The rumbling sound of bursting magma bubbles became the sole melody in the landscape of the soul.
The blistering heat radiating from the sea of lava did nothing to dampen the enthusiastic sparkle in Hestia’s eyes.
The petite goddess sat neatly cross-legged atop a volcanic rock, looking up with profound expectation at the Fire Dragon King.
Seeing the goddess so eager to learn about his world of origin, Igneel let out a soft breath from his massive snout.
Thin, gray smoke dissipated into the air.
“Truthfully…
there was nothing particularly special about the world I came from, Hestia,” Igneel began his tale, his heavy voice echoing slowly as if dredging up memories from centuries past.
“The world called Earthland was initially entirely dominated by the dragon race.
Humans were merely weak creatures living under the shadows of our wings.”
Hestia rested her chin in her hands, listening intently to every word spoken by the ancient entity.
“However, an ideological divide occurred within our race,” Igneel continued, his eyes narrowing as he recalled the bloody past.
“A great war broke out.
One faction viewed humans as nothing more than food and lowly insects.
Meanwhile, the other faction, the one I belonged to, believed that dragons and humans could coexist, and we fought to protect them.”
“A war between dragons…” Hestia murmured softly.
The scale of such a conflict was difficult to fathom.
In Gekai, a single dragon could decimate a nation.
Imagining thousands of dragons battling in the sky was a clear picture of the apocalypse.
“In our desperation to win the war, our faction took an unprecedented step,” Igneel looked straight at Hestia.
“We decided to share our power.
We taught dragon slayer magic to humans.”
Hestia’s eyes widened.
In her world, pure magical power stemmed from the Falna carved by the gods, or innate magic inherent to specific races like Elves.
Hearing that a monster directly taught dragon slayer magic to humans was an entirely alien concept.
“Unfortunately, that decision became a double-edged sword,” Igneel’s voice turned somber, carrying a profound sense of regret.
“Among the humans we granted power to, one mage crossed the line.
He lost his sanity, slaughtered every dragon he encountered, and bathed in their blood.
The magic within his body mutated to an extreme degree.
That human physically transformed into a dragon himself.
His name was Acnologia…
The apocalyptic Black Dragon.”
Hestia absentmindedly clutched the hem of her white dress.
A chill crept down her spine despite being surrounded by a sea of magma.
The story of a human mutating into a black dragon sounded utterly horrifying.
“Acnologia was too strong.
Nothing could stop him in that era,” Igneel continued, gazing up at the ashen sky above them.
“Thus, a secret collaboration was formed to save the world.
A collaboration between Natsu’s biological older brother named Zeref, the five remaining dragons including myself, and a celestial spirit mage named Anna Heartfilia.”
Igneel lowered his head again, making sure Hestia paid close attention to this crucial part.
“We couldn’t defeat Acnologia in that era due to the lack of magical density in the air.
So, we opened a temporal portal called the Eclipse Gate.
We sent five chosen children whom we had taught dragon slayer magic, including Natsu, to leap through time.
We sent them to the future, to an era where the magical particles called Eternano were incredibly abundant, hoping they could grow strong enough to kill Acnologia.”
Hestia gasped loudly.
She covered her mouth with both hands, staring at Igneel in absolute disbelief.
“Leaping…
through time?” Hestia nearly squeaked.
“That’s impossible!
Even in Tenkai, magic or divine authority capable of physically manipulating time is strictly taboo and practically unheard of!
You actually threw children into the future?!”
Igneel simply gave a slow nod, validating the goddess’s shock.
After managing to calm her racing breath caused by the incredible revelation, another curiosity arose in Hestia’s mind.
If the world of Earthland possessed magic of that caliber, what about its divine entities?
“Wait a minute, Igneel,” Hestia furrowed her brow.
“You spoke of human magic, celestial spirits, and dragon wars.
What about the gods?
Were there gods or goddesses in your world who governed the order of things like we do?
Didn’t they intervene to stop the chaos?”
At Hestia’s question, Igneel’s golden eyes sharpened.
His exhalations instantly felt much heavier and more oppressive.
“The gods in Earthland…” Igneel growled lowly, “…were far from friendly.
They were not entities who descended to the mortal realm, bestowed blessings, or laughed alongside humans like you do, Hestia.
The gods in my world were existences that very rarely interacted with living creatures.
They were absolute rulers who only intervened to mete out punishment if their natural laws were violated.”
Hestia swallowed hard, feeling the tension emanating from the giant dragon’s tone.
“For example, just look at Natsu’s biological brother, Zeref,” Igneel explained with a bitter tone.
“Zeref was a genius young man who tried to bend the laws of nature.
He studied forbidden magic to manipulate the boundary between life and death.
Because he dared to touch that taboo, an absolute divine domain, Ankhseram, the God of Life and Death, grew enraged and cast an absolute curse upon him.
The Curse of Contradiction.”
“The Curse of Contradiction?” Hestia repeated softly.
“Zeref was cursed with absolute immortality,” Igneel explained.
“But the toll was horrific.
The more he valued life and loved the living things around him, the more the curse would drain that life away.
Plants would wither, animals would die, and the people he loved would instantly perish into dust.
The only way for Zeref to avoid killing everyone around him was to discard his feelings and view life as completely worthless.”
Hestia’s chest tightened.
As the Goddess of the Hearth who considered love and family the foundation of life, the curse Igneel described was the most sadistic form of psychological torture.
Punishing someone by annihilating whatever they loved was an atrocity Hestia couldn’t even fathom.
She felt an immense pity for the fate of Natsu’s brother.
Of course, behind that tragic tale, Igneel was secretly harboring a massive secret.
The Dragon King deliberately omitted the reason why Zeref studied death magic in the first place, let alone the fact that Zeref ultimately succeeded in resurrecting Natsu as the Demon E.N.D.
Igneel felt it wasn’t yet time for Hestia to know about her adoptive son’s dark past and his darkest side.
“Anyway,” Igneel resumed, shifting the topic so Hestia wouldn’t sink too deep into sorrow.
“This world is very different from the Earthland I remember from my past.
As far as I knew back then, my world was populated only by the human race.
Unlike here, which I see is filled with various races.
Pointy ears, short-statured humans, and even humans with animal ears.
It’s a very diverse place.”
Hestia wiped the corners of her eyes, slightly damp from thinking about Zeref’s fate, then nodded in agreement.
“Yes, Gekai is indeed inhabited by many races living side by side.
Elves, Dwarves, Beastmen…
we all gather here in Orario.”
The petite goddess then fell silent for a moment.
Her sharp mind replayed the most prominent part of Igneel’s story.
A name rang clearly in her ears.
“Acnologia…” Hestia muttered slowly, furrowing her brow.
“A human who mutated into an apocalyptic Black Dragon.”
“Igneel, your story about that apocalyptic black dragon somehow feels very familiar.
When I was still freeloading at Hephaestus’s place, she once told me about the dark history of this city.
In Gekai, we also have something called the Three Great Quests—the three most arduous grand missions.
Two of those monsters were conquered in the past, but the final one remains undefeated to this day by any Familia.”
“Grand missions?” Igneel lowered his head, a spark of interest igniting in his reptilian eyes.
“Yes,” Hestia nodded firmly.
“One of those three legendary monsters is the embodiment of despair that slaughtered the two strongest Familias in the past.
That monster is called the One-Eyed Black Dragon.”
Silence immediately reclaimed the landscape of the soul.
The ash clouds above them seemed to stop moving.
Igneel stared straight into the goddess’s eyes, his magical aura churning slightly.
“A Black Dragon, huh?” Igneel’s voice turned into a low growl that shook the surrounding rocks.
Instead of feeling threatened, there was a massive surge of anticipation in the Fire Dragon King’s eyes.
“So, in this world too, there is a black dragon existence comparable to Acnologia?”
Igneel raised his head back up, clearly displaying the iconic cross-shaped scar etched on the left side of his face.
The magma fires around them suddenly flared brighter, responding to the Dragon King’s emotions.
“If that is indeed his fate, then you are incredibly lucky to have gotten that boy, Hestia,” Igneel said with a sharp smile that radiated a father’s pride and a king’s conviction.
“Perhaps…
Natsu is truly destined to be the key to completing the mission that failed in this world.
Because I didn’t raise him to be an ordinary human.
I taught him the absolute magic to burn that kind of thing to ash.
I taught him Fire Dragon Slayer Magic.”
“Like my work?