Hey there, I would just like to inform readers that there may be some differences to cannon in this chapter. The changes are nothing too big, I hope (lol). Further notes will be in the author's note at the bottom. Enjoy.

Natsu and Gray were in what was quite possibly the hardest battle they have ever faced; both being exhausted after having to go through their own battles against some of the Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros, and now they stand against Mard Geer: the founder and guild master of Tartaros, and its supposed strongest member. To make matters worse, Acnologia, The Black Dragon of the Apocalypse, the same fearsome creature that was able to take on some of Fairy Tail's strongest mages without barely even a scratch, was overhead, held back only by Igneel.

And yet still, despite the absolute hopelessness of the situation, they still believed that they could win.

"Your brash confidence in your abilities infuriates Mard Geer." Mard Geer said, albeit he was still holding a smug smirk. "Do you not realise that I am Mard Geer Tartaros: The Underworld King; a definitive demon?" And with that said, Mard Geer outstretched his arm upwards, activating his Thorn Curse.

Immediately, approximately a hundred thorns rose out from the ground beneath the Fire Dragon Slayer and newly Ice Devil Slayer. However, all of the thorns were either burnt to ashes by Natsu, or frozen by Gray.

"It doesn't matter who or what you are, mess with Fairy Tail and you lose!" Natsu proclaimed loudly to the self-entitled underworld king. "There is no form of magic in the world that could ever bring us down!" And for a split second, Gray's otherwise serious face turned into a temporal smile, agreeing with his fellow mage/rival/close friend tenfold.

"Not even the biggest dictionary in existence has enough words to properly describe how much Mard Geer hates you...!" Mard Geer sighed in annoyance, his forehead resting on the palm of one of his hands. "Have you forgotten that Mard Geer and the other Etherious of Tartaros use curses instead of magic?"

Gray and Natsu took the opportunity to attack the 'definitive demon'. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu yelled, running towards the Etherious, his arm pulled back and his fist on fire. However, Mard Geer jumped out of the way of Natsu's punch, dodging the attack.

"Ice-Make: Ice Cannon!" Gray yelled, creating an ice cannon infused with his newfound Devil Slayer Magic. But that attack was also for nought, as Mard Geer used his Thorn Curse to create a shield of thorns, blocking the attack.

Mard Geer scoffed at their efforts.

"Centuries ago, when the One Magic was being transformed into countless variations, Lord E.N.D. created the most powerful variation of the One Magic to ever exist: Curses; fuelled by negative emotions, they are stronger than any other form of magic. Even the greatest mages, including the Ten Wizard Saints, crumble to their knees in the face of our curses."

Natsu and Gray continued to attack Mard Geer in an attempt to hit him, but the founder of Tartaros managed to continuously evade their attacks; either by mere dodging or usage of his Thorn Curse. And through all of this, Mard Geer continued his speak of the history of E.N.D. and curses.

"The reason why Lord E.N.D. created curses, the ultimate weapon against magic, was to fulfil the purpose of his creation: to kill Zeref. As soon as Mard Geer releases Lord E.N.D. from his imprisonment in his tome, Lord E.N.D. will use his curses to open the gates of Hell and burn all in this world to rubble. And finally, the wish for the death of the immortal Zeref will be granted. That is the wish of Zeref himself."

"Like hell I'm gonna let you release E.N.D." Gray said, anger and determination were laced in his voice. "I promised my father that I would use my Ice Demon Slayer magic to kill the fire demon that is E.N.D!"

Mard Geer became silent, his expression was a mixture of shock and emotionlessness. Then suddenly, the 'Underworld King' began laughing like crazy. Natsu and Gray watched in mixed confusion as the Etherious started to calm down.

"It humours Mard Geer that you believe you can defeat Lord E.N.D. because that traitorous Silver gave you his Devil Slayer Magic...!" Mard Geer said, a big grin plastered on his face. The Definitive Demon never knew that there would be a day where he would find human ignorance to something funny. "When Zeref created Lord E.N.D. he was the strongest wizard in the world, and still is to this day."

"Since Lord E.N.D. was the one who created curses, he was initially created with his own magical abilities, magical abilities that he was rumoured to posses even after his creation of curses. In order to kill an immortal, especially one as mighty as Zeref, Lord E.N.D. would have to be created with power that was nothing short of tremendous. Miraculously, The Black Wizard somehow managed to create a demon who's power was enough to grant his wish of death, especially after his empowerment from his creation; the aforementioned curses."

"Lord E.N.D. has power that transcends all imagination, even if he was faced against a thousand Devil Slayers, all whom have had many years to properly master their Devil Slayer Magic, he'd still win single-handedly in that battle; his power would make it one-sided in his favour. Mard Geer finds it to be incredulous that this Ice-Make mage with newly born Devil Slayer Magic believes that he could kill Lord E.N.D."

Natsu and Gray just stared in disbelief; it cannot be possible that one of the demons of Zeref possesses power beyond imagination. But it didn't matter, the duo was adamant in stopping Mard Geer and E.N.D. no matter what they throw at them. No matter how hard Fairy Tail was pushed into the ground, it always came back up. Nothing could stop them, as long as their comrades are with them, they are invincible.

"It is often believed that magic is what creates the future, if that is true than curses are what destroys the future." Mard Geer continued, seemingly charging up a powerful curse attack. "And as a demon who uses curses in his arsenal, Mard Geer will be the one to destroy-"

Mard Geer was promptly interrupted when he had to dodge a sword that was aimed at him, or more accurately the ground that he stood on. His dodge was successful, but that didn't save him from getting hit by a quick, yet powerful, Jellal surrounded by his Heavenly Body Magic. Luckily for the Etherious, he was able to recover mid-air and land on both of his feet, seemingly unharmed.

Mard Geer turned his head towards his two new attackers and was surprised to find that the sword thrower was Erza Scarlet. "How can that be? Weren't you fighting Kyôka?" Mard Geer asked Erza in bemusement.

"I was, and she had shown herself to be a powerful and dangerous opponent." Erza replied, requiping into her Heaven's Wheel Armour. "I could have nearly lost, but luckily I was saved by Jellal and the Oración Seis."

"The Oración Seis?!" Natsu and Gray exclaimed in disbelief. "You mean the same Oración Seis that tried to destroy Cait Shelter with Nirvana?" Gray asked solely. "Or the same Oración Seis that tried to destroy the world with the Infinity Clock?" Natsu asked solely this time.

"Quiet boys!" Erza ordered, giving the Dragon Slayer and Devil Slayer a death glare, scaring the both of them. "The Oración Seis, sans Brain, have joined Crime Sorcière in hope of repenting of their past crimes and sins. They are no longer our enemies, but now our allies."

"Enough of this!" a nearly livid Mard Geer yelled, a seemingly countless number of thorns shooting out of the ground towards the three Fairy Tail mages and Crime Sorcière mage by extension of Mard Geer's Thorn Curse. "It doesn't matter what magic you use or how many, Mard Geer will show you the true power of-"

Mard Geer froze when he sensed another form of magic approaching; it wasn't strong, in fact it felt like there was barely any of it left, but Mard Geer recognised it as a magic that got in his way drastically: Celestial Spirit Magic.

"That wench...!" the definitive demon snarled. Mard Geer was mad enough already, but now that the very same mage that ruined Alegria arrived to get in his way some more, he was made enough to go on a non-stop rampage for days, maybe even weeks. However, the self-entitled 'Underworld King' quickly composed himself. "Control your useless emotions, Mard Geer." Mard Geer thought as he self-composed. "You cannot revive Lord E.N.D. if Mard Geer is causing pointless, mindless destruction."

"Lucy." Jellal said, craning his neck to look where Mard Geer was now facing, sensing the blonde's magic as much as the aforementioned demon had. "I can feel her magic."

Natsu, Gray and Erza immediately faced the area of attention to find the Celestial Spirit mage running towards them in her Aquarius Star Dress (although it was only recognised as a Star Dress by Jellal and possibly Mard Geer).

"Amazing...!" Jellal muttered under his breath, barely noticeable to even Natsu and his greater-than-the-regular-human hearing. "She achieved Star Dress." The former Wizard Saint hadn't been this impressed in the Celestial Spirit Mage's power since she performed that Unison Raid with Juvia in the Tower of Heaven. "Just how great is her magical potential?"

"You have interfered with Mard Geer one time too many!" Mard Geer yelled, extending one of his arms and waving the hand of said arm. The Etherious knew that a mindless rampage would be anything but beneficial, but he also knew that the Celestial Spirit mage has proven herself as a threat; and Mard Geer disposes of all threats as soon as possible. "After Lord E.N.D. is released, Mard Geer will personally torture you for the rest of your life; you will feel pain that is incomprehensible until your existence ceases."

Many thorns shot out of the ground towards Lucy. The Celestial Spirit mage shielded herself from the thorns, but they didn't make contact with her. Lucy opened her eyes and gasped when she saw Natsu in-front of her; the Fire Dragon Slayer managed to be faster than Mard Geer's Thorn Curse, get in-front of Lucy and burn all of the thorns.

"Like hell I would let even a single thorn touch a hair on Lucy." Natsu growled, his anger seemingly igniting the flames even more than they already were. "If you or E.N.D. lay even a single finger on Lucy, I'll burn you both to a pile of ashes!"

Mard Geer didn't know why or how, but there was... something about Natsu that sent a shiver up his spine. It was just... something about the sheer anger and power behind the Dragon Slayer's eyes that felt like a nightmare from long ago.

Mard Geer had an amazing memory that could go back to over a century, but he could never remember even a single second of back when E.N.D. roamed the planet. Not only was it a really long time ago, but it also felt like a powerful outside force was blocking his memory.

But in that short moment, the Fire Dragon Slayer reminded him of that time from long ago. And when Mard Geer was reminded of that time, he felt an emotion that he didn't feel in a really long time; even longer than when he felt anger; that emotion was fear.

However, the demon quickly shook off that feeling; he wasn't gonna feel fear for the first time in a long time from a human of all species. "You must be more foolish than Mard Geer anticipated if you believe it is possible to burn Lord E.N.D. to ashes, human." Mard Geer said to Natsu with smugness that was partially feigned. "Lord E.N.D. is more than just a regular fire demon, he is the strongest fire demon in existence; there is absolutely no fire whatsoever, be it from even dragon or god, that isn't meaningless when applied against him."

Mard Geer's words, however, may as well have fallen on deaf ears, because when it came to Lucy, Natsu would burn anything for her. It doesn't matter if it was E.N.D, or a god or even a friggin concept like destiny, logic or even time and space, he would burn it to ashes for Lucy.

"You should run, Luce." Natsu warned, turning towards the blond mage. "This guy we're fightin' is really strong and dangerous, also I can sense how low you are on magical energy. It's too dangerous for you."

"But I want to help." Lucy protested, her friends were exhausted and yet were still fighting. She knew that Natsu was right; after having to survive against Tartaros on her own, sacrificing Aquarius and then summoning the Celestial Spirit King, Lucy was drained and exhaust physically, magically and emotionally. She knows that it will take years for her to heal from the loss of Aquarius; her first ever friend, even if the feeling was unrequited.

But still, she was a member of Fairy Tail; this wasn't the first time that she was thrown into a hopeless situation, and it wouldn't be the last. It didn't matter if even the effort of breathing or consciousness was exhausting her limits, she'll help her friends to the end.

Besides, Natsu is a hypocrite if he's gonna say that something is 'too dangerous' for her; if that dim-witted Dragon Slayer is going to continue fighting enemies of impossible strength head-on after being beaten into hell and back, he has no right to tell others that they can't handle something.

The Dragon Slayer and Celestial Spirit Mage looked at each other in the eye in silence (silence between them, the battle of Gray, Erza and Jellal vs Mard Geer that was happening behind them was anything but silent). Natsu closed his eyes, grunted, and then smiled at Lucy.

"Ok then!" the Fire Dragon Slayer said with a bit of enthusiasm despite the situation, and then pointed to where E.N.D.'s tome was carefully placed by Mard Geer. "See that book over there? I need you to get it for me, but don't open or destroy it." Natsu then started running back to the battle of wizards vs demon that was happening behind him. "I'm trusting ya on this, ok?"

Lucy just nodded with a thumbs up and made her advance towards E.N.D.'s tome. While Natsu genuinely believed that Lucy was strong, he didn't want to risk her getting killed by Mard Geer, so getting her to retrieve the book that E.N.D. was sealed in was the safest way she could be useful.

Among that, Igneel had explicitly told Natsu to get E.N.D.'s tome (with the exact same 'don't open or destroy' rules), so having Lucy retrieve it while Natsu, Gray, Erza and Jellal were keeping Mard Geer occupied also sound like a good idea.

And than there's the fact that Natsu's wackadoo logic determined Lucy as best suited for the task because she's a bookworm.

"Blumenblatt!" Erza yelled as she used the Heaven's Wheel Armour spell against Mard Geer. The Etherious dodged Erza and the slices from her two swords in hand, although a few of the swords that acted as the secondary strike managed to scrape the self-proclaimed 'Underworld King'. However, Mard Geer didn't acknowledge the small tears on his clothing; only an arrogant fool would shift his focus from his battle to something as meagre as that.

"Grand Chariot!" Jellal yelled overhead, casting his Grand Chariot spell. Mard Geer still managed to avoid the attack, albeit barely, activating his Thorn Curse shortly afterwards to attack the Heavenly Body Mage. Mard Geer, to his own ire, was too busy trying to attack Jellal (who was dodging the thorns via his Meteor spell) to notice a cold presence grow behind him.

"Ice Devil's Double Purification Slash!" Gray yelled, striking Mard Geer with two swords made from his Ice Devil Slayer Magic. The Etherious was noticeably phased by the attack as pain was shown on his face, a massive shard of ice quickly growing and breaking from where he was slashed. Mard Geer recovered, but it was still noticeable that Gray's magic was the most effective against him.

"Thorn Hell!" Mard Geer yelled in a more than frustrated state. Through the power of his Thorn Curse, Mard Geer summoned hundreds, if not thousands, of thorns that are half the width of a regular pinkie finger, but they were still sharp and dangerous nevertheless; all aimed at Gray, Erza and Jellal.

"I got this!" Natsu yelled, jumping head-first (literally) at countless thorns. Fire emitted from the Dragon Slayer's hands as he did a twirl mid-air, burning all of the thin thorns to a crisp. Or so he thought; after landing, Natsu noticed that there was one lone thorn that wasn't aimed at him or the others; instead, it seemed to be aimed away from them and to somewhere or someone else.

"Ah!" Lucy shrieked from behind Natsu in pain, the Dragon Slayer looked behind himself, eyes wide and pupils small (a similar action of expression was on Gray and Erza's faces). The thin thorn was wrapped tightly around Lucy's left ankle, piercing through the skin and into her flesh.

A fire ignited both inward and outward from Natsu, the furious Dragon Slayer grabbed onto the lone thorn, burning it. The part of the thorn that was wrapped around Lucy's ankle had loosened completely and let go of her before seemingly disappearing from existence.

Lucy gripped the bleeding wound in pain and agony, almost compelling her friends (Natsu, Gray and Erza) to rush to her aid, but the Celestial Spirit Mage gave them a thumbs up to tell them she was ok. Lucy's friends knew that she was faking it, that she was anything but ok, but they could see in her eyes that she wanted them to focus more on the threat at hand than at her.

"I already warned you!" Natsu growled, fire burning ablaze in his hands. "Now I'm gonna burn you to a pile of ashes!"

Then all four mages ran straight to Mard Geer, Erza requiping into her Black Wing Armour. Mard Geer extended out one of his arms and hands, sending many thorns towards the oncoming mages. With a grunt, Erza slashed the thorns into miniature pieces, allowing Natsu, Gray and Jellal to continue their onslaught.

Mard Geer growled, using the Thorn Curse to summon the Prison Flower. Jellal flew straight at the Prison Flower, being encompassed by it completely. "Jellal!" the other free mages yelled in horror, especially Erza. The Prison Flower then started to jerk from side to side, as though it was struggling, before a huge ball of darkness exploded out of it, a result of Jellal's Altairis spell.

"Attack him now!" Jellal yelled backwards to Natsu and Gray, falling to his hands and knees. The two Slayer mages ran past Jellal, preparing their magic to strike down Mard Geer, meanwhile Erza looked at Jellal with a look of reassurance in her eyes.

Swiping his index and middle fingers, Mard Geer created multiple rose compounds of his Curse Power; the Rose Explosion of his Thorn Curse. The rose compounds exploded around Natsu and Gray, engulfing the two Slayer mages in a dust cloud.

Mard Geer almost thought that the Rose Explosion had successfully killed Natsu and Gray, but the two Slayer mages ran out of the dust cloud towards the demon, Natsu's right had engulfed by his Fire Dragon's Iron Fist spell, while Gray's left arm was covered by a gauntlet made of Ice Devil Slayer Magic.

Mard Geer had, at most, had a second to feel the emotion of shock before both Slayer mages punched him in the face, sending him flying a few feet back. The dragon slayer and demon slayer were about to strike Mard Geer again, but the Etherious had surrounded himself in a dome of thick thorns, protecting him from their attacks.

"Crap!" Natsu and Gray yelled in unison, while their attacks were effective against the thorns, which were more durable than the other thorns that Mard Geer had used in their battle, more thorns kept on replacing the ones that were destroyed; the dome was too resilient for the two Slayer mages to successfully destroy.

"I got this." Erza said from overhead, requiping into her Purgatory Armour. "Netherworld Impact!" Erza yelled, a light purple blade spawning from her spiked mace before she striking down onto the thorn dome, breaking it and sending Mard Geer flying.

The demon spun his body around, landing on his feet and digging his fingers into the ground, albeit he still skidded before stopping.

"Watch where you're aiming that you psycho!" Gray yelled, having barely dodged Erza's 'Netherworld Impact' spell.

"Yeah, give us a better warning next time, you maniac!" Natsu yelled, having gone through the same predicament as Gray.

"What was that?!" Erza leered, sending a chill up Natsu and Gray's spines, reminding them that while she is still a close friend of theirs, she's still the same Titania that they were afraid of.

"N-nothing ma'am!" Natsu and Gray replied shakily in fear. Erza can be greatly terrifying when angered, that is indisputable.

Mard Geer growled at the mages in rage, intense curse power building up in his hands. "Those deplorable humans! Their foolhardy ways have sullied Mard Geer and Tartaros!" Mard Geer thought angrily to himself, more curse power building in his hands as he prepared to cast the Memento Mori curse. "This time, Mard Geer will have no interfere-".

Mard Geer stopped completely, his curse power dissipating. He could feel it; the immense, unimaginable curse power of E.N.D. seeping from his tome. But how? Mard Geer knew that even with the plan of Face subsided, he would still find some way to revive Lord E.N.D., but how was E.N.D.'s power resurfacing so suddenly.

Mard Geer peered towards Lord E.N.D.'s tome, he noticed that Lucy (that was what the humans were calling the wench) was slowly nearing towards it. Lucy's ankle wound and drain on magical power had taken their toll her, so she was sluggish and even taking small, frequent stops.

But there was something about Lucy that surprised Mard Geer and stopped him from attacking her; the closer she got, the more of Lord E.N.D.'s curse power was realised. How could it be? How could something as lowly as a human be the explanation behind Lord E.N.D.'s seeping power?

Does it have a relation behind the wench's inexplicable immunity to Alegria?

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Mard Geer was brought out of his ponder in order to dodge the spell casted by Natsu. The Fire Dragon Slayer then used his Fire Dragon's Roar spell against the Etherious, who barely dodged it, and yet still the edges of his jacket were set afire and burnt before the flames quickly died out.

"Requip: Lightning Empress Armour." Erza said, requiping into the aforementioned armour. Using the power of her Lightning Empress Armour, Erza managed to strike Mard Geer with a Lightning Beam spell. Unfortunately for Mard Geer, the demon was unable to dodge so he had to take the attack.

Mard Geer grunted as he hit the ground. Pushing himself off the ground, Mard Geer saw Gray swinging an ice sword infused with Devil Slayer Magic at him. Through quick thinking and action, Mard Geer used his Thorn Curse to shoot a thorn out of the ground, piercing through the sword near the hilt, breaking it.

Gray dodged the thorn, as well as a couple other thorns that Mard Geer generated, but this allowed Mard Geer to create a distance between the two.

Despite the fact that Mard Geer considered defeating the four mages as his top priority, he couldn't help but ponder what the human harlot had to do with the sealed, superior demon.

Could it be a relation to her magic and the magic sealing Lord E.N.D.? No, she possesses Celestial Spirit Magic, while the magic used to seal Lord E.N.D. is definitely something different in both type and power level.

Another possibility is that this Lucy wench has met Lord E.N.D. before, but that would be preposterous; she most definitely wasn't alive during Lord E.N.D.'s reign, and even if she did get the honour of meeting Lord E.N.D., it would be as he takes away her life. Her pathetic, human excuse of a life.

"Ice Devil's Rage!" Gray screamed, shooting a large, purple blizzard of his Ice Demon Slayer Magic out from his mouth and towards Mard Geer. The Etherious demon jumped high in the air, only barely evading the spell.

But before Mard Geer could attack Gray with any of his own spells, Erza flew right at him, once again in her Black Wing Armour, slashing at the demon with her twin swords. Mard Geer was then assaulted mid-air by a fast, but powerful, yellow projectile. As the yellow projectile hitted the 'Underworld King' continuously, Mard Geer came to realise that the projectile was Jellal using his Meteor spell.

Mard Geer tried to use his Thorn Curse to attack Jellal, but the Heavenly Body Mage was too fast for Mard Geer to have even a second to use his curse. After being hit by the Meteor spell who knows how many times, Mard Geer was no longer pursued by the aforementioned spell.

But to say that Mard Geer had a chance to fight back would be a misunderstanding.

Instantly, Natsu activated his Fire Dragon Slayer Magic and bombarded Mard Geer with multiple spells in his arsenal. Fire Dragon's Roar! Fire Dragon's Iron Fist! Fire Dragon's Wing Attack! Fire Dragon's Sword Horn! Fire Dragon's Crushing Fang!

And now, with what resides of his dissipating magical energy, to finish it off...!

"With a flame on the right hand...

and a flame on the left hand...

When you combine the flames together...

Fire Dragon's Brilliant Flame!"

That last spell sent Mard Geer flying into the air, his body and clothes tattered in burns and scratches. But Mard Geer wasn't at a complete loss yet, he could still cast the Dea Yggdrasil spell that would leave the four mages-

"Now Gray!" Natsu yelled, hunched down on his hands and knees, gasping deep breaths of exhaustion.

"Ice Devil's Zeroth Destruction Bow!" Gray yelled, a bow and arrow made from his Ice Demon Slayer Magic manifested in his hands. With a pull back from Gray, the arrow shot out and impaled Mard Geer through the stomach before turning into a spikey array of ice. Mard Geer screamed in pain, the Devil Slayer Magic properties of the ice stung immensely through his abdomen.

Mard Geer fell down onto the ground, a small crater was made as he made contact with the soil of the ground.

"This... this cannot be...!" Mard Geer muttered in dumbfounded shock. "Mard Geer Tartaros, the strongest of all of the demons of Tartaros and king of the Nine Demon Gates... D-defeated... by those insects...! By those humans...!"

Gray, Natsu, Erza (who was now back in her regular Heart Kreuz Armour) and Jellal walked up to the crater and stared at the defeated Etherious that laid down on the ground, his eyes as wide as plates and his iris' the size of specks, his mouth gaping open. The four mages felt respective levels of satisfaction among each other, even though they were all respectively battered and exhausted, with Natsu feeling like he could sleep for a week.

But to their surprise, and partial horror, Mard Geer started laughing inexplicably, originating as a nigh inaudible chuckle before concluding as a loud, maniacal uproar. The four mages took a step back in confusion; didn't Mard Geer admit that he has been defeated? If so, then why would he laugh in this fight between life and death?

Despite the many other emotions that were fogging his mind, Gray felt his anger becoming his most prominent emotion.

"Why the hell are you laughing?!" Gray yelled, his rage seething. "You're defeated, the Nine Demon Gates are all dead and your plans of Face have been obliterated! You lost, it's checkmate for you!"

Mard Geer's maniacal laugh began to die down into a calm chuckle before stopping completely.

"Defeat and loss are two different concepts, you revolting, flaccid flesh waste...!" Mard Geer retorted in a calm, yet condescending, manner before excitement dressed his face as his voice became just as excited. "I can feel it, despite your aforementioned reasoning against such a fact, Lord E.N.D.'s revival is now at its zenith!"

Pain, it coated her body from every molecule within it; her left ankle, in particular, was throbbing in pain. Her energy had been immensely depleted; even keeping herself in consciousness was requiring her complete effort.

And as she came closer and closer to the tome that contained E.N.D.; the most powerful, most fearsome demon to be created by Zeref, her friends were keeping another powerful and fearsome demon of Zeref at bay.

Lucy Heartfilia has had one literal hell of a bad day.

Still, Lucy edged closer to the tome to retrieve it while making sure she doesn't open or destroy it, like Natsu told her. But there was something... fearful about the tome; as she came closer and closer, a strange, evil energy began to arise. An enormous, tremendous, evil power - curse power; E.N.D.'s curse power, to be exact.

Eerie. Frightening. Dangerous! A powerful and dangerous force that would eradicate anything it came across; leaving everything to ruin. But simultaneously, this exact same force of unstoppable destruction was reaching out to her; not to destroy her, but to hold her and keep her, forever. Uncanny.

Even more, Lucy could feel the power of the magic seal. Whoever made the magic seal had magical power that was truly immense, it would probably take even the Moon Drip multiple decades to begin dispelling it. No wonders why the demons of Tartaros sought out Face to break the magic seal.

But that wasn't the weird thing about the seal; the weird thing was that the seal was reacting to her magic, almost like it was pulling her magic towards it. And as she came closer, Lucy felt the magic seal waver. That filled Lucy with near-incalculable dread.

"Ice Devil's Zeroth Destruction Bow!" Gray yelled from somewhere behind Lucy, the sound quickly replaced by a loud scream and something making a hard impact against the ground. Lucy didn't know why, but she somehow just knew that her friends defeated Mard Geer.

Lucy then found herself standing near the tome, easily in her reach. The Celestial Spirit Mage hesitated; the amount of curse power emitting from E.N.D.'s tome was overwhelming. Lucy's breath got caught in her throat, and her body shivered; she felt like she could hear a familiar yet foreign voice calling out to her.

Slowly, Lucy moved her shaking hand closer and closer to the tome of E.N.D., intending to give it to Natsu. But then, Lucy heard a maniacal laughter behind herself, and, unbeknownst to her, she touched E.N.D.'s tome.

And that's when her life was changed forever.

With powerful force, Lucy was pushed onto the ground, right onto her back. The terrifying curse energy of E.N.D was increasing tenfold, the fires of E.N.D. shot out of the tome of E.N.D. into a human-sized fireball.

Lucy glanced back at her friends and Jellal, their eyes held rapid fear, much like her own. Lucy looked back at the presumed fireball manifestation of E.N.D. to find that it was... looking at her? A prolonged 'bump' with the width of a human arm and the length of a human leg was seemingly staring at her, before the same 'bump' receded back into the human-sized fireball that floated over the newly abandoned tome of E.N.D.

The five mages stared at the fireball, even Natsu was paralyzed in fear by what was before them. Incredulously and ludicrously, Mard Geer was also seemingly paralyzed in the negative aspect of the emotional spectrum that we have given the name of 'fear'.

It was illogical, why was Mard Geer feeling fear from what he tried with great effort to achieve? Fragments of lost memories that were kept hidden in the deepest and darkest corners of his mind had complied to his demand, Mard Geer's eyes had widened in the realization of why his master's release had resurfaced the forgotten emotion of fear, as well as in the disbelief of said master's true form.

"That... that cannot be the truth...!" Mard Geer muttered quietly, almost under his breath, unnoticed by the five mages whose attention was stuck on the supposed form of E.N.D. that was the human-sized fireball. "Lord E.N.D. couldn't possibly be...!"

The inactive, human-sized fireball then crackled fiercely before flying towards Natsu at high speeds, engulfing him. Fires of intense heat and force shot out from under the ground, like a geyser of hot magma, sending Gray, Erza, Jellal and even Mard Geer (who was still in the crater) flying away by a few feet; even Lucy was facing difficulties with staying on the ground, despite the distance between herself and the newly created pillar of fire.

And through the loud sound of air and fire, Lucy could hear a sound that put cracks in her heart: Natsu was screaming in intense pain.

"Natsu!" Lucy screamed, tears welling in her eyes as she knew that her friend was in great pain that she couldn't stop; great pain that she partially blamed herself for. Natsu's screams of pain died down and were replaced by an evil, sinister cackle. The cackle sent shivers down Lucy's spine; it sounded like Natsu, but deeper and more... demonic, as in it was a legion of the same voice.

The pillar of fire surrounding Natsu began to dissipate, revealing a new figure that looked like Natsu. No, it didn't 'look' like Natsu; it was Natsu, a new Natsu that was the demon form of E.N.D.

It was no longer Natsu in his body; he was taken over by E.N.D.

This new Natsu, otherwise known as E.N.D., was both similar and different to the old Natsu in appearance. For a first, he had two outstretched wings that were bat-like in appearance, both wings were as wide as E.N.D. when in this outstretched form, both sprouting out from his back. These new additions of wings had resulted in the destruction of Natsu's shirt, showing the new, dark, tendril-like markings on his skin.

Among this new information, if one were to look at E.N.D.'s right shoulder then they would notice that Natsu's red Fairy Tail guild mark was turned into a black Tartaros guild mark.

E.N.D.'s skin tone and hair colour were a little darker than Natsu's, with horns that grew out somewhere near his temples, curving forwards around the end. Natsu's hands had been transformed into sharp demonic claws that were completely black, lacking any other details.

But his eyes... dear God his eyes; they were most unquestionably not human, not anymore. Both eyes had more of a resemblance towards being portals that led into an infinite abyss that was blacker than even the darkest of nights. But they weren't just holes of absolute darkness on his face, not when there were two crimson slits that were redder than blood taking the placement of his pupils; crimson slits that were blank and emotionless.

Overhead, Acnologia, The Black Dragon of the Apocalypse, and Igneel, The Fire Dragon King, continued their vicious battle, both the Fire Dragon and the Dragon-Slayer-turned-Dragon were quite bellicose in the face of each other. If their battle continued without interruption, the two would eventually do a clash that would end fatally for the dying Fire Dragon.

Their confrontation was, however, interrupted by the awakening of E.N.D., the two dragons stopping almost immediately as an enormous fire pillar of intense heat and power seemingly shot out from the ground.

"What... what is this power?" Acnologia thought to himself, his interest peaking as he sensed an immense power beyond anything he had ever felt before. "This power... I'm looking forward to fighting whoever holds it." The black dragon grinned wickedly, peering at the unidentified silhouette in the middle of the fire pillar; he may want to fight the person who has that much power, but he wants to know if they can properly fight with it first.

This opportunity would have given Igneel the merit of an advantage against Acnologia, that is if Igneel wasn't reduced to a wallowing mess of self-pity.

"N... N-NO!" Igneel shouted in exacerbation, grabbing his head by the temples, tears leaking out as he shook his head side-to-side. "Why?! Why did this have to happen to my son?! Why...? Natsu, I'm so sorry that I failed you! I'm sorry that I couldn't protect you from becoming that demon again!"

Both dragons stayed floating in their specific area in the air, oblivious to the existence of the other dragon despite their battle from earlier, Acnologia was grinning in anticipation for a potential challenge while Igneel kept mumbling words like 'I failed you!' and 'Forgive me Natsu!' and so and so.

E.N.D. stood still, staring blankly at the ground beneath his feet, charred greatly upon his repossession of his body. Lucy, Erza and Jellal stood still at the revelation before them, the three mages had seemingly forgotten to breathe due to the surprise of their new knowledge.

"That cannot be true!" Gray growled through gritted teeth, rage building from within at the possibility of how E.N.D. managed to posses Natsu so flawlessly. "The demon that I promised my father that I would slay cannot be..." Gray suddenly ran towards the fire demon, a sword made of his Ice Demon Slayer Magic in hand, snarling wildly "NATSU!"

Lucy gasped, her hands going over her mouth as her heart made rapid beats. "No stop, Gray!"

Growling, Gray swiped his sword at E.N.D., but the Etherious dodged without even having to move his feet; merely turning the top half of his body. E.N.D. bended his knees to become on the same level as Gray's stomach, punching it with enough force to make blood shoot out of Gray's mouth as the Ice Devil Slayer flew back from the force of the punch.

E.N.D.'s face remained immutable; the exact same blank expression, although it was starting to have more of a semblance to boredom and disappointment. E.N.D. scanned the area around him, ignoring Erza and Jellal as he looked right through them, however, he stopped when he saw Lucy and smiled... like a regular human being; something unexpected from the great fire demon from the book of Zeref.

E.N.D. began walking towards Lucy, but was stopped by the presence of Mard Geer.

"Lord E.N.D." Mard Geer said, limping towards the fire demon from behind before bowing down to E.N.D. with great respect. "Mard Geer has waited a long time to free you from that book, even though he had forgotten about your existence in almost its entirety. Mard Geer apologises for trying to kill your body, he didn't know that that was your body. But now that you're free, you, Lord E.N.D., and Mard Geer can give Zeref the death he wishes."

E.N.D. stood still in silence, not turning towards Mard Geer in the slightest. Mard Geer looked up at E.N.D. from his bow, confusion on his face as he wondered why E.N.D. was being unresponsive towards him. "Lor-?"

Mard Geer was abruptly interrupted when E.N.D. shot a fireball into Mard Geer's abdomen, the 'Underworld King' screamed in immense pain as the fire burned him more than any other flame could. Back pressed against the ground, Mard Geer patted against the fire until it singed, revealing the bare stomach of his human form. Mard Geer stared at E.N.D. with confusion and fear, an amalgam of emotions that looked unnatural on Mard Geer (even though the entirety of Mard Geer was unnatural).

"Shut up, you inferior excuse of a demon!" E.N.D. growled venomously, glaring down at Mard Geer in disdain. Lucy's shock began to disappear and the realization began to kick in that Natsu - the Natsu who was her closest and dearest friend - was turned into the demon known as E.N.D.; not only did she lose someone important to her heart, but that same person had became the strongest demon of the most powerful, most wicked mage in Earth Land.

This new information caused tears to appear in Lucy's eyes as she started to cry, falling down to her knees, her sobs and tears were heard by E.N.D., even as he scolded and belittled Mard Geer. E.N.D.'s anger was redirected from Mard Geer to whatever it was that made her cry.

"My demon queen is crying...!" E.N.D. mumbled under his breath, to the point that Mard Geer could only hear it as an incomprehensible whisper despite being near E.N.D.

E.N.D. turned from Mard Geer towards Lucy, stepping towards the crying Celestial Spirit Mage with a longing look in his eyes. Lucy's crying was reduced to a sniffle as she noticed E.N.D. staring at her crying form, his eyes holding... compassion and protectiveness?!

Lucy was feeling weird; she felt fear, but she strangely also felt safe and calm when near the demon. She might be going crazy.

"Lu-" E.N.D. said, but was interrupted when Gray attempted to attack him. Luckily, for the Etherious, E.N.D. dodged the attack with ease, although his dodge resulted in a distance between him and Lucy- with Gray being between them.

"Get away from one of my comrades!" Gray growled, Ice Devil Slayer Magic building up in his hands. "And while you're at it, release Natsu!" E.N.D. merely started laughing, clutching his stomach area as his hard laughing was starting to hurt it. "What's so funny?" Gray growled again, this time through gritted teeth.

"It's just so humorous that you think that I had imprisoned Natsu." E.N.D. replied in an almost condescending tone, starring down Gray with a smug-like grin. "I am Natsu; the real Natsu. The Natsu that you knew was just an idiot that possessed the hollow husk of my body, now reduced to a mental spirit that can only watch my actions without interference."

"But that doesn't make sense!" Gray yelled at E.N.D. incredulously. "You were created decades ago, Natsu is only a teenager; it's impossible for you two to be the same being!"

"Ah yes, the truth of Natsu and myself must have left you bewildered." E.N.D. said, looking slightly to his left as if he was thoroughly thinking his explanation through, before sharply turning his head back to Gray. E.N.D. glared at the Ice Devil Slayer; not only did he glare at E.N.D. threateningly (as if that weakling could ever compare to E.N.D., nevertheless be a threat to him), but that worthless pile of human flesh was also between him and his beloved demon queen.

"Approximately over four hundred years ago, when magic was exponentially rarer than it is nowadays, Natsu was born. However, when Natsu was still just a child, he and his parents were killed by dragons." E.N.D. explained, although his explanation was currently making everything more confusing. "Despite his young age, Natsu was very close to Zeref. So, unable to accept Natsu's death, a very young Zeref attended the Mildian Magic Academy, in hopes of finding a connection between life, death and magic so he could revive Natsu."

"During his studies, Zeref created the R-System and the Eclipse Gate to bring Natsu back to life, however Zeref didn't use them in the end for their own respective and valid reasons. Zeref may have created more magical items of black magic if he wasn't expelled from the academy for breaching the sacred teachings of Ankhseram, the same breaching resulting in Ankhseram cursing Zeref with the Curse of Contradiction."

"Because of the Curse of Contradiction, Zeref could no longer live a life where he could love it freely; if he had any value in life then he would spontaneously release a powerful wave of death magic that would kill almost anything that was exposed to it, and he would have no control over it. If Zeref lost all value in life, then he would have full control over his death magic, but he would no longer feel any guilt if he chose to kill someone."

"Among that, the Curse of Contradiction made Zeref an immortal mage with immense magical power. Zeref was cursed to eternally roam this planet with everything and everyone that he loved dying purely because he loved it; making the mage force himself into solitude to protect the innocent from him. Ankhseram is one hell of a vengeful god that you don't want to piss off."

"The Curse of Contradiction gave Zeref the desire to die, leading him to creating a species of demons made solely for the purpose of killing him: the Etherious. After realising that he had magic that could create life, Zeref decided that he could use the same magic in a similar fashion to revive Natsu, having preserved his body. In the end, Natsu's resurrection was in the form of my creation."

"Despite being born in less than a day, in the body of a child nevertheless, I had the intelligence and awareness of an adult. Shortly thereafter, Zeref had told me all of this, even the truth that I was the reincarnation of the original Natsu. Zeref had also told me that as I continue to grow older, I would continue to grow stronger, until not even the Curse of Contradiction could stop me from killing Zeref. After explaining the reasoning and purpose behind my existence, Zeref instantly vanished without a trace, like he was nothing more than a figment of my imagination."

"The other Etherious quickly recognised me as their 'lord' and treated me as such, the other Etherious that weren't mindlessly causing death and destruction as an end goal, that is. Humans were very quick to fear and hate us for being demons, especially because of how infamous the mindless Etherious were. Goddamn Deliora. This resulted in us, the Etherious, gaining a fear and hatred, particularly the latter, for humans."

"So the reasoning behind the Etherious' hatred for humans was because humans were behaving iniquitously towards them...?" Erza murmured from a distance from E.N.D., although the king of demons heard her anyways.

"That is true; humans are despicable beings that deserve nothing but pain and despair." E.N.D. said, turning his head towards Erza and Jellal to show that he is aware of the presence of the Requip mage and Heavenly Body mage. The demon king of the Etherious turned his head back to his demon queen and the massive annoyance standing in the way of his demon queen. E.N.D.'s face softened as his eyes stayed on Lucy, a small smile appeared as his eyes held the emotion of immense fondness for a brief moment, a tint of pink/red on his cheeks.

"Well, there is at least one human who deserves happiness." E.N.D. mumbled too quietly for anyone to even briefly notice, before turning his head away while clearing his throat. "Anyways, in the past all of the Etherious had relied on magic, so we didn't face well against magic dispellers at the time, which there was a surprisingly high number of." E.N.D. raised his right hand to his side, a fire appearing on the flat palm.

"Since magic was still new and changeable, I created curses; a stronger form of magic that was immune to what can negate and dispel magic. With this stronger and more... evil, as we should say, form of magic that no-one had a way of countering we became far stronger than the regular human being, which was when we began to view humans as being insects."

"Eventually we gained the attention of even dragons, as even the great 'Fire Dragon King' Igneel fought against me because of how powerful and dangerous I was. Sadly, despite my superior power and Fire Curse, Igneel was still able to absorb my flames due to being a fire dragon, so I had to rely on my other curses, which were weaker than my Fire Curse and magic. Nevertheless, my battle against Igneel ended inconclusively; both of us having to retreat from battle to heal our wounds."

"While healing, I had a positive premonition that I would meet a certain someone, a certain someone whom I would care for dearly. Not wishing to wait to meet this certain someone, I sealed myself in my tome, the power of my magical seal making even the memories of who I was become sealed to all but the strongest; thus Zeref and Igneel remembered what I looked like and what I was capable of."

"Sealing away myself had resulted in my body reverting back to when Natsu was a young child, my regenerative abilities allowing my body to heal; allowing Natsu to live again. Despite knowing that Natsu and I were the same being, Igneel decided to not only let Natsu live but to also raise him and teach him Dragon Slayer Magic."

E.N.D. broke out into a loud laugh, wiping a tear of joy off one of his eyes. "The overgrown lizard was dumb enough to love and protect his worst enemy, the most powerful and dangerous demon that the world has ever seen, while that same worst enemy was in a very vulnerable state. If he was transformed into a powerless baby dragon, I would kill him without a second thought."

"The dragons faced a fearsome threat in Acnologia, a Dragon Slayer who became a dragon in his thirst for the annihilation of all dragons. Hypocrite much. Eventually, the number of dragons barely passed the double digits, and even then their souls had been damaged by the goddamn Dragon Slayer. The dragons then decided to use the Eclipse Gate to travel through time so that they could fight Acnologia when there is more Ethernano."

"By using a spell called the Dragon Soul Technique, five dragons passed through the Eclipse Gate while having their souls concealed within Dragon Slayers that they trained themselves. This technique, that the Dragons Slayers where unaware of, also helped the dragons create antibodies to protect the Dragon Slayers from becoming dragons or becoming uncontrollably bloodthirsty."

"These dragons were Igneel, Grandeeney, Metalicana, Skiadrum and Weisslogia. The Dragon Slayers were Natsu Dragneel, Wendy Marvell, Gajeel Redfox, Sting Eucliffe and Rogue Cheney respectively. The Dragon Slayers entered the Eclipse Gate around four hundred years ago and passed through the gate on July 7, X777, although their memories were altered by their dragons; don't know why though, that plan was pretty idiotic. Then again, dragons are pretty idiotic anyways."

Lucy, Gray, Erza and Jellal stared at E.N.D. with widened eyes, processing the information about the 1st and 3rd generation Dragon Slayers. "So that's why..." Lucy mused before gasping, standing up abruptly and unconsciously. "That's why neither Natsu or Gajeel could pass through Freed's enchantment when Laxus tried to take over Fairy Tail; while they are teens, they're chronologically over four hundred years old."

Erza and Gray were seemingly pondering about how that made sense; being chronologically over eighty years old is still over eighty years old. Meanwhile, Jellal raised an eyebrow in confusion, unaware that the 2nd generation Dragon Slayer had tried to take over the Fairy Tail guild in the past. Although it explained why his personality changed a bit when Jellal was restored from his comatose state by Wendy.

"Of course, I've grown far bored of all this talking and explaining, so if you have any questions then don't ask them." E.N.D. said, having had enough of explaining his and Natsu's existence to these pathetic vermin, all that he wanted was to take his demon queen in his arms and have her rule alongside him. E.N.D. looked towards Grey hatefully with a hint of animosity, that Ice-Make turned Devil Slayer was an annoyance since the first day they met.

"Now out of my way!" E.N.D. growled at the nuisance with a stripping habit who isn't even near to be worthy of his presence, a sword made entirely of chaotic fires appearing in one his hands/claws. "If you stay between me and Lucy, I won't hesitate to kill you. Then again, I wouldn't hesitate to kill you anyways."

"What do you want with Lucy?" Gray growled through gritted teeth, a long and sharp sword made of his Devil Slayer Magic (aided by the capabilities of his Ice-Make) appearing in his hand. If what this demon is saying is true and Natsu is Zeref's strongest and most fearsome demon who is older than four centuries and unaware of it (unsurprising, that idiot burned his brain into ash years ago for all that Gray is certain), than Gray isn't sure what to believe about Natsu anymore; even if his rival/best friend is still in there, the Devil Slayer still wouldn't trust him with Lucy.

E.N.D. merely growled in response, extending out the hand/claw that wasn't holding a sword made of chaotic fires. Fire and Curse energy began to emit in E.N.D.'s palm before the fire demon clenched his hand/claw. Gray's otherwise cold sword began to heat up inexplicably before exploding into a mixture of ice pieces and fire, the explosion in mind was small and did little damage towards Gray.

Before Gray could even react to or comprehend what happened, E.N.D. punched him in the gut and ribs, sending the mage into a small stump of a wall among the debris. Gray shakily pushed himself up so that he wasn't lying among the rubble, the mage held himself up with one hand while the other was holding his abdomen because of the immense pain in the area of his body.

Lucy looked at her close friend in horror, even his breaths were shaky; the damage from both the punch and flying into the wall must have broken some of his ribs. Despite barely having enough energy to even breathe, Gray continued to glare at E.N.D., as if he was still trying to threaten the demon.

"Don't pretend that what I just did was uncalled for and without warning." E.N.D. said to Gray with nonchalant indifference, although the corners of the Etherious' lips turned upward slightly; if that prick thought that he could be a threat because he has a type of magic made specifically to destroy the type of demon that E.N.D. is, he deserved the pain and damage. "Anything and anyone that gets between me and Lucy deserves the full power of my wrath."

For a reason that Lucy couldn't understand, she felt her cheeks heat up as blood rushed to her cheeks into a blush. Lucy suddenly noticed that there was a jet black claw in-front of her crouching form, the palm outstretched. Lucy looked up from the palm to see none other than E.N.D. looking down her, his indisputably demonic eyes showing a sense of longing.

She didn't know why, but Lucy felt like she should take his claw; that she has no reason to fear him. Maybe everything that has happened left Lucy with little common sense remaining. Maybe it was because he wasn't showing even an iota of hostility towards her, despite showing lots of it to everyone else. Or maybe it was because it didn't matter if he was E.N.D. or Natsu Dragneel, he was still Natsu to her.

But that mental reassurance concluded with a tremendous weight of dubiousness. It reminded Lucy of when Erza revealed the existence of the Tower of Heaven and her hidden past with it. It was shocking at first, but in the end the Erza they knew was still the real Erza.

But this was different on a entirely different scale. This was not only about Natsu being the strongest demon of the most evil wizard in history, but it was also about Natsu being from a different time period. These revelations were what caused the dubious weight to fall upon Lucy as she wondered if she knew who Natsu really was.

Hell, it made Lucy wonder if even Natsu himself knew who Natsu really was.

Completely beyond her control and knowledge, tears left Lucy's eyes as she felt like the friendship between herself and her dearest friend was nothing more but a blatant lie; a lie that stung more than when she was betrayed by Michelle. It was as easy as breathing for E.N.D. to notice that his demon queen was crying; and the fact that those tears were not ones made of joy made the demon growl in anger.

And because of their close proximity, Lucy easily heard the growl from the Etherious. The Celestial Spirit Mage gasped abruptly and looked at E.N.D. with fear-filled eyes. E.N.D. felt his anger diminish as his demon queen stared at him with fear; a foreign feeling of protectiveness welling up inside him and overcoming his previous rage.

If it was anything else, whenever human or not, E.N.D. would revel that they would show him fear like the ants they were beneath his feet. But E.N.D. detested the sight before him: the one and only being that he ever loved showing him fear like the other ants; the mere thought leaving a bitter and unsavoury taste in his mouth.

E.N.D. bent down onto one knee, nearing his face and right hand/claw towards Lucy. The Celestial Spirit Mage closed her eyes in fearful anticipation, worried that her crying angered E.N.D. into hurting or (even worse) killing her.

And from afar, Erza also saw and interpreted E.N.D.'s actions as an attack. Despite feeling more exhausted than she ever felt before, Erza immediately began to run towards the demon and human, tapping into her Requip magic to change her current armour into her Black Wing Armour. Raising her sword high in the air, Erza let out a battle cry, although the demon and human that she was approaching were too caught up with each other to notice.

Lucy kept her eyes closed in the delusion that it would make the attack hurt less. But instead of feeling her skin and flesh being ripped or slashed, or even any pain at all, Lucy felt something brush against her eyes: wiping away her tears; something rough and scaly, yet applied gently.

Lucy opened her eyes to see E.N.D. staring at her, looking less angry and more content that she was no longer crying. Browsing through the memories of Natsu Dragneel, E.N.D. found out that not only did the incomplete shell of his true self also hated the thought of Lucy crying, but the sight of her crying was enough to make his temper rise by a few degrees.

However, E.N.D. didn't feel angered by those memories as he stared into the eyes of his precious demon queen. Lucy stared back at E.N.D., bewildered that he was staring at her with passion and desire. E.N.D. gently grasped Lucy's head with the same hand/claw that he used to wipe away her tears.

"Lucy..." E.N.D. murmured dreamingly, his lips parting and eyes close. Lucy felt like she was in a trance, losing control of her body, her own actions mimicking that of the demon before her. Lucy was well aware about what she was going to do: she was going to kiss E.N.D., the strongest and evilest demon in the world. And yet, Lucy also felt like she was in a twisted yet also inviting reverie.

And just as soon as E.N.D. and Lucy's lips were going to connect, they both then heard the approaching battle cry. Lucy looked towards the source of the battle cry in a mix of confusion (because she just broke out of a self-induced trance) and realization of what she was about to do. E.N.D. on the other hand looked towards the same source in anger and annoyance.

The source of the battle cry was, of course, Erza, the determination to save her friend was fierce in her eyes. "As long as the power within me to protect my friends remains strong, I won't let you hurt Lucy!" Erza yelled before continuing her battle cry, unaware that she made the demon (who was on a whole nother level of power) even angrier with what she implied in her statement.

How dare that woman even think that he would ever hurt Lucy! Even in a million years, he wouldn't even dream of laying a claw on Lucy with intensions to harm her. Pouring all of her strength into her arms, Erza swung down at E.N.D. with every last bit of her power. But it was fruitless, E.N.D. effortlessly caught Erza's sword in a single hand like it was nothing.

Erza then looked at E.N.D. in the eyes and was paralyzed in fear as she saw the nigh-uncontrollable rage in his eyes. "How dare you!" E.N.D. yelled, effortlessly pushing the sword back at Erza with enough force to send her back a few small feet. "How dare you think that I would ever hurt her!"

Erza pushed herself up to look at E.N.D., sweat coated her body, her heart racing frantically throughout her trembling body. E.N.D. stared down at the trembling mage scornfully, a fire of immense heat and power building up in his left hand.

"Anything and anyone, whenever they be an enemy or not, that come between me and Lucy will be something that I will personally incinerate!" E.N.D. threatened with anger present in his voice, before shooting out the fire of immense heat and power at Erza to further prove his point.

Fortunately for the Requip mage, Erza was able to change into her Adamantine Armour and put the shields in-front of her. The shields didn't protect Erza completely, as she still received a lot of damage, but it managed to subside the full force of the attack; subsided it enough to ensure that Erza had survived it.

Erza laid on the ground, her armour had been destroyed (although luckily and thankfully her Requip magic had made regular clothing cover her body, saving her from having the world see her nude body) and burns covered her body, albeit they were minor for the great Titania.

Jellal looked at Erza with wide eyes, a weird and foreign coursing through him. The sight of Erza lying on the ground, hurt with hopelessness in her eyes, brought back a memory that Jellal definitely didn't want to remember.

They were in the Tower of Heaven, or at least the gigantic lacrima that it had became after being exposed to Etherion, Erza crying over the dead body of Simon; one of the childhood friends that she had to run away from to protect. And as she did this, a powerful and evil monster looked at her with indifference; this time the monster was E.N.D.

But it in the Tower of Heaven it was himself. In the Tower of Heaven, Jellal had played the role of the being the powerful and evil monster because he was 'possessed' by 'Zeref'. The memory of when he made Erza cry filled Jellal with rage.

And as it was E.N.D. that brought back this memory, the aforementioned demon had became the subject of Jellal's rage.

"You bastard!" Jellal bellowed, using his Heavenly Body Magic to fly at E.N.D. as a high-speed blur of a yellow glow, becoming a 'meteor' by using the spell of the same name. The speeding 'meteor' clashed with E.N.D., although more accurately it could be said that the 'meteor' had punched E.N.D. in the stomach while flying upwards, sending the demon into the air.

With E.N.D. sent mid-air, the extremely irate Jellal continued to hit the Etherious with his Meteor spell, powerful hit after powerful hit in the blink of an eye. Of course, in his berserk state of mind, Jellal wasn't going to use just his Meteor spell against the demon.

"Impact Comet!" Jellal yelled, activating the Heavenly Body Magic spell. Truth be told, Jellal had never tried, nor even heard, of the spell before despite it being a part of his prime magic. It was just a spell that inserted itself into his head during his berserk rage, like his magic whispered it into his mind.

The 'Impact Comet' spell was much like Jellal's usual 'Meteor' spell, albeit the yellow glow of magic that surrounded Jellal was much bigger and brighter. As the name implied, the strength of the spell was much stronger than the other spell, among that the 'comet' left behind many mini stars that would burn and hurt whatever touched them.

The bright 'comet' hit E.N.D., sending him even higher into the air than he already was. E.N.D. fell to the ground, passing through many of the stars before making his own impact with the hard ground.

"Polaris A!" another spell that Jellal had never heard or known of before that seemingly brought itself into Jellal's head. Jellal crossed his arms above his head, much like his Altairis spell, except instead of a black orb that held tremendous amounts of gravity, it was a massive yellow orb of tremendous heat.

Jellal threw the yellow orb towards the seemingly unconscious E.N.D., but what the mage was unaware of in his blind rage was that E.N.D. appeared to be completely undamaged. There wasn't even a smidge of a burn mark where the stars from Jellal's Impact Comet had touched E.N.D.

The yellow orb made a big explosion when it made contact with E.N.D., followed with a loud 'boom' that could be heard all around Magnolia. The 'Polaris A' spell had left a small crater where it hit, leaving an 'unconscious' E.N.D. lying down in it.

Mard Geer stared at the crater that held the 'unconscious' E.N.D. incredulously, disbelieving in the 'damage' that Jellal inflicted upon the demon king. Of course, Mard Geer was right in his disbelief, albeit unaware of the fact that he was right.

Lucy, crazily enough, felt concern and worry for the demon; even though E.N.D. could be considered the pinnacle of evil, the Celestial Spirit mage still believed the Natsu was somewhere in there. At least, her heart told her that Natsu was somewhere in there. If Lucy was indubitable about anything concerning Natsu, it was that he-!

Lucy shook her head; she shouldn't think of how she felt for Natsu, least not now.

Although the way E.N.D. behaved towards her, with what was gonna be a kiss, and the fact that he pushed her away before he was attack by Jellal...!

Lucy wished like hell that the stress of... well, everything was going to her head.

"You made Erza cry!" Jellal snarled furiously with proverbial venom towards the Etherious laying in the crater, unaware that said Etherious was smirking. "What's more, you reminded me of one of the worst days of my life!" Jellal held out a hand towards E.N.D., although the palm was facing the aforementioned demon, a golden magic circle of immense power appearing from the same palm. "I'll make you pay! Abyss Break!"

A dark blast shot out of the magic circle and towards E.N.D., creating an even bigger explosion than the one created by 'Polaris A', leaving a bigger crater filled to the brim with fire. Jellal took deep breathes to expel the withered remains of his rage, kept afloat in the air by the miniscule remains of his magic.

As Jellal felt his rage finally simmer, he was struck with pain and exhaustion that pulsed through his body. Crap, the day caught up with his body...!

His fight against Sawyer, Sorano, Erik, and Macbeth. Helping Erza in her fight against Kyôka (with the aid of the newly redeemed Oración Seis). His fight against Mard Geer. And now this!

Jellal's battle wounds and magic exertion had finally caught up with him, the sensation of falling overcoming his body as his magic could no longer hold him in the air. Jellal just closed his eyes, ready for the sharp impact of the ground. But, to the surprise of the Heavenly Body mage, he didn't feel the hard ground or any pain whatsoever.

Instead Jellal fell onto something soft... and fleshy; something soft and fleshy that wrapped its arms around him. Jellal opened his eyes to see human skin, damaged with minor burns, but still obviously human.

Jellal also noticed that there was some clothing that surrounded the skin, damaged and burnt slightly much like the skin it surrounded. Jellal looked up to see the face of none other Erza; a face he could never forget.

Erza's face held an expression of relief, a gleam almost shining in her eyes. The blue-haired Heavenly Body mage felt his blood move to his cheeks, heating them as they gained a red tint of colour.

Jellal and Erza's tender moment was, however, short lived as they were interrupted by a groan of displeasure and disappointment that came from the burning crater. The two mages looked at the crater, the fire that was present there began to swirl like a vortex until it was fully consumed by E.N.D.

The demon king didn't have a single scratch or bruise on his body, the efforts of the Heavenly Body mage had proven to be fruitless.

"Honestly, I'm rather disappointed." E.N.D. tutted towards Jellal, his arms crossed as he frowned. "I know you humans are lesser beings, but I still expected something from a former Wizard Saint! I barely even felt a tickle...!"

E.N.D. then felt an unusually cold hand suddenly touched him on the back, the temperature of the hand decreasing more and more as magic surged into it. The demon looked back to see Gray, the Ice-Make mage turned Devil Slayer, a droplet or two of a tear in both his eyes.

"I'm sorry Natsu." Gray said, his voice slightly broken as more and more droplets escaped his eyes. "But I promised my dad, and I can't let you hurt my friends."

Gray summoned his Ice Devil Slayer Magic (or at least what remained of his magic) into the hand that was touching E.N.D.'s back, a glow of purple light emitting from the same hand as more and more magic surged into it. Devil Slayer Ice began to from on E.N.D.'s back and feet, much to the demon's surprise and terror.

Or so that is how it seemed.

"Is this...?! Oh no, the Devil Slayer was really a threat!" E.N.D. seemingly screamed as his entire pelvic area and everything underneath was frozen in Devil Slayer Ice, although no-one noticed that a smirk kept twitching in and out of formation on his face. Gray had noticed that, despite his seeming worry, E.N.D. wasn't using any magic or curses to at least try to counterattack the Ice Devil Slayer Magic, but the mage just assumed that it was a side effect of his magic.

"This cannot be... the end of me...!" E.N.D. screamed, his left arm reaching out in the air as the other arm was frozen by the ever freezing ice. E.N.D's screams died down and stopped completely as his head became frozen; the last thing remaining was a claw reaching for the sky until it froze. It seemed as though E.N.D. was defeated.

Seemed.

"I'll humour those humans with their delusions of grandeur, at least before this ice does anything serious to me."

Gray removed his hand from the purple ice shard created from his Ice Devil Slayer Magic, feeing low on magic and physically and emotionally exhausted. Gray looked down at the ground, regretful of what he had to do and unaware that he was walking forwards without realising.

It wasn't until Erza pulled Gray into her chest area (above the breasts) that Gray realised he had walked forward. Gray put his face up, looking Erza in the eye, expecting her to be mad but instead saw sympathy in her eyes.

"It's okay Gray." Erza said in a surprisingly soothing voice, albeit there were droplets of tears in her eyes also. Gray was surprised, to say the least, he expected Erza to be at least slightly angry for what he just did to someone who had been a friend of theirs since childhood.

"I... I didn't have much of a choice." Gray said in a broken voice, feeling a sense of self-loathing and regret. "I know he was our friend, but he was also E.N.D., so-!" Gray was interrupted when he felt a hand on his shoulder, the Ice-Make mage looked to see that the owner of the hand was Jellal, the Heavenly Body mage also held a look of sympathy in his eyes.

"You had to do what you had to do." Jellal said calmly as he slowly removed his hand from Gray's shoulder. Gray moved his head to look back at a teary eyed yet smiling Erza.

"What you did wasn't easy; as much as you two were at each other's necks, you were still best friends." Erza soothed with empathy once again, a touch of sadness becoming clearer in her voice. "If you didn't do what you did, all of humanity and the world may have suffered."

"It may be hard explaining this to the rest of Fairy Tail, but they may eventually understand." Gray realised that it would, in fact, be hard to explain this to the rest of Fairy Tail, they are family and he just ridded one of their own, one of his own, of their own life. He knew that the guild would forgive him in the end but...!

"What about Lucy?" Gray asked. Erza's smile faltered, becoming more of a sad expression. Gray and Erza both knew that Natsu and Lucy saw each other as more than friends. Heck, everyone in Fairy Tail knew it except for the two mages themselves; both of their own feelings and the feelings of the other.

Gray felt that, at least for the sake of being a good friend, that he would have to give Lucy a bigger apology than the rest of the Fairy Tail guild.

However, before Gray could ponder of any apology for the blonde Celestial Spirit mage, he (as well as Jellal and Erza) sense a dark aura slowly approaching them. The three mages turned towards the aura to see a purple-haired demon glaring at them in absolute furiousness.

Mard Geer watched in disbelief, it shouldn't be possible for something as lowly as a human, Demon Slayer or not, to be capable of defeating Lord E.N.D.

And yet there stood E.N.D.; a fire demon who was the strongest of all of Zeref's creations, frozen in a purple shard of ice created by a human of all creatures. Mard Geer felt even more anger and frustration than before; it was bad enough when one human foiled his otherwise fool-proof plan, but now that a human has ruined everything after his plan has succeeded...!

It seemed as though the universe was trying to decide if today would be the best or worst day of Mard Geer's life.

Mard Geer stomped towards the mages, curse energy building up in his clenched fists as his negative emotions were reaching their peak. A dark aura surrounded Mard Geer, the demon's glaring eyes were almost burning into the humans that glared back.

"This is unacceptable!" Mard Geer growled, the curse energy that was seeping through his fists rising slowly. "This cannot be possible! Mard Geer refuses to believe that Lord E.N.D. could be defeated by a mere human!"

Gray was about to retaliate, either in an attack or a retort about how the 'mere humans' have defeated the Nine Demon Gates of Tartaros, but was stopped when he heard a voice that shouldn't be there.

"Ah, so it seems you are at least somewhat competent, guess you do have some worth after all." the voice of E.N.D. spoke from behind Gray, sounding a little strange (or stranger depending on who you ask) due to being imprisoned in ice. Gray, Erza and Jellal looked back at the giant block of ice that held E.N.D., their eyes wide in fear. The giant shard of purple ice that contained E.N.D. was beginning to crack before their eyes.

"N... no!" Gray muttered, subconsciously taking a step back in fear. "It can't be that-!"

The shard of Devil Slayer ice containing E.N.D. burst, dozens and dozens of tiny ice shard flying everywhere as the fire demon landed on his feet, only retaining a few small scratches and bruises.

"H-how did you do that?!" Gray questioned, incredulous that E.N.D. was capable of not only freeing himself from the Ice Devil Slayer Magic, but appeared as though that same magic was ineffective towards him. "How did you just brush off my magic."

"Did you really believe that your magic made you an automatic threat towards me?" E.N.D. asked rhetorically, looking down at the ice mage before him. "Having magic that was made specifically to kill demons doesn't mean you can kill any demon."

"Another important aspect is that you have to be strong enough to kill said demon. And let me tell you this," E.N.D. continued, smirking as the small scratches and bruises on his body disappeared via regeneration. "The difference in our power levels is too huge for me to see you as a threat."

E.N.D. flew up into the air, looking down the mages, the demon raising his right claw into the air, a fireball forming in his outstretched palm. The fireball began to grow, and grew and grew until it was twice the size of E.N.D. himself.

"If you really believe you are strong enough to destroy me, then try to survive this." E.N.D. shouted towards the three mages, particularly Gray, effortlessly holding the fire with literally a single hand as it became three times his size. Gray's eyes widened as he figured out what E.N.D. was going to do (albeit, it wasn't really that hard to figure out what E.N.D. was going to do anyways).

"Get back!" Gray ordered. It was a rather 'in the moment' action, but Erza and Jellal ended up complying anyways. Gray felt like hell, he barely even had the energy to stand up, but he still channelled as much magic as possible into his hands. E.N.D. merely chuckled darkly at the human's rather futile effort, throwing the fireball at him and his friend with ease. "Ice Devil's Zeroth Protection Shield!"

A gigantic, purple shield of an appearance that was the same as Gray's 'Ice-Make: Shield' had appeared before the Ice-Make, Heavenly Body and Requip mage, its size almost comparing to E.N.D.'s fireball.

The fireball made contact to the ice shield, said shield almost looking as though it would be able to stop the fireball. Emphases on the 'almost looking'.

The ice shield did manage to subdue a part of the fireball, but the shield still broke; a fiery explosion destroyed the shield, sending the three mages back a few feet. Their bodies were on the ground; they were alive but only because the shield subdued part of the fireball and its explosion.

Gray shakily opened his eyes to see the hard, rocky ground. Turning his eyes up, Gray saw E.N.D. slowly descend onto the ground, a small distance from the humans due to his fireball attack. Gray tried to get back on his feet, but as soon as he pushed his hand against the ground to get up, pain rippled from and through his hand and shoulder joint.

Screaming in pain, Gray immediately fell back onto the ground, beginning to notice the burn marks on his body. The Ice-Make mage realised that he was in no condition to fight; aside from barely having enough energy to even keep his eyes open, he felt like he was just got body slammed by Laxus.

Five times. In a row. After being beaten up by Erza and Mirajane.

Gray then heard two people groan and grunt, one being female and the other male, as well as the sound of bodies getting off the ground. While it was a little painful, Gray managed to move his body (or at least his head) to see Erza and Jellal standing up. Although, to say they were standing up was a bit of an exaggeration.

While Jellal was definitely standing, his knees were slightly bent with one hand grasping it while another grasped the side of his body. His breathing was rather rough and even sounded a little raspy. The Heavenly Body mage had multiple small burn marks donning him from head to toe (approximately, while his clothes were singed they were still intact).

Erza stood with one leg straight and the other one bent, the bent one showing a little purple bruise, using a rather short looking bō (or at least short considering how tall a bō usually is) to support her own weight. Strands of Erza's red hair covered her face, to the point where Gray was barely able to notice small droplets of blood drip down her left temple. Much like Jellal, Erza's clothes were singed but still intact.

"Hmm..." E.N.D. hummed, staring down at the S-Class mage and former Wizard Saint, slightly surprised and impressed that they were capable of standing up after that fireball attack. "I must admit that I am relatively impressed at your current states, Jellal and Erza. I'm not surprised that you two survived, but I expected you two to be more like your friend."

Gray was suddenly pulled off of the ground, his arm was put around Jellal's shoulder to help him stand up. The Ice-Make mage turned Devil Slayer silently thanked the Heavenly Body mage, but still focused on the descending demon.

"I will admit that I'm surprised that you survived the spell, Gray." E.N.D. said, his eyes shifting to just Gray before focusing back to all three of the mages. "Then again, I was barely using a fraction of my true power."

The heat around E.N.D. began to intensify as the demon started to unleash more of his power. Flames ignited from E.N.D.'s body until they surrounded him like an aura of power, giving him the appearance one may expect from a fire demon.

"This is power. This is why we demons are beyond humans. This is the power of an indisputable being." E.N.D. said, feeling triumph as he saw the fear in the humans' eyes, even as they tried to hide it from him.

However, with E.N.D. being too engrossed with the fear in the humans' eyes, Gray, Erza and Jellal being too intimidated by the aforementioned demon's power and Mard Geer feeling a mix of amazement, surprise and a odd type of fear, no one noticed Lucy sneaking pass E.N.D.

She had an idea of some sort; it wasn't exactly a smart idea, in fact it was actually rather foolhardy and dumb, and basically anyone could point it out to her. Lucy didn't need hindsight to know how stupid her idea was, but all things considered it was the best idea she had so far. At least the best plausible idea. Lucy bit her lip so hard it could almost bleed, she just hoped that she didn't misunderstand E.N.D.'s characteristics enough for it to fail...!

If she fails to protect her friends, at least she'll die trying.

"You humans are overconfident and cocky, believing that you could ever win in a war against demons." E.N.D. sneered, his flames suddenly disappearing from around him, his eyes shadowed by his hair as his grin slightly grew. "I would call it a shame that you died by learning this lesson, but that would imply that there was a meaning behind your existences."

There was a moment of silence as Gray, Erza and Jellal began to take in what E.N.D. said. They were so low on magic that there was barely anything they could to stop E.N.D., not that there was anything they could do even if they weren't low on magic.

This was the end.

"Fire Devil's Rage!" E.N.D. yelled, releasing fire from his mouth, much like Natsu's 'Fire Dragon's Roar', heading towards the free mages. Suddenly a figure of familiar shape jumped in front of the oncoming fire, their arms outstretched as to protect the other mages. Erza's eyes widened as she realised that the figure was Lucy.

"Lucy!" Gray and Erza screamed as their Celestial Spirit mage friend jumped in front of the attack. The Devil Slayer and Requip mage almost reached out for Lucy, but were stopped by a loud and rather panicked 'No!' that sounded like it came from E.N.D.

The oncoming fire abruptly turned to the left, just missing Lucy, the fire breaking into the ground and burning it; like a narrow, stretched crater. The mages could see E.N.D.; his eyes wide, sweat on his forehead as he seemed to be taking deep breaths.

The Etherious suddenly turned into fire, kind of like spontaneous combustion, the fire that E.N.D. turned into suddenly engulfing Lucy in the blink of a eye and returning to the area where E.N.D. stood before becoming fire. The fire dissipated, revealing E.N.D. and a surprised Lucy held tightly in his arms, neither of them looking burnt or singed in even the slightest.

Lucy's startled eyes were met with E.N.D.'s: originating in their worried wideness from before, suddenly turning into calm relief and then turning into slight anger.

Lucy felt afraid from the little glare that E.N.D. was giving her, which wasn't helped by the fact that the demon was holding her so close to him that her breasts were practically squeezed against his bare chest and that his grip was so powerful that the mage wouldn't even be able to budge out of it.

"Do you understand how stupid that was?" E.N.D. asked, teardrops seeping from his eyes at the fear that he nearly killed her because of her decision. "Do you realise how easily that spell could have killed you?"

"I... I just wanted to protect my friends!" Lucy teared, unconsciously sinking her face in E.N.D.'s chest. The demon king's face softened as his grip loosened on Lucy, albeit his wings surrounded her protectively, earning an incredulous stare from Gray, Erza, Jellal and Mard Geer.

Lucy suddenly moved her head back and stared at E.N.D. in the eyes, catching the Etherious off guard, teardrops surrounding her eyes even though she stopped crying. "Please... don't kill my friends."

E.N.D. narrowed his eyes, pondering; he did despise all humans (with the exception of his demon queen, of course) and would rather have them dead. On the other hand, it can be a compromise: she gets what she wants and he gets what he wants in return. "Fine then, I will spare your friends' lives. But only on one condition."

"What's the condition?" Lucy asked, not missing even a beat. E.N.D. merely cupped her face in his claws with absolute gentleness, despite how sharp the aforementioned claws where. He gazed passionately into her eyes for an uncertain amount of time before responding softly.

"You must become my demon queen."

Author's Note: I really don't know how to start off stories (or Author's Notes for that matter, lol). Anyways, this is The Demon Queen of E.N.D., a Fairy Tail fanfic written by me (Meta Bunny).

As the name implies, that main paring of this will be EndLu (E.N.D. x Lucy), which is basically Nalu but Natsu is stronger/smarter/darker as well as a demon king (give or take). I do ship Nalu hard (#1 Fairy Tail couple, IMO), but I feel like there isn't enough E.N.D. x Lucy fics on this website (but that's just me, maybe other people think there are loads of EndLu fics on this website, lol), plus the idea got in my head so I made this.

This probably won't be that popular of a fanfic, at least until a long while passes (^^;).

Sorry that like a quarter of this was just exposition, I just felt that the information regarding Natsu and E.N.D. needed to be explained to someone in story (^^;). Though this chapter could be summed up as this: Fight scene. Exposition. Another fight scene (yeah it was mostly a Curb-Stomp Battle, but still...).

On the topic of this chapter, it is a lot longer than expected. In fact this is currently the longest chapter I have ever written so far (^^;). I'm aware that this could pass for two or three chapters, but I made it this long so I could put in the summary ('cause I suck at those). I'll probably have to have the other chapters be very long, like this one.

Like I said at the beginning of this chapter, this is an AU of sorts (then again, technically all fanfics are an AU, no matter how close they are to the original material); such as Jellal and the reformed Oración Seis helping Erza defeat Kyôka (I'll probably write in that scene in another chapter, maybe in a flashback).

Also, concerning the differences to cannon in this, the soul of Precht/Hades didn't speak to Natsu and Lucy after the defeat of Franmalth, so Makarov is with the other members of Fairy Tail, instead of the ruins of the guild.

You've most likely noticed that I created some original spells for this chapter, that's because I'm hoping to create some original spells (and maybe even Magic and Curses) for this fanfic.

Also, if you haven't noticed yet, I know about Fairy Tail because of the anime (even though I don't really consider myself to be an anime fan) so the Key of the Starry Sky arc and Eclipse Celestial Spirits arc are cannon in 'The Demon Queen of E.N.D.'

Furthermore, I watch the anime through the English dub so I'll be using the mannerisms they use in the English dub (although I will use the way Juvia refers to herself in the third person and her usage of Japanese honorifics (and maybe Gajeel's 'Gihihi' laugh) since I see them a lot in fanfics). Sorry, I'm just more used to their English mannerisms (^^;).

Can't think of anything else so I bid you adieu.