A Family Reunion!

At the edge of the huge crater outside the Royal Capital Square, Future Rogue's eyes bulged out as he stared intently at the bottom of the crater, letting out a sharp roar.

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible!!"

"That's a genuine ancient dragon! A calamity-inducing overlord that crossed time and space four hundred years ago!"

"How could weak humans possibly win? Especially by killing seven in an instant?!"

In the timeline deep within Future Rogue memories, black dragons roamed freely, giant dragons ravaged the land, and human mages weren't even worthy of being food.

The harsh reality before him Crush the bottom line of understanding that Future Rogue.

Natsu, standing not far away, had no time to pay attention to Future Rogue's rage.

Natsu threw his head back and let out a deafening roar.

"I'm fired up!!"

Natsu turned around and called out to his partner at the top of his lungs.

"Happy! Take me up there!!"

The blue cat Happy immediately spread its snow-white wings and gripped Natsu's vest tightly with its paws.

"Hey! Leave it to us!"

With a powerful flap of its wings, Happy, holding Natsu, transformed into a streak of blue light, braving the scorching heat, and charged straight towards the moving volcano.

In the middle of the long street ahead, the Hellfire Dragon Atlas Flame was in a state of utter daze.

The enormous dragon eyes swept over the corpses of its kin at the bottom of the deep pit, and its massive fiery tail even forgot to swing.

All seven dragons are dead.

The absurdity of dragons being slaughtered by humans is now happening so easily and effortlessly.

In the instant Atlas Flame was distracted...

Natsu broke free from Happy's claws, leaped into the air, and landed firmly on the fiery back of the Hellfire Dragon.

With his feet firmly planted on the scales, Natsu gripped two protruding bone spikes tightly with both hands, opened his mouth wide, and shouted at the huge dragon head below.

Hey! Listen up!

"I am a genuine Fire Dragon Slayer Mage!"

"I'm going to devour all these flames on your body and become even stronger than I am now!!"

An extremely arrogant declaration of humanity resounded above the dragon's back.

Atlas Flame snapped out of his shock at the sudden deaths of the seven dragons, and a strange suction force suddenly came from his massive back.

Turning its thick, long neck, the dragon's huge eyes tilted downwards, revealing a pink-haired human imp crouching right in the center of its back.

Atlas Flame roared with furious rage, its throat overflowing with savage Roar.

"Damn it! You ignorant brat!"

"The eternal fire that flows through my veins comes from the depths of hell! How dare you set your sights on me!"

"Get off my back right now!!"

The massive dragon body suddenly twisted violently, and the rolling hellfire tried to burn the humans on its back to charcoal.

However, Natsu, lying on the dragon scales, showed no signs of being burned. Instead, he opened his mouth wide, like a runaway exhaust fan, and began to gulp down the surging flames around him.

Whew!

Large swaths of hellfire poured down Natsu's throat and into his stomach.

The raging fire elements not only failed to tear apart Natsu's internal organs, but upon touching his stomach, they transformed into a continuous stream of heat, frantically replenishing Natsu's depleted magical energy.

Natsu wiped the sparks from the corner of his mouth and burst into loud laughter.

"That was awesome! That was so awesome!!"

"After eating it, my whole body immediately felt a surge of energy!"

"Your fiery aura is quite something!"

Hearing that the human on his back had not only survived the fire but was also commenting on the flames like a gourmet, he was astonished.

Atlas Flame went completely berserk.

This is not only a blatant provocation, but also a trampling on its core authority as Hellfire Dragon.

"Get out of here! You arrogant human!!"

Natsu gripped the gaps in the scales tightly with both hands, his feet clamping the bone spikes like iron hoops, and grinned, revealing a mouthful of big white teeth.

"I don't want to go down!"

"I want to eat more! I want to become stronger!"

Thank you for the treat!

The man and the dragon clashed right there on the commercial street.

Atlas Flame's massive body began to swing wildly from side to side, its enormous dragon wings creating hurricanes that blew away all the tattered signs on both sides of the street.

The violent shaking was like a magnitude 12 earthquake.

However, Natsu seemed to be glued to the dragon's back, enduring the wind and fire, his hands gripping the protrusion tightly, his mouth opening and closing wildly as he continued to devour the surrounding flames.

Seeing that it couldn't shake off the clingy creature, Atlas Flame simply turned its massive body around and crashed sideways into a five-story stone clock tower on the side of the street.

Boom!!

The heavy blue stone bell tower was smashed through and collapsed by the enormous dragon's body.

Countless huge rocks crashed onto the dragon's back, and dust mixed with wood chips flew everywhere.

However, the moment the enormous dragon head emerged from the other side of the ruins, Atlas Flame was horrified to discover that the suction force on its back that devoured the flames had not weakened but had instead become even more ferocious and domineering.

Natsu poked his head out from the pile of rubble, spat out a mouthful of lime powder, and burst into laughter.

"Haha! This level of massage is completely useless!"

"Light the fire again! I can eat another hundred servings!!"

Glug! Glug!

The protective flames that were originally burning fiercely on the back of the Hellfire Dragon were visibly thinning and fading.

Natsu was completely absorbed in a state of frantically absorbing high-level flames.

As the Dragon Slayer absorbs more and more Hellfire, the Dragon Seed within the Dragon Slayer's body begins to undergo a violent chemical reaction.

Dark red dragon scale patterns began to appear on Natsu's skin, and a violent aura, like an active volcano, roared into the sky from the center of his back.

The flames raged wildly in mid-air, transforming into concentric rings of blazing fire that spread outwards.

This sudden, terrifying aura caused the already frenzied and enraged Hellfire Dragon to shudder violently.

Atlas Flame's massive dragon body suddenly stopped in place, its enormous head shaking violently.

A flicker of incredulous bewilderment flashed deep within his dark red vertical pupils.

This violent and intense magical fluctuation, this fierce aura that never backs down no matter how strong the opponent, and this soul imprint fused into the flames.

It's all too familiar.

Atlas Flame gradually stopped shaking his body, and the churning sea of fire around him began to slowly subside.

The dragon's mouth opened slightly, Atlas Flame turned its massive head. Its voice no longer carried pure rage and murderous intent, but was instead filled with undisguised doubt.

Hey! Human kid!

Atlas Flame lowered his voice, exhaling a gentle stream of hot air from his massive nostrils.

"Where does this demonic power within you come from?!"

"What exactly is your relationship with that guy Igneel?!"

Fire Dragon King, Igneel.

The name, deeply imprinted in Natsu's soul and the name Natsu had desperately sought since childhood, was unexpectedly uttered from the mouth of the dragon before him.

Natsu's chewing motion suddenly stopped.

The half-burnt flame in his mouth turned into wisps of smoke and dissipated, and Natsu released his grip on the bone spikes.

He stood motionless in the center of the broad dragon's back, looking down at Atlas Flame's enormous head, his voice unusually trembling.

"You... you know my dad?!"

Natsu strode to the edge of the dragon's neck and, looking down at it, loudly demanded an answer.

He suddenly disappeared on July 7th when I was a child! I've been looking for him all these years!

Do you know where he is?! Tell me now!!

Hearing the title uttered by the human boy in front of him.

Atlas Flame's enormous eyes widened suddenly, and his entire long, slender neck trembled.

Dad?

The Fire Dragon King Igneel, who was extremely arrogant four hundred years ago and claimed to control all the calamities of heaven and earth, has actually adopted a human child in this era?

He even unreservedly imparted all of his original Dragon Slayer Magic to this human?

"I see... so that's how it is..."

Atlas Flame muttered to himself, his dark red pupils flashing violently.

Then, the massive dragon head swung violently twice, its two huge front claws rubbing its temples, and the murky blood vessels that had been lurking in its eyes receded rapidly like a tide.

Atlas Flame looked around at the dilapidated ruins of the royal capital, then at the group of human mages staring intently at him from the ground, his tone becoming extremely confused.

"Strange... what was I just doing?"

"My mind... was it just forcibly controlled by some inferior dragon-taming technique?!"

As an ancient dragon who sought to coexist with humans, Atlas Flame always valued his own independent will. Now that he had regained his senses, he felt a wave of fear and absurdity.

Standing on the dragon's back Natsu had no say in whether or not he was controlling it.

Natsu leaped a few steps to the top of Atlas Flame's nose, grabbed the dragon's horn with one hand, and shouted impatiently.

"Hey! Big lizard! Stop shaking your head and talking to yourself!"

"You still haven't answered my question! What exactly is your relationship with Igneel?!"

Faced with Natsu's rude, even extremely disrespectful, attitude...

Upon regaining consciousness Atlas Flame showed no sign of anger. Instead, he opened his blood-red maw and unleashed a wild, exhilarating laugh from deep within his throat.

"Ha ha!!"

The maniacal laughter shook the surrounding buildings, causing large amounts of broken bricks to fall.

Atlas Flame's two enormous vertical pupils scrutinized Natsu before him, finding him increasingly pleasing to the eye. His expression transformed into that of an elder looking at the offspring of a close friend with kindness and indulgence.

"What an energetic brat! Even his irritating temper is exactly the same as that arrogant guy's!"

Atlas Flame straightened his chest and proudly revealed the truth.

Listen up, you human brat!

"I, the Fire Dragon King, and Igneel were sworn brothers and close friends who fought side by side and entrusted our lives to each other four hundred years ago!!"

Hearing the words "best friend"...

Natsu stood there dumbfounded, blinking his big eyes twice.

Below, amidst the rubble and ruins, the members of various guilds, who had originally formed a defensive formation, were collectively thrown into prolonged disarray.

Gray covered his forehead with one hand, his lips twitching uncontrollably.

"Are you kidding me...? How did the fight suddenly turn into a family reunion spanning four hundred years?!"

Lucy stood frozen in place, clutching the Celestial Spirit Key.

"Natsu has a lot of acquaintances... no, Natsu's father has way too many friends! Even a dragon that came out four hundred years ago is a friend?!"

Happy flapped its wings and landed back on Lucy's shoulder, nodding firmly.

"Wow! That's Natsu's social skills!"