Legacy of the Dark Sage

Lucian frowned after sensing the ominous magic energy spreading inside his Dimension. He used his Divine Sense to locate the origin of that ominous magic energy.

However.

Crackle! Crackle!

Lucian raised his hand just in time to block the Void Master's attack from above.

Boom!n/ô/vel/b//in dot c//om

An explosion erupted the moment Lucian's hand, which was covered with raw magic energy, and one of the black swords True Void molded collided.

While Lucian was distracted by the ominous magic energy, True Void appeared before him and struck at once.

True Void ignored the cloud of smoke that visually impaired him and relentlessly struck Lucian with his black swords.

Lucian scowled and blocked all of the Void Master's attack with his hands, which were now covered with concentrated Light magic energy.

Because of the cloud of smoke that impaired their sight, Lucian could only follow the Void Master's movements through his Divine Sense. He also made use of the magic energies in the surroundings to attack the Void Master, but the latter endured all of the blades and continued to strike at him.

'Annoying piece of...!'

Lucian's thoughts were interrupted when he realized the Void Master's magic energy was gaining momentum.

'How?'

His eyes widened in confusion because, as far as he was concerned, his magic pressure should have prevented the Void Master from forming that shield that could allow him to absorb magic attacks.

True Void sneered as his vision cleared slightly, and the first thing he saw was Lucian's dumbfounded look.

"Don't underestimate my innate ability!" He shouted before releasing the two black swords from his hands to grab Lucian's hands.

"I'm going to drain you dry!"

"!"

True Void's eyes flashed as he started to suck in the magic energies in Lucian's hands. Since Lucian continually supplied magic energy to his fists, True Void continued to absorb more.

"YOU DARE TAKE MY MAGIC ENERGY!" Lucian growled in anger, his magic energy erupting at one.

"...Ugh!" True Void gritted his teeth as the Light magic energy's piercing nature started to bare its ugly fangs inside him. He never expected Lucian to be capable of reinforcing the Light magic's nature while they were being absorbed. As far as True Void was concerned, although Light magic's piercing nature was present, it should not have been able to activate while in its raw form.

Meanwhile, Kyran noticed True Void finally making his move and did not dally.

The truth, the ominous magic energy that Lucian felt just then, was Kyran's doing.

Kyran had been contemplating how to destroy Lucian's Dimension since the start. He knew that Dimension could be destroyed from the inside. Unfortunately, he did not have enough magic energy to produce an attack with an output strong enough to destroy Lucian's Dimension from within.

And to be honest, compared with Void magic, Kyran was convinced that Chaos magic would be better for disrupting Lucian's Dimension. He believed this because it prevented Estrid's influence from overtaking his consciousness earlier.

However, Kyran's Chaos magic energy reserves were limited. Furthermore, Lucian's Dimension prevented him from absorbing magic energy in the surroundings. And honestly, even if he could absorb them, absorbing Chaos magic energy was harder than absorbing Draconic or Void magic.

Another thing to consider was that Kyran could not convert another being's magic energy into Void magic energy without the help of True Void. He could absorb another's magic attack, but it would end up entering one of his magic cores. That magic attack would return to its raw state while maintaining its original magic type.

In short, if Kyran absorbed a Light magic attack, it would turn into Light magic energy. It would not be converted into Void magic energy. Though that magic energy would be tainted by the Void when he used it, it would not amplify the output of his Void magic.

The concept was pretty complicated, and to be honest, Kyran admitted there were still a few things he had yet to comprehend completely. Nonetheless, even if he tried to figure those things out now, he did not have the leisure or time to do so.

Considering all these, Kyran could only seize another target with magic energy and use it to accumulate the magic energy needed to destroy Lucian's Dimension.

But accumulating the magic energy was not enough. Kyran still had to convert that energy to Chaos magic to make it effective against Lucian's Dimension. Fortunately, converting them was easy because Chaos magic could corrupt one's magic energy as long as it made contact with it. Kyran did not need to do anything.

That was the nature of Chaos magic.

With all these in mind, Kyran decided to use Deus's summoned automatons and corrupt their energy core to produce more Chaos magic.

This plan would not work if Lucian were familiar with Chaos magic. Fortunately, he seemed oblivious, and Kyran seized that opportunity.

Kyran still had to be careful, though. Even if Lucian were unfamiliar with Chaos magic, he would still notice if Kyran emitted a different magic energy. Thus, he could only sneakily corrupt the energy cores of the automatons with Chaos magic. He even covered the automatons with Void runes to mask the Chaos's signature, which was slowly corrupting their energy cores.

For the record, those automatons were on their way to different spots that Kyran pointed out inside the inner city. He would craft a foundation to destroy Lucian's Dimension in those spots.

'Still not enough,' Kyran thought, realizing that the amount of magic energy the defense-type automatons had still lacked the output that could destroy Lucian's Dimension. Even if their magic energy gets corrupted by Chaos magic, at most, they could only create a crack.

While a crack might be enough for them to escape, it was not Kyran's goal. He was already quite familiar with Lucian's temperament and knew that the moment he, Ruin, and True Void escaped, Lucian would take out his frustration in the Crepuscule Auction House.

To be honest, Kyran did not care what happened to the Crepuscule Clan. However, he was already aware of the clan's internal feud and that there were two factions: Estrid and Marigold. Kyran would not have cared even if he knew about it, but the thing was, Marigold went out of her way to help Cyneah, Alta, Leif, and Mira escape. She also came to his aid when Estrid's people sieged him.

Kyran admitted to being coldhearted. However, he would not ignore those who helped him. Besides, he could almost imagine Cyneah's look of contempt aimed at him if he abandoned Marigold and her people, as well as the unrelated people still in the Crepuscule Auction House.

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In any case, Kyran's goal was to deal a devastating blow to Lucian so that the latter could not retaliate. His goal was very quite ambitious, but that was the only plan he could come up with.

Kyran looked toward another location where an explosion also occurred. It was the location where Ruin and Deus were fighting.

The area was covered by a massive cloud of smoke that others would have trouble discerning what the situation inside, except Kyran. With his naturally enhanced senses, he could easily see the aftermath within the cloud of smoke.

Fortunately, Ruin and Deus's winged automatons were still intact. Though the winged automatons suffered some external damage from the explosion, there did not seem to be any internal problem. That was all that mattered to Kyran. He did not plan on taking those winged automatons with him anyway. He only needed them to use their energy cores for his plan.

That was the same with the defense-type automatons he took control of. This was because, in Kyran's opinion, the automatons created by the Ancients had far more sophisticated designs than Deus's.

As soon as Kyran found where the three winged automatons got thrown to, he immediately went to the nearest one.

"Do you think I will allow you to do as you please?"

Kyran was slightly caught off guard at Deus's sudden appearance. He initially believed the latter was knocked out cold after suffering from Ruin's attack because he saw Deus lying on the ground, unconscious.

Apparently, what Kyran saw was only the automaton armor Deus was wearing. The latter discarded the armor and decided to move on his own.

Holding a gold spear that crackled with concentrated magic energy, Deus raised it above his head and struck it toward Kyran.

However, Kyran deftly turned his body to avoid the spear's blade before raising an arm to aim at the shaft.

Bam! Crack!

"!"

Deus was shocked at how effortlessly Kyran broke the spear's shaft in two. He instinctively realized something about the latter as he exclaimed, "You are the real one!"

Kyran furrowed his brows at Deus's remark and was about to punch him when he suddenly sensed a foreboding.

[DODGE!]

Cold sweat trickled down Kyran's spine as he sensed Lucian's presence bearing down on him from behind.

No.

Not behind, but right at the nape of his neck.