Chương 496: Chapter 494 – Turning The Tables

Gedrick's comment caused Damion to hesitate. People on Nerotath had only recently proven the existence of SS Rank, let alone SSS Rank or EX Rank. True Sight revealed to him Gedrick's magic power, 12, 126, 500. Higher than his natural magic power, but with the aid of his Ring of Greater Magic Power, that now at SSS Rank, granting him a 30% boost to his magic power, Damion was a bit stronger. Still, they were both a long way from reaching the level of EX Rank magic power, at least he thought they were.

'System, what level of magic power is EX Rank?' Ding {To achieve EX Rank magic power you must possess 100, 000, 000 magic power.}'Ten times SSS Rank,' Damion thought.

'We are much too far away for him to sense that, unless he is guessing.'

"I think you are dreaming if you believe you can reach the next Rank," Damion said to Gedrick.

"What is the point of dreaming, if you don't dream for the unattainable. Though, I believe my goal is attainable."

"EX Rank is far beyond either of us," Damion told him.

"Ah, so you have sensed it. EX Rank… this is what you call it? Well, why don't we keep the seal in place and see if we can attain it. Or better yet, you are a human, you can alter the seal to have the Mother World release even more mana!"

"Doing that will destroy more than just the Iblis, goblins and the Alfar. The Mother World itself could die."

"What does it matter?" Gedrick sneered.

"I have mastered the Spatial affinity to the point where I can create a world for my people. As for the Iblis and the goblins, they are weak. My people will live on in worlds I create as their god."

"I see," Damion said quietly as he began channeling his mana.

"There is no reasoning with you then." As Damion finished speaking he called on the shadows he had already manipulated around the rotunda to launch his initial assault while casting Slow on Gedrick. There were not many affinities harder to understand than Spatial, but Time was certainly one of them. Damion could not completely freeze the Alfar in place, not with their magic power so closely matched, but Slow did cause Gedrick to fail in countering the encroaching shadows.

Once Slow took effect, Damion cast Summon Shadows and reinforced the shadows he was assaulting Gedrick with. Shadows made tangible, with honed edges sharper than the sharpest manmade blade cut into the Alfar's flesh. Nyx remained hidden in the shadows, too low of Rank to harm Gedrick, but Damion was able to grant the Shadow Cat control over some of the shadows. This allowed for more assaults in unusual and unexpected directions.

Slashing, stabbing, even digging inside the flesh and exploding outward to maximize damage. Unfortunately, it would take more than one sneak attack to bring down an SSS Rank mage with mastery of the Spatial affinity. Gedrick Blinked away from the shadows eating into him. When he vanished the shadows suddenly rushed into the area he had been in before collapsing on themselves and dissipating until there appeared to be nothing but normal shadows in the room.

After escaping Damion's assault, Gedrick hid inside his Spatial domain again and quickly began casting every healing spell he knew. It had been a thousand years since anything had challenged him, even longer since the last time he had been seriously injured. But the prospect of this battle escalating or him even being killed by this human was beginning to excite him.

"Your shadows are quite good," Gedrick called out from his hidden domain.

"But they will not be sufficient to stop me." A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. Damion ignored the taunt and forced his mind to stay calm, making sure to clear it of any distractions. From what he could tell, Gedrick was Blinking around the rotunda rapidly, not staying in any one place for longer than a few seconds.

He understood why, the Aflar had either figured out or guessed that Damion's shadows were able to either track or locate him if he stayed in one place. Even with the constant movement, he was still able to keep track of Gedrick's location. Checking his status, Damion verified that his mana had completely refilled from the spells he had cast. As he mentally watched Gedrick jump around the room, he wondered how long the Alfar would be able to go on before he ran low on mana.

Unfortunately, Damion could not afford to turn this into a battle of attrition. Eventually, either his or the Aflar's reinforcements would arrive, and the situation would change and they might lose this opportunity forever. Thinking of his reinforcements, Damion's mind drifted for a moment to their weakness of not being true mages and then the weakness of true mages. Reliant on a grimoire for the bulk of their spells and most of their high tier spells.

He did not know if this was also the case with Gedrick, but he felt there was a good chance. Thinking back to when he could see Gedrick, Damion did not recall True Sight revealing any artifacts. At first, he thought perhaps that the Alfar had them concealed somehow, but after his shadows had easily cut into flesh, now he believed that his opponent did not use any artifacts. SSS Rank artifacts were certainly not easy to craft. Even S Rank artifacts were extremely difficult to craft.

Damion's artifacts were all upgraded by the Magic System. For Gedrick to have any, being the only other SSS Rank, he would have to have built them himself. And while it was possible, considering the Alfar was thousands of years old, he also had no reason to. As an SSS Rank, he could not be harmed by those of lower a Rank, so why waste his time crafting artifacts. As for using S Rank or SS Rank artifacts, they would be too weak to support his use, so there was little point in using them.

Still, Damion believed the Alfar had a grimoire, since even if he had spent years working to memorize magic seals, he did not believe the Gedrick could have fully memorized all his spells. Before Damion could take any action, Gedrick Blinked close to him and threw a punch that connected with his jaw. Not expecting a physical attack, he had been caught off guard, but to both of their surprise, other than causing his head to turn, Damion did not get harmed by the blow.

The shock of the attack was distracting enough to allow Gedrick to escape the Shadow Domain but did little else. The attack did reinforce that Damion needed to finish this battle before the Alfar figured out a method of attack that did work. First he needed to counter Gedrick's movement, which was now back to Blinking around the rotunda at very quick speeds. Since the Alfar wanted to use the entire rotunda as a battlefield, Damion took the opportunity to cast another domain spell.

His Shadow Domain was still active, and he had never tried casting two at once, but he believed it was possible. A moment later he was rewarded for his theory by the area of his now Time and Shadow Domain greatly expanding. As he continued to channel mana into it, the combined domain quickly encompassed the entire rotunda. Gedrick was forced into a small corner, he could no longer Blink freely around Damion's domain. In fact, the new domain was so strong he could not Blink through it.

He was forced to either go around or risk being trapped in the domain. The Alfar had already gotten lucky once, Blinking into the human's domain and escaping before he was deprived of mana, but this domain was different. Damion, seeing that Gedrick was now keeping his distance, decided this game of theirs had gone on long enough. Walking over to the seal, he began examining it to determine exactly what he needed to do to unlock it and allow the Mother World to right itself. On the seal were four glyphs in Nashto.

Fire, Water, Earth and Wind. As Damion had once suspected, the four basic affinities were the key to the seal. However, he did not attempt to channel mana into any of them yet, since there was more written around the glyphs. Reading on, Damion realized that the additional writing was instructions on how to use the seal. Considering what he learned from the Iblis regarding the seal, to him it seemed odd to include instructions on it if it was truly intended to be a sort of final weapon.

Was there some other plan or purpose for the seal? Did the ancient humans always intend for future generations to return and release it? While Damion was busy studying the seal, Gedrick had realized he was effectively shut out from the area unless he risked entering the human's domain. If he did nothing, then the seal was sure to be undone, and his millennia of planning and waiting would end up wasted. Making up his mind, the Alfar charged into the combined domain in an attempt to stop the seal from being lifted.