"Die...."
Irene didn't wait for more explanations or absurd negotiations. Her brown eyes gleamed faintly with indifference. The magical aura forming around her exploded in a wave of scarlet energy, distorting the air and causing the lake water to boil instantly upon contact.
With a fluid gesture, she raised her hand and invoked her [Enchantment Magic]. The space around Natsu twisted, as if reality itself were being rewritten. Nearby trees transformed into sharp spears of living wood, shooting toward him at supersonic speed, while the ground beneath his feet liquefied into a sticky swamp, trying to swallow him.
Natsu reacted to the attack in the same instant. Using [Koku Shundō], he casually dodged the strikes, escaping the suddenly formed swamp and ascending to the skies in the blink of an eye. His figure left behind several afterimages, which were pierced by the sharp spears launched at him.
But they seemed truly insistent, as they continued to pursue him. While evading, he then raised his hand with disdain and launched a small ball of blood-red fire, with a rippling trail behind it. In the instant it advanced, the flames consumed the spears entirely, reducing them to ashes before they could touch his body.
Irene observed the scene with her brown eyes half-closed, her previously cold and calm expression softening just enough to reveal something she would never show without purpose: genuine curiosity. Nudity, for her, meant absolutely nothing. Being seen in that state by someone she considered irrelevant was trivial. Her attack didn't stem from shame, but from pure irritation. That absurd comment about "being even"... His audacity surpassed even the limit she tolerated after centuries dealing with human foolishness.
Moreover, part of the reason for the attack was to confirm a suspicion gnawing at her mind. If it weren't for her sharp senses, detecting the snap of a branch, she would never have noticed the presence of the pink-haired boy. And it was evident that he wasn't incapable of using magic; the flames he had displayed earlier immediately dismissed that hypothesis.
The only plausible explanation was that he possessed some kind of magic capable of completely concealing his magical presence.
While reflecting, the pink-haired boy landed softly on the swamp she had created. His feet touched the sticky surface as if it were solid ground, without sinking even a centimeter. She noticed, with precision, a thin layer of magical power solidifying on the soles of his feet, which was enough to acquire the necessary property to walk on liquids as if walking on stone.
Natsu cracked his neck lazily, as if the barrage of deadly attacks that had nearly impaled him were just an irritating setback.
"That was dangerous..." He commented in a disinterested tone, as if complaining about the weather and not about someone trying to kill him.
Irene arched an eyebrow, her expression still calm, but now tinged with a hint of mordant appreciation.
"So you're not just an incompetent voyeur after all...."
Natsu let out a short laugh through his nose. His gaze said more than any verbal response: he definitely hadn't chosen to fall into that kind of cliché situation.
"Voyeur? You really think I wanted this?" He murmured, trying not to look at the woman in front of him. But, inevitably, his eyes returned to her. No matter how strong he had become, no matter the experiences he had accumulated in that world, he was still... himself. A calm, straightforward guy, and yes, slightly perverted when he let his guard down.
And having a stunningly beautiful woman, completely nude, standing just a few steps away... it was like offering a feast to someone starving. A heat rose up his spine, slow, dense, too hot to ignore. He could feel the blood changing course, as if it had just remembered he was a man of flesh, instinct, and stubborn mistakes.....
...Damn, what was that feeling? He knew dragons were lustful creatures by nature. Even if it wasn't openly stated in Fairy Tail, in practically every work involving dragons he had ever read or watched, that trait was recurrent. Still, feeling it in his own skin caught him by surprise.
Natsu had to swallow the desire rising like fire in his throat and force himself to maintain control. He activated [Thought Acceleration], trying to rationalize why he seemed to have "gone into heat" like that. The most plausible explanation was his enhanced magic.
After all, his [Hellfire Emperor Dragon Slayer Magic] had reformulated his entire biology to bring it even closer to that of a dragon in human form, exactly as he had wished when evolving it. The effect of this magic was countless times superior to that of a common Dragon Slayer, and that naturally made him inherit draconic instinctive traits. Nothing extreme or weird like mate markings, a mating season, or anything like that... just an aggressive intensification of impulses typical of the species.
This was bad...
Very bad.
If it weren't for the experience he had in controlling his own impulses from his playboy days in his past life, he would have already lost half his rationality at that moment....
Only a millisecond had passed in reality while he processed all that. Irene remained there, in front of him, without any trace of shame or haste to dress. Her haughty posture, her fair skin under the light filtered through the trees, her impeccable silhouette, the body of a woman who could only be described as "perfect." And precisely because of that, something specific caught his eye: a thin, horizontal scar, softly cutting across the smooth skin of her flat belly. A discreet detail, but impossible to ignore precisely because it stood out on such an impeccable body. That scar broke his immersion not because it was ugly or grotesque, but because, upon seeing it, he finally remembered who was in front of him: the Dragon Queen. The creator of [Dragon Slayer Magic] and Erza's mother....
When he remembered that, his mind got caught on a popular expression, one he would invent himself if it didn't exist.
If temptation throws you into someone's mother's lap... good luck explaining afterward.
And unfortunately, he was living the practical proof of the phrase.
Because, honestly... how was he going to look at Erza in the future and say with a straight face that it wasn't his fault to have been placed in front of a woman as absurdly beautiful and dangerously sexy as Irene?
It was like falling into a hole, hitting your head, and still being blamed for the hole existing.
Although it was unlikely that anything would happen, considering the current relationship between the two....
While several thoughts like that and of various other kinds passed through his mind, Natsu furrowed his brow.
"Get dressed already, miss." He said, pointing with his chin, trying to sound serious despite clearly not being able to ignore what he saw: "We can sort this out later...."
"Oh? Are you worried about my nudity?" Irene said, raising an eyebrow while casting a peculiar glance in his direction and continuing: "Don't you have bigger concerns right now?"
Natsu opened his mouth to respond, but Irene continued, tilting her head slightly, her crimson hair sliding over her shoulders.
"I don't know what gives you the confidence to make that kind of demand, but don't worry." She said with a subtle look that mixed pragmatism and threat in equal measure: "I'll get dressed when I want to. Until then, try not to look away; you'll need to in order to stay alive...."
At the end of her words, her brown eyes narrowed, and with a casual wave of her hand, the air above her lit up with magical power. Several orbs of pure energy materialized in the sky.
"Rubrum Ray...."
The orbs exploded into action in the same instant, firing thin rays that cut through the air at hypersonic speeds, leaving trails of distorted heat behind. Each ray was a blade of pure enchanted magic, capable of piercing steel like paper, all converging on the pink-haired boy like a deadly rain.
Natsu moved effortlessly, his body blurring in a dance of casual dodges, as if he were avoiding raindrops instead of beams that could vaporize mountains. The rays grazed past, missing by millimeters, and continued their relentless trajectory, colliding with the forest behind. Trees exploded into flames and fragments, the ground opening into smoking craters, a good portion of the forest being destroyed in the process.
He tried to suppress the heat still rising through his body and forced his mind to focus on the fight. However, the draconic instinct proved much harder to control than he had imagined. Not that he was exactly distracted; in fact, he had even become more excited when Irene attacked him, but it was a different kind of excitement: a fierce desire for battle, mixed with the other one he was trying to suppress.
In this whirlwind of conflicting sensations, for an instant... he let his guard down.
Irene smiled, noticing the opening. Without hesitation, she snapped her fingers, enchanting the ground once more. The sticky swamp twisted, hardening into blade-like spikes, emerging from the ground like the fangs of a hungry beast. They rose quickly, piercing the air toward him.
Natsu reacted too late.
The spikes hit him, embedding into his flesh or at least trying to. His body resisted easily; the spikes shattered on impact, breaking like glass. Still, the momentum was enough to tear his shirt and pants into strips, the fabric shredding like old paper.
He looked down for a moment, assessing the damage, before raising an eyebrow.
"...I'm starting to think you wanted to accept my previous proposal..." He said, with a half-provocative smile: "You just got shy about saying it out loud and decided to attack me with the excuse of tearing my clothes... exactly as you just did...."
Irene furrowed her brow, her lips pressing into a thin line as she observed. He was powerful, yes; more than she expected from a random intruder. The spikes should have skewered him like a porcupine, but they only scratched the surface. Someone like that, wandering through the Alvarez Empire's territory, wasn't a good sign. Could he be some mage from Ishgar? In any case, the possibility of him causing trouble could be high, not to mention he had offended her several times, so she decided to take this matter a bit more seriously.
Her brown eyes gleamed with a cold intensity, and she raised her chin with natural arrogance.
"You talk too much for someone who's about to die...."
With an elegant and almost lazy movement, she activated [Enchantment Magic] again, which responded instantly to her command: the air around her vibrated, and her body began to float gently above the lake's surface, letting the water drain in glistening streams that fell back like crystal tears.
In that position, completely suspended, she displayed her nude body without any shame or hesitation.
To him, it seemed like she was moving provocatively, but he knew it was nothing more than his own mind interpreting every gesture of hers as something sensual or provocative. But he knew the woman in front of him was far from being the type everyone judged as a femme fatale; she was more like a cruel woman.
But undeniably, she was beautiful.
The morning light filtered through the trees danced on her fair and immaculate skin, highlighting every generous and voluptuous curve. Drops still hung from the tips of her wet scarlet hair, falling slowly and tracing shining paths along the entire length of her body....
Natsu felt the air catch in his throat. An unexpected heat coursed through his body, his blood throbbing with intensity, his senses sharpened like never before. Every movement of hers seemed amplified, provoking an instinctive reaction that he struggled to contain. The woman before him was everything he secretly desired: absolute power mixed with mature femininity, curves that seemed made to be grasped, and that dangerous aura that only made everything more irresistible....
He wanted to make another provocation as was part of his nature, but there wasn't time.
A wave of scarlet energy enveloped her floating body like a living veil. The water evaporated instantly from her skin and hair. The scarlet locks rose, dried, and organized themselves into thick perfect braids, adorned with elegant bows. The two front braids gained golden ornaments near the tips, swaying gently while the rest of her hair cascaded down her back. Two U-shaped earrings materialized in her ears, and the red lipstick intensified, further enhancing her full lips.
Next came the clothing.
The tight black top appeared, wrapping around her torso, with the bold diamond-shaped opening generously exposing the upper part of her ample breasts. The edges of the neckline featured the delicate heart pattern, and the fabric descended to her navel, where the large angular scar remained partially visible, like a war trophy. Over it, the dark cape with light lining settled on her shoulders, the two golden medal-shaped ornaments connected by a thin chain that swayed between her breasts. Her neck was adorned with fabric accessories, including the wide bow that gave an almost aristocratic air.
The black thong appeared next, tight, with the Alvarez Empire symbol stamped on the front in white, the delicate edges and the small additional fabric with the heart design completing the provocative look. The high black boots with heels and white borders enveloped her long legs, and the matching gloves rose up her arms, ending in sharp claw-like extensions. Finally, the absurdly large black witch hat materialized above her head, with drawn dreadlocks and white bandages at the tips, fur lining on the edges, crowning her as the queen she was.
A staff appeared in her right hand.
Now completely dressed and imposing, Irene descended slowly until she touched the water's surface again, the heels of her boots barely sinking. She tilted her head, looking at Natsu...
"Few manage to annoy me and survive to tell the tale. Congratulations… you've just earned a few more minutes of agony..."
"..."
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