afterglow | natsu x reader

Chapter 29: Dragon Graveyard

"Would you two shut up!" I yell at Gray and Natsu as they both hug each other scared. I sigh, "I keep repeating that you can't ruin this place." I look around and see Master drunk off his ass. And Master, Mira, and Elfman all encourage the fighting.

I give up and let them brawl. As the charge attacks at each other, they freeze Happy and fry his fish, sending the fish flying. I watch as the fish flys and land in Erza's cake. I can proudly say I'm stronger than Erza, but I know never to mess with her cake.

I shriek and step back as I feel all her anger. Natsu and Gray continue fighting until Erza steps in between them, grabs them by their hair, and slams their heads against each other. "That was enough!" She declares and she starts talking about the Grand Magic Games. And surprisingly she ends with, "And you ruined my cake!" She requips a sword in her hand and Lucy, Gray, Natsu, and I all scream our scared.

"Don't run from me!" Erza shouts and as we're running from her, the door opens and in comes Gajeel. "Finally I'm back." He says.

"Where were you this whole time? You missed out on our fight." Natsu asks him. Gray and I sweat drop and twitch in annoyance.

Natsu pushes Gajeel into a mine cart and pushes a lever, sending Gajeel out of sight.

After a bit of arguing in between the two, Gajeel says, "I need you to follow me, Y/N." He points his finger at me. "There's something I need to show you."

-

"Halt!" Jellal yells at a cloaked figure, "I shall reveal my identity if you reveal yours." And Jellal removes his mask. He looks down at the shoes and sees them wearing white tennis shoes. By the ankles he could tell it was,

"A girl?" He questions. And the figure turns around. He gasps, "I-It can't be!"

"How is that possible?" Ultear asks Jellal.

"The Eclipse gate, a gate that will change everything... The Dragon King Festival..."

-

"What are we doing down here, Gajeel?" Wendy asks Gajeel as we walk deeper into a creepy cave.

"Just be quiet and follow me." Gajeel answers. Following us are our exceeds and Happy says, "Does this have something to do with dragon slayers?"

"Didn't stop the gawkers from tagging along." Bonnie says and Gray and Lucy are behind the exceeds.

"Can't help that we're curious." Lucy defends.

We then stop when Gajeel announces we've reached the place. In front of us is bones everywhere.

"Animal bones?" Lucy asks, shocked.

"Dragon bones." I correct her.

"This is some sort of dragon graveyard..." Natsu said. We continue walking and see more and more dragon bones.

"I wonder what happened..." Lucy said.

"Maybe Igneel's here." Happy says and quickly shuts his mouth after Carla scolds him.

Natsu stops walking and says, "He isn't here."

Gajeel backs him up, "Our dragons disappeared 14 years ago. These bones appear to be much older."

As we walk, Wendy blurts out "Milky Way! It's a secret art Porlyusica taught me, and I thought it was an attack spell, but maybe it's for something like. To communicate with dragons. I think the Milky Way helps with communicating with souls of dragons."

"So you're saying..."

"I can communicate with the dragons and asked what happened here and figure out what happened to our dragons that disappeared."

Wendy starts making a magic circle in the dirt. She steps in the middle of the circle and looks at me, "Y/N... would you be able to lend some of your power?" She extends her hand out. I'm a bit surprised, but I take her hand and step in the small circle with her.

We both hold hands and are our knees, face to face. "O wandering dragon spirits, may your voice reach me. Milky Way!" Wendy chants and the circle starts glowing green. I focus all my magic onto Wendy, who's searching for a dragon soul. Once she finds one, her eyes widen and she starts using more magical energy.

Zirconis. The name of the dragon.

I hear everything he says to the gang. And when he got to the part of a dragon slayer, who slayed even dragons that wanted to co-exist with humans. And this dragon slayer slowly started turning into a dragon himself.

"—And the king's name was Acnologia." I started breaking concentration and quickly focused again, but it's too late and Zirconis starts fading away and Wendy starts losing energy. I apologise to everyone and Wendy said Zirconis was running out of energy.

"...So if we use too much dragon magic... we'll turn into real dragons?!" Natsu panics.

"That's not good!" Gajeel yells. And with my super hearing I hear footsteps. I look up and see a man in armor.

"That is unlikely. My apologies, we took the liberty of eavesdropping."

"Who's there?!" Natsu yells.

"Are you familiar with the demons from the Book of Zeref?" The man asks us, ignoring Natsu's questions. He continues, "It's theorised Zeref turned the dragon slayer into Acnologia."

Zeref... Zeref changed Acnologia into a dragon? Zeref took away the most treasured person in my life. Zeref made him a monster.

-

Y/N sits up and looks around her. She's surrounded by dragons.

It's pointless

The dragons all shoot fire breath towards her and she's ready for it to strike her. She just closes her eyes and waits for the impact.

When it never hits she opens her eyes and sees Natsu sucking it all up. "Sorry I kept you waiting, Y/N." And he wipes his mouth. He introduces himself to the dragons before jumping him and fighting them.

"Natsu! It's pointless!" I yell and they hit him down and he comes down crashing. Slowly he stands up, "No... I refuse to give up!" He shouts. Fire engulf his fist and he jumps and gets ready to hit one of the dragons.

"Natsu!" I cry.