The night was darker than I'd seen it in a very long time. Such favorable conditions were outside of my expectations.

The new moon in the sky was invisible, and the stars felt muted by the hazy atmosphere. In my mind, everything was muted, and black was the most beautiful thing I could imagine.

"Hahahahah! Yes! This is it! This is everything."

It seemed like Sasha was right. I could taste it now; victory was all but guaranteed with all-consuming darkness by my side.

I whispered a message to one of the knights by my side, "Pass this message along in silence. Use the cover of darkness to get close to the walls. Prepare to attack at the same time as Master Cole." I waved him along, and the knight scurried away with my message.

Slowly my army crawled toward the city wall in the distance. The excitement was almost arresting. Taking a deep breath, I began to chant, "Oh, spirit of darkness, I welcome your quiet despair. Cast forth your shadowy hand onto the precipice of the world! Let loose your abysmal rage and hatred for the living! Hand of Betzalel! Keeper of the Abyss!"

My spell went uncontested toward the Northern gate, but the damn Salamander reacted quickly. An unsightly red flare shot into the sky painting it an ugly red before rendering our ambush useless. The sky lit up as earth and Ice rose from the gate and walls in an attempt to hinder my advance.

My spell was on the verge of grabbing the North Wall when the Salamander's spell came into being. A giant flaming arm grappled with my own in the sky above.

"Ridiculous! It's a 4th Circle Spell!"

Arrogant! Is he seriously trying to compete with a lower-tier spell? Scoffing, I focused on my mana and clenched my hand. I could feel his spell weakening as my arm nearly pushed the flaming arm into the City wall. It would be laughable if his spell destroyed the walls for me, but before I could see such a thing the flaming arm changed. The arm portion of his spell was sucked into the hand like a vacuum before growing larger and stronger.

Spell manipulation? What was he, a dragon? This was the most shocking thing I'd witnessed since the Emperor's violent usurpation of the throne. I didn't have long to gawk.

My spell was pushed back before the fiery hand shrunk in size and exploded. The Hand of Betzalel was destroyed in the process.

I couldn't move for a moment as the shock of what he had just done confounded me. He beat back my spell with one of a lower tier. That was... was impossible. My breath got caught in my throat as over one hundred flaming arrows flew at me simultaneously.

"Spirit of Darkness, heed my command! Manifest your shield, Wall of Darkness!" The arrows exploded on contact creating many holes in my spell and injuring dozens in its wake. I took a moment to regain my bearings. A wall of flames blocked the path forward in an instant. My mages worked together to put out the flames while being pelted by enchanted arrows.

I needed to switch things up, "Everyone cast your strongest spell! Let's regain the initiative. Oh spirit of darkness, I call upon your dread hunters! Lend me your bows, Arrows of Darkness!" My mages and I sent a volley of dark arrows past the crenels guarding the wall. Many futilely attempted to dodge or block our magic but were struck in their vitals and slain.

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A smile crept on my face as we seized the initiative once more. I sat to recover my mana while the battle raged on. Waiting for enough mana and blood to cast my strongest spell.

After an hour, I couldn't help but be disappointed. At this rate, the stalemate would last until morning, and if that happened the battle had a slight chance of changing outcomes. That was something I wanted to avoid.

"Blake, Drak, both of you are to go to the walls on the Western and Eastern sides. We'll all strike at the same time ten minutes from now. Let's make a hole. Start counting now!"

My two 4th Circle mages left to the left and right respectively. Ten minutes passed, and I began chanting my spell, "Spirit of darkness, Flood this world with all-encompassing darkness. Turn the day into night and the night into the abyss! Flood of Darkness!"

A wave of heavy black beautiful darkness forged a path of destruction in front of me. Some unfortunate fodder didn't get out of the way in time as my spell barrelled toward the city wall. A massive serpent of fire came to life and wrapped itself around my spell before exploding.

"Bastard!"

His spellcasting was too fast! My anger faded when I realized one of my mages had succeeded in punching out a hole.

"Hahaha! It's only a matter of time now."

I smelled the air and looked thoughtfully at the battlefield. I felt my face morph into a smile, "There's enough blood now."

My arms spread out in front of me as I began to chant, "Oh, spirit of Wailing and Dread! From the dead realms of the abyss, you lurk in shadows seeking whom you may devour!"

That bastard was fast. White blinding light erupted above the city wall. It was tiny, but in the darkness of night, it was so bright, it looked like a brilliant shiny star. A wave of white flames coalesced and fired at me at a speed I could never hope to dodge.

"Let rest all into your abyssal maw! Seeker of the end, and devourer of souls!"

A group of knights and mages gathered together to block the flames in front of me, but they lasted less than a second before the flames consumed them leaving nothing but ash.

I screamed, "Breath of Lamashtu!"

Using every bit of focus I had at my disposal, the green mist came together and swirled in front of me barely holding back the unrelenting flames.

His spell seemed to shrink, and the intensity of the flames dimmed, but before I could celebrate, the mist hissed in pain. The heat of the flames caused me to sweat profusely while burning pain wracked my whole body. I couldn't afford to get distracted as the flames were seconds away from eating through the mist and then, in turn, me.

"Spirt of Darkness!" Gasping, I slowly etched out the words as a scream resounded from the mist as though whatever lie on the other side of the veil was in pain. "Grant to me your Protection! Veil the light in your shadows! Veil of Darkness!"

A ghostly howl echoed across the sky as the last of the mist was eaten away. The veil granted me the final bit of protection needed to stop the Salamander's flames.

Taking deep shallow breaths I muttered, "Monster!"

The Lizard was more of a threat than I imagined. Remains of Castle Ayer were a stark reminder of the level of challenge this would be, but seeing him in person was a different thing entirely.

Before I could sit down and gather my breath a shooting star seemed to be heading for me at an unbelievable speed. Instincts taking over, I activated my defensive ring. It dissolved like sand, as a massive barrier came into existence protecting me. My barrier didn't stand up to the resulting explosion, and I was flung through the air like a ragdoll caught in a hurricane. My mind was blank as a group of underlings managed to conjure up a shadowy veil to cushion my fall.

Pain wracked me in many places, primarily my face.

"Arghhhh! Dammit! Dammit! My eye!" I could feel it. My face had been severely burned. When I opened my eyes, I could barely see out of my left eye, while my right remained intact. I got off lucky.

Tiredness struck me like lightning from the sky tempting me with quiet slumber. "Tower Masster...!"

Fear gripped my heart, rousing me to wakefulness. If he continued his onslaught I'd die. The thought struck me hard, and I immediately forced past the pain to stand. Portraying weakness right now would mean death.

My legs were shaking from weakness, and I could tell I was one spell away from dying, but I looked back at the wall trying to look undaunted. The mages by my side had been trying to talk with me, but I couldn't hear them. Ignoring them I continued to stare at the Red Tower Master until he left my sight.

The Salamander seemed to get low and recover as I could no longer see him standing on the parapet. Relief washed over me like a comforting blanket.

The mage to my right pointed to an emergency communication crystal as he talked to it. A voice leaked out from it, but I couldn't hear it, not yet at least, as my ears still stung with ringing.

They seemed to talk into the crystal before it went dark. I waited a few minutes for my hearing to return before asking what was said. The mages turned to me excitedly and yelled, "He's coming!"

Before I could celebrate, reinforcements arrived for Elion in the form of Knights riding Herals.

"What the fuck is going on!"

The Salamander leaped off the wall and jumped into the fray. I had never experienced so many ups and downs in my entire life.

No matter what I needed to survive. I desperately ran for my life. I need only wait a little while longer...