Chương 499: Chapter 497 – The End Version 3

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 the Alfar cast flew out towards the human true mage.

Sensing the incoming attack, Damion rolled out of the way just as the final seal on the pedestal was released. The Spatial Blade struck the blinding light just as it was emerging from the pedestal and the attack began to unfold space as it expanded. Damion realized immediately that the Alfar had struck the Mother World core and there was an unprecedented reaction occurring.

With no idea what would happen, but certain he could not survive if he stayed, Damion cast Exile and dove through as the blast of the Mother World's core exploding washed over him. Beep Beep Beep The steady rhythmic beeps of the electrocardiogram pulled at Damion's consciousness. His eyelids fluttered and the monitor suddenly registered a spike in his heartrate. The faster sequence of beeps told Damion something had changed, but he was not sure what.

Damion expected to feel pain, but mostly he felt numb, which he thought was good. Since he felt that once he fully awoke he would feel plenty of pain. As he lay there, drifting in and out of consciousness, he realized his throat was dry. He tried to swallow, but something was in his throat. The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. The sudden realization that something was jammed down his throat made Damion panic.

He tried to reach up and feel his face to see if he could remove the foreign object, but his arms felt unusually heavy. He tried again to move them as his heartrate started to rise even further. From somewhere around him, Damion heard voices and a sudden shuffling of feet on a hard floor. He felt someone take his arms and push them down. It had taken him all his strength just to get his arms raised halfway to his face, but these newcomers overpowered him easily.

Hands were around his face, but he could not see what they were doing. Every time he opened his eyes they burned from the bright light. In his throat he felt something sliding. The hands were pulling out whatever it was that was down his throat. This told him the hands were helping him. Damion did not know why they were helping him, but he had the feeling that he was no longer in immediate danger. The beeping of the machine began to normalize as he relaxed and the tube that was down his throat fully removed.

"Welcome back to the world of the living, Mr. Wells," a voice said to him. Damion assumed the voice belonged to one of the sets of hands that had removed the tube from his throat.

"How about we set you up for a bit, see how that goes." Beneath him the mattress shifted. Around his lower back the mattress lifted, and he found himself in a recycling position. Before Damion could process anything else, he drifted off to sleep. A few hours later, thirst woke him. He slowly opened his eyes, afraid the world would still be too bright, but luckily, the world seemed to have grown dimmer. Damion's eyes darted around the room he was in. It was familiar, but he was not sure why.

He was certain that he had never been in this room before, but there was a familiarity to it. He was resting in a bed that had rails on the side and pale blue sheets. The walls were also painted a soft blue. The floor was an off-white tile that was polished so it reflected the slight bit of light coming in a window on the other side of the room. In the corner of the room, near the ceiling was a rectangular object that had a thin black frame and had a picture moving inside of it.

At first, Damion thought it was a tablet that was just not set on projection, but the images were not as crisp or as vibrant as a tablet and there was no sound, so he imagined it was some sort of cheaper artifact that could perform a similar function. However, as Damion was watching the screen, which was showing men on horseback holding strange, yet familiar looking metal pipes that spewed out smoke, while they chase after another group of men, the image changed.

The men vanished and across the screen in English flashed the words, EMERGENCY ALERT. The screen then displayed shaky images of a city in ruins with a shimmering portal that Damion recognized at once. A Realm Breach. As he watched the shaky image distorted and then came back as the person holding the camera had dropped it. The image was now on its side and Damion could see a Demonic Beast emerge from the Breach.

The words were still scrolling across the bottom of the screen and Damion nearly fainted when he read, NEW YORK IN RUINS AS ALIENS INVADE. He was home. He was on Earth. Somehow, someway, he was here.

"Nurse," Damion croaked. A moment later a nurse appeared from outside the room.

"How…" Damion struggled to say. The nurse brought a straw to his lips and Damion took a sip of water.

"Twenty-two years," the nurse told him as he continued to drink.

"You know, you've been in a coma for as long as I've been alive, isn't that wild. The whole hospital is in a buzz. If it wasn't for the aliens, you'd be the talk of the whole world right now. After all, it isn't everyday someone wakes up from a coma after two decades." Damion's mind was spinning. He could accept waking up from a coma after twenty years. But that did not explain New York being attacked by Demonic Beasts or a Realm Breach opening up. Did he dream it all? What about Elicia? Helge? The Mother World?

The Magic System? Ding {System Initializing} {Initializing…. 45%} {System Online} Ding {System available for use}'System? What is happening?' {Host was greatly injured before training could begin, so Host was placed into a training scenario while the body was healed.}'What?' Damion could hardly believe his ears.

'None of it was real?' {Affirmative. The training scenario was constructed from Host's latent desires to allow Host to learn the required skills to defend his world from the upcoming apocalypse.}'Then, those Realm Breaches and Demonic Beasts are real?' {Affirmative.}'I'm too weak now, I've been unconscious for too long. I won't be able to help.' {While abilities Host gained in the training environment will not transfer to the real world, all of Host's store credit and magic spells are still available.}'Really?

System, Status' Ding [Magic System] [System Level: 4] [User: Damion Wells] [Age: 22] [Magic Talent: EX] [Magic Affinity: Mind SS [Mana: 25/60] [Magic Power: 9, 228, 316] [Mana Recovery: 5 P/S] [Strength: 13] [Dexterity: 18] [Vitality: 45] [Intelligence: 153] [Experience: 25, 400/50, 000] [Store Credits: 24, 445, 360]'So weak,' Damion thought, wanting to cry. He had gone from a pinnacle existence to the bottom rung in an instant. It did not matter to him that his so-called pinnacle existence was nothing but a dream world.' System, where should I start?' {Host's body is currently in an atrophied state. Would you like to purchase a Healing Potion?}'Yes, and make it quick. I have a world to save.'