Chapter 57
"For how long are you going to just stare at it! Attack them!" the deputy master of the Red Magic Tower shouted.
When he shouted, the battle, which was slowing down, suddenly resumed in full force. Baron, who was attacked by Astor, activated his mana power and aimed for Lakia. He had to deal with Lakia in order for them to bring Abel, who was now incapacitated, back into the offensive.
Bang—
Without warning, there was an explosion. Already busy dealing with Baron, Lakia had to be mindful of other wizards who were also coming after him.
"Die!" someone from the Green Magic Tower shouted.
After the loud cry, the blades of wind flew from the camp of the Green Magic Tower. That magic was becoming increasingly troublesome, but a Skeleton appeared out of nowhere and blocked the blades of wind.
"We will protect the master of our Magic Tower!" the subordinate of a Clarte shouted.
When the subordinate of the Clarte shouted from the back, the morale of the Dark Wizards of the summon field rose. They recalled Lee Shin saying that Dark Wizards were the best for a large-scale battle.
"Summon the undead!"
"If we’re small in number, we can always summon them!""We are the one-man corps!"
The undead started to rise from everywhere. Individually, the undead were not that great. However, just increasing the number of corps helped increase the wizards’ morale.
"You have the power to eliminate the anxiety of the people around you just by your presence,” Lakia said while spreading his mana throughout the whole space.
"Buy me some time, and I'll show you that I haven't been wasting my time," Lakia muttered.
"Okay," Lee Shin replied.
Lakia began to create an ominous atmosphere using his mana.
"Do you think we’ll let you use magic?!" Baron shouted.
Baron tried to sabotage Lakia, but was thwarted by May, who popped out of the black portal, and his magic. The next moment, Lakia’s magic was completed.
[Panic Station]
It was a curse spell that covered an extensive area. It was a type of magic that was more effective than anything else in such large-scale battles. It was a curse that impaired the judgment of others, and made it impossible to distinguish the self from others. This spell might not work for Clartes and other wizards with higher ranks, but most of the wizards on the battlefield were below first-class. Lakia were going for that, because if the wizards of the lower ranks started attacking their fellows, no matter how much the Clartes concentrated, they would get distracted.
"What are you doing?"
"Why are you attacking me?”
"Keugh!"
"Stop them! Stop these guys!"
The enemy's camp quickly became a mess. The Clartes were somehow able to resist the curse spell, but many of the wizards with lower ranks began to attack their own allies. As a result, the Clartes were overwhelmed by the curse because they were distracted by the wizards of their own camp.
Rumble— Crack!
Suddenly, a thunderbolt appeared and was about to strike Lakia. Then, at that precise moment, the Red-Eyed Swordsman appeared and cut down the spear that was approaching Lakia at a lightning speed from the sky.
"Damn it, why am I still not able to do this properly,” Warrie grumbled.
After cutting down the spear from the sky with ease, Warrie grumbled and shook off the blitz that remained on the sword as if he was dissatisfied.
Bang!
"Ugh!"
Bang! Bang! Bang!
It was impossible for Warrie to keep cutting down a series of thunderbolt streaks. Warrie, who barely avoided the thunderbolt, stiffened when he got hit by the blitz that bounced off the last bolt.
"Keugh!"
On one side, May was struggling to deal with Baron. Gundo, who ran toward the deputy master of the Yellow Magic Tower, was hit by a fist of stone and was flung off. Lakia could not counterattack properly, because he was casting his field magic.
Ethan was involved in a fierce battle with the deputy master of the Red Magic Tower, but he was gradually forced backward because of the constant attacks around him.
Kalen was in charge of the deputy master of the White Magic Tower, but if it wasn’t for Lee Shin who helped him at the right time, he would have collapsed already.
Surely the enemy wizards' offensive was too strong. It was true that the combat power of the Black Magic Tower was originally weak. While it looked like they were gaining power, the enemy's combat power was still too strong for them to deal with. If this continued, it was obvious that the camp of the Black Magic Tower would collapse in no time. Once again, they needed a game changer.
"Terian, Gordon, and Shun Grammys," Lee Shin called out.
When their names were called out, these Skeleton Mages crawled out of the black shadow. They were wearing a yellow, gold or blue robes respectively, and their black eyes were shining.
"You... you bastard!” the deputy master of the Yellow Magic Tower shouted.
Seeing Terian, who had become an undead, the deputy master of the Yellow Magic Tower pushed off Gundo and cast a spell on Lee Shin. However, his spell was helplessly blocked by a stone wall that rose from under the ground.
"Master…?" The deputy master of the Yellow Magic Tower tried to call out to the master who was now an undead, but there was no answer.
Woong— Fizz—
Gordon's blitz gun disappeared in the air when it hit Astor’s thunderbolt.
Crunch—
Astor gritted his teeth so tightly that it looked as if his jaw would fall out and stared at Gordon, who had become an undead.
"You idiot…” Astor muttered looking at Gordon.
The deputy master of the Red Magic Tower frowned as he got hit by the water cannon fired by Shun Grammys.
"You bastard! How dare you do that to dead people!” the deputy master of the Red Magic Tower shouted.
The deputy master of the Red Magic Tower dealt with Shun Grammys with mixed feelings. Certainly, his magical ability was significantly lower than when he was alive, but the important thing he had to remember was that he was now dealing with dead wizards.
‘The wizards are agitated…’
The wizards started to realize that killing was not the way out of this terrible war. Facing the fact that one's own death could be used to cause another death began to confuse the wizards.
"Focus! Those aren't the wizards you knew!" the deputy master of the Red Magic Tower shouted.
When the wizards of the Gold Magic Tower witnessed Gordon's admirable performance, the blitz gun, they were agitated, and it soon caused the wizards to be distracted from the battle.
"You stupid idiots!" the deputy master of the Red Magic Tower shouted again.
And on the other side, wizards could see the deputy master of the Yellow Magic Tower throwing up blood and collapsing as the undead Terian’s magic pierced through his abdomen.
"Keugh..." the deputy master of the Yellow Magic Tower gasped. "Master…"
The deputy master died at the hands of the master he had served, and soon another undead emerged.
"Wake up," Lee Shin ordered.
The flesh of the dead body decomposed, and from it, a Skeleton Mage, arose after being united by black mana. The Skeleton Mage’s black eyes were shining.
"L-l-look! Look at that..."
"It became an… undead.”
"No way… Is that what happens to us when we die?”
The wizards were experiencing a kind of fear that they had never experienced before. Those who thought they would die in honor of fighting for their tower, began to lose their willpower when they saw how this bizarre battle unfolded.
"I can’t do this anymore!"
"This doesn’t make sense... I didn't know that Dark Wizards were like that!"
Eventually, there were even wizards who wanted to escape from the battlefield. At that moment, a strong wave of energy hit the deputy master of the Yellow Magic Tower who had just returned from death as an undead, and burned it into ashes on the spot.
"What the hell?”
"It just disappeared."
Through Lee Shin's vast mana detector, another streak cut through the air and flew directly toward Gordon. It was similar to the flash that melted the Skeleton of the deputy master of the Yellow Magic Tower. Lee Shin, who sensed it reflexively, activated his mana and put shield upon shield in front of Gordon.
Woong— Bang!
Powerful enough to sweep away the flames, the energy cannonball continued to melt through Lee Shin’s shields. Eventually, the energy cannonball broke through the dozens of layers, burned down Gordon’s body and disappeared.
When Lee Shin turned to where the energy was coming from, he saw Abel who had broken through Lakia's Imprint of Darkness. Abel was staring at Lee Shin with his eyes burning with anger.
"Sigh...sigh..." Abel was short of breath.
Abel, who had broken through the Imprint of Darkness a while ago, immediately fired a series of [Flash Cannonballs]. It was powerful enough to break through Lee Shin’s shield and melt Gordon down. This power showed that the battle would have been much harder, if not for the Imprint of Darkness that were used initially. Also, it reminded Lee Shin that Abel should not be given any time to recover.
‘I didn't expect Abel to be like this even at this time…’
Lee Shin was aware that he should kill Abel now when the rebound struck him after using a series of admirable performances. The black mana wound around the Enchanted Silver Tree Wand, and as the wand soared into the sky, the fear in the battlefield was injected into the mana, adding strength.
"This is..." Astor, who felt the mana flow, mumbled with a look of shock.
Meanwhile, the blackened thunderbolt gathered in one place and struck the ground.
[Dark Thunder]
The wizards, Head Clartes and deputy master from the camp of the White Magic Tower used the light from their wands to try to protect Abel. However, it was not enough to stop the lightning of death that struck from the sky. Rather, the lights which seemed to indicate their fear, were absorbed by the darkness and further enhanced the power of the lightning of death.
Rumble— Crack!
Abel turned to face the death sentence from the sky alone. He was vaporized, even his bones, and disappeared.
"Oh, no!"
"No master!"
"Abel!"
The cries of other wizards echoed across the battlefield, but they were not in a situation to grieve over Abel now. The Dark Thunder was not a spell used for only a single target.
"Keugh!"
"Oh my god! Argh!”
"Save me…!"
The Thunderbolt of Death spread across the ground to the surrounding wizards, arousing great fear. It was only a single streak of lightning, but it did not take long for all the wizards of the camp of the White Magic Tower to descend into chaos. In this perfectly reversed atmosphere, a Sphere of Flame broke through the space and flew towards Lee Shin. Cigarate had been waiting for a gap that Lee Shin had missed while using a large-scale magic, to reveal the best magic he could do.
There was a moment where there would be a moment’s break immediately after using the spell Dark Thunder. It was the moment when Lee Shin’s mana activity was diminished and the mana blood in his body was briefly exhausted. Cigarate's [Red Flame] penetrated through the wizards and the undead, stretching out like a lightning bolt. Contrary to Lee Shin's idea that Cigarate would block the Dark Thunder itself, Cigarate, from the time he realized Lee Shin was the culprit, was only waiting for this one window of opportunity.
There was a great prestige associated with being He Who Knows Death. Cigarate did not think that all the rumors surrounding that title were true, but even if only half of them were true, that meant Lee Shin was a talented person who could not be underestimated. Even if Lee Shin was not the real culprit, Cigarate would have only thought about doing a sudden attack on Lee Shin during the war. Therefore, immediately after Lee Shin cast his ridiculously large-scale magic, Cigarate sensed that this was the best time to attack him.
Wooong—
Whoosh—
Just before the Bullet of Fire, which was too fast to be the typical flame magic, could hit Lee Shin’s heart, the red blood that arose from Lee Shin’s body had formed a shield, and all the blood that had been sprayed across the battlefield gathered to form a thick wall.
Bang!
The Red Flame was a proud spell of the Hynes family. The bullet of the Red Flame, which was renowned for melting everything it touched, seemed to have evaporated the red blood at first; but eventually, it exploded without achieving its purpose and disappeared. Lee Shin thought that he could have been seriously injured this time if it wasn’t for Lilian's defense. Lilian, who appeared next to Lee Shin, also looked at Cigarate with an interesting look.
"Was the flame quite hot this time, baby?" Lilian asked with an enchanting smile.
The wizards, who saw Lilian's enchanting smile, stiffened on the spot. On the other hand, Cigarate, clenched his teeth and glared at Lilian. In his expression was a shock that his magic had been blocked so easily—the resulting fear and anger.
"Lillian, please take care of Cigarate," Lee Shin ordered.
"All right, master. Shall we play now, you little fire boy?" Lilian laughed at Cigarate.
"A race that uses blood… Is she a vampire…?" Cigarate muttered.
Cigarate was aware that the light spell was the most effective against vampires. However, second to the light spell, the fire spell was also effective, since the moment blood touched fire, it would burn and disappear. However, the vampire in front of him had blocked his Red Flame so easily. Therefore, it came to Cigarate as a great shock and he could not think of what to do next.
"You don't have to worry about that, Cigarate," Lee Shin said.
"What do you mean?” Cigarate asked with a frown at Lee Shin's sudden words.
"I don’t want to drag it out any longer,” said Lee Shin.
Lee Shin saw his mana power drop drastically after the appearance of Lilian. Therefore, he knew that any further delays in the fight might result in the depletion of the mana power, resulting in his defeat. If it had not been for the mana storage of the Silver Tree Wand, Lee Shin would not have even considered launching a war.
[Summoning of the World of Death]
Lee Shin summoned the World of Death, a place where the dead lived and breathed in. The place descended upon Seia.
Wizards began to stiffen when they came into contact with the World of Death, where they saw the dark red sky and devastated land. Its appearance was enough to overwhelm any wizard, regardless whether they were allies or enemies.
"My body... It feels weird.”
"My mana power has slowed down.”
"W-w-what's that?"
The morale of the undead heightened, and they became more ferocious. The undead started attacking the wizards. It was time to bring an end to this long war.