Natsu advanced along the marble road until the white buildings of Karyndell were left behind, replaced by open fields and, finally, by an extensive forest that rose like a natural wall before the path.
He walked for hours.
The sun slowly sank on the horizon, dyeing the sky in deep orange that turned to gold, then to purple, and finally to a calm dark blue. The birdsong faded; the rustling of leaves became more prominent.
When the shadows began to dominate completely, Natsu finally stopped in a clearing wide enough to accommodate something larger than a simple campfire.
"Okay… that's enough for today."
He stretched his neck, feeling a few joints crack—more out of habit than necessity—and raised his hand.
With a simple gesture, he manifested a small white-and-blue capsule, with the number Capsule 07 engraved on the side. It was identical to the capsules from the Dragon Ball world: absurdly efficient portable technology, now perfectly recreated thanks to his [Subjective Reality].
He spun it between his fingers.
"This thing is really useful…"
Click.
Natsu pressed the top, heard the characteristic snap, and tossed the capsule into the center of the clearing.
Poff!
An explosion of white smoke filled with sparkling sparks expanded with a dry crack, and the structure began to emerge as if being "printed" into the air.
When the smoke cleared, a fully formed Capsule House occupied the clearing. The building was round, smooth, and futuristic, about six meters in diameter. It looked like a cross between a metallic igloo and a compact research base. The surface was white, slightly pearlescent, reflecting the light of the late afternoon. Above the door was a blue sign with the clear Capsule Corp logo.
There were two oval windows on each side, both with reinforced glass that reflected the illuminated interior. A small semicircular solar panel was embedded on top, and a thin chimney expelled a puff of hot steam—the heating system automatically activated upon detecting the nighttime temperature drop…
Natsu ran his hand along the side, appreciating the precision of the structure he himself had created.
"Perfect."
He opened the door, which slid sideways with a soft shhhk, and stepped inside.
The contrast with the compact exterior was almost shocking. Thanks to the Capsule Corp's signature internal space manipulation, the interior was far larger than the external structure suggested. Right at the entrance was a cozy living room: light gray flooring, a black L-shaped sofa, a low glass coffee table, and a communication screen on the wall—similar to a conventional TV but with integrated magical functions. The lighting came from small white floating orbs magnetically attached to the ceiling, spreading a soft, welcoming glow throughout the space.
Further in was an integrated kitchen: metallic countertop, built-in cabinets, compact refrigerator, and an induction stove. There was even an automatic coffee maker…
To the left, a door led to the bathroom: full shower, sink, anti-fog mirror, and neatly folded towels ready for use.
At the back of the house, a sliding door revealed the bedroom. It was simple but extremely functional: a double bed with a soft mattress, clean bedding, and a small bedside table with a magical lamp.
These Capsule Houses were completely self-sufficient, with their own power and water systems, plus all necessary furniture—functioning, in practice, as true mobile homes. They were incredibly useful.
So… why had he never used one before?
The answer was simple: he had always preferred to stay outdoors. He enjoyed appreciating the world he had been reborn into—so different from his previous life. Here, he could see a starry sky that revealed more than ten times the number of stars he could ever see in his old reality. Sleeping outside had become almost a habit, a way of feeling that he truly belonged to this world.
The reason he chose to use this technology now was nothing complicated. He simply wanted to try it. Since he had never been interested before, he had ended up forgetting about the Capsule Houses in his mind. But upon seeing just how useful they were, he decided it was worth testing them at least once. And after seeing how practical they were, he seriously began considering keeping one for future travels.
Natsu closed the door behind him and let out a satisfied sigh.
"Yeah… this is way better than sleeping on the ground."
He stretched dramatically, left his shoes near the entrance, and walked to the sofa, sinking into it with a relieved sigh.
His first night in the Alvarez Empire, and he was resting in a portable house created by his own ability.
Not bad at all.
He closed his eyes, allowing the quiet of the Capsule House to envelop him like a comforting blanket. The subtle hum of the heating system was the only sound, mixed with the distant croaking of frogs in the forest outside. For a moment, he simply breathed, letting his mind wander through the infinite possibilities his abilities offered.
"It's time to fix a problem I've ignored for a long while… plus, I also need to boost my strength a bit through my cheat. I don't know what I'll face tomorrow…" he thought, a subtle smile forming on his lips.
He quickly activated his [Subjective Reality] and felt his "magic power" plummet by half as he acquired another ability from the Tensura world: [Degenerate]. Immediately, the information about its functioning was imprinted in his mind—a skill he had coveted for a long time, now finally his.
The [Degenerate] ability was extraordinarily powerful, composed of two main modules: "Synthesis" and "Separation."
"Synthesis" allowed fusing two distinct targets into a single object or concept, making it possible to chain effects from multiple abilities and generate new ones with far less effort than the conventional method of that world.
"Separation," on the other hand, released and isolated the inherent properties of a target, decomposing it into fundamental parts.
In addition, he used the remainder of his general energy reserves to acquire [Evolution Magic] from the Arifureta world—an extraordinary ancient magic that allows the user to enhance or evolve any form of power, whether strong or weak. This magic can even elevate ancient spells, expanding their range, depth, and efficiency rate. The true core of this magic lay in something far more sophisticated: "information manipulation." When used to strengthen attributes or abilities, it literally overwrites the target's original "information" with a superior pattern, creating an enhanced version of the ability. Moreover, [Evolution Magic] could be used to visualize the internal information of any person, creature, or object and even interfere with a target's total magical power capacity.
This Ancient Magic he had acquired was one of the seven magical abilities that formed the origin of all existing magical concepts in Tortus. As far as he remembered, these Ancient Magics were not born in Tortus but in another world, where they were known as "Universal Laws." That world, however, had been devastated by its civilization's excessive dependence on those laws. The few survivors eventually brought their knowledge to Tortus—including the self-proclaimed god Ehit.
Being called "Universal Laws" made their terrifying potential easy to deduce.
After recovering the "magic power" he had spent in the process, he immediately used [Degenerate] and [Evolution Magic] together to combine several of his abilities and evolve others. He spent about half an hour completely focused on this process, and in that interval, he fused different powers and strengthened himself to the point where he no longer feared walking through the Alvarez Empire's territory.
His first obvious target: the Mera Mera no Mi and his Fire Dragon Slayer Magic. He used [Degenerate] to combine both, completely consuming his "Devil Fruit" in the process. Then he applied [Evolution Magic] to further enhance the fusion result. The final product was an absolutely terrifying magic, which he named [Hellfire Emperor Dragon Slayer Magic].
This magic was incomparably superior to the previous one. It retained the same elemental nature but with explosively amplified destructive power; the heat of its flames reached truly apocalyptic levels. His body became completely immune to the fire element, unable to take damage from heat or combustion. In addition, he gained the ability to transform into fire itself, exploiting that form for offensive, defensive, and mobility purposes. As a true Dragon Slayer, he could also devour any type of flame, instantly converting it into magic power and recovering his reserves with far greater efficiency than before…
Furthermore, through his [Evolution Magic], he finally found his own alternative to achieve the [Fire Dragon King Mode]—something that, in the original manga timeline, his future self had only obtained thanks to the remnant power of Igneel after his death. The difference now was crucial: he had developed an independent method, without needing to spend an entire year absorbing his dragon father's power just to use it once against Zeref. Contrary to what many believe, that mode was finite and was completely consumed during the battle against the Black Wizard in the original story…
Now, however, he could activate [Fire Dragon King Mode] whenever he wished. But this privilege came at a cost: the energy consumption was colossal. The form continuously drained his physical stamina, emptying his body second by second and severely restricting how long he could maintain it.
Fortunately, he still had the option of falling back on [Dragon Force], far more economical in terms of energy expenditure—an efficient alternative for situations where he didn't need to unleash the absolute power of a Dragon King.
After enhancing his main magical combat means, he turned his attention to his senses. He used [Degenerate] to fuse [Kenbunshoku no Haki] with his [Universal Sense] and then refined the fusion through [Evolution Magic]. The final result was a profoundly expanded ability, which he named [Universal Sense (Precognition)], a capacity that allowed him to perceive everything within a vast radius with absolute clarity, in addition to predicting future actions during combat.
It was an evolution that raised his perception level to something close to omniscience in battle.
Since his martial arts were technically treated as separate "skills," each style had been modified individually. First, he used [Evolution Magic] to alter and enhance the "information" of each one and turn them into something akin to "abilities." Then he employed [Degenerate] to fuse them into a single martial core. Finally, he applied [Evolution Magic] again over the final result, obtaining a unified ability he called [True Martial Arts]—a supremely refined state accessible only to those who master all weapons and all forms of hand-to-hand combat.
Another action he took was to completely reformulate the properties of his "Zushi Zushi no Mi" through [Evolution Magic], converting it from a Devil Fruit into a proper ability. This new state, however, didn't last long: the ability quickly evolved and stabilized as an Ancient Magic from the Arifureta world.
Naturally, this only became feasible because he simultaneously used [Subjective Reality], allowing him to materialize a magical structure extremely close to the original archetype. Thus, he drastically reduced the magical power consumption that would have been required to bring it into reality and, as a result, obtained [Gravity Magic], capable of granting the user absolute control over gravitational forces. The true power of this magic lies in its ability to directly manipulate a planet's energy. It can interfere with its magnetic field, harness geothermal energy such as underground heat and magma, and even trigger earthquakes or volcanic eruptions. In addition, it allows freely altering weight, density, and body structure—making the body as light as a feather or as heavy as a stellar mass as needed…
And with that, except for Haki, all his powers were now "magic." Why had he ultimately abandoned the path of using Devil Fruits? Because he realized they had a very low power ceiling compared to the "magic" and "powers" he could obtain.
Natsu let out a slow sigh.
He opened his eyes. For an instant, a red-golden gleam passed through his pupils like the reflection of a lit furnace.
He raised his right hand.
Flames appeared instantly.
Blood-red flames, dense and liquid. The heat was silent, almost sacred, yet so intense that it distorted the air around his palm in rippling waves. If he wanted, he could make the heat of these flames reach a level never achieved by his future self in the original story.
A faint smile crossed his lips.
"Now I just need to run a little experiment…"
The flames vanished, extinguished as if they had never existed.
Natsu leaned back more comfortably on the sofa.
He crossed his legs in a meditative position, placed his hands on his knees, and closed his eyes again, letting his breathing slow to an almost imperceptible rhythm.
The surroundings became completely silent.
Inside his body, however, three oceans of energy churned in distinct ways. He wasted no time and activated his [Degenerate] to fuse all three together with his [Stellar Transformation], which quickly refined all the energies and converted them into "Magic Power."
The fusion began immediately.
Within his dantian, the three seas of energy—Ki, Curse Power, and Magic Power—collided like three galaxies trying to occupy the same space.
[Stellar Transformation] acted with precision, refining, compressing, and unifying everything.
His primary base, Magic Power, expanded, absorbing both others and deforming under the absurd amount of raw energy now flowing in a single direction.
The three forces transformed into a violently pure golden current.
And then…
The dantian exploded in light.
Inside it, all the small silver stars of the [Nebula] phase trembled simultaneously, like cosmic dust about to be swallowed by a black hole. Instead of dispersing, they began to rush, compressing rapidly, drawn toward the center as if pulled by an absurd gravitational force.
The stars collided, compressed, deformed…
Then everything converged into a single star that was born. It was small at first, but then it expanded violently!
From silver, it shone in pure white… and then gradually took on gold—a gold so vivid it seemed liquid, molten, solar.
That stellar core pulsed once.
Then again.
And on the third pulse—
KABOOM.
A muffled boom echoed from within his body. A wave of golden energy swept through the environment outside his body, while all the Ethernano in the atmosphere was sucked toward him like a black hole feeding its advance…
He had advanced to a new stage!
His "Magic Power" surged dramatically, becoming denser, purer, and countless times greater than before! His magical reserves now resembled an ocean that had suddenly turned into a continental sea. The amount of energy within him was so vast that his own body seemed too small to contain it—all of this energy came from the "golden star" inside his body, successfully condensed!
He had reached the initial phase of [Meteor]…
However, the fusion of his three energy reserves into a single core did not result only in this evolutionary leap. Soon after unification, a second star identical to the first took shape within his core… then a third, a fourth, and a fifth. The process only stopped when the ninth star was finally born. Throughout this transformation, the Ethernano present in the atmosphere was torn from its surroundings and devoured to create the Meteors inside his body—as if the world itself were being forced to feed him.
As the user progresses through the Meteor stages, the number of stars will increase (just as in the Nebula stage), and upon reaching a new level in this stage, two new meteors will be created within the dantian from each existing meteor, totaling three meteors (i.e., Initial Meteor stage = 1 meteor, while Advanced Meteor stage = 9 meteors).
He had reached the advanced stage of the [Meteor] phase!
And with that, not only had his Magic Power risen by multiple orders of magnitude, but his very body had been reinforced to the limit. He felt his metabolism accelerate under the torrent of energy from the breakthrough, which refined his muscles, tempered his bones, and rewrote his entire magical circulatory system—as if it were freshly molten metal being hammered until it achieved perfection…
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(A/N: Good evening, everyone. How are you? I'm bringing another chapter of the story. Initially, I didn't plan to strengthen Natsu this early, but since he's going to face one of the most powerful Spriggan in the next chapter—with a full fight and everything—I ended up advancing some things. I admit I may have "overdone" it a little.
I chose to evolve the Devil Fruits into a form of magical abilities because, as Natsu himself mentioned, they have a very low power ceiling compared to the Fairy Tail universe. They served more as a training base for the character during the past month (don't worry, it will have a purpose).
The abilities I gave him were selected after hours of research to try maintaining balance, and this was the final result. Sorry if it seems too strong, but there wasn't much room for another approach. Even so, despite the current buff, Natsu's level of "cheat power" is still far below Kazuya and Ren Zu, although he can already be categorized as an overpowered protagonist.
At this point, there's no doubt he has reached the level of Zeref and Acnologia in terms of magical power and magical arsenal. Regarding the Ancient Magics: I've always wanted to use them in one of my stories, and it's likely that Natsu will acquire the remaining ones in the future. The [Degenerate] ability, combined with [Evolution Magic], is also extremely dominant, and it was the main factor behind his massive power increase.
The details will be addressed in the next chapter.
As for future battles, Natsu will probably only find real challenges against these two specific opponents and later against the Dragon Gods from the 100 Years Quest. Not that the Spriggan are weak—far from it—but at this point in the story, Natsu has surpassed their level by a considerable margin. What he truly lacks now is combat experience, so there will still be a good fight ahead and some degree of difficulty.
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