Overpowered Wizard-Chapter 266: B3: C56: A Hundred Master Rankers 2

Ruven heard without hearing a terrible roar that made his green nature magic more unresponsive. His skills felt like they weren’t his to command. The barriers surrounding him and the other scouts faltered, their talismans growing hot, almost to the point of malfunctioning.

Then Ruven saw a sight that made him feel his heart drop into his stomach – their barrages of yellow attacks snuffed away. Only a few had struck the Dark Lord, and those few were nowhere near enough. Now they were disappearing like embers in the rain.

The Dark Lord continued to emit his horrid, soundless noise. A noise that was like a call from the void, making the magic belonging to Ruven and the other scouts hard to wield or mostly invalid.

Not everybody had the benefit of direct training under his great grandmother, so many of the scouts were worse off than Ruven. But the longer they remained inside the listening distance of the maddening noise, the more they lost their edge and advantages.

Ruven mustered all the magical prowess he had to avoid outright failure in his abilities. He pressed forward with a rush of blitzing speed. He manipulated the wood of his staff and made it heavy, long, and spiky toward the end.

Then he swung at the Dark Lord’s void-body.

His staff passed straight through. He felt no impact, no sinking of the flesh, just nothing. Yet, at the end of his staff swing, the weapon came out frayed, ruined, and even more sapped of inherent magical power.

Ruven’s eyes bulged out as he swung another strike, and the same effect happened. He couldn’t hit the Dark Lord physically. The black fiend remained unaffected.

The outline of his body truly held the pure essence of the void, where nothingness held a purpose to house the purest darkness, the most maddening creatures, and the end of all that was sacred, magical, and good.

Ruven lost some nerve, but kept striking and striking. Yet nothing would work. Everything became worse for him now that he stood so close to the source of the soundless and wordless noise.

His stomach churned. His balance felt off. His magic weakened. His green runic array flicked off and burst away with a dying whine and fizzle, leaving him even weaker.

His skills stopped working. His staff crumbled from between his hands and fell like ash between his fingers.

All that Ruven had left were his traits. They gave him a fighting chance, even if all he could do was to strike at the Dark Lord with his fists alone.

“FIGHT ME!” Ruven roared.

Other scouts, mostly reds and blues, tried to join him. Their colored magic and scout skills had failed even faster than Ruven’s. Their staves had fallen into disintegrated piles on the floor.

Yet, they came running to his aid. They saw how their captain refused to yield against the monstrous Dark Lord.

Just like him, they had some traits that would work at the melee range. So they attacked the Dark Lord from all sides like an elven mob, fists at the ready.

The horrible eldritch noise they couldn’t exactly hear ended. The Dark Lord stopped being a human-shaped portal into the void.

He became something else nightmarish.

He became the center of a black and gray inferno.

The silent and nightmarish flames fanned out in all directions, wide and quick. They caught many of the Slayer Scouts off guard.

Ruven backed off just quick enough to avoid the touch of the black and gray flames, but others failed to do so. He watched with eyes wide as many of his companions dropped to the floor in panic or tried to snuff the flames by force of hand.

None of their efforts worked.

It was then Ruven realized the talismans Regressor Justin had given the Slayer Scouts weren’t serviceable anymore. The wooden carving hanging from the end of their belts were all blackened and mostly demolished.

That was the true purpose of the Dark Lord’s first move, to remove their barriers with his eldritch noise. Now he was burning them all while they were defenseless and weakened.

There was a reason the Dark Lord somehow avoided the wrath of a Champion Regressor. But not all hope was lost just yet, since Ruven had the best and the brightest among his army.

“The black and gray flames are only targeting vitality!” shouted a white scout. “Force them off of you with aura and whatever elemental magic you can muster. We will recharge your vitality and help remove the excess with holy magic!”

“Not if I take out the obvious healers,” the Dark Lord said, while still in the middle of the black and gray inferno, his body composed of the same element, like an elemental creature. “I can do it like this, honestly. With a snap of my finger. Watch.”

He snapped his fingers, and all the shadows and pools of darkness in the area trembled.

An icy chill went up Ruven’s spine. He watched two dozen air-shaking geysers of darkness appear from under the shadows of the healers. Two dozen elves with white runic magic launched into the air by force, all of them screaming and shouting from the panic and pain.

Then, before anyone could save them, more immense and powerful dark formations extended from the alleys and between the buildings. The dark things, as tall as towers and as flexible as tentacles, loomed over the square like the extensions of a titan.

Each dark conjuration swung through the air and batted the white healers out of the sky. The unfortunate white scouts struck the ground with terrible bone-breaking falls.

“Oh? What’s wrong? You thought I put away my darkness?” The Dark Lord laughed menacingly at them. “No, no, no, I’m learning to use it more subtly now with the help of my best friend, Para. You’re facing Two Percent Darkness, by the way. After some recent changes … it’s not as hard as before.”

Despite their mounting disadvantages that spelled certain doom, Ruven shouted the only words that mattered. “Fight with all of your heart! Fight with all of your elven pride! Fight with everything you have and stop the Dark Lord!”

***

Zarian and Para were barely trying in this fight against a hundred Master Rankers.

In fact, it was harder to hold back than it was to crush Ruven and the Slayer Scouts outright. But that was okay, because the wizard and parasite were testing how much control they had with their changes.

Out of everything, Aura Transcendence was maybe the greatest of new changes.

Though that wasn’t something Zarian would normally think. That might’ve been Para’s thoughts bleeding through while they were in sync.

You’re the best! Zarian thought forcefully.

I know you’re saying that because we’re synced up, but Aura Transcendence is ridiculously powerful on us, Para thought in return. I think that’s a bigger difference than my evolution.

Well, you’re still the best! Zarian insisted forcefully.

Para let the matter go even though she wasn’t exactly wrong.

Aura Transcendence made everything easier, maybe even too easy. Even handling Overwhelming Darkness was a little easier because of the new legendary trait.

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Aura Transcendence didn’t just reduce waste, it maximized efficiency, and nothing was as inefficient as Overwhelming Darkness.

All of that dark cultivation and aura cursed training for the past ten days had borne so much fruit it was incredible. Zarian and Para felt like gods, and they practically already were, especially in Zarian’s case. But they certainly felt even more godly from their growth.

With that said, Aura Transcendence was more of a background support ability.

It was awesome to have it. The extra buffs it gave made Zarian’s Wonder and Mysticism even more ridiculously powerful.

But Aura Transcendence didn’t compare to experimenting with the newly evolved skills. Parasite Phantom and Wizard Body Conversion had so much optionality it was mind-boggling.

Zarian had lost nothing from Para’s evolution other than maybe the fashionable cloak and kilt stuff. It was possible to shapeshift that out of his flesh. But that was unnecessary.

He’d also lost the partial scaling to Mysticism and Wonder, but now he had something he’d never seen from a skill before … double scaling. Para’s scaling with Willpower was twice as powerful, apparently.

Other than that, Para still had many of her older abilities, but now she was even trickier and more frightening. The elves had no idea how bad off they were. They were too desperate to fight the Dark Lord to study him properly.

How could they?

Zarian was holding back Eldritch Existence to give the elves a chance, but even a tiny bit of that trait made it hard for the elves to understand him. The wizard and parasite had to play slow and soft to invite their test dummies to come closer.

A red scout came running through the black and gray flames with a manic cry. He cocked back a fist and threw a decent punch with all of his physical stats aimed at the back of Zarian’s head.

The wizard didn’t even bother to look with his physical eyes. He and Para sensed everything from all directions. And it was more interesting for Para to respond.

She used Aura Mastery + Parasite Phantom to extend a big, wraith-like, dark red arm with too many clawed fingers from Zarian’s back.

The phantom hand grabbed the arm of the red scout with a vice grip, locking the living elf into an inescapable hold. Then she used her hunger aura to drain the aura out of the red scout while the blazing Black Fire extending from Zarian’s flaming body tore up the scout’s vitality.

No matter how much shouting and thrashing the elf did, he couldn’t break free of Para’s phantom grip and aura drain. The Black Fire spell was the finishing touch.

Together, Zarian and Para obliterated the elf’s most usable magical energies, forcing him to fall onto the ground, alive but incapacitated. They left the elf unconscious behind them and sought more victims.

Para reached out and grabbed unsuspecting victims with dozens upon dozens of phantom limbs. Zarian enjoyed seeing and feeling the results of Wizard Body Conversion + Aura Mastery + Aura Transcendence + Black Fire.

Basically, the combination made it easier to spread Black Fire further and further out while making it cheap to use Wizard Body Conversion. Zarian’s body becoming something akin to a black and gray flame elemental had the extra perk of growing his vitality based on affecting the vitality of others with Black Fire.

It was, essentially, a complex healing ability that needed Zarian to burn the vitality of his victims to increase his vitality. The merger of various abilities for his own healing power was such a minor price Zarian could hardly believe how easy it was.

So, without further ado, Zarian strolled around the square. Para phantom-grabbed new victims to aura drain. Zarian’s black and gray flames covered each victim.

Anyone who tried to fight from outside of phantom-grabbing distance with whatever little magical abilities they had left after suffering from Void Shout, Zarian used his Two Percent Darkness to beat them around.

Eventually, all the Slayer Scouts except for Ruven collapsed to the ground with all of their usual magical energies remaining. Little to no vitality. Little to no aura. They were as wiped out as anyone could be.

Zarian felt amazing, but not in an addictive way that he would usually get from absorbing life energy. The extra aura energy and vital energy running through him were almost too much.

Most of the aura energy ended up wasted, exiting his body.

The extra vital energy burned away quickly, fighting the consequences of abusing the Lion Prince to quicken his healing. Unfortunately, it would take more vital energy to truly fix him up, but Zarian was feeling better than before, getting closer to a full recovery.

Gilbert would do a better job of fixing the injured wizard. Stealing vitality by burning the vitality of others was more of a soft-healing approach that wasn’t the equal of a dedicated master of healing like Zarian’s fellow Florida Man.

We should go see our friends, Zarian thought.

We should go see our friends, Para thought, mirroring him while still synced up.

“What do you want?!” Ruven shouted, the last scout standing. “Why must you ruin our way of life?”

Zarian turned to look at him. Black and gray flames spun around him like a flaming twister. Phantom images of thick serpent bodies and an endowed, wraith-like woman of dark red complexion coiled around him. His lion tail swayed from side to side slowly as he pondered on an answer.

“What do I want? Hm. Well, the answer to that is simple and complex. It basically sums up to me doing what I want to do with the people I care about while avoiding too much bad shit. Not the sexiest and most straightforward answer, but I’ve been growing as a person lately, and I think it’s okay to see things more than just black and white.”

“I don’t understand,” Ruven muttered.

“Maybe you just need to be taught.”

Zarian and Para unleashed more Black Fire and aura phantom grabs upon Ruven. The flames ate away Ruven’s vitality. The phantom grasps of Para drained away Ruven’s aura.

He and Para could do much worse to a feeble sack of elf meat. But they didn’t, because he was part of Ruvaria’s family. Instead, Para gently laid Ruven down as the elf became incapacitated like the others.

Then Zarian turned off the black magic spell. Para turned off the perfect sync, giving their minds more separation. The wizard sealed away his darkness successfully, returning all the shadows to normal.

With a glance to the sky, he saw the Corma Star going from black to its usual brighter light. It was recharging after getting drained of so much power because of Ruvaria’s worldwide time stop spell.

He also felt the Star System returning the entire world to its cosmic spot in space and time after Ruvaria held the world hostage and forced it out of sync with the rest of the universe.

“You didn’t have to handle them so gently,” Ruvaria said, floating down to the cobblestone next to Zarian.

“They’re your family,” he said.

“I don’t care anymore.” She sniffed. “They won’t change like me. They won’t see the truth of what the old alignments and the absolute teachings have done to us. They won’t accept freedom, so you should give up on them like I’ve done.”

Zarian tilted his head. “Is that … a challenge?”

Ruvaria shivered. “Don’t waste your time on them, my lovely student. It is pointless.”

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Zarian disagreed, and Para felt the same.

Nonetheless, Ruvaria quickly teleported all of her family back to the Promised Continent. She hung around long enough for her and Zarian to go over some more magic lessons and ways to take advantage of Zarian and Para’s new changes.

Then Ruvaria left the next morning to keep watch of her projects, chief being Naomi and Jack.

Zarian remained laying in bed, enjoying the afterglow of a night of fun with Ruvaria, when a knock on his hotel door roused him a little. He knew who was behind it. Walter wanted answers after everything that happened yesterday.

Zarian had tossed the guy into a nearby shelter when time had resumed for the world, keeping him out of the way of the total one versus one hundred beat down. Now that all the action was over, Walter deserved a decent conversation to help him understand his place in leading Frivolous City into a better tomorrow.

But Walter wasn’t the most important person on Zarian’s immediate social list.

That person was Princess Bianca Garcia right now. She had just arrived at the edges of Frivolous City.

No, wait … she’s not a princess anymore, Zarian sensed without really knowing the exact details of Bianca’s changes. He just knew based on the air surrounding her it wasn’t right to call her a princess.

Bianca! Bianca! Bianca! Para chanted through his head. I miss her! Bianca! Dale! Let’s go!

Zarian chuckled as he quickly roused out of bed and cleaned up. He exited his room the mundane way, by using the door, and caught Walter by the arm.

With a perk to his step, Zarian dragged outside the flustered Londoner from an alt-world ruled by Great Britain. They went down the street as mundane non-rankers tried to go about their lives under new laws and benefits that seemed too amazing to be true after all the horrible generational trauma they’d experienced. Yet, there were skeletons and spiders working around the clock to improve Frivolous City.

Why?

Because why not?

Zarian enjoyed making things better. The act of service, of charity, felt awesome to him.

He had the tendency to fuck up a lot in major ways. But if he could clean up his act and make things better for others in desperate need, maybe he could find balance or harmony.

Besides, he took pleasure in seeing normally starving orphans get fed plenty of food as he walked toward Bianca’s direction.

Not all the rescued citizens were thankful.

Zarian ignored the suspicious looks and spiteful whispers of the naysayers. None of that mattered to him.

He was doing what he wanted, and what he wanted was to help and avoid too much collateral damage. And now the next thing he wanted was to be with a dear friend after so much time had gone by.

Better yet, he could finally have some curiosities answered.

What new abilities did Bianca have? What was she as a Master Ranker? And what had she gotten from banishing Ariana back in Grimrock?

Zarian could barely contain his giddiness even though he also had to prepare for Bianca being upset with him for all the problems he’d caused. But that was okay.

He would accept whatever criticism she had to say. He and Para missed their friend and wanted to know how much she’d grown.