Chapter 418: Chapter 417- Ancient

Infinite source of energy.

Limitless reserve.

No boundaries left for him to obey.

Adrian was freed from the chains of mortals the moment he died—something new was born inside him. A side driven not by training, not by discipline, but by raw emotion.

And right now… that emotion was anger.

He didn’t know why, but seeing Raven in that condition tore open something inside him. His blood boiled, yet a strange smile curved his lips as his dark eyes locked onto the being who dared lay a hand on Raven.

His Querella.

“I’ve been waiting to see what I can really do with these new powers,” Adrian muttered as he rose into the air. The moment the words left him, the being before him stopped smiling.

“You seem durable,” Adrian added, cocking his right fist. “So let’s make you my experiment.”

He vanished.

Adam’s eyes twitched—but by then Adrian was already right in front of him.

“Fool.” Adam raised a single finger and stopped the punch with casual contempt.

Dham.

Adrian grinned—and vanished again.

He reappeared behind Adam, upside down, heel slicing toward Adam’s shoulder like a falling axe.

Adam scoffed, twisted aside, reached to grab his leg—

But Adrian blinked out of sight again.

In the next instant Adrian’s hand clamped around Adam’s ankle.

“Down.”

He yanked—hurling Adam toward the ground with a violent snap.

Adam growled, halting himself mid-air before impact. His gaze shot upward—but Adrian was gone.

A faint pressure brushed the air on his left. He reacted instantly, turning—

Nothing.

DHAK!

A kick smashed into Adam’s ribs from the very same direction he checked. This one connected. Hard.

Adrian flickered into view for half a heartbeat—then vanished again.

His teleportation sped up. Faster. Shorter gaps. No sound, no warning. The air itself trembled from the burst of motion.

Adam tried to read him—but Adrian was now attacking like a storm from every angle. A punch from above—miss. A slash-like kick from the right—dodged. A sharp jab from behind—parried.

But then—

BAM!

THUD!

Two clean hits broke through Adam’s guard—one to the jaw, one to the gut.

Adrian appeared, smiling with a wild sharpness, eyes glowing as if feeding on the thrill of this new strength.

His presence warped the air as he vanished once more.

The next wave was faster. Brutal. A barrage of hits that bent the space around them, each teleport sharper than the last.

Adam growled, “You annoy me.”

The space around him twisted like a living thing. Reality bent inward, crushing and expanding in the same breath. The distortion hit Adrian before he could react—his teleportation sputtered, misfiring, forcing him out of the warped zone and making him stumble back.

Adam shot forward in that instant, claws extended.

Adrian barely leaned aside as the first slash swept past his face. But Adam’s movements were not linear—his wrist twisted mid-air, the slash changing direction like the flow of water.

CRACK!

The backhanded jab slammed into Adrian’s collar.

“Agh—!”

Adrian staggered, almost dropping from the sky as his hand shot to his lower neck. The impact numbed half his shoulder.

Adam calmly lowered his arm, voice cold. “You cannot hope to win in spatial magic against someone who has trained in it for centuries.”

Adrian coughed—once, twice—each heavier than the last. The irritation in his eyes sharpened into something darker.

Then he did something that made Adam’s brows crease.

Adrian dug his nails into his own neck—

—and ripped the torn flesh wide open.

A savage, animal act.

Adam’s frown deepened.

The wound sealed almost immediately. No trace of damage remained. Adrian rolled his neck once, the bones cracking in place.

Then he lifted his gaze.

There was hunger in his eyes now. A wild, consuming hunger.

“You are the master of one,” Adrian muttered, voice low, steady and dangerous. “And that… will be your downfall.”

Adrian lifted his hand.

At first, it looked simple—just a pulse of dark energy around his palm. Something any trained sorcerer could do.

Adam scoffed. “Cheap tricks—”

But his voice died.

The dark pulse thickened, layered, multiplied. One became two. Two became seven. Seven folded together like overlapping shadows, each carrying a different hum… a different signature.

Then a spark of lightning crackled at Adrian’s elbow.

Then frost gathered at his wrist.

Then a small flame curled between his fingers.

Three elements—darkness, lightning, fire—rested on the same arm as if they belonged there.

Adam’s eyes narrowed. “That shouldn’t coexist—”

Adrian vanished.

CRACK!

He appeared above Adam, driving a lightning-coated knee down. Adam warped space instantly, bending reality to deflect the blow. But the lightning dispersed into raw light—

—and reformed behind him as a spear.

Adrian snapped his fingers.

The spear detonated in a burst of blue-white fury.

Adam grunted and twisted space to swallow the explosion, but the shock still rippled through his guard. He clicked his tongue, annoyed.

“You’re forcing space itself to misbehave,” Adam muttered.

Adrian didn’t respond.

He was already moving.

He dragged his hand through the air, and darkness obeyed like liquid. It wrapped around his arm, but this time frost gathered inside it like a second skin—

—and flames licked over the frost without melting it.

Three opposites merged into one spiraling sphere.

Adam felt it then.

A cold, ancient pressure.

Something older than sorcery… older than the elements themselves.

Something primal.

“Impossible…” Adam whispered.

Adrian hurled the sphere—

but midway, it folded inward, turned into a beam, then shattered into a rain of needles. Each needle changed element mid-flight—fire to ice, ice to lightning, lightning to darkness.

Adam bent space to form a dome.

Most needles warped away.

But not all.

A few slipped through.

“Wha—ugh!”

They struck him—one on the shoulder, one on the thigh, one grazing his cheek. Each left a burn, a freeze, and a shock at the same time.

Adam snarled. “Enough!”

He charged, claws glowing with spatial distortions. He slashed the air, sending compressed space blades at Adrian.

Adrian blurred sideways—teleporting, but different this time. Not pure speed. Not pure space. Something twisted around him, as if time and emotion pulled him from one point to another.

He appeared behind Adam and smashed a fist wrapped in molten frost into his ribs.

BOOM!

Adam spun from the force, space bending violently to stabilize his body.

Adrian didn’t stop.

His hand rose—and the wind itself howled around him. Small dust particles floated, froze, burned, and then orbited him like a miniature storm. A storm made of every element he touched.

Adam’s jaw clenched.

“That… that is not sorcery.”

Adrian stepped forward, his voice calm, cold and raw with anger.

“No. This is instinct.”

He raised both hands, and the multi-element storm compressed into a single, colorless sphere.

A sphere that carried no element—

because it carried all of them.

Adam’s heart dropped.

“You—what ARE you?”

Adrian’s eyes were bleeding—not with blood, but with hunger. A deep, ancient craving that burned brighter than any flame he conjured.

He lunged forward.

Adam reacted instantly, snapping every layer of his mastery into place. He condensed the space between them—folding, crushing, thickening it—using every ounce of mana left within him. Dozens of invisible walls stacked, each one dense enough to halt an army.

But Adrian tore through them.

Not by force.

Not by breaking them.

He passed through them as if they weren’t even there.

As if the rules Adam lived by did not apply to him anymore.

As if all the centuries Adam spent mastering space meant nothing.

Adrian crossed the final barrier like walking through mist. In a blink, he was inches from Adam’s chest—the glowing, colorless orb throbbing in his hand.

“Tell your God,” Adrian whispered, voice hollow and hungry, “I’m coming for him next.”

And then—

The world lost its color.

Everything went white.

Then the explosion came.

A roar so violent it turned the air into a weapon. A wave of blue flames and mana burst outward, swallowing the sky in a blinding, expanding sphere. Isabelle felt the ground quake beneath her feet—the soil trembling like it feared what had just been unleashed.

She froze.

Her breath hitched as the shockwave grew larger, brighter, louder—

coming right for them.

The heat alone was unbearable, like standing before a sun dropped onto the land. The plantations swayed, leaves scorching from the sheer force. Isabelle’s legs locked in place. Her mind screamed to run, but her body refused.

It was over.

It was all going to be wiped out.

But then—

BOOM—SHHHHHHHHHH

An invisible wall materialized before her, shimmering like distorted air. The explosion slammed into it with a godlike force, pushing, clawing, tearing at reality. Sparks of raw mana scattered across the barrier like lightning trapped inside glass.

The invisible shield held.

Barely.

Isabelle watched with wide, trembling eyes as the flames curled around the barrier, screeching like living beasts. The sound was deafening, a chorus of destruction that made her heart pound against her ribs.

The world beyond the barrier…

…was gone.

The land was no longer land.

The trees were no longer trees.

The sky was a bruised, trembling canvas of smoke and white fire.

Everything had been wiped away—

a crater carved into existence by a single man.

A single attack.

Isabelle swallowed hard, breath shaky.

’We…are lucky to have him on our side.’

°°°°°°°°

A/N:- Thanks for reading.

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