chapter 3

The boy ran down streets making turns that seemed random as Anna shouted, helplessly chasing after him, only for Nastu to abruptly stop. The celestial mage managed to catch up to him, and as she heaved in and out empty breaths, her eyes landed on a sight she would have rather been able to ignore.

There stood a young red-haired woman with a braid going over her right shoulder. She wore a white cloak over ornate silver armor, wielding a sword on her hip. It was none other than the Queen and Grand Reagent General of the Dragnof Kingdom, Irene (A/N: the Sage Dragon, Belserion had not been killed at this point, hence the lack of a last name).By her side stood a middle-aged man with long, dark hair, droopy eyes, and a small goatee. He wore silver armor with gold accents. He was the Second General and King via a political union of the Dragnof Kingdom, Rung. A look of disgust rested on his face, his rather arrogant personality showing through.

Anna was able to overhear the conversation as she pulled Natsu closer to her; "Report soldier!" Shouted Irene. Irene had decided to visit the front herself after a report of a large battle had been issued, with no prior knowledge of any dragon slayers in the area.

"The recon unit has returned. About 60 miles out, the nest of the anti-human faction dragon, the Earth Dragon, Genrok, was found to be empty." Replied the soldier as he stood at attention.

This was a shock to Irene. Genrok had been one of the main restricting factors of the kingdom's expansion past Dargonshine as he had been holding the front with sturdy strength. No dragon slayer that had challenged him had been able to break his thought-to-be impenetrable scales, and the Earth Dragon's strength had only grown through the war.

"Was the Black Dragon, Acnologia the one that killed him? There has been no report from the Fire Dragon King in recent years, but it could have been him as well." Irene placed her hand on her chin in thought, "What I could accomplish if we had someone as strong as him on our side." Irene's ambitions were not simply as shallow as winning the dragon war. If she won the war, she could use the power of the dragons that sided with her to expand her territory in Ishgar. The long-lived Pergrande Kingdom has started to encroach on her territory due to Dragnof's now shortened resources.

"Did you perform chrono-magic analysis of the battlefield (A/N: It's a term I made up. Bullshit science gibberish. Don't worry about it too much.)? What traces were left behind by the second combatant?" Asked Rung in a demanding tone.

The soldier changed his attention to Rung, "After magic analysis of the signature of magic left on the battlefield, it was determined to be a dragon slayer, not another dragon. But, uh, there were complications…" The soldier looked down at his feet with an anxious expression.

"Well, what is it? If there is a dragon slayer strong enough to kill Genrok, we must find him." Said Irene in a stern tone. She may care for her soldiers, but she was constantly looking for people to join the war. At the moment, their numbers were dwindling as more and more dragon slayers went mad and succumbed to the dragon seed.

Rung smiled slightly in amusement, "Yes. With the army's currently shortened resources, any new soldier is welcome." However, to him he just wanted to get rid of the dragon slayers. How humiliating it was for him to have to marry Dragnof's queen in order to protect his now annexed kingdom of Alganon. His detest for the Dragon Queen, Irene and dragon slayers only grew as time went on.

"Uhm… after analysis of the magic, it was determined to be of the Fire Dragon King, Igneel, however it was contaminated in some way, as if a malicious energy, separate from magic, was mixed together in the battle." He looked Irene in the eyes, "Despite the fact that there were most certainly only two combatants, the unknown dragon slayer and Genrok, there were also remnants of the Black Wizard, Zeref at the battlefield."Maybe Zeref developed a new demon that can use dragon slayer magic? One of the reports from a subjugation of a more intelligent demon in the western provinces reported that the demon threatened the soldiers with a new demon of Zeref: The Hellfire Apocalypse Demon, END." Said a colonel next to Irene. "Another demon that was successfully captured alive and interrogated said that END is to be the end of all things. A demon, with hair the color of Sakura leaves, will grace the earth, and with it will leave a trail of hell flames, turning the surface to ash, and burning the sky, annihilating beast, dragon, demon, and humans alike."

Irene pinched her nose in frustration, "You're seriously going to believe some demon's utter desperation to survive, hoping to not die?" Irene looked back at the recon soldier, "Was there anything else. It is interesting that Igneel's magic was present, especially because when we were in contact with him, he would constantly refuse to have a disciple." Irene however, was not too concerned with the dragon of origin's magic, "Even if the black wizard is involved, if this new supposed demon, END, or this unknown dragon slayer is still around here, we must find them."

"Yes, but there is a major issue with finding this dragon slayer. An age report from the analysis showed that the unknown dragon slayer is 120 years of age or even older." Replied the soldier (A/N: I'm making Natsu have died way earlier, especially because it makes for a more interesting story, and when he died is not too relevant anyways in the original).

"That's not possible. Are you sure the analysis was correct? Dragon slayer magic was only developed 15 years ago. This person most certainly would already be dead by then without the use of any longevity spells or other life force expansion means. And if he used dragon slayer magic on top of that, it would have been unstable and maybe even lead to instant dragonification with the magic power he would already have to live that long." Replied Rung in disbelief.

"Or it really could be the demon, END. It is certainly not out of the realm of possibility." Replied Irene. It was a rather strange suggestion, given her normally reasonable personality.

Rung looked back at her in shock, "You don't seriously believe that." He then saw the look on her face, "You do?"

"We should always be looking at potential options for this combatant. If we are unprepared for who, or what they could be, it would be disastrous." She turned towards the legion of soldiers, "However, whether this person is a demon, dragon, or dragon slayer, we need to find them, and either kill them or recruit them into the war effort." Irene shouted. "Search every house, every store, every room. We must find this dragon slayer!"

"Understood!" Shouted the soldiers in unison as they dispersed throughout the city.

Rung asked Irene, "Should we search for the known dragon slayer in this city? He may not fill the category of demon, but he is a powerful fire dragon slayer."

"Yes, but he has no connection to Igneel. That man has a unique type of dragon slayer magic, and most of the dragons that could teach it have either run back into their hell holes or have died at the hands of the black dragon." Irene knew of a dragon slayer in the city, Thale Horn, but despite this, it seemed far-fetched for him to go out of his way to slay Genrok. "Thale Horn swore an oath not to kill a dragon after he killed his teacher who had joined the anti-human faction… but there is still a chance."

Rung turned towards the reconnaissance soldiers and announced, "You heard the queen. Find Thale Horn. He is a known fire dragon slayer in this city. Use ANY means necessary to bring him here."

Anna was shocked. Not only had the kingdom already found out about Natsu's fight with Genrok, but they already knew about the existence of END, however wrong their description of the demon was. This was the worst-case scenario for not only Natsu, but the eclipse plan as a whole. With the empire now on their tail, this would make orchestrating the plan more difficult, however time was on their side as the plan would finally be enacted in only four days.

She noticed Natsu advance slightly forward towards Irene and begin to open his mouth to presumably shout something. Anna rushed forward, covering the young dragon slayer's mouth with her hand. She quickly pulled him into an ally.

Anna uncovered Natsu's mouth, as he left out a gasp for air, "What was that for? That red haired woman is a dragon slayer like me!" Natsu ran forwards, but Anna grabbed the back of his collar, yanking him back.

"You can never approach that woman. Did you not hear their conversation? They are searching for whoever killed Genrok. THAT. IS. YOU!" Anna sighed. This is gonna be a hassle, she thought to herself. Letting out an exhausted breath, she said in a stern tone, "If they find you, they're going to haul you off to fight for them. Don't forget, if you can tell that she is a dragon slayer, she can tell that you are a dragon slayer. Luckily, she was distracted and didn't notice you." Anna peaked out around the corner to make sure Irene had not seen them, to which she was satisfied with the answer. Unlike the other dragon slayers, Zeref had instructed that Igneel teach Natsu about the world and the history of it, including the history of dragon slayer magic and the current war.Natsu could be dense at times, but he could tell from Anna's serious voice that this was something he had to listen to her about. However, there was bothering him about the report he overheard from the soldier, "Who is END?" He asked.

Anna's eyes went wide as she heard Natsu ask the dreaded question. If she told him everything, he could reveal by accident that he is a demon, and his connection to Zeref may be discovered. She needed to diffuse the situation. "I'll tell you about it later, ok? For now, we need to get away from this place. Come on." She reached out and offered for Natsu to grab her hand.

Natsu looked down in a bit of disappointment, "Fine…" He then looked straight up at Anna, "But you must promise to tell me later! You keep doing this whenever I ask questions, like who this 'Zeref' person is when I overheard you and Igneel talking about him."

"Ok, I promise. Now come on. Why don't we get some food and get done with those scales that he came here to do." She said as Natsu grabbed her hand. She stood up from her kneeling position and walked in the opposite direction of Irene and her soldiers. The woman stopped at a food stand and grabbed a kebab of chicken, steak, and different vegetables for Natsu, as the two took a break and sat down on a bench, Anna keeping watch on Irene and her soldiers out of the corner of her eye.

After another hour of looking around with Natsu, who had still not calmed down as he tried to find everything in the city, Anna suddenly stopped as she heard a loud shriek from behind her.

"I thought I told you to bring me Thale Horn?" Irene shouted at the soldiers in annoyance as she scratched the back of her head.

"We're sorry, but we found this girl that has traces of fire dragon slayer magic on her before then. Additionally, his old shop was empty." Replied one of the soldiers.

Anna turned around to see a large crowd. She quickly ran over, pushing her way through the crowd, eventually coming out on the other side. Anna's eyes landed on a group of soldiers. One of them was dragging a girl behind himself, the soldier's armored hand visibly digging into the girl's wrist. She appeared to be about the same age as Natsu, maybe slightly older, but also a bit shorter. The girl wore a plain worn brown dress that had traces of black ash on it and had straight long, black hair. She screamed as she helplessly tried to dig her heels into the ground and free herself, but no one answered. What were they supposed to do? Anyone that went against the kingdom, especially while both the King and Queen are there, would most certainly be executed.

However, Anna suddenly heard a rageful shout from her right, "Purgatory Dragon's Wrath!" A massive plume of fire slammed into the soldiers, engulfing them in flames as their screams of agony rang out through the inferno. The bodies turned to ash, however the girl was left unscathed, who collapsed to her knees in exhaustion, as she slightly began to sob.

Anna turned her head to see a burly man, towering at a staggering seven and a half feet tall. His head was completely bald; however, he had a long black beard. He donned a brown and worn button up shirt with rolled up sleeves with the top 3 buttons undone, slightly revealing his chest. Despite his thick clothing, his heavily muscular form was still visible. He wore tough brown pants finished by thick black boots. Over everything he had a black leather apron with a pouch on the front which held a hammer and multiple clamps and tongs. His hands had strange swirling black tattoos on the end of them, but at the moment, the black had been changed to a glowing deep crimson.

Red flames dissipated from the end of his outstretched hand as the color of the tattoos slowly faded from the burning red back to black. However, the blazing anger in his eyes still remained. He hastily ran over to the crying girl and knelt down next to her, hugging her tight and patting her on the back as he said in a shockingly sincere tone, "It's alright, daddy is here to protect you." He looked down at her red writs from where the soldiers had tightly gripped it and her scuffed knees from her struggle.

The man turned his head and glared daggers at Rung and Irene who had a strange sadistic smile on her face, "Thale Horn. Never thought I would meet you again." She may not have ordered for this man to be found, but she silently thanked Rung as the now identified Thale Horn could be their culprit.

"I thought I told you to leave me and my family alone."