Fairy Tail: Master of Deceit

"This ends now," Aurelius muttered under his breath, his tone unwavering.

Without hesitation, he closed his right eye, and kept his left eye wide open. The air grew still as his gaze locked onto Jose.

Jose, standing tall with a smirk plastered across his face, refused to flinch. His confidence shown as he stared directly into the pitch black eye, convinced it was just another trick. The battle had dragged on far too long for him to fall victim to any mind games now.

But the moment his gaze met the eye, everything changed.

The world around him began to twist, his senses warping as the colors around him bled into a stark, unnatural palette. The red of blood, the white of bones, the black of the abyss—they were all that remained. A massive, endless white platform stretched around him, the only thing separating him from the nothingness beneath. It was a place devoid of warmth, of anything familiar. He felt a chill crawl down his spine.

Jose's heart raced as his feet shifted, trying to steady himself on the unfamiliar terrain. For a moment, confusion gripped him, but his arrogance quickly took over. He laughed aloud, the sound echoing in the empty void.

"Illusions of this level won't work on me," he scoffed, his voice filled with defiance. "You think I'll fall for this pathetic trick?"

With a roar, he released a massive burst of ethernano. He attempted to break the illusion, to shatter whatever it was that Aurelius had created. The raw power surged from him, slamming into the air, but nothing happened. The world around him remained frozen.

This surprised him as he though that this was no illusion. It was real. And he was trapped.

Before he could even process the magnitude of what was happening, a cold, sharp pain suddenly pierced through his back. He coughed violently, blood splattering from his mouth as he looked behind him in a daze.

There, standing calmly with a sword embedded deep in his side, was Aurelius.

"You shouldn't have underestimated me," Aurelius's voice was cold, calculated, the words heavy with finality.

Jose's eyes widened in shock as he struggled to lift himself, but the sword dug deeper, anchoring him to the spot.

Aurelius stood still, his gaze unwavering, his grip firm on the hilt of the sword. The battle had just taken a new turn, and this time, he wasn't holding back.

...

Meanwhile, in the chamber...

Aurelius and Jose stood facing each other, motionless for a second. Mystogan, caught off guard, watched in confusion as both figures remained locked in place, as if frozen in time. 

Suddenly, Jose's smirk vanished. His expression contorted with pain as he coughed violently, blood splattering across his lips. His knees buckled, and he crumpled to the ground, struggling to catch his breath. He leaned forward, his hands instinctively reaching for his neck and one of his arms. He frantically checked them as if searching for something.

"What…?" Jose hissed through clenched teeth, his face pale as his fingers once again pressed against his neck, then down to his arm, as though trying to confirm something that had gone wrong. His breathing was shallow, erratic. He looked up at Aurelius, his eyes wide with disbelief, his voice thick with a mix of confusion and rage.

"What did you do...?" Jose managed to croak, blood still dripping from his mouth. His voice was ragged, hoarse. His pride and arrogance were crumbling in the face of the unexpected. "This… This shouldn't be possible…"

Aurelius said nothing in response. He too staggered, the weight of his actions catching up to him. He dropped to his knee, feeling the aftershocks of the intense ethernano he had poured into the attack.

"I… used too much ethernano..." Aurelius thought, as he struggled to keep himself upright. The strain of continues battle, was beginning to take its toll on him.

Mystogan, still standing several feet away, was now more confused than ever. His brow furrowed as he looked between the two combatants, trying to understand the sudden shift in the atmosphere.

Mystogan murmured, his eyes narrowing. "What just happened?"

Aurelius remained silent, his gaze averted. His body felt heavy and uncooperative as he focused all his energy on keeping himself from collapsing.

Finally, he spoke, his voice faint, almost as if it was coming from somewhere far away. "Nothing you need to worry about..."

But his tone didn't carry the usual confidence. It was quiet, uncertain, as though the weight of everything was pressing down on him all at once.

A few moments earlier...

In the Red, Black, and White plane, time seemed to move differently. The air around them seemed thick, charged with an energy that pulsed with Aurelius's power. The landscape was a stark, monochrome contrast, the only colors bleeding red, black, and white.

Aurelius's blade, still dripping with the blood of his foe, remained buried in Jose for only a heartbeat. But in that moment, the reality of what had just happened hit Jose like a ton of bricks. He gritted his teeth in pain and, with a brutal snarl, wrenched the blade out, tossing it aside with sheer force. His ethernano surged around the wound, trying to stop it from getting worse.

Jose's eyes flickered around, his arrogance only growing in the face of the bizarre landscape. He was used to breaking through illusions, used to fight even without his senses—but this was different. This was something far more unpredictable.

He couldn't stay in one place for long, he knew that. Moving swiftly, he put distance between himself and Aurelius, his feet kicking up white endless plane. But as he moved further away, a sudden heat washed over him. He turned instinctively and his eyes widened in disbelief as a giant fireball materialized out of nowhere, swirling with ferocious intensity.

Before Jose could react, the fireball collided with the ground, igniting the air around him. The heat seared his skin, and he barely managed to twist his body in time to avoid the worst of it. Still, the flames grazed him, scorching his shoulder and side as he rolled to the side. The pain was sharp, and it only fueled the rage inside him.

"Damn it!" he snarled, gritting his teeth as he scanned the area, trying to locate his opponent. But the more he looked, the less he could make sense of the landscape.

Then, without warning, his instincts screamed. He jumped just in time, soaring into the air as a crackling wave of electricity surged below him, missing him by mere inches. 

As his feet landed, the platform beneath him gave way. With a shock of disbelief, he plummeted, the ground vanishing beneath him in an instant. His body twisted and turned as he fell, swallowed by an abyss of nothingness that stretched on for what felt like an eternity. The wind roared in his ears, and he fought against the fear creeping up his spine. His mind was screaming at him that this was no illusion—this felt like real danger.

Just as he thought he might be falling forever, he hit something solid. He crashed onto another white platform with a loud thud, groaning as his body absorbed the impact. He lay still for a moment, breathing hard, his heart pounding in his chest. As he slowly rose, his eyes frantically scanned the new surroundings. The platform was still stark, but it was somehow different.

His gaze swept the empty expanse around him, his mind racing to make sense of the situation. His arrogance had failed him. This was not an illusion he could simply fight through.

The silence of the plane was shattered by the sound of a blade cutting through the air. Out of nowhere, Aurelius reappeared. Before Jose could react, the sharp edge of Aurelius's sword sliced through the air, severing Jose's arm cleanly from his body.

Jose's eyes widened in shock, his pain-fueled roar cutting through the stillness. His severed arm fell to the ground with a dull thud. He stumbled backward, instinctively reaching for the location of his right arm. The damage was too severe to ignore, but he was quick. His combat experience kicked in—his eyes narrowed, his focus sharpening.

He reacted before Aurelius could deliver another fatal strike. With a surge of ethernano, he summoned a dark, ghostly arm from his shade magic, which quickly grew to match his lost limb. The arm was black and twisting, but it would serve to fend off his enemy's next move.

But as he readied himself for the next attack, something pulled at his feet.

Confused, Jose looked down to see thick, twisting vines coiling around his legs, binding him to the ground. The more he tried to move, the tighter they seemed to grow, their thorns sharp and unyielding. He cursed under his breath, trying to break free with his ethernano, but the more force he used, the more entangled he became.

His attention snapped upward in a panic, realizing too late that Aurelius had already closed the distance. The air between them seemed to freeze in that moment, the dread in Jose's chest swelling to an unbearable pressure. Before he could react, Aurelius's sword was already moving—faster than he could comprehend.

The blade cleaved through the air and Jose's neck with terrifying ease. His eyes widened in disbelief, his mouth opening to shout in defiance, but it was too late. The world around him seemed to slow as his head was separated from his body, blood gushing out in a hot, crimson spray. The moment the blade made contact, his life was snuffed out in an instant.

His body collapsed forward, still trapped in the vines, crumpling to the ground as his severed head hit the platform with a sickening thud. The vines slowly loosened, as if recognizing their victory, leaving his corpse to lie motionless in the center of the desolate platform.

Aurelius stood above the fallen body, his sword still dripping with Jose's blood. His expression was unreadable, cold, and detached from the carnage around him. The air seemed to still again, but the battle was far from over.

...

The air in the real world felt heavy with the aftermath of the battle. Aurelius, still kneeling, was struggling to regain his composure. His body ached, and the toll of his magic weighed on him more than he'd anticipated. The silence hung between him and Mystogan as the latter took a step forward, his voice filled with genuine concern.

"Aurelius, what exactly just happened?" Mystogan asked, his brow furrowed, unsure of what he had just witnessed.

Aurelius didn't answer immediately. The silence stretched on, thick with the weight of what had just transpired. His mind was cloudy, the fog of exhaustion creeping in as he tried to piece together everything. The toll of his actions was heavy, his ethernano reserves dangerously low, and the battle wasn't over yet. For a moment, Aurelius could barely summon the strength to speak, let alone explain what had just happened.

He closed his eyes for a moment, struggling to center himself, the chaotic energy of the battle still humming through his veins. The weight of the demon's influence lingered, pressing against his mind like a dark cloud.

Before he could respond, a sharp noise broke through the silence. A roar. The Leviathan—still charging forward, an uncontrollable force—appeared in the corner of Aurelius's vision. Mystogan managed to dodge its massive body, but Aurelius didn't have time to react. The creature's tail whipped through the air, slamming into him with devastating force. He was thrown backward, crashing into the stone wall with a sickening impact. Pain shot through his body as he crumpled to the ground, momentarily dazed.

Through the haze, Aurelius heard Mystogan's voice faintly calling his name, but the ringing in his ears drowned out most of the words.

Meanwhile, Jose stood motionless amidst the chaos of the battle, his mind clouded as the fight raged on around him. The noise of the roar of the Leviathan were distant echoes to him. His focus had fractured, and all he could do was stand there, his body barely responding. The pain from Aurelius's attack—being stabbed, his arm and head severed—still lingered, sharp and real in his mind and body, even though his body was perfectly intact.

His hand hovered over his neck, feeling the smoothness of his skin where the blade had once cut. His fingers traced the area, as if expecting to find the wound, but there was nothing. No blood, no gash. His breath quickened, and his heart pounded in his chest. He could still feel the pain, though. The sharp, burning sensation from where the sword had pierced him, the weight of his severed right arm, the emptiness where his head had once been.

He staggered back a step, his knees feeling weak beneath him. He still felt the pain. The memories of his head being sliced from his neck, the coldness of the blade through his arm—they were still with him. And yet, he could see his body was whole. Nothing made sense. The world around him began to blur, the sounds of battle fading into an almost muffled hum.

He brought his hand up to his neck once more, as if checking for a wound, but there was nothing. His breath hitched. "What is going on?"

For a long moment, he stood there, motionless, caught in his own confusion. His eyes darted around, but everything felt detached. His mind couldn't fully process what had just happened.

The certainty that had always been his—his confidence in his strength, his unshakable belief in his own superiority—was gone. The weight of the pain, the memories, the feeling of being killed... it had all crumbled beneath him, leaving him with nothing but doubt. For the first time, Jose didn't know what to think, what to do. His hands dropped to his sides, his body numb, as if the connection to the reality around him had been severed too.

Aurelius had done something to him—he couldn't explain it, but he felt it deep inside. Something had shifted, and the world, for a fleeting moment, felt alien. He couldn't grasp it. He couldn't understand it.

The tension in the air was thick, suffocating. Jose's mind spiraled, his thoughts in disarray, when suddenly, the scene was shattered by a deafening boom.

Everyone froze, their attention immediately snapping to the source of the sound. Dust and debris shot into the air as a massive hole appeared in the wall, the force of the impact leaving cracks spiderwebbing across the surrounding area. The dust cloud appeared, obscuring the figure that had caused the destruction.

For a split second, everything seemed to pause. The group stood motionless, eyes wide and alert, trying to make sense of what had just happened. The figure that had crashed through the wall was hidden in the thick veil of dust, its silhouette barely visible through the haze.

Jose, still caught in his daze, blinked rapidly. His head snapped toward the hole in the wall, his senses finally sharpening in reaction to the change in the atmosphere. Despite the confusion clouding his mind, something about the presence of the figure sent an unmistakable jolt of unease through him.

As the dust began to settle, the figure's outline slowly became more defined. The heavy debris that had once obscured the intruder now fell away, revealing the shape of someone standing in the before the hole in the wall. The room fell into a stunned silence, all eyes locked on the figure.

But as the dust cleared fully, the identity became unmistakably clear, and the shock rippled through the group. It was someone they hadn't expected, someone whose presence stirred a mix of confusion and disbelief in the air.

Bonus Chapter:

24 more power stones

Chapter Titles:

35: Into the Thunder

36: Demon's Fury

37: Battle for the Strongest