"'Marco, please don't get hurt because you're holding back for my sake.'" Erza said with concern.
If Marco simply let loose and fought freely, she wouldn't be worried at all.
Erza admitted that she had indeed been fiercely suppressed by Jellal, with almost no hope of victory.
However, the pressure Jellal exerted was far less than what she felt when facing Marco. She believed that under normal circumstances, Marco would definitely win; Jellal was not Marco's opponent.
But Erza was afraid that Marco would restrain his power and fail to perform at his best.
If one side was tied down by hesitation while the other showed no mercy, accidents could easily happen.
Regarding this, Marco felt that Erza was truly overthinking it.
Facing this version of Jellal, let alone showing mercy, the fact that he could restrain himself from kicking the guy to death was already giving Erza a lot of face.
When Marco faced Jellal, the suppression effect he exerted was even more obvious than when Jellal faced Erza.
Jellal's magic style countered Erza, and his magic power was more robust than hers, but against Marco, the situation was completely reversed.
Once the greatest reliance of "Heavenly Body Magic" failed, the power of this Ancient Magic would be greatly discounted.
The reason this magic was so powerful was essentially that the magical formula drew upon the magic power of celestial bodies, providing an extreme amplification to the spell.
But in this field, Marco was the absolute expert.
Regarding the stars filling the sky, while he couldn't say he controlled them all single-handedly, many did heed his command.
No one could bypass him to make those constellations respond.
Jellal's move, "Orion," had played right into Marco's hands.
This was a constellation Marco had established a connection with long ago. If Jellal's "Heavenly Body Magic" could pry even a little bit of it away, Marco would count it as a loss.
Naturally, the blow to Jellal from this scene was quite significant.
He had never faced such a situation before; Marco had trampled his confidence and arrogance right into the dirt.
It could only be said to be too coincidental. If Jellal had chosen a constellation Marco hadn't established a connection with, Marco wouldn't have been able to do much about it.
Yet, he specifically chose "Orion" to use his "Heavenly Body Magic," running straight into the muzzle of Marco's gun.
This couldn't entirely be blamed on Jellal.
The difficulty of "Heavenly Body Magic" was extremely high; it was a magic where power was highly correlated with learning difficulty.
The magic formulas that drew upon "Heavenly Body" power involved various fields of knowledge and required extremely high calculation capabilities.
It wasn't something ordinary people could learn or use, especially in actual combat where just determining the landing point of the magic in an instant was difficult enough.
The high danger of this magic was essentially caused by its high difficulty.
One slip-up could lead to a mistake and magical backlash, causing the user to die from their own out-of-control, high-difficulty magic.
Genius as Jellal was, he hadn't mastered too many celestial bodies from which he could directly draw power.
However, Marco actually found it difficult to stop Jellal's method of mimicking celestial movement trajectories and forms, using resonance formulas to draw upon magic power from the starry sky for his own use.
Because this type of magic didn't target the power of a specific celestial body, it could still draw power from celestial bodies Marco didn't control, though the power would be weaker than before.
Spells like that "Black Hole," the fast-moving flying stars, and "Meteor" all still possessed considerable power.
Just now, when Jellal was fighting Erza, Marco had already been trying to sever Jellal's connection with the celestial bodies, but Jellal was still able to use them.
This "Heavenly Body Magic" was indeed still strong.
"Impossible! Impossible! I am the one chosen by Zeref! I am the only one who can see him, the only one who received his favor! I am special! I am the one who can change the world!"
Jellal's eyes turned red, and he muttered incessantly, looking like a madman.
Ever since he gained "Zeref's" recognition, his life had been too smooth sailing; he had encountered almost no setbacks.
His main body effortlessly duped a group of fools into working for him, allowing the "Tower of Heaven" to be built smoothly.
His Thought Projection plowed through the magic academy under the "Magic Council," becoming a genius graduate, claiming the title of "Ten Wizard Saints," and entering the Council as a member.
It could be said that ever since receiving "Zeref's" guidance, Jellal's life was like stepping onto the "fast lane of a power fantasy wuxia."
"Zeref" was like the "old grandpa in the ring" cheat code that belonged solely to Jellal, completely changing his life.
But now, this "power fantasy" seemed to have suddenly changed genre.
Marco's appearance had altered the content of this book beyond recognition, and Jellal, the protagonist, had suddenly become a clown.
Not only was the "Tower of Heaven," which was on the verge of completion, discovered, but Siegrain's identity was also exposed.
Now, he was being ambushed and caught red-handed on the island.
The most unbearable part, of course, was that his strength, in which he had always been incomparably confident, was being thoroughly suppressed by someone a year younger than him!
Jellal refused to accept it.
He simply couldn't understand—how could he, favored by "Zeref," be suppressed by Marco?! What did Marco have?! How could Marco's talent compare to his?!
"Abyss Break!"
Falling into madness, Jellal threw caution to the wind. Magic power erupted from his body as he used "Meteor" to leap high into the sky.
Then, raising both hands high, he exploded with all his magic power.
A dazzling magic circle appeared between his hands, flashing with magical brilliance, looking quite exaggerated.
Jellal's own magic power was extremely robust.
He didn't only know "Heavenly Body Magic"; he had mastered other elemental magics as well.
And the strongest attack magic in his arsenal wasn't actually "Heavenly Body Magic," but this forbidden magic, "Abyss Break."
"Abyss Break" was a powerful magic formed by combining the four elements of fire, earth, water, and wind.
Once the magic took form, it could generate a massive wave of darkness, turning everything in its path into chaos.
This magic didn't require self-sacrifice; it was classified as a "Forbidden Magic" simply because its destructive nature was too potent.
Using this move meant Jellal truly intended to start everything from scratch.
Once this move was unleashed, everything present would vanish, destroyed under this terrifying magic.
Of course, that depended on whether he could actually make this move effective.