Chương 87: Empyrean Folly

Dyron took his time observing Ryland for a good, long while. He didn't seem to mind the fact that he was standing in the presence of a mage who was supposed to be well beyond him. Though, that required the realization that there was an uncrossable gap between them. Something Dyron might not really understand. Oh well.

"Have I offended you by bringing you here?" Dyron asked.

"You have trampled on everything that Arcoryx Academy stands for just to reach your own goals," Ryland said.

"You have disrespected its honest efforts for the Prime Minister to serve your own ends. You are selfish, short-sighted, and a terrible abuser of the authority you have been handed. Just as you've always been, Dyron." That seemed to finally get a rise out of the strongest mage in Androvia. His brows furrowed, his forehead wrinkling in a heavy frown.

"You don't know of what you speak," he said.

"Did you ever think to consider that this is all happening because of you? Do you understand what a grave security risk you possess to those around you? To the Prime Minister? It is because of you and your history that we are forced to take these measures!" Ryland's face tightened. This was only the second time since he had arrived on Vyrd that he felt something akin to actual anger. Something that he was trying not to feel. Certain people just made that very difficult.

"Take care that your arrogance doesn't land you in a regrettable position," Ryland said quietly. Dyron's expression flickered into actual anger before he smothered it into a neutral mask.

"Naked threats are useless here, Ryland. I've come to offer you something. But I want something in return for it."

"Allow me to guess. You want to return myself to me, and in return, you want me to surrender myself even further to whatever demands you have. I suspect these demands involve removing me from this location, most likely in a permanent fashion." Dyron didn't look like he appreciated the fact that Ryland had guessed his entire plan in that manner.

"Then let's keep things simple. I'm offering you what you're searching for. And in return, I want you to leave Androvia within the week. And if you don't, because I know you're the sort of man to ask, then we will be forced to remove you from our great nation." His words made the Enforcers all tense, like they expected things to devolve to a state where they were forced to use their magic against Ryland. Really, this time.

"Allow me to guess," Dyron said into the silence.

"You're thinking of resisting and wondering what exactly is the worst that could happen since you're certain your power far surpasses any of ours here. Even if you are heavily outnumbered." Ryland felt his teeth trying to grind against one another.

"What are you suggesting?"

"I am suggesting that this precious Arcoryx Academy will suffer the consequences of your selfishness should you choose to be belligerent about this." Ryland closed his eyes for a moment. It was strange, but if he thought about it for a moment, then this was the first time he was being actually threatened on Vyrd. To think there were those with that level of audacity here. To be fair, Dyron was even older than Ryland, and that difference in age lent him confidence.

Too bad age hadn't granted him enough wisdom to understand the true depths of what he was dealing with here. But the truth was that one was never too old to learn a proper lesson. It just had to be driven in hard enough." [Void Seal]," Ryland cast. Immediately, the entire area was suffused with Ryland's rifts. Just as with the newborn Calamity that had been born thanks to the shenanigans of Academ Folis, Ryland encased the whole enormous hall they were in with his spatial rents." [Soul Space]!" Dyron yelled.

His manasoul rippled with power as his magic came alive. The first thing he did was attack Ryland's rifts as soon as they had formed. Dyron's magic was interesting. Ryland recalled some of it from his time way back during the Realmbreaker Wars, and sadly for the Empyrean-ranked mage, it hadn't really changed much. Other than growing somewhat stronger. But the way mana flashed out of his manasoul to imbue whatever he targeted with something akin to a spirit was quite familiar.

As was the way he then manipulated that spirit. Dominion. That was one of the key Subglyphs of the spell circle with his Soul Glyph of Spirit as the Centreglyph. Right that moment, he was targeting Ryland's rifts. He imbued the rift with more and more of his mana, letting it be consumed by his magic, reshaping the mana it was formed with into a form that could almost be called soulful. Funnily enough, Dyron could have been a great teacher for Intuitive Magic. Ryland just banished the rift.

Then he created a new one in its place in the same fraction of a second. Dyron paused. At the rift's banishment, all the mana he was imbuing into it lost their power and dissipated.

"That's the key fault of your magic," Ryland said.

"A soul can't exist without an anchor. Destroy the anchor, and the soul must depart. So, I just broke my own rift and remade it." He shook his head in disappointment.

"Clearly, even after all these centuries, you never took the time to correct the faults in your magic."

"Enough!" Dyron growled. He whirled to face Ryland, anger clouding his glimmering eyes.

"I'll just deal with you directly, then. That's another way of dealing with this pesky barrier." Ryland smiled.

"Is that so?"" [Soul Scythe]," Dyron shouted. He wasn't the only one. Clearly, their plan was to overwhelm Ryland with magic. All the other Enforcers cast their spells at the same time, myriad sorceries shooting straight for him." [Infernal Burst]!"" [Dread Grasp]!"" [Shackles of Destiny]!"" [Rock Golem]!"" [Burning Sunlight]!"" [Hailstorm]!"" [Lingering Magic]!" And more came flying at Ryland from all sorts of directions. They were holding nothing back.

He supposed he could appreciate that they weren't underestimating him to the point where they could lackadaisically just spectate proceedings. This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there. Ryland didn't even let all the opposing magic land on him. It was too risky. They likely already knew about the strength of [Eternal Bastion] and had probably prepared countermeasures for it.

Despite the spell's incredibly high Tier, enterprising mages could still find ways through, as had been proven by that elvhenan Mage Knight during their duel. So instead, he decided to just send them back." [Temporal Reflection]," he incanted. A bubble of blue energy overwhelmed them all instantly, where time slowed down at a rapid pace. Just before the first opposing spell impacted with Ryland, it froze. The sparking fireball from [Infernal Burst] remained still in front of him. Then it reversed direction.

As did every other spell. Every chain, bolt, beam, and even the ripple of space shooting from Dyron's outstretched arm. Different mages had different reactions. The reflected spells all returned to their casters with almost no time for them to react. That said, someone like Dyron possessed Inscriptions at high enough Tiers to successfully parry any attacking spells with one of his own. Even the first Senior Enforcer managed to evade her oversized, overbright fireball. The rest weren't so lucky.

Several screams and cries rang out as the blue bubble of time dissipated, thuds resounding as mages were sent flying off their feet in various directions. Ryland didn't really intend to harm anyone, but measures needed to be taken to ensure this sort of thing didn't occur again. So, before they could recover, he was already casting his next spell." [Raining Eruption]." This spell came easy.

With [Void Seal] having already created a bounded field of rifts all around them, Ryland didn't need to create any extra rents with his Soul Glyph of Rift. All he needed to do was change a Subglyph to change the location his rift was connected to, and his intention materialized. In this case, clouds of black smoke formed over them all. A heartbeat later, lava began raining down, threads of lurid yellow lightning bouncing between every droplet before crashing to the floor.

A volcanic gust tore through the enormous chamber, threatening to blow the occupants off their feet. Within another heartbeat, it had turned into a full-fledged storm. Molten magma hammered down in eradicating torrents, lightning thundered everywhere with enough force to send shrapnel flying from the ground. And Dyron immediately responded with another [Soul Space]. Right. This time, Ryland caught what he was actually attempting.

His power boiled down to imbuing everything he could target with a spirit he could then control at will. In this case, he was granting space itself a soul, thereby manipulating it as he desired. Specifically, he reformed it to create a shield over himself and Ryland. A closed space, much like what [Void Seal] was already creating. One where none of the volcanic storm Ryland had created could pass into. The lava and lightning simply slid off the barrier of warped space.

"You seem to have forgotten a few people," Ryland said, indicating how the Enforcers had been left outside the barrier of [Soul Space]. Not that it meant they were defenceless. They had managed to gather in one spot, casting multiple layers of barrier spells that were together doing well enough to repel even the Tier [25] spell Ryland hammered them with.

"They'll survive," Dyron said.

"This is what they've been trained for, after all."

"You're willing to sacrifice them for the sake of this security of yours?" Ryland asked, not hiding any of his disgust. Dyron took a deep breath. With stronger and stronger flickers, his manasoul pulsed brighter and brighter. Red and blue magic was coming off him in waves, his spirit spiking against the cage of his flesh as his power threatened to erupt out of him in a deluge.

"Security is one thing," Dyron growled. The glow around him started compressing, forcing itself into one overly dense spot around his hand.

"But stopping you is another thing entirely!" Ryland blinked. He was serious about attacking. How was he this audacious? Surely, he had heard what had happened with the Oracle and the Incarnation that had come down." [Soul Scythe]!" Dyron shouted. Then he slammed at Ryland. The air cracked at the pace at which he attacked. That compressed point of magic turned into a veritable drill of power, a shining cone that spun with enough intensity to create a whirlwind in its wake.

And it was that incredible power that Dyron crashed into Ryland with. Who had naturally prepared the right countermeasure already. He directed his very first Soul Glyph, that of Sundering, to the locks of magic keeping his manasoul suppressed within himself. Unlike with the Living Mana Incursion, he didn't unleash it all again. It wasn't really necessary, even if his opponent was technically stronger. A sliver was enough. A tiny outbreak of the incredibly potent magic he kept dammed up within himself.

As his manasoul flared out of him like blood jetting out of a neck wound, Ryland carved and moulded it into the form he needed to stop Dyron." [Animus Aegis]," he incanted. His Soul Glyphs of Aegis and Genesis burst into being with searing brightness, combining in one spell circle just as Dyron crashed in with his enormous soul drill. Ryland's ejecting manasoul surged and created a reversed waterfall of a barrier that was more incandescent than the sun.

When Dyron cracked in, the grinding fracture started making the entire chamber around them begin to fracture. The clash of their magic started tearing apart their surroundings. Columns started breaking, pieces of artfully carved glass flaking off to shatter on the floor. The ground beneath them broke, turning their footing unstable.

"I will break you down!" Dyron said. Through the brilliant flare of magic, his face had twisted, his beard sizzling away thanks to his incredible magic.

"I will get through you. And then, I will finally be Transcendent." Ryland's eyes widened just a bit. So that was his real goal through this whole rigmarole. Everything, all his talk of security and protection, it was all just a convenient excuse to push himself and achieve his real goals. His real intentions. His real, personal, selfish dream.

"Enough," Ryland said. He unleashed just a bit more of his manasoul, and that finally reversed things. The balance shifted. With a cry, Dyron's soul drill simply shattered like the storm of glass all around him, and he was sent flying backwards. And before he could even land back on the ground, Ryland was on him with another rift taking him to his target. A glimmering skeletal arm stretching off Ryland's right shoulder stabbed through Dyron's chest, holding him in place several handspans off the ground.

"What is that—?" Dyron choked out.

"You've—"" [Everlife Spectre]," Ryland said.

"It lets me grab souls. The very thing you seem to enjoy playing with." Dyron blinked almost stupidly. His magic tried flaring out. Empyrean-ranked power that attempted to blast Ryland with the force equivalent to a falling mountain. And all Ryland had to do to stop it was squeeze. Dyron screamed as his soul was compressed and moulded as Ryland saw fit.

The magic he had tried blasting just came out in ineffectual spurts and gouts, colliding with the walls, windows, and columns, a few stray bolts bouncing off Ryland. A net of sparks travelled down Ryland's skeletal arm before wrapping his target with debilitating force.

"I said enough, didn't I? [Translocate]." Several different rifts popped up across multiple Realms, and Ryland crashed through them all. Through burning lava, through endless storms, through a flood of ice, through wind ripping fast enough to tear metal off metal, he dragged Dyron through every single catastrophe, and then they finally popped back out into the wide, tall chamber. Ryland's Inscribed Glyph of Empowerment turned golden bright. He threw the mess of a man he was clutching by the soul.

Dyron, covered in ice and fire, his self-barrier half broken, flew like cannonball and shattered through his own spatial barrier." [Unending Winter]," he incanted. Where a volcanic storm had been tearing through the entire hall moments ago, Ryland had now called in a wintry blizzard with temperatures far, far below freezing level. He didn't let it last long. Death by frostbite wasn't what he was going for, so he shut the spell down within moments.

Yet even the minute or so at most that it had lasted had frozen everything within the boundary of [Void Seal].

"I-impossible," Dyron spat out from where almost his whole body was petrified with ice.

"Y-you shouldn't h-have been able to c-cast through [Soul Space]." In answer, Ryland just said, " [Broken Realm]." The same spell that he had used to threaten the Enforcers—who were nearly frozen solid, going by the way their magically manifested barricades were completely encased in ice—now came alive and shattered the [Soul Space] that Dyron had created.

"That you are alive yet is a blessing you should be thankful for," Ryland said as he approached the frozen figure of his adversary. For all that Dyron had been stymied, he was still an Empyrean-ranked mage. For all that Ryland had beaten him down, his power was tremendous. As was proven when the ice started cracking. Ryland paused, then frowned. Dyron was drawing extra magic from somewhere. The new mana felt familiar. It felt… almost like his own. Ryland's frown grew heavier.

"You caught me by surprise," Dyron said as more of the ice started breaking apart.

"But that's fine. I will simply use your own power against you!"