The ‘meeting’

Since this was a critical moment, I made an exception and used utility magic to rid myself of my mortal needs. While Lien was sleeping safe and sound, I flew to a faraway location and built a bunker. I also surrounded it with all kinds of barriers since I wanted to make sure that nothing would happen to my family while I was away.

After taking Lien and our parents to the bunker, I teleported back to the house where Dixon and Damon were staying. They were in the middle of having breakfast when I appeared in the room. Looking at them sternly, I said, “You two better run for your lives.”

“Wait, wait! We didn’t do anything!” Dixon jumped up and raised her hands defensively, staring at me with wide opened eyes.

“I know,” I nodded. “You misunderstood me. You should run because some very dangerous people are on their way here, and I won’t be able to protect you.”

“Are you kidding me?” Damon jumped up from his seat.

“No,” I shook my head. “Oh, and in case you haven’t realised it yet, you won’t have to worry about the grandmasters. I mean… they’ll be occupied by trying to kill me.”

After staring at me for a good second, Damon took a deep breath and made his way towards the door. When he was about to pass me, I grabbed his shoulder and pulled him back.

“What are you doing?” he asked with a frown, trying to peel my fingers off of his shoulder.

“Before you leave, let me tell you something. If you feel that you have nowhere to go and want to stick around, you should wait for me in Balan. In case you do, I ask you to erase every data about me that is related to my magic and my relationship with Lien. I don’t care if you have to use force, though don’t kill anyone,” I said as I let go of him.

“I’ll see what I can do,” he muttered as he left through the door.

“I’ll do what you asked,” Dixon said as she lowered her head and ran after him.

Sensing that they were getting further and further away from the village, I took a deep breath and slapped my cheeks. As I turned around and left the house, I found Valerie walking towards me, her eyes carefully inspecting every little detail in the village.

Noticing that I was standing in the door, she ran up to me and said, “Good morning!”

“Good morning,” I replied as I closed the door behind my back and then looked into her eyes.

“How come I can't sense Lien's presence?” she asked, turning towards our house.

“She isn’t here and isn’t going to return for a while,” I smiled at her.

Stepping closer, she grabbed my hand and wanted to say something, but I shook her off and made my way towards the lake. “I know that your father sent you here, so stop pretending.”

“What are you ta-” she wanted to defend herself, but I cut into her words once again, “I’ve injected some of my mana into you last night, so I know that you were lying.”  I wasn’t really in the mood to listen to her excuses.

Turning around for a moment, I peeked at her as I added, “By the way, I could kill you before they arrive, you know?”

Taking a step back, she raised her hands to defend herself, but realised mid-way that it’d be pointless. Noticing that I was smiling, she also realised that I didn’t intend to kill her and that I simply wanted to scare her.

Lowering her arms, she said, “I’m sorry, but it’s either you or me. My father can be quite merciless at times, even if I’m his daughter.”

“Am I supposed to feel sorry for you?” I asked.

“No, I just want you to understand my situation,” she shook her head.

Turning back ahead, I replied, “Considering the system they created, I’m not surprised and that’s also the reason I haven’t killed you yet.” Once I reached the shore, I sat down in the sand and asked, “How come they made up their mind to get rid of me so quickly?”

Sitting down next to me, she replied, “You probably realised by now that you were being spied on and that my father had a detailed report about you when you arrived. The surveillance system was also following you the whole time and as it turned out, Em was also working for them. He was sent by my father and ran into this place intentionally.”

“Is that so?” I raised a brow.

“You don’t seem to be surprised,” she muttered.

“Well, I’m not. I found it a bit strange that two students ran into this place since I laid a formation which was supposed to make living beings scared of this area. Normal people would have tried to go around the place and it wouldn’t have taken more than five seconds for them. At first, I thought they were simply brave and stuff like that. I should have realised things sooner,” I shook my head, dissatisfied with my level of ignorance.

“Nah, most people like you didn’t even notice what was going on until they were surrounded and forced to join,” she said. “Once they were free, but now all of them are working for Light city,” she sighed.

“That still didn’t answer my question,” I remarked.

“Oh, you’re right. I guess I can tell you this much. When my father scanned you and couldn’t see through your power, he realised that you were a huge threat and while you went out to deal with Sylvanus’ doppelganger, he met up with the other Grandmasters and held a quick meeting. Since I saw that you captured two people from Dark city, I told my father and they made up their mind to get rid of you in the blink of an eye. It’s not without reason that the people from Light city could never catch anyone from Dark city.”

“Oh? How come?” I raised a brow.

“We always sent a bit weaker people to the ruins from Light city, which made it impossible for them to stop the people of Dark city from suiciding and returning to the city with the black daggers. I suppose you know what I’m talking about since you interrogated those two,” she explained.

“Yeah, I know,” I nodded.

Turning silent for a few seconds, she clenched her fists, seemingly trying to gather her courage to do something. Taking a deep breath, she said, “You probably don’t care about me and I can totally understand why, but I must tell you something. I know I’ve done many evil things because of my fear of death and I’m probably a terrible person for following my father’s orders, but you must understand that I had no choice.”

“Choices, choices, always these choices,” I shook my head.

Seeing that I didn’t care about her excuses, she desperately clung on to my shoulder and said, “Look, I’ve experienced the full magnitude of my father’s power when I was younger and you’re way above him, but that’s not going to be enough to keep you alive! There is a way, though! if I were to tell you about the grandmasters’ abilities, you could survive this!”

“Oh? And are you willing to tell me anything?” I asked, a bit annoyed by her closeness. If I turned my head to the side, she could kiss me any moment, but I wanted to find out as much about my opponents’ abilities as possible.

“Yes, but it comes with a condition,” she nodded, sitting back on her knees.

“And what’s that?” I tilted my head to the side, peering towards her.

“You’re a very strong and unyielding person, which makes me look up to you. You see, I’ve never had the courage to talk back to my father. I think I did it once when I was a child, and he beat me up,” her voice turned thinner towards the end.

Shaking her head, she got back on track and continued, “In return for the information, could you take me under your wings as well? You don’t have to teach me like you do Lien and you could also do anything to my body, but in turn, please protect me from people like my father. I want to stop living like this, I’ve had enough of seeing people pointlessly murdering each other,” she grasped my arm. Seeing me turning towards the lake, she lowered her head to the ground and said, “Please!”

“That’s funny coming from you. Aren’t you the one who organised who should go where and when?” I asked.

“Yes, and that’s why it makes me feel even worse. I want a way out of this!” she shouted, slightly raising her head.

Looking into her eyes, I gave her my answer, “Then let me tell you something here and now. You’re never going to become my friend, sex friend, girlfriend, wife, or anything of the sort, and your body is the last thing I need, honestly. I understand that you were forced to do this and that you grew up fearing your life, but that doesn’t make you innocent.”

“It’s just a good enough reason for me to spare you. In case you really want a way out of your current life, you should realise that if I killed the grandmasters, you’d be free. What you do after is up to you, so now’s your time to tell me about their powers or if you don’t want to, then you better run before they arrive.”

Biting her lower lip, she thought about it for a moment and then asked, “Is that how you feel about me?”

“Yes,” I nodded.

“Haah- I guess my life is ruined. Sometimes I can’t help but think that I should just end my life,” she muttered as she sat back on her ass and pulled up her legs, resting her forehead on her knees.

I understood that she was a victim as well and I knew that she wasn’t lying, but I couldn’t feel a shred of sympathy for her when I thought about how she had been playing along with them for who knows how many years. She could have run away and asked for help from other people and yet she chose to stay. She was simply unwilling to give up on her own comfort zone and played along with her father instead of trying to stop him.

In fact, if she shut her mouth and didn’t tell her father that I captured two people from Dark city, the grandmasters wouldn’t be on their way to kill me. That being the case, I didn’t feel obliged to lighten up her mood and stop her from suiciding, even though I was very much against the idea of suiciding. It was nothing but a way to escape from the pain and the hardships of life. It wasn’t a bad thing to have weaknesses, even I had my own ‘shadows’.

“The only thing I can tell you right now is that I could stand up and leave before your father arrives and return a month later when I become strong enough to wipe out the grandmasters in a few seconds, and yet I’m here, waiting for them. I could say that ‘what does it matter if a few thousand people die in the meantime when so many died already’, but then I’d be simply running away from the problem that I’m supposed to face and solve right now,” I tried reasoning with her.

“If you put it like that, I kind of feel like doing my best to atone for my sins,” she smiled at me.

Meh, I still went and brightened up her mood. I guess I can’t just start hating her, even if she’s like this.

Taking a deep breath, she moved in front of me and knelt down. Looking into my eyes, she put her hands on mine and said, “You can check that I’m not going to lie-” she said, but seeing me pointing towards the place where she was sitting, she stopped talking and noticed my forky tail lying on the ground.

“What the fuck!?” she cried out.

“You were sitting on my tail the whole time. Do you really think that I’d have believed even a single word of yours without that? I’m sorry but I can’t trust you,” I shook my head.

Biting her lower lip, she said, “That’s quite annoying, but I guess it’s understandable.”

“I’m glad we agree,” I said as I pulled back my hand and wrapped my tail around her wrist.

Rolling her eyes, she said, “The reason they take so long to get here is that they’re bringing a bunch of loyal servants with them who are also strong enough to kill doppelgangers, though they can’t fly as quickly as the grandmasters. You see, the grandmasters have thought of multiple formations over the years to deal with people like you. Well, most of them were weaker than you but there had been a few powerful god incarnations who tried to stop them, or so I heard. My father is over a hundred years old already, so I can’t-”

“Please, get to the point,” I rolled my eyes.

“Ah sorry,” she nodded, and then told me about their tactics and formations. She also told me about two of the grandmasters and although she wanted to tell me about the others as well, she ran out of time.

“As you know, my father excels in barriers and he’s of key importance. You should take him out first and then-”

Seeing me standing up, she stopped talking and asked, “What's wrong?”

“You’re out of time,” I replied.

“What? No way! We’re only half-through their abilities,” she cried out.

“You should have made up your mind sooner, but even this much is better than nothing, so thanks for all,” I shrugged it off. “Anyway, you better leave before they appear because I’m not going to hold back on you if your father commands you to attack me,” I warned her.

“I guess you're right. I'm sorry for not being able to make up my mind earlier,” she muttered as she stood up. Looking back at me one more time, she teleported out of the village and went somewhere else. It was quite funny how she could just switch sides after doing so many bad deeds. Even if I died, she could continue living in Light city like up till now and nobody would suspect that she tried to betray them.

I didn’t know whether the raping attempt was planned or not, but I didn’t really care at this point. Although I couldn’t bring myself to hate her after finding out about her circumstances, I knew for sure that I didn’t want her around. At least, that was what I felt and I was quite sure that it wouldn’t change in the near future.

During the night, I made some preparations for my dear guests and turned the whole village into a giant trap. Although it wouldn’t be enough to deal with grandmaster level people, it would be more than enough to kill those who knew only a little bit of word magic. Since I removed the barrier that was surrounding the village, the group of fifty-two people flew straight in and landed on the ground, surrounding me.

“Woah, so many people. What brought you all here?” I raised my hands as I looked around.

“It’s pointless to play the fool, we know that you’ve captured two people from Dark city, namely Dixon and Damon from the sixty-third division,” a man with long black hair and beard stepped forward and said. Despite having a long beard, his face looked quite young. If I had to guess, I’d have said that he was in his thirties, but that surely wasn’t the case.

“And who might you be?” I titled my head to the side.

“My name is Thanatos, and I’m the leader of the Grandmasters,” he replied.

“And what about Artemis?” I raised my brows.

“I don’t know who she is or where she is, nor do I care,” he waved his hand. “She may live on another continent, though depending on your answer, you may don’t get to find the answer. What matters now is that you’ve found out about the system I created.”

“So what?” I asked.

Seeing that I wasn’t trying to deny it, he asked with a smile, “It’s wonderful, isn’t it?” Before I could say no, he stopped smiling and added, “You have two options. You join my side after going through a ritual or die here.”

He was really talkative…

“Well, you don’t like wasting your breath, do you?” I shook my head, a bit surprised to see how direct he was.

“My schedule is quite busy. You see, it’s not easy to manage two cities on top of each other and keep the communities in the dark,” he started laughing.

Raising a brow, I asked, “What did you tell to the people of Dark city?”

“Do you want to know?” he asked with a smirk.

“No, I asked because I don’t want to know,” I rolled my eyes.

“Fair enough, though the answer is simple. They think that the doppelgangers and the nodes exist to feed the planet with mana and that the people of Light city are fanatics who want mana to disappear and things to turn back the way they were before the apocalypse. They also think that Light city has forces spread through the whole planet, which is the reason we must hide underground.”

“Fancy…” I muttered.

“Yeah, the only problem is that lately the people who were brought in from outside started spreading the truth. I guess I’ll have to kill those who weren’t born in Dark city,” he started muttering to himself.

Hmph, given the fact that the nodes are pouring mana into the atmosphere, which anyone could sense, I’d probably believe his words if I was weaker. The truth is that if Sylvanus disappeared, there would be less mana, but it wouldn’t stop existing. Only the size of the monster population would decrease, which wouldn’t hurt anyone.

“That’s some good bullshit you have there,” I smiled at him, clenching my fists. I had to admit, I was quite nervous seeing so many people surrounding me.

“Indeed, but enough of talking. Let’s get straight to the point, will you join, or will you die?”

“How about I leave?” I asked out of curiosity.

“To gather people who’d be willing to help you and then return later? I can’t risk that,” he shook his head. Raising a finger, he added, “You also went ahead and hid your family so my people couldn’t capture them. I can’t sense your little whore either, which means that you made preparations against us.”

“I did, so what? I don’t want you to hurt them,” I shrugged my shoulders.

“If you went through the ritual, you wouldn’t have to worry about their safety. You could live a happy life with as many women as you like. Your family would never have to work, though they could if they wanted to. Don’t you want to give them all this instead of dying here? I’d even let you take in a few people from Light or Dark city as your loyal servants. How about it?” he started reasoning with me.

“And in turn, I’d have to ignore that people were killing each other pointlessly, right?” I raised a brow.

“Well, mostly yeah. And you’d have to help me in killing people like you when they find out the truth about my city. Like they’re going to help me now,” he waved his hand, and pointed at the people who were surrounding me.

“I refuse,” I said as I took a stance, ready to start the battle.

Shaking his head, he waved his finger as he said, “My, my, people like you are always too stupid to realise their weakness. Well, you were ‘stronger’ in the past, in a way, but now you have a weakness thanks to your little whore.”

“Hahaha, I can see that my words are annoying you, but let me help you in understanding your weakness by showing it,” he kept laughing like some kind of idiot. He wasn’t even being funny, and my anger was definitely showing on my face.

“Guys, bring her here!” he waved his hand, and a moment later a group of four walked forward, stopping next to him.

They were holding a woman whose hands and legs were tied and her mana was sealed as well. Although the other grandmasters weren’t that dangerous to me, Thanatos was definitely strong enough to kill me with the help of the others. But given my superior casting speed and knowledge, I wasn’t too worried. The real problem was that the woman’s face was very familiar.

“Who’s she?” I asked with a frown.

“Interesting, isn’t it?” he asked with a smile. Pointing at the guy next to him, who had an eye on his forehead, he said, “My friend here is called Dorje Ta’og who can see some very interesting things. Of course, he has a ‘weakness’ as well so he can’t help but tell me everything I want to know,” he shook his head.

“You like keeping loved ones as hostages, don’t you?” I slumped down, seeing where this was going.

“Indeed, it makes people so weak and exploitable,” he shook his head in disagreement. “Anyway, I was still much weaker at that time and I came upon a group of adventurers who came from Balan city. I needed people in Light city at that time so I lured an ‘SSS’ ranked monster towards them, and then saved them in their time of need. Naturally, ‘in the heat of the battle’, we got far away from Balan and they had to follow me to Light city to survive.”

“Given the circumstances, she gained a lot of power in Light city, but she couldn’t reach a level which was enough for her to return to Balan. I have no idea what kind of life she lived in the last few years, but when Neith” - he pointed at a short brown haired woman - “found out about your existence, I asked Dorje about your commandment. Like I said, he can see all kinds of things,” he mused.

“Min, the egyptian god of creation and sex, are you? The moment I found out your commandment, I sent people to observe you, and as expected, you started growing like a mushroom as soon as you got a girlfriend. Your commandment is really disgusting if you ask me. Look at how much I had to do to become this strong, while all you had to do was fuck. Well, life is unfair, but I have the wits which you’re lacking,” he started mocking me out of spite and envy.

“So what? Get over it,” I rolled my eyes.

“Ah, you’re right. I shouldn’t be envious,” he nodded. “Anyway, I made my people look for all kinds of things about you and your girlfriend and found out that her mother was lost in the wild. After looking up our database, I also found out that this woman’s description was matching with Lien’s mother, which I got from her clan,” he said with a smirk.

“Ah, by the way, they didn’t welcome my people so there was a slight mistake and they had to die, though considering what they did to your girlfriend, I image you won’t hold a grudge,” he added.

“I don’t care, they did cruel things to my wife,” I shrugged my shoulders.

“Wife? You’ve got to that point already?” he raised a brow.

“Yes,” I replied as I looked into Lana’s eyes. Seeing the way she looked back at me, I knew that she wasn’t just some random person who looked like Lana after going through operations. It was her. Not even Thanatos, the strongest of this bunch would be able to mask her true presence from me.

“How nice, maybe I should marry someone,” he chuckled. “Oh, anyway, I found out that she was Lien’s mother who I ‘saved’ years ago. After visiting her as her old saviour and listening to her story, I found out that she was really her mother. Am I not lucky? Or, wait, your girlfriend is really lucky! Her mother is still alive. I so want to see their family reunion, I’m sure it’d be a sweet scene!” he cried out as he clasped his hands and started rolling around.

Grabbing her head, he made her face me and pulled out the gag from her mouth. “RUN-” she shouted instantly, but he quickly put the gag back into her mouth.

“Tsk, I guess I should teach her some manners if you don’t join me and take her in,” he clicked his tongue and shook his head.

“Instead of screaming, could you tell him how much you miss your family, like you told me? You were begging me to help you get back to Balan, so what about your dreams now? Do you really want him to run?” he shook his head as he pulled out the gag once again.

Knowing that it would be pointless to scream, she didn’t scream and just started sobbing, “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Seth. Please, just leave me-” Thanatos gagged her once again.

“There we go. She’s quite unruly, isn’t she?” he rolled his eyes. “So? How about it? Have you decided to join me yet?”

Closing my eyes, I took a deep breath and thought about my options.

“Don’t think of anything funny else I’m going to finish her here and now,” he said.

Given the situation, I knew that I had only one option if I wanted to get out of this alive and save Lana as well. No matter how much it'd hurt my heart, I wouldn't surrender to him even if he killed her. If I did, he could simply play around with everyone I held dear and I was sure that both Lien and I would rather die than to live like that. Well, and considering Lana’s reaction a moment ago, I knew that she felt the same way about it.

Most of the time, it’d be hard to ignore our emotions and think objectively in a situation like this, but it was quite easy to control myself with a bit of mind magic. Although I wanted to use them in a crucial moment, I knew I had to activate my traps now if I wanted to save Lana.

Thanatos was still waiting for my answer when I activated the formations and blew up the ground, erecting a powerful barrier around Lana at the same time. I sensed a few souls disappearing right after, which meant that my traps took the weaker ones’ lives instantly. Using that moment, I charged through the sandstorm that my magic caused and bumped straight into Thanatos, who was about to grab Lana’s hair.

Raising my fist, I punched him in the face with all my strength, which was enough to make a hole through the middle of his head. Knowing that he wouldn’t die from that much, I quickly jumped back and pulled Lana into my arms. Seeing that the four people who held her down earlier was almost upon us, I quickly jumped up and wrote the expo word in the air, causing a giant explosion right in front of their face.

Although I had no time to write the full word, shortened words worked just fine if my imagination was good enough, and it also cost less mana. Sensing that one of the four lost his life, I couldn’t help but get a bit excited, hoping that the others would die just as easily. Sadly, they were still thirty-eight man strong, and I had no more traps laid, not to mention that I had to protect Lana. The moment the sandstorm was cancelled by one of the survivors, I finished writing the ‘move’ word, and appeared about a hundred kilometers away.

Stopping for a moment, I grabbed Lana’s shoulders and after pulling out the gag from her mouth, I asked, “Are you alright?”

“I’m fine but run away quickly! Don’t care about me!” she shouted at me, trying to push me away. She had the same long brown hair and green eyes as Lien, though she was a bit thinner because of her malnourishment.

“They’re going to cat-” before she could finish, I sensed numerous presences forming around me, making me realise what she wanted to say. She probably had the same kind of black dagger on her like the others, which meant that I’d have to run around endlessly if I wanted to keep her alive and survive the battle.

Should I contact Lien? Things won’t go as smoothly as I thought because of Lana. If only I could hide her somehow… but I’d have to thoroughly inspect the black daggers first.

A dark vortex formed in front of me and Thanatos stepped out of it, his head completely healed. It would have been nice if I could have finished him with my trait, but the others would have captured Lana if I tried to use it, and there was a chance that he wouldn’t have died instantly, just like Sylvanus.

“Why would you run like that? You do realise that I can sense her presence no matter where you take her, right?” he shook his head.

“I realised it a moment ago,” I said with a frown.

I didn’t want to wait for them to encircle me again, so I took Lana under my arm, leaving only my right hand free. As the people started appearing one by one, I also wrote the letters of the ‘death’ word one by one. Seeing Daniel appearing, I activated my WORD magic and directed it towards him, but instead of seeing his body dissolving, I was forced to accept that I was heavily outnumbered and the others countered my spell with their own.

“How useless,” Thanatos remarked with a smile and then pointed at Lana.

As I followed his finger, I noticed that Lana was holding a black dagger in front of my chest and thrust it straight into my heart the moment I looked down. I  had to admit, I didn’t expect that she’d attack me, but after a quick scan I found out that her mind was altered and she was filled with wrath. Grasping her hand, I pulled out the dagger and used some magic to tie her up.

“DIE! DIE!” she shouted as she started flailing her body under my arm, so I quickly knocked her out with my soul force and then glared at Thanatos. Although it was just a temporary spell, he still manipulated her mind to attack me.

“If you keep resisting me, I’ll have to kill thousands of people in Light city and Dark city. Women, children… what do you think? Don’t you feel sorry for them?” he asked as a black scythe formed in his hand.

Thanks to my knowledge and magic, my wound healed in the blink of an eye, but there was something wrong with my body. That black dagger left some sort of seal inside me, which started draining my mana at an incredible speed.

“If I joined you, I’d probably hurt way more people in the future than all the lives you’d take this time, not to mention that many years of your hard work would go to waste,” I replied, not bothering with his little mind game.

“What a pity, it seems you aren’t that weak, after all. If only you threw that woman aside, you could fight seriously, but we both know that it’s not going to work out for you if you have to protect her. Isn’t that the reason you sent your bitch away?” he started mocking me once again.

He was getting on my nerves by calling Lien a bitch, but losing my head at a time like this would be deadly so I constantly paid attention to my chemical levels. Very few things angered me and I was able to control myself, but I didn’t want to risk losing my mind. It was better to resort to magic at times like these.

It seems like he doesn’t want to fight which means that I’ve got a chance. He’s probably waiting for the seal to drain all my mana.

“It’s also a pity that you’re a coward. I suppose everyone was mocking you, right? The poor little Thanatos was hurt! He hates everyone and wants people to die!” I rubbed my right eye.

“Ah, your face twitched, did I hit the nail on the head? Don’t worry, I am also a loser, I suppose, though I’m not weak-willed and short-sighted like you,” I said, waving my finger.

“Finish them!” he shouted at his underlings, having enough of me. Valerie’s information turned out to be useful in the next moment since the grandmasters surrounded me exactly in the same order as she told me. Even if I used giant area of damage spells, the people around would simply stop it, so I had to focus on one person at a time.

“Lien, I’ve got some task for you,” I said as I set up a barrier around me which absorbed the incoming spells.

“What’s it? Are you alright?” she asked in a worried tone.

“I am, now you’ll have to do your best and set up a soul barrier. It must prevent soul signs from entering and leaving. Once you’re done, go back to the hideout and don’t come out! If possible, make the barrier as far away from the hideout as possible,” I quickly gave her a few instructions and then flew upwards to avoid the incoming spells. Not even my barriers could hold back tens of WORD spells.

Seeing that one of them wrote two words, which were ‘no flight’ I wanted to deal with him before he could activate it, but I was attacked by yet another spell which I had to defend against. The worst was that Thanatos was staying back, not giving me even a single chance to kill him. Since I couldn’t stop the guy from activating his magic, I felt a law overtaking the area which made all of us shoot towards the ground.

Right as I landed, Daniel set up a barrier around me that locked me into a small area. If I wanted to break the barrier, I'd have to ignore a few attacks, which could potentially kill Lana and maybe me as well. Things were getting worse and worse by the seconds. If I kept fighting like that, I was sure that both of us would die.

My mind kept spinning at full speed as I thought of one idea after the other, focusing on nothing but defense in the meantime. Realising that I'd just run out of mana if I never attacked, I used the ‘mighty push’ words to erase the incoming spells and retaliate at the same time.

Since my mana was much stronger than theirs, two words were enough for me to overpower about six to ten spells. The good news was that the weaker people ran out of their mana reserves after four or five spells, the bad news was that the Grandmasters were waiting patiently. I could use only about a hundred words a day, but thanks to that damned seal Lana’s dagger put on me, I had only a few minutes left before I’d run out of mana, and I had no time to remove it.

I must get out of here, I thought, seeing my spell taking out two more weaklings who had no mana left to defend themselves. Mighty push was like a circle of wind which cut everything in half, along with their spells and bodies.

“Heal!” one of the grandmasters shouted as she finished her WORD magic and recovered the fallen magicians. Seeing their bodies reuniting once again, I really felt like cursing at that bitch since I realised that unless I destroyed their heads, that woman would heal them.

While I was moving around, my body finished transforming into the lightning-wind form, which ensured that I could use those two elements. Clenching my right fist, I made the wind form a giant fist and smash down on a group of people. Since it was invisible, two people noticed it too late and were smashed into the ground. Seeing that woman writing the ‘heal’ word once again, I knew I had to finish them, so I created two blades of wind which cut their heads into two.

If I cast it quickly enough then even simple magic worked, so I decided to use elemental magic to fight them until Lien finished the preparations. Since WORD magic was nothing but a combination of advanced magic and a giant lump of mana, it was possible to stop it with common magic. The only problem was that I had to sense the properties of the incoming spells, which was impossible when so many people were attacking me.

The good side of all this was that the woman finished her healing magic only a moment after me, and wasted her mana by healing their bodies. Although they stood back up, their bodies healthy once again, their knowledge and memories didn’t return. WORD magic was capable of healing anything, except for memory loss caused by death.

“It’s a shame that you’re killing more and more of my servants, but we both know that your resistance is futile. What do you think? How long can you last while your mana is being sucked away?” he asked as he charged towards me and swung his scythe.

Obviously, he was aiming for Lana since it was harder to protect her than myself, not to mention that I’d soon run out of mana so he didn’t really need her anymore.

“Have you done what I asked yet?” I asked Lien as I jumped back, straight into someone else’s sword. Before he could cut me into two halves, along with Lana, I kicked back like a horse, my strength enough to crush his knees instantly. Turning around, I kicked off his head and then wrote the ‘shell’ word in the air to defend against a powerful thunderbolt that would have turned me into ashes instantly. If the grandmasters attacked me, I’d have had a chance to take them out, but the big shots were all waiting patiently, which was a huge problem.

“I am on my way back to the hideout,” she replied.

“Tell me when you’re back,” I said.

After trading a few more blows, she said, “I’m back.”

“Good,” I replied, and then fended off another attack. Although the seal inside me reached its limit and couldn’t suck away any more mana, I could cast only ten or so spells at most, which was far from enough to take down my opponents.

Seeing a giant beam coming towards me, I quickly moved to the side, though I was too slow and lost my right arm. The ray of light was like a laser, destroying everything in its path. In the meantime, Daniel set up a few formations around me, which prevented me from using teleportation and other mobility related spells. Knowing that Lien was ready, I decided to deal with those right away and used the ‘erase’ word.

Knowing that I wanted to flee, Thanatos scoffed at me as he swung his scythe towards Lana once again, “Haha, you won’t escape even if you teleport again. You can still join my side if you lay down, though.”

“No thanks,” I said, smacking his scythe out of his hand with a blast of wind from the side.

When he reappeared, he started transforming into his fire form and this much time was enough for him to finish, while I went for the wind-lightning form. It was bad news for me that he was in his fire form, since it meant that he was physically stronger than me, and neither wind, nor lightning would do much against him. Just like I expected, a wave of fire erupted from his palms, covering both Lana and me in it. Since I blocked every sign coming from ym receptors, I didn’t feel any pain, but I knew I’d die if I kept burning for long, so I quickly wrote the ‘move’ word once again.

Since Thanatos was most likely in the middle of transferring from one place to the other, I knew I could use teleportation and appeared in the formation that Lien made. He had no way to sense Lana’s location until he arrived at his destination and although it meant only splits of seconds, I hoped it’d be enough for me to get away.

Once I appeared in the barrier, I poured my mana into the formation and strengthened it as much as I could, and then used water magic to put out the fire. Placing Lana on the ground, I used WORD magic to heal our wounds and then started meditating to regain a bit of my mana.

Seeing that Thanatos didn’t appear even after a few seconds passed, I knew my idea worked, but I also knew that my time was limited. He surely felt the general direction towards Lana by the time he appeared, even if he couldn’t tell her exact location, and with so many people, they’d find me in twenty minutes at most.

“Seth, are you alright?” I heard a familiar voice behind my back. Turning around, I realised Lien was standing right behind me, but at the same time, I felt the seal erupting.

 

 

(AN: Before ANYONE starts crying and saying that I nerfed the MC or that it was bullshit that he had a hard time, please consider that he started growing only a few weeks ago while these god incarnations had been around for tens of years... and don't forget that he also had to protect someone, so yeah... But to make you happy, I'll tell you that the next chapter will have some ass-kicking. I'll post it in 2-3 days.)