Volcanos erupted continuously, spewing out flaming rocks that flew toward the ground like meteors and rivers of molten rocks as far as one could see.

This was a world of fire and flames and at the base of one of the volcanos was a large cave, before the cave stood a platform that was surrounded by lava, and on that platform led a giant red dragon, Igneel.

It had now been more than seven years since he and the other dragons had entered the bodies of their human children.

And in those seven years, he and the others had tried to heal the wounds that they had suffered from their clash with Acnologia, but also helped the body of their child to produce antibodies against the dragon seed that had formed inside their body, so that they would never be at risk to turn into a dragon, like all of the dragon slayers before them.

Igneel opened one of his eyes, he could feel that his soul had almost healed completely, it wouldn´t take much longer.

As for the antibodies, the bodies of the children could already produce the antibodies on their own, so there was no longer a risk for them to turn into a dragon, however, for Natsu, it was a bit more complicated.

Because Natsu´s body was different from a regular body and only two people knew about it.

‘Our wounds are almost healed, but until the time is right, we need to stay hidden, for the sake of the world and the sake of them.’ Igneel thought before continuing to watch the world through Natsu´s eyes.

Currently, Natsu was fighting against Cobra, a dragon slayer that had a lacrima with dragon magic implanted into his body, something that Igneel was not fond of at all.

 

 

Erza and the others ran through the ruins as fast as they could, they could already see the altar and Brain that stood at the top of it.

However, the dark guild members under Oración Seis had found them, and wave after wave of opponents came after them.

However, none of them were able to go against Erza, Gray, or Anna, who defeated groups of enemies with relative ease.

But the sheer number of the attackers slowly drained them of their energy while the number of enemies didn´t seem to decrease at all, which was odd.

Erza, Ichiya, Gray, and Anna had a rough estimate of how large the force at the forest initially was, Hibiki had kept a record of every encounter that the groups had.

From them, they could see how large the remaining force should be, but they had already faced more than double the estimated number of remaining enemies.

However, none of them were able to come up with an explanation for this.

But that wasn´t the only strange thing, the morale of the dark guild members was extremely high, and no matter how many they defeated none of them seemed to waver at all, which was quite unusual for dark guilds.

Not that they had the time to think about it.

Wanting to end the whole thing quickly, Erza equipped her Earth Empress Armor.

“[Eruption]”

Erza swung the hammer down onto the ground and multiple giant spikes erupted from the ground, destroying everything around them and sending every enemy that was nearby flying.

And it was at this moment that Anna realized that rocks passed through most of their enemies.

“They are illusions!” Anna warned everyone quickly, causing everyone else to tense up.

Hibiki started to curse as he noticed that the interface of his magic had been manipulated through an illusion as well.

“Well, looks like you noticed my little trick. But it doesn´t matter.” someone said in a cold voice.

The voice came from within the crowd of the remaining enemies.

Gray and Erza readied themselves to face this unknown enemy.

“They have done enough, I will finish you myself.” the voice said and with the sound of a finger snip, the group of dark guild members disappeared, leaving only around a dozen or two of them left and awake Midnight.

Midnight looked at the group with his cold red eyes as if he was looking at insects.

“Gray and I will deal with him, you guys go on and deal with Brain. We will join you as soon as we have dealt with him.” Erza instructed the others.

Ichiya, Anna, Wendy, and Lucy were a bit hesitant about leaving Gray and Erza alone with him.

“You think that I will let any of you pass me? Dream on.” Midnight said with a confident smile.

“There is no need for you to worry about that, Midnight. Deal first with these two, while I play with the remaining trash.” Brain said as he walked out of the shadows from one of the buildings, shocking not only Erza and the others but also Midnight.

“Father… I…” Midnight tried to reassure Brain that he was able to handle these insects and that he didn´t need to interfere.

Brain smiled viciously toward the group before saying, “It is not that I doubt your abilities, but I have already activated the self-repair system of Nirvana. So I decided to waste some time by killing these vermin’s with you.”

Lucy´s face became blue as she became scared, it didn´t help that Brain was releasing enough magic power that rivaled Erza herself.

Midnight sighed in relief and looked back at Gray and Erza.

“Shit, it seems like we need to end this fast. [Ice Maker: Lance]”

Gray created multiple ice lances which he fired toward Midnight, who in turn only smiled and didn´t move in any other way.

Erza and Gray were confused as to why he didn´t move but they soon saw why, because as soon as the lances were only a meter away from Midnight, they changed their course and missed him.

“What the…!” Gray yelled in surprise, while Erza charged toward Midnight, her sword ready to split him in two.

However, Midnight simply raised his hand and pointed it toward Erza.

What happened next shocked everyone, Erza´s armor started to move and wrap itself around her upper body and her arms.

Erza tried to free herself from her armor hold but to no avail.

But it became even worse, as the armor started to move up her throat, trying to strangle her to death.

Having no other choice, Erza used her magic and put her armor into her storage, revealing the white sleeveless blouse beneath the armor.

Erza glared at Midnight while taking large breaths of air.

“Gray, help the others with Brain, he is mine!” Erza instructed.

Gray shuddered as he saw Erza´s expression before turning toward Brain, not daring to argue with her.

“Are you sure about that? I am the strongest member of Oración Seis, not even father can go against me.” Midnight said.

“I will show you. [Requip: Flight Armor]”

Erza equipped her Flight Armor and quickly disappeared.

Midnight didn´t seem impressed and moved his hand, sending a slash flying the building in front of it in two.

“You missed.” Erza said as she reappeared beside him, wielding both swords that belonged to the armor.

One of the swords was aimed toward Midnight´s neck, intending to decapitate him.

However, just like the ice lances before, the sword changed its trajectory at the last moment and missed Midnight.

Not giving up, Erza tried with her other sword, aiming it toward Midnight´s chest but the same thing happened as before, and the sword missed Midnight.

“You spoke too soon. [Spiral Pian]”

Before Erza could move again, a vortex of distorted air surrounded Erza.

Erza yelled out in pain as the distorted air inflicted deep-cut wounds onto her.

After the vortex disappeared, Erza fell onto the ground, her armor disappeared and her usual outfit returned, without the armor.

“Don´t tell me that this is the end? I haven´t had enough fun, show me more despair, and frustration! I need more!” Midnight yelled toward Erza.

Erza ignored the insane mumbling of her opponent and got onto her feet again, ignoring the injuries that she had just suffered.

“[Requip: Heaven´s Wheel Armor]”

Erza used her magic again and changed into her Heaven´s Wheel Armor and instantly summoned dozens of swords.

“[Blumenblatt]”

The swords launched toward Midnight, who sneered and once again didn´t move.

And just like the last times, the swords changed their trajectories at the last moment, missing Midnight completely.

“You start to bore me.” Midnight said and moved his hand, causing Erza´s armor to wrap itself around her again.

However, this time Erza was able to hold her sword in her hand long enough for her to throw it toward Midnight before the armor wrapped itself completely around her arms.

The sword flew toward Midnight´s head, however, this time Midnight moved his head, dodging the attack.

Erza´s eyes widened in surprise before she started to smile.

Once again, Erza released her magic and changed into another armor.

“[Requip: Robe of Y­ūe]”

The ‘armor’ that she had changed into was an extremely revealing purple kimono with flower motifs.

In her hand was a polearm that was similar to a naginata, however, the blade was much broader.

Midnight began to laugh loudly as he saw this.

Erza rushed toward Midnight and attacked multiple times with her weapon.

And like every time before, Midnight didn´t even try to evade.

However, this time the attacks passed right through his body, and the buildings behind Midnight were cut by the air pressure of the attacks.

Seeing as the attacks had no effect, any normal person would normally stop their attacks however, Erza continued with her onslaught, and with every attack, one building was cut in half because of the air pressure alone.

The last attack was a wide swing, causing a shockwave that sent all of the sand and dirt to fly through the air, except one part.

Seeing this part, Erza rushed toward it and struck out with her palm.

“What are you doing? Have you gone mad? Good! Show me mo- AAAAARRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH!!!” Midnight said before being cut off as he yelled out in pain.

Midnight disappeared and reappeared where Erza had struck out, sending Midnight flying into the wall of the building behind him.

Midnight had used his magic to create an illusion of himself while making his real body invisible.

“H-How?!” Midnight asked in horror, the palm strike had broken multiple ribs, and blood coming out of his mouth, his body mostly buried beneath the rocks.

“During our short fight, I noticed two weaknesses of your magic.” Erza said calmly while looking down at Midnight.

Erza stretched out one finger.

“First, you had always targeted my armor or my weapons, if you wanted to kill me then you could have simply used your magic on my body, but because you haven´t, it means that you can´t use your magic on living beings.”

She then stretched out a second finger.

“Second, after restraining me with my armor, you had dodged the sword by moving your head. Before that you had never dodged any attack, meaning that you couldn´t redirect it. Which means that you can only control one object at a time, those are the weaknesses of your magic.”

Midnight could only stare speechless at Erza.

She had been right, these were the core weaknesses of Midnight´s magic, however, it was shocking that Erza was able to figure those out in such a short amount of time.

“This is the end!” Erza said and holed out to one final attack.

Desperately, Midnight tried to use his magic to create an illusion, however, he wasn´t fast enough and with a final blow, Midnight´s vision became black.

Battered and exhausted, Erza turned around, only to see how Brain was effortlessly fighting against Gray, Lucy, and the others.

‘I need to help them.’ Erza thought and tried to run toward her friends so that she could help them.

However, she stopped as she could feel a gargantuan amount of magic power gathering above her in the sky.