Just as Akeru was going to be cut down into a million pieces, the clone's eyes widened as he felt an array form beneath them.
He found his mana getting disrupted and with the rune array knowledge he had, he instantly knew how Akeru had created this rune.
He knew that it would take him nearly one second to destroy that array; however, that one second might as well be an eternity to the enemy in front of him.
'He must have created it when he stomped the ground then.' That was the last thought of that clone before multiple orange bullets representing spatial distortion tore through his body.
Now, only the clones wielding fire and lightning remained present.
Akeru looked at them as they made their way towards him.
They didn't bother sending any ranged attacks as they knew it would be useless.
The clone wielding lightning was the first one to reach him, and Akeru found his mana zone getting overpowered by the lightning mana zone.
It was quite a similar sight to what happened when the wind mana zone clashed with his mana zone.
Both of their effects were coexisting at the same time.
Akeru had only observed this kind of phenomenon in some mana zones of Aetheris and the only mana zone of Rill.
'Is it related to laws of mana or something? My mastery of mana is far less than his. Maybe that's the reason, despite learning mana zone just recently, his mastery of them exceeded mine.' Akeru calmly assessed as he saw the clone wielding lightning appear in front of him, almost as if he teleported.
Akeru was barely able to use his Ki sensing and intelligence to predict his next move and twist his body just as that clone swiped his hand at him.
Those hands were gleaming with dangerous lightning which threatened to tear Akeru apart.
Previously, Akeru had boasted about the defensive spells he possessed and even dared to claim that apart from spatial magic, not many spells could break them.
However, as if to mock this point, not only was the previous wind-related mana zone able to achieve it, but a simple swipe of hands at lightning speeds was enough to break all his defenses.
CLICK
A clicking sound was audible in the clearing just as the lightning clone cut off Akeru's right arm.
At the same time, the fire mana zone encased both of them, and Akeru felt a sudden wave of weakness throughout his entire being.
"You a-" The clone, who was controlling the lightning mana zone, quickly averted his eyes to the right.
Time seemed to have slowed down for him as he noticed Akeru's cut-off arm slowly rotating in the air naturally.
However, that was not what caught his attention; rather, his mana was sensing something inside it.
Before he could flicker out of the place with the help of his mana zone, he felt it.
The feeling of his mana zone itself getting disrupted.
And in the next instant, all hell broke loose.
BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM
The moment he lost control of his mana zone was the same moment a large explosion erupted with the arm as the epicenter.
'Did he create a rune array inside his own arm?... That is not possible with the skill set I extracted from him; his level of mana control is not that ridiculous. Also, did he already know that I would go for his arm?' The clone found his body engulfed by the explosion.
The final clone, who was currently wielding the fire mana zone, became cautious seeing his fellow clone getting destroyed.
Even though he had Akeru under the effects of his mana zone, with the latter's energy rapidly dwindling, the cold, indifferent look Akeru was giving—as if the conclusion of their fight was established long before—sent chills down his spine.
"You-" The clone's mouth paused as he suddenly noticed the mana in his mana zone not being under his absolute control.
To his shock, Akeru had somehow gained some form of control over his mana zone.
Before he could seize control back, dozens of spatial spheres dashed towards him from all directions.
Just like that, the last clone also met its end.
Akeru motionlessly stood alone in the entire battlefield, which had now grown silent.
STEP
He walked towards the direction where the clone controlling the lightning mana zone had died.
In the area where the explosion had occurred, a distinct arm lay on the ground.
Despite being the cause and the epicenter of the explosion, the arm didn't even have a scratch on it.
The arm then floated towards Akeru and started mending back.
Akeru had created the array with this function in his mind.
He didn't really want to lose any more of his stem cells for trivial reasons.
Soon enough, all 7 of the magic knights who were lying unconscious within Akeru's mana zone started healing very rapidly.
In a few moments, they were completely healed, and Akeru woke them up.
As they started waking up, Akeru took out his communicator and made a call.
CLANG
Just as the other side picked it up, Akeru started speaking, "I have a very important thing to report. Tell the Wizard King that a meeting of all the Grand Magic Knights available should be called immediately. Also, tell him to call back all the spatial mages to the headquarters."
After saying his piece, he cut off the call without waiting for any response.
The person on the other side was a high-level management person who was assigned personally to Akeru to be the connector between him and the Headquarters.
Akeru then turned his face towards Finral, who had woken up with a groggy expression, slowly going back to clarity.
"Drop everyone present here other than Vanessa to the headquarters and tell the guy present that their report is taken about the events and given to the Wizard King. Then go and drop Captain Yami off at the headquarters and then come back to pick me up."
Finral, who wanted to say something, gulped the words back in his mouth seeing the seriousness of Akeru's tone.
Akeru watched as Finral created a spatial rift, and everyone other than Vanessa followed him.
It was only when the rift closed that Akeru deactivated 'Bystander's Indifference'.
Emotions that were unreachable till a moment ago reached Akeru in full force.
Bleghhh
Akeru vomited as memories of what happened bombarded him.
'Am I really the person who will kill them?' The scene of what happened in the fear-induced illusion his opponent showed him made his fear and guilt grow.
"Are you okay?" Vanessa asked with a concerned expression as she stepped closer to Akeru.
"I-I am... fine," Akeru managed to spit out his words as he took a few steps back.
He was afraid that he might hurt Vanessa.
Her face overlapped with the Vanessa in the illusion, making his heart beat very fast.
The recent memories of his attacks on Vanessa and Finral only grew that doubt further.
Sweat, which hadn't been present during the battle, started forming on his entire body.
Akeru's body started shivering.
His breathing became rougher with time.
Before he knew it, his medical knowledge made him notice a fact, 'I am hyperventilating'.
However, that thought was just a passing thought among the various guilty and self-blaming thoughts.
The guard's magic had left a mental scar... a scar which wouldn't be resolved that easily.
Akeru dropped down to the ground, the world becoming darker with each passing second.
Vanessa, who had noticed Akeru's earlier apprehension of how he stepped back when she tried to get near him, decided to abandon her stance of remaining stationary and move closer to him.
"Oyee! Breathe! FUCKING BREATHE!" She tried to make Akeru breathe, but as if her words couldn't reach him, Akeru continued hyperventilating while mumbling "I-I am sorry... sorry" again and again until he lost consciousness.
A few seconds passed, during all of those seconds, Vanessa's panic only increased.
After those few seconds, Akeru regained consciousness.
He got up with a blank look on his face.
Before losing consciousness, he had instinctively activated his newest spell, which had been successful in bypassing his mental state previously.
It was the only escape mechanism to his current situation.
Vanessa was taken aback by the drastic change happening to Akeru in such a short time.
Wasn't he just hyperventilating a moment ago?
How was he standing calmly there?
She stood up and asked him, "Are you really okay?"
Akeru looked in her eyes, she looked back.
Time seemed to stretch as both of them stared at each other.
Vanessa felt a shiver down her spine as she looked at Akeru's eyes, which were feeling off to her for some reason.
The silence had become painful to Vanessa, making her uncomfortable.
She broke eye contact with Akeru, and just as she was going to repeat her question, Akeru spoke.
***
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