In Earth, Kris couldn't power through each and every little thing. Things can sometimes just sort of happen, and at times deliberate, but he didn't try to force his way through.

Oh, how it felt to be back.

It's simple, if they were ordered by their King to kill Kris, then it was no different from having the determination to die.

Starting of course, with the most problematic one.

"Ugh!!" a pained yelp escaped from Reina as she sunk to her knees. Her skin was glowing red, scathing, burning. Soon, the yelps turned into a scream of agony as smoke rose from her skin. "Reina!" Kane bellowed as his mana surged around Reina, without effects. Diethart remained focus at Kris, though the battle mage was gathering a tremendous amount of power in his core.

"Not so fast," Kris said cooly. A fierce wind blew downwards, crashing towards Diethart. He pointed his palm upwards, facing the Kris' wind with a push of his own and barely managing to stop its advance. Hoping to redirect the attack, Diethart found was hopeless as he struggled to delay the torrent from shedding him to pieces.

In a flash, Kris was in front of Kane and delivered a punch to his temple. Kane slumped down, dazzled, and Kris kicked him to turn him face-up. He took a mount on Kane's chest, and pummeled him with punches. Each punch was tailed with a thud and crack.

Satisfied, Kris stood up, and at the same time, the wind finally crashed unto Diethart, molding his figure on the ground. There were various cuts on around his body, although most were superficial. It seems the young man still managed to defend himself till the end.

"Time to finish up," Kris willed the flames and winds once more, but before he could cast his spell, a rumble in the void caught his attention.

"So it isn't all a farce after all," clarity suddenly came to Kris, like a thin veil was removed from the surrounding. Suddenly, hundreds of cerberii were spread through the wide forests, leveling the trees. Though they were a bit smaller, Kris had no doubt their qualities were the real deal.

Behind the monstrosoties, an extreme heat was also building behind them. With a roar, the skies were dressed with shades of red and orange blotches. A dragon slithered in the skies like a snake. Its orange scales radiated magic power, and the golden aura it donned made it feel like a citizen of the sun.

A lord agwe.

At Kris' current capacity, he had little chance. Overwhelming mana was required to fight a lord agwe, a monster that even Kris has only heard of even ancient fairy tales. He knew the insurmountable gap between them, and its threat was only cemented by the still inaccessible tear in space left behind.

As Rizale, he could have come out of this fight with a few major wounds. But he was sure he could win.

His two options were to run.

Escape though, wasn't something he could really do. Then...

Let's see how far I can push these modern mages.

Kris would have to fight. The only thing left remaining was to ensure he won. Looking behind him, he could see the three mages he faced still with hints of life. He placed his hand over each, and chanted "Heal," each time.

"Get up," Kris said, his focus on the agwe currently gathering power in the skies. "It's going for something big from the get go," Kris warned.

"What?" Reina was undoubtedly surprised. She looked at her own arms and marveled in amazement. Then looked up to the skies and shook with horror.

"A lord agwe!? How could they control such a thing?" Diethart shouted. Kane stood in befuddled silence. Kris prodded the agwe's mana core once more, and just before being expelled he was able to discover that there was a good amount of foreign mana. He had his suspicions, but cerberii weren't powerful enough to leave behind traits of the summoner.

They have a monster tamer.

This was game-changing information, as not anyone would be lucky enough for Kris to call a monster tamer.

"We're going to have to defeat it here," Kris declared.

"What?! Are you crazy?" Kane finally woke to his senses. "That thing's too much for us! We need the whole army -"

"The army's not going to make much of a difference after this thing's done with his spell," Kris pointed out. "Reina, create a thick water wall that splits our side from theirs."

"That isn't going to-"

"We only have one chance. It will be vulnerable after it finishes casting a grand spell," Kris prodded. It was no different from normal mages in that regard. It was weird how it was going for its strongest firepower from the start but it could be the cult's preamble. They might be changing their modus operandi.

"Fine," Reina relented. Without delay, a waterfall sprung upwards from the ground. "Create a wind that blows against their direction," Kris commanded. Diethart, seeing the situation, gave a curt nod. He didn't immediately cast his spell, however, impressing Kris.

A hot glow emanated from the dragon, flashing their eyes in yellow. A great rumble echoed through the forests, as a wall of pure flame and energy inched at blinding speed towards them.

Maya, now!!!

The once-great wall turned into a collosal tidal wave, encompassing the full breadth of their vision. Diethart immediately casted a large torrent of wind, meeting head on with the flames and its shockwave at the same time as the wave. The collision blew apart all the trees, with the combination of water and wind besting fire, claiming the monsters' side of the forest, as well as the hundreds of cerberii, as the only fatalities. The agwe screamed in rage, its resonating squeal painful to the ears.

"Reina, another wave," Reina wanted to exclaim but just did as she told. As soon as she casted it, she fainted, Kane catching her. The second wave was smaller, but still impressive given that Kris couldn't extend his influence on it in that way. He had another thing in mind.

The wave gained speed, with Diethart using his winds to propel it faster. Kris then readied himself.

A certain book described the deepest depths of hell to be as cold as ice. It is said that Satan himself was entrapped in a case of frost, imprisoned by God forever.

But I am no God.

"Treachery," the wave crashed into the agwe with abandon, toppling him. Before it could even drop far, however, the agwe was already encased in a block of ice.

Reina, Diethart and Kane shivered, almost in instinct. Reina and Diethart shot looks towards each other, Kane only guffawed. "In an instant," she croaked, still on her sides and reeling in pain as she watched.

"This isn't enough," Kris held his hand open. As the ice was starting to break, Kris' eyes shone in a dull black. The agwe floated in mid-air, as if carried by something. Guided by this invisible force, it was led to the tear in space it left behind. It was through intuition that Kris activated the void. It was second-nature, and he didn't even have time to think about it.

Kris placed the agwe around the vicinity of the tear, distorting it. Kris then closed his hands.

The broken space was starting to be forcibly repaired, distorting, spaghetifying, mangling the agwe. Soon enough, what was left of it was disintegrated by the sheer amount of force pulling the space together. With a final agonized roar, the agwe was gone for good.

"What just happened?" Reina asked. "I don't know, but..." Diethart couldn't continue.

Kris had already looked their way.

"Are you joking?!" the man smashed the table as he reacted.

Only darkness enveloped the room. A man in civilian attire, fatigued and terrified, but obviously relieved as he shook on his knee continued his report. "The agwe appeared but was defeated promptly by the young man. I escaped far enough well before the agwe appeared, but it was big enough to see in the sky. I also felt the young man's distinct mana on the spell that defeated the agwe, though from the distance I was watching I couldn't tell exactly what happened. Everything appeared jittery and weird." the man described. "That is all for my report, Lord Adeite," the scout finished, completely exhausted at this point.

"I see. Thank you for your report. You may rest," the scout felt excited to hear that he'd finally get some good shuteye. As he turned around, Lord Adeite pulled out a revolver-like object from his mantle. He pointed it towards the unsuspecting scout, and gathered the meager amount of mana he had to power the equipment.

A menacing boom and a beam of concentrated power shot towards the man, skewering him with plasma-like mana. He died instantly.

"Is the weapon satisfactory?" a croacky voice spoke behind him. More than satisfactory, even worthless mages such as him was able to wield such power in a flash. The Adeite family was known as a family of powerful mages. In truth, Robert Adeite never knew how powerful his son had become. Alas, he wasn't as skilled as magic as him. Far from it, all he had was bravado and bluff. It worked, but only because there was no benefit to testing him; he was after all, the King's confidante. That, and Diethart being in the S-tier in the academy meant his position was solidified. He was lucky, as Diethart was a first-generation attendee for the Adeites, which Robert's father made famous by his stubborness and sheer confidence.

His father also had real power, but that was par-for-the-course. Robert was the anomaly.

This deeply disturbed him. At times, he even felt like his son was looking at him in contempt. It would make Robert think that his brilliant son has already seen through him and it humiliated him.

The King probably understood that Robert's insight was a great asset to him, and that was why the King kept him close.

"Speechless, are you?" the voice croaked once more, making Robert gasp. "It's more than satisfactory. However, there are pressing matters at hand. That boy managed to defeat your agwe!" he complained.

"Relax. That agwe was a one-trick pony. It could only do that one spell and afterwards it would've been a moving target without much threat apart from its size and resillience. Though, I didn't expect it to be downed so easily. It could've cost more," he grinned, as if remembering something. "What piques my interest is that young man. Since we failed to kill the battle mages in one fell swoop, I suppose the shipments of these weapons can wait until after you hand us over the kid."

"The war is looming! My men are ready. No one knows a thing. Now is the best time to strike!"

"Not even a mention of worry or guilt for your kid."

"He's a foil to my plans. I have already come so far."

The man laughed, his croaked voice disturbing Robert. "Then, there's no need to talk about it. What you have to realize now is that the best time to strike is when you have these weapons of yours ready," the man's presence was slowly starting to disappear.

"Do what you must... give me the kid alive."

It took all Kris had to turn around to look back at Reina and the others. He didn't expect the backlash to be so severe.

'Maya, any clue why this is?'

'Master, it's likely that when you bolster the magic of today's systems, it drains more because their wills directly affect the type of phenomenon. Whereas, backthen magic was more or less a representation... now, they are real, tangible effects. In this case, the water mage's wall must have the will 'block the powerful fire'. Though, it could simply be that the mana and control required for you to bolster both water and wind magic effectively is large.

Chaos magic is simply using will and fine mana control to create phenomenon outside a user's expertise. However, it is difficult and dangerous to use. This is why only Rizale was known to completely master such magic. In this case, Kris did one of his favorite applications of chaos, in the form of empowering a phenomenon.

"You guys are lucky. Had it not been for the agwe, you would have been dead," Kris said, hiding the pain he felt behind his threat.

"You have the nerve. It's quite obvious that you're in a weakened state. Diethart, let us eliminate him now," Kane revealed as he stepped forward.

"No, Kane, stop," Diethart commanded, his voice tired. "Kris, I guess with this you're saying that you're not a threat? To us, at least".

Kris nodded.

"Fine," Diethart replied, albeit reluctantly. "I don't trust you, but I'll put in a good word for you".

"So was this a test?" Kris frowned. "No. If it pleases you to know, however, it is my judgment. Miss Reina, thank you for today. I'll leave you to it," Diethart said as he walked away. Reina simply looked at him silence.

Leaving the mess to the others, huh. I wonder what his deal is?

What Kris was sure about was, Diethart was at least the real deal. In terms of magical power, maybe just slightly below Reina... but he had an overwhelming advantage in some respects.

"Reina," Kane approached her. "You can't be letting him get away with this now. I mean, look at him! He's already on his knees," Kris scowled, but otherwise remained still.

Reina shook her head. "I'm not such a fool as to realize what had occurred here was a big mistake. Without him, we would have been dead."

"He attacked us!"

"He was defending himself. Kane - even Diethart changed his mind. Besides, there's something about this that doesn't quite seem right," Reina said.

At that mention, Kris was piqued, but he found that his vision was slowly fading to black.