At this moment, all Winston could say was, “Fucked.”
From the left came a hail of elemental attacks of fire, water, wind, and earth. To his right was a gargantuan mass of angry spirits directing the forces of nature along his way. Below him was a large swarm of shadows in the form of wriggling tentacles ready to swallow him whole. Lastly, above him was a sky of blood in the form of weapons coated in chilling spiritual energy.
The clouds swirled and crackled with an ominous hum as a storm slowly brewed. With the existence of the nameless field that placed reality into a state between fiction and not, the participants of this grand battle could finally go all out, and it’s in no way favorable to Winston.
As the battle started, he quickly found himself entangled in a chaotic mess as Arvil and Noel relayed instructions without missing a beat. One was a reborn archmage who was the greatest in his era, the other was a legendary figure who has stared the rise of his race and placed them on a pedestal of good fortune.
Their wealth of experience along with the genius minds of Anna and Christopher allowed them to act as a team in a heartbeat. One attack led to another, from wind and lightning to frost and flames.
Winston wasn’t given a single second to breathe and was constantly pushed back without rest.
Anna waved her arms, causing the clouds to crackle with a loud boom and lightning exploded out in a forest of bright blue light.
Winston gritted his teeth and teleported out of the way, causing the dark purple orb on his chest to fluctuate lightly as he felt more exhausted than before. In the next moment, a swarm of blood and shadows surrounded his entire body, grabbing his arms and legs in a tight ferocious grip.
Without a moment to think, the orb on his chest released another burst of purple light as he fazed through the dark swarm of blood and shadow, reappearing in the next moment further above in the sky.
Christopher snorted and slammed his staff down on the air, and as if he hit solid ground, a vast magical array formed, and four worm-like dragons burst out, with each dragon representing a different element. They each released a destructive breath of the four elements toward Winston, interrupting his thoughts and pushing him one step closer to defeat.
His heart thumped loudly like an engine going on overdrive. His muscles ached with pain as he felt his blood vessels rip apart from the constant stress his body was put through, but he didn’t stop; he couldn’t afford to stop.
He continued to analyze the entire battlefield, with his eyes going left and right all over the place in a pitiful attempt to find the opening he was looking for. But, even though he tried to look for a way out, trying something doesn’t always mean success.
As the dragons of wind and flame rushed towards him, he clicked his tongue and stepped out of the way to approach closer to the ground. If he was closer to the ground where buildings were all over the place, he’d have more covering against their attacks and get rid of the annoying spirits that controlled wind and rain.
The lightning attacks Anna released were stupidly powerful, so avoiding them was the top priority. If he finds a way to not face them anymore, then that’s even better.
Just as Winston was trying to process more of his plans, a bugging feeling slowly grew at the back of his head the closer he got to the ground. It’s like something was missing from his mind, like a big clue that would allow him to deal with all of his worries.
He couldn’t focus on that nagging feeling though as one beam of light to another punctured through his chest and neck. At the speed those beams of light were going, even he couldn’t avoid them, not to mention that he was already mentally taxed and his mind was in a constant state of unrest.
But the pain seemed to have been a stroke of luck though as he realized something.
Who in the fuck gave him the young drake in the first place to set up the sacrificial magic and create the incredibly strong space prison before?
As this flash of inspiration flashed through his mind, he looked at the ground and saw an unassuming kid sitting at the edge of a random school building with his legs dangling in the air. He looked like a mob character you’d ignore in the game, like a shadow blending in with the background, but this very same kid woke him up from his turmoil.
GREED, YOU BASTARD!
…
The young boy smiled lightly as he looked up at the sky where thunder crackled and the faint sound of draconic roars could be heard. Wind and rain ushered a cataclysmic scene of beautiful destruction, where trees were uprooted out of the ground and the neat grassy plains were charred to crisps.
As he watched with a mild look of joy and wonder, he mumbled to the empty air, “Progress report.”
A golden screen flickered into his view and a young girl with long blond hair and vibrant green eyes looked back at the young boy with a devious grin, “Things are going really well.”
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She then moved the view of the screen from herself to the thing in front of her, which was books. A bookshelf. A lot of bookshelves. A simple rotation and the young boy saw floors upon floors of bookshelves, rows upon rows of various books ranging from defensive magic to niche studies about magical spider silk.
Chuckling to himself, the young boy slowly stood up with a yawn and stretched his limbs. He then looked back at the beautiful elven girl and asked, “Are you ready for the incredible performance you have to do later?”
“Duh, of course, I am,” the young girl sheepishly said as she browsed through more books and flipped them open and close at rapid speeds. “I’m Envy! I’m a pro at this type of shit.”
“If you say so.” The young boy shrugged his shoulders and the shadow beneath the soles of his feet slowly grew upwards. “Believe in thyself, as what a random philosopher once said across the infinite realities.”
As a terrifying grin cracked open on his ordinary face, the shadows grew uncontrollably and wrapped him fully from head to toe. A white lab coat burst out of the pitch darkness while a pair of glasses formed on his nosebridge and eyes.
Eyeing the chaotic fight going on in the air, he gave a middle finger to Winston who was struggling all alone amidst the barrage of attacks, and disappeared in a flash.
…
Winston, who personally witnessed the boy’s change from ordinary to a goofy goober known as Mammon Heist, gnashed his teeth and gave a murderous stare to the four who were ganging on him. His bloodlust bubbled and boiled, forming an illusory red sheen around his body and he growled like a lion ready to hunt its prey.
His jet-black wings unfurled fully as a hypersonic boom echoed, forming shockwaves in the air and leaving behind a trail of clouds wherever Winston went. His dark purple eyes darted from one target to another as his mind tried to stage the perfect set of variables that could turn the tides of this battle in one fell swoop.
Eventually, he did find the point he was looking for.
Behind everyone else who was charging straight towards Winston, Noel remained at the back and mainly contributed by providing buffs and support from a safe distance. With his meager quasi-Royal Mage battle power, he knew that the damage he could output was a pitiful droplet in this raging ocean, and acting as support would prove to be infinitely more useful than being an actual fighter in this war of magic.
His decision quickly proved to be the right one in the fight as his occasional spells and debuffs, along with auxiliary spells like haste or keen senses, tipped the scale and balance to their side without leaving any room for a comeback for Winston.
But, his tactic of remaining near the rear of the team soon became a fatal flaw. As Winston continued to fly around and increased the distance between him and the other four, Anna, Arvil, and Christopher unknowingly began to hasten their pace to keep up with Winston’s rapidly fleeting figure.
Soon, their previously tiny gap largened enough that, with his speed, he could exploit it to its fullest fatality!
Thunder and lightning crackled in the gloomy background of clouds as his wings contracted and their edges released a vibrant purple glow. The orb on his chest radiated an intensely bright light that seemed to warp space, while his eyes turned into a darker shade of impeccable focus.
With one flap, over a kilometer of distance was crossed and the sound of his wings flapping was heard a few seconds later. By the time they processed what happened, Anna turned to look around in horror as Noel slowly fell to the ground at an altitude hundreds of meters into the sky.
Blood burst out of his wounds like a fountain of scarlet liquid as Winston crushed the severed limbs he held in his arms ruthlessly. Noel’s left arm and left leg were fully severed, leaving behind fleshy stumps and exposed bones.
His eyes turned bloodshot from the pain as he struggled to regulate his chaotic mental state, but Winston didn’t stop and swung his hand, releasing a burst of purple energy that coagulated into a large illusory projection similar to a blade’s edge.
BAM!
Both of his right arm and leg were also cut off, further increasing the pain and pushing him to the brink of unconsciousness. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as Noel felt the world turn black, but the bright flame of his will to survive remained strong and steady, causing his faint consciousness to remain alive.
The horror didn’t stop there, however, as a playful voice echoed across the land and sky, “Well done.”
In the next moment, across tens of kilometers, the clouds parted to reveal the bright shining sun in the sky, like a ball of burning flames ready to release its catastrophic energy into the world below.
No… It’s not the sun! Anna thought with shocked eyes as she felt the blazing heat radiate off the burning ball of bright white light that quickly expanded in size.
Christopher Laum and Arvil Bloodthorn also noticed the light in a moment’s notice and tried to react, but things weren’t going to look up for them anytime soon.
Bundles of shadow and a large wall of water erupted out of thin air in a vain attempt to shield themselves from the increasingly large ball of light, but their defenses didn’t even do a thing as the light just broke through them like a hot knife cutting through butter.
Anna felt the spirits around her resonate with her heart and soul as if edging her to stay alive no matter the cause. Her eyes turned bloodshot while her spirit trembled from the pain, but the strange resonance she felt with the world allowed her to have the confidence to survive and live through this attack.
As she felt her soul bond with the world and fuse into one, reality warped and bent to her will, causing the wind and clouds to gather and cover the entirety of that increasingly large ball of bright light.
The gargantuan sphere of clouds contracted and shrunk, but the destructive light resisted and further increased its heat to higher and higher levels. Sweat dripped down her face as blood leaked from her nose and mouth. Her brain slowly began to tremble and shake from the increasing stress she felt controlling such a large swarm of spirits, but she held on as if her very will was possessed by the desire to stop this attack and save the world.
And just like his classic tactic where he controls the focus of his opponent and diverts their attention away from what was truly important, he struck at the most opportune time possible.
In less than a second, before the sound of his action could even be heard, his hand pierced through Arvil’s chest, grabbed his heart, and crushed it into meat paste.
Arvil looked down at the hand poking through his chest in shock, and the light faded away from his eyes as he slid off Winston’s hand and fell down to the ground like a limp sack of flesh.
At a moment no one could expect, Arvil Bloodthorn, the legendary ruler of all vampires in the Vizwel Empire, the person who had led his race to an age of prosperity all by himself, died.