Acnologia looked at everyone's foolish expressions and shook his head. "You guys have no idea how to develop your own abilities."
Natsu's eyes lit up, and he couldn't help but ask, "Develop abilities? How do we do that?"
"Right, you said before that you'd help me train, but you never followed through on it."
Acnologia said matter-of-factly, "How long ago was that? It's long since expired."
"How can you say that?"
Seeing Natsu's furious reaction, he smiled and said, "However, I can give you a few words of guidance."
"The most important thing about fire is temperature!"
Natsu couldn't help but say, "I know that, of course. As long as my magic power is strong enough, the temperature of the fire will rise."
Acnologia had mentioned before that he could turn emotions into fire, and later in battle, he found it was true—the angrier he got, the stronger the fire became.
Acnologia thought for a moment and said, "Try compressing the fire."
Natsu was confused. "Compress?"
Acnologia nodded slightly. He extended his right hand, and a clump of black fire emerged; his left hand continuously produced flames, which were infinitely condensed into the clump of fire in his right hand.
"If you scatter a flame, the temperature will naturally drop. If you condense it, the temperature will naturally rise."
"You just need to control it well to avoid an explosion."
Under everyone's curious gazes, the black fire converged and compressed infinitely. Soon, the space began to warp, and that point of blackness produced a blinding, extreme brilliance.
If they had dared to touch the black fire at the beginning, they now felt a sense of suffocation just looking at the extremely bright flame, and their eyes felt a burning sensation.
As the fire's temperature rose higher and higher, everyone felt the air thinning and found it hard to breathe. Plastic items even began to burn without direct contact, followed by wooden tables.
Except for Natsu, everyone else began to find it unbearable and backed far away.
That terrifying temperature was unprecedented, so horrifying it was suffocating. Let alone touching it, they felt like they would die of dehydration just by being near it.
"This kind of temperature..."
Gray's expression was incredibly shocked as he looked at that point of extreme temperature. At this moment, he couldn't even use his ice magic; no matter how many variations of his Ice-Make Magic he had, they were all useless.
Acnologia held the black fire in his hand, looked at the incredulous Natsu, and said with a smile, "How about it? Want a taste?"
Natsu nodded excitedly. "Of course!"
He couldn't wait to open his mouth and inhale; the extreme black fire was swallowed into his stomach like a strand of noodles.
In an instant, Natsu's entire body ignited with black flames, and the terrifying high temperature burned his whole body bright red.
"Natsu, are you okay?"
Lucy and the others were extremely nervous. That black fire looked incredibly terrifying, and Natsu had swallowed it in one gulp without even worrying about burning a hole through his stomach.
At this moment, Natsu was like a giant branding iron, his skin turning red—a situation that had never occurred before when swallowing any other fire.
Acnologia deployed a magic barrier to isolate the temperature and flames. If Natsu were really allowed to release it, the entire guild would be burned to ashes.
"So hot!"
Natsu looked at the flames on his fists, incredibly excited. At this moment, he felt an unprecedented power; his own flames could incinerate everything.
His Dragon Slaying Magic could turn the swallowed fire into his own energy. The stronger the fire and the greater the energy, the more satiated he felt.
At this point, his sense of fullness had reached its peak; he wouldn't feel hungry for the next two or three days.
Is this Acnologia's fire?
Gray couldn't help but say, "It's boiling! Natsu, hurry up and take back your flames."
Natsu laughed triumphantly. "I won't! Gray, I'm stronger than you now!"
He had so much energy right now he was practically bursting; it felt amazing. Forget Gray, he felt like he could even take on Gildarts.
He mimicked the way Acnologia had condensed the fire earlier, gathering the flames from his entire body into his palm. As the fire converged, the temperature rose rapidly.
Natsu looked at the bright flame in his palm, his heart racing. He said excitedly, "It really works! I'm invincible now."
He felt that as long as he condensed and compressed enough fire, there was nothing in the world he couldn't burn through.
Gray looked at Acnologia and asked urgently, "Then how should I develop my ability?"
His best friend Natsu had suddenly become stronger; how could he stay in the same place? This felt worse than dying.
Acnologia sat back in his chair and said thoughtfully, "The strength of ice also lies in temperature. Theoretically, the absolute minimum temperature is -273.15 degrees, which can freeze all matter. Even light cannot escape it, meaning it can freeze time and space."
"Freeze time and space?"
Everyone was shocked. Was it in the sense they understood?
Acnologia nodded. "I'm not sure. Gray can try to see if he can reach it in the future."
After all, this was a magical world. The temperature limits of another world might not necessarily apply here; perhaps it could even reach minus three or four hundred degrees.
"Temperature, huh..."
Gray hesitated. In fact, he had always focused on the 'make' aspect of his magic, but today he was frightened by Acnologia's extreme high-temperature flames. In the face of such heat, his ice couldn't even get close.
He was already strong enough in terms of 'making' things; perhaps he really should put some effort into temperature in the future... He remembered that when he first started learning Ice-Make Magic, Ur had made him strip off his clothes and stand in the snow to experience the low temperature.
Marcus leaned his head in. "Acnologia, look at my magic. I use Sand Magic. What should I do?"
"Look at mine! Don't you know who came first? I was here first."
"Get lost! Your magic only blows smoke rings. What guidance do you need? Just go home and smoke more."
Seeing that Natsu and Gray's magic now had a direction for progress, the others couldn't sit still either. They crowded around in a large circle, clamoring for guidance on their own magic.
What if they were the chosen ones and just hadn't discovered it yet?
...This continued until dawn. Acnologia finally broke free from the crowd. He took a sip of water to soothe his throat and then collapsed onto the sofa in exhaustion.
Irene sat down and massaged his shoulders, smiling. "You're quite patient, giving everyone a bit of guidance."
"Since I started talking, I couldn't very well show favoritism."
Acnologia swore he would never talk about this useless stuff again.
Every single one of them was fantasizing about being the protagonist, holding a girl in their arms and sweeping all before them?
Stop dreaming. I'm the protagonist, okay?
With him in the guild, victory was guaranteed against any enemy. There wasn't much point in these people improving their magic; they should just honestly serve as the background for his own displays of power.
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