“What happened in there? Are you okay?” Sam asked, rushing toward Astoria. She smiled at him. She was happy now, happier than she had ever been.

“I am more than okay,” she responded.

“What does that mean?” Sam asked confused.

“It means…” she smirked. “I am a mage!”

“Wh- WHAT!?”

Saying that Sam was shocked was an understatement. It was impossible for people who weren’t ordinarily mages to become one… right? This was what the whole world believed.

Yet, was that not true? Was his whole life a lie?

Just as he was pondering these questions, two purple lights appeared next to them. Sam recognised this as the light Henry disappeared into and thought he was coming back.

So, Sam unsheathed his sword, ready to attack.

However, it was not Henry who came out.

“Drake! Elwin!” Astoria exclaimed. She excitedly ran towards her two brothers.

“Astoria! What are you doing he- oof!” Drake was cut short by Astoria’s embrace.

Drake smiled and hugged her in return.

‘Ah… it feels good to relax for a moment,’ Drake thought to himself.

After a long while, Astoria released him and hugged Elwin. They too hugged for a long time before separating.

“I’ve missed you both so much,” she cried.

“Us too,” Drake responded.

“So, what are you doing here then?” Elwin asked.

“She came here rushing to save the two of you,” Sam responded on her behalf.

“What!?” They shouted in unison.

“Astoria, don’t you know how dangerous it is? What if something happened to you? What would we do?” Elwin yelled.

“I’m sorry for worrying you Elwin, however I couldn’t just sit there and do nothing. Besides, you don’t need to worry about protecting me anymore…”

“What does that mean?” Elwin asked confused.

“I am a mage now!” Astoria exclaimed.

“WHAT!?” both Drake and Elwin yelled in unison.

“Yea, it’s a long story. So basically –”

“You guys!” Sam interrupted. The three of them looked at him. “Sorry to break it to you, but we are still in the middle of a forest infested with dangerous demons and murderous dark mages. So, it would probably be a good idea for you to catch up after we go back home.”

The siblings looked at each other and started laughing, and Sam was left wondering what was so funny.

…

Over this time period, at the canyon.

The area was split into three battle fields - the majority of the soldiers who were holding back the demon tide, Myra who was fighting one of the dark mages at the top of the canyon, and Holt who was engaging the remaining dark mage inside the canyon opening.

Myra was a perfect stage grand mage who had lived a long time accumulating a huge amount of battle experience and knowledge on numerous summonings. One could argue that she was at the peak of the grand mage realm, and very few people at this realm could be her equal. Hence, she was easily having the upper hand in her battle.

Holt was a middle stage undying body martial artist, and a warrior mage, with plenty of battle experience too. Although he couldn’t summon as many artifacts as Drake, Holt had a few summons that he was extremely familiar with. Coupled with his undying body, which had regenerative capabilities and a strong defence, he too had the upper hand facing the dark mage.

“Dammit, I didn’t think these guys would be so strong,” cursed the mage fighting Myra.

At this moment, a huge light pillar shot into the sky from within the forest. The pillar captured the attention of Myra, Holt, and the dark mages.

“Haha, our master is going to be coming very soon!” yelled the dark mage, before attacking Myra more ferociously.

“Humph, then I will just have to deal with him too!” she scoffed, but she was internally worried. She felt like a huge danger was approaching.

The same was true for Holt. He also got an ominous feeling from that direction.

Both Holt and Myra increased their offence and wanted to use this opportunity to deal as much damage to the dark mages as they could. They attacked with full force for about fifteen minutes before they started sensing a huge aura rapidly approaching them.

‘Mage king!’

Both Myra and Holt had the same thought. This was bad, very bad!

The higher the realm, the greater the difference between previous realms.

For other realms, it was possible to fight one realm above you if you were extremely skilled, like Drake and Elwin.

However, this was not true beyond the grand mage level. It didn’t matter how skilled of a grand mage you were, unless you were a total freak, it was impossible to challenge a mage king.

Likewise, mage emperors were on a whole separate dimension compared to mage kings too.

Once this mage king appeared, it would be game over for them.

“Retreat!” Both Holt and Myra gave the same command at the same time. This was their only hope.

However, it was already too late. The aura came closer and closer and within a minute, a figure appeared on the sky above the canyon.

The figure emitted a tremendous aura that spread across the battlefield.

All the demons who were previously baring their fangs and attacking the guards ferociously were now running away in fear with their tail between their legs.

As for the humans, most of them fell to their knees, crushed under the weight of that aura. Only Myra and Holt, along with some warrior mages from the elves, and steel body martial artists from the human sides could resist to a certain extent.

This was a mage king!

The only sound in the battlefield was that of the retreating demon tide, and within a few minutes, that was gone. All the demons ran in the opposite direction to the canyon and the dark mages had also returned to the mage king’s side.

The battlefield became deathly silent.

Suddenly, the light pillar in the distance vanished. The mage king stared into the distance.

‘Seems like that boy has finished his task. Took a bit longer than I expected, but I suppose I should wrap up here too.’

The mage king glanced at the ground. He saw the armies, Myra, and Holt as if he was looking at a bunch of ants.

“It’s an interesting place,” the mage king spoke to no one in particular. “You can view the world from a height. When you do, you see how small everything is… and how little everything actually matters.”

Saying so, he expressionlessly raised his hand into the sky. A huge amount of mana poured out of his inner realm and gathered at his fingertips.

“I am Damon Rogue. You should be honoured to meet your end at my hands.”

“Flame phoenix!” The mana accumulated in his fingers rushed out and condensed into a huge figure. It was a ginormous bird, the size of a skyscraper, and it was made completely from fire.

The huge bird materialised and stared down at the humans like a fiery god.

“Burn,” the mage king said nonchalantly.

The phoenix inhaled a huge breath…

Myra Wan jumped into the crevice of the canyon and activated several defensive artifacts and summoned defensive spirits. Holt did the same, and as did a few other shrewd soldiers.

It was the last, pitiful struggle that they could put up.

…and exhaled.

A torrent of fire flooded out of its beak, raining down on the entire canyon. From the top, all the mage king saw was a land being flooded with fire.

The phoenix continuously breathed out fire for almost ten minutes before the mage king got bored and ordered it to stop. Then, he dissipated the phoenix, took the two grand dark mages, and returned without caring to see if they died or not.

The huge dust cloud took several minutes to settle, before revealing the devastation. The entire top of the canyon had transformed into molten magma. There were countless burnt corpses littering the floor. The walls of the canyon were scorched, and the floor was no better. 

Holt was the first to get up.

It was times like these that the resilience of the body martial artists cultivated really showed their strength. Holt’s strong defence and regenerative ability, and his location at the bottom of the canyon where most of the flames didn’t reach, all meant that he could survive.

Myra was the same. The last-minute defensive measures she took, and her position at the bottom of the canyon, allowed her to survive.

Apart from them, a few lucky soldiers managed to survive as well, but there was only a handful of them.

The original army of hundreds of humans and elves were reduced to a handful by a single attack from a mage king.

Myra Wan stared at her hands and repeatedly clenched and reopened them.

Was this a mage king? If he was so powerful, why didn’t he just raid the villages from the beginning? He could have easily destroyed everyone.

Beyond that, Myra had been stuck at her cultivation for a long time. She was only one step away from the mage king realm, but that one step was huge, and she had never been able to take it for centuries.

When will I… have such power?

Holt sighed heavily.

“Let’s go back.”

…

Damon Rogue looked at the pedestal in confusion. Where was Henry? Did he already leave? But he had instructed Henry to wait. So where could he have gone?

At this moment, a purple light shone next to the pedestal, from which Henry appeared.

Henry looked at Damon with excitement.

Damon observed Henry and could not detect any mana cores in him.

His eyes became cold.

…

The siblings and Sam all entered the village mansion.

“We finally returned!”