Chapter 35
In the dimly lit basement of Fairy Tail's guild hall, where the crystallized body of the founding master, Mavis Vermillion, was once preserved, Naruto stood at the entrance to the chamber. The chamber, which had housed Mavis's body encased in a Lacrima—a manifestation of Fairy Heart, the guild's source of infinite magic power—was now empty. Zeref Dragneel, the infamous dark wizard and brother to Natsu Dragneel, had absorbed Mavis and ascended into a form of otherworldly white, combining the infinite magic of Fairy Heart with his own powers
Naruto's fists clenched at his sides, his teeth gritted in barely restrained anger. The memory of the devastation Zeref had wrought upon the guild was fresh in his mind. Makarov Dreyar, the venerable master of Fairy Tail, had stood defiantly against Zeref's death wave, a sacrificial act to protect his comrades. Had Naruto arrived a minute later, the old man would have perished.
"What do you mean by that?" Naruto demanded, his voice a low growl, his nails digging into his palms, his rage barely contained. "You almost killed them all—Makarov, the guild, everyone! And now you're standing here, talking about—"
"Fairy Heart."
Zeref's voice cut through the tension like a blade, calm, unwavering.
Naruto remained still.
Zeref's raven eyes met his, devoid of malice yet filled with an unfathomable depth of purpose. He raised a hand, gesturing toward the now-empty altar where Mavis had once lain.
"It lies beneath Fairy Tail," Zeref spoke, his voice carrying a weight that seemed to stretch beyond time itself. "The truth of her existence. The true nature of her power. A limitless source of magic… the key to breaking the very fabric of this world."
There was reverence in his tone, almost as if he were speaking of something holy, yet the sheer magnitude of what he was implying sent a chill through Naruto's spine.
His stomach twisted. He didn't like where this was going.
"For what purpose?" Naruto demanded, his hands curling into fists. "What's your true aim?!"
Zeref closed his eyes for a brief moment, as if collecting his thoughts, before exhaling softly. When he spoke again, his voice was calm, yet laced with an emotion Naruto couldn't quite place.
"My true aim is to rewrite history itself," he said, his fingers slowly clenching at his side. "With Fairy Heart, I can activate Neo Eclipse—a spell that will allow me to relive my life, correcting the mistakes I have made and preventing the countless tragedies that have unfolded."
Naruto's expression darkened. His Aokugan flared, the glowing blue light reflecting in Zeref's crimson gaze.
"But at what cost?" Naruto snapped. "You'd be erasing everything—every life, every experience, everything that is this world! Do you even hear yourself?!"
For the first time, Zeref's eyes wavered. A flicker of something—guilt? Pain? Regret? But it was gone in an instant, buried beneath the same unwavering resolve.
"I am aware of the consequences," Zeref murmured.
Naruto grit his teeth. "Aware? You bastard—you're talking about killing everyone here! You're messing with forces beyond your comprehension!" His chakra flared violently, the weight of his fury pressing against the room. "Do you have any idea what you're about to do? This isn't just time travel—you're trying to overwrite existence itself!"
Zeref's expression remained eerily calm, but there was a certain hollowness in his gaze.
"This is the only way," he said quietly. "The only way to end the suffering—for myself and for this world, which has been plagued by my existence for far too long. The only way to undo everything…"
His voice trailed off, as if he were speaking more to himself than to Naruto. Then, his eyes sharpened, and when he met Naruto's gaze again, there was no hesitation.
"This is the path I have chosen," he declared, his tone final, absolute. "And I will see it through to the end."
Naruto's heart pounded. He could feel it—the shift in energy, the space around them warping, the very fabric of reality bending under Zeref's will.
Zeref lifted his hand, and in that instant, Fairy Heart—limitless, boundless magic—began to surge through his body, golden streams of power intertwining with the white glow of his ascended form. The chamber trembled. The very air grew heavy, thick with unstable magic as cracks formed along the walls, pulsing with an unnatural light.
The Space Between Time—the void that lay beyond reality itself—began to bleed into existence.
Naruto's breath hitched.
This wasn't just some overpowered magic spell.
Zeref was forcing open the gates of time itself.
"Even if it means standing against you," Zeref said, his voice echoing with divine authority, "even against your eyes, Naruto Uzumaki…"
His form flickered, his body nearly translucent against the shifting tides of space and time.
"I will keep moving forward. No matter the cost."
And with that, the world fractured.
The clash was cataclysmic.
The very fabric of the world screamed as Naruto and Zeref collided, their power tearing through reality itself. Fairy Heart surged through Zeref's form, divine and absolute, his mere presence unraveling the space around them. Naruto met him head-on, his Aokugan flaring, his combined source of powers roaring in defiance. The shockwave of their impact could've ruptured the battlefield—Magnolia no— perhaps the whole country, obliterating everything in its wake—stone, sky, even the air itself.
However—
A rift.
Reality fractured.
Time itself broke apart, and in the blink of an eye, they were swallowed into the void.
The Space Between Time—a realm where past, present, and future bled together into infinity. A place where gods and mortals alike would be lost forever, where existence itself held no meaning.
Here, there was no gravity, no up or down, no light or darkness—only a swirling abyss of forgotten moments, spirals of distorted time flickering like shattered glass.
And within it, two beings stood.
Two who had long since crossed their limits. Two whose powers defied reason. Two who bore the weight of infinite prowess—yet carried burdens far heavier than their fists.
Zeref floated within the void, his radiance godlike, his white robes shifting like liquid light. His raven eyes burned with unshakable conviction, the pristine white aura of Fairy Heart pulsating around him like a heartbeat of the universe itself.
Naruto hovered before him, battle-worn yet unyielding. His chakra flared wildly, tendrils of raw energy spiraling outward, his own power boundless, infinite—a force not of destruction, but of defiance. The Aokugan in his eyes gleamed like twin stars, reflecting the very essence of creation itself.
Here, in this place beyond life and death, beyond time and consequence—
They would settle this.
No more words. No more arguments. No more hesitation.
Only battle.
A storm of magic and chakra erupted between them, splitting the void apart. Their fists met once more, and in that instant—
The battle of infinity began.
Naruto exhaled sharply, his body floating weightlessly in the endless abyss. The space around him was unstable, warping and flickering, as if time itself couldn't decide whether it should move forward, backward, or stand still. Fractals of broken reality spiraled in every direction, past, present, and future melting together into an incomprehensible mosaic. It was disorienting—even for him.
Yet his focus remained locked on the lone figure before him.
Zeref.
The white-clad sorcerer hovered in the void, the white luminescence of Fairy Heart pulsating around him like a second skin, its radiance twisting the very concept of existence. His eyes were cold yet resolute, and his mere presence made the space quiver, as though the world itself feared his power.
Naruto clenched his fists.
"He's strong."
That much was obvious. But what made Zeref truly terrifying wasn't just his raw output—it was his complete command over the forces of time and death. That alone made this fight one of the deadliest Naruto had ever faced.
The Aokugan in his eyes flared, but even with its enhanced perception, he couldn't yet grasp the full extent of Zeref's existence. The wizard was an enigma, a contradiction of life and death intertwined, bound to a fate beyond mortal comprehension. Naruto needed time—to see, to understand.
And Zeref wasn't going to give him that luxury.
The dark wizard raised a single hand.
A shockwave of pure magic blasted outward.
The force of it shredded the space between them, warping the void itself into jagged, chaotic fissures. Naruto barely had time to react before a barrage of purity white lances of compressed foreign force erupted from Zeref's form, launching toward him at speeds that made even light seem sluggish.
Naruto twisted his body midair, dodging the first few lances by the barest margins. He could feel their sheer lethality—if even one struck, it wouldn't just damage his body; it could sever his existence from time itself.
The next wave came faster.
Naruto crossed his arms in an x-shape, molding all he could muster into a barrier of six rotating Rasengans around him. The lances struck, detonating in brilliant explosions of energy, but the spiraling chakra absorbed most of the impact, dispersing the attacks before they could fully reach him.
Zeref was relentless.
The moment the lances failed, he vanished—blinking through time itself—and reappeared above Naruto. His palm was already descending, black tendrils of cursed magic writhing around his fingers.
"Endless Oblivion."
A single tap.
Naruto barely managed to tilt his head. A hair's breadth. The attack grazed his shoulder—and suddenly, the very concept of "Naruto" in that spot was erased. The fabric of his sleeve and a portion of his skin simply ceased to exist, leaving behind nothing but an empty void where flesh once was.
That was too close!
Naruto spun, retaliating with a empowered roundhouse kick aimed at Zeref's ribs. The dark wizard simply phased out of time, vanishing before reappearing behind him, his hand already forming another spell.
"Chrono Rupture."
The air cracked.
Naruto's instincts screamed at him. He teleported just in time as the very space where he had been standing collapsed into nonexistence, as though history had rewritten itself to erase that moment entirely.
This wasn't a normal fight. Zeref was waging war against reality itself.
Naruto skidded backward, breathing hard, his mind racing.
"He's warping time and causality itself. My moves need to be precise—I can't afford mistakes."
Zeref wasted no time. He extended both arms outward. A pure white storm of power erupted from his body, hundreds—no, thousands—of glyphs materializing around him.
"Celestial Cataclysm."
Each glyph unleashed a beam of concentrated annihilation, converging upon Naruto from all directions.
"Rasen Suisei!"
Spiraling comet.
Naruto surrounded himself with his mixed source of powers. Then pushing it all to his feet as he flew around to dodge all of Zeref's attacks.
Then as he flew around, barely dodging all of Zeref's storm of attacks, he gathered his powers to his right palm as if a vortex.
A spiraling pulling sphere.
"Rasen Kyūin Gan!"
Naruto hurled the Rasengan to Zeref's attacks pulling it all. The man stood still continuously focusing all his attacks on the blonde.
As if a black hole—Rasen Kyūin Gan defended Naruto successfully from Zeref's relentless attack.
Unsatisfied, Zeref teleported away from Naruto.
"Void Rend."
This time, he clawed through space itself, and before Naruto could dodge, reality buckled around him. His body twisted—his sense of direction scrambled—he was falling, yet there was no ground, no sky.
Then—Zeref was there.
A palm strike to the chest.
Naruto coughed blood, his vision flashing white.
He was sent hurtling backward through the void at impossible speeds, crashing through distortions in time—visions of the past and future flickering around him. He saw glimpses of Konoha, of Jiraiya, Neji, Hinata, Himawari, Sasuke and Boruto, of a world yet to be.
And then—he stopped.
Naruto hovered, gasping for breath, his hands trembling.
"Damn it. If this keeps up…"
His Aokugan flared again.
And this time—he had reached another breakthrough. His ethereal blue eyes threw everything it gathered to him, finally giving him insight of Zeref's otherworldly state, his Fairy Heart Mode.
Naruto inhaled deeply. His mind was clearer now.
He had adapted.
It was time to go on the offensive.
Zeref prepared another attack—but this time, Naruto moved first.
Spiraling star cloud.
A cloud made of countless extremely compressed Rasengan that was the size of a dust materialized from his palm.
"Rasen Seiun!"
A single swipe of the Rasen Seiun ripped apart the void, severing Zeref's temporally-displaced forms and forcing him to solidify into one existence.
That was all Naruto needed.
He vanished in an instant.
Then—a single punch.
A straight, powerful blow to the gut, chakra-infused, sage-enhanced, laced with the sheer force of Naruto's will.
Zeref's eyes widened.
For the first time in this battle—he felt it.
Pain.
The world shook.
Naruto didn't let up.
The battle that had been one-sided was no longer.
Naruto imbued his body with the resource he had from his Tenkei no Fūin, the boundless energy within him surging like a tamed ocean. This time, he would fight not with flashy techniques nor destructive attacks. No—he would fight with his fists.
Remembering Sasuke's words once more.
"Real ninja can communicate what they're thinking just with their fists."
Zeref, undeterred, raised his hand. A black pulse of time-erasing energy rippled outward. Space convulsed, and history itself fractured where the magic surged, wiping out any event caught in its path.
But it never reached Naruto.
The Faux Baryon Mode—the Aokugan had adapted—his Tenkei no Fūin had begun feeding on Zeref's power. What should have been a reality-devouring force vanished upon impact, absorbed into the boundless seal etched into Naruto's being.
And so, for the first time—
Zeref's attacks reached none.
And Naruto's fists reached Zeref.
A swift right hook crashed into Zeref's cheek. The force sent him spiraling through the warped void, his immortal body feeling the pain of impact—something he had not felt in a long time.
His vision blurred. The past seeped into the present.
A village in ruins... The corpse of his family... His father, his mother... Of Natsu's...
Zeref saw himself—no, his past self. The boy he once was, where his first desire to defy fate began.
Then—a fist dug into his gut, deep and merciless.
"Guh!" Zeref gasped, blood spurting from his mouth, his body folding over Naruto's knuckles. He barely had time to recover before Naruto twisted his form, his elbow slamming into Zeref's sternum, sending him rocketing backward. The void itself seemed to fracture from the sheer impact.
"Why are you showing me this…"
The weight of memories bore down. His pursuit of knowledge... His thirst for it... To defy fate. To change it all.
Eclypse.
The Curse.
A palm strike hammered into his ribcage, forcing the breath from his lungs. Zeref's head snapped forward, his vision flickering, his ears ringing with the echoes of past screams—his own, the countless others who perished by his hand.
Naruto stepped forward, relentless.
BAM!
A knee drove into his chin, cracking his jaw. Zeref reeled back, a wheeze escaping him—his first taste of struggle in centuries. His limbs felt sluggish, his body suddenly aware of pain, of suffering, of the very mortality he had long forsaken.
The millions of lives he took... The Etherious... His creations, all birthed in the name of fate. And yet, none had saved him.
Naruto's next attack came like a thunderbolt. A spinning backhand crashed into Zeref's temple, his skull rattling from the sheer force. His eyes flickered—a glimpse of Mavis.
"M-Mavis..."
The love he lost. The life he ruined. The warmth he extinguished with his own hands.
CRACK!
A brutal kick snapped his head back, his vision warping. Stars danced in his eyes as his body soared weightlessly through the empty abyss. He could hear his heartbeat pounding in his ears—the rhythm of regret, of memories unburied by the fists of a man who knew nothing of fate's cruelty, yet rejected it all the same.
Naruto wasn't stopping.
He dashed forward, closing the distance instantly. Zeref barely registered his presence before a savage uppercut lifted him off his feet. His spine arched, his body convulsed, blood flinging from his mouth in a crimson arc. The agony, the rawness—for the first time in so long, he felt human.
The ache in his bones. The sting of every blow. The suffocating weight of his sins crashing down upon him with every hit.
A devastating roundhouse kick launched him at lightspeed, the void itself trembling as his body carved a path through the fabric of space.
"I wanted to change it. I wanted to undo it all."
Zeref's mind spiraled, drowning in the echoes of his past. His fingers twitched, desperate to hold onto something, anything. But there was nothing.
Nothing except the storm of Naruto Uzumaki, unyielding and absolute.
And then—a blur of orange.
Naruto appeared above him, descending like judgment itself, his fist cocked back, an executioner's final swing.
Zeref saw it. Naruto's face—burning, furious, yet filled with something else. Conviction.
His voice tore through the void, louder than fate itself:
"Don't run away from yourself, Zeref! Don't throw it all to fate! You don't get to blame fate for all the consequences you've faced!"
Zeref's eyes widened.
And for the first time in centuries, he felt fear.
"This... is consequence..."
Naruto's fist struck true.
WHAM!
Naruto's strike hammered him downward. The impact was thunderous, rattling the very fabric of the warped dimension. The force sent Zeref plummeting, spiraling uncontrollably into the endless abyss, yet he didn't resist. Didn't struggle. He simply kept falling, his body limp as if surrendering to the weight of a fate he had long since accepted.
The descent felt eternal. The swirling, fractured space around him stretched and distorted, twisting into incomprehensible shapes. Yet, even as he tumbled through the void, there was no pain—just an overwhelming emptiness.
Until he stopped.
A moment of silence.
The vast nothingness around him seemed to inhale, holding its breath in anticipation. The eerie stillness of the Space Between Time pressed against him, as if even the universe itself was watching.
Then—
Naruto soared through the void, his presence an unshakable force against the nothingness. The two figures—one wanting to defy fate by erasing it all, the other wanting to defy fate to face the impending doom that is his future.
As if for eternity the two floated still, unmoving in the vast, silent abyss of the Space Between Time.
Zeref remained still, his body battered, his expression unreadable. Yet in his dark, ancient eyes, there was something—recognition, maybe even understanding.
Naruto met his gaze, steady and unwavering.
"I… understand it full well..." His voice was quiet, almost solemn, but it carried the weight of someone who had seen and endured far too much.
"Your sentiments…"
Zeref's breath hitched.
"If I had a way to redo everything… a button to press… I would've pushed it without hesitation. For another chance… to make it right..."
His words lingered in the void, heavy with a truth that neither of them could ignore. The mere thought of undoing the past, of correcting failures, of saving the ones he lost—it was tempting.
Zeref's fingers twitched. A flicker of something crossed his face—was it hope?
But then, Naruto exhaled, shaking his head. His lips curled into something between a bitter smile and firm resolve.
"No… that's not true."
His voice cut through the abyss, firm and resolute.
"I still wouldn't do it."
Zeref's eyes widened ever so slightly.
"We shinobi—we endure."
Naruto's Aokugan gleamed in the void, reflecting the thousands of memories, regrets, and scars he carried. And yet, he stood tall, unshaken, unwavering.
"We wouldn't be able to enjoy living if we were given a chance to redo it all… Zeref…"
Naruto's words weren't a reprimand. They weren't scornful or dismissive. They were an understanding—a truth born from suffering, from acceptance.
The abyss around them remained still, yet the tension between them crackled like lightning before a storm. Zeref's breath was ragged, his voice stripped of arrogance, of defiance—left only with a hollow, painful submission.
"I want to wipe it all away… everything…" His words drifted into the void, heavy with the weight of centuries. "And start anew."
His body trembled, not from fear, but from the overwhelming exhaustion of existence itself.
"In my relentless pursuit to defy fate, it led me to a wretched state of death… Even after being cursed by a god, I continued to walk, out of desperation to salvage what I lost—what I cherished… my family… my brother…"
The memories came unbidden, crashing against him like waves against an eroding cliff. The laughter of a younger Natsu, untainted by the horrors of war. The gentle warmth of his mother's embrace. The proud, steady presence of his father. The love of Mavis, bright and unyielding like a flame in the dark.
All of it… gone.
Naruto watched him, unwavering. His Aokugan peered through Zeref's existence—seeing not just the immortal emperor, not just the bringer of death and calamity… but the lost man beneath it all.
"Natsu is still alive."
Zeref's breath hitched.
"Right now, he's fighting Mard Geer… He knows what you are. And knowing him… he'll burden it with you."
Zeref's eyes widened, confusion flashing through the torment in his gaze. "Burden?"
Naruto took a step forward, his presence grounding—unshakable.
"Everything about you. The life you led. Your loved ones, your sins, everything." His voice was firm, unwavering. "Even after all you've done… he won't abandon you, he will shoulder it with you!"
Silence.
Then—laughter. Bitter, empty laughter.
Zeref's shoulders shook, his expression twisting into something haunted, fractured.
"That's a lie."
His voice was sharp, his tone laced with something that felt dangerously close to despair.
"There is no bond between me and Natsu. There never was. I'm too far gone. I'm long past redemption."
His breath grew heavy. The hollow void around them seemed to respond, dark tendrils of magic beginning to swirl at his fingertips.
"That's why…" His voice trembled, yet his resolve was absolute. "That's why I need to do it all over again… I will not accept this fate. I REFUSE!"
Zeref soared forward, his form breaking the stillness of eternity itself. His hands lifted—divine, catastrophic—as he summoned destruction itself.
A final stand.
A final defiance.
Naruto didn't move.
Not yet.
His Aokugan flared—his mind cutting through time, piercing through Zeref's very essence.
Then, he lifted his right hand.
Two fingers extended—index and middle.
A spiraling vortex of unstable, limitless chakra formed at his fingertips, twisting and crackling, the air bending under its sheer gravitational pull.
"Rasen Enshū Gan."
A Spiraling Thieving Sphere.
Zeref snarled, his own life force surging forth—white streaks of compressed, cataclysmic energy.
"REND!"
Time itself cracked.
Two forces, absolute and unyielding, collided.
Tartaros, Domain of the Underworld King - Year X785
The fabric of space trembled as Naruto and Zeref were hurled back to Earthland, crashing onto the ruined battlefield near Mard Geer's fallen form. The aftermath of destruction lingered—scorched earth, fractured ruins, and the scent of smoldering embers from Natsu's final attack.
Natsu stood amidst the wreckage, his breath heavy, his fists still clenched from his battle against Mard Geer. His sharp eyes flickered toward the sudden arrival of the two figures—Naruto and Zeref—locked in a silent confrontation.
The once-immortal Black Wizard was stripped of his white radiance, his godlike aura severed, his Fairy Heart no longer sustaining his existence. The impact of Naruto's Rasen Enshū Gan had not just wounded Zeref, it had hollowed him, reducing him back to what he once was—a dark wizard.
And between them, lying still upon the ruined ground—Mavis.
Her chest rose and fell ever so slightly, the cursed weight of Ankhseram's judgment lifted from Naruto's earlier Rasen Enshū Gan.
Zeref's lips parted, his voice hoarse, almost fragile.
"…Mavis."
His fingers trembled as he gazed upon her, his mind reeling, unable to comprehend the impossible sight before him. She was alive. Freed from the curse that had bound them both for centuries.
Nearby, a ragged breath came from the downed Mard Geer, his broken body barely able to move.
"L-Lord Zeref…?" He choked, his voice carrying disbelief, the mighty Underworld King now reduced to ruin.
Yet, despite it all—the fight was not over.
A firm, calloused hand clamped down on Naruto's shoulder.
Naruto blinked, his muscles still tensed for battle. He turned his head—Natsu stood behind him.
No words were spoken. They weren't needed.
Naruto saw it in his eyes—unshaken resolve. A quiet, burning finality.
Natsu wasn't smirking. There was no cocky grin, no playful remark. His gaze was steel.
Serious.
Absolute.
This wasn't just a battle.
This was his fight.
Naruto exhaled, closing his eyes for a brief second before stepping aside. He understood. This wasn't his moment. This wasn't his burden.
This was Natsu's.
As he moved away, Natsu took a step forward. His fists ignited, flames surging with a heat that distorted the air around him.
He cracked his knuckles, rolling his shoulders, then finally spoke—his voice steady, unwavering.
"Sup, brother…"
Chapter End