Travellers - An Isekai, Cultivation Fantasy

The remaining half a dozen survivors were frozen in terror at the sight of the mage king calmly floating in the air.

He was wearing black robes as usual and had his hands behind his back.

“Why are you doing this? What do you want?” Byron yelled, clutching his fist.

He knew that they were no match for this monster.

The mage king laughed and then spoke mockingly.

“Funny thing the human brain. It is always searching for explanations, even for powers that are far beyond its comprehension.”

“You!” Byron yelled, but he had no response.

“Unfortunately, I don’t have time to waste,” the mage king spoke again and raised his hand, forming a fist. Byron’s eyes widened.

“So why don’t you all die quickly for me?”

“Everybody, run!”

The group turned and ran as fast as they could, but the voice boomed across the battlefield.

“Storm dragon!”

The two words reverberated across the battlefield.

The clouds churned, thunder boomed, and lightning crackled. Suddenly, the clouds parted. However, what came through was not sunlight, but a monster.

A huge dragon, with its body made completely out of lightning, stepped out of the clouds. Lightning viciously danced around it, striking the ground underneath, and decimating the armies.

All the fighting stopped. Humans and demons alike froze.

The dragon looked at the humans like ants and roared.

All the soldiers on the battlefield could feel the mana fluctuations. All the mana in the air was gathering towards its throat.

It opened its mouth…

Everyone’s faces paled. Soldiers turned tail and ran. Some threw down their weapons and knelt, praying to their gods. But no matter what anyone did, they could not stop what was about to happen.

… “ROAR!” The dragon roared and blasted its breath across the battlefield. Anything touched by its breath became charred by lightning.

The mage king had ordered the demons to retreat in advance, so although some still died, the humans suffered the brunt of the attack.

Within a few minutes, the buildings were burnt, houses were crushed, people were burnt and electrocuted alive, and the whole battlefield was destroyed, leaving a large crater where the village once stood, littered with the remains of what once was home to tens of thousands of people.

The mage king, Damon Rogue, looked at the scene indifferently.

Jain village was already raided by the demons, and Leon was annihilated by the mage king. There were only two important battlefields left.

The mage king turned his head toward a particular direction. His eyes seemed to peer into the distance to see two groups fighting with everything they had.

“Time to make things interesting there!” he mumbled to himself, before shooting off in that direction.

The dragon rose into the sky and silently followed him.

…

At the same time the mage king was attacking Leon, in the elven village.

Inside her mansion, Myra was standing before an unconscious elf. As before, this was the elf which had returned alive from the expedition.

“He has finally made his move…” she whispered.

Then, she smiled to herself, an eerie look on her face.

“That means it's time for me to act as well.”

…

Ray was fighting against the dark mage. The dark mage summoned numerous blood bats to attack him, which he countered with his own spells and attacks.

“Dammit!” he cursed. They had been fighting for so long, but they could not make any progress. Their two sides were almost equally matched. However, it was only almost. They were all getting tired, but one person wasn’t.

Jin Tong.

He was fighting the other perfect steel body martial artist from Jain village. However, that martial artist was becoming overwhelmed by Jin Tong’s attacks. Initially, he could hold on, but Jin Tong who never tired was slowly gaining the upper hand. Now, he felt he could only hold on for a few more minutes.

Not only him, but the other demons also tired less quickly than the humans. So slowly but surely, they were gaining the upper hand.

And the mage king was still nowhere to be seen!

Had he already made his move against one of the other villages?

Ray was confused. However, he knew better than to worry about some village out of his control when in the middle of a battle. The dark grand mage would not let any opportunities slide.

As the group was fighting, they suddenly felt a huge aura rapidly approach them.

“Hahahahaha!” the dark mages laughed. “He’s here. You guys are finished now!”

The mages and demons all stopped their attacks and retreated. Ray and the others didn’t give chase. They all felt cold sweat trickling down their backs. Everyone knew who this aura belonged to.

Mage king!

Damon appeared in the skies, releasing a massive aura that exerted physical pressure on everyone on the ground.

“I’m surprised you could hold on for this long, but this comes to an end now!” he announced.

“You!” Ray yelled, but before he could protest, the clouds above the mage king parted, revealing a huge storm dragon.

The dragon stared down at the group coldly.

Everyone gulped.

Was this… the power of a mage king?

Not in the mood for a chat, the mage king pointed his finger towards Ray’s group and the dragon descended.

Jaws open, it shot straight towards the group.

The group of eight looked at each other and instantly ran in separate directions.

However, they were no match for the huge dragon.

The dragon quickly caught up and pulverised them upon contact.

One by one, Ray heard each of the strongest fighters of their villages go out with a scream.

‘Is this the end?’ he thought to himself.

He heard seven screams now, which meant he was the only one left.

He could feel an aura rushing towards him, crushing and burning all the trees in its path. Ray turned around to see a thundery world approach closer and closer.

Ray closed his eyes and time seemingly slowed as his life flashed through his mind.

He thought about his village, his friends, and his family. He thought about the time he had with Drake and realised that over the years, his pupil had grown on him, making him like Drake more and more. He thought of his master Myra who was the most important person in his life, and was the person he loved more than anyone.

Thinking of Myra, he suddenly remembered that she had given him a special, rank three defensive artifact. It was extremely rare and expensive and she had told him to only use it in emergencies.

‘I highly doubt it would be effective against an attack from a mage king though…’ Ray thought to himself as he reached into his pockets and pulled out a metal plate inscribed with several runes. He poured all his mana into the artifact and the runes activated.

The first two conjured two magical barriers around him while the third filled his body with a large amount of life mana, increasing his body’s healing and regeneration ability to many times its normal amount.

Ray stopped running and looked at the sky, smiling weakly to himself.

“Everyone… it looks like I’ll be going first…”

The dragon smashed through Ray, burning his body with millions of volts of electricity.

…

On another battlefield, an emerald-haired boy was kneeling on the ground, covered with wounds and bruises. Despite his sorry state, he watched the new wave of demons that were pouncing towards him.

Is this… the end? he thought to himself.

Naturally, this was Elwin. He was sent on what he thought was a tame mission, but was actually a trap, and was overwhelmed with demons and onis.

Elwin barely stood up with the last of his strength, ready to go down fighting.

At this moment, however, a huge aura appeared.

“Sword tsunami!” boomed a voice.

Before Elwin’s baffled eyes, a wall of swords rose from the ground and into the sky like a tidal wave. The demons who were approaching Elwin with glee, eager to make him their prey, were now running away with terror.

However, the wave of swords crashed towards the demons, killing them in their thousands. Even warrior classes demons died instantly after being pierced by those swords.

“What the…” Elwin gasped but he suddenly felt a hand on his shoulder.

“You’ve fought bravely, let me take care of it now,” a calming voice spoke from behind him.

Elwin turned to spot a middle-aged man dressed in white robes smiling at him.

“Who are you?” Elwin asked weakly.

“I am Sion Hart. I was sent by the Myriad Sword Palace to investigate the strange behaviour of demons in the Beast Woods.”

Elwin didn’t know what this Myriad Sword Palace was. However, he was sure of two things.

Given that he was killing these demons, this middle-aged man was on his side.

And the fact that he could summon such a huge tsunami, could only mean one thing.

This man was also a mage king!

…

With the Jain and Leon villages destroyed, the armies attacking them had changed directions towards their final target.

The elven village, which was barely holding on, was now swarmed with waves upon waves of new demons. Two new pseudo-commander class demons, the ones which were attacking the Jain village, were now rushing into the elven village too.

“We’re done for!”

“Is this the end?”

“Please someone, save my child at least.”

People fell into panic and despair. Weak and helpless, some ran, some pillaged, and some prayed. Everyone went crazy in some way, letting their survival instincts take over.

At this moment, a few elves spotted the sky turn purple and gasped.

“What… what the hell is that!?”

More and more elves spotted the purple sky. It was a majestic sight, to see a storm dragon fly across the skies.

Some elves even thought that their prayers were answered, and that was god’s gift to save them from their demise.

However, that dragon was no saviour.

It roared, and blasted its breath across the village, destroying not only the buildings and people but also any last hopes they had.

At this point, Hazezel had joined up with the dark mages and was observing the destruction. Seeing the mage king’s strength and the elves’ despair, he clenched his fists.

‘It is your own fault… for being weak…’ he mumbled to himself.

With the last of the villages destroyed, the dark mages heaved a sigh of relief and decided to head back.

After not even being able to approach the Beast Woods due to the demons these past few years, Hazezel was slightly surprised at being able to freely navigate their way through it now. Of course, this was due to the presence of the mage king who was releasing his aura to keep the demons at bay while travelling rapidly with his powerful wind spirits.

Soon, the group of seven arrived near the cabin.

However, the mage king suddenly stopped and raised his hand. Hazezel, the dark mages, Jin Tong, and the demons following behind also froze.

In front of the cabin, an unconscious man was lying down. Hazezel tried to focus, and he could barely make out his features from this distance. He didn’t recognise this man, but looking at his features, it fitted the description of a man he had heard before, the only man it could be.

Henry!

Henry was lying unconscious in front of the dark mages cabin!

The mage king frowned and slowly approached Henry.

Suddenly, the mage king stopped again and shouted.

“Who goes there?”

“My, my,” spoke a soft voice. Everyone looked in the direction of the voice.

It came from the roof of the cabin. Standing at the top, leaning against the chimney, was a middle-aged woman with wrinkled skin, wearing a white gown.

“Myra!” the mage king exclaimed. How was she not dead already? Was she not in the village? If she escaped, why did she come here?

However, before he could ask his questions, Myra clapped her hands. Immediately, the group heard a large number of footsteps coming from all around them.

Bursting out of the woods were hundreds of demons and onis. Behind them, there were even more demons in the woods who couldn’t fit in the clearing the cabin was located in. Overall, there were thousands of demons and onis, including a large number of warrior class demons.

The dark mages and their group readied their weapons. However, the demons all stopped a few metres away from their group.

The demons then slightly parted to make twelve paths. From each of those paths, a larger aura was coming through. Pseudo-commander class demons!

Twelve pseudo-commander class demons stood at the front of the encirclement, behind them a large army, and on top of it all, was Myra Wan.

“How about we have a chat?” she asked with a smile.

The mage king frowned, and the dark mages all had pale looks on their faces. After fighting Ray’s group, the mages and even their demons were all tired and carried some injuries. Damon might be a mage king, but he could only release two attacks at full power before needing a long recovery time. Given that he had already used one, he could only use one more full-powered attack before becoming useless.

Even Damon wasn’t sure he could break this encirclement with one attack. Or even if he did, the risk was too great as he would be useless afterwards, at which point Myra could easily use an opportunity to overpower him.

Moreover, Myra wasn’t stupid. If she dared to come here, he was sure that she must have figured out his weakness. Otherwise, she wouldn’t dare to fight a mage king no matter how many demons she tamed. That probably also meant that she was sure she could survive a full-powered attack from him… did she have some special artifact?

That meant he couldn’t fight at full power against her. In that case, Myra would be able to fight evenly with him, meaning his subordinates would be overwhelmed by the pseudo-commander class demons and their army, especially given that they were exhausted from fighting with Ray’s group.

This was not a good situation for them.

“What do you want?” the mage king asked gloomily.

Myra’s smile widened. If the mage king was open to discussions, that meant that he had realised his position.

“Nothing much…” she said casually.

The mage king frowned further.

“I just want your soul harvester.”

All the dark mages froze.