Master Mordir hadn't expected that he would ever need to personally enter the field to cripple the slum talent acquisition program, but after a month of failures in all attempts to crush their enemies, he didn't really have a choice.
They couldn't allow the program to be a success, lest they forever lose the battle for the talent in the slums.
And thus, after failure upon failure with disrupting the operations, first with apprentice mages and then escalating the battle with senior mages, he no longer had any choice. The failure of the legal battle from the noble families had been the last straw; no longer could he sit back and allow himself to lose the war.
"Blame yourselves for what is about to happen," he growled with a furious tone. "You wouldn't have to die if you bastards didn't try taking what belongs to us."
RUMBLE!
The world shook under the sheer amount of mana that he mobilized while chanting an incantation. The air boiled with peril as the security team scrambled desperately upon the realization that it was a master mage even as he furiously continued his incantation.
The moment his incantation was complete, they were dead.
The air boiled with peril.
The atmosphere grew electric with dread.
A frenzy of desperation overcame all of them.
"Run!" Cæ urged as the apprentice mages departed from the battlefield and from the skies. "The enemy has a master mage! Get out of here as fast as you can!"
"Escape from here before he completes his spell!"
"Go! Leave all the equipment behind!"
Pure horror emerged on the expressions of the task force as the sheer gravity of the situation dawned on them.
"AAAARGGH!"
"RUN!"
"IT's A MASTER MAGE!"
The students and other members of the task force began running away, screaming. Even the on-the-ground security team began retreating in a manner that didn't leave them vulnerable to magigun fire from the gangs that they had run into.
The very moment that the entire operation task force understood that they were dealing with a master mage, they immediately escaped from the battlefield with desperation, running as fast as they could.
Many fell, tripping and stumbling in their own frantic desperation to get as far away from the battlefield as possible. The security team helped the students get as far away from the battle as possible, the mages using magic to increase the distance between them and the master mage to reduce the probability of them dying at the hands of the master mage.
And yet, in truth, they never stood a chance of escape.
Not before the might of a master mage.
That despair could not be overcome.
It was a reckoning of despair.
"I will not allow you to complete your spell!" Senior Surven gritted his teeth, unleashing a powerful flood of water against his opponent, threatening to crush him where he stood.
And yet, he never stood a chance.
BOOOM!
The powerful flood of water collided against an invisible barrier around the man midair that was so intense that his attacks couldn't even strain the barrier. Try as he might to dump as much power as he could with each attack, he couldn't harm even a hair on Master Mordir's body.
He watched with horror as the incantation came to an end, feeling the presence of the death element.
"…ᚨᚾᛞ ᚦᚢᛊ, ᚨᛚᛚᛟᚹ ᛗᛖ ᛏᛟ ᚲᚱᚢᛊᚺ ᚦᛖᛁᚱ ᚺᛖᚨᚱᛏᛊ ᛁᚾ ᛗᛃ ᚺᚨᚾᛞ."
Master Mordir's eyes flared with bloodlust.
His expression crumpled menacingly as a single whisper escaped him.
"Grim Reaper's Heartbreak."
His hand reached up before closing in a gripping motion.
BADUMP
"Hrghhh…!" Senior Surven's eyes widened with shock as he choked, experiencing a painful pressure crushing his heart. It was the most excruciating pain he had ever felt in his long life as a mage, exceeding any other wound or injury he had ever gotten in his life.
He wasn't alone.
Far away, the escaping Cæ felt a similar, if lesser pain in his heart as painful pressure began crushing on it with increasing pressure. He gasped as he felt the powerful spell of his opponent overcoming his paltry interference field that was meant to defend against magic directly acting on his heart.
"ARRGH!"
"MY… CHEST!"
"Rghhh!"
They crumbled to the ground as they felt painful agony in their chest, with an increasing pressure on their chest. Some began gasping for air, their breathing growing labored as their heart immediately went into tachycardia; unsteady palpitations from the mounting pressure.
A tremendous pressure began building up everywhere else in their body as their blood pressure rose increasingly, making them feel like their heads were going to explode with all the pressure that was mounting on them.
The atmosphere darkened with despair and terror despite the bright light of the morning Sun beaming down upon them.
"…rgh!"
Pure adrenaline began to pump right in their blood as they realized they were growing closer and closer to death even as Mordir slowly crushed his hand with a gruesome expression on his face, prolonging the process, almost as if he was relishing the suffering of the people who had given him much trouble in the past month.
It was precisely that sadism that foiled his plan.
Because of it, she managed to make it just in time.
"Get your hands off my task force."
BOOOOOM!
Master Mordir's eyes widened as a powerful blast of wind and light struck him with such tremendously extraordinary power, effortlessly shattering the man's shield and breaking his concentration and his spell.
The task force gasped with painful relief as the pressure mounting upon their chests disappeared; those of them who had retained consciousness turned around in terror of what had just happened.
Their eyes widened when they beheld a floating figure in the sky.
A familiar figure.
Her baggy, black magical cloak floated about in the air in a profoundly ephemeral way, defying gravity. Her black witch hat sat atop her neatly, flowing purple hair. A powerful staff of mithril and powerful magic stones that brimmed with magical energy.
"…Headmistress Lenolia!" Cæ gasped with a stunned.
The elder headmistress gazed at Master Mordir with chilling eyes of hostility.
"You…" Master Mordir gritted his teeth. "You are behind all of this!"
Her aged purple eyes darkened with a glint of chilling bloodlust.
"I tolerated your collusion with the elite families. I tolerated your increasingly mounting attacks on the operations of the Elendir Institute of Magic," she spoke with a fierce tone. "However…"
Her expression grew more intense.
"…I will not tolerate you yourself infringing upon my people."
Her words evoked anger within the mafia master as his eyes grew bloodshot with rage.
"You dare talk about infringing when you were the one who infringed on our territory first?" he snarled with malice. "You picked this fight. And now…"
His eyes sharpened with ferocity. "…You will be the one to die with it."
The air grew electric.
The atmosphere boiled.
A chilling sense of doom and terror lingered upon the entire district as the task force, the citizens of the slums, and even the gangs felt the sheer weight of what was about to unfold.
A battle unlike anything they had ever borne witness to in their entire lives.
One moment, the two master mages were simply gazing at each in an intense silence.
And then, all hell broke loose.
RUMBLE!!
A myriad variety of magic circles emerged about Headmistress with a simple wave of her staff, unleashing an onslaught of attacks far exceeding anything Cæ had ever seen in his entire life.
Hundreds of spells were cast in the blink of an eye, causing a tsunami of magic to erupt from her staff that coursed towards Master Mordir, threatening to crush him then and there.
Mordir's eyes sharpened as a giant wave of darkness emerged from him, swallowed up his entire body, and spread everywhere.
WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH WHOOSH!
Her expression grew severe as her powerful magic crashed into empty darkness.
He was out of sight.
And yet, she could sense his presence in the darkness.
RUMBLE…
The heavens quivered as a sheet of darkness swallowed the entirety of the skies above the Graveyard district.
One moment, they basked in the bright light of the morning Sun.
The very next, the entirety of the skies was drowned in pitch-black darkness.
"No…"
"This…!"
"How can this be…!"
The students and the task force members murmured with shaky voices and horrified expressions.
A single mage had the power to drown the entire district in darkness.
It was chilling to understand just a sliver of what master mages were capable of.
And yet, Headmistress Lenolia maintained her composure.
She maintained her composure even as lethal yet sneaky attacks converged upon her from all around in the darkness.
BANG BANG BANG!
With a flick of her staff, she conjured up a shield to block an array of knives that converged upon her position with tremendous speed, only to find herself face to face with a volley of magical arrows, each more powerful and faster than the previous one.
BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM!
Despite the attacks emerging from within the depths of the inscrutable darkness, she defended against all of them with a powerful shield of light before the darkness spewed even more attacks, threatening to kill her if she let her guard down.
BANG BANG BANG BANG BANG!
Each of the attacks she defended against came from beyond her field of vision, deep within the cloud of darkness that had swallowed up the airspace above the district. The darkness was thick and magical, impeding her attempts to peer into their nature.
It wasn't surprising that a master assassin from the Underworld had an affinity with the darkness, especially since she had already been briefed on all the intelligence gathered on the notorious figure.
"If you think magic of this level is enough to kill me, then I'm afraid you're deeply mistaken."
VMMM…
Powerful tenth-circle magic circles of the light and heaven elements appeared before her very eyes.
They remained, altering her vision of the world around her.
They emerged across her entire body, enhancing the perception of the world that her senses gained as raw input.
It allowed her to bear witness to layers of the world that ordinary people and mages didn't even know existed.
It allowed her to peer past the veil of darkness that her opponent had conjured.
Her pupils dilated as her gaze shifted behind her.
"There you are."
VMMMMM!
A powerful magic circle emerged as she unleashed a blindingly bright wave of light of great intensity and power.
BOOOOOM!!!
In one fell swoop, the darkness was stripped, revealing Mordir drowned in a streaking cloud of darkness. His expression grew ugly as he defended against the blindingly intense light with a wave of darkness, even as a myriad of magic circles emerged before him.
Her eyes widened as she read the spell in the blink of an eye.
An alchemical spell that combined the death and the air element.
There was only one thing it could be.
Poison.
WHOOSH!
A cloud of purple poison exploded from him as he caused all of it to converge upon the Headmistress with a wave of his wand, threatening to kill her then and there.
Her eyes sharpened as she held her breath while several magic circles emerged before her, allowing her to cast a domain air purification spell that cleansed the poison from the air, condensing it into a liquid with alchemy, before redirecting it towards her opponent with great speed and force.
"Ragh!" he snarled, deflecting the counter with a simple wave of his hand, before taking a deep breath and unleashing a powerful roar amplified by a manipulation spell of the death element.
BOOOM!!!
An assassination technique that killed with sound.
WHOOSH
Headmistress Lenolia maneuvered about the sky with an elegant grace, evading the flood of deathly sound that her opponent unleashed upon her. The magic circles right in front of her eyes allowed her to read her opponent's magic before it even emerged, allowing her to move out of the way long before it was too late.
BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM BOOOM!!!
RUMBLE!
The heavens shook as Master Mordir unleashed a tsunami of destructive sound at his opponent, each armed with the death element, while her opponent evaded each and every single one of them.
The battle was just getting started.