User blog comment:Miskos3/Fairy Tail 539: World Destruction, Review/@comment-26184007-20170610204900/@comment-24053170-20170610222302

Except for one small problem, Acnologia didn't start absorbing the dragon slayers until after he pulled himself out of the Ravines of Time.

So perhaps he did get wiped out, and his afterlife is the Ravines of Time. After all, remember what Anna said about the Ravines? its a place of Non-Existence

So I believe Natsu actually is dead, and he has to battle Acnologia for the right to even remain in the ravines.