Disclaimer: I do not own Fairy Tail.

Fairy Tail—The Master and the Dragon

Chapter 26

It was as if the entire world had slowed to a crawl. Mira watched with tear filled eyes as Nikolias' body flew through the air, every second more painful than the last. She watched as his body hit the ground, bounced, and rolled before settling to the dirt. She felt part of her break, a feeling that so closely resembled the emotions that tore through her soul when she thought that she had lost Lisanna all those years ago. "NIKOLIAAAAAAS!" she shrieked, tears pouring down her cheeks.

Gracie kneeled down and embraced Mira, but didn't say a thing. After all, what could she say? Nikolias was dead and nothing that she could say would make it better. Nothing she could say would bring him back. Mira turned and cried into Gracie's chest, balling her shirt in her fists as she vented her sorrow. And all Gracie could do for her was rub her back, trying desperately to soothe the poor girl as she, too, cried.

Gorn examined the blood that coated his right arm and grinned. "Finally. After all this time, he's finally dead. I finally corrected my mistake."

"You bastard!" Natsu shouted. His face was covered in tears, but showed anger rather than sorrow. Flames danced around his body and enveloped his fists. "We'll make you pay for hurting our friend!"

Gorn chuckled at the angry Dragon Slayer. "Your friend? Please. Had everything gone according to plan, you never would have met that monster. This is how it was meant to be."

"Shut the fuck up!" Natsu roared. "It wasn't meant to be! Nikolias lived 'cuz he's strong! He was meant to come to Fairy Tail and find friends! He was part of our family, dammit, and you took him away from us!"

"Why are you getting so upset?" Gorn asked. "It's a waste of time."

"You're a monster," Lucy sobbed. "You killed Nikolias and you don't even care."

"Why would I care?" Gorn laughed. "This is what I've wanted for nearly 800 years!"

Erza pointed the tip of her bisento at Gorn. "You've picked a fight with Fairy Tail, Gorn. And that is a fight that you cannot win."

Gorn raised an eyebrow at the red headed mage. "Oh? You actually wish to fight me? How foolish. If Nikolias couldn't defeat me, what makes you think that any of you will stand a chance?"

"We made a mistake," Makarov said. "We should have realized that Nikolias would need help and we should have aided him. Such a mistake will haunt me for the rest of my life. We will, however, fight together as a family now to avenge Nikolias and take you down."

Gorn let out a loud laugh. "Please, you won't all be able to fight me at once. You'll be too busy trying to keep yourselves alive." Gorn then snapped his fingers and suddenly, a loud battle cry could be heard from the Bloody Moon guild. They charged forward with Severo leading the group.

Everyone took a battle stance.

"Here they come again!" Laxus cried.

"Let's end this now!" Erza shouted. "For Nikolias, we shall not fall!" The next thing Erza saw was a blur running past her. She looked to see what it was and her eyes widened. "Gracie, no!"

Gracie was charging forward, katanas in hand and tears flowing down her angry face. "You bastard! I'll kill you for what you've done! You took away the closest thing to a brother I ever had!"

"Gracie, you need to keep your cool!" Gray cried out.

Gorn smiled as he lifted his hand to signal the Bloody Moon guild to halt.. "So bold. Charging at me even though you're aware that I'm much stronger than you. I admire your spirit."

Gracie swiftly swung her katanas at Gorn, trying desperately to land a hit on him. However, Gorn was having no problem dodging each blow. "Stay still and die already!"

"Interesting thought, but there is just too much for me to do so I can't die yet," Gorn mocked.

"Shut up!" Gracie shrieked as she swung her katanas faster and faster.

Gorn sighed as he kept dodging. "Remember when I said that you were bold? I forgot to mention that it was also extremely moronic." With that, Gorn swung his fist in an upward arc at Gracie, attempting to land a powerful and swift uppercut to her jaw. She was able to react in time to dodge, but it made her lose her balance, allowing Gorn to send his other fist into her chest.

Gracie felt immense pain shoot through her body. After that hit, she was certain that several of her ribs were fractured. She coughed out blood as she fell to her knees. "Damn it."

Gorn looked down at her and raised his voice for all to hear. "Trying to take revenge for that monstrosity's death is absolutely pointless. Nothing will come of it other than a quicker death." He then picked Gracie up by the neck and raised her up to eye level. "But look at it this way; you'll all join him soon."

Gracie spat blood in Gorn's face. "Like hell we'll go down so easy."

Gorn threw Gracie towards the rest of Fairy Tail. "Let me get this straight. So you don't want to join Nikolias in death? You'd rather live with his death?"

Gracie, who had been caught by Erza and Gray, steadied herself on her feet. She ignored the immense pain that she was in as she glared at Gorn. "Niky told us to live lives that would make him proud. What kind of respect would it show Niky if we died here?" Gracie then pointed to her left shoulder where her forest green Fairy Tail insignia was. "As members of Fairy Tail, we won't lose to monsters like you!"

"You're absolutely right, Gracie," Erza said.

"We stand at each other's sides," Gray added.

"And we will make you pay," Natsu growled, his flames never dying down. "Count on it."

Gorn smiled. "Very well. Then let's see who's stronger; Fairy Tail or Bloody Moon." He then thrust his arm forward. "Let the showdown begin!"

The Bloody Moon mages gave another battle cry as they once again charged forward.

Erza turned to Gracie. "Gracie, you should take a breather. Let Wendy heal you up before you help out."

Gracie shook her head. "I'm fine. I'm gonna fight."

"There's no need to push yourself."

"We don't have time to argue with her, Erza," Gray said. "They're coming fast."

Erza sighed. "Alright, Gracie. Do what you wish."

"I'm fighting, too," Mira said as she pushed herself to her feet.

"Mira, no," Lisanna said. "You used up all of your magic energy in your last fight. Going out there is suicide. There's no point."

"Of course there's a point," Mira said. "I will use every last bit of strength I have to make them pay."

"Alright everyone, there's no time to argue," Makarov interrupted before Lisanna could respond. "The enemy is almost upon us. I trust you all to know your limitations and I trust you all to not put yourself in harm's way unnecessarily. Now," Makarov paused and pointed to the sky with his right hand, "let's win this fight in honor of Nikolias!"

Everyone cheered and ran forward to meet their enemy.


There was nothing but darkness. There was no sound. It was silence and it was uncomfortable, and yet Nikolias didn't feel like struggling against it. It was like he was floating through nothingness, but he didn't want to acknowledge it, so he accepted the void with open arms.

'I failed. I failed everyone. Chloe, Alec, Grego, Michelle, Natsu, Mira, I'm sorry. I couldn't beat him. Please forgive me.'

He had truly fought with everything that he had. He had put all of his strength into defeating Gorn for his past and current friends. And yet, he couldn't do it. Gorn was too strong—no, the Red Eye was too strong. It had enhanced Gorn's speed, strength, and magic ability so much that Nikolias just couldn't compete.

'I lost. I gave it everything that I had and I still lost. I guess it was meant to be. I was never supposed to survive this long to begin with. I guess my luck ran out and now my time is up. I should just disappear.'

"I never thought that I would hear something like that come from you."

'What was that? A voice? Whose voice is that?'

"Open your eyes."

'Open…my eyes?'

"It's as easy as that."

Nikolias slowly forced his eyes open. 'I can't see anything. It's so dark.'

"Move your arm."

'Move my…what?'

"Sweetie, lift your arm from your face."

'Sweetie?' Suddenly, it felt like life had returned to Nikolias. He took a sharp breath, like he had just woken up from a nightmare. He let his arm fall from its position over his eyes and down to the soft grass beneath him. He slowly sat up and began to look around, confused. He was in a vast meadow that was filled with blooming flowers. He couldn't see anything else except the meadow, but he could feel a gentle breeze brush his skin as the warm sun radiated down. "Where…where am I?"

"It's known as the Crossing."

Nikolias' eyes widened. It was the same voice from the darkness, but now that he felt a sense of consciousness, he recognized it. He slowly turned his head to the right to locate the voice. And what he saw nearly forced all of the air from his lungs. "Michelle?"

Michelle was standing a few feet away from him. She was wearing a white dress with a bright red ribbon; the same outfit she was wearing the day they first met. She smiled warmly at him as the breeze gently tossed her brunette hair. "Hey, sweetie. It's been a while."

Nikolias was in disbelief. "H…How?"

She tilted her head cutely to the side. "I think you know."

He gave her a weird look, but then realization hit. "That's right," he chuckled. "I died, didn't I?"

"In a way, yes."

"In a way?" he asked.

"Well, your heart stopped beating."

He gave her a deadpanned look. "It certainly sounds like I'm dead." He looked around. "Although this isn't what I imagined death to be like. And I definitely wasn't expecting to see you greet me." He slowly got to his feet and smiled over to Michelle. "God, I missed you so much."

"I missed you, too," she responded.

He sighed. "Well I didn't really want to die, but at least I can be with you now."

She giggled. "Again, never thought I'd see the day."

"What?"

"The day that you gave up."

He raised an eyebrow at her. "How am I giving up?"

"You're not fighting back."

"I did fight! I fought with everything I had for you, for my friends, everyone. I fought and I lost. I died. That's kind of game over."

"I'm not talking about Gorn," she responded. "I'm talking about death itself."

"Okay, you lost me, love."

Michelle turned to her right to gaze at the open meadow. "You know, this is what you said I always smelled like to you. It's nice."

"It's beautiful, but I'm still really confused over here."

She turned back to him with a smile. "As much as I'd love to be with you again, lying in this beautiful meadow, I can't. It's not your time yet."

"But Michelle, I died. Doesn't that mean it's my time?"

"I told you that in a way you were dead, right?"

"Yes and you followed up by saying that my heart stopped beating."

"You also heard me say that this is the Crossing, right?"

He thought for a second. "I vaguely remember that, yes."

She giggled. "Just as attentive as always."

He scratched the back of his head. "I try my best. Anyway, can you continue? I'm still lost."

She nodded. "Simply put, the Crossing is where people go if they've died, but were woken up before passing over to the other side."

"Huh?"

"Come on, sweetie, it's not that complicated."

"I would have to disagree there."

She smiled. "You know, I've been watching you all this time."

"You have?" he said with surprise.

She nodded. "I appreciated you coming to visit me. I'm sorry I couldn't respond."

"It's okay, but you're getting off topic, love."

"I'm not. I've been watching you this whole time and when you died, I couldn't sit back and let you pass on. When you were passing over to the other side, I woke you up early so that we could meet at the Crossing."

"But…why?"

She walked slowly over to him and gently took his hands. "Because you still have something to fight for out there."

"I…do?"

She nodded. "Yes, there's someone special waiting for you."

His eyes widened. "Mira," he breathed.

Another nod. "I'm so happy that you were able to move on."

"You are? Why?"

She stroked his face. "I love you with all of my heart, Nikolias and I always will. Our time together was the best time of my life. It's tragic that it was cut so short, but I'm dead, sweetie. I can't come back, so there was no point to cling to me anymore. I want you to be happy and I can tell that Mira can make you happy."

Tears were filling Nikolias' eyes. "But I…I finally found you again."

She embraced him. "And I'm glad that I got to see you again, too. But it's just not your time yet. You need to fight, sweetie. Go back and fight."

He hugged her tightly. "How? I tried and lost. I can't compete with Gorn."

"Use the Red Eye, Nikolias."

He ripped himself from her and gripped her shoulders so that he could look at her. "What? Use that curse? Why would I do that?"

She sighed. "I told you since I met you, Nikolias; stop looking at it as a curse. Treat it as a strength and fight with it."

"But it's so unstable. I could hurt someone."

"If you don't let it become unstable, then it won't be."

He gave her yet another deadpanned look. "You make it sound easy."

She giggled at his expression. "But it is easy. Because you've treated it like a curse, it has only come out on its own when you yourself were unstable. But if you can stay strong, then the Red Eye can be a positive."

"That thing? A positive?"

"Yes. Think about, sweetie. Without it, would you have met me? Without it, would you have met Gracie? Without it, would you have met everyone in Fairy Tail? Without it, would you have met Mira?"

"No, but it's because of the Red Eye that you're dead and it's because of the Red Eye that my friends were in danger."

"I'm dead because the townspeople killed me, not because of you. So please, darling, I'm begging you; stop blaming yourself for my death."

"But if I had left…"

"I would have packed up everything and gone out looking for you."

"You would have?"

"Of course. I love you. Why wouldn't I do everything in my power to stay with you?"

He smiled as he looked up into the sky. "I have to go, don't I?"

"It's not even a question. Be there for your friends. We'll see each other again," she assured.

He looked into her eyes, tears now rolling down his cheeks. "So this is goodbye again."

"It's goodbye for now."

He nodded and took a couple steps back. "I'll keep fighting, Michelle. I'll never give up."

"That's more like it, dumbass!"

Nikolias whipped around and once again found air forcibly leave his lungs. There, in a line behind him, were his friends, the dragons, and his father. "Everyone?"

"Go kick his ass, Nikolias!" Alec said while pumping his fist. "Tear him a new one for us!"

"You can do it, Nikolias," Grego said with a smile and nod.

"GO! FIGHT! WIN, NIKY!" Kate cheered.

Chloe smiled warmly at him. "We believe in you, Nikolias."

"I am so proud of you, my son," Dagor said. "You have become a fine man."

The tears were falling uncontrollably. "Everyone…thank you." He raised his fist high into the air. "Watch me closely, alright? Cuz I'm gonna fuck that asshole up! For all of you!"

They all nodded and waved.

Suddenly, a light shone high above Nikolias' head. He looked up into it and smiled. "I guess this is the way home." He looked back down towards his friends and saw Michelle standing there with everyone, all of them smiling and waving. He grinned. "Wait for me, okay? I'll be back someday." They all nodded in response and he looked back up at the light. It was bright, but he felt no need to shield his eyes. It was a comfortable light and it was inviting. He reached up towards it, trying to grab it. Tears fell from his eyes as he did so. 'Thank you everyone. I won't give up anymore. I'll be strong for all of you.' He closed his hand in the light and it suddenly felt like he was floating. 'Wait for me. I'm coming home, Mira.'


Severo laughed. "Is this all that you fairies have left? How pathetic."

The Fairy Tail wizards stood and faced down the Bloody Moon guild. They had taken out at least half of their forces, but everyone was exhausted. Severo had been attacking at random and his attacks were powerful, causing the targeted Fairy Tail members to quickly dodge and fight back while fending off multiple Bloody Moon lackeys.

"Damn it, I'm running out of magic energy," Gray panted.

"Yeah. These Bloody Moon guys aren't so tough, but that leader of theirs is a challenge," Natsu added.

"What do we do, Master?" Erza asked. "A lot of people have already depleted their energy."

Makarov grit his teeth. "We may have to retreat."

"There's no retreating here," Gorn called out from his position far away from the fighting. He felt no need to waste his time on weaklings, so he stayed back to watch. "You will all fall today on this battlefield. Turn your backs on us and I will personally decapitate you all."

"If retreat is impossible, what do we do? We can't keep going on like this," Lucy said.

Severo was still laughing. "Grand Lord, if this is the strongest guild in all of Fiore, we will have no problem accomplishing our goal!"

"Very true," Gorn said with a grin. "Nothing will stop us from taking over Fiore."

"That's not true!" Natsu bellowed. "We'll stop ya right here!"

"That's quite the positive attitude you have there, but it's useless," Gorn said. "Severo, I don't wish to waste any more time here. Finish them off now."

"Yes, Grand Lord!" Severo said as blood began to encase his fists. "My Blood Circulate Magic will destroy them all! BLOOD HAMMER!" He leapt towards the group of wizards and swung his fist downwards. They managed to leap out of harm's way, but Severo's Blood Hammer collided with the ground with enough force to break apart the earth in a large radius.

"Shit, a hit from that would kill us," Gajeel hissed.

"What do we do?" Levy asked.

"We fight back!" Natsu roared. "FIRE DRAGON IRON FIST!" Natsu leapt towards Severo, his fists surrounded by flames.

Severo grinned and raised his arms. "BLOOD BARRIER!" A thick wall of crimson blood shout out of Severo's tattoos and completely blocked Natsu's punch.

"What the hell?" Natsu said with surprise as he leapt back towards the group.

"He fights exactly like that man Critik," Erza said.

"Yes, Critik was my student and my right hand man," Severo said. "I taught him everything he knew!"

"That's not good," Laxus said. "That Critik guy was extremely tough and this guy is probably stronger if he taught him."

"We need a strategy to take him down," Freed said.

"Like what? The only reason Critik went down was because of Nikolias," Gildarts said, "and he's not really an option right now."

"Gildarts, watch your tongue," Makarov warned.

Gildarts looked at Makarov with confusion, but then understanding set in and he looked to Mira, whose eyes were once again filling with tears. "I'm sorry, Mira. That was insensitive."

Mira wiped the tears away. "It's okay," she said with a shaky voice. "It's not like it was untrue."

"Still…," Gildarts began.

"Alright guys, enough," Gracie interrupted. She was still bleeding pretty badly from Gorn's punch and she was slightly hunched over, but the fire in her eyes never died. "I don't wanna hear stuff like that right now. We need to figure out how to win. I refuse to lose to these bastards."

"You're right, Gracie," Erza said. "There's a time and place for everything. Right now we should all be focused on the enemy."

Gorn let out a loud laugh. "And what good will that do you? Honestly, you people make no sense. Stop wasting my time. Just surrender your lives to us already. It's over. You have no hope."

Suddenly, the earth began to tremble slightly. Everyone looked down in surprise.

"What the hell is happening now?" Gorn asked.

"I don't know, Grand Lord," Severo responded as he tried to keep his balance.

"Master Makarov, what is this?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know," he, too, responded.

"Is it an earthquake?" Lisanna asked.

And then shadows shot into the air.

Everyone turned to see what was going on and were shocked at what they were seeing. From Nikolias' body, multiple shadows were shooting high into the sky with so much force that the very ground shook.

Mira's eyes widened at the sight. "Nikolias…"

Gorn's eyes were wide as well. "Impossible. He can't still be alive."

And then Nikolias' arm moved. He lifted it slightly into the air and adjusted it so that his palm was facing the earth. He slammed it down, sending out an enormous tremor.

"Grand Lord, what is happening?" Severo asked.

But Gorn had no response. He wasn't listening. He was in too much shock over what he was seeing.

Nikolias lifted his other arm, following the same movements as his other arm, and slammed that palm into the ground as well, sending out a second strong tremor.

Gracie looked on with shock. "Is this a dream?"

Shadows danced intensely around Nikolias as he slowly pushed himself off of the ground and onto his knees. Suddenly, the shadows burst apart, sending out a concussive blast. Everyone braced themselves, fighting against the sheer force of the blast.

And then everything went still. The ground no longer shook. The wind had died down. It was quiet.

Everyone returned their gaze to see Nikolias slowly pushing himself off of the ground and onto his feet. As he straightened up, everyone noticed how different he looked. His shirt had been blown away by the concussive blast, so everyone could see that there were black markings wrapped all around his muscular body like snakes. Four shadows billowed from the center of his bare back like tattered strips from a black cape. As he continued to straighten up, his face was visible and everyone's eyes widened at the black markings that appeared there as well. The black markings stretched up his neck and towards his eyes only to break off underneath and to the side of each eye. The break off of the markings looked almost like black claws that were attempting to reach for his eyes; eyes that were now slowly opening. Once they did, everyone gasped.

His eyes were solid red. No pupils, no irises, no white, gold, brown, or black. It was just red.

"How?" Gorn bellowed. "How are you alive? I killed you with my own hands!"

No response. Nikolias just stared at him with red eyes, no emotion on his face.

Gorn grit his teeth. "Answer me, damn it!"

Again, Nikolias remained still, no emotion on his face and no explanation leaving his lips.

"Nikolias? Is that really you?" Mira called out.

Nikolias again said nothing, but did turn his head to face Mira.

"Mira, you should be more careful," Erza warned. "We don't know this form. Nikolias may not be in control. Gracie, what can you tell us about this form?"

"I…I've never seen it," Gracie said, disbelief written all over her pretty face.

"You've never seen it?" Natsu asked. "Never?"

"No. I don't know this form. Niky never even mentioned it."

"So we really must be on full alert," Erza said as she braced herself.

Nikolias continued to look over at Mira, his eyes glowing a fierce red, but still didn't speak a word.

"LOOK AT ME!" Gorn roared. "ANSWER MY QUESTION, NIKOLIAS! HOW ARE YOU ALIVE?"

Nikolias kept his gaze turned towards Mira. He then began to slowly scan the area around her. He raised his right arm slowly, pointing his fingers towards the mass of Fairy Tail and Bloody Moon mages and gently twitched all of his fingers.

Out of each of the shadows of the Bloody Moon mages, large, thick, black spikes shot up, impaling each of them through the heart.

Nikolias closed his fist tightly.

Out of each of the spikes shot out multiples other spikes that were much thinner and tore through the flesh of the Bloody Moon mages before protruding out of their skin. All of them had looks of pain and horror frozen on their faces as blood leaked from their wounds and mouths.

Nikolias held his fist closed for a while, allowing blood to pour out of the mages and into the dirt. Once he was satisfied, he unclenched his fist, causing the spikes to disappear. All of the Bloody Moon mages, even Master Severo, fell to the ground, dead. Nikolias then returned his gaze to Gorn.

Gorn was red with fury. "What the hell did you do? You wiped out my guild with a motion of the hand!"

No response.

"Talk, you fucking bastard!"

No response.

"Fine, you won't speak? I'll just kill you all over again!" he declared as he charged at Nikolias with the same indescribable speed. He swung his fist at Nikolias and…

…he was gone.

Gorn looked around for the missing Half-Dragon and found him standing off to his right. "What was that? Spatial Walk Magic? No, you can't use magic. How did you do that?"

No response.

Gorn was growing more and more frustrated. "Stay still and die like a good boy!" He charged forward once again, this time increasing his speed and once again swung his fist at Nikolias.

But this time, Nikolias didn't try to dodge it. Instead, he raised his left arm and caught the punch.

Gorn stared in disbelief. With such a simple motion and little effort, Nikolias had blocked and caught his punch. With one hand, no less. Gorn gave a grin. "I know that you're using the Red Eye this time around and that you're much stronger, but I still don't understand how you survived my attack. You were dead. Tell me how you came back."

No response.

Gorn's smile disappeared as he continued to push against Nikolias' hand. "And another thing; why the hell won't you speak? Where are your emotions?" He leapt away, realizing he was making no headway with that attack. "Have you realized that they are your weakness and have thrown them away? A wise decision, but what would your guild mates think?"

No response. He simple lowered his hand back towards his side.

"Has Nikolias really gotten rid of his emotions?" Lucy asked.

"I don't know," Gracie said. "I don't understand this at all."

Mira was watching everything with an expression of sorrow. "Nikolias, is that really you?"

"I have to say," Gorn began, "the more I think about it, the more I'm starting to like the fact that you aren't dead. Last time was not a challenge for me at all. This time, I'm hoping you'll actually put up a fight."

Without saying a word, Nikolias' four shadows shot from his back towards Gorn at high speed. Each end looked like a massive clawed hand that was trying to grab hold of the mad scientist.

Gorn grinned as he jumped and dodged each and every strike. "You'll have to do better than that!"

While the shadow hands were chasing Gorn, Nikolias quickly collected shadows into his two hands and, in less than a second, fired a monstrous and powerful blast of shadows towards Gorn.

Gorn, in all of his leaps and dodges, couldn't escape the intense attack. It caught him square in the torso, pushing him far off and into a small mountain. The collision caused the entire mountain to come down in a cloud of dirt.

All of Fairy Tail looked on in shock at the destruction.

"Holy crap," Gajeel muttered.

"Juvia can't believe what she just saw," Juvia said in disbelief.

"What power," Makarov said.

Gorn slowly pulled himself from the debris and got to his feet. He spat out blood before charging full speed towards Nikolias. "A clever combination again, but your efforts are wasted! You can't kill me, you fool!"

Nikolias watched with no expression as Gorn came charging towards him. When he was only a few feet away, Nikolias lifted a single hand and almost instantaneously fired yet another intense blast of shadows.

With his momentum fully carrying him towards Nikolias, Gorn had no way to stop and dodge. He took this attack full on as well and was once again sent flying back into the broken mountain.

"Incredible," Lucy breathed.

"GO NIKY!" Gracie cheered, feeling more and more like her old self.

Nikolias' head whipped towards Gracie and immediately began charging.

"What the hell? Niky?" Gracie said in confusion.

"He must have lost control," Erza said as she prepared to defend everyone.

Nikolias cocked back his right fist as it became shrouded in shadows. He shot forward and unleashed his punch…

…which connected with the incoming fist of Gorn, blocking it off completely.

Everyone turned in surprise to see that Nikolias had ran right past them and had, in fact, protected them from a sneak attack by Gorn.

Gorn chuckled. "Ah, I see. So you're not an emotionless husk. You still have your feelings and emotions and wish to protect these people. Interesting."

Nikolias said nothing and his face revealed nothing.

Gorn leapt away and landed a few yards away from Nikolias. "Still, I can't quite figure you out. There is so much mystery surrounding you. If only I didn't have to kill you. I would have loved to find out more about you. Even though you're a monstrosity, you're a scientist's dream come true."

Mira took a few steps towards Nikolias. "Nikolias…"

"Mira, don't get too close," Erza warned. She still wasn't completely convinced that Nikolias was no threat to them.

Mira wasn't listening. "It's really you. You came back to me, just like you promised." She slowly reached forward and put a hand on Nikolias' right shoulder.

"Mira, no!" Erza cried. "That's dangerous!"

Nikolias said nothing and didn't turn around, but moved his left hand up and placed it gently on Mira's hand. Everyone looked on in amazement.

"So it really is Nikolias in there and not some raging curse," Erza said with a sigh. "Still, that was dangerous, Mira."

Mira smiled. "I had a feeling that it was Nikolias. I never once felt in danger."

Gracie sniffed. "It's really Niky then."

Gorn laughed. "How pathetic. You love a monstrosity, girl? You realize he'll just get you killed if not do it himself."

"Nikolias is not a monstrosity," Mira shot back. "He's a wonderful person who would never let anything happen to me or anyone else that he cares for."

Gorn kept laughing. "That's so rich! It's just too funny! Another naïve human falling in love with a beast. When will human kind learn?"

Nikolias released Mira's hand and shot forward with incredible speed. He was on top of Gorn before he could even react. With shadow enveloped fists, Nikolias fired powerful punches at blinding speed, his fists a blur as each punch connected with Gorn's flesh. Bones cracked from the intensity of the punches, leaving Gorn immobilized and forcing him to take each blow.

"Is that the Shadow Dragon Barrage technique that he used on me?" Natsu asked.

"Looks like it," Gray said.

Natsu gulped. "Really glad he didn't use that full power on me."

Fairy Tail watched as Gorn's enormous frame continued to take a severe beating from Nikolias' punches. Finally, Nikolias swung his whole body around and unleashed a high powered kick at Gorn's face. It connected and sent him hurdling into yet another mountain side.

Gorn shakily got up, his wounds slowly beginning to heal. "Damn," he muttered. "Even with the Red Eye active, he shouldn't be able to unleash this much power. What is this?"

Nikolias watched Gorn stand back up with his red eyes. Seeing that Gorn wasn't finished, he lifted his hands to chest level before driving his fingers into his chest.

"What the hell is he doing?" Natsu asked.

Nikolias ripped his fingers from his chest and from the holes in his chest, shadow chains shot out and made their way towards Gorn.

Gorn was still recovering from the last attack and was only able to swat away a few chains before the rest drove themselves into his flesh. "What is this?" he demanded as he tugged on the chains. However, they would not budge.

Nikolias drew his arms in close to his body as he began drawing shadows into his body, an act that could be felt in the air. The very atmosphere was getting heavy as Nikolias continued to collect shadows. Once he had collected enough power, he remained motionless for a few seconds before tearing his arms from his body and sending out a massive charge of shadows through the chains.

Gorn watched as the power surged towards him. "What is this? What are you doing?"

The shadow power reached Gorn and immediately broke apart his flesh. Blood shot everywhere through the holes in his skin. Muscles were torn apart, bones were fractured, ligaments and tendons were snapped. It was more pain than Gorn had ever felt in his life. He cried in agony as his body very slowly began to heal itself. "Damn you! Damn you, creature!"

Nikolias made the chains vanish and slowly walked over to Gorn, his face showing no emotion still. The holes in his chest had healed the moment the chains disappeared. He stared at Gorn with those red eyes.

Gorn slowly began pushing himself up, fighting against the pain that shot through his body. "Don't think you've won, Nikolias. This is far from over!"

Nikolias stopped a few feet from Gorn and slowly inhaled. He then slowly released a thick black haze from his mouth and aimed it directly at Gorn.

"What is this?" Gorn said as he tried to swat away the haze.

"What is that?" Natsu asked.

Gracie grinned. "Good, Niky. He deserves it."

"Deserves what?" Lucy asked.

Gracie had a malicious grin on her face. "We're in for a treat. We're about to see what happens to a fucking bastard when exposed to Niky's Endless Nightmare."

"That's Endless Nightmare?" Gray asked.

Gracie nodded. "This should be good."

Gorn was trying to blow away the haze, but it was thick and his injuries had not yet healed, so he was failing miserably. He held his breath as long as he could, but ran out of oxygen and soon enough began inhaling the haze. And in a matter of moments, it began.


Gorn was floating through darkness. He couldn't see anything. He couldn't even see his own hand in front of his face.

"What is this?" he asked. "Where am I?"

"You're weak."

Gorn whipped his head around in all directions. "Who said that? Who's there?" he asked, but he couldn't see anyone. He couldn't see anything.

"You haven't done anything. You're a failure."

"I demand you show yourself!" he shouted into the darkness. Although, he could swear that the voice sounded familiar…

"Give up already. You can never hope to accomplish anything. You're weak."

"WHO ARE YOU?"

Out of the darkness, a shape began to form in front of Gorn. He watched closely as the shape began to take its true form. And what he saw once it took its form shocked him.

It was him.

'Gorn' smirked. "You're weak. A failure. You never accomplished anything."

Gorn grit his teeth. "What do you know?"

'Gorn' laughed. "What do I know? I'm you. I know everything. And I know that you're a failure. No one will ever acknowledge you for anything. You're doomed to die a hated man by all. Your life is meaningless."

Gorn covered his ears. "You're wrong! I'm not weak! I'm not a failure! I killed the dragons! I killed the Half-Dragons! People will acknowledge me! People will remember me!"

"Yet one still lives," 'Gorn' said. "One Half-Dragon still lives. You're a failure. You will be remembered as the man who failed to finish what he started."

"NO!" Gorn roared. "It's not true! Shut up!"

'Gorn' grinned evilly. "Admit it to yourself, Gorn. You're weak. You're a failure. You're nothing."

"If you don't shut up, I'll make you shut up!" Gorn shouted. "I'll show you that I'm not weak!" With that Gorn, ran forward and punched 'Gorn' in the face. As soon as his punch landed, though, he felt an incredible pain shoot through his own face. "What the hell?"

'Gorn' grinned and chuckled. "I told you that I am you. You're only fighting with yourself."

"SHUT UP!" Gorn roared as he charged again. This time, his punch hit with so much force that it went right through 'Gorn''s flesh and out his back. Gorn didn't even have time to grin victoriously before a sharp pain shot through his own chest. He looked down and was horrified to see a gaping hole in his chest. "Wha…What the hell!?"

'Gorn' was still grinning. "How many times must I say it? I am you. You are fighting with yourself."

Gorn stared at the wound in his chest before releasing a loud cry.

A cry of pain and a cry of fear.


Everyone watched with horror at the sight in front of them. Gorn was on the ground, screaming and convulsing uncontrollably. He had even hit himself a few times with enough force to make himself bleed.

Nikolias had inhaled the dark haze back into his body and was now standing over him, watching as his suffering continued. After a few minutes had passed, he snapped his fingers and just like that, Gorn stopped screaming and he stopped moving around. He just lay on the ground on his stomach, panting, his eyes wild with fear of what he just experienced. Nikolias slowly walked around Gorn until he was behind him. Once he was facing Gorn's back, two of his shadows came from his back and wrapped themselves around Gorn's arms, forcibly pulling him to his knees.

The large man stayed motionless, still far too affected by the Endless Nightmare to think about moving. "I'm not weak…I'm not a failure…I'm not nothing…" he muttered over and over.

Shadows danced around Nikolias' arms as his arms and hands became dragon-like, sharp talons gleaming in the light of the sun. He walked closer towards Gorn. And then he said four simple words, the first four words he had said since taking this form. "This is for them," he said in a dark and rough voice, a voice that almost seemed to echo despite being very quiet. After speaking those four words, Nikolias drove his claws deep into Gorn's back between his shoulder blades. He dug his talons into Gorn's flesh, making sure he had a good grip. With a mighty and powerful cry that reverberated throughout the plain, Nikolias pulled his arms out to the side, ripping Gorn completely in half.

Everyone was silent. They were in awe. What else could they do but stare?

Nikolias won. Nikolias came back from the dead and won.

Nikolias threw the two halves of Gorn to either side before roaring at the sky.

Everyone slowly approached Nikolias, not quite sure what would happen now that Gorn was dead and gone.

"Niky?" Gracie said cautiously. "You in there?"

Nikolias turned his head to face everyone. Suddenly, his eyes returned to his normal golden brown eyes and the shadows and black markings all disappeared. He gave a toothy grin. "Hey everyone," he said while scratching the back of his head. "Sorry about all that. Guess those goodbyes are kinda awkward now, huh?"

No one knew what to say. Nikolias was really back.

It was Mira who made the first move, though. She ran towards Nikolias and threw herself at him. He stumbled a bit from the tackle, but managed to keep his balance as he returned the embrace. She cried into his shoulder. "You came back. You really came back. I thought I had lost you."

He gently stroked her hair and lightly kissed the top of her head. "I'm so sorry, Mira. I shouldn't have scared you like that."

"No you shouldn't have," she said back with a laugh as she continued to cry tears of pure joy. "Don't ever do that again."

"Count in it," he promised.

"Nikolias, how the hell are you alive?" Gajeel asked, completely blown away by the fact that Nikolias was alive once more.

Nikolias chuckled. "It wasn't my time yet."

"That's not much of an answer," Gajeel huffed.

"I'm curious about that form, Niky," Gracie cut in. "What was that?"

"It's something my father told me about way back when and told me to never use unless the situation was truly dire," Nikolias began to explain. "It's called Shadow Overdrive. It's a form that I can take that enhances all of my abilities in terms of power and speed. It's really powerful and its capacity to store power allows me to use a whole bunch of new attacks that I couldn't use otherwise. However, its drawback is that it uses a lot of energy to keep active and if I'm not careful, it will completely drain me of energy before diving into my life force as backup fuel."

"Wow," Gracie breathed. "So why were your eyes red like that then?"

Nikolias chuckled. "That had nothing to do with Shadow Overdrive. That was actually the Red Eye."

Gracie's eyes widened. "You used the Red Eye voluntarily?"

He nodded. "It's time I stopped seeing it as a curse. I won't really use it, but I won't live in fear of it anymore."

"Good for you, Niky," Gracie said with a smile. "So what were those attacks? You didn't say much out there so it was impossible to tell."

Nikolias thought. "Let me see…the first one I used on the Bloody Moon grunts was a move called Shadow Suicide. You saw it for yourself, but in summation, I impale my enemies with their own shadows."

"Neat, but what about the one where you injured yourself?" Gracie asked.

"Ah, that was Soul Chains. I use my inner shadows as links to an enemy. Once the links are set, I can discharge large amounts of pure shadow power through the chains to cause damage."

"Crazy," Gracie said with a giggle. "So those two moves you can only use in this Shadow Overdrive form?"

Nikolias nodded. "Yup. The amount of power they call for is too great for any other forms."

Natsu scratched the back of his head. "I still don't really get Shadow Overdrive. So does it mean that you have four forms; human, partial-dragon, dragon, and Shadow Overdrive?"

Nikolias shook his head. "No. Perhaps form was the wrong terminology. Think of it more of a state. Actually, now that I think of it, it's basically the Half-Dragon version of Dragon Force."

Natsu snapped his fingers. "Oh, okay. I think I get it now."

"Alright everyone," Makarov said. "I know we're all blown away by Nikolias' remarkable and wonderful return, but I'm sure he's exhausted. We should all go home and celebrate a hard fought victory!"

Everyone cheered and started the journey back to the guild. They were all in high spirits. They also couldn't wait to get back to the guild to relax now that the war was over. Some wanted to sleep. Others wanted to eat. And everyone couldn't wait for Nikolias to get some sleep. They still had many questions for him and they were going to get their answers as soon as he rested up.

Natsu and Lucy walked hand in hand while talking excitedly with everyone else. Natsu was even on the verge of picking a fight with Gray already, but Erza was quick to stamp it out.

Gracie skipped alongside Nikolias and Mira, who had not stopped embracing. Gracie kept pestering Nikolias about dying and Nikolias was ready to put her through a wall. Mira just giggled at the spectacle, overjoyed that the love of her life had not left her. He had kept his promise to her by performing the impossible.

"Nikolias?" Mira said quietly.

He looked down at her. "Yeah?"

She looked up to meet his gaze, a deep blush on her face. "Would you…mind spending the night with me at my house? It's just that I thought I lost you and now that you're back, I want to stay by your side. That's all."

Nikolias chuckled. "You don't have to justify your wishes, Mira. And of course I will. Nothing would make me happier."

She smiled as she set her head back to rest on his arm. "I'm glad."

Gracie weaseled her way in. "Aww how cute. Planning your sleeping arrangements?"

Nikolias sighed. "Gracie I swear to God I will end you."

"Oh don't be like that Niky," Gracie pouted. "I just think it's nice that you two are back together is all."

Nikolias and Mira looked at each other and smiled warmly. "I suppose your right, Gracie," Nikolias said. "It looks like I'm home."