Dark Magus Returns-Chapter 1752: Fighting The Last One

Without Raze there to anchor them, the combined group was now left completely on their own again. They stood on the scarred battlefield, weapons drawn and Qi circulating, fully ready to fight the Grand Magus Idore to the bitter end.

"You know, there is a fundamental, fatal disadvantage that you Pagna warriors possess," Idore claimed smoothly. He floated high above them, looking down with absolute contempt.

As he spoke, he could see Kizer, as well as Liam, suddenly rocketing up towards him from the ground. The immense, explosive strength in their legs and bodies allowed them to shatter the earth beneath them and launch themselves directly to where Idore was hovering in the sky.

Unfazed by their speed, Idore simply raised his hands. In his grasp, a brand new magical bow began to rapidly form from pure, coalescing mana. It was unlike the standard one he had used before; it looked just as extravagant, gleaming with dangerous runes, but from the intricate design of the bow itself, one could instantly tell that its function was vastly different.

"If you truly want to beat me, you’ll have to get close," Idore sneered. "But for a Grand Magus as skilled as me, it will be entirely impossible for you brutes to ever close that gap."

A massive, searing flame arrow was instantly conjured and placed on the ethereal string. When Idore pulled it back and released, the single arrow immediately split into several dozens of fiery projectiles, raining off in all directions towards the members that were present on the battlefield.

It was almost an exact, terrifying copy of how Forma’s own weapon worked. Although, the raw magical output was on a completely different, catastrophic level. As the concentrated fire magic plummeted toward Kizer, the warrior swung his heavy sword with all his might to deflect it. The collision was incredibly powerful. The sheer kinetic force of the magic overpowered him, pushing Kizer violently backward and sending him crashing heavily back down to the ground.

For Liam, his unparalleled swordsmanship allowed him to cleanly cut right through the first fiery projectile. But the magic was tracking them. There were two more arrows specifically aimed at him, and moving as if they were sentient, living things, they curved sharply mid-air and hit him brutally from his blind side.

As for the rest of the raining arrows, they fell like a meteor shower towards the main group. The Crimson Crane members had to do absolutely anything they could to survive the onslaught. They frantically used their refined Qi and martial skills to bat away the large flames. Since they were all quite strong veterans and had their own high levels of Qi protection, they were barely able to successfully defend themselves from being incinerated on the spot.

But the most terrifying issue was that this devastating barrage was just a simple, casual attack from the monstrous mage floating in front of them.

"Screw that arrogant bastard," B spat, wiping soot from her face. Her eyes narrowed as she analyzed the battlefield. "There are always solutions to problems. We’ll just deal with them one at a time."

She gripped her staff tightly with both hands and stomped the base of it violently into the ground. Instantly, the earth rumbled, and thick stone platforms started to rapidly rise from the floor directly within the group’s formation.

Embedded within her staff, she possessed one of the legendary artifacts that Alterian contained—an ancient relic allowing the wielder to radically change and transform the physical area around them. As long as there was a sufficient energy source of Qi or magic channeled into it, the artifact obeyed. It had been intentionally placed into a wooden staff in order to have the deceptive appearance as if standard Earth magic was being used. But it was far more powerful and versatile than that, and complex structures could change and elevate in mere seconds.

Large, thick circular platforms—almost functioning like stepping stones or stairs, but suspended in the air—appeared everywhere, creating a physical pathway into the sky. The Pagna warriors instantly knew what they needed to do. They quickly jumped from platform to platform, scaling the makeshift stairs bit by bit. Finally, using B’s pathway, they were able to get close to Idore.

Or, at least, they confidently thought they could.

Cronker, gripping his deadly dagger, went for a specialized surprise attack. His body seemingly vanished into thin air on the pillar closest to the Magus. Then, in a blink, he reappeared on a pillar situated just behind Idore, striking at his exposed neck. It was a perfectly executed maneuver, and it was the exact same coordinated effort for the others who lunged from the adjacent platforms.

Thanks to B creating the platforms, they were finally able to get within striking distance. But now that they were incredibly close, a new nightmare revealed itself. Even though they jumped and unleashed their most devastating martial attacks, their weapons were doing absolutely nothing.

The blades and Qi strikes simply passed right through Idore’s floating body as if he were nothing but a phantom illusion.

’We solve one massive problem, and now there’s immediately another?’ B thought, gritting her teeth as she stayed further back on the ground level.

She needed to intensely focus on maintaining and creating new platforms for the group when needed to keep them airborne. Although she was brilliantly using her powers this way to bridge the gap, it unfortunately meant that the main assault group had now lost a considerable amount of ranged offensive power with her stuck on support duty.

"You will all soon realize the devastating, hopeless situation that you are currently in," Idore commented, his voice echoing from everywhere and nowhere at once.

Suddenly, the magic shifted. Now, dangling from both of his hands while he remained suspended in the air, it appeared as if he had conjured two giant, crackling whips that were made entirely of concentrated, white-hot flames.

With a flick of his wrists, he swung them out violently towards the group. The physical, concussive part of the dense flames hit most of the Crimson Crane members head-on.

Despite them frantically using their Qi to strike back and form defensive barriers, the sheer weight of the magical attack was overwhelming. Their entire bodies were lifted completely off their feet, and they went crashing painfully into the distance, smashing through stone and dirt. The terrifying whips also produced even larger, explosive bursts of flames that erupted from the very tips of the attack when they reached their end point, leaving the victims dealing with double the destructive power upon impact.

"I’ve realized through our little skirmishes that you Pagna warriors are quite resilient," Idore sneered, looking down at the smoking craters. "So, I’m absolutely sure that you’re all still not dead yet."

Saying these cruel words, Idore maliciously started to swing the fiery whips constantly at the exact direction where the bulk of the Crimson Crane members had been hit. Large, explosive waves of flames continuously pounded the area, turning the earth into scorched glass to ensure nothing could survive the bombardment.

Alba, Cronker, Rayna, as well as Liam, B, and Forma were the only ones that had managed to avoid the initial catastrophic blast and weren’t trapped with the rest of the pinned group. They gritted their teeth and tried their absolute best to launch counter-attacks at the floating Magus.

But Idore simply ignored them. He didn’t even bother to raise a defensive shield because their physical and Qi-based attacks were just going harmlessly through his intangible form, passing out onto the other side without leaving so much as a ripple.

"Don’t worry your little heads," Idore claimed, a psychotic grin spreading across his face as the fires raged below him. "I’ll make sure to get rid of you all one by one, while you won’t be able to put a single scratch on me!"