Chapter Text
"You're friend has become a yokai, a nure-onna."
For a moment, it felt like reality itself had come crashing down on Natsu. This couldn't be real, there was no way. It had to be some kind of trick, some illusion by Selene. But Natsu couldn't deny the evidence looming over him right now while crushing him in its coils.
Lucy, no, not anymore, the nure-onna licked her lips with a cruel, almost feral look in her large, slitted eyes eyes, as Natsu tried to take in al that was happening. His teammate, his best friend, his… Lucy, had become one of the monsters that lurked in this dark cave. She'd been twisted and perverted into this creature. And for what? For the Moon Dragon's brief amusement? As he stared at the serpent, he heard Selene and her lackeys laughing at him.
“Your friend has been turned into a yokai through Youko’s technique,” Selene explained, “Now, what will you do? Get twisted!” She cackled cruelly at that, accompanied by the others. Natsu, however, wasn't paying attention to any of them, he just continued to stare at the nure-onna, who opened her mouth, revealing a pair of snake-like fangs...
"Natsu," the nure-onna then said, in Lucy's voice, "I'm going to eat you up." A shiver down Natsu's spine, which only got worse as he felt the yokai's tongue draw up his face. It may have been Lucy's voice, but it wasn't Lucy saying that, and when Natsu looked up into her eyes, once warm and kind, but now cold and cruel, that was when he finally felt.
It was like a hand, Selene's hand, had reached down into his chest, and pulled out his heart, and then with a single action, crushed it in front of him. A bizarre emptiness now sat in Natsu's chest, in a sensation that he had never felt before, and didn't know how to think about, let alone process. However, the disgust and horror Natsu felt began to give way to something else, something a lot hotter, and a lot more powerful:
Rage...
There was no other emotion Natsu felt right now. It was like everything else had been sucked into a void in his chest, and replaced with this one, singular feeling. Not since he found Lucy bloodied and beaten during the war with Alvarez, had he been this angry. These people had defiled her, one of the most important people in his life, and forced her into being something terrible, something she wasn't. No, Natsu didn't intend on letting this lie.
Selene, and all her lackeys up at the top of the mountain, would burn for this. There would be no mercy, for none of them deserved it from him. And, if necessary, Natsu would ascend to the heavens, and reduce the moon itself to ashes, and all of Elentir would know his anger. And in that singular moment, something, deep, deep inside him awoke....
"So then, son of Igneel," Selene said mockingly, "What do you have to say?" Natsu was silent for a time, before he looked up at her, and said only three words.
"You... will… burn!"
In that moment, the laughing stopped, all the women stared at Natsu in silence. They'd been expecting/hoping for him to break down in tears, or to erupt into some incoherent babble of rage, not him to just simmer in anger like this. Even Selene's smile faded into a glare.
Well, you're free to try," she sneered, before the image faded away. With that, Natsu turned his attention back to the nure-onna, who suddenly wasn't smiling anymore, as she reared back, and an old power began to simmer inside the young man.
Gray paused as he finished beating the latest yokai, as he sensed the cavern getting warm, as a strange power began to flow the tunnels.
"It can't be," he muttered, his eyes wide. He knew this power all too well.
"END," he murmured. but Natsu said the Demon Seed in him, as well the Book of END were both destroyed. Admittedly Gray's knowledge about demons, especially Etherious, was somewhat limited, but there was no way END could have returned, the side of Natsu was supposed to be gone. At least, that was the theory…
"Natsu," he hissed, as he started running through the tunnels, to find his friend. However, he didn't get very far...
"What kind of magic is that?" Mimi asked, as she and the rest of Selene's court watched, "It wasn't Dragon Slayer Magic."
"By all appearances, our young man appears to have the powers of an Etherious." Everyone looked at Selene, who was glaring at the image of Natsu.
"Etherious?" Hakune asked, none of them having heard that term before.
"Artificially created demons from Earthland, generally made with one singular purpose: death and destruction," Selene explained, as she swirled her cup slightly, "I've heard of them, but I've never actually seen one."
"How powerful are they?" Youko asked.
"Again, I only know what I've heard," Selene answered, "But I will say that this just got a bit more interesting." She then noticed most of her court looking at each other in concern, and the dragon wasn't one to let potential entertainment pass.
"No need to stop our celebration," she declared, giving a smile, "Let's enjoy the performance!" With that, the women burst back into their celebration. Privately though, their mistress was somewhat troubled as she leaned back, frowning into her sake. She may have never seen an Etherious, but Selene had heard rumors about them, and everything she heard suggested they were forces to be reckoned with. There was one particular rumor she heard, something about a being a certain black dragon was wary about... She ultimately banished that thought for the moment; rumors were just rumors after all.
"I can't underestimate him," the dragon mused to herself as she took another sip, "There's apparently much more to him that I initially thought."
The heat slowly got greater, as the water dripping down the cave walls suddenly evaporated in an instance. The other yokai lurking in the shadows began to flee under the immense pressure of this magic.
"Damn it!" the nure-onna hissed as she recoiled back at the heat, slithering away, glaring at Natsu. No way was she going to give up that easily...
"Fine then!" she said, as she brought her hands together, "I can still beat you! Now that I'm a yokai, my magic power is the max!" With that, she generated a massive torrent of water, and launched it at Natsu, who didn't even move, and it it turned out, he wouldn't even need to. Instead of washing him away like it was supposed, the water evaporated into steam the moment it got close to him, much to the nure-onna's suprirse.
"What the hell?" she muttered. The Dragon Slayer just stood up straight, and cracked his neck. With that, he held out his arms, as black markings started appearing on them, and his eyes began to glow a menacing red. His sweat turned to steam, and when his mouth opened, so did his breath. Natsu then looked down at his enemy, his red eyes piercing through her body.
"Get out of here," was all he said. There could be no doubt that the nure-onna was hungry, but she wasn't stupid; she recognized this power.
With that, she turned on her tail, and rapidly slithered into the darkness; Natsu didn't follow her, he didn't have the time, or really the interest. There was one thing for certain: he had a dragon to kill, and divinities to bring low...