Chương 498: Chapter 496 – The End Version 2

The instant Gedrick entered his domain Damion sensed it. If the Alfar had been aware that one of the domains was Time, he was sure Gedrick would have stayed away. But it was now too late for him. With a thought, Damion froze time and moved to Gedrick, circling around him. Being frozen in time, the Alfar had no idea what was happening. After a few moments of searching, True Sight revealed Gedrick's grimoire. The artifact was attached to his belt at the small of his back.

The grimoire blended in well with his belt and if you were not looking closely it was easy to miss. If not for True Sight, it was entirely possible that Damion would have overlooked the small artifact. However, now that he had spotted it, and since Gedrick was still frozen in time, he reached over snatched the artifact off the Alfar. With a quick application of Shadow Mastery, the grimoire was torn to shreds.

With the Alfar effectively disarmed, he sucked as much mana from the area as he could, including Gedrick's reserves and then threw his opponent out of the combined domain. Gedrick crashed hard into a wall after being knocked out of the domain. Gedrick tried to muster his mana and his spells to catch himself, but he found he was strangely drained. One instant he was feeling fine and the next it was like he had been fighting for days without rest.

What was more worrisome for him was that he could not sense his grimoire. Somehow, the artifact seemed to have vanished. After crashing into the wall, Gedrick had to take a few moments to discern what had happened. His grimoire was not just gone, it was destroyed. Even if someone had manage to take it from him, he would still be able to sense his spells stored inside.

For a moment Gedrick could not believe the human had destroyed his artifact, but once he thought it through, it was the most direct way to unbalance the fight. The two of them were just too close in magic power to be able to get a significant advantage over one another. With Damion destroying Gedrick's grimoire, he had effectively cut the Alfar's offensive and defensive capabilities down to the point where the SSS Rank mage should no longer be a threat. Unfortunately for Damion, that was not true.

Gedrick still had one trump card, he just had to gather the mana to use it. Unaware that the Alfar was preparing a final strike, Damion lowered his domains and began to channel his magic into the seal. He did not like leaving himself vulnerable by removing his magic seal, but he had no choice. Domain spells altered all magic within their boundaries, in order for him to properly channel magic into the seals he had to lower the spells.

With his domain spells deactivated and his attention focused on the seal, Damion had no idea that Gedrick was planning something. As he channeled required mana into their specific sections of the seal each one glowed in turn. The pedestal the seal was on spun after each affinity lock was undone, as if it was a combination lock being undone. While Damion was focused on releasing the seal, Gedrick struck. The Spatial Blade he cast flew out and caught Damion in the back.

The spell burned through his outer armor and dug into the Magic System artifact armor that was hidden from view as well. The two layers of artifacts gave Damion protection from attack, but not enough. As he channeled the last bit of mana necessary to release the seal, the Spatial Blade expanded. The unfolding space ripped through the remainder of his amour artifacts and into his flesh.

He was spared the ignoble death of being splattered around the rotunda only by the fact that the Spatial Blade had not fully penetrated into his body. Instead, as the magic expanded it tore into Damion and once it was through him, it tore into the pedestal that was now opening to release a blinding light. The last bits of the Spatial Blade impacted on the light as it escaped from the pedestal. As Damion collapsed on the ground, he managed to take out from the Magic System one of his Healing Potions.

Just as he was raising the potion to his lips to drink, the blinding white light of seal being released turned red. From the red light shot bolts of red lightning that seemed not to care what they hit. Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon. A bolt hit Damion and he felt the mana in him heat up, as if all of the mana in his body was ready to burst into flames. An instant later an eerily similar bolt of lightning burst out of Damion and struck the blinding red light.

Just as this was happening to the human mage, another bolt of red lightning was similarly hitting the Alfar and then returning to the red light. The red light hovered in the air for a moment before it was sucked back into the pedestal which collapsed into dust as the light vanished. With the departure of the light, both Damion and Gedrick felt the departure of all the mana in their bodies.

Since they had reached SSS Rank and essentially become creatures of mana, without mana to fuel their core their bodies began to collapse.

'Sy… system... what is happening?' Damion managed the thought before his mind completely faded. The Magic System, being a construct of the Mother World was mostly unaffected by the red lightning, but not entirely. When all of Damion's mana was pulled out of his body, so too was the Magic System, so even if Damion could have lived for a few more seconds, he would not have been able to hear the answer.

The Mother World's core had been struck by the Spatial Blade and while the attack could not have damaged it, the attack had caused an involuntary reaction. Similar to vinegar being poured into an open wound, the Mother World had jerked in response, lashing out at everything around it. Unfortunately, its savior had been caught in the way and perished, which released the Magic System to return to it.

However, the Mother World was regretful that it had accidentally struck down the human who had allowed it to once again be free, so in recompence, it sent the Magic System back to Nerotath to be bonded with its savior's unborn child. When Mage Veers, Mage Parivar, Knight Straus and Visault arrived on the scene and they saw Damion's body they could not help but feel dismayed.

The most promising young man of Nerotath, struck down while saving not just their world but quite possibly all worlds, was a noble death, but they still felt it was too soon for him to fall. Mage Parivar transformed into a horse like Demonic Beast and Mage Veers laid Damion's body across her back. They then contacted Mage Fletcher as they made a slow procession out of the ruins to the point where Mage Fletcher could open a Portal for them.

Word of the mission's success was passed on to the Iblis and human forces fighting in Sostrad. When they learned of Damion's fall, they were all deeply troubled, but knowing the SSS Rank Alfar had also been defeated gave them hope that they might be able to live in peace on the Mother World one day. With the success of the mission, the Iblis began to organize a withdrawal from Sostrad, as there was no longer a reason to continue the fight.

Portals were opened out of view of the Alfar forces allowing humans and Iblis to be able to slip through. Unfortunately, none of the Iblis could open a Portal large enough to allow them to move their warships though. Unwilling to leave them behind, Visneer set each one to self-destruct after thirty seconds and he fled into the final Portal. A few moments their mighty warships detonated their magic reserves and half of Sostrad was consumed by a blinding magical fire.

The devastation of their sacred city caused the male Alfars to rise up against the mistresses and matrons, but with the loss of their champion, they stood no chance. However, the civil war allowed the Iblis and the humans to come to an arrangement between them and open trade, despite the bitterness they both felt over having lost Damion. Six Months Later Without Damion, Elicia struggled to raise Helge, even with the help of her in-laws.

And with the arrival of her new infant, the young woman was feeling completely rundown. The only saving grace was that Mage Levine had managed to cut off any attempt of the noble houses or other magic academies from making headway into Atlantis and Avalon. Mage Moretti was not openly hostile towards Mage Levine, but with two SS Mages, the S Rank Assembly remained split. Still Elicia knew that as the students at Avalon grew, so would the truth about the proper path to follow for mages.

Each passing month brought more mages reaching A Rank and S Rank, but it was on both sides since Mage Moretti had managed to reach an SS Rank floor of the Argentum labyrinth. Still, Avalon and Atlantis had an advantage. Elicia had a copy of Damion's repository, containing all of his spells, including his passive spells and the Time affinity spells from Mage Harris.

It would be sometime before anyone would be capable of using them, even with the aid of a grimoire, but that did not mean it would be impossible forever. Mage Moretti may have unlocked another SS Rank floor for people train on, but trade with the Mother World was handled exclusively through the Avalon labyrinth. With the trade of grimoire blueprints and materials locked down by the Atlantis Council, it gave them a decisive advantage as tensions between the new magic world and the old continued to rise.

Elicia only hoped that as the Avalon students grew a peaceful settlement could be found, but at the rate tensions were escalating, she was afraid her children would go from being born in a world full of Demonic Beasts to one torn by war.