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Northern Fiore, on the continent of Ishgar.
An endless snow-capped mountain range stretched across the land, wrapped in blizzards that had not ceased in living memory, painting the entire world in a single unbroken white.
This was Mount Zonia, the Sacred Mountain.
Legend held that countless years ago, two powerful celestial maidens had fought their final battle here, and the collision of their Magic had altered the mountain range's climate permanently. The white maiden had prevailed, and since that day, the peaks had been buried in endless snow.
Icy, blinding, and cold enough to cut through bone.
Snowflakes filled the air in every direction, and the ground beneath the feet was an unbroken expanse of white. Visibility barely reached a hundred meters.
The harsh conditions made the Sacred Mountain a place ordinary people had no business approaching.
For powerful Mages, however, a bit of wind and snow was hardly worth the trouble of worrying about.
Deep within the range of peaks, Fairy Tail had used Magic to set up a temporary camp inside a large, sheltered hollow in the mountainside. Warm Magic barriers kept the cold at bay, the tents were lit from within, and the smell of food cut through the chill of the ice and snow.
The atmosphere in the camp, though, was far from relaxed.
Every so often, someone's gaze drifted toward the center of the camp, where Kuro sat cross-legged with his eyes closed, quietly radiating an aura that made the chest tighten just to be near.
Three months of seclusion in the Kingdom of Stella had done their work. He had not only guided Natsu and the others through their training in Dragon Slayer Magic, but had refined the new Dragon Slayer Magic within himself, the magic that fused the power of five Dragon elements, to its peak.
According to the plan, Kuro's power was to serve as the bait that would draw Acnologia out.
Though Acnologia was immune to ordinary Magic, Dragon Slayer Magic shared the same origin as his own power, and that made it the one thing he could not simply dismiss. It was precisely why he had spent over four hundred years extinguishing every threat that bore that kind of power.
Lucy, who was not particularly cold, had still bundled herself and Happy tightly inside a blanket. She leaned toward Erza and whispered.
"Are we really going to... lure that monster out here?"
Even after everything they had faced and survived, the thought of standing before the legendary destroyer, the Black Dragon Acnologia, left a knot in her stomach.
"Of course. This is our best chance."
Erza drew a cloth along the blade of her longsword, eyes steady. "Kuro told Noah that Acnologia's Magic of Absolute Negation Dragon Slayer Magic can absorb other Magic without limit. A power like that, in Acnologia's hands, becomes more dangerous with every passing day. We have to stop him before he grows stronger."
"And I'm going to send that stinking Black Dragon flying with one punch!"
Natsu jumped in, fire crackling on both fists, fighting spirit burning as hot as ever. Three months under Kuro's instruction had pushed his growth at a pace that surprised even himself.
But beneath the bluster, something quieter sat in Natsu's eyes.
Spending those months alongside Kuro had given him a clearer picture than anyone of just how fearsome Kuro's Magic truly was. And because of that, he understood Acnologia's terror more concretely than he ever had before.
Lucy didn't catch the brief shadow that crossed Natsu's face. She let out a slow breath and settled back against Happy, telling herself she was overthinking things.
The force assembled here was not one that could be taken lightly.
Three Guild Masters, every S-Class Mage available, and high-level combatants like Natsu were all present. Zeref, August, Irene, and God Serena, brought over from Alvarez, were among the group as well.
And anchoring it all were Kuro and the Fire Dragon King.
With a lineup this formidable, if they still couldn't handle Acnologia, the only option left would be to call on Noah.
"Huh? Speaking of which, where is Noah?"
Lucy looked around the camp, searching, but the white-haired young man was nowhere in sight. With that, the quiet unease she had been feeling since arriving finally made sense.
The strongest safeguard for this entire operation was absent.
Mirajane, sitting beside Erza, noticed Lucy's expression and offered a calm smile. "Noah said something came up suddenly and left yesterday. He hasn't come back yet. He told me before he left not to wait for him."
What could possibly be important enough to pull Noah away from a confrontation with the Black Dragon?
Lucy was still turning that over in her mind when Kuro at the center of the camp opened his eyes.
The planned hour had come.
In the next instant, Kuro's figure appeared at the summit of Mount Zonia.
An indescribable, violent surge of Magic Power, carrying the mingled essence of multiple dragon attributes, erupted from his body like a volcano breaking open.
"ROAR!!!"
A roar tore from Kuro's throat, aimed straight at the sky. It was unlike any dragon's roar that had ever been heard before, yet it carried within it a majesty and a pressure that made the very air shudder.
The immense magical fluctuation took on visible form, a deep crimson aura spreading outward from him in every direction, rapidly swelling past the boundaries of Ishgar and pressing outward until it met and countered the surge of Magic Power still echoing from Guiltina in the north.
In that moment, Kuro knew. It would come soon.
The speed of dragons defied imagination. Even the Sky Dragon and the Iron Dragon could cross the breadth of Ishgar in a matter of moments. And the Black Dragon was something else entirely.
The proof came almost immediately.
Every person in the camp felt it at the same time: an oppressive, soul-shaking terror descending from the sky, the weight of something ancient and utterly destructive bearing down on them from above.
The sky darkened.
A colossal black shadow, wide enough to blot out the sun, tore through the pale, perpetually snow-covered sky above Mount Zonia.
The Black Dragon, Acnologia.
Its dark scales caught and reflected the dim light filtering through the snow, and the sheer mass of its body pressed down on the senses like a physical weight. Its crimson eyes, burning with the hunger for destruction, swept coldly over the small mountain below and the figure standing at its peak, the one whose aura had dared to reach out and challenge it.
"Kuro. It has been a while." Acnologia's voice carried a note of mockery in it. "And here you are, having taken up Dragon Slayer Magic all over again."
A pause, heavy with disdain.
"You spent all those centuries carefully cultivating the Arcane Dragon Slayer Magic for me, so I had intended to let you live. But it seems you've made a different choice. Very well. Then you leave me no other option."
Kuro did not answer. He only looked up, directly and without flinching, at the enemy who had stolen everything from him, whose presence had been the source of four hundred years of torment. The rage in his eyes had been building for longer than most people had been alive.
The new, chaotic Dragon Power surged and roiled within him, already straining to be unleashed.
As the confrontation tilted toward eruption, Zeref and the others in the camp below, who had concealed their presence behind a Magic formation, prepared to reveal themselves.
But before the battle could begin, something else happened.
Several dragon roars rang out from multiple directions at once, each one carrying a force that shook the air like a thunderclap.
From the east, the south, the west, and the north, four immense dragon auras descended from the sky. Not strong enough to match Acnologia's devastating presence, but formidable enough to hold their own. Four enormous dragons of different shapes and sizes broke through the clouds and spread out across the sky above Mount Zonia.
Only one person in the camp reacted with something beyond shock.
Gildarts, who had gone very still, stared upward with wide eyes.
"The Dragon Gods?!"
"What in the world are they doing here?!"