The cliffside crumbled as Zancrow pulled himself out of the rubble.
His shirt was torn, and blood dripped from a nasty gash on his forehead.
He didn't look scared. He looked downright ecstatic!
"You piece of shit," Zancrow cackled, spitting a wad of bloody saliva into the dirt.
His eyes were wide and bloodshot.
"That actually hurt! I haven't felt a hit like that in years!"
KendoGarurumon stood his ground, the massive treads humming as they crushed the charred earth beneath them.
The sheer mechanical weight of the digital beast made the ground tremble.
"I'm not here to play games with you," Ace's synthesized voice buzzed from the armored core. "You want to burn this island? You're going to have to go through me."
"Gladly!" Zancrow roared.
The Flame God Slayer threw his arms out, his magical aura exploding into a massive pillar of pitch-black fire.
The heat was so intense it warped the air, turning the surrounding sand and rocks into molten glass.
He gathered every ounce of his chaotic ethernano, forming a colossal, blazing scythe of dark flames in his hands.
"I'm gonna chop you into scrap metal!" Zancrow shrieked, launching himself forward with terrifying speed.
"Flame God's Execution Scythe!"
He brought the massive dark blade down, aiming right for KendoGarurumon's armored neck.
Ace didn't try to dodge. He locked his targeting systems onto the incoming God Slayer.
The heavy, solar-powered laser cannon mounted on KendoGarurumon's back whined with a high-pitched, deafening frequency as it charged.
"Solar Laser," Ace commanded softly.
The cannons fired.
A blinding, continuous beam of pure, hyper-condensed plasma erupted from KendoGarurumon's back.
The beam was as thick as a house, illuminating the dark Tenrou jungle with the brilliance of a miniature sun.
Zancrow swung his scythe, confident his God flames would devour the attack.
"I told you, I eat—"
The moment the dark fire touched the solar plasma, it didn't burn it. The pure kinetic and thermal energy of the digital attack ripped right through Zancrow's magic.
The plasma beam swallowed the Flame God Slayer whole!
"Fuck!" Zancrow managed to scream before the sheer force of the blast carried him away.
The laser tore a massive, smoldering trench through the jungle, blasting Zancrow miles across the island until he crashed into the far western shores.
The beam faded, leaving nothing but a smoking, glowing crater where the dark mage used to be.
KendoGarurumon's cannons hissed, venting steam into the humid air.
"Target neutralized," Ace muttered.
He knew Zancrow wasn't dead—God Slayers were stubborn roaches with insane durability—but he was definitely out of the fight for a long time.
Ace reverted to his human form in a flash of digital code, his boots hitting the charred dirt.
He slipped the D-Tector back into his pocket, his eyes scanning the tree line. The vanguard was handled, and one of the Seven Kin was out of the way.
But the island was still crawling with dark mages.
"Time to hunt," Ace smirked, slipping into the shadows of the jungle.
...
A few miles south, the humid air was thick with tension.
Cana ran through the dense brush, her breathing ragged.
She pushed heavy vines out of her way, her eyes locked dead ahead. Lucy sprinted right behind her, struggling to keep pace in her boots.
"Cana, wait!" Lucy gasped, grabbing a tree trunk to steady herself. "We need to stop and think! We saw the red flare. The exam is canceled. We need to regroup with the others!"
"I'm not stopping!" Cana snapped, looking over her shoulder.
Her eyes were wild with desperation.
"I'm so close, Lucy! I can feel the magic of the grave. If I just find Mavis's resting place, I pass. I become S-Class. I can finally tell him the truth!"
"Tell who the truth?!" Lucy yelled, stepping in front of Cana to block the path. "A dark guild is invading the island! They want to kill us, Cana! Being S-Class doesn't matter if we're dead!"
Before Cana could yell back, a heavy, rhythmic thud echoed from the canopy above.
"Oh, man, I'm so hungry," a deep, whining voice complained. "And the ground here is so bumpy. Master Hades didn't say there'd be so much walking."
Lucy and Cana froze, slowly looking up.
Sitting on a thick branch was a massive, incredibly round man wearing a dark purple Grimoire Heart uniform.
He had a bizarre, doughy face, tiny sunglasses, and a red bandana tied around his head.
He was tossing a strange, ugly voodoo doll between his hands.
Kain Hikaru.
He looked down at the two Fairy Tail mages, his tiny eyes widening behind his shades.
"Oh! Are you fairies? You don't look very tough. Actually, you look kinda cute."
Cana pulled a handful of glowing cards from her deck, stepping in front of Lucy.
"Who the hell are you?"
"I'm Kain Hikaru of the Seven Kin of Purgatory!" Kain announced, striking a ridiculous, wobbly pose that nearly made him fall off the branch.
"And I'm gonna crush you into pancakes!"
Kain dropped from the tree, landing with a massive thud that shook the dirt.
He charged forward, moving with a surprising speed for a man of his size.
"Open, Gate of the Golden Bull!" Lucy yelled, swinging her golden key. "Taurus!"
The massive minotaur materialized in a burst of golden light, swinging his giant double-bladed axe.
"Moo! I'll protect Miss Lucy's beautiful body!"
Taurus swung his heavy axe right at Kain's stomach.
Kain didn't dodge.
He just thrust his bare hands forward, catching the blade of the axe between his palms. The sheer physical strength of the dark mage stopped the celestial spirit dead in his tracks.
"What?!" Lucy gasped.
Taurus was pure muscle, and this guy just caught his swing like it was nothing.
"Pushing Power!" Kain giggled.
He shoved the axe back, lifting Taurus right off the ground, and threw the massive minotaur straight into a stone cliff face.
Taurus vanished in a puff of smoke, his gate forced shut.
"My turn!" Cana yelled, throwing her cards. "Explosion!"
A barrage of fiery blasts swallowed Kain Hikaru. But as the smoke cleared, the round mage was just patting his belly, chuckling.
"That tickles," Kain grinned.
He held up his ugly voodoo doll, pulling a single strand of white hair from his own head.
He shoved the hair into the doll's head. "Curse of Ushi no Koku Mairi! Let's see how you like Mr. Cursey!"
Kain pushed the doll's arm forward.
Instantly, his own arm shot forward with incredible, supernatural force, generating a shockwave that slammed into Cana.
She coughed up saliva, tumbling backward through the brush.
"Cana!" Lucy yelled, reaching for another key.
But Kain was already turning his creepy doll toward her, his tiny glasses gleaming in the dim light.
...
Back in the northern caverns, the heavy wooden barrier blocking the exit remained solid.
Gray panted, his fists bleeding from punching the magical wood.
He stepped back, wiping sweat from his forehead. "Damn it. My ice can't cut through this Great Tree magic. It just absorbs the cold."
Loke stood up, dusting off his suit. "Azuma's magic draws from the earth. As long as this wood is connected to the island, it won't break easily."
Mest leaned against the cavern wall, still shaking. "I told you. The Seven Kin are monsters! We're trapped here."
"Shut up," Gray snapped, glaring at him. "I'm not sitting here waiting to die. If I can't cut it, I'll shatter it."
Gray took a deep breath, centering his magical core.
He dropped into a low stance, slamming both of his palms flat against the frozen floor of the cavern.
"Ice-Make: Geyser!"
Instead of aiming the spell at the wooden wall, Gray directed all his freezing ethernano straight down into the cracks of the stone floor, aiming for the roots themselves.
The ice expanded violently beneath the earth.
The sudden, extreme drop in temperature caused the moisture inside Azuma's wooden barrier to freeze and expand.
The thick roots groaned, the wood splintering from the inside out.
With a loud, satisfying crack, the massive wooden wall shattered into a thousand frozen splinters, opening the path back into the jungle.
Gray stood up, exhaling a cloud of cold mist.
"Let's go. We got a dark guild to smash!"
....
Deep in the heart of the island, the rotting, dead ash of Zeref's clearing lay still.
Natsu groaned, slowly pushing himself off the gray dirt.
His head pounded like a drum.
He looked down, his eyes widening. The white, scaly scarf Igneel had given him was charred a sickly, burnt black.
"Happy?" Natsu coughed, looking around.
"Natsu! You're awake!" Happy cried, flying out from behind a dead log and tackling Natsu's cheek in a hug.
"I thought you were dead! That creepy guy let out a giant black wave, and the whole forest just died!"
"Where did he go?" Natsu growled, forcing himself to his feet.
His flames flickered around his fists, eager for a fight.
"He ran away," Happy sniffled. "He was crying, Natsu. It was weird."
Natsu touched his black scarf, his jaw tightening.
He didn't know who that guy was, but the magic felt ancient.
And wrong.
Before Natsu could track the scent, his Dragon Slayer nose twitched.
The wind shifted, carrying a new, heavy scent through the dead trees. It smelled like blood, ozone, and dark magic.
"Happy," Natsu said, his voice dropping to a low, dangerous register. "Do you smell that?"
"Smell what?" Happy asked, landing on Natsu's shoulder.
"Somebody is attacking our island," Natsu growled, turning toward the eastern woods.
The fear Gildarts instilled in him was still there, but it wasn't paralyzing him anymore.
It was giving him focus.
"Come on Happy. We need to go!"
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