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

Beta Reader: volfwildman

(3rd Person Battle POV)

Bishop had to calm himself down as he glared at the noblewomen in front of him. Well, the truth he was glaring at the book floating in front of her as it kept its pages open towards him. He could see all the lightly glowing black runes and symbols on the pages. But right now, he needs to plan and think. First, he needed to test the boundaries of that book's senses.

"Mirror Image" With the illusion cast a perfect replica of Bishop appeared about five feet to his right. The appearance of the illusion caused Julia to look over at it but the book didn't even twitch has it stared down the still hiding illusionist.

It didn't take Julia a second before she turned back to the hidden Fairy Tail mage, an amused smile on her face. "You're going to need to try hard if you want to fool my little black book."

Bishop frowned at the pompous women's words. So that failed but perhaps another test would help and if not then it would probably be best to try a different approach.

"Multiply" The false Bishop blurred for a moment before a dozen or two copies of Bishop ran out of the Mirror Image and started running about the room. The real Bishop also started to move about too but the book once more didn't pay any attention to the fakes as it dutifully followed the moving Illusionist.

Julia simply rolled her eyes at the pitiful attempts of her opponent to throw off her precious book's sensory enchantment. It sensed souls and no Illusionist could replicate them. Well, at least the attempts were entertaining but it was probably time to show her unlucky opponent why she was Mammon's right hand.

"Grim Barrage" At its mistress's words the book swiftly flipped its pages until it was on the right one and the runes and symbols that adorned the pages start to darkly glow. From the pages, several black orbs shot out and grouped up above their caster before descending on their target with the books guiding them true.

Bishop panicked slightly at the incoming orbs and was forced to take evasion actions. With a series of quick turns and rolls, the Illusionist dodged out of the way of the orbs which impacted the ground around him lightly exploded in bursts of dark energy. While none of the dark energy hit Bishop some of the explosions were close enough for him to lightly feel the energy and it felt like a cold flame on his nerves. Definitely, something he would need to avoid.

With the barrage of black orbs done Bishop reoriented himself to face Julia, who was looking on with a smug grin at the carnage that her grimoire caused. It was clear at this point that his usual stealth tactics wouldn't work here. Which meant that he needed to switch things up, probably go on the offensive and keep up the pressure with his Greater Illusions while trying to take out that annoying book.

With the plan somewhat formed Bishop let loose his concentration all his Vanish, Mirror Image and Multiply illusions. In a second all the illusions blurred before fading away and revealed the real Bishop standing a good dozen or so feet away from Julia.

"Oh," says Julia, "Finally done hiding, are we? Is this the part where you surrender? Can't hide from me and those pitiful illusion won't do much now will that." She ended her words with a condensing noble lady laugh.

Bishop, however, chooses to ignore the insult and start preparing a Greater Illusion. It was best to start with one of his weaker ones first just to test the water, luckily, he had the perfect illusions in mind. With a build-up of magic and his mind ready the Illusionist let loose a wave of magic that quickly filled the room and stunned Julia as the magic took shape.

"Greater Illusion: Deluge of Arrows"

The magic that field the room quickly took the form of dozens upon dozens of arrows that were scattered about the room haphazardly as they floated in the air. But with a quick mental command, they all face Juila with a snap.

Julia was many things beautiful, graceful, and arrogant were some of those things. Dumb was not one of them, she knew from the spells name to the amount of magic used that she would need to avoid meeting whatever this was. This proved true when the arrows started shooting forward at her and she found herself dodging out of the way of the false projectiles but the few that grazed her relieved the pain that came with this grand illusion.

It wasn't long before Julia found herself struggling to not get hit by the painful illusion but luckily for her, she had something up her sleeve.

"Wings of the Fallen"

From her following book came two tendrils of dark energy that swiftly attached themselves onto her back and took the shape of black angel wings. With a quick flare of the wings, Julia took off into the air as the arrows took chase.

After about a minute of mid-air dodges, the many arrows took form into a shape that resembled a serpent as they chased the flying Grimoire mage. Said mage was able to keep ahead of the arrows thanks to some sharp turns and mid-air flips that gained her a second or two on the serpentine mass of arrows.

Bishop found the input lag from commanding the illusion to act to the illusion acting was too much for precise and sharp movements that his opponent was performing. That said though he was more than willing to tire the Noblewomen out in their little chase. Unfortunately, Julia had other ideas.

First Julia decided to test out the illusion that was unrelentingly chasing her. With a quick turn, she faced the oncoming arrow and swiped her wing at them. From said wing come a few black feathers that shoot forward and hit the illusion. Or rather would hit the illusion had it not being, in fact, an illusion as the feathers simply went straight through the mass of arrows and the Grimoire mage was faces to fly out of the way of the fake projectiles which just barely clipped her and cause the slightest of phantom cutting pains as a result.

Now she knew it was pointless to mess with the illusion so instead, the next option would be the one behind the illusion. With that thought, she took a sharp turn and made her way over to Bishop.

Bishop had stayed in one place as he controlled the illusion but when his opponent started making her way over to him, he quickly prepared another illusion. Just as Julia got close and pulled one of her wings back to swipe at the Illusionist he reacted.

"Shattering Light" An illusion of blinding light and ear hurting sound blared at Julia who was, in turn, was disoriented by the spell. In this disoriented state, Julia swiped her wing randomly before the serpentine mass of arrows descended upon her and forced her to blindly move up to avoid any horrible sharp pains from the illusion.

The feathers that were launched from the black wing was randomly spread around the general direction that the Grimoire mage had been aiming for. Unfortunately for Bishop one of the feathers found it's mark and embedded itself into his left forearm. At first, it wasn't so bad as the pain of a cut was something that Bishop dealt with often but when dark energy started to spread along Bishop's arm like roots from a plant thing changed.

An intense pain spread along the Illusionist forearm along with the roots as what could only be described as cold fire started burning under his skin. Even the pain from the Yearning Death poison was eclipsed by what he was feeling now. It was this reason that Bishop abandoned any concentration on his Greater Illusion and ripped the feather out of his arm and throw it to the side.

With the feather gone the pain went away along with the back roots under his skin with only a light burning pain and slightly darken skin remaining. With the problem over he turned his attention to the air which contained a grinning Julia as she looked down at her opponent.

During the time that Bishop was dealing with the painful feather the effects of the Shattering Light had left Julia and with the concentration of the Greater Illusion gone so was the arrows that had been chasing her. She supposed it was time for some payback.

"Dark Spear" Her open black book turned to the right page and out of the grimoire came another black orb but this one went to her side where it quickly formed into a spear-like shape and with a wave of her had was launched at Bishop.

With a rapidly incoming attack, Bishop swiftly throw himself to the side as the spear of dark energy impacted the ground and left a small crater as a result. The emotionally impaired man got up just in time to see Julia cast another spell.

"Dark Spears" This time several black orbs come out of the book, all of which come to rest all around Julia as they shifted and morphed into spear-like forms. The grin on the Noblewomen face was enough for Bishop to start running as she one by one unleashed spear after spear upon him.

While Bishop dodged the assault of black spears he thought about his next spell. It would probably be best to go with a bigger Greater Illusion this time and probably throw one or two more Minor Illusions on to her just to keep her from focusing on him and hitting him with anymore of that painful dark energy. He was somewhat sure that if he prepared himself, he could keep concentration while feeling that dark pain but it would be safer to not test that idea.

Just as Bishop was about to be ready to cast another Greater Illusion, he was forced to jump back to avoid the last of the dark spears that were aiming to turn him into swiss cheese. With the last of her spears gone Julia took a moment to observe the battlefield from on high, seeing if her opponent was down or if she would need to throw more at him. Unluckily for her, that pause was all Bishop needed to finalize his illusion.

"Greater Illusion: Wild Tornado"

Bishop's magic fills the huge room before coiling together into the center and taking form. Fake wind twist and turned and soon what could only be described as a mini-tornado appeared in the middle of the room. The illusion rage on as it causes the impression of violent wind and turbulence around the room which was causing Julia trouble as she tried to keep balance in the air.

This becomes even harder when slashes of wind started shooting out of the tornado randomly. One of these slashes just grazed her leg and filled the leg with a sharp phantom pain that gave the Grimoire mage enough incentive to not be hit again. While she struggled Bishop prepared for another illusion.

Wild Tornado was preprogrammed to stay in one place and randomly shoot out wind blades. It was made this way to minimize the mental strain of the Greater Illusion but if need be, he could take manual control of the illusion but right now Bishop had other ideas.

"Inverted Realm"

Julia's fight to stay flying become much harder when suddenly left became right, up becomes down and forward become back. Add on to the fact that she was fighting fake turbulence and trying to move out of the way of arcs of wind it made everything much more difficult.

Luckily for Julia, she got the hang of the inverted control much faster than Bishop thought she would and as able to just stay in the air thanks to that. Unluckily for Julia, however, was the next illusion Bishop had plan. Keeping the concentration of Wild Tornado and Inverted Realm was hard but he did have one that he could use for a few seconds and take his opponent out of the sky but wouldn't give him a major headache.

"King's Domain"

Just as Julia was thinking of a counter-attack she felt an intense pressure on her. It was as if gravity had decided to triple right where she was. That wasn't all, there was a pressure on her mind as well. One that made it hard to think as she plummeted to the ground and impact the floor causing her wing to fade away.

For a few seconds, she struggled to stand up as the pressure kept on before suddenly it was gone. Before she could really process what had just happened, she was forced to roll to the side as Bishop brought his Blue Waltz laced saber down on where she had been.

While Julia struggled to get up, still under the effects of the Inverted Realm illusion but now on the ground instead of the air, Bishop got ready to strike once more. Unfortunately, he was slower than usual as he had to keep part of his mind on the two complicated illusion still going on which in turn gave Julia just enough time to get a weapon of her own.

"Unholy Sword"

With a quick flip of a page, the following Grimore produced more black energy that went straight to Julia's hand and formed a double-edged longsword that she used to block the slash from Bishop's saber.

The two quickly found themselves in a duel of blades as the swiped at each other while either blocking or dodge swipes in turn. Julia had years of practice with a blade when she was growing up in that cursed manor that she had called home. One of the few things her father had allowed her to do. She truly was thankful to Lord Mammon for freeing her of that life and finally letting her control her own choices.

Now if only he would see her more than just a tool.

In the end, the two opponents found themselves evenly matched. Bishop's skill was dulled slightly thanks to his focus being elsewhere and Julia was still grappling with the inverted controls, even if she was getting more and more used to the illusion.

After a bit more fighting Bishop decides to pull a gamble and thrust forward with his blade while releasing his concentration on the Inverted Realm. Upon seeing the thrust Julia meant to dodge to the left, or right in the case, but with the illusion over her gone she instead went right and so Bishop's blade pierced into her side.

Julia let out a gasp of pain as Bishop pulled the blade out and struck again as the Grimoire mage was only barely able to block. Soon Bishop was purely on the offense as he pushed Julia further and further while she tried to fight off the effects of the Blue Waltz poison in her system. As this was going on, she didn't notice that Bishop was pushing her closer and closer to the Wild Tornado that was still raging in the center of the room.

It wasn't until one of the wind arcs hit her in the back that she realized with a painful yelp where she was in the room but by then it was too late. Using her yelp to his advantage Bishop didn't hesitate to front kick the Grimoire mage into the illusionary tornado.

But Julia was just able to land and balance herself before being forced all the way into the rapid winds. Unfortunately, she was close enough to feel some of the fake razor-sharp air lightly cutting into her back causing her to let go of the energy made blade she had. Taking a second to regain herself she determinedly pulled herself forward and out of the range of the winds before calling her book forward to cast a spell.

Bishop upon seeing that his kick had failed was about to head forward and push the noblewomen into the tornado's center but stopped when he saw her book fly in front of her and rapidly flips its pages until it stopped on a page that instantly let out a dark glow.

"Daggerfall"

Emerging forward from the book came several daggers made from the same dark energy that all the other spells had been made from. Bishop throws himself to the left side to avoid the daggers, his saber falling from his grip as a result, and was able to dodge most of them besides the two that embedded themselves into his left leg.

Instantly the cold burning pain filled his entire left leg causing Bishop to yell out in pain as he lost concentration on his Wild Tornado which sputtered into nothing. The second Bishop landed on his side he frantically grabbed the daggers and pulled them out of his leg, throwing them to the side and starting to get up.

He was stopped about halfway up when he saw a smiling Julia standing above him, her book already had dark energy flowing out of it has it faced him. "That little sword of yours hurt. I'll be sure to-" Bishop decided to interrupt the villainous taunt by throwing his right hand up.

"Shattering Light" Once more a blinding light and an ear hurting sound rang from the Illusionist's hand and just like last time Julia was both blinded and deafened. Bishop shoot to his feet and recalled his saber with the Loyalty enhancement on it before pushing forward with his blade.

But instead of striking Julia he went instead for the dark grimoire that loyalty floated by her side. Julia's sight returned to her just in time for her to witness her precious book be torn into by Bishop's saber as page were shredded out of it and the book's bindings fell to the floor.

"You Little!" Julia shout as she grabbed the shell of the book that was utterly ruined with most of the pages now gone.

"Do you know how annoying it is for the book to repair itself!?" at Julia's words Bishop's eyes widened.

"Repair?" At the Illusionist's words, the books let out a dark pulse as all the damaged pages flew right back into the book and covered itself in a black aura that upon fading away left a perfect condition book.

"That takes up so much magic to do that you know! Oh well, I guess that means I need to end this quick." At her words, the newly repaired books flew in front of Bishop and flipped to one of the first pages.

"Black Wave"

A wave of dark energy pulsed out of the book and hit Bishop, sending him back and hitting the wall, his saber once more being lost in the attack. The illusionist let out a groan of pain as he got up, his body still lightly burning from the energy. He got up just in time to hear Julia say another spell.

"Daggerfall" Bishop instantly prepared to jump to the side but saw that the black daggers went to Julia's side instead of shooting towards him. The Grimoire mage let out a slight dainty laugh as she looked at her near defeated foe.

"Any last words?"

Bishop was forced to hold in an annoyed sigh at both the situation he was in and at his opponent's clique words. Quickly the Fairy Tail mage went through a mental list of his illusion, trying to find one that could hopefully end this. In the end, he found one, not one he liked to use but ultimately one that could help him end this. Hardening himself Bishop hyper-focused his mind and readied his magic.

"Greater Illusion: The Eleventh-Hour"

Once Bishop spoke the spell Julia intently tensed and waited for a wave of magic to pulse from her opponent. Only that didn't happen.

A red aura briefly surrounded Bishop before disappearing. At first, nothing seemed to have changed but from what Julia could tell her opponent's body was different. Before he had been slightly crouched from his injuries but now, he stood up straight with little resistance. His muscles were tensed up and even some of his veins were bulging on his arms. Before Julia could look further Bishop shoot forward running straight at her.

After a second of surprise, she waved her and sent her black daggers forward. She had expected him to start dodging but instead, he just kept running and when several of the dagger hit him, he gave no reaction.

Julia panicked and tried to cast another spell but Bishop was on her before she could. He delivered a punch right into her gut causing her to bend over in pain. Before she could react he grabbed her by the right arm proceeded to throw her over his shoulder straight into the ground. Julia let out a yell of pain from both the impact and at her now dislocated arm.

Bishop paused for a second and then made a point to pull out all the daggers stuck in his skin, knowing better than to let them stay. The Eleventh-Hour was an illusion for himself rather than the opponent. It simulated his body and forced it to pump out all kinds of hormones in order to push his body to the limit and even past it.

In this state, Bishop was stronger, faster, had more stamina and any pain he felt was dulled to the point of feeling like a tickle. It was a powerful illusion but the drawback from using it too long was what made him hesitate to use it. He had to finish this as soon as possible.

With a quick thought, the Fairy Tail mage's saber reappeared in his hand, thanks to its enchantment. But just as Bishop was about to thrust the blade into his opponent her book appeared in front of him. Julia while in pain still knew she needed to react and her connection to her book was what saved her.

"Black Wave" Just before Bishop could strike the book a wave of dark energy erupted from the book and throw him back on to his back. The attack would have made Bishop take a few seconds to get up but The Eleventh-Hour allowed him to get up in only one second but before he could rush forward once more Julia acted.

"Dark Spears" Dozens of black spears formed around Julia has she gave a slightly crazed smile to Bishop, ready to end this. Bishop, even with his Greater Illusion powering him, knew it would be suicide to rush her now but he had one more trick up his sleeve. It was particularly difficult to use another illusion while The Eleventh-Hour was activated but he had developed a simple one just in case. Just has Julia pulled back her arm and was about to throw it forward to send her spears at her target, said target interrupted her.

"Phantom Blade"

With a quick flick, Bishop's saber was launched forward toward Julia who in turn defensively raised her arms to block the blade from hitting her face. However, once the blade contacted her it simply phased through her body. The Grimoire mage blinked dumbly for a second before scowling," You little-"

That was all she could say before Bishop made contact to her face with his fist, using the handle of his saber has a knuckle buster. Julia's world seemed to be turned upside down as the hit sent her into the air twirling, one of her teeth even being forced from her mouth along with some blood. All this confusion came to an end once her head contacted the ground as the force finally knocked her out. Her dark grimoire stayed floating for a second before falling right next to her as the Dark Spears disappeared.

Bishop had won.

(Bishop's POV)

I let out a sigh as Julia finally was down. I let a small smile on my face for a second before remembering what was coming next and frowned. Taking a second to compose myself I let go of the concentration for The Eleventh-Hour.

And promptly found myself on all fours throwing up.

This was the cost of using that Illusion. The longer I hold it, the worse the backlash. From about zero to ten seconds I was fine with only light exhaustion. Ten to thirty seconds and I would feel a bit ill but nothing too bad. Thirty seconds to one minute and I was going to be feeling sick and tired. One minute to two minutes would always result in me throwing up and deepening on the time being very ill. I hadn't even gone past two minutes considering I had been bedridden for three days when I stopped around a minute and fifty-six seconds.

From the feel of it, I had just gone a few seconds past the one-minute mark. Which was good since if I had gone further then I probably wouldn't have been able to head forward afterward.

With my pulling down I reach in and pull out a red potion from my hammerspace and force it down. I would be exhausted afterward but I needed the regen. That dark energy had really hurt and I was actually decently low when it came to my magic reserves.

Taking a few more seconds to compose myself I was just about to head forward to the fancy door when two figures came into the room from where I had come in. I tense up for a second before recognizing Bo and Cana who promptly rushed over to me.

Cana tackled into me with a hug, "Bish! Are all right?! Did anything-" and that was as much as she said before pausing and sniffing the air. She quickly released me and took a few steps back, a disgusted look on her face.

"You used The Eleventh-Hour didn't you." Despite it not really being a question from her tone, I ended up giving her a slight nod. Off to the side, Bo was looking at Julia before turning to me.

"From the looks of it, you gave her a real beating Smooths." I decide to not comment on my nickname and instead once more just nodded my head before asking them about their fights.

"That Psycho was horrible to fight! He had this spell that let him absorb elements and send them back at me. Luckily though when I used Royal Elemental Flush it seemed to be too much for his sword to absorb and it broke his sword and allowed me to beat him." Once Cana finished her words Bo spoke next.

"I just showed that hair abuser the power of my nose hair, it was nothing. Now, we need to head forward. I bet that Mammon fellow is already in the treasure room. We can't give him too much time to get groovy with that money." Despite Bo's odd choice of words, I did agree with him along with Cana and we swiftly made our way to the door.

Hopefully, we weren't too late.

AN: First off before I say anything else I just wanted to thank you all for 1,000 followers. Still can't believe I got that many for this story. Glad people like it so much. Still got a ways to go to finish it but I'm going to get there eventually. Hope you all enjoy the ride.

Anyway, so we finally got to see how far Bishop has gotten with his illusion. The Lullaby arc really didn't provide anyone to show that off. Fun fact, Grimore magic was one of the magics in the running to be Bishop's magic, along with Illusions, Alchemical Exchange and something I called Kight's Arc. Alchemical Exchange I just didn't have fun working with and Kight's Arc I found to be too powerful. In the end, I did choose Illusions but it was a close choice, Bishop's love for reading is actually a leftover from when I was thinking of giving him Grimore magic.

Thanks once again to volfwildman for being a Beta. This week's shoutout goes to fanfic-addict91 for slightly figuring out the origin of Mammon's name and why I choose the name.

No Joke about reviewing this week. With the 1,000 followers and all that I feel like it would be better to just sincerely ask you all to leave a review about what you like or hate about this chapter, anything feedback is welcomed. Really can't thank you all enough for the support.

Have a great day.

P a treon . com (slash) BETAsatchel