Chapter 35 Eluard's Arrival, Surprising Matter
Eluard gazed at the undead legion in front of him.
\'Those things look familiar…?\'
He reckoned that they looked perfectly similar to the undead he created back at the volcanic grassy plains.
Dartex\'s eyes widened in surprise.
"He-Heavenly Magic Academy? You said you are from the Heavenly Magic Academy?!", pointing his fingers at Eluard\'s smug figure.
"You must be Dartex, the Fallen Genius.", Eluard replied.
[ Name: Dartex Deluminas (The Fallen Genius) ]
[ Age: 112 years old ]
[ Race: Human ]
[ Status: Corrupted by Demonic Whisper ]
[ Affiliation: None (Warlock) ]
[ Magic Power: Grandmaster Magus (Full Ring) ]
[ Magic Root: Void Magic Root (Mythical) ]
[ Magic Aptitude: 9.5/10 (Grandmaster Magus) ]
[ Magic Affinity: Dark, Fire, Earth, Void ]
[ Void Magic Root (Mythical) ]
[ You can call upon the void to bring forth death and destruction to your enemies. It carries the corruptive power of death that transforms everything touched into darkness, and living beings into undead. ]
[ Additional Effect: Death\'s Whisper ]
[ Due to your unnatural body, you have a special connection to the death realm and can open a portal as you wish. This, however, comes with a painful price. ]
[ Degradation Effect: Death\'s Bounty ]
[ Because of your special connection to the death realm, you will receive a penalty when meeting with other creatures and are likely to receive their dislike and contempt. ]
\'The death realm? There is such a thing?\'
Eluard realized that the universe might be grander in its expanse than he imagined.
There was also the fact that Dartex had a strange magic affinity, the void. Eluard was unsure of what it was, placing the matter on the back of his head to study it later.
\'And he seems to be corrupted by something called demonic whisper.\'
[ Demonic Whisper ]
[ A formula 9 magic spell used to entrance a target into warping the indistinctiveness of reality and illusion. It urges the worst desires of a person into committing vile actions that they think are aligned with their noble principles. ]
Dartex laughed, "Finally, an apostle from the fabled magic academy! Come help me, brat! Let us deal with these mongrels who wish to tarnish the holiness of that place!"
Eluard was confused, \'He\'s on a trail of blood and revenge. I can feel it. However, his means…\'
He gazed again at the system prompt and came up with the conclusion that Dartex might currently be not in his right state of mind.
"I\'m sorry, but it seems like you are the one who needs to step down instead, Dartex. As far as I can see, the only person here who wishes to tarnish the academy is you."
"Furthermore…", Eluard pointed at the undead legion, "Those things… what are they doing here?"
Dartex laughed again, "What fool did the academy brought to me this time?!", eyeing Eluard with great hatred while ignoring his last question, "It seems like you\'re not the one I\'m looking for! Fine, then so be it!"
He regained control of his tendrils and tried to grasp Amos who was still in a dazed state after everything that happened.
Eluard saw through this and bounded the tendrils with light.
"To hell with your light element! Void Touch!"
Dark poisonous fog immediately appeared on top of the tendrils, trying to corrupt Eluard\'s light element.
However, he noticed that they remained stable and pure.
"You bastard, you\'re an archmage already?!"
Eluard smirked, "Are you afraid now?", bluffing the enemy in hopes of instilling fear in them.
However, Dartex unexpectedly smirked in reply.
"You think I\'m afraid?! Even if you\'re a god, no one will be stopping me today!"
Dartex controlled the undead legion to charge straight at Eluard. However, the undead remained on their grounds, unwilling to move a single inch.
"M…ma…maker…", mumbled by one of them.
"Maker? What do you mean maker?!", Dartex was losing his temper. He turned around and saw Eluard smiling at him as if he had won the battle.
[ Alert: Corrupted mana signature detected on several undead beings. Do you wish to remove them? ]
[ Note: This is only possible due to your original mana signature that was used as a foundation for the circulation of the undead aura. ]
\'So this guy made use of my previous spell, huh?\', Eluard gritted his teeth in annoyance. He didn\'t expect that he would be exploited like that easily.
\'System, is this everything he has?\', he asked, wondering if Dartex left any stragglers behind to spread and bring forth another undead legion.
[ The system is unable to determine for this moment but it is likely to be a possible scenario due to Dartex\'s slyness. It is advisable to deal with the undead legion first as soon as possible and interrogate him later. ]
\'Extract it then.\', Eluard ordered.
[ Warning: Performing extraction will render the undead back into their normal forms. Are you sure you wish to proceed? ]
The alert prompt reminded Eluard of the casualties that might happen should he perform the extraction process now.
Dartex was a crazy man who wasn\'t in the slightest conscious or sympathetic to the deaths of his fellow humans. Even if he fought against Dartex now, the surrounding area wouldn\'t be in a good condition and implicate the others in their battle.
\'System, don\'t we have a prison chamber back at the academy? Can we use it to hold the undead legion for the time being?\'
[ Affirmative. Executing order. ]
Thousands of teleportation magic circles flashed on each undead being that Dartex brought with him.
"Teleportation? You bastard, you think I would allow you that?!"
He extended his hands and tried to cancel the teleportation but a mysterious force prevented him from doing so.
\'It doesn\'t even work like this?\', Dartex began to panic.
Amidst his confusion, the magic circles flashed brightly and vanished in sight, dragging along with it his undead legion.
Dartex was maddened when he felt the lost connection to the legion.
"You shit! You will pay for that! Tendrils of the void! Cataclysmic Firefall!"
More tendrils emerged below the ground, fighting against Eluard\'s rays of light.
The air then turned hot, vaporizing water in an instant as large swathes of fireballs formed on the red-painted sky above before raining down like water.
\'Can ice and water stop this?\', Eluard asked himself before large ice shards and water torrents burst from the ground to stop the blazing fireballs.
He felt his ice melting at an alarming rate and his water vaporizing into nothingness.
"Then earth it is!"
He created a thick dome-shaped earthen shelter, covering him and the rest from the impending danger.
The fire blazed outside, flowing like lava and burning everything into ashes except Eluard\'s makeshift earthen dome.
"You hide under a shell?", Dartex smiled.
The void tendrils worked better in a darker environment.
However, Eluard expected this reaction from Dartex as well. His enhanced magical sensory coming from his eye of fidelity made it sure that no disturbance of magical flow will ever escape his eyes.
"He-help me!", one of the clergymen from the Creed shouted as a tendril grabbed him.
Eluard immediately sent out rays of light to stop and bound down the assailing tendrils while saving those who were caught.
His mind was miraculously multitasking as if there were multiple brains inside his head. There were no signs of a hindrance to his performance. He could cast binding light to deal against the tendrils while looking out for any other potential threats that might endanger him.
"Enough with that ray of light! Time to deal with you!"
Dartex sent out the spectral glades who were waiting on the sides. They slip past the earthen wall went for Eluard whom they sensed a strong aura of divinity.
"Kekeke…"
Their devilish cackle frightened most of them that they fainted out.
Amos, who has long recovered from his daze, went to Eluard\'s side.
"Mr. Kai, be careful! Those are spectral glades, the servants of death from the death realm! They are very powerful and can ignore most attacks you send to them!"
Eluard narrowed his eyes.
[ Name: Spectral Glades ]
[ Affiliation: Death Realm ]
[ Type: Innate Undead ]
[ Rarity: Legendary ]
[ Power Level: King-level ]
[ Affinity: Dark, Void ]
\'A king-level beast? I can take it!\', Eluard was confident, "Is that so? Can you take care of the tendrils and Dartex for me?"
Amos nodded, yet a hint of worry could be seen on his face.
Before he realized it, Eluard and the spectral glades were already clashing.
The latter was screaming at Eluard, revealing their dark sinister claws awaiting to bathed in fresh blood.
He sent a light beam to one of them and pushed it back.
The spectral glade rotated mid-air and stopped after a while. It shook its head in confusion before growling back at Eluard and became more ferocious than ever before.
\'It works, but it angers them.\', Eluard said while quickly making his way to escape the pursuit of the spectral glades.
He would occasionally blast them with light beams in case they get too close to him. Just as he was about to make a turn to evade a tendril from grasping him, one of the spectral glades quickly dashed to his side.
It bared its ethereal teeth and let out a ghastly aura that afflicted Eluard into losing his consciousness.
However, at that moment, a beating sensation erupted from his mind.
On the crack above the ruins, the skeletal head from before emerged fully into the world. The red lights that flashed in its hollowed eyes were pointing in the direction of Eluard.
Its jaw was hung down. He was intrigued by something.
"Keke… Interesting."