Gael only managed to replenish his magic energy to 85%. If he was only dealing with an average enemy mage, it would have been more than enough to subdue, and even kill that person. However, looking at the massive purple sphere before him, and the kind of magic it was made of, Gael knew he would be at a disadvantage if he did not use give his all. On the other hand, he still had to use his magic energy wisely. It was a headache just thinking of how he should proceed with it. Nevertheless, Gael could not drag this confrontation after witnessing Kyran's terrifying physical combat ability. And that was when he was unconscious, he could only imagine how terrible it would be if he was conscious.
One should know that a person who only responded using his reflexes could only go so far because his movements had little depths in them. However, if that person moves with 'depth'— or to be precise, more thought behind them, then it would become more troublesome to deal with.
For this reason, Gael must seize the upper hand right at the start and also avoid dragging their confrontation. If it did and he ended up exhausting his magic energy, he would definitely be doomed because his normal combat ability was practically nonexistent. After all, Gael was a perfect example of a pure magic mage.
It only took Gael a few seconds to make up his mind on how to treat this confrontation he was about to face against Kyran. With no hesitation, he roused the fullness of his magic.
In an instant, intense magic fluctuation covered the more than a hundred-meter radius of space where he and Kyran had been 'isolated' by Imman's stone wall.
The sky, which had only started to welcome the new day, darkened once more as if it was already night.
All the soldiers raised their heads after feeling the surging magic energy within the stone wall. They all trembled, especially those who had yet to digest the gravity of Gael's revelation earlier. When they recall the strange ability of the purple sphere, they also started to realize who the enemy was.
Frankly, most of them had thought the enemy was another fugitive who wanted to take advantage of the army's confusion and launch a sneak attack. It was quite reasonable since most of them believed, the new 'Dark Sage' would never appear in the middle of their encampment, much more when the Grand Marshal was present.
Alas, they underestimated the new Dark Sage's courage. It was then that they fully understood the weight of what Gael said about the latter being part of the Regis Clan.
A member from the Regis Clan would not be easily intimidated by the fact that there were more than twenty thousand soldiers in the encampment— not to mention, the Grand Marshal, a Magus was there.
Imman's expression turned grim.
As much as he wanted to overthrow Gael and become the new Grand Marshal, Imman knew he was still lacking as a mage. Yes, he established enough influence within the army and his achievements would not lag behind the other deputy marshals. It could even be considered he was a step ahead of them.
However, when faced with an enemy that could threaten the empire's future, Imman admitted to not having confidence or the ability to do so. Among the three deputy marshals, the only one who had this ability— which he would never be caught admitting it in that person's presence- was Mannick.
This fact was a sore spot for Imman, which was why he was obsessed with finding a way to break through and become a Magus.
A few months ago, Imman already found his path. However, given his current strength, it was impossible to succeed, thus, he could only put it on hold and focus on exposing himself to more life-and-death situations and gaining more experience.
Unfortunately, the situation they were in now could not be considered a life-and-death situation. Knowing who the enemy was, Imman could only see death as a result if he ever decided to go in and confront the enemy with Gael. He might even only become a burden to the latter, which was a little frustrating.
But instead of mulling over his own inability, determination filled Imman's eyes and he looked at one of the grand masters. He said, "Keep watch, I need to do something."
"Yes, deputy marshal," the grand master replied at once.
Imman left in a hurry.
Inside the stone wall, as soon as Gael unleashed the full force of his magic, a dense Shadow magic energy appeared on his feet. It blended with his own shadow before creeping up his body. In a blink of an eye, the shadow turned into a black hooded coat that covered his whole body.
Gael waved his hand and his magic weapon, a black and silver scythe also materialized in his hand. He also equipped all the magic accessories he possessed to boost his magic power output, strengthen his magical and physical defences, and most of all, reduce his magic energy consumption. After which, he summoned several Shadow puppets, wielding different types of weapons.
Kyran, standing inside the purple sphere, looked at the puppet shadows covetously.
Due to the Void magic's nature, Kyran could not create summons. He could 'mold' human-shaped Void magic energy, but because of its pure energy, it would destroy everything it made contact with. Once, Kyran tried to make it take a step only to end up for it to reduce the ground to nothing. It was very frustrating.
Kyran also tried to combine it with Draconic magic, just like how he did with his Void Armor or the Void Scales— to give it a more 'definite' substance and shape. However, maintaining it and even making it move was physically and mentally draining. Kyran could only give up.
In any case, summoning was not Kyran's style. He would rather mold several weapons and control them using his magic sense and destroy his enemies in one fell swoop.
Taking a deep breath, Kyran also summoned his army of Void weapons. Using his magic sense, he easily determined the number of Shadow puppets Gael created. While expanding the Void Barrier could easily obliterate those puppets, he decided against it. With everything Gael had done to his people, especially to Zephyr, Kyran would not let him off easily.
If True Void was there and knew what Kyran was thinking, he would have already gone ballistic.
Gael flew in the air. His black coat blew with the wind, giving him a sinister aura. As if he was the god of death who had descended into the Human plane.
Eyes turning bright red, Gael finally made his first move. He raised his scythe, which immediately attracted the magic energies in the surroundings. With a swift wave of his scythe, a powerful concentrated magic energy burst out from its blade and went straight at the purple sphere.
When the blade-like concentrated magic energy was only a couple of meters away, it suddenly multiplied and distorted the surroundings with the intensity of its momentum.
Kyran immediately released his Void Barrier before these blade-like magic energy attacks collided with it.
Gael's eyes widened as soon as the purple sphere disappeared, revealing several dark purple weapons hovering in midair.
Almost at the same time, Kyran released the Void Barrier, he willed all the Void weapons to target Gael's Shadow puppets. When the blade-like magic energies passed through some of the Void weapons, crackling sounds came from the former as cracks appeared on them.
Gael was not idle. After seeing the counter Kyran created against his Shadow puppets, he released his domain, instantly engulfing the surface area in a dense shadow.
When the Void weapons rained down on the Shadow puppets, instead of riddling them with holes, the latter managed to withstand the former and stopped their momentum. The Void weapons drilled into the Shadow puppets, however, as if the latter's exterior was made of a hard carapace, the former could only continue drilling, resulting in sparks due to the collision.
Kyran's eyes narrowed. But then there was a hint of amusement in them, which meant he was not entirely surprised by this outcome or even at a disadvantage.
The Shadow puppets were not idle. While the Void weapons tried to drill into their armor, they already unleashed attacks to destroy them. Unfortunately, all their attacks only sizzle and disintegrated, clearly showing how ineffective they were.
Meanwhile, Gael's blade-like magic energy attack already arrived five meters in front of Kyran.
But Kyran was not even looking at them. Though the blade-like attack had already lost most of its momentum after getting sliced by the Void weapons along the way, it still had enough power to hurt anyone.
Gael did not wait for the blade-like attack to hit Kyran. He already flew toward the latter while waving his scythe.
HISS!
Hissing sounds reverberated in the air as the scythe's spirit flew out from it and went straight at Kyran.