Arthur was moping for lack of a better word. He’d recovered from the lacrima implantation surgery in… minutes really. He wanted to really internalize and learn something about his powers, and prepare himself before facing Ignia. He was the strongest of the dragon gods in their primes, and unlike the others he wasn’t in a weakened state.
But that wasn’t really why Arthur hesitated. When he killed Ignia he was done with this world. Oh, he’d have a while longer in it, and hopefully time enough to finally help Minerva find her Yakuma heritage, but it was the last real bounty. The last real mission in this world.
It wouldn’t change when he left it, but it’d solidify that he was leaving it.
He’d hoped that burning bridges with Selene would make leaving easier.
It hadn’t. Instead he just missed her.
So he delayed fighting Ignia. Just a few days. He made the excuse that he was just starting on his promise to Minerva. But he realized he wasn’t really helping nearly as much as he could be. Researching Yakuma magic was… well he didn’t have a passion for it. Still he’d promised her, and she’d waited a long time. And Ignia could wait for a bit. Wait till he was ready to tell Selene he’d dealt with the Dragon Gods and she’d be safe here, and…
He could do it without kicking himself too much.
Ignia sat sprawled out upon his throne in the hall of the guild he had built around himself. In many ways it was a twisted mirror of Diabolos. Both were guilds who emulated the powers of dragons, and were warped towards darkness by the madness born from a dragon’s power. But their goals differentiated them. Diabolos sought the power of dragons to slay them, standing as protectors of humanity against the predations of the world’s original apex species. Ignia’s guild, dubbed Fire and Flame in a stark break from the naming conventions of mages’ guilds, would see humanity burned back to the stone age, and ruled by a new race of dragons born from mages who had once been human.
But Ignia was not looking at a human who had become a dragon. He was looking at a well muscled, battle-scarred man well past the first bloom of youth. The man had to be in his late 50s at least, likely older, but he had kept his body fit and hale. It was a well-maintained form, full of power and while age weighed upon it, it did not yet bend it. An ‘X’ shaped scar dominated his right cheek. He was mostly bald, a fringe of graying red hair circling his smooth pate.
This man was not human, despite his appearances. He resembled Ignia enough one might have guessed their relationship at a glance.
“Father, I’d heard you’d been revived, but since you neglected to do so much as pay a visit to your son, I was beginning to doubt the rumors. It’s been years and you didn’t even come to say hello.” Ignia’s tone was nakedly mocking, and jeering, not even trying to hide feelings of contempt.
“I did not wish to rush into something that would be painful for me,” Ignia’s father, Igneel the Fire Dragon King, answered.
“Painful? Oh, Father, I won’t hurt you. As long as you kneel.”
Igneel’s eyes glanced at the mages around them. Fire mages each trained by Ignia. He doubted they were much of a threat against him. Even so he was too much of an old warhorse not to take them into account as a potential source of danger.
“Don’t act like a fool,” Igneel said. “You know why I have come here.”
“To punish me, right?” Ignia’s feet dropped from one side of his throne, as he finally sat up straight and then rose to stand.
“...” Igneel didn’t answer immediately. At that moment he couldn’t meet Ignia’s eyes, his own casting down and to the side. “I failed you. It is my responsibility as much as yours. I was… not a good father in my youth. I was…” He paused. He’d come here knowing and prepared for confronting his prodigal offspring. Knowing that he had to deal with Ignia. He’d put it off for some time. He had let Selene teach him her magic for taking human form; the currency with which she had bought her initial escape from Acnologia, and the initial foundation of the Dragon Gods. He had reunited with his foster son, and visited Natsu’s new family. He had distracted himself with life among the humans as much as he was able.
Then Arthur had removed 3 of the Dragon Gods from the board in a matter of days. Igneel knew then he couldn’t continue to piddle about and play around. Ignia was his responsibility. He would convince Ignia to change his ways and save his life, become an individual who could live in the age of humanity, or he would be the one to end his son’s life and repay those whose deaths were on his hands due to his failures in raising Ignia in the first place.
“A proper dragon,” Ignia finished for him. “You taught me how one should be. The merciless king whose pure power ruled over all before him. You were hard then, father, but now you’ve grown soft. Soft of body, and soft of heart. It disgusts me to look at you as you are now.” He spat then, hocking a glob of spit and mucus like a projectile against Igneel’s face. “Pathetic and weak!”
A growl rose in his father’s throat. “Not so pathetic I hid from Acnologia behind a female’s wings until someone else killed him for me. Not so weak that I didn’t even rise to the battle. I tasted the dragon king’s flesh and blood. I tested the power of his hate and broke it against my claw and fang. Where were you who possesses such pure power?” Fire danced from his body, lines of it scorching across the floor of the guild. It was a guild of fire mages, magically reinforced against all but the most powerful of mystical flames. The stone bubbled and boiled where Igneel’s fire flowed outwards.
Ignia flinched back, recoiling almost as if struck. He felt a familiar fear. One born in his youth more than half a millennia ago. He had never forgotten the terror of his father, or the way he had been taught the importance of strength and power. Even without that, Igneel’s words stung his pride. He was the strongest of the dragon gods. His magical power was the greatest. It surpassed even the Black Dragon’s. Acnologia had been his to kill, once he had found a way to overcome the Black Dragon’s invulnerability to magic and was certain he could win without being so wounded that the other Dragon Gods would kill him. He had been mere years from victory against Acnologia and any other who would have stood in his way.
But his father had helped the Dragon Wizard take that from him. And that was just another grievance he had not, and would not, forgive his father for. To Ignia this whole discussion was simply foreplay. He knew how the dance would go. His father would try and convince him to accept the New Way that had been espoused by Belserion, the one his father had grown to accept near the end of his life when he had encountered the etherious-child and had picked a stranger’s child over the product of his own fire and flame. And Ignia would refuse. Because he did not want reconciliation. He did not fear the Dragon Wizard of Diabolos. What he wanted was to finally prove once and for all that he was the strongest fire dragon. He had hated Acnologia for ending the age of dragons and starting a new age of his tyrant-rule. But that hatred had been less than the fact that Acnologia had stolen from him the chance to finally prove to himself and the world that he was stronger than his father.
Even after his father had renounced most of his territories and gone into hermitage in the western continent, the other fire dragons had never accepted Ignia as anything but a pale shadow of Igneel’s indisputable might. Even in defeat they had refused to admit that he had beat them more soundly than his father could have. Even with his claw against their throats, begging for their lives, he could feel their doubt of his power.
It was a feeling of inferiority he had harbored for centuries, allowing it to fester and grow. Letting it sour deep inside of him into a rotting core of hatred. It had been born when Igneel had stepped away from the power over other dragons he had spent centuries amassing. The first dragon kingdom collapsed when its king chose to rule no more, and with it the first home Ignia had ever had. And he’d not passed the power onto Ignia. He’d refused him then. Telling him to take it for himself if he could… before resoundingly defeating Ignia when he tried. And then it’d grown by leaps and bounds when he’d given an etherious-child something which he had never given Ignia. He had loved him unconditionally with no demands that he prove himself.
There was a time when Ignia might have listened to Igneel. But that had been 400 years ago. For centuries Ignia had let his anger and jealousy harden into hatred and resentment.
“I was not invited. Your little human friends didn’t see fit to tell me about your little dragon slaying party,” Ignia stated as fire formed around his body as well. It was not the unconstrained and wild flames of his father. It wreathed only his arms, forming dancing spheres in his hands. “But you always did choose humans over me.”
“That’s… not true.”
“I can hear the lie in your voice, father.”
Again Igneel couldn’t meet his son’s eyes. But he forced himself to. He looked Igneel straight on. “I never chose humans over you. I wanted us to choose them together. I left the kingdom behind because I had grown tired by the idea that might made right. I didn’t know it at the time. I didn’t realize it until years later. It wasn’t until I met Zeref and Natsu that I began to realize what it was that had been missing. That bonds were needed. Not mere power. That-”
Ignia cut him off with a cruel, cold laugh. “Bonds? Zeref the Black Wizard had bonds? Have you looked at his life and deeds?”
Igneel swallowed back his rage at the impertinent interruption. He wanted to strike down his wayward son here and now for the backtalk. It was his first instinct after all. “No. He was uniquely without such bonds. I saw the hole in his heart which his brother had left. And in the darkness which filled it I recognized something in my own. Caring for Natsu I began to understand the way I had failed my biological children.” Igneel stopped. His draconic pride wasn’t gone. It rebelled against the idea of apologizing. Of taking culpability for failures. But he had grown wise with age. He understood that he needed to take the first step towards reconciliation himself. “I am… sorry that I failed you. I didn’t give you the love that you deserved. That I was not the father that you needed.”
Ignia glanced at his servants. He was growing uncomfortable having them watch. This had been supposed to be his glorious victory against a father come to punish his wayward son. Not an old man apologizing for being a failure of a father. Igneel had been supposed to be the proud and haughty dragon of Ignia’s youth. He’d been supposed to make this easy. To make this a fight for the ages. The last unmitigated clash of power against power, with their conflicting ideas being proven not by words but by claw and flame.
He hadn’t been supposed to come here penitent and repentant for his failings. He’d not been supposed to apologize. It chipped away at the grudge Ignia had nursed for centuries into a hardened armor. And Ignia could feel something wavering inside of himself. He didn’t want to forgive his father, though. He wanted to stay mad. He wanted his victory. But this wasn’t how he wanted it. He wanted to stay angry. He wanted to feel validated in taking his revenge. And this wasn’t feeling that.
“It took raising a frail, fragile human, who had no strength or power. That couldn’t survive like a dragon could to teach me how to let myself feel the nurturing love you needed.” Igneel hadn’t quit speaking, just because Ignia was weakening. But he had made a mistake. By bringing up Natsu, Igneel had given Ignia the excuse he needed to stay mad. After all, Natsu was the etherious-child that his father had loved instead of him. That had made his father choose humans over dragons. Ignia’s jealousy had never faded there.
“Needed?” Ignia spat out. “I never needed anything from you, father. Are you saying that I was weaker than a human to need love? Are you saying I was less than other dragons?”
“No!” Igneel roared back. “You know what I meant! Don’t be difficult!”
“I was always difficult, wasn’t I? Never what you wanted. And that hasn’t changed even now, has it?”
“You’re twisting my words,” Igneel growled. It was a familiar anger. No other living being had ever been able to piss him off like Ignia. Not even any of his other biological children.
“Who needs to twist them? You’re the one who said that humans needed love because they were weak, and that I needed it just like them. I’ll let you know father I was never weak. And the world of your beloved humans, I will end it.”
“Ignia, stop this petulance at once!” Igneel puffed himself up as he bellowed at his son, his fire raging once more briefly taking on the shape of a dragon. “I will not permit you to commit wanton destruction any longer.”
Ignia smiled. That was the father he knew. This was the dance they were supposed to dance. Father had been supposed to try and stop him. He and Dogramag had made a plan centuries ago, even before Dogramag had allowed the first mages’ guild master to ‘kill’ him so that he could act unimpeded. The Dragon Wizard’s killing of Dogramag had been problematic. He had consumed the Earth Dragon God’s soul. It had severely weakened the powers of their plan. It was not the all encompassing power he had hoped for. He wouldn’t be able to force the other dragon gods to become dragons once more. He’d not be able to overwhelm them with their true instincts. He couldn’t reach Tartaros with the power any longer, and even if he could he doubted he could turn them into his soldiers.
But he had Fire and Flame. Oh, the Dragon Wizard had killed two of his chief lieutenants which Vierres had borrowed. Another crime of the one human mage who saw himself fit to demand terms of dragon gods. Even so, it was an army in the making. And the city around them. He would focus all the power of his magic into this one city, drawing it from all across Guiltina, and he would make an army of dragons. And he would let his father live to watch the Dragon War begin anew. His victory wasn’t certain. But Ignia would rather die fighting than kneel.
“I am no longer a child, father. I don’t need your permission to commit wanton slaughter, I can do it just fine without it. But don’t worry, I won’t be the only one killing here.” He raised his hand in front of him and squeezed it shut into a fist. He was activating the grand magic he had prepared and had in wait.
Igneel fell to his knees as he felt draconic power surging up through him. It was pushing back against the human form spell. He could feel the enchantment cracking and breaking, as the draconic energy filled him and his body changed into his true, draconic form.
But it didn’t stop. It continued to fill him. To pour into his body and mind. It was making it hard to think. The same fiery power he had possessed in youth seemed to be filling him. As if it was trying to restore him to full, youthful vigor, power, and unfortunately hot headedness.
He breathed forth a gout of flames towards Ignia. He was the Fire Dragon King. His fires burned hotter than any other Fire Dragon could consume.
Or they had more than half a millennia ago when he had stepped away from the position. Ignia scarfed them down even as he resumed his own true form. They could have been twins. Igneel had more scars, and he lacked Ignia’s mane even in his youth, but they were built the same, their features were close to identical. The family resemblance was stunning.
And around them the human mages of Fire and Flame were beginning to transform, reshaping into dragons. He had to hand it to the Dragon Wizard, his Dragon Manipulation Magic had been a great help at perfecting this magic. It was a shame that Dogramag had possessed the Law Dragon’s Heart from which to draw all the knowledge of the magic that Arthur had painstakingly created, and had delivered it onto Ignia himself.
“We will burn humanity away,” Ignia said, “And rule as the new kingdom of dragons. And father… you may have a place at my feet. If you can reach out and take it. Destroy the humans. Embrace your instinct.” A great, glowing red lacrima was rising from the ground, erupting out behind the guild hall like a new born mountain. Dogramag’s power built up throughout the construction of his labyrinth, which was then reinforced by as much power as Ignia could spare during the period.
“I won’t let you,” Igneel shouted as he launched himself at his son, finally acting exactly like Ignia had hoped he would.
Natsu was watching it all. Igneel didn’t know it. He’d left Natsu and Happy behind in Fiore. But Natsu hadn’t cooperated with that. It’d been an adventure of its own trying to keep up with the dragon, especially unnoticed, and had meant a miserable ride on an airship, but Natsu had had to know what Igneel’s meeting with his son would be like, and he had managed it.
“This is bad,” Jellal whispered beside him, as they saw Igneel forced into his natural form. The former dark mage had earned a full pardon for the deeds he’d committed while manipulated by Grimoire Heart. It’d taken him a little longer to forgive himself, but he had joined Fairy Tail rather recently; it came with his engagement.
“Very,” Erza said, her fingers still interlocked with her fiance’s.
Natsu rolled his eyes and tried not to look at them. He’d have preferred to avoid them until they were done with this lovey dovey phase, but it was Jellal who had arranged the use of the Thunderbolts’ airship - original Grimoire Heart’s though it had been modified extensively since then.
Besides, Natsu’s attention was on the battle below. Igneel was not winning. In fact one could say he was losing. Badly even. Natsu was not an expert judge of magical power, but even he could tell Ignia’s was substantially higher than Igneel’s. Enough so that Ignia even dared use his fire against his father, while Igneel was restrained to merely using claws and fangs. Not that Igneel was winning there.
Neither dragon was intent to go for a finishing blow, but bit by bit Ignia was pushing his father back. Teeth and claws were slowly rending into Igneel’s flesh, and tearing his scales from him. All while Ignia’s forced dragonification spell washed over the city around them.
Lucy squealed out as it moved over her flesh, though of the group she was the only one to react. The blond haired celestial spirit mage shuddered, but there was no visible effect. Lucy wasn’t the only one he felt it, though. A heady surge of power. It didn’t hit a human like it would a dragon, and even then none of them had to take a focused brunt of it like Igneel did. This was only the backwash off of the magic transforming Igneel and Fire and Flame. Something to make the footsoldiers that Ignia might need for his new army.
Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
Still it was a flow of power designed to fill a human to overflowing. Even Lucy’s magical power, the least of the group’s other than the two exceeds, was sufficient to give her container room to swell and accept it. Wendy and Natsu were furthermore immunized by their dragon antibodies.
Even had it not been, a strong will would hold back the magic. It would take yielding to the power and the fury that swelled upward with the magic to fall to it.
Across the neighboring town there were screams of terror. Not everyone had enough magical power that it couldn’t do a thing to them. Not everyone had the will to resist. Dragons were rising up in the nearby town.
“We have to stop them,” Wendy said, looking back at the town.
“We destroy the lacrima and they might revert to normal,” Jellal noted.
“You guys do it,” Natsu said, his own gaze locked on the battle inside of the guild. “That asshole is beating up, dad, and I’ve got to teach him something.”
“Three teams,” Erza said.
Natsu and his team weren’t the only ones watching Igneel’s confrontation with his son. Selene watched as well. She could almost laugh at it. Neither dragon was going for the kill. It was like watching two grown men talk about their need to finally settle their deep held grudge, and then they start having a slap fight. It might impress Ignia’s little band of sycophants, but despite the wounds which they - mostly Igneel - were accruing no true dragon could mistake this for a real fight.
Igneel might still die in the end, even a dragon could die a death of a thousand cuts and while they might be flesh wounds he was accumulating a lot of them, but they could have killed each other a dozen times over already and neither had. The fight inevitably brought her mind to her children. Ignia had killed one. He’d sired another when the dragon gods were but refugees in the northern continent, not yet established as gods. Georg had killed the last of them. And while Selene had come to accept that ending the cycle of vengeance was for the best. That killing Georg wouldn’t do anything to bring them back and just destroy those who their spirit lingered and lived on through. She still hated him. She didn’t think she’d ever stop hating him for that.
Would she have died for Kurnugi if she could have? Would she have taken his place? Would she have held back in a fight against him ensuring he killed her? No. That one she could answer clearly. She wouldn’t go that far. That would be going too far.
Was there anyone who would die for her?
Ignia’s fangs clenched into his father’s forelimb. He pulled, ripping the limb off almost at the shoulder. Ingeel fell as Ignia tossed the red dragon’s limb to the side. His guildmates had left, retreating to deal with some humans attacking the lacrima, and his new soldiers in the town. He didn’t need them for this, though. His father was bleeding heavily, his throat torn, his limbs bloodied, his belly open. And now he had finally brought himself to deal a telling blow.
“See, father, I don’t need your permission to do as I please,” Ignia said looming over him. His fore talon was planted on the base of Igneel’s skull, pinning the older dragon’s head to the ground. “It’s time for a new Fire Dragon King to rise. No. A new Dragon King.”
“There’s more to being a king than power,” Igneel said.
“Spoken like a sore loser. Any last words, father?”
“I made the wrong choice.”
“What’s that? When? H-”
Ignia’s words were interrupted when his a foot suddenly struck his head, and smashed it into the ground.
“You don’t deserve to call him father,” Natsu said, scales formed around his eyes and along his wrists and hands. “That’s not how you treat your father.”
Ignia’s head rose up again, his eyes narrowing on Natsu. “You.”
“Natsu! Leave! This is between me and my other son,” Igneel said, rising to his three remaining limbs.
“No, I think this is a squabble for the entire family. You, me, your replacement for me,” Ignia spat back.
“He was never your replacement,” Igneel said. “He never could be. ”
“He never will be again more like,” Ignia said before inhaling deeply. Natsu breathed in as well.
“No!” Igneel rose as he screamed, interposing his body between the two dragon roars. He was the fire dragon king. He was supposed to be the strongest fire dragon. The most inflammable being in the world.
He had caught neither in his mouth, and even a fire dragon could be burned by magic enough stronger than theirs. He crumpled to the ground.
“Igneel!” Natsu screamed.
“Old fool,” Ignia said. “Shall we finish this?”
“Don’t,” Igneel gasped. “Not you two. Don’t fight…”
Ignia planted a claw on Igneel’s head. “Always choosing him over me.”
Natsu rushed him, striking out at the dragon god. Ignia was honestly shocked at how much it hurt. “I said not to treat him like that,” Natsu fumed.
Ignia’s tail lashed out, hitting like a tree trunk and knocking him flying. And then Ignia shrunk down, reverting to his human form. “I think this form is more appropriate. Enjoy watching, father.”
Arthur appeared in the guild hall. He’d missed the battle. It had moved outside in the last few moments. He could feel Jellal fighting. Erza too. Natsu of course. His enhanced magical sensory was… well rather different and while this was not his first experience with it, it was his first group battle.
He’d felt the dragonification magic, and following fight, from east of Ishgar, where he had been with Minerva helping her investigate the origins of the Yakuma tribe and its magic. He’d stopped by Diabolos to make sure it hadn’t affected them, and picked up some reinforcements.
Minerva had his staff, and with their guild mates they were helping Wendy, Lucy, and Gray deal with the dragonified townsfolk in a non-lethal way. But Ignia was a problem he had to deal with.
First though, he wanted to make sure Igneel was alive.
He placed his hands on the fire dragon. He was still warm at least. Hot even. A bit of healing magic was enough to make the dragon’s eye jolt open.
“May this old man make a last selfish request?” Igneel said.
“You’re not going to die,” Arthur said. “It might be a while before you have all your limbs.”
“Don’t let them kill each other. I don’t want my sons to die,” Igneel gasped out.
Arthur and Igneel looked at each other. They both knew what Arthur was here to do. Ignia was the last dragon god on his list. He had his black sword at his waist.
“I won’t let them kill each other,” Arthur said breaking the gaze and turning around.
“Just not with that sword, please,” Igneel said. “I should have taught him better. I should have prevented this 400 years ago.”
Arthur sighed, reaching for his sword belt, and unclasping it, throwing it to the side. He didn’t like tying a hand behind his back against a threat like Ignia. But he shouldn’t need the sword. And he didn’t want to make Igneel watch his son’s soul be consumed.
He was expecting to have to save Natsu. Natsu might have main character power, but Ignia was the final boss of the bonus series, and Natsu had had a lot of his level grinding and power up moments taken from him. To his surprise he was actually holding his own pretty well. Of course he was fighting to avenge his foster-father, and he had Erza and Jellal fighting alongside him. But both were looking rather obviously beaten up. Jellal’s stomach wound looked mortal.
Ignia was taking advantage of that fact too. He targeted Jellal to force Erza to defend him. But Ignia was looking beat up too. His hand rose, index and middle fingers together. There used to be a magical tool there to focus it. Now it was just force of habit.
“Darkness Dragon’s All-Consuming Cannon!” He shouted as he fired. The beam of darkness shot out, Ignia’s arms crossing in front of him. Arthur felt Ignia’s power swell as his human shape was discarded in the sheer attempt to block the attack. When it was done, Ignia rose once more in his full glory and power. Force radiated off of him, holes burned in his wings, and bone showing in his arms. The darkness had dug a hole straight through one and into the other where they’d been crossed.
“Arthur!” Erza hailed him.
“Yeah,” Arthur said, appearing beside her and Jellal. She was still good to go, but Jellal looked messy.
His hand planted on Jellal’s chest as his Territory rose in a wall between them and the dragon god. He was using his healing magic. Jellal wouldn’t be as good as new, but he’d be able to survive.
Teleporting Erza and Jellal away from the fight was easy after that. Arthur didn’t want to see them die; he was supposed to be attending their wedding next week. That left Natsu fighting Ignia. He wasn’t certain Natsu was losing, but that didn’t stop him from teleporting the dragon slayer away too. He’d told Ignel he’d not let them kill each other. He intended to keep that promise.
“The Dragon Wizard. You saved me the trouble of hunting you down,” Ignia said. “It’s time for a true Dragon King’s Fes-”
Arthur had raised his fingers up and fired again. This time it was no darkness, and it did not stop at Ignia’s arms. His body imploded around the beam of eyeburning brightness.
“I’m not here to talk,” Arthur said.
Ignia stumbled. The hole had nearly struck his heart. But that wasn’t the problem. His balance was affected by the way his body had collapsed in to fill the hole. It only got odder when he moved to one side, as if there was a ripple passing through his flesh where it all tried to get out of alignment with itself.
“Space dragon slayer magic.” Ignia hazarded a guess. He knew Arthur possessed it from the information extracted from the Law Dragon’s Heart.
Arthur nodded, and raised his hand. Ignia breathed deep, ready to roar, and Arthur was suddenly somewhere else. The fire dragon god’s flames tore through the landscape, leaving a deep furrow out towards the horizon, but Arthur’s magic shot through him, severing one of his hind legs completely. The teleportation had fudge his aim and he’d missed the vital spots.
Ignia collapsed onto his side, and began to struggle to rise. It was hard to support himself on his wounded arms, and the wounds from his battle with Igneel had weakened him.
“Wait!” Igneel shouted. “Please, don’t,” the fire dragon king said as he landed in the battle field between Arthur and Ignia.
“Move aside, old man! This is our fight!” Ignia shouted.
“Why do you even need to fight?” Igneel bellowed at them both. “Arthur, he is my son. Give me the chance to teach him why he was wrong first.”
“I’m sorry,” Arthur said. “He’s a threat to humanity.”
“He’s a fool acting out because of me,” Igneel said. “Let me help him and he won’t be a threat to anyone.”
Ignia brooded in a sullen silence. Arthur’s spell had missed anywhere that was immediately fatal to a dragon. But it had still pierced his lungs, and when he’d fallen they’d separated and begun to bleed. He was dying and he knew it.
“I promised I’d kill him,” Arthur said. It wasn’t the real reason. It wasn’t that he’d promised Selene. It was that in the manga Ignia had mortally wounded her. Left her to die. Only Irene’s ghost had managed to save her by enchanting the wound onto herself.
Arthur hadn’t considered Mercphobia a real threat to Selene. But Ignia would kill her. And Arthur didn’t want to see her hurt. He was regretting his choice to burn that bridge. He could justify it with long term thinking. In the next world he’d want Acnologia’s lacrima, and he couldn’t put it off till the last few weeks because he needed to see if something went wrong with it.
But…
He missed the way she’d sing to herself in the morning. He missed the scent of her hair. He missed the soft lightness of her touch.
“Wait,” Selene said. He’d felt the opening of the dimensional portal - felt her magical power - before he felt her hand or heard her voice.
Ignia rose to his feet, blood spilling from his mouth. He tried to say something, but all that came out was a bloody gurgle.
“Show me that Acnologia’s heart hasn’t tainted yours,” Selene said softly.
“This has nothing to do with Acnologia,” Arthur said. “He’ll kill you.”
“Not if you’re there to protect me,” Selene said.
“I won’t be here.”
“Give Igneel his chance,” Selene said.
Arthur looked at her. Ignia knew that right here and now, if he put everything he had left into a spell he could destroy himself, and them. Igneel might survive. He hoped his father would if he was honest with himself.
But he held back. He was dying. But he wouldn’t die killing people pleading to have him spared.
“I hate healing injuries I inflicted,” Arthur complained, walking towards Ignia.
“You’re late,” Selene said. “I expect promptness when I summon you.”
“I was asleep. I figured I should take the time to make myself presentable before attending,” Arthur said. Healing Ignia and Igneel had left him almost completely drained. Wounds a dragon took from dragon slayer magic were not easy to heal. A collapsed dragon lung was harder. Grandeeney would be able to eventually repair their limbs. But both were going to be rather strictly hospitalized for months to come.
“So you care about that now?” Selene said, before raising a hand and looking away from Arthur. “You’re all dismissed. I want to talk to my consort in private.”
The servants filed out, and Arthur looked at Selene. “I thought we were phasing out that title.”
Selene scowled. “Don’t act like that,” She said. “You’re the one who just had to implant that thing into yourself.”
Arthur winced and flinched back. He’d deserved that. “Sorry,” he said. “I just… it’s awkward.”
“It doesn’t have to be,” Selene said.
“I’m pretty sure it does.”
“Do you always have to contradict me?”
“No. It’s just a human thing. Talking to your ex is awkward.” He stopped there.
“You and Lisanna don’t make it seem too awkward.”
“We parted on better terms, and…” Arthur cut himself off.
“And? And what?”
“And I still rather wish we hadn’t had to. Even if it was only for another year or two, I liked being with you.” He’d liked being with Lisanna too. In a lot of ways Lisanna was more someone he could imagine himself getting married to, having kids with, having a life with. But he wasn’t allowed a life. He wasn’t sure anyone from his world was. You put a bunch of overpowered godlings in a planet together and you’re going to have chaos. He didn’t even dream of having the power to stop that. To force some sort of morality on practical gods. If he’d started out with a thousand choice points instead of 0… Well it’d not have made as big a difference as he initially thought it would, but it’d have had an impact. But while he never really would have dreamt of having a life with Selene… He’d had one, and in all honesty he’d enjoyed it.
“You could have not implanted the lacrima in yourself.”
“You know why I did it. I love you, but when you ask me to choose between a few months with you and power which might make the difference between life and death…”
“So why not kill me to make my heart into lacrima?”
“That’s different!”
Selene laughed at the exasperated and pained face he made. “And if it was not just a few months?”
“You made it very clear that you weren’t coming with me.”
“Let’s say I would. Would you have not done it?”
“I’d rip it out of myself now, bounty be damned.”
“I guess I should have told the servants to fetch the towels.”
“You’re not…”
“Rethinking my decision? That’s my prerogative if I am.”
“I meant messing with me.”
Selene’s nose scrunched up a bit. “Would I mess with you about this?”
Arthur had the answer he believed was true on the tip of his tongue, but thought better of giving it. Since if it wasn’t true, saying it would make it true. Instead, diplomatically, he answered, “No.”
“So what are you waiting for?”
“The towels.” Arthur was regretting not tinking more before giving that other answer. He’d rather have it surgically removed than try and rip a magically connected pseudo-organ out of his body.
“They can clean up the blood.” Selene waved her hand dismissively.
Arthur breathed in. “Let me think of the easiest way to do this. I mean I’d rather not die in the process.”
He pulled out Gemini’s key, and was about to open the gate to summon the spirit, when Selene’s hand planted on his.
“You don’t have to rip it out. I might not like thinking about where it’s from, but… well if I’m coming with you I expect you to keep getting stronger. I mean I want to be safe.”
“I don’t think coming with me will be safe,” Arthur answered.
“As safe as possible,” Selene said. “I know it will be dangerous, but…”
“But what?”
“But seeing Igneel try and save his son from you got me thinking about how you and Minerva are about the only two individuals in this world I really care about. It’d be lonely living forever alone. And traveling through endless world is dangerous even here. So I might as well see what we can together.”
“Minerva isn’t coming with me,” Arthur said.
“What? She refused?” Selene spat out. “I… Really?”
“No. She tried to volunteer, and begged to be allowed to help me. It’s just that among the options I’ve had to bring people, one which included her hasn’t lit up.”
“Th-that’s not fair.” Selene’s hand reached for his. “I’ll join you. But you have to promise me to be less pigheaded about things.”
Arthur curbed his natural response. And instead, diplomatically, answered her with a kiss, planting a hand on her body and pulling her in close.