A/N: Hello, readers! We're finally at the Eclipse Arc!

Enjoy!

CHAPTER NINETEEN: THE DRAGON KING

Outside of the town, the citizens were looking at the current rankings.

The Grand Magic Games Daily Results.
1st Place: Fairy Tail.

"Fairy Tail is doing great!"

"I bet they'll win it!"

"Nah, no way!

"Maybe Saber's lost its edge?"

"I saw it!"

"Nah. I highly doubt Sabertooth will let it end like this."

Inside Crocus Garden, the Sabertooth guild was having a meeting. Sting and Rogue were in front of Jiemma while Orga, Rufus, and Minerva were behind them. "Sting... Rogue... What the hell was that?" Jiemma questioned as Sting and Rogue stayed silent.

"Hey, you two are Dragon Slayers. You shoot your mouths off about how strong you are on a regular basis, don't you? But you were disgracefully beaten up, and by a fellow Dragon Slayer no less. Are you listening to me?!" Jiemma exclaimed.

"I have no words. We were completely defeated. Natsu overwhelmed us without using his flames cloaked in lightning." Rogue clenched his fist. "Your strength far exceeds what I had imagined... Natsu Dragneel!"

Jiemma stood up angrily, making a dent in the ground. "Are those the words of a wizard from Sabertooth, the strongest guild?! Who told you to go out there and look like a pair of pathetic fools? Who told you to fail? You sullied the name of the strongest guild!" He began exerting his magic power, causing Sting to roll on the ground and Rogue to crash into the wall.

"Sting-kun!"

"Rogue-kun!"

Both Lector and Frosch ran to their partners in worry.

"You bastards aren't fit to be members of Sabertooth!" Jiemma exclaimed, throwing Sting and Rogue to the wall again. Sting collapsed to the ground. "Wipe it out! Wipe out the crest of our guild! My guild doesn't need weaklings! It doesn't need losers!"

Lector raised his paw in the air. "Okay, okay, Master, but Sting-kun and Rogue-kun did their best." He informed.

"Huh?"

"This time he lost, but I'm proud of Sting-kun." Lector claimed.

"Lector..." Sting muttered.

"I think that people can also get stronger by experiencing failure. Sting-kun learned a lot in this battle. So I think you should..." Lector continued on.

"Who are you?" Jiemma interrupted.

Lector lifted up his vest, revealing the Sabertooth guild mark on his back. "C-Come on, Master... After all, I've got the Saber crest right here, proving... I'm a..." He trailed off as Jiemma exerted his magic power again.

"Why would the likes of a cat bear the proud crest of Sabertooth?" Jiemma asked. "Begone!"

Jiemma used his Magic to attack Lector. "Sting-kun!" Lector called out before completely vanishing.

"Lector!" Sting screamed out his name.

"Lector is... gone..." Frosch teared up as tears rolled down Sting's cheeks.

"Frosch!" Rogue exclaimed, holding Frosch close to him.

"This is an eyesore. I suppose it's what I get for letting cats bear the crest of my guild." Jiemma commented as Sting cried loudly.

"Keep it down, Sting." Jiemma ordered.

"What did you do?! What the hell did you do?!" Sting exclaimed.

"Silence! Bawling over a stupid cat!" Jiemma said.

Sting gritted his teeth in anger before striking him in the chest with a blast of holy light, shocking everyone. Jiemma collapsed to the ground with a hole in his chest. Minerva smirked at the sight. "This is good." She said to herself.

"What?! Is that true? There's no way I can believe that..." Ultear stated as Jellal was telling her, Meredy, and Siegrain what he discovered.

"While we've been laboring under a grave misconception, an irresistable fate has locked us inside. Eclipse, the portal that can change the world... And the festival of the Dragon King." Jellal said before looking towards Siegrain, who was staring at the ground as if he was in deep thought.

"By the way, Sieg. Did you find out who the second person was?" Jellal then asked.

"Yes." Siegrain replied. "I can assure you she's working with Future Lucy."

"'She'? Another woman?" Jellal questioned.

"Her name is Kaira Fernandes, mine and Mer's daughter. Or rather, will be." Siegrain replied, the news shocking Jellal, Meredy, and Ultear.

"She mentioned she decided to help Lucy because of her hatred for dragons." Siegrain continued.

He then glanced at Jellal. "Oh, yeah. And she hates your guts." Siegrain added. "Seems like you did something to piss my daughter off in the future."

"Did she explain why?" Meredy asked as Siegrain recalled what Kaira had said.

"I came to the past to not only help Lucy-san, but to get my revenge."

"I'm going to kill Jellal."

"That man is not my family!"

Siegrain sighed. "No, she didn't." He responded. "But whatever happened, really traumatized her. And she thinks Jellal is at fault for it."

"What exactly is down here, Gajeel-san?" Wendy questioned as the Dragon Slayers were walking underneath the arena.

"Just be quiet and follow me." Gajeel replied.

"Why only us?" Natsu questioned.

"Does it have something to do with Dragon Slayers?" Happy wondered out loud.

"Probably." Lily responded.

"Although we do have spectators..." Carla added, referring to Gray and Lucy.

"There's some guy named "Spector" here?" Gray asked.

"After all, I'm curious." Lucy smiled sheepishly.

"This is it." Gajeel informed, finally stopping.

"What is it?!" Wendy questioned.

"What the hell is that?!" Natsu exclaimed.

"Animal... bones?" Lucy said.

"Dragon bones..." Natsu corrected. "It's a dragon graveyard."

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

"There are so many!" Carla exclaimed.

"This place confirms the existence of dragons." Lily said.

"What's it for?" Gray asked.

"Hell if I know." Gajeel responded.

"What's goin' on here?" Natsu questioned. "All of these dragons..."

"I wonder if something happened here." Lucy said.

"Maybe Igneel is here, too..." Happy stated.

"Happy!" Carla scolded.

"Sorry!" Happy apologized.

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

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

"Milky Way..." Wendy suddenly gasped.

"What's wrong, Wendy?" Lucy asked.

"Milky Way! It's one of the Secret Dragon Slayer spells that Porlyusica-san taught me. 'Listen to the voices of the dragon souls that continue to the heavenly river.' 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." Wendy explained.

"What?" Gajeel said.

"Then..." Natsu trailed off.

"If I can hear the voices of these sleeping dragons, maybe we can find out what happened here. And learned what happened to our own dragons that disappeared." Wendy stated.

A hooded figure was sitting down, uncapping a pen with their teeth as another figure joined them.

"You're late, Kaira."

"Sorry. Had an unexpected run-in with my father's past self." Kaira told her. "I assume you ran into my good-for-nothing uncle?"

"I did. I had to tell him everything." The hooded woman glanced up. "Are you sure you're going to go through with it? Killing him, I mean?"

"I have to. If he's dead, then my father will have no reason to sacrifice his life." Kaira replied.

"Killing Jellal won't bring your father back, you know."

"Perhaps not. But it sure as hell would make me feel better." Kaira clenched her fist. "After all, I can't kill him, so killing the person that was the cause of my Dad's death is the next best thing."

The hooded woman sighed at her companion before writing something down in her journal.

"Hey, you two! This area is restricted!"

The two hooded figures took off with the second figure dropping their notebook.

"Wait!"

The two figures disappeared as the citizen picked up the dropped journal.

"What is this? Awful handwriting..." He began to read the contents. "July 7th... Eclipse Project? Festival of the Dragon King? What is this?"

Wendy finished drawing a symbol. "I was right. I thought it was an attacking form of magic, so these characters are different." She said.

"Magic runes?" Lucy questioned.

"What are you doing, Wendy?" Natsu asked.

"Weren't you listening?" Carla asked him.

"She said it's called Milky Way." Happy answered.

"That'll do it. Everyone, please back up a bit." Wendy said.

Wendy was kneeling on the ground with her arms raised. "Wandering dragon souls, I would receive your voices. Milky Way!" She chanted as the symbol glowed green and a green beam appeared.

"It's beautiful!" Lucy exclaimed.

"Stars!" Happy said.

Green orbs soon began floating around the bones as they began to shake. "The bones!" Lucy exclaimed, hiding behind Gray.

"Are you okay, Wendy?!" Gray asked in concern.

"I'm looking for the dragon souls. The wandering residual thoughts here are so ancient and tiny..." Wendy suddenly opened her eyes. "I found one!"

Wendy clasped her hands together, concentrating hardly. "Is that a soul?" Lily wondered out loud.

"Wendy!" Happy shouted.

"It looks like she's concentrating." Carla pointed out.

A dragon hand came from the vortex. "That's..." Gray trailed off.

A jade-colored dragon soon revealed itself as it roared, causing everyone to exclaim in shock and the dragon to laugh. "Seeing that shocked look on human faces never gets old." He spoke. "My name is Zirconis, but I'm also known as the Jade Dragon."

"The spell you used to summon my soul belonged to Grandeeny, the Sky Dragon, yes?" Zirconis looked around. "Where are you? Hm?" He looked down to see Wendy. "Cute! This little Dragon Slayer summoned me?"

"Hey! Get away from Wendy!" Natsu demanded.

"Forget it! I'm going to eat this girl." Zirconis said.

"Bastard!" Natsu shouted.

"I'm kidding, of course, you stupid species." Zirconis stated, putting a claw through Natsu. "Look! What can an astral body do?"

Natsu looked irritated. "This guy..." He mumbled.

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

"He's not a man. He's a dragon." Gray told her.

"A dragon's soul, anyway..." Gajeel added.

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

"You already told us that!" Gray exclaimed.

"What happened here?" Carla asked.

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

"We summoned your soul so we could learn the truth." Lily informed.

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

"I'm a cat!" Happy stated.

"Okay, then. It happened over 400 years ago." Zirconis began.

"Your absolute rules are pretty loose." Gray commented.

"Dragons were once rulers of this world. We thrived, flying through the air, racing across the land, and swimming in the sea. Everything in this world belonged to us." Zirconis continued on. "Humans were no more than our prey. But there was a foolish dragon who objected to our reign. That one spouted nonsense about building a world in which we could coexist with humans. Eventually, the dragons who agreed and those who disagreed, a war began. I fought as one who disagreed."

"You disagreed... Then..." Lucy paused.

"I have no fondness for humans. That is, unless we're talking about food." Zirconis claimed.

"You're talking to food?!" Natsu chuckled.

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

"So what happened with the war?" Carla questioned.

"It heated up. 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, which could destroy dragons." Zirconis responded.

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

"Dragon Slayers had tremendous power. 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 too 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 dragons and bathe in their blood. Presently, his skin turned to scales, his teeth to fangs... he transformed into a dragon himself." Zirconis answered.

"A human... became a dragon?" Lucy quoted as her body was shaking uncontrollably.

"That's what Dragon Slayer Magic leads to." Zirconis stated.

"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 was Acnologia. A dragon with pitch-black wings unlike any other dragon..." Zirconis continued, getting the Fairy Tail members attention.

"He was originally a human?!" Gray asked.

"Ridiculous!" Gajeel added.

"He slaughtered most of the dragons. That was 400 years ago. You people did this..." Zirconis's voice faded as he disappeared, the spell wearing off.

"Hey!" Natsu called out.

"He vanished." Gray said.

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

"Wendy!" Happy and Carla shouted in unison as Wendy stopped glowing.

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

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

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

"If you use too much Dragon Slayer Magic, you turn into a real dragon?!" Natsu shouted in excitement.

"That would be bad!" Gajeel informed.

"What should we do?!" Wendy questioned in worry.

The sound of armor was soon heard. "That's impossible." A voice said.

"Who are you?!"

"I overheard everything. Our research is in accord with historical fact. You people know about Zeref's Demons, don't you?"

"Deliora!" Gray thinks to himself.

"Acnologia is similar to that. We believe that Zeref turned a Dragon Slayer into Acnologia."

"Zeref did it?!" Happy repeated.

"In other words, destroying Zeref, the root of all evil, will be the first step in the subjugation of Acnologia."

"Who are you?!" Gajeel questioned.

"Destroy Zeref?!" Natsu added.

"You're Yukino!" Lucy exclaimed.

Carla widened her eyes upon seeing a white knight near the Eclipse Gate. "I saw it in a prophecy... A white knight... A castle being destroyed... and Lucy singing!" Carla recalled.

A/N: Another chapter is completed!

Thanks for reading!

~ Kaleb.