The celebration within the Domus Flau had been cut short, severed by a sensation that pricked the skin of every mage in the capital. It was a feeling of ancient, reptilian malice, a magical pressure so dense it tasted like ash and sulfur.
Blake stood up. The air around him didn't just become still; it froze. He looked at the pillar of sick, green light erupting from the castle courtyard, tearing the sky open.
He turned to his side. Cana Alberona was clutching her cards, her eyes wide. Next to her, looking bored but subtly alert, was Brandish μ.
"Cana. Brandish," Blake said. His voice was calm, but it carried an imperative weight that brooked no argument. "Take the kids. Take the guild members who can't fight dragons. Get them to the evacuation shelters."
"Dragons?" Cana whispered, clutching Alphonse tighter. "Blake, are you saying—"
"I'm saying the history books are about to get a new chapter," Blake interrupted. He looked at Brandish. "If anyone tries to touch the children, shrink them until they are sub-atomic."
Brandish popped a piece of candy into her mouth, her green hair swaying. "I'll take care of them."
Blake nodded. He didn't look back. He stepped onto the railing of the balcony. The air around his feet compressed, turning solid under the sheer force of his kick.
BOOM.
The stadium balcony shattered as Blake launched himself. He was a streak of black and red lightning, tearing through the distance between the arena and the castle in heartbeat intervals.
---
Minutes earlier, in the courtyard of Castle Mercurius.
The great Eclipse Gate stood open. The heavy adamantium doors, designed to withstand the apocalypse, were agape, spewing forth a vortex of magical energy.
Princess Hisui stood trembling, clutching a golden key she had planned to use to close the gate. But she couldn't move. The air was paralyzed by fear.
Standing atop the gate mechanism, laughing maniacally, was a man in a dark cloak. Rogue Cheney from the future. His face was twisted in a rictus of ambition, half of it covered in shadow.
"Finally!" Future Rogue screamed at the swirling vortex. " The Age of Dragons begins now! And I shall be the King!"
Lying on the stone floor nearby was Lucy Heartfilia. She was bound in anti-magic cuffs, bruises forming on her arms. Her eyes were filled with tears, not of pain, but of frustration.
In this timeline, the collection of the Twelve Zodiac Keys had been different. Over the seven years of the time-skip, as Lucy trained and grew stronger, the keys had found their way to her, guided by her mother. Lucy now possesses all twelve. She was the Gatekeeper.
But Future Rogue had known this. He had bypassed the tournament, bypassed the intricate plots. He had ambushed Lucy in her room that morning and brought her to the castle.
"Open!" Rogue commanded. "Come forth, my servants! Devour this era!"
The vortex roared.
First, a massive, jade-colored head pushed through the magical barrier. Zirconis, the Jade Dragon.
Then, a body of pure hellfire. Atlas Flame.
Then another. And another.
The gate vomited forth twenty dragons.
Twenty dragons were more than enough to burn a continent to ash.
They dragged their massive bodies into the courtyard, crushing stone pillars and statues. Their roars blew the tiles off the castle roof.
"GRAAAAAAAH!"
"FREEDOM!"
"FLESH! I SMELL FLESH!"
Future Rogue raised his hands. His Shadow Dragon Slayer magic, amplified by the White Shadow mode he had stolen from Sting in his future, washed over the beasts. It was a domination spell, a Dragon Supremacy magic.
"Submit!" Rogue yelled. "I am your summoner! I am your King! Obey me and destroy humans!"
The dragons' eyes glazed over. The shadows crept into their minds, dulling their intelligence, leaving only the instinct to kill on command.
"Yes..." Zirconis drooled acid onto the cobblestones. "Kill... humans..."
Princess Hisui fell to her knees. The Royal Guards dropped their spears, their bladders failing them. It was instinctual terror. A rabbit does not fight a wolf; a human does not fight a dragon.
"It's over," Hisui whispered. "Father... I'm sorry."
Future Rogue turned his gaze toward the city. "Go! Burn Crocus! Leave nothing but—"
Suddenly, Rogue stopped.
His shadow senses, honed in a future of constant war, screamed at him.
He snapped his head to the east.
Future Rogue widened his eyes. He tried to merge into his shadow. "Shadow Drive—"
Too slow.
Blake materialized directly in front of him. He wasn't breathing hard. He wasn't sweating. He was floating in the air, his face a mask of absolute, terrifying neutrality.
"You're in my seat," Blake said.
Blake's right palm was already moving. It was coated in Armament Haki so dense it looked like polished obsidian, crackling with the red lightning of his Reiatsu.
CRACK.
The palm connected with Future Rogue's face.
The sound was sickening—the sound of the nose, cheekbones, and orbital sockets shattering simultaneously.
Blake's eyes glowed red.
"BLUE HOLE."
He slammed Rogue downward.
It wasn't a throw. It was a burial.
Blake drove Future Rogue into the castle courtyard with the force of a falling asteroid. The stone floor liquefied. The shockwave traveled downward, blowing out the castle foundation. A crater fifty meters wide and thirty meters deep appeared instantly.
Debris flew into the stratosphere.
At the bottom of the pit, Future Rogue lay embedded in the bedrock. He was twitching, his eyes rolled back, his jaw unhinged, his magic shattered. The "King of Dragons" had been swatted like a mosquito.
The Conqueror and the Beasts
Silence returned to the courtyard.
The dust settled slowly.
With Rogue unconscious, the domination spell broke. The shadows retreated from the dragons' eyes.
Twenty ancient beasts shook their heads, regaining their senses.
"What...?" Zirconis blinked.
"Who dares command Atlas Flame?" the fire dragon roared, his flames turning hotter.
"The human... the shadow human is down," another dragon hissed.
The dragons looked around. They saw the crater. They saw the trembling princess.
And then, they looked up.
Hovering above the crater was a single human male. He was dusting off his hands.
"Humans!" a jagged-toothed dragon roared. "Food! We are free! Let us feast!"
"Burn the castle!"
"Eat the women!"
The twenty dragons inhaled. Twenty breath attacks began to charge—fire, acid, lightning, wind, rock. The magical energy buildup was enough to vaporize the entire capital instantly.
Princess Hisui closed her eyes, waiting for the end. Lucy, still bound, looked up at Blake, her heart hammering against her ribs. Blake... run...
Blake didn't run.
He looked at the dragons. He looked at them with the annoyance of a parent whose children were misbehaving at a funeral.
He inhaled deeply.
"SIT. DOWN."
ZOOOOOOM.
A wave of black and red energy exploded from Blake's body. It wasn't wind; it was pure willpower made manifest. The Conqueror's Haki, along with spiritual power, slammed into the courtyard with the weight of the sky falling.
The air cracked. The stone ground and pulverized further.
The dragons—creatures who had ruled the world 400 years ago—froze.
Their breath attacks sputtered and died in their throats.
Their pupils dilated.
Their instincts, which had told them they were the apex predators, suddenly screamed a new message: PREDATOR ABOVE.
Zirconis's knees buckled. He slammed onto his belly, forcing his head down.
Atlas Flame's fire dimmed, flickering as if terrified of being snuffed out.
The smaller dragons whined, backing away, their tails tucked between their legs.
The sheer density of Blake's aura forced the dragons to lower their heads. It was a command that bypassed logic and hit the soul. You are not the strongest thing here.
"I did not give you permission to roar," Blake said, his voice echoing unnaturally loud in the silence. "Calm down. Wait your turn."
He ignored the dragons completely now, turning his back on twenty apex predators.
He walked toward the corner of the courtyard where the humans were huddled.
Blake stopped in front of the guards holding Lucy. They were awake but paralyzed with terror.
"Release her," Blake said.
The guards scrambled, fumbling with the keys. The cuffs clicked open.
Lucy fell forward. Blake caught her by the arm, steadying her.
"Blake..." Lucy choked out, grabbing his shirt. "The keys... Rogue took them..."
Blake turned his head to Hisui. The Princess flinched.
"Princess," Blake said. "The bag of keys near the gate mechanism. Fetch them."
"I... I..." Hisui stammered. A dragon was breathing heavily right behind the mechanism.
"Now," Blake said.
Hisui moved. Terror of the dragons was replaced by terror of Blake. She scrambled over the rubble, snatched the leather pouch of keys Rogue had dropped, and ran back, shoving them into Lucy's hands.
"Here!" Hisui cried. "Please... save us!"
Blake looked at Lucy. "Can you walk?"
Lucy nodded, clutching her keys to her chest. "I can. But Blake... there are so many of them. Natsu and the others aren't here yet."
"I know," Blake said. "That's why you need to leave."
He pointed to the tunnel leading back into the city underground.
"Take the Princess. Get out of here. The rest of the guild will handle the city defense if any strays get past me. But this..."
He gestured to the courtyard filled with twenty dragons.
"...This is my dance floor."
"But Blake!" Lucy protested. "You can't fight twenty dragons alone! That's suicide! Even Acnologia—"
Blake placed a hand on Lucy's head. He smiled. It wasn't his usual arrogant smirk. It was a genuine, reassuring smile.
"Lucy. Do you remember who I am?"
Lucy paused. She looked at him. She saw the man who had fought Acnologia to a stalemate. The man who had defied the Magic Council. The man who had reshaped their history.
"You're Blake," she whispered.
"Exactly," Blake turned around. "Now go."
Lucy gritted her teeth. She grabbed Hisui's hand. "Come on, Princess! We have to move!"
They dragged the guards, stumbling into the tunnel. Lucy looked back one last time. She saw Blake's back, a solitary figure against a wall of scales and fangs.
Once their footsteps faded into the darkness, the courtyard was quiet again.
The dragons were beginning to recover from the initial shock of the Haki blast. Their pride was returning. They were realizing that this was just one small human.
"Human," Atlas Flame rumbled, his voice like grinding tectonic plates. "You possess a king's spirit. But you are flesh. We are twenty. You are one. Do you think you can stand against the Scourge of the Past?"
Blake cracked his knuckles. Pop. Pop. Pop.
He rolled his neck.
He reached into his pocket and pulled out a small, black hair tie. He tied his long hair back into a warrior's tail.
"One?" Blake chuckled. The sound was low and dark.
He began to flare his haki.
This time, he didn't hold back. He didn't suppress it for the tournament. He didn't hide it for the sake of the council.
The ground began to liquify. The air turned purple. Gravity reversed in localized pockets, causing stones to float.
The Reiatsu of a monster poured out. It formed a visible skull-shaped aura behind him that towered over the castle.
"I think you have a misconception about the food chain," Blake said, turning to face them.
He unsheathed Tensa Zangetsu.
The dragons flinched. For the first time in four hundred years, they felt the sensation of being prey.
"I am not locked in here with you," Blake said, his eyes glowing with a feral red light. "You are locked in here with me."
He took a step forward.
Zirconis stepped back.
Blake grinned, revealing teeth that looked sharper than humanly possible. "Now... shall we start the real festival?"
ROAR!
The dragons, driven by pride and fear, lunged.
Blake vanished.
BOOM.
A dragon's head snapped back, teeth flying, as an uppercut connected with the force of a nuclear warhead.
The Grand Magic Games were over.
The Dragon King Festival had begun.