'Fairy Tail' Reveals Major Dragon Slayer Plan

Fairy Tail's final season has been full of startling reveals and connections, but one of the big reveals teases a major conflict for the future as the Dragon Slayers share a surprising connection with Zeref.

As Zeref revealed the tragic truth behind this current Natsu's identity, he also revealed that the five Dragon Slayers are actually a part of a plot set by Igneel and the other dragons over 400 years ago.

One of the many surprising connections Zeref has is with the dragon Igneel, seeking out advice as to what to do with his brother's clone, Igneel offered to teach Natsu dragon slayer magic. It turns out that Igneel, Metalicana, and the other dragons concocted a plan to train Dragon Slayers, use the Dragon Soul technique to seal their power within those Slayers, and travel to the future in an attempt to defeat the even more powerful dragon Acnologia.

The dragons had become weak in their time, and needed to travel to a future time with higher concentrations of Ether-nano to strengthen them up. It was the only way to remove the Dragon Seals. Zeref clarifies that five children were chosen, Natsu, Wendy, Gajeel, Sting and Rogue, because they were lonely and without any family.

A member of Lucy's family had opened the Eclipse Gate 400 years ago and flung the Dragon Slayers to an undetermined point in the future, and the task to open the gate in the future was passed down until it eventually fell on Lucy's mother Layla to open the Eclipse gate on the seventh day, of the seventh month, of the year 777.

It was previously believed that this is when the Dragons disappeared, but it's actually when Natsu arrived in this time. So the five Dragon Slayers are all actually from 400 years in the past. This event had a huge effect on Lucy as well, and it turns out that her mother had sacrificed some of her life force and led to her fatal illness to open the Eclipse gate. It's all tied into a plan the dragons and Zeref had 400 years ago to defeat Acnologia.

Fairy Tail was originally created by Hiro Mashima for Kodansha's Weekly Shonen Magazine, running from 2006 to 2017 and selling over 60 million copies. The series is set in a fantasy world full of magic following Natsu Dragneel, a fire breathing wizard with the powers of a dragon who is in search of his missing foster father, the dragon Igneel. As he and his wizarding guild Fairy Tail get into adventures, Natsu always tries to find a way to succeed.

The series was later adapted into an anime by A-1 Pictures, Dentsu Inc., and Satelight in 2009 and ended its first run in 2013. A second season ran from 2014 to 2016, and the third season serves as the final one. If you're itching for more Fairy Tail right now, Fairy Tail: 100 Years Quest is an official manga sequel to the original series featuring original storyboards provided by Hiro Mashima and illustrated by Atsuo Ueda. The series picks up right where the original manga ends as Natsu, Lucy, and the others embark on the "100 Years Quest" that no mage has ever completed before.