Chapter 900
"Monster! A full-blown Devil! An Anomaly! A crazy, reckless fool... That’s what you are! DAMNNNN!" Amir completely lost his composure, his scream tearing through the sudden silence.
All around them, for a radius of fifteen tres, there was only utter carnage.
Ancient trees had been violently uprooted from their bases and blasted in multiple directions like re twigs.
The ground was now transford into an imnsely wide, deep hollow that stretched out in a jagged circle.
The air hung heavy with the acrid scent of burnt leaves and... dust?
Deep, scorched grooves snaked through the earth for several tres beyond the impact zone.
Half the forest had been effectively erased, the lush greenery reduced to drifting ash.
And Grey?
Grey was on his knees, panting incredulously.
He was wheezing hard, his fingers gripping his chest in sharp pain.
Beads of sweat trickled down his pale face, joining a solitary drop of blood rolling from his nose.
He looked like a ghost of himself.
’Fuck, fuck, fuck. All my mana is gone in an instant.’
"Why did you do that?! I already told you to take your freaking ti!" Amir shouted, rushing forward in a state of sheer worry.
Grey wheezed again, grimacing in agony before slowly lifting his head.
A triumphant, terrifying smile spread across his face.
He grabbed his hair and threw his head back in a maniacal laughter that seed to shake the very earth beneath them.
This display stunned Amir, who halted his steps imdiately, watching the young mage laugh like a total lunatic.
"Incredible... beautiful. Hahahaha... again, again, again!" Grey scread like an excited child, dragging himself up to his full height despite his trembling limbs.
"What do you a—"
Before Amir could finish his sentence, a sword materialized instantly in Grey’s hands.
Raw mana flooded his body from the cold steel, replenishing his hollowed reserves.
Then, the blade vanished from view just as quickly as it had appeared.
Looking at Amir, whose eyes were now filled with a sudden, mounting dread, Grey smirked.
"Magus Dominion."
BOOOOM—!
***
Weeks had passed since Grey first committed himself to mastering the domain.
Though he could successfully summon one, the primary issue remained: he was unable to maintain the activation for long.
Whenever the field deactivated, he was left utterly breathless and drained.
Consequently, he dedicated two whole weeks solely to maximizing his active duration while minimizing the mana cost.
Every single day without fail, Grey remained deep in the forest, calling upon his domain again and again while the world bore the brunt of his destructive potential.
Amir had departed a day ago to handle a specific task the Supre Magus had requested.
...
In a vastly different location, Amir sat in an office, a tired, haunted look etched into his features.
"What a fool."
Knock—! Knock—!
"Captain?"
Amir sighed, leaning back.
"Co in."
Imdiately, the door swung open and seven people walked in... seven young individuals who didn’t look much older than nineteen, though one of them was clearly more mature than the rest—likely in his early twenties.
"You called us?" the oldest among them inquired, his voice low.
Amir nodded, a weary sigh escaping him.
"It’s an urgent mission. I know that you all haven’t worked together as a cohesive unit for so months now, but this situation requires every hand on deck."
The oldest tilted his head, his presence filling the room.
Standing at 6’2", he possessed a lean, sculpted fra carved through years of brutal combat and relentless training.
His aura was heavy—so oppressive that even the silence seed to bend around his form.
Just being near him made the air feel thicker, as if the mana itself respected him enough to move aside.
His hair was midnight black—wild, yet deliberate, like chaos successfully tad.
Strands occasionally shimred with faint streaks of violet when exposed to the light, a lingering side effect of overexposure to raw lightning mana.
His eyes, however, were what truly unnerved the observers.
One was a deep storm-gray, cold and calculating; the other was a glowing athyst eye with thin cracks of lightning constantly dancing within the iris, as if a perpetual storm raged behind his gaze.
A jagged scar ran from his collarbone across his chest, glowing faintly with runes etched in shadow magic—each rune acting as a seal from a battle past.
It pulsed occasionally, reacting to powerful presences nearby.
He wore a battlecoat fashioned from monster-hide and reforged mana-thread, a deep blue with tallic violet trims.
The back bore a single insignia—the Lunaria squad’s emblem crackling with lightning bolts.
"Then why call here? Whatever happens, they can handle it themselves. Calling here will be a total overkill for whatever mission you have planned out."
Amir rubbed his face, exhausted.
"Kael, who’s the leader here?"
The oldest frowned slightly.
"You?"
"Cool. I’m glad you recognize that. Well, this mission involves an attack from an Otherworlder; we suspect he is a Zodiac. He has been spotted in a nearby town. If you all don’t hurry out, we might lose an entire settlent to them," Amir added, his tone laced with a forced panic.
Hearing this, everyone in the room straightened up in an instant, their eyes sharpening with intent.
"Otherworlders, huh?" a female with fiery, crimson hair uttered.
She looked absolutely stunning, with fair, smooth, ivory skin.
Her red hair was neatly packed and braided, while her eyes burned with invisible flas of determination the mont she heard the Captain’s words.
"Yes, Scarlett. Otherworlders," Amir replied calmly, his eyes tracking the flicker of high-intensity flas in the girl’s gaze.
"Well, if it is a Zodiac, I’m ga." A young boy from the group uttered with a wide, predatory grin on his face.
He stood only five feet tall, with bright blonde hair and striking hazel-green eyes.
The youth was an epito of beauty, possessing the kind of looks that would usually have girls flocking for a chance to speak with him, yet his current aura was anything but approachable.
"Good then. Since you all have agreed, you can head out now. All of you," Amir ordered, his tone becoming grave.
"Yes, Sir!" they all saluted in unison.
After receiving the precise coordinates, the elite squad filed out of the office imdiately, their movents synchronized and efficient.
.....
It took exactly twenty minutes for the group to arrive at the designated location.
They found themselves in a town that was strangely... abandoned?
Not a single soul was in sight, yet there was none of the expected destruction or signs of a struggle that the squad had anticipated seeing upon their arrival.
"Hm? What’s going on? Did the Captain send us to the wrong place?" a boy with curly black hair, subtle strands of brown beneath the surface, and bright blue eyes asked.
"I don’t think the Captain would make such a mistake, Arthur," another girl replied, her hand hovering near her weapon hilt.
"Then? Why is no one he—"
"Over there." Scarlett pointed outward, and every head turned.
They watched as a lone figure walked toward them with an arrogant gait, moving as if he owned the very ground he stepped upon.
A crimson mask settled firmly over his face, while a deep red robe flapped wildly in the wind with every deliberate step he took.
For so reason, none of the elites could sense a single shred of aura from the individual, a fact that only deepened their mounting worry.
This silence of power confird that the Principal’s intelligence was accurate; this was a Zodiac, and by the feel of the void where his energy should be, he was an incredibly formidable one.
The Otherworlder’s hair remained unseen, completely hidden behind the contours of the mask.
After several minutes of walking, the figure stopped abruptly, maintaining a distance of eight tres from the seven warriors.
The area they occupied resembled a town square, offering plenty of space for ample movent and, most importantly... battle.
"Hm? When did they change their mask designs?" the beautiful boy, Raze, asked as he tilted his head in confusion.
Scarlett took several aggressive steps forward, her eyes burning with an internal, unseen power.
"Doesn’t matter. As long as it’s a Zodiac, we will take it down."
Flas imdiately ignited around her arms, burning fiercely like molten lava and casting a harsh orange glow over the cobblestones.
"Hm. Impressive," the masked individual muttered, his voice sounding distorted and chanical through the mask.
Looking around the desolate square, he added,
"Seems you all went through the imnse effort of evacuating the citizens. Too bad; I was looking forward to the massacre."
The figure laughed—a deep, nacing sound that echoed off the empty buildings—his eyes closing for a brief, mocking mont until,
BANG—!
’Hm?’
Opening his eyes quickly, the masked man saw Raze already occupying the space directly in front of him.
The boy had closed the distance in a heartbeat, lightning crackling around his clenched fists with imnse, blinding intensity.
"Go to hell."
BOOOM!
H
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