Dante’s face was blank despite the circumstances. He was facing nothing less than the entirety of North’s awakened. He naturally recognised their faces: The emperor; the first and second imperial judges; the ancestor of the Blackburg family; and the father-in-law of the current duchess Brightbeak.
“I will guard the door,” the second imperial judge, whose face was as serious as always, said. The emperor nodded and prepared for combat, space twisting mana beginning to leak out of his elderly body. The other 3 were not much different. The already ebony eyes of the Blackburg ancestor began to leak a pitch-black mist which only made the old man seem all the more terrifying. On the other hand, wings of brilliant light sprung from behind the Brightbeak awakened, basking his youthful form in a radiant glow. The two imperial judges were not mages so instead of shaping spectacles with their mana they drew their weapons. While the first imperial judge drew a gigantic greatsword wider than his torso and taller than his entire body, the second took out a shield, or rather an aegis, large enough to completely hide his form with plenty of room to spare. Both those items were previously not on their bodies, so they seemed to have appeared out of nowhere.
The last to prepare for combat was Dante. With a weary sigh his flesh reconstructed itself; the change was not visible to the naked eye, but his entire body was no longer made of flesh and bone, but something far more resilient. Everyone in the room understood that Dante was going to die. With all of his escape routes cut off, he could at most hope that they would be too exhausted to capture his soul. That was why he would have to still give the upcoming fight his all.
And then it finally began.
The entire room was enveloped in a plethora of chaos as multiple sonic booms overlapped and mutually either eliminated or reinforced each other. Everyone, except the second judge who dutifully blocked the escape route, moved simultaneously. Instantly the first impact happened as the first judge’s sword met Dante’s fist. Earth shaking boom would have normally enveloped the room after such collision, however, it was mostly drowned out by the extreme noise caused by multiple objects breaking the sound barrier at once. It was an encounter where a mage competed in raw strength against a sword-wielding awakened, usually that would end up with the mage losing, however, it was the first judge who was pushed back instead. His entire body was blasted backwards, causing yet another sonic boom.
Dante couldn’t pursue as magic began to rain down on him from all directions.
First, there was a bullet of light aimed straight at his head. Although it’s size was small, Dante clearly felt that it contained concentrated Truth of Light, and the projectile was powerful enough to raze a small city by itself, moreover, it was impossible to dodge the Truth solely focused on destroying him. Dante waved his hand and a thin layer of tree bark appeared in the trajectory of the bullet. Although it was thin, Dante was certain that he was capable of replicating the endurance that the bark of the world tree itself possessed. Considering that the Brightbeak was by far the least experienced awaked, Dante made a gamble that his opponent didn’t have enough control to change the direction of the spell to the point of avoiding the shield, and so instead of worrying further he focused on the even more dangerous attacks.
Firstly there was the stare of the void. The Truth of Voidsight existed with one intention alone: it would attempt to render any magic, skill or Truth that entered it void. It achieved that by the most prominent property of the Void: Nothingness. It was a Truth focusing solely on that single trait of the element and on forcing that trait onto everything else. Besides void there was in fact no other element that could withstand the dreadful lack of existence, and that would cause them to fundamentally collapse. And that very Voidsight was now focused on Dante who definitely wasn’t a void mage. But he did not earn the long-forgotten nickname World eater for nothing. He was in fact quite similar to the Blackburg ancestor. He also focused on a single trait of the element of Realm and earth: Devour. It meant to fundamentally digest things into their individual parts, and then take what he desired for himself while discarding the rest. He countered the Nothingness by discarding it through that process. It was an encounter where Dante would be at a clear disadvantage, but he was able to prevail thanks to his superior understanding of his element.
What truly troubled Dante was the third spell sent by the emperor to target his back. Dante had, in fact, known the emperor before they both became awakened, so the similarly old monarch did not lose to Dante in experience. And he definitely went all out with his attack: It was a wave of concentrated eternity, pure Truth of time which would Decay anything in its path. Thankfully the emperor was not purely focused on the property of Decay with his understanding, but that only meant that the spell contained other properties of Time and space that would individually deal with different countermeasures that Dante could think off. It was an attack that could be neither blocked nor avoided. Even so Dante chose the most appropriate measure: With all the focus he could spare he created a separate Realm right in front of the spell. Realm and earth was the element of the aspect Terra who created all the worlds and planes of existence within the universe, with only a handful of exceptions such as the void. Naturally, it was the element capable of creating separate dimensions and connections to them. It was also originally Dante’s plan to use that property in order to escape from within the control room should someone dangerous enough be after him, however, creating something stable enough to pass through was just not possible during combat. But Dante didn’t need anything stable for this, just a window that would collapse on itself as soon as the spell entered it.
Individually what he did would be considered amazing, but what was even more astonishing was that he managed to do all 3 of those things at the same time. The bullet impacted the bark, and cracked it, however, it lacked the power to fully break through. The trait of Nothingness and the discarding of Devour were locked in an endurance match, however, slowly but surely the nothingness was gaining ground and creeping closer to Dante’s body. Yet the most volatile outcome came from the temporal magic. The wave truly did pass into the separate Realm of Dante which also destroyed his prepared window, however, that was simply not enough to stop such a mighty spell. The spell that the emperor sent was distilled Truth, something like the barriers of reality was simply not enough to bare its way. Through sheer might the spell forcefully re-entered the plane of existence on which its locked onto target was, and albeit it had lost a lot of the original power, it still struck Dante head-on.
Before Dante could catch his breath there was a greatsword about to strike his head in a wide swing. Although his clothes, and the skin of his back were now visibly decaying Dante did not lose his footing and successfully blocked the strike from the first judge, once again flinging him away. But during that moment the interlocked Dante lost his chance to reposition himself, and yet another barrage of spells struck him.
This time 2 spears of light attempted to frontally breach his defences, and he once again chose the same shield. Unfortunately for Dante even the most appropriate measures were not enough. Meanwhile, the reason why desperately needed to reposition was chewing through his defences as the Voidsight neared his body rapidly. If he were to be completely struck by that power he would lose all ability to resist. Meanwhile, another wave of the very same magic as before attempted to assault his back. And with bitterness, Dante could only attempt to implement the same futile measures. Before the magic managed to strike him he also dashed in the opposite direction of the Voidsight. That moment when he was moving away instead of countering the next attack was naturally utilised by the first judge who sliced through his abdomen. His flesh, despite the reinforcements, was not durable enough to withstand the blow of his gargantuan greatsword, and only his spine managed to stop the mighty blow. It was at that moment that a smile appeared on the first judge’s face and power began to rapidly drain out of Dante’s body.
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It was rare for a non-mage to reach an important position in the north ruled by mostly mages. And most of those who did shared one thing in common with the two imperial judges: They were born nullified, in other words, their very existence repulsed mana and magic, boosting their ability to resist its effects to an absurd degree for the price of never being able to obtain mana of their own. What the imperial judge was using was a skill granted by his main class, [Grandmaster magehunter], [Mana drain]. Usually, a skill meant for a battle of attrition between mages was instead utilised by a close-range fighter like him. The next instant Dante managed to separate himself from the sword and seal his wound by replicating his flesh through Realm magic, however, a significant chunk of his power was already lost. All that mana was infused into the first judge's sword which was now visibly glowing as its properties were empowered.
And so the battle went on. Time and time again Dante was forced to take on one attack after another, forcibly reconstructing his mutilated flesh. Whenever he was forced to move again from the Nothingness of Voidsight the first judge would use that moment to land an inevitable blow. Yet despite the onslaught of attacks Dante remained standing. Even if his hand was cut off he would regrow it instantly, and even if his heart was pierced he was not fazed. It truly appeared as though he might actually outlast them.
Yet that changed quickly when for the first time the spears of light broke through the tree bark. The two spears struck right through Dante’s shoulders and tore his arms off. Instantly Dante regrew one of them, yet when he attempted to do the same to the second arm it stopped recovering halfway through. At that very same instant, the Voidsight broke through and enveloped his entire body. In a single moment, Dante’s entire body returned to the state of being made of flesh and bones. The temporal magic striking his back with full might was just an insult to the injury as it managed to instantaneously decay Dante’s entire back. including most of his spine and bits of some internal organs.
And like that Dante fell powerlessly to his knees. Awakened, the idol of might, overwhelmingly defeated.
“You lost,” the emperor approached with a smile.
“You always loved to mock you enemies, Augustus,” Dante just grinned back, seemingly not disturbed by the undoubtedly overwhelming pain. It was almost miraculous that his body was still capable of speech, “What I cannot understand is why.”
“The North belongs to my empire,” the emperor decreed “not to the undead hordes of Sur’ghoru, and not to your mage guild. My empire is the North and the North is my empire. Although the Blackburg lass thinks she manipulated me into this I have wanted to kill you for a very, very long time.”
“An answer worthy of the man who faced an entire continent by himself and emerged victorious,” Dante’s grin turned into an honest smile, “I admit my defeat. Before you send me on my way let me give all of you an honest warning or perhaps a scornful dying wish: Beware of…” yet the final words did not leave his mouth. It was as though his mouth was shut tight. Realising that he could no longer speak he raised his hand and wanted to draw the last word, yet…
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“Stop,” Irwyn commanded from his chair, and Dante was forced to stop speaking. The boy was observing the entire fight from this place specifically to stop something like that from happening. He must not allow Dante to put him under suspicion. Yet the awakened on death’s door still attempted to do something unnecessary, so Irwyn had to finish it himself.
“Die,” his voice sounded inside the control room. At that very moment, Dante’s hand stopped moving, and his body fell powerlessly to the ground. And like that an idol had died, one of the most powerful mages born in the past few millennia now lied dead on the cold floor. Just a few moments later his body began to disperse. Awakened had the Truth through which they awakened infused into their body and soul. On death where the mind and soul were no longer present those Truths would rampage and tear every cell in the body to shreds until there would not be even a particle of dust left. At least under normal circumstances.
“Siphon,” Irwyn commanded, and nearby machinery began to churn. It was a device constructed from some sort of ebony metal, filled with various pipes and wheels, and a pedestal at the very top with a slot perfectly fitting the thin black crystal implanted into it. The crystal was in fact the very same one that Irwyn had bought at the auction a few days prior. He had originally intended to use a lower quality one since the original stashes of the crystals were found and pillaged in the past few thousand years, so he was understandably overjoyed when it appeared in the auction.
There was a reason why Irwyn accepted the incredibly dangerous mission that Avys had assigned him. He was not convinced just by the benefits that Avys offered him nor by the thrill of partaking on the death of an awakened. In fact, if the princess did not confirm that the control room was among those rented by the mage guild he would have forcibly reopened his wound in order to avoid the meeting, likely causing the guildmaster to notice something was wrong and ruining the entire plan. What Irwyn was really after were these exact circumstances, as Dante laid dead on the ground right in front of the control room. What should have been haphazard dispersal of Dante’s body was now turned into extraction with direction. Instead of all of that power going to waste it was siphoned into the crystal.
And as Dante’s body disappeared completely Irwyn had obtained what he was after: The crystalised power of an awakened. Sealed away and at his disposal.
Irwyn did not dare directly touch the crystal, instead he moved his hand just by it, touching it with his ring, and the crystal suddenly vanished. What was on his hand was a simple looking silver band that he had been wearing since more than 2 years ago. Or at least it looked exactly the same. There were some things that he and his brother maintained absolutely the same for convenience, such as the appearance of various vital magical items like the spatial ring on Irwyn’s finger. It might raise suspicion if a new ring appeared on his finger, however, that would not be the case if he had been wearing the exact same ring for years now. It was unfortunate that this place only had the spatial ring left from the many items that were originally stashed here, but it was still a great improvement over not having one.
With a beckon from Irwyn the siphoning device sunk down beneath the floor and hid completely from sight and senses, the same went for the screen which allowed him to observe the fight. And then he just waited for a knock on the door.
“Knock, Knock,” Eventually someone really came “open the door, Irwyn,” a voice commanded. It was none other than the Blackburg ancestor. Without any hesitation Irwyn obeyed. When the ancestor saw that Irwyn was alright he nodded to himself and almost immediately vanished, leaving Irwyn behind to fare for himself.
And Irwyn smiled. Now he only needed to finish the last and frankly simplest part of his plan: To pretend that he got lost in the tunnels.
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END OF THE ARC
Afterword: I didn't really want to spoil it in the author's note, and I want to keep my post chapter not the same, so here I am. I hope you liked the fiction so far, and have some information about the future for the up to date readers.
Publishing? I don't have any plans to self publish before I finish the entire fiction, and even if I do I would not sign anything that would make me remove my work from RR.
New arc, when? I plan to release a few intermission chapters with a POV from a few different characters than Irwyn, mostly as a change of pace from how packed the recent few chapters were, but I also intend to drop one with serious hints about the future.
Am I taking a break? No. At least not quite yet. I might take a break for a week or two later on in the month because I will be travelling and might not be able to write/have access to the internet. But if that happens I will make appropriate announcements in advance.