AN: Thank you Goku275, NinjaFang1331, Wadeparker, schoolharis, and cg037.
This chapter will end (or should I say E.N.D.) the battle between Fairy Tail and Tartaros, though next chapter will handle the aftermath. I'm a bit worried that I may have rushed it, but I hope you all enjoy what I wrote.
Rufus, Meredy, and Orga — though mainly Rufus and Meredy — wracked their brains for a way to prevent the Faces from going off. Unfortunately, one of them would invariably come up with a reason why each idea would fail.
"Could you copy Crawford's magic with your Memory-Make?" Meredy asked Rufus.
The bard-like mage shook his head. "I need to see an entire spell in order to memorize it, and his magic involved all of the Face units. Besides, I would only be able to copy Crawford's remote activation of the Faces; deactivation would be impossible."
The three mages sighed, then returned to brainstorming. Not long after, Rufus came up with an idea of his own.
"Perhaps this base has a weapon that we could use to destroy the Faces," he suggested. "At the very least, we would be able to diminish the loss of magic."
This time, Meredy shot the plan down. "Even if Tartaros had a weapon like that, I doubt we could find it and figure out how to use it in less than 25 minutes."
This continued, all of the mages growing more and more aggravated with each rejected idea. When the timer ticked down to 20 minutes, one of them finally snapped.
"Damnit!" yelled Orga, frustrated by how powerless he felt. "I wish we could just send those Faces so far away that they could detonate without us losing our magic!"
Rufus and Meredy sighed, mentally agreeing with the God Slayer's word. Moments later, their eyes widened up as they both had an epiphany.
"That's it!"
"Demon… demon… demon…"
"Urgh," groaned Natsu, clutching his head. The voice had grown painfully loud, and the roots of the black plant had begun to surround the dragon slayer.
Images flashed through his head, visions of the death and destruction that the voice… no… that E.N.D. would bring about.
Fiore ravaged. Fairy Tail slaughtered. His family dead by his own hands.
"Demon! Demon! Demon!"
"Shut up…" whispered Natsu, dropping his knees as the voice of E.N.D. started to overwhelm him. The tendrils of the black plant wrapped around him as the Demon Seed encroached upon his very soul, turning it into the soul of a demon.
Natsu desperately fought against the Demon Seed, instinctively searching his entire being for anything that could resist it. Miraculously, he found something.
"DEMON! DEMON! DEMON!"
"I said… SHUT UP!" roared the dragon slayer, pushing all of his willpower into the one part of him that rejected the power of E.N.D.
And the Demon Seed burned.
Mard watched as the E.N.D.'s demon transformation reached Natsu's right eye and cheek scale. All of his skin was now a dark red, the process moments from completion.
Suddenly, Natsu's eyes shot open. A cloak of fire enveloped the dragon slayer as he silently rose to his feet. The transformation halted, and the Book of E.N.D. started to grow warm in Mard's hands.
"I'm not a demon," said Natsu resolutely. "I am a DRAGON!"
More bright-red scales began to spread from the one on his cheek, replacing his demonic skin. The dragon slayer's face grew sharper, a spike sprouting on his nose. The horns already atop his head changed shape, as did the wings on his back. Natsu's arms and legs extended, his hands and feet turning into claws. Spines grew down his back, culminating in the development of a tail. All the while, his entire body grew until it reached a massive size.
Mard's admiration turned to horror. This was not the form of Master E.N.D.! What was happening!?
The Etherious's attention was drawn away from Natsu, however, when the Book of E.N.D. burst into flames in his hands.
"Gah!" exclaimed Mard, dropping the blackening tome. Dread filled him as the Etherious stared uncomprehending at his singed hands and the charring remains of Master E.N.D.'s book.
"Flames strong enough to burn a demon," whispered Mard, in a momentary state of shock. "He's truly become a dragon."
As these words left Mard's mouth, something snapped within the demon. His guild was destroyed. His master no longer existed. Any chance of meeting and killing Master Zeref, of fulfilling his very purpose for existing, were gone.
"Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!"
He no longer had a reason to keep Natsu Dragneel alive.
"Dea Yggdrasil," uttered Mard Geer Tartaros hollowly. A swirling sphere of energy grew in front of him, which unleashed a massive wooden beam at the human-turned-dragon. Natsu was sent crashing into his ground.
The dragon gave a terrifying roar, snapping out of the pseudo-trance he had entered while transforming. He glared at the now-tiny demon.
"I'm all fired up!" bellowed Natsu, causing the ground to shake. "For my guild… for my friends and family… you're going down!"
"For my guild… for my friends and family… you're going down!"
Most of Fairy Tail (plus Meredy) gawked at the control room's monitor. Their guild master, Natsu, had just gone from transforming into a demon to transforming into a dragon. They all had so many questions.
"…I think we can leave that Etherious to Master Natsu," said Rufus, breaking the silence. "For now, we should focus on the plan to handle the Faces."
This caused most of the Fairies to remember the reason they were here in the first place. Meredy had used the control room's surveillance equipment to locate everyone, then sent Orga to collect Fairy Tail's main group for their plan. After meeting up with them and helping to finish off the Lamy battalion, Orga had brought them back to the control room. Rufus and Meredy had been watching Natsu on the monitor at that time and seeing their guild master in danger had distracted everyone from the task at hand.
"So, what exactly is this plan and why do you need us?" asked Wakaba.
"Well, we tried to devise a way to stop the Faces from detonating but couldn't come up with anything," explained Meredy. "Then, we realized that we don't need to prevent them from activating. If we use spatial magic on the Faces, it would be possible to move them to a place where their detonation wouldn't affect anybody's magic."
"Our plan is to stow all of the Faces away within a Territory space," continued Rufus. "I have learned and memorized the coordinates of every Face unit by utilizing Tartaros's equipment. With my Memory-Make, I can recreate Minerva's magic and store all of the Faces at once."
"What!?" exclaimed those listening. Their response was quite reasonable, as such a feat would require a massive amount of Magic Power. However, before anybody could criticize the plan, Macao interjected with a question.
"That's why you called us here, isn't it?" said the older fire mage. "You have a way to transfer our remaining Magic Power to Rufus, don't you?"
"Yes," replied Meredy. "My Maguilty Sense can combine the power of mages. In fact, I was hoping that your member with Telepathy — Warren, was it — could help to connect us with Ultear and the rest of your guild."
Everyone looked at Warren, making him slightly nervous. With a gulp, he responded. "S-sure! I'm on it!"
"Fire Dragon's Roar!" yelled Natsu, unleashing a torrent of flames upon Mard. The Etherious narrowly avoided the attack by creating a slightly diagonal wall of vines and thorns to divert the fire as he dodged. However, an intense heat still washed over Mard.
"Dea Yggdrasil!" shouted the demon, again firing this spell at the dragon. This time, though, Natsu countered with a spell of his own.
"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" he bellowed, effortlessly reducing the attack to ashes with a flaming punch. Again, Mard felt the temperature rise despite the distance between them.
"So this is why dragons were so feared," muttered the demon to himself. "Against an enemy this powerful, I will have to use my ultimate Curse."
The Etherious began to emit a dark mist, which surrounded Natsu.
"What is this stuff?" asked the dragon tensely. "Huh!? M-my body's tightening up!"
"It is a Curse woven to kill Zeref himself," answered Mard. A stream of dark spirits rose from the ground, engulfing Natsu. "Memento Mori! To murder an immortal, one must eliminate the very concepts of both life and death! Those who fall under this Curse are neither dead nor alive! They cease to exist entirely! You will be obliterated into nothing… FOREVER!"
"Dragon Slayer's Secret Art…" spoke Natsu from within the pillar of dark spirits. "…Crimson Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade!"
With a swing of his arm, Natsu tore apart Mard's greatest Curse, incinerating every last trace of it. Then, the dragon dove toward Mard.
"Impossible," whispered the Etherious, paralyzed with fear as he gazed upon imminent death.
"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"
With that, a storm of fire cremated the final member of Tartaros.
"Memory-Make: Territory," spoke Rufus, concentrating on the 2,999 locations he had memorized. Magic Power flowed into him from his friends (present and elsewhere on the Cube) through Meredy's Sensory Link before getting redirected into his spell.
"It's working!" communicated Millianna through Warren's Telepathy. From her vantage point on one of the Cube's sides, she could see the colorful distortion of Territory flickering into existence around the Faces.
However, rather than growing opaquer, the Territory continued to flicker. Rufus used the Telepathy to explain why. "We don't have enough Magic Power! My spell is failing!"
"Damnit!" expressed Minerva. "It's because we used up most of our strength fighting Tartaros!"
"It's not like we had any choice," replied Bisca. "If we held back, Tartaros would have wiped us out."
"I'm sorry, but it gets worse," interjected Rufus, grimacing. "Because my spell has already begun, we can forget about reclaiming any of the Magic Power we've already funneled into it. Unless we somehow get enough energy to finish the spell, it will all be wasted."
"Then it's a good thing that the cavalry has arrived!" spoke up a new voice, one that surprised everyone.
"Sting!" they all shouted. Nobody had heard from him after the destruction of the first Face, so they'd all assumed he had left the battle due to exhaustion. When they told him this, he explained what really happened.
"Lector and I realized that we'd need help taking down all of these Faces, so we went off to get some!"
"Men!" exclaimed Ichiya. "Sting and Lector brought their heroic perfume to Blue Pegasus to enlist our help! Our guild's strongest members are currently en route to the Cube aboard Christina!"
"It isn't just us," spoke up Hibiki, whose Telepathy was the reason for this conversation. "We're Telepathically connected to all the major guild; Lamia Scale, Quattro Cerberus, Mermaid Heel, and more! I sent the message that you guys need a ton of Magic Power while Sting and Master were talking to you, and everyone's willing to send you their power!"
The relief that everyone in Fairy Tail felt was palpable. Meredy extended her Sensory Link through Hibiki's Telepathy network, while Rufus braced himself for the massive influx of energy.
"Alright!" said an enthusiastic Meredy to everyone else in the network. "Send your Magic Power to Rufus… now!"
"Urgh," groaned Rufus, gritting his teeth at the energy hit him. It felt like he'd swallowed a sun whole. But the Fairy persevered, forcing the seemingly endless supply of Magic Power into his Memory-Make.
The pure-white Faces grew less and less visible as they got swallowed up by the rainbow Territory. As soon as the last of their bleached surfaces drowned in color, all 2,999 of the kaleidoscopic bubbles vanished, leaving nothing but air.
The White Inheritance was no more.
Natsu watched as all of the Faces were teleported away, giving a smile. "It looks like the others were able to get rid of those things. Heh… I better find them. Although, it's gonna be hard to do that when I'm this huge."
"I would recommend using Transformation Magic," spoke a voice that Natsu didn't recognize, but felt oddly familiar to him. The dragon's head snapped toward the voice, seeing a man with black hair who was holding a book.
"Who are you!?" demanded Natsu. "Another Etherious?"
"No," replied the man. "In fact, I believe it's time for Tartaros to end permanently."
The man then destroyed the book he was holding, reducing it to dust in moments with black-colored magic that sent a shiver down Natsu's spine.
"I never expected you would be able to burn away the power of E.N.D.," continued the man with a smile. "I must congratulate you for that. Maybe, one day, you will be able to incinerate me and my curse, too."
"I don't know what you're talking about…" said Natsu, more tense than during his fight with Mard. "…but you still haven't told me who you are."
"Ah, my apologies," said the man. "I am your older brother… the legendary Black Mage, Zeref Dragneel."
Natsu blood turned to ice. "Wha… but you're… HOW!?"
"I'm afraid that's a conversation for another time," replied Zeref, turning around. He took a few steps before pausing and looking back at his younger brother. "Although, as a reward for exceeding my expectations, I will tell you this: in one week, Tenrou Island will return. On it, you will find everyone who was there when Acnologia attacked, alive and well."
His business concluded, Zeref resumed his departure. While Natsu was processing the new information, a cloud of dust blew by, obscuring his older brother from view. When the dust settled, Zeref was gone.
Omake
"Hm?"
Acnologia sensed a unique fluctuation in magic. It was far away, but he would always recognize this specific change.
"It seems that, once again, a Dragon Seed has sprouted," he said with a smile. "In a few months, once they've gotten used to their new form… perhaps they'll make a more challenging opponent than you did, Animus."
Acnologia looked down at the corpse of the dragon he had just slayed. Around him lay the ruins of the Kingdom of Stella, littered with the remains of its Fourth Generation Dragon Slayers.
His victory had been… disappointing, to say the least. The Fourth Gens were all weak, Animus couldn't hold a candle to him even while empowered by the Dragon Cry, and all the humans fled after he swatted the fly who had been commanding the artificial Dragon Slayers (not that they could have done anything).
"Yes, I get the feeling I'll have much more fun killing them."
AN: Natsu's a dragon now! I don't know about the rest of you, but when there was the whole Dragon Seed/Demon Seed thing in canon, I was totally rooting for "Dragon." Since the earliest stages of this story, I have been planning to have Natsu fight off E.N.D. by unconsciously calling upon the power of the Dragon Seed and transforming into a dragon, then curb-stomp Mard Geer Tartaros. For reference, Natsu is essentially a slightly smaller, more brightly colored version of Igneel with different scars.
Also, I do not plan on making any future references to the Dragon Cry movie. I just needed a plausible excuse for Acnologia not showing up at the Cube. The bit about Acnologia wanting a challenging fight comes straight from the manga, though (Chapter 436).
Goodbye for now!