A/N: Hello, readers! Welcome to another chapter!

Enjoy!

CHAPTER THIRTY: THE DRAGON KING

Some time in the future...

Battle raged on around Dusk. "Everyone... Akame..." He muttered to himself, trying not to sob. More explosions were heard as Dusk turned around, seeing the palace come crashing down. Dragons flew above him as they spat out fire, causing explosions around him as another dragon aimed one at Dusk.

Dusk was suddenly wrapped in someone's arms, barely missing the attack. Black spiky hair was shown.

"Glad I made it on time."

"Akame..." Dusk mumbled.

"Bastard..." Akame cursed as a dragon landed in front of them. "Quit bein' cocky! I'm Akame Ketsu! A Dragon Slayer! Which means I'm gonna kick your sorry Dragon ass!"

In a random bar, present time...

Twilight Phoenix was currently at a bar. "I didn't quite hear you, jackass! Say it again!" Akame shouted.

"Sheesh... I said you're too noisy." Julian said, looking at him.

"You wanna put your fists where your mouth is?"

"That doesn't even make sense!"

Chii sighed. "Why does Akame always gotta start something?" She wondered.

"It's Akame... What do you expect?" Aly pointed out.

"Alright! That's enough!"

Both Akame and Julian turned, seeing Hana. "Any more, and you'll destroy another pub!" She declared.

"Hana!"

"Well, the Grand Magic Games is taking a break tomorrow, so why not let them blow off a little steam?" Atugia suggested.

"That's not the point, Atugia-chan." Hana told her.

Harumi laughed to herself, obviously drunk. "Master! Is it okay to let them go at it?!" Hana questioned.

"I'll tell 'em off. Akame!" Harumi shouted, getting Akame and Julian's attention. Harumi pointed at him. "If you're gonna do it, go all in!"

"Hey!" Hana called out, raising her hand.

"You don't gotta tell me that! I'm gonna make you cry, Jude!" Akame declared, his fist being covered in red mist.

"Not if I make you cry first, you blood breath!" Julian said, his fist getting covered in frost.

Ezekiel huffed in annoyance, getting Hana's attention. "I have a bad feeling about this..." She mumbled.

The red-haired male stood up in anger before grabbing both Akame and Julian by their hair. "Cut it out, you shits!" Ezekiel exclaimed, slamming their heads together.

"Z-Zeke!"

"Morons. We're right in the middle of the Grand Magic Games, to decide the strongest wizard guild, and the final game is right before us. We made a great comeback, from last place to this, but that only means the other guilds will come for us. You jackasses..." Ezekiel began, having a dark look. "...interrupted my eating time!"

"Huh?"

Ezekiel summoned a sword. "I'll make your death painless." He said, freaking Akame, Julian, and Hana.

"Don't run away, you bastards!"

The door to the bar opened, getting Chii, Bruno, Aly, and Jim's attention. They saw a very angered Zack.

"Zack!"

"Yeesh. I finally made it, for cryin' out loud." Zack commented.

"Where have you been?" Chii asked.

"That's right! You totally blew off our match!" Akame claimed.

"Hey, I wouldn't..." Julian trailed off.

"Look... Because of your idiocy during the match, I fell underneath the coliseum!" Zack informed.

"Is that right?" Akame asked.

"You forgot about that?" Julian questioned.

"That must've been rough." Akame claimed.

"Like you had nothin' to do with it!" Julian exclaimed.

"Forget about it. More importantly, come with me, blood sucker. There's somethin' you gotta see." Zack stated.

Akame tilted his head in confusion.

Outside in the town, the citizens were gathered around a Lacrima board that had the Grand Magic Games rankings from that day displayed.

The Grand Magic Games Daily Results.

1st Place: Twilight Phoenix.

"Twilight Phoenix is doin' 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 standing behind them.

"Sting... Rogue... What the hell was that?" Jiemma questioned as Sting and Rogue both 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 Third Generation no less. Are you listening to me?!" Jiemma shouted.

"I have no words. We were completely defeated. Akame overwhelmed us with his Dragon Force." Rogue clenched his fist. "Your strength far exceeds what I had imagined... Akame Ketsu!"

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. "Okay, okay, Master, but Sting-kun and Rogue-kun did their best." He said.

"Huh?"

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

"Lector..." Sting mumbled.

"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 said.

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

"Just be quiet and follow me." Zack 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, Lucy, and Dawn.

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

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

"I am, too." Dawn added.

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

"What is it?!" Wendy questioned.

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

"Animal... bones?" Lucy said.

"Dragon bones..." Dusk corrected.

"It's a dragon graveyard." Akame added.

"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." Zack 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.

"I can't feel Ketsu's energy, so he ain't here either." Akame stated. "Dusk?"

"Don't worry. Lunioseith isn't here." Dusk said.

"Our dragons disappeared 14 years ago. The remains at rest here are much more ancient." Zack 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, getting their attention.

"You're late."

"Sorry. I had an unexpected run-in with Jellal Fernandes." Her companion spoke. From their voice, you could tell it was a male.

"Don't tell me you told him everything."

The hooded male looked up, a glimpse of half light purple hair and half black hair was shown.

"I had to. The man is annoyingly persistent. But he may be able to help us."

The hooded woman huffed in annoyance 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 as something soon appeared. "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..." Dawn 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.

"No way..." Akame muttered under his breath.

"That's not freaky at all..." Dusk commented.

"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.

"Why does that excite you?!" Akame and Dusk shouted in unison.

"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?"

Akame flinched as Deliora crossed his mind, and crossed Gray's, as well.

"Deliora!" Akame and Gray think to themselves.

"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?!" Zack 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.

Some time in the future...

"Bastard..." Akame cursed as a dragon landed in front of them. "Quit bein' cocky! I'm Akame Ketsu! A Dragon Slayer! Which means I'm gonna kick your sorry Dragon ass!"

The dragons attacked again as Akame charged forward. "Blood Dragon's Raging Fist! Roar!" Akame began attacking the dragon. "Blood Dragon's Claw!"

"Akame! Stop... It's no use!" Dusk told him.

"Don't give up yet, Dusk! This is what our Magic was meant to do!" Akame claimed.

A dragon suddenly struck his fist at Dusk, causing an explosion. "Dusk!" Akame shouted, running towards him.

Blood appeared from Dusk's head and his stomach. "No, no, no..." Akame muttered. "Damn it!"

"Hey! Dusk!"

Dusk was not responding, nor was he even moving.

"Shit..." Akame mumbled under his breath before closing his eyes.

"I'm sorry, Dusk. Don't blame yourself for what I'm about to do, okay?"

Akame let out a sigh as he placed one final kiss on Dusk's lips. "Dragon Slayer's Secret Art!" He shouted, placing his hand around Dusk's wrist.

A dark red Magic Circle appeared underneath him as a tear fell from Akame's face.

"Blood Transfusion!"

Akame could feel his blood leaving his body and transferring over to Dusk. Once it was completed, Akame's now lifeless body collapsed to the ground, and half of Dusk's hair turned black.

A/N: So now you know when Akame used his "Blood Transfusion" spell!

Thanks for reading!

~ Kaleb.