Episode 176

The Dragon King is the 176th episode of the Fairy Tail anime. It aired on April 5, 2014.

As Fairy Tail celebrate their current rank in the Grand Magic Games and Jellal stresses over the encounter he had with the mysterious hooded person, Gajeel leads Natsu, Wendy, Happy, Carla and Pantherlily, together with Gray and Lucy underneath the Domus Flau, which they discover is an ancient Dragon graveyard. With the help of Wendy's Milky Way spell, the group communicate with a Dragon's soul named Zirconis. After a brief history lesson from the Jade Dragon, Arcadios and Yukino arrive, telling them about their plans to stop Zeref and Acnologia.

Summary
Filled with grief, Lucy looks out at the scene before her as carnage and destruction fills the land. Her eyes filled with tears, she begins to wonder what happened to Natsu and the others, hearing the roars of a multitude of Dragons that come flying overhead, the beasts beginning to raze the ground with breaths of flame. One of the Dragons descends and flies towards Lucy, opening its mouth and shooting flames towards her; however, before the fire can make contact, Natsu appears and eats the flames. Apologizing to Lucy for being late, Natsu looks towards the attacking Dragon, telling the beast before him to not be cocky as he is a Mage of Fairy Tail, that his name is Natsu Dragneel, and that he is a Dragon Slayer.

In a pub in the capital city of Crocus, Natsu is seen arguing with Gray as Happy and Juvia cheer them on respectively. As Lucy is seen trying to get them to stop, Mirajane approaches from behind and reminds her that the Grand Magic Games is on a break tomorrow, and asks why they can't blow off some steam. Makarov chuckles from the bar, saying that he will let them off for now, and instead encourages Natsu to give it his all. Lucy becomes distressed as her friends begin to activate their Magic, only for them to be hastily interrupted by Erza's, who is angry they squashed her cake. The female knight reminds Natsu and Gray that they are still in the Grand Magic Games, and that even though they may have made a comeback from last place to first, they needed to be wary and not waste their energy, as none of the other guilds are push overs. While Erza is saying she will have Natsu and Gray's heads for ruining her cake, Gajeel arrives at the bar and says he has something to show Natsu and Wendy. After arguing over the outcome of Natsu's and Gajeel's battle against Sting and Rogue, they finally agree to go.

At the hotel where the members of Sabertooth Guild are staying, Jiemma is seen berating Sting and Rogue for losing to Natsu, proceeding to pummel the two as he demands that they erase the mark of Sabertooth from their bodies for having brought shame to the guild. Lector speaks up and asks Jiemma if he can go easy on them, as even though they lost he believes that they can become stronger from the information they gained from the fight. Jiemma turns and asks Lector who he is, and, upon learning that the Exceed has the crest of Sabertooth, becomes enraged and seemingly obliterates him with a blast of Magic energy. Filled with rage and grief, Sting lashes out with his Magic to blast a hole through Jiemma's stomach, shocking both Rufus and Orga. On the other hand, Minerva is seen smirking, seemingly happy at the development.

A hooded person is seen walking in a back ally of Crocus when Jellal confronts them, asking to know their identity. As the person turns to face him, Jellal reacts with great shock and later meets with Meredy and Ultear to tell them of his unnerving discovery.

Gajeel leads the other two Dragon Slayers, their Exceed partners, as well as Gray and Lucy to the area under the arena he had discovered earlier that day. The area is revealed to be filled with the skeletons of numerous Dragons, which causes everyone to begin wondering what had happened. Wendy then remembers one of the spells taught to her by Porlyusica: Milky Way. She reveals how she had originally thought it was an offensive spell, but now believes that it may be used to communicate with souls of Dragons who had died long ago, and that by using it they can learn what had happened to the Dragons here and maybe even their own.

After making the Magic Seal for Milky Way on the ground, Wendy casts the spell, causing the area to be filled with light and the Dragons' bones to shake. She notes that the auras are very old and faint, but after much concentration is able to latch onto one, causing a large Dragon to materialize, which roars while baring its teeth. However, instead of attacking them, he simply laughs at their reactions, shocking the group even further with this sudden change in attitude. The Dragon introduces himself as Zirconis, the Jade Dragon, and recognizes that the spell used to summon him belonged to Grandeeney. Upon seeing it was Wendy who summoned him, he acts like he is about to eat her, angering Natsu until the Dragon reveals that he was kidding, asking how he could possibly do anything with an astral body. Happy then asks what had happened to all the Dragons here, with Zirconis initially saying that he won't tell them because he hates humans; however, upon realizing he is speaking with a cat, he changes his mind.

Zirconis explains that 400 years ago the Dragons reigned supreme over the world, and only saw humans as a source of food. However, one Dragon opposed this view and believed that humans and Dragons could coexist in peace. This caused a devastating war to erupt between the Dragons who favored coexistence and those who opposed it, Zirconis noting that he personally opposed coexistence. The Dragons wanting to coexist with humans taught them Dragon Slayer Magic in a attempt to turn the war in their favor; however, the humans then used their new abilities to kill Dragons on both sides of the conflict. Continuing, Zirconis mentions one human who killed so many Dragons and bathed in their blood, this causing him to become a Dragon himself: this one individual became the Dragon King and was responsible for slaying all the Dragons now resting in the graveyard. The Jade Dragon then surprises everyone by revealing that the Dragon came to be know as Acnologia.

Before Zirconis can reveal any more however, he abruptly vanishes, Wendy explaining that his aura had passed on to another plane. Natsu and Gajeel begin to question if using their Dragon Slayer Magic too much will result them becoming Dragons themselves, causing all three to become nervous at the thought. As they converse, Arcadios and Yukino approach them, Arcadios revealing to them that such a thing is impossible. Stating that he heard everything the Dragon had to say, Arcadios claims that Acnologia is a creature similar to that of Zeref's Demons, and that he believes that Zeref is the one turned Acnologia into a Dragon. He then explains that defeating Zeref is the first step to beating Acnologia. Having previously been standing in the shadows, Arcadios steps forward and fully shows himself, shocking Carla, who recognizes him as the white knight in her frightful visions.

Battles & Events

 * Rebellion within Sabertooth (started and concluded)
 * The Dragon Graveyard!! (started)
 * Dragon Civil War (flashback)

Magic used

 * Blast Magic
 * Blast Magic
 * Blast Magic
 * Blast Magic
 * Blast Magic
 * Blast Magic
 * Blast Magic
 * Blast Magic
 * Blast Magic
 * Blast Magic

Spells used

 * Sky Dragon's Healing Spell
 * Dragon's Roar
 * Dragon's Roar

Abilities used

 * Flight
 * Shockwaves

Manga & Anime Differences

 * The anime added scenes of Natsu protecting Lucy from Dragons at the beginning and end of the episode.
 * The anime added an additional scene in Bar Sun before Gajeel lead the group to the Dragon Graveyard.
 * Jellal's conversation with Meredy and Ultear after the revealing the hooded figure's identity was shown later than in the manga.
 * In the anime, Ultear has her hair ribbons red instead of white.
 * Wendy has a different hairstyle in the anime.
 * Gray was wearing a plain orange polo in the anime. However, in the manga, he was wearing stripe-patterned polo.
 * In the anime, Lucy doesn't have bandages plastered on her face and flower patterns on her pink shirt.
 * The flashback of Acnologia's arrival and attack on Tenrou Island was never seen in the manga.
 * Carla's premonition of Mercurius crumbling, a white knight standing by the Eclipse Gate and Lucy singing was only seen in the anime.