Chapter 23

Erza rode atop the giant dragon as it cut through the winds, and flew over the ocean at a speed only matched by lightning. She grabbed tighter along the rough scaly patches of its skin. Soon, as the belts of wind plastering against her tiny body in the giant order of the world became too much, she hugged the dragon's neck and planted her body against its back.

Natsu… was a dragon. He had transformed into one right before her eyes. After all that she had seen him becoming… After the troves of his convoluted past and identity that were revealed to her, she had thought that nothing could surprise her. But she was at a loss right now. Natsu had truly changed.

She still remembered that tiny little boy that had stumbled into their guild all those years ago with Makarov. He was brash, ill-mannered and lacking in power and combat skills. She could have never imagined what he would become. To think where he was now… where he had reached… It was a sight to see. She had to come to terms with the fact that people changed.

She looked down at the massive forest of dragon spikes and horns that lay before her. This… was Natsu. Her beloved. Confusion about who he truly was still ran rampant in her mind, but she realised that she had started to accept the new Natsu.

No matter what form he would take… he would always be beautiful. He would always be breathtaking. He would always be Natsu. Her Natsu.

She snuggled closer to his dragon ears. "So… let me get this straight. When Ankhseram died at the hands of Acnologia, he had promised that he would return to destroy Acnologia one day. And… he returned as you?"

The dragon slowly shook as it flew, and roared into the sky. Erza balanced herself and grabbed on tighter to keep herself from falling over into the ocean.

She took that roar as a yes. "And… when Acnologia killed me, you… you revived me. By sacrificing your godhood in exchange for my life?"

The dragon's head turned slightly around and then back forward again. He seemed to nod slowly in the air.

Erza blinked her eyes. Was such a thing even possible? The world got stranger and stranger as she lived in it. To think that Natsu was the one that had created this entire world… everything that she saw… everything that she experienced… all that she touched… Natsu was behind it all. He created her, he created her life, he dictated her life.

Erza bit her lips. Natsu was still Liana's husband. Not that he had any control over it. It was a past life that he didn't remember much of. Or anything of. But still… that fact dug spikes of grief into her heart. To even think that Natsu could belong to someone else other than her… it was a thought so foreign and chaotic that she wished she had never been made privy to it in the first place.

She brought her lips to the dragon's ears again. "Natsu… do… Do you still love me?"

There was silence. Only the swirling and the cutting of the winds was heard. The giant wings flapping in the air, sounding like cannons shooting into the air. Natsu's power was immense. Immeasurable.

Natsu lifted his maw into the air and bellowed loudly into the air, scaring even the winds around him. His body trembled and shook and Erza was almost thrown off his back. She held on tighter. Tight.

The roar was gone, the environment returning to its peaceful silence and quiet. Erza watched him curiously. Was that a yes? An extremely powerful and resounding yes?

She found herself smiling. Natsu in his dragon form was like a baby. He didn't know how to speak. Only gestures and roars. She hugged his back tightly and lay her head sideways over his rough warm scaly hide. He was adorable.

"I… I love you too, Natsu."

Natsu landed atop the island, and slowly folded his wings by his side. Erza slowly jumped off his back onto the grass. She looked around the forest. They were back here.

Natsu had brought her to the temple of One once again. She had visited this place with Natsu before to have his demon eye removed. Now… she was back here. Why?

She turned around and looked at Natsu. He walked up beside her, his scales receding into his skin. His skin glowed a bright orange, and flames still enveloped around his human body. Soon, the glow and the fire was gone. His scales receded back into his body, and all that was left was his hair standing on ends and goosebumps over his skin. He looked at her with his fierce reptilian eyes that glowed under the sunlight.

"You okay?" He asked in a deep growl.

Erza gawked at him. When she blinked, his eyes were back to normal. He was the same handsome stranger whose lips had so lovingly kissed hers just an hour ago. This was the new Natsu. A man that could definitely beat even Jellal in looks.

Erza slowly nodded. "Yes. I… I am fine."

Natsu smiled and extended her his hand.

Erza looked at it. This… this was the man that she would spend her life with now. Caressing his bright rough cheeks, grooming his abnormally long flowing locks, and kissing his dry dark lips.

She… she didn't complain.

She grabbed his hand.

Natsu smiled. "Come on. Let's see if I can find Liana again."

Erza nodded. He had come here searching for answers. And she had come with him. Those answers meant just as much to her as they did to him.

Natsu started to pull her into the forest. She followed behind him, not watching where she was stepping. She only stared at his muscular and bony back. He had grown taller since the last time they had visited this place.

Erza looked at his long hair brushing the gentle winds.

"Are you going to keep your hair just like that?"

Natsu looked at her. He smiled awkwardly. "I have tried cutting it down short. But… I have found that they tend to grow overnight."

Erza narrowed her eyes, blushing slightly as his warm hand held hers.

"Really? That… that fast?"

Natsu looked back at her and laughed. "Much weirder things have happened, right?"

He looked at the orange evening sky, interspersed by the canopies of the surrounding trees.

"I am guessing this is the length that Ankhseram used to keep his hair. That's why it retains its length. It's… weird."

Erza mulled over that. It sounded almost as if Natsu's body was trying to be closer to Ankhseram.

"And… your height?"

"Same." Natsu replied, staring ahead. They had reached a cobblestone pathway that was buried under the falling leaves and grasses, ridden with moss.

"Maybe this is how tall Ankhseram was. I almost grew in height overnight."

Erza nodded slowly, as if she accepted that answer. But she hadn't. That sounded weird. It was almost as if Natsu's body was morphing.

"Will your body keep changing like this?"

Natsu smiled… hiding his anxiety. "I… I don't know. At this point, I accept whatever comes. I hope my hair doesn't change colours. Ankhseram was dark haired and bright skinned. I… like my hair colour and my tan."

Erza smiled half. "What else has changed?"

Natsu thought about that. "I… I don't need to wear warm clothes in the cold anymore. My body is always warm. Not that it wasn't before. But… I atleast felt comfortable wearing warmer clothes in the winter before. Now… I don't need to."

Erza's face softened. It sounded like Natsu was not very happy with the changes staking his body. Maybe his being was changing for the better, but he was also losing touch with his humanity. Godhood… wasn't always a good thing. Natsu was a living example of that. She wondered what all he had seen in his journeys, and how it had changed him. If she could even fathom a fraction of his pain and misery that he was trying to hide away beneath his smiles, it would be an achievement for her.

"So… you can't use your black flames anymore?"

Natsu shook his head as he looked ahead. "No. I… I haven't tried. Not that I knew how to bring those flames out by myself. But… something feels missing from within me. Maybe that part of me is gone now."

He laughed. "Maybe it's for the better. Maybe you dying, and me sacrificing those powers was all planned from the start. Who knows what Gods are thinking? But they are correct in whatever they cook up. Leaving such a great power in the hands of a mortal isn't a good idea."

Erza bit her lips anxiously. Something crushed her heart. Was it grief? Heaviness? Guilt?

She stopped walking, and Natsu halted too. He looked back at her.

"Erza?"

Erza's hand tightened around Natsu's wrist. She clenched her free hand, and looked at him with grief painting her face.

"I… I am sorry, Natsu. You had to give up all that power just for me. That power that could conquer the world with one snap of your fingers, and… you had to part with it for my sake. You… you must really lament that loss… right? You must blame me for it… and… you'd be right."

Natsu stared at her. Erza's soft cheeks gleamed under the evening sun, painting her smooth skin golden. A gust of wind flirted with her long unkempt hair, and her soft lips gently parted and her glistening eyes looked at Natsu. She was an angel. A beautiful angel.

What had Natsu done to deserve her?

He faced her and brought their hands between them. He placed his forehead against hers, like he used to, and smiled.

"Conquer the world… you say?" He nuzzled his nose against hers, and breathed in her soft and melting fragrance. His heart beat faster and rapidly. That was an effect that Erza always had on him. "I… I already have the world, Erza. I have everything I need. I couldn't wish for anything else. Never. And… in every life that I am born into, every chance I get to sacrifice my dearest things for you, I'd do it. A million billion times over. I'd give away everything for you. Except my life. I need that to spend it with you, don't I?"

Erza's eyes slowly widened. As she did, she visualised Natsu in his full glory. His unbridled beauty and glow, his soul tearing warmth and essence, and his engulfing and protecting will. Natsu loved her. She had always known that he did, but each time she was reminded of it she would start to mull over why. Why did he love her so much? There were much prettier and stronger women out there that would be a better match for Natsu. He was… a god. And she was a nobody. But he didn't care. He loved her beyond measure. Beyond words. And she did the same.

Her eyes flowed, glistening like pearls in the mild sunlight. There were unheard of emotions boiling within her. Beneath the scores of trails of love and adoration for this man, there was glee. Glee that couldn't be explained. Glee that couldn't be measured. Couldn't be weighed. She was to spend the rest of her life with this man. What… What more could she ask for?

Before more could be said between the two, and they would merge their lips together with nobody to witness their union but the soft shades of the setting sun, they heard leaves rustling behind them.

Natsu and Erza looked around, and found scores of women dressed in white robes standing in the clearing of the forest. They were the priestesses of One. Had they known that Natsu was visiting? Maybe they had seen the behemoth red dragon flying towards their island.

Natsu smiled and approached the oldest woman who stood before the others. As Natsu stood before her, she knelt before him. The rest of the women followed suit and knelt before Ankhseram as well.

Natsu halted. He felt weird having these women bow down to him like that. Had Liana already told them that Natsu was Ankhseram? Or… did they find out by themselves? Had he now started to even exert that kind of an aura?

"Please… rise." Natsu requested anxiously. "I… I am a mere human. You need not bow down to me."

The older woman slowly rose to her feet, and her followers did the same. She didn't dare look at Natsu's face. She focused steadfastly at the ground before her.

"It isn't everyday that we get to witness the Divinity amongst us humans. Most of us could only wish to merely glance at the Great Lost God, let alone be blessed by His presence. Glory to you, Ankhseram."

Natsu stood at even more unease than before. How did they know? And how much longer would he need to get used to such treatment?

He turned around to look at Erza, and found even her rising up off her knees. He sweated. It would take him a long time, apparently.

……..

The old priestess led Natsu and Erza up the staircase. One's temple was situated on the top of a water filled crater, lesser temples surrounding the lake and an island in the middle of the lake carrying the main temple. The crater, as legends said, was created when Acnologia fell from the heavens after being banished and landed in the world. The temple was erected in the exact spot of his fall. Natsu, Erza and the priestess had crossed a bridge across the lake and were now climbing up the mountain.

Erza could not help but look around at the scenery as she climbed up. The skies were clear and orangish, evening bleeding from around the sun. Gentle winds met her figure and her hair was caught in them. This place was… beautiful. She had been here before when Natsu needed his eye removed. But the snow clouds and the sheet of white snow had obscured the real beauty of this place from her eyes at that time. She remembered that time well. How rapidly things had changed since then. That was before the war. Now… this place had finally revealed its true beauty to her.

She looked at Natsu's back as he climbed up the staircase before her. His hair was long and flowing, his body tall and lanky, and even his mannerisms had changed. Was Natsu the same? Was his real beauty obscured to her eyes before the war, and now he had broken through the cocoon and flourished? Was this the real Natsu? Was this the man he had always needed to be? Was this who he was meant to be?

The trio reached the temple at the top of the mountain. It was a structure erected out of clean white marble. It was more like a hexagonal rotunda with six open sides.

Natsu followed the old woman into the rotunda, and Erza followed behind him. The first thing that caught Natsu and Erza's attention was the statue of One erected in the middle of the small hall, her white marble body naked and her arms spread out. The statue looked down at a marble pedestal near her feet. The pedestal was situated in the centre of the hall.

Natsu looked up at the statue. He smiled, knowing that he had seen One's face with his very own eyes. A blessing that had never been bestowed upon another mortal. He gauged the statue's face. It didn't look like Liana at all. Maybe it was just an interpretation of how she looked. The statue could never compare to Liana's true beauty.

The old priestess bowed down before the pedestal.

"This is the last place Liana graced with her presence. We found her body here on this pedestal one cold morning, a blade in her chest. It was painful to have lost her at first, but she must have had her reasons. We have come to accept that fact."

Erza was distraught. She narrowed her eyes and ran her fingers through the cold marble pedestal. "You… you mean… Liana… killed herself? Why?"

The old woman smiled. "She merged herself with One, yes. One births us, and in the end we all return to her. As for why One called her back… that reason is still obscured to us."

Erza looked at the old woman. If what Natsu had said was true and Liana was One herself, how come One called Liana back?

Natsu, on the other hand, knew the reason why Liana would do such a thing. That was right after he had fought Zeref and died along with him. At that time, Liana had to be with Natsu to guide him. And in order to leave the mortal world that she had lived in for so long, she had to do such a deed. She had a purpose to fulfil. And she did it.

Natsu looked at the old lady and smiled. "Thank you for your help. We will be here a while."

The old woman looked at Natsu and bowed down slightly. "As you wish, Master Natsu. I'll be downstairs should you need me. And… one more thing."

She walked to a closet nearby, and brought out a potted plant. She turned around and presented that to Natsu.

"Liana left this for you. I am afraid the flower has withered away, but her love and appreciation for you still bleeds through."

Natsu looked down at the potted plant. It was dry and yellowish, whatever leaves that still garnered it dried up and dead. He furrowed his brows.

"Thank you…"

He accepted the small pot. The old woman smiled, and slowly turned around and climbed downstairs.

Natsu watched her leave. There was silence. Then Erza and Natsu both stared at the dead plant.

"This… this is a lily plant." Erza said. "Does this mean anything, Natsu?"

Natsu shook his head, still staring at the plant. "I… I don't know. Lilies were Liana's favourite. But… I don't think this is just a gift. I think she was trying to tell me something."

Natsu slowly brought his trembling finger to the top of the plant, where the withered flower hung off the stem. He prodded at the dead flower, and soon it fell away. It swirled and swivelled to the ground.

Erza stared at Natsu crossly. "Natsu. That was a gift. You should treat it better."

Natsu smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. I… I am just confused, that's all."

He looked down at the plant again and… saw something.

He pierced his eyes into the place where the flower had been, and he could swear he was seeing some movement there. Fibres, cells, tissues, xylems, phloems… all moved and merged and separated at that spot. It appeared as if something was dancing and contorting within the plant.

Soon, even as Natsu and Erza watched, a bud started to sprout at the tip of the stem. A new life. A new birth. A new beginning. Death might come after life, but after death, comes life barging anew. The cycle repeats itself. On and on it goes, until everything one day merges back into the foremost Divine.

A flower exploded out of that bud, glowing white in the darkness of the evening. Intricate red spots surrendered themselves onto its surface, like droplets of blood. Red, sharp, warm… beautiful.

A flower blooming that fast… that too out of a dead plant. It was something that Erza had never seen before. Neither had Natsu.

"Natsu…" Erza exhaled in shock. "How… how did you do that?"

Natsu looked at her. "Did I do that?"

Their surroundings suddenly washed up in a white glow. The horizon, the evening sun, the orange sky, the twinkling stars and the bright white ghastly moon, they all vanished.

They were now in a white world, beyond time, beyond life and death, beyond the world itself. They were in a new world. Where the white sky met the white floor at a white horizon, and that stretched on for infinity.

Natsu had been here before. He had spent a long time in this place. He had eaten out of that Etheria tree here, he had ventured through his past here, he had fought Death here.

He had met Liana here.

As if on cue, he turned around. He found her at a distance, glowing, twinkling, bright and beautiful. She wore a white sleeveless gown that ended above her knees. She was barefoot. The mother of the universe. The mother of the world. The mother of everything in existence.

One.

Natsu gasped softly. The potted plant he was holding, which was dead just a few moments ago, but now was new and fresh, brimming with life and light, almost left his hands and dropped to the ground. But he held on properly as soon as he realised that it was a gift from Liana.

Liana slowly walked closer, a smile on her face and tears in her eyes.

"Natsu, Erza. Welcome... I had been waiting."

I am sorry. i know this story doesnt seem to end. i didnt want to end it abruptly. i still have some things to write. the next chapter will bee the last one, hopefully.