Chapter 743: A Narrow Defeat
"He actually knocked Lacade away with just one punch?!"
Zeref was very surprised. Although he was the one who created END, Natsu had never shown the corresponding power after being created, so this was the first time he had witnessed END's strength.
And this is not END's full strength. It was just a random punch, but it was able to knock away the most perfect masterpiece of Atrias. This made Zeref both shocked and relieved.
"What a terrifying power..."
Behind Zeref, Timaria and the others were all shocked. Laquette's physical strength could almost be said to be the strongest among all the twelve shields. The rest of them, let alone Auguste who had already entered the stage of old age and frailty, even Irene in human form might not be able to compare with him. And now he was knocked away by a punch and even burned to a bloody mess. How could they not be shocked?
"If I get hit by a punch like that, I'll probably lose my fighting power immediately..."
For some reason, Dimalia suddenly felt a little pain on her face, as if she had been hit by something like this in the dark. When she turned around, she found that she was not the only one who had this feeling. Neinhart also seemed to be a little abnormal.
After sending Laquette flying with one punch, Natsu did not stop, but instead pursued him. He stepped on the ground and rushed out like lightning again. Perhaps because he was in the END state, he did not use the dragon-slaying magic move, but used the most direct flame entanglement attack. The pure energy and destructive power made each of his punches extremely terrifying.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
The tight fist shadows brought out sonic booms, and as the air exploded, the fire jumped even more violently.
"Right! Right! That's right. The stronger you are, the more meaningful it is to defeat you!"
Seeing this scene, Laquette showed an excited and happy smile, which was unusual for him, "Sleep in Death!!"
The dark white magical turbulence formed tentacles and rushed towards Natsu, replacing it with the magic of desire, which was just as powerful, causing the boy who had just turned 20 to let out a trembling moan.
Sleep is a desire that all living things have, because when sleeping, they can restore their physical and mental strength to the greatest extent, and restoring physical and mental strength is for better survival; in addition, the desire for sleep is also related to laziness, one of the seven deadly sins of mankind, and laziness essentially stems from the behavior of life seeking benefits and avoiding harm.
Therefore, it is said that the desire to sleep, like , is an irresistible desire of all living things, because their essence is the survival of living things.
In this magical world, getting enough sleep can restore magic power to the greatest extent for wizards, so wizards have a higher demand for sleep. Of course, this is reflected not only in terms of time, but also in terms of quality.
The higher the quality of sleep, the more attractive it is to life, and Lacade's magic of desire activates this ultra-high-quality sleep desire that is extremely attractive to life. As long as he is willing, the quality can even be so high that it exceeds the range, directly preventing the other party from waking up again.
Of course, the END, or Natsu in front of him was not his enemy, but his uncle, a person whom Zeref had clearly ordered to "communicate and improve each other, but not kill each other." Therefore, Laquette would definitely not let Natsu sleep until he died, and he did not use the "Death Sleep " with all his strength.
But despite this, this creature's instinct was enough to make Natsu suffer.
The flames soared, intending to burn the oncoming tentacle monsters like before, but this time Natsu underestimated the power of "Death's Sleep". Although he used the flames to replace defense with offense and burned 70% to 80% of the attacks, there were still some that escaped and survived, and entangled Natsu's body at the last moment.
“I succeeded!!”
Laquette was overjoyed and "worked harder to activate magic, trying to make sleep invade Natsu's body and make him lose the ability to continue fighting."
However, just as Natsu underestimated the power of sleep magic, Laquette also underestimated Natsu's fire.
“Hoooooooooooo!!”
But when Natsu's eyes turned dark, he let out a long roar, and his magic power suddenly surged. The dark red flame flew again, this time with a stronger momentum, higher heat, and darker nature. If Natsu's previous flame was like the sun hanging high in the sky, then the flame now was like a flame crawling out of hell, full of darkness, evil, chaos, fear, cruelty and all other negative emotions.
The flames once again burned Natsu's attack, which was like a maggot attached to the bone, waking him up from his sleepiness. He then continued to move forward and fought with Lacade.
The two men, relying on their fighting instincts and strong bodies, launched a tense and exciting close combat. They used their heads, fists, elbows, knees, kicks, and every part of their bodies as weapons and used them to the fullest extent. The battle was intense and shocked everyone. The audience shouted that it was exciting and did not forget to cheer them on to show their encouragement.
"Natsu looks like a completely different person than usual..."
Gray, who has a sharp tongue but a soft heart, watched Natsu fighting from afar and asked worriedly, "I say, Kira! Is it really okay for Natsu to be like this? It seems to me that he is about to be swallowed by the will of END!"
"Instead of being devoured by END's will, Natsu is END itself!"
Kira corrected Gray's statement and responded confidently, "Don't worry, I know what I'm doing, nothing will happen! At most, Natsu will be swallowed by the darkness..."
"What did you say?! Swallowed by darkness?!" Gray immediately became anxious upon hearing this and yelled at Kira, "You call this being sensible?! You call this being okay?!"
"Ahem... For some reason, the demon seed in Natsu's body is actually in a state of suppressed growth. It can't grow at all. The power of END has only been leaked a little bit. He will be fine after he uses it up. The probability of being swallowed by darkness is very low!"
"Why, don't you trust Natsu?"
“This…this, this…”
Gray pursed his lips, "Of course I trust Natsu, but this is still very dangerous! No matter how you look at it, there's no need to activate the power of END, right? What if he really becomes END?!"
"It doesn't matter, I'll do it!"
If it comes to that, I'll just have to rewrite the Book of END.
In the original work, both Lucy and Gray were able to rewrite the Book of END. Now, besides the two of them, there are also Zeref, the creator of END, and Mavis, Preshito, and August, three well-read magical geniuses. Wouldn't it be easy to successfully rewrite the Book of END?
Boom! !
Finally, amid a deafening explosion, Natsu used all of his leaked END in a flaming fist. The attack was so powerful that it destroyed 90% of the arena in one fell swoop; but Laquette avoided the attack and, with his strong body and rich experience, found a flaw in the dark red sea of fire. He resisted the flames and broke through in one fell swoop, and while Natsu was in the afterswing of magic, he sent countless magical tentacles of Death Sleep into Natsu's body .
But the moment Natsu closed his eyes, all the flames around him dissipated, and the arena returned to calm. Only Natsu lying in Laquette's arms and Urrutia sleeping in the ice coffin were left.
