If that ominous magic collided, thousands of holy warriors would’ve been affected by Hydra’s ass knows what. I laid down an array of Convergence orbs to reroute the magic’s trajectory then erected a huge, wide Ice Wall as a second defence.

The convergence orbs brought the magic downward, making it crash into the ground. In seconds, the plain’s grass that was hit by the ominous magic wilted in seconds and died. The familiar feeling found a place in my memory – shadow magic. The only people I knew capable of shadow magic besides the witch, were the warlocks of the Baruum Empire in Pargat; the Order of Warlocks.

My mind immediately touched on Madam Jelly. The best thing would be to talk to her first, but… I looked over yonder with Hawk Eye and saw them, a group of about seven warlocks staring at us with a blank look in their faintly carmine eyes. One by one, they turned around and walked away. What the hell… Why would one turn their backs on enemies who could catch up to them in seconds? It felt like an invitation to something; a damn trap.

We decided not to take that invitation, but I still had a clone shadow the group of warlocks for me whilst August and I continued our journey deep south. After pleading with the commanders to send their soldiers back home and failing, August put forth the idea to simply teleport them with us. Seemed counterintuitive to bring those you wish to protect closer to the drums of war, yet it meant we could throw eyes on them every now and then and ensure they weren’t in danger.

The battlefield looked, different than I expected. Usually, the place would be rotting with carcasses emitting a pungent odour, it would herald vultures and flies feasting on the cadavers. Usually you’d see blood. Yet, the only things seen were the empty armours and a few bones here and there. The plains and forests were, dead. They were all dead. The grass was near black; it was dead, a direct effect of shadow magic.

What laid before us as we looked over yonder from the beaten walls of a town, were creatures inexplicable, taking all manner of shapes and forms. Some resembled arachnids whilst others appeared humanoid in their bipedal forms. Others were on all fours like beasts. There were even those that simply floated, not at all hindered by the effects of gravity it seemed. Despite their differences, they all seemed to share some similar features. Some had tendrils, carnivorous fangs, hooves, emitted a ghastly fire throughout their bodies, some were winged or had tusks and horns; some even had strange tribal tattoo-like markings on their bodies.

What the hell are they?! I pondered, apparently thinking it out loud.

A holy warrior next to me, worn out by the constant battle leaned on his spear a bit, “Demons, lad. Nothing but demons with zero shred of humanity in them!” He squeezed his weapon in anguish, “May the light protect us…”

The holy warriors prepared for yet another day of battle, as did their demon enemies and the puppeteer warlocks that had the creatures dance to their every whim. Grand speeches of the holy light, enduring, and saving Hyzek would motivate the holy warriors, yet none could dispute the burning villages and towns in the distance. None could dispute how much death followed the warlocks and their demons. Hyzek was losing this war and it was clear.

Was that what August was thinking? The blacksmith simply sat on the ledge of the wall, peering unbudgingly out at the demons, almost as if looking through them. The sounds of cheering after the speeches didn’t fetter his concentration in the least. Even as the armies marched forward to each other, he didn’t move a muscle, his eyes hadn’t lost their target, whatever it was.

Very soon, demons began clawing their way through the infantrymen, literally and figuratively. And unlike my assumption that the demons were all mindless minions, I noticed that some were predominantly magic users, relying on far-ranged spells to cripple and destroy their enemies’ formation. Not only did it injure and kill, they also drove some holy warriors insane, making them turn their own weapons on their comrades.

Arcane Missiles? I asked myself, then shunned the idea. As much as the holy warriors tried to maintain formation and planning, the sheer strength and power of the demonic army overpowered them. Couple that with rather erratic and unpredictable movements, the holy warriors couldn’t do much but defend. They were slowly chipping away despite their physical boosts and magical resistance from quintessential energy.

What’s worse, most holy warriors were close combatants, making it a cakewalk for the sightless demons specialising in magic to mow them down with shadow magic. Even the brutish demons would kill with horns, claws, or actual forged weapons. The battle was much too messy to intervene recklessly.

Even as I brainstormed the correct direction to take, August was still perched atop the wall, staring intently at Hydra’s ass-knows-what. Ugh, whatever. My name is goddamn Eric! I grew tired and cast Vivify, restoring the holy warrior’s strength and healing their wounds. Sure, it healed the demons as well, but there were much fewer injured demons than there were holy warriors, so the latter benefitted more. I started with one of my most versatile spells, Phoenix Wave. Or so I thought. This particular Phoenix Wave was strikingly weird. Instead of the usual orange-coloured replica of a phoenix, it was now a violet hue. As it traversed the air, it sucked people into it, a strong force making it extremely hard to dodge the spell. It clicked to me then and I realised that what would be the usual fire spell, was infused with one of void magic’s primary effects, strong gravitational pull.

Copying Celosia’s mana pathways was definitely worth it and opened up an entire new subtype of magic for me – voidfire. I chose to cancel the spell, as it dragged along both allies and foes; an unwanted result. This new subtype of magic had to be handled carefully, and my visualisation of spells needed to be a bit clearer than usual so that the void mana pathways wouldn’t interfere with my mana output.

So, I resorted to mainly void as a supportive magic, holding down enemies that were in close proximity to any holy warriors. Instead of the Gravity Field spell, I had to opt for manipulation instead. Gravity Field’s range was something that couldn’t be modified, but I could do whatever the hell I wanted with void manipulation. Coupled with light manipulation, fatal wounds stood no chance of stopping any holy warriors, and the demons they faced were restrained long enough for a sword or axe to sever their heads.

However, using manipulation of two types of magic on a battle this huge was quickly becoming a mana problem. Sure, my mana fully regenerated in a few seconds, but with the range I had to spread my manipulation across, I could feel my mana waning.

I popped a mana potion quickly, and that alleviated the strain. Just when I was about to get back to helping, August suddenly appeared in front of me. Shadow magic warped around him a little, then dissipated into the air. I immediately cast Magnet. What the…

“Enter the void and don’t come out,” August warned me. How unsettling. The first time he moved, was to protect me from some spell. Judging from the mere speed in which it travelled, I knew the caster was no slouch.

The demons began retreating slowly, yet Hyzek’s holy warriors didn’t pursue them.

One lone man slowly walked out, taking centre stage. With Hawk Eye, I found that he was rather bizarre. He had a neck-breaking height, probably over two hundred centimetres tall. He was a bit lanky, but his muscles were well defined and caged by his darkened grey skin. It almost looked dead. He donned a weathered bandana around his face, covering his nose down to his throat. Beneath it gave a strange and faint glow. He wielded a ghastly black katana in his right hand that would occasionally have blackened electricity crackle around it, but in a much slower fashion than regular lightning. Perhaps the most jarring thing about the man was his left arm. It was made entirely of what I assumed was shadow magic. His chest-length hair would dance in the wind every now and then when he pulled his cowl down.

He gave a chilling aura out, but a very subtle one that no one even noticed except August; no wonder the blacksmith simply ogled in his direction from the very beginning. For him to get August’s attention like that, meant he was no pushover.

After what seemed like an eternity-long stare-down, he took a simple step forward, then disappeared, reappearing in the midst of the holy warriors with his sword piercing through the chest and out the back of one of Hyzek’s own. Within the blink of an eye, a nova of shadow magic burst forth from the man and immediately killed those around him. Yet again, he disappeared, then August disappeared.

The clang of swords behind me pilfered my attention and made me look around. August defended me against the man’s strike. He jumped back a little, loosely holding his sword and eventually giving August a look that I couldn’t quite understand. But they both clearly understood each other as they nodded simultaneously.

The man, once again, disappeared. August then eyed me up and down, “You absolute fucking idiot! You’d have totally deserved it if you died there! If I tell you to hide, fucking hide, Eric!”

“Ah, yeah…” I was so taken aback by that.

“Listen, after that encounter, I’m sure he deduced that you’re a distraction to me. I don’t know how much of a fair fighter he is.” August put a hand on my shoulder, “So you either get your ass in the void, or stack Timedial like you’re fighting me at my absolute full strength,” his hand switched from my shoulder to the side of my neck, “you hear me?”

“N-no. Why are you treating this fight so serious? Is he that strong?”

August simply smiled, then turned away and looked down at the open battlefield.

“Hey!” I called out to him before he went down there and tossed my best potions and pills toward him. I knew this would be an unbelievable fight when August behaved the way he did, when he donned the dark apparition armour, when he lifted his sword and faced it directly upward from the get-go.

The speechless man came back and joined August on the battlefield after he spoke to the warlocks, the same thing August did with the holy warriors before he stepped onto the field.

The golden glow that would usually be seen on August, was also seen on his enemy. I knew then, that this would be a fight of titans. Sharp ear-splitting explosions rang out, multiple times per second and the land began reforming. Walls were falling, holy warriors were dying and demons were being swallowed up by the shifting ground. The wind felt from the mere force of this great battle was staggering. Bolts of shadow magic bulleted every which way, jolting me out of my damn shock when one directly hit me. I immediately cast Apotheosis to summon the angelic avatar. My life was leaking out of me and I knew I’d be dead within three or so seconds, but Apothea – what I’d decided to call the light avatar – brought me back from the gates of death.

A great dome barrier was erected over the town, blocking out the shadow magic that would randomly stray towards us. She was stupidly strong, but I knew not her limit yet. I took some time to fire up some void manipulation, placing the entirety of holy warriors into a plane in the void.

“Unreal…” I muttered to myself, seeing the sparks of light from the clash of swords and hearing the rapid explosions that almost felt like it would rupture our eardrums. Because of my Light Link, I could get a feel for August’s location, and man was it all over the place. If not for the Avatar of Lightning and intelligence enchantments, I wouldn’t have the mental acuity to even keep up with them. In fact, most of the time I fell behind just trying to mentally track them. It was simply too fast for my brain to process. All we could do was watch as the landscape was destroyed and totally changed shape with every passing second.

What I thought was the pith of combative force was only increased every few seconds, they both equally matched each other, increasing their quint usage more and more. One hit would have one of them pitch extremely far, spanning kilometres-long distances. Yet, their sturdiness ensured that taking a strike as stupidly strong as one that would make someone traverse that type of distance could be shrugged off. Truly, for anyone of them to truly win this fight, a limb or two would have to be taken off, or better yet, one of them had to be decollated. I couldn’t imagine it; I wouldn’t.

What the hell am I supposed to tell Melissa? Why the fuck can’t I join the fight anyway? My mana flared. I’m not about to risk my best friend dying over some stupid fight with someone I don’t even know. I took a deep breath, my pores raising. Whatever happens, happens. I knew that the last time August and I fought, he was over two hundred percent quint usage and in order to keep up with him, I had to use ten stacks of Timedial. This meant that, in order to keep up with his five hundred percent, I’d need twenty-five stacks. After another breath, the explosive sounds suddenly stopped. I halted on my plan to join the battle and used Hawk Eye to see where August was. He stood over the halved corpse of the man, along with two clones of his. That overpowered bastard…

His breath was haggard, and he turned to walk away, but then the man’s corpse joined together again by some shadowy magic. However, the man didn’t use the golden opportunity to attack. They began speaking to each other instead. They just flipped the entire landscape upside-down and now they’re talking? Hydra’s ass, was I perplexed!

Once again, they both disappeared and reappeared in front of the demons and warlocks. At that point I was convinced that they weren’t simply moving faster than the eye could see, but was actually teleporting. After all, August did say he mastered space manipulation from Qora, the spirit lord of space.

The both of them then began slaughtering the demons and warlocks! I was dumbfounded, and by the looks of the holy warriors, so were they. None of this made any sense. Who was that man and what was his agenda? Why did he turn on his own allies like that? What could August have possibly said to him?

Eventually, I returned to the corporeal plane and had Apothea drop the light barrier. The warlocks retreated with what little remained of their demonic forces. The holy warriors and I stood in awe of a landscape twisted by space magic, deadened by shadow magic, and remodelled with brute force.

Very soon, both fighters returned to the half-destroyed town. The atmosphere was tense and the holy warriors kept their wits about them. August walked slowly over to me, with the man trailing right behind him. Seeing the fellow up close, there were parts of him where small horns jutted out. His arm was made entirely of some sort of magic, which I was willing to bet was shadow. There was a faint glow around his mouth, but the bandana blocked it. The towering man did not give a very good vibe, obviously. Something was amiss with him.

“We’ve gotta get him to mother,” August said sans-explanation.

I raised a brow curiously at it, then shrugged. August might be capable of brute strength, but he was far from the mindless ones. In fact, if August wasn’t capable of stopping this man in his tracks, I very much doubt August would risk putting someone that dangerous in front of Madam Jelly.

“Okay then. Well, she has a body now, so I don’t know where she is; we gotta find Leo first,” I said. My eyes shifted to the man for a second, then back to August. “I reckon we’d need Invisibility to get to someone like Leo.” After all, I left him in Geona, the biggest city in Hyzek. My eyes went back to the man, “Is that alright?”

A slow and whispery voice said “no”. His darkened eyes were steadfast and unwavering.

Were it not for my respect on August’s decision here, I’d probably kill that man. “Name?” I asked.

“Ren,” he answered, very slow in his delivery. For the second time now, when he spoke, the dim glow under his bandana luminated a little brighter.

I inspected him even more than before, noting that his sword hadn’t even a scratch on it. Could it be that the power of one of the pillars of creation, enchanting? It was a real, physical sword, not one made of magic like the elves’ mana blades. I pondered on how this man would have an unbreakable sword, like August and Moken’s. An arm made of shadow magic? I have so many questions!

My thoughts were blinding me to the fact that this Ren wiped out his own allies; he betrayed them in a split-second, a cold move without so much as an afterthought. He could very well turn his blade to us in the same fashion. That realisation jerked my cautious mind awake and I cast Magnet, choosing to keep it active at all times.

With that, we finished up things at the town and I teleported those who wished to return back to their capital cities. August, Ren, and I eventually went to Geona. It still amazed me that holy warriors and shadow beasts lived together so harmoniously. But, after witnessing that fight, I could understand why Hyzek and Umbral decided to band together; their new threat was no joke.

The stares we got from the gathering of officials were similarly, no joke, as one man rightfully said. “This is no joke, sorcerer!”

“No,” August intervened, “it is not. We wish to find mother, the leader of the shadow beasts.”

Sniffing at his quintessential power, they knew better than to contest the young man. “We do not know,” the old fellow averted his once-glaring eyes, “where to find her. However, the man who represents her can often be found on the lookout to the north.”

After August’s nod, I flew us to said lookout. A scenic waterfall dropped into a pool, where Madam hovered and Leo meditated. Immediately, Leo glowed golden, showing his battle-ready mind. Madam Jelly seemed to wobble slightly, but it was hardly noticeable. August calmed the beacon, “This is not meant to be a fight.”

Leo glared at Ren, “State your business!”

Ren’s ghastly eyes locked on to Madam Jelly, and he stated his intentions in his sluggish and deliberate pace, “How can I die?”