CHAPTER 78: MIDNIGHT MAGIC

"All of you! Form a barrier immediately! Everyone else, take cover!"

The platoons scrambled to obey, their boots pounding a frantic rhythm against the blood-soaked ground. But it was far too late. Merlin's grand spell surged to life, a torrent of power coursing through the ley lines that snaked above the battlefield.. The glowing veins pulsed erratically, their light morphing into an ominous, inky black. An alien pressure filled the air, a thick, cloying energy that made every breath a struggle. The soldiers gasped, clutching at their throats as tendrils of dark cosmic force writhed around them like phantoms.

The stone faced man grit his teeth. 'Darkness magic... Another specialty of hers...' His gaze snapped towards Merlin, fury igniting in his chest. She was perched atop her levitating staff, legs crossed nonchalantly, a cruel amusement dancing in her eyes. As the battlefield fell into ominous darkness, a delightful tremor ran through her slender frame. Her lips curled up into a wide grin as she awaited the completion of her masterpiece. The man's eyes radiated in flames as cosmic force seeped out from within him in droves, battling against the abyss.

"MERLIN! YOU FILTHY BITCH!"

She placed her slender hand above her mouth and giggled. "Andre, your temper hasn't changed since the last time I saw you in the academy... No, it seems to have gotten even worse, actually... How is that even possible?"

Andre ground his teeth together. A growl escaped his throat. "WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU PLANNING! THERE ARE STILL CIVILIANS IN THE AREA!"

Her lips sunk the moment she heard that. "Civilians? Pff-hahaha~! Even back then, your jokes were hilarious!" She looked back at him with narrowed eyes. "Don't speak to me about civilians. For the sake of successfully ambushing us, you ordered your knights not to evacuate anyone in the area, did you not?"

"..." The man stood silently with his grip on his sword tightening. With lowered and pinched eyebrows, he stared at Merlin's levitating form. "The need for drastic measures could have been avoided if you all hadn't conspired and betrayed the empire!"

Merlin snapped her fingers, "Enough of your nonsense. I have already seen how the Wisdom Church operates. If you want to talk about betrayal and conspiracy, you should be looking your superiors in the eye." Suddenly, the air thickened once more. One by one, the inquisition knights fell to their knees, holding their throats tightly as their eyes turned crimson red. The suffocating aura emanating from Merlin's spell continued to grow wildly as it crashed against Andre's cosmic force suppression.

Nicholas, who was busy casting barriers upon his rank and file, looked up at the abyssal skies. The lens of his glasses began to crack from the pressure as the gravity in the area increased in strength. He held tightly onto his stave for support as he grit his teeth. 'Merlin... Is she even human?' His vision started to blur slightly from using [Augmented-Comprehension] for too long. Even with all the time at his disposal, deciphering the spell was akin to distinguishing grains of sand. The sheer complexity of it all almost fried his brain.

'From what I can see, she is mixing different ethyric ratios of the Darkness and Space elements... The suction force its exerting is truly frightening...'

Before he had any more time to think about what was happening, he observed the pitch-black magic circles melting. Their ethyria transformed into pure liquid form as it dripped from the sky in an eerie fashion. He turned to notify Andre, who was preparing himself to leap toward Merlin and attack her directly.

The Moment Andre primed his body, the pressure intensified, causing him to recoil slightly. Nicholas, on the other hand tried to report to him, but the pressure caused him to fumble as the ground beneath his feet began to crack.

Oblivious to what was happening with Nicholas, Andre was more focused on why the dimensional suppression increased. His [Sensory-Boost] pointed him toward the other side of the battlefield, and that's when he noticed it. Andre's bellowing voice resounded in anger.

"Mason Melbourne! You bastard!"

What was reflected in Andre's eyes was a large hover craft. Men clad in jet black armor swarmed its sides, bulky SV weapons crackling with menacing red energy aimed directly at the Inquisition knights. Panic surged through their ranks. Shields scrambled for formation, but it was too late. A volley of energy blasts erupted from the hovercraft, searing the air and turning knights into smoldering heaps. Screams of terror filled the infinite void that Merlin was casting. At the front of the flying vehicle, Mason stood proudly with his arms crossed and a cigar hanging from his bottom lip. The moment he noticed Andre, a smile filled his face.

"Hahaha! If it isn't Andre the Giant! What seems to be the problem, Inquisition Commander?"

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

Andre grit his teeth. "What the hell are you bastards planning?!" Before he could press for answers, his [Sensory-Boost] tingled — a warning of impending danger. Instinctively, he glanced to the left, feeling the air shift as a new threat approached. The sky was alive with a metallic swarm, a vast, undulating mass of steel insects that hummed with a sinister vibrato. Amidst this chaos, two young men emerged with their hands gripped firmly on ropes that tethered them to the heart of the swarm. Dread spread amongst soldiers on the ground. The metallic horde was brought closer to the battlefield.

Merlin smirked as she glanced playfully at Andre and his crew. "The chess pieces have aligned..." She swiftly snapped her fingers once more. The darkness encompassing her fluctuating ethyria began to coalesce as more and more of the darkness forming the outer layer of her magic fell to the ground. But just as it fell, it rose sharply until the distant skylines of Astrum Aeternum turned into complete darkness. Andre and his soldiers watched in horror as a dome formed above them, consuming both their bodies and souls.

The cosmic force within Andre intensified, constricting around him as he recognized the shift in the battle's tide. He flexed his muscles, and in a blink, vanished from his spot, only to reappear right in front of Merlin. Holding his sword aloft, he brought it down with monumental force, channeling his cosmic energy into a strike powerful enough to cleave through a city block. The air hummed with the power of his attack, aiming directly at his adversary.

Merlin, with a smirk still playing on her lips, snapped her fingers again. The very moment her afterimage was split in two by Andre's ferocious swing, she was already 30 meters away, having teleported to safety. Andre turned around to face her, his eyes narrowed; sparks could be seen clashing within his irises. His perfect, 9.0 dimensionality caused the very ethyric particles in the air to quiver. He used [Ethyric-Enlightenment] to float freely in the air.

"Merlin. I have no clue what in the monarch's name you plan on doing. But don't think for a second that our previous friendship will spare you any mercy from me if you continue fighting. If you want to live, hurry up and cancel this spell. I will plead the church to lessen your sentencing if you do so."

Merlin's response was a burst of unrestrained laughter, so vigorous that she nearly lost her balance atop her staff before regaining her poise. Once her laughter subsided, she fixed Andre with a gaze that was suddenly intense. "Oh, Andre, you really are clueless, aren't you?"

Confusion knit his brows tighter. "What are you talking about?.."

With a smirk, Merlin brushed away the laughter-induced tears. "This spell, Andre, it's been active long before you arrived. The magic was fully prepared in advance. You didn't notice because I concealed its preparation with spatial magic. The formations that now unveil themselves to you are Solari incantations, flawlessly executed. The invocation has already been sent forth, reaching out to the spirit world. Even if I wished to, halting it now is beyond my power!"

"You bitch..." He grit his teeth and growled at her faintly. In a swift motion, he propelled himself through the air towards her, his sword ready for another devastating blow. However, this time, his attack was thwarted by a barrier of cosmic force. Lightning sparked violently upon contact with the barrier as Merlin, seizing the opportunity, propelled herself backward, widening the gap between them once more.

Andre's surprise was palpable as he watched Merlin unleash a series of spells in rapid succession. The spells materialized into spears of ice, their presence so cold that the surrounding air began to chill. With a mere gesture, Merlin sent the icy projectiles hurtling towards Andre, leaving trails of frosty vapor behind them. Andre managed to block the first two spears with his sword, then agilely dodged the others. Shards of ice scattered around him, blanketing the area in a thin mist, which he quickly dispelled with a forceful exhalation.

Refocusing on Merlin, Andre found her smiling back at him, an expression of amusement playing across her features. She giggled slightly. "You didn't expect that, did you?"

His eyes narrowed. "You... You're already a stage 9 celestial... Your [Force-Barrier] wouldn't have been able to block me otherwise..."

Merlin nodded, "Indeed. I ascended a few months ago. Well, I did ascend to stage 8 as well 2 years prior, but you wouldn't know about that either."

Andre looked at the ground. "I see. It all makes sense now." He looked back up at her. "Have you achieved 9.0 dimensionality?"

"Nope," she answered with a shake of her head. "Still 8.74. Even if I don't have [Spirit-Walk] unlocked yet, I can still beat you, though."

He sighed, "Fairly confident... As I would expect from the Twilight Witch." He shifted his attention to Mason, who had landed his hovercraft on a nearby building. Two young men who he did not recognize stood beside him as a swarm of steel insects provided them shelter from the gunfire. "I assume you don't actually work for Mason, do you?"

She smiled. "You figured that out? Yes, we are currently in a partnership, nothing more, nothing less." Merlin looked away from Mason and the others and back at Andre. "I assume you are very curious about what will happen next, right?"

He nodded.

"Very well. It's not like you can change the outcome, anyway. This spell is the culmination of six months of rigorous research, a fusion of Dark and Space elements. It creates a separate realm, unbound by the conventional laws of our world." She gestured towards the encompassing darkness that had transformed the battlefield into an otherworldly domain. "We're encased within that very spell."

Andre held his chin. "So, what's your endgame? What purpose does trapping us here serve?"

"Where's the fun in revealing the climax prematurely? It would spoil the surprise!" A vivid grin plastered her face as she held her hat. "Alright! Judging by the Ethyria, it seems my spell has been completely cast!" Her eyes sparkled with excitement. "Andre! What do you think I should call this kind of magic? I still don't have a name!"

He slammed his palm against his forehead. "How the hell should I know? Ugh, your antics have always disgusted me..."

Ignoring his insults, Merlin stroked her chin as her thoughts twirled with ideas. After a minute or so, her eyes widened as she snapped her fingers excitedly. "Ah! I know! Midnight magic! That sounds like a good name for this..."

End of Chapter