Chapter 64: Natsu vs. Jellal
The throne room exploded into chaos the moment Natsu's fist connected with Jellal's guard. The impact sent shockwaves through the crystal walls, cracks spiderwebbing across surfaces that had survived Etherion itself.
Natsu pressed his advantage, flames roaring around his fists. He came in low, driving a knee toward Jellal's stomach. Jellal twisted, avoiding the worst of it, but Natsu's follow-up caught him across the jaw.
"FIRE DRAGON'S CLAW!"
His leg swept through the air wreathed in orange flame, connecting with Jellal's ribs. The sound of impact echoed through the chamber, and Jellal slid backward, his feet carving grooves in the crystal floor.
Natsu didn't let up. He was a whirlwind of fire and fury, each strike flowing into the next, a relentless assault designed to overwhelm. Jellal blocked and dodged and weathered the storm, but he wasn't attacking. Wasn't countering. Just... surviving.
"FIRE DRAGON'S IRON FIST!"
Another blow. Another impact. Jellal's robes were singed. His hair was disheveled. He looked, for the first time, like someone who might actually lose.
Then he smiled.
"Is this all?" Jellal asked.
Natsu's fist stopped an inch from his face. Jellal had caught it. Bare-handed. Like it was nothing.
"I must admit, I am disappointed." Jellal's grip tightened, and Natsu felt bones creak. "I expected more from someone who speaks so boldly. Someone who claims to protect Erza. Someone who calls himself a Dragon Slayer."
He shoved. Natsu flew backward, crashing through a pillar, rolling across the floor. Before he could recover, Jellal was there.
Not running. Not flying. Just... there.
"Meteor," Jellal said quietly. "My heavenly body magic. It allows me to move at speeds you cannot comprehend."
Natsu swung. Missed. Swung again. Missed again. Jellal danced around him like smoke, untouchable, unhittable.
'Too fast,' Natsu thought, his eyes tracking, tracking, always a half-second behind. 'I can't see him. Can't predict him. He's everywhere and nowhere.'
"Your flames are impressive," Jellal said, appearing behind him. "But fire needs a target. And you cannot hit what you cannot see."
He raised his hand.
"Grand Chariot."
The sky, visible through the shattered ceiling, answered. Seven pillars of light shot down from the heavens, each one a lance of pure magical energy. They struck the throne room with the force of falling stars, and Natsu disappeared in the inferno.
The tower shook. Crystal shattered. The very foundations groaned under the assault.
When the light faded, Natsu lay in a crater, his body broken, his flames guttering. Blood pooled beneath him. His breathing was shallow, ragged.
Jellal looked at the damage around him, at the cracks spreading through the crystal walls, and his expression shifted. Something like regret crossed his features.
'Foolish,' he thought. 'I cannot risk damaging the tower further. The R-System is stable, but if the Lacrima cracks... if the energy disperses... Zeref's resurrection could fail.'
He looked at Natsu, at the broken Dragon Slayer, and made a decision. No more area attacks. No more risk. Just a quick, clean end.
Natsu pushed himself up.
His body screamed in protest. Ribs broken. Arm fractured. Internal bleeding, probably. He should be unconscious. Should be dead.
But he was smiling.
"That was a good hit," Natsu rasped. "Really good hit. But you made a mistake."
Jellal's eyes narrowed. "A mistake?"
"Yeah." Natsu's grin widened, blood staining his teeth. "You just proved you're scared of breaking this place. Scared of hurting your precious tower. Scared of failing your dark wizard."
He straightened, swaying, one arm hanging limp at his side. But the flames around his good hand grew brighter. Hotter.
"You know what Fairy Tail's specialty is, Jellal?"
He raised his fist.
"BREAKING THINGS!"
He punched the floor.
Not at Jellal. At the tower itself. A pillar of flame erupted from his fist and slammed into the crystal, cracking it, spiderwebbing damage across its surface.
Jellal's eyes went wide. "NO! STOP!"
Natsu laughed. A genuine laugh, wild and free.
"FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!"
He didn't aim at Jellal. He aimed at the ceiling. At the walls. At the beautiful, perfect crystal that Jellal had spent eight years building. His flames tore through it, melting, cracking, destroying.
Jellal moved to stop him, but Natsu was already somewhere else, already attacking another section, already spreading chaos.
"You want to protect this place?" Natsu shouted, punching another wall. "You want to keep it safe for your ritual? TOO BAD! I'm going to burn it all down! Every brick! Every crystal! Every memory of suffering these walls hold!"
He spun, flames trailing behind him like a cape of pure destruction.
"You want to know something, Jellal? I'm more fired up than I've ever been! More than Phantom Lord! More than Galuna! More than ANYTHING! Because this time, I'm fighting for HER! For ERZA! And I will tear this entire tower apart with my bare hands before I let you touch her again!"
The flames around him intensified. Turned white. Turned blinding.
Jellal stared at the inferno before him, at the madman standing in its center, and for the first time in eight years, he felt something he had forgotten.
Fear.
'This boy is insane,' he thought. 'He's willing to destroy everything. Including himself.'
He attacked.
Meteor carried him forward, faster than thought, faster than light. His fist connected with Natsu's jaw, sending him spinning. Another blow to the chest. Another to the gut. Another to the face.
Natsu took them all. Didn't block. Didn't dodge. Just laughed.
"IS THAT ALL YOU'VE GOT?"
Jellal hit him harder. Faster. A relentless barrage that would have killed any normal man. Natsu's body absorbed the punishment, broke under it, but didn't fall.
Didn't stop laughing.
"I will END you!" Jellal roared, gathering power for a final strike.
His fist connected with Natsu's chest.
Natsu flew backward, through a wall, through another wall, through three layers of crystal and stone before finally coming to rest in a pile of rubble.
Silence.
Jellal stood in the throne room, breathing hard, his perfect composure shattered. He looked at the damage around him, at the cracks and holes and destruction, and felt something twist in his chest.
'It's done,' he thought. 'He's finally down.'
The rubble shifted.
Natsu rose from the wreckage.
He was a ruin of a man. Broken in a dozen places. Bleeding from a hundred wounds. His scarf, impossibly, remained untouched, the white scales gleaming in the dim light.
He stood.
He looked at Jellal.
And he began to laugh.
It started low, a chuckle that bubbled up from somewhere deep. Then it grew, becoming louder, more manic, more insane. It echoed off the crystal walls, bouncing back and forth, multiplying until it seemed the entire tower was laughing with him.
Jellal stared, unable to move, unable to speak. The sound was wrong. The sound was terrifying.
"What..." he managed. "What is wrong with you?"
Natsu's laughter cut off abruptly. He stood in the rubble, his broken body somehow upright, somehow functional, and fixed Jellal with a gaze that burned with something ancient.
"I guess," Natsu said, his voice calm now, conversational almost, "I'm not strong enough to defeat you like this."
He took a step forward. Then another. Each step left bloody footprints on the crystal floor.
"But before I show you what I can really do... before I show you the true power of a Dragon Slayer... there are a few things you need to know."
Jellal's eyes narrowed. "What are you talking about?"
Natsu smiled. It was not a pleasant expression.
"You're so obsessed with Zeref. So desperate to bring him back. You've spent eight years building this tower, eight years sacrificing everything for him. And you don't even know who he really is."
Jellal's blood ran cold. "What do you mean?"
Natsu took another step. Another bloody footprint.
"Zeref isn't just some ancient dark wizard, Jellal. He's not just a legend or a monster or a goal to achieve." He paused, letting the words hang in the air. "He's my brother."
---
Next Time: Natsu vs. Jellal Part 2 - The Real Culprit and the Conclusion of the Tower of Heaven Arc Continues