Face, an immensely durable weapon forged from vast quantities of pure conceptual Magic Power, shattered into dust beneath Igneel's devastating dive.
"Nice one, Igneel!"
Natsu sat atop the Fire Dragon King's head, shouting excitedly.
Igneel bared his fangs in satisfaction.
Flames gathered briefly inside his mouth before erupting outward, bringing down heat like a natural disaster and melting another Face into nothing.
This was the true Fire Dragon's Roar—The power of a genuine Dragon King!
Even after all his brutal training, Natsu would have to enter Fire Dragon King Mode and exhaust every last drop of his Magic Power to unleash a roar of comparable force.
With the true Fire Dragon King, Igneel, lending his strength, the enormous number of Face units began disappearing at a terrifying rate.
The other four dragons were equally destructive.
When it came to raw devastation, even Fairy Tail's demolition specialists could not compare with actual dragons.
The greatest destructive power on land, unmatched mobility in the skies, and an innate gift for magic—This was why dragons had once ruled the world.
The five dragons tore through every Face along their path. At this pace, they would not need thirty minutes.
One or two would be enough to destroy all three thousand.
"Igneel, earlier you said humans should handle what humans can do. What did you mean?"
With the crisis surrounding Face nearly resolved, Natsu suddenly remembered those words and asked curiously.
Igneel's gaze flickered before his voice turned solemn.
"Natsu, you already know about E.N.D., don't you?"
Natsu nodded.
"Ankh told me. He said E.N.D. is the strongest demon ever created by the Black Wizard Zeref—and that even you couldn't destroy him."
Igneel remained silent for a long moment.
Then he slowly said, "E.N.D. will not be humanity's true opponent."
Natsu leaned forward and peered into Igneel's eye.
"Why? Is he too weak?"
"That isn't what I mean…"
Igneel shook his enormous head without explaining further.
"But Zeref himself may be a different matter."
"Wasn't he alive four hundred years ago?"
Igneel slowly turned his gaze toward the west.
"Yes. Four hundred years have passed, yet he still hasn't died."
"And now… he seems even more terrifying than before."
"Is Zeref stronger than you?" Natsu asked.
Igneel bared his fangs in a grin.
"Who knows? Zeref's most frightening quality has always been the mystery surrounding him. No one knows how much power truly stands behind that man."
"Who cares?" Natsu clenched his fist, brimming with his usual confidence. "If that Black Wizard comes after humanity, I'll beat him myself!"
An affectionate smile appeared on Igneel's face.
Yet deep within his eyes, an inescapable shadow remained.
The dragons had awakened from within the Dragon Slayers.
That man would soon begin moving as well.
...
"Your Majesty, according to the Intelligence Division's observations, every Face unit within Ishgar has been destroyed."
"Several extraordinarily powerful magical signatures have also appeared across the continent."
Far from the northern front, an elite army had appeared without warning outside a remote town in Ishgar.
Its numbers rivaled the continental forces deployed at the border, while its equipment was even more complete.
Every soldier stood in perfect formation, their discipline beyond reproach.
Such an enormous military force had somehow materialized beside an otherwise insignificant town.
Several trembling residents were being kept outside the local cemetery.
Within the graveyard, a young man with black hair sat before a tombstone. He wore ancient-looking clothes and stared at the weathered stone in silent contemplation.
Standing beside him was Invel, a blue-haired young man holding a stack of intelligence reports.
"Our instruments have confirmed that those magical signatures belong to dragons, Your Majesty," Invel reported solemnly. "This is the ideal time for us to deploy."
"Exactly!"
Ajeel, dressed in desert-style clothing, grinned excitedly and spoke with barely restrained impatience.
"Your Majesty! With the dragons assisting them, Ishgar will soon crush Guiltina completely. We can use this opportunity to strike the northern continent from behind and seize the spoils."
"If everything goes well, we may even march directly into Ishgar afterward!"
The black-haired young man was none other than Zeref—
The most powerful Black Wizard in the world.
He continued staring at the grave before him, then quietly released a sigh.
"Tell everyone to prepare."
Delight appeared on Invel's and Ajeel's faces.
Ajeel immediately rushed away to relay the order to the troops.
Zeref gently traced the faded inscription on the tombstone.
"Invel, who do you believe should rule over the lives of humanity?"
As Zeref's secretary, Invel had long since grown accustomed to his revered emperor asking strange, philosophical questions without warning.
"The strongest, naturally," he answered at once. "In other words, you—the one whom no other being can equal."
Zeref smiled, though no emotion reached his face.
Then he continued speaking as though to himself.
"Will it be the dragons, infamous for ruling through violence?"
"The gods, who value order but possess no human compassion?"
"Or humanity itself—clumsy creatures who collide with obstacle after obstacle and struggle desperately merely to survive?"
Zeref slowly rose to his feet.
"It no longer matters…"
"I cannot escape, and neither can any living creature."
"Natsu… you need to hurry."
"Your Majesty?"
Seeing Zeref slipping back into one of his unsettling trances, Invel cautiously changed the subject.
"God Serena suffered a crushing defeat, but Mard Geer has returned. Should he be inducted into the Spriggan 12?"
Zeref returned to his senses.
"Yes. Give him this as well. It should increase his strength."
Invel accepted the book Zeref handed him.
After confirming there were no further orders, he bowed and withdrew.
The Alvarez army had cleared the area, leaving Zeref entirely alone in the cemetery.
Then a figure slowly approached from behind him.
A hoarse voice broke the silence, carrying an indescribable coldness.
"Whose grave is that?"
Zeref remained silent for a moment.
"My teacher's."
He gently brushed his hand over the stone, whose inscription had been almost completely erased by years of wind and rain.
It was as though touching the grave granted him some small measure of strength.
Zeref turned toward the young man with long, dark-blue hair.
"Not all of Guiltina's dragons are likely to appear. Your plan to devour them may remain incomplete."
"It doesn't matter."
A suffocating aura of death surrounded the gloomy young man.
He turned away, sprang high into the air, and transformed into an enormous shadow that raced across the sky.
The Black Dragon—
Acnologia.
With Igneel and the other dragons revealing themselves one after another, the monster who had once condemned Fairy Tail to a seven-year nightmare had also begun to move.