Meanwhile, the mages in the sky were unaffected by the two colossi shaking the earth. Not only were they fighting a hundred meters above the ground, but a dark reddish-black isolation barrier reinforced by Archmage Seraphina served to block them off from the effects of the battle of deities, whether it be from the debris sent flying in plumes whenever they clashed or the earth that quaked from their impacts.
Mana swirled and flowed into Archlich Gradias endlessly. The isolation barrier Archmage Seraphina had cast and was still reinforcing around them did nothing to affect the rate at which Archlich Gradias took in mana. After all, the isolation barrier did not block atmospheric exchanges such as the flow of air or mana, allowing Archlich Gradias to grow in strength.
The mage unit, though trained to remain calm and calculative in all scenarios, could not help but feel drops of perspiration form on their foreheads or backs. If all the mana they could feel flowing through the almost opaque reddish-black isolation barrier cast by the mage unit excluding Archmage Seraphina on Archlich Gradias was really buffing it, the mages were in for a difficult battle.
The worst part was that this battle was already uphill for the mages from the start. Archlich Gradias need not defeat them. All it needed to do was dismantle the isolation barrier of Archmage Seraphina, and it would then be able to use wide-area spells to not only deal damage to the mage unit but also wipe out the human army below, which was Archlich Gradias’s goal in the first place. The mage unit would have to protect Seraphina while she held up the football-field sized isolation barrier around them to prevent Archlich Gradias from being able to do that and also stall for as long as possible.
Yes, their goal was to stall Archlich Gradias.
Archlich Gradias was a demonic knight. This was a level of power that corresponded to the false heavenly kings that once took the combined effort of the former heroes to eliminate. Three archmages and a group of eighth-circle mages were simply incapable of replicating such a feat. Once the clash of deities was over, the two former heroes that had now ascended to a whole new dimension of strength, though exhausted from the fight against the dragon, would join the mage unit to actually exterminate Gradias.
‘Eighth Circle - Dismantle!’
With the illusion of glass shattering and the corresponding sound, the isolation barrier on Archlich Gradias fragmented into a million broken shards, the spell even having a slight effect on the one Archmage Seraphina was currently reinforcing, the effect manifesting with a slight wobble of her barrier.
‘Eighth Circle - Blink!’
At the moment of shattering of the isolation barrier, Archlich Gradias immediately vanished and reappeared behind Archmage Seraphina, who was facing the isolation barrier with her staff outstretched towards it as she continuously reinforced it.
Spell stacking!
Liches could temporarily ‘stack’ spells by pre-casting both spells and could store them for a short period of time to cast both in unison. This came with the obvious drawback of taking more time to pre-cast both spells, but Archlich Gradias, who had a moment to relax within the isolation barrier, was able to afford the time to immediately activate Blink with no time delay at the moment dismantle was used, dodging the attacks concentrated on that position where the isolation barrier was broken and also moving behind the vulnerable Seraphina.
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A ghostly bone hand calmly yet swiftly raised itself to the back of her head, clearly in preparation to use the ability of Archlich Gradias.
The primary qualitative change that came from an upgrade from lich to archlich - Drain Touch!
Anyone touched by Archlich Gradias would have their mana drained by half every second. This meant that in just three seconds, a person touched by an archlich would have their mana drop to 12.25%.
When one considered that this mana drained from an external source would serve to complement Blessed of the World that Archlich Gradias had cast, allowing excess mana absorbed from drain touch that would usually be discarded to instead buff Archlich Gradias behind maximum capacity, they would realize that Archlich Gradias had created this spell with drain touch in mind.
All the mages here realized this symbiotic relationship of the two spells the moment Archlich Gradias approached Seraphina, and also realized that with an archmage's mana, Archlich Gradias would almost instantly become untouchable for them. They acted with haste.
‘Third Circle - Substitution!’
‘Fifth Circle - Shockwave!’ x 20!
‘Ninth Circle - Banishment!’
From his levitating position that allowed Draven to look down on Archlich Gradias, he prioritized prevention of the use of drain touch and hastily used the item they had prepared in anticipation of the drain touch. He did so with a low-circle spell to shorten the casting time of the spell.
As mages preparing to subjugate an enemy they had information about, they would obviously prepare countermeasures, especially against what could be considered the primary technique of the enemy in this case, drain touch.
In just a blink, what lay before Archlich Gradias’s outstretched hand was a black cylinder oozing black gas, in between the back of Seraphina's head and its own arm.
With substitution only able to move objects of equivalent volume over short distances, Draven, who would have preferred to use the Seventh Circle - Object Substitution to swap Seraphina with his cylinder to move her beside himself to offer maximum protection, was forced to use the simpler version of the spell in the pursuit of speed. Thus, Draven substituted the air before Archlich Gradias's hand with his prepared container of Demon Magi.
Magi—the corrupt mana that oozed out of demons upon their deaths—is toxic. And to archlichs, who would absorb the toxic mana, even more so.
The remnant momentum of Archlich Gradias caused the cylinder to touch the glowing bony hand of Archlich Gradias. With a reaction like that of touching a scalding hot object, the lich immediately withdrew its arm, though the damage had been done. Immediately after recoiling, Archlich Gradias began twitching all over.
And now, the shockwaves hit. Shockwaves were still effective on the incorporeal archliches, and the twenty shockwaves from the twenty members of the mage unit that hit Archlich Gradias from all angles were brutal.
This took even more time, causing Archlich Gradias, who had already mostly recovered from the toxic magi, to freeze for a while longer.
As it unfroze, it looked up, only to see the world darkening around it.
This was Banishment, the spell that sealed the target in another dimension. With the checkmate of Demon Magi and shockwaves that forced Archlich Gradias in place for sufficiently long enough, the ninth circle spell by Lirael hit its target.
As the reddened world darkened, Archlich Gradias heard a masculine voice speak, sounding progressively more distant with each word.
“To think even a man like yourself would really fall to demonism, Gradias. What a shame.”
Upon hearing those words, Archlich Gradias, which believed itself to have rid itself of old sentiments, revved up its mana.