Chapter 101 - Interlude: A Brewing Storm (Part Two)

A/N: Some R-18 elements (i.e. gore).

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The two levitating individuals smirked and laughed at the kneeling man. In response, the man dabbed his lips with the sleeves of his dark green jacket and stood up straight.

"You two have made the gravest mistakes of your lives!" The man threatened ominously with a low growl as he started to rise. Though he spoke with a low tone, his voice reverberated with palpable pressure.

After he reached the same elevation as the two others, the ambience reached a standstill. No words were exchanged, only furtive glances. Yet, there was an increasing sense of tension radiating from the two. Even the boy, who lacked mana sensitivity, could feel it in his bones.

Seconds turned to minutes, yet the three mages floating in the air barely moved a muscle. At least that's what the boy observed. In reality, the two blue-robed mages were sweating bullets. Although they knew that the man before them was injured and probably hanging on by a thread, the threat he emanated was real. He was the Plague Emperor, the living calamity! Even though he had just advanced to the Tesseract Transformation realm, the gap between their skills couldn't be overlooked.

The two exchanged a quick glance before they burst forth with a brilliant light. The taller mage materialised a spear, while the shorter mage had two daggers, one wielded in each hand. The taller mage stopped halfway between his starting point and the Plague Emperor and stabbed his spear forward. 

"|Spear Art: Blue Flame Viper Strike|!" The man bellowed.

From the tip of the blade, an undulating whirl of blue flame started to snake out and twisted its way at an incredible speed. As it moved forward, the air around the area it passed through started to flicker causing hoops of plasma to materialise. The air seemed to physically separate as the flaming snake rushed forward, causing a heated hurricane of wind to push outwards and uprooting a few trees.

The blue flame snake jerked directly at the Plague Emperor's head, yet the man didn't flinch. Right as it was about to collide against him, the man flickered. The snake passed right through where the Plague Emperor's face was supposed to be. Just then, the shorter mage appeared behind the Plague Emperor and swiped his dual daggers in a scissoring motion.

"|Dagger Art: Sever Reality|!"

The path the dagger followed turned a deep, dark blue. It didn't make any noise, however, it oozed with a dangerous power that could slice through matter and reality in and of itself.

However, before it struck the Plague Emperor, the flickering man solidified in a flipped upside-down orientation. With two fingers in each hand, he effortlessly grabbed the volatile daggers, picking them perfectly with his elongated nails. The shorter mage faltered as he saw his ultimate move being dissipated so easily. Right as he did so, the Plague Emperor pulled the two daggers away causing the shorter mage to cross his hands and get pulled closer.

The Plague Emperor contracted his legs and pushed them forcefully against the shorter mage's belly. The shorter mage zoomed out into the horizon, causing a large sonic boom as his body receded. 

The boy followed the hurtling man's trajectory and saw a small cliff in the distance crumble following a collision. He was shaken by how effortlessly the older man had achieved such a feat!

Meanwhile, the Plague Emperor used the force to propel himself towards the other mage, while still flipped upside down.

The hurtling, overturned man started to spin his feet as he approached the taller mage. Immediately, a greyish-black aura started to coat his spinning legs, emanating an aura of malaise.

The tall mage quickly countered the attack by using his spear to parry the legs. The Plague Emperor used this parrying momentum to flip himself right side up and immediately stabbed forward with two fingers of his right hand. The elongated nails had changed colour and were also coated in greyish-black mana.

The close-quarter confrontation broke out so quickly, that the boy hiding behind the vines could barely keep up. 

The elderly man kept a close distance against the taller mage. He knew that fighting further out would only be advantageous to the spear-wielder. This was the only way he could keep up the pressure. 

Evidently, it worked, as the taller mage was finding it increasingly harder to keep up the assault. On top of that, he had to remain wary to not get struck by the mana coated nails of the dastardly old man, lest he gets infected with whatever monstrous disease lay stored within.

The taller mage knew that underestimating the Plague Emperor was the last thing any mage could do. Many, stronger mages had tried to take on this man and had failed and suffered miserable deaths. That was why he decided to bring his Junior Brother along. The tall mage had stalked the Plague Emperor after he had heard rumours that the mage was finally attempting a realm advancement to Tesseract Transformation. Everyone knew that the strongest of mages were most vulnerable during this realm advancement. He had to take this chance! For glory! And to finally court his beautiful Master!

But how was he going to do all that if he died right now?

'Where's Junior Brother?!' The taller mage thought frantically. The short distraction was sufficient for the vastly experienced Plague Emperor. He feigned a forward jab and flickered a low swipe with his mana coated nails.

"Humph! You've overplayed your hand, boy!" The Plague Emperor berated. Just as the nails were about to pierce the taller mage, another voice bellowed.

"Not so fast!" The shorter mage appeared right above the Plague Emperor and spun his body into a drop-kick.

The Plague Emperor's eyes widened as he saw the kick approaching him. For a brief moment, a sharp glint flashed across his eyes. He quickly crossed his arms above his head to block the kick.

He succeeded in doing so, however when his eyes lowered, he noticed that the taller mage had created distance between them again. 

The taller mage spun the spear around rapidly. Incrementally, the spear started to glow a threatening red colour.

"|Spear Art: Knot of Flames|!" he bellowed as he spun the spear in front of his body and seamlessly transitioned it above his head.

Instantaneously, multiple undulating figures of flaming snakes gushed out from the spinning spear, which looked like a perilous portal. The area started to heat up like an oven as waves of plasma started to burst out around the snakes' paths. Much faster than before, the snakes attacked the Plague Emperor from all directions.

The Plague Emperor quickly grabbed the shorter mage above him and brought him in front to act as a shield. However, to his surprise, he saw the shorter mage smirk at him.

"A protection artefact?!" 

As though he were responding to the Plague Emperor's exclamation, the shorter mage yanked his head up and revealed a massive mana gem pendant around his neck.

"You've fallen for our trap, old man!" The shorter mage scoffed. Before the Plague Emperor could respond, the flaming snakes all converged into him.

The snakes then circulated around the Plague Emperor forming a threatening knot, before constricting altogether.

BOOM!

An earth-shattering explosion followed as a scorching heatwave spread out. Although the hidden boy managed to hide behind a tree, he was burned at his exposed right foot. It was a penetrating burn, that started to cause his foot to sizzle and shrivel. The boy immediately pulled his feet behind the tree and grit his teeth to bear through the pain. He shrunk his body deep into the tree as pulses of excruciating heat assaulted him incrementally.

The explosions kept coming in waves as snake after snake detonated.

Apart from the heat, the boy also had to bear through the pressure difference bearing down on him. He closed his ears in a desperate attempt to stop his eardrums from exploding. Right as he was on the verge of losing his life, the explosions stopped. The boy peeked out once again with great difficulty and noticed the figure of the elderly man hurtling towards the ground. The man's clothes appeared charred, however, his body was still in decent shape.

The two mages hovering above slowly descended and approached the fallen figure.

"So that's all that you can amount to, huh? The great Plague Emperor!" The taller mage egged. As he carefully approached the prone figure, he spoke casually to the shorter mage behind him.

"Are you ok?"

"The protective artefact from the Sect Master worked!" The shorter mage answered. However, near the end, there was visible strain and hoarseness in his voice. The mage coughed to clear his voice.

"What's the matter?" The taller mage asked without taking his attention away from the Plague Emperor. His entire mana sense was focused on the figure to be wary of any suspicious actions.

"I *cough* I-" the shorter mage cleared his throat.

But then the voice stopped. "a...a...a..." a hoarse voice emanated instead.

"Wha-" Just as the taller mage turned his head, the shorter mage lunged at him and bit down on his throat.

"AAA!" Was all the taller mage could scream out before his vocal cords were ripped from their place and slurped down by the pale-faced, dead-eyed, ferocious figure of the shorter mage.

While the taller mage was in the Core Condensation Realm, the shorter mage was too. And after turning into whatever he was right now, his strength and mana proficiency were preserved. If one observed closely, the could see a clear film of mana lacing the teeth and nails of the short mage. Upon closer inspection, they could also observe the decay nature of this mana.

Yet, this wasn't enough to kill the taller mage in his entirety. His core was still intact!

To a limited degree, the core gains a level of autonomy once a mage enters the Core Condensation realm. After all, it is a literal dense mass of everything the mage has learned during their rigorous journey. In many ways, it is like a second brain!. The core within the taller mage's body animated automatically and started to slowly pull the body away. 

The shorter mage was too preoccupied in chomping down on the brain matter exposed through the taller mage's cracked skull to notice this phenomenon. The headless body paused a little ways away from its head, as though reminiscing. Only then did it notice an interesting detail on its backstabbing comrade. It saw that there was a glaring injury along the shorter mage's calves. There were two distinct cuts that had turned black and rotten. It was the Plague Emperor's risky gambit!

The core didn't falter any longer and proceeded to lift the body out of the area.

However before it moved by even a centimetre, a hurtling streak of black lightning struck the body right at the abdomen and shattered the core into pieces.

The boy who was observing this was so shocked he nearly screamed. Thankfully he caught himself in his actions. He traced the source of the lightning and saw that it had come from the Plague Emperor that everyone had assumed had died.

The elderly man groaned as he supported himself up. After getting seated. He looked at the gluttonous figure of the shorter mage sucking at the intestines of the corpse and clicked his tongue.

"My masterpiece..." The man lamented. "Sadly, this plague is fated to never see the light of day...."