Natsu's vision blurred, the sight of his crumbling guild hall pulling him back in time.
He remembered a scrawny kid standing before the benevolent giant, Master Makarov.
"What does 'Fairy Tail' mean, old man?"
Makarov's kind eyes. "It means endless possibilities, Natsu. It means family. It means finding your own story... Do you like our guild, Natsu?"
"Yeah! I love it! I'll join!"
He remembered Mirajane and Lisanna, their bright smiles sharing food around a table.
Erza patiently explaining constellations.
Gray's sneer and their endless brawls, born of a twisted affection.
He remembered Lucy's awe-struck face the day he brought her here, how she came to love the guild like he did.
These faces, these moments, were Fairy Tail.
His family.
Not just for me.
For all of us.
Natsu's eyes snapped open, blazing with a renewed, unyielding resolve.
Every muscle screaming, but he pushed himself up, struggling to walk towards Gajeel.
Lucy almost cried out, "Natsu, it's enough!" but Happy quickly covered her mouth. "No, Lucy! He hasn't given up yet!"
Gajeel watched Natsu's slow, painful approach, a cruel grin on his face.
"Your guild's in shambles, Salamander! It's all over!"
He began a relentless assault of iron fists.
"I'm not merciful, Natsu. I don't know what I could do to you next."
"Natsu used too much magic already!" Happy cried. "If he could only eat fire, he could beat Gajeel!"
Sagittarius, ever observant, spoke up.
"Mmm, it seems there has been a slight misunderstanding, ma'am.
When you asked if I could make fire, I said no.
But the issue is not whether I can produce fire, but whether or not I could help generate it."
Just when Gajeel almost delivered the final, crushing blow to Natsu, Sagittarius drew an arrow, aimed precisely, and fired.
The arrow, blazing with a strange, magical heat, didn't hit Gajeel, but struck the massive, broken machinery nearest to Natsu, igniting its internal components and creating a huge, roaring inferno.
Natsu's eyes widened, a primal instinct taking over.
He inhaled deeply, greedily, devouring the magical flames.
His body surged with an explosive renewal of power.
Gajeel, momentarily distracted, yelled, "Where'd that freaky man-horse come from?!"
Sagittarius bowed politely.
"Setting machinery aflame is mere child's play for me and my arrows, ma'am,"
he announced, earning a relieved gasp of praise from Lucy.
"Thanks for the meal, Lucy!" Natsu roared, his voice now booming with renewed energy.
Gajeel scoffed.
"Don't get so confident just because you ate fire, Salamander!
All that did is put us back on equal footing!"
He lunged, a massive iron fist aimed to crush.
Natsu didn't hear him.
His fist blazed, hotter than ever, and he slammed it into Gajeel.
"This is for all of Fairy Tail!"
Gajeel retaliated with a furious "Iron Dragon's Roar!" but Natsu, to Gajeel's utter shock, deflected the entire torrent of razor-sharp iron with his bare, flaming hands, the attack scattering harmlessly.
Gajeel's smirk vanished, replaced by a scowl of pure disbelief.
"What the hell?! He just... blocked it bare-handed?!"
Not losing to this sentimental brat.
Not again.
Natsu vowed to pay Gajeel back for everything, his eyes burning with vengeful fire.
"You'll regret laying your hands on Fairy Tail!"
Gajeel attacked Natsu with an Iron Dragon's Hard Fist, which was blocked by Natsu's own bare, flaming hands.
This time, audible cracks spiderwebbed across Gajeel's hardened steel arms, molten iron hissing faintly from newly formed fissures.
"You dared to hurt my friends, with that stupid grin on your face?!"
Natsu bellowed, fury igniting every fiber.
He pressed the attack, combining his raw power with newfound precision.
He pulled his fist back, his palm concentrating a pinpoint of searing light.
"Fire Dragon's Armor-Piercing Bullet!"
A single, super-heated projectile shot forward, boring clean through Gajeel's shoulder plate.
A smoking hole appeared, drawing a sharp grunt of pain.
Gajeel's eye twitched; he hadn't expected such focused penetration from a ranged attack.
"Whoa! What was that?!" Happy exclaimed, hovering above, his eyes wide.
"He concentrated his fire like a laser!"
"I've never seen Natsu do anything like that before!"
Lucy breathed, her own eyes fixed on the battle, a flicker of awe overcoming her fear.
Gajeel roared, pure rage replacing his disbelief, and retaliated with a brutal swing of his iron arm.
Natsu barely dodged, the air whistling past his ear, missing a decapitating blow.
Natsu countered, his hands erupting in a wider blast.
"Fire Dragon's Scatter Shot!"
The fiery projectile split mid-air into a dozen smaller, flaming spheres, raining down on Gajeel.
The impact sounded like fireworks popping, singeing the ceiling black, forcing him to quickly erect multiple smaller iron shields.
Each shield pinged and sizzled under the scattered impacts, cracks spiderwebbing across their surfaces.
"He can split his fire?!"
Lucy gasped, utterly bewildered.
"Just how much has he grown?!"
"Clever tricks, Salamander!" Gajeel roared, now genuinely furious, sparks flying from his damaged defenses.
"But iron is tougher than you think!"
He launched himself off a crumbling wall, turning his body into a massive, spiked battering ram.
Natsu met him head-on, his movements fluid, no longer just relying on brute force.
He propelled himself forward, his hand glowing with concentrated fire, moving in a wide, burning arc, not a solid punch, but a wave of searing force.
"Fire Dragon's Inferno Shred!"
A wide arc of blazing energy shot out, expanding into dozens of fiery lacerations that tore across Gajeel's chest.
Gajeel roared in pain, staggering back as angry, smoking scorch marks appeared even on his hardened scales, the stench of burnt metal filling the air.
The impact, though not deep, covered a wider area, causing excruciating surface damage and breaking Gajeel's rhythm.
"That wasn't a punch either! It's like... a fiery claw from far away!"
Happy squeaked, darting back a bit from the sheer heat radiating from Gajeel.
"Natsu's fighting style... it's completely different now!"
Lucy whispered, her knuckles white as she gripped the pillar.
Hope, hot and bright, began to flare in her chest.
Gajeel snarled, his eyes narrowed, iron reforming over his wounds, albeit slower now.
How is he pulling off these new moves?!
What kind of Dragon Slayer is this lunatic?
"You think some scratches will stop me?!"
He lunged again, a flurry of iron spikes erupting from his body, forcing Natsu to weave and dodge.
Natsu took a glancing blow to his arm, the skin searing, but his focus remained.
He pushed off, his legs burning, but the fire within roared louder, a defiant thrum.
He channeled his power, compressing flames into a dense, volatile sphere in his palm.
"Fire Dragon's Meteor Fist Bullet!"
He roared, thrusting his arm forward.
The orb shot out like a fiery cannonball, glowing with intense heat and impact force.
It didn't just hit Gajeel; it slammed into his midsection with the concussive force of a full-power punch.
Gajeel screamed as the impact shattered a significant section of his iron scales, sending jagged cracks radiating outwards.
He doubled over, the sheer force rattling his entire body, the internal damage far more severe than any previous blow.
The raw power of the concentrated "punch" had finally breached his robust defenses, slagging the metal on his body.
"Woah! Did you see that, Lucy?! It was like his punch, but a bullet!"
Happy cheered, doing a little victory loop.
"He's... incredible," Lucy murmured, tears pricking her eyes, not from sadness, but overwhelming relief and admiration.
"He's really going to win!"
Natsu, seeing his opening, didn't hesitate.
"This is for every tear, every broken bone! For Fairy Tail!"
He unleashed a furious, rapid-fire barrage of traditional punches, each one blazing with devastating power.
"Crimson Lotus: Fire Dragon's Fist!"
His knuckles split, smeared with soot.
The blows rained down on Gajeel, a relentless assault for hurting his friends and their Master, driving him back relentlessly, crashing through the crumbling remains of the hall.
Finally, Natsu gathered every ounce of his renewed power, his body glowing like a miniature sun, the air around him shimmering with raw heat.
He aimed one last, decisive strike, payback for Gajeel destroying their guild.
This wasn't just a punch; it was a culmination of his rage, his love for his friends, and a new, terrible power, forged in the fires of vengeance and strategic adaptation.
He launched a powerful kick, sending Gajeel reeling high into the air.
Natsu then launched himself upwards, adopting a distinctive, almost dance-like stance, his arms blazing.
He began punching Gajeel repeatedly, a blur of motion.
The punches were so fast, they were set ablaze by sheer speed and friction, which in turn created a massive, peacock-like fan of searing flames around the suspended Iron Dragon Slayer.
The air screamed with superheated force, turning into an oven.
"Crimson Lotus: Fire Dragon's Bullet Barrage!" Natsu roared, his voice echoing through the collapsing structure, carrying the weight of his guild's pride.
The fire produced was strong enough to burn through Gajeel's iron skin and shatter his iron defense.
Each flaming fist, now imbued with the concentrated force of a bullet and the speed of a barrage, tore through his scales, leaving gaping, molten wounds.
When the attack finished, the chamber fell into a moment of eerie, ringing silence, broken only by the hiss of cooling metal and Natsu's ragged breath.
Gajeel, a battered, smoking wreck, his scales blackened and glowing red-hot where struck, crashed back to the ground, covered with the attack's lingering, destructive aura, utterly defeated.
"He did it! Natsu actually did it!" Happy shrieked, flying wildly in circles, tears of joy streaming down his face.
Lucy slumped against the pillar, tears finally streaming down her face, a radiant smile breaking through.
"He truly is Fairy Tail's Natsu Dragneel..." she whispered, her voice filled with profound awe.
Natsu stood panting amidst the wreckage, surveying the prone form of Gajeel.
His muscles screamed, his magic still thrummed, but his eyes held a satisfied, fierce glow.
He looked around at the warped walls, the slagged steel, the heat haze shimmering in the ruins.
"Now, with the Phantom Lord Guild trashed by me," he declared, his voice firm, "I and Gajeel... we're even."
He then turned, catching Lucy's gaze, a silent promise of rebuilding passing between them amidst the dust and ruin.
***
Elsewhere, battle still thundered—Fairy Tail's fate hanging by a thread.
The air crackled with oppressive dark magic as Erza Scarlet and Yume were locked in a fierce battle with Master Jose.
Erza, nimble despite her heavy armor, wove through razor-sharp shadow tendrils, her sword clashing against dark constructs.
Yume moved like a phantom, his twin gunswords firing precise bursts of dark energy that forced Jose to constantly shift and defend.
Erza's arm bore a deep gash, bleeding steadily, and Yume limped slightly, yet their resolve burned fiercely.
Jose's sneer had entirely faded, replaced by a scowl of furious annoyance.
A corona of dark shadow pulsed around him, veins of dark power bulging under his skin.
He was clearly exerting himself, his attacks faster, more aggressive.
But Erza and Yume, drawing on their combined S-Class power, were holding him at bay.
The distant, thunderous roars and explosions from Natsu's fight reverberated through the giant, a constant tremor underfoot, a muffled echo of another victory, unheard by their ears.
"You two are truly bothersome!" Jose snarled, his eyes glowing with intensified dark power.
He extended his hands, and the shadows around him began to coalesce into a massive, twisting vortex, clearly a spell of immense destructive power.
"Let's see if you can withstand this!"
The battle for Fairy Tail raged on, with Jose unleashing his full might against the two S-Class mages, leaving their fate, and the guild's, hanging in the balance.
End of chapter.