As Endou discerned a figure, suddenly it reminisced him as it suddenly brought back all his memories.
A massive, sheer tree stood in the middle of a particular vast land. The size of the tree itself surpassed the mountains, as its height even surpassed the highest clouds, as there we can see some countless beautiful dots and little spherical things which surrounded the sky without worry anything on the way.
Inside it displayed an enormous spiral stair as it went up and down endlessly, with some bright torches along with it.
As if a tree, the spiral stairs act as the branch, and it also made other smaller branches. It was the entrance to the hidden room. And as if the fruit, it was the closed rooms that resided utterly nowhere in that tree.
Then, a particular person walked upstairs as if the torch guided him to a room.
His black hair seemed messy and short, yet quite long.
His robe flowed to the ground as the ripped-off right sleeve decorated it furtherly, with a particular animal fur around it.
As he tidied up his jet-black gloves, he looked around.
On his left, right, even above and below, there unfolded countless women in varying magical clothes that gave him an impression of a witch.
In terms of their shape, they also seemed older than him.
He had arrived at the end of the entrance, and he saw a man that also seemed older than him.
Because after all, he was still young and immature.
He seemed like a person who was still at the beginning of his dozens of years.
As he ran aimlessly to the man, he stretched his hand as a small burst of fire appeared and lit up above his hand.
Afterward, some other bursts of flame appeared around his head and shoulders, as if the one on his hand multiplied itself.
And those multiple flames rapidly formed into a sword. Each of them had a shape exactly like the one from a particular world country from the far east.
As if the glass shattered, the atmosphere around him became blank, as it couldn't contain the essence of the flame.
Any concepts that popped up around him would be fragmented into nothingness, as they never existed in the first place--especially time and speed.
Now, it was the right time.
To create his concepts, such as speed, distance, and timing.
Without good timing, he'll fail either way.
As his body slouched, he ran faster and faster likewise, he made the distance between him and the man close, and he made the time around him stopped.
At this rate, maybe he could reach him in two or three steps.
But--
"Hm?"
The older man responded as he gazed back at the boy.
From his appearance, it was no odd anymore.
A beautiful blue robe, A wooden weird-looking edged staff, and dark thick hair that even covered his iris and retina.
It was The Blue Wizard himself.
However, from the boy's point of view,
The figure of The Blue Wizard that ought to be closer to him now got further from him instead.
As both of his arms unfolded, those swords that projected around him flew towards the figure.
Nonetheless, it didn't reach him.
Just like the boy and his magic was utterly finite, and the wizard was the infinity itself that anyone could never reach it no matter what.
Instead, the figure dissipated, and now, he abruptly reappeared beside the boy and---
"--Gwaah!"
The broken air or said void around them suddenly went back to normal.
It revealed the true essence of the room around them.
It was simple and not so vast.
The boy suddenly pressed vigorously to the sheer wooden floor.
At least, he had no fracture, blood, or bruise.
But, The Blue Wizard didn't smack him down, nor he did magic to him.
He just tidied his hair up as he played it upwards for a moment.
"-- Good grief."
He let out his sigh as he turned back and sat on the floor.
"--It hurts--" The younger boy said as he hung his head.
"Now you started that again, Herbert."
The man said as he referred to the boy.
As Herbert regained his composure, then he tried to stand up by himself, ignoring the man's hand that he stretched out for him.
"--Tch."
Herbert's pair of eyebrows furrowed utterly in anger.
Even then, The Blue Wizard didn't backfire on him.
He was just expression-less as always.
Even Herbert scowled at him, nonetheless.
As Herbert's expression went plain, then he spoke to The Blue Wizard.
"Alright, Ignatius, now what do you want to do?"
Herbert said.
Suddenly, as they faced each other calmly inside the tree, a booming, ear-rupturing sound cried out of nowhere.
At first, they thought it was a trivial thing that they shouldn't concern about it.
Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.
But, as they also sensed something wrong regarding that sound, Herbert and Ignatius abruptly turned their heads into that said sound.
The entire place shook, but not any sliver of walls and ceilings did fall.
"--"
"What was that?"
As Herbert said frantically, he ran outside as Ignatius followed him behind.
With a sigh that he blew throughout the atmosphere, he finally could feel the open world again.
But--
Dark clouds rolled until the horizon, as it emitted many strikes of thunder.
It was absurd.
It was abnormal for such a world like this one to have this kind of phenomenon.
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As he reached the ends of the branch, suddenly Herbert and Ignatius saw a regal man appeared from a sparse distance as he calmly sat before them with his charismatic laugh.
"Fuhahahaha!"
He wore a simple white robe, yet it had some silver parts that gave it an ornate impression.
Moreover, on his neck, there attached some multiple silver necklaces in varying shapes and, a pair of extravagant silver also clasped his both hands.
As he played his long hair that as white as clouds, he seemed speaking to both of them with some gravitas---
"
That countless dark clouds that rolled beyond them formed a turmoil in a period that predated the time, and suddenly, below their foot emerged something that seemed like a fragment but made by thunder.
Its tremendous and sheer power could even send both of them flying back to the exit door of the tree.
Nonetheless, Ignatius held out his hand and hit his staff on the ground while he also grabbed Herbert's hand as Herbert will badly fall if Ignatius didn't hold him.
"Hmph, not bad for you, though--Ugh," Herbert said as he held his left arm.
"Thunder Emperor, what are you doing?" Asked Ignatius as he raised his tone.
"Haha, Keraunos will submit the answer to me, Almighty Zeus! You couldn't evade anymore!"
"Is that so?" Another voice of a man reverbed as some dark flames emerged between the distance of the three.
That tremendous darkness then whirled as it spun more intensely over an instant.
The surroundings then converged into that flame as a dull figure appeared inside it.
The fire dissipated into nothingness as a hand stretched out from it, clasped the same sword which seemed so alike from Herbert's projection before.
"A katana like mine, huh?"
Herbert mumbled.
"No. It was a demon in the shape of a blade."
Ignatius answered.
But, the blade had a jet-black color, as it faintly emitted a dark burst which leaked an inducing aura of despair.
It even succumbed to the surroundings nearby the tree.
"Fufufufu. We've got a company."
Zeus said as he sarcastically laughed, as his eyes went to the figure of the stranger.
A red robe embedded on his body as it befitted alongside the sword he held.
His long black hair that reached his foot fluttered by the stormy winds.
Suddenly, a finger snap reverberated around the air, and then the thunderbolt copied itself as many as dots of rain--
Zeus cried his voice, and those copies then showered upon the three.
Ignatius quickly reacted by enacting a blue barrier that shielded both him and Herbert from the relentless attack.
Long story short, that fragment thing from before was a Chisel that symbolized something very essential in the world.
A thunder that sparked every other thunder, meaning it was the very first thunder that predated the concept of "Thunder" and its ilk itself.
Indeed, some electro-elemental weapons could even eliminate gods, but this weapon infinitely transcended their very said essence.
Zeus, the wielder of the weapon himself, was The Thunder Emperor that made it with his own hands, enchanted by The All-Knowing, All-Existing, and All-Supreme Merlin.
After all, he was also one of several beings closest to him, so he was given an Arcane Title Zeus.
And he had chosen Keraunos as his main weapon because of the tremendous power that lingered inside. No one could tell what was in that said thunderbolt.
That weapon even made several other beings close to Merlin cautious of it.
Yet he gave that thunder a mere name of convenience, Keraunos.
Back to the two wizards who faced The Thunder Emperor, they saw another man floating in the sky as he held his black sword.
But he was a complete exception--
He wielded his sword with a single hand as he relentlessly overcame Zeus, who floated in the middle of thunderous rain and slashed the copies swiftly.
However, he couldn't hold it longer, as those copies gradually passed through him, revealed the void inside his body.
Hand of Crow Demon
"
He slashed it onto the air, and the traces of it made a jet black essence that was none other than the Void of The Crow Demon.
It sucked the air around, caused Herbert and Ignatius to move harder as if they pushed down onto the ground.
And they knew, when they were already sucked into it, or even existed nearby it, it will erase them permanently.
Otherwise, if it did not work, then the influence of the Demon Void will keep biting them until it finally consumed them.
A thunder stroke the void intersection as in unison the stranger went berserk, his blade turned to its terrifying rate that was a combination of dark energy, with some current overflowed outside as it said as a dark electric circuit--
"Don't you think I've lost yet!"
His voice roared throughout the thunderstorm without rain.
"You reminded me of someone. Fufufu, but, that of a lowly trick that you used is powerless against me!"
The young voice of the Thunder Emperor said to the stranger.
The dark circuits then vanished as if they never exist in the first place.
As expected of The Thunder Emperor, every electro-based attack directed to him always nullified and absorbed inside his body.
And, it also added his power to be stronger and stronger.
"?!"
"Impossible--what are you?"
Zeus raised his right hand beside his head.
His right hand, now clenched and a thunderbolt formed on it.
The atmosphere around converged as it illuminated the battlefield between the two.
"O lightning, please strike this lost lamb to Salvation---"
It illuminated the battlefield more intense, and on the other hand, The Stranger kept slashing the air over and over--
Zeus aimed the thunderbolt towards the head, unlike The Stranger that still sliced the surroundings aimlessly.
As the gates of the void opened, unfolded countlessly around them, then they began their clash.
"ALL--"
Zeus raised his tone.
"This time, you won't escape. The void will sever you!"
"--HAYRE!"
His voice tolled as if a big death bell in the middle of the storm.
An explosion reverberated from this distance.
On the other hand, Ignatius abruptly bashed Herbert's body for various reasons--
"Run!"
"Kuha---Guh--What are you doing?"
Herbert stupified and asked as he spat out.
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Ignatius' bash sent him back flying inside the tree.
As he saw the tree's exit door sealed by a particular thing, he ran downwards, following the spiral stairs as he uttered some words.
"Tch! What's wrong with him?!"
Herbert sounded impertinent.
As he saw inside, now it was all but fires and broken as far as his eyes could see inside the infinite floored tree.
He also heard many dull explosion sounds from outside, yet he ignored it, kept running until he saw a big door that illuminated some blue lights.
He broke in.
Inside it, he saw a hallway that was fancy and made out of arcane steel.
Herbert himself was in sorts of confusion upon seeing the hallways.
And he was all alone inside the long, large, and endless hallways that unfolded without end as far as the eye could see.
Yet, he didn't feel any fear inside him, and he kept walking further.
Until an odd happened.
Herbert suddenly heard someone's voice that reverberated throughout the tree halls--
"3, 5, 7, 9, 10, ..."
Suddenly, he saw a particular figure again, and it was now very familiar, and it was the one he met before.