Avrin calmed himself down. He had never battled with a mage of the Fifth universe on the Deity level and couldn’t be careless. It was also a learning experience. “The vortex’s center suddenly shot a ray of dark light that engulfed Avrin who threw Tyron to the side. Avrin quickly dashed to the side and just as the ray of light was about to hit where he was it changed direction and followed him.

“Oh?” Avrin was a little impressed. He opened his palm and shot a Void Sphere towards the ray. The ray was slowed for a moment before the Void Sphere was turned into nothingness.

“Don’t bother trying to escape, we mages may not excel at physical strength but our magical abilities make up for it!” Elorin spoke with pride. From what he’d seen, Avrin wasn’t a Deity who used magic.

Avrin listened for a moment, but as he glanced at Elorin he noticed the orb on his staff was emitting a strange pulse. It reflected the image of the ray of light and Avrin. Avrin then glanced at Elorin and noticed that his eyes were also emitting the same strange sort of mana trace.

“You shouldn’t hold back.” Avrin understood that Elorin was holding his strength back mainly because they were on his home ground, but in the end, they had aggravated Avrin and he didn’t really care. He needed to deal with the consortium and had tried to do so in a discreet, fair manner, but they provoked him at every turn and resulted in violence and even went as far as to capture those he cared about.

Avrin wasn’t willing to wait until help arrived for Elorin. He casually Divine Stepped and appeared in front of him. Elorin was stunned with fright. Teleportation magic that didn’t require a conduit or an action was something incredibly rare only those at the top of the food chain of existence knew, but for Avrin to use an ability similar or even identical was out of his expectation. All he could do was prepare himself.

“Epitaph Ward of-” Avrin’s right hand flashed like a bolt of lightning before Elorin could finish his incantation. Avrin grabbed his staff and kicked towards Elorin’s stomach with heavy force.

The smash pummeled into Elorin’s stomach and the shock of the attack caused an aftershock of energy to smash against the walls of the dungeon and beyond and cause them to blow apart. There were people already scrambling for safety. No one in the Artificer Consortium headquarters was overly weak, but the debris formed from the aftershock was enough to cause large chunks of rubble to injure and even kill a few unlucky individuals.

Avrin’s eyebrows narrowed as he noticed Elorin hadn’t loosened his grip on his staff. The force had caused him to skid several meters back and Avrin had been pulled along. Elorin began to spit out more blood as he raised his head to reveal that his skin was engulfed in the same runic barrier as Tyron. Elorin, of course, looked extremely mad.

“You...dare try to take MY STAFF!” he gave a maddened look as mana began to surge around him, causing the air to grow thicker and heavier. “-No kidding. Good thing I have some information from God. You mages may not excel at physical abilities but this mana barrier is a form of protection-”

Avrin thought to himself. Elorin’s left hand flashed like a knife through the air forming a line of runic engravings, “Epitaph Chaos Wave!” the runes crumbled together and were absorbed into Elorin. His body began to radiate a dark mana before a pulse of dark energy surged out. Avrin quickly let go of the staff but was caught up in the energy as he was knocked back several dozen meters. The attack was quite powerful and stunned Avrin.

The crazy thing was that another wave was sent outwards in all directions causing everything it touched to be pushed back. Every second, a wave of energy was being sent out, but while this occurred, Elorin raised his staff again and tapped the end onto the ground

The Dark mana of Elorin’s chaos wave suddenly strengthened. It emitted a heavy droning sound as it also grew faster. Avrin was fascinated by magic and was a little conflicted. This was because of several things. He wanted to get revenge on Tyron, he wanted to see more of Elorin’s magic, but he also wanted to end this battle and get his point across.

“-That Elder Deity is surely watching, I’ve no choice but to handle this quickly-” Avrin raised his right hand and began forming a very thick mass of dark matter that caused space to twist a little. Of course, Elorin wasn’t idle. The chaos wave was meant to keep distance between him and an enemy with physical prowess. Meanwhile, he finished another set of runic engravings in the air and roared out. “Epitaph Doom Light!!”

A mass of black energy surged around from the engravings. Again he tapped the end of the staff, empowering his spell. It was almost as if it were living black lightning that formed into a sphere of energy that radiated a chilling aura.

Elorin was infuriated and filled with anger. “DIE!!!” the thought of someone touching his staff maddened him. Right now, he showed no more care for holding back. The sphere of energy suddenly caused the ground to tremble before a massive beam of light shot towards Avrin.

Avrin snickered. He couldn’t Divine Step carelessly near Elorin as he would get caught up in that wave of energy, but it didn’t matter. This was still an easy fight in his opinion. “Good!! “ Avrin spoke out. The moment the ray of dark light neared Avrin he raised the mass of dark matter in his hand. “Stygian Bacillus.”

The mass of dark matter, as if it were alive, began to surge and expanded out several hundred meters wide and caught the entirety of the ray of dark light almost like a net. It began to fill up the dark matter. This lasted for several moments to Elorin’s horror and amazement. Once his attack concluded, in front of him was a large mass of dark matter that was somewhat transparent.

It emitted a static dark light, yet inside was Elorin’s attack. “You...what foul abilities you use!! Which alliance are you from!!” Elorin roared out. “Alliance? Remember the name Shaded Moon...and also remember never to provoke it again!!”

The large bubble-like net of dark matter containing Elorin’s attack twisted and turned before it opened up, facing toward Elorin. The moment it did, the ray of light that was contained shot outward, this time not towards Avrin but towards Elorin.

Elorin gave a frustrated look and raised his hand to for incantation, but Avrin was done playing with him. He emitted a Phantom Pulse and increased the weight of his left hand, disabling him. To Elorin’s horror, the ray of light smashed against him. Of course, the mana pool of a high Deity was nothing to scoff at, the attack was strong and knocked Elorin away, and dispersed the chaos wave he had in place but not before a last wave smashed against the ground.

Avrin needed to be careful with how he handled things. With his Divine Sense he knew he was being watched, no Deity was so slow as to not show up. Of course, none of them acted as if they were under orders.

Avrin Divine Stepped towards Elorin who was quickly trying to stand up. The tome face plate was breaking apart slightly. Though before he could do anything, Avrin’s hand clasped around his neck. Avrin raised his left hand and coated it in an almost liquid-like dark matter. He reached toward Elorin and grabbed him before pulling back.

Elorin’s strong Mana was seemingly pulled back and was rapidly being absorbed by Avrin. “Y...you damn...!” Elorin tried to resist, but the pressure on his left hand was kept steady and he couldn’t do anything. He also didn’t dare to release his staff and was left helpless. He quickly roared out.

“HELP ME!!” he pleaded. It was then that Avrin, who was storing the converted dark matter in his Dark Space, threw Elorin towards the high Deity with the tome face plate that appeared behind Avrin with a small wand and a white and black moon on the top and bottom of it.

The Deity widened his eyes and caught Elorin, but the force of the throw pushed him and Elorin back a few meters. Avrin then Divine Stepped towards Tyron, who was still unconscious. Avrin picked him up by the collar of his dirtied outfit and glanced at them all.

None of them dared to stay still.

The Deities had already begun to chant attack spells towards Avrin, who glanced at them all indifferently. “That won’t work...” he spoke before he raised his hand again. This time, Limos appeared in front of him. Every single magic attack concocted by them that shot towards Avrin was suddenly pulled towards Limos as if an inescapable vacuum formed. They were all absorbed with ease.

They watched in shock, but Avrin didn't leave limos in the open for long. He recalled it before anyone could get a better feel of it. While this happened, Avrin had engulfed and converted Tyron into a Dark Core with ease. “-They are part of some alliance, it wouldn’t be wise to kill them all. Someone might seek revenge-” Avrin thought to himself before speaking out while glancing carefully at all the Deities that surrounded him

“The Deity known as the Grand forerunner kidnapped two people I am acquainted with. This is simply a matter of revenge, especially since he also attacked my establishment. My attack here is justified, I assume the one I just killed is him, and this matter considers us even.”

Avrin was testing the waters. He wasn’t sure how justice and fairness here was carried out by the Deities but he felt it was worth a try. Several of the Deities, with cautious looks, glanced at each other. None of them wanted to act without thinking things through. “Consider it even? You little bastard, do you know where you are!!!” Elorin, who had managed to regain his footing, roared out.

“That bastard Tyron had it coming for going behind our backs but he was still a member of our consortium with some talent!! Not only that, you even killed some of our rising stars and destroyed a portion of our headquarters!! THERE IS NO EVEN, ONLY YOU DYING!!!” Elorin was infuriated and didn’t care any longer.

Elorin was maddened with anger as he had never been humiliated in such a manner before. He stabbed his staff into the ground and raised both his hands. Jet black runes began to pour out from mana engulfing around him and surge around the orb of the sphere. The atmosphere suddenly grew heavier as a mass of mana was forming. Within the sky “Epitaph Dark Nova!!”

The sky grew darker as if the sunlight was not able to pass through the area properly. A mass of dark mana was forming in the sky with a flood of the same jet black runes Elorin was forming. The mass grew heavier and heavier.

Avrin was in no rush to leave as he simply glanced at it, as he could escape or handle the situation easily. However, the last thing he wanted was to be hunted down by their alliance who may have someone he couldn’t handle. “-Killing them all would be akin to leaving no witnesses...-”

Avrin pondered as he casually held the Dark Core made from Tyron.

“Enough.” a soft voice sounded out. The moment this voice spoke, the mana in the sky began to tremble before it imploded in itself, sending a shockwave that blew away the clouds for several kilometers.

Elorin and the others didn’t dare show disrespect to the voice. Even with Elorin’s anger he quickly knelt down with the others. He then called out. “Forgive this one anger Arch Thero’lizer.” Avrin felt a heavy mana pressure that nearly dwarfed the mana of a high Deity. This belonged to the Elder Deity within the Artificer Consortium.

From a ruined entrance that nearly collapsed, a fully covered figure made their way forward. The attire they wore was akin to a strange living white and blue cloth. There was only a face cover with no eyes or facial detailing underneath, but one could feel the powerful trace of mana surging from this individual, making them feel ominous. Stepping out from the entrance that was between Avrin and the Deities, this individual who was the Arch Thero’lizer of the Artificer Consortium sighed somewhat.

It was hard to tell if it was a man or a woman, as the voice seemed to be twisted and distorted. “I was tasked with establishing the Artificer Consortium on this planet...who would have thought that in only a few minutes it would turn nearly upside down...”

Avrin didn’t feel any fear towards this individual, in fact, if he felt the need to, by going all out he was 110% confident that he could slaughter everyone here and not only feel happy about it but reap rewards in the form of Dark Cores. The only thing stopping him was that he wasn’t one to target anyone who may not have been involved in the kidnapping. That and also the so-called alliance the consortium was in.

“Yes, that’s quite a shame, though it is not my fault that one of your Deities moved against me first. In the end, justice was given and I am satisfied with the result. “Avrin was casually throwing the Dark Core in his hand up and down before snatching it one last time.

“You vile WORM!” Elorin roared out in anger towards Avrin’s disrespect to the Arch Thero’lizer. “Elorin, silence...” Elorin was suddenly stunned as the Arch Thero’lizer spoke out. He held his tongue and didn’t utter a word.

The Arch Thero’lizer gazed towards Avrin with curiosity. The individual then raised their right hand which was covered by a strange glove-like cloth. A single shining white rune formed. Avrin blinked as he looked at it though he felt a sense of danger. He quickly sidestepped but he had been a moment too late. A piercing ray of white light formed from the rune which collapsed into layers of white rays that formed into one and show towards Avrin’s right arm, causing a golf ball sized hole that went straight through it to form. Avrin blinked and raised his arm up to gaze at it.

“Ah...well that hurts....” Avrin spoke as the wound began to heal quickly in front of everyone’s eyes. The Deities showed surprise at such a strange regeneration while the Arch Thero’lizer spoke with no hint if they were surprised or not. “It’s the least I can do for what you have done here. I understand that this Tyron had indeed kidnapped two individuals, it seems they must have been related to you. I’m sure they are in safe hands now. But look, this place is ruined. How do you intend to compensate for it? Where is the justice for us who were not involved? I’m certain you can flee, but you will just be hunted down.”

The Arch Thero’lizer spoke softly with the distorted voice. Avrin was somewhat at a loss for words. He truly wanted to speak out in protest, but this situation was good for him. “Indeed, indeed. Look, we are both people of business, there is no need for unneeded conflict. What’s done is done. How about I give you a special product that puts all the useless crap you make here to shame. Does that sound reasonable?”

“U...useless?” one of the new Deities mumbled out while another trembled with anger. “You damn...” he muttered under his breath, but none dared to speak as the Arch Thero’lizer spoke out again. “A single new Deity who doesn’t follow orders is fine to be rid of. If you can compensate for the talented individuals and mess you have made here then matters will be settled.”

Avrin was quite pleased with this. He spoke again. “I also have a condition.” speaking out with these words made Velethia, who was also one of the Deities present, snarl in anger. “Condition? You have no idea what position you’re in!” though her words were cut short as the Arch Thero’lizer spoke. “Very well, what condition is this?” following that, Avrin spoke. “Within the kingdom of Sarlez I want you to remove all your consortium branches. I also want a Radiant Lucent crystal beforehand. I will, of course, make the product within this place under your supervision.”

The Deities were all about to protest and spew curses at Avrin, but the Arch Thero’lizer intervened. “All of you, keep your mouths shut.” with that said a heavy influx of white mana surged around, causing them all to feel a pressure weighing on them. No one dared to utter another word. The Arch Thero’lizer continued. “Very well, but this is only if what you intend to give as compensation has a value that exceeds this all. Of course, this is targeted towards the removing of my consortiums branches.”

Avrin was feeling bitter. In the end, the Dark Core formed from Tyron would be used to get him out of this mess. With that said, the verbal agreement was made and Avrin was led by every Deity present, including the Arch Thero’lizer, towards an underground chamber where the more advanced Sigils were crafted.

“Elorin, you and Velethia stand guard outside and handle the issue with those Deities that may show interest. I’m sure the Highland Syndicate may be feeling quite pleased with what happened here and will send scouts.”

Elorin nodded along with Velethia who bowed respectfully before departing. Avrin paid little attention. His focus and Divine Sense was steadily kept to guard around him. The underground chamber was quite lavish, fit for a king of kings, with golden pillars of enchanted metals as well as spots allocated for high-level Sigil crafters. Avrin couldn’t help but sigh a little at what it must feel to be such a large establishment. Although he hated the consortium, this event may have a positive result for him. He may even be able to sell stuff to them, but not before ripping them off with the prices. It made him feel almost giddy.

“Help yourself to a location. I assume your store handles Sigil crafting? Don’t feel worried about your technique, I guarantee it isn’t anything special that we haven’t seen before.” the Arch Thero’lizer spoke with a subtle yet verbal superiority to Avrin.

Avrin grunted silently with a shake of his head before opening his hand. “The Lucent crystal?” the Arch Thero’lizer went silent for a minute and glanced at the other Deities that remained. They all flashed like light before they stood guard at every corner of the large chamber as if for safety. The Arch Thero’lizer then extended their hand to which a fist sized, liquid filled crystal almost like a triangular diamond formed.

“My consortium may be rich, but our entire worth is only several Radiant crystals. I will be quite...mad if things go wrong. I don’t know why you need this, but if it’s a form of extra payment, well...what you intend to make should be astonishing.”

The Radiant Lucent crystal floated towards Avrin, who glanced at it with a hidden greed. He could tell that if he were to absorb this it would have a nice effect, but it was not a luxury he could afford right now. He glanced at them all. A line of Nebula Mist began to form, expanding out ten meters around him in a circle.

“I understand my circumstance, but I will only say this once. While I do this, anyone who sets foot within this circle I won’t hesitate to kill. I will take it as an attempt on my life.” Avrin glanced carefully at them all, including the Arch Thero’lizer, who simply nodded. Avrin then sat down cross-legged and took the new Deity level Dark Core as well as the Radiant crystal. In truth, an Azure crystal would be fitting for a new Deity, but Avrin felt the future result would be better with a Radiant crystal.

He sighed a little as he thought about the situation. “-This is akin to a Trojan horse. As long as it is dark matter it makes no difference how you use this weapon, as long as it’s within the range of my Divine Sense, obtaining it will simply be child’s play-”

Avrin’s body emitted an aura of dark matter that began to shift and turn into Nebula Mist that began to condense and flood towards both the Dark Core and the Radiant Lucent crystal. His intention was simple, he was going to make a staff. This would be his most advanced creation yet. The Nebula Mist he used was formed from pure dark matter from his Dark Space, it would consume at least 10% of his reserve.

“-This weapon itself isn’t impossible to make, keeping things stable is a sort of issue. In the end, the mechanics behind it should be fine. I’ll infuse a few of my Control particles within the shaft and embed the Radiant crystal within the Dark Core.

That fusion should be the most difficult part, but if I can stabilize it and set a few orders I can turn the Dark Core into a generator with it along with the shaft it can act as a vortex to draw mana from the surroundings and feed it at a rapid rate into the Radiant crystal. From what God told me, Deity mages use different levels of staffs that empower them by drawing mana from their surroundings and the user and further empower their spells. Of course, there must be a limit to how much can be drawn. A three step empowerment of a single spell, Deity mages really are worlds apart from mortal mages-”

Avrin used the Nebula Mist to form a meter long staff shaft. He tested the absorption after adding a few of his particles within. He found that although it was rapid, it would be too slow. The staff’s capacity was also limited without the crystal. Avrin fixed this by taking out several Dark Cores formed from several powerful creatures at the Master level and lined them up inside the shaft.

Watching from a distance, the Arch Thero’lizer was somewhat confused as to what Avrin was doing. It looked as if he were playing with some sort of strange magic. Expecting Avrin to take out incredible materials, it seemed as if that wasn’t the case. The Arch Thero’lizer was left feeling quite disappointed and cautious as to what Avrin was planning, this included the other Deities as well.

Avrin, of course, didn’t neglect to check up on Calomia and Ilisia. He had set a divine link with Calomia and told her to sit tight while he handled things. She berated Avrin for a little bit before agreeing.

It took Avrin two hours to complete the staff shaft. Once it had hardened, it seemed quite unique, with several dark orbs protruding somewhat around it. Of course, the middle section had a comfortable grip. Avrin didn’t really care for the appearance as long as it worked well. Next, he began to focus on the Radiant crystal and the Dark Core’s fusion with one another.