Jura's powerful, there's no doubt about that. Even at the speed I was flitting about he was able to successfully obstruct my movements with precise use of his spells, creating and manipulating the terrain around us to his advantage in the blink of an eye. The casting speed of his spells and the power behind them were seriously nothing to joke about.
"Iron Rock Fist!"
"Aegis!"
I blocked Jura's spell with my own when I realised he had successfully trapped me into a corner with all of the earthen pillars he had raised. Even so, my shield of light only lasted for about two seconds before they were forcefully shattered. I did manage to make my escape, but Jura looked as if he never broke a sweat while I was forced to be on the defensive the entire time.
"Holy Cross!"
A powerful surge of light shot forth from my outstretched palms in an X shape, and I watched as Jura easily defended himself against one of my strongest spells simply by raising the earth. The earthen wall shattered into massive boulders after my spell dissipated and Jura launched those massive boulders at me, forcing me to either defend or to continue running.
"Look at that power! They didn't make him one of the Ten Wizard Saints for nothing!'
I really want to shut the emcee's damn mouth right now.
'Look, you fool, if you don't want to embarrass yourself you really have to start getting serious and stop holding back. Your usual spells are just not going to cut it, those basic spells are barely scratching the surface of the power of the magic I taught you.'
I know, but I'm not certain if unleashing the entity within me in such a place where hundreds of spectators are watching is a good idea. I don't want to accidentally create a massacre like what I did when I first gained this power.
But he's right, if I really wanted to win this match I need to stop holding back. If using his power - if using God Soul is not an option- then I will have to fall back on Plan B.
The "forbidden" aspect of my magic it is. Or to be more accurate, the only other option left right now is to embrace and utilise the full potential of my unique brand of Light magic and with it, prepare myself for the potential dangers of doing so. It's still a better option than calling a literal God down in comparison.
A boulder finally managed to connect and send me flying away but I managed to get back up quickly. Jura was kind enough to give me a short break, waiting for me to make my next move, but I just knew that he was doing so because he did not see me as a threat.
That would change very soon.
I slowly shifted my body and took on a stance that I hadn't been using in a long while. I hated using the high level spells invented by my village because of the memories associated with it, but at the same I knew that this was going to be the best possible alternative short of unleashing the entity within me. These spells are ancient, each with a history to its creation, and by the standards of modern magic they would be viewed as forbidden magic. However, there was no such thing as "forbidden" for my magic, because to tap into the full potential of my Light magic is to be willing to be subjected to the dangers of using those high level "forbidden" spells. That is simply the nature of the magic that I was taught and is not something that I can change.
There really wasn't a choice for me to begin with, not with Jura as my opponent and my desire to win. Funny how I kept claiming earlier that I didn't care if Fairy Tail won or not, but now I'm doing all I can to not lose.
"You know, I really do not want to do this, because this brings back bad memories. Jura Neekis, I acknowledge your strength. You will have the honours of going up against the true nature of my magic and the secret arts of my village. This is not something which I will use lightly."
"Come," Jura answered my challenge as the earth started to tremble, and I knew that we were finally done testing each other.
I came from Nocina village, a village which worshipped the God of Light. Our culture and way of life revolved around the God of Light, from our traditions, to our food, our religion, everything, and that naturally extended to magic as well. Everyone in my village who could use magic was a practitioner of Light-based magic, and when a village had centuries to hone only one particular branch of magic there were bound to be people who succeeded in inventing some crazy technique or two in our long history.
"Holy light, hear my prayer."
Just to be clear, I hate incantations. Incantations gives strength to magic spells but it's troublesome to do so, and to me, chanting spell incantations just sounded like a damn stupid thing to do in battle. However, incantations are simply a prominent trait for ancient magic and spells as it was how they were initially created, like how modern magic and spells were created with the intention to either shorten or forgo incantations entirely.
Beliefs give strength to magic, allowing miracles to be born from it. The stronger the belief and intent, the stronger the spell, and what many modern mages do not understand is that incantations do not exist for the sole purpose of making lives difficult for us. Incantations, in essence, is a method to give form to beliefs, intent, and history to the spell, and is the reason why when used properly, incantations are able to empower spells with devastating effects.
There are pros and cons for using or forgoing incantations in invoking magic spells, and it is entirely up to the preference of the caster regarding which method they prefer to use. I personally prefer to omit incantations from my spells if possible, which was why I only regularly used that same few spells because those were the spells that I can effectively use without relying on incantations.
But when I got serious and when I accepted the fact that I needed to use ancient spells with lengthy incantations to win my battles, then my arsenal just got a lot larger, because it is times like this that I truly tap into the full potential of my unique brand of Light magic.
After all, my magic is as ancient as the world itself.
"Supreme King Rock Crush!"
Jura had sensed that whatever I was preparing, it cannot be anything good for him. He's right, this spell really is bad news.
"I offer thee my heart and soul."
The boulders flying at me were about to reach me any second now, but they would not be fast enough.
"Purify me, cleanse me, bestow upon me the power to smite my foes."
Nothing is faster than the speed of light.
"Nocina Secret Art: Damnation of Evil"
Jura's spell imploded, but I was far away from the explosion by the time it happened and reappeared within Jura's guard in a split second. Just one punch and I sent him crashing into the walls of the arena.
Damnation of Evil is an ancient Light-based spell that augments the user's capabilities, bathing the caster in a glow of holy light. Speed, strength, magic; every aspect of the caster will be taken up a notch and very few could stand up against a true practitioner of this secret art. Very few in my village's history had managed to master it and using this spell does come with its own risk. I wasn't exaggerating earlier when I said that this spell is not to be used lightly.
Unfortunately for Jura, I am not just a practitioner of this secret art, I am a master in it. This was also not the only secret art I had learned from my village's archives after I had erased it from existence. I have many more such surprises where they came from. I am the only living legacy, and the walking library of my village's secret arts.
I am the only one left in this world who bears the knowledge of their history, culture, and magic, and the only one left in this world who knows the secrets and has relations to the God of Light which we worshipped.
I am the last Nocina, the final light of my village.
"That took me by surprise."
Jura got back up from the smoking hole in the wall, using the back of his hand to wipe off the small trail of blood leaking out from the corner of his mouth. He's grinning, clearly enjoying the thrill of the battle, a sentiment that I would never understand because to me, battles are always a matter of life and death to be taken seriously. They are not meant to be enjoyed.
I am bathed in the glow and protection of the benevolent light, but I don't plan on stopping here. I stretched my right arm outwards, palm facing Jura, my left arm bent inwards with my left palm resting at the area where my right elbow was.
I closed my eyes and began my incantation of another overly long and troublesome spell.
"From nothing, light was born. From light, life was born."
Jura had definitely learned from his prior experiences that allowing me to complete my incantations is definitely going to be bad news for him. Even with my eyes closed I could tell that he had immediately launched another spell, this time one that was much more powerful and brutal in its effects.
"From life, strife was born. From strife, love was born."
Damnation of Evil automatically created a forcefield made of light to intercept Jura's spell, protecting me from harm.
"From love, hate was learned. From hate, forgiveness was learned. From forgiveness, we know strength."
I had gotten serious, so Jura would need to be truly serious if he wished to best me in combat. I was raised a warrior and I am a survivor. Until the point I met Fairy Tail I had lived my entire life as if everyday will be my last.
I am no stranger to combat, life, and death.
"God of Light, hear my voice; my belief is steadfast, unwavering. Grant me the power to correct those who have erred, grant me the power to defeat those who have sinned."
I opened my eyes and invoked another forbidden spell.
"Come forth, Valkyrie."
An angelic being made of light descended from the skies, answering to my summons to help slay my foes. This was a spell created by one of my ancestors in times of war, and this spell was credited as a reason why my village had existed for as long as it did. This spell was created to be a deterrence, a spell that had taken down armies in times long past and protected our village's peace.
I don't believe my version of Valkyrie possessed the same level of power my ancestor once wielded it as, but Jura had proved himself powerful enough to be on the receiving end of one of these, and this should be enough to be of a threat to him.
My valkyrie was about the size of a giant statue, and immediately started its assault on Jura who was forced to counter my spell with his, creating an earthen golem to stop my Valkyrie. It's pointless, because the time now is midday where light is at its strongest due to the position of the sun. Light is abundant at this time of the day and my Valkyrie derives its strength from light itself.
Jura left his earthen golem to duke it out with my Valkyrie and immediately launched other spells at me, accurately deducing that the only way to destroy my Valkyrie is to first defeat me, its summoner. However, I've been expecting this, because Valkyrie was nothing more than a distraction to force Jura to massively exhaust his magic power. His golem has a self-repair function and healed any damage it took by reforming itself using the earth beneath, but that had to cost magic and its source of magic is Jura.
Valkyrie is different. It does not need the summoner to provide any source of magic to it once it was summoned, because light is its source of strength and there's plenty of that in the arena where we are fighting.
"Rumbling Mt Fuji!"
An extremely huge surge of magic struck me and I was forced to dodge it. Even so, I wasn't fast enough, and I had to employ a defensive spell to block the damage and even then, I didn't emerge entirely unscathed. That was one powerful spell packed with immense power and enough range to boot, definitely one of the strongest spells in Jura's arsenal.
Light beams converged onto Jura as per my command, striking him in several places but he had created a shield of earth to defend himself. Shackles of light then manifested in my attempt to entrap him, but he somehow still managed to break free from his imprisonment.
So this is the power of a Wizard Saint. Unfortunately, I don't have time to appreciate the finesse in Jura's skills. I need to end this as soon as I can because using so many of my village's secret arts is going to take a huge toll on my body. The secret arts were never meant to be used in such a manner. They were viewed as forbidden spells by the standards of modern magic for a very good reason.
I angled my body sideways, feet wide apart, body crouched low and my arms stretched fully to the sides as I'm about to hurl the largest spear I could create and hold.
"O benevolent spirits, protect our homeland! We call for the destruction of the darkness, we call for the warmth of the light! Bless us with your divine blessings, and answer our prayers!"
A massive lance of light came into existence in my right hand and I prepared myself to throw it, the lance which was said to be an imitation of the God of Light's personal weapon.
"Starlight!"
"Rock Mountain!"
My right arm shot forward, throwing my spell at Jura as my answer to his Rumbling Mt Fuji from earlier. Jura immediately conjured a large rock formation to take the blow for him, a golem taking the shape of a human clad in an Eastern-looking armour. I don't know if Jura's spell will be strong enough to withstand mine, but I knew that this would be a good time to follow up on my first attack.
"Excalibur!"
I cleaved the rock formation into two with a sword of light in hand. Jura managed to evade the worst of my sneak attack and immediately responded with numerous rock pillars erupting from below to crush me. I stopped them with my bare hands, the augmentation from Damnation of Evil allowing me to easily crush the rock formations with my palms as I pushed forward my assault.
"Final Spark!"
The colours of the rainbow exploded from my palms, creating massive explosions that bathed Jura in it. Valkyrie answered my command as it left Jura's golem alone to follow up on my attack, swinging its sword down on Jura's last known position and I was briefly impressed at how Jura managed to actually defend against Valkyrie's attack head on through sheer might.
However, with Valkyrie pinning him down like this, Jura wouldn't be able to move. I got him into a corner, just where I wanted him to be. I stretched my right hand forward in Valkyrie's direction and clenched my fist.
"Explode."
A large surge of Light magic imploded and washed through the arena as Valkyrie self-detonated upon my command. Wizard Saint or not, Jura is not going to be able to get out of that unscathed.
When the smoke finally cleared, I realised that Jura was hiding behind the crumbling remains of the large golem he had originally created as a countermeasure against Valkyrie. That's some quick thinking on his part, but I can also clearly tell that Valkyrie's last attack had affected him. He's injured and like me, is now on a time limit before he succumbs to the effects of blood loss.
'Are you naive, or are you daft? You seriously think you are going to outlast him? For how long more can you keep throwing those spells around as if they are free candy? For how long more can your body hold on? These spells, the full potential of your magic, they were meant to be used in tandem with God Soul, they are not meant to be used by the mortal body in this foolhardy manner.'
'Never know till I try.'
'You will lose. Without my help, you WILL lose.'
'I'm not unleashing you here to recreate a massacre. Now shut up and let me concentrate.'
"I apologise, it seems that I had severely underestimated you," Jura said between laboured breaths as he began to put his palms together in preparation for his next spell. "I can see that your spells are taking a huge toll on your body as well, so I will be ending this here."
Jura is a Wizard Saint, so I'm not surprised that he noticed that using my high level spells comes at a price. Maybe as a senior mage and a Wizard Saint, he was indeed showing concern and respect for me, a junior mage who is his opponent and had proved capable of wounding him, but all I heard from his words was his arrogance, implying that even in his current state he could still defeat me and end this battle in his victory while not allowing me to injure myself any further.
It was the final straw for me, because if there's one thing I hated, it's to be looked down upon. I will admit that being prideful of my strength is one of my many flaws, but it is a pride well-earned from the countless bloodshed and life-and-death battles that I had survived and continuously emerged victorious in Alvarez until I made my escape and arrived at Fiore.
I had never seen him before nor was I told of his true name, but I was someone who was offered a position in Emperor Spriggan's personal guards, the Spriggan Twelve, and I am the only fool who had decided to decline that offer and rebelled against them, forcing me to make my subsequent escape from the empire. "Final Light" Argus was my given epithet, because in my strongest form I am the last ray of light my foes would ever see before I vanquish them.
This is not my strongest form, because I had never once tapped into his power for the entire duration of this battle, and I intend to keep it this way. The powers of a God shouldn't be used lightly as they are not the benevolent beings that religious scriptures portrayed them to be. They hold no love for mortals as we are only objects to be observed to sate their own amusement. Wherever they appear and go, death is bound to follow. Unlike a certain arrogant "Warrior Queen" in Alvarez who wields a similar power that I do, I do not believe that calling upon a God's power is something their chosen vessel should carelessly rely on.
Besides, Jura is not worthy to be on the receiving end of his power. Such an honour is only reserved for a worthy adversary like "Wizard King" August or "Scarlet Despair" Irene Belserion. These are the kind of foes who are truly powerful, people akin to world-ending calamities whose existence itself would make even someone like me genuinely fear for my life.
"I don't need your pity nor your concern," I replied as I took on another stance, ready for the next bout. "Battles are not meant to be fun, nor were they meant to be enjoyed. They are simply a means to an end, to determine the life and death of its participants and they should be treated seriously as such. This game is an insult to the significance of battles, because they were never meant to be created for sport."
'You are treating this too seriously. This is just a game, you could have just relied on me and be done with it without risking the destruction of your own body. Why are you staking your life for this?'
'I don't know.'
In truth, I think I knew the answer deep down in my heart. My foggy memories from my past life aside, I had always been alone ever since I was betrayed by my family and village. Nobody had cared for me, nobody had expressed concern for me, and certainly nobody had bothered to stand up for me.
I was always alone.
Then, I met the people I never wanted to get to know. I met Fairy Tail.
They genuinely cared for me. The first thing Asuka asked when she first saw the horrendous scar on my face was not about how I got it or why it became that way, but whether the scar still hurt, and the sweet little girl loves to hear what I experienced in my travels whenever I returned. Macao would go out of his way to keep tabs on my location whenever I am roaming around the lands so that if I were to run into any trouble, he would be able to help at the first opportunity.
They were concerned for me when they never needed to, like how they immediately tried to get me out of the wrong side of the law the moment they learned from Draculos that I was being apprehended and about to be sent to jail.
They stood up for me when nobody else did, like how Laxus did when Sting was being hostile and annoying.
Maybe those fools would never understand just how significant their actions were, but those little things were some of the greatest acts of kindness I had ever received in my life. Now, I am a Fairy Tail mage. My pride as a warrior aside, for them, for the guild, I don't wish to lose, because I want to be able to do something to repay them for their acts of kindness.
I wish to win, but this time I have a selfish wish to win this match using my own power. I don't wish to win and to clinch victory by borrowing somebody else's power. I wish to bring victory through the power that is mine and undeniably mine. I wish to do so with my own magic and knowledge, not his, because this battle holds significant meaning to both me and for the guild.
I cannot lose and I will not allow myself to lose. Like Laxus said, today is just not our day. We lost in the Hidden event, Lucy lost due to Raven Tail's foul play, we are currently at the deadlast position and it would stink if we lost once again to Jura and only got a grand total of a single point even if we combined the scores of both teams of our guild. I don't want my guild to be seen by everyone as a laughing stock.
I cannot recall just what happened in canon and neither do I have much of an idea of the final outcome of the GMG, even if I suspected that it ended up in our guild's victory due to the ever prevalent plot armour, but I cannot bet on a flimsy what-if and the foreknowledge that came from what was a previously fictional story. My status as the last Nocina is a constant reminder that reality is a tragic and disappointing thing.
All I knew was that more than anyone else, those fools who I call my guild mates really wanted to win this game, and if we won the GMG it would have a very significant meaning for them. All I know is that right now, I need to bring those moronic fools some semblance of hope, to get them to believe again that we actually can succeed in our goal of climbing back to the top once more. If it means staking my life, I will do it, because this fight has given me so much more meaning to my life than it ever had in the past seventeen years.
For once, I am not fighting for myself nor for my survival. For once, I am fighting for the sake of others, and it is a beautiful realisation to come to.
"Your spells, they were created for conflict. They were created to take lives," Jura stated with certainty.
"Not everyone is as fortunate as you to have been born in a place that knew the meaning of peace, to be given a choice to stay out of conflict. All I knew was that if I wanted to live, I had to fight with my life on the line, every single time," I stretched my right hand upwards, my index finger pointing towards the sky as the fingers in my left hand curled in a half seal in front of my face.
"But I do agree with you on one thing, and it's that we should end things here. This will be my strongest spell so do me a favour and don't die, Jura. I would hate to be wrongly accused of murdering a Wizard Saint simply because he wasn't competent enough."
The look in Jura's eyes hardened, replaced with one of steely determination.
"And I will answer in kind. Prepare yourself, Fairy Tail Argus."
I began the incantation to invoke my strongest spell, and it is a spell that I really hate to use due to its utterly lengthy incantation. The only saving grace of this spell is in the potentially calamatic power behind it, as this spell was created upon my village's fanatical beliefs and devotion to the God of Light.
It was said that Gods bestowed mortals the possibility of creating miracles through the creation of magic, but not all Gods are benevolent. The God of Light certainly is not, and this is why the magic which he taught and bestowed upon my people had such a high mortality rate. It was not a magic meant to be used by mortals, but a magic to be used by God's chosen vessel.
This is the true nature of my magic, the primordial ancient Light magic, Reunion. Reunion is the primordial form that Light Magic took when the God of Light first bestowed light upon the world at the start of the world's creation. It is the origin of all Light-based magic and spells in this world, if his words are to be believed, and till now I am not even close to understanding the full breadth of its power.
"The end begets a new beginning, and a new beginning begets the end. The universe is flitting, constantly changing, but light is eternal for where there is light, there is life, and where there is life, there will be light."
On Jura's end, the earth continued to rumble and tremble even more violently than before. Like me, he is also taking this time to prepare his strongest spell.
We will decide the victor between us in one decisive blow.
"The world marches on to the lie that is eternity, but true eternity lies within the light. To end our false eternity of suffering would be to embrace the absence of light, for that is when darkness encroaches."
The world around us started to dim and gradually darken, as the light from our surroundings in a fixed radius of approximately one kilometre was being sucked to fuel the blinding orb of light hovering high up above me in the sky.
"The end of false eternity should not be feared, but to be embraced. Rejoice, for we are one step closer to joining the God of Light in his plane of paradise."
The world darkened into nothingness and I ignored the fearful screams and gasps of the audiences from having their sense of sight robbed from them. Their eyes are working just fine, it's just that all light in the vicinity had been absorbed into my spell to fuel it. Nobody would be able to see anything with the absence of light and that's entirely natural.
"God of Light, please accept my unworthy sacrifice. Hear me, guide me, into your promised paradise of eternity where light is omnipresent. I offer thee, the light of the sinned, to vanquish my foes and to protect my beloved."
The orb of light above me grew bigger and bigger, but nobody other than me would be able to see the light emitted from it. All they would see is a world of darkness. The last ray of light they would ever see would be the brief moment before the effect of the spell was being activated. At least, that was the description of the spell that I had read about from the village's archives before I destroyed it, the spell created to end a war in Alvarez a few centuries ago that resulted in a change in its ruler. That was how powerful this spell was under the hands of its creator.
I am not as accomplished a mage when compared to this spell's creator, and neither will my spell be as powerful as his. Still, this should be enough to ensure Jura's defeat. This is all I have left because I do not have enough in me to drag this battle on for any longer.
Like the entity within me had said, the true nature of my magic wasn't meant to be used by the mortal body. It was meant to be used through the body of a divine being. Only God's chosen will be able to realise the full potential of my village's Light magic, Reunion, because only God's chosen could be exempted from the deadly side effects of the magic through borrowing the body of our God.
But God is not benevolent. If he makes an appearance here, Crocus will be bathed in blood.
So this is my final gamble, the brilliance of light that I hope will bring victory to Fairy Tail on this unlucky day. In front of someone who was considered for the position of a Spriggan Twelve, Wizard Saints are merely an existence who are slightly more skilled than the average mage, someone who is unfit to witness their full and final strength. Even without the use of God Soul, I am still fully capable of showing the Wizard Saint why I was given the epithet of "Final Light" Argus in my war-torn homeland, Alvarez. I will still be able to triumph over Jura Neekis and end this battle with an overwhelming victory.
Jura's not worthy to even catch the glimpse of a God. As such, God's power will not be needed in this battle.
My right index finger pointed downwards towards Jura's direction, the orb of blinding light that only I could see swiftly descending upon the Wizard Saint with a final shine.
"Nocina Final Art: -"
Be it in victory or defeat, this battle ends here.
"Lightfall."
