Hello there, I just wanted to inform you guys that this chapter is not necessarily mandatory but I highly recommend you give it a read because it'll add substance to the rest of the story. But if you're not up for it, then no worries, have a wonderful day.
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Dashing to the side, Kael Kaladril evaded a flying sword sent his way, yet as the sword missed him, it exploded into a matter absorbing black hole which threatened to tear him into atoms.
But just then, time froze around the black hole.
"You okay?" a voice echoed behind him.
Without waiting for an answer the owner of the voice ran ahead Kael.
"Slow down Clara." Kael said as he dashed forward.
Kael and Clara ran up the arm of a colossal golem, one of ten that were marching toward the capital city of Winterhaven.
Glancing at the golems behind him, Kael felt his heart pulsate at the safety of his comrades who were scattered across the other golems.
Fully aware worrying wouldn't do anything, Kael focused on the task at hand an ran with all his might.
Looking ahead, Kael could see a multitude of creatures emerging from the golem's shoulders.
Over a thousand humanoid creatures with with sword-like arms and lava oozing from their being roared as they manifested from the golem's body.
"Perfect Kael said." Kael said, as he felt time eating away at him. The golem's we're getting closer and time was running out.
Running up behind Clara, several spheres manifested from the space above them in droves, and before their very eyes the spheres turned bright red and...
BOOM!
Each of them directly over both their heads fired a ray of intense energy.
Summoning his Arcana, Kael called forth a shield with Arcane symbols decorating its surface above their heads.
BOOM!
The rays make contact with the shield and a blindening light that consumed their immediate vacinity and chased away the darkness of the night exploded forth.
Yet the blast did not achieve its intended result, as Kael and Clara were completely fine under the shield.
Almost immediately the shield fell, the hoarde of golem creatures crashed into them.
Summoning her Arcana, Clara commanded the ground beneath her feet to transform into branches that stretched out of the ground, impaling a good chunk of the hoarde.
Kael on the other hand, summoned his Arcana and in an instant, a dozen of him was born from nothing.
While half of them took care of the spheres floating above their heads, the other half summoned an array of Arcanas.
One of Kael transformed into a metal monster that ravaged the hoarde, another sunk into a sea of shadow that paralyzed every golem creature within the immediate vacinity.
Another created a beam of energy that tore through the paralyzed hoarde, while the real Kael summoned his sword from his bracelet.
And with one swing along with the augmentation of an Arcana, he tore a wide road across the hoarde.
"Let us press forward." Clara said to Kael.
"Ladies first." Kael grinned, and Clara huffed with a smile.
She didn't wait for him and raced through the space Kael created which was closing by the sevond.
Dashing behind her, Kael summoned a plethora of spheres only visible to his eyes.
There were over four dozen of them, each of them symbolizing the Arcana he had left.
Looking at them, he had already used up a good chunk. From cloning himself, to the explosive beam, to shadow sea and the mighty swing to name a few.
He had burned through a dozen or so of his Arcana, and his clones were still using up more.
Luckily for Kael, some Arcanas could be utilized multiple times before their spheres turned from whatever color they were, to grey.
'I could reset them all if you so wished it,' a voice reverberated in Kael's head.
Hearing this, Kael grimaced.
'Right, so that I would sacrifice more the 40 years I have left. No thank you.' Kael remarked, only to be left with an echoing laughter in his head.
Frowning, Kael held back on using his one shot Arcanas for now and stick to the ones that could be utilized numerous times.
Dismissing the spheres, he summoned an Acrana that would enable his sword slice through any surface.
Then he summoned another that would half any damage dealt to him for the next ten minutes.
After which he summoned an Arcana that manifested one of the monsters he had captured throughout his lifetime. It was a flying serpent that was flowing with electrical energy.
As the hoarde closed in on them, Kael wasted no time letting both his sword and his monster loose on the hoarde.
He leaped, swung, imapled and evaded as the hoarde tried their best to take his head. All while evading the rays of intense energy raining down on them. Yet as he fought, he never once took his gaze off Clara, who was ahead of him, equally battling the creatures as she ran with everything she had.
As they fought the hoarde, a giant beam of light different from those of the floating spheres exploded forth in the path ahead of them, and from the light came a creature three times bigger than they and the golem creatures.
This creature looked like a warrior clad in armor, with an incredibly large sword on one hand. The creature likewise had larva oozing out of its armor and its sword, making it look like a demon from the darkest pits of hell.
Seeing this creature, Kael could sense its might in his bones.
And before he could react, the creature was gone. In a blaze of red, the creature dashed toward them faster than the speed of light.
As Clara blinked, she saw the creature's sword in front of her.
And as she gasped, the sound of metal clashing resounded light a drop of water in a mighty ocean. Yet as the rimple carried, it overturned into a mighty tsunami.
Standing still, a massive gust of air along with a thundering sound exploded in front of Clara, knocking her off her feet and sending her falling a few feet back before Kael's monster flew toward her, wrapped itself around her and held her in place.
As she hanged on, the explosive winds came once again, then again, each time resulting from Kael's clash with the demon warrior. A clash so powerful that the golem creatures surrounding them were blown backwards with some of them thrown off the colossal golem completely.
Gritting his teeth, Kael felt his muscles ache as he was pushing himself to his limits keeping up with this demon warrior.
'How could he summon something so powerful?" Kael wondered, as he felt his courage wavering.
Was he not strong enough?
"Dammit!" Kael yelled, then leaped backward.
Before the demon warrior could close the gap Kael summoned an Arcana, and immediately a hammer made of light manifested above the demon warrior and slammed into him.
The impact destroyed the foundation of the ground underneath their feet, causing an expanding crator to be formed
The crator expanded till it reached Kael before stopping in front of him as though wary of his presence.
Feeling his knees buckle, Kael slammed his sword into the ground before leaning on it.
As he took a second to catch his breath, the hoarde closed in.
But with a roar, his monster returned with Clara on its back.
Leaping off, she fell beside him before before slamming her hands into the ground with an Arcana that spread out icy winds which froze every creature golem surrounding them, creating a wall that defended them from the creature golems on the outside of the ice ring.
Now given some breathing space, Clara rushed over to Kael's side. She placed both hands on either sides of his cheek as she stared into his green eyes, concern etching her expression?
"Are you okay?" Clara said.
Fixating on Clara for a moment, Kael felt his exhaustion and fear alleviating just by her presence alone.
Smiling, Kael held her hand holding his right cheek.
"You needn't ask Clara. I'm Kael Kaladril after all." Kael said and Clara smiled.
"Pathetic," a voice rang into the air, reverberating with a power that resonated into Kael's soul, shaking his being.
Before them, an orb of golden lights appeared from nothing, and as Kael and Clara watched, the golden orb took the form of a human, before a man clad in ethereal golden armor stood before them, his sheer presence pressing down on them.
Erecting himself, Kael grabbed his sword and stood in front of Clara.
Watching the godlike man, Kael flinched as he raised a hand. Yet instead of an attack, the rays shooting out from the spheres above ceased. Then, the creature golems which had now broken through their frozen comrades, all froze in place when the godlike man raised a hand yet again.
"This is all the strength you could muster? The world's strongest Arcanists, and you failed to even defeat a Moon ranked demon?" the godlike man pointed with his spear at the crator Kael created, in which the demon warrior emerged, unscathed.
Kael's eyes widened upon seeing this, that was one of his most power attacks, yet this demon was not even harmed.
"Dammit." Kael muttered and the godlike man began to laugh.
"I see you have not changed after all these years," the godlike man mused as he waved a hand at the demon warrior which dissolved into dust that blew into the wind.
"You are still a weak boy."
Kael smiled.
"Why did you steal the exact words I had for you Uncle Johnathan? Right, I had forgotten, that is all you are, a common thief." Kael grimaced, and his Uncle frowned.
Holding firm onto Clara's shoulder, he prayed to Castello that she remembered what he had told her before all of this, and that she would follow the plan.
'Please run Clara.' Kael thought. Yet in the a blink, he found his Uncle in front of him.
"You fail to understand,' Johnathan said, then he slammed the butt of his spear on the ground.
Immediately Kael felt tremendous plain explode within him, and before he knew it he was sent flying backwards faster than the speed of sound.
As he was thundering through the air, his Uncle appeared behind him.
"What I took from your father," Kael's Uncle said, then he slammed his spear into the ground again, and Kael was thrown into the ground like a ground into water.
"Ugh!" Kael groaned as he felt several bones in his body break apart.
"Was always mine." Johnathan added, then slammed his spear into the floor so a dozen of those spheres from earlier manifested above Kael.
And in a fraction of a second, they turned bright red and shot out rays of intense light at Kael.
"Ahhhhh!" Kael screamed as he felt his skin burn.
After five seconds, the rays died down.
Johnathan raised a finger, and Kael levitated from the ground. He was covered in blisters and burns, more than half of his clothing was ovicerated and blood was oozing from his mouth.
"You and your father were just obstacles in my path." Johnathan fell his finger, and Kael was thrown into the ground with the power of a castle-sized keg.
Then, he was pulled out.
"You were always an obstacle in my path," he slammed Kael into the ground once again.
Then he lifted him up.
This time, he gripped his spear and pointed it at Kael.
"You are now an obstacle in my path...no more." Johnathan thrust his sword toward Kael, but just then, roots exploded from the ground underneath him, wrapping around him and holding him in place.
What followed was a barrage of swords that impaled Johnathan, stabbing him in every spot so he looked like an opposite porcupine.
Summoning her most powerful Arcana, Clara muster, voids of blackness appeared around Johnathan, and out of the voids came sinister hands that grabbed onto Johnathan and began to pull him apart.
Clara watched Kael's Uncle was torn from limb to limb. Yet as Clara stood, she found uncertainty becoming her.
He did not scream once, nor did any blood spill from him.
"Foolish girl." Johnathan's voice echoed behind Clara, and in a heartbeat, a force crashed into Clara from the side.
Wheezing through the pain, Clara tried to get her coherency as she fell from the colossal golem's arm.
But the pain was too much for her to focus.
Zooming toward her was Kael's floating serpent. Reaching out, Clara tried to grab onto it, but before her fingers could make contact, the serpent exploded into chunks of blood and flesh.
Gritting her teeth, Clara forced herself to summon a simple Arcana of manipulation. And with great ordeal, she managed to push herself toward the colossal golem, so that its gravity latched onto her and she fell on its surface.
"You indeed bear a warrior spirit." Johnathan manifest like a mirage beside Clara.
"Let us see what it will take to break you." Johnathan summoned the same mystical hammer Kael used on his demon warrior and slammed it into Clara.
"No!" Kael yelled at he watched helplessly from the distance.
'This...this can't be it.' Kael said, struggling to get into his feet, struggling to fight still.
'She is still alive.' Caster's voice rang in Kael's head, and his eyes gleamed.
'She is?' Kael asked, hope filling his tone.
'She is,' a man appeared before Kael, a man in ragged clothes but possessing an aura of power.
'But not for long.' Caster added, then stretched his hand toward Kael.
"Give me the rest of your years, and I will give you the power to save everyone."
Staring at Caster's hand, Kael wavered, fearing of the cost, and if his words were true.
In the distance, Kael caught a glimpse of Clara, still standing, still alive.
"Do you accept my bargain?" Caster added.
Now with a renewed determination, Kael steeled his nerves, then took Caster's hand.
"I accept."