Apothea came back after healing Mandy. Those words Emily said played out in my mind again; the staff and the spell, Apotheosis. I wanted time to somewhat figure out what their significance was instead of battling with that impossible creature, Apollyon, blindly.

He could resist my void spells by warping the space around him and mind magic didn’t seem to work. Sure, I could clubber him with draconic magic, but he might simply teleport out of my range. He fights against both August and Adrasteia in close-combat and holds his own. On top of that, his mana power was a mystery, but I knew it was tremendous.

I ran through my arcane spell book, and whilst arcane indeed had the greatest number of spells – some of them being extremely useful – they still didn’t pack the punch needed for an abomination like him. Hmm, if I use void, he counters with space. August is better than me at space magic. I pondered if I could get August to counter Apollyon’s counter. I abandoned the idea. We’ll need to communicate; too slow. Light then? It made sense to me to rely on light magic since I mastered the manipulation for it. According to Emily, it should be a natural deterrent to shadow magic. Light magic was probably my best bet.

Before I could try anything new, a massive amount of mana was felt emanating from Apollyon as he slowly stood up. Mandy instantly transformed to her demonic state and flew right into me, tackling me then teleporting us back to the mountains we trained in. “What the fuck are you doing?!”

“Saving your life,” she said, and just then, another massive blast of shadow magic soared through the land.

August and Adrasteia appeared right after but their faces were a bit solemn.

Mandy sighed, “Methelia is finished. We’ve all been holding back because of the surrounding towns and villages, but you should consider their lives as gone if you want to win this.”

“What about Inferno Desert?” August inquired.

Mandy sighed yet again and gave all of us a look of worry. I recognised that look because I’d have it myself sometimes. She knew of an outcome that we hadn’t thought about but knew she would meet resistance even if she put that truth out.

“What is it? Just tell us,” I told her.

She removed the rest of her shadow transformation and closed her eyes. Two of her fingers wiggled around, “We have two options. Apollyon appeared earlier than predicted. Even at our peak performance, we’re not strong enough to kill him without absolutely destroying the world of Methelia. If we fight now, we will have to disregard lives and simply fight with everything we have.

“The other option,” she looked a bit cheerier, “will probably save more lives, probably. We retreat, let Apollyon do what he wants, and finish our training. We should have enough power to kill him without bringing death to all beings of this world. The fight will be more contained, controlled.”

That truth presented the hardest decision I’d ever faced. “Do you know what his goals are exactly?” I can’t believe I’m considering this.

“His creator, the great demon, Eblis, appeared twice in my realm,” Adrasteia explained. Mandy’s face warped in pain just remembering those things. “Even though my father and Emily’s uncle saved us, millions still died,” she smiled, as if recollecting her father. “The second time he appeared, Emily saved us, but it cost her life. If Apollyon is fulfilling the wishes of his creator, then he has one single goal, to remove life.”

“So, we have to choose now,” August surmised, and he did so correctly. Even so far off, we could feel the deathly mana Apollyon gave off. He was doing his job even as we stood around idly and planned.

“Majority vote, then?” August asked.

I nodded in agreement.

“All in favour for fighting now,” August prompted, and he himself put a hand up. Adrasteia also put her hand up. Mandy and I kept ours down.

A draw.

August sighed, “Alright, here’s my logic. Even if I try to cram training in, I won’t see a meaningful increase. I have yet to cross 500% quint usage against Apollyon and I still have yet to use Displacement on him. I believe I alone can kill Apollyon as he is now and minimise casualties. If you guys join me, it should be even easier.”

“I feel much the same,” Adrasteia immediately agreed, “especially on the training part.”

I looked at Mandy, “And you? Why did you choose to train?”

“I didn’t. The conditions that the deities gave me for entering this realm was to limit the amount of power I could have. I am currently at that limit. I wasn’t part of the vote to begin with, so technically, the vote to fight now has won,” she cleared up.

“Why didn’t you say so from the start? Do you think my training would make that much of a difference?” I asked; perhaps she saw something I didn’t.

She stared at me, “You mastered manipulation for light and arcane. You have three big chances to get considerably stronger in a short amount of time. One’s becoming a light avatar, the next is becoming an arcane avatar, and the last is to begin your soul magic training. If you can at least get to the point where you can use your soul as an energy, Apollyon won’t even be a threat.”

“How long do you think that will take?” I asked.

“Becoming a light and arcane avatar should take no more than an hour thanks to your cheat training, but,” she grimaced, “getting to use your soul as an energy might take you anywhere from a month to a year.”

“How long do you think Methelia will last?”

“A-about a week.”

My eyebrows twitched, “You planned to sacrifice Methelia in the first place, huh? Even some other worlds too.”

“Yes,” she retorted, “and you can’t blame me. I seek to continue Emily’s work of balance, even if you don’t wish to. If sacrificing a little means saving most, I will do it.”

“So,” Adrasteia folded her arms, “why did you say we might be able to save most of Methelia if we train?”

Mandy closed her eyes, “Ah, I really dislike you. I said that because it sounded like a nice dream, but attainable and realistic enough to achieve. It was just a lie.”

“You said soul magic is enough to kill him, right?” Adrasteia inquired, a bit infuriated. “I can use it, so what’s the issue?”

“Your mana power is paltry compared to him,” she pointed at me. “You are simply not strong enough yet. At our current level, the most you and I can do is unleash our full power against Apollyon, hope to damage him, and sacrifice ourselves hoping that both of them can finish the job. It’s risky.”

“You planned to sacrifice yourself?” August asked.

Mandy looked extremely irritated, “Are you all buffoons?! The only life that matters here is Eric. It might be hard to swallow, but if the goddess finalises his position, he’s more important than this entire world. If we die, we die, but we cannot risk Eric dying. And we keep standing here and wasting time while Apollyon kills thousands of Methelians! Make your choice!”

“Fine, here’s what we’ll do,” I put my foot down, “I will bring Apollyon to Inferno Desert and place clones around the edges of the desert. They will help us to contain the fight. Inside, we fight him very close to our max power. Do not use things that will sacrifice yourself or leave you vulnerable. Depending on how that fight goes, I will decide whether we need to train or not.”

“Sounds good,” August agreed.

I Voidported back to Apollyon. His flaring mana made it easy to find him. A few dozen mages were already surrounding him at a safe distance and wondering whether they should engage. “Evacuate everyone away from Inferno Desert!” I yelled at them then felt something grip onto my legs. It was the shadowy tendrils Apollyon used to bind August and Adrasteia. They kept me in place and Apollyon teleported at the side of me; once again, I could feel the Staff of Eliora being extracted from me.

I literally bit down on him, since my limbs were tied, and used Voidport to take us to Inferno Desert. Voidwalk had me narrowly escape from him, and there I began casting Clone as if there was no tomorrow, but he warped the space immediately and began disrupting my void plane because of his close proximity to me. I had a clone exit my void plane and blast him with Divergence to give me some space.

Thanks to Augment’s boost in mana power, I could create over 600 clones who would secure Inferno Desert’s perimeter. While doing that, I felt an overwhelming power and only saw a flash. Hawk Eye helped me to see Apollyon regenerating and August standing over him like a predator. August swung his claymore again, but it went right through Apollyon’s shadowy body. I activated Mana Perception immediately and saw that August swung again.

The mana in Apollyon began moving erratically, with no sense of direction. That’s Displacement. Right then, it meant Apollyon couldn’t use his mana for a while. However, we were wrong in assuming that his regeneration was due to magic; it continued even after August used Displacement. Apollyon formed yet again, and this time, he had two swords.

August did something I hadn’t seen in quite a while and raised his sword upward – a clear sign that he was about to use all his quintessential energy. Timedial, even at 80%, didn’t help. They moved ungodly fast. Gaping fissures, immense air pressure, and deafening clashes of metal wrung out at speeds I wouldn’t dare try to see or hear without Timedial. The land reshaped within seconds. Apollyon was battling August whilst he was using around 1,500% quint.

I quickly sent my clones out and had them rectify the landscape if the damage exceeded Inferno Desert, which it often did with each strike the two warriors employed. At that point, there was nothing Adrasteia and Mandy could do. The combat was horrendously fast. In a few minutes, Apollyon began using magic again, and August backstepped.

Adrasteia and Mandy flew in at that point. The Dragon Slayer used her Dragon Armour and blew Fireballs from the sky that created humungous craters in the desert. She caused unending cracks in the earth that stretched for miles, wide enough to devour even the likes of Hydra. Rain fell from the sky that could form massive blobs of water at anywhere she so chose and lightning converged on Apollyon. Mandy, again, could do nothing but watch. There was too much going on for her to even find a moment to add her help. Apollyon was struck by lightning, stabbed by earthen spikes, imprisoned with water and earth, lost limbs from vicious wind. Adrasteia had him on the run, but it wasn’t as if the demon didn’t fight back.

He would teleport up in the sky at her and try to physically attack her; we all surmised at that point that her real strength was in her draconic magic usage. He stuck his blade, but her wind shot it off trajectory just enough for it to only be a non-fatal stab. She winced, but rocked him with a punch so devastating that he himself created a crater in the desert with his own body.

Adrasteia took a big, big breath of air in, and at that point, every one of us knew to scamper. Even I, who looked on in total amazement in the safety of my void plane, still Voidported away because my instincts got the better of me.

A small Fireball, no more than the size of a housecat, zoomed down towards Apollyon. The explosion that resulted was astronomical. Over half of Inferno Desert was incinerated, blown away. Sand was everywhere. Mountains of rock crumbled like a house of cards. The very heat forced August and Mandy to teleport farther away from it. In a few seconds I felt a large portion of my clones were killed. I floated there in disbelief, for what I thought was impossible wasn’t so impossible after all.

Adrasteia aimed her explosive Fireball toward the least populated parts of Methelia. That one Fireball shattered the desert and caused a crater so enormous I felt like I was seeing the Dark Basin all over again. It spanned way farther than the edge of the desert, forming a cone-like blast that went on as far as the eyes could see. I pondered if it hit our coastline; but I couldn’t know for sure. But I did confirm one thing, that Fireball was definitely fuelled by soul energy.

When I saw that, I began seriously taking Mandy’s advice to train in soul magic into consideration. I hadn’t realised – no one could – that the magnitude of such a method would be of such proportions. Mandy even said Adrasteia’s mana power was nothing compared to mine, so what would happen if I used soul energy instead of mana? I asked myself.

I knew I was strong enough to literally destroy many worlds, but that would need quite the sequence of spells. It would take time and effort, but Adrasteia’s attack looked so effortless. Any mage who ever cast a single fire spell would be floored by the horrific power the Dragon Slayer just displayed. Her nickname was not for show at all. I understood now why she could kill Hydra with such ease. All the times she used soul magic in training were merely to grant herself a little edge in physical combat, which was clearly not her forte, but even then, she would become extremely dangerous.

We were all so awestruck that it took a while for us to realise that any traces of Apollyon vanished, and more importantly, Adrasteia was falling out of the sky. I snapped out of it, and subsequently snapped out the void in order to catch her. I could see the effects my mana pill and potion had in rebuilding her mana, so I wasn’t very worried. Apothea healed her and I Voidported her to the training mountains.

There were more important things to take care of, like the rebuilding of the earth that she seemingly made magically disappear and confirming Apollyon’s death. Mandy, August, and I search from the skies, but also discussed what in Hydra’s radiant ass just happened.

“Why did she hide that power all this time?” August pondered. He found it strange that she never revealed it in training.

“Did you forget you have 95% magic resistance, you numbskull?” I sighed.

Mandy was quite serious though. She shook her head, “Something like this isn’t practical to use in training. It would have killed even you, August. Adrasteia’s soul magic is rather weak compared to Emily’s, but I’ve got to give her the respect for pulling off something like that without at least being at your level of magical proficiency,” she pointed to me. “That is why she fainted. Honestly, I thought she’d die after something like that.”

“Why?” I asked. After all, I had to learn soul magic at some point, so I was naturally curious.

Mandy slowed a little, “Using soul magic damages the soul. Using too much would rupture it to a point where it is impossible for you to recover. Not even the wonders of Emily’s light magic could save you. The soul that us lower beings could access with magic is extremely precious, that is why arts such as necromancy is taboo even amongst taboo magics.”

“If I destroy my own soul,” I asked, “will I be able to go to the afterlife?”

Mandy stopped totally at that point and simply watched me. I looked back to see her solemn expression and began thinking that soul magic was not to be underestimated. She closed the gap between us, “Eric, if you destroy your own soul,” and gently caressed my cheek, “I believe a fate worse than not having access to the afterlife will await you. I do not know what that fate is, but of all the rules Emily ever enforced for her Apostles of the Crescent Moon, destroying one’s own soul was the most forbidden. She wouldn’t even talk about it past the first warning. If you practised soul magic, she would simply kill you. Donna Maxwell wasn’t the first Apostle who has gone through this. I advise you, future Guardian of Balance, if one practices soul magic, please eliminate them, without hesitation.”

I swallowed.

Mandy’s gripped tightened on my shoulder, “That includes Adrasteia Winter.”