Chapter 25: Chapter 24: The Paths We Both Take

A great cloud of dust rose as the clash finally ended, and there, deep within the temple in the anti-wizard forest, two heavy breaths could be heard.

"Ah… ah… ah"

Little by little, the cloud of dust faded, until after a minute, two figures were visible, both lying on the ground and separated by several meters, breathing deeply, showing the exhaustion that invaded their bodies.

And along with that, Lucy's right arm and Jean's left sported a dark reddish coloration along with several cuts and bruises as a result of the pressure that their limbs had been subjected to.

"Ouch". Jean groaned, using his right hand to support him to sit up. "Damn, my whole body hurts". He said, leaning his back against a medium-sized rock close to him.

"I... not going to get out of bed for a couple of days after this". Lucy replied, still lying on the floor. "Is it over?"

Jean moved his eyes around as he saw Eclinox lying on the ground, and in his original form, adjusting his eyes as much as he could, he didn't see his body move in the slightest.

"I… think so, he's not… moving". He finished saying just when a cough that didn't come from him or Lucy was heard.

"This has to be a fucking joke". Jean grunted as he tried to get up.

"No". It was the only thing Lucy said before forcing her body to move in a try to stand up.

Slowly, the legs of both raised them when the cough stopped, overshadowed by a resigned laugh. "I... cough... I can't fight anymore... I can't even... stand up... I'll... die... in no time"

But even with that statement, neither Lucy nor Jean allowed themselves to relax.

They had both been constantly in mortal danger, so they didn't want to be in for an unpleasant surprise now that they were so close to the end.

"Then, if that's the case, just give us the wish-granting thing". Jean said without taking his eyes off the demon.

"Wish-granting?" Eclinox said before starting to laugh. "HAHAHAHA, all of you humans are always filled with greed, always wishing for things you think you deserve; there is no such thing as a wish-fulfilling artifact; I just used that greed to lure all the humans here, it was enough that one of you would speak and the idiots never stopped coming". The etherias mocking tone echoed through the room as if he were mocking all the humans who had come in search of the treasure.

The demon's laugh lasted a few seconds as Jean and Lucy listened in silence.

"So what were you trying to achieve with all of this? Why murder so many people? Why cause so much pain? Were you devouring them just to get stronger?" Lucy asked as Jean fixed his gaze on Eclinox's eyes.

And for a moment, Eclinox's eyes and voice became serene as if he were speaking of a distant memory, of a wish that he longed for with all his heart.

"It was all... to get back with him, to get back to Zeref". He said, and with the mere mention of that name, Jean and Lucy felt as if an electric current ran through their entire bodies.

They both knew who that name belonged to, in all the time that Jean had continued to investigate anything that could take the role of Final Boss in the new world where he now lived, he discovered the name of a certain magician.

Someone who was given the title of the greatest dark wizard in all of history, one that many things were said about.

It was said that he could kill anyone with a single word, it was said that he had committed the most horrible acts that could be imagined, and it was said that the catastrophes and dark events that plagued the entire world happened due to his will still present in current times.

Upon reading that all these things were attributed to a single wizard, Jean couldn't help but raise an eyebrow in disbelief, but he still memorized the name and then shared some of those stories with Lucy.

And now, in front of him, the being that had killed hundreds of people, the being that could eliminate the source of power that filled the world and gave humanity special abilities, called out that wizard's name.

"Z-Zeref?" Lucy asked nervously as she instinctively took a step back.

"That's right, Lord Zeref was the one who created us; everything I did, everything the etherias do is to fulfill the will of our creator". The demon said with a slightly lower tone of voice.

"Us? Are there… more like you?" Jean asked with a nervous expression as he approached the demon.

Eclinox had been extremely dangerous; if there were more like him with similar abilities, depending on the number, they could endanger many people.

Eclinox looked directly at Jean and smirked. "None of that matters anymore; you two are too dangerous, that's why…" He said when his chest began to emit a light that became brighter and brighter as the whole temple began to tremble.

"Neither of you will get out of here alive!"

Jean's eyes widened as he turned around; everything began to move in slow motion as he tried to get closer to Lucy.

The spirit mage's eyes were open as she lost her balance from the sudden jolt, and as she fell, she could see Jean approaching her and how the glow emitted from Eclinox's body increased to almost reaping her.

Her arm was raised in a try to reach him while she saw how a throbbing vein formed on his forehead and a small stream of blood came out of his nose.

Metal boots covered Jean's feet, and small explosions on the soles of his feet propelled him toward her.

The closer he got to her, she saw how his nose bled more and how his armor began to cover his body.

Their hands were about to touch, but he passed her and kept going until his chest collided with hers, and his arms went around her.

Her eyes widened when she understood what he was doing, seeing how the armor wrapped her body instead of finishing covering him.

The light emitted by Eclinox reached its peak, and even being protected by the armor, she felt the heat increase, and the white light completely filled her vision.

Jean's grip on her increased in strength, and even without seeing him directly, she could feel the nervousness that filled him, and when finally the sound of the explosion reached them, everything she saw was black.

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A shrill noise filled her ears, and a slight vibration ran down her back, her eyes snapped open, and she instinctively tried to stand up, but she couldn't, her limbs weighed as if they were made of solid metal instead of flesh, and on top of that, the burning in her right arm finally hit her after the adrenaline ran out.

Directing his gaze to the origin of the noise shrill she noticed it immediately, she was outside the forest, far in the distance she saw the huge black cloud that rose into the sky, it was then that she let her body rest on the ground a few meters from the entrance to the anti-wizard forest.

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Her body was tired like never before, every muscle ached, and even though she still had energy left in her bracelet, her stamina was at 0, so she couldn't use magic until she got at least one full night's rest, but even so, she had survived.

Both had made it.

"Jean, are you okay?" She asked, expecting a complaint from her friend, but the only response she received was silence.

"Jean?" She asked again as a bad feeling began to press on her chest.

Her head came up, moving from side to side, looking for the brunette, she recognized the place that Jean had marked with his teleportation dagger before they entered, but the owner of that weapon was nowhere to be seen.

The cold ran through her body, and she felt an emptiness in her stomach; her gaze turned back toward the enormous black cloud from the explosion as blood-chilling thoughts filled her mind.

She didn't care about the state of her body or the pain she felt moving; Lucy forced her legs as her teeth clenched until she was on her feet once more, only to fall to the ground when she tried to give the first step.

'NononononoNO'. The denial repeated in her mind as she crawled in an attempt to move forward.

Slowly, a part of the shattered armor that still covered her left arm began to glow, then disappeared into particles of golden light.

Tears welled up in her eyes as the thought that Jean hadn't been able to escape finally hit her.

Slowly, her arms dragged her in the direction of the forest as she felt someone carry her; her mind was in such a messed-up state that she couldn't tell who it was until he spoke.

"Lucy-sama, we must withdraw immediately". The spirit of the goat said as he settled her on his back.

"NO". Her voice came out louder than she intended, but still, she didn't stop and kept talking. "J-Jean, we have to go find Jean!" Her tone showed her concern and sounded almost like she was pleading with the spirit.

"I sense several entities rapidly approaching". Virgo said as she had one hand on the ground feeling the vibrations.

Capricorn's expression clearly showed the conflict he was going through, and the tone full of sadness and desperation of his summoner filled him with immense pain; he didn't want to leave without finding Jean either.

But right now, Virgo and he had appeared of their own volition instead of being summoned by Lucy, and that's not counting the damage he still had from the fight against Eclinox.

So if whoever was approaching was hostile and they had to fight, he didn't know how long he and Virgo would last before going back to the spirit world.

And besides that, if Jean were here, Capricornio knew very well what he would say; after all, he had known him since he was almost as little as his summoner.

'Protect Lucy'

So, ignoring the hurting squeeze on his chest, he gave one last whisper. "Please forgive me, Lucy-sama, Jean-sama." Said before starting to run at full speed in the opposite direction of the forest with Virgo following him a few meters away.

And as she watched the forest recede further and further, Lucy could only weakly lift her right arm as the tears continued to flow.

"Jean…" She managed to say one last time before exhaustion overwhelmed her and her eyes closed.

---

A short one, I know, but I wanted to end the previous chapter with a final attack, and if I added this part, I would break the final battle vibe I wanted to give it; I hope you understand.

And in addition to that, I also wanted to give this volume a not-so-happy ending, but don't worry; it won't all be tears and sadness either; after all, there is still the epilogue.

Fun fact, if Jean and Lucy had stayed together after leaving the forest, they would already be a couple by the time they returned to Rublan Town.

Now, as I said before, there is only one more chapter of this volume left and then I will take a break before coming back with the next volume, but before that, a couple of things need to be decided:

I'm going to post some side stories, and you can suggest and vote on what they will be:

-What if?: It could be something like what I said about Jean and Lucy leaving the forest together, or I also remember reading a comment about Jean reborn in the tower of heaven, or 400 years earlier during the war of the dragons, you can suggest whatever comes to mind.

-Some extra scenes within this story: They would be something similar to the special where Jean and Lucy go to the beach, so they would be canon in this story, for example, here a user told me by private message that although he liked the fight against Phantom Lord wizards he expected Jean to interact with Juvia because of the whole issue of his affinity with water, and on the Webnovel page, where I also post this story, another user mentioned something about them interacting too, other stories could be for example a Halloween special because I remember telling a user that Jean once managed to convince Lucy to cosplay Samus while he was cosplaying the omnipotent onii-sama (Tatsuya Shiba).

So if you have something in mind feel free to suggest it.

And finally, I will also hire an artist to make an illustration for a moment in this volume, you have until next week to suggest the moment you want, and when I publish the next chapter I will also publish the poll with your suggestions for the secondary stories and the illustration so you can vote.

Now, the important questions:

What happened to Jean?

What will Lucy do now?

Will she join Fairy Tail?

Or will she put that dream aside for a while and look for Jean?

Will they meet again?

But the most important question of all is:

Aqua wears panties or not?

All of these questions will be answered in the future (except for the one about Aqua's panties, that's something that even the gods don't know for sure)

That's all for now, ciao.

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