Chapter 2

Erza jumped across the gap between the rooftops, hopping from building to building. The fresh air touched her face and hair, which trailed open behind her. She suddenly quickly swung her sword and deflected a throwing knife that was headed at her. Or… not? It didn't seem like it was aimed at her. If she hadn't deflected it, it would have gone sharp past her head.

She stopped for a moment and turned her head around, to look at Natsu jump over a gap between the rooftops and stand beside her. He watched her in confusion and concern.

Erza furrowed her brows. They weren't aiming for Natsu, were they? What did they want from him? She looked back up front, and the two figures that she was chasing after had already vanished in the horizon.

That morning, reports had come that two intruders had broken into the citadel of guilds and had stolen important documents that carried the plans for the guild alliance to defeat Zeref's assault on Fiorre. The masters had come to Erza to send her after them and recover or destroy the documents that contained that sensitive information. Erza had left on a moment's notice on her tracking and retrieval mission. She did come face to face with the thieves. They didn't look like average humans. One was a man and the other was a woman. Erza could feel the extensive dark energy that they had exuded. If she had to guess, they were Zeref's demons created for the express purpose to infiltrate and steal those documents.

Natsu walked closer to Erza, and grabbed her shoulders. He gently pushed her down to sit on the ground. Maybe, he had seen the bloodstains from a wound over her skirt. She had received it while fighting the thieves off.

Natsu had come along with her on her mission. She hadn't asked him, and neither did the guild allow him to go on combat missions alone or with companions. His ailing mental health after Igneel's passing and the ordeal with the candles at the temple was liable to cause him panic attacks in the field under stress, as Polyurischia had mentioned. He was to stay cooked up in the guild hall under observation and not be sent on missions that required combat and fighting, lest his mental state deteriorate further. He had defied that order and stuck along with Erza on this one nevertheless. She felt glad that he did so. Not because he would be any help in fighting the enemies–which he was in a big way. She felt glad just because he had tagged along anyways. His presence made her feel elated.

Natsu crouched on his knees before her. He carefully lifted the clothing that had stuck to the wound, causing Erza to wince. He examined the deep gash over her left thigh. He found himself filled with rage and anger. How dare they attack Erza?

"This looks poisoned. You don't plan on still going after them, do you?"

Erza grabbed his hand and tried to lift herself up. "I do, Natsu. Help me up."

Natsu didn't help her up. She lifted her head and looked at his determined and angry face. He just stared at her, thinking deep and hard.

"Natsu…?"

Natsu stood up from his crouched position. Erza sighed. She knew what he was going to do. He was going after them by himself. Now, it wasn't only just about them stealing important documents. Now, it was about hurting her and poisoning her. Erza knew that now should Natsu get a chance at fighting them, he would tear them limb from limb. She knew about his care and protectiveness for her. She knew about Natsu's outraged form, something that even caused her to shiver in slight fear even if she knew Natsu would never hurt her. From the grim and painful fate that awaited those document thieves, only she could save them. And she intended to. She would never let Natsu take up her mission and put himself in harm's way for her. She didn't want to expose Natsu to combat just yet, in his fragile mental state.

She grabbed Natsu's clenched fist. Natsu looked down at her. "I know what you're planning, Natsu. You want to go after them and fight them yourself. But… Please, don't. I can't have you risk your mental stability for me. This is my mission. I don't want you risking yourself for this. They are very strong."

Natsu took off his scarf and unfolded it. He slowly crouched and tightened the scarf gently and firmly around her wound over her thigh. "This scarf has Igneel's scales in it. It will stop the bleeding and work against the poison. It will help you until I can take you to Polyurischia."

Erza looked at the scarf. She felt surprised and elated at the fact that Natsu had given her that. Ever since Igneel had passed, Natsu had been taking extra care of that scarf since it was the dragon's last keepsake left with him. The fact that he could part with it for her sake was a joyous and honouring feeling indeed. She was reminded again why she was helplessly in love with this man.

She looked at his face. "So that means you're taking me back to Polyurischia, right? You're not going after the thieves? Tell me you aren't."

Natsu gazed back at her. "What about your mission? Won't you fail if I don't retrieve those documents?"

Erza shook her head sincerely. "No. I can fail the mission, but I can't fail you. I might lose the documents, but I can't do something that will separate me from you. For even a moment. I will not have you go after them. And I can risk us losing this war because of those documents, but… not you. Stop what you're thinking. Come back with me."

Natsu heard all that, and he smiled. Maybe he just wanted to be reminded again how much Erza loved him. He knew well that she did, but her words just now touched the threshold of how much. Someone like her didn't deserve the stain of losing a simple retrieval mission like this. Natsu would defend her honour and esteem. All she tried to do with her words just now was to convince him to not go after them. But all that it actually did was convince him that much more otherwise. He was going after those thieves. And no one could stop him.

He stood up and clenched his fists. A warm and searing feeling parched his skin. The little sweat on his skin melted, and the area was filled with a scent of burnt paper. Of charcoal. Of ash. It was a comforting feeling for Erza to be doused in the unfathomably warm heat of Natsu, but for his enemies, it would be quite the opposite.

"I will take you to Polyurischia, but not before defeating these rats of Zeref. I can't forgive them for injuring you. I have a present for them."

Erza felt helpless at the moment. This was exactly what she didn't want. This was exactly what she was fearing. All she wanted was for Natsu to return home with her. But, Natsu was unstoppable. Once he would make up his mind, he couldn't be halted. He wouldn't stop until those thieves were deep underground. She wasn't afraid that he would lose. He would definitely be able to defeat them—easily. What she was afraid of, was that given the chance, in his disturbed mental state, he would lose himself.

A fire enveloped Natsu. It seared around his figure, lifting up pebbles and stones in his vicinity. Winds picked up around him, as if expelling out from him. Erza covered her face at the advent of what seemed like a storm. Dust and debris filled the air, circling around as if in a ritualistic dance. She determinedly looked back at him. She didn't want to shut her eyes on Natsu. She never wanted him to go away for even a while.

Until now, the fire was only burning around Natsu. Now, fire started to trail along his skin. His tanned skin disappeared into the bright flash that slowly encroached on his body. He was soon just a glowing silhouette. Like a god manifesting himself before humans on earth. A glowing body. Erza could feel the intense heat coming from him. She felt her pain and weakness in her body melting away. That feeling was akin to Natsu hugging her, a magical embrace, yet, it was somehow a heightened version of that sensation.

Her heart was a brewing pot of intermingled thoughts. Natsu was entering his dragon force before her eyes. It had been a long time since she had seen him like this. On one hand, she felt glad that she was getting to witness Natsu's older form again. Relentless, strong, fierce and undeterring. On the other hand, she was concerned. She knew she couldn't budge Natsu now–all she could do was worry. He was entering an experimental magic whose true reach was still unknown to the human mind. Its effects were mind numbing, its power intoxicating and addictive. The dragon force was an extremely experimental magic, imperfect, unfathomable and distressing. It could put extreme duress on the minds of the user, risking them going berserk and engaging a complete transformation into a dragon.

The glow over Natsu's body dissipated. What remained took Erza's breath away. He was half a dragon now. Patches of his human skin had turned red and scaly, but patches of his normal skin still peeked through from between the dragon scales, but they were soon to be slowly consumed by the dragon scales as well. His arms were massive now, his hands turned into fearsome sharp claws. His legs were thick and muscular, feet turned into fierce talons. One swipe with those talons and claws could separate a human being in half. Half his face turned scaly and red, the other half retaining his human features. His eyes had turned bright green and reptilian, and almost seemed to glow mysteriously even under the sunlight. Fleshy and long wings materialised from the flames behind his back, resonating with the wild winds and fluttering up and down, ready to take flight. A tail flashed and swung behind him, thick and heavy and muscular, as if a swing could demolish a building. White spikes and horns blurted out of his body at random places. Natsu sighed, expelling flames with his breaths. His voice didn't sound the same. It was deep, and his sigh sounded more like a deep growl.

Erza had seen Natsu transform many times, but it would be just as marvellous and breathtaking each time. His power was unbound and unfathomable. He had already become stronger than herself and Laxus in his base form, but with the almost perfect dragon force under his command, he was probably as strong as Gildarts now.

Winds evaporated around him, the ground on which he stood sunk with cracks and patches of weathering. The intense weight that he exuded resonated with Erza's heavy and anticipated heartbeats. She never got tired of experiencing his strength and unfathomable magical aura first hand.

She slowly dug her fingers in between his draconic claws. She knew well that his heat and flames won't hurt her, and she was right. She tugged gently at his heavy and thick hand.

"I know that now, it is beyond me to change your mind. I know you will go fight them for me. I know you will put your already fragile mental state at risk. But… all I can ask you is to… not lose yourself. Power can be addictive, especially when you think it is the answer to everything in the world. Answers to yours and others' questions. Answer to your hidden desires for vengeance and revenge. Answer to all the grief and pain in the world. But you know that it's not. There is so much more to the world than just power. Don't lose sight of yourself. Of me… of everyone that would not like to see you more hurt than you are already. Please, return to me as yourself."

Natsu watched her hand that held his. The picture of a human's fingers intertwined with a dragon's claws told him tales of unity and camaraderie between the two widely different species. It reminded him of Igneel and Magna Carta, and everything those two stood for. It also reminded him of the humanity that resided in him even though his body had turned almost draconic. He believed in that scene. He believed in Erza. She only wanted what was best for him. He nodded.

Erza let go, and Natsu clapped his wings, sending insanely hot flashes around. Erza looked away and covered her face as dust flew onto her face.

When she opened her eyes and looked back, Natsu was already gone. She slowly stood up on her legs that still stung due to the poison, but she was surprised at how well that scarf had worked. Most of her pain and weakness was gone. She had a lingering suspicion that it was providing an antidote to her poison as well. Natsu was amazing.

She squinted her eyes to look through the sunlight at the distant glowing ball of inferno that Natsu had become, flapping his wings powerfully in the winds and flying high up over the buildings and houses up in the sky. She had faith in him. She knew how well he regarded her words. If she had made him promise to her that he wouldn't do anything concerning, given a chance for active combat after so long, she was sure that he would keep that promise.

Natsu rocketed past buildings and scenery at a pace matched only by a phoenix flying through the air. He could smell ash in the air due to his fires, and could hear his wings powerfully flapping and cutting through the air. Each flap rocketed him farther and farther. He hadn't had a chance to transform in a very long time. Now that he had done it, he felt a deep and restless exhilaration that couldn't be matched. He felt power showering out of him. He felt complete.

A few miles later, he came across the two thieves jumping and hopping across rooftops. He couldn't forgive them for fatally wounding Erza, which could have been true had it not been for his scarf and it's magical healing powers, but he had to give it to them—they were fast.

Natsu dove down and planted on the ground with a deep impulse, shockwaves emanating around him travelling outwards from the point of impact. A loud sound was heard, and after that were the crashing sounds of the rocks and stones that slowly planted and dispersed over the ground. Natsu had created a crater where he had planted down, and stood in that, facing the thieves who stood blankly before him, in awe of his powers.

As the heat and smoke settled and Natsu could look at them, he studied them properly.

One was a tall man, with black and spikey long hair that fell down to his knees. He had metallic piercings in his ears and nose, and his eyes were a deep shade of grey. Bare chested, he carried a behemoth sword on his back. He then looked at the woman. She was almost as tall as the man, with short hair and thick black eyeliner. Her lips were a dark shade of blue, and she also had piercings in her ears. So these were the demons created by Zeref? Their fashion sense was laughable and their styles outlandish, but they looked no different than the normal humans Natsu had seen so far.

Natsu raised his left arm and pointed a finger at them, his one claw pointed at their faces.

"Alright. Relinquish what documents you have stolen from the guild. Or I will beat them out of you. Both are equally fun for me."

He growled in his deep dragonified voice. It sounded like a deep growl.

The two demons looked at each other, and then smiled deviously. They produced a backpack and flushed its contents out. A row of blank white papers flew out and dispersed on the ground, blankly fluttering in the winds and being flown away.

Natsu examined them for any sign of any text on them. But they were blank and white. Empty. They had apparently stolen nothing at all from the guild.

Natsu looked back at them. "Are you trying to trick me, you assholes? What is your game?"

The two smiled, showing him their glowing white teeth, and sat down on one of their knees, as if in respect.

"The documents weren't our mission. You were—master."

The girl said.

Natsu raised his brow, confused. "What?"

The man brought out a small throwing blade and flung it at Natsu. The blade cut through the winds and stuck to Natsu's left shoulder. It didn't hurt, but Natsu still stared at it. He had never expected that such small throwing weapons could pierce his thick hide. He pulled the blade out and crushed it with his bare hand. He opened his palm, and inside were the powdered fragments of the steel blade. He pulsed fire through his arm and eviscerated the remnants of the blade. The ash flew up into the air and dissolved in the winds before the two demons.

"This ends here." Natsu growled.

He shot a fire blast through his open palm, and the entire area began to glow in a furious orange. Even the sun couldn't compete with that glow. The burst of flames surrounded the man amongst the two thieves, and he evaporated into thin air. The fire passed, and where he sat a moment ago, there only was charred ground.

Natsu then walked up to the girl and grabbed her small head with his massive palm. He started to raise the heat in his palm. Before he could blast her away as well, he saw her eyes from between his claws moisten, and a tear or two merged with his searing skin and sizzled into the air.

Why was she crying? Was she afraid of death? Were those even tears of loss and the knowledge of an imminent death? Or were those… tears of joy?

"Welcome back… Etherious." She mumbled, her voice muffled through the surface of Natsu's palm that covered her mouth.

Natsu narrowed his eyes. What did she call him? What did that word mean? Etherious? Was she mistaking him for someone else? Why was she elated and overjoyed about her death?

Natsu shook his head. They were strange creatures—that much was known. Zeref had produced them after writing simple spells in a book. They were definitely expected to have dodgy behaviour. Natsu put that out of his mind. Whether they were mistaking him for someone he wasn't or not, they deserved death for being the demons of Zeref that had killed so many innocents. Igneel would wish for the same thing.

Natsu blasted another fiery jet of hot flames through his palm. It enveloped the girl's body whole, and soon, she was no more. Nothing more than a few fragments of ash floating dizzily in the air.

Natsu sighed and looked at the bundle of papers that had been stolen from the guild. He wondered why they were blank. What did the guy mean by Natsu being their plan all along? What did Zeref want with Natsu? What was that small blade that was flung at him?

Natsu shook his head again, and put fire to the bundle of paper as well. If there was anything sensitive about them, it was gone for good as well. He couldn't take any chances with such an important matter.

Erza untied the scarf around her thigh, and watched the deep bloodstains on it. She folded that scarf and waited for Natsu's arrival. She stood up when she saw a glowing ball of flames rocketing towards her, at insane speeds. It was like a star falling from the sky. Even at a distance, she could feel the behemoth heat that that man exuded.

Natsu slowly landed before her.

"Is it… done?"

Natsu felt the dragon's scales on his face receding back into his normal skin. The transformation would take a while to lose its effects.

"They won't be a problem anymore." he replied in a voice that was halfway between his own and his dragon's voice.

Before Erza could hand him his scarf back, he suddenly froze up. His eyes went blank and flat, and his body stiffened up. He knelt on the ground, and then planted prone against it, lifeless and cold.

Erza's eyes widened. She dashed to his body and turned him over to face upwards. His eyes were wide open and unblinking, as if he was dreaming. As if he was experiencing a nightmare.

She knelt beside him and shook his face. "Natsu…? Natsu! NATSU!"

Her voice incremented.

What just happened? She knew he hadn't just passed out from overusing his magic. If that had happened, he would just lose his dragon force and return to his normal form. She had seen that a lot of times. She knew this was something grave. Something wrong had happened.

She shook his cold body that was losing heat by the second. And progressing towards a grim future. A future where she felt that he would never be back with her. A possibility where she would lose him forever. She didn't know what had happened, but she could read that grim future already.

"NATSU!" She screamed.

Natsu carried within him a part of her heart. When he was in trouble, she could feel it. And right now, she felt her heart ringing red with alarm. Something bad had happened. Something beyond a normal and simple explanation.

Frantically studying his body for injuries and wounds, she came across his left shoulder. Something peculiar was going on with it. His veins on that shoulder had propped out of his skin, and his left arm was slightly shivering and trembling. It was warm to touch as well. She found a deep gash on his shoulder. It was bleeding profusely, but beyond that, an unknown black substance was appearing to move within his skin and peek out from under his wound. As if worms crawling beneath his skin.

Erza felt her heart race with concern. What was that? She had never seen such a thing before. What was this black substance that seemed to have a mind of its own and moved willingly? Was it a curse? A parasite? A magical seal placed on him by those demons he had fought? What were its consequences?

Those demons he had just fought belonged to Zeref. Every cryptic and strange rumour that she had heard about Zeref and his magic came to life within her mind. If Natsu was hit with one of those, what could she expect? The dark and behemoth evil of Zeref on one end, and the warm and gleeful energy of Natsu on the other. She had never expected to see those two merge. Now she was.

She hovered her finger over the black mass that seemed to flow out of Natsu's wound, but as soon as her skin made contact with it, she flinched away from a disturbing and nauseatingly dark and suffocating feeling that grasped her insides. Her stomach churned and she almost threw up. She panted as she sat back on the ground, her eyes widened and her breath scanty. She stared at the dark ooze. Whatever that was… was unfathomably and unbelievably dark and corrupted. Extreme concern for Natsu grasped her.

Would she see Natsu again? Would he be alright? Would he… live through whatever this was? She couldn't even fathom the other possibility. The possibility of him gone forever. That was a thought she couldn't entertain in her darkest of nightmares. She wanted Natsu right beside her, always. Happy and cheerful and healthy. But right now, he seemed to be inflicted with something she couldn't even fathom. Her eyes watered.

Natsu woke up in a dark place. He slowly fluttered his heavy eyelids open. They felt as if they had fused to his eyes and wouldn't open. He slowly sat up over the dark shiny floor, watching his own reflection on it. He appeared tired and exhausted… but it was him.

He slowly sat up, stumbling a few times at first. What was this place? Where was he? The last thing he remembered was… Erza's voice crying for him. Had he passed out? Why?

He looked far into the distance around himself, but apart from a blinding shade of darkness, he didn't see anything else. Wind passed by his body, and dust swept up off the clean floor. He knew this place wasn't normal. He had never been here before, not even in his dreams. This place felt… surreal. As if nothing that he knew worked here. This place had its own rules and regulations. A world in itself.

He turned around on his feet. He could see nothing.

"Natsu…" he heard a youthful voice, pleasant and calm. It was a young man's voice. Something about that voice sounded familiar. As if… he had known that person for a very long time. But who was he? Was he somehow associated with this place?

"Natsu… do you remember me? Do you remember our people? Our island? Do you remember our parents? Our father who was a fisherman, with bright hair like yours? And our mother, with her green glowing eyes and long black hair… like mine?"

Natsu looked around blankly. His parents? His people? His father and mother? He felt angry at that voice because it was claiming to know something that Natsu himself didn't know. He had always only known one parent–Igneel. Although Natsu himself had wondered many times where he had come from, he never put much weight on that. Who did this voice belong to? Did he know Natsu's parents?

Some parts of Natsu thought that this voice was tricking him. He quickly put his fists up combatively. He didn't care who his parents were. For him, his life started with Igneel and ended with Fairy Tail. He didn't need another family—especially one that would abandon him with a dragon.

"WHO ARE YOU? SHOW YOURSELF! RIGHT NOW!"

His voice echoed in the darkness. There was silence for a while, after which the voice responded.

"So… you don't remember. It's alright. It has been ages. But… Now it's time that you returned to your true family. To me."

Polyurischia stood in the doorway, leaning on the wall, watching Natsu lying on the bed. Apart from some weak groans and some hand and leg movements, he hadn't come about much.

Erza doused a cloth in cold water and then placed it over Natsu's burning forehead. She then sat back and watched the man in deep concern.

Polyurischia smiled at her back as she sat silently by the bed. She could feel the unhindered devotion that Erza held for Natsu. Watching her at work to secure Natsu's health and go beyond her means to make sure that his comatose form had everything that he needed was a pleasurable and admirable sight. Erza had been up and about for days on end since Natsu had been comatose, constantly working to provide him the best care that Erza could afford. Polyurischia had been used to such service in her long years as a doctor, but to see all this from Erza was moving. She could tell how much admiration and respect and love Erza carried for that man.

She shifted her gazes to Natsu. As for him, things weren't as pleasurable. Natsu was definitely hit with a curse… but what, Polyurischia had no idea. She had spent hours and days looking through known and even obscure demon curses that she could find, but the symptoms never matched. The most problematic was the black sludge that constantly spewed out of Natsu's wound on his shoulder. It was as if that black smudge was alive. As if there was something within Natsu, fighting to break out.

She had never seen such a thing before in her life. Her hundreds of years of medical practice, and she had never come across such an impasse where she couldn't understand what the dark curse was that had affected one of her patients. It made matters even more grim that the originator and writer of that curse was Zeref, a magician whose entire life was a mystery. Where did Zeref come from? How did he gain such an enormous amount of dark power? Why was he so powerful? Was he an ancient god? A demon? A supernatural being? Was he death itself?

Old tales and stories told of a crime against nature and humanity that Zeref had committed almost 700 years ago when he lived. He had apparently performed some sort of necromancy and brought a dead back to life. For that crime, Ankhseram had cursed him with a deep infliction as his punishment. It was for that reason that Zeref and his dark magic was said to have been weak to Ankhseram. That was the reason why Ankhseram had become so important in this war against Zeref.

It was bad enough that Natsu was hit with a curse, but for that curse to be from Zeref's arsenal was a horrifying thought. Her and the rest of the guild could only imagine what Natsu was going through. Hearing hundreds of millions of rumours about an ancient dark magician who lived a cryptic and mysterious life millions of miles away from them, who was vehemently evil and unhinged, whose magic was a mystery and a sharp one at that–and then to see his magic in action on one of their own was horrifying and disturbing.

Polyurischia broke out of her thoughts when she heard Natsu moan. She quickly stood straight and started to walk towards the bed. Erza herself stood up off the bed and grabbed Natsu by the shoulder, gently lifting him up.

Polyurischia was overjoyed. It would seem that whatever concoction of antidote she had given Natsu was fruitful.

"Natsu, take it easy. Your body must still be fragile after that curse—"

Her words were cut off as Natsu's bed rocketed past her at an insane speed. She barely dodged that fatal throw, and watched the bed scurry through walls and walls and then being embedded into the farthest wall of the guild as it lost momentum. She stood wide eyed as she stared at the series of holes in the guild hall walls that had been created.

Did Natsu just try to attack her? She quickly looked back at Natsu, and found something extremely worrying happening before her.

Natsu had grabbed Erza by the throat and lifted her inches off the ground. Erza tightened her fingers around his arm to get him to let go, but no matter how much pressure she applied, his firm and uncomfortable choke wouldn't break.

Natsu himself looked… convoluted. As if his body had suddenly become slanted and irregular. Polyurischia couldn't quite define it for the first few moments. It was as if she was hallucinating. Natsu's skin stretched and deepened into his bones, moved weirdly and folded upon itself. As if hundreds of hands played with his skin and flesh. The black sludge that was peeking through his wound started to creep over his chest across his shoulder and over his left arm, reaching his fingers, as if a parasite engulfing him.

"Na-Natsu… It's me… Erza…"

Erza managed to speak through her choked throat, but soon lost consciousness and fell limp to the ground.

Natsu then faced Polyurischia. His body shivered and trembled. His fingers bent forward and backwards and sideways at weird angles. His joints dislocated themselves before her eyes and rejoined together. What was she looking at? Was this even Natsu anymore? Or was this someone else?

The most terrifying thing about his image were his eyes. His left eye in particular. His right eye looked normal, but completely drained of life and movements. As if that eye was still comatose. But his left eye looked like it had completely vanished. In its place was just a black void–deep, dark, infinite. It seemed to go deep into Natsu's head, and even deeper than the length of his head. As if it was a portal to another dimension.

Polyurischia felt fright and paranoia crawl up her body. She could feel the footsteps of shivers pricking over her skin. She shivered and trembled in fright and horror. Something unearthly was happening before her. Something otherworldly. Something ancient and dark. Something cursed. It was inhuman. Ungodly. Out of this world.

The black eye on Natsu's face blinked, and a trail of blood trickled down it over the left side of Natsu's face. It dripped down his chin to the floor. Polyurischia knew well that whatever ugly and corrupted sensations she was having were because of that eye. Just looking at them, just being in their presence, she felt the earth shattering beneath her feet, and the skies collapsing above her head. Whatever that eye was was so dark and twisted that not even a thousand suns could lighten it.

Soon, chatters and murmurs filled the medical bay of the guild as many other mages of Fairy Tail started to enter it. They all must have heard the commotion of the bed that had been thrown at Polyurischia. They all gasped at what they were looking at. They all could connect the dots together and tell that Natsu's current condition–as confusing, frightening and unnatural as it was, was because of the curse that had hit him. But… What was that curse doing to him? Was this even Natsu anymore? Was he alright? Was he safe?

"He… he has a hole…" Polyurischia muttered, looking away from Natsu in severe panic and fright.

"A what?" Laxus asked her. He stood before everyone else, ready to defend them against Natsu—or whatever that was, should he attack.

Polyurischia continued. "His left eye. That's what is called a Hole. A demon eye. They consume the blood of their host, but in return provide them with unseen amounts of power. All of Zeref's demons have those eyes."

Mirajane stared at Polyurischia, confused. Was she insinuating that Natsu was a demon? How could that be? She had thought that Natsu was only hit by a curse by one of the demons—not that he was a demon himself. Natsu couldn't be a demon. He was far from it. He was a human, and a kind and courageous one at that. There was no way that that pure and beautiful man would ever come close to being a demon.

"Natsu…?"

She called out. The person… or the creature that stood before her looked similar to Natsu. But was it really him? Was it really the young man that she was so extremely fond of? The man she considered herself to be the older sister of? What exactly was his state of mind right now? Would he attack them? Was he being controlled by Zeref now? Was Natsu… gone?

Mirajane couldn't have that. No one could snatch Natsu away from her. She pushed away Laxus's hand that was before her to keep her from going near. She knew that Natsu would never hurt her.

"Natsu. It's me. Mirajane. Your friend. Your older sister. Do you recognise my voice?"

Natsu lifted his head and cackled deep. That sound sounded like mountains moving and crashing. It was loud and unpleasant.

Natsu then said something cryptic and mysterious. A jumble of mysterious words and syllables. None of it made sense to anyone, except for Polyurischia and Levy who could immediately recognise the language to be Zerefian.

Natsu then spoke, and it sounded like a hundred pained voices spoke with him. "That is Zerefian for… 'Your end is near.'"