The chaotic battlefield was filled with innumerable corpses of various species, blood congregated into rivers, and remains heaped into literal mountains. The Intense stench of rot and death could be smelled even from afar.

At the peak of the most mountainous pile of corpses, there stood someone clad in black battledress. The rune pattern arrays engraved on its surface had dimmed, riddled with traces of wear and tear, and caked from head to toe with bloodstains. Despite the near-dysfunctional armor, he held an unfalteringly, unerringly cold expression, his amethyst-like eyes burning with pure killing intent.

He is Archmage Mordred, a peak rank 6 Sovereign expert.

Turning his head towards the subtle shifting of bodies below, he raised his arm, throwing a potion bottle containing grayish-silver liquid.

“Rank 6 sound-path potion, [Howling Death]!”

The potion detonated in a unidirectional explosion, producing an invisible sonic wave that engulfed a 100-man army of experts donned in supreme-quality anti-magic armor. These soldiers were swept away by this invisible wave of sound attack, their lifeless bodies falling like puppets whose strings were cut, blood flowing from each orifice as the anti-magic runes engraved on their armor shattered simultaneously.

Their bodies became an additional heap in the mountain of corpses.

“Mordred! Your head will fall today!” A knight of intimidating size clad in marble-white armor led his subordinates as he pulled the reins of his mount, filled with righteous fervor. The deaths of innumerable comrade-in-arms with a single spell did not affect his resolve.

The white armored knights were not riding on horses but 25-meter-long dragons with colorful scales of extreme durability. Followed by 11 other Dragon Knights, the captain led his subordinates into a suicidal charge toward Mordred, attempting to rapidly encircle the lone mage.

After reaching a certain point in cultivation, warriors or knights of the martial path are capable of emitting killing intent to affect their enemy’s mental state. He was faced with the combined killing intent of a dozen Immemorial Dragon Knights which could stop the beating heart of rank 4 Paragons with ease.

His response was merely a glance of disdain. “So a dozen late-stage rank 6 Immemorial Dragon Knights were your last cannon fodder, o’ venerable Heroes?” Mordred muttered as he stared into the middle distance, distracted.

The captain of the Dragon Knight Corps is an expert infinitesimally close to the peak of rank 6 Sovereign, yet still so far away. The Immemorial Dragon Knight Corps were trained and allocated resources sufficient to defeat any foe of the same rank since they were the cream of the crop of the Sacred Alliance. Furthermore, their mounts are the strongest beings in Morgen World, dragons. However, their enemy was the traitor who had betrayed the Sacred Alliance for his selfish reasons, Archmage Mordred.

He was one of the most accomplished amongst the Seven Braves from any observable metrics. Mordred’s power was beyond mortal comprehension, but he was still hovering around quasi-rank 7, only a minor rank higher than the Captain of the Immemorial Dragon Knight Corps.

Yet still, there was a significant gap between one that was a late-stage rank 6 Sovereign and one that had reached quasi-rank 7.

Even in the face of an assault from a dozen top-tier Immemorial Dragon Knights, his mind was occupied elsewhere.

At the end of Mordred’s vision was the flying fortress [Alistair], its circumference measuring at four kilometers wide and hundreds of meters tall with seven sky-piercing magic towers rising upon its enchanted walls, floating like a giant crown.

On top of its highest central tower, there stood a party of six.

“Casualties have reached over 991 million souls with most of them being rank 4 desolate beast slaves, all these just to exhaust the Archmage’s arsenal… Yet, if we did not use enslavement-path battle tactics of drowning him under large numbers of cannon fodders, the loss of our strength would be too much…” said one of the Braves that stood beside the hero.

She wore a white-gold clerical dress, signifying her role as backline-support in the party. She is the greatest healer in the Sacred Alliance, nay, perhaps the entire world, the ‘Bright Saint’ Anais.

“It doesn’t matter. Dying in exchange for exhausting Mordred's combat resources is cannon fodder's raison d’etre. Sooner or later, he’ll run out of consumables.” Another interjected. This one was a tanned elven huntress with a tight battledress wrapped around her body, highlighting all of her sensual curves. She had a sovereign-rank bow on her back and a strange whip on her hip, exerting a dangerous aura.

She was the Ranger of the party and a Beast Master who commanded myriad types of rank 6 Immemorial Beasts, Eleanora.

Anais retorted back, “That’s true, but I can only resurrect less than 1% of them, even with the resources of the Sacred Alliance, unless I sacrifice a part of my Origin Source…”

Anais’s response made Eleanora’s brow twitch. “Then, about my rank 6 Immemorial Beasts…”

“Don’t worry about them. I’ve already branded their truesouls. As long as their very existence did not disappear from this world, I can resurrect them to full strength.”

“Thanks,” Eleanora replied with a sigh.

To kill one of the 7 Braves was not an easy task, especially if the said Brave was the Archmage, who is now even stronger than the Hero himself. His specialty was refining artifacts, consumables, and their creative usage to cause long-range devastation upon an army, teleporting away as his foes enclosed him.

If not for using myriads of Immemorial Beasts leading untold millions of powerful lower-ranked beasts to exhaust the Archmage’s near-inexhaustible magic machinery arsenal and spell resources, shaping the battle through a powerful Dimensional Anchor that restricts instantaneous spatial movement and magical flight and sealing access to his secret treasury, as well as snatching his most powerful weapons before the fight was even planned to begin with, it would be impossible to even scuff Mordred’s battledress.

The landscape isn’t even the barest figment of what it once was. Originally, it was an ambush for the Archmage as he went to this secluded village to harvest a rare rank 5 wood-path resource for artifact refinement.

The frontier village was quiet and did not even possess a wall to protect its inhabitants. The only source of their daily necessities is the forest which provides them with food and herbs. Sometimes, a trader will pass by the little village to trade resources. Unknowingly, the village harbors a rare wood-path resource, Walking Meat Tree, which the Archmage had searched far and wide for.

Now, the village was no more, buried under mountains of corpses; be it beast, human, or other sophonts. 

As for reaching this point, it was truly a miracle shaped by the power of the Seven Braves.

No, there’s only the Six Braves now.

“Weak! Is this the trump card of Britonn Empire, the leader of the Sacred Alliance?” the Archmage taunted whilst conjuring a giant, obfuscated spear composed of compressed dark lightning. Using the spear, he decapitates the final Dragon Knight, the dragon they rode already decomposed, melted into goo, turned into ash, and transmuted directly into fragile stone dregs, each tainted with Mordred’s spells even following their death.

“The Immemorial Dragon Knight Corps did not even last half the time we calculated. Unfortunate, but almost to be expected.” Another person commented on Mordred’s performance.

He is a Brave who exploits his ability to read future possibilities in direct combat. His dark blue cloth armor is light, with simplicity and ease of movement as the core design, but it was made from body parts of a monster called [Immemorial Diamond-web Spider] whose web could be refined into a rank 6 material more durable than immemorial dragon scales.

His name is Drogan, the antimage assassin of the Braves. He is practically nonexistent to all but one’s sight, a stark contrast to the beacons of power he’s standing beside. 

“All according to plan. The [Mise Energy Core] at full capacity, we are ready to strike him anytime.” Eleanora reported.

The flying fortress Alistair is a construct that could take the role of a mobile weapon platform-command center. This floating fortress was one of Archmage Mordred’s magnum opuses. The main battery was an over-the-top magic machinery artifact developed by the Archmage personally; its unknown mechanism draws forth a massive amount of energy from the Mise Energy Core that supports the floating attribute of Alistair and other auxiliary systems such as the Dimensional Anchor and many others.

“All system’s green. Lamost, [Mordred Energy Loop System], and the intellectual core of Alistair are sufficient to endure the loss of energy from Mise Energy Core. After the overcharged attack, Alistair will lose 90% of its ability to support.” Anais reported.

An overcharged attack means Alistair was overcharging its main battery, It’ll expend all the accumulated energy to the point of over-exhausting the Mise Energy Core, leaving minuscule leftover energy merely sufficient to maintain Dimensional Anchor and Flight Interference briefly before the system recovered. All auxiliary systems deemed unnecessary were shut down to maximize the chance of killing Archmage Mordred.

The next moment, the two main canons of Alistair fused into one, producing profound blue light that condensed into a near-physical substance. The condensation of energy to an extreme degree formed a pulsating sapphire-like crystal of pure mana on the mouth of the cannon.

On the battlefield, Archmage Mordred was all too familiar with the energy fluctuation located at the mouth of Alistair’s cannon. It means the [Godslaying Cannon] had been primed and had begun counting down its activation sequence. 

“So it’s already been activated, hmm…” Mordred was forced to activate one trump card after another to just barely survive the ambush. Now that his creation had begun charging its most powerful cannon, Mordred knew that he wouldn’t be able to survive without activating another one of his trump cards. He was planning to use them to kill the Braves in the later stages of the fight, but it seems like he cannot delay it any longer.

“Rank 6 light-path floating fortress, Hyperion, reveal thyself!” Mordred’s telepathic command spread into the upper atmosphere of this world.

Reacting to his order, a relatively small, diamond-shaped orbital weapon platform decloaked with a flash of prismatic pixels. The weapon platform, Hyperion, quickly starts its activation sequences. Its sides opened up, spreading hardlight substances to effectively capture photons. Rings upon rings of high-energy spell formation are being printed on the hardlight sail while the bottom portion of Hyperion reveals a cannon mouth.

The bright sun of Morgen World was currently at its zenith, but due to the coverage of the hardlight sail capturing photons from an extremely wide area, the bright midday is quickly dimming at a visible rate, like a solar eclipse. Within moments, the absence of sunlight turned daytime into as dark as a starless midnight.

The Braves within Alistair noticed the changes and the spell's undulation from the upper atmosphere. “Wait, this shouldn’t be possible!” Eleanora’s words filled with shock. “He only refined one Floating Fortress during his lifetime, and that’s Alistair! There shouldn’t be any other!”

“Assessing the unknown floating fortress!” Drogan quickly makes a move, using an investigative method through Alistair. “Not good, it’s a pure-offense floating fortress. An attack from it could cripple Alistair, disabling its Dimensional Anchor. Without it, Mordred will be able to simply escape or access his dimensional vaults.”

“Then, we should activate [Mirror Ring System]!” Anais requested help in activating the said method. Since Alistair is one of Mordred’s magnum opus, the contingencies it had were in staggering amounts, so having Alistair engage a battle with something possessing an over-the-top offensive power is within Alistair’s capacity.

However, activating [Mirror Ring System] means rerouting power from the Godslaying Cannon. 

“Hahah… of course, this is the Great Archmage we’re talking about. In terms of holding the amount of cards in his hands, he is the best among us Braves since he is a Sovereign of refinement-path.” A blonde man with blue eyes clad in golden armor praised Mordred for his battle sense. He is Lamost, the Hero. “There’s no need to reroute power from the Godslaying Cannon. Instead, we should supply the [Mirror Ring System] with our power.” 

After Lamost made the decision, the six Braves followed his instructions. Each of them supplied Alistair with energy, allowing it to attack and defend at the same time.

“You wanted to kill me by snatching my creations? A thousand years too soon! Let me show you despair. Rank 6 light-path killer move, [Light Strike Array]!” Mordred whispered to himself, sending telepathic commands at Hyperion. A brief moment later, the bright sun which was forcefully covered by Hyperion’s hardlight sail reappeared, and with it, a torrential array of lasers dropped down onto the floating fortress Alistair.

At the same moment, the condensed energy within Alistair’s Godslaying Cannon was released.

Mordred has already depleted his mana reserve which supports the magical force field that perpetually protects his body from harm after a long period of battle, the same was true for his primary, secondary, and tertiary defensive artifacts. His supernaturally strong fleshy body was unable to withstand the full power of Alistair’s Godslaying Cannon head-on.

Boom! The standoff ended with an explosion greater than a weapon of mass destruction that not only vaporized physical matter but also ethereal objects like the mind and soul. Archmage Mordred is completely erased from the face of this world.

Hyperion’s pillar of white light hit Alistair at the same time as Mordred’s body was disintegrated by Alistair’s Godslaying Cannon. The difference is, Alistair is protected by a [Mirror Ring System]. 

A ring-like mirror appeared just above Alistair’s protective shield. Although it looked like a giant ring, it was an extradimensional phenomenon that reflected an attack towards its origin. 

On paper, that is.

In reality, Mordred had already known about the [Mirror Ring System] since he is the one who designed Alistair. 

Boom! [Light Strike Array] seemed to ignore the [Mirror Ring System], and the magical force shield of the floating fortress Alistair flared to life in prismatic rainbow color, but an instant later, it was annihilated into smithereens. The surface of Alistair was showered by endless torrential lights, melting like ice cream during a blazing hot summer. Multiple spots were pierced by the laser attacks from the sky, destroying important facilities onboard.

Although not completely obliterated, Alistair was severely damaged, and unable to contribute to the battle further. However, the Mirror Ring System still reflects some of the laser attacks. Unlike Alistair, Hyperion is a weapon platform-type floating fortress, its defensive aspect is on the barest minimum, thus, it wasn’t strange for it to be reduced into cosmic dust due to receiving a portion of its own reflected [Light Strike Array].

Thousands of kilometers away, the six Braves managed to escape relatively harmless through emergency teleportation.

“Thanks, Multicast…” Eleanora had a grim expression on her face. Her sight soon followed the other braves who gazed towards the location where Archmage Mordred was evaporated. Despite the distance, their methods were more than capable of seeing what happened on the former battlefield.

Radioactive smoke slowly dissipates to reveal a glassed crater twenty-five kilometers wide, with another hundred kilometers of hellish, molten landscape further surrounding it. A dense golden fog of condensed timeforce saturated the area, distorting the rate of time to an extreme degree. In the center of the golden fog, time was reversing as red particles gathered to a single point, creating a blood mist.

At first, the blood mist condensed into a ball of blood. Then, slowly and surely, it condensed into some lines that resembled veins.

Then, more colorful particles gather.

Blue, green, black, white, et cetera.

More dust-like particles were condensing to the point of forming physical substances.

Slowly and surely, the condensed particles revealed a human’s skeletomuscular system with some mechanical parts replacing or augmenting its original ‘human’ organs. Marrow, skeleton, blood veins, muscles, every piece of a ‘human’ body was reassembled by the particles until the skin recovered, revealing a charismatic figure.

It was a tall male, standing 180 cm tall from top to bottom. He had an extremely pale skin complexion to the point of looking unhealthy. Jet black hair like an inky waterfall adorned the crown of his head. His mechanical eyes shone like amethyst, glowing with dark purple light while in contrast, his pure black sclera gave him an aura of extreme evil.

His naked figure is covered by electronic circuit-like body runes, he is slowly falling into the white-hot molten earth that remained after Alistair’s attack. Just as his feet touched the sea of liquid flame, it froze into a solid, shimmering substance.

With a swipe of his hand, a black battledress tinged with a golden hue shrouded his body. Myriad rune arrays on its surface shone in colorful profound lights almost not of this dimension, a sign of it being a supreme treasure comparable to the Godslaying Cannon on Alistair. The golden fog of timeforce was slowly absorbed by his armor as he resurrected into his peak form.

The local time distortion became normalized with the golden fog’s disappearance. He then silently whispered, “Aspect of the Devil, rank 6 refinement-path killer move, [Self Refinement: War Devil Metalmorphosis]”

While shocked, Eleanora knew things were still going according to plan. Eleanora reported, “Thankfully, we took our time and effort to confirm that he has implanted the quasi-rank 7 time-path artifact [Borrowed Time] onto his spine. The eighth phase of the plan had succeeded, we have exhausted Mordred of his contingencies, but the spatial fluctuation indicates that he has re-established connection to his dimensional vaults.” 

“Would he be able to take out a MEKA?” Lamost inquired.

“No, the breach is not that big,” Eleanora replied. “He couldn’t take out anything the size of a power armor.”

“Then, there’s nothing to worry about. All conditions are clear; we are now ready for the last phase, Let’s kill the ‘Devil King’!” 

The [Seven Braves] are considered as the peak existences in this world where the divines could not descend with their true body, while Archmage Mordred was an existence that was considered the peak of the Seven Braves. The artifacts and catalysts of destruction within his hands were innumerable.

“Alistair, commence automatic repair protocol, prioritizing the Dimensional Anchor.” Lamost the Hero simply sent a telepathic command to the intellectual core of Alistair several thousand kilometers away. Gripping the 7-colored Spear of Light, he ordered the other Braves to start the final battle. “Let’s go!”

The 4th Generation Hero, Lamost, was the strongest man in the Sacred Alliance. However, that changed when the Great Archmage didn’t stop pursuing power unscrupulously. When everyone else’s rate of advancement grinds to a halt while his own is continuously stable, the difference in their powers would eventually be made clear. Mordred now took the position of the most powerful as he was far stronger than the Hero.

However, as the sovereign of refinement-path, his status of being the ‘most powerful’ is conditional at best. Of the Seven Braves, his military prowess may be stronger than any individual Braves, but not stronger than all of the Braves combined, especially since he cannot showcase the specialty of a refinement-path expert! Mordred could not use his army of puppets, his dimensional artillery, or his most powerful trump card: MEKA. Furthermore, Alistair, one of Mordred’s magnum opuses, was snatched by the Braves and an overwhelming majority of his dimensional vaults where he stored most of his creations are locked down.

One of the Braves besides Lamost prepares a teleportation spell.

She was the smallest person at the Brave’s party, standing merely around 140 centimeters from top to bottom. Her body is covered by a black war robe enchanted with runic words, and chaotic powers of the nine elements materialized on its surface. Her head is also covered by a mask that resembles a helmet, further covering her body.

She was the only person in the world who could use magic without chanting as she was mute. The only Braves whose identity is unknown and is always shrouded in mystery, Multicast!

Her specialty is to cast multiple magic spells at the same time. In a split second, six teleportation spell formations appeared beneath the braves. Her teleportation spell was assisted by the intellectual core of Alistair; with it, she could teleport anyone to any point on the battlefield nearly instantly.

“Brace for impact!” the last Brave who had never said anything before released a battle cry.

He was the Warrior of the Brave’s party, the one that excels in tanking punishment and dealing damage through melee confrontation. His simple battle cry is a martial art that boosts the party’s mental defense to counter Mordred’s passive wisdom-path mental attacks.

He wore thick black full-plate armor like a moving fortress. On his back hung a pair of jet-black two-handed greatswords that were too thick, too big, and too heavy to be called a sword, it was more like a lump of iron. As he held a greatsword in each arm, immense killing intent burst forth from his eyes that could kill anyone under rank 4. It was both a form of mental attack and defense to further counter most forms of Mordred’s wisdom-path methods.

He is the ‘Undying Juggernaut’ Yurnero!

Multicast's teleportation spell was too quick and too precise for Mordred to intercept.

The moment Mordred finished summoning his battle robe, Yurnero teleported in front of him while swinging his twin blades.

In an instant, the acceleration of Yurnero’s sword produces explosions of plasma and sonic booms due to sheer air friction, even as his methods mitigate the air resistance. Each of Yurnero’s swords weighs two thousand metric tons, but it’s lighter than a feather in his hand. The sword fell on Mordred’s body at supersonic speed.

From Yurnero’s shadow, Drogan attacked with his void-tearing dagger, capable of tearing the toughest magical shield! Their teamwork was impeccable; the attacks could not be defended by normal means!

Boom!

At the last moment before touching Mordred’s flesh, the blade and swords were blocked by a black shadow.

Knowing his attack was blocked by Mordred’s method, Yurnero and Drogan did not pause their attack. Instead, they pour their energy into continuing the assault.

Within the span of a second, the two braves managed to attack several thousand times, but their attacks were somewhat blocked by tendrils of black darkness.

Then, Yurnero with Drogan still hiding under his shadow, took a step back to observe. Even at melee distance, Yurnero couldn’t figure out how Mordred was able to parry his attack. As soon as he took a step back, his figure was covered by plasma fire. Molten plasma enshrouded his armored body, yet it could not exert the slightest damage to his extremely durable physique or his quasi-divine armor.

It took a few seconds for the plasma cloud on Mordred to settle. Of course, just a cloud of extremely hot air was unable to block the Brave’s senses, but Mordred in his peak form possessed a magical force shield that was able to distort the space around him, rendering the area around him obscure.

What the Braves saw surprised them.

They thought that Yurnero and Drogan’s attacks were blocked by some sort of force shield or defensive artifact, as it was too durable.

But it wasn’t.

It was parried by their enemy, the Archmage himself!

He no longer bears even a facsimile of something ‘human’, however.

Dark metallic dragon scales replaced his weak human skin, purple blood veins-like lines similar to circuits adorning almost every inch of it. Two pairs of energy wings attached to a mechanical skeleton akin to a dragon’s grew from his back which bypassed the spell-based flight restriction laid out by Alistair through semi-physical means.

Two draconic claws replaced his feet, slagging everything they stepped on with dark purple soul fire, the boiling magma landscape itself dying due to the radiation. The rune array-engraved battledress was no longer on his body, his scales were further reinforced by a dragon-like set of violet power armor bathed in a purple glow, the hint of time force becoming known in the form of deep orange lines across it. 

Following his transformation, he was taller than all the Braves, extending to a height of 2.5 meters tall.

His clawed hand gripped a sovereign-rank axe, [Entropic Despair] which possessed its own spirit.

Entropic Despair was pure black. Its shape resembles the head of an otherworldly devil filled with indignation and despair. Its blade shone with dark purple light while leaking viscous dark purple liquid, evident of the curses and poisons imbued on its existence. His devilish aura amplified, capable of turning most rank 5 Epic experts into raving lunatics.

“What the fuck, he actually transformed himself into a real Devil- what?” The Undying Juggernaut, Yurnero, exclaimed in surprise after using an investigative killer move to examine Mordred, “He’s incorporated a devil war machine into his body as well, becoming half machine at the same time. And that axe, isn’t that the infamous Entropic Despair from Purgatory World?”

Entropic Despair is a rank 6 weapon that possesses its own spirituality. As an intelligent weapon with an ego of its own, it will not accept just anyone to wield it. Despite having unfathomable wisdom-path attainment, Mordred was still a ‘magic caster’ in essence, though the extent of his powers sometimes made people doubt his actual limit. The only explanation the Braves could accept Mordred was able to wield it was because he forcefully refined it, or because of the devil machinery body parts allowing him to suffer zero to no retaliation from the axe itself.

Or both.

Of course, one cannot measure any of the Braves with common sense, since every single one of them are insane geniuses in their field, but Mordred is a genius amongst geniuses. A monster amongst monsters.

A cheat among cheats.

While wielding Entropic Despair on his right, his left hand conjures magic circles of unknown spells. The Braves have received a mental shock, they won’t allow Mordred to get the initiative, but it is too late. Mordred was not the Archmage for nothing, his spellcasting speed is near-instant even for rank 6 spells.

“Rank 6 refinement-path killer move [Refining Micropyre]!

Rank 6 lightning-path killer move [Burden of Gaia].”

Immediately, Mordred showed the specialty of Multicast to activate 8 different spells that combined into two killer moves to strengthen his offensive ability.

[Refining Micropyre] is a refinement-path killer move that replicates the profundity of fire-path. Barely. The spell uses an ungodly amount of nanoparticles to activate which instills Entropic Despair with a sickly green flame that spreads contagious nanomachines to the surrounding air. The nanomachines will ‘refine’ anything that it touches, be it a defensive force field, the landscape, armor, or even other people. If humans are fully ‘refined’ by this method, it is practically a death sentence since they’ll become a pyro-zombie and thus a new vector of infection.

[Burden of Gaia] was a lightning-path method that affected the terrestrial magnetism of the world. It forces the surrounding gravity to be several hundred times heavier at the first instance and grows even stronger with every passing moment as long as Mordred channels his mana into the spell.

In an instant, the Six Braves make their moves.

‘Bright Saint’ Anais was quite familiar with [Burden of Gaia] as it was one of Mordred’s signature killer moves, therefore, she managed to dispel it almost instantly with her blessing. At the same time, the Magician of Multicast conjured one of her favorite light-path defensive spells, [Layered Force Shield].

It was an invisible defensive spell that could be stacked to increase its potency. With her ability to multicast, the amount of Layered Force Shield spells activated by her was more than the average rank 6 sovereign mages could cast in an instant.

Immediately, forty thousand layers of invisible bubble-like shields warp into existence, protecting Yurnero. The shields refract light through sheer layer density.

“Let’s kill each other…” Mordred said with a cold tone as Entropic Despair cleaved into the invisible layers of shields like a knife through butter. Nay, they burned clear through by even being near his blade. The only thing protecting Yurnero was the sheer quantity of them.

Entropic Despair was not a remotely ‘standard’ sovereign-rank weapon. It is Mordred’s ultimate concealed weapon that he did not bother exposing his entire life, until now. Its power was not a laughing matter, comparable to Lamost’s spear. Mordred didn’t have to exert nearly the same degree of power as it took Yurnero to produce sonic booms and explosions of plasma resultant of air friction.

The magical runes and curses engraved on Entropic Despair’s body also made it an excellent anti-magic weapon, capable of destroying most magical force shields the instant they touched.

As it made ‘contact’ with the magical shield, every layer of it was dispelled and some of the kinetic force behind the attack passed through, dealing significant damage to both Yurnero and Drogan. The burning nanomachines tried to envelop Yurnero, but Anais’s reaction was immediate as a curse-dispelling blessing immediately activated, shaving off the micropyre virus while significantly slowing down the rest.

“Yurnero, my Entropic Despair is lusting for the flesh and blood of the greatest warrior of Morgen World!” Mordred taunted with a cold tone.

“Be careful. He has used a war devil metalmorphosis art. His physical attributes are estimated to increase by over tenfold, almost matching Yurnero’s non-combat mode!” Drogan reported as he retreated several steps back after receiving the cleave damage wasn’t blocked by Yurnero, suffering from internal wounds.

Just the remnant energy from a casual strike allows Mordred to cleave through the sea of lava several kilometers deep, after penetrating forty thousand layers of Multicast’s [Layered Force Shield].

It wasn’t a normal sovereign-rank magician’s Force Shield, but in Multicast’s [Layered Force Shield], there was a significant difference between a normal sovereign and a Brave-class Sovereign.

Boom! Suddenly, Mordred’s figure exploded with light that shone in an ominous deep black. “Drogan, I would be a fool if I did not prepare assassination countermeasures. Your effort is laughable.”

Drogan reveals himself for the barest instant with a pale expression, his body covered in black blood. He attempted to attack Mordred through his shadow and failed, but what Drogan could not comprehend was why the Archmage’s shadow was guarded by a figure that looked exactly like the current Mordred.

Needless to say, the weakness of mages are anti-mage assassins, capable of avoiding spells entirely and eliminating them even whilst under guard. Drogan is the assassin of the Braves, and his assassination techniques are lethal even against Mordred. However, the ’Great Archmage Magic Sovereign’ wouldn’t be so if he couldn’t deal with assassins, even if Drogan is the antimage of the Braves.

“How’s the taste of my Umbral Construct, Drogan?” Mordred sneered as Anais’s curse dispelled and enveloped Drogan’s wounded body. Then, as if reacting to the main body’s words, Mordred’s shadow moved independently, leveling his weapon towards Drogan in taunt. It looks exactly like him, the only difference being the pair of cursed daggers on its hands.

“I have yet to perfect my rank 6 dark-path puppet, [Umbral Construct], but it’s sufficient to deal with your annoying assassination technique. I did, after all, develop its patterns to counter yours.”

Boom! Boom! Boom! Countless miniature black explosions continued to reverberate out as Drogan defended against Mordred’s Umbral Clone. The fights between the two shadows in their shadow dimensions were fierce, capable of interfering with the material world. Each micro-explosion was powerful enough to kill rank 5 epics, being micro-black holes that would appear and disappear for less than a microsecond after they clashed their weapons, and there were thousands of them appearing and disappearing every second.

Yet, it wasn’t enough to overpower the Braves. Mordred went all out.

“Aspect of the Devil, rank 6 refinement-path killer move, [Self Refinement: Timeseer Eye Devil Metalmorphosis]!”

Mordred refined a part of his forehead. It opened up for a mechanical eye to imitate an Immemorial Timeseer Eye Devil, glowing with reddish-golden light that grants him the power to see one second into the future with very high accuracy. Against a typical rank 6 foe, this killer move grants him the ability to see over 4 seconds into the future with perfect accuracy, but against the Braves, his method was suppressed to a great degree.

The others reacted to Mordred’s initiative. Anais cast one of her best supportive spells, whereas Eleanora used her bow to send arrows several times faster than the speed of light.

As for Yurnero, he split into two after using his trump card, he and his clone made Mordred preoccupied so that the others could safely perform their roles. Multicast, whose name was never known even to the other braves, aided the close combat fighters by exploiting Mordred’s weakness of split attention.

“Multicast, we need your Arcane Artillery!” said Anais a large distance away to hide from Mordred’s Umbral Construct.

Suddenly, the Magician of Multicast teleported several kilometers out of the combat zone. After reaching an ideal position, she started preparing her spell.

The spell she had chosen was simple, it’s a rank 4 non-elemental spell; [Arcane Missile]. The Arcane Missile spell produces a magical projectile that will disintegrate its target into basic particles.

Its power was considered high, even when compared to some rank 5 magic spells.

But it has several weaknesses. For example; the long casting time, the precise concentration required to make the arcane missile stay true to its target, and so on and so forth.

However, Multicast was not a greenhorn with magic spells. In an instant, several hundred thousand [Arcane Missile] spell circles manifested around her, each spell circle did not disappear after releasing one [Arcane Missile], hundreds were pouring from every spell formation each second. Furthermore, each was amplified by [Quadruple Maximize], [Quadruple Pierce], [Quadruple Lengthen], [Quadruple Speed], and [Quadruple Damage] atop her secret methods. With these amplifications, the rank 4 spell was effective towards Mordred’s force shield.

Without the obstruction from Mordred’s retaliation, the Magician of Multicast had become a true Arcane Artillery.

Normally, Mordred’s boundlessly powerful mind was able to process countless more actions at once compared to normal people. His unfathomable wisdom-path attainment allowed him to dismantle Multicast’s spells the moment it materialized.

However, he was forced to fight Yurnero, Drogan, and the Hero supported by the other Braves at close range, his telepathic thought expenditure was too much. He had no spare thought nor attention to deal with Multicast’s attacks, therefore he could only allow Multicast’s arcane artillery to shave off his perpetual space-distorting magical force shield, forcing it to flare to life with a dark golden purple hue.

Their well-rounded party was taking the initiative back from Mordred’s singular person.

With Multicast turning into an Arcane Artillery, the already destroyed landscape becomes even more chaotic as each missile has the power of an antimatter warhead with its explosion range compressed into a meter diameter, evaporating anything that does not possess rank 6 durability. It will be impossible for the environment to recover unless methods beyond the sovereign-rank are used to support the restoration.

Mordred’s meticulous use of spells, consumables, artifacts, arrangement, and deliberate moves to disrupt the Brave’s tempo meant nothing in the face of overwhelming power multiplied by teamwork.

It is at this moment that the Hero suddenly uses his trump card. The seven-colored strands of light that compressed into his spear started to separate itself.

It split into seven colored spears of light, floating around him. Each color represents an element. And since he could control 7 colors, he had attainment in 7 different elements.

Earth, water, wood, fire, metal, lightning, and light.

Each spear of light started to control its respective elements and began attacking with its method, turning into a clone of the Hero himself.

No matter how powerful Mordred is with his seemingly endless amount of small artifacts and consumables, it will be impossible to fight with the 6 Braves fully cooperating. And now with the Hero splitting into 7, it’s as if fighting five Braves and seven Heroes.

Still, Mordred was the sovereign of magic who refined countless miraculous artifacts. His tenacity was greater than what the Brave deducted.

“Rank 6 refinement-path killer move, [Matter-Energy Conversion]!”

Once in a while, Mordred threw magnetically-encased balls of antimatter by refining matter and energy together, impossible to dodge by ordinary means, yet that could not completely defeat the Braves. The damage dealt by Mordred was massive since the chain explosion of antimatter would normally be able to annihilate cities, but he was unable to stack the damage toward them as Anais restored her teammates every chance she got. Mordred wanted to kill her first, but the others did not let him make a move on her, and she was constantly moving to avoid openings in the line that would leave her vulnerable to begin with.

“Rank 6 refinement-path killer move, [Blackblood Macropyre]!”

The deadlock changes when Mordred’s body exhales copious amounts of black flame-like nanoswarm that resists recovery spells. Every damage he exerts toward Yurnero and the others is more effective than what the Braves did to him. The reason why he uses the killer move at this moment is because of its self-mutilating nature: this method expends a portion of his ‘blood’ and copious amounts of nanoparticles per second.

Unfortunately, he was alone, and the Braves had six.

It took two minutes of intense melee before Mordred’s Umbral Construct was beheaded, while the space-distorting force shield was dispelled by Drogan’s void-tearing dagger.

A minute later, one of his hands was severed, forcing him to wield the two-handed axe, Entropic Despair, with his left hand.

Twenty seconds later, his third eye was pierced by an arrow sent by Eleanora, which made him lose the ability to glimpse the future.

Ten seconds later, the right side of his torso along with his two pairs of energy wings was obliterated by a clean strike from Yurnero, forcing him to fight from the ground.

Five seconds later, his legs were transmuted into epic metal by Lamost the Hero, reducing his evasion ability greatly.

Two seconds later, his whole body received a baptism of Holy Fire from the Magician of Multicast.

Although the battle time was short, their actions moved mountains as they moved at speeds beyond mortal comprehension. Drogan, the antimage assassin of the Braves, was even capable of moving at the speed of light.

Then, it was time for him to die.

Battles between sovereigns usually last a long period, and even then, the majority of them ended in pyrrhic victories or a slightly advantageous stalemate. If not for the use of literal millions of cannon fodders and Alistair's unceasing spatial interruptions, the Braves forcing him to exhaust his cards while his secret treasury is being suppressed, this result wouldn’t be even in the peripheral of Drogan’s future sight.

“Any last words, Mordred?” The Hero said. He was the most powerful character in the Braves excluding the current Mordred, and he won’t let him recover.

Even now, the space around Mordred’s body is distorted. Ether particles, nine elemental particles, astral essence, soul essence, photons, electromagnetic force, terrestrial magnetism (gravity), and even basic heat of the lava in the surrounding area were refined by Mordred, becoming fuel to recover himself at a rapid pace.

Mordred’s three mechanical devil hearts are mending themselves at a visible rate, war machine nanoswarms repairing them to the best of their abilities. If he was left alone for a few minutes, perhaps he could recover his strength.

Of course, the Braves weren’t in good condition either. Of the six elemental clones made by the Hero, five of them were destroyed while his true body received severe wounds.

Yurnero’s clone also disintegrates, while his true body loses his right arm and eye permanently without any chance of being healed without a Divine Miracle being bestowed upon him, washing away the potent Blackblood Macropyre curse inflicted by Mordred.

Drogan received a massive slash wound on his face that continued down onto his chest, while Anais’ magic spells constantly resisted the curses and poisons laced within.

Eleanora was standing behind Lamost, her expression pale as two of her three weapons broke during the fight, all of her immemorial beasts slain with their truesouls erased from existence by Mordred’s methods, and her energy completely spent.

As for Anais and Multicast, they fainted due to mana exhaustion. Two renowned sovereign magic casters lost in terms of mana pool against Archmage Mordred who had to fight six Brave-class individuals at the same time… If word were to get out, it would be humiliating for them.

There was no anger in Mordred’s eyes. There was only tranquil- no, almost practiced equilibrium as if he had accepted the fact that he was already dead.

“What I’m trying to accomplish is finding a different method to break through to become a rank 7 ‘Archmage of Laws’, the realm beyond Sovereign! Just because I have more accomplishments than you, the Sacred Alliance wants me dead and declares me as a heretic. I don’t want to ascend as a god of this damn world! Is this the justice that the Sacred Alliance pursues? You all covet the result of my research but do not have the guts to do it yourself. You are all fucking hypocrites.”

Mordred’s voice was very coarse and deep, as his neck was destroyed by Yurnero several moves ago. Yet, the life force of a half-machine half-devil was so great that it did not allow him to die anytime soon.

“Don’t forget the looming threat of the Otherworldly Invaders prophesied by the First Generation Hero! We only put down one of them, they are the true enemies! Didn’t you all notice, the time between each cycle is getting closer and closer? The Sacred Alliance is slowly losing in this war for survival, we need power, even if it’s tainted with evil. As long as you know how to properly control them, devils are far better than demons!

The Divines are delusional; I am doing this to defend this world from otherworldly invaders like the Demon Kings or other Astral Beings! In the future, the myriad otherworldly invaders will not come alone. Unlike Demon King Maximilian who we killed together, the next otherworldly invader won’t be alone!” Mordred’s emotions betrayed him by this point as he was practically frothing at his mouth, but Lamost’s expression was ice-cold.

“Fool! You are considered as the 5th Otherworldly Invader: ‘Devil King Mordred’, no longer the venerable ‘Great Archmage’. There will be a long period of peacetime before the prophesied 6th Otherworldly Invader, a Demon King with their attendants, arrives in this world. Until then, the Sacred Alliance will enjoy a prosperous time of peace and glory. We have to thank you for your ‘contributions’ to single-handedly advancing our magical civilization for that. Alistair is an excellent gift you left us.” Lamost mused himself.

Seeing they have besmirched his reputation, stole his glory, and taken all precious to him, Mordred revealed a furious expression.

“In my name as Mordred, I will reach the peak of this damned World. I will pursue the truth and eternal life. If the Heroes stand in my way, I will cut down Heroes. If Demon Kings stand in my way, I will exterminate Demon Kings! If the World stands in my way, I will destroy the World! If Gods stand in my way, I will slaughter Gods! And if the Heavens stand in my way, I will obliterate the Heavens!”

Mordred’s last word was like a proclamation to the heavens. Heavenly powers swept the area like the warm winds of a summer breeze. In vigilance, Lamost activates most of his investigative killer moves, but he finds nothing worth noting.

“Seven Spear, Undying Juggernaut, Darkblade Shadow, Beast Ranger, Multicast, and Bright Saint!” Mordred recites the six brave’s titles with malicious intent.

“ALL OF YOU ARE DELUSIONAL FOOLS, MERELY CHESS PIECES IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS AND YOU DARE SPOUT RIGHTEOUS BULLSHIT AT ME!!!!”

Archmage Mordred screamed at the top of his lungs in manic insanity. He had fallen to the scheme of the Gods who have lived for countless years longer than him. The Divines lusted over his True Inheritances. He knew this from the beginning. He had never released it to anyone on their side.

“WITH MY REMAINING STRENGTH, I CURSE YOU!!! I CURSE YOU, I CURSE YOU, I CURSE YOUUUUUUU!!!”

“An ant’s death throes. Die.” Said Lamost as his seven-colored spear of light stabbed into his three hearts. His seemingly simple attack is a killer move that annihilates Mordred’s weakened truesoul, in fear of mental corruption released by the Devil King. Of course, it also kills any split souls connected to the Archmage's truesoul, since otherwise, it would’ve been impossible to truly eliminate him.

The moment his soul started to dissipate, Lamost could’ve sworn he saw Mordred’s draconic lips curve upwards to smile with a smug expression. On his deathbed, he activated an information-path killer move that exploded his body into a messy pile of devil flesh and metallic gore, destroying and corrupting the lands with his toxic blood and cursed composites.

Even if the Divines manifest in the material world with their true body, they won’t be able to gather useful inheritance from this bloody mess since information-path was something that the Archmage developed from scratch. Using information-path methods on him would be as if an elementary student attempted to perform forensics on a corpse desiccated by an FBI agent with decades of experience in how to stop a trail where it starts.

Using time-path divine miracles to try something in the past before he died? Lamost wouldn't believe Mordred didn't prepare a time-path countermeasure for that, doing it would bring the Archmage's counterattack from the past. Given his ability to come back from the dead, he would imagine that he’s able to make one that would cause the opposite with someone else. One with the preparation necessary to inflict great damage.

The information-path explosion was not a method that could be used to kill the braves, but Mordred’s body was imbued with unexplainable curses, toxic substances, and other mental-encroaching radiation. It wasn’t good for any lifeform to touch it.

Fortunately, Lamost's body was protected by the golden glow of a magical force field from Anais’ spells, as with his unconscious companions. The blood explosion did not hurt them with its limited power, but the land started to die as the burning landscape was tainted purple and corroded by the quite literally devilish radiation of Mordred’s leftover body if it can even be called that. It slowly terraforms the world into an anti-intelligent life environment. 

Scratch that, it de-terraforms the soil and rock into something unfriendly to life in general.

“Damn, he got us.” Lamost scanned the result of his and his comrades' hard work disappearing into oblivion. He grits his teeth bitterly, “Anais must work hard to contain this fallout. Most rank 5 Epics won’t be capable of resisting the sheer energy radiation in this place. Only an Archmage of refinement comparable to Mordred himself can completely dispel this unless a God uses their Divine Miracle on the material world, but even that’s likely a wash. At least we got his Alistair True Inheritance and his Archmage Tower. Let’s leave, now.” Lamost said to Eleanora.

Later, the myriad races within the Central Continent’s Sacred Alliance rejoiced as a traitor of the Braves was dealt with. The status of the remaining six Braves rose to unimaginable heights in the hearts of mortals as they culled the evil Archmage who tried to fool the entire world, a devil king playing hero.