CHAPTER 60: MANA DOMAINS

"I, the Void Magus, embody everything outside mana and world energy." The Void Magus calmly revealed.

"Aaron, Victor, Rufus." The Void Magus resumed before taking a break.

"My name is Damien and it’s a pleasure to make your full acquaintance." Damien, The Void Magus, smiled before bowing to the three magi.

"While I am a Magus, I do have a job that is vastly different from yours." Damien sat on the chair reserved for the King.

"My sole duty and the reason behind the secrecy of my existence is to protect the royal family or more specifically, His Majesty, The King." Damien lazily rested his chin in his palm.

"Now I’m not one for unnecessary banter so I’d like to go straight to the point. I believe that the reason for your inability to apprehend the Soul King lies not only with his cunning but your sheer incompetence." A smug smile spread on his face.

Aaron’s eyes squinted with a faint sense of lingering distaste.

On the other hand, Victor and Rufus, the Rune Magus, remained visible unfazed.

"My showing of my presence is enough to speak on my opinion about you. I am only meant to exist in the shadow of the King, quite literally but here I am." Damien’s tone was covered in ill-concealed disappointment.

"And what plan, pray tell, do you suggest we undertake to apprehend that fiend?" The Rune Magus stroked his beard.

"A plan? Who said that I had a plan to suggest?" The one he was talking to chuckled lightly yet eerily.

"Well in retrospect, I do have a plan." His eyes focused and steeled with an indomitable light.

The shadows flared and surged as energy of untold might flowed into it.

"My plan, if you could call it that, is to see which of you is only good enough to be mere cannon fodder."

The shadows swallowed the cave and threw everyone there into utter blackness.

"Big Bang." Aaron’s voice muttered slowly.

Waves of black flames surged out of him and burned the shadows surrounding them while leaving no trace of their existence.

"You live up to your name Death Magus. You can even bring death to the shadows." The Void Magus smiled as the dark space crumbled and burned away.

The bright orange sky, atypical of a desert, struck the eyes of three of the four magi present.

The Void Magus’ eyes appeared to be nestled in swirling and ever-turning darkness.

Now, floating above the reddish brown dunes of a desert far off from the Kingdom were four figures.

One was doing so using wings made of water, another was floating amongst a mass of shadows, the third simply stayed in the air, and the last was surrounded by black flames that gave him the thrust required to stay in the air.

"Void Magic; Domain of The Shadow God."

Darkness and shadows alike burst forth and covered the desert until it appeared to be made of onyx dust.

Victor looked at the pitch black sands and let out a sigh.

"Birth of The World Tree." His voice was quiet yet the world echoed it almost in reverence.

The ground cracked and shattered as massive roots sprouted from the ground.

They weaved themselves as though representing fate itself.

A mighty trunk that made the very earth shake grew slowly, steadily, and certainly until it reached the height of mountains.

Branches grew from the trunk and touched the planet’s atmosphere, perhaps even beyond it, and grew even farther.

Leaves that appeared to be made of the fabric of reality started to grow soon followed by fruits made out of stars.

The world groaned as soon as the tree finished its materialization.

**********

Inside a hollow mountain, far beyond anywhere recorded on any map, was a throne.

Seated on it was a figure so strange that reality almost couldn’t tell it.

It adjusted the mirror-like crown on its head while keeping its gaze on the direction of the World Tree that had just grown.

And it wasn’t just it. All over the planet, certain beings were awoken from their slumber.

**********

"You are testing our mana domains aren’t you?" Aaron spoke his thoughts to the one who had started the entire fiasco.

"And what if I am?" Damien retorted. "Your turn."

"Sovereign of Flame; Hades’ Gift," Aaron spoke calmly and yet the ground behind him exploded.

Rivers of inky magma spurted out of the breaking ground.

The rest of the desert started snowing as it lost its heat to the rising volcano behind Aaron.

Pillars of black flames descended from the sky and burned away the air, the water vapors within, the atoms, and even the earth in the magma.

Now all that was left was liquid flames that tried to spread in all directions.

Rufus, the Rune Magus, stared at the black desert sand, then the world tree, and finally at the liquid flames conjured by them.

Thoughts raced through his mind as he slowly stroked his beard.

"Why do you hide your power?" He finally spoke, his question directed at none other than the Void Magus.

Damien raised his hand in mock surrender, "Hide? I’m not hiding anything, trust me." He let out a cheeky smile.

"Do not play coy with me. You belong to my rank, don’t you? SSS-rank?" Rufus pushed on.

"Ah, you got me there, but there’s something you have wrong." Damien’s eyes turned to the sky.

"I am an SSS-rank but I didn’t hide my true power. Tell me, where is the sun?" He lifted his arms to the same sky.

The three magi turned but the sun was nowhere to be seen. In fact, the desert seemed off.

"This desert, this space is not real. Everything is within my mana domain." Damien’s eyes sparkled with an odd light.

"The shadows that I control aren’t even real yet they aren’t an illusion either. My Void magic allows me to absorb things, concepts, and ideas from the world and use them whenever I deem fit." Ripples went through the desert as he finished his speech.

Rufus stared at him dead in the eyes.

"So if I am not mistaken, this is a test to see whose mana domain can break free of yours?" His eyes focused on the distance.

"Yes. Exactly."

"Then, it’s my turn." Runes started to emerge from the Rune Magus’ body.

"The Will of Reality."