Jellal, using Heavenly Body Magic, could accelerate his movements until his speed became as swift as a falling star.
Yet Kabe not only kept up with that speed, he had even predicted in advance where Jellal would stop.
Seeing this, Jellal felt a chill in his heart, but he still gritted his teeth and launched an attack.
"Bastard, receive the judgment of the Seven Stars. Seven Star Sword: Meteor Swarm!"
He spread his left hand, palm up, then placed his right hand on top of it, middle and index fingers pressed together like a sword.
Seven magic circles lit up around him in succession, linking together into the shape of the Big Dipper. From them burst seven golden beams of light that shot toward Kabe.
Kabe made a light backward hop, slipping past the attack that seemed incredibly fast to others, yet moved like a crawling turtle in his eyes.
Then, with a low shout, white ki flared from his body as he charged straight at Jellal, following the beams back to their source.
"So fast."
Jellal's expression changed. He had just begun to boost his speed and shift positions when Kabe vanished from below and reappeared behind him with a sharp swish.
Kabe's fist was already drawn back, muscles bunched. He hammered it down at the back of Jellal's head.
Boom.
Jellal was driven down at several times the speed he had been moving at before, smashing through the floor below and vanishing into the darkness beneath.
Kabe flew forward and hovered in front of Erza and Ultear. Seeing Simon and the others swaying on their feet, almost unable to remain standing from the aftershocks, he quickly arranged things.
"You all leave this place first. The rest of this fight might drag you in."
Without giving Erza, Sho, or the others a chance to object, Kabe jumped straight into the gaping hole Jellal had punched through the floor and dove after him.
Moments later, a series of explosions and tremors shook the tower.
Feeling the Tower of Heaven beginning to tremble as if it might collapse at any moment, Ultear hurriedly urged them,
"Move, now. If that guy tears the whole tower down, we will all be buried here."
She cradled her crystal orb and ran for the stairs first, repairing the broken steps as she moved so the others could follow.
Sho and Wally were still worried about Jellal, but Erza grabbed Millianna's hand and pulled her along.
"Do not worry. Kabe knows what he is doing. We get out of here first."
"Knows what he is doing?"
Images of Jellal being beaten into the floor flashed through their minds, and the four of them were not exactly reassured.
But with the Tower of Heaven on the verge of collapsing, none of them wanted to be buried alive. They could only listen to Erza and hurry down after her.
"Wake up. Wake up. Wake up. You had better snap out of it right now."
On a mid level of the spire, Kabe had Jellal pinned beneath him, hammering his fists down into Jellal's face again and again.
Each punch drove them through yet another layer of flooring. In the blink of an eye, they had crashed down seven or eight levels.
Jellal's once handsome face was already a complete ruin, bruised, swollen, and bloody.
Yet somehow, even in that state, Jellal remained conscious, glaring at Kabe with bloodshot eyes full of rage.
In a brief moment of free fall between floors, he activated Meteor again, slipping free of Kabe's hold.
"You bastard, look at what you have done. My years of work, the Tower of Heaven that is already more than half complete, all ruined by you."
Kabe was not surprised that he got away. He simply floated in midair, arms folded, and looked slowly around them.
"Ruined? Looks mostly fine to me."
"Besides, I am planning to send this whole island to the bottom of the sea anyway, so what are you even fussing about."
Jellal ground his teeth so hard they almost cracked, but he had no way to deal with the man in front of him.
His proudest speed had been completely seen through. His attacks could not cause Kabe so much as a scratch.
"Do those idiots in the Council not have eyes?"
"Someone like this and he is not one of the Ten Wizard Saints?"
Jellal raged in his heart, silently cursing the Council members.
They were truly miserable. No matter who was having a bad day, when something went wrong, the first ones to take the blame in their heads were always the Council.
Angry or not, after that brief clash, Jellal had already accepted reality. He was no match for Kabe.
If he could not win, then he could only run.
It was a pity, though, that he had spent six years building the Tower of Heaven, only for it to end up like this.
Since it was going to be destroyed by this man in the end anyway, he might as well be the one to personally bring it down.
All this turmoil of thought took no more than an instant in the real world.
In Kabe's eyes, all Jellal did was pause for a heartbeat, then suddenly drop into a wide stance, half crouching with his hands forming sword fingers, one pointing at the sky and one at the ground, as if preparing some terrifying ultimate spell.
"Under the stars, vanish into dust. True Heavenly Body Magic: Sema."
As his shout rang out, a gargantuan magic circle spread out, covering the entire Tower of Heaven.
Kabe felt a sense of pressure from above. He lifted his head, looking up through the layered holes they had smashed through, toward the clear blue sky.
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