Chapter 471: The Terrifying Side Effect of Lost Magic
"So it's called Great Tree Arc. Not a bad name," Noah nodded, his analytical gaze resting on Azuma.
"The fundamental mechanics of your magic are actually quite brilliant. Manipulating trees and merging your physical body into wood are both excellent applications. Compressing ambient magic from the earth into explosive 'fruits' is also a highly destructive offensive technique.
"However, the true, terrifying core of this magic lies in its ability to root the user directly into the earth, granting them absolute dominion over the localized leylines and all the magic stored within that terrain. That is precisely why I forced your roots out of the ground and severed your connection. I couldn't let you casually manipulate Tenrou Island's vast magical reserves."
Azuma fell completely silent.
Manipulating trees and causing explosions were things Noah had seen him do with his own eyes, so deducing those aspects wasn't surprising. But the core mechanic of the magic? The true purpose of rooting into the earth to dominate the leylines? Azuma hadn't breathed a word about that, yet Noah had nailed it perfectly.
This meant Noah wasn't bluffing. He genuinely had analyzed, learned, and fully understood the core principles of his magic in the middle of a high-speed, life-or-death brawl.
If that were true, this young man was utterly terrifying.
Great Tree Arc was a Lost Magic. Its destructive power was immense, and its learning curve was notoriously brutal. It had taken Azuma years of agonizing, grueling training to master it. Yet, this kid had seemingly reverse-engineered it in mere minutes.
Azuma's heart pounded wildly. A normal person would feel despair at facing such an incomprehensible monster. But Azuma wasn't normal. The stronger the enemy, the more his blood boiled.
"Excellent! Truly excellent! I haven't been this excited in years!" Azuma roared, his entire body trembling with manic joy.
He swung his right arm, and a tidal wave of thick, spiked branches erupted from the earth, rushing at Noah like a tsunami of wood.
"Light Funnels!"
Noah clapped his hands together. Eight glowing golden orbs materialized in a halo around him. The orbs spun rapidly, firing a continuous barrage of surgical laser beams that expertly sliced the incoming tsunami of wood into harmless splinters.
"Sword of Branches!"
Azuma rapidly changed his hand seals. The countless severed branches scattered across the ground instantly transmuted into thousands of razor-sharp wooden daggers, which launched themselves at Noah in a suffocating, omnidirectional swarm.
Noah didn't flinch. A spherical, golden barrier bearing the Fairy Tail emblem flared to life around him. The wooden daggers rained down upon the shield like a torrential downpour, only to be harmlessly deflected and shattered upon impact.
Azuma relentlessly spawned more branches, desperately trying to lock Noah in place so he could charge up a massive, high-yield explosion.
However, Noah's eight light funnels were relentlessly efficient. Not only did they perfectly intercept every incoming branch, but they also continuously fired retaliatory beams directly at Azuma, forcing the dark mage to constantly dodge or block, denying him the crucial seconds he needed to channel his stronger spells.
"HRAAAH!"
Frustrated, Azuma condensed a massive cluster of branches into a colossal wooden fist and launched it directly at Noah's barrier.
"Oh! Now that looks fun!" Noah's eyes lit up with genuine interest.
He instantly dispelled his golden barrier and the light funnels. Clapping his hands together, he channeled his magic into the earth.
RUMBLE!
A wooden fist—significantly larger and denser than Azuma's—erupted from the ground right in front of Noah, rocketing forward to meet the incoming attack.
CRACK!
Noah's wooden fist utterly obliterated Azuma's construct, shattering it into splinters, and continued its devastating trajectory straight toward the dark mage.
"Tch!" Azuma hastily channeled his magic, causing several thick layers of wooden barricades to erupt from the ground in front of him.
BANG! BAM! CRASH!
Noah's massive fist smashed through the first few layers like glass before finally losing momentum and halting against the final barricade.
"Burst!"
Azuma slammed his hand against the barricade, generating a massive, point-blank explosion that completely vaporized the remaining wood and Noah's giant fist. He expertly directed the resulting shockwave straight toward Noah.
"Hotei Jutsu!"
Noah slapped the ground. Four colossal wooden hands erupted from the earth. One hand slammed down, perfectly shielding Noah and absorbing the shockwave, while the other three swung around from different angles, attempting to swat Azuma like a fly.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Azuma scrambled backward, leaping desperately as the three massive wooden palms slammed into the ground where he had just been standing, leaving three cratered handprints in the dirt.
"Is that... my magic?!" Azuma panted heavily, staring at the craters in shock.
"No. This is just standard Wood-Make magic. Your specific magic has too many severe drawbacks to use casually," Noah shook his head.
"I see... Then excite me even more!" Azuma took several deep breaths, regulating his heart rate. His manic smile only grew wider.
"..." Noah opened his mouth to say something, but seeing Azuma's hopelessly battle-crazed expression, he decided to save his breath.
"HRAAAH!" Azuma pushed his magic power to the absolute limit. A truly apocalyptic swarm of branches, roots, and vines erupted from the jungle, converging on Noah from every conceivable angle.
Noah casually swiped two fingers through the air. Several more colossal wooden hands erupted from the ground, effortlessly swatting aside and crushing the incoming foliage.
Seeing his branches blocked, Azuma detonated them the instant they made contact with Noah's constructs.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
A chain of massive explosions ripped through the clearing, blowing Noah's wooden hands to splinters. Without missing a beat, Azuma sent another wave of branches surging toward Noah, detonating them prematurely to create a suffocating wall of explosions right in Noah's face.
"Hobi Jutsu!"
A massive, incredibly dense wooden shield bearing the Fairy Tail emblem erupted from the ground, perfectly enclosing Noah and tanking the relentless barrage of explosions.
A thick cloud of smoke and dust quickly obscured the wooden dome from view, but Azuma didn't stop. He continuously pumped more branches into the smoke cloud, detonating them in a frenzied, non-stop bombardment.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!!!
The deafening roar of overlapping explosions echoed through the jungle for several long seconds.
Huff... huff... huff...
Azuma finally halted his assault, panting heavily. That sustained barrage had burned through a massive chunk of his stamina and magic reserves.
A gentle breeze swept through the clearing, dispersing the thick smoke.
Azuma's eyes widened in sheer disbelief. The massive wooden shield standing in front of Noah was completely flawless. There wasn't a single scorch mark or crack on it. However, the ground in front of the shield had been blasted several feet deep into a massive, charred crater.
"Terrifying... Truly, overwhelmingly terrifying. I've never been this excited in my entire life!" Azuma laughed, his voice trembling with sheer adrenaline. He licked his dry lips, his entire body shivering in ecstatic anticipation.
"Alright, playtime is over."
The massive wooden dome retracted into the earth, revealing Noah standing perfectly unharmed, his clothes still completely pristine. He glanced toward the center of the island.
"Playtime?" Azuma asked, slightly confused.
"The rest of my guildmates have already finished clearing out your vanguard squads. It's time I wrapped things up here as well," Noah stated calmly, his gaze locking onto Azuma.
"I see." Azuma wasn't particularly surprised. He immediately began drawing upon every last drop of magic he had left, condensing it for one final, desperate strike.
Seeing the sheer density of magic gathering around Azuma, Noah knew this was the finale. He narrowed his eyes, focusing his attention.
"Tower of Burst!"
Suddenly, the ground directly beneath Noah began to glow a furious, incandescent red. A split second later, a colossal, apocalyptic explosion erupted from the earth, shooting straight into the sky like a towering pillar of hellfire.
The catastrophic pillar of flame roared for over ten seconds before finally subsiding, leaving a scorched, glassed crater in its wake.
"As expected... it still wasn't enough..." Azuma gasped, dropping to one knee. He stared in awe as Noah stepped out of the dissipating smoke, casually enveloped in a faint golden barrier, completely unharmed.
"It's over. Wood Human Jutsu!"
Noah clapped his hands together. A colossal, thirty-meter-tall wooden giant erupted from the earth directly behind him. The wooden titan reared its massive fist back and threw a devastating punch straight at Azuma.
Azuma desperately tried to leap to the side, but several thick wooden vines shot out from the ground, tightly binding his ankles and locking him in place.
BOOM!!!
The wooden giant's fist slammed directly into Azuma, driving him deep into the earth and leaving a massive, cratered fist-print in the jungle floor.
When the wooden titan slowly retracted its arm, Azuma was lying broken at the bottom of the crater. He twitched weakly, trying to stand, but his body completely refused to obey.
"Too strong..." Azuma coughed weakly, staring up at the sky. He had nothing left.
"So it's already starting... the side effect of your Lost Magic," Noah muttered, walking over to the edge of the crater. He looked down and noted that large patches of Azuma's skin had already begun to petrify into rough bark. Small branches and leaves were actively sprouting from his limbs.
"Indeed. It seems I overused it," Azuma replied calmly, staring at his slowly transmuting body with complete apathy.
"If you had been able to hijack the leylines of this island, your magic would have been vastly more powerful. But I couldn't allow that. It would have just created more work for me later," Noah stated matter-of-factly.
"I know. It's a shame, really. Not being able to use my full power against a monster like you... it truly is my greatest regret," Azuma sighed deeply. As a battle maniac, his only true desire was an all-out, no-holds-barred deathmatch. Being systematically shut down and denied his full potential was agonizing.
"With your natural magical reserves, you could have become incredibly strong without relying on a Lost Magic with such a fatal side effect," Noah pointed out.
"Perhaps. But using Lost Magic makes you stronger, faster," Azuma replied coolly, offering no excuses.
"You guys came here looking for Zeref, right? What exactly are you planning to do once you find him?" Noah asked, shaking his head. He was obsessed with getting stronger, but he would never touch a magic with a side effect this horrifying. Azuma knew the risks and chose his path; Noah wasn't going to preach to a dying enemy.
"You know he's here? You've seen him?" Azuma's voice spiked with sudden, desperate energy, but his body was completely paralyzed. The petrification had spread rapidly; his entire torso and legs were now solid wood, and thick roots were already plunging into the earth from his back.
"Master Hades seeks the Black Mage... to approach the primordial truth... to reach the One Magic..." Azuma rasped, his voice growing incredibly weak.
"The One Magic, huh..." Noah sighed softly. "You'll never find it with methods like yours. Hell, Zeref himself is lost and can't find it right now."
In this world, the true 'One Magic'—the source of all magical phenomena—was Love. A brutal, murderous Dark Guild like Grimoire Heart could search for eternity and never even catch a glimpse of it.
"Is that... so..."
Azuma's voice was completely devoid of emotion. Even hearing that his guild's ultimate goal was a failure didn't seem to faze him. By now, only half of his face remained human; the rest of his body had fully transformed into a gnarled, deeply rooted tree.
A moment later, the transformation finished. Azuma was gone. In his place stood a small, gnarled tree with thick, twisting roots.
"What a horrifying side effect," Noah murmured, staring at the tree.
This was exactly why he refused to dabble in Lost Magics without thoroughly analyzing and mitigating the side effects first. Imagine getting too caught up in a fight, losing track of your limits, and accidentally turning into a tree. Noah was confident in his self-control, but he wasn't arrogant enough to believe he was infallible. It was simply safer to avoid such magic entirely.
Noah opened his Archive screens and meticulously inputted the combat data and magical theories he had gathered during the fight. Once he finished logging the data, he stomped his foot, dispelling the massive runic isolation array he had laid over the clearing.
With a wave of his hand, he used spatial magic to uproot the newly formed tree—along with a large chunk of the surrounding earth—and teleported it deep into the densest part of the jungle. Leaving it sitting alone in a crater was just asking for it to get destroyed.
With that settled, Noah got back to work. He spent the next few minutes meticulously repairing the minor damage Azuma had done to the island's leylines and smoothing out the flow of the grand barrier. Because he had caught Azuma early, the damage was minimal and easily fixed.
Once everything was secure, Noah teleported back to the base camp.
The other strike teams had already returned. The defeated Grimoire Heart grunts were piled unceremoniously in a corner of the camp, trapped inside a sturdy runic cage erected by Freed and Levy.
"Noah! You're back!" Ultear smiled as he appeared.
"Yeah. How did things go on your end?" Noah asked, seamlessly absorbing his remaining Thought Projection.
"Nothing too troublesome. The vanguard wasn't weak by normal standards, but they were no match for us. We cleaned them up pretty quickly," Mirajane reported with a sweet smile. "How was your target?"
"Azuma, one of the Seven Kin of Purgatory. He was pretty strong. He actually gave me a decent warm-up," Noah chuckled.
"DAMMIT! I WANT A DECENT FIGHT TOO!" Natsu roared from the sidelines, looking incredibly jealous.
"Calm down. The main force is on its way. Rest up, because you're going to have plenty of fighting to do very soon," Noah scolded him.
Natsu grumbled but obediently sat down to rest.
The rest of the camp was relatively quiet. Wendy, Yukino, and Meredy were busy applying bandages and basic first aid to the candidates who had taken a few hits during their skirmishes. While none of the vanguard had been a real threat to the combined teams, minor scrapes and bruises were unavoidable in a chaotic brawl.
Noah handed out another round of stamina and magic recovery potions to ensure everyone was back to 100%.
While they rested, Noah briefly teleported back to the guild hall in Magnolia. He tracked down Mest and gave him a highly confidential order: contact Lahar of the Magic Council immediately. Tell him to secretly mobilize a massive containment force and stand by. Once Fairy Tail finished wiping out Grimoire Heart, the Council would need to send ships to haul the prisoners away. He also told Mest to notify Yajima so the older man wouldn't be caught off guard by the massive sudden influx of prisoners.
Mest was absolutely horrified to learn that Grimoire Heart was invading Tenrou Island, but knowing that Fairy Tail's entire S-Class roster was already there waiting for them calmed him down significantly. He immediately teleported to the Council to deliver the message.
Noah returned to Tenrou Island and finally sat down to rest.
Beep! Beep! Beep!
About half an hour later, the Archive screens floating in front of Noah blared another warning alarm. Everyone instantly snapped to attention.
Noah tapped the screen, projecting the live feed into the air.
The image displayed a massive, ominous, pitch-black airship slowly cruising through the sky. A massive magical propulsion array glowed fiercely at its stern, while a levitation array hummed steadily beneath its hull.
"Is that Grimoire Heart's base? No wonder the Magic Council could never find them," Sorano gaped in awe.
As a pillar of the Balam Alliance, Grimoire Heart's headquarters had been a highly sought-after target for the Council and rival dark guilds for years, yet no one had ever found it. It turned out their entire guild hall was a stealth airship constantly roaming the skies. It made perfect sense why they had remained completely untraceable.
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