Disclaimer I do not own Fairy Tail. Why would I be writing fanfiction if I owned something like that?

Beta Reader: volfwildman

Cover Art by KegiSpringfield

(3rd Person Fairy Tail POV)

Macao let out a tired sigh as he used his Purple Fire to run through and dismiss a Shad that had gotten a bit too close for comfort. Off to the side, the Fire mage saw his best friend use his Smoke magic to shatter three other Shades that had been about to attack some of the support mages.

The sounds of battle were all over the place as the Fairy Tail guild fought off the army of Shades. Bisca and Azlack were proving to be some of the most useful mages here as their Gun magic allowed the pair to shoot down Shade after Shade and a good few guild members had put themselves near the two to provide support like Reedus and Laki.

Team Shadow Gear was proving to be another effective group as Jet's speed magic was perfect for kitting and distracting the dangerous but not very smart Shades. While the speedster did this Levy constantly used her Letter Magic to make the word Banish which upon hitting the dark specters would instantly destroy them. Droy was the odd one out of this as his Plant magic wasn't all to use in the battle but he provided support wherever he could.

As all this happened Cana was shouting out order after order to keep the mages organized while she would occasionally use her mage to fight directly as well. The battle had been through its ups and downs as it progressed. The Fairies had started out doing great, but the nearly endless horde of Shades was swiftly draining their mage and stamina. The battle shifted once more when Mira had returned with her brother and to the surprise of everyone was fully using her magic. The She-Devil had entered the battle after putting Elfman in the guildhall and that had turned things back in Fairy Tail's favor.

But even with another S-class mage helping them the Shades refused to stop coming and once more it seemed like the guild would be overwhelming. At least it did up until about ten minutes ago when the stream of Shades had very much diminished. Now there were very little Shades left and many were collapsing in exhaustion as the beings of darkness were becoming fewer and fewer.

"You ok there Macao?" Asked Wakaba as he thirdly walked over to where his best friend was fighting to stay on his feet.

"I'm fine. Just a few more of these annoying Shades and I'll rest." Despite the tiredness, the Purple Fire mage wasn't going to stay down until these invaders were gone.

Wakaba let out a snort at his friend's determined response before looking over at the mech. It was still drawing Abyss Break, but it was doing so at a snail's pace and would take a good hour or two before it would be ready for the magic to start flowing into the magic circle which would take more time as well. "You think Bishop and the others are ok? He was still injured when he went with them."

Macao took a second to answer but before he could speak aloud a wave of magic hit them as the top of the mech soon became engulfed in what could only be described as a small centralized hurricane of bright fire and blinding ice. A second later they felt the magic that was creating the malestream and instantly knew what it was and who was casting it.

"I think he'll be just fine." Macao said in a bland impassive tone that would make said Illusionist proud.

(3rd Person Battle POV)

Aria was in so much pain right now.

The ruined chapel was the center of a maelstrom of searing burning flames and freezing cutting frost. It wasn't too hard to see that these swirling fires and ice were illusions as they passed through solid objects as they weren't there, but the false reality did not care for it being fake or not. The pain inflicted was real because the illusion made the mind make it real and Aria was feeling that pain right now.

His skin burned and numbed at the same time as the ice stole the life from his flesh and cut into it as well while the fires caused the life in his skin to move rapidly and create a damaging heat. Despite the pain, Aria did not fall. His natural magic defense had been honed over the years and despite being overwhelmed it prevented the true worst from harming the Airspace mage.

It wasn't easy but Aira stood as he tried to take hold of his mind and prevent it from being influenced like this, but he was having little luck. During this, the Phantom Lord mage noticed a figure slowly walking towards him. Bishop, rage having turned cold and focused, made his way over to the reason for his anger. The Airspace mage let out a pained curse before holding his right hand forward and prepared to cast his least magic demanding spell he had.

"Burasuto"

The air around Bishop stall before exploding. The illusion showed no reaction but did start to fade away to nothing. Aira, despite the pain, looked on in confusion before the eldest Vern's voice echoed throughout the chapel.

"Multiply"

Where one Bishop had disappeared dozens upon dozens more appeared all around the chapel, all walking slowly towards the Airspace mage with cold rage in their eyes. Aira panicked as he looked around, his magic sense just not enough to tell him what was fake or real. This wasn't helped by the swirling flames and frost not helping this at all. Perhaps if the Phantom Lord mage had not been in a large amount of pain and in a better state of mind, he would have used his magic to find out but right now he just wanted to end his pain.

"Burasuto"

Spell after the spell was sent out as the surrounding Bishop faded after being hit, only to be replaced with another somewhere else in the storm. Soon Aira's already low supply of magic was near gone as he panted out of exhaustion and pain while the group of Illusionist got closer. Just as many of them were a few feet away from him the Airspace mage got rid of enough of his panic to once more use a spell with his remaining magic but in a far smarter way.

"Burasuto"

Unlike before where the spell had only hit select areas this time the air around Aria himself stalled before an explosion of wind blasted out in all directions and hit every single Bishop all of whom faded into nothing. The Mage of the Heavens allowed himself a small smile before remembering that he was still in a localized hurricane of pain that was starting to numb his nervous system in a very painful way. He looked around and tried to find where his opponent was before letting out a gasp of pain as he felt a much shaper and a real pain in the back.

None of the Bishops had been real as the actual one had simply used "Vanish" and gotten right behind Aria while he was distracted by the fakes. When the Airspace mage had unleashed his last attack, the Gatekeeper had been too close to his opponent to be hit. During all of this, the Illusionist had taken out his saber and applied a very special poison to it, one that he had personally developed over the years, and stabbed the blade into the right part of the Phantom's lower back.

Aria let out a yell from clenched teeth as he moved forward to get the sword out of his back. Once that was done, he instantly turned around and threw an uncoordinated punch at his opponent. With a flare of Ring magic Bishop's Ring of Haste easily allowed him to dodge the attack and before the Airspace mage could react tore into him.

The first slash was across the tall man's chest. The next hit along the left leg, passing right by the knee. While Aria was in the process of falling to his good knee another slashes his right arm, right along the bicep. And just as the Phantom Lord was on his knee Bishop slashed upwards, from his stomach to his chest.

Bishop paused with that, resisting the urge to keep going. After taking a second to get a bearing on his surroundings he made his way back to the outer edge of the Greater Illusion. While this happened, Aria struggled to his feet once more despite his body's massive protest. At first, the Airspace image started to take stock of his remaining magic, hoping to have enough left for one more spell, but swiftly stopped when he felt the pain. He felt his body's natural mental magic defenses start to slow down and with them, pain flourished anew.

Over the years Bishop had worked on various poisons. During that time, he had tried to create a few of his own to varying degrees of failure. But each failure gave him insight into what worked and didn't work when mixing and altering his poisons and eventually his work started to bear fruit. Illusionist's Venom was what he called it, not quite done but effective enough for him to keep a vial around. A poison designed to affect the part of the brain that subconsciously controls how the mind is affected with magic. To put it simply the poison lowered a mage's ability to resist mental attacks from magical sources. Like Illusions.

And now Aria was feeling more and more of the pain that his mind had been able to block out from the effects of the Illusion that still surrounded him. Each second the flames burn more intensely, the frost cut even further into him. All the Phantom Lord mage's mind was focused on fighting the pain, fighting the illusion. And just as the man thought he would lose, everything stopped.

The flames and frost paused before shifting, much of the illusions were lost but some of it changed as the room was filled with bright white light, and shards of light seemed to form all around the area. Off to the side stood Bishop, in his hand he bridal carried Erza as he stared at Aria who simply stood there in awe of both the lack of pain and at his new surroundings.

After the Mammon incident, Bishop had tried to experiment more with his Illusions. Trying to see how much he could push the one Inbuilt Rule that his magic had. After figuring out that he would have to truly have to see the world as an illusion for his Illusion to be real he looked down other routes. Putting himself in the mindset that everything was fake was not something that he wanted to do, in all honesty, it scared him just thinking along that mindset. Most things had failed with one or two showing promise but there was one thing he found successes in.

His Greater Illusion took up a large amount of magic, enough that even with his rather large reserves Bishop tried to keep the use of the low. It was during his recent experiments that a thought came to his mind 'Why can't I use the magic from one illusion and use it to make another illusion?'. From that thought, he found that with illusions that held his magic in over a large area he could use it to power another illusion. He would need to cancel the current illusion and a large portion of magic was lost before he could grab hold of it, but he could do it.

And that was what he was doing now. Hell of Frost and Flame was one of Bishop's most powerful and magic consuming Greater Illusions and with the decent chunk of magic, he got from canceling it along with a large portion from his low reserves he weaved a new Illusion. His most powerful one.

Soon the shards of light started to convert towards the center of the light. Aria looked above him to see a sun of pure white shining above him magnificently. Its beauty distracted him for a few seconds before remembering the situation he was in. But by then all he could do was widen his magical eyes as the shards of light lined up, creating a path from the sun to him.

"Greater Illusion: Heaven's Judgment"

For a split-second, Aria mentally chuckled at the irony of the spell's name in correlation to his own title before a devastating beam of pure white light shot forth and onto him. What had once been the overwhelming pain of fire and ice was nothing compared to the searing and cleansing pain this spell brought the Airspace mage. He opened his mouth to scream but no sound came as his vocal cords were overwhelmed with the magnitude that the scream would have been. For a solid few seconds, the Phantom Lord mage stood against the attack before his mind was devastated and his eyes rolled into the back of his head as his consciousness left him.

The illusion lasted for a few more seconds after that before Bishop dismissed it and the chapel was once more normal. Aria's body stood for a second before it fell backward. The Illusionist stood with his little sister in his arms as he stared at his fallen foe. He felt Whispers start to rise, telling him to permanently end it, before they were shoved back into the dark as he glanced down at Erza.

Despite his body's protest he started to move heading towards where he felt familiar magical signatures.

(Bishop's POV)

Pain.

It was washing over me with each step I took. Most of it was from my screaming Magic Channels, overwhelmed with the large amounts of magic that I had thrown through them without a second thought. My brain felt like it was on fire from the stain I had put on it while creating two of my most powerful illusion along with the little illusion I and down. Even more, was the fact that using such large amounts of magic had disturbed the potions and other stuff that had been healing my body and without it, I felt utterly tired.

But I kept walking.

It was dumb I knew. At this point, most of the mooks that had filled the mech building were knocked out or probably had left. I could have easily just laid down next to Erza and let unconsciousness fill my mind. But I didn't want to. Some part of me wanted to make sure that my little sister was safe, with someone that could protect her before I allowed my body to fall. And I listen to that part.

I kept my focus on the ever-closer magic signatures as I took slow and calculated steps. I felt my body beg to stop but I didn't listen. At this point, I started to see red in the corner of my vision and after a few seconds, I realized I was bleeding from my nose.

I ignored it.

"Hey, guys I think it's this way! Come on I feel Big Bro's magic signature somewhe-" Natsu came running into view around the corner before pausing when he saw me. He looked rather beaten up and bruised but he still seemed to walk fine.

Good.

"Bro! Are...are you ok? I-" He didn't get too far before I was standing right next to him and thrust Erza into his arms. He almost dropped her in my haste but managed to hold her as I took a step back. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw Gray, Lucy, and Happy come into the corridor.

I ignored them and stared at Natsu while he held Erza. he had a look of pure concern on his face and even looked to be holding back from asking several questions.

Good. I didn't feel like answering any questions right now. I felt like sleeping.

And with that thought I finally allowed my eyes to close and felt myself tilt backward. Before I hit the floor while I heard yelling coming from my family I was embraced by darkness.

(3rd Person Battle POV)

"Giant's Flame"

Jose dodge to the right as a massive beam of fire shot through right where he had been and promptly slammed into the nearby wall. The Phantom Lord Guild Master let out a silent curse as instead of the beam disappearing it started to move towards him. While moving away from the approaching beam the Shade mage sent some of his shades towards the source of the attack. Just before they touched there to target the fire spell ended and light erupted into the room, destroying the shades.

Once the light died, Jose could see Makarov in his full glory. The little old man was little no more as with a quick application of his Giant magic, he was now a large muscular man that was a good foot taller than the Shade mage. A yellow aura of magic was also surrounding the Giant mage which along with his stern expression gave the man a terrifying look.

"Dark Pulse"

With a wide wave of his hand, several shades appearing in a line in front of Makarov. Before the Fairy Tail Guild Master could react, each shade exploded in dark energy and surrounded the man in dust and debris. Jose took a second to relax, the fight had been going on for a few minutes at this point and he had been on the defensive for most of it. The Shade mage was proud of his status as a Wizard Saint but there was a reason that his opponent was a higher rank than him.

"Giant's Wind"

It was only years of experience that allowed Jose to drop to the floor before the dust around his opponent violently dispersed and several razor-sharp arcs of wind flew above the man. However, before the Shade mage could move Makarov was above him and delivered a punch straight into his opponents back.

Jose Let out a scream through clenched teeth before he rolled away from another punch that left a small crater in the floor. Just as Makarov was once again going to move the Shade mage held out his hand to cast a spell.

"Black Breaker"

Several shades twisted and condensed into a small orb in Jose's hands before it shot forward with devastating power. The orb hit Makarov with a loud bang as it carried him all the way to a wall and smashed him into it before the attack disappeared. The Giant mage simply let out a grunt as he got out of the hole in the wall and saw his opponent now standing with a dark sphere held between his hands. The Fairy Tail Master in response started to make quick arm movements in preparation for a spell of his own.

"Abyssal Surge"

"Rain of Light"

Jose swung his two arms forward, the sphere of condensed shades swelled forward as a wave of dark energy. Makarov, in turn, placed two fingers on his forehead before thrusting the same fingers forward as several dozen spears of light surged forward and met the shade attack head-on. The wave of darkness stopped as the spears of light smashed into it, both forces fighting each other for dominance.

In the end, it was the light that beat the dark as a couple of the spears pierced through the wave and impacted Jose who held his ground. Soon after the wave disappeared entirely, taking a few spears with it, and allowed four spears of light to make their way to their target. But this time the Phantom Lord Master was prepared as he empowered his right hand with a shade and backhanded the weakened spears away.

With the clash done Makarov rushed forward with a light empowered fist and tried to slam said fist into his opponent's face. Luckily for Jose, he was just fast enough to get out of the way of the punch and in retaliation used a shade empowered fist to jab into the Giant mage's gut. The attack was just enough to distract the Fairy Tail Master and allowed the Phantom Lord Master to back up a bit and cast a spell.

"Shade Torrent"

Several different shades appeared around Makarov and swiftly started to twist and bound around the man. The Giant mage let out an annoyed grunt before flaring his Light magic to get rid of the shades. However, these shades were a bit tougher and the old man was forced to flare the magic a bit more to finally get rid of them. This allowed the Shade mage to get a bit further away and prepare his next attack, just as the Fairy was free the Phantom was ready.

"Pitch Frisson"

Dozens of shades appeared and quickly started to twist together to form a large rotating drill-like lance. Makarov upon seeing this, called upon his Defensive Seal magic as three different pillars erupted from the ground around him in a display of Earth magic as magic seals started to circle around them. This was just in time as Jose launched hit attack straight towards the Giant mage who swiftly finished his barrier.

"Three Pillars God"

A large magic barrier appeared using each of the three pillars as a guide. The large spinning lance of dark magic hit the barrier and started to drill into the defensive measure. At first, it looked like the attack might pierce the barrier but said barrier shattered to fluctuate and seemed to absorb the attack before exploding outwards in an all directional wave of magic. Jose was just able to bring up a few shades in front of him as a mock defense before the wave hit and promptly shattered them before slamming into the man.

While Jose was thrown back, he was able to land on his feet as the wave disappeared. The two Wizard saints glared at each other; both were feeling the pain, but it was very clear that the Phantom Lord Guild Master had gotten the worst of the damage. Said Master knew that if this went on, he would surely lose, he had neither the raw power nor the magic capacity of Makarov and would lose in a drown out fight. With that thought in mind, he straightened up his stance before speaking to his opponent.

"I think we've drawn this out enough Makarov. Why don't we finish this? My most powerful attack versus you most powerful. A classic Magic Struggle if you will." Jose was referring to the rather common occurrence where two mages' attacks would clash head-on and fight for dominance, not unlike what happened earlier in the fight.

Makarov took a second to think before snaring. "You think your best spell will be strong enough Jose! You're far too young to be beating me! But if that is what you want then so be it! I will not fail my Guild!"

With that declaration, Makarov held his hands forward and started to combine his Giant magic with his Light magic to create his strongest attack outside of the Three Magic Spells of Fairy Tail. Jose gave a snarl of his own at the man's words before holding out his right arm straight out and started to gather all his remaining shades. "You're not the only one with a Guild to protect old man! As long as I stand Phantom Lord will not fall!"

The space around the two top mages started to warp from the powerful magic being done. Even the area around them started to rumble slightly as the two prepared their final attacks. Both fully believing that they would win this clash. Makarov for Fairy Tail, Jose for Phantom Lord.

"Dead Wave"

"Giant's Light"

Makarov brought his two shining hands together and forced the Giant infused Light magic to turn into a beam that shot forward with devastating effect. At the same time, Jose dragged his sphere of shades forwards until it was in front of him and promptly allowed all the shades within to be released in one direction causing a beam of darkness to shoot forward.

Both attacks met each other head-on and soon there was a standstill between the two forces. The force created from this started to rock the entire mech causing all those inside it to grab onto something to keep on their feet. The room that the two Wizard Saints had been in was torn asunder with along the floor barely hanging on. The mages of Fairy Tail, who had been resting after defeating the shades, found themselves staring at the clash of light and dark that was easily seen from a distance.

Makarov and Jose gritted their teeth as each put in all they could. In terms of power, it was the Shade mage's spell that had more but not by a wide margin. That said it was the Giant mage's attack that was far more refined and stable as the other had sacrificed control for its power. Each passing second the Dead Wave grew weaker as shades started to slip out of it due to the lack of polish in the spell.

Jose's face paled as he noticed this and with all his willpower, he pulled off one last desperate push. The Giant's Light spell was slowly being pushed back but Makarov did nothing but close his eyes and concentrated on his spell. It wasn't long before the already slow progress the beam of darkness was making slowed to nothing. Too many of the shades were gone. It was over.

The beam of light started to shred through the beam of darkness as shades were destroyed one after another. Jose could do nothing as his defeat grew ever closer. With a sigh, he closed his eyes and waited for the beam to make short work of his spell and hit him.

"Aria...Gajeel...Sol... Juvia...Totomaru...Phantom Lord...I failed you. I'm sorry."

Not a second after muttering those words did the Dead Wave give up and Joe was hit full force with the Giant's Light. This lasted a couple of seconds before Makarov let up. Once the spell was gone Jose was revealed, laying on the destroyed flooring. Defeated.

Fairy Tail had won.

And Phantom Lord had lost.

The Fairy-Phantom Guild War, or rather The One Day War as many would call it.

News of it swept the Kingdom of Fiore like wildfire as the magic council held trials for the war. Jose had pleaded with the council, saying that the war was his fault and that he should be imprisoned, and his guild allowed to go free. But unfortunately, the ex-Wizard Saint was in no position to bargain and the result was the disbandment of Phantom Lord.

All their bases were seized and either auctioned off or turned into Rune Knight bases. As for the mages of the guild, many of them either went on to join other guilds or become independent mages. A couple of them retired and one was nursed back to health by his girlfriend which he proposed to afterward.

Fairy Tail was given minimum punishment both since Phantom Lord started the war with the attack on The Gatekeeper of Fairy Tail, Bishop Vern, and due to the good relations the guild had with the council. They were forced to pay a minor fine for their attack on Log Town but that was it.

Many citizens watched the proceeding with great interest. Why had Phantom Lord attacked? How did the battles go? What did all this mean for their nation who had just lost its second strongest guild? These were simply a few of what they asked.

In the end, most of those questions weren't answered but what there was one thing that was clear to all.

Fairy Tail was the number one guild for a reason.

AN: And so ends the Guild War arc. I was thinking of splitting the Bishop fight and the Guild Master fight into two different chapters but found I couldn't stretch it into two chapters, besides the arc has been going on a bit too long. Hope you guys enjoyed this arc, I had fun working with Phantom Lord and messing around with who fought who and how things happened. How are things going to be different in the future because of the changes in this arc? Welp, you got to wait and find out, also on a side note before the next arc I'm going to have two chapters dealing with changes and character development.

Thanks once again to volfwildman for being a Beta, the man just started an Avatar story called 'The Relentless Storm' and he wants opinions on it so go check that out. This weekly shout out goes Poharan for his review. I'm glad you like what I've done with the world-building. It is so strange that there are so many nations in Earthland but we never really see anything outside of Foire.

The Fairy-Phantom Guild War was a tragedy. But do you know what's more of a tragedy? Not reviewing!

Have a great day.

P a treon . com (slash) BETAsatchel