After Natsu, Gajeel, and Laxus regrouped, Natsu's ears twitched.
He immediately looked toward Gajeel and Laxus.
"Do you hear something?"
Seeing that Natsu's expression had changed, Gajeel and Laxus both quieted down and listened carefully.
"A dragon's roar?!"
Laxus and Gajeel exchanged a glance.
Laxus had heard a dragon's roar before.
When he inhaled the Eternal Flame, the Hellfire Dragon Atlas Flame had roared inside his mind.
At the same time, fragments began falling from the collapsed remains of Tartaros's structures around them.
The earth itself seemed to tremble.
Raizel and Mard Geer's battle also stopped for the moment.
Mard Geer finally had a chance to catch his breath.
Even in his Etherious Form, he had only been able to flee in sorry fashion under Raizel's assault.
Fortunately for him, he was fast enough and could use teleportation repeatedly.
"This is..." Mard Geer could not help looking up toward the distant sky. "I didn't expect this... That thing actually came."
A drop of cold sweat rolled down Mard Geer's forehead, and his voice turned unusually grave.
'Looks like Blackie still came after all.'
Raizel instantly sharpened his focus and went on full alert.
At the temporary camp, the guild members also raised their heads toward the sky.
Many of them were so frightened by the dragon's roar that their bodies began trembling uncontrollably.
Mard Geer muttered under his breath, "Was it drawn here by powerful Magic Power? Or did it come chasing after Zeref?"
The dragon's roar grew clearer and clearer, mixed with the howling wind as it reached the ears of the guild members.
A storm swept across the plains.
Jet-black wings covered the moonlight.
Its tail and wings dragged streams of air across the sky, casting the entire plain beneath a vast shadow.
Blue markings ran across its black wings. Its jaws were filled with sharp fangs.
Dragon scales covered its whole body.
Its vicious claws, axe-like tail, and knotted muscles all proclaimed one thing—overwhelming power.
The Black Dragon.
Acnologia.
"ROAAAAAR—!"
With Acnologia's roar, many guild members began shaking without realizing it.
A chill ran through their entire bodies.
Their hearts felt as if they had been seized by an invisible hand, their throats as if they had been strangled.
Some were drenched in cold sweat, looking as though they had just been pulled out of water.
"That's really a dragon?!" Natsu, Gajeel, and Laxus stared at the sky in disbelief.
Raizel immediately sent a telepathic message to Fairy Tail's members.
'That is Acnologia, the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse. He is unbelievably powerful. Do not attack. Evade first!'
'I repeat: he is unbelievably powerful. Do not attack!'
In truth, Raizel did not need to emphasize it.
Everyone could tell Acnologia was not someone they could provoke.
Just seeing that massive body made it difficult to muster any fighting spirit.
Under Makarov's command, the members began withdrawing to other areas.
Still, some remained behind.
Natsu, Gajeel, Wendy, Ultear, and a few others.
Natsu had originally intended to ask about Igneel's whereabouts, but the moment he saw the Black Dragon, he was certain of one thing.
This thing was absolutely on the opposite side of humanity.
'So the Black Dragon that vanished from the continent for so long has finally returned...'
Ultear's brows knitted tightly.
This kind of absolute martial power was enough to make people feel despair.
'From the look of things... is it time?'
A volcano suddenly erupted.
Magma flowed down the mountainside.
A pair of enormous crimson claws stepped onto the lava, and a gigantic fire dragon with a striking scar around one eye and the side of its face stood atop the volcano.
The Black Dragon opened its mouth in midair and unleashed a sweeping Dragon's Roar.
Black dragonfire, combined with the scattered ammunition left behind by Tartaros, turned the Eastern Plains into a sea of flames.
Firelight surged into the sky as thick smoke billowed upward.
Originally, Acnologia had merely been soaring through the sky without any clear purpose.
But then it sensed the fluctuations of Curse Power and Magic Power from Cube, Mard Geer, and Raizel.
Acnologia hated dragons and Dragon Slayers more than anything!
What it loved most was destruction.
And battle.
The power coming from Mard Geer and Raizel was enough to draw its interest.
"Acnologia..." Erza and Kagura, having received Raizel's telepathic warning, could not help murmuring the name under their breath.
"What did you say?!"
Kyouka stared at Erza in horror, her face suddenly tense.
Of all enemies, the Nine Demon Gates probably wanted to encounter the Black Dragon the least.
For one simple reason.
The Black Dragon was far too powerful.
At the same time, Wendy, Natsu, Gajeel, Sting, and Rogue suddenly began acting strangely.
"Natsu!"
"Gajeel!"
"Wendy! What's wrong, Wendy?!" Carla cried beside Wendy.
Everyone gathered anxiously around the three who had collapsed to the ground.
None of them knew what had happened.
Natsu and Gajeel were slightly better off, gritting their teeth as they clutched their chests.
Wendy had fallen completely flat.
"Natsu? Are you okay, Natsu?" Lucy patted Natsu's shoulder.
Szzzt—
Lucy immediately pulled her hand back.
Natsu's body temperature was terrifyingly high.
Thump. Thump.
Thump. Thump.
A steady heartbeat echoed from Wendy, Natsu, and Gajeel's bodies.
Acnologia opened its mouth again and fired another roar across the plain.
Then it began lowering its altitude.
Wherever it flew, sonic booms seemed to erupt. Fierce winds raged, and not a single blade of grass remained standing.
"It's only circling around, and the shockwave is already this strong?!" Macao trembled all over, sitting frozen on the ground as he watched the Black Dragon fly past.
The Black Dragon had not attacked them directly.
Yet even the aftermath of it passing by was already hard to endure.
Mard Geer, acting as though he understood everything, nodded with a confident smile.
"I see. That thing's target is E.N.D. Does it fear E.N.D., perhaps? Is that why it wants to destroy him before he revives?"
Acnologia landed in the distance.
Whether it had really come for E.N.D. was still hard to say.
But this roar was definitely aimed at Raizel and Mard Geer.
Raizel immediately accelerated into the sky, widening the distance between himself and the Black Dragon.
'Natsu! It seems the time has come.'
Igneel's voice rang inside Natsu's mind.
"Igneel?"
Natsu clutched his chest and looked around, searching for Igneel.
'I have always believed that you would find a way to defeat E.N.D.'
"Igneel! Why can I hear Igneel's voice?!"
Wendy and Gajeel also heard voices.
The voices of the Sky Dragon Grandeeney and the Iron Dragon Metalicana.
"What exactly is happening to Natsu?" The others found Natsu's reaction incredibly strange.
'Acnologia will be handled by me!'
The instant Igneel's voice fell, dazzling firelight burst from Natsu's chest.
The light was like a scorching sun, forcing Ultear, Cana, and the others to raise their hands and shield their eyes.
Natsu knelt on the ground, both hands clutching his chest as he roared in agony.
"AAAAAHHH!!!"
Blazing light wrapped around him completely.
The physical pain was secondary.
What truly surged through him were his memories of Igneel.
All the years he had spent missing him.
"AAAAAHHH!!!"
Natsu threw his head back and roared.
The flames shot into the sky and the fire blast directly forced Lucy and the others surrounding him to retreat.
The flames around Natsu grew fiercer and fiercer and within them, the outline of a massive crimson dragon became clearer and clearer.
The crimson dragon spread its wings.
Then it appeared before everyone's eyes.