This is your final warning!" Makarov's voice echoed with power. "Call them off, now!"
At last… Jose blinked before sighing. "You really don't remember do you?" He said with a trace of disappointment, yet it felt like he was half expecting him to do that.
His reaction was not what the Fairy Tail guild master was expecting. "What are you talking about?"
"55 years ago." Jose began, confusing Makarov. "It was when I was 4 years old that we truly first met."
"First met?" While keeping his guard up, Makarov eased on the power he was exerting. He was surprised they had actually met before and that he was older than he looked.
"The town of Figo Valley," Jose's voice was eerily calm but there was some restrained control behind it. "Do you remember that?"
"Figo Valley? What about—" In one instant, Makarov dropped his accumulated energy. His eyes widened, his mouth gapped, and his hands shivered.
"So you do remember. I'm actually impressed." Jose scoffed with venomous sarcasm.
"N-No! That… that means you're… you're…!"
"Why don't I say it for the both of us?" There was Jose's teasing tone before, but there was no smile as he said this, no playful tone… only scorn and rising hatred. "I'm the only survivor of Figo Valley."
Makarov could only gape in shock at the mind-blowing fact. "T-There was a survivor?"
At the reaction, Jose's eyes snapped open as he pointed towards Makarov. "YES! I am a survivor! And I've waited over fifty years for this very moment!"
He threw out the case he was carrying and it dramatically opened. The Fairy Tail Guild Master could only stare as Jose brought out a fine looking and deep black dagger.
"Finally! FINALLY!" Jose shouted with every power his lungs could muster as he gripped the weapon out and tossed aside the brief case like nothing. "Fifty years of suffering have all been leading up to this!"
Makarov thought that dagger would be used against him. They both knew that the Fairy Tail Guild master was still stronger despite both claiming the title of Wizard Saint. So was the dagger the edge he would—
The old mage stopped dead even in his own thoughts.
He did not expect Jose to stab himself with the black dagger.
"Gaaaagghh!" Jose roared in pain as he drove the knife further into his own heart. The older mage could only stare in horror and shock at the baffling move. However, as milliseconds passed, Makarov noticed blood was not coming out of the knife.
Blood wasn't pitch black.
The old man could only watch as the inky black like substance spread out across Jose's body then started to form in to something horribly familiar. The black liquid solidified into armor with a white star in the center and large bat like wings that expanded to encompass a large area.
It looked like…
"That looks like Kain's armor…" Makarov gasped as he realized his hands were shivering and he was starting to sweat.
But as he did that, he also realized that he looked down and away from his opponent—
He didn't even notice Jose closing the gap and punching him with enough force to not only pin Makarov to the ground, but create a crater and explosion of black energy that spread throughout all of Magnolia and broke nearly every single window and some nearby buildings throughout the city.
In a distant area, someone smiled, seemingly looking on to a random direction on top of a cliff.
"Soooo," The figure turned to see Bora, excommunicated Titan Nose mage, looking nervously around. "Why are we here again?"
To his right, Fero walked up, fixing his uniform as he did. "We're just waiting for our ride, one of the Boss' personal pets."
"Pets?" Bora repeated in confusion before he heard the boss speak up.
"I think of him more fondly as a partner of sorts than a pet." Ryan Peloth turned with a smile and behind him something appeared from the cliff that was flying right behind him.
"Aah! Wyvern!" Bora pointed as he noticed the black, flying dragonic creature behind their leader.
"Bora, please calm yourself. That's the ride I was referring to awhile ago," Fero sighed, which only made the excommunicated mage look at him in shock. "Second of all, that's not a wyvern. Please take a closer look."
Bora did so and took a closer look at the flying creature before them. It had a face that looked much like that of a wyvern, had a wingspan that looked similar, but unlike dragons or wyverns, this creature did not have legs at all. Only a serpent like body with black scales and deep black eyes with white irises he barely noticed.
"Amphithere. This dragonic beast is called an Amphithere; they are categorized as evolutionary cousins to Wyverns, Drakes, Wyrms and Lindwurms… basically all lesser Dragons." Ryan answered for him as he lifted his hand out, allowing the deep black creature to lower his head so that Ryan may pet it.
Bora calmed down seeing the creature was on their side. "Huh, boss, it's the same color of the object you sold to Phantom Lord, isn't it?"
The boss smiled once more but Bora didn't know if it was because of his answer or something else completely. "It is, but there is really no connection to that beyond the similar colors."
Bora would find that out as a lie far too late.
As the dust settled, Jose picked up Makarov from the crater he made with the impact and slapped Makarov twice. The sound of metal slamming hard against flesh echoed through the area followed by a filtered voice that sounded far more horrifying than a while ago.
"Don't you dare fall asleep, Makarov. I want you awake when you see your 'family' crushed beneath my feet. "Jose told him darkly before he raised his fist.
Makarov saw the plated fist and quickly used his expansion magic to repel Jose by expanding into a giant. The black knight looked up to see Makarov towering over him and quickly used his fist to punch right for him. The blow was powerful enough to cause the entire cathedral floor to start cracking around them, but it wasn't strong enough to crush Jose since he was using both arms to push the fist back up even though the ground beneath him was giving way. Jose started exerting more pressure and screamed louder as he did so. When he did, he performed a feat unimaginable: He lifted up Makarov in one of his giant forms!
Makarov was too surprised as Jose lifted him over and slammed him down into the broken ground. But he wasn't done yet as he then tossed him with enough force to break through a sizeable portion of the cathedral wall and into several buildings unlucky to be in the giant's path. After the crash, Makarov shrunk back to his normal size and got back up from the throw albeit a bit dizzily.
He heard the sound of metal clanking on stone and looked up to see Jose walking towards him with black armor eerily similar to that of Kain's red armor.
"What happened," Makarov coughed as he got back up. "in Figo Valley was an accident."
Jose stopped in such a way that was so abrupt, it was actually scary in response to the words that escaped Makarov's mouth.
There was a blur of black followed by the sound of metal impacting on flesh with the force of a locomotive. Instead of flying from the punch that could break a house a hundred times over, Makarov was caught and choke slammed down into the ground.
"Accident!?" Even a dragon's roar was pitiful and miserable when compared to the roar of anger that Jose shouted. "I watched in forced, silent horror as you stabbed an energy sword through my father's chest! And I had to bury my father when I was four! Do you know how I had to dig him a proper grave through heavy rain, crippling hunger, bloody hands, and through tears that would thrice de hydrate any large man!? Do you even realize I repeated that horrifying practice to EVERY single one of my uncles, my aunts, my brothers and sisters that you killed!? Did you know how I was haunted every second afterward on how I could do nothing but listen to their screams as their lives were taken from them!?"
Jose lifted Makarov up and slammed him into the ground with enough force to make the wizard saint gasp, cause a massive crater to appear, and make the earth around them shake uncontrollably.
"Do you know what it was like, shivering out in the wild cold, missing every single millisecond of when my mother would whisper sweet lullabies to my ear every night in her warm embrace!?"
Makarov tried to fire a magic claw at Jose's head to distract him. However, Jose's other hand caught it and instantly crushed it.
"I lost everything!" Jose's wrathful bellowing was cut short when his voice cracked. "I went through hell…" His voice grew softer, and of all things, Makarov heard him sniff and sob once. For the briefest of seconds, either by how hard he was hit or by some illusion… the master of Fairy Tail didn't see a powerful and destructive Wizard Saint. He saw a broken and angry child… orphaned by his greatest sin.
However, that image quickly died as it came as Jose's fury returned like that of a boomerang made by a god of murder. "All because of your reckless use of magic!"
Then Jose lifted his hand in order to punch him one more time. However, this time, Makarov did something different. Instead of expanding, he made his body shrink to a tiny size to avoid the punch and escape the choke hold. Makarov landed on Jose's arm, quickly raced up to his head and punched him. Despite being the size of cupcake, when Makrov punched, it felt like he was in his giant size as it was now Jose's turn to be sent flying through a few buildings.
Makarov gasped for breath, returned to his normal size and wobbled, showing that he was struggling to even stand straight from the few blows into the battle. His miniaturizing spell was always tricky to pull off to keep his weight and momentum as a normal person. He looked to where Jose was sent flying and said, "I… I lost things too that day…"
As the smoke died, Jose was seen standing tall with no sign of dents in his armor. Makarov knew if that black armor was anything like Kain's, it dramatically increased one's resistance to magic. But that the user of the armor is still vulnerable to physical attacks.
However, the major problem was that Kain had no combat practice whatsoever. Jose was the complete opposite of that.
"Things… not everything." Jose darkly responded as the air around him started to pop. Makarov noticed Jose's shadow starting to move… then expand… and then split.
A dozen or so 'shadow' clones of Jose appeared in his armor form.
"But rest assured that will change before the sun falls." All clones cried out before rushing for Makarov.
The group consisting of Lucy, Mira, Éclair, Momon, and Kain had run around so much that they found themselves back to the Fairy Tail guild hall.
"Kain," Lucy began as she gasped for breath, "Where do we go now!?"
Before he could answer, his sharper senses detected over a dozen magical humming sounds in the distance and quickly acted. "Scatter!"
The red knight instantly tackled Lucy before a hail of giant metal spears pierced the ground where the group was originally.
"Mira! Éclair!" Lucy cried out as she got back up from Kain tackling her out of the way of those metal spears.
However, something else landed with a boom in the side where Lucy and Kain were. Instead of another giant spear, it was Gajeel who was growling angrily towards the direction of the two.
Kain reacted fast and fired a horizontal sword beam right for the steel dragon slayer. Gajeel reclined his fist and punched the ground in such a way that a boulder appeared that took the blast instead. Kain's increased hearing heard Gajeel instantly inhaling which prompted him to jump out of the way before an Iron Dragon's Roar hit him. Even though the wyvern rider dodged the attack, Gajeel shot out of the cover and performed a lariat on the armored young man with enough force to send him flying back to his guild.
"Kain!" Lucy yelled before Gajeel turned to her with a snarl.
"You're a real pain in the ass, you rich spoiled brat." Gajeel spat out darkly as he started to stalk towards the blonde.
"Stay back!" Lucy changed back into the Celestial Robes of Sagittarius and quickly fired an arrow at him that split into six more of them.
Gajeel's hand turned to a sword that swatted away the attacks and closed in to punch her in the face. "Well, at least you can fight back somewhat. So this won't be a total waste of time. But still… I'm pissed off right now and from what I remember: I just had to keep you alive, nobody said anything about a broken arm or two…"
The iron dragon slayer stopped in his tracks before turning and ducking his head from a thrown wooden table.
Gajeel turned to see Kain in his armor, but even while still armed, his body was heaving and gasping for air heavily.
"I…don't know why I used the last good table left in the guild as a projectile." Kain's voice was even tired as he commented. This time, there was hesitation written his movements as he slowly went to a fighting stance.
Gajeel gave a feral smile as he pointed mockingly to the displaced young man. "Ha! Listen, kid, it doesn't matter what power you have, you'll never defeat me!"
Kain instantly dropped his fighting stance as soon as he said that. He was right after all, he wasn't Natsu or Erza. He was just some guy with a magic armor—that was the only reason why he actually contributed anything. He couldn't hope to beat Gajeel who was obviously a veteran warrior.
"Face it! Without that armor, you're a nobody! You can't even use magic!" Gajeel laughed as he looked at the defeated looking boy.
"Kain…" Lucy weakly whispered as she looked at Kain seemingly giving up.
However, Kain had a different reaction to that last insult. Gajeel was right. He was absolutely right.
"Aha…haha… HAhahaha!" Both Gajeel and Lucy were surprised to see Kain go from slow chuckling to boisterous laughter.
"O-Oh, ooohh! Y-You're right." Kain said as he calmed himself down and stood back up straight and tall.
Gajeel, utterly baffled at someone looking motivated by an insult of all things raised his brow and blurted out, "What?"
"I said you're right. I don't have magic. I can't fight like a mage…" Kain drew out his blade once more and pointed it to Gajeel. "So I should stop fighting like a mage, and start fighting like a magician!"
His declaration confused everyone within earshot. Yet no one had the chance to question him as he started to run right for Gajeel again with his sword drawn. Whatever was coming his way, Gajeel knew he would be able to counter anything coming his wa—
Lucy gaped when she saw Kain suddenly stop and throw something at Gajeel. She stared at it, seeing some kind of small, glowing sphere—
Then it caused a bright flash of light that momentarily blinded the two of them.
Closing her eyes, Lucy heard Gajeel scream then suddenly be silenced by a grunt of pain after a heavy blow.
As her sight came back to her, Lucy focused and noticed something off.
"You bastard! That was cheap!" Gajeel cried out as his sight was slowly coming back together. However, something caught his attention as he noticed he was unable to part his arms. To his surprise, there was a sticky, gooey substance that was keeping his arms together. The iron dragon slayer tried to pull his arms apart but struggled greatly as he failed to rip through the gooey substance.
It was then that Kain came in with a powerful blow that hit Gajeel in the face and sent him flying right into one of his metal spears.
Lucy started to recall how Kain originally planned to fight without The Morpher. He didn't actually fight, he relied on magic toys to disorient his opponent so he could escape or help Team Valiant in any way he could. But now that he could fight, he was using his gear to help patch the fact Kain still couldn't fight well yet.
Kain was fighting strategically.
(I've become ANIME BATMAN!) Or in his mind, he became the hero Magnolia doesn't deserve and definitely not the one they needed right now.
Gajeel could fight any mage, but Kain knew how to do one thing Gajeel didn't expect: cheat like his life depended on it—which it did actually.
Seeing his opponent come back up, Kain threw his next item, the Nausea Marbles. Now doubt these would make Gajeel trip and fal—
"Urrgh!" Gajeel fell to his knees and practically touched his own… well we'll leave it to your imagination.
(Eww. So apparently, these things are basically portable motion sickness for dragon slayers. Good to know.) The wyvern rider felt bad, but not bad enough to concentrate his blade and fire a powerful sword beam right at the downed man. The force of the impact made Gajeel slam into one of his large metal pillars, but Kain wasn't done, using his moderate level super speed, he jumped, reclined his fist and let loose his strongest punch right on Gajeel before he could even bounce off the metal rod.
The impact of the blow sent Gajeel flying some distance back and caused nearby metal rods to start to fall and collapse by the impact.
Kain landed on his feet and powered his armor down, gasping for breath as he did.
"K-Kain!" The young man turned around to see Lucy running up to him. "Y-You did it! You beat Gajeel!"
A smile appeared on Kain's face as he heard this. "Y-Yeah! I did! And it's all thanks to the power of cheating like hell! … What the heck am I saying?"
Lucy couldn't help but chuckle at Kain's random blurting. However, it was cut short as Lucy recalled something important. "We need to find Mira and the others."
Kain agreed yet as soon as he did, the two froze. There was a something in the air that felt… wrong. The wyvern rider instantly activated his armor, but no sooner than he did, something had sped right into him and slammed him into the ground.
"You know…" Lucy gasped in horror as she saw Gajeel back up from that powerful blow. Gajeel was injured, but instead of looking weaker, he was giving off a strong spike of magical power that was so thick, they both could see a physical aura glowing off him. "That may have been a cheap shot, but damn that stung, brat." His skin started to turn into pure steel, making the phantom lord mage look at it with obvious interest. "Huh. I seem to recall Metalicana once mentioning something called, Dragon Force that bolstered a dragon's power. I'm pissed off, but it seems you made me unlock it." Gajeel exerted more force into his arm, denting the armor around Kain's neck and causing the red armored boy to start choking for air. "It's only fair I beat you senseless for making me unlock this!"
"Leave him alone!" Lucy cried out as she ran up in Taurus Clothes and swung his mighty axe at Gajeel. However, all Gajeel did to counter Lucy was stop all her enhanced strength behind the axe with one hand easily. He gripped on the axe, cracking it, and breaking some shards he instantly ate.
"Thanks for the meal!" Gajeel cried out before unleashing a new burst of magical power. In less than a blink of an eye both Lucy and Kain were kicked, punched, and blasted with a boosted onslaught of Gajeel.
To finish off his assault, he threw both Lucy and Kain with such force that he threw them back into the Fairy Tail guild and out towards the sea behind them.
Even though his world was spinning, Kain slowly struggled to get off the ground. To his side he saw Lucy coughing up blood and quickly he started to panic. "L-Lucy? A-Are you alright?"
She groaned but still didn't say anything more.
This was getting them absolutely nowhere. Everyone was too busy with everything else, Natsu and the others were still in Phantom Lord's guild, Master Makrov was fighting Jose, and everyone else was dealing with Phantom Lord mages. With Lucy down for the count, that only left Kain alone against Gajeel once more.
This time, Kain was greatly weakened, injured, beyond exhausted, and all alone to fight Gajeel who he never beat once during their encounters and was now boosted in both speed and power exponentially. He had a bad feeling those cheap tricks he pulled off earlier wouldn't work as well a second time.
With great effort, Kain forced himself up and turned to see Gajeel slowly walking towards them.
"You know the more I think about it, this was rather interesting. Annoying as hell, but at least I wasn't bored the whole time." His cocky voice even sounded somewhat distorted to Kain. Were even his heightened senses starting to lose it?
That was stupidly unfair. Was Gajeel one of those bad guys that went, 'This isn't even my final form!'?
(Okay, Universe, this is the part where you let the hero some kind of miracle power up! I'd really appreciate one right now!)
Sadly for Kain, this was not one of those stories as Gajeel ran and punched Kain again, making him fly closer towards the edge of the sea—
(Wait! That's it! There is one last thing I can do!) The armored wyvern rider forced himself up through horrible agony and did his best to enter a fighting stance against Gajeel. He had one last chance! One last hope to beat Gajeel!
"Ha! Alright, kid, I gotta admit: you've got spunk for choosing to stand fighting for your last moments." The phantom lord mage was obviously impressed that he chose to die fighting. "Still nothing personal!" The iron dragon slayer turned his hand into a giant blade with intent to pierce through his weakened armor.
Even with that, Kain remained firm then quickly spun—throwing his cape right into Gajeel's face while rolling to avoid the blade!
This action served two purposes: one was to use that one moment to distract Gajeel. The second was to use that distraction in order to pull of Kain's last hope. The armored young man grabbed the phantom lord mage's arm blade and with great effort, threw him with enough force into the sea!
"Wha—GAH!?" The iron dragon slayer screamed before there was a loud splash of water. (Jerk! I'll get him for—wait. Why am I not floating up?) It took Gajeel a second to realize that in his Dragon Force mode, his skin turned to steel, effectively increasing his density and weight tenfold. He was now sinking fast into the bottom of the sea!
(Shit!) Against his will, the iron dragon slayer let go of the Dragon Force ability and started swimming back up before he could run out of air.
The black haired mage gasped as his head popped back up from the water. "Okay, screw that kid! I'm killing—"
However, what he said would never be finished as he felt a shadow on top of him and looked up… to see Kain getting ready to punch him!
"AAAHHH!" With all the force he could muster, Kain threw everything into that one punch. He knew that because of Gajeel's increased weight under the Dragon Force, he would instantly sink if he reached the sea. This would mean he'd have to power down to his much more vulnerable base state in order to get back up and breathe oxygen.
That gave Kain the opening he needed. As soon as the red wyvern rider threw Gajeel into the sea, he used his honed senses to zero in when Gajeel was coming back up. Before he completely came to the surface, Kain jumped and prayed harder than he ever did in his life to whatever being up there that this would be enough.
Kain's coated and empowered fist made contact with Gajeel's normal skin while it wasn't hardened. No sooner than it made contact, the water around the two actually parted, creating a shockwave that made it look like the water turned into a crater for an instant before Gajeel was sent back down into the ocean like a meteor with a visible trail of air as if to say Gajeel was hit with enough force to momentarily cut through the deep pressures of water.
With the blow over, Kain also fell into the water, seemingly losing all strength he had left.
Back at the guild, Momon pointed over to the injured Celestial Mage and shouted behind him. "I found Lucy!"
Éclair and Mira ran to where he was and towards their injured friend. "Lucy! Lucy!" Mira cried out as Éclair checked her pulse.
"She's alive, but weak." The usually brunette said before Momon flew to them worried.
"I can't find Kain anywhere!" The bird told them, instantly making all of them look around for any sign of the displaced boy.
There was a thud coming from nearby that made the girls look over to see Kain carrying Gajeel up back into dry land before dropping on to his knees and powering down his armor.
The young boy coughed water and blood disturbingly, causing Mira to run up to him.
"Kain! Are you alright!?" She cried as she tried to somehow help him if he needed it.
"In pain…. Ow…. Few words only…." Kain managed to gasp in between breaths.
"K-Kain? Are you there!? It's me Warren! I think I've set up the link back in Magnolia, but I can't reach Master Makarov." Warren's voice reached back to the group, signaling he had woken up from Voyu's attack.
Kain stood back up but then started to stumble forward. Mirajane was thankfully quick to steady him again. However, she was worried that he was pushing himself. "Kain, you've done enough. You've got to rest."
"Appreciate it…. Not yet…." Kain returned before activating his armor again. Mira let go and the dented armor started to fix itself back into pristine condition. "Fairy Tail, this is Kain. Report progress!"
There was a cornucopia of voices speaking out: all of them of varying levels of tired, exhausted, injured and so on… however, there was good news in that the stream of Phantom Lord reinforcements had stopped and they seemed to be making progress in dwindling the numbers of their enemy.
Kain looked down at Gajeel who was currently out cold. Yet he continued to over see how things were going. "If there are no more signs of portals, I can only assume that Mystogan has either defeated or is currently keeping Voyu busy. Foxtrot, are you still there? Can you spot the master from your vantage point?"
"Sorry Kain, we've been forced out some minutes back when a group tried to rush us. Tango Team helped retake it, but now Magnolia is covered with smoke and dust. We can barely see anything anymore."
There was a sudden shaking in the ground that many felt throughout all of Magnolia.
Kain looked towards Mira. "Watch over Lucy and Gajeel for me."
Before she could even say something, Kain was gone with the wind following after him and blowing the long hair of the ladies.
Éclair, after fixing her hair, noticed something. "Is it me, or was he faster just now?"
Mirajane looked towards where the wind was blowing. As she looked back… Kain was faster than usual…
When I was good distance away, and finding a relatively safe spot among the fighting, I powered down the armor and started coughing blood again. My body showed no surface pain but it seemed like the damaged armor translated the pain to internal feelings. Nothing really felt like it was bleeding, but seriously, it felt like every corner of my body was hurting like hell. I have to even support myself by leaning on a wall.
All things considered though, it was still better than actually having my fleshed pierced. And despite how stupidly in pain I was to the point where I felt my eyes so heavy that I feared if they were closed too long I would faint right on the spot, I could still move.
It was then that the ground shook violently again, forcing me to change back into my armor to avoid some falling debris.
This reminded me something else that was stupid was going on: Makarov VS Jose which was basically Goku and Vegeta's battle when they first met. Whoever wins, anyone caught in the crossfire would no doubt lose.
And I had to make sure no one actually did.
As I made my way towards the cathedral area, I was surprised to see that the Cathedral itself was still standing even with all its windows broken and a large giant shaped hole on one side. It was everything else around it that looked far worse. Thing was though, everywhere around was so damaged, I had no clear sign of where the two dragged their battle.
But then I remembered the holo map created in the Cathedral. Master Makrov deactivated it when the doors came crashing in, but it should still work… maybe.
"Warren, has anyone seen Jose or Makarov? They're no longer near the Cathedral."
After activating the map and still seeing working, I noticed we lost 125 of the thunder Lacrima orbs of the Thunder Palace out of 300, effectively halving it's strength from awhile ago.
"Beggars can't be choosers, and we don't seem to be losing much anymore which means we should have saved the rest…"
"Kain, some of our guys said they might have spotted Master making a beeline out of the town towards the east."
East? Wait, if I recalled the map, wasn't there nothing but empty land there?
"He's probably leading Jose there so there will be less collateral damage." I mused as I checked the map. There were indeed some powerful signatures—wait no, it's only picking up one there. That's odd.
And considering how stories usually go and how I'm currently in one, the tiniest details ended up causing the most darn trouble.
"Warren, I'm heading east."
"What, why!?"
"I have a bad feeling at what originally knocked out your telepathic link before. My armor seemed to react to it, and I am the only one available to get to him fast enough." What I wouldn't give to have Jet back right now. "Warren, have our remaining groups support whichever team needs it most. You'll be in charge of leading everyone when I get out of your range."
"W-What me?! You and master were way better at leading than me!"
"I trust you, Warren. I'm sure you can do it, and don't be afraid to ask for help." The ground shook again, making me realize these tremors we were feeling came from outside the city. "Good luck!"
With that, I moved again with my armor, running like the Flash would. I never really thought much about the super speed and strength I was using outside of the fights I was dragged in. The only real time I properly reflected on these powers was in the first week of testing the armor, and even then I was so caught up with how everyone was potentially trying to kill me.
I put those thoughts aside as I entered through the desert like area east of Magnolia. Odd, I felt faster—no time for that! Where's master Makarov and Jose—
KABOOM!
Wizard Saints.
They are awarded by the Fiore Magic Council to some of the most powerful and acclaimed mages of their land.
There are ten in total; the top four are considered The Gods of Ishgar, effectively meaning that they are not only the strongest in one kingdom, but the entire continent, other Kingdoms included beyond that of Fiore.
But… has anyone ever wondered what a battle between two opposing Saints would be like?
One could mainly argue that it depends purely on their choice of magic. Some magic are subtler than others and some can be considered direct counters. Considering at least, Draculous Hyberion, the ranked second among the Wizard Saints, his preferred magic is based on paralysis. With this in mind, you could argue fights are just as simple as normal mages.
However, there is a major consensus that if two Wizard Saints were to do battle to the death—KABOOM—with every ounce of their power—FSSHHBOOM—then it is best to pray that you are not within a hundred mile radius of their battle.
KRACKOOM!
Makarov whisked around the battlefield like a bumblebee. He was also the size of one, yet his 'sting' was with the force of one billion stings.
To any untrained eye it looked like armored shadow clones were getting destroyed and exploding left and right to an invisible enemy. Yet Makarov had to rely on his shrinking part of his body growth magic to win this fight.
The shade clones of Makarov were still fast and were capable of firing magic that would no doubt take down even an S-class mage. This point was only proven more when Makarov would dodge one spell, whatever poor boulder or cactus that was hit was not only vaporized—but almost everything around it was erased as if it was never there in the first place.
But while Makarov had speed and mobility, Jose had endurance, stamina, and numbers.
Eventually, one of the shade clones was quick enough to catch a tiny Makarov by slamming his hands together. No sooner than he did, other Jose shades instantly dogpiled on the one to ensure that he would remain caught and maybe crushed.
However, the dogpile did not last as soon Makarov then escaped by expanding back into a giant and throwing off all the shades away.
But even this was planed as the original Jose had already started running and gathering energy in his fist the moment Makarov was first caught. When the giant freed himself, he instantly noticed the real Jose already in the air with his fist reclined.
"Thousand Wails!" Jose let loose the punch that exploded with black magic that unleashed a sound that felt like a thousand souls crying out in pain and caused the massive giant to blanch from the blow and fall down and cover a great amount of distance and cause a gigantic crater from the force of the impact.
Jose landed back on the ground and shouted. "STAND UP MAKAROV! STAND UP! YOU ARE NOT GETTING OUT OF THIS THAT EASILY! EVERY SINGLE BREATH I'VE TAKEN FOR THE PAST 55 YEARS HAS BEEN LEADING UP TO THIS BATTLE! UNLEASH EVERY OUNCE OF YOUR POWER, TAP INTO EVERY SKILL YOU HAVE EVER LEARNED, REMEMBER EVERY BATTLE THAT HAS MADE YOU THIS DAY—SO THAT I MAY CRUSH IT WITH ABSOLUTE POWER LIKE YOU DID TO MY LOVED ONES!"
The black armored wizard saint then quickly ran up to Makarov's waist while still a giant and then with the strength of his new weapon lifted up the massive giant and threw him into the air.
The air around Jose's feet seemed to gather as he bent down—then leapt up higher than skyscraper with a single bound. Jose yelled as he gathered a dangerous amount of energy in both of his fists and raced closer and closer to giant Makarov's stomach.
"ONE MILLION WAILS!"
Then the sky exploded with a boom that had a thousand unrecognizable faces but many more screams that encompassed Magnolia, and Phantom Lord's guild.
Everyone stopped and looked to the sky that was filled with such pained horror that for the briefest of time, everyone forgot that they were in war.
Back during the fight; however, there was a small sphere that shot out from the sky and landed down the beaten earth with an unstable crash. As dust settled, it revealed a fairly small sphere with a Fairy Tail symbol on it.
As the sphere faded, Makarov was seen sweating profusely and gasping for air while coughing blood.
"He's… so powerful… I can't believe I had to use… Fairy Sphere… even though… I had never truly mastered a small version of it…" The Fairy Tail guild master gasped in pain.
There was another powerful crash not to fair from him, causing Makarov to blanch inwardly and almost outwardly.
Out of the smoke, Jose walked out. Makarov was able to deal his fair share of physical blows enough to knock out a man fifty times over. Yet Jose took it in stride—no. It was as if Jose long lost control of his own body and acted purely and soley on vengeance, the amount of punishment that even Jose had taken would have even forced Makarov's friends to stop, but Jose seemed be inhumanly ignoring all attempts to stop him from this fight.
It was no matter how much damage he did, it wouldn't affect Jose—it was like he couldn't actually touch him—like a phantom…
A true Phantom Lord.
Jose walked up to Makarov but then stopped. "… There is… one thing…"
Makarov looked in confusion as Jose stopped in his tracks.
"Did you ever… regret it? Killing all those people?"
Makarov stopped panting and tried to look Jose in the eye. "… It has haunted me in my worst nightmares. But to know that you actually lived through my mistake? I can only imagine what hell you went through… I'm truly sorry."
An apology.
In a battle between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord those three words popped up between two of ten people considered the strongest in Ishgar.
Jose for the first time in their fight seemed to loosen up. However, "We both know those words mean nothing as of right now, pretty as they are."
Makarov closed his eyes and sighed. "That's the sad thing: I wish they weren't just pretty sounding words."
Makarov's eyes then snapped open as he used his magic chain and shot it right behind him. Instead of pulling him away, he was using it to propel himself forward with great force and punched Jose with gathered energy in his fist.
Jose roared and dropped every last shred of mercy left as he ran right for Makarov with renewed anger and blinding battle-lust.
However, unlike before, Makarov stood his ground and sighed deeply. The smaller guild master avoided a wide area of effect attack by jumping far back and the firing a large light based magic with the intention of blinding Jose. It worked since Jose was forced to put his plated arm over his visor to protect his eyes. As he put his hand down; however, the Phantom Lord noticed that Makarov's hand was stretched really, really far back.
At the end, of such a stretch, did that look like a sonic boo—
Jose didn't have much time to react to a fist coming into his abdomen with the speed of a hundred bullets. Even with the enhanced armor, he could feel his entire being, even his own blood, feel the sting of that blow before being thrown like a skipped rock across the desert area.
However, while that move would have thrice put even the best of S-class mages down and out for months, Jose's inhuman endurance was still kicking in. Makarov was absolutely amazed as it seemed like Jose was actually clinging onto the ground he was sliding on, creating a large scar on the earth, but desperately grabbing onto anything his limbs could stabilize him with. In all of his years of fighting, the Fairy Tail guild master had never met an opponent with such pain tolerance that went beyond the realms of possibility.
The two continued their two-man war from before. However, with far more intensity as spells of light and shadow tore the land, the very air, and even the dust in their battle. The two were—if possible—putting out even more power that dwarfed the entirety of both their guilds and were now fighting with magical levels that could be felt in over half of Fiore.
But unfortunately for the Phantom Lord, it was too late. Makarov admitted that the initial shock of the fact that Jose came from Figo Valley was horrifying, but it also made him fight worse than he already planned to since he had to make sure he wouldn't hit any of his 'children' while the two were in Magnolia.
Now Makarov was far, far away from Magnolia. Now Makarov had said all he could say to Jose about his past.
Now Makarov Dreyar could stop holding back.
For the very first time in decades, the Wizard Saint was slowly becoming more and more zen. His old battle senses he thought he lost in his prime, were coming back to him in this fight. His body seemed to move on old instincts, dodging in ways even his conscious mind couldn't keep up with and unleashing spells he thought he had forgotten.
Jose Porla had enhanced speed, enhanced magical power, and he even had tenacity that would put the greatest of Zeref's demons to utter shame.
But the sad truth of the matter was this: Jose was still not strong enough to beat Makarov.
There was a tiny piece of Jose's mind not devoted to pure vengeance that noticed the opposing Wizard Saint was slowly getting the upper hand. He was running out of time and Makarov knew this as well. The two were about to end their legendary war.
"ONE MILLION—"
"Omni—"
Both men began some of their most powerful spells…
"—WAILS!"
"—Punch!"
Once more, Jose unleashed an unprecedented amount of magic that started to take the form of beings with faces, mouths, and eyes all rushing for Makarov. However, Makarov threw his fist at the incoming faced magic—then his fist suddenly and almost instantly turned giant sized and rocketed with so much force that it punched through the attack of Jose and directly hit and caught the armored Wizard Saint.
"AAAAHHHHHHH!" Makarov wasn't done as he poured more magic, shooting the giant fist outward like a rocket and revealing it was stretching miles and miles, hitting left over cliffs and rock formations and knocking them over like bowling pins. Makarov's fist went further and faster until some distance away it actually exploded, then created something like a mushroom cloud that was then followed by the earth shaking violently.
With magic, Makarov reeled his fist back and turned it back to normal. However, he fell to his knees and gasped for air. He had put every ounce of magic in his best battle spells before Fairy Law.
There was a sound behind him that made Makarov look back and see a left over shade clone he never noticed. That was catastrophic since Makarov had barely any power to fight back and it seemed the left over shade was autonomous!
However, there was a blurr of red that seemed to cut down the shade in half. Makarov stared before the shade vanished in a puff of smoke and Kain was there, gasping for breath and looking completely dusty and dirty.
"M-Master?! Are you alright?!" Kain asked as he ran up to him.
"Kain, what are you doing here!?" On one hand, he was worried that potentially his weakest member was out here in his battle between him and Jose. On the other hand, Kain had just saved his life. "No wait, Kain! Bring me to where I unleashed my attack on Jose! I need to know what happened!"
The red rider nodded before picking him up and using his moderate level of speed to head towards ground zero of Master's last attack.
When the two got there, they quickly noticed the smoke dying down… and that Jose…
Jose was out cold and strangely back to normal. Makarov looked around briefly noticed the knife beside Jose starting to crack and instantly turn to dust before Kain seemed to notice.
However, that was not the time nor the place.
Makarov fell to his knees when Kain momentarily put him down and tried to reach for something in his coat. "K-Kain. Please, end it!" He took out special looking cuffs out unsteadily towards the red rider. "Hurry and put these on him! They are cuffs the Magic Council use to prevent mages from using their magic; it can even work on someone like me—but go!"
Without wasting a second, Kain did what he was told and cuffed Jose. The cuffs started to glow and flash blue no sooner they were cuffed around the unconscious Jose.
"All guild masters… are given one pair of cuffs… as an emergency in case they need to shelter… a criminal in their guild… before the authorities… take them…" Makarov looked at Kain while trying to explain it. "I thought I would be wise to bring them out in case I knock Jose out…"
"I-I see…" Makarov actually noticed something about Kain that was somewhat different. There was tiredness in his voice as well but was there also… nervousness?
Thinking back, Makarov then recalled seeing something red just before he was hit in the sky. "Kain… how much did you hear?"
To the horror of the master, Kain visibly winced at the question. Of course, Kain's senses were heightened while in the armor which meant that he heard the conversation during their fight. He must have been hiding somewhere safe or far, not that Makarov would have been able to afford to pay attention to that.
…Again he made the mistake of not paying close attention to his surroundings. Had he truly learned nothing? Had it not been Kain, who was thankfully sane enough to stay away from the fight between guild masters until it was necessary to, would they have been caught in the collateral damage?
Perhaps… it was truly time to let go.
"55 years ago…" Makarov began as he looked up to the sky where the dust clouds were parting and the sun was slowly coming back. "The Magic Council had privately hired me and my team to capture an escape convict, Jumanda Hagu. A mage who had practiced telepathic magic so much, he could control people's minds against their will. Goldmine tracked him to Figo Valley, but I—in my impatience to get this job done and utter arrogance thinking no one could beat me—split up the team."
Makarov could tell by Kain's subtle movements he was horrified at the idea of splitting the team up against a mind controller—he truly was smarter than him.
"Jumanda got the jump on me. His magic was more than I thought I could resist. However, in a desperate attempt to control my mind, Jumanda locked me in a nightmare where I believed myself to be surrounded by monsters attacking me."
"… They weren't monsters or illusions… were they?" Kain said as he looked over to Jose's unconscious body. It was strange that despite how horrifying Jose was mere seconds ago, he looked strangely… peaceful while unconscious.
"No." That one word seemed to hurt Master Makarov more than he could admit. But the look of shame across his face only showed that there was more.
"One of our newer team members at the time, and someone who joined us for that mission, was one of the first to find and try to snap me out of Jumanda's control…" Makarov gasped as he then put his hand over his eyes and seemed to grit his teeth in utter shame and disgust with himself.
"But she wasn't powerful at all and was unable to stop me," Kain was surprised with the mention of a female guild mate. "And one of the many crimes Jumanda was charged for was…."
What he implied made Kain realize what kind of horrible potential mind control could do.
Those two facts caused Kain to gape in confused horror when he realized that those two things could be added together. "He didn't…" He managed to gasp.
"No," Makarov gripped his fist tight so tightly blood was coming out of his hands. "He was too focused in controlling me, but Illana was beautiful," Kain decided to note but say nothing about the name Master let out. "So he forced me to…"
Kain had enough and put his hand on his master's shoulder. "Master, that's enough, you don't have to torture yourself remembering anymore."
"That bastard watched us…"
"Master!" Kain said and finally depowered his armor and looked Makarov in the eye. "I… I never got to say this, did I?"
"Say… what?" It looked as if Makarov feared words such as how disgusting he acted or how foolish he was.
He was not expecting something kind. "Thank you for letting me join Fairy Tail."
Makarov just looked at the disheveled and obviously tired looking boy with utter confusion. "Excuse me?"
"I mean it. If you had said no when we first met, I wouldn't have known what to do. You helped me even when I was so confused and lost in where I was. So… thank you, I really do appreciate it."
"Why are you saying this?" Makarov asked with a bewildered expression.
"Because," Kain responded. However, he just hoped his heart could speak well enough for him considering his brain was aching like hell. "Because for all the bad you did, I think you did some good as well. Please don't forget that too."
Master Makarov looked to his feet as the boy said those heartfelt words. "Thank you." He whispered honestly.
Since Kain felt bad for master, he pulled him into a hug. It felt weird treating an older and more acclaimed person like a child, but to the displaced boy's surprise, Makarov returned the hug as well. Despite no wearing the armor, Kain could feel tears on his torso coming through his shirt.
It was sad wasn't it? Makarov's greatest mistake still had consequences up to now. Jose actually revealed his reason for hating Fairy Tail and while what happened to him does not give him the right to do this, it did explain so much of his actions. Jose blamed Makarov and Makarov truly did believe himself the one who let the criminal Jumanda get the best of him.
Despite there being a physical winner, it seemed like no one won between Jose and Makarov. They both lost a long time ago.
But wait a second. Something didn't make sense to Kain as he thought back to this tragedy:
Why did the Magic Council privately hire Makarov's team?
Before Kain could go any further with those thoughts, he heard a voice.
"It appears I am rather late. How inauspicious."
Kain turned back and saw a man carrying a glass of very red wine styled in such a way that it reminded him of old school Dracula. It was rather shocking, unlike all the times before, how did the man get so close to them without either him or Makarov noticing?!
Makarov stopped and quickly turned to the man who had owned that voice. He rubbed his eyes then stared in awe at who it was in front of him. "Draculous Hyberion?"
"Say who now?" Kain raised his brow in shock.
"H-He's the second ranked Wizard Saint! Basically Ishgar's second strongest mage: The Vampire Slayer, Draculous Hyberion! What are you doing here!?"
"The vampire slayer title is far exaggerated than you know Makarov," The elegant man stated. "I seem to recall telling you all that I killed only one very weakened Vampire Lord and that's it, but I'm not here to talk about me, Makarov, I'm here for you and Jose." The man pointed over to the downed man. "I was asked to stop whatever it was you two were about to do, but according to their sources, Jose had a portal mage friend thus complicating the process all together."
"They?" It seemed Makarov had said what Kain was thinking as they both noticed the use of the pronoun from the man.
Draculous pointed to something, causing the two to follow his sight.
At first, it was just the horizon, but in the distance the two were starting to notice something take shape…
"Master, what's that?"
"Those, Kain," Makarov corrected before he gulped. "Are the Magic Council's main army, the Rune Knights."
Over the skies of Magnolia, several dozen strange aircrafts floated above or beside the Thunder Palace. Rune Knights fell by ropes or magical platforms, trying to stop whatever fighting was left—not that it was needed since neither Fairy Tail or Phantom Lord were foolish enough to take on the Rune Knights.
On the Phantom Lord guild, around fifteen mages halted their destructive and wild battle when a group of fifteen Rune Knights appeared right in the center of the fight.
"If only you could have teleported us all from all the way from Era, Doranbolt." Someone among the new group said as they fixed their glasses.
"Hey, just because the files say Voyu Carliso is capable of opening portals nearly anywhere in Ishgar, doesn't automatically mean I can match someone of that mastery, Lahar!"
And with the appearance of the Rune Knights all over Magnolia, the war between Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord had ended.
"Fairy Tail has done it again!" Members of the Magic council cried out, one in particular named Org with long white hair shouted.
"That is unfair to Fairy Tail, Councilman Org." A blue haired, young council man by the name of Siegrain countered from the opposite side. "Even Jose Porla has formally and vocally admitted he was the one to initiate this guild war."
"And guess what we also found out?" Councilwoman Belno began in with the topic of Jose brought up. "He was a survivor of the Jumanda Hagu incident where he used his emotion manipulation magic on Makarov Dreyar to eradicate the small, isolated village! Does anyone even realize what this means!? Jose has fortunately said nothing and is still choosing to be silent in exchange for his guild's punishment lowered to being only temporarily disbanded for a short period of time, but now all Fairy Tail and Phantom Lord mages have been noted to the previous existence of Figo Valley!"
"It also doesn't help that the guild master at the time," Councilman Leiji added in, "Precht Gaebolg, convinced us to keep the matter hush-hush."
"Now that's a bold faced lie even among the art of politics, Council man Leiji." Councilwoman Ultear began. "Let's all be real here. The Magic Council at the time wanted to save face for a mistake in letting Jumanda Hagu escape in the first place and trying to only hire a small team to capture him back. They let Makarov go because Precht was practically considered the equal of Warrod Sequen, one of the four gods of Ishgar, and someone not to be crossed in any circumstance."
"You ungrateful—"
"Michello," Councilman Yajima quickly cut off his fellow member from instantly doing something that would lead to more pointless arguing. "As someone one directly in the Figo Valley incident first hand, you must understand the politics at the time were necessary due to decreasing public opinions on the Magic Council."
"That's not the point of it all!" Org began speaking again. "The point of this is that Figo Valley has been brought to light, therefore, sooner or later the magic council will face scrutiny if someone sharp puts all the pieces together! We must take action for our mistakes now before further damage can be done."
Yajima had a bad feeling about this. The council almost always meant self preservation when they say, 'Take action for their mistakes.'
"Which is why, I propose…"
Yajima's horrible feeling only became worse as Org gave out his plan, and only became amplified greatly when over half of the magic council agreed to his plan.
Fairy Tail stared in shock. After finally getting things partially together after the Phantom Lord Fight, the Magic Council came with a decree that forever changed them.
"By order of the Magic Council," A frog representative began in front of a Fairy Tail trying to rebuild the city and their guild, "Master Makarov is here by fired as Master of Fairy Tail and suspended of his rights as Wizard Saint due to failure to adhere to hundreds of violations against Phantom Lord!"
Before anyone could say anything else to voice their protest, they all found out the representative was not done talking.
Fairy Tail wished that Master Makarov being fired was the only bad thing.
"However, since a Mage Guild cannot function without a proper representative, the Magic Council recognizes Laxus Dreyar as the Fourth Fairy Tail Guild Master!"
Main re-edit #1 2/19/2018. *Added more build up to the end of Makarov VS Jose.* (Thanks to Lorgar Aurelian/Formerly Svane Vulfbad for the tips in how to better end the fight.)