Seeing the reversed curved sword, the identity of the sword wield was obvious.
'Agares!' Danzel's ethereal eyes flared in surprise as he saw the old man with his exotic clothes standing behind him.
But that wasn't for long enough.
Stepping forward with speed at least twice as Danzel, Agares held his reaper sword with both of his hands as he closed the distance between the Archmage in a blink of an eye.
'Fast...' Nevvan thought in surprise, but he did not panic.
Pointing his staff on Agares, he started preparing his spell.
"[Shards of Primary Protection]"
Three transparent layers of barriers began forming just as Agares appeared in front of him.
"Agares! Each layer completely blocks an attack and breaks afterward!" Danzel shouted from the back.
"Is that so?" Agares said indifferent as he spread his mana into his sword. His mana looks like hot concentrated steam.
"If that's the case..." Halting in front of the barrier, he raised his sword.
"Sword art~"
The steam-like mana in his sword suddenly spread throughout his body and left his body like overlapping mirror images, each wielding Agares that was more of an Odachi than his reaper sword.
It was as if the mirror images held a reflection of his sword.
"~of the Reversed Demon." Agares finally send, creating a total of 6 mirror images that swung from a different angles but all started at the same starting point.
"[Shards of Primary Protection]!!!" Nevvan quickly abandoned his counterattack spell and cast another layer of protection.
For the next instance, all of the layers are to be instantly shattered like glass.
All the mirror images went back to Agare's body.
But the original body had yet to swing.
And with all the layers of protection broken, there was nothing stopping him to get a piece of the Archmage.
Thoroughly shocked, Nevvan stepped back to create as much distance as he could before the reaping blade come to him.
'So [Shards of Primary Protection] wouldn't work against him. At least I finished my teleportation spell. After I create some distance, I will be able to study his strength and weakness.' The Archmage though, as he activated his teleportation spell.
But just before the spell was about to activate, an ethereal skeleton hand grasped his throat and dragged him forward, delaying his spell.
"What!?"
With eyes widened up, Nevvan could see how the undead he was about to kill had his remaining hand closed and pointing at his position.
Releasing what was going on, Nevvan's blood pressure rose out of the audacity of what the undead did.
"You-!!!"
Without being able to finish, Agares's sword came down and slashed down around the neck to his waist.
A short light appeared around Nevvan, showing signs of a protection enchantment activating, but even with that, the reaper sword cut through the barrier and his ropes till it reached his flesh. Leaving an extremely large wound that spewed blood none stop.
"Agggghhhhh! Activate!" Yelling in pain, Nevvan's body was engulfed with light before disappeared and reappeared in the air.
"You mere! lowly! UNDEAD! Do you have any idea who you are dealing with!?" Nevvan yelled, his body releasing a seemingly endless amount of mana.
With one hand on his wound glowing in yellow light, signs of healing magic, and his other holding his staff up high, a huge magic circle appeared above him.
"I will take my defeat! But not before I destroy you insult of magic! May the hand of the old frozen fall upon this world! [Edge of Nilfheim]!"
The magic circle that was turning around suddenly stopped before the magic circle was covered in a complete ice plate. That was when the true spell began manifesting.
From the middle of the ice plate, the ice started to come out, expanding by the second and becoming so big that it cast a shadow through the battlefield.
Many thought that a cloud blocked the sun, but once they looked up in the air, every one of both armies had a pale face with cold sweat running down their backs.
As what they saw was a meteor-sized ice block falling down from the air.
"R-Run!!!" one of the soldiers yelled at top of his lungs
Alas, the one who was in the center of the falling ice block was currently unable to do as such.
Using his cursed sword as support, Danzel tried to get out of the way, but through his hurrying, he fell to the ground.
He turned to see where Agares was and after using [Eyes of the Damned] he found out that he has somehow gone up to the air and chased the magic caster.
'I have to go out of its impact range!'
He tried to hurry and move away, resulting in him falling face forward to the ground.
The world seemed to freeze around Danzel.
He watched how the shadow was expanding around the area.
"How did this happend?" Danzel mumbled to himself.
Though he said that, he knew exactly how those events happend. Being influenced by his hatred and his race natures, it forcibly activating [Sin of Wrath] creates a snowball effect that led him in losing himself in hatred.
Usually, when he forcefully activated [Sin of Wrath], he would only adapt to the hate of his race natures, that being the hate of the living. With enough practice, Danzel was capable to keep his rationality with little to no influence on his mind.
But when all three reached the extreme levels and Danzel himself gave in, it result in this exact following of events.
It would have been much easier to just ask for Velkir's assistance or for the other group to kill the Archmage in question.
And yet he rushed in hopes to get revenge.
"I am such an idiot..." Danzel finally said as he tried to stand up once more, but was struggling to do so.
He even used the enchantment of his armor to generate the black sand but not completely harden to the dark plattings. Instead, he used his sword's enchantment to push the dark sand to lift himself even so slightly.
He moved like a limping man who was beaten.
He didn't know how much time he had, but considering that he started hearing the sound of wind being pushed, he guessed that the ice block wasn't much far away from the ground.
Near the point of losing hope, Danzel felt a being connected to him coming toward him.
Turning his head slightly, he saw how a massive skeleton wolf with three ethereal eyes running at top speed while howling in the air towards him.
"Gawwwooooof!"
It took him barely a few seconds for the death hound to reach him and circle around him while making whimpering noise, actions that Danzel took as its way of showing his worry towards him.
"Why did you come Skull Claw..." Danzel mumbled in confusion.
His confusion was justified as he never ordered Skull Claw to come if even to fight on this battlefield. Skull Claw being here means that she willingly chose to come so far on the battlefield.
"Wgaaaaf! She howled enthusiastically
That alone made him grin to himself (as much as a skeleton could grin).
"Well done, Skull Claw." Danzel said as he pulled his sword out of the ground and pierced one of the large ribs of Skull Claw.
"[Necromatic Restoraction]"
Casting the undead healing spell on Skull Claw, the cracks of the damaged rib closed down. But as Danzel's sword was still stuck in the rib, the regeneration failed to happen. Resulting in his sword essentially being stuck firmly.
Pulling himself up using his strength and resting his arm on the cursed blade, Danzel yelled out loud.
"Run Skull Claw! Run!!!"
"Gwaaaoooooh!"
Howling through the blocked sky, her three ethereal eyes flared up as she began dashing away from the impact range of the ice block falling down the sky.
Her claws left marks on the ground, while parts of her body became ethereal for the sole purpose of receiving less air resistance. All that while using the [Chase] skill. Making it not easy for Danzel who was hanging for his dear life on the side.
The surroundings grew only darker and darker.
Once Danzel raised his head to look at the ice block that was only 40 meters away from crushing to the ground and looking at the distance that they had to cross, Danzel's ethereal eyes flared up.
'Consider her speed and distance we will have to cross. The ice block will fall sooner than we getting away!'
Danzel tried to think of some kind of solution and only once the ice block reached the 15-meter mark before it crashed did Danzel come up with something.
"Skull Claw!!! Prepare to jump and turn to the left when I tell you so! That's a command!" Danzel shouted, receiving a confused howl from the death hound.
Looking up and seeing that the ice block reached the 10-meter mark, Danzel looked at his sword.
"Don't fail me now. You are supposed to be a sword of an emperor..." Danzel mumbled to himself.
And once the block of ice reached the 8-meter mark, Danzel gave the signal.
"Now!!!"
Doing as he commanded, Skull Claw jumped and turned sideways.
'Activate!' Danzel shouted out loud to activate his skill, even if it wasn't needed.
The magical damage that accumulated inside of him was soon released and turned into a shockwave of death that pushed everyone nearby.
While Danzel wouldn't receive the knockback effect of the [Armor of Vengeances] skill, others like Skull Claw could.
The shockwave pushed against Skull Claw's body, her being in the air not only increased the knockback effect, but being sideways, she was sent flying towards the other side of the impact range of the ice block.
And as Danzel cursed sword was stuck on her ribs, Danzel was dragged with her.
"MAKE IT!!!!" Danzel yelled.
And shortly afterward, the ice block fell to the ground, creating a cold shockwave that traveled through the whole battlefield.
