Divine Mage

by L Travern

  And she was strong indeed.

  She extended the Eye towards the incoming beasts, murmuring: "Forbidden Embrace of Sweet Despair."

  She formed the spell not inside her core, but inside the orb. From there, it shot towards the beasts.

  They saw nothing though, only felt overwhelming despair a moment before they felt the grip of death itself filling their bodies and souls.

  One moment, tens of thousands of beasts were flying towards Shadow One. The next moment, their corpses all started falling to the ground like puppets that had their strings cut.

  Shadow One regretted having to kill them, but they were being controlled by a stronger beast, and it was either killing or momentarily freezing them. Unfortunately, killing was more cost-effective.

  As the corpses fell, she couldn't see Matthew, and used a new spell. "Waves of Existence."

  This time, the spell was formed inside her core, then was released around her. Instantly, she knew everything that existed in a ten thousand legs radius to her, including the invisible boy.

  She used Mana Sense next, paying attention to the void created by the stealth spell from Matthew, making it impossible for him to escape her.

  Having spent little more than twenty percent of her mana pool, she resumed her pursuit.

  * * *

  Matthew felt death mana. He had read nothing about that kind of mana in the family's books, although he knew it existed because he had control over all elements, including that one.

  Death was a tricky element to even become aware of, much less comprehend or control, not to mention anything about developing spells with it.

  There were only two exceptions, and one of them confirmed for him what he believed Shadow One to be.

  He turned just in time to see dark spectral arms, with claw-like hands, and many times as long as common arms, evolving each beast.

  The arms sunk into them, consuming all life from the their bodies and souls. They all instinctively used life mana to protect themselves, but the sheer power from the Ascender made it impossible for any beast to resist. They died and fell like flies.

  Then, she used a spell made of space mana. That made Matthew much more worried than the death spell. Fighting against an opponent with control over space was much harder than fighting a mere death mage.

  Now was the best time to attack. Now, that she had just attacked and was feeling safe. Now, that she had detected him, locked on his position, and was feeling under control.

  But he couldn't. Because he had enough knowledge about beast taming to know that a beast powerful enough to make so many weaker ones behave as aggressively and mindlessly as those was not a beast he wanted to have a three-way fight against.

  So, he kept flying full speed ahead, and after a couple of seconds, his worst fears came to life: a roar.

  It wasn't just any roar though. It was even stronger and more furious than the one from before, and it was carrying an actual soul attack with it instead of only residual soul mana. It was also a sonic and a spatial attack.

  As soon as Matthew felt the disruption in the ambient mana caused by it, he knew he would die if the attack connected. There was no defending against it, no smart trick to use, if it touched him, that would be it. It was just like one might see a punch before it reached one's face, except it used his mana sensitivity instead of his vision.

  So, he did the only thing he could; he ceased existing.

  Myriad Arts – Spellcasting – Double Elements: Space, Time – Legendary Reality Shift!

  He blinked away from existence as the attack passed through where he had been. The timing was almost perfect, him disappearing for less than a second as the mana-infused sound waves went through where he had been.

  The next moment, he was back, and he was bleeding. All apertures from his body were bleeding, his very soul had almost extinguished itself, and the universe was crying in anguish. He had less than ten percent of his mana remaining – removing a living being, body and soul, from existence was that costly – and had to use all his willpower to simply resist the urge of killing himself that the universe was sending his way.

  For he had sinned against all creation. He had committed the greatest heresy. He was worse than evil, a stain darker than black in the perfection of existence itself. He was ashamed of himself, ashamed of simply being. Why? Why should he continue existing if he was such a shameful thing? Why–

  Suddenly, he was back to himself. Shaking his head, his mental faculties were slowly recovering from the backslash caused by the jealousy of the universe – whatever was inside it belonged to it and would not be taken away!

  He noticed he was hurting all over, his stealth was gone, and he was free-falling.

  But at least, he was alive.

  Chapter 42 - The Ancient

  Chapter 42 - The Ancient

  Matthew willed Helina out of the garden, and gave her a single order: "Fly us away as fast as you can!"

  Before she could react, he glued the garden to her using a simple spell, then entered it.

  The inside of the garden was an area of around a hundred meters of radius and three meters of height. While the inside of the spatial ring only had fog surrounding it, and no gravity, here there was a proper floor, made of earth, and the fog on the sides and ceiling was shaped like a cage, through which everything outside could be seen.

  He appeared in the middle of the garden, which had almost two hundred different species of plants planted. Marcus and Sara were looking anxiously through the grates of the foggy cage.

  Not paying them any mind, he sat on the spot, close to a couple of Redwarter Roses that had petals as big as his arm, took some leons out, and started absorbing mana.

  He had to recover his mana quickly, or they would die.

  * * *

  Helina had been looking at the Herald's struggle from inside the garden and would've left the garden had she known how, when everything went dark. It wasn't just her vision, she couldn't feel anything, be it her mana or even her own body. Even thinking, her sense of being was absent, much like a state of dizziness, only she still existed in a way she couldn't explain.

  Then, as suddenly as she entered the void, she was back. She felt such a great sense of welcoming from all around her as if the creation itself was celebrating her return to existence.

  That's when she realized where she had been. She had been cut from spacetime and the very fact that she hadn't ceased existing when in a place devoid of the very concept of space was way being her comprehension.

  Before she could think about it though, she felt her body being pulled and found herself falling down at high speed.

  "Fly us away as fast as you can!" The Herald ordered before disappearing, probably into the garden.

  Adrenaline shot through her. The ground was approaching too quickly! She did her best to focus on her mana and casting the only flying spell she knew.

  Crane Gliding Through the Skies!

  A big transparent pink crane made of mana appeared below her, between her legs. Mounting on it, she willed it to fly in the same direction the Herald had been flying, although she did so at half his speed. Sadly, that wasn't a spell intent on speed.

  She didn't know why the Herald had left the current spacetime continuum, but from how wounded he had gotten from it, she could only conclude something even more dangerous was around, and she had no wish of seeing it.

  * * *

  Shadow One barely had time after detecting the incoming attack and close her armor helmet when the roar, and the attack within, hit her like a Hairless Multi-Horned Mammoth.

  Her body was shot back at a great speed, parts of her core were wounded, and her very consciousness was having difficulties in keeping awake.

  It took her a few moments to come back to herself, and when she did, she discovered she had hit a tree, went through it, and through two others, before she finally hit the ground, where she left the mark of her body.

  Ten percent of her mana had disappeared just
like that, pulled by the armor to keep her alive from both the attack and absorbing the fall damage. Some of the soul attacks had gone through the armor, yes, but that was the single weakness the armor had, and it had even greatly decreased the attack before it got to her core.

  The first thing she did was expand her Mana Sense around and locating the now fleeing Prophetess. The boy was gone, probably inside the spatial treasure he had had on his waist and was now on the prophetess herself.

  How the hell had he survived whatever hit her was a great mystery, but it made her happy. Happy for not attacking him before, since he clearly had a lifesaving emergency spell or treasure to rely on that might've allowed him to escape her; happy for it being revealed; and even happier for it not being absolutely safe, after all, the only reason for him to use the Prophetess to flee at half the speed as before was because he had most likely been heavily injured.

  Now was the perfect time to kill him!

  Not having detected whatever had attacked her, she shot at the Prophetess on full speed, before the attacker got to her. She still couldn't kill the boy, the Temple of Time was too powerful a backing, but she could get them away from there before killing him, and before he recovered.

  It would even give her a great alibi; she had just saved the boy, so why would she have killed him?

  Like a comet, she went towards the Prophetess.

  That's when she saw it.

  * * *

  Helina was flying as fast as she could when the shadows covered the ground to her side.

  She looked up and what she saw made her heart almost stop.

  * * *

  Matthew was focusing on healing and absorbing mana when he heard Marcus and Sara.

  "By the Depths," Marcus said astonished.

  "Immortals above," Sara whispered.

  He looked outside, and he also couldn't help but speak, "Shit."

  * * *

  Shadow One watched as a dragon appeared from behind a mountain peak, flying towards them. It was huge, almost five hundred legs from head to tail, with hard red scales that glistered on the sun, and black and gold eyes filled with fury, that gave her the chills.

  Despite its size, the dragon was flying way too fast. Not as fast as her, but close.

  She hated herself for her previous plan. She had wanted to save Matthew to avoid suspicions when she killed him later, but if she hadn't already moved towards him, she would've been able to simply flee without an issue. After all, she didn't have to do her best to save anyone from a Quasi-Overlord Beast! Facing a Young Red Dragon, he would've died without a doubt.

  Now, she was already committed. Anyone who looked back would be able to tell she had the time to get to the Prophetess and still attempt to flee without any issue. At least her original plan was still good, and he would die anyway.

  Distracted by the dragon, the Prophetess only sensed Shadow One and turned back at the last second. By then, it was too late. As she passed by the Prophetess, Shadow One grabbed the spatial treasure that could hold living beings, forced the Prophetess inside with her will, and kept flying.

  Straight towards the White Sea, the future tomb of Matthew Valdian!

  * * *

  Matthew had also been surprised by Shadow One when Helina appeared and instantly fell unconscious.

  The Crusader hadn't been gentle when she willed Helina inside; since Helina hadn't been forewarned, she had instinctively resisted the Crusader, and the crash of will injured her.

  He couldn't understand why the Crusader was saving them, but it was the worst situation possible. Helina might be able to bargain with the dragon – Matthew had a lot of knowledge that any beast would love to have, after all –, but he doubted Helina would be willing to negotiate. If she would, she would've already hinted on it in their days together.

  So, he went back to doing the only things he could: absorbing mana from the coins and healing himself.

  Meanwhile, he began elaborating a plan. A few minutes later, he hoped the dragon would chase them all the way to the White Sea, for his best plan counted on it, and his very life might depend on it.

  * * *

  Helina kept flying full speed ahead. The Young Red Dragon was a Quasi-Overlord Beast, yes, and an aerial one at that, but its natural flight skills were not top-notch. Red dragons were skilled in the fire element, not in the air one.

  Besides, her flying spell had been taught to her by the Queen herself and was simply the best one available in the Crusade. Only Overlords using the same spell could fly faster than her!

  Despite that, she couldn't get a lead on the dragon. It was a Quasi-Overlord after all, and it could brute force spending more mana in a worse skill to not allow her to flee.

  She wasn't worried though. If it really followed her all the way to the White Sea, she would simply kill it too.

  Fast as they were flying, it would only be a matter of a quarter of an hour or so to get there. The closer they got, the more excited she felt.

  The White Sea... Oh, how she had missed that wondrous place.

  Other flying beasts tried to get on her way, but she easily killed them all. The dragon trying attacking with new roars, but this time she had a mana shield around her that completely protected her.

  The flying spell and the defense consumed some mana, but when she got to the White Sea – an endless blanket of salt covering the ground – she still had over half her mana remaining, and it immediately started refilling at a fast rate. He got only a little over a thousand legs into it, then stopped midair and turned to see if the dragon would follow her inside even after he felt the earth mana rushing into her from the salt.

  She wasn't surprised when the enraged beast did. But she was surprised when it stopped its flight and roared. The clouds parted and a pillar of light came from the skies, piercing its head. Immediately after, a huge shockwave of energy came from the beast.

  The dragon grew in real-time, getting twice its previous size at a ridiculously fast pace. Only someone who had ever seen something a thousand legs large fly could understand the sheer wonder that it was.

  As it grew, its scales became brighter, and the black in its eyes was pushed by the gold until its eyes were like huge golden balls with black outlines.

  The light pillar didn't disappear disappeared as quickly as it came, but its effects were everlasting.

  Show Status, Shadow One thought as her body trembled.

  Level: Overlord [10]

  It had just leveled up. It was now an Overlord. She was dead.

  There was only one thing she could do, now, detonate her core. She would die, but she would take the boy with her, and the now Mature Red Dragon wouldn't profit from killing her.

  She regretted failing her maker, but it was better to die like that than to become her enemy's strength. Just as she was about to do it though, a voice came from the spatial treasure she was holding.

  "We can kill it," the boy yelled from within, which converted to a kind of mosquito-like voice. "I have a formation to kill dragons!"

  Shadow One's heart would've beaten fast if she had one. It was a trap, it had to be. A formation capable of killing an Overlord Beast? And a dragon on top of that? Dragons were on the top of the food chain, sometimes even in equal footing as humans, for a reason. How had he come in contact with such a formation, much less in the small Valdian Family?

  But it was a chance. Her destruction would be a blow to the Queen. Not a big one, but not a small one either.

  Her emotions battled her logical mind. Everything she knew about Matthew told her she had to ignore him and detonate her core. But her emotions...

  Her emotions told her to cling to any hope of keeping living!

  Humans died and reincarnated, or so they believed. At least they had souls that proved there was something more to them than mere matter, but she only had her core. When it detonated, that would be it. Everything she was would be just gone, erased from existence, impossible to go on in any form or manner.

  Hat
ing herself for her weakness, she spoke.

  "Tell me what to do."

  Chapter 43 - Supreme Dragon Slaying Formation?

  Chapter 43 - Supreme Dragon Slaying Formation?

  "Give me control over your body," the boy's voice yelled from inside the spatial treasure.

  "Never!" Shadow One immediately yelled back.

  "We don't have enough time!" He yelled desperately. "I'll just send a part of my consciousness with knowledge on the formation, and you can absorb it! That way you could cut me out the moment you think I'm doing something harmful to you!"

  She felt pressured. The dragon was flying, staring down on her like a king staring at an ant. There was curiosity and amusement in that look as if it was just waiting to see where she would run to, now that it had an overwhelming advantage over her.

  As for Matthew's proposal... Him sending a part of his consciousness was beneficial to her. If he indeed saved them with it, she would be able to destroy the consciousness later, which would gravely injure him. That way, she would be much more confident in killing him afterward.

  She considered showing mercy to him for saving her, but he was just too dangerous to that. Just like someone wouldn't show mercy to a mass murderer because he saved one person, she wouldn't just allow a calamity like him live because of his kindness! Not to mention his kindness was only so he could save himself; he had tried to flee alone earlier, which showed he wouldn't save her if given the option.