Master of the Divine Fire

Chapter 1

"Aaaaaahhhhhh!" Natsu screamed, falling down the mountain and landing, creating a small crater, "Damn mountain, stupid Godslayer and his not-able-to-eat-his-fire bullshit!" Natsu yelled frustrated, getting up from the crater and feeling a little sore with literal steam coming out of his ears. Sighing aloud, Natsu decided to calm down.

"Better go find Wendy and Happy to see if they're okay. Then after that, I'll definitely get revenge and beat that Zancrow guy's ass!" Natsu said getting pumped up to fight again. After walking for awhile, Natsu, with his enhanced hearing, heard a soft groan coming from the left of him and decided to check it out to see if it was one of his guild mates. He dashed off immediately, not wanting to waste any more time. Getting to the place where the sound came from, Natsu stood there in shock at the sight before him.

"Gramps..." He whispered in disbelief. Right there in front of him was the guild master of Fairy Tail, Markarov Dreyar, the old man lying beaten on the dirt, bleeding from a hole in his stomach, looking as if he was going die. "Oi, gramps! What happened!? Who did this to you!?"

"Natsu, my boy... you must not face the enemy who did this. I know you won't like to hear this, but... this is one war Fairy Tail will lose."

"Huh!? What are you talking 'bout old man!? Of course we'll win!" Natsu said with a shaky voice not believing that gramps would ever say something like that. The only time he saw him get this beaten up was when the Air Mage from Phantom Lord that cried a lot drained him of his magic but Natsu knew this was entirely different.

"Natsu, you must listen. Take Fairy Tail... take our family and get them off of this land; away from the danger that awaits. I'm trusting that you will complete the last mission I'm giving you." Makarov said in a weary voice, almost inaudible.

"Shut up! This is not the gramps that showed me my new home, the one that gave me hope that I would find Igneel! I promise to you gramps... I promise to beat the guys down who did this! Now let's go look for Wendy so she can fix you up, 'kay." Natsu said get the turmoil in his head to focus on something else. It was then that a black flame landed near them.

"HAHAHAHAHA, I see master Hades already did his number on you, huh, Makarov? HAHAHAHA!" Zancrow said hysterically getting out of the burning crater he made when he jumped off the cliff. 'No! Not now!' Natsu screamed in his head as he shivering visibly in front of both the spectators.

'What!? Natsu showing fear! Impossible!' Makarov thought shocked, never once having seen fear coming off of Natsu, not even against Gildarts.

"Ohohoho the little dragon hunter is quaking in his boots? I don't blame ya! Anyone would cower in front of the 7 Kin- in front me... a Godslayer. Hahahaha!" Zancrow arched his back as he laughed loudly towards the sky. Natsu, all the while, was staring at his shaking hands, looking back and forth between Makarov, Zancrow and himself.

"This fear... it's not the one Gildarts was talking about." Natsu said in a whisper, clutching his hands into fists, "This fear I have is not of you, Bastard! I only fear that one of you assholes are gonna hurt my nakama! I will definitely get my hands on the one who's in charge of your guild and burn him to the ground!" Natsu screamed agitated as intense fire crawled up his body. His face twisted into one of extreme anger while all he could think about is how the guy in front of him was belittling his friends. "I'll defeat Master Hades! And I'll do it with my own two hands!"

"Gaahaha, you think you can take down Master Hades? If you think you can defeat him with that lousy powers of yours, you must've fallen off that cliff harder than I thought, Dragonslayer!" Zancrow yelled, laughing at the thought of him beating Hades as intense black fire worked its way up his body as well, "That ain't never gonna happen if you can't even beat me, ya stupid punk!"

Natsu, with an intense look in his eyes, pummeled Zancrow several times with his hands coated in Dragonslayer flames, knocking the crazy man back.

"You dumbass! Haven't you been hearing what I say? Your flames are useless against me!" Zancrow cackled madly as between his complete immunity to fire and his impressive physical endurance, Natsu would never be able to so much as scratch him.

The flame covered Natsu leapt across the tall tree's and tried to attack Zancrow with his Fire Dragon Talon. Zancrow merely raised his arm and blocked the attack before punching Natsu into the air with his own flame covered fist.

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Natsu shouted his spell as he aimed for Zancrow. As the spell headed toward him, Zancrow couldn't help but grin as he once again ate Natsu's fire, greedily sucking it all in his stomach and watching Natsu's irritated expression with glee. Natsu couldn't stop his anger from rising as he watched his fire get eaten again. The sight of someone else eating the magic Igneel gave him infuriated him to no end; it made him feel weak, and he didn't like it, not one bit. 'There has to be a way I can eat his fire too!' He growled in his mind.

"HAHAHAHAHA, I'm not going to be able to eat anything else if you keep feeding me your flames, dumbass! Your dragonfire has got nothing on my divine flames, they are on a completely different level!" Zancrow said with venom clearly coming out of his words.

"Put a sock in it!" Natsu yelled, fuming at Zancrow as Natsu landed on a tree and clasped it, "I'll find a way to beat you even if your fire is supposed to be superior!"

"I'm far beyond you, little gecko." Zancrow insulted, further angering Natsu. "Unlike you, I can do more with my flames than just burn shit. I can fashion them into weapons that can cut down any opponent." Zancrow brought the flames in his hands together and combined them into a giant scythe made of black flame.

"Flame God's Severing Flame!" Zancrow yelled as he swung a giant scythe made of black flames towards Natsu, who narrowly dodged the attack by jumping high into the air propelled by his flames. As Natsu dodged the attack, multiple giant trees were cleanly cut down by the devastating attack and flew up into the sky while Natsu took full advantage of this.

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Natsu yelled, punching the tree down toward Zancrow, who didn't expect something like that as he was crushed under the broken tree. It wasn't long before a fiery explosion came from under the giant tree and blew into smithereens. Coming out of pile of burning wood was Zancrow and was annoyed.

"You know, a god's fire consumes all it touches, burning it to ash... and I pretty sure my fire would love to eat a puny wizard like you," Zancrow said laughing evilly under his breath but loud enough for Natsu to hear, "You're going down, little Dragonslayer! Flame God's Supper!" Zancrow covered his arms in what looked like two halves of a hungry maw and slammed it together consuming Natsu in the middle.

"Aaaahhhh!" Natsu screamed, hurting from the attack. He felt his skin slowly becoming aware of the heat emitted by the attack as the pressure bearing down on him was intense. The feeling of being crushed between the two solid domes of fire that could actually burn him was not something he wanted to feel ever again.

"Natsu!" Makarov screamed worriedly towards Natsu as he saw him try to eat the black flames to free himself from the fiery prison but failed as he choked on them and spit them out.

"HAHAHAHAHAHA, what'd I tell you, you can't eat my flames! Although, it might take a bit longer for my flames to devour you since you're immune to regular fire, but I can wait as long as it takes to get rid of you! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" Zancrow yelled with a crazed look on his face. While laughing at his impending victory, he felt something huge grab him and start crushing his torso and looking back, he saw Makarov with the arm of a giant trying to turn him into mush.

"WHAT KIND OF HEARTLESS MONSTER WOULD HURT ONE OF MY CHILDREN RIGHT BEFORE MY EYES!? STOP OR I WILL SQUASH YOU LIKE A BUG!" He screamed at Zancrow.

"Hahahahaha! Looks like your gramps is in the game now too! Let's see who can last the longest without dying!" Zancrow screamed in excitement as he lit his body on fire, burning Makarov's hand.

"I pity you, young man, for you do not know the power of family!" Makarov yelled putting more power into his grip on Zancrow who grunted in pain in response.

"Let go of me you fool! Unless you really want to lose that arm that badly!" Zancrow yelled as he felt like his spine was touching his heart.

"GRAMPS!" Natsu yelled, building up his magic power as a globe of his dragon fire surrounded him. Natsu roared painfully while he fought against the pressure of the black flames with his own fire as he struggled to expand his magic and break the spell. But as he tried to fight his way out of the black flames, his own magic eventually gave out and the dragon flames could no longer be seen within the black flames.

'Natsu's magic power... ran out. It's gone...' Makarov thought, thinking of the worst possibility.

"HAHAHAHAHA! Looks like the dragon hunter is the first to go!" Zancrow laughing happily.

"YOU WILL PAY FOR THIS!" Makarov screamed as he put even more pressure on his grip as Zancrow spit out some blood this time. But as a few seconds past, they were both surprised to hear a slurping sound. And when they turned their heads toward the direction the sounds were coming from, what they saw shocked them.

Natsu was eating the divine flames!

"That's not possible! No dragonslayer should be able to eat the element of a Godslayer!" Zancrow yelled with anger crossing his face again.

"Phew, I didn't realize there was trick to eating certain types of fire." Natsu said as he wiped his mouth.

'Unbelievable! He temporarily emptied his body of Magic Power to become an empty vessel for the foreign magic to enter his body! I wouldn't call such advanced manipulation of Magic a trick!' Makarov thought in amazement at once again seeing his child improving to great heights, before he remembered that Natsu nearly died pulling that off. "HOW COULD YOU BE SO FOOLISH, NATSU!? DO YOU WANT TO DIE!" Makarov screamed at Natsu as he threw Zancrow into the air by accident.

"Of course not Gramps. And I won't let anyone else either. No one's dying! We're all gonna make it back home to Fairy Tail!" Natsu said, jumping high in the air to catch up with Zancrow, "Dragon and Divine Flames, come together to become one!" He chanted as black fire started circling around his left hand getting bigger, while the same happened with his right hand as his regular flames started getting bigger, " DRAGON GOD'S BRILLIANT FLAME!" Natsu yelled intensely, crashing the twin giant orbs of fire between the Godslayer, instantly creating a giant explosion blinding the Makarov as they could hear Zancrow laughing painfully at his own defeat.

With the explosion dying down, Natsu landed roughly on the scorched dirt fiiled with ash while tumbling towards Makarov.

"Gramps... I know that you there are times where you can't fight back... that's what Gildarts taught me and that's what you want to do. You want to back down from this fight but right now we can't do that for this war. These guys made an enemy of Fairy Tail and we need to teach them a lesson about that. So let's fight on... G-Gramps." Natsu said determined look in his eyes.

"Natsu!" Makarov yelled. 'We'll definitely fight Natsu... and we will win.'

"You…pathetic…idiot," came the crazed voice of the blonde godslayer that Natsu thought he just defeated. Both Natsu and Markarov looked to see Zancrow getting back up again. Besides his clothes being frayed and some dust on his person, he was more or less uninjured.

'He's not even injured!' Markarov thought with fear as he could feel himself weakening from the hole in his stomach. He couldn't really fight right now and Natsu was now all out of power from the attack he just used.

"I see what you did there. You emptied your body of all your dragon slayer magic, temporarily making you an empty magic vessel that could consume once-inedible fire." Zancrow said in a unusually calm manner as he dust himself off.

"But don't tell me, that for one minute, you thought you could," Zancrow growled before he started shouting, "DEFEAT ME WITH MY OWN ELEMENT!? NOW I'M REALLY PISSED OFF AND YOU'RE GONNA PAY!"

"No! Leave Natsu alone!" Markarov shouted as he enlarged his fist and tried to smash Zancrow like a bug. Zancrow saw this coming and jumped out of the way and into the air.

"Burn, you filthy dragon hunter! Flame God's Explosive Flame!" Zancrow shouted as he conjured a ball of his black flames in his hand before throwing it at Natsu with a punch-like motion.

Natsu was not worried. He had eaten the flames before and right now that his body had consumed them once, he should be able to do it again. "I ate your flames once, jerk, and now that I know how to do it again, this will be a piece of cake." As such, Natsu allowed the black flames to hit him again. The moment they hit him, the ball of black flames expanded and engulfed Natsu.

"No problem," Natsu said as his body was empty of magic and he tried once more to consume the flames. However, this time when he tried to consume them, he ended up burning his mouth when he tried to eat these flames and started coughing. He also got several burns on his arms. "Why!? I don't understand, I should be able to eat them while I'm like this."

"You stupid dragon hunter! That kind of trick only works once on someone like me!" Zancrow said as he landed in front of Natsu and began pummeling his face. "My magic is the same magic that the Gods of Fire used! Long ago, long before dragonslayers were a thing, the Gods still interacted with humans They had champions of their own that they taught their magic to. Those Champions would later record their magic and thus, the Godslayers were born. My own magic is the culminated knowledge of two dozen Fire Gods. I am the master of these divine flames! No one can control them but me!"

"You get what I'm saying, dipshit!?" Zancrow asked Natsu as he stopped pummeling him and slugged him in gut, causing spit to fly from Natsu's mouth. "You ain't eating my flames ever again! Flame God's Hephaestus Hammer!" Zancrow shouted as black divine flames gathered in both of his hands. He clasped both of his hands together in a tight double hammer fist and swung them down onto the hunched Natsu's back, both smashing him into the ground and creating a destructive circular wave of black fire around them, kicking up a tower of dust and dirt.

When the dust cleared, Markarov could see that Natsu's back was badly burned, he was face down and he wasn't getting back up. 'No! Natsu!', Markarov thought in despair.

"Tch, he's still alive." Zancrow said as he saw Natsu was still breathing. He wasn't sure what was going right now, as he didn't remember learning those moves or why he was explaining shit to the pinky but he wanted to make him pay!

"I was gonna play with you some more but I'm done wasting my time! I'm killing both of you right now!" Zancrow shouted as he stepped back, a pillar of his flames erupting from him.

'He's preparing a massive spell! And I can't do anything to stop him!' Markarov thought as he could barely move.

"Say goodbye to the dragon slayer, Makarov! And prepare to witness one of the Sacred Hallowed Arts of the Flame God Slayer!" Zancrow said as he prepared to unleash one of his strongest spell. "Ebony Inferno: -"

Zancrow suddenly stopped as the flames died. He would have just now unleashed an attack that would have easily killed both of the weakened Fairy Tail Mages, as well as burn this whole area to ash, but something stopped him. Red lines of runes appeared all over his skin. "What the hell?" Zancrow wondered as pain erupted through his body.

Zancrow shouted out as he fell to his knees in pain. It hurt so bad he felt like every cell in his body was burning to ash. 'What's going on here?' Markarov wondered. 'A moment ago, he was going to kill both Natsu and I, now he seem's like he is in suffering.' Zancrow's head was raised enough that Markarov could see two runes on his forehead that read "Personality Seal" and "Loyalty: Grimoire Heart".

"Don't tell me that's what I think it is!" Markarov said in shock, 'Bad enough that Master Precht is the leader of the strongest Dark Guild, but now he has stolen this young mans free will from him with a loyalty rune and, if I'm correct, sealed away his true personality with a false one that Natsu and I witnessed.'

'But what does that mean? Is he still an enemy?' Markarov wondered as he watched the ripples in Zancrow eyes disappear.

"Gah!" the man known as Zancrow huffed and breathed deeply as sweat dripped from every pour in his body. His hands hit the ground as he panted. After taking several breaths, he looked at his hands.

"I...can still hear it." He said to himself as he clenched his fists, hearing scream's of his victims in his head as he closed his eyes. Well, he supposed they were not technically his victims, since it was Zancrow that did that and not him, but it was still his body that ended those hundreds of lives.

And then, he remembered how he ended up like this in the first place.

Flashback

The man that would become Zancrow groaned as he returned to consciousness, and felt himself being bound to a wall, looking up his eye widened seeing the magic restraining chains bind him as Hades was in front of him, along with 4 other mages in cloaks behind him.

"Mater Hades," Zancrow said, his ripple-less eyes that he previously had, "What are you doing? What's going on?" The last thing he remembered was that he had mastering the basics of his 3rd Lost Magic, which was the 6th magic he had learned, despite being only 16 years old. Then something hit him in the back of the head and he was knocked out.

"Why, my young Naruto Uzumaki." Hades said as he referred to Zancrow by his true name. Or rather, his original name. "You're a smart lad. Surely you can figure out what's going on for yourself."

"Why?" Naruto asked as he hung his head low for a moment before throwing it back up and shouting at Hades, "Why are you betraying me? I've done everything you've ever asked since you found me and took me in!"

Years ago, Naruto had come to this universe by complete accident. It was during the battle with Sasuke that their attacks collided and ripped a hole in the dimensions. Only Naruto managed to survive moving through the dimensions, and that was because the Kyuubi had worked overtime in an attempt to save him. The Kyuubi and his chakra had been lost in the dimensional rift and as a result, Naruto lost his whisker marks. Naruto's eyes turned crimson red though, likely due to his system being flooded by the Kyuubi's chakra at the time of extraction. Naruto ended up in a small town close to where he landed. He settled in the town for a bit, and remembered this cute girl who saved the town from a demon, a girl named Mirajane. They had been friends and he tried to help her and protect her from the villagers but she didn't stay and left with her siblings to escape the prejudice. Naruto ended up leaving as well, though he gone another route for them ostracizing his first friend he had made in this new world. In this new world, he had learned Flame God Slayer Magic from the tome that was hidden with the village catacombs and in his anger at losing his first friend, he used his new magic to burn the village to ash, killing many of the civilians.

Hades had found him like that and took him in. Naruto repayed that kindness by doing missions for him and learned 5 other magics, two of them being other Lost Magics themselves.

"My boy, it's true that you have done much for me and my Guild. But lets be honest. You were planning to leave to find the girl from your village. Your friend." Hades said as Hades and Naruto knew who the girl was. Mirajane Strauss. The newest S-class Mage of Fairytail, Hades old guild. Nobody really knew this but Hades real name was Precht Gaelbolg, and he had been the 2nd Guild Master of Fairy Tail before handing it off to the current master almost 45 years ago.

Any who, Hades was aware of the fact that while the friendship between Naruto and Mirajane had been shortlived, Naruto's desire to see her and be around her was all consuming and would not be stopped, not even by him. It was only a matter of time before he left of his own free will when Hades was not expecting it. He would normally destroy those with such insolence but Naruto was a special case due to his ability to master so many magics at a young age, 3 of them being Lost Magics. He did not want to give up such a valuable asset when he could still make use of him.

"So what if I do? Mirajane is the only friend I ever had. I miss her terribly and I would have followed after her as a kid had you not found me. I owe for giving me a home the last few years old man, but other than that, I owe you nothing. Let me go," Naruto demanded.

"Normally I would kill anyone else for such insolence, but you are a special case. You still are useful to me. And be useful, you will." Hades said as he prepared his ritual. Naruto looked at the four men with cloaks on and then he noticed four Lacrima which were connected to his chains…

"You-You're gonna steal my power and give it to them?" Naruto realized before he started struggling. "No, I won't let you steal all my hard work and give it someone unworthy, you bastard!"

"It's too late to stop the ritual my boy." Hades stated as red lightning arc into Naruto skin and he shouted in pain as lines of magic were ripped from his body, filling the lacrima. One lacrima became dark green. Another become purple. The third became black and purple and the final one became red with a kanji on it.

"It is done. His powers are now available for you all to take." Hades said as the mages behind him took off their cloaks, revealing them to be Azuma, Bluenote Stinger, Rustyrose and Yomazu.

"I noticed, Master Hades, that none of these Lacrima seem to hold his divine Flames," Rusyrose said, referring to his Godslayer magic.

"That is the magic he is most attuned with.I couldn't rip that out of him, even if I wanted to. And I still have intentions of keeping him in my service. He still is a useful pawn, after all," Hades said.

"He won't be very cooperative after this, Master," Azuma said as he picked one of the Lacrima out for himself, while noticing Naruto's drained yet angry expression.

"That's why I'm going to seal his true personality and replace it with one that is loyal to the guild." Hades said as Naruto lost his consciousness again, having his true personality sealed away and replaced with Zancrows.

Flashback End

Naruto had been aware of the crimes Hades made Zancrow commit. He had been aware of everything the fake personality did while Naruto was unable to control his own body. A cruel punishment by Hades, likely to punish him for trying to leave. But it didn't matter now. He was back in control of his body. He was free.

"I'M FREEEEEEEEEE!" Roared Naruto to the heavens as torrents of black fire shot out of the ground him for a few moments. Standing up, Naruto reigned in his powers but still possessed his dark smile at finally being freed from that damned crazed counterpart Hades had trapped him in for the last few years. 'I'm going to enjoy tearing those fuckers apart for stealing my powers from me and keeping me from Mira all these years.' Naruto thought.

"But first," Naruto said as he turned to the two downed Fairy Tail Mages. He walked closer to Natsu and flipped him over, surveying the damage the fake him had down to the Fairy Tail Mage. "I'm sorry," Naruto said with remorse as he closed his eyes and was relieved when he found Natsu was still alive, though that last attack Naruto had used had shattered Natsu's spine. He would need to act quickly to save him. "I never wanted to hurt any of Mira's friends. I'm gonna make this right."

Naruto clasped his hands together and black flames appeared them and Markarov looked on, helpless to do anything. "O, God of the Morning Sun, I pray to thee. Deliver salvation upon this poor broken soul. Flame God's Blessing of Apollo," Naruto incanted as Natsu became covered by Naruto's flames. These were not the typical destructive flames he uses in combat. Zancrow, the crazy fake personality that he was, had been telling the truth when he told Natsu about the number of gods the Flame Godslayer tome he had found had knowledge from. He was also telling the truth when he had told Natsu that he could do more with his flames than simply burn shit.

Apollo was a God of the Sun, so he was associated with Fire, but was also the god of Healing, and as such, Naruto could use his flames to heal major damage, as he was doing with Natsu right now. Within 10 minutes, Natsu's spine was good as new and his other injuries he had sustained from battling Naruto's fake personality were fixed as well, though Natsu would not wake for some time.

Naruto got up and walked over to Makarov, kneeling beside him, once again casting Flame God's Blessing of Apollo. The divine flames Markarov entire form as Naruto slowly saved him from.

"Not to…sound ungrateful, but I am curious why you are saving me and my child," Markarov asked Naruto.

"Can it, ya old fool," Naruto snapped back, "You're still bleeding out from that wound Hades gave you. That Wendy chick won't be along for a while yet, so unless you wanna die from blood loss, shut up and let me fix you!"

"Sheesh, it was just a question," Makarov thought as he saw the hole in his stomach slowly close, life returning to the old man.

Naruto stayed quite for several moments before he started talking, "I don't know if you know this. But Mirajane and her siblings…they used to live in my village." Naruto said , shocking Makarov as he now knew who this man was. Mirajane and her siblings had spoken of him when they first came to the guild. "She was my first friend. I cared for her and her siblings, though I was closer to Mira, because I felt a kinship with her. See, I too, know the pain of being treated like a demon for something that isn't your fault. I wasn't enough for her though, and she left because of her prejudice. In my sorrow at losing the only friends I had, I made that village pay." Makarov didn't need to be a genius to know what that meant.

"Hades found me after that. He brought me into his dark guild but I never really wanted to join them. I only did because I had nowhere else to go and I needed to a place to stay while I learned to control my new powers. 3 years after that, I had gotten much stronger and found out Mira had become an S-Class mage for Fairy Tail. Realizing where my friend and her siblings had gone and that they were alive, I made plans to leave and join her at Fairy Tail. But Hades figured me out and stopped me."

Naruto gritted his teeth as he continued, "He didn't just seal away my true personality with that fake one you saw earlier, he stole my powers and gave them to some of the other members of his guild! He made me a passenger in my own body, forced to watch helplessly as my fake self killed hundreds of innocent people with my powers! And now my powers are being used against Mira's guild, against the guild I had wanted to…" Naruto stopped himself before he started crying at his own helplessness.

"The point is, I never wanted to hurt your guild. If I did, Mira would be sad. I saw enough of that when we were kids. I never want to see her sad again." Naruto said as he finished healing Makarov's wounds. "I've gotten you out the danger zone and fixed the damage, but you shouldn't move too much. The Sky Dragon Slayer should be along soon to finish fixing you up."

Naruto made to leave but Makarov still had enough strength to ask him something, "Young man, I must ask, what will you do, now that you are free from Hades control?"

"Hades stole my powers and 3 years of life from me. First, I'm gonna get my powers back. Then I'm gonna hunt down Hades and kill him. After that, I don't really know." Naruto walked away after that. Makarov fell into a blissful sleep but not before promising himself that he would help that young man find his way again if they survived this encounter with Grimoire Heart. Perhaps he'd offer him to join Fairy Tail. It's not like Fairy Tail didn't have their own reformed mages in their guild. Juvia and Gajeel were part of Phantom Lord once and that guild was about as close to a Dark Guild as you could get while still being legal. Now those two were proud Fairy Tail Wizards. Of course, whether or not he would get to offer that option to Naruto depended on whether they could survive Grimoire Hearts assault. But something told him it was all gonna work out in the end.

Chapter end