Legacy of the Dark Sage

Using his left hand, Kyran grabbed Gael's head and lifted him. After that, he kicked him on the side using his right knee.

Crack!

"ARGH!" Gael cried out in pain as he felt his lower ribs crack. He even felt his lumbar vertebra get dislocated after receiving the brunt of the kick.

Kyran did not stop there. Right after kicking Gael, he punched him— not once, or twice, but several times.

If this had been any other time, Kyran would not have bothered to take his time dealing with Gael. He would have ended it real quick by using his left. After all, even if he utilized 1% of the Draconic magic, he could exert more force with his left and easily destroy, not only Gael's bones but also turn his internal organs. When that happened, Gael would definitely die from internal bleeding.

Err... that is if Gael's torso remained intact after getting punched by Kyran's left.

In any case, Kyran did not want to give Gael the easy way out. Not when he had yet to punish the latter for hurting Zephyr and the others.

"You aimed for his torso, did you remember?" Kyran asked, but he was not really waiting for a response.

Blood splurt out of Gael's mouth with every punch Kyran delivered.

Suddenly, Kyran straightened his fist before slicing through Gael's sides as if his hand had turned into a blade.

"AARGH!" Gael felt excruciating pain as his side was sliced open and blood gushed out from it.

"You also made him bleed," Kyran continued, his voice dropping to a very dangerous level. Even his eyes had gotten colder as he watched Gael's expression distort in pain.

"There are a lot more things that you guys had done to my people, and I am having trouble with where to start."

Gael felt his body turn cold after hearing Kyran's words. Had he not started torturing him? What did he mean by having trouble where to start?

Regardless, Gael was not about to let Kyran do as he pleased. In an instant, his eyes glowed red as he released the full might of his mage level.

His domain only devoured 25% of the soldiers, but that was the least of his worries. If he did not make a move now, his body would crumble.

Shadow puppets emerged from the black shadow and rushed toward Kyran.

Whoosh! Whoosh!

The purple spheres that had just finished destroying the stone golems that had not been warped by the light, flew at an alarming speed toward the Shadow puppets.

The mist also moved and clung to the Shadow puppets' robes, dying their black robes to purple color.

With the augmentation of Gael's domain, the Void mist failed to destroy the Shadow puppets. Even the purple spheres were repelled by them.

But Kyran did not think much of it. Frankly, he already had an idea why Gael's magic appeared to have the ability to offset his Void magic.

The black shadow was Gael's domain. Kyran already knew this. Thus, it was no longer simple Shadow magic.

A domain was a manifestation of a Magus's understanding of his magic. In order to succeed, mages had to have a deep understanding of their magic and also their nature. From there, they could create their own magic concepts. A concept which would be unique to each one of them.

In other words, two mages with the same innate magic could not create the same magic concept.

From this, Kyran guessed that Gael's magic concept for his Shadow magic could have been inspired by his obsession for power— to have control over everything and dominate everyone. Thus, his domain boosted his magic, particularly, its nature.

When we talked about one of Shadow's natures— an absence of light— was it not a result of one of Void's natures? Since shadow was produced because there was an absence of light, it could also be said that it appeared out of 'nothing.'

Thus, Kyran's Void magic was unable to penetrate Gael's Shadow magic because two magic of like nature would repel each other.

As Gael's magic energy increased, his domain gathered around his feet. In a blink of an eye, he and Kyran were already in the middle of a thirty-meter radius black shadow.

All the Shadow puppets that emerged from the black shadow, which the purple spheres and mist failed to destroy, had already surrounded Kyran. Using their cold weapons, they thrust and hack at Kyran's body, aiming to cut him into pieces.

The silver rings circling Kyran's body reacted before the Shadow puppets' weapons hit. They meld into the Void armor, its color turning from dark purple to silver gray. And when the weapons finally hit, sounds of metal hitting metal filled the air.

Ding! Ding! Ding!

Crack! Crack!

Breaking sounds also resounded as the Shadow puppets' weapons broke after failing to even scratch the surface of the armor.

Frankly, Kyran could simply release the Void armor and tank the Shadow puppets' attacks with his own flesh. But while his body could withstand weapon attacks, his clothes might not. After all, he was not wearing his enchanted black clothes but the army uniform.

Kyran had no confidence in their uniform's enchantments and did not want to end up half-naked when he was in a middle of a fight.

As to why he used the Draconic rings to cover his Void armor, it was to prevent any accidents. Since the Shadow puppets' weapons were also reinforced by Gael's domain, there was no telling if they could pierce through the Void armor. Thus, Kyran reinforced his armor with a layer of Draconic magic.

Seeing that Kyran had stopped attacking him, Gael waved his hand and a scroll appeared in his hand.

When Kyran saw this, he immediately reacted by using his right hand as a blade and slicing off Gael's hand holding the scroll.

"AARGH!" Gael screamed in excruciating pain.

The scroll fell to the ground.

But then the black shadow shifted and devoured the scroll. Soon, Gael's domain emitted a blinding light, instantly reducing both his and Kyran's vision.

BOOM!

Following the blinding light, Gael's domain exploded and forced Kyran to release his hold on the latter.

The moment Gael was freed from Kyran's hold, he took out another scroll and immediately activated it by inserting his magic energy.

With a flash of gold light, his body blurred and soon vanished amidst the explosion.

As the cloud of smoke from the explosion dissipated, a lone figure, in silver gray armor stood unscathed in the middle of a large crater.

Kyran lifted his head and looked at the sky, which had started to clear after Gael's magic influence disappeared.

"He actually activated the scroll inside his domain to induce such a powerful explosion to escape...." Kyran muttered, somewhat speechless.

He jumped out of the large crater and landed on the edge before scanning the surroundings with his magic sense. However, he failed to find any trace of Gael.

Kyran could not help but frown. It actually left a bitter taste knowing that Gael had escaped.

Honestly, the only reason Kyran did not kill Gael was because he had not tortured the old man enough.

After standing there for a few seconds in a somewhat dazed state, Kyran finally released his Void armor and made his way to the makeshift tents that had not been destroyed.

There were still several army soldiers in those tents. Soldiers who had been badly injured from the battle in Noser.

Since Kyran failed to vent all his anger on Gael, he had no choice but to settle on these soldiers. After all, these soldiers were equally guilty of hurting Zephyr and the others. They were injured because they participated in the battle, after all.

CRACKLE! CRACKLE!

Kyran stopped short as he heard crackling sounds from above.

The already-clearing sky darkened once more as a powerful magic fluctuation converged above.

Kyran looked up and his expression turned grim at once.

A little over the east, the Sovereign's Cradle could be seen. It covered a large area, which was why Kyran could still see it even when he was in the western part of the empire.

Kyran's eyes widened as realization hit him. Judging by the position of the Sovereign's Cradle, it was actually leaning toward the north than the east.

If this was true then the Sovereign's Cradle had appeared somewhere in Meliora!

Kyran suddenly felt his body turn cold. There were two reasons the cradle had appeared. Either a power akin to a Sovereign appeared within the Human plane, or a Sovereign wanted to enter from the outside.

If it was the latter, it could have something to do with the Macabre Glacier. Haylee might have already succeeded in activating the mirror, thus triggering the cradle to suppress its power. However, if the cause was the former, then Deception had likely returned to complete what he failed to do earlier.

Either way, both reasons did not spell anything good.

All kinds of scenarios, of cause and effect from his next course of action, flashed through Kyran's mind at an alarming speed. When he found the most suitable action he could take, he sent a message to Ezra, Eoin, Malek, and all his Sigils.

After which, Kyran disappeared in a blink of an eye.

*

An ancient castle with five towers, forming a pentagram shape around a tall circular building, stood on a snowy mountain in the Ylfaen Empire's northern part.

On the tower, facing south, a woman in her early thirties, with long brown hair tied in a tight bun and wearing full red armor, looked out of the window. Her green eyes flashed as they reflected something gold in the sky.