A/N: Episode 176, Opening 15.

Enjoy!

CHAPTER EIGHTY-NINE: THE DRAGON KING

Bar Sun...

"What was that, jackass?! Say it once more!" Natsu exclaimed at Aira.

"Jeez. I said you're too frickin' noisy, Natsu." Aira replied, turning to look at the Fire Dragon Slayer. "You're stifling me!"

"Wanna make somethin' of it?!"

"You wanna make somethin' of it?!"

"Go for it, Natsu!" Happy cheered while Cain just sighed.

"As always, they've got more energy than they know what to do with." Carla commented. "Right, Wendy?"

"One's a wizard who controls fire and the other's a wizard who controls water, so..." Wendy trails off in thought.

"Well, I suppose we can't expect them to just get along. It's even deeper than that." Lily commented.

"Alright, that's enough!" Lucy informed, pointing a finger at Natsu and Aira. "Any more, and you'll destroy another pub!"

"Lucy!"

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

"Mira-san, that's not the point..." Lucy said.

Makarov cackled as he was chugging down booze. "Master! Is it okay to let them go at it?!" Lucy exclaimed.

"I'll tell 'em off. Natsu!" Makarov called out, getting Natsu and Aira's attention as Makarov pointed at him. "If you're gonna do it, go all in! Show me the fire of a Dragon Slayer!"

"Hey!" Lucy shouted.

"That's right! When the wielder of Dragon Slayer Magic cries! That's a Man!" Elfman encouraged.

"Right..." Mira agreed.

"Stop, I said!" Lucy complained.

"You don't gotta tell me that! I'm gonna make you cry, Aira!" Natsu claimed as he ignites his hand on fire.

"Shut up! You're the one who's gonna cry, Natsu!" Aira said, covering his fist in water.

"Thank you for the food!" Happy said before his fish ended up getting soaked and he was burned.

"Uh-oh!"

"That's terrible! How can you treat me like this?!" Happy complained.

"Sorry 'bout that!" Natsu apologized.

"But stay outta the way!" Aira added.

"What the heck?! I'm a Fairy Tail wizard too!" Happy whined as the soaked fish landed on Erza's strawberry cake, angering her.

Lucy takes notice of this as she backs away quickly. "I have a bad feeling about this..."

A pale green light came from Wendy's hands. "I'll heal you." She offered.

"Forget me. Get my fish back the way it was..." Happy said.

"Pathetic..." Carla insulted.

Mira and Elfman watched as Wendy healed Happy. "Strange, isn't it? A gentle girl like that who uses Healing Magic is also a Dragon Slayer who uses Dragon Slayer Magic." Mira stated.

"Yep. And those guys were raised by dragons..." Elfman added as Natsu and Aira continued bickering.

Erza grabbed Aira by the hair and then grabbed Natsu. "Would you stop it?!" Erza exclaimed, slamming their heads together.

"E-Erza!"

"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 none of the other guilds here are pushovers. At a time like this, when we need to be focusing our energies, you jackasses..." Erza had a dark look on her face. "...smooshed my cake!"

"Huh?"

"Sit up straight. I'll have your heads!" Erza exclaimed, requipping a sword and freaking out Natsu, Aira, and Lucy.

"Don't run away, you bastards!"

The door soon opened to reveal Gajeel. "Yeesh. I finally made it, for cryin' out loud." He commented.

"Where have you been?" Happy asked.

"That's right! You blew off the match!" Natsu accused.

"Hey, I wouldn't..." Aira began to warn him.

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

"Is that right?" Natsu questioned.

"You forgot about that?" Aira said.

"That must've been rough."

"Like you had nothin' to do with it!"

"Forget about it. More importantly, come with me Salamander. There's somethin' I wanna show you." Gajeel stated.

"Huh?"

Outside in town, a scoreboard was placed on the Lacrima screen as citizens gathered around.

Grand Magic Games Daily Results.

1st Place: Fairy Tail.

"Fairy Tail 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 were having a meeting. Sting and Rogue were in front of Jiemma while Arlo, 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 exterting 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 exterted his magic power again.

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

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

"Lector!" Sting screamed out.

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

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

"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 as a dark look was on his face. He then blasted Jiemma with 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.

"While we've been laboring under a grave misconception, an irresistible fate has locked us inside. Eclipse, the portal that can change the world... And the festival of the Dragon King." Jellal said.

"What exactly is down here, Gajeel-san?" Wendy asked as him, Wendy, Natsu, Aira, Satsuki, and their Exceeds were walking underneath the stadium.

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

"Why only us?" Natsu questioned.

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

"Probably." Lily replied.

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

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

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

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

"What is it?!" Wendy asked.

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

"Animal... bones?" Lucy said.

"Dragon bones..." Satsuki corrected.

"It's a dragon graveyard." Aira 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." Gajeel answered.

"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.

"Kaito isn't here either, thankfully." Aira stated.

"Our dragons disappeared 14 years ago. The remains 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 the 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 and writing something down in their journal.

"Hey, you! This area is restricted!"

The hooded figure took off, dropping their notebook in the process.

"Wait!"

The figure disappeared as the civilian picked up the dropped notebook.

"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 on the ground. "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 Aira.

"Are you okay, Wendy?!" Aira 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 a vortex 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 soon came out of 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." Satsuki 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." Cain 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." Aira 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, between 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?" Boris 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.

"Acnologia!" Lucy exclaimed in her head. "Fairy Tail's holy ground, Tenroujima Island. We fought against that dragon on the island, but were no match for him. We were helpless."

"He was originally a human?!" Aira 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.

"I'm not even surprised that excites you." Aira commented.

"That would be bad!" Gajeel and Satsuki shouted in unison.

"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?"

An image of Deliora appeared in Gray and Aira's minds. "Deliora!" They both thought in unison.

"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.

Sometime in the future...

Mercurius collapsed, causing Lucy to turn around. Dragons continued to rampage as one of them released a fireball at Lucy. However, Natsu sucked up the flames, quickly saving her.

"Sorry I'm late, Lucy." Natsu apologized. "Bastard..."

The dragon landed in front of Natsu and Lucy. "Hey, morons! Quit bein' cocky! I'm a Fairy Tail wizard, Natsu Dragneel! I'm a Dragon Slayer!"

Natsu soon appeared from the flames as he attacked the dragons. "Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame! Roar! Fire Dragon's Crushing Fang!" Natsu called out spell after spell.

"Natsu!" Tears fell from Lucy's face. "It's impossible!"

"Not hardly! I'm still goin' strong!" Natsu replied as he soon crashed to the ground.

"Natsu!" Lucy called out.

"I ain't givin' up, no matter what... I ain't gonna run away... or go back..." Fire engulfs Natsu's clenched fist. "This ain't over!"

"Natsu!" Lucy screamed out as Natsu charged forward at the dragon.

A/N: Apologises for such a late update. Hurricane Beryl struck my town and left me without power for 2 weeks in the beginning of the month.

I've been focusing on getting my life back together afterwards and I'll be starting law school next month.

Thanks for reading!

~ Kaleb.