Chapter 615 - The Gray Battle

'I've teleported the survivors, those still in the city are unfortunate.' Agamemas said, 'It is about time we get rid of the reinforcements. Amnur, why did you bring the royal?'

'I didn't, he came by himself. I am even more shocked than you. I hadn't explained anything, yet he had managed to find the battle and organize this all in just a few minutes.'

'Wait,' Zamia interrupted as her husband was about to teleport all the fighters from the field. 'We shouldn't end this quickly.'

'Zamia... Is the mana so unstable?'

'Far more than you would believe. But strangely it seems that Kilen actually saved the city.' Zamia replied, unlike the two she hadn't dived into the fighting right away. They were able to stall, allowing her to assess the situation while healing Ceph.

And the more she observed the more she realized that while Kilen's attacks were devastating the area, it was somehow, strangely, stabilizing the surrounding mana. Rather, depleting would be a better description, though the end result was the same. 

She was stopping it from collapsing.

'They are feeding on the rampant mana. It also feels like we shouldn't blame this all on Eldrian.'

The other two frowned. They had also felt the sinister air filling the entire city upon arriving. However, if it had been there before or only after Eldrian's rampage was unknown. 

More shockingly, however, if what Zamia was saying was true then this would be the first-ever case of a mana storm being stopped after having started taking form- by non-gods.

There were a number of cases where the gods would indeed step in and lessen the fallout, or reverse and calm the mana. However, this would be a first for a non-god to touch on this. At least to their knowledge.

'How long?' Amnur asked.

'Until they run out of energy to absorb.' Zamia replied, 'We will just have to stall.'

By now Kilen was overflowing with rage. A rage that far surpassed even the legendary rage of a Dragos, the god of the dragons. She wanted to burn the entire world to the ground, seeing that she couldn't even enact justice only amplified her rage thousands of times over. 

"Enough!" Her shout caused a massive shockwave to spread through the entire area, the walls of the city finally falling. Including even the outwalls as everything within dozen of kilometers from the city was flattened.

With her shout, the mental link between the legends was also broken. "Enough! No one will stand in my way!"

Shouting so, she started drawing in the local unstable mana at an insane rate. Yet, shockingly, instead of starting to bulge and grow in size like all the others. She stayed a short 1.6 meters. 

Her lost arm suddenly sprang back as a form of unstable black energy, a blade of a similar corrupted pure energy formed in her energy hand. 

"Shit!" Amnur cursed, sweat ran down his back as he sensed certain death from that blade. He actually wanted to run from it, yet he could not. He had to keep the barrier or all those behind him would die simply from the energy waves this blade was releasing. 

Agamemas and Zamia rushed forward to stop her from stabilizing and learning how to control the energy; however, the now ten-meter large Azamud jumped in their path. Blowing the two away with a single punch. His speed shocking for his bulgy size. 

Kilen's blade started ripping the very fabric of the world apart as arcs of black lightning sprang from it. Everything it touched disappeared. 

It was not burned or simply destroyed, no, it was completely and utterly dematerialized. An abyss appeared in the place of what had been annihilated. Everything nearby collapsed into the void left behind. 

"It's not time for such extremities. What is going on?" An extremely calm voice said, immediately attracting everyone's attention. 

Turning to the number of dwarves, the elf sighed. "Old friend, use abyssal prison and divine flames."

Amnur's eyes widened in shocked, immediately he shouted for the two to retreat behind him. A sphere of absolute darkness surrounded everyone as soon as they did. 

Azamud no longer distracted, rushed Amnur whose fires had now turned a divine white. Upon contact, the fire incinerated half of Azamud's body. If not for the abundant energy in the surroundings the monstrosity would have died right there. 

Kilen disappeared and reappeared before the elf, her void blade cutting through the very fabric of the world as she aimed for his head. 

"The new generation is always such a pain." The elf said in an almost bored voice. Disappearing from the spot, he reappeared behind her thrusting his sword through her heart. Or so it appeared, instead, she was behind him again. Her former figure slowly dissipating like smoke.

"I see, you were quite strong before resorting to this. Why resort to this then?" The elf asked as an invisible barrier blocked the attack of the blade of destruction.

While the very surrounding air and ground turned to nothingness from the shockwave, the elf remained unharmed. However, the barrier of the elf was brought into vision as the corruption of hatred started eating at it. 

"Just die!" Kilen shouted with pure hate, her strength doubling and the shield shattering. 

Jumping back, the elf touched his chest in shock. His clothing was destroyed like the normal cloth it was. "It seems I will have to be serious." 

As Kilen was rushing forward, the elf blocked with his sword. A curious weapon refracting the light falling on it like a crystal. It seemed to have no single color, rather its appearance would depend on the direction you looked at it.

The shockwave from the attack destroyed the surroundings completely. All that was left was a black orb floating above a massive crater, and a dwarf covered in flames. His armor was in tatters and his shield nearly falling apart. Both were being repaired, however, the repair took tremendous amounts to mana and would not survive another impact.

"Athar, please take this somewhere else!" Amnur shouted, coughing out blood as he fell to his knees. 

Nodding, the elf disappeared again, this time he places his hand on Kilen's shoulder before she could react the two disappeared.

"Noooo!" She shouted in rage and tried to rush back to where Eldrian was. However, Athar quickly appeared in her way. His blade nearly separated her head from her shoulders. At the same time, the entire world turned to a boring gray color. 

Kilen found that something stopped her teleportation, also there was no longer any mana in her surroundings. Only two things still had color in this gray world; her void sword and arm, and Athtar's strange refracting sword. 

Shaking from rage, the energy of her lost arm and blade started becoming crazy now that there was no longer rampant mana to sustain it. Realizing she did not have long, she charged. Each attack ripping through space.

Yet, it seemed that this gray world would not collapse from the void filling it as the fight continued. Somehow, the void could coexist with the rest of reality in this space. 

As she rained down her attacks, even Athtar had to be careful of her attacks, however, she would not last much longer. Her soul was quickly being devoured by the power she was using. 

As her attacks slowed and her body started dematerializing. As Athar was about to end the fight, another devil suddenly appeared next to her.

"Xelron, it is quite early for you to move, isn't it?" Athtar asked, immediately backing up to set some space between the two of them. 

"Oh, but I can't help it. She is quite a fascinating kid, don't you agree?" Compared to Kilen, Xelron looked completely normal. Especially in the grayscale, sure he had two horns, a tail, and wings. But they seemed to just perfectly fit the persona that he commanded. 

"You will leave her," Athar said, readying his weapon. 

"Do you really want to fight?" Xelron asked, narrowing his eyes as he morphed his right hand into a scally draconic arm. 

"What she had done goes beyond what we've agreed upon."

"I know, isn't it amazing?" Xelron smiled, teleporting Kilen to safety as he transformed into his demonic draconic hybrid form. His attack was blocked by Athar, and space itself fragmented from the attack. Even the gray world could not survive the shockwaves of that single attack. 

"Are we going to fight?" Xelron asked with a grin. 

"No, you already saved her," Athar said, storing his weapon and turning to leave. 

"Oh, you are quite acceptable today." Xelron smirked, "Then as thanks, I offer you this. That child of your kind will not be targeted until the time comes."

Athar nodded and disappeared, as soon as he did color returned to the broken sky. Its appearance was akin to a shattered mirror, the fragments falling into the surrounding abyss that kept growing larger as it gained mass. 

At this time, the gods had no choice but to intervene or the damage would be too great for the world. 

AN: I want to give a shoutout to everyone who always comments, I appreciate the support greatly.