Throne of the Grand Magus: The beginning - Chapter 116

“Perhaps all that talk about you being one of the greatest dark mages to walk the planet were lies. So far you’ve yet to entertain me Valkuy, or should a say Achlys.” said a figure riding atop an 8-meter tall jet-black wyvern.

The forest around them had been burnt to the ground, leaving a 1-kilometer radius of bare ground surrounding them.

“How do you know that name?” asked Valkuy, breathing heavily as sweat dripped down his face, his left arm had been severed from his body, and his victorian suit had burnt patches all over it, his white shirt stained crimson red from his blood.

“There are a lot of things we know about you, but that information will soon become useless with your death,” replied the figure, his wyvern shooting out streams of black flames so hot that as it licked the ground the sand began to crystalize.

Valkuy managed to turn into black smoke right before the flames touched him, however, the figure was waiting for him right when he reappeared.

Grabbing him by the neck and lifting him off the ground.

“An abomination like you was never supposed to exist in the first place,” said the figure, his crimson red eyes gleaming as he stared at Valkuy.

“Farewell,” as the figure said this, his nails extended into claws, thrusting them into Valkuy’s chest.

“It seems you still have some tricks up your sleeve,” said the figure, as Valkuy’s body turned into a woody tree-like structure constraining the figure’s claws and preventing him from moving.

‘I have to warn the Headmaster,’ thought Valkuy as he ran towards the direction of the Academy, gripping his sides as blood poured out of his chest.

Meanwhile, the figure used black flames to destroy the tree, escaping from its grasp.

“Let’s go Leea, we’ve served our purpose here,” said the figure to the Wyvern, before jumping on top of it and flying into the night sky.

***

“This doesn’t make sense, hydras are supposed to be dead,” shouted Dregnar, as he dodged a pillar of black flames that shot out of one of the hydra’s seven heads.

“Tell that to the hydra that’s currently trying to kill us,” replied a Roc with a length of 4 meters from head to tail and a wingspan of 11 meters, as it shot out a bolt of lightning towards the beast.

“It’s no use, my lightning isn’t strong enough,” complained the Roc as it circled the hydra once again.

“Shay watch out!” shouted Dregnar, but it was too late, the hydra used its gray-colored head to create a powerful draft around Shay, causing him to plummet to the ground.

As Shay was falling, the hydra sent out another stream of black flames, aiming to disintegrate Shay before he could even touch the ground.

“Oh no you don’t!” shouted another Roc, this one nearly two times bigger than the first.

It used its powerful brown wings, wrapped in jolts of potent lightning to bear the flame attack, however even this wasn’t enough.

“No, sis!” shouted Shay as the black flames burnt their way past her wings, knocking her out as she plummeted to the ground in a violent spiral.

Shay swooped down and caught his sister by the neck using his claws to prevent her from hitting the ground too hard.

“Shay, take Chiren and leave,” shouted Dregnar, dodging another one of the hydra’s attacks.

“I can’t leave you h-” Shay was about to protest.

“You’re not powerful enough, and with Chiren like this you two would just slow me down. Now leave!” roared Dregnar, chasing Shay away.

“I’ll call for the headmaster,” said Shay, tears flowing down his face as he looked at the state that his sister was in. She was barely breathing, and her usual regeneration factor didn’t seem to be working.

‘Don’t die Dregnar,’ thought Shay hopelessly as he looked back at the scene.

The nearly 10-meter tall hydra was constantly shooting streams of elemental attacks at the lone manticore, who seemed to be dwarfed even at a height of 4 meters.

“I don’t know who brought you guys back from the grave, but I’ll show you why you went extinct in the first place,” roared Dregnar, the mane that surrounded her lion head turned into pure white flames, her wings became covered in shiny gray metal, and her claws were re-inforced with the same metal.

She grew to a size of 7-meters, although still small compared to the hydra she made up for it with the size of her wings, which grew to be 14 meters long from tip to tip.

Dregnar shot out a stream of pure white flames so hot that the air around it expanded rapidly, causing thunderclaps. The hot air disintegrated all the nearby trees that had survived the earlier skirmish, destroying the forest even further.

“Now get out of my forest,” roared Dregnar, a huge hole present where one of the hydra’s heads was supposed to be.

However, sadly the hydra’s head grew back, and as it did this, all seven heads shot out an elemental pillar simultaneously.

***

“Headmaster, there’s been an attack at the west entrance,”

“Headmaster, there’s been an attack at the south entrance,”

“Headmaster, there’s been an attack at the north entrance,”

“Headmaster, there’s been an attack at the east entrance,”

“Headmaster, there’s been an attack on the main portal,”

Streams of distress calls flooded Headmaster Frode’s communication badge, however, Frode had bigger things to worry about.

Never in all his years of sorcery had he been pushed back to such an extent.

His white hair stuck to his face as the sweat that percolated around his forehead began to drip down. His once pure white robe was now stained brown and red, from dirt and blood.

His beard hung in a rough manner as he stared at the man in front of him with a look of both interest and anger.

“I was made to believe that only the pope and the Grand Magus could win against me in a one-on-one battle. But you, who I’ve never seen or heard of before have managed to force me to bring out my artifact?” wondered Frode, more flabbergasted than angry as he touched the silver ring on finger.

A blue rift appeared in the air, jolts of powerful blue lightning emanating from it, as a brown staff, made of intertwining dark wood came out of it.

At its tip was a massive white gem, caged within the dark wood, and several indecipherable runes etched across its length.

“So you’ve finally brought it out huh? The wizard king’s staff, the second most powerful staff in existence. It wouldn’t hurt to add it to my collection,” laughed the figure.

He had black hair unlike Frode and a skinnier build. His robe was jet black, however, patches of it were covered in blood and dirt as well, till this point the fight had been even, and injuries were received on both sides.

“What makes you think you can survive against me when I’m serious?” asked Frode as he created a pillar of pure white flames that ate away even at the anti-magic walls that surrounded the chamber they were in.

“Interesting, it seems that that the artifact gives you the power to create origin fire.” said the figure, his hands covered in a thick black substance as he deflected the white flames.

“Impossible, not even a dragon can come out this unscathed,” shouted Frode in disbelief, the white flames were a tier 9 fire spell, something that could only be used by Sentinal beasts, so using it took a lot out of him.

“You don’t seem to understand Frode. This isn’t power that you could possibly fathom.” said the figure, as he shot a stream of jet black flames at Frode.

Frode reacted in kind, once again sending out streams of white flames, the two flames met each other halfway created a powerful shockwave as they collided.

The antimagic walls could hardly keep up with the mana that was being expanded in the spells, the walls began to crack under the pressure of the two spells colliding until eventually cracks began to form.

“How, how can a mere fire spell compete with origin fire?” asked Frode, struggling to keep the output of his spell constant.

“Like you always say Frode, we are greater than the gods, Diis Major,” laughed the figure in reply as his black flames pushed Frode’s white flames away.

“Goodbye Frode, don’t worry, all your students will soon follow,” said the dark figure once the flames had almost reached Frode.

“Oh my, it would be terrible if we lost the headmaster so early in the year,” said a familiar voice as a shield emanating a divine white light stopped the flames before they could touch Frode.

The shield consisted of several circular disks with a cross at the center. Its entire area was covered in holy markings and scriptures, causing the flames to move away from it almost as if they were alive.

“Filidei!” shouted Frode once he realized who it was.

“Huh? I wasn’t aware that there was an Arch-Bishop-level priest here. It seems we’ll have to settle this another time Frode,” laughed the figure as it went through the portal located at the center of the chamber.

“He’s going to the floating city?” asked Filidei once the figure had gone through the portal.

“It seems that his goal is within the treasury. Hopefully the mages up there can stop him,” whispered Frode before falling unconscious.

“So this is the wizard king’s staff? Must be nice,” said Filidei with a warm fatherly smile.

“Though it seems this place has become contaminated with demons.. I must alert the church,” said Filidei, his smile disappearing as he looked at the cracks that were left on his shield.