Larian frowned as she blocked the dark wave shot by the Fallen.
'The power has definitely changed.'
Until now, she could easily deflect the Fallen's magic with five daggers, but after wings sprouted from him, it became difficult to block even with seven daggers.
'Still, it's as expected.'
She had anticipated the Fallen's transformation from the beginning. If the fight continued like this, she was confident she would win no matter what. Larian controlled eight daggers simultaneously with mana at her fingertips, aiming for the Fallen's vital points.
However, despite being imbued with dense mana, the daggers failed to pierce the Fallen, stopping motionless before the light barrier he had erected.
"Is it because they're daggers?"
The Fallen flicked his finger, striking the blade of a dagger.
"They seem weak?"
"I don't think so."
As Larian rotated her wrist, the daggers spun in a spiral, piercing through the light barrier the Fallen had raised.
"Huh?"
The Fallen tried to spread darkness as he exhaled sharply, but the daggers had already detonated the mana stored in their blades. The magic stored in the daggers opened in succession, violently exploding as if the Fallen and the space around him would vanish from this continent.
As the black smoke that had risen to the sky dissipated, the Fallen's figure was revealed. The right side of his upper body and left side of his lower body were drenched in red blood.
"It's certainly spicy."
The Fallen smiled as he looked at his right shoulder and left thigh where flesh had been torn away. It was a serious injury that would make it difficult to continue fighting, but as he moved his hand slightly, the wounds disappeared as if time had reversed.
"Though not enough to burn my insides."
The Fallen shrugged, saying it was just enough to make his mouth tingle.
"Then we'll keep hitting you until your insides burn."
Larian raised nine daggers in front of her chest with a cold gaze. As the tips of the daggers touched each other, a brilliant light rose from the center and shot towards the Fallen. The Fallen spread out barriers of light and darkness to block the flash Larian had created.
As the two forces were evenly matched without giving an inch, cracks spread across the sky and ground.
'If I keep pushing like this...'
Just as Larian was about to move her remaining daggers to target the Fallen's back, she felt an alien force rising from beneath her feet.
'Hm?'
Larian looked down, moving only her eyeballs.
'So they died after all...'
Merlin had stopped breathing, and Raon seemed shocked by the result, frozen like a statue.
'Then that energy I felt just now was... Wait a minute!'
Larian's eyes widened as she examined Raon holding Merlin.
'I can't sense Raon's soul.'
Emptiness was blooming from Raon's body. There was no soul present in that child's body right now.
'He's not dead, but what on earth...'
Judging by the vitality remaining in Raon's body, he was definitely not dead. For a soul to suddenly disappear while examining a patient was something she had never heard of or seen before. It was so unbelievable that she felt her heart sink.
'I can't let them notice.'
Larian bit her lip as she watched the Fallen walk forward, breaking through the daggers' magic.
'That monster will target Raon even while fighting me.'
The Fallen was a vile monster who would do anything for victory. Merlin was dead, Raon's soul had left his body, and his subordinates had no strength to fight, so they wouldn't be able to block even one strike from the Fallen.
'I have to keep him from noticing.'
Larian roughly flicked a yellow dagger to ensure the Fallen's attention remained solely on her.
"This one might hurt a bit?"
As the dagger wrapped in dense lightning pierced the air and aimed for the back of the Fallen's head, a gloomy black mist rose up. The lightning dagger failed to pierce the Fallen due to the black mist, only scattering intense lightning in the air. Larian clicked her tongue and brought the yellow dagger back to her hand.
"Did you call for backup?"
She looked at the man in a black robe who had appeared behind the Fallen, sneering. The black mist that blocked her dagger was not the Fallen's ability, but this man's.
'A Transcendent...'
Though not a high-ranking Transcendent, he was certainly a magician who had surpassed transcendence, judging by how he blocked her dagger. The man in the black robe slowly turned to face her.
'A skull?'
Larian deeply furrowed her brow.
'Has he already found a new Specter?'
She knew the Specter had been killed by Raon and Merlin down below. Even for a lich's mask, it didn't make sense for it to resurrect again.
'No...'
That's not a lich. Looking closely, the eye and mouth holes of the mask worn by the man in the black robe were extremely large. It was closer to a ghost than a skull.
'Now I understand.'
It must be a wraith. Wraiths are a type of undead monster that float through the air, absorbing people's souls and mana like flies. Most of the evil spirits commonly called ghosts are actually wraiths.
The man wearing the wraith mask opened a dark dimension and pulled out a massive scythe with a pitch-black glow from within. His appearance was reminiscent of the grim reaper said to reap souls from hell.
'He's no ordinary opponent.'
Not only was his strength at the level of transcendence, but the energy emanating from that scythe was also abnormal. He was a dangerous foe.
'The bigger problem is...'
That he's not alone. What the Fallen had summoned was not just this wraith mask. Eden's executives were gathering at his feet.
'This is dangerous...'
She could withstand anyone who came, but Raon below could not. With his soul gone, he was full of openings that even a child could exploit to kill him.
'It's not my style, but I need to draw their attention.'
Larian exhaled briefly and tilted her chin.
"When did you call these lackeys?"
She raised her daggers, pointing at the ghost wearing the wraith mask and the other Eden executives.
"I didn't call them."
The Fallen calmly shook his head.
"Since you discovered our location, they had to retreat before the damage increased."
He smiled faintly, saying they had no choice but to come here.
"Of course, it's not because of you or Lady Chamber that we're leaving the main base."
The Fallen shrugged, saying it was because of Glenn Zieghart.
'Did he not notice?'
Larian thought it fortunate that she had drawn the Fallen's attention as she raised ten daggers simultaneously.
"You three..."
The Fallen raised his long, slender finger to point at Raon and Merlin.
"Kill them."
He ordered the executives at the Master and Grandmaster levels to kill Raon. The Eden executives who received the Fallen's order rushed towards Raon, emitting a chilling fighting spirit.
'Damn it!'
Larian bit her lip deeply as she looked at the Fallen smiling coldly.
'That bastard knew from the beginning!'
The Fallen had known about Raon's condition from the start, yet he made her let her guard down before ordering his subordinates to attack. He was a vicious man.
"Come as much as you want!"
Mark Goetun stood in front of Raon and Merlin, holding his sword with both hands. Despite trembling from exhausting all his aura and stamina, he did not take a single step back.
Larian clicked her tongue briefly and threw four daggers downward. The four daggers stuck into the four cardinal directions, erecting a defensive magic circle to protect Raon, Merlin, and Mark Goetun.
The Grandmaster from Eden swung his massive hammer, but not even a small crack appeared in the protective barrier Larian had created with her daggers. The other Eden ghosts also poured out fighting spirit, spells, and magic, but Larian's barrier did not waver like an iron wall, perfectly protecting those inside.
As Larian was about to breathe a sigh of relief, the Fallen's light magic exploded right in front of her. She blocked the light with the remaining six daggers, but due to the incredibly fast speed, a bit of flesh was torn from her left shoulder.
"Six daggers? Will that be enough?"
The Fallen smiled faintly, saying she seemed to have slowed down. As he brought his fingers together, massive spheres of light and darkness rose from the sky and ground, pressing down on her as if to crush her.
"These daggers are just tools anyway."
Larian snorted as she slipped the six daggers between her fingers. Connecting the mana from her heart to the daggers, she tore apart the spheres of light and darkness the Fallen had created.
"Tch..."
Larian frowned as she looked at her trembling fingers.
'This isn't easy.'
It was becoming difficult to block the Fallen's offensive as she was pouring mana and mental strength into the four daggers protecting Raon.
'But I have no choice.'
She had to look for an opportunity now. She hadn't revealed all her weapons yet. She needed to focus on defense and then stab the Fallen to death in one go when he showed an opening.
Unlike her, the Fallen seemed to want a quick end as he continuously unleashed magic wrapped in light and darkness. However, befitting a high-ranking Transcendent, he didn't reveal any openings even while attacking like that.
Larian exhaled a turbid breath as she watched the approaching wave of darkness.
'This is no time to think about counterattacking.'
Judging by the energy contained in that darkness, it seemed she would need to use all her strength to block it without taking damage. Just as Larian was opening the mana imbued in her six daggers to block the Fallen's offensive, her mana barrier suddenly shattered, and her left waist was deeply gouged by darkness.
"This is..."
Larian grabbed her waist wound where black blood was flowing, furrowing her brow.
"Not your handiwork."
She gritted her teeth as she looked at the man wearing the wraith mask hiding behind the Fallen, not at the Fallen himself.
"That's right."
The Fallen calmly nodded.
"The mask this person is wearing contains the power of Pelin, the king of wraiths. He's now called the Soul Devourer."
He patted the shoulder of the Soul Devourer who was holding up the black scythe, saying she had noticed well.
"Soul Devourer..."
Larian chewed her lips as she looked at the man wearing the wraith mask.
"Even if he's the king of wraiths, he shouldn't be able to absorb magic, right?"
Wraiths can absorb mana and souls, but they can't absorb magic. She didn't understand how he had destroyed her magic when she had been on guard.
"It's because of that scythe."
The Fallen tilted his chin to indicate the black scythe the Soul Devourer was holding.
"That scythe has the power to destroy spells. When a wraith that absorbs mana meets a scythe that destroys spells, magic is bound to break."
He nodded, saying it was only natural.
"For you right now, he's no different from a natural enemy. No, he would be the natural enemy of all magicians."
The Fallen drew a thin smile as if asking if it wasn't interesting.
"You sure talk a lot."
"There's no chance for information to leak out anyway."
He seemed confident that she and Raon would die here.
"Ha, even the leader of Eden has to fight 2-on-1?"
Larian snorted as she staunched the wound on her waist.
"Of course. I don't particularly like the phrase 'fair and square'. Isn't winning all that matters?"
The Fallen tilted his head, saying he wasn't ashamed of borrowing the Soul Devourer's power, but rather proud.
"Right. That's just like you."
Larian sneered as she ground her molars.
"Come at me, both of you. I'll take you all on."
She floated six daggers in the air and took a deep breath. The six daggers clashed their blades against each other, condensing a massive amount of mana in front of her chest. The radiance Larian shot by compressing the mana of the six daggers pushed back the light and darkness raised by the Fallen and poured into his chest.
However, as the Soul Devourer swung his black scythe, her mana was swept away as if erased. The wraith's ability to absorb mana combined with the scythe's power to destroy spells truly made them the natural enemy of magicians.
Meanwhile, the Fallen's magic broke through her defense and pierced her thigh.
'My concentration is slipping.'
It was difficult enough dealing with the Fallen and the Soul Devourer, but protecting those below was also a problem. The mana wall protecting Raon and Mark Goetun was still maintained, but mana was rapidly being drained due to the continuous impacts, and her head was spinning.
Eventually, her concentration broke and she missed the white flash shot by the Fallen, her right chest being pierced through.
"Ugh..."
She bit her lip as she touched the bleeding wound.
'This is dangerous.'
Unlike when her waist or thigh was hit, a chest wound could lead to immediate death. The situation was truly becoming critical.
'I was the one who got impatient.'
There was no choice, since in this situation, it wasn’t the Fallen who was in a hurry—it was her.
'Do I have to use it after all?'
Just as Larian was about to draw out the mana from her heart to use her hidden trump card, a warm yet majestic red light blazed up from Merlin's body, which had been lying motionless. Merlin's heart, which had stopped, began to beat like a mountain drum, and the vitality that had been draining surged up like the heat of a volcano.
'Resurrection?'
No, such a thing doesn't exist in this world. But an unbelievable phenomenon was happening right before her eyes. Merlin's mana circle, which had been shattered and scattered, reconnected on its own, forming a completely new ring that heated her heart intensely. The tenth circle. It was the realm of transcendence.
"What in the..."
Even the Fallen seemed astonished, his mouth agape as he stared at Merlin and Raon. Amidst the mysterious light and heat that had stopped even the battle between Transcendents, Raon and Merlin simultaneously opened their eyes.
***
Evelyn naturally rose and removed the cracked old woman's mask with her own hands. The person revealed beneath the mask was a beauty whose purple eyes made even the word 'peerless' seem inadequate. She drew a gentle smile with eyes that blended sensuality and innocence.
"How do you feel?"
Raon reached out to Evelyn, who had closed her eyes as if sensing this world.
"Perfect."
Evelyn slowly raised her eyelids, feeling the heartbeat of ten circles swirling.
"It's all thanks to you."
She simply said thank you as she took Raon's hand and stood up.
"You're alive? From that death?"
Even the Fallen seemed not to have expected this situation, his golden eyes wide open.
"It's been a while."
Evelyn looked up at the Fallen, curling her lips into a long smile.
"Fallen. No, I should call you Sage, shouldn't I?"
She tilted her chin as if mocking the Fallen.
"...It seems you've regained your memories."
The Fallen narrowed his eyes deeply, seeming to sense the change in Merlin.
"Yes. Thanks to Raon."
Evelyn looked at Raon with warm eyes.
"I found my name, and I was able to see my mother again."
She nodded, saying it had been a very satisfying time.
"Still, nothing will change. Even if you've ascended to transcendence, the outcome of this battle won't change."
As the Fallen shouted that nothing would change while condensing light and darkness, the flow of mana twisted, and the light and darkness gathering in his grasp burst out on their own.
"Ugh!"
The Fallen's eyes widened as he looked at his torn hand.
"How could nothing change?"
Evelyn curled the corners of her mouth as she looked at the astonished Fallen.
"You were beaten by me 500 years ago, weren't you?"
She flicked her finger with a sneer.
"I'll make you kneel at my feet again."