Vael spoke through telepathy like as always he did...
"You all think you will defeat me. Give a try. So who will come first."
The wind howled through the broken plains. Dust circled in eerie silence. Blood soaked the earth where Ren had collapsed, his body torn open, unconscious, unmoving. His skin pale. Breaths shallow. The silver-black mana still pulsing faintly in the air.
Seroi moved first. In his mind first thought was to protect Ren.
His robe tore as he dashed forward. Wind spiraled beneath his boots. He stepped towards the Ren. Then he appeared beside Ren's fallen form through his light wind speed, his arms stretched out. A sphere of mana shimmered to life, wrapping Ren's body in a flickering prism of white-blue light.
But it was not fast enough. Vael understood what Seroi did. Then his tendrils snapped forward.
They moved through the air like thought soundless, elegant, lethal. Five curved fibers lashed at Seroi from every direction for take down the Seroi.
Seroi's body shifted.
Two runes etched across his forearms flared. Air collapsed into vacuum, then exploded outward. He spun, arms carving glowing arcs. Each tendril deflected by a ripple of force. He used his mana shield to protect Ren and him too.
"Do not touch him," Seroi said.
Vael's eye pulsed violet.
Then he laughed. The sound echoed in air.
"Protecting a corpse, are you stupid?"
A shockwave rolled out. Soil cracked. The sky darkened. Then the air behind Vael shimmered.
And they started to move.
Twelve.
Twelve cloaked figures stepped through burning glyphs of teleportation. They teleported from air to ground within a second near to Seroi. Behind them, the Mage King. His footsteps were silent, yet every strand of mana within kilometers bent toward him. He released his mana pressure. Behind them, the sky tore open. Thousands of magicians, clad in sigils and bearing weapons, stood across the horizon. They all were floated. Waited for command.
Then the battlefield shifted.
A dome of magic formed above Ren's broken form. Seroi still guarding him, injured but focused.
The twelve spread apart. Each took a position.
A woman stepped forward first. Tall, with sunburnt skin and thick red braids wrapped around her waist. She wore a cloak made of crimson feathers. Her staff gleamed with embedded rubies.
"I am Caldra of the Western Blaze. Fire Queen of the Crimson Isles. You think we can't defeat you. We will prove that. You will see your end and then you will think why I do that?"
Vael didn't answered. He just laughed. His laugh mocked evryone. Looks like he just played with them.
Beside Caldra, a man floated. His lower half had no legs. Only swirling vapor, bound by gold rings.
Zeron of the Mistral Eye. Keeper of Forbidden Winds.
They all removed their masks and revealed their identities.
Next, a slender boy stepped out. No older than fifteen. His hair white, skin porcelain. His eyes were hollow.
Leith. Dream Binder. Born of no sleep.
A beast of a man followed. Over nine feet tall, body bound in silver chains. Each of his arms bore scars older than history.
Borun. War's End.
A woman covered in silver mirror shards bowed next.
Kaelin of the Hundred Mirrors.
A young woman walked barefoot across the broken battlefield. Pink mana sparkled in her hands, dripping like petals.
Layra. Bloomed of the Heart Vale.
Then came a cloaked figure, his face hidden. Only a voice whispered.
Nahrel. Whisper of the Stone.
Then twin sisters blonde, identical, one blindfolded, one mute.
Vea and Svea. Judgment Twins.
An old man in rags laughed behind them.
Old Lark.
Two more arrived. A woman surrounded by floating bones and memories.
Selnar. Death Archivist.
And last, a pale knight with no shadow.
Rath. The First Blade.
The twelve stood together. Their eyes locked on Vael.
Then came the Mage King.
He walked without a word.
His armor shimmered like ice wrapped in flame. On his back, a sword that hummed in silence. His eyes burned pure gold.
Vael stared at him.
"Come to fail again? Mage King. You already know. How much powerful I am. Why you waste your time? Just wait and watch. What i am doing."
The Mage King said nothing. His gaze drifted to Ren's body. He didn't replied Vael's words. Instead of...
"Protect the boy," he said quietly. Then all surrounded the Ren and Seroi too. Vael started to move.
To stop him Caldra was the first to move. She slammed her staff to the earth. Fire poured across the battlefield, surging in waves, turning the land to magma.
Vael didn't flinch.
He raised one tendril. The flame parted before touching him.
Borun roared. Chains around his arms flew forward. Each one heavy enough to crush a mountain. They struck like lightning.
Vael lifted one finger.
The chains stopped mid-air. Then shattered.
Zeron appeared above. The air vanished. Vacuum descended. Vael's body crumpled inward from pressure.
Or so it seemed.
A moment later, Zeron was hurled through the air, his lungs failing.
One by one, the twelve attacked. Spells that could split continents. Techniques lost for ages. Layra's pink mana grew into a garden of blooming death, vines dancing like ballet, wrapping around Vael's limbs.
He tore them like paper.
Nahrel struck with gravity blades. Kaelin turned the air into mirror shards. Leith bent dreams into weapons. Vea and Svea cast dual judgment, one in light, one in silence.
Vael took it all.
Then retaliated by used his tendrils and mana shields. Also some counter attacks too.
Then a single tendril moved filled with mana. It's looked like a mana pocket. Then mana blast happened through that mana pocket.
Caldra exploded in flame. Not dead, but burning from the inside.
Borun was thrown back. His arms crushed by unseen pressure.
Slowly slowly everyone thrown back by impact force of this mana blasts. Vael used his all tendrils filled with mana looked like mana pocket and did the mana blasts.
Layra screamed. Her petals turned black. Pink mana flared wildly. She charged again.
Vael caught her by the throat.
"You call this resistance? You don't have that much power to scratch me and you think you will defeat me. How stupid you are!" he whispered.
Then he was struck the Layra and thrown her towards the stones near the lake.
Then the Mage King moved. He was in rage. He couldn't saw his fellow members in this condition.
Sword drawn.
He did not appear. He was.
One slash.
A thousand worlds wept like that.
Vael staggered.
A wound bled across his shoulder. The black liquid shimmered, alive.
The ground shook. The sky darkened.
Vael laughed.
"You made me bleed. Good. You improve little boy."
Then he lifted his tendrils. Released his silver black mana. Cast the thousands spells that were attacked on thousands of mages and all of them. From the spells different different types of attacks launched. Some had the mana swords, some had the flames, ice spykes, so many.
Space cracked.
Thousands of mages in the sky dropped, screaming. Some died. Others burned. The heavens tore. They tried to protect them selves but this attack by planet level mage so some of them couldn't handle it.
The Mage King's sword rose again. Protected the Ren and Seroi. In his sword had a special mana barrier by using that he protected them.
Then the twelve regrouped. They all also protected them selves too by using their magic. They were Bruised. Bleeding. But not broken.
"Together, we do anything. We can destroy the continent too. It's our last chance to save this world. For that if we have to sacrifice ourselves we do that. Let's go my friends and fellows to kill this outsider. Help me to kill him." said Kaelin.
They all agreed and charged.
Magic flooded the world.
A war of gods began. They all looked like a gods descends from the heaven too protect their believers.
And in the center, Seroi still guarded Ren's body.
The boy who had fallen.
The one they all still believed in.
Elara finally reached her new vantage point high above the cliffs, whispered through the broken air. She just looked everything. She couldn't help them nor contact them. If she did Vael will succeed in his plan. She knew that. In her body also like Nyxa one power lived. That power understood the Vael's plan and told her not did anything.