The telltale signs of teleportation were enough to make me glad that I still had one of the nodes filled with enough mana, and even more glad that I was already set up my ward modularly, and all I needed was to flare my magic, and half of the eternal gems joined the ward, while the rest stayed with me.
I still needed them to breach the main ward that was imprisoning me.
Even before he appeared in front of me, I triggered the explosion of necrotic energy, afraid of waiting for him. The necrotic energy filled my immediate surroundings, but unlike the previous time, it wasn’t an explosion, but a tornado, one that would stay until it was dispersed.
The warriors were too quick to stay in there for long, retreating back, but I didn’t care about them. At this point, I only cared about the mysterious enemy.
Then, before waiting for him to appear, I started gathering my mana once more, ready to breach the ward as I teleported.
[-1271 Mana]
Just as the air in front of me breached, and a suffocating presence stepped forward, I triggered my teleportation. Still, the delay was enough that I caught him stepping back into the material plane. The first thing I noticed was wings.
Angel wings.
Yet, they were not the same as Mariel. The greatest difference was not the color, but it was a good sign of the difference. They were a dark red, like dried, dirty blood, and the feathers felt dirty and sharp rather than soft and pure.
But the real difference was the feeling. Rather than radiating light, they were radiating that same suffocating energy that reminded me of killing and slaughter, awakening a fear from the bottom of my whole being.
Then, I get a glimpse of his face, which was a weird mixture of monstrous and pitiful, like his skin had melted rather than burning, which got only scarier with the intense fury that covered his face.
Maybe angering him to understand his true objective was not as clever as I first thought.
But, with my teleportation already half-complete, my surroundings turned Aether, the thin shield of mana enough to protect me.
Yet, that was not enough, as the ward surrounding me extended into Aether, preventing a quick escape. I prepared to breach through the ward with my full strength, hoping that he wouldn’t be able to come back with a few seconds' delay.
That hope proved vain, as I felt a sudden flare in Aether, the already chaotic structure turning even crazier as his presence appeared near me.
The distance was not a simple thing in the Aether dimension, but with our surroundings restricted by the ward, it was less confusing than my other attempts, not that it worked to my benefit. Yet, it wasn’t just Aether who started to get wild, they started to get that chaotic red nature, surging toward me.
I was too familiar with the concept to fail to identify the impact of a Divine Spark — one of unknown nature, but with the feelings it awakened, I guessed it was certainly not the Spark of Sunshine and Happiness.
I threw myself back to the material plane before that energy completely suffocated the area, feeling the chill of death.
Yet, I was still glad that I didn’t try to escape when the ambush first started, as it would have been completely impossible if I had been surprised by his abilities.
Even now, I had an uphill battle, but it was always better to target an angry enemy.
I noticed I appeared quite a bit distant away from the warriors, but I was also away from the border of the ward, which was bad. If I was closer, I might have tried to breach it.
I immediately pulled Eternal gems, using seven of them to instantly create another faux elemental, dumping a great amount of my mana as well.
[-4122 Mana]
Mobility was important, especially since I feared teleportation was not an option anymore. Whatever he was doing with Aether didn’t feel easy to shrug.
The rest of the stones turned into another pattern, ready to provide mana for the deadliest strike I could manage, but he didn’t appear.
But the oppressive feeling got stronger. And since he already proved that he was much more capable in teleportation, I feared he was strengthening his hold on the ward.
“I can’t afford to give time,” I murmured. The worst thing I could do was to give him time to set up the situation further, destroying the advantage I managed to collect thanks to his arrogance.
I couldn’t afford a fair fight.
I instantly created the scariest ward-breaker I could create in less than a second, and threw it toward the ward. I used the term scariest rather than strongest, because of the magical presence it created, Arcana mixing with necrotic, extremely overbearing.
At the same time, I created another ward, buried underground, this time using an even more special ingredient.
Tantric Divine Spark.
[-1921 Mana]
Too bad it was completely useless. If it hit the ward, it would crack and splash, roughly as useful as an egg thrown to a wall.
I was betting that, from another dimension, it was hard to distinguish a bluff and the real thing.
That proved correct, as he appeared in another fiery burst, casting a huge shield between the fake ward-breaker and his ward. And, his anger, even more intense, proved my assumption correct. He was anxious to keep the ward intact, even more than he was interested in keeping the weapons intact.
And, since the abilities he displayed were enough to show that he wouldn’t be caring about their true potential, I started to get another feeling.
He borrowed those items, and he didn’t want to explain their loss. Just like the trap for Janelor, whatever he was doing, he was trying to keep it hidden from the rest.
Good, II thought. Since I managed to anger him, I needed to find a better way to keep Silver Spires safe. And, the more problems he had, the less time he would have to poke around for me or my secrets.
I had already prepared the true surprise in form of the buried ward, working with the full principles of Tantric, but since I used only a minuscule amount of Tantric Spark, afraid of getting noticed, required almost half a minute for it to work.
Not a great time, but almost a lifetime under the circumstances.
Luckily, I knew exactly how to distract him, even at the risk of giving a clue of my true secret. Using my conjured air elemental, I rushed toward the warriors, almost as fast as one of his light spears, his furious cry making me smile despite the intense circumstances.
Yet, even then, I knew that I wasn’t fast enough to avoid his attention, and used forty eternal gems I had to create a ward, triggering continuous radiation of necrotic energy.
An eternal gem was a dangerous treasure, enough to elevate a noble house. A few of them were enough to get the notice of the whole country.
Forty of them, all tied in a necrotic array that reflected my full abilities, was a local apocalypse. The area under the ward was huge, measured in miles and miles, but it filled with necrotic energy in an instant. If that ward stayed active for a few days, it might destroy the whole empire.
Yet, even for a moment, I didn’t expect it to hurt him. It was just a bonfire, one that, with every second it stayed active, could gain the notice of the other eternal, one that would force him to teleport there to extinguish it.
And as an added benefit, that much necrotic energy was a perfect way to hide my spells.
Twenty-three arrows of Tantric energy, each covered with necrotic energy, camouflaged in the wave, hitting the warriors before they could react, triggering their berserk state.
All the while, I continued to rush toward the other side of the border.
Or more accurately, my mount continued to travel, with a simulacrum on top. Normally, creating a copy was hard, but since faked being an undead, I just needed to create a bunch of bones radiating with necrotic energy.
I threw myself to the ground, another, much subtler ward to hide.
All of those tricks barely took five seconds, expanding most of my mana, and almost all of my trump cards.
Yet, he had a dangerous necrotic ward to block the apocalypse, a fake lich riding an empowered elemental toward the wall, and twenty-three berserk warriors to deal with.
I was confident that it would be enough to delay him, especially since I just needed to delay him for just twenty-five seconds.
Yet, it turned out, I was wrong.
He raised the goblet, which evaporated, turning into a weird mist that exploded, filling the area under the ward.
And, just like that, the System stopped.
[Level: 36 Experience: 631374 / 666000]