The next morning arrived quickly.
The sun rose from behind the rock formations like an incandescent disk, spreading a harsh light across the uneven desert. The air was still cold, but laden with suspended dust, remnants of the previous night. Small fragments of stone covered the ground around him, silent evidence of what had happened there for hours.
Natsu slowly opened his eyes after spending the early morning hours cultivating his "internal energies" through his [Stellar Transformation]. He was on the verge of advancing to the [Meteor] level and had the clear feeling that something grand would happen when he finally took that step. However, that breakthrough was still far away. By his calculations, if he didn't use his cheat to obtain pills, it would take at least six months to reach the next level; if he resorted to them, that time could be reduced to about one month.
He decided to follow a "middle path" since he wasn't in a hurry to force the breakthrough. There were still many skills he needed to train and master, and he had to prepare his body to an adequate level before drastically increasing his energy reserves. According to his calculations, upon entering the [Meteor] level, his reserves would become comparable to those of Zeref or even Acnologia — although that equivalence would only be possible when he reached the peak of that level, not in its initial stage.
In the initial stage, his magical reserves would be equivalent to those of the Spriggans of the Alvarez Empire; in the intermediate stage, they would be comparable to the strongest among them, such as Irene or August.
At the moment, his reserves were already far greater than those of Erza or Laxus, for example. In fact, he possessed more Magical Power than even the Guild Master and most of the mages recognized as Holy Mages, being able to compare himself to one of the Four Gods of Ishgar. And that was without even considering his [Curse Power], which was another equally vast source of energy, or his Ki, which also existed in comparable quantity. The difference was that, in the case of Ki, he still didn't have many methods to use it effectively.
Anyway, his reserves of "internal energies" were growing slowly and steadily, and his mastery over his own skills and physique could not fall behind.
With that in mind, he sighed.
He was sitting with his back against a smaller rock, the white scarf loosely wrapped around his neck. His jacket remained open, marked with dirt and sand, and his whole body felt heavy, as if every muscle had been compressed to its limit. Still, there was no sharp pain nor real exhaustion. He stood up unhurriedly, cracking his neck and shoulders.
Natsu took a few steps forward and observed the scenery.
In the distance stood an isolated mountain, larger than all the formations he had used the previous day. It wasn't just a cluster of rocks. It was a colossal mass of compacted stone, with visible layers, as if it had been stacked over centuries. The wide base supported dozens of meters in height, casting an extensive shadow across the desert.
He gave a half-smile.
There was no doubt.
That was his next challenge.
Natsu stopped a few meters from the base of the mountain and closed his eyes for a moment.
When he opened them again, they were focused.
[Busoshoku no Haki] emerged without any verbal command. The dark coloration spread across his arms, covering them up past the elbows, thicker than the day before.
Natsu flexed his fingers.
He took a step forward.
The punch came simple.
The impact happened in the next instant.
BOOOOOOMMM!!!
The sound tore through the desert like thunder ripping across the sky. The base of the mountain imploded at the point of contact — not breaking in progressive cracks, but giving way all at once, as if it had lost all structural meaning. The concentrated force pierced entire layers of rock, spreading deep into the colossal mass.
For a brief second, everything seemed to freeze.
Then the mountain began to disintegrate.
Giant blocks broke loose, collapsing onto each other before they even touched the ground. Entire layers were pulverized into the air, turned into a storm of fragments and dust. The pressure generated by the blow created a shockwave that swept across the desert, lifting sand, stones, and hot air in a chaotic explosion.
The ground shook violently.
The mountain collapsed.
In just a few moments, what had once dominated the landscape was reduced to a pile of debris scattered over hundreds of meters — pieces still rolling, others shattering as they collided with each other. A dense cloud rose into the sky, covering the sun and casting distorted shadows across the terrain.
Natsu remained still.
Arm extended, fist still wrapped in [Busoshoku no Haki]. He felt the reverberation of the impact travel up his bones, through his torso, and dissipate into the ground beneath his feet.
As the dust began to settle, he calmly observed the result.
He relaxed his arm and allowed the Haki to partially recede. He walked a few steps among the debris, assessing the extent of the destruction.
Then he raised his hand.
"Arc of Time."
The magic responded immediately.
The air vibrated, and the fragments began to move in reverse. Stones leapt from the ground, dust returned to the cracks, enormous blocks spun in the air and fit back together with absurd precision. The mountain rebuilt itself layer by layer, as if time were being forcibly pulled backward.
In a few seconds, it was there again.
Natsu took a deep breath.
And advanced once more.
The second punch came faster.
The third, even stronger.
Each impact destroyed the mountain in a different way. Sometimes it imploded. Other times it was flattened against the ground, reduced to an irregular plateau, as if crushed by a divine fist.
The training ended a few hours later.
When the sun was already approaching its highest point in the sky, Natsu finally stopped. The mountain had been destroyed and restored so many times that clouds of dust had formed in the sky above.
He exhaled slowly and allowed the [Busoshoku no Haki] to disappear completely.
Natsu moved a few meters away and sat on a rock partially buried in the sand. He raised his right hand, naturally concentrating energy in his [Subjective Reality], and in the next instant, a generous piece of grilled meat appeared along with simple bread and a bottle of cold water.
He ate in silence.
The hot desert wind blew weakly, and the horizon seemed endless.
After finishing, he stood up, wiped his hands on his pants, and adjusted the white scarf around his neck, deciding it was time to continue his journey toward his mission. However, while crossing the desert, he decided to start training his "movement technique," focusing mainly on [Soru] and [Geppo]. His idea was to improve both and, from them, create an even more efficient technique.
But he wasn't in a hurry.
As he began to walk slowly, he pondered the direction he wanted to give this "technique." With his experience in martial arts gained from various masters — even legendary ones — he didn't consider it particularly difficult to refine his movement technique.
It took him a few minutes to think of something. Then, without warning, his body exploded forward.
[Soru] was activated with precision. The ground cracked under his feet, but the impact was minimal. He covered dozens of meters in the blink of an eye and slowed down smoothly, without skidding on the sand.
But that wasn't what he wanted.
Although he considered it easy to improve his movement technique based on his knowledge and experience, that didn't mean he would succeed on the first try.
If it were that simple, anyone could do the same just by having a stupid or brilliant idea and trying to execute it with their own body. That was precisely where the difference lay. His mind could formulate the concept clearly, but for the body to be capable of executing a new technique, it would require training from the beginning. And during that process, the original idea would need to be constantly adjusted and refined, becoming more efficient and suited to the limitations and characteristics of his own body.
As he continued walking, he began to adjust smaller and smaller details: the tilt of the torso, the timing of muscle contraction, the exact moment he released force into the ground. Instead of a single violent burst, he started fractioning the explosion into almost imperceptible micro-stages.
The result was immediate.
The movement stopped feeling like an abrupt leap and began to resemble an instantaneous glide, as if the space ahead were being pulled toward him.
The sand barely moved.
Seeing that his idea was starting to work, he continued training…
After an entire afternoon of experiments, he finally managed to formulate a new technique capable of dramatically increasing his speed. He named it [Shundo], or [Instant Movement Art]. Its functioning consisted of concentrating Ki in the feet, allowing the practitioner to cover a limited distance in an extreme burst of speed. The only flaw of the technique was the need to be executed on some kind of solid support or surface. Even so, despite this limitation, he could practically move as fast as lightning. In his first use, he crossed thousands of meters in a millisecond, easily reaching hypersonic speeds. And if he truly pushed the technique to its limit — considering it was based on the idea of keeping up with lightning — he estimated he could reach approximately one-third the speed of light.
Although it wasn't a technique without consequences, it depended entirely on Ki and his body's physical condition. In other words, if he were tired, his speed would decrease; if his Ki reserves became too low, he simply wouldn't be able to execute it at full power. Additionally, due to the extreme strain it placed on the body, the technique was a true double-edged sword: excessive use could destroy the muscles in his legs. Even though he possessed ultra-fast regeneration capable of healing them in moments, that would consume an absurd amount of stamina. For this reason, he estimated that, in his current state, he could only use the technique at "maximum speed" about three times per day. Fortunately, these limitations could be gradually eliminated as he continued to strengthen his body through continuous training.
Well, at least now he had a reliable way to escape quickly if he ever faced someone far more powerful. Still, several strong figures from that world would be capable of keeping up with his speed. If, for example, he encountered Acnologia at that moment, even using his full maximum speed, the Apocalypse Dragon would still be able to catch him and kill him easily — unless he relied solely on his [Flying Thunder God Technique] to escape.
The difference in power between the two was simply too great.
After modifying [Soru] and turning it into [Shundo], he tried to create an advanced version of the technique based on [Geppo], which proved considerably more difficult.
He only achieved success the next day.
The new technique was named [Koku Shundo]. It was a movement art in which, instead of using a solid surface, the practitioner used the "air" or space itself as support. Being executable in mid-air, it allowed movement in any direction. It wasn't exactly equivalent to flight, but it came very close: he could essentially "step on the sky" and propel himself at extreme speeds, moving freely in any direction he desired.
He spent the following week refining [Shundo] and [Koku Shundo] until he could activate them instantly and purely instinctively. In parallel, he trained his body under the extreme gravity imposed by his [Gravity Manipulation], consuming large amounts of nutritious food from various worlds to aid in recovery and muscle strengthening after each physical training session. As a result, he became visibly stronger throughout that week.
In addition, he also dedicated time to training his Haki, as well as mastering the Mera Mera no Mi and Zushi Zushi no Mi, creating his own techniques for each of them.
Being naturally a fire user, the Mera Mera no Mi adapted perfectly to him, becoming the Akuma no Mi he developed the most. The flames it generated naturally reached the same level as those of his [Dragon Slayer] magic, becoming powerful enough to vaporize an entire lake just by emanating from his body or to melt entire sections of the desert, turning the sand into vast expanses of solid glass.
The heat of the flames from his Akuma no Mi was already comparable to that of a "natural lightning bolt," something equivalent to approximately five times the temperature of the Sun's surface. Still, that level was negligible compared to his future self in the original manga, who would be capable of reaching thirteen times the temperature of the Sun's core.
He clearly remembered that the base fire of the Natsu from the "manga" already surpassed Wall's magical confinement fusion, considered equivalent to real-world magnetic confinement fusion — capable of generating temperatures of 200 million degrees Celsius. How absurd that was became evident in the consequences: heat sufficient to completely destroy ordinary matter and produce effects comparable to nuclear or even stellar events, depending on the scale at which it was applied…
The development of his Zushi Zushi no Mi was more complicated. He still couldn't pull a meteor from space like Admiral Fujitora, but his control over gravity was already far more refined than the old blind man's. He could manipulate his own gravitational field with precision, allowing him to move faster, increase agility, and conserve stamina — all by reducing gravity's pull on himself or even flying.
In addition, he became capable of inducing zero gravity at will, exerting counter-gravity forces, anti-gravity, and even solidifying gravity in his attacks, significantly amplifying his offensive power.
Regarding his [Subjective Reality] ability, besides materializing food, clothes, and everything else he needed during the week, he also materialized the skill of "photographic memory." This allowed him to perfectly recall everything about his past life and the set of memories of his predecessor. It proved especially useful for recovering powers and abilities from various fictional works he had read but forgotten, now being able to bring them into reality. Moreover, this memory made it much easier to assimilate any knowledge or skill he wanted to learn on his own in the future. Beyond that, he didn't use his "authority" for anything else.
After a week crossing the desert, he finally arrived at a city that had a train with a direct route to the city where his mission awaited him.
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