Protecting My Family Till The E.N.D.!

The Beginning

"Normal talking/Spell casting"
"Dragon/other entities talking"
"Normal whispering/Spell casting"
"Dragon/other entities whispering"
'Normal thinking/Spell casting'
'Dragon/other entities thinking'
*action while speaking*

—

3rd Person P.O.V.

'This has to work. Please let this work...'

These were the thoughts of one Zeref Dragneel, as he continued his trek through the mountainous valley, carrying his slumbering little brother upon his back, a small child no older than eight or nine. The boy in question had pink hair, what one may describe as salmon to be more specific, and if his eyes were open, one would be met with passionate brown eyes. The elder of the two was black haired and eyed in comparison, setting a duality between the two brothers. The reason for their travel through such a dangerous environment? A grave mistake.

'All I wanted was for him to live. To not be alone. To give him the chance to see the world he was taken from. I never meant to pervert his being the way I did. I never meant to bring such a curse upon the two of us little brother, that I swear. I will make this right. If this goes well, you'll be safe, and either way, the power you have as is will be enough. It has to be enough. This has to work. You have to be okay. Everything is going to be okay...'

The cursed brother's thoughts continued to spiral, but his body did not stop its trek, not did his hands loosen their hold on his little brother's body. The same body that was unconscious due to not only the sleeping spell that was cast upon him, but also the lacrima within his body. A concentrated jewel of magic, or ehterano, as it is called by the denizens of this world. The magic contained in this specific lacrima? A substitution of the power he had remove from his brother after his resurrection as an Etherious, a species of artificially created demon, of which Natsu was quite the unique exception. An Etherious born from the flesh of a human, Natsu made a new name for himself, Etherious Natsu Dragneel, or E.N.D., the notorious fire demon who developed the Curse system for Etherious to use in place of magic. As E.N.D., Natsu became a being of true cruelty, and rose to be a feared legend among not only the humans and mages of Earthland, but even his own kind, which lead to Zeref making a decision. However, sealing his little brother's demonic power and personality born from the ritual in the book of his own namesake had the unfortunate side-effect of negatively impacting his mind and body, nearly undoing the act of resurrection that had cost the two brothers so much already. Desperate, Zeref turned to an unexpected option to restore his brother's life force, and used a lacrima containing Fire Devil Slayer Magic, one of the secret magic arts developed to battle against naturally born and his own artificial demons of the Etherious. Luckily, the cursed energy and marks that it spawns on the user would be a good substitute for his little brother's, now missing, Curse power. 

'Still, it risks his demon seed reactivating and growing outside of his current level of control. He'll turn into that, thing, again, and won't be able to live his life without being hunted. So that's why I have to find you, Fire Dragon King Igneel.'

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*Scene Jump: 6 Hours Later, Igneel's Cave*

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"Why have you come here, cursed human?" questioned the formerly slumbering creature. The dragon's head on its own came up to about neck level when compared to the average human male, to say nothing of the rest of its titanic body. With blood red crimson scales covering the majority of its body, and with an underside of cream colored scales coating his underbelly and jaw. His mighty wings were currently folded against his body, with his tail curled around the side of his body and hiding his limbs from view. His right eye open and peering at the young magician with curiosity and interest filling his otherwise ferocious gaze. With every exhale, the otherwise cool environment is kept warm and toasty, not yet overwhelming, but ready to explode with heat when threatened or angered.