The Fairy Tail guildhall was a massive, chaotic party.
Barrels of ale were cracked open, meat roasted over open flames, and the noise level was high enough to rattle the windows.
At the center of it all sat Gildarts Clive.
The man was a walking legend.
He leaned against the bar, tipping a massive wooden barrel back and chugging the booze like it was water.
The heavy front doors flew open, tearing off their hinges and smashing into the floor.
"I'M NOT DONE YET, YOU BASTARD!" Natsu roared, his fists engulfed in bright flames.
He launched himself across the room, aiming a fiery punch right at the back of Gildarts' head.
Gildarts didn't even turn around.
He just reached a hand back, grabbed Natsu by the face, and slammed him straight down into the solid oak floorboards.
The wood cracked, pinning the Dragon Slayer in place.
"Give it a rest, kid," Gildarts laughed, wiping foam from his mouth. "I just got here. Let me enjoy a drink before you try to kill me."
Makarov sat on the bar counter, holding his own mug.
He looked up at the towering mage. "It's good to have you back, Gildarts. Three years is a long time. So? How was the Century Quest?"
The entire guild hall went dead silent. Everyone stopped brawling and drinking.
They turned to listen.
A Century Quest was a job that no one had been able to complete in a hundred years. If anyone could do it, it was Gildarts.
Gildarts let out a long breath.
He set the barrel down. "I failed."
Gasps echoed through the room.
Macao dropped his pipe.
Gray stared in disbelief.
The strongest mage in Fiore, a man who could level mountains with a flick of his wrist, had failed.
"It was too much," Gildarts said, scratching his stubble.
He forced a grin, waving his hand to dismiss the heavy mood. "But hey, I'm alive! And it looks like the family grew while I was gone. Who are the fresh faces?"
Mirajane smiled, stepping out from behind the bar. "We had a few people join up. This is Lucy."
Lucy stepped forward, giving a polite wave. "I'm Lucy Heartfilia. Nice to meet you."
Gildarts looked her up and down, raising an eyebrow. "Heartfilia, huh? You're a pretty one. You dating Natsu? Have you two shared a bath yet?"
Lucy turned bright red, her jaw dropping. "WHAT?! NO! WHY WOULD YOU EVEN ASK THAT?!"
"He's a growing boy," Gildarts shrugged, laughing at her panic.
He looked down as a small figure stepped up beside Lucy.
"I'm Wendy Marvell," Wendy said, bowing her head. Carla hovered right behind her, eyeing the large man with suspicion.
Gildarts' rough expression softened. He reached out and gave Wendy a gentle pat on the head, ruffling her blue hair.
"A polite kid. Good to have you, squirt. Try not to let these idiots corrupt you."
His gaze shifted past the girls. He locked eyes with the young man leaning against a stone pillar near the back of the room.
Ace had his hands shoved in his pockets, his posture relaxed, but his eyes were sharp.
Gildarts tilted his head.
His lazy smile faded for a fraction of a second. "You don't smell like a normal mage. Your aura is heavy. Feels like you've waded through a lot of shit to get here."
Ace smirked, stepping forward. "I'm Ace. And yeah, you could say that. I'm a summoner."
"Summoners?" Gildarts grinned, his fighting spirit flaring just a bit. "Sounds like fun. We'll have to spar sometime, Ace. I want to see what kind of bite you hide behind that calm face."
"Anytime," Ace replied, not backing down from the heavy pressure radiating off the S-Class mage.
Ace knew he could win with ease since he have an entire army at his back and his digital soul gave him a bottomless well of stamina.
A spar with Gildarts would be.... interesting.
Gildarts let out a booming laugh, breaking the tension.
He looked down at the floor, where Natsu was still trying to pry his head out of the cracked wood.
"Hey, Natsu," Gildarts said, his tone turning serious. "Come by my place later. I've got something to show you."
...
A few hours later, the sun dipped below the horizon, casting Magnolia in the dim light of dusk.
Natsu kicked the front door of Gildarts' house open.
Happy flew in right behind him. "I'M HERE! YOU SAID YOU HAD SOMETHING TO SHOW ME! IS IT A SOUVENIR?!"
Gildarts sat on a wooden chair in the center of the sparse room.
He didn't smile.
He reached up and unfastened the heavy clasps of his thick black cloak, letting the fabric fall to the floor.
Natsu froze. The excited grin melted off his face.
Happy gasped, covering his mouth with both paws.
Gildarts' left arm was gone, replaced by a crude wooden prosthetic. His left leg was missing from the knee down, fitted with a heavy metal peg.
Thick, jagged bandages wrapped tightly around his torso, covering deep scars.
"What happened?!" Natsu yelled, running forward. His fists shook. "WHO DID THIS TO YOU?! I'LL KICK THEIR ASS!"
"You can't, Natsu," Gildarts said.
His voice was grim and carried a weight of genuine terror that Natsu had never heard from him before.
"I didn't fail the Century Quest because the job was too hard. I failed because I ran into a monster on the third year."
Natsu gritted his teeth. "What kind of monster does that to you?!"
"A dragon," Gildarts said.
The air in the room went cold. Natsu stopped breathing for a second. His wide eyes stared at Gildarts.
"A dragon?" Natsu whispered.
His heart started hammering in his chest. "Was it red? Was it Igneel?!"
"No," Gildarts shook his head. "It was black. A pitch-black dragon with blue markings. It didn't care about me, or the quest, or anything. It just landed, took my arm, my leg, and some of my organs in a split second, and flew away. Acnologia. That's what the locals called it."
Natsu stared at the wooden arm.
He couldn't wrap his head around it.
Gildarts was a walking natural disaster, and a dragon had torn him apart like a toy. But beneath the shock, a fierce fire ignited in Natsu's chest.
Dragons were still out there.
"I'll find it," Natsu declared, his eyes burning with intense determination. "I'll find that black dragon, and then I'll find Igneel!"
Gildarts looked at the kid, offering a sad, tired smile. "Just be careful, Natsu. The world is a lot bigger and scarier than you think."
...
Rain poured over the city of Magnolia.
The heavy drops hammered against the slate rooftops, washing the dirt from the cobblestone streets.
On the highest spire of the Magnolia Cathedral, a lone figure stood in the storm.
He wore a dark blue cloak, a wide-brimmed hat, and thick bandages wrapped around his lower face.
Five wooden staves strapped to his back hummed with faint magical energy.
Mystogan looked up at the sky.
The clouds were unnatural.
They swirled in a violent, circular pattern, glowing with a faint, sickly light.
A massive, swirling vortex was forming high above the city, hidden from the normal citizens by the storm, but blindingly obvious to him.
It was a portal.
Mystogan clenched his fists, rain dripping from his mask.
He had spent years wandering Fiore, hunting down these dimensional rifts and sealing them before they could consume the land.
But this one was different.
It was massive, and its pull was growing stronger every hour.
"Anima," Mystogan whispered into the wind. "It's getting too big. I can't close it this time."
He looked down at the bright, warm lights of the Fairy Tail guildhall in the distance.
He had to warn them.
He had to do something before his homeland tore everything he loved to pieces.
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