Chapter Two

The Strongest Fairy

A Wizard Saint, well, that certainly threw a spanner in the works. He was still confident that he would be able to hold his own against most in their ranks if it was a clean one-on-one fight, he was an extremely prolific Demon after all, or at least he used to be prolific, nobody knew his true name anymore, except for the old timers and history buffs.

There were only a few people in the last few hundred years who even knew that the fabled name belonged to him. His brother, now that was a name that the world hadn't forgotten, and how could they? He was only the original dark mage, Zeref.

The stories and legends that surrounded the name were known far and wide by pretty much everyone.

As Salamander's steps grew closer and closer to the guildhall, his thoughts drifted between a fight with the old timer, Makarov, and those specific juicy details surrounding Zeref that so few knew.

For instance, there was only one person alive who knew Zeref's name was Dragneel, and that person was Natsu Dragneel, Zeref's own younger brother.

Natsu was a name that only a handful had ever been blessed to know of, the rest of the world knew him only as the Salamander, an especially potent dark mage whose destructive path was woven into the fabric of reality wherever he roamed.

Natsu had been fighting against his inner darkness for over four hundred years, his hellish nature sometimes bringing him to his knees, weak and at the mercy of a monster that lived inside his mind. He'd kept himself contained for so long, but there was always the lingering threat of the dam breaking.

This was the path he'd been walking for his entire life once he'd been resurrected by Zeref, no longer a human but a Demon that even the dark mage himself hadn't been able to keep reigned in.

That darkness that Natsu kept hidden away, the mythos of the Salamander didn't even begin to scratch the surface of what he was capable of if that darkness ever took over. It was constantly clawing, scratching, and fighting against the cage that Natsu kept him in, always aware of the consequences if he ever managed to gain control.

Natsu wasn't simply stronger than the other Demons from the book of Zeref, Natsu was in a tier so far above them that the distance was incalculable. He was the final word when it came to raw unrelenting power. He was the end of everything.

Etherious. Natsu. Dragneel.

The most powerful Demon ever created. After the great Dragon King Igneel had failed to kill Zeref, he had turned to Natsu, hoping that the power of E.N.D would be able to finish the suffering he'd experienced, but right as Zeref planned to come to fruition, Natsu put the Demon back in its cage and locked it away for centuries to come.

They'd had that falling out around three hundred years ago and Natsu hadn't seen or heard of Zeref since, but he knew he was out there, there was always that little feeling in the back of his mind that Zeref was doing something.

He was finally standing in front of some giant oaken doors, pulling him from his faraway thoughts about the original dark mage and back to the present. There was noise coming from behind the doors but nothing that would suggest anything different from what you'd expect to be happening in a guildhall.

"As Dad always used to say, first impressions are important. Or, to paraphrase, 'Karyu no Hoko!' he announced with a devilish laugh, flames erupting from his throat that blew the guildhall doors completely clean off of their hinges and rattling down the main entrance until they came to a stop that left the entire guild hanging in shocked silence.

"Someone wants you fairies dead, and yet, I cannot find a single trace of corruption in your hearts, which means that I can't enact the exact details of my contract and kill any of you, not without good reason, so… How about a deal?" Natsu's rich voice was easily heard over the almost deafening silence.

Within a few seconds, he had thoroughly surveyed them in all of their entirety, including the varying levels of pressure that were contained within their bodies. Some overwhelming waves were coming from the bar where an old man sat with a beer in his hand.

"It was quite rude to break into the Guild like that, we would have opened the doors if you'd have knocked." The old man remarked quite casually all things considered. He must have been power-sensitive, looking over the seemingly weak pressure that enveloped the pink-haired intruder. That always made Natsu smile, it meant that he could trick almost anyone into getting into a fight that they believed themselves overly capable of winning.

The thing about Demons was that they each held immense restrictions on their power, the same went for Natsu who could only reach his full potential when he willingly accepted the darkness inside him.

Natsu looked over his shoulder at the splintered doors, "I've never been very good at judging how much strength is needed to do things... I guess the bare minimum was still a little bit too much, oh well." He muttered to himself before looking back at the elderly man.

"Those two are pretty…" he said, pointing at the bar where Erza and Mira were both watching him with intense focus, "Well, I was going to say they're pretty strong but my initial point stands as well. Whoever is on the second floor is strong as well, maybe the guild ace, but you, you are by far the strongest mage in this building which must make you master Makarov." Natsu listed off with joy, happy to have found strong mages on this job.

"Young man I am offended that you didn't point out how pretty I am as well as the two women here," Makarov grumbled sarcastically.

"You aren't my type old man, and while I've been down to freak before I just don't think I could bring myself to bed an almost literal prune." Natsu shot back, the heat of their banter rising along with the natural temperature he brought into the building.

"Rude. What do you want with the Fairy Tail guild?" Makarov got to the point, sparing no more time to get verbally clapped again.

"As I said, someone wants me to destroy the Fairy Tail guild with a bonus for every member that dies by my hands. Not how I operate, but the clause was there." Natsu shrugged casually.

"Ignoring the fact that you claim to not kill people, how did you think you were going to destroy our guild without doing such?" Makarov raised a highly quizzical eyebrow at the young man in front of him.

"Oh, no, don't get it twisted, I absolutely kill people. I've killed hundreds, probably thousands of people over the years. I wouldn't ever kill a person that doesn't deserve it, and none of you are fit for the fires of judgment, you lucky bunch." Natsu grinned seeing just how unnerved the mages were at hearing his admission of so many counts of violence and murder.

Owning up to that so carefree is something that could land you in a lot of trouble my boy, are you sure this is a path you'd like to walk down?" Makarov placed his beer firmly on the bar, granting Natsu his full attention.

"I've walked this path since before the stones of this guildhall were nothing more than dust in the wind, and I will walk this path long after they return to the ground as ash. I have been there and done that in almost every context and every walk of life. I wasn't joking when I said that I've killed, but I cannot kill anyone unjustly, it goes against the principles of my existence, my life would be forfeit." he explained, showing no hint of intention to bluff. It was a perplexing thing to see as it was an impossible statement from the get-go.

"Your goal here today?" Makarov urged him.

"Let's make a deal. I want to fight the strongest Fairy. If your member can defeat me, I will flip the contract on those who sought to take your heads, and I will demolish their guild, for free. But if you can't beat me, then I will turn your guildhall to ash." As he had announced this, they all watched with bated breath as flames danced around the fingers of his right hand.

There was total silence before a red-headed woman that had been sitting at the bar, turned to face him for the first time.

"Tell me your name and I'll tell you mine." She announced, standing to meet him. Just a little further to the side of the bar, Gray and Lucy held hitched breaths from what they were watching. Erza was terrifying at the best of times but the feelings that most of them were getting from this man were outright shadowing Erza's ability to instil fear in people, not that it was even remotely effective on her.

"Names are for friends, but the world seems happy enough to call me Salamander." He announced with a slight smirk that turned into a full-blown grin when the room burst into whispers.

"Very well, by your methods, the world calls me Titania, the Fairy Queen." There was no negative emotion in her voice, but Natsu could already see that there was immense pride in her and it was almost threatening to come out as malice aimed toward the man who most considered a dark mage.

"Erza, if you wish to take this challenge then I cannot stop you, but please, both of you, fight outside the Guild. You would not be doing very well in keeping your word if you burned our Guild down without even finishing the fight." Makarov announced. It was entirely clear that this was a request only in appearance when in actuality there was no way that the two of them would even get close to having a good fight inside the guildhall right after their master had told them not to.

"Yeah sure, whatever. Oh man, I'm so excited! The Fairy Queen! That's so badass!" Natsu grinned to himself before following Titania outside and over to a large clearing where there was nothing but grass. That was fine, there was nothing to accidentally burn down but her.

"Requip! Flame empress armour!" Natsu heard her shout and before his eyes could adjust to the almost blinding light. The Salamander stared with his jaw slacked. The rest of the Guild that had followed them out to watch Erza fight had all started to adopt a similar sort of smirk that spread across their faces. There was no way Erza was going to lose to a dark mage. Even if that mage happened to be Salamander, she could take him, right?

Makarov stood with his arms folded, watching with great interest. This man was 'said' to be a dark mage but dark mages all had a certain feel about them, they were all at one point or another descending into the deepest parts of depravity and evil, but this man seemed to be the pinnacle of chaotic neutral at best.

"Oh my god," Natsu choked out in a strained whisper, "I think I'm falling in love." He almost laughed when he saw that the strongest Fairy had donned some armour wreathed in metal flames. To him, it was the picture of beauty. Luckily for him, nobody heard his mumbling.

Erza offered him with no response but instead pushed forward with a speed that he didn't think she'd be capable of. It was nothing that he couldn't handle but it was nice, a good speed to start with, it meant that he could fight her without magic as a warmup.

"Well this is fucking great," Natsu whispered happily before swinging his fist fast and straight. His arm curved in a path that moved with such ferocity that his sleeves whistled as the air rushed around them. His hand collided with the flat of Erza's blade, shattering it into dozens of shiny pieces of metal that all clattered to the ground.

For the second time that day, the whole Guild was speechless. "Oh... Shit..." Gray announced out of nowhere. Erza cast her iron gaze from the broken hilt of her sword to the grinning smirk of the Salamander.

"Enough physical strength to shatter steel without the use of magic. Requip! Purgatory armour!" Another flash of light covered their eyes before Erza's body returned to visibility, this time completely clad in that spikey black armour that oozed nightmares just from the look of it.

In Natsu's mind, the spiked club that she'd swapped out the sword for was going to take way more than a single punch. Even though it hadn't been a fitting warm-up, his single strike on Erza's flame empress' sword was going to be the best warm-up that she'd give him. She was getting serious already, perhaps she had initially underestimated what he'd be capable of.

"Erza, be wary, the Salamander is rumoured to be a lost magic user!" Gray shouted after Levy had whispered it in his ear.

Natsu tilted his head ever so slightly towards Gray's voice but his eyes of firm darkness remained locked with Erza's own brown eyes, one of which, Natsu had noticed had a concentration of magic gathering around. "He's close, I guess." Natsu shrugged before breathing in a large lungful of air, his lungs immediately turning into incredible masses of magical power.

"Karyu no Hoko!" Salamander bellowed, funnelling a huge whirlwind of fire straight towards Erza. She only narrowly managed to hide her body behind her huge club that hadn't done that greatly to prevent the fire from scorching her skin.

"I'm a Dragon Slayer, among other things." He grinned, showing Erza that at this very moment, he'd forgotten all about his mission. The only thing he could think about was the fact that she had been able to shrug off the majority of his flames with ease. Just how much latent power was stored inside her body awaiting release? He doubted that even she realized how truly strong she was, but Natsu was damn sure that he was going to bring it all out and show her how great she was.

Right before he struck the strongest Fairy out of the skies. Once again the two of them clashed in a brutal display of raw strength. It had to be said that Erza was terrifyingly strong, even when compared to people like Makarov himself who was a Titan, but Natsu? The Salamander had such rigorous physical conditioning over all of his years alive, that there were very few beings alive that could match him in brute strength, and that much became clear when he pushed back at her with an iron fist attack that sent her hurtling towards a thick line of trees.

"Requip! Heaven's wheel!" This time, Natsu's eyes had thoroughly adjusted to that searing flash of white, he could see the changes as they happened, and it was purely amazing.

"Heaven's wheel, eh? You know, Fairy Queen, it's said that only an Angel can kill a Demon. Let's see just how far you can go." Natsu grinned, speaking mostly to himself yet Erza had heard him regardless. She didn't have any other words to offer him though, this was a fight that she was starting to enjoy just as much as the monster of a man she was faced with. His brute strength was amazing and he had so far only shown her a brief glimpse of the magic he had and yet he'd managed to force her through two requips with only a couple of attacks.

As he held his hands apart, letting his body fall into a brilliant stance of attack, his clenched fists had been entirely engulfed in flames. "I'm gettin' all fired up!" He laughed to himself.

The ground shook when the two colossal forces hit each other again. Natsu was so engrossed in his fight that he had almost missed the unmistakable feeling of being watched by some powerful time magic. Almost.

A/N: Review?