章 12: Chapter 12 - Void Beast

Leaping into the air while surrounded by the golden glow of his Heavenly Body Magic, Jellal looked down on the wriggling creature from above. While in the air, he placed both hands on top of each other, with the top hand having only the index and middle fingers extended, and exclaimed, "Heavenly Body Magic, Grand Chariot!"

Seven magic seals appeared in the sky and formed the shape of the big dipper directly above the Void Beast. The seals fired beams of light far stronger than the previous Pleiades spell Jellal casually cast. The crater exploded under the blast of light as though a small meteor collided with the planet's crust.

Prepared for the aftershocks, Ultear stepped in front of Jin and Meredy. She crossed her arms in front of her breasts, and chanted, "Ice-Make! Dahlias!"

Giant Dahlia flowers made of purple ice bloomed and shielded them from the impact of Jellal's Grand Chariot spell. The front of the ice shield chipped away under the shockwave, but it stood strong. The surroundings weren't so lucky. Everything within several hundred meters from the epicenter of the spell was blown to smithereens.

At the center of the crater which just doubled in size, black tendrils squirmed back into a solid mass again. It shook back and forth a few times. Then, six of its appendages pointed toward the sky at Jellal, and five pointed towards Jin, Ultear, and Meredy. The tendrils sharpened and shot outward at their targets, extending into sharp needle-thin points. Each tendril reached them in the blink of an eye.

Luckily, Ultear's Dahlia spell still stood in the way and blocked sharp tendrils. The ice cracked at each point of impact. Above, Jellal also flew out of the attack's path using his heavenly body magic.

"It looks a lot smaller than before," Jin noted, his eyes squinted as he observed the Void Beast's current state. Despite the calm statement, his fight or flight response already kicked in. His heart raced with adrenaline. It had been a long time since he felt this strange mixture of trepidation and exhilaration.

Taking a second look at the creature because of his statement, Ultear nodded and replied, "I think you're right. I'll tell Jellal."

She fell silent, likely using telepathy of some sort.

"It's durable and quick, but doesn't seem very strong attack-wise," Meredy noted.

"Yeah, but, I'm sure it'd still turn me into swiss cheese if you two weren't here," Jin ruefully replied.

Meredy patted his shoulder, grinned, and said in a playful tone, "Hehe. Don't worry. I'll protect you until you learn some magic."

Jin sighed and refrained from responding. Bantering in the middle of a battle made his muscles twitch uncomfortably since such a thing would have been impossible during most of the war he experienced in his past life.

Suddenly, Jellal fired off more magic. Golden beams streaked into the creature, exploding everything around it yet again. He spammed Pleiades and a few other Heavenly Body Magic spells of similar strengths for several minutes and only halted occasionally to see how much of the creature remained.

"Almost makes me want to pity the creature," Jin commented with a conflicted expression while watching his chat group companion spam magic rockets like a gatling gun with infinite ammo.

"He doesn't get to throw out magic like this every day, so it should be good stress relief for him even if it tires him out a little bit," Ultear replied, still channeling magic into her Dahlia spell to prevent their clothes from being ruined by the countless aftershocks.

Eventually, the magical bombardment stopped. Jellal flew down and casted a final flamethrower magic to incinerate any tendrils still squirming on the ground. The others joined in to search for anything that might have been left behind. While searching in the vicinity of the Reality Crack, Jin felt like an astronaut on the surface of the moon. The others also struggled to adjust to the minimal gravity right away. After searching in the low-gravity area for several minutes, none of them found anything that could be considered remains of the odd creature.

Just in case, Jin summoned his phone into his hand and checked the mission description. Seeing a checkmark next to the requirement of defeating a Void Beast, he nodded and said, "We should be good. Says we defeated it. Nice work, Jellal."

"Thanks," Jellal calmly replied with a small smile. He looked about as tired as an athlete who just sprinted a one hundred meter dash. In other words, he still had a lot of energy in his tank.

"It feels like you guys have battled other creatures that regenerate like that," Jin mentioned.

"It happens from time to time," Jellal confirmed. Then, he looked up at the reality crack and asked, "Now, what do we do about that?"

"Pretty sure I've gotta do something about it, but still need to figure out what exactly that would be."

*Ding*

The soft alert sounded from Jin's phone. Upon checking it, he raised a brow.

{Confirmed annihilation of Void Beast. Would you like to allow the application to guide you through the process of closing the Reality Crack? You may notice a partial loss of physical autonomy during the one-time process.}

{Yes/No}

'Loss of autonomy? That doesn't sound fun at all. But… how else am I supposed to figure out how to close this thing?'

Lips curved downward and brow wrinkled, Jin debated within his head whether he should accept or not.

"What's wrong?" Meredy asked.

"Just trying to figure out how to approach this," he half-heartedly answered.

"Is it because of that alert you received?" Jellal asked out of genuine curiosity.

Jin nodded. He then raised his eyes and glared at the pulsing cracks floating above them.

'Although I somewhat figured out how to use the Power Veins earlier, I don't even know where to start with this. It's like I just went from elementary addition to freaking calculus.'

A sigh slipped from his lips. Although he hated the idea of temporarily giving up partial autonomy, he didn't really see another option right now.

'In the worst case scenario, I guess the others could figure out if the chat group would have malicious intent towards us.'

With those excuses in mind, he clicked 'Yes'.

Instantly, his phone dispersed into particles. In its stead, an intangible touch encircled the entirety of his body. It felt like millions of tiny hands prodding his body to move in a specific way.

A relieved sigh slipped from his lips when he pushed against the strange force and found he could easily reject it. Contrary to his expectations, it made him think of a father trying to show his son how to throw a baseball. That being the case, he let go and allowed the force to guide him.

The next moment, his legs slid into a stable stance similar to a basic karate stance, and his arms extended toward the Reality Crack palms outward and fingers pointed straight. Within his body, the intangible force also moved the energy within his body. He paid close attention to how the energy flowed. It even repeated the movement multiple times as though waiting for him to grasp it. Steadily, the guiding force lessened its influence, leaving him to maneuver the energy toward his outstretched arms. At that point, the strange guiding force pushed his energy outside his body into a corporeal state, forming a partially translucent purplish-gray cloud. Upon releasing the energy from his body, he shivered. The release of the magical energy vaguely reminded him of the feeling of taking a really good piss, though his brows creased when he compared the sensation to such a thing.

Unbeknownst to Jin, his three companions all gaped at the strange energy spreading out from his body. Each of them instinctually backed away after feeling a similar pressure to the Reality Crack itself, albeit on a smaller scale.

Meanwhile, Jin followed the guiding force. The translucent purplish-gray cloud expanded from his arms. At first, they looked like cloudy gelatinous blobs, but they quickly morphed into four giant arms. Each of the metaphysical limbs dwarfed Jin's height. Swirls of cloud-like energy circled the arms with an irregular and patternless flow.

Jellal, Meredy, and Ultear gaped at the sight. They all felt a foreign and unprompted sense of reverence when looking at the four ethereal limbs.

Meanwhile, Jin focused more on the process itself. The guiding force lessened somewhat, allowing him partial control over the arms. His brows wrinkled at the alien feeling of controlling so many arms. He didn't think he would adjust to it anytime soon. However, he individually clenched each of the giant hands into fists, then opened them. He moved them up, down, and around.

Eventually, the guiding force returned and prompted him to reach toward the Reality Crack. Jin breathed deeply. Despite his curiosity toward the arms and desire to continue using them, he could feel the energy within his Power Veins draining rapidly. Even his unfamiliarity with the Power Veins couldn't prevent him from noticing.

Not wanting to waste anymore time, he relinquished most of his control and allowed the guiding force to show him what to do next. The arms rose toward the spatial distortions forming the Reality Crack. Then, to everyone's surprise, the arms grasped the space around the crack at four different corners as though grabbing a physical handle. Only Jin noticed his own hands clenching the air along with the four giant ones. After firming their grip, the four ethereal hands pulled together.

Instantly, Jin felt a massive strain on his body and energy reserves. He felt like he just ran a full marathon in a single moment. Gritting his teeth, he followed the direction of the guiding force and resumed pulling the furthest corners of the space together. From the void within the crack, a deep rumble echoed. It rose in volume until it sounded like a discordant choir of beastly roars. The ground around the Reality Crack quaked in response.

In the background, Jellal's eyes narrowed as he said, "It's almost like that void and the world itself are yelling at each other."

Beads of sweat dripped from Jin's face and soaked his clothes. Exhaustion-laden pants heaved from his lungs as he struggled like a powerlifter deadlifting several hundreds of pounds. Inch by inch, the four giant hands pulled the seams of the Reality Crack together. Then, they let go and reared back before slamming onto the small void-like ripple remaining. The hands crushed together as though trying to squeeze life out of the breach.

*BOOOOM*

A powerful shockwave forced back the four giant hands and spread in every direction. Jellal, Ultear, and Meredy barely stood their ground with their clothes flapping around their bodies. On the other hand, Jin couldn't hold on anymore. Like a plastic bag in a tornado, he tumbled backwards through the air. The giant ethereal arms quickly dissipated like steam from a teapot. He raised his own arms to protect his head, scratching them multiple times as he bounced off the hard ground.

Noticing Jin's plight, Jellal activated his Heavenly Body magic and forced his way through the storm-like blast of wind. He caught Jin and held him in place until the gale stopped a few seconds later.

"You okay?"

"Tired… and a bit beat up. But… I'm fine," Jin tiredly answered.

Jellal nodded, helped him to his feet, and propped him up by pulling one of Jin's arms over his shoulders. Meredy also ran over, followed by Ultear. Once again, Meredy wrapped Jin in bandages, though he actually needed them this time due to several cuts on his arms and legs. Even Ultear looked concerned and checked him for broken bones.

After the brief check-up, the four looked around them with solemn expressions. They couldn't see the forest anymore.

"That's a lotta damage," Jin remarked.