The world turned silent.
None of the watching Mage Kings or Mage Emperors could believe what they had just witnessed.
It was one thing to enter someone's home, but it was something entirely different to kill someone in it.
The Lightning Emperor had actually killed two Mage Kings!
This... had this ever happened before?!
"You forgot the past," the Lightning Emperor said with a cold voice.
WHOOOOOM!
Suddenly, the world transformed.
The sky and the earth turned an ashen grey.
The plants and animals in the land of life all withered and died.
In a second, the entire land of life had transformed into a land of death.
The next moment, an ashen grey mist floated out of the Judgment Palace's gates.
The grey mist wasn't imposing, huge, strong, or dominant.
It was merely a whisp like from a candle.
The mist slowly floated through the air until it stopped in front of the Lightning Emperor, who only looked at it with cold eyes.
The grey whisp slowly vanished, revealing the person inside.
It was a short woman with skin as white as a corpse's and hair as black as the universe. She wore a long black dress, and her lips were deathly black.
It was Kali, the Empress of Death.
At this moment, she was looking at the Lightning Emperor with an almost vacant expression.
Having known Kali for so long, the Lightning Emperor could tell that she was absolutely furious at the moment, even if it didn't seem like it.
"Gregorio," Kali spoke with a wispy and ethereal voice. "You were the one that forgot the past."
Gregorio, the Lightning Emperor, only snorted. "Did you expect that this would happen?" Gregorio said. "Or was this outside of your plans."
"Plans," Kali repeated with an alien tone. "What irony. You are the one that has to resort to planning."
Gregorio's eyes narrowed as they looked into Kali's. "I don't care what you want to call your plans. The truth is that you have gone too far this time."
Kali only looked apathetically into Gregorio's eyes.
"And what if I did?" she asked coldly.
When Gregorio heard that, his last reservations vanished.
Kali had just confirmed that she had been the one that had killed Vana!
Naturally, Kali wasn't the one that did it, but Gregorio didn't know that.
In fact, Kali didn't even know why Gregorio was so angry.
But all of that didn't matter.
She saw an opportunity to spite Gregorio, and she took it.
"Originally, I only wanted to pay you back double of what I owe you," Gregorio said, "but if you are this willing to admit to it, it might be for the better that you leave this world and go where you belong."
Lightning exploded out of Gregorio's body.
"And while I'm at it, I might as well send your Abomination of a son after you."
"You?" Kali asked with a ridiculing tone. "You plan on killing me?" she asked again.
"You're the one planning," Gregorio said as a sizable tome appeared in front of him.
"I'm doing."
The next moment, the world around Gregorio seemed to warp as he gathered all of his power.
Kali's almost dead eyes only looked at Gregorio's actions like they didn't concern her.
At the same time, Adam looked at the two of them with an uncomfortable expression as he scratched the back of his head.
'Man, these two are at it again,' he thought as if this situation happened constantly. 'Better to let them have their fun for a bit. I'll just look out for all the stuff around them. I don't want anyone to get hurt.'
More and more power gathered in front of Gregorio, and just a bit later, all of it exploded forward.
In an instant, it was like the world had transformed into a weapon bearing down on Kali.
A terrifying mix of different elements and kinds of Mana was singing a symphony of destruction as it annihilated everything between it and its target.
Kali just looked at it with boredom.
She slowly extended her right index finger and tapped it somewhere in the air.
All the Mana vanished.
The humongous wave of destruction had vanished just like that.
This wasn't just some random attack from the Lightning Emperor.
This had actually been one of his most powerful attacks!
Yet, in front of Kali, it had seemed barely stronger than the attack of a mere Apprentice.
Adam only watched with a worried expression.
He hoped that Kali didn't hurt Gregorio too badly.
Officially, Gregorio had counted as the second strongest in their group, but unofficially, it had always been Kali.
Adam still remembered how he had met Kali, or more precisely, her body.
Back then, Kali had been in a deep coma that she hadn't woken up from in hundreds of years.
No one knew how to wake her.
Until Lucius came.
Lucius had awoken her and got the payment for waking her from her family.
Lucius left with the group, but Adam wanted to stay.
Adam said that he had taken a liking to Kali, and he wanted to train her.
Additionally, Kali wanted to repay Lucius for saving her.
So, Adam and Kali trained for many years until they finally returned to Lucius' group during a deadly battle.
Kali had grown extremely powerful, and she had saved everyone in that battle.
That had already been quite late in their journey. Everyone had already been either Peak Ancestral Mages or Mage Lords.
The entire group had already formed by that point.
And when Kali joined, everyone was overwhelmed by her sheer power.
She was more powerful than everyone except Lucius, and Lucius might even need to go all out to win against Kali if they ever fought.
Gregorio had always been quite powerful, but he had been on roughly the same level as everyone else.
Yet, Kali seemed like someone that could bridge the impossibly wide gap between them and Lucius, which was almost unimaginable.
Was Gregorio truly the second most powerful?
Lucius kept saying that, but Gregorio had never shown powers that could reach Kali's.
