"Master Hades, is it?! I will definitely take you down with my own two hands!" Natsu's expression was absolutely ferocious amidst his blazing flames as he issued his bold challenge directly to Hades.
"Hmph. Is this the loud-mouthed little brat you raised? He really takes after your foolishness, Makarov," Precht merely chuckled disdainfully in response to Natsu's provocation.
In his eyes, Natsu was nothing but a noisy ant.
Why bother getting angry with a buzzing insect?
"But before I get to you, I must deal with this guy first!" Natsu glared viciously at Zancrow.
Watching Natsu's blazing determination, Laxus suddenly had some thoughts...
"You say you want to defeat Master Hades?! Hahaha!" Zancrow cackled. "I will make sure you never even joke about saying those words ever again!"
Natsu didn't bother arguing back.
He instantly charged forward, throwing two blazing right hooks directly at Zancrow's cheek.
"I already told you, your dragon flames do not hurt me at all!" Zancrow blocked effortlessly.
After kicking off several thick trees for momentum, Natsu rebounded and delivered a heavy, flaming claw kick to Zancrow's chest.
"Black flames... fire magic?" Makarov couldn't help but murmur as he watched Zancrow's dark fire easily absorb the blow.
He had never expected Natsu would ever lose to another fire mage.
"It is God Slayer Magic. The ultimate, lost slaying magic that far surpasses ancient Dragon Slayer Magic," Precht explained casually to Makarov, watching with academic interest.
"There is a massive difference in level between dragon fire and god fire! God fire isn't merely meant for burning—it is actually a flaming greatsword meant to completely destroy everything it touches!"
As he spoke, Zancrow violently condensed the black flames in his hands into a giant, scythe-like blade of dark fire.
He swung it wildly, cleanly slicing through several ancient trees so large they would require multiple people to embrace.
"God fire's absolute favorite prey is Mages!" Zancrow roared. "Flame God's Supper!"
Zancrow formed two giant, crushing pincers with his black flames.
He clasped his hands together and violently surrounded Natsu, trapping him within a suffocating sphere of dark fire.
Natsu could only scream in sheer agony from within the blazing trap.
"NATSU!" Laxus and Makarov yelled.
They wanted to rush forward and help, but Precht instantly interfered, shooting several spiked dark chains into the earth that disrupted their movements and forced them back.
"Once you are swallowed by these divine flames, it is over," Zancrow sneered. "You cannot escape until you are completely reduced to ashes."
"Natsu!" Makarov cried.
"At this point, we can only believe in Natsu to figure it out," Laxus grunted, dodging another chain.
Laxus and Makarov couldn't afford to be distracted.
If they blindly focused on helping Natsu, Precht would easily seize the opportunity to kill them all.
"This stuff?! I'll eat it and show you!" Natsu roared from inside the dark sphere.
"Don't waste your energy, fairy. Weak dragon power cannot possibly consume god fire!" Zancrow mocked.
Within the suffocating black flames, Natsu opened his mouth wide, forcefully sucking several thick strands of black fire into his stomach.
But immediately after, Natsu clutched his head, falling to his knees and screaming in absolute agony.
"I already warned you, didn't I?!" Zancrow laughed.
"Empty your magic power! Natsu!" Laxus suddenly roared.
He had remembered his own desperate experience of aggressively absorbing the Fire Dragon's flames during the Harvest Festival.
Natsu and Laxus were almost completely synchronized in that moment.
Natsu had also just thought of this insane method, though he wasn't entirely sure if it would actually work without killing him.
"AHHHHHHHH!!!" Faint orange flames briefly appeared within the sea of black fire.
With his magic power already nearly depleted from the long fights, Natsu gritted his teeth and quickly expelled the very last remnants of his own magic flames, pushing his empty container to the absolute limit.
"Hahaha! Emptying your own magical power?! I can't believe you actually thought of that!" Precht laughed from the sidelines, genuinely amused by the sheer insanity of the tactic.
The massive black fireball was slowly shrinking.
The black flames were being continuously, forcefully devoured by Natsu straight into his empty stomach.
"How is this even possible?! How can he possibly swallow the God Flames?!" Zancrow widened his eyes in absolute disbelief, his jaw dropping.
"First, he completely empties his own magic power container, creating an empty vessel capable of swallowing conflicting flames he normally couldn't hold," Laxus smirked.
"So that's how it is. Some higher-tier flames require insane, life-threatening tricks to swallow," Makarov realized.
"This is completely reckless! This isn't a reliable battle method that can be pulled off with just neat tricks!"
Although Natsu had somehow succeeded, Makarov still desperately wanted to scold him.
To dare empty his magic power completely while standing directly within the enemy's lethal magical energy was pure, suicidal recklessness.
When Laxus had devoured Natsu's flames, he had been fully prepared, without immediate external threats, and it was the magical power of a dragon from the exact same origin—at most, only the elemental attributes differed.
But Natsu had just gone ahead and swallowed something entirely divine and incompatible.
"You big idiot! Are you trying to get yourself killed?!" Makarov yelled.
"Of course I don't want to die! And I won't let anyone else die here, either!" Natsu roared.
He stood up, his fists blazing brilliantly.
On his right hand burned his signature orange dragon fire; on his left hand burned the pitch-black god fire.
"Everyone will return together! Back to Fairy Tail!"
"Become one! Dragon Fire and God Fire!"
Natsu leaped incredibly high into the air, the sheer force cracking the earth beneath him.
He brought his blazing hands together above his head, forcefully fusing the two incompatible magics into a swirling vortex of apocalyptic heat.
"Dragon God's Brilliant Flame!"
Natsu hurled the massive, dual-colored fireball downward.
The black and orange flames merged into a devastating explosion, and Zancrow, trapped within the blast radius, endured the agonizing burning of both divine and draconic fires simultaneously.
When the smoke finally cleared, Zancrow had collapsed powerlessly to the scorched ground, completely unconscious and severely burned.
Natsu stood over him, panting heavily.
He weakly raised a single, trembling fist high into the air in a silent, exhausted celebration of his victory. He no longer had the physical strength to even shout.
A second later, Natsu's eyes rolled back and he fell face-first to the ground, fast asleep.
'This boy is truly incredible...'
This was the exact, shared thought running through the minds of Precht, Makarov, and Laxus simultaneously.
...
Meanwhile, in another ruin on the island, Kagura, Gray, Loke, and Lucy were locked in an incredibly difficult, frustrating battle.
Facing the fierce, coordinated assault of all four Fairy Tail mages, Zubal appeared completely at ease, barely even moving from his spot.
"What's going on? From just now... we haven't been able to land a single, solid hit on him," Lucy panted.
She slumped to the ground, her hands unconsciously gripping the soil, filled with deep frustration.
"Actually, it is not that we haven't hit him at all. It's that the opponent's physical skills are formidably sharp, and his presence gives me a very strange feeling," Kagura noted, her brow furrowed.
Kagura couldn't quite pinpoint exactly what was wrong.
Even though they were attacking with all their collective might, their strikes seemed to have absolutely no effect, and the opponent always managed to block or deflect them perfectly with minimal effort.
"Loke! Now!" Gray yelled.
Gray and Loke launched synchronized, high-speed kicks from both sides simultaneously.
But Zubal simply raised his hands and effortlessly blocked both strikes with his forearms, even having enough leftover energy to deliver a swift spinning kick that sent both men flying backward into the dirt.
"This guy is actually handling all four of us at once without breaking a sweat," Gray groaned, sitting up.
Gray grew increasingly disheartened as the fight dragged on.
With himself, Kagura, Loke, and Lucy working together, these four could easily hold their own against an S-Class Mage of the guild.
Yet they had been fighting one single person for so long with zero progress.
Where exactly was the problem...?
"I don't understand," Kagura muttered. "The opponent isn't using any obvious magic to evade our attacks, nor is it like Cobra's magic, where he can magically hear our voices and see through our physical movements before we make them."
"You guessed correctly, fairy. You are indeed completely powerless before me," Zubal sneered, looking down at them.
"You can't even lay a single finger on me, let alone truly resist me. You have absolutely no recourse left but to obey me and bow before your king."
A thick layer of purplish-black magical power suddenly enveloped Zubal, faintly exuding a suffocating sense of heavy pressure.
"That's it! This unbelievable pressure!" Lucy gasped, quickly realizing the connection.
She recalled the exact same nauseating discomfort she had felt earlier when he first arrived.
"Who exactly is this guy? Why do I keep feeling this overwhelming instinct that I can't win at all?" Gray asked, frowning deeply and clutching his chest.
"Does Human Subordination Magic actually have this kind of passive, psychological effect?" Kagura wondered aloud.
As a rare Lost Magic, Human Subordination Magic was only mastered by very few people in history and wasn't common knowledge, making its exact mechanics entirely unfamiliar territory for the young mages.
Ur, who was secretly observing the entire frustrating fight from the high branches of a nearby tree, had some very keen thoughts about this phenomenon.
However, she didn't plan to intervene just yet.
Only if there was an immediate, life-threatening danger would she step in to save them.
This was their trial to overcome.