Desolate Mage: A Legend Reborn!

Lars" ears were being blasted with curses, insults and reprimands from the little penguin who jumped up and down in frustration.

But he shut off the sounds and focused on the battle at hand.

On one side stood a team of two devils and a conniving n.o.bleman.

Devil Lord Saliza - number 3 in this operation to invade the Kingdom of the Sands and form a foothold in this planet. A wiley, light-bodied member of the Nightmare Stalker devil race. Cunning and adept at capturing the greedy hearts of countless kings, rulers and warriors, masterful at concealment and transformation. Saliza"s figure could somehow still be considered feminine, though one that would undoubtedly leave any observer with nightmares for months.

Devil Lord Wesley or "Old Man Wesley" who usually disguised himself as a stern old cultivator, one who would be accepted with open doors to any sect, group or organisation for his great capabilities - until he broke out in an unfettered, unstoppable rampage of death and slaughter. Despite his high intellect and experience in infiltration, he was also famous for his intense rage that often caused ma.s.sacres to occur contrary to the devils" plans.

And Gaius Trenel, whose Curse Arts were now supplemented by the Abyssal powers infused into his body - the corruption of his soul evident from his eyes that had turned a deep hue of purple, the sign of a devil arts pract.i.tioner, even as red eyes were a sign of a demonic path combatant.

Whilst on the other side, a dismal force was a.s.sembled.

Yusof Jamal, drained and dizzy with less than 10% of his mana left after triggering his Rune of Power and betting his life on the last throw of his knives. He still held 4 knives in either hand, drawn from where, no one knew. But he did not look like he would be much help in the ensuing battle.

General Weres, Bloodfield Weres. Though the devil formation surrounding Gorun City was more suited to the name. He was heaving in fatigue from receiving the previous spatial blades with his own body, though he had been protected by the nigh-invulnerability of his signature move, The Invincible Spearman. After that, he had used up nearly 40% of his mana for that one focused strike that had been meant to blow apart the brains of Wesley - only to be interrupted and bound by his own kind!

And a scrawny, slim and old swordsman who was dwarfed by every one of the other warriors.

Yet this lone and frail figure commanded the attention - and fear - of all those gathered in the field of battle.

A pseudo-Mythical realm warrior - one who had already condensed a second soul-imprint and was but a half-step away from breaking open the path to a whole new paradigm of power!

Even his simplest sword movements were esoteric, containing the mysteries of s.p.a.ce and Time that exceeded the comprehension of the devils and men surrounding him!

A true powerhouse of the continent! A true powerhouse who surpa.s.sed even the peak Legendary realm Dukes of the Kingdom and could stand toe to toe with King Vishnu himself!

"d.a.m.n!!!! This wasn"t supposed be how it happened, Wesley! What happened to your erudite calculations?!!" Saliza screamed through her mental link with the older Devil Lord, berating him to release her frustrations.

Wesley shot her a furious, murderous glare from his eyeless face and bared his teeth in a growl, then replied, "b.i.t.c.h!!! If you had only gone all out on that surprise attack, wouldn"t our situation be completely different! Now we have to take down three enemies and hurry to find our target before the Duke arrives! The others can"t hold her back for long, not without completing the portal to bring Prince Rumin"s full form over!"

"I"LL KILL YOU!!!" Saliza roared in rage and snapped her jaws in Wesley"s direction, but made no move against him. She might be berserk in battle, but she was also a veteran of the battlefield - their internal disputes could wait for a deathmatch in the Blood Arena back in the Abyss!

"Let"s settle this quickly... Saliza, tell the portable food container--" He mentally indicated Gaius Trenel with those words, "--To hold down those two injured sheep. We"ll have to work together to overpower the swordsman. It"s a good thing they no longer have any supporters or casters left."

Wesley grinned, showing his multiple rows of teeth and looked to be snarling in aggression.

Saliza mentally nodded, then instructed Gaius to move per their plan. He too nodded and began to channel his mana to suppress his two former allies who were already gravely injured. He smiled as he did so.

"I"ve always wanted to step on your face, you arrogant p.r.i.c.k! And to show you who"s the boss, o high and mighty General! Now please do me a favour and DIE!!! Dark Tendrils! Soul-binding Seal! Shadow Poison!" Gaius flung three Curses at General Weres and Yusof who tried to dodge, but were quickly ensnared, unable to even cry out in pain. They could not move a single muscle, selaed, bound, incapacitated and being poisoned slowly from the shadowy thorns p.r.i.c.king their skin!

Nevertheless, it took Gaius" full concentration and effort to hold them down - he could feel his bonds being tested at every moment, as if the slightest slip-up would set the two loose.

"NOW!! GO!!!"

"SHUT UP ALREADY OLD f.a.gGOT!! I"LL EAT YOUR GUTS WHEN WE"RE BACK!!!"

"KUKUKUKUU!!! I LOOK FORWARD TO FEASTING ON YET ANOTHER c.o.c.kY JUNIOR DEVIL LORD..."

The bickering Devil Lords made their decision instantaneously - strike down the pseudo-Mythical swordsman, the only one who posed a threat to them!

The two devils charged towards him with a loping gait, running on all fours and turning into blurs as they aimed to ram straight into his flimsy sword and fragile human body!

But Lars just smiled.

He stared straight forward at the two incoming colossal monstrosities and sheathed his sword, much to the two devils" surprise. Yet they sensed a chill across their bodies, a sense of palpable danger!

"Careful!" Wesley yelled to his comrade and dashed forward to take the lead.

His body began to glow purple as drops of acid gathered at the tips of the spines covering his body, then the purple liquid flowed over his entire body and coated him in a sheer layer of caustic fluids. Then he roared and lunged through the air to run Lars" down.

Instead of fleeing or dodging, Lars hand on the hilt of his sword tightened - and in one smooth motion, he unsheathed his blade and swept it across the air between himself and the devil, a movement made impossibly quickly.

And he spoke quietly, almost like a whisper of the wind, one that could be easily mistaken for a play of the breeze on the ears.

"Blotting out the stars."

A gleam of light shone, then a ripple across the air as the s.p.a.ce between the two was cleaved apart - a slash cutting through the void and headed straight for Wesley"s face!

"DODGE!!!!!! BLINK!!!!"

Wesley desperately triggered his once per day Blink and felt a twisting force threaten to wrench his body apart - the backlash caused by violating the laws of stable s.p.a.ce, a force that was more intense the large the user"s body was.

He disappeared and rematerialised on the ground right beneath where he had been soaring through the air. Just barely in time, for he then felt and heard a sharp s.h.i.+CK sound as reality itself was severed right above his body!

Unfortunately for Wesley, his hulking frame caused the spikes jutting from his back to still be in the path of the ripple of s.p.a.ce, which casually pa.s.sed right through his armoured spines, chopping them off like a pair of shears snipping off a stalk of gra.s.s. Even the coating of devil battle aura, a blend of mana, devil energy and blood energy, could do nothing to hinder the dominating slas.h.!.+

"GRAAAAHH!!!!!" Wesley roared in pain but did not hesitate to throw himself forward and open his mouth wide as a spinning ma.s.s of purple energy welled up in his throat, a concentrated deathray to blow the dangerous threat to kingdom come!

A pillar of purple devil energy burst out from his mouth to consume Lars. The beam was as large as Lars" upper body and tore through the metres so fast it seemed like it were teleporting to blow him up!

But when Wesley saw the expression on Lars" face, staring straight at him and smiling, he shuddered in fear, even as he poured his 1,000% energy into his trump card to destroy his enemy in one fell swoop.

The Devil Lord"s eyes bulged in horror - for Lars looked at him like he were already a dead man!

With his hands still completing the swing of his sword and not yet recovered to defend himself, Lars smiled as he opened his mouth wide in an "O" shape.

Then he channelled the fullness of his mana through his body and focused it on the same point as his adversary - pouring out through his open mouth.

Then a bright blue sunray shot out from the depths of his throat.

Level 9 Spell: Gigaflare - Orbital Cannon!

A thin beam of planet-piercing pseudo-Mythical might surged out to meet the Devil Lord"s purple deathray - and in a split-second, the slim ray of blue light tore right through the far larger purple beam and blew it apart, scattering the violet rays to the seven winds and shooting forward straight for the black-carapaced creature"s face!

"NO--" "OLD FART!!!!!" Wesley could not even roar in indignance as the azure blaze slammed into his jaw and propelled him backwards, pummeling him into the reinforced walls of the stadium!

The walls could no longer take the strain after the earlier heaven-rending barrage of crimson lightning struck down on the stadium repeatedly. The structures cracked and burst apart as the relentless beam of blue sunfire bore a hole through the walls and continued to blast the Devil Lord in its path asunder!

The male Abyssal screamed, a high-pitched alien sound that caused every hearer to instinctively shudder, the roar of a higher existence that lorded over every living organism in this world. But that scream was also one of terror, pain and despair as the creature"s carapace, face and soul was melting and cracking under the city-destroying beam of power!

No matter how much of his mana, devil energy and blood energy he poured in to his head and upper body, Wesley could do nothing to resist the piercing force and disintegrating energies! His carapace was shattered almost in the same split second that he was struck by the ray of s.h.i.+ning blue destruction and the flesh beneath incinerated instantaneously!

Death was right at his doorstep, and the one knocking was the young Legendary mage, right now in the guise of a feeble and thin old man!

But just when the devil was about to succ.u.mb to the power of the beam with his defensive measures exhausted, Lars was struck in the forehead by a las.h.i.+ng tail, interrupting his spell as he was sent flying by Saliza. The tip of the stinger on the female Devil Lord"s tail gleamed with a penetrative purple sharpness that could slice apart the void itself and dripped with the malevolent miasma of poison.

The female Devil Lord had just arrived before Lars, for though she had been moving at her top speed, the earlier exchange between Lars and Wesley had happened in but a blink of an eye - too fast for her to even react and come to her teammate"s aid! She had been running as fast as she could, aiming to strike as the follow-up pinch hitter after Wesley made the first move, so that the older devil would also receive the brunt of the attack.

Little did she expect that the sole enemy would so quickly unleash a table-turning trump card and nearly erase Wesley"s brain!

And so she had to unleash the quickest and longest ranged blow she had, a sweep of her swis.h.i.+ng tail to knock his mouth closed and prevent the death of her ally! For no matter how much she despised the senior Devil Lord, she knew that she alone did not stand a chance at all against the unknown hero!

"MORTAL!!!!! I"LL KILL YOU!!!! I"LL KILL YOU ALL FOR YOUR IMPUDENCE!!!! SALIZA!!!! KILL THEM ALL!!!!" Wesley still managed to roar in a screeching low voice and ignored his injuries to charge forward, while Saliza was already pursuing the man that she had struck flying.

But Lars spun lightly through the air, easily regaining his balance and smiled as his feet landed steadily. He was virtually uninjured, only with some scratches remaining from the illusion array, as he had quickly calculated and layered several small mana s.h.i.+elds to block the tail strike.

It was just that the feeling of swallowing an Orbital Cannon Beam mid-cast was... Let"s just say, less than pleasant.

Also, he felt sorely disappointed. Despite nearly incapacitating Wesley with that one surprise he pulled, he had missed out on his opportunity to kill off one of the two deadly devils in the first reveal of his puissant magics. And he felt uneasy as he felt a suppression fall on the entire city, formed by the ley lines being corrupted by the pentagram of blood, a formation that Kizorik identified as the devils" bloodfield.

Regardless, he raised his hands on either side, ashen brown hair fluttering in the wind and displaying a potent aura. In his right hand he held a curved bladed sword glowing with bright blue light, while in his left hand, a spinning ball of compressed mana floated, s.h.i.+ning with enough energy to burst apart several mountains!

And asked, "Kill me? How is that any different from what you were planning earlier?"

And he smiled mockingly as he charged forward, ready to settle the fight in this next exchange of blows.