Chapter 10: Battle above the clouds

Normally, if you are rushed by multiple enemies at once, one would reasonably assume a defensive battle stance or at least try to take your weapon out and make them reconsider approaching you carelessly. Instead, Zoro was firm on the notion that he first needed to put on his bandana.

Some might say it's to intimidate his opponents. Other claim it's to help Zoro concentrate for a tough battle. Either way, putting it on was a sign of him taking it seriously and right now Jellal has received that particular honor, if that was a good thing or not has yet to be shown.

Now, while Zoro was holding his unfolded bandana in his hands, half a dozen yellow glowing Jellal's already crossed the relative short distance and prepared to strike the defenseless swordsman with a combination of mighty strikes and heavy kicks.

The first Jellal aimed for the head, but Zoro just stepped aside without issue and managed to put the cloth on his forehead.

The second one tried to deliver a kick to the gut only to miss, when the swordsman jumped over it without issue, wrapping the bandana around his head.

While airborne, Jellal three and four each tried a spinning roundhouse kick for added power, but all Zoro needed to do was shift his body midair where the copies self-connected strikes didn't catch him and in doing so also successfully tied his signature head covering on, casting a quite ominous shadow around his eyes.

Jellal five emerged from behind, trying to catch him off-guard, but before the clone could do anything, it received a well-deserved gut punch, taking him quite literally out of the fight when his body suddenly dematerialized, leaving behind an ascending shower of sparkling bubbles.

Leveling his gaze, Zoro looked one of the copies straight into its eyes.

"Tell me Jellal, while you still can. What happened to the little girl and the rest? I can't hear their voices anymore. "

While waiting for an answer, the swordsman dealt with a sixth Jellal by backhanding the poor copy and launching him far away into the distance, until it disappeared from this plane of existence in the same bubbly afterglow.

Seeing that this tactic was for naught, the other Jellal's all displaced themselves at a higher altitude, trying to create some distance from their opponent, while readying their next stratagem. They littered the sky with a lake of yellow magic seals, while illuminating the sky with its golden glow. Charging up as evident by the rising, almost blinding intensity.

"Don't worry, Roronoa, "one of them started to talk, before another one picked up the next line in order to conceal Jellal's true location.

" I'm no longer a monster that is ready to sacrifice the innocent in order to accomplish my goal,"

"I know that a serious battle between us would be disastrous for everyone on this island,"

"No matter where they may hide,"

"So while you were busy down there,"

"I evacuated all the people here to a save location and notified the whole island that a battle between wizard saint level mages was going to take place,"

"All on the off chance that you survived my first strike,"

"Which you have,"

"Right now we should be the only one standing here."

"How thoughtful of you, " Taunted Zoro, while reaching for one of his blades. "Well, if you so kindly leveled the playfield for us, it would be a shame to not make proper use of it." Unsheathing his now burning Medo Inferno, Zoro pointed his sword towards the crowd of flying mages. Ready to get a real combat test run this time.

"Give me your worst! Such slow half-assed attacks aren't going to hit me even in my sleep, Jellal! If you want to kill me, you will have to try a lot harder than that!"

Taking this as a challenge, all the clone discharged their spells in an instant. Each magic seal rained down a barrage of numerous golden spheres of light. The power combined would have been devastating for any other opponent, but Zoro, holding his blazing blade horizontal above his shoulder opted to meet them head on. It's purpose? To show Jellal just how vast the power difference between them really is.

" 360 Inferno Cannon " Shouting the attacks name for dramatic effect, Zoro released a fire version of his usual flying slash attack, his burning blade unleashing a crackling storm of condensed flames. The difference to his previous alpha version, used against that goblin guy, was that he managed to drastically reduce its magic consumption to a somewhat acceptable level. Not yet mastered, but he was getting there.

Ascending at incredible speed it effortlessly dispatched of half the volley of spells, while the mighty explosion that followed managed to catch and misdirect the rest. Causing them to miss the green headed swordsman, who did not even bother to move in the slightest.

Using the smokescreen as cover, Zoro launched another fiery slash into the air and managed to catch five off-guard, before they managed to disperse, cutting off a leg and an arm and several heads in the process, which proved to be fatal enough to make them vanish into nothingness.

Not allowing the other clones to escape, Zoro unleashed quite a barrage of ranged cuts taking out another four manned squad, before he had to opt for melee combat when a good half of them came closing in from all sides, swarming his position and seemingly trapping him as they encircled and rotated around Zoro in a swirling tornado-like structure, while another wave was somewhere right behind them, doing who knows what.

Using his Meteor, the young mage came from all imaginable directions, just trying to get at least on hit on the swift moving swordsman.

While they didn't manage to overwhelm the greenhead, they somehow managed to distract him each time when he tried to focus on the second wave of clones who stood still just outside of his range, holding their arms up in the air-

A high kick grazed Zoro under his chin, before he managed to avoid the sudden attack and cut the responsible clone for his trouble, but it didn't mean the rest stopped their assault as they behaved like a swarm of intelligent angry killer bees, just looking for any openings to exploit.

Circling aimlessly around the swordsman the, for Zoro's amusement now called, Jelly's feigned attack after attack, just trying to find a chink in the green headed fortress, before they either dodged an incoming strike or got annihilated by it.

They continued to uphold this tactic despite it seemingly not bearing much fruit, but one thing became quite apparent the longer Zoro fought against them.

'They are getting faster/' noticed Zoro, as his attacks were missing more often than not, as their numbers diminished.

After cutting down the seventh one he got a bad feeling about all this. So he unsheathed his second blade in order to break free of this entire encirclement.

Suddenly, as if reading his intentions to get out, the entire ground beneath him gave in and broke apart as if to swallow him whole. One glance to the side quickly revealed that two clones had dispatched themself of the swarm and had placed their hands on the ground. No doubt the reason for this surprise attack.

Not wanting to find out how deep that hole is, Zoro was forced to jump up high into the air, while slashing another four of the clones in midair that came to close into range of his devastating sword slashes. While still being in the air, Zoro kept a close eye on the Jelly's in order to be prepared for any other tricks the tattooed mage may have in his repertoire. He understood quite clearly that with Jellal's air superiority he was at his most vulnerable right now.

To his bewilderment, all the Jellal's around him suddenly flew high above him at the same time. It didn't take long to find out why, when three big black balls with countless star-like little white spots were hurled at him from his right side and were dangerously close for his liking.

Having no way to dodge it, Zoro decided in a split-second decision to flip the grip of his Shigure in his right hand while he held an aflame Medo Inferno parallel to his other sword, causing both weapons to point in the same direction in preparation for his next strike.

"Two-sword-style: Tower Climb, Ripple Inferno" Unleashing a devastating beam of fire, it ripped through the three spells and its three casters in an instant, traveling quite a distance as it managed to leave a nasty scar on Aeraos itself. Creating something similar to a small flaming canyon the size of half a navy battleship.

It was as if the gods themself took a whole, but relatively small slice of the island to feed themselves, before they decided to let the earthy walls catch on fire for their own amusement, while the liquefied remains dripped down for the world under them to witness.

Unfortunately, this attack also depleted Zoro of all of his magic reserves, as evident by his magic swords flame suddenly being put out. It seems he has lost a little bit of control while unleashing his move, starting to feel a lot less energized and deflated despite being in relatively good condition.

This came as quite the disappointment. With no way to fuel his sword, Zoro was again denied his fair share of amusement. There were still so many different things he wanted to try out… but it had to wait for another time it seemed.

Still, Zoro was quite impressed with his fiery partner.

'Medo Inferno is quite a destructive blade. I will need to control it's lust for destruction!' Noted Zoro to himself, having gained a better understanding of his swords capabilities and needs…. yes, swords have them, too.

Still, he was immensely satisfied with the blade's performance.

Landing safely on the ground, the swordsman turned his head up as he watched the gathering of around twenty mages high above his position silently observing him, before deciding to fly even higher. They kept getting smaller and smaller, until resembling a platoon of displaced ants, before disappearing from Zoro's view entirely, hiding inside the vast blue sky where not even his observation haki could sense them.

Zoro waited.

And waited…

And waited, not quite sure what was supposed to happen right now.

Some might think that Jellal saw the error of his way and deserted from this battle in an attempt to safe his own skin, but Zoro knew better. Back on Wracks ship he had tested Jellal's resolve, and the young mage was ready, without missing a beat to give up his own life then and there in order to take Zoro on, despite his terrible exhausted and beaten state.

He could still remember how much his eyes beamed with determination, the real kind worthy of Zoro's respect. With that in mind, Zoro remained on guard, knowing full well from Jellal's honest history lesson, how cunning the young mage could be.

One . . .

Two . .

Five .

Ten glowing points could be seen on the sky growing on size by the moment. Falling down at incredible speeds towards the swordsman, who was waiting eager with some sort of expectation, just trying to find out what the young mage next attack might be. Then his observation haki alarmed him of the imminent danger that will befall him if he didn't go out of the way. NOW!

While Zoro's haki wasn't on the level to see into the future like Luffy could, he damn sure wasn't going to question it now of all moments. He moved immediately out of the way from the area of impact, as the first Jellal slammed into the floating island at inhumane speeds and triggered a giant explosion that shook the entire island to the ground up, while thankfully narrowly missing the former pirate.

It wasn't time for celebrating however, as Zoro was dashing all around the place, avoiding one falling Jellal caused suicide bomber attempt after another. Each one trying to correct their course to hit their intended target and each one missing in the end, not capable to change their course so drastically to ensure a hit. Even the last one, which at least managed to launch Zoro into the air with his explosive shockwave, failed to leave some lasting damage.

While suspended in the air, the sun was blinding Zoro's right in his eyes. The bright light proved to be quite a distraction for the swordsman, before a blue haired yellow covered mage crashed right into his abdomen and almost broke his spine, while dragging Zoro down like a ragdoll back to earth at seemingly meteor dropping speeds. Embedding the greenhead like a flower into the earthy epicentrum of the newly formed crater.

"Ugh...!" grunted Zoro, having felt that particular blow, while attempting to shake of this Jelly who was still on top of him, pinning the swordsman down with his two arms with mediocre success, yet those few seconds were all Jellal needed.

Zoro's eyes widened when he got a glimpse of four other Jellal's dropping down towards him, having used the sun for cover in order to get this close undetected. Zoro had no way to dodge what came next, when all of the five clones glowed in an intense yellow light after crashlanding into him, that might have broken more than one bone, before their combined effort created a massive explosion that covered a good chunk of the island with a deafening bang.


Ascending down like an angel from the heavens itself, Jellal's feet alongside his remaining four thought projections gently landed on the ground as they faced the giant dust cloud obscuring their current field of vision.

No normal person would have been able survive this, but from what he has seen so far Roronoa Zoro was in no way or form someone you could consider normal.

Remaining on guard, Jellal ordered one of his clones to step forward and use air magic to dispel the in air lingering dust, while he and the rest readied his backup plan. Tainting the very sky into a black swirling storm of madness, on the off chance Roronoa really did survive this devastating onslaught of his True Heavenly body magic spell Alkaid.

During his time alone, while the swordswoman was down drinking her heart out, Jellal devised a plan to take her on.

The young mage knew that while he had the edge in magic power, Roronoa's strength came from her own physical prowess, that could seemingly without trouble match his spells head on, and if the legend of old were accurate, she could very well fight for days on no end. Something he, as a mage, could not.

It was not like he couldn't defend himself in hand-to hand combat. It was more that Jellal, like most mages, relied on his magic in order to fight properly and is practically powerless without them, but it just meant he just needed to end the fight before he run out of it. Luckily, he was blessed with an immense amount of magic, which he honed since he first learned to cast spells, extending his already massive reserves even further.

Still, he needed to play it smart, if he wanted an assured victory against the swordswoman, but before Jellal even attempted to devise his battle strategy he first needed to get the people out of the way. Sure, they might be mostly criminals, but they had nothing to do with his last sin.

Splitting his magic power into fifty equal pieces, Jellal gave each one of them just enough magic to give the special thought projections an actual body, in order to make them carry out the evacuation.

It was an overall painstakingly long process to create them and something you couldn't just create on the fly during a battle with the amount of brain power being used to form every aspect of their respective body, but it was a necessary step to help the once in need.

Using his new helpers, Jellal made them bring everyone to safety who couldn't do it themselves and relayed the breaking news to the whole island. Urging them to evacuate in one hour before the start of the final battle.

Understandable it created quite a mass panic, which was heavy on the ears, but Jellal as always thought ahead. Using Madam Potra's various ingredients, Jellal created a magic potion, he then poured all around the miniature flying island where his target resided.

Its purpose was only to shield and stop any sound from reaching Roronoa that might warn her of the upcoming battle. Like, for example the loud sirens echoing all around the whole island at maximum ear busting volumes, getting somewhat on Jellal nerves, and making it harder for him to concentrate on his clones' actions, which in turn became a little bit sluggish and unrefined during that period.

Despite that, Jellal was not worried in the slightest about Roronoa leaving the place any time soon. His sin was an alcohol loving enthusiast and would without a doubt spend some quality time down there. Especially after being deprived of it for the last four days, thanks to Kagura's obsession. In short, it meant Jellal had enough time to devise a working strategy to take her out.

Since he already had an army at his disposal, he would use them to gauge Roronoa's overall abilities before he would use his more devastating spells.

First Jellal would send them to overwhelm her and check how well she does against multiply assailants, but like expected she disposed of them quite easily. He was also oddly enough insulted, that she had done that without brandishing her swords and put on her black bandana during it, as if just to mock him. This in turn just spoke volumes about Roronoa's hidden power he was going to surely witness during this fight one way or another.

Not wanting to lose more soldiers, he ordered his minions to take to the sky and bombard her with countless spells, but again overwhelming the woman with quantity over quality was just not possible.

Jellal changed his tactic accordingly and opted for a barrage of high-level spells that should at least be devastating enough to give her a crippling injury, but in order to do that he needed to distract her long enough for his Altairis spells to finish forming.

Swarming Zoro's position with over half of his clones and trapping her in a tornado of bodies should do the trick and to his surprise it proved to be quite successful.

In retrospect, his sin could have quite easily gotten out of the encirclement with her beastly strength, but if it was confidence or foolishness that let her remain inside, he had no clue. It was only when she reached for her second sword did Jellal panic somewhat.

His multiple Altairis spell were almost ready, but he needed her in one place with no way to dodge, if he wanted to make it count.

In a stroke of ingenuity, Jellal used his Swallowing Pit earth spell to dispose of Roronoa's footing, forcing her to either jump up high into the air or make her fall into the hole below. No matter which she chose, it would waste enough time for him to finish casting his triple fired spell and additionally put her in a position where she couldn't just easily dodge his attack… but, yet again she showed just how much more powerful she was in comparison to him when she literally annihilated one of his trump cards with one of her own.

Jellal was flabbergasted at the display of power and during that time he unwillingly allowed Roronoa to land safely back on earth. Giving her a moment to catch her breath... not that she needed it. She was no worse for wear in comparison to Jellal, who was starting to feel his head immensely heating up, threatening to explode by the amount of brain power used in order to control all these independent actions, if Roronoa didn't help dispose of some extras and relief him of some overbearing stress.

Overall, the number of spells he could throw at her, if a triple Altairis was this easily swatted aside, were countable on one hand, which was convenient taking his single upper limb into consideration. The amount of magic left at his disposal was slowly starting to dwindle. He couldn't let this battle drag on for any longer.

Using the remaining twenty copies, he took them high into the sky, before preparing on of his most daring attacks yet, as Jellal launched fifteen of his suicide driven thought projection towards Roronoa, while each one readied his Alkaid spell.

The Alkaid spell was for all intent and purposes a desperation move, which in normal circumstances would leave the caster alive with no magic to spare surrounded by a massive explosion to catch enemies off guard. Now, if a being solely made of magic would have used it…. well the result of that was quite obvious and made it an ideal strategy for his thought projections to both wipe out his enemies and relieve Jellal of some minions to control.

He sent ten of them visible in plain sight to draw the swordswoman attention, while the crucial remaining five would travel using the sun as cover. Hopefully concealing their advance and catch their target of guard… and to his relive it worked out perfectly.

While Roronoa managed to avoid his ten clones Alkaid Barrage. The main attack managed to reach undetected, before delivering a five-time powered meteor explosion right in Roronoa's face, breaking some bones in the process, if he heard those cracks right. Jellal could only hope it ended her for good.

Unfortunately, as all things in life, simply wishing for something to happen was usually a hopeless endeavor, when a shadowy person could be seen inside the dust cloud slowly walking out of the crater, before the wind spell revealed her whole form.

"Good job," came the voice of his victim. "I even felt that last one."

She was in a terrible state, as now to her previous torn clothed body, a layer of blood was added on top of it. Despite it she still stood tall, with nothing indicating that Jellal managed to even hit a vital area despite his best efforts. Roronoa was just walking towards Jellal at a leisure pace, not even limping, as if she wasn't just hit by the equivalent of five meteors stacked on top of each other.

This was just unreal, stuff of nightmares even, as his attempts to end her life bothered the swordswoman as much as a Vulcan having to deal with a little girl's futile attempts of resistance, but it was clear that despite her act she was gravely injured.

Her willpower to push through was another reason to the endless list he created in his mind, why he needed to be prepared for everything in this fight against this monster. Which meant the use of his backup plan. His thought projections were all already in position for this particular scenario, so using their entire existence and his own replacement arm, he fueled it into this one spell.

One after another glowed in a bright light before his soldiers form slowly, but surely dematerialized by his side, leaving him alone to face this monster before him.

This final attack was going to leave a nasty scar on Aeraos and might even bring it down, but something as meaningless as that will not stop him from this path, knowing full well that no human life should be hit in the worst-case scenario.

His target calmly looked towards the swirling void above her head, not concerned in the slightest. Most normal people would be terrified by such a sight, but here was Jellal again comparing a monster with a human person.

"Huh, this looks nasty," commented the greenhead, while placing one of her swords with the blunt side over her shoulder. "So this is it? Your final attack? I have to say it looks quite ominous but let me take care of something distracting first."

In an instant, Zoro swung his blade behind his head.

It took a moment for Jellal to realize, that what was cut was in fact not some invisible enemy sneaking behind the swordswoman, but just her long mesmerizing hair falling down to the ground like wet noodles. It gave her a neatly cut shoulder length hairstyle, which oddly enough looked great on her in his humble opinion, but he couldn't let himself be distracted…. even if she was running her hand through her hair almost seductively.

"Yeah. This is a lot better. Now. Whenever you're ready!"

Jellal was particularly annoyed that she perfectly guessed when he was about to drop his attack. It was as if she was reading his mind. Nevertheless, he wasn't about to pull out just because of that and with determination he shouted his moves name out for the heavens to hear. Letting go off all the pent-up stress in his system he held on during the entire fight.

" True heavenly body Magic: SEMA! "

A humongous glowing rock seemingly emerged out of the swirling void above their heads. The intense heat was radiating all around it, while illuminating the dark tainted sky in its amber glow. Lightning was seen cracking everywhere near it, hugging the giant boulder in a futile attempt to stop its downfall, before it gave up and allowed the spell to finally fall towards the eager waiting warrior, readying her own attack in retaliation.

"Two sword style: 720 Pound Cannon " Two slashes that left the blades of the green haired beauty formed into one devastating flying cut, the likes of which the young mage had never seen achieved with pure strength alone. It traveled towards the speeding rock with only one thing in mind: Destruction.

The two attacks crashed into each other, seemingly fighting for supremacy over the skies as felt by the shockwaves traveling down towards their waiting masters. It was as if they tried to push each other out of the way, but then the scissors didn't feel like wanting to beat the rock at its own game and instead opted to level the playfield with its own specialty. It split the massive meteor right in the middle, before traveling further into the sky to slay the darkness that had stolen the sun.

Jellal look of horror said it all. He could only watch in disbelief as his biggest meteor, supposed to crush whoever opposed him into a burned paste, was instead split so far apart it missed the flying island completely. They fell towards the sea of clouds that parted for them and disappeared for the world beneath them to discover.

His strongest Heavenly body magic… the spell he, as a prodigy, needed years and years of training to master… was in one swift move obliterated with nothing more than two none magic powered sword slashes by a mocking version of someone he considered beneath him, in a state most people would have died ten times over already.

He could see her bloodied state, he had heard her bones crack. Roronoa was suffering. She could feel the pain, but she also decided to not let it stop her and continued fighting, with determination that rivaled his own.

"Give up. You can't beat me." said the sin to its creator in a calm commanding voice, while closing the distance with swords held to the sides and blood running down her face.

"You know I can't!" replied Jellal, dismissing his previous crisis and focusing on his last mission." And I will!"

"What the-" Suddenly red marking appeared all around Roronoa's body. Traveling and spreading towards each limb, restricting her movement for his final spell of his... just like he did in the tower of heavens.

He should have activated it when he used his Sema spell, but he hesitated, as it reminded him too much of the past. After all, it was this spell he used to capture Erza before he had offered her to the vicious tower. Jellal believed his True heavenly body magic would have been enough to deal with his sin, but after Roronoa's display, he couldn't allow himself anything less than overkill, even if it could end him too.

"ABYSS BREAK" screamed the young mage, unleashing his final spell, which magic circle was left hidden since the beginning of the fight in preparation under the island, out of sight of his opponent.

It laid in wait, feeding on the transferred magic from each defeated thought projection right before their demise, all to shorten its lengthy activation phase. After all, Jellal needed a sure-fire way to eliminate an opponent, if his backup plan would have been ineffective.

The young mage highly doubted it at that time, but his perfectionistic mind had again saved him from a fatal error. You could call it the backup to his backup plan.

In one moment, a dark massive sky-reaching beam of condensed ethernano was released at once. The ground beneath their feet was swallowed by darkness that drilled itself free, creating a gaping circular hole the size of roughly one third of the entire floating island.

It left nothing affected behind and its power shook the once popular criminal infested area to its core, damaging the massive flight lacrima hidden inside it as a giant crack formed, through which its ethernano was leaking out. Making Aeraos altitude drop at a leisure pace towards the ground of mother earth.

No one, but the Dragon of Doom could have survived this ultimate spell of destruction and Jellal was prepared to perish alongside it … but a lone blue haired individual was spotted just outside of the circular blast zone, kneeling right before it, exhaustion eminent in his fading eyes, while the remains of a greenish crystal in his palm were scattered in the wind.

He was ready to die, but that didn't mean he would just wait there and take it head on. Not if he had a way to survive the blast.

Prior to the battle, while evacuating people, one of his projections was near a specific magic shop selling holder type magic and inside he found a small, jade colored lacrima he recognized immediately as a short distance teleporting spell.

It was a popular item, especially for small time criminals to use in order to escape the closing authorities and teleport some dozens of meters away at once. Unfortunately for them, the creator of this troublesome magic was apprehended by Jellal during his rise as a mage, trying to increase his reputation as Siegrain as quick as possible.

Countless people unsuccessfully tried to create their own versions of them. They never came close to his quality, and their crude merchandise was too unreliable for constant use. Breaking apart after just a few usages, as did its now dwindling popularity.

Jellal was not sure if his would break too and strand him together with his sin to die an instant death. Not the worst way to bite the dust really. In reality this one item was the only way of survival from such a spell as devastating as Abyss Break, known to obliterate everything in its path.

Panting heavily, Jellal worn out form just stared into the gaping hole before him. A sensation of accomplishment washed over his entire tired body and a small chuckle of relieve escaped his lips.

Jellal had done it. He had after a lot of trouble finally disposed of his last sin. A sin, he didn't need his Erza, nor the world, to see. Now. Now was the time he could safely say he could die in peace, knowing that all of his everlasting acts of evil were finally purged of this world. Now, he could confidently look into Erza's eyes and tell her to do it and end his sin ridden life and if she doesn't, then he would ask Milliana to do the deed, then Sho and then Wally and then… well the list of people who would want to see him dead was quite long.

Either way, he has done it and now Jellal needed a moment of rest. Slumping his head down, he remained slouched there, waiting for his energy to come back, while Aeraos was slowly falling to be reunited with the earth once more.


"Good job Cobra, if it wasn't for your quick thinking, we too would have been caught in Jellal's trap," complimented Brain one of his pawns, while watching Aeraos fall down out from his cloaked flying airship he rented from some desperate thugs trying to escape all of this madness before them.

"This was tooo close for my liking," down on her knees was a young woman in a very revealing white feathery outfit, hugging the floor for some sense of security. Pathetic.

"I have to agree with Angel, "sluggishly leaning on the steering wheel like wet clothes drying on a washing line, a guy with an enormous nose and sporting an equally long yellow mohawk added his two cents to this conversation. "If I didn't increase my reaction time with my magic it would have killed us for sure. At that speed it was going, even a split-second delay would have sealed our fate here and there!"

Brain had to agree with his other pawn, a specialist in speed related magic. Since the beginning of the fight they were silently watching from the sidelines, while occasionally dodging one stray attack from either contestant thanks to his useful pawn's cooperation. Like always he was pleased with himself for picking those strays in particular and training them to be his elite force, each of them possessing a different highly useful ability.

Either way, looking at the battle in hindsight, the leader of Oracion Seis was not sure if they would have been able to apprehend Jellal without some crippling casualties if they had tried to take him head on.

Yes, Brain was one of the many teachers who had shown Jellal the ways of magic and the boy's latent talent was one that amazed the older mage to this very day, but he didn't expect his former student to have evolved this far since they last met five years ago…

Then again Jellal has become the sixth seated Wizard Saint for a reason, so waiting for him to tire himself out was the right call given the opportunity, but this made Brain wonder who it was the young mage was fighting against.

Cobra was not able to make anything coherent out by trying to read Jellal's, with those many constant commands Jellal used to direct his thought projections flinging in the air. That was understandable, not ideal, but nothing that Brain could do about.

Well, it's not like it mattered right now. The unknown entity was purged out of existence by Jellal's final spell, so if he wanted to know more, he could just ask him directly.

"Racer, bring Jellal to us!"

"Got it," the mohawk wearing guy disappeared immediately and using his speed magic he was about to jump out of the airship, before he was apprehended by on of his colleagues, who grabbed him by his clothes and stopped him in place.

"What's the deal Cobra?!" annoyed at having been halted, the speed loving enthusiast resisted slamming his heel at the perpetrator and turned around, looking straight at the snake encompassed wizard, whose head was fixated towards the ceiling.

"It's not over yet."

"What do you mean?! Haven't you seen this massive attack?! There's no way anybody could have survived its blast!"

"The voice did not disappear."

Hearing that everyone present turned around towards the poison dragon slayer in shock, except Midnight sleeping peacefully on his flying carpet, oblivious to the world around him.

It was such an outrages statement it made even Angel forcibly stand up and walk towards him to look Cobra straight into his eyes. "You must be joking! I can't believe this... this madness!"

"Do you doubt my words?"

"…" the feathery clad woman let her silence answer the question, as did everyone present, trying to wrap their hand around that revelation, but the most shocked of them all was Brain himself.

Him, being the former director and leading science mage of the Bureau of Magic Development, meant that he understood the best out of them all how devastating Abyss Break is… No, what qualified him more than any other person was something else.

He was one of the very few who were there when it was being created.

Back in his younger days, when he was just a junior science mage trying to find a place for himself in the vast world of magic, he was put under the tutelage of the later known Manager of the Magic Busters.

At first Brain didn't think much about the slightly older man and viewed him as a failure. Despite his achieved high rank his senior hadn't created a single spell in the entire five years his teacher was stationed there. It all changed when he got to see culmination of those years of research that were being invested into created this one magnificent spell.

In short, it was a spell that could categorically be called a powered down Etherion, which complexity was so much shrunk down that it could be cast by one or a group of mages wherever they pleased, instead of the ton of stationary magical equipment you would need to get the same result. It was a breakthrough the likes of which would be taught for generation to come about that man's brilliance.

The leader of Oracion Seis will never forget the glorious moment where he got to witness it with his own eyes, burning that moment into his brain to never forget. He was honored for being the first person, beside its caster, to witness this masterpiece of a spell being brought into existence. It was also this very moment that got him motivated to seek out the hidden depths of magic as a whole.

Even if it made him turn towards the dark side of magic in order to discover it… but no matter how hard he tried. No matter how many spells he created, Brain just couldn't replicate a similar feat of greatness as his biggest idol…. and now this perfect spell was supposedly not enough to end someone's existence!?

Brain had no idea who Jellal was facing, but whoever it was the young mage had the guts to take on, was just on another level and frankly this scared him.


High above the skies, a lone figure was currently falling down, having been blasted god knows how far into the air. Zoro could talk about luck that he managed to free himself from his binding just in time to face this attack head on.

The swordsman precognition showed him what was coming, and some things became clear. Zoro knew that he couldn't destroy the beam, knew he couldn't stand his ground against it and knew that this attack could end him, if he did just one tiny mistake.

There was only one way he could think of, that could allow him to escape this cunning death trap and he was ready to gamble his life for it.

Using all the remaining haki he could gather, the swordsman transferred its power into his blades and his forearms in a thick, blackish armor of haki, before he swung towards the ascending laser of doom beneath his feet at the exact moment to strike it.

The power of Jellal's last attack was overwhelming, pushing and launching the swordsman instantaneously into the sky above, while trying to maintain his balance, so as to not touch this attack with anything else than his blades, as it was dragging him further and further into the heavens at sound breaking speeds.

"ARGH!" slipping a little, a part of Zoro's haki-armored right hand slid into the beam, causing extreme suffering, as if billions of corrosive needles were punctuating his right hand over and over again, while blood was falling into his eyes, forcing him to shut them. The repeated flutter of wind was deafening to his ears, all the while he struggled to maintain his consciousness.

Steeling his resolve further and pushing against it, Zoro endured the pain for a few more moments before it stopped abruptly. A second of quiet surrounded him, as he suddenly felt like a weightless cloud that could fly away at any moment, before the forces of nature played again with his mortal life and rolled him down from the heavens above.

He was falling and Zoro was not a big fan of this. He faults his reckless captain for this developed hatred, but Zoro would certainly hate it more if he didn't see where he was heading towards. It was then that Zoro noticed he couldn't command his right arm to do his bidding, possibly damaged. Luckily, for him he felt that his right hand did not let go of Shigure, holding on to it with determination fitting of Zoro's past reputation.

His other, dominant hand was perfectly fine, even if it was shaking considerably. Zoro had no clue, if it was from his recent struggle or the winds blowing hard against it. At least he could wipe his eyes to reveal to him a land of mass increasing in size.

Acting quick and with a certain amount muscle memory, Zoro pushed his Medo Inferno into his mouth, before ripping Shigure from his in-air fluttering arm. He spun around midair to prepare for an emergency landing by using the back of his swords.

"Two-Sword-Style: Dragons Gale" A circular cushion of air was released towards the earth below, catching the swordsman from harms way and gently almost motherly, dropped him to touch the stoned pavement with his bare cold feet.

"This could have gone bad." said the swordsman to himself, before feeling the voice of a certain someone not far from him. All Zoro could do was grin in his typical way.

"It seems like fate wasn't on your side this time, Jellal."

The startled mage in response tried to get up the moment their eyes crossed. Pushing against his rebelling legs, like an infant learning to walk, before managing to stand and face this personal monster of his.

His perfect straight posture from before, gone. Now replaced with a wavering pendulum, shifting his center of gravity in all directions.

Jellal was determined to fight. His eyes told Zoro as much and in a way to show respect, the previous greatest swordsman of the world run towards his opponent, black tinted blade ready to strike. So did the wizard pushing past his limits, as he rushed towards Zoro in a last attempt of willpower with his fist raised.

Zoro didn't taunt the mage, nor did he belittle his futile attempts.

Instead, as calm as the sea, he was going to sink Jellal and end his nightmare once and for all, knowing full well that the young wizard neither possessed the shape or form to dodge, block or survived the coming slash.

Some might call him heartless for what he's about to do, but for Zoro this was his way of testing the young wizards worth. If Jellal truly wished to kill him, then like Zoro he too must become someone extraordinary, with a scar that would push him to try better when they meet again… That is, if he does survive the coming slash.

A kick.

A blurring kick was speeding towards Zoro at seemingly inhumane speeds and whipped him from the side. Mid swing, the swordsman was launched like a wrecking ball. Crashing into multiple houses towards the center of the town.

Whoever it was that kicked him, disappeared without a trace when Zoro picked himself out of the pilling rubble, only to discover that the unknown assailant and Jellal disappeared both from his radar.

No matter how long he tried to feel their presence, the only thing remaining was him atop the falling island and the blood dripping from his drawn blade.

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Man… it's been a while. I know it was planned to drop the 31.08, but a bunch of stuff happened all at once and frankly I'm just happy to have this part done, which I think I will call the 'Zoro Revival Arc' for segregation purposes.

Also I have to apologize to CrazyMax1. I really wanted to include such a moment, but the chapter is already as long as it is (7600+) and after much thinking it would be a lot more fitting in the next chapter, but I will make sure it's in the beginning of the next one. So that's that.

Either way, I hope you all liked this chapter and found it at least worthy to pass your limited time with and we see us again the next time, when I fail to uphold my promises.

Bye Bye

Chapter version v3 : 01.01.2022

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