Archmage
Archmage
Throne Hall, Royal Palace, Iron City.
As usual, Rhea seated on her Iron Throne and was in the middle of listening to a nobleman's complaint about food shortage in his territory.
Just as she was about to give a solution, a sharp pain appeared in her heart. Not only that, but she also felt a strange emptiness. It was as if something precious had suddenly disappeared from her side.
"What Happened, Your Majesty?" The High Priestess noticed the sudden change in her emotions and asked.
Meanwhile, Rhea placed her hand over her chest and shook her head.
"Nothing. It might be due to the lack of sleep." She hid away the strange empty feeling and started talking about the nobleman's problem.
...
Eron Weapon shop, Market Street, Commoners' Borough, Iron City,
At that moment, a blonde-haired young man in his twenties stood before the weapon stand and searched for a good sword. Just as he was about to pick up a curved blade, his heart tightened all of a sudden.
'What happened?' He wore a startled look and got confused. After some thought, he shook his head and shifted his attention towards the curved blade.
...
Inside, Edith's Fire Domain.
At that moment, Edith's black sword appeared in front of Andy and directly stabbed onto his chest.
Simultaneously, Edith grabbed Titus's body and backed away.
She then conjured a dense ball of greenish-blue flame and placed it on his neck to heal him.
Upon seeing this, Andy let out a wicked laugh and spoke.
"I severed his soul link. Even the resurrection magic won't be of any help."
Saying so, he touched the flame sword with both his hands and pulled it out.
Then, he looked at the surrounding areas and searched for a way out.
On the other hand, Edith's expression turned icy.
"You want to escape?" While asking, she took a step back and snapped her fingers.
"Go on." She added.
The next instant, the whole surroundings started to twist and were soon replaced with trees and rocks.
At that moment, Jessie also appeared next to Edith and hugged her brother's body while wailing loudly.
"Jessie, get away from here. I'll take care of him." Edith said as she manipulated the nearby spatial elements and created a portal.
Although Jessie was unwilling, she understood her situation and walked towards the portal while carrying Titus's body. But there was an evident hatred that appeared in her eyes!
Soon, she entered the bluish portal and disappeared from there.
Meanwhile, Edith stood near the portal and stared at Andy with a stern look on her face.
"Aren't you going to escape?" A chilling voice came out of her mouth.
"I changed my mind." Saying so, Andy touched his chest and chanted in an ancient voice.
It was a chanting method to summon his ancestor!
But Edith calmly raised her hand and attacked him.
"Black Inferno!"
A moment later, an eerie ball of black flame appeared before her and soon started to enlarge while absorbing all the negative energies in the surrounding atmosphere.
In a second, the black flame ball flew towards Andy at a fast speed and almost collided against him.
But before it could touch his body, a strange invisible ripple came out of his chest and formed into a forcefield!
Unlike other regular Rank-4 defensive spells, this forcefield appeared indestructible against the black inferno spell.
Meanwhile, the black inferno exploded while sending Andy more than 30 meters away from where he stood before.
At that moment, a few cracks appeared all over the forcefield but were soon disappeared.
But it was just a start, though.
Edith calmly analyzed his movement, raised her hand, and started bombarding many fire spells like [Incinerate], [Finger of Destruction], [Black Inferno], and so on.
Within seconds, all those powerful fire magic spells broke the forcefield into pieces and started destroying everything in its path.
Although Andy used many artifacts to block those spells, he was still too weak against Edith.
Before long, his ancient chanting also got interrupted, and that caused heavy backlashes!
At that moment, his head appeared bald, his left hand was broken, and many burn marks appeared all over his body.
Andy panted as he knelt on the rocky ground and stared at Edith with a bloody smile on his face.
"Why are you holding back? Are you afraid of taking my life?" He mocked.
A strange silence answered.
In truth, Edith didn't want to go all out and kill him at all.
'There is a high chance this is a trap laid down by the World's Will to deal with me. If I kill him now, my action will infuriate the Arch-Mage Magnus and create a chain reaction. No, I think it's already startled. If I'm not wrong, he is most likely staying in a pocket dimension. Once I kill Andy, he'll come here to seek revenge and ends up confronting my main body. But if I didn't kill Andy, Jessie and others might do something reckless in the name of revenge and invite trouble on their own. One way or another, my main body will face him at the end of the day.' Although Rhea and Noel would hesitate to act, Edith knew that Jessie would kill all the Griffin family members.
'She has the manpower to cause such chaos.' A deep sigh leaked out of her mouth.
Noticing the strange silence, Andy laughed out loud and spoke.
"Yeah, let me live. I want to see my ancestor butcher the other three brats and destroy the newly built tower-"
Before he could finish his sentence, Edith raised her hand, pointed her forefinger at Andy's forehead, and cast the [Finger of Destruction] spell.
A moment later, Andy's head burst open, and his headless body fell on the ground with a loud thud.
But a second later, something magical occurred.
A ball of golden flame came out of the headless body and soon formed into an appearance of an old man.
A wizened face full of illusionary wrinkles appeared in front of her eyes. The old man's azure eyes were so deep and pure as if they held the mysteries of the cosmos itself.
Currently, he wore a simple grey robe, a wizard's hat and held a cane in his hand.
While Edith looked at him warily, he also sized her up and down and soon turned his gaze towards the headless corpse.
"You are?" His voice appeared ancient.
In the meantime, Edith analyzed the incarnation's strength and soon breathed out a sigh of relief.
'The incarnation's strength is just around Rank-4. His main body still hasn't entered the realm of Legends.' Edith muttered inwardly, raised her hand, and cast the [Finger of Destruction] spell on him.
She knew that it was impossible to resolve the conflict. So, she decided to act first!
Before the incarnation could block the spell, the reddish chaotic ray tore through the air and soon pierced into his chest.
The next instant, the incarnation exploded into pieces, causing a deep spatial crack to appear.
Then, two eerie dark hands came out of the deep spatial crack and split the space itself.
Within two seconds, a spatial crack that was large enough for a single person to walk through appeared in front of Edith's eyes.
A second later, Edith felt a strange power crept from the deep void and soon disappeared.
On the other hand, the enlarged spatial crack shrunk and soon vanished from her eyes.
'Something came out of the void!'
Edith's expression went pale as she saw this.
"No good!" She muttered in a grim tone and was about to cast [Flame Teleportation] spell but stopped.
At that moment, she suddenly noticed that some mysterious power locked the surrounding space!
"Who are you, Young Lady? Why did you kill my descendant?" The same ancient voice echoed from behind, causing goosebumps all over her body.
At that moment, she knew that the Archmage Marcus had already appeared on the battlefield!
Although she couldn't see him in the surrounding areas, she felt that he was lurking around her like some poisonous snake!