who has final released Natsu and has regained her composure. With that said Grey walks off and faces August. "We are your opponent August. Fairy Tail, all at once. Can you stop us!?

As Natsu is walking away all eyes focus on August. The Guild stands tall against an insurmountable opponent. The magic emanating from the two sides of the battlefield was earth shaking. August was still in his warrior form and Fairy Tail no longer had a limit on their magical power usage. The battle was going to be one for the ages as the most powerful wizards from all of history stood face to face, the temperature rising around them as Natsu closed in on Zeref marked the beginning of the end of a journey that began 400 years ago with the war of the dragons. Long extinct, the last battle of the dragon war was up to the humans. And the Dragon Slayers.

Levy remained on the ground, her magical reading glasses on at max speed as she looked for a weak link in the magic fields encoded to keep the book of END shut.

Grey threw the first punch against August, charging at him as he had done many times before against much weaker opponents. But this was the Mage King. He would not take a hit so willingly, before Grey's fist had made contact with August's face a strange flash of light enveloped the two. When the light receded what was seen was Grey, stopped completely, with his fist less than an inch from Juvia's shocked face. August was now in the center of the group where Juvia once stood and stretched out 10 shadow hands from his body, each latching on to all 10 members in the group. Only Juvia and Grey were far enough not to be touched by the shadows.

"This is the Cavern of the 10 graves, it will drain your magic power to zero and give it all to the caster. Under normal circumstances the spell would break when the last victim dies. Since none of you can die and your magic is unlimited the spell will continue until I die. And now that you cannot wear me out and these 10 are completely immobilized, you have no chance at victory."

The expression around the support group as well Juvia and Grey were that of shock and fear, no spell was known to be capable of such a feat. A tremor was felt from the East, which seemed to be Natsu as he struck the first blow against Zeref.

Fortress of Solitude! Grey yelled as the ground around August turned into ice. The ice latched itself on to August, who had used up all of his magic on creating the body link spell and was waiting for its effects to kick in. The rest of the guild members slid away off the ice and into a pile on the floor as the ice crawled its way up August's body. Once completely encased in ice, 3 domes began to rise from the icy ground. Closing around August one at a time each a foot thick and 2 feet away from each other (Think pac-man getting eaten by more, bigger, Pac-men). Grey collapses to the ground, but quickly recovers as his magic replenishes. However the 10 linked to August pass out at this moment as the spell begins to take effect.

"Everyone who is not bound, regroup!" Grey yells to the members who are awestruck at the display of magic power displayed before them.

"Grey-sama?" Juvia says. "What was that?"

"It is a spell that is similar to Iced shell except that it has the capability to be used without sacrifice it the wielder is competent. Until I got the power boost from Mavis I was not able to use this spell without sacrificing my life force. Now I could willingly sacrifice my life since I know it will grow back."

"Then why didn't Grey-sama use Iced-shell?" Juvia asks.

"Because for my life force to be replenished I must have guild mark on my body, and If I was to use Iced-shell I would no longer have a body." Grey explained.

"Oh, Juvia understands now, Grey-sama wants to keep his body for Juvia's sake. A collective giggle comes from the group just a few feet away from them as Juvia grows an enormous smile on her beautiful face.

"This won't hold him forever, the fact that our friends are being drained means that the spell is not broken and August is alive in there. Eventually he will accumulate enough magic from them to break out. We need to be ready for when he does. At this moment an earthquake is felt, knocking the group to the ground. All except for Juvia whose ankles gibe way to water, keeping her upright with Grey tightly in her arms (Her ankles act like springs, moving and returning to their original place). Grey thanks her and with a slight blush on her face, Juvia nuzzles with Grey's hair, and to Juvia's disappointment, makes Grey quickly stand up and create slight distance between them. "Natsu, what are you doing?" Grey whispers just loud enough for Juvia to hear.

Just as Levy thinks she has identified the weak link in the book's binding code, the earth shakes violently. Levy curses loudly as she has accidentally stabbed herself with her light pen. Being immortal however, there was no penetration or bleeding, just pain. She starts too look through the bindings once more, determined to open the book of END. "Natsu is counting on me." She says out loud. "I would never be able to face Erza if I failed to carry out Natsu's orders.

"OK Zeref, now it is time to die." I say as I come face to face with my brother again. "What do you say we just slug it out? I am pretty tired of all of the talk right now. "

"Can I say just one thing Natsu?" Zeref responds.

A maniacal grin crosses Natsu's face. "No." He says as he launches himself at Zeref

Fire dragon king-Igneel's claw. Demolition fist. Wing attack. Explosive clap. Clamped crush

In a matter of half a second all 5 attacks hit their mark on Zeref's body, burning away his new suit and leaving him with his badly burned wanderers cloak as his only clothing. The claw slammed him into the ground, followed by the fist which demolished the surrounding area, causing a shockwave into the Earth. The wing attack and explosive clap happened in succession and Natsu used the momentum of the wing attack to carry him into a clap. From there his hands recoiled apart from the force of the explosion. Using this he clamped his hands together above his head and brought them down, flaming, with tremendous force. The combined force of all 5 attacks sent of a shockwave that lasted for half a second going out in every direction, signaling the start of the last offensive.

Standing up Natsu looked down and saw the smiling face of Zeref. As Natsu staggered backwards and his magic container began to refill, Zeref stood up out of the hole and dusted himself off. "Impressive Natsu, but not enough." At this Natsu clamped his teeth and let out a low growl. His eyes began to slit and his scales began to appear. In Natsu's mouth there were shards of a green crystal, the one Grey had given Natsu earlier.

"I recognize those shards anywhere Natsu." Zeref said. "The Gem of Rage I believe it is called. You are supposed to suck on it for 5 seconds and you will become enraged beyond control for 5 minutes. You have decided to consume it instead. This will be devastating indeed.

Grey's PoV

I can feel it, Natsu has already used the stone. That Idiot. I don't fell the stone anymore. Usually I can feel the evil magic radiating from it. Shit did that moron eat the whole thing?! I warned him not to do that. His flames are fueled by his emotions so it does make sense, man I just wish he would stop needing so many power ups to defeat every opponent. Natsu is by far the strongest out of us when he gets really angry, but in this case that stone will enrage him to the point where he might snap. I think he is hoping that after killing Zeref that he will die and not have to live with the consequences. I guess are words weren't enough to make him change his mind.

"The ice! It's breaking!" I shout out to the rest of the guild. "I can feel it. The whole thing is going to blow! Get down!" Right as we hit the ground the fortress shattered. As I stood up I saw, in the center. a man glowing with magic power. And with one phrase, he shook me to my core.

"Memorized, and forgotten."

As I heard those words, I felt a little piece of my memory slip into oblivion, and his devious smile took its place.

This was by far my favorite chapter to write. I hope you guys liked it. I wrote this while listening to an epic music playlist so I felt like a badass. So far I have received 1 PM regarding an idea for a new story for me to write. I want to hear more from you guys on this matter. Check out my profile for the details. Also, Hi Karle! Anyway. I hope to post the next chapter soon, because I am so hyped about this one but it is midnight and I have an *am lab tomorrow. So I will post ASAP.