Chapter 384: The Sword of Promised Victory!
"It's because he has absolutely zero interest in fame. He just genuinely enjoys researching magic. That's why his name isn't widely known," Jura explained to Sherry.
Quite a few members of Lamia Scale were actually acquainted with Noah, as he had visited their guild in the past to study their archives. However, while they knew he was strong—strong enough to hold his own in discussions with Jura and earn the Guild Master's explicit approval to access their private library—they didn't truly grasp the depths of his power. It wasn't until the news of him single-handedly crushing Jose Porla spread that people started to understand what kind of monster he was.
Now, watching Noah casually clash with Zero, Yuka and Sherry finally understood just how terrifying he truly was.
While Lamia Scale discussed Noah, the Fairy Tail members were focused on the revelation about Brain.
"To think Brain was hiding a split personality this entire time," Ultear muttered, her eyes fixed on the savage battle inside the barrier.
She turned her gaze down to the talking magic staff in her hands. "When exactly did Brain seal away his alternate personality?"
"Hmph! As if I'd tell you anything! Master Zero is going to annihilate you all any second now!" Klodoa spat, stubbornly refusing to cooperate.
Tap! Tap! Tap!
Without a shred of hesitation, Ultear repeatedly slammed the skull of the staff into the solid ground.
"S-S-Stop it~!" Klodoa shrieked, unable to endure the rhythmic blunt-force trauma, instantly begging for mercy.
"Ready to talk now?"
"I don't know the exact date he started the sealing process! But I heard him say he completed it roughly ten years ago!" the staff confessed instantly, throwing away its pride since the information didn't really matter anyway.
"If that's the case, then everything he's done for the past ten years was likely preparation to ensure that personality stayed locked away," Ultear realized.
"That seems like the most logical conclusion," Ur nodded in agreement.
"Well, split personality or not, there's no way he's walking out of here today," Ultear stated with absolute confidence.
"Hmph! Master Zero is going to crush you all! He hasn't even begun to use his real power! That arrogant brat is going to lose horribly!" Klodoa declared proudly.
"You say Zero hasn't used his real power yet, but what on earth makes you think Noah has used his?" Ultear shot back with a smirk. "Besides, your precious Master Zero is currently getting his ass kicked."
To prove her point, Ultear grabbed the staff by the handle and pointed its skull directly at the barrier, forcing the magical artifact to watch the one-sided beatdown unfolding inside.
The battle within the barrier had drastically escalated.
Noah and Zero had traded dozens of high-speed blows. The shockwaves from their physical clash alone had completely vaporized the topsoil, carving a massive crater spanning tens of thousands of square meters into the earth.
Realizing that he couldn't overpower Noah in a physical brawl—and having already eaten several brutal punches for his trouble—Zero's fury boiled over. Throwing a heavy punch that collided with Noah's fist, Zero used the kinetic recoil to violently backflip away.
"Dark Gravity!"
Landing solidly on his feet, Zero slammed both hands into the dirt. A sickening, deep green magical aura instantly flooded a several-hundred-meter radius around Noah.
Noah immediately felt an invisible, crushing weight bear down on him, attempting to flatten him against the bedrock.
However, he didn't even flinch. The pressure Zero was applying was laughably weak compared to the Gravity Magic Noah permanently maintained on his own body. Ever since he had fully matured physically and stopped growing, Noah had kept high-level Gravity Magic active at all times, turning his everyday life into a constant, grueling training regimen. He had been steadily increasing the multiplier for nearly a year now. Zero's "crushing" spell barely registered as a mild inconvenience.
Suddenly, the ground beneath Noah violently ruptured as dozens of dark magical beams erupted from the earth, shooting straight up at him.
With a slight flex of his legs, Noah effortlessly leaped dozens of meters into the air, entirely escaping the attack radius.
"Yasakani no Magatama!"
Noah extended his hand and tapped the empty air in front of him. A massive, brilliant golden magic circle instantly expanded outward. Thousands of condensed golden spheres of light materialized across the glyph, raining down like a meteor shower to intercept the dark beams surging from below.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!
A chain reaction of deafening explosions rocked the sky, sending violent, gale-force shockwaves tearing across the battlefield in all directions.
"Whip of Nothingness!"
Zero pressed the five fingers of each hand together. Sickly green magic extended rapidly outward, forming two impossibly long, crackling whips of pure dark energy. Snapping the whips with terrifying speed, he lashed out at Noah, who was still suspended mid-air.
Noah calmly extended his right hand. A small, reinforced golden magic circle materialized just in time to perfectly parry the incoming whips. Using the force of the impact, Noah gracefully launched himself backward.
"Divine Judgment!"
The moment Noah's boots touched the ground, he thrust his right hand forward. A complex golden glyph materialized inches from his palm, and a colossal, highly concentrated beam of pure light blasted forward.
Seeing the sheer density of the incoming beam, Zero didn't dare try to block it. He leaped violently to the side, barely avoiding Noah's counterattack.
BOOM!
The beam slammed into the far end of the magical barrier. The resulting explosion instantly excavated a new crater tens of meters wide, vaporizing the rock and soil into nothingness.
"Dark Erasure!"
While still airborne from his dodge, Zero violently swept his right arm toward Noah. Countless deep green spheres of dark magic launched themselves at high speeds. But instead of flying in a straight line, the spheres aggressively swerved mid-air, curving past Noah and attempting to bombard him from behind. They were homing projectiles.
"Yasakani no Magatama!"
Sensing the pincer attack, Noah spun around and slammed his left palm against the air. The golden magic circle reappeared, unleashing another swarm of golden light spheres that perfectly tracked and annihilated every single one of Zero's dark projectiles in a spectacular mid-air fireworks display.
"Dark Capriccio: Roar!"
Taking advantage of Noah turning his back, Zero thrust both hands forward, firing his massive, armor-piercing beam directly at Noah's exposed spine.
"Divine Judgment!"
Without a shred of hesitation, Noah spun back around and thrust his right hand straight at Zero. An overwhelmingly massive pillar of golden light erupted from his palm, meeting the dark beam head-on.
The golden light completely overwhelmed the dark magic, physically crushing Zero's attack into dust before continuing its trajectory straight toward the Dark Mage.
Zero frantically dove to the side, narrowly escaping the blast radius once more.
BOOM!
Noah's beam carved a trench straight across the battlefield, excavating another massive crater and obliterating the earth.
"Why are you running? Didn't you say you were the Guild Master of the Oración Seis? Didn't you say you were incredibly powerful? So why are you dodging?" Noah mocked, rolling his eyes dramatically.
"You cocky little brat!" Zero roared, his face contorting into an absolutely terrifying mask of demonic rage. "I am Zero, the Master of the Oración Seis! I stand on a completely different level than a lowly foot soldier from some pathetic guild! A brat like you could never hope to defeat me!"
"Is that so? Because from where I'm standing, I'm just a 'brat', and you still can't land a single hit on me," Noah smiled brightly.
"Damn you! You garbage! You absolute maggot!" Zero screamed, completely losing his mind to his rage.
"I'm honestly so disappointed in you. I thought the Oración Seis were supposed to be tough, but you're just pathetic. Such a letdown," Noah sighed, dramatically shaking his head in mock disappointment.
"..."
Zero was so infuriated he literally couldn't form words.
A suffocating tsunami of sickly green magic erupted from his body, expanding outward in violent waves. The atmosphere screamed, and the bedrock beneath his feet groaned and fractured under the sheer density of his power.
Outside the barrier, the Alliance members could physically feel the oppressive weight bearing down on them. They all tensed up, knowing the fight inside was rapidly approaching its climax.
While Ultear and the others had absolute faith in Noah, they still couldn't completely hide the concern flickering in their eyes.
"I will grind your bones to dust! I will completely annihilate you! And then I'll find your pathetic guild, and I will destroy it! I will destroy every single person inside it! I crave destruction! I will destroy everything in this world!" Zero shrieked, a wildly twisted, fanatical grin splitting his face.
Hearing this, Noah's smile finally faded. His expression turned completely cold as he shook his head.
"Looks like you've completely lost your mind. I should just put you out of your misery."
"I'll use my ultimate magic to grant you the truest form of 'Nothingness'!"
Zero placed his right hand low and his left hand high, gathering a terrifying concentration of dark magic between them. The atmosphere itself seemed to wail in agony, and the earth convulsed violently as the crushing magical pressure expanded in all directions.
He swept his right hand upward in a harsh arc and his left hand downward, bringing both palms together directly in front of him.
Seeing Zero prepare his trump card, Noah decided it was time to finish things.
"Since I'm sending you to the afterlife, I suppose a little bit of ceremony is in order."
Noah clapped his hands together, and as he slowly pulled them apart, a brilliantly glowing sword of pure golden light materialized between his palms. Grasping the hilt with both hands, he leveled the blade directly at Zero. A breathtakingly vast ocean of golden magic erupted from Noah's body, easily rivaling the scale of Zero's aura.
The two contrasting domains of magic clashed violently in the air between them, generating massive, invisible shockwaves that stripped the earth bare and blew the debris far into the distance. The ground directly between them sank even deeper under the sheer pressure of their combined power.
With all the dust completely blown away, the two mages stared each other down with crystal clarity.
"History ends right here! The Genesis of Zero begins now! Genesis Zero!"
Zero thrust both hands forward, unleashing the absolute limit of his magical power directly at Noah.
"Open the Gates of the Wailing Demons!"
An impossibly massive swarm of ghostly, purple phantoms erupted from Zero's hands. The horrifying spirits flooded the arena, their sheer numbers blocking out the sky as they multiplied endlessly. The air was instantly filled with their low, guttural wails—a sound so agonizing it made the listeners' blood run cold and their skin crawl.
Outside the barrier, the Alliance members instantly jumped to their feet. The sheer, overwhelming malice and sickening aura radiating from the ghosts triggered their primal fight-or-flight responses.
"Disgusting!" Ultear and Sorano recoiled in absolute horror, looking at the ghosts as if they were the foulest filth in existence.
Ur and Erza glared at the encroaching spirits, their expressions grave and their brows furrowed.
"That's terrifying!" Lucy shrieked, diving directly behind Ur and trembling uncontrollably.
"Aye!" Happy immediately hugged Lucy's leg, hiding right alongside her.
Natsu and Gray instinctively dropped into combat stances. The rest of the Alliance, overwhelmed by the lethal threat radiating from the spell, followed suit, bracing themselves for the worst.
"Travelers of Nothingness! Devour this man's soul! Devour his memories! Erase his very existence!" Zero roared, commanding the tide of ghosts to swarm Noah.
"Vanish! In the name of NOTHINGNESS!" Zero screamed at the top of his lungs.
Seeing the endless sea of ghosts bearing down on him, Noah tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword of light and raised it high above his head.
His pure golden magic rushed into the blade. Simultaneously, motes of brilliant golden light materialized from the surrounding atmosphere, drawn like moths to a flame, merging into the sword and amplifying its radiant glow until it was blindingly bright.
Layer upon layer of intricate, overlapping magic circles manifested along the length of the blade before rapidly shrinking and fully integrating into the light. The sheer density of the gathered magic compressed the surrounding air, generating gale-force winds that whipped outward in all directions.
"Breath of the celestial stars... Torrent of glorious life! Take this! Excalibur!"
Noah gripped the hilt with all his might and swung the blade violently down toward Zero.
A staggeringly massive, breathtakingly beautiful golden magic circle instantly bloomed directly in front of the blade. The overwhelming reserves of magic compressed perfectly within the glyph before erupting forward as a colossal, world-ending beam of golden light, tearing straight toward Zero.
"What?! My magic isn't stopping it at all?!"
Zero's fanatical grin instantly vanished, replaced by sheer, unadulterated terror as he stared at the approaching apocalypse.
His supposedly unstoppable purple ghosts completely failed to slow the golden beam down. The moment they were touched by the radiant light, they simply ceased to exist. The ghosts directly in the path of the beam were vaporized the instant they made contact, utterly erased from reality.
As the brilliant golden light bathed the battlefield, the fear and anxiety paralyzing the Alliance outside the barrier instantly melted away. In its place, a profound wave of warmth and unflinching courage swelled within their chests.
"It's incredible! It's so bright!" Lucy gasped in awe, staring at the golden beam and marveling at the intense feeling of hope it radiated.
"Aye! That's Noah for you!" Happy declared proudly, his chest puffed out. He was no longer trembling in fear; he stood tall, his eyes shining with absolute awe.
"I really, really want to fight him!" Natsu grinned, vibrating with excitement at the raw display of power.
"Hey! Stop actively seeking death!" Gray yelled, looking at Natsu like he was completely insane.
Ur watched the scene with a deeply gratified smile, while Ultear, Erza, and Sorano beamed with absolute pride as they looked at Noah.
"Finish him off just like that!" Sorano cheered loudly, pumping her fist in the air.
The mages of Lamia Scale and Blue Pegasus stared at the spectacle with wide smiles. Setting Jura aside, either of the two mages fighting inside that barrier was completely out of their league. Seeing Noah overwhelmingly crush Zero's ultimate attack brought them immense relief.
Noah's beam effortlessly tore through the sea of ghosts, slamming squarely into Zero.
"I-Impossible! How could I possibly lose?! NO! AAAAAAAAHHH!!!"
Zero was caught completely in the blast. The sheer kinetic force of the beam lifted him entirely off the ground, carrying him backward at horrifying speeds until he slammed violently against the far wall of Noah's magical barrier.
BOOOOOM!!!
A cataclysmic explosion detonated the exact moment the beam collided with the barrier wall. A blinding sphere of expanding golden energy engulfed the entire area.
The lingering purple ghosts in the air were instantly annihilated by the blast wave, leaving the sky above crystal clear.
Crack! SHATTER!
Unable to withstand the combined force of Noah's ultimate attack and the resulting detonation, the massive containment barrier completely shattered into thousands of glittering magical shards.
The blast carved a terrifying crater nearly a kilometer wide into the earth. The resulting shockwave launched countless tons of pulverized rock and soil high into the air. Hurricane-force winds generated by the blast caught the debris, hurling it outward in a terrifying wave of destruction.
Even the cloud layer high above was entirely blown away by the shockwave, leaving nothing but an empty, pristine blue sky.
"Woah! This is completely overkill!" Lucy shrieked, terrified out of her mind by the sheer scale of the explosion.
"Aye!"
"Aye my foot!" Lucy yelled, as the leading edge of the shockwave hit them, the gale-force winds literally deforming her face. Happy desperately clung to her leg, flapping in the wind like a flag.
The Alliance members threw their arms up to shield their faces from the blinding dust and terrifying winds.
"Oh no! The debris is coming right at us!" Lucy screamed, pointing at the massive wave of rocks and soil hurtling straight toward them on the winds of the shockwave.
"Ice-Make: Shield!" Jura began, preparing to block the debris, but before he could cast his spell, another voice beat him to it.
Instantly, a colossal, reinforced wall of solid ice erupted from the ground directly in front of the Alliance, completely shielding them from the tidal wave of flying earth.
Ur had stepped up, deploying her Ice-Make magic to perfectly protect the group from the fallout.
~~~
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