140 Chapter 129 - Breaking an Army.
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[Jellal Fernandes. POV.]
Nothing would ever clean my hands from my mistakes.
Not now, not ever.
But this… this would be a start.
"I will stop you, Zero," I said firmly, my voice unwavering as my body erupted in the aura of my Heavenly Body Magic. "I will do whatever it takes to make sure your plans never come to fruition."
Zero rolled his eyes and scoffed at Jellal, the corners of his lips lifting in a sarcastic grin. "Playing the hero now?" he asked mockingly, gesturing to Jellal's blood-stained hands. "You should know better by now that your hands can never be clean enough for that role."
Before I could retort, Zero's eyes darkened ominously, and he swiftly raised his arms. The room around us twisted and turned, the darkness growing with each passing second, swallowing everything, replacing every sensation with a chilling nothingness until there was nothing but Zero, at its center, as the only visible entity.
Wasting no time, I channeled my magic, forming a cluster of golden meteors around my body. "Cassiopeia!" With a swift gesture, I sent the golden meteors hurling towards Zero.
Zero dodged as my attack collided with the ground, laughing as if this were a mere game. "You should've thought this through Jellal, remember, I am not alone." At this, his figure flickered, and suddenly, he wasn't alone.
Five more clones had emerged from the darkness he had summoned.
The clones were weaker than the original, but not enough to make dealing with them an easy endeavor. Alone, they were weak, together, their collective magic was immense, overwhelming.
"Cygnus!" I shouted as I raised my hands, forming a powerful barrier around myself before immediately expanding the barrier outwards.
"Dark Nightmare" The clones shouted in one voice, unleashing a heavy wave of darkness towards me, their combined magic crackling with an intense energy.
The wave hit my barrier with a loud thud, and I struggled to keep it up under the immense pressure of their magic. But as I held on with all my strength, I noticed a small crack starting to form in the barrier.
If this continued, I was going to lose.
With a fierce cry, I pushed beyond my limits, strengthening my shield, putting everything I had in the barrier. However, it wasn't long before my shield shattered, and the wave of dark magic slammed into me, sending me sprawling backward, blasting me out of the mountain.
Groaning, I picked myself up, struggling to keep my balance as my body screamed in protest, blood dripping into the ground. Pain flared through every muscle, every nerve.
"You should've done what you were told, Jellal," One of the clones said, as the others flanked him, a triumphant smile on each of their faces. "Did you really think you had a chance? We taught you everything you know, maggot!"
He was right.
Not only was I nowhere near my full power, but Zero knew my every move.
I had no chance of winning.
Not that it mattered, I had already accomplished what I had set out to do, I had managed to weaken Zero's plans, now it was my time to die, to atone.
So, if I was to die, then I would die helping those I have hurt.
Drawing a deep breath, I began channeling my magic. "You're right." I said, taking a shaky step forward. "Which is why you shouldn't have cornered me." At this, I brought both of my hands to my chest, activating one of the strongest spells Zero had taught me.
Square of Self-Destruction.
"That's your last resort?!" The clones laughed as they saw the spell sequence form around me, the energy swirling and crackling.
"I will take everything down with me," I replied, knowing that even if he killed me, the Square of Self-Destruction would still detonate, seeing that without the cancellation code, this was a spell that cannot be stopped.
Chuckling at my reply, one of the clones' hands shot out, touching me on the shoulder. And suddenly, my spell halted, before breaking down completely, the energy behind the spell dissipating as if it was never there.
I looked up in shock, my eyes wide as I met Zero's menacing gaze.
"Did you think I didn't know how to counter my own spell?" Zero taunted, the clone still touching my shoulder.
I had failed.
Once more, I had failed.
I couldn't even die properly.
This was it. The end.
Milliana.
Simon.
Wally.
Sho.
Adam.
Erza.
I'm sorry for everything I've done.
But before despair could consume me, the air around me rippled and a figure landed in front of me, cracking the earth open, creating a cloud of dust and debris that made it difficult to see.
Despite that, however, the clones' eyes widened in horror, each one taking a step back before their heads wobbled, teetering precariously before dropping off with a heavy thud onto the cold, hard ground.
"You don't get to kill yourself pal."
That voice, this power.
I knew them well.
"Adam," I muttered in shock.
He gave me a small smile, his eyes softening at the sight of me. "I'm glad to see you're out of your villain phase."
There was no anger in his voice.
How could he not hate me after all I've done?!
Without another word, Adam turned to face clones of Zero that had appeared, his expression hardening. "And as for you, Zero, this has gone long enough."
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[Adam C. POV.]
It hadn't taken me long to figure out something or someone was producing the army of clones everyone had been fighting.
So, once I figured that out, it was all a matter of finding the source, in order to tear it apart.
Unfortunately for me, and everyone dealing with this, locating the source of this infestation wasn't so easy to accomplish. Zero, had planned for this, or at least I assumed he had, considering I couldn't feel a thing whenever I focused on sensing magical anomalies around me.
Unfortunately for Zero, however, was that he hadn't accounted for one thing. Jellal betraying his sociopathic ass.
I'll be honest, I hadn't considered the possibility of Jellal betraying him, or that he would even be here to begin with, in fact, my plan B if locating the source didn't work out, was destroying the entire forest.
After all, you can't hide if there's nowhere to hide.
Luckily, Jellal had saved me the trouble of evacuating everyone.
His presence had narrowed my search down a lot, making it easier to find the source I had been looking for.
That being said, Jellal had dealt with the source just as soon as I had located it. Confirming my suspicions that he was finally free of the brainwashing they had done on him.
Which is why I had gone out of my way to save him when it had become painfully clear that he was about to die.
"Adam, forget me, you have to stop Nirvana!" Jellal urged, coughing up blood as he held onto a nearby tree for support.
"Gildarts working on that," I replied, having no doubts Gildarts would deal with the situation without any complications.
"You don't understand if Zero manag-" Jellal began, but before he could finish his sentence, I was shushing him down.
"Leave your martyr agenda for another day," I said, before knocking him out of commission, creating a Kido barrier around him to keep him safe.
After all, I had a mountain infested with maggots that needed to be burned down. And it just happened I was happy to oblige.
