The twilight's afterglow spilled over the endless sea of oak trees.
The branches and leaves of towering ancient trees intertwined to form a dense canopy, filtering the last light of day into mottled golden-green patches that fell upon the ground thickly covered with decaying leaves and ferns.
The air was humid, permeated with the fresh scent of pine resin, damp earth, and decaying vegetation, occasionally interspersed with the cries of tired birds returning to their nests and the rustling of forest rats scurrying about.
This was an ancient forest, far from the madding crowd and teeming with life.
However, a hideous scar brutally tore through this tranquility.
The fifth giant leg of Nirvana, like a gray tusk thrust from the earth, stood defiantly deep within the forest.
It was a hundred meters tall, entirely composed of a strange dark gray rock riddled with honeycomb-like holes, its surface flowing with viscous, dull yellowish-brown energy streams, like the decaying veins of a giant beast.
The base of the giant leg was deeply embedded in the earth, and within dozens of meters around it, towering oak and fir trees were uprooted or snapped in half, revealing upturned brown earth and pale tree root cross-sections, like a massive wound.
Broken giant trees lay haphazardly on the ground, their branches and leaves withering and turning yellow at a visible rate.
The giant leg itself emitted a dull, oppressive magical fluctuation, like a continuous low-frequency drumbeat, making the ground tremble slightly, dispelling the forest's original tranquility and vitality, leaving only dead silence and ominousness.
"Ha—! Finally found it!"
A fiery roar, like a huge stone cast into still water, broke the dead silence of the forest.
The short pink-haired youth slammed down like a cannonball onto a relatively open, branch- and leaf-strewn patch of forest floor in front of the giant leg.
Natsu kicked up a circle of dust and dead leaves as he landed. He straightened up, his lean upper body covered in grass and dirt, and uncontrolled crimson flames shot up from his hair and shoulders, instantly igniting a few falling dead leaves with a sizzling sound.
He raised a hand to wipe the sweat from his face, golden pupils seemingly burning with fire as he stared intently at the base of the giant leg, which emitted a nauseating aura—
There, the yellowish-brown energy glow was most intense and viscous, like a beating heart, each pulse causing the surrounding air to subtly distort.
"Aye! Natsu! Be careful! That thing is sucking the earth's magical power! The surrounding trees are almost all dead!" The blue cat Happy flapped his pure white wings, hovering at Natsu's shoulder, his pink eyes warily scanning the twisted, withered trees and the chaotic magical currents in the air.
"I'm all fired up!" Natsu grinned, revealing his sharp white fangs, his fists clenching with a cracking sound, sparks erupting from between his fingers. "See that 'heart'? It looks like a moldy tumor! Smash it, and this broken leg will be Waste! Let's go!"
"Aye!" Happy nodded emphatically, his small paws clenched tight.
"Happy—Fusion!!"
There was no earth-shattering light, only a pure, condensed stream of pristine white energy erupting from Happy's small body, like a homing star, instantly plunging into Natsu's lower back spine!
Buzz—!
Natsu's body suddenly shook!
A powerful, condensed sensation of power, like molten lava about to erupt from a volcano, instantly surged through his limbs and bones!
His muscle fibers felt as if they were being twisted and tempered again by an invisible giant hand, filled with explosive strength.
The crimson flames around him did not change color; they remained the pure red of burning blood, but the temperature of the flame's core seemed more contained, its color deeper, and the heat waves it emitted subtly warped the surrounding air, even causing a few nearby dead leaves to spontaneously combust without fire.
Two thin streams of white vapor, carrying scorching sparks, involuntarily shot from his nostrils, like a giant dragon warming up.
"Ohh—!!" The pleasure of power filling his entire body made Natsu let out a low, beast-like roar. He stomped his foot, creating a shallow pit in the ground, and the crimson flames shot up fiercely with excitement, searing the surrounding air with crackling sounds!
Almost at the moment the fusion was complete, a sudden change occurred!
Buzz—!!!
Just in front of the giant leg's base, above the open space surrounded by fallen giant trees and withered vegetation, the air violently twisted without warning!
A magnificent magic circle, over ten meters in diameter, swirling with seven pure magical flames of red, orange, yellow, green, cyan, blue, and purple, suddenly unfolded like the most deadly peacock's display!
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