Chapter 504: Feel It Properly; Opportunities Like This Are Incredibly Rare
SWISH!
Noah's figure vanished a fraction of a millisecond before Acnologia's claws closed around empty air.
BOOM!
The massive claws stopped directly in front of the Dragon's own chest. Because the swipe had far exceeded the speed of sound, the ear-piercing sonic boom only echoed after the attack had finished. The kinetic shockwave slammed harmlessly against Acnologia's torso, doing absolutely nothing to the indestructible beast.
ROAAAAR!
Acnologia lifted its head, entirely ignoring the minor flesh wound on its belly. The exposed muscle tissue was already writhing, rapidly clotting and halting the blood flow.
Relying on its god-like sensory perception, the Black Dragon immediately pinpointed Noah's new location: inside the massive barrier surrounding Tenrou Island in the distance. With a single, powerful beat of its colossal wings, Acnologia rocketed toward the island.
"Quick! Activate it!"
Noah materialized inside the Tenrou Island barrier, his legs instantly giving out as he collapsed heavily onto the dirt.
Aside from reserving the absolute bare minimum magic required for a single, long-distance teleport, he had poured every last drop of his magic and physical stamina into that final strike. He had channeled everything into maximizing the structural integrity and sharpness of his arm, striking with every ounce of physical strength he possessed just to carve that singular, shallow gash into Acnologia's scales.
Now, completely drained, an overwhelming wave of absolute exhaustion washed over him. He hadn't felt this weak in over a decade; he nearly blacked out on the spot. Fortunately, the throbbing, agonizing pain in his right arm kept him tethered to consciousness.
"Got it!"
Lucy immediately pumped her magic into the ten golden Zodiac keys floating in front of her. The keys shot forward toward a massive holographic screen suspended in the air.
The screen displayed a highly complex, multi-layered runic array. At the very center of the innermost circle were twelve distinct keyholes. Lucy's ten keys slotted perfectly into their corresponding locks.
Beside her, Yukino raised her golden key—the Libra key—and channeled her magic. It flew forward, slotting into the eleventh keyhole.
With his left hand, Noah shakily pulled the final golden key—Pisces—from his spatial pocket. He infused it with a tiny spark of magic and tossed it weakly toward the screen. The key slotted perfectly into the twelfth and final position.
Immediately after, Noah pulled a potion vial from his inventory, downed it, and tossed the empty glass aside.
Relying on the meager burst of energy the potion provided, he forced himself to stand. He staggered two steps forward, reaching the base of the holographic screen, and pressed his palm flat against a large, glowing square console at the bottom. He funneled the newly recovered magic through his arm and into the console.
Lucy and Yukino simultaneously placed their hands on the console beside his, pumping their own magic into the system.
With the influx of three distinct magical signatures, the console flared to life. A brilliant energy circuit illuminated, connecting the console directly to the central array holding the twelve Zodiac keys.
Receiving the magic, the central array began to rotate rapidly. Layer by layer, from the center outward, the massive, intricate spell matrix lit up with blinding intensity.
"Alright. That's enough. Stop channeling," Noah ordered, seeing that the primary matrix was fully engaged.
He had designed the system with their current exhaustion in mind. Their magic was only required to 'jumpstart' the system; the actual fuel for the spell was drawn from the colossal reserves of ambient ethernano stored within Tenrou Island itself.
Noah pulled his hand away from the console and staggered backward, his legs giving out again.
Before he could hit the ground, a soft, warm body caught him from behind. Noah didn't even need to look; he knew instantly it was Ultear.
Ultear gently lowered him to the ground, holding him securely as the rest of the guild rapidly gathered around them.
"Your arm!" Sorano gasped in horror, pointing at Noah's right arm.
"What happened to your arm?!" Mirajane panicked, reaching out but immediately pulling her hands back, terrified of causing him more pain. Her eyes instantly welled up with tears.
"Wendy! Meredy! Get over here, now!" Erza barked, her expression deadly serious.
"Coming! We're coming!"
Wendy and Meredy, who had been hovering nearby, rushed forward. They immediately raised their hands, casting their strongest healing and pain-relief spells over Noah's right arm.
The others kept a respectful distance but stared with intense concern at Noah's mangled limb. They had noticed the horrific state of his arm the moment he teleported in, but hadn't dared interrupt him while he was activating the crucial arrays. Now that the system was running autonomously, they immediately focused on his well-being.
Lucy and Yukino pulled their hands away from the console but remained standing in front of the screen, closely monitoring the spell's stability. Mavis stood quietly beside them, watching the intricate runic patterns rotate.
"Never mind my arm right now. Acnologia is here," Noah said weakly, waving his intact left hand toward the sky outside the barrier.
Following his gesture, the guild turned to look. Sure enough, a rapidly expanding black dot was hurtling toward them.
Simultaneously, the apocalyptic, suffocating aura of the Black Dragon washed over the island, causing everyone's hearts to clench in terror.
At that moment, the twelve Zodiac keys embedded in the holographic screen flared with blinding light. The primary barrier surrounding Tenrou Island rippled as new, highly complex runic patterns materialized across its surface.
A split second later, a second, thicker barrier materialized just outside the first, completely enveloping the island. Then a third.
While the barriers fortified, Noah—bolstered by the island's ambient magic, the potion, and his own monstrous regeneration—managed to recover enough magic to reactivate his analytical arrays.
He quickly calculated Acnologia's current velocity. It had surpassed Mach 20 and was still accelerating.
The sheer atmospheric pressure generated by its flight path was carving a massive, continuous trench into the ocean surface below, the displaced water unable to fill the void fast enough.
Thank God I lured it almost a hundred kilometers away, Noah thought, wincing slightly. If I hadn't, I never would have had enough time to teleport back and activate the primary sequence before it arrived.
In the blink of an eye, Acnologia crossed the distance. Because of its absurd speed, only Noah and Gildarts could actually track its approach. Even then, Gildarts could only see a terrifyingly fast, blurry silhouette. Only Noah's hyper-enhanced vision could process its actual movements.
KABOOM!!!
Acnologia didn't even attempt to slow down. It slammed headfirst into Tenrou Island's outermost barrier at Mach 20.
An unimaginably deafening roar erupted from the point of impact.
"GAAAAAH!"
The Fairy Tail mages screamed, clapping their hands over their ears. The sheer sonic force of the collision rattled their brains, inducing severe vertigo.
Wendy and Meredy's healing spells were violently interrupted as the shockwave knocked them both dizzily onto the dirt. The others grimaced in pain, staring in awe at the sky.
Acnologia was plastered flat against the barrier, all four of its limbs splayed out like a bug on a windshield. Violent, erratic ripples of kinetic energy surged outward from its claws, causing the entire multi-layered barrier to shudder violently.
The ocean surrounding Tenrou Island suffered the brunt of the displaced kinetic shockwave. A massive, bowl-shaped depression formed in the sea directly beneath Acnologia's impact point, millions of gallons of water violently displaced into the air.
Recovering from the impact, Acnologia raised its right claw and slashed viciously at the barrier.
The golden dome rippled violently, but it held firm.
The ground of Tenrou Island began to glow softly, channeling its vast reserves of magic upward. The barrier flared in response, the violent ripples instantly smoothing out as the shield stabilized completely.
Noah wasn't surprised. He had spent days meticulously designing this defensive matrix, cross-referencing vast archives of ancient magic, integrating the theoretical framework of Fairy Sphere, and layering countless high-tier defensive spells. Powered by the near-infinite ambient magic of Tenrou Island itself, it was designed to withstand exactly this.
However, the real test was about to begin.
Acnologia swiped its claws twice more, but the barrier barely even registered the impacts. Realizing physical strikes were inefficient, the Black Dragon pushed off the dome and flapped its wings, hovering high above the island.
Acnologia unhinged its jaw. It inhaled deeply, an apocalyptic concentration of pure, destructive magic gathering rapidly at the back of its throat. Blinding blue light began to leak from its maw as the surrounding atmosphere warped from the sheer density of the gathering ethernano.
"It's a Roar!" Gajeel yelled, recognizing the terrifyingly familiar buildup.
"It's trying to obliterate the entire island in one shot!" Cana screamed, her face pale with terror.
"What do we do?!"
Panic rippled through the guild. They all turned instinctively to Noah.
While the barrier had withstood physical impacts, a full-powered Dragon's Roar from the Black Dragon of the Apocalypse was a completely different beast.
"Don't panic. Everything is proceeding exactly according to plan," Noah's calm, steady voice instantly anchored them, quelling the rising panic.
Noah looked up at the charging Dragon and forced himself to stand.
Ultear and Mirajane immediately rushed to his sides, supporting his weight so he wouldn't fall.
With their help, Noah walked over to the holographic screen displaying the twelve Zodiac keys. He inspected the rapidly spinning runic matrix and nodded in satisfaction.
"Perfect. The system is operating at maximum efficiency," Noah announced to the guild.
He then turned his gaze back to the sky. "Now... pay close attention. Feel the absolute terror of Acnologia's Roar. Opportunities to directly experience power of this magnitude—and survive—are incredibly rare."
Hearing Noah's absolute confidence, the mages finally relaxed completely. If Noah was telling them to use this apocalyptic event as a learning experience, it meant he was 100% certain they would survive.
Following his instruction, they tilted their heads up, locking their eyes onto the blinding blue light gathering in Acnologia's maw.
The buildup was complete. The blinding blue light was now leaking aggressively from its jaws. Even from behind the barrier, the Fairy Tail mages could physically feel the catastrophic, world-ending magic power contained within that attack. It was a level of destructive force that defied human comprehension.
ROAAAAR!
Acnologia opened its jaws completely. It snapped its head down, aiming directly at the center of Tenrou Island, and unleashed the apocalyptic Roar.
KABOOM!!!
The colossal pillar of blue destruction slammed into the outermost barrier.
A deafening, world-ending roar echoed across the island. The outermost barrier rippled violently, straining under the apocalyptic pressure.
It only lasted a few seconds before shattering completely.
However, the moment the first barrier shattered, it intentionally detonated the energy of the Roar. A blinding, apocalyptic blue light completely engulfed the heavens and the earth.
"Time to go," Noah whispered softly.
The entire island was swallowed by the blinding blue light. Vision was completely obliterated.
A catastrophic explosion erupted from the ocean. An unimaginably massive, blinding blue fireball—nearly twenty kilometers in diameter—bloomed into existence, illuminating the entire ocean in an apocalyptic glow.
Countless millions of tons of seawater were flash-vaporized instantly. The resulting kinetic shockwave generated a terrifying, hundreds-of-meters-tall tsunami that rolled outward in all directions like an inescapable wall of destruction. High above, even Acnologia was physically pushed higher into the stratosphere by the sheer force of the updraft.
The catastrophic roar of the explosion echoed for hundreds of miles, rattling windows and shaking foundations in coastal cities far across the continent.
The apocalyptic shockwave shot straight up into the atmosphere, violently blasting away all the remaining storm clouds and revealing a pristine, clear blue sky.
The sun shone down brightly, yet its natural light was entirely eclipsed by the blinding, apocalyptic blue radiance radiating from the ocean below.
It took over a dozen seconds for the colossal blue fireball to finally dissipate.
When the light faded... Tenrou Island was completely gone.
In its place was a massive, empty, fifteen-kilometer-wide crater in the ocean. The displaced seawater, having been violently pushed away by the explosion, rapidly rushed back into the void. Millions of tons of water collided violently at the center, shooting a massive, towering geyser high into the sky.
ROAAAAAR!
Hovering high above the churning sea, Acnologia let out a final, resounding roar upon confirming that Tenrou Island had been completely obliterated. It flapped its colossal wings and flew off toward the distant horizon.
With the magical bombardment finally over, the ocean slowly began to calm, leaving only regular, albeit highly agitated, waves churning on the surface. However, the catastrophic tsunami generated by the final explosion was still rolling relentlessly toward the distant coastlines.
Far away, remaining completely hidden and suppressing his magical signature to absolute zero, Zeref watched the events unfold through a long-distance scrying spell.
When he had first watched Noah engage Acnologia in a high-speed dogfight, his perpetually apathetic face had broken into an expression of profound shock.
He had never imagined that the young man he had briefly encountered on the island was capable of fighting Acnologia to such a degree. Even knowing that Acnologia wasn't taking the fight seriously, merely surviving that long in close-quarters combat was an incredibly miraculous feat.
In Zeref's four hundred years of cursed existence, he could count the number of humans capable of such a feat on one hand. It drastically elevated his evaluation of Noah's potential.
However, despite Noah's incredible display, Zeref hadn't believed for a second that Fairy Tail could escape total annihilation. He understood Acnologia's absolute, invincible power better than anyone alive. Even if Noah's current strength were multiplied several times over, he still wouldn't be a match for the Black Dragon.
And, just as Zeref had predicted, Noah had eventually been forced to retreat to the island, and Acnologia's subsequent Roar had completely obliterated Tenrou Island from the face of the earth.
~~~
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