Legacy of the Dark Sage

The moment Cade finished comprehending the ancient runes on the metal door, a huge golden array lit several meters above his head. However, he did not get the chance to study the array because his attention was drawn to the stone figures of legendary beasts surrounding the steep slope he was sitting on. Their sizes were comparable to a small mountain.

RAWRGH!

Cade’s eyes widened and he cursed inwardly after realizing that those beasts were not stone figures but actual beasts, which seemed to have been frozen. Apparently, after comprehending the metal door’s ancient runes, these beasts had been triggered by something, presumably the array above, and brought them back to life!𝚘𝒱𝐞𝓵xt.𝓬𝑶𝓂

As the legendary beasts roared at the same time, one of them, which looked like a hybrid between a sea serpent and a turtle moved. Cracks appeared on its body as it shed the stone that covered its outer skin. It straightened its back and pulled back its head and roared indignantly at Cade.

RAWRGH!

The serpent with a turtle shell spat out a concentrated Water magic energy beam at Cade.

Cade was not idle. The moment the stone beasts roared, he took out four silver discs from his space storage and threw three on the ground, and the last one above his head. These discs served as the four points that formed a translucent silver pyramid. The surface of the pyramid was full of glowing ancient runes and they emitted a powerful golden-silver glow.

The serpent-turtle beast’s concentrated magic attack collided with the pyramid. Its force shook the pyramid, but it was not enough to break it. The barrier parted the beam, which passed through and destroyed the sides of the steep slope Cade was on.

Cade’s brow furrowed as he knelt on one knee and started to stand. The silver pyramid protecting him expanded as he moved. His gray eyes had already turned silver and he roused the Regis Blessing in his blood and amplify the defensive array protecting him.

Before the serpent-turtle beast’s attack eased, another strange-looking beast shed the stone covering its body.

The beast looked like a hybrid between an ape and an elephant. Its body looked like an ape, but its head was an elephant with two large golden tusks.

RAWRGH!

The elephant-ape beast stood on its legs as it raised its gigantic fist. Its fists illuminated a blinding white glow before slamming toward Cade.

BOOM!

Cade gritted his teeth as he withstood the force of the elephant ape’s fists. Cracks formed on the surface of the pyramid, however, the ancient runes circulated frantically, fixing the cracks. Nevertheless, Cade sensed the silver discs were close to getting destroyed. He immediately roused the Obsidian magic energy in the surroundings to reinforce the silver discs, because without it, even if the ancient runes could fix the cracks in the barrier, it would be destroyed.

However, Cade soon realized that he could not rouse any magic energy even with the help of the Regis Blessing.

‘This…!’

Cade was not given the time to ponder this problem, because the third beast had broken from its stone covering.

The beast this time looked like a hybrid between a goat and an eagle. Its body was clearly an eagle, but its head was a horned goat.

Strangely, this beast did not roar but let out a bleat. If not for the seriousness of the situation, Cade would have found it odd. Unfortunately, the moment the goat-eagle beast bleated, a sonar-like attack swept through the whole surrounding, rendering several thick ugly cracks on the steep slope and on Cade’s barrier.

Cade took out another set of silver discs. If he could not reinforce them, he could only deploy more barriers to withstand the bombardment of the beasts, until he could come up with a way to deal with them. Because the attacks from these beasts were just the beginning. Behind them, there were still several stone figures that had yet to break out from their stone covers.

In any case, Cade was aware this was part of the Inheritance’s trial and that the ancient runes on the metal doors hold the key to overcoming this phase. He would just have to figure out how while enduring the bombardment of these beasts.

*

Several long black spikes struck Zephyr’s body. These black spikes were formed from Gael’s Shadow magic.

Deep red blood trickled down the black spikes from where it pierced through Zephyr’s body. However, his blood did not spill on the ground but was absorbed by the spikes.

Gael, hovering a few hundred meters away from Zephyr smiled as he saw this. His eyes glowed red as he summoned a thirty-meter-wide shadow on the ground. The shadow stirred and made plopping sounds as a dark figure slowly emerged from within. Surprisingly, the shadow resembled Zephyr, albeit, its color was pure black.

When the others saw this, they all rejoiced. They were convinced that with Gael’s move, they now had the upper hand.

BOOM!

Towering flames suddenly erupted from outside the city, shocking all of them.

Gael looked in the direction of the flames and his expression turned grim in an instant.

“That direction is where the supplies are!” One of the soldiers shouted.

Gael shot a fierce look at one of the Grand Masters near him, “Where are the other beasts?”

“W-We haven’t seen them after engaging the Quilin.”

“Hurry up and find them!”

“Yes, Grand Marshal!”

HISS!

RAWRGH!

Before any of them could make a move, Bas, Manti, Mera and Iss appeared and launched a preemptive attack. In a matter of seconds, several High Masters and low-ranked soldiers were turned into dust or engulfed with flames.

“AAAHHH!”

Miserable cries filled the air, while the others who had evaded the attack launched their counter-attack. Fire and Wind magic-based attacks rained down on Manti and the others. However, they easily evaded them. They countered the army’s counter while making their way toward Zephyr to save him.

Gael furrowed his brows and released the Shadow Quilin he had just created.

RAWRGH!

The Shadow Quilin charged toward Manti and the others while summoning several orbs.

Manti roared in anger, sensing that the Quilin had Zephyr’s aura yet did not appear to be one of them. After all, they did not sense their master’s branding on this one. He opened his mouth and breathed out purple and green flames, instantly submerging the whole area with poisonous flames.

The Shadow Quilin roared as the orbs launched concentrated magic energy attacks at Manti and the others.

HISS!

Bas let out a shockwave attack, freezing the orbs in the air.

Having lost their mobility, the frozen orbs fell to the ground and were burned by Manti’s flames.

Mera and Iss, on the other hand, went after the other soldiers.

Seeing how the four beasts easily destroyed their line, Gael felt indignant. They had the numerical advantage and yet they failed to get the upper hand. He summoned several shadow puppets and attacked the beasts while barking out orders.

“Get a team of two to check what happened to our supplies! All odd squads who are maintaining the restraining magic arrays changed targets and aimed at the other four beasts! Squads one, three, five and seven aimed at the two basilisks! Squads nine, eleven, thirteen and fifteen, aimed at the two four-legged beasts!”

“Yes, Grand Marshal!”

The soldiers followed Gael’s orders at once.

There were fifteen squads of low-ranked soldiers maintaining the restraining magic array that kept the huge Quilin in place. Frankly, they could barely hold it down, but now that it was gravely injured, they believed it did not need all of them to restrain its movement. The squads with odd numbers changed their targets according to Gael’s instruction.

Zephyr, who appeared limp while being pierced by several black spikes, snapped his eyes open as he sensed the restraining magic holding him down lifted a little.

‘GET BACK!’ He told Manti and the others.

The four already moved even before Zephyr asked them to. Their aim had been to direct the army’s attention away from Zephyr and hopefully, loosen the restraining magic aimed at him. That way, they could give him the chance for a counter!

Gael suddenly felt something was amiss as he turned his attention to the Quilin. His eyes widened as he saw the Quilin’s glowing red eyes looking at him. Light converged on its horn as magic fluctuation crackled around it.

“RETREAT!” Gael shouted.

RAWRGH!

FOOOM!

A powerful pressure wave erupted from Zephyr, instantly reducing a thousand-meter radius of space around him into dust.

The buildings around and those soldiers who failed to retreat were instantly turned to dust.

Gael also retreated. He did not expect the Quilin to have a powerful large-scale attack that could instantly obliterate anything around it within a thousand meters. The Shadow Quilin he had just created actually failed to escape.

Bas, Manti, Mera and Iss did not stop attacking. When they moved out of Zephyr’s range, they spread out and went after the squads who were still maintaining the restraining magic array formation. In one fell swoop, they killed them all and then returned to Zephyr’s side. Though the latter did not mention anything, they knew that unleashing that powerful attack would definitely leave him defenseless.

Meanwhile, Noser’s border was also sent into chaos.

With the stealth ability of the Spirits, the fire sprites destroyed the army’s supplies. Then Ezra led the rest to launch a pincer attack to whittle down the army’s soldiers.

Ezra did not believe that they could win against them. Thus, after spreading the fire and reducing the soldiers’ number, he ordered his people and the spirits back before breaking through the city’s south gates and rendezvous with Zephyr.