Chapter 383: Noah: I've Learned Your Magic. Look Similar?
"By the way, haven't we seen something similar to this before?" Erza asked, breaking the silence she had maintained until now.
"Have we?" Lucy asked, tilting her head in confusion.
"Erza is probably thinking of that living magic we encountered before... Lullaby," Noah said. He took the struggling magic staff from the Strength Angel and stood up. Since he had already finished sealing Midnight, he decided to closely examine this bizarre, talking weapon.
"Right, that's the one!" Erza struck her palm in sudden realization.
"Lullaby?! Wasn't that a demon created by the Dark Mage Zeref? Don't tell me this thing is just like that!" Lucy shrieked in panic.
"Aye, no way!" Happy cried out, staring at the staff in absolute terror.
Hearing the dreaded name of Zeref, the rest of the group immediately tensed up. The Dark Mage's infamous reputation in the magical world was nothing short of catastrophic. Anyone with even a basic understanding of magical history knew his name, and anything connected to him had to be treated with extreme caution.
Everyone's eyes immediately locked onto Noah as he inspected the staff.
"No, this has nothing to do with Zeref. It's just a bizarre miracle of magic," Noah declared seriously after a brief examination.
"Oh, thank goodness," Lucy sighed.
Hearing that it wasn't one of Zeref's creations, a collective wave of relief washed over the group. Their past experiences had thoroughly taught them that absolutely nothing good ever came from the Dark Mage.
"Mr. Noah, we won on our end as well."
Just then, the mages from Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus walked over. Jura stepped up to Noah, easily carrying the unconscious body of Hoteye.
"Looks like you guys pulled it off too," Noah smiled, nodding at Jura and the others.
"It certainly took quite a bit of effort on our part! Men!" Ichiya declared, striking a flamboyant pose.
"Thank you for your hard work, Aniki!" the Blue Pegasus trio chimed in unison, offering Ichiya a deep, synchronized bow.
"Can you guys please stop posing? And your title for him changed again!" Lucy couldn't help but complain.
"I'm honestly getting used to it," Gray remarked, his face completely deadpan.
Jura set Hoteye down next to Noah, and Noah gave him an appreciative nod before casting a sealing spell over the defeated general. At the same time, Noah released the silencing seal he had placed on the talking staff. Since the staff claimed to be the 'sixth' general, Noah wanted to see how it would react to the news that its entire team had been wiped out.
"The Oración Seis has been completely annihilated. Any thoughts?" Noah asked with a calm smile.
"The generals... they've all been defeated?! Oh no! This is bad! This is very bad! That person... he is going to awaken!" the staff shrieked in absolute panic.
Suddenly, a terrifying, suffocating wave of magical power erupted from the spot where Brain had fallen.
"What in the world?!"
Everyone snapped their heads toward Brain. Under the influence of the monstrous magical pressure, the ground around his unconscious body began to violently tremble, and loose chunks of rubble defied gravity, floating up into the air.
"Hey, hey, what is going on?!" Lucy panicked.
"Didn't Brain already get beaten?!" Happy gasped in shock.
Seeing the intense aura, Noah's eyes lit up with excitement. This had to be the classic 'boss entering his second phase'. Gripping the magic staff tightly, he stood up, having completely finished sealing Hoteye.
"Who is 'that person' you're talking about?" Gray demanded, glaring at the staff.
"You don't mean... that, do you?" Lucy asked, her voice trembling as she pointed at the terrifying magical storm brewing around Brain. A cold sweat broke out over the group.
Noah calmly walked forward and stopped a short distance away from Brain. With a casual wave of his hand, a sturdy magical barrier expanded outward, entirely enclosing Brain's body. While Noah was eager to witness this second phase, it was always better to take precautions.
Ur had instinctively stepped forward, preparing to suppress Brain herself, but seeing Noah instantly deploy the barrier, she held her ground.
"Brain possesses an alternate personality," the staff began to explain rapidly. "The surface personality that loves knowledge goes by the code name 'Brain'. But there is an inner personality that only craves absolute destruction, code-named 'Zero'."
"Craves destruction?"
"Zero?"
The Alliance members were stunned. To think the leader of the Oración Seis harbored a split personality, and one so drastically different at that.
"Because Zero's nature is far too brutal, and his magical power is overwhelmingly immense, Brain used five magical locks to seal that personality away," the staff continued.
"Wait, those markings on his face... were those the five generals?" Gray asked, his eyes widening.
"Yes. When the five 'Demons' forming the body link magic are defeated and the locks collapse, the personality of 'Zero' awakens once more..." the staff admitted.
"So that's how it is. The intricate tattoos on Brain's face were actually the seals keeping his inner personality locked away," Ultear realized. It all made perfect sense now. That was exactly why a portion of the markings vanished every time one of the Oración Seis generals fell in battle.
BOOM!
Deep fissures tore through the ground where Brain lay. The man slowly rose to his feet and turned to face the Allied Forces.
His eyes were completely different. The sclera had turned a blood-curdling crimson red, and an incredibly foul, sickening magic radiated from every pore of his body.
"W-Welcome back, Master Zero!" the magic staff in Noah's hand practically vibrated with reverence and fear.
"Things have gotten quite interesting, Klodoa. To think that even Midnight was taken down," Zero spoke, his voice unnervingly calm and flat. He completely ignored the army of powerful mages standing before him, addressing only the staff in Noah's grip.
Since Noah had already secured the area with a barrier and was watching the new enemy with keen interest, the rest of the Alliance stayed completely silent, waiting to see what Zero would do next.
"I-I am incredibly sorry!" Klodoa stammered, entirely paralyzed by Noah's grip.
"Well, whatever. It really has been a long time since I felt this way. This physical body, this voice, this overwhelming magic... everything about this is so wonderfully nostalgic!" Zero spread his arms, basking in the sensation of his own existence.
However, his brow quickly furrowed. He realized that while the massive surge of magic from his awakening had partially healed his body, the severe injuries Brain had sustained from Ur, Ultear, and Gray were still holding back his true potential.
But he quickly brushed off the annoyance. Glaring through the barrier at the Allied Forces, his voice dropped to a sinister, malicious growl.
"Are you the ones who beat Brain into such a pathetic state? Are you the ones who made a complete mess of my guild? As the master, I suppose it's my duty to personally put an end to all of you!"
Zero violently ripped off the tattered remnants of Brain's cloak and tossed it aside. A flash of magical light enveloped him, replacing his ruined attire with a pristine, deep green outfit.
A monstrous tide of magic began to surge from his body. The air pressure plummeted, and the earth convulsed violently. Even through the confines of Noah's barrier, an oppressive, suffocating weight crashed down on the Alliance.
Sensing the sheer scale of the threat, every single mage instantly dropped into a combat stance. Jura and Ichiya stepped to the absolute front lines, shielding their guildmates as they stared down Zero with grave expressions.
"This guy is Zero?" Lucy whispered, her hands shaking.
"This is the first time I've ever felt magic this disgusting. Even Jose from Phantom Lord didn't feel this nauseating," Natsu stated, his nose wrinkling in absolute disgust.
The rest of the Alliance shared his sentiment. Not a single one of them had ever encountered magic that felt so inherently evil and vile.
"You three are the ones who inflicted these heavy wounds on Brain, right? I'll start by erasing you," Zero said, locking his blood-red eyes onto Ultear, Ur, and Gray.
Without giving them a second to respond, Zero condensed a sphere of virulent green magic into his right hand and swiped it forward. Countless jagged waves of dark magic tore through the air, screaming straight toward the three Ice-Make mages.
Seeing the incoming assault, the Alliance mages immediately flared their magic, preparing their defensive spells to intercept the blast.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A deafening chain of explosions detonated right in front of the Alliance. However, the mages slowly lowered their hands, their tense muscles relaxing.
Zero's devastating attack hadn't reached them. It had slammed directly into the transparent barrier Noah had erected earlier, exploding harmlessly against the magical wall without leaving so much as a scratch.
"Looks like he's not as tough as he acts. He couldn't even put a dent in Noah's barrier," Sorano laughed, her posture completely relaxed.
"You worthless scum!" Zero roared, his face twisting into a mask of pure fury.
He thrust his right hand out again, gathering a terrifying, dense concentration of magic. Unleashing a gargantuan beam of concentrated power, he fired it point-blank into the barrier.
BOOM!
A cataclysmic explosion rocked the entire cavern, sending violent tremors rippling through the ground beneath their feet. While the shockwave failed to pierce the barrier, the sheer kinetic force stripped an entire layer of rock and soil off the ground inside the dome. A massive cloud of dirt and debris whipped into a frenzy within the enclosed space, forcing Zero to deploy a magical shield just to keep the blinding dust out of his eyes.
"Woah! That's terrifying!" Lucy shrieked, jumping back.
"Incredible power..."
The elite mages of the Alliance stared at Zero with grim expressions. Even though the attack had been completely nullified by the barrier, they could all sense the lethal threat packed into that strike.
Zero's raw display of power proved beyond a shadow of a doubt that he was a monster. No one dared to underestimate him. The only reason he was trapped like a rat in a cage wasn't because he was weak; it was simply because Noah's magic was fundamentally broken.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Refusing to accept that his attacks were useless, Zero rapidly gathered his magic again and unleashed a relentless, rapid-fire bombardment against the walls of the barrier, shaking the cavern with a continuous string of detonations.
"Mr. Noah, please allow me to go in and handle him," Jura requested, stepping up beside Noah.
"I'm all fired up! Let me go in and fight him!" Natsu shouted, practically vibrating with excitement as he ignited his fists.
The other heavy hitters in the Alliance all turned to Noah, eager to jump into the barrier and test their mettle against the ultimate boss of the Oración Seis.
"No. I'll fight him," Noah declined their requests flat out, casually rolling his shoulders to loosen up.
"Why?!" Natsu complained immediately.
"Because all of you got to fight your own intense battles today, and I haven't had a single match yet," Noah smiled playfully at Natsu.
Hearing Noah's logic and seeing the genuine excitement gleaming in his eyes, Natsu and the others found they couldn't exactly argue with that.
"But don't you need to maintain the barrier? Do you have enough magic reserves left for a direct fight?" Hibiki asked anxiously. Through his Archive magic, he had analyzed the massive structural integrity of the grand barrier covering the entire Worth Woodsea. He knew exactly how horrifying the magical upkeep for a spell of that scale was. Seeing Noah step up to fight a monster like Zero made him genuinely worried about Noah's stamina.
"It's fine. Now that the rest of the Oración Seis have been captured, there's no need to maintain a barrier of that size anymore," Noah smiled.
The Fairy Tail members didn't bat an eye. They knew that if Noah said he could handle it, he had more than enough power to back it up.
To put the minds of the Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus mages at ease, Noah casually waved his hand. Several massive magic circles briefly illuminated the sky above before fading away. In an instant, the colossal barrier that had enveloped the entire one-hundred-square-kilometer radius simply vanished into thin air.
"Then we leave him to you," Hibiki said respectfully.
"Leave it to me!" Noah grinned. He tossed the talking Klodoa staff over to Ultear and began walking directly toward the smaller containment barrier holding Zero.
"Let's all take a break for now," Ultear said, catching the staff. Seeing Noah stride confidently toward the battlefield, she turned to the rest of the Alliance.
The Fairy Tail members immediately plopped down on the ground, making themselves comfortable. Seeing Fairy Tail acting so thoroughly relaxed, the mages of Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus exchanged glances and decided to follow suit, sitting down to catch their breath.
Since Noah was so confident, they would use this time to rest and recover. That way, if by some impossible chance Noah actually lost, they would be back in peak condition to jump in and help.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The exact second Noah stepped through the barrier, Zero unleashed a vicious barrage of magical blasts right at his face.
Instantly, a shimmering layer of magical shielding materialized around Noah's body, effortlessly deflecting every single blast.
"Oh? They actually sent you in all alone? Are you just here to die?" Zero sneered, halting his attack to mock the young mage.
"Did you already forget? I'm the one who created the very barrier you're standing in," Noah smiled, casually dispelling his personal shield. "You couldn't even put a crack in my barrier, yet you have the sheer audacity to say I'm here to die? Aren't you embarrassed to say something so stupid out loud?"
With a lazy flick of his wrist, Noah expanded the walls of the containment barrier significantly, giving them a much wider arena. Fighting in a cramped space wasn't his style.
"You cocky little brat!" Zero's face contorted in rage.
"Dark Capriccio!"
Forming a sharp sword gesture with his left hand, Zero gathered a condensed mass of dark magic at his fingertips and fired a spiraling, high-velocity beam directly at Noah's chest.
Noah simply sidestepped, easily avoiding the beam. At the same time, a delicate, analytical magic circle spun to life in front of his eyes. He was carefully observing the exact structure of Zero's spell.
"Don't think for a second my techniques are the same as Brain's!" Zero roared. He flicked his fingers sharply, and the dark beam that had flown past Noah violently snapped around, rocketing back to strike him from behind.
Noah didn't panic in the slightest. His sensory magic had already mapped the attack's trajectory perfectly. Just as the deadly beam was about to skewer him in the back, he casually took a single step to the side. The beam tore through empty space.
As the magic grazed past him, Noah took the opportunity to peer deeply into the spell's composition.
Zero gritted his teeth and furiously waved his fingers, manually steering the beam through the air to assault Noah from every conceivable blind spot. Yet, with a fluid, almost lazy grace, Noah simply tilted, ducked, and sidestepped every single strike.
After letting the beam fly past him several times, a bright smile spread across Noah's face.
As Zero aggressively commanded the dark magic to strike Noah from the front one last time, Noah raised his right hand. Mimicking Zero exactly, he formed a tight sword gesture with his index and middle fingers. Brilliant, pure golden magic instantly gathered at his fingertips.
"Try this on for size."
A violently spiraling drill of golden magic—nearly identical in shape and rotation to Dark Capriccio—erupted from Noah's hand and collided head-on with Zero's attack.
BOOM!
The two opposing spells crashed into each other mid-air, triggering a violent detonation that sent hurricane-force winds and clouds of dust sweeping across the battlefield.
"You bastard..." Zero growled, his face darkening with absolute malice as he stared at Noah.
"How about it? I just learned your signature magic. What do you think, did it look pretty similar?" Noah asked, his tone teasing and bright.
"Insolent brat!" Zero bellowed, his pride thoroughly insulted.
"Dark Capriccio: Rapid Fire!"
Raising both hands in dual sword gestures, Zero unleashed an overwhelming, chaotic barrage of massive dark beams, flooding the arena as they all homed in on Noah.
Unfazed, Noah simply raised both his hands and mirrored the stance. A seemingly endless volley of golden beams shot from his fingertips, perfectly intercepting the incoming dark magic.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A relentless chain of mid-air explosions lit up the enclosed arena. The sheer concussive force threatened to shatter the earth itself, but every single one of Zero's blasts was flawlessly shot down by Noah's golden copies.
"Tch!"
Realizing his long-range magic was getting nowhere, Zero stomped hard enough to shatter the bedrock and launched himself forward, closing the distance in the blink of an eye.
"Bring it on!" Noah grinned fiercely. Dropping his center of gravity, he raised his fists, welcoming the close-quarters brawl.
Zero materialized right in front of Noah, throwing a magically enhanced haymaker with enough raw kinetic force to produce a sonic boom before it even landed.
Noah raised his left arm, casually blocking the devastating punch.
CRASH!
As their magically supercharged bodies collided, the impact sounded like a detonating bomb. The ground beneath them instantly spider-webbed with deep fissures, and a massive shockwave blasted tons of shattered earth in every direction.
Bam! Bam! Bam!
Zero and Noah traded lightning-fast blows, their fists and feet tearing through the air with shrill, whistling shrieks. Every single strike was a lethal blow aimed directly at vital organs. Every block and parry sent seismic shockwaves through the air, completely pulverizing the ground beneath their feet.
The tempo of their deathmatch accelerated exponentially. The sound of their colliding strikes blurred together into one continuous, deafening roar of pure violence.
Watching the brutal, high-speed physical exchange from outside the barrier, the spectators felt their hearts pounding in their chests.
"They're both so incredibly strong!" the mages of Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus gasped in absolute awe.
"Men..." Ichiya sighed softly. He looked at Noah commanding the battlefield, and then glanced over at Erza, who was watching Noah with a gentle, enamored smile. Ichiya knew right then and there that he never stood a chance.
The Blue Pegasus trio noticed their leader's quiet heartbreak. Not knowing what to say to comfort him, they just stood by his side in silent solidarity.
Hibiki watched Noah with deeply complicated emotions. Memories of them sitting together, studying Archive magic, flooded his mind. Noah had grown exponentially stronger since then. Hibiki was just thankful that he was a backline support and commander, not a frontline fighter. If he had to compare his combat strength to Noah's, he would have died of depression. As for the fact that Noah could easily play the commander role perfectly since he also mastered Archive... Hibiki decided not to think about that at all for his own sanity.
"Mr. Noah has grown much stronger yet again," Jura smiled warmly, his eyes locked on the clash.
"Mr. Jura, if you had to say... who is stronger between you and Noah?" Yuka asked, unable to peel his eyes away from the earth-shattering fight.
"Noah is significantly stronger than I am," Jura answered without a second of hesitation.
Even when they first met, Noah had possessed a greater depth of power. Seeing the colossal barrier Noah had just erected and flawlessly maintained, Jura knew that the boy hadn't stagnated over the years. Jura had grown tremendously, but Noah had clearly matched, if not exceeded, that pace. Combined with the absolute fact that Noah had defeated Jose Porla single-handedly, Jura didn't need to think twice about his answer.
"How come we haven't heard much about him over the past few years, then? With magic like that, he should be incredibly famous all over Fiore," Sherry asked, her brow furrowed in genuine confusion.
~~~
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