A New Path - Chapter 255

With two new additions to the group and a fun meeting with Jura, Amell was ready to leave this place. With the kids behind him, he cut the air with his index finger which opened up the rift he used for travelling long distances. “Step inside. It’s completely safe, Touka and Briar have already done it.” Amell did barely have enough time to explain the concept around the rift before Sherria dove head-first into it with a smile and a laugh.

“Someday she will kill herself. And it will be the most stupid death caused solely by that reckless and carefree attitude. I will laugh when that day comes.” Touka said and dove after the pink-haired ball of happiness.

“Who’s next? Orga?” The boy shrugged his shoulders and walked over to the rift. “I see you on the other side, grandpa.” He said and strolled confidently into the rift and disappeared.

“Still scary?” Amell looked at Briar. Last time they did this to get to the council, it took a good while for the girl to work up the courage. She walked closer to Amell and reached out for his hand. “Can you hold my hand?”

“Certainly.” He grabbed her little hand, which in comparison to his was extremely tiny. They walked together through the portal.

When they came out on the other side they were met with the brightness of the sun. Thanks to Briar holding onto his hand, she didn’t fall into the ocean that was below.

“HEY! CREEP!” Touka’s voice came from below. Down under them, the rest of the group floated in the ocean. Touka was fuming, her anger could probably evaporate the ocean. The other two handled it a little different. Sherria was happily swimming around performing backstrokes with a satisfied smile. Orga floated on his back with a content expression. Both of them enjoyed it.

“I didn’t warn you? Weird, I thought I did. My bad, Touka. Can you forgive me?” Amell floated down with Briar and when his feet touched the water, it froze and he let Briar down on it. He used water bending and got both Sherria and Orga onto the ice. Touka as well, of course.

“Nooo, that was so nice! Put me back into the water.” Sherria turned to Orga. “Back me up here, will ya!!”

“I wouldn’t mind it a little longer.” Orga stood there squeezing water out of his clothes. “I could use some soap. I haven’t taken a bath for a long time.”

“Majority wins! Into the water we go!” Sherria jumped back into the water, but a water tentacle caught her mid-air and placed her on the ice again. “Another time. We have places to be.” Amell tapped his foot on the ice and it launched forward like a bolt of lightning.

“WAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!” If Amell hadn’t secured them on the ice platform, they would have flown off. Especially Sherria that stood at the front and yelled as loudly as she could. With the speed they were going, Sherria started seeing a small dot in the distance. That dot quickly transformed from a dot to a small building, and after another hundred meters or so, that dot became a very tall tower.

“Grandpa!! TOWER!” Sherria turned around slowly because of the speed. Her entire face looked deformed from the wind resistance she was hit with at this speed.

“I am aware. That’s why we’re here. Prepare for landing.” In seconds, they had reached the rocks surrounding the tower. Sherria was the first one off as quickly became the usual. She did some quick stretches and helped Briar on land.

“What is this place, grandpa?” Orga asked as he studied the curious structure. It was tall, very tall. Almost piercing the sky. The ambience here was dark and depressing. Briar felt this place was familiar to her home. The cursed forest and this tower shared a similar feeling. She knew exactly what that was. Despair. This tower reeked of despair and desperation. Feelings she was all too familiar with.

“What kind of freak would choose to live here. I get chills just looking at the place.” Touka felt Briar grab her hand. The little girl was trembling a little so Touka stroked her head and gripped her hand tighter. “It’s gonna be okay!” She assured Briar with a fearless tone. Briar nodded and smiled a little.

“One thing before we begin.” Amell clapped his hands one time and a pulse force spread throughout the tower. The kids felt no different, but Amell nodded in satisfaction. “Now we can go. Follow me closely. This tower is a little bit of a maze to get through.” He started walking and they followed closely. When they got inside the tower, it finally dawned on them what Amell’s clap hand done.

“WOW! Are you even human, grandpa?” Sherria and the rest stood and watched the unconscious bodies of everyone inside. That clap had knocked out everyone who was working inside the tower.

“I’d like to say yes.” If this girl knew what he could really do, she might suffer from a heart attack. The truth was that he didn’t feel human at all. He could destroy a world, and that’s without using his full power. Could one call that human?

“That’s an unsettling answer, grandpa.”

“Don’t worry about that now. We still have a lot of stairs to climb.” The group made their way through the tower. When they got to the top they found themselves in a makeshift throne room of sorts. Inside the room was a group of kids, all of them unconscious except for one. A blue-haired boy that was going around and checking the condition of the others.

“Good day,” Amell spoke up and startled the boy. He went on the offensive right away. He turned into something similar to a human comet and he flew toward Sherria who stood in front of the group. Orga’s attitude suddenly went feral and his expression turned from stoic to savage. He jumped in front of Sherria and raised his arms and blocked the human comet head-on. The collision sent him crashing into the wall, but it also stopped the charge of the boy.

“Orga!” Sherria ran back to check on him. Briar’s mood worsened after seeing Orga hurt. She raised her hand and released a laser aimed for the boy’s head, but because her aim wasn’t something she had been working on the laser pierced his shoulder instead. After that, she used her magic to teleport directly next to the boy and delivered a quick kick to his face.

“WOW! BRIAR, YOU ARE SO BADASS! KICK HIS ASS!!” Sherria sat with Orga whilst she watched Briar beat the crap out of the boy.

“Briar! Enough!” Amell’s words made her stop immediately. She walked back to him and left the boy bloody and half-conscious on the ground. “Sorry, grandpa!”

“You did well. Real fights have always been the best training. And, you’ve been holding out on me. That was a solid kick. Well done!”

“I grew up in a forest. Had to know how to fight a little.” She looked down on the ground in embarrassment, but she also felt that subtle pride from having been complimented.

Amell walked up to the boy that Briar had just almost beat to death. He carefully turned the boy on his back, and his sharp silver-coloured eyes lit up for a moment. “Hm, this is interesting.” He called forth the cosmic energy and gathered it at his fingertips. He proceeded to place that finger on the boy’s forehead.

“AAAAHHHHH!” The boy let out a scream that made Sherria’s skin crawl.

What Amell was doing would be the equivalent of someone ripping your brain straight out of your head. Inside of the boy’s eyes appeared very strange red markings that Amell didn’t recognize, but could immediately identify the source of.

“Last time we met.” Amell looked dead into his eyes. “Did I not warn you that there is always someone stronger than you. Don’t dabble in magic you do not understand. I hope you have learned your lesson.” The energy around his finger increased and those strange markings disintegrated. Since Amell was here to handle the procedure of removing the presence inside the boy’s mind, his mind suffered only minimal drawbacks. At worst he would have a splitting headache for a few days.

“Grandpa, is he okay? Who were you talking to?” Briar came up while holding hands with Touka.

“He is okay now. He won’t attack us again. Someone that I met a while back. A clever and powerful mage was possessing this boy. I removed the possession and freed the boy.”

“You are a true mystery. You can do so many things, I wonder if I can ever catch up to where you are now.” Sherria and Orga came back with him clinging onto her for support to stand.

“Do you know how old he is? Take it one century at a time, kid.” Touka said.

“Oww, what happened?!” The boy woke up again, much quicker than Amell thought he would. It spoke to his great amount of endurance.

“Welcome back to reality, Jellel. How much do you remember since your possession?”

“It’s all coming back to me… Erza.” Jellal looked over at the other kids laying unconscious on the floor. “Millianna, Simon, Wally.” Amell sat down in front of him with a smile.

“You were possessed, so don’t worry about it. The one controlling you was strong, you had no chance. Don’t blame yourself.”

“I remember Zeref.”

“Hahaha, don’t think too much into that. The one controlling you wasn’t Zeref. Far from it, just a Zeref fanatic at best.”

“Really?” Jellal didn’t recognize Amell, but one look served as enough warning not to mess with him.

“I know Zeref. He doesn’t care about stuff like this. He has better things to do with his time.” Amell smiled and caused a mini-shock in Jellal. Who would casually blurt out that they know the black wizard?

“You know Zeref? Is the rumour true then?” Sherria looked super excited. “Have you fought him? Who won?”

“We haven’t fought. Zeref is a friend. Last I saw him, we just spent the entire time talking about life. Normal stuff friends do.”

“I don’t mean to be rude, but can we return to the part where you explain what you’re all doing here?”

“I come here with an offer for you.” Amell snapped his fingers and the other kids woke up. “Would be best if your companions heard this as well.”

“J-Jellal, what happened?!” A young girl carrying very similar features to a cat sat up and looked around. That’s when she saw Amell. “Wooooah… A giant…” She sat in awe for a good ten seconds until the other two started making noise.

“What happened? Did I just faint?” Simon, the oldest and biggest among them sat up. His reaction was the same as Millianna, complete awe. Then last to sit up was Wally.

“What is going on here?”

“Wally, a giant! Look!” Millianna pointed at Amell who was forced to sit there with an awkward smile.

“Jellal, how about you explain to them what’s going on. Mostly so they stop staring like that.” Jellal nodded and for the next hour or so, he explained in excruciating detail how he had been possessed and everything he had done without their knowledge. For example, blaming their mutual friend Erza that she had been the one to bomb the ships they were gonna use to escape from this place. Before Jellal became the boss here after his possession they had all been just regular slaves forced to work on the tower.

“Y-You did all that?” Millianna sat with her head between her legs. Simon and Wally were in disbelief. Jellal himself felt a stabbing pain in his chest and stomach seeing their facial expressions. Not to mention how sick he felt for his own actions. No matter if he was possessed or not, his actions disgusted him.

“Jellal, I know it might be too much to ask not to blame yourself. But, I need you to hear me out now. I came here with an offer for you. I want you to join our group. I am gathering very young, but very talented mages and offering to teach them.”

“I remember,” He glanced at Briar. “Thanks for healing me. Another thing I owe you for.” He bowed to Amell. “What’s your end goal? You’re not training them just so you can use them to take over the world.”

“If I was gonna take over the world, I wouldn’t need any of you. I could do that alone, or I could team up with Zeref.” Amell chuckled. “That’s not my intention. I will watch over this world for as long as I’m here, and I’ve protected this world for a long time. In more ways than one. When I’m gone, I want this world to be better than it was when I arrived. I know I can’t take in and train every mage in the world, but if I can make you five as strong as possible, I can disappear knowing I left this world in capable hands.” He saw the wheels turning inside Jellal’s head. “That is my goal, Jellal.”

“After what I’ve done, do I deserve a second chance?” Jellal looked up into Amell’s eyes.

“Jellal,” Simon spoke up. His tone was detached and rather distant. “You should accept. This way, you can repent for what you’ve done. If you’re sorry. Prove it by making it so what happened to us here won’t happen to any more innocent kids.”

“Simon.” Jellal looked at him, but Simon wouldn’t look back at him. “Wally, Millianna? Do you agree with him?”

“I do! We don’t have to stay here anymore and wasting our lives. I’m leaving this place, I want to go and find Erza, and my brother. If they are still alive.” He said as he glared at Jellal. Millianna took her gaze away from Wally and locked eyes with Jellal.

“I-I want…” Her eyes darted back and forth in quick succession. “I want to go with Jellal.” This shocked not only Jellal but Wally and Simon too.

“Are you sure, Millianna. Didn’t you hear what I did? If Erza is dead, then that would be all my fault. All our friends who died when we rebelled. That’s all on me.”

“NO! It’s not! You didn’t know what you were doing, you said so yourself.” Millianna looked at Amell. “He didn’t know!” She said as she dragged on the words.

“He knew. That’s why he can remember everything he did. His possession wasn’t full control. More like suggestive magic. He was aware of what he was doing, he just couldn’t stop himself. That is why I said he shouldn’t blame himself. All of you would see no wrong with what he did if you were possessed as he was.”

“See, you didn’t do anything wrong. I want to go with you.”

“Can she?” Jellal turned to Amell. At the end of the day, Jellal wasn’t the one that could decide this.

“YES! OF COURSE!” Sherria jumped in happily. “Right, grandpa!” She looked at both of them with a smile. “I’m Sherria Blendy! Nice to meet ya. This is Orga.” She pointed at the boy using her body as support. “That over there is Touka, the one holding her hand is Briar. Don’t mess with her or she’ll beat you up. But, you know that already, Jellal. And, last but not least! This is our grandpa! Call him grandpa, please.”

“N-Nice to meet you.” Jellal was slightly taken aback by that aggressive approach. Millianna felt a shiver travel up her body when she locked gazes with Sherria. She ran over and hid behind Jellal.

“You’ll grow accustomed to her in time. I’m still trying to not strangle her when she talks.” Touka said.

“What is your answer, Jellal?” Amell asked.

“Perhaps this was meant to be. Maybe this is my chance to atone for the friends I killed.”

“Stop that! You didn’t kill them!” Millianna hugged his arm.

“But I carry their blood on my hands.” He pondered over it one last time. “Master Amell, I accept.” He said finally.

“Thanks for having me, grandpa!” Millianna said, and in his peripheral’s, Amell could see Sherria fist pump the air stealthy.

“We shall stay here for another day. I will make sure everyone has transport home, then I will destroy this tower myself.” Amell declared and everyone nodded. Simon and Wally took off quickly, maybe to check on the rest of the people in the tower.

‘Paradise Island, next up. Maybe I should invite Sylvia to come this time. I miss the twins.’ Amell said to himself.

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End