Because they found out a day late that Natsu had secretly taken a mission, the group ended up dawdling at the guild for half a day. They listened to Makarov ramble about the old days, sorted out the team, and Kira even made a quick trip back to his shop to grab some extra supplies.
By the time Kira and the others set off on the airship, Natsu and Lucy had already reached Zonia.
"Where the heck is it?!" Natsu groaned, staring at the map in his hands, his frustration mounting. "The map says it's supposed to be right here!"
In the snowy mountains, all they could see was snow. The world was a blanket of white, with barely any landmarks to guide them. It was almost as bad as being lost in a desert or on the open sea—no way to tell which direction was which.
Thankfully, this wasn't a desert or an ocean; it was just a snow-covered mountain. As long as they were on solid ground, there were ways to set up reference points.
The mission details pointed to a tavern tucked away in the blizzard, but Natsu, Lucy, and Happy had been wandering for ages without a single sign of it.
Happy frowned, his little cat face scrunched up. "Did we take a wrong turn? Natsu, are you sure you followed the map right?"
"Of course I did! I followed it exactly!" Natsu shot back.
Happy and Lucy leaned in to peek at the map Natsu was holding. Their jaws dropped. "This map…?!"
"What's wrong with it?" Natsu asked, genuinely confused.
"It's… it's way too basic!" Lucy blurted out.
The map was a joke—just a few crudely drawn snowy peaks labeled "Zonia" with a tiny tavern sketched in the middle. That was it. No details, no paths, nothing.
Lucy and Happy stared in disbelief. "You navigated with this?!"
Natsu, still oblivious to the problem, shrugged casually. "Yeah, what's the big deal?"
"You idiot!" Lucy snapped, smacking Natsu so hard he went flying.
"Now what do we do, Lucy?" Happy whimpered, his face drooping.
"Maybe we should head back…" Lucy muttered. Truth be told, she'd been ready to quit ages ago. If Natsu hadn't been so stubborn, she wouldn't even be here. But when she turned to look back, her heart sank.
The snow stretched endlessly, and the path they'd taken was completely indistinguishable.
Lucy and Happy froze, as if turned to ice.
"Ahhh!" they screamed in unison.
"What do we do? We're lost!" Happy wailed, clutching his chubby cat cheeks and flapping around Lucy in a panic.
Lucy plopped down in the snow, hugging her knees. The cold seeped through her, but her heart felt colder. "We're done for… I shouldn't have come… I'm gonna die out here…"
The human and cat sat there in despair for a while until Lucy suddenly looked up. "Happy, where's Natsu?"
Happy paused mid-air, blinking. "Yeah, where is Natsu?"
Wasn't he just sent flying by Lucy's slap?
Rumble…
A faint noise caught Lucy's attention, sending a shiver down her spine. "Happy, did you hear that?"
"Hear what?" Happy tilted his head, listening. After a moment, his ears perked up. "Wait, yeah, there's a rumbling sound."
"It's getting louder…" Lucy said, her voice trembling.
"And… is that Natsu's voice?" Happy added.
"Natsu… Natsu?!" A bad feeling surged in Lucy's chest.
She whipped around, and sure enough, there was Natsu, sprinting back toward them with a huge grin, waving wildly. "Yo, Happy! Lucy! Check this out—it's awesome!"
Lucy and Happy looked past him, and their hearts stopped. Behind Natsu, a massive wall of snow roared down the mountain, its thunderous rumble deafening.
"So that's where the sound's coming from," Lucy said faintly.
"It's an avalanche!" Happy yelped.
"…"
"AVALANCHE!" they screamed together.
No time to wait for Natsu or call out to each other—Lucy and Happy, survival instincts on full blast, bolted in the opposite direction, tears streaming down their faces. "No way!"
Forget the path they came from, forget getting lost, forget the mission and the tavern—survival was priority one!
"Wait up!" Natsu, brimming with stamina, caught up to Lucy in no time. "Guys, hold on!"
Lucy glared at Natsu, who was somehow still grinning despite the chaos. "Why did you cause an avalanche?!"
"Why?" Natsu scratched his head, thinking back. "Well, after you smacked me, I heard a crack, and then the rumbling started."
"So it's all Lucy's fault!" Happy cried, flapping frantically ahead while throwing shade.
Lucy was speechless. She hadn't expected her "light" punch to trigger this kind of disaster. Her face crumpled as she ran, tears mixing with panic.
Natsu stifled a laugh. "Ha, so it was Lucy's fault!"
"It was not!" she snapped.
"What do we do now?" Happy wailed, tears flying. "Natsu, think of something!"
The avalanche was closing in, now less than three meters away, about to swallow them whole.
Suddenly, Natsu spun around, flames erupting from his hands. The heat warmed Lucy and Happy instantly. "No choice—I'll just melt this whole snow mountain!"
"Are you kidding?!" Lucy shrieked.
"Natsu, you're our only hope!" Happy cheered.
Natsu planted his feet, magic surging within him. Red flames roared to life, melting the snow around him and even vaporizing the ground beneath. A normal person would've slipped on the unstable terrain, but Natsu stood firm, unwavering.
"Fire Dragon… Roar!"
Magic poured out, and a blazing pillar of fire shot from Natsu's mouth, carving a several-meter-wide gap in the oncoming snow wall.
The flames mingled with snowflakes, turning the frigid mass into water, then steam, until it vanished entirely.
Lucy and Happy stopped running, staring in awe at Natsu battling nature itself. Their eyes shone with hope and excitement.
"Are we saved?" Lucy whispered.
"That's our Natsu!" Happy cheered.
But nature's wrath wasn't so easily tamed. The avalanche seemed endless, more snow piling in despite Natsu's fiery assault. Even his blazing dragon breath couldn't keep up with centuries of packed snow.
Natsu kept up his Fire Dragon's Roar for nearly three minutes, but his flames started to falter. Gasping for breath, he stopped. "Man, that's exhausting!"
"Noooo!" Lucy and Happy screamed.
"Don't stop!"
Their cries couldn't stop the avalanche. With a deafening boom, the snow swallowed the trio whole. The roar continued as the avalanche pressed forward, only calming after ten minutes, leaving the area silent.
…
"Here we are in the northern reaches of Fiore!" Kira announced, holding a magic crystal like a microphone as he addressed the airship's passengers. "Look, folks, we're nearing our destination—Zonia, the Holy Mountain!"
Nearby, Gray leaned toward the others. "What's Kira up to?"
Erza answered, "He's recording with a magic crystal to make a movie for the kids at the orphanage."
Erza admired Kira' gesture. Having been an orphan herself, she felt a soft spot for those kids and understood how important magic was to them.
Ahead, snow-covered peaks rose and fell in an endless chain—Zonia, the largest, coldest, and most mysterious place in northern Fiore.
"Legend has it, long ago, this place was the stage for a battle called the 'Black and White Maiden's Duel,' fought over love. But is the story true?
"Did the 'Black and White Maidens' really exist? Was love really the reason for their fight? And who was the man caught in that romantic mess? What's the real truth?
"Follow me, 'Sage' Kira, as we unravel the mysteries together!"