The two Mage Lords faced each other as their Foci started to spin quickly.
Lord Starsky and his friends still had no idea how powerful the Mage Lord in front of them actually was, which was why they were careful.
However, they doubted that the foreign Mage Lord was more powerful than Lord Starsky. After all, Lord Starsky was a Late Mage Lord.
The silence between the two of them was tense.
Suddenly, an impossibly bright bolt of lightning shot out of Lord Starsky's hands!
At the same time, Lord Starsky's Focus replaced all the Mana in the surroundings with Water Mana, essentially creating a huge sea in the sky that wasn't actually a sea.
While all of this was happening, the Mana in the surroundings seemingly vanished.
For just an instant, Shang felt like all the Mana in the world had vanished.
Then, all the Mana was replaced with Water Mana, and the violent bolts of bright lightning stretched into the horizon as they turned everything into a proverbial and literal sea of lightning.
Lord Starsky's two friends were protecting Star City from his Spell. Otherwise, the surrounding 50 kilometers or so would have been turned into dust.
The sheer powers of destruction made it impossible for any Spirit Sense to see what was going on.
All of this had happened in just a fraction of a second.
The normal Mana vanished and was replaced by Water Mana, which was then effectively replaced with Lightning Mana.
There wasn't a single person below the level of a Mage Lord that hadn't been shocked.
It was just one move, but this single move showed the difference between an Ancestral Mage and a Mage Lord.
When Shang felt the sheer power, he felt like a completely new world had been opened to him.
Back when Shang had seen the Storm Eagle fly past Warrior's Paradise, he had felt its power. If it wanted, it could have turned Warrior's Paradise into rubble.
Yet, Lord Starsky…
If he wanted, he could have turned the entire Storm Eagle Zone, including the Storm Eagle itself, into a crater.
The Storm Eagle would be just as helpless in front of Lord Starsky as a Soldier Stage beast would be in front of the Storm Eagle.
Lord Starsky could release an explosion so massive that the Storm Eagle would be turned into dust like any other beast.
There would be no difference.
For the first time in a long while, Shang was reminded of his life back on Earth.
This was it.
This was the power a modern nuclear weapon had.
It was a catastrophe.
It was a cataclysm.
It was a disaster.
A force of nature.
A less experienced person might not have been able to discern all the different nuances in Lord Starsky's attack. To them, everything would have just turned white with Lightning Mana.
Luckily, Shang was quite experienced.
'I'm not sure, but I think there were two forces of equal power and two forces of lesser power in play. At least, that's what I felt. There could've also been more.'
'If an Ancestral Mage needs a level four Concept to become a Mage Lord, and assuming Lord Starsky used his level four Concept just now, this probably means that he also knows a second level four Concept since there were two equal forces.'
'The lightning was incredibly powerful, but it has also been enhanced by some insanely strong Concept of Light. The water felt weaker, and I'm not entirely sure that the last thing was.'
The white explosion of Lightning Mana only stayed for a fraction of a second before it vanished.
Shang barely managed to feel how the Lightning Mana was rapidly pulled towards the Mage Lord in the blue cloak before everything was replaced with dense Water Mana.
The Mage Lord in the blue cloak had survived, and they had struck back.
This time, Shang could feel an extremely powerful Concept related to water attacking the enemy, but he could also feel three weaker Concepts supporting the stronger Concept.
Shang wasn't sure what these three weaker Concepts were, but they felt familiar.
"Space Tear."
Shang's head moved slightly to face the person in the black cloak beside him, who had just transmitted these two words to him.
The person in the black cloak was the Sweeper that had brought Shang to the Sky Lantern back then, and when she had mentioned the Space Tear, she had referred to the Space Tear they had gone through on their journey.
After hearing these words, Shang realized what these three Concepts were.
Space, Time, and Gravity.
However, they were definitely not level four Concepts, which meant that they were level three Concepts.
Still, that was quite surprising and impressive.
Shang wasn't sure what Concept the Territory Lord, the Mage Lord in the blue cloak, had used as her main Concept, but he assumed it was the level four Concept of Water, River.
It was impossible to tell how exactly these Spells looked or worked like for Shang. The powers were so devastating that it was just like Shang's world changed colors again and again.
An instant later, all the Water Mana vanished again, and Fire Mana filled with Light Mana replaced it again.
The sky above Star City changed colors rapidly as different kinds of Mana filled the surroundings and were absorbed again.
Seconds passed.
The world kept changing colors.
Different kinds of Mana filled the world before vanishing.
While Shang couldn't stretch his Spirit Sense towards the two Mage Lords, he could look in a different direction, and what happened there was just as shocking.
On the edge, over 200 kilometers away from Shang and over 300 kilometers diagonally away from the two Mage Lords, the different kinds of Mana were not nearly as overpowering.
By looking at the very edges, Shang could see how the Mana acted.
It was a cycle.
It was like the tides.
One kind of Mana stretched far into the distance.
Then, that kind of Mana violently got pulled back to the point where it actually completely vanished.
If Shang's mind worked faster, he would be able to see a single moment where there was no Mana in the surroundings.
Then, everything would be replaced with a different kind of Mana again.
And, most interesting of all, the Natural Mana outside the battlefield rapidly shot toward the two Mage Lords.
It was like the battlefield was a drain, and all the Mana in the atmosphere was water.
All the Natural Mana just vanished into the place where the two Mage Lords fought.
Another interesting thing was that Natural Mana entered the battlefield but never left.
This gave Shang an interesting thought.
'It's the opposite of my Domain of Entropy. I transform Elemental Mana into Natural Mana, but they are transforming Natural Mana into Elemental Mana.'
'I think I get what they're doing.'
'This is similar to my World Connection, but a more refined version of it.'
'While I borrow the power of the world and use it to strike my opponent, they are essentially absorbing the world before unleashing everything again.'
'My way would be like throwing a big ball at my opponent while they are essentially throwing a small stone. Both are equally heavy, but one deals way more damage.'
'Compression and density.'
At the same time, Shang remembered the concept of a Diamond Body.
'Compression.'
While the fight continued above Shang, he only focused on his own body.
Specifically, he focused on his lungs.
'Absorb and release.'
Then, Shang focused on the edge of the battlefield again.
'I think I know what I should do to reach the Sixth Realm.'
'I just don't know how long it will take me to pull it off.'
