In a flashback, Sonya loses her ribbon after being mortally wounded by Animus' gang of dragons 400 years in the past, prompting Acnologia to kill them in retaliation a dying Animus inhabits Sonya's body during this time, enabling their survival. In a post-credits scene, the ribbon is picked up by Acnologia in his human form. The broken staff reverts to its original form, a ribbon, which is blown away in the breeze.
Meanwhile, Sonya shatters the Dragon Cry, deactivating the soldiers and causing Animus' body to fade away. Returning to normal, Natsu is deeply shaken by his transformation, but Lucy comforts him, saying he still looks like himself. Natsu survives his injury and viciously attacks Animus, half of his body taking on the appearance of a dragon Animus recognizes Natsu as E.N.D., the "destroyer of all", before Natsu defeats him. In a struggle over the staff, Animus impales Natsu on one of his spikes and finishes absorbing the staff's magic, regaining his full strength. Summoning an army of artificial soldiers against Fairy Tail, Zash attempts to destroy Fiore with the staff, but is disintegrated by its magic energy.
Unable to escape Sonya's body on his own, Animus performs the ritual to free himself using the staff's magic, but only manages to emerge in an imperfect form after Zash steals the staff for himself. Natsu arrives and sees Sonya speaking to herself possessing Sonya, Animus reveals himself to be the spirit of a dragon who sealed himself within her body to cheat death, appearing in her mind in a human guise to manipulate her. Sonya grabs the Dragon Cry and, realizing its true nature, refuses to give the staff to Animus. The wizards re-infiltrate the city to retrieve the staff, defeating the Three Stars in the process. However, Natsu rejects her request, sensing that the staff contains the malicious intent of dragons that were killed by Acnologia. Sonya pleads with Fairy Tail to leave the staff in Stella, explaining that the king's ritual could prevent a potential magical disaster from destroying her kingdom.
The wizards evade Zash with the help of his reluctant accomplice, Sonya (ソーニャSōnya), who is also Animus' aide and childhood friend. Natsu escapes from his airborne cell and frees the others, stopping Zash from using Lucy Heartfilia as a blood sacrifice for his magic. Eventually, Fairy Tail is defeated by Zash and the kingdom's elite Three Stars unit – Swan (スワンSuwan), Doll (ドール Dōru), and Gapri (ガプリ Gapuri) – who place them under arrest and take the staff back. Upon touching the staff, Natsu triggers an alarm and attracts Zash's attention. The wizards follow Zash to Stella, whose ruler, King Animus (アニムス Animusu), intends to use the staff for a ritual. Fiore's royal family enlists Natsu Dragneel and his team from the Fairy Tail guild to recover the staff, detailing that it is imbued with magical power capable of annihilating the kingdom. Zash Caine (ザッシュ・ケイン Zasshu Kein), the Kingdom of Stella's minister of state and a practitioner of black magic, infiltrates the Kingdom of Fiore and steals the Dragon Cry, a mystical staff discovered in the dragon graveyard beneath the capital city. It received limited theatrical screenings worldwide, with Funimation releasing the film in North American theaters in both Japanese and localized English-dubbed formats from August 14 through August 19, 2017. Tetsuya KakiharaAya HiranoRie KugimiyaYuichi NakamuraSayaka ŌharaSatomi SatōYui HorieMakoto FurukawaAoi YūkiJiro SaitoChiaki TakahashiRyōta TakeuchiTaku YashiroĨ5 minutesCountryJapanLanguageJapaneseBox officeĬanonically set between Fairy Tail's penultimate and final story arcs, the film focuses on the members of the titular wizard guild infiltrating the Kingdom of Stella to recover a stolen staff of cataclysmic power. Tetsuya Kakihara, Aya Hirano, Rie Kugimiya, Yuichi Nakamura, Sayaka Ōhara, Satomi Satō, and Yui Horie all reprise their roles from the television series, with Makoto Furukawa, Aoi Yūki, and Jiro Saito co-starring as new characters designed by Mashima and Yūko Yamada. The film was released in Japan on May 6, 2017. Directed byTatsuma MinamikawaScreenplay byShōji YonemuraBased onFairy Tail