"What do you an sothing's still alive?" Carla asked, utterly confused.
"Look over there!" Lucy pointed toward the altar in front of Gray.
Only then did everyone realize that the Eternal Fla was still burning after all—just barely, reduced to a tiny flicker.
"There really is still a little fire left."
"But it looks incredibly weak."
Wendy said with absolute conviction, "Natsu! Natsu will definitely be able to bring that fla back to life!"
For so reason, it was simply her intuition.
"NATSU!!!"
Lucy's voice reached Natsu, who was still locked in fierce battle with the flying beast.
"Leave it to !"
"We'll handle this monster. You go revive the fla."
Erza switched into Heaven's Wheel Armor and stepped in front of Natsu.
"Fire Dragon's Brilliant Fla!"
Flas wrapped around both his left and right hands at the sa ti, then rged together before slamming into the altar...
"Fire Dragon's Roar!!!"
"Hellfire Dragon's Roar!"
"Dragon Slayer Secret Art: Crimson Lotus: Exploding Fla Blade!"
Natsu hurled his magic power at the altar as if his life depended on it.
Lucy dropped to the ground, clutching her head and trembling. "Natsu... isn't this a bit too much?!"
"It lit up!!!" Happy shouted, leaping excitedly into the air.
The facts proved Natsu right.
The Eternal Fla had burst into a roaring blaze, and before everyone's eyes rose a towering inferno more than ten ters high.
"Happy, take up above the Eternal Fla."
Held aloft by Happy, Natsu looked down at the sea of fire below him.
"I heard a voice in the flas."
"So that's what the lingering thoughts I sensed really were..." Wendy closed her eyes and clasped her hands tightly.
Green magic covered her body.
'Sky Dragon Secret Art: Milky Way.'
It was an extrely special Dragon Slayer secret art, one capable of allowing her to communicate with the souls of the dead.
Under the influence of Wendy's Milky Way, the flas gathered together and took the shape of a fiery dragon.
The Hellfire Dragon, Atlas Fla.
"You carry the magic of Igneel, the Fire Dragon King... and within you burns my fla as well."
"That's a dragon?" Ultear stared at the Hellfire Dragon in astonishnt.
A giant dragon made entirely of pure fire was an extraordinary sight.
Raizel nodded. "That's right. The Hellfire Dragon, Atlas Fla. But he's already dead."
Laxus knew that na as well.
When he had devoured the flas before, he had once communicated with the Hellfire Dragon.
According to Atlas Fla, he had acknowledged Laxus, and so he had told him his na.
This was the first ti most of them had ever seen a dragon—let alone an elental one—and their eyes were filled with shock and unease.
Natsu's voice trembled with excitent. "You know Igneel?"
"That's right. He is the Fire Dragon King."
"Then do you know where he went?" Natsu pressed eagerly.
"Why do you seek his whereabouts?"
"Igneel's child..." Atlas Fla murmured after hearing Natsu's answer.
"I don't know. I have remained here for four hundred years, burning continuously all this ti."
"So... are you still alive?"
"No. I died long ago... in the distant past." Atlas Fla's mories slowly began to awaken.
"Is your consciousness fading?" soone asked.
"Rather than consciousness, my mories are... muddled."
Wendy's answer cleared up everyone's confusion.
"Maybe it's because of the ice. Lingering thoughts like this can possess a strong will, but their magic power is very weak. And since it was frozen in ice for such a long ti, part of its mory may have been damaged."
"Ice? That's right—ice! The whole world was frozen in ice!"
"You an this village?" Ultear asked.
"What exactly happened here?" Erza followed up.
"That man seed to mistake for sothing else."
"That man?" Lucy asked.
"That's right. By his power alone, he turned the entire village into ice."
Atlas Fla's words shocked everyone.
The amount of magic required to freeze an entire village was imnse, yet this had been done by a single person.
"Was all of this caused by an Ice Mage?" Gray asked urgently.
"That man mistook for a demon. In order to destroy , he froze the village... a Mage who exterminates demons. A Devil Slayer."
"Devil Slayer???"
"So it wasn't Dragon Slayer Magic, and it wasn't God Slayer Magic—it was Devil Slayer Magic!"
Natsu and Lucy stared at Atlas Fla in surprise.
Wendy murmured, "So it's magic specifically created to hunt demons?"
Ultear's expression turned grave. "This is the first ti I've ever heard of such magic."
Gray suddenly recalled sothing Natsu had said before. "Devil Slayer... I get it now! That's why that guy wouldn't throw his fist directly at the ice!"
Ur stroked her chin thoughtfully. "An Ice Devil Slayer Mage? Who could it have been?"
There were many Ice Mages across Ishgar, but Ur had never once heard of Ice Devil Slayer Magic.
"Who... exactly am I?" Atlas Fla muttered, sinking into thought.
Raizel spoke up loudly, "You are Atlas Fla, the Hellfire Dragon—the guardian deity of the giant village, the fla that has burned for four hundred years."
The mories of the dead ca crashing back into the Hellfire Dragon all at once...
The flas in Atlas Fla's eyes flared brighter.
"That's right! My na is Atlas Fla. I am the fla of the giants, the one who created this village."
"The misfortune of our village is my pain. The sorrow of our village is my tears."
"With the last fla left in my soul, together with the fla of Igneel's child, I shall free this village!"
"I am Atlas Fla—the dragon who guards this village!"
The Hellfire Dragon's flas continued to blaze fiercely.
"Lend the power of Igneel's fla!"
Following Atlas Fla's instructions, Natsu used Fire Dragon's Roar, mixing his flas into the dragon's fiery body.
"So hot!!!"
Ur frowned as she stared at the blazing silhouette in the flas. "Such incredible fire...!"
"His soul is disappearing..." Wendy said sadly.
As he burned away, the Hellfire Dragon spoke:
"Igneel... the Dragon King Festival... Acnologia... Zeref... I rember now. I rember everything!"
"E.N.D., the strongest demon in the Books of Zeref!"
"Four hundred years ago, Igneel failed to destroy E.N.D...."
Centered around the Hellfire Dragon, the frozen forest, the village, the river, and even the giants trapped beneath the ice all began to thaw.
"Look! The village is returning to normal!" soone cried.
The villagers who had guarded the Eternal Fla were the first to awaken.
"Humans! Are you trying to steal the Eternal Fla?!"
"Stand down!"
The Hellfire Dragon's voice stopped them.
The Eternal Fla still burned, but these were the last words he would leave behind...
Wendy lowered her head, sorrow in her eyes. Then she closed them and offered a quiet prayer.
"Atlas Fla's lingering thoughts... have completely disappeared..."
A gentle breeze passed by, and the warmth of the fire washed over everyone.
Lucy could not help but cry.
"A soul that had only the faintest trace left in this world... and it could still release such imnse power..."
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