Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer-Novel

The clash of Celestials and Hpogeans rocked the planet itself.

Strong shockwaves rippled across the continent, causing tectonic shifts and earthquakes. The worst part about this is the fact that these invaders couldn't be bothered to care about the damage they are causing to this world.

To them, this is just another battlefield they can use to determine who's truly the superior race. If they happened to destroy this world in the middle of that, so be it.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Explosions shook the continent, the ones who were causing the real destruction were the two rivals fighting up in the air; Labolas and St. Francis.

Labolas sprouted raven wings on his back, flying at sonic speed as his lasers razed everything in his vision, his target was mostly St. Francis but there were some casualties here and there because of his lack of control and care.

St. Francis on the other hand, dodged the lasers in a daredevil-like manner, barely avoiding them with grace and elegance that seemed natural to him. Even though it almost seem like he was going to get hit, he calmly dodged everything as if he couldn't be bothered with them.

Every time their bodies clashed, a strong shockwave ensued, forming stadium sized-craters in their wake while also causing their armies to suffer from the aftermath.

Still, the intensity of the rivals' fight didn't deter the heated battle of those who were fighting on the ground. They recklessly threw their bodies forward as if they couldn't care less about their lives.

This stemmed from their belief that they are eternal. Even if they were to die here, they will be reborn in their respective homes once more so they didn't have to worry about anything.

They've become complacent to the point that they failed to notice a few things that should've been obvious.

Jagged spikes rose so suddenly to impale their bodies, a chilling wind that stalled some of their movements long enough for a devastating attack to land on them. A random orb of compressed heat explodes on impact when it hits them. Thick vines popped up from the ground to restrict them and so on...

Things like these happened now and then across the battlefield. They're infrequent enough for them to notice but effective enough to add to the pile of their casualties.

Normally, they would've noticed this by now. They might not care about their deaths too much but that doesn't mean that they won't react to them. The strange occurrences around the battlefield were surely causing some casualties so somebody should've noticed it by now.

However, their clash is too intense and too heated for them to pay attention to anything else.

Those weird occurrences? They could just blame that on the lousy tricks of the enemies. Even if they noticed it, so what? That's not important to them right now. What matters is that their leaders are fighting in earnest, and as followers, they should do the same.

Thinking can be postponed, right now they need to kill.

Because they pointedly ignored this one obvious sign, they failed to see the bigger picture.

If they had just paid attention now, they would've realized that the casualties caused by the strange occurrences were weird. However, since they couldn't be bothered to pay attention, they would remain ignorant about this until later.

Boom!

Another strong shockwave ensued. Up in the air, Labolas and St. Francis clashed.

Their auras were so strong that their bodies weren't even touching. The sheer repulsion of their corruption caused violent reactions strong enough to change the topography of their environment.

"Still persistent as ever, I see." St. Francis smirked stiffly as he kept pushing Labolas back.

"And you are just as annoying as I could remember. Die for me!" Labolas hollered.

His throat thrummed in power, sending out a strong and compressed sonic blow toward St. Francis but it failed to hit him.

Labolas sensed the space warping in front of him and tried to change the trajectory of his attack but it was too late. The sonic shout was redirected to him but he was unharmed since he was able to control his wings to take the blow for him.

Meanwhile, St. Francis compressed several needles of pure golden light. All of which danced around him as he elegantly ran laps around Labolad, warping the space around him to accelerate his movements.

This is what Labolas hated so much about St. Francis. The fact that this guy had this much talent that he even mastered Spatial Abilities is what makes him extremely difficult to do this.

That's also the main reason why St. Francis became his rival despite the obvious gap in their status and experience.

Labolas was one of the fiercest generals of the Hypogean Race. He was so strong that his full-powered blows could shatter space itself. With St. Francis around, some of Labolas' abilities are effectively neutralized since Francis can reinforce Space.

Still, Labolas holds a definite advantage against St. Francis thanks to his experience...

With a stomp of his foot, Labolas emitted a strong force that reverberated to space itself, causing a ripple that destroyed golden needles that St. Francis sent out before they could even touch him.

Pushing this advantage, Labolas kicked the air and close the gap between him and Francis. He felt some resistance due to the latter reinforcing space to constrict him but Labolas' strong physique was only inconvenienced a bit.

Still, that was enough for Francis to dodge another strong punch from Labolas.

Their fight was truly like cat and mouse. One was always chasing while the other was trying to escape and aggravate the other party.

St. Francis knew that he was no match for Labolas in a straight-up brawl. He would lose, 9 times out of 10. So, he could only use clever tactics to work his way around him.

One lacking aspect of Labolas was patience. He's also suffering from severe anger-management issues. The more Francis annoys Labolas, the more reckless he will be. Once Labolas had gone mad, he will leave himself wide open for surprises, and that's what he's aiming for.

Woosh!

Labolas leaned so far back to avoid something that his body bent to a 90° angle. He then kicked back and put some distance between himself and Francis, observing him for a bit.

He couldn't see it but he could sense it. A tiny sharp thing whizzed past Francis' body hiding behind the fabric of space, weaving through it like fish in the water.

'He brought it out...' Labolas pointed out in his mind.

That little thing he's referring to was called Space Sewing Needle. It is St. Francis' most prized possession.

This needle was telepathically linked to his mind, it was only visible to him and those that could sense the Space Element. This tiny thing might look harmless at first glance but make no mistake, an untold number of demons fell to this needle under St. Francis' control. Even Labolas is wary of it.

The reason why was that this needle can open up Spatial Tears. And because of its size and mobility, it can do this anywhere; outside or inside the enemy's body. The point is, Spatial Tears are extremely deadly and everybody should be wary of them.

With St. Francis bringing this out, it means that he's finally getting serious. He isn't planning on running away from this fight and that also meant that he isn't letting Labolas go either.

This fight won't be over until one of them retreats to where they came.

In response to this, Labolas' expression turned rigid. If it's a fight that St. Francis wants, it's what he will get. Labolas has never been one to retreat from a direct challenge.

The tension between them was so thick that it felt heavy. After a round of measuring gazes. They twitched at clashed once more...

This time, their movements were so fast that nobody could follow their movements anymore. Who knows how many times they've exchanged blows within a short moment?

Their figures streaked across the sky like shooting stars. Everywhere they met, the environment around them suffered greatly. They were so focused on their fight that everything else was a blur around them.

They're in their own world and had forgotten about the real one that actually mattered. They had temporarily forgotten about the real reason why they were here and it wasn't just them.

Their respective armies also forgot about their mission. They were so focused on proving their superiority through violence that they completely ignored one variable that should've been the key to this whole operation.

Humanity...

They're so into the racial supremacy bullshit that they completely failed to notice that the sky was repairing itself.

So into their clash that they disregarded the idea that Humanity might've laid down a trap for them.

They didn't notice that not only was the sky being repaired, but it also seemed to be stronger compared to before.

None of them felt the obvious fluctuations around them that restored the barrier that once prevented them from descending. By the time they eventually realized this, it will all be too late.

The trap was laid down and they unhesitatingly fell for it. It's already too late to regret.