Legacy of the Dark Sage

Raelia ignored the being within the black mist's rambling and continued to attack. She summoned more swords, and with a skillful wave of her hands, she controlled the trajectory and speed of the swords aimed at the black mist.

Like a conductor, she orchestrated her swords in a way that allowed them to penetrate through the black mist's movement. As her swords sliced through the black mist, she noticed that she could not quell the mist no matter how much magic energy she placed on them.

"It is futile," the being within the black mist muttered loud enough for Raelia to hear. "Your blade is not sharp enough to remove my influence."

Raelia's face remained unchanged even after failing to inflict proper damage on the black mist. She spread her arms and gestured her swords to retreat before jumping back.

However, the being within the black mist seemed determined not to let her retreat. The black mist swirled and twisted before turning into what appeared to be drills, which then launched themselves at Raelia.

"Humph," Raelia snorted while watching the approaching black mist drills. A magic array appeared right before her chest, and a translucent golden veil shaped like a crescent emerged from it. It flew straight at the incoming drills, slicing through them with ease.

"Ho~ impressive," the being within the black mist commended as he noticed a change in Raelia's magic energy input in that crescent attack, allowing it to slice through his mist without problem this time around.

Realizing that her usual tactics were ineffective against the black mist, Raelia's keen mind quickly deduced that the mist was not simply a product of magic energy. She swiftly adjusted the intensity of her magic energy input, creating a charge much similar to the one being emitted by the mist to counter.

She chose this approach using the theory that two similar energy charges would repel each other.

Considering this, it was not wrong to say that rather than destroying the black mist drills with her crescent magic attack, she repelled the magic energy; thus, the two attacks were dispelled in the process.

As soon as the black mist drills were dispelled, Raelia cast additional defensive spells— both physical and magical— to boost her defenses and speed spell to boost her speed. With her speed increase, a step from her was equivalent to twenty steps.

Raelia closed in on the being within the black mist in the blink of an eye. She then made a gesture with her hands as if to draw an invisible sword. As she did, the space that she created where the sword should have appeared crackled with intense magic fluctuation.

Without a pause in her movement, Raelia drew a beautiful arc toward the being within the black mist before her with an explosive swing that could split the space in two.

BOOOM!

As the beautiful arc created by Raelia's concentrated magic energy collided with the black mist, the space around them crackled. A massive shockwave followed after an explosion, forcing Raelia to retreat several meters back.

'Hm?' Raelia's eyes widened as she sensed an incoming danger approaching from the right side. She turned just in time to see a huge spear made of black mist coming her way.

"Tsk," she gritted her teeth and cast the crescent attack once more. She barely managed to cast it in time to dispel the incoming spear.

But.

"Did you really think I would use the same attack twice?"

Raelia's pupils shook as the black mist spear destroyed her crescent attack. She raised her arm while casting a last-minute magic barrier with three layers just before the black mist spear arrived.

However, the back mist spear easily pierced through the first layer of her magic barrier, with the second stopping it for only a second before shattering it together with the third layer.

"Ngh...!" Raelia gritted her teeth as she endured the black mist spear's momentum with her body.

Fortunately, she cast defensive spells earlier to increase her armor and body defenses. Her robe and armor also had enchantments, giving her additional defenses.

"Hm... it seems Magic in the Higher Realm has improved somewhat. Casting multiple layers of spells on top of an enchanted item usually causes its effect to become unstable because of the conflicting type of magic energies."

Raelia frowned slightly after hearing the being within the black mist's ramblings. She initially wanted to ignore his gibberish entirely. But what he said just then caught her attention.

Crack! Crack! Crash!

Unfortunately, she was not given a chance to contemplate his ramblings because the black mist spear had already pierced through her defenses. Her armor's enchantments and spells shattered.

"...kuh!" Raelia tried, at the last second, to grab the shaft of the black mist spear to stop it from piercing her chest. But to her horror, her hands only passed through it— as if it was truly made out of mist.

Instinctively, Raelia twisted her body just before the black mist spear pierced her chest.

"Gah..!"

She spat out a mouthful of blood after suffering from the brunt of the black mist spear's momentum. However, because she twisted her body in that split second, she managed to avoid receiving a fatal attack.

If one would look at it, a being like Raelia would not really be fatally wounded if her chest was pierced. After all, she might look like a human at the moment, but her real form was that of a sword.

Still, because the chest was where the heart was usually located, every being that took on a human form would also have its 'core' in that spot. The only difference was that they could move it around at will.

Raelia could have moved her core and avoided the spear's attack. But because it happened too fast, she could only twist her body instead of moving her core from the inside.

The black mist spear's momentum was so fast and heavy that when it pierced Raelia's chest, it passed right through and went out the other side. It then landed on the ground and exploded upon impact.

BOOM!

Dirt and rubble exploded in all directions right after the explosion, instantly reducing the visibility in the surroundings.

Raelia endured the pain in her chest and used magic to forcefully close it before blending into the cloud of dirt that scattered around.

The One Who Caused the Fall narrowed his eyes as he watched Raelia disappear inside the explosion. He initially intended for his spear to destroy her core and leave the rest of her body intact. However, because she managed to avoid having her core destroyed, the spear did not disappear upon contact and landed on the ground, which then gave her an opportunity to hide herself.

'It's hard to find another body to use as a vessel,' he thought and immediately flew toward the explosion. 'I can't lose her.'

Foooom!

But then, a vacuum-like force formed in the middle of the explosion, and a silhouette of a twenty-meter gold sword appeared. Several arrays sprang on its body, and the space around it distorted.

The One Who Caused the Fall's eyes widened as he realized what the sword intended to do.

"Stop—!" he shouted. The black mist around him expanded at a frightening pace and advanced toward the sword.

However, he was still a few seconds late as the space around the twenty-meter gold sword turned blurry, and the next moment, it blended into the background like an illusionary sword. By the time the black mist arrived on its spot, it had disappeared completely.

The One Who Caused the Fall sighed in regret as he stared at the spot where Raelia had been.

'Alas... I should have prioritized taking over her body rather than testing if she could be a proper vessel,' he thought regretfully. 'I can always make her body last until I can find another vessel to transfer to...'

The golden sword was Raelia's real form, and she used a relic to escape from that place. Retreating had been a wise move rather than continuing to confront the black mist.

Initially, she intended to do just that, thinking that the being within the black mist might be the Void Master. However, she realized soon after that he was not because the sample magic energy of the Void she had was different from the one the being within the black mist emitted when he attacked.

Thus, Raelia decided to confront the black mist, capture him, and then interrogate him as to why he was there.

But the being within the black mist was far stronger than Raelia initially believed. She failed to properly gauge the being's level because of the black mist around him. After receiving a solid attack from the being within the black mist, she decided to retreat and report it first.

Raelia deemed that the being within the black mist might be another threat to them and that they should keep an eye on him.

While her retreat showed that she already failed to keep an eye on him, she managed to capture his magic energy. She could show it to the others and include it in their watchlist.

Fortunately, Raelia managed to escape without a problem. As to where she had gone, she chose to go to the nearest plane she believed could help her.

The Dragon Plane.

*

Ames frowned as soon as she received a message about someone requesting to enter the plane. She was not the one in charge of the entry request, but it so happened that the one requesting it was someone she was familiar with.

"I'll let you decide on this one."

Aillos replied when Ames contacted him. She felt an incoming headache because of her father's response. In the end, she agreed to allow that someone's entry— or to be precise, Raelia's entry.