Cubellios beneath Cobra's feet opened her gaping maw, spewing thick purple poison mist.
Cobra's chest swelled as he inhaled all the toxins, refueling his magic power.
He then poised his hands before him, condensing an even more terrifying venomous energy.
"Dragon Slayer Secret Art—"
Cobra's strained cry echoed as Cubellios charged downward at full speed toward Natsu.
"Viper Corrosion!!"
The massive toxin cluster compressed relentlessly before Cobra released it.
The condensed poison solidified into a phantom giant serpent made of viral sludge, striking at Natsu to dissolve him completely.
The venomous serpent shadow descended like a plague calamity.
Natsu's eyes remained calm.
He slowly settled into his stance, spreading his feet.
The flaming dragon wings enveloped him gently, the terrifying heat intensifying to white-hot levels.
From within the wings, Natsu swung his arms, his voice brimming with confidence.
"Dragon Slayer Secret Art—Modified!"
The fiery wings burst open as Natsu rotated his arms with force.
"Crimson Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade!!"
Raging flames swirled like molten magma into a storm.
The wings harnessed the scorching, razor-edged tempest.
A massive draconic silhouette emerged within the fire, erupting in crimson light that illuminated the entire cavern landscape.
This was an enhanced version of his original Crimson Lotus: Exploding Flame Blade.
This ultimate technique leveraged higher temperatures and fiery wing amplification through Dragon Force mode, unleashing even more terrifying destructive power.
This represented Natsu's strongest technique without resorting to further transformations or external power-ups.
CRASH!
The evil aura-emitting serpent phantom collided head-on with the kingly flaming dragon shadow that seemed destined to conquer the skies.
HISS!
The fearsome viper appeared stripped of all its ferocity. It was instantly devoured by the dragon's fiery storm without offering any resistance.
The poison evaporated before it could touch Natsu.
As overwhelming heat and crimson light surged upward, exhaustion finally revealed terror in Cobra's eyes.
"Impossible!" Cobra screamed.
Yet, in that final moment, his body moved on instinct.
Cobra embraced Cubellios.
He hurled his partner into the distance to save her from the blast, before throwing himself toward the approaching firestorm alone.
"BOOM—"
An extremely prolonged explosion gradually resounded.
Raging flames nearly scorched every corner of the area, burning the entire space into a charred crimson wasteland.
In the air, a charred-black figure crashed violently to the ground.
Thud!
The impact caused the collapse of numerous nearby buildings.
"Hah—"
Natsu let out a long exhale.
The dragon scales on his body gradually receded, leaving him panting but standing.
This was his first time using Dragon Force mode in actual combat and it felt pretty good!
"Natsu! That's great! You actually won!"
Happy bounced over joyfully, despite his injuries.
The duo high-fived in perfect harmony.
"I told you I wouldn't lose. This is what Igneel wanted me to learn! The power of a real dragon!"
Then, as if suddenly remembering something, Natsu ran toward the distant figure of Cobra who had crashed to the ground.
Cobra was lying in a crater, barely conscious.
Natsu shouted at him, "See! This is the power my father taught me! Igneel isn't something that doesn't exist! He's real!"
Cobra's chest rose and fell faintly. His charred face showed an expression of unwillingness and bitterness as he weakly whispered.
"You... what do you know..."
"My only wish... was to hear the voice of my one and only friend..."
As his vision gradually blurred, Cobra's hazy sight suddenly caught the purple snake rapidly crawling toward him.
Cubellios coiled around Cobra.
She anxiously nudged his body with her snout, tears glistening in her serpentine eyes.
"Cubellios..." Cobra smiled bitterly. "I still can't hear your voice..."
Natsu scratched his head.
He exchanged a glance with Happy.
"Forget it," Natsu sighed. "I won't hold a grudge against you. But if you ever say that about Igneel again, I'll beat you up once more!"
Cubellios hissed, positioning herself protectively in front of Cobra.
She warily stared at the enemy before her.
But Natsu was clearly the type to forget grudges after fighting and venting his anger.
Instead of attacking, he cheerfully asked her.
"Hey, big snake! Can you detoxify? Can you help Happy with that? He breathed in some poison earlier."
Cubellios clearly didn't expect the enemy she was just fighting to the death with to suddenly ask for help.
She froze.
However, being quite intelligent, she hesitated for a moment before realizing they were at the enemy's mercy anyway.
She extended her fangs toward Happy.
Chomp.
Subsequently, toxic fumes began emanating from the top of Happy's head, which Cubellios slowly inhaled back into her mouth.
"Wow!"
Happy flew up in delight, circling around Natsu a few times: "I'm fine, Natsu! I feel so light and free now! Thanks, snake-lady!"
Natsu, who had long evaporated the toxins from his own body with his Dragon Force flames, finally felt relieved.
He turned to the big snake and grinned. "Thank you, big snake!"
"Take good care of your companion. Next time, don't run into us from Fairy Tail!"
After exchanging a few words with the big snake, Happy grabbed Natsu.
"Let's go, Natsu! We need to find Wendy!"
"Right!"
They quickly chased after the direction Gray had left.
Seeing the two enemies depart, Cubellios finally relaxed.
She turned her worried gaze to the unconscious Cobra.
Just as she was about to spray some poison mist to feed Cobra for recovery...
Step. Step.
Approaching footsteps suddenly sounded from nearby.
Cubellios became alert again, coiling around Cobra, ready to flee at any moment if the situation turned unfavorable.
The footsteps grew closer.
Cubellios finally saw the appearance of the approaching figures.
There stood two exceptionally handsome young men.
One had short sky-blue hair with a red tattoo around his right eye.
He was carrying someone over his shoulder—Midnight.
The other, with black hair and striking red eyes, possessed such an overwhelming aura of Terror that even Cubellios could sense it instinctively.
He too was carrying someone over his shoulder—Racer.
Jellal looked with surprise at the person being protected behind Cubellios.
He remarked to the person beside him.
"It's Cobra. It seems Natsu has won as well."
Ankh nodded.
He set down the person he was carrying on his shoulder—the unconscious Racer—next to a rock.
"Not surprising," Ankh said calmly. "As long as Natsu overcomes Cobra's 'Sound Magic' hearing and avoids toxin invasion, Cobra poses little threat to him."
Coincidentally, Natsu—a fighter who relies on both intellect and pure instinct, and can ignore toxins when entering Dragon Force mode—was perfectly suited to defeat Cobra.
Jellal placed the unconscious Midnight from his shoulder on the ground, lining him up with Racer brought by Ankh and Cobra.
The "Handsome Corpse-Collecting Duo" had begun searching for the defeated Oración Seis members immediately after exiting the underground palace tunnel.
By chance, Ankh heard Hibiki's telepathic message coordinating the alliance and located the fallen enemies based on the clues, preventing these potential future employees from escaping or being arrested by the Council later.
'It's worth mentioning,' Ankh thought, 'that when we went to collect Racer, the bastard had just regained some consciousness and tried to fight back upon getting up.'
He was swiftly chased down by Jellal using "Meteor" speed and taken out with one move.
Then Racer attempted to use a Self-Destruct Magic Crystal on his chest for mutual destruction.
Ankh had crushed it bare-handed before punching him back into sweet dreams.
'Recruiting employees does come with challenges...' Ankh sighed, looking at the pile of defeated dark mages.
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