The Nightmare of Alex and Jason

Chapter 53
The most powerful pair ran through the corridors.

"So what did you mean by face your fears?" asked Jason.

"Well the Lunar Eclipse World is a giant maze," Alex started. "It's constantly shifting, so ordinarily it's impossible to find your way through.  But if you face your fear and endure it, a path leading directly to the magic stored here appears."

"So does that mean you have to conquer your fear?"

"No, fear is so primordial you can't get over it."

"So endure means you just need to survive it?"

"Yeah."

"Well how does your fear appear?" A wave of black energy went towards then. Jason and Alex barely had time to duck beneath it. "What the?"

A youth in red robes, with black hair, red eyes, and sharp canines appeared.

"Hello Jason," he said.

"Who is that?" asked Alex.

"That's not possible," said Mephiles. "How could he be here?"

"Who's here?" asked Jason.

"Master Zeref."

"Black Bullets!" Jason shot several bullets at his foe. Zeref easily dodged them all.

"Wow you came out guns blazing," said Zeref. "But then again you have wanted to kill me all this time."

"Eclipse Beam!" Alex shot his beam at Zeref. He held out his hand easily blocking it.

"A member of Doomkaiser Family and you can't even leave a scratch on me."

"Black Blade!" Jason slashed at Zeref, but the blades broke upon impact. He grabbed Jason by the wrist.

"Let him go!" Alex called running up to Zeref. He made eye contact. Zeref was not fazed.

"You think the Lunar Eclipse Eyes would work on me?  The one that created the Etherious, a species immune to that magic?"

"Lunacy!" Zeref stepped back, bewildered.

"Well that worked much better."

"Don't forget about me!  Black Rocket: Darkness Stream!" Using the momentum from the rocket Jason punched Zeref hard in the face. He didn't even flinch, even as he increased the power in his strike.

"Enough." Zeref blasted Jason in the chest with a blast of his magic. His body went slack and he was dropped to the ground. Alex knew what Zeref's magic could do. He screamed in rage. Shadows began covering his body.

"I'll kill you!" He was crying. He charged Zeref.

Jason opened his eyes, he had somehow survived the blast from Zeref's Ankhseram Black Magic. He saw Alex charging Zeref.

"You took him from me!" Zeref simply blasted him as well.

"Alex!" cried Jason. "4500 mm Black Cannon!" The blast struck Zeref directly in the chest. He flew backwards, but appeared mostly unharmed.

"Wow you didn't die," said Zeref. "That's surprising."

"You'll pay for what you did!" Magic power surged around Jason. Black markings appeared around Jason's eyes. "Demon Eyes: Second Stage!"

"You still haven't fully mastered this power yet Jason," said Mephiles. "With your training and second origin you can only maintain this power for 5 minutes."

"That's more than enough time!" Jason held out his hand again. "9000mm Black Cannon!" Zeref easily countered his blast with a wave of death magic.

"Surely you can do better," he said.

"I can do way better!" Jason charged up energy in both his hands. "Black Arrow Bolts!" Jason fired several bolts of black darkness magic from his hands. Zeref easily dodged them, slowly making his way over to Jason. He stopped right in front of Jason and grabbed both his wrists. He squeezed, hurting him. He dropped to his knees. Jason began crying. "I couldn't protect him."

"Do you still want to kill me?" asked Zeref.

Jason looked up into his eyes. "There's nothing I want more than to destroy you utterly," he said sternly.

"You have endured," Zeref said as he disappeared into mist.

"What the?" All of Jason's wounds disappeared.

"What just happened?" asked Mephiles.

Alex began to stir. Jason ran over to him.

"What just happened?" asked Alex. He realized who he was talking to. "Jason!  I thought you were dead."

"I thought you were dead too." Jason helped Alex to his feet. "I'm guessing that wasn't the real Zeref.  The real one would've killed us with his magic.  Also not disappear into mist."

The walls moved revealing a new path.

"Master Constantine," started Nicholas, "Cole and Hector haven't returned from the maze yet."

"I guess the maze is harder to navigate than I thought," said Constantine. "Alright then, we're going in after them."