The temporal space was a complicated hex circle floating in a space-like environment. The ground beneath their feet was translucent, as were the barriers of the wall and ceiling. In every direction, the temporal space contained planets, stars, and floating magic auras that sustained this world. It was one he’d created for a single purpose. The destruction of this demon away from prying eyes.
Like a switch of power had been flicked inside him, Encapsulation, Aggression, and Protection all activated at once. “Cognitive Enhancement Maxima. Reflex Enhancement Maxima.” Sen rolled his neck, and then he dashed forward.
The Greater Demon clapped its hands, and a beam of red light shot through the air where Sen stood. Another followed, and another, and another.
Sen dodged them, quickly closing the gap. He threw a punch at the demon’s core and felt ribs crack under his fist. The demon skidded back, and the damage repaired itself. Even without Mary’s physical body, it must have absorbed and conserved some of her magic.
It convulsed again, and two new arms popped out of its back. Another convulsion. Two more arms. Now, six arms as large as Girch’s were ready to fight. As the creature leapt at him and threw a barrage of punches, Sen crossed his arms and endured the assault.
His wards screamed. Mana Protection threatened to crack. But under it all, unflinching anger dominated his mind. As the barrage of punches swarmed him, and he held out, his body was pushed back slowly. Closer and closer to the barrier behind him. The demon pushed him back one inch at a time, undoubtedly planning to pummel him into the wall itself.
“I didn’t want anymore people to get hurt today,” Sen said.
The sound of demonic flesh on wards and magically protected skin filled the air.
“I wanted to protect them. I told myself I would.”
His back hit the wall, and the barrier threatened to crack behind him from the pressure the demon was inflicting.
“I’m a greedy person. I don’t like failing once I set a goal. You took something away from me. You softened the satisfaction of overwhelming victory. That’s going to cost you so much more than you’re prepared to pay.”
The demon reached back and prepared a strike with the three fists on the left side of its body. It intended to end the fight here.
Sen dropped Mana Protection and his wards all at once. The demon sensed it. Perhaps it thought he was giving up.
“I want you to remember this feeling. It’s what victory feels like. That’s how I felt,” Sen said as the demon’s swing came barreling through the air with a whistle.
“I’m going to take it away.”
Sen caught the demon’s attacks with a single hand infused with pure mana.
The demon shook its head in anger and reared back with its opposite three hands to strike.
And then Sen was gone.
“One Thousand Thunders Maxima!” Sen’s hands clapped on either side of the demon’s cat-like ears from behind, reducing them to bloody lumps.
The creature convulsed, slowly consuming the stored magic to heal. It had treated a human being like a source of fuel it could conserve and use as it wanted. It spun around to strike Sen. But he’d already moved.
“Flesh Sculpt Maxima.” He moved under the effects of Encapsulation, and like ripping clay from the demon’s body, all three hands on its left side fell away. It roared in pain.
It swatted again, but Sen jumped high into the air before it could reach him. He looked down, a sneer on his face. “Flay Fire Torturous-Maxima.”
Torturous was a modifier that increased the pain output of a spell significantly. He considered it inhumane. It was exactly what this creature deserved. The Flay Fire spell burned off a singular layer of skin, one by one until the creature was reduced to nothing. But the greater demon had the ability to heal itself.
The cycle repeated just like that, over and over. Skin burned and healed, burned, healed, over and over.
Its instincts urged it to resist, to fight back and survive. The pain it was feeling made that unbearable.
Sen slowly descended and landed in front of the creature. “Black Wolf Howl.”
Two black wolves materialized on either side of him and leapt toward the demon. The creature was in too much pain to fight back. They ripped into its flesh, unaffected by the fire. Consuming the creature as the fire overwhelmed it.
“Beg for death.”
This creature, a greater demon of the noble rank was over level 450. It barely spoke human. It might not even know the right words.
It would suffer until it learned.
And so Sen sat there with his legs crossed and meditated while the creature wailed in agony before him. He did so until he finally heard what he was waiting for.
“Please,” the demon begged.
He opened his eyes and drew the artifact he’d been waiting to use.
The Artifact of the Stone Tomb.
The wolves backed away, lowering their heads to their master before disappearing. The tomb encased the demon and sealed it within.
[Greater Demon consumed.]
Sen felt the Greater Demon’s presence leave the room. It was hard to kill them permanently, but breaking them of their will to survive was effective. That, and utterly annihilating them.
He’d done both.
A status update appeared.
[Spell Enhancement. The Black Wolf Howl spell has been enhanced. The Black Wolf Pack Leader feeds on its foes, growing stronger and developing a spirit. As the spirit develops, so does the pack.]
Sen squinted. He’d thought each use of the tomb would yield unique benefits, but this benefit built upon a prior one. That was interesting. But even more interesting was the information about developing a spirit. “Tutor, does that mean what I suspect?” he asked.
[It does. The Black Wolf Pack Leader has become a full spirit. As it consumes the flesh of others, it will grow stronger. It will level up alongside you if you let it.]
Sen was no stranger to spirits, but he hadn’t brought any of those he contracted to this time with him. They’d remained behind and aged with the world, while others would have gone into hibernation. Some might be stronger than when he left them. Others might have perished. He was used to having them around, though, and if this black wolf spirit and its pack proved themselves useful, that would be a delight indeed.
He waited for the next notification, knowing it was coming.
[Status Update]
[Mana Aggression +3]
[Mana Encapsulation +5]
[Mana Protection +2]
Name: Sen Locke
Class: God of Magic
Level: 3 (+2)
Strength/Mana Aggression: 102
Speed/Mana Encapsulation: 104
Magic: 109
Constitution/Mana Protection: 101
Mana Points: 999,999,999+
[You have received twenty stat points.]
[You may receive one high-grade sphere essence of your choice.]
[A reward from your quest will be improved by one grade.]
This fight, no, the whole dungeon had brought him increased strength.
He added the twenty stat points to the Magic stat, bringing his new total to 129. A thousand years ago, twenty stat points would be the result of leveling twenty times, not merely twice. It was incredible to feel the rush of power course through his body. So much power gained in the blink of an eye. It was exhilarating. He needed to grind more levels to enhance this stat as far as he possibly could. Each level was ten points, and those would add up quickly. If he could continue, he’d catch up to the powerful people of this world before long. They’d never see him coming, unless, that is, he wanted the added challenge.
With that, he stepped out of the temporal world, for the ally he’d left behind his disappearance wouldn’t have felt as long as it had been. Ano scanned him quickly for injuries.
“Didn’t expect you to go off on your own,” Ano said. His pillow floated behind him again, and Sen was surprised he hadn’t returned to floating on it. The sleep paralysis demon was gone as well, so Ano must have sent it back. “I get it though, some techniques can’t be shared. That thing dead?”
Sen nodded. “It begged for death.”
The man before him nodded. “Good. Well, wish I’d got a few more hits in, but I’ll take what I get.”
They both turned as a chest appeared in the center of the dungeon. It was the prize for conquering the final boss of the dungeon. Technically, the demon had killed the boss, but the demon was dead now, and Sen had killed it, so it sort of made sense for Sen to claim it. He looked to Ano, but the man held his hands out. “All yours, bro.”
Sen opened the chest with his mana and waited to see what he would find.
His mouth parted.
Tutor found it endlessly amusing.
[Oh! This gives us so many options! We can fry it, scramble it, or oh, sunny-side up! That’s got my vote!]
The chest contained a large egg. A monster egg.
Ano whistled over his shoulder. “That’s…what is that?” He leaned in to get a better look.
It was large for an egg, perhaps about the size of a small dog. There were intricate swirls of green and purple all over it, and no matter what combination of identifying spells, magic senses, and Tutor’s analysis he used, he couldn’t figure out what kind of egg it was.
When he finally instructed Tutor to make as accurate a guess as possible, he responded simply by saying:
[A magic egg.]
Helpful.
With a flick of his finger, he sent the egg to his temporal world for storage. He’d identify it later. If the school had arranged the prize, then he couldn’t imagine it being useless, but that didn’t mean it would be useful to him. He’d already gained a magic wolf pack while within this dungeon; could a single egg offer such value?
He already knew the answer was a resounding yes. But were the three academies capable of producing a treasure that would truly benefit his journey? That was the question, and he’d have to wait and see for now. To avoid it hatching before he decided what to do with it, he’d set it aside for now. Storing objects like eggs inside temporal spaces typically prevented them from hatching.
With his new stat points allocated, and the prize for completing the dungeon complete, the blue light shimmered all over his body. He hadn’t died in the dungeon, but it was cleared. Apparently, the faculty had added a second activation condition, and now all he needed to do was wait. His quest rewards for overwhelming victory should have popped up by now. That bothered him. Had he missed something? Had he not done enough? Maybe the requirement wouldn’t be met until he’d left.
Ano was glowing too, but it appeared he was resisting the effects. Sen was mere moments from being teleported outside the dungeon. Ano seemed unsure, but finally turned to Sen and asked him a question that made his eyes widen. “Did you guys get attacked by those guys in hoods as well?” he asked.
Sen threw up a hand and sent pure magic toward the constructs powering the transportation. Several exploded, and the blue light faded. “Cultists?” he asked.
“So you’ve dealt with them too? We got attacked. I killed most of them, but one escaped. Not before I got a tracking spell on him, though. I can take us straight there. You in?”
A moment later, they materialized in a forest clearing outside the dungeon. The spell hadn’t taken long, and Sen remained aware so he knew they weren’t actually far from the dungeon itself. The forest floor was littered with the bodies of cultists that had been ripped in half. He recognized the work of the greater demon he’d fought. There was a giant rune circle that took up almost the entirety of the clearing, and Sen instantly realized the cultists had summoned the demon.
Ano pieced it together as well. “This is…sloppy work. They summoned it, but it was only partially bound. Many of them weren’t under the circle’s protection.” He knelt down and plucked a feather from the body of a man who had bled out recently. It must be the one who’d escaped. He’d returned here. “If there were other survivors, they’re long gone. Wonder why they went after it in the dungeon though?”
“They were disrupting the runes of resurrection. They wanted to make sure some of us died,” Sen said.
Ano leaned on his floating pillow. “If that was the case, you’d think they would’ve done more damage. They must have split into two groups. One to disrupt the runes, and one to summon the demon. I wonder if the demon showed up before the disruption group was finished. They looked as if they were running from something. I would’ve asked them, but they attacked my friends. The rune was still active at the time, so they were sent back to safety. Whatever they did took time to activate. Hell, the demon might’ve been the one to finish their work.”
It wasn’t impossible. It had been an intelligent demon, and it had tried to stop Susanna from fixing the runes. He remembered the demon’s apparent obsession with Alari, and a theory started winding itself together. “I think…they were trying to dwindle our numbers. They wanted to capture Alari, and maybe a few others.” It held up. They’d already attacked students once. And partially bound was partially bound. The demon hadn’t killed all the men; he’d been beholden to their wish in the end. He’d been sent into the dungeon to capture students. Things were getting more and more complicated at this school of his.
As soon as he’d had the thought, the notification appeared.
[Quest: Achieve Overwhelming Victory in the Academy War. Complete.]
A subtle smile covered his face for a single moment. The information was necessary. He needed to learn who or what was behind the attack. That was an overwhelming victory.
And now, to see how well overwhelming victory paid.
[Round Two Prize…]