Is it just me or FT seems to be ending with this new arc? It's been full of revelations, confessions and the like. That and the recurrent reminders that this is the "final battle", even though the plot goes from really fast to slow as fugde i.e 3 chapters of yada yada and 3 pages to decide a major battle. I mean, pretty much all the fights against one of the 12 has taken less panels than it takes to get to the actual fight for gods sake... Also Mashima has been dragging the "couples" since forever too and suddenly Gray tells Juvia that he'll give her an answer after this fight (although they were living together for 6 months and it never ocurred to him that was probably the best opportunity to give her the damn answer) then Gajeel confessed to Levy when he thought he was going to die. Add a lot of flashbacks here and there and, whole chapters of it for crying out loud, and I can't help but think this is the end. Oh well, it's Mashima so only time will tell...