Ezreal fell silent, looking at Natsu's excited face, the images of Zeref and the Black Dragon appearing in his mind.
How could he fight these two despair-inducing opponents?
Zeref was still manageable; he could at least be reasoned with. If his personality matched his depiction in the anime, Ezreal already had a plan to deal with him.
But the Black Dragon Acnologia was a monster through and through, bent on world destruction.
This guy, completely insane from slaughter and dragonification, had no possibility of communication, and his raw power was even above Zeref's.
His physical body was almost immune to any attack except Dragon Slayer Magic, and he possessed immense magical power and a nearly BUG-level magic devouring ability.
How could one achieve victory against such an enemy?
Ezreal clearly remembered that the Fairy Tail anime original had the concept of parallel worlds.
In the Grand Magic Games arc, Future Lucy and Future Rogue came from two parallel timelines with completely different developments.
During the seven years Fairy Tail members were missing on Tenrou Island, the Kingdom of Fiore held such a nationwide competition every year.
Ostensibly to select the strongest Guild of the year, it was actually to collect the Mages' released magic power and store it in the Eclipse Gate.
After seven years of continuous collection, the magic power stored in the gate was extraordinary. The Kingdom decided that after this tournament, they would use the Eclipse Gate to travel back 400 years to defeat the Black Mage Zeref, who did not yet have immortality at that time.
However, on the night the gate was opened, a red moon anomaly appeared in the sky, causing the Eclipse Gate's magic power to mutate, which led to dragons from 400 years ago coming to the present world through the gate.
Thousands of dragons destroyed the human world and became its rulers, giving rise to two future timelines: Future Lucy and Future Rogue.
In Future Lucy's timeline, the main Fairy Tail members and others from different Guilds, almost depleted of magic power during the finals, fought desperately against the appearing dragons. However, the power gap was too vast, and despair instantly enveloped the entire Kingdom.
Under Natsu's selfless cover, Lucy was able to use the Eclipse Gate to travel back, but she lost her right hand, which bore the Fairy Tail Guild emblem.
After the horrific slaughter by the dragons, Levy was the only survivor, weeping on the battlefield.
The time-traveling Future Lucy successfully returned to the day the tournament ended through the Eclipse Gate, closing it in time and preventing the dragons from appearing.
But seven years after this timeline, which was Future Rogue's timeline, the Black Dragon Acnologia swept through. The world, which had been spared the dragon rampage, once again faced despair.
At this time, Lucy had not gone back to the past again, and Rogue, to change this situation, killed his companion Sting, self-taught Dragon Slayer Magic, and used the Eclipse Gate to return to the time of the tournament seven years prior.
The two timelines converged on the day of the Grand Magic Games.
Therefore, when Future Lucy informed everyone in the present that ten thousand dragons would appear that night, bringing destruction and despair to the world...
Future Rogue, however, wanted to release the dragons from four hundred years ago in this era to defeat Acnologia and rule the world in his place.
Thus, he deceived the naive Princess Hisui by claiming he already knew the results of the tournament, making her determined to use the Eclipse Gate to fire a so-called magic cannon to annihilate the vast number of dragons at once.
Future Lucy and Future Rogue had a clear information gap.
Future Lucy didn't actually know that the dragons came from the world 400 years ago, beyond the gate.
At that time, Future Lucy was imprisoned in the royal dungeon, and she only traveled back through the Eclipse Gate with the help of her companions after the dragons were released.
Future Rogue's timeline was seven years later, so he knew that Future Lucy had already closed the Eclipse Gate once, and he understood that the dragons came to the present through time travel from four hundred years ago, using the Eclipse Gate.
In reality, these were two completely different timelines, also representing two different world trajectories.
And the Fairy Tail world at that time was the world trajectory of a third outcome.
It can be understood that there were actually three Fairy Tail worlds.
The first world can be named the Fairy Tail Main World. In this world, the final outcome was that Future Lucy was killed by Future Rogue, but at Lucy's warning, the Eclipse Gate was closed early, and only seven dragons appeared.
After dealing with the seven dragons, then fighting Tartaros, and then confronting the Alvarez Empire, everyone ultimately resolved Black Mage Zeref in the final battle, and then gathered the magic power of Mages from across the continent to take down the Black Dragon.
In this Fairy Tail Main World, the ending was ultimately a Happy one.
The second world can be named the Ten Thousand Dragons World.
In this world, there was no need for the Black Dragon or Zeref to appear; just the tens of thousands of giant dragons that emerged from the Eclipse Gate completely destroyed the world.
There was no Happy ending; the final outcome was the dragon race ruling the world.
The third world was the Black Dragon World where Future Rogue resided. Seven years after the threat of dragons was gone, the Black Dragon almost destroyed everything, and the surviving humans could only struggle to survive.
Before the Grand Magic Games arc began, Ezreal couldn't determine which world he was in.
If it was the Fairy Tail Main World, then so be it; even without effort, everyone would ultimately be Happy, with a Happy ending.
But what if it was one of the other two worlds?
Ezreal dared not even imagine.
"Natsu..." After a long silence, Ezreal slowly spoke, his voice hoarse and weak, "I have a reason why I must become stronger."
Ezreal gazed at Natsu with gentle eyes, looking at the fire in the boy's eyes. His expression was solemn. "Do you believe me?"
Natsu answered without hesitation, "Of course!"
Ezreal took a deep breath, about to say something, but Natsu gently punched him on the shoulder, "I don't want to hear you talk about anything complicated."
"But remember, we are companions!"
"No matter what happens, someone will be there to bear it with you."
...The setting sun dyed the village amber, and cooking smoke curled up from above the thatched roofs.
The villagers arranged long tables in a star shape in the open space at the village entrance, and the aroma of roast suckling pig mixed with the sweetness of apple wine wafted through the air.
Happy squatted in the center of the dining table, his wings covered in honey, devouring an entire grilled fish.
"Aye! This honey-glazed salmon is super good!" The blue kitten's tail curled around a wooden spoon, scooping a spoonful of mashed potatoes into his mouth.
Natsu sat cross-legged on a pile of straw, flames dancing on his fingertips to heat up the grilled skewers.
Sparks splattered onto Ezreal's pants, which he casually patted out: "If you set the village on fire, the reward money won't be enough to compensate."
"Less talk!" Natsu shoved a sizzling, oily skewer into Ezreal's hand. "Eat more, you're as pale as a ghost."
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