The Runic Alchemist

[The Battlefield Near The Giant Stone Shrine, Before Damian’s Arrival, Lucian’s POV]

Lucian poured all the mana she could guide with her mana threads connecting to her liquid mana containers inside the giant steel pillar—just like Mindseer and Maelor were doing it, beside her. The mana was turning into smoke filled with mana and was being distributed to all steel pillars connected to this one throughout the giant stone shrine, providing mana to power all the runic weapons present there.

It was an ingenious creation, Lucian had to admit. And a fatal one, specially combined with these liquid mana containers.

When Damian had said earlier they would create a city that could never be defeated by anyone in battle—a sanctuary for the masses—Lucian had always felt like he underestimated the power of the Sea Serpent and the armies of the four kingdoms.

One man, no matter how powerful, was still just one person.

But now she had no doubt—if Damian wanted to do something like that, no one she knew in the world could ever hope to stop him. Not even the Sea Serpent. Despite being a fourth ranker, he must be weaker than the weirdly powerful prime esper like the Demon Lord-who could increase his strength beyond the limit of ranks.

Just like that guy before her.

Lucian had a full view of the battlefield from atop the shrine. She had noticed Sam pulling out a status tool and sitting on one of the wooden benches before. Seeing the overwhelming lightning power he was displaying as he worked to protect the western side of the cannons, and the increased pressure she was sensing from him, it was clear the guy had transcended in record time—just like Damian had.

Their growth—Lucian and all their friends with them—all of their growth into becoming peak-level second rankers in less than a year was already too much to swallow for any ordinary knight of the five kingdoms. But Damian, and now Sam? Those two had broken all records held in history books. Lucian herself wanted to check if she too was there yet, but her hands were tied, and she was not very optimistic.

Sam was on his second job of the Enlightened rank for a while now—for him to gain experience, he just needed to use and master his one clear esper power, which, with the help of Damian, was safe to say he had a pretty good grasp of. But for people like her—especially with her prestigious job—it was hard to level it and reach the very top. Enlightenment for them took years to come.

Right now it didn’t matter, though—she just needed to provide enough mana till all the pigmen left through the waygate, and then all of them would leave this miserable place too. She needed to finish all this quickly to go and get Damian before it was too late. The dome covering the top of the shrine was not that powerful either. They could not hold it for long; Dreamlight hovering above them was right now shooting all the flying monsters that came near to damage the barrier, but not all could be dealt with.

Lucian, Mindseer, and Maelor released occasional attacks while their hands were busy, but the flying monsters were starting to gather more and more. Even after all the steps of the giant shrine full of laser cannons were shooting down the bastards constantly—it still did not feel enough.

Suddenly, Lucian noticed something that grabbed her attention—another of those monstrous flying Legendary ones was heading their way from the north—the shadow of the thing alone was titanic. That alone was enough to grab everyone’s attention, but that wasn’t what had grabbed Lucian’s eyes—it was the man on its back, holding dark, massive arrow-like structures in midair—a human.

Shadecaster.

This could be a problem. None of their transcendants could fly.. And the guy had earlier gotten out of even Damian’s clutches.

She wasn’t the only one who had noticed him though. Just as the massive monster came closer, Shadecaster started launching giant dark arrows at the most powerful of the two cannons, which were being operated by Sariel and Amy—doing the most damage on the battlefield. A blinding ray of bright blue, almost reaching white, came visible from the western side—it was like someone had used a giant quill and painted a white stroke across the dark sky—Sam reached near the giant monster and unleashed the full force of his giant lightning javelins to counter the dark arrows.

The explosion of the two powers crashing was blinding to look upon—it shook and brightened the whole battlefield as if suddenly someone had called the sun down from the heavens.

Shadecaster flew away—trying to use all his flying monsters to keep himself away from the aggressor—but Sam was faster, and it seemed like he didn’t need his lightning form to fly anymore. Sam unleashed bolts after bolts of lightning and charged through, holding his sacrium sword made gigantic with his lightning aura. Any creature he used it on was scorched and cut down in seconds. The speed and efficiency of the simple yet elegant sword skill was enchanting to look upon.

The pigmen people considered them heaven-sent.. Lucian too, after seeing such miracles after miracles, had started to wonder if their coming here was really just an accident or not. Admittedly, The evil was also brought with them to this peaceful world.. But peace didn’t mean everything was perfect. Who knew if the shadowed cloud of peace was the end of this world, and it was the last act of the only remaining god of this world to bring them here and give his people another chance at life?

Did the Sun God know that in the end Damian would send all the pigmen to their own world’s dungeon? How far did the limit of an Overseer really was?

Lucian focused her mind back to her own task. Even two—three extra mana threads connecting to the steel pillar and creating mana clouds could become the difference between some simple pigmen’s life and death. She could not slack off—if she had to do something, she would give her everything in it.

She might not be as big of a part in this epic tale of war, but she was content with it as long as all her friends were safe and could go back to their home.

***

[Near the Ice Wall Covering The Giant Stone Shrine, Current Time, Damian’s POV]

Damian’s bombardment of the spell finally ended, leaving not a single black pigman alive for the Demon Lord to get any more strength. Thousands of flying monsters were all over the golden barrier dome, trying to break it with their combined attacks, but Damian’s half mana produced from the eight mana cubes, along with his half-split focus, were continuously mending the barrier—never letting any corner of it grow weak.

This was it.

He had trapped the Demon Lord, and only one of them would walk out of this barrier.

Damian exhaled. Not wasting any time, he shot through from the midair, holding his sacrium spear straight while weaving spells after spells—going straight for the giant slimy black thing that was the Demon Lord.

The Demon Lord also understood his situation and stopped acting like a helpless prey—the slimy darkness took another form of a humanoid man. This one much smaller, less than 300 meters in height, and the rest of the body accordingly, with a giant pitch-dark shiny sword in one hand and a giant polished shield in the other. Damian was still creating new spells—the golden mana shaped around Damian’s white spear clashed with a thunderous sound against the pitch-black enormous sword.

The ground shook, creating spiderwebs and a crater at the point of contact. Damian pulled the spear back and thrust it again with monstrous force behind it that bent even the wind around them in an unnatural shape. The Demon Lord was quick on his feet though, and put his shield between the spear and his giant chest.

Damian used the moment when the Demon Lord’s eyes were off him and placed a massive runic circle beneath his feet that spat big, solid rectangle light constructs—immediately going off in chained multiple explosions. The giant dark body’s legs were obliterated in a second, black smoke trailing above them, assimilating in the air around them.

Damian charged ahead with his spear to get the Demon Lord’s face in this situation, but from behind the white smoke of the explosion he suddenly felt pockets of emptiness, and immediately activated his body-inscribed runic golden shield spell—protecting his front. A split second later, one after another, over 20 giant dark, shiny javelins hit the golden shield, cracking it in places as Damian constantly mended it back to full health.

The javelins hitting the golden shield pushed him back several meters—creating distance between the two of them again. Maybe that’s what the Demon Lord wanted exactly—but Damian was not that easy to brush off. Damian activated the wormhole spell inscribed on his body as he was sliding back on the ground and jumped from the top of the Demon Lord—his white sacrium spear coming alive with golden radiating brilliance with light mana.

He got him.

It struck perfectly on the dark head of the giant form—going deep inside; seconds later, Land Breaker’s body was pushed out of the giant form—his two hands trying their best to hold the tip of the spear with all his strength.

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