"Shoot the canon," ordered Gorm. So, the crew quickly fulfilled his order. A massive energy light came from the ship, heading straight to the black shield. Cracks appeared on the shield, but it held on, confronting the energy beam for a few seconds before it broke. Finally, the ship could enter the Red Number Star System.
"We have detected two planets already invaded," said one of the crew, and Gorm nodded before looking at Abiodun.
"Are you going to be alright?"
"There should be no problem, but hurry up just in case."
"No problem," said Gorm before teleporting outside the ship while holding an ax. Then, he turned into a beam of light rushing straight into the planet. Abiodun had a look of slight envy.
Because of the Undead Legion Catastrophe, light magic, the natural enemy of the undead, has become the most precious form of magic. Regrettably, only a few people with soul mutation in the Empire can use light magic.
The relevant department has been trying to make light magic usable by most Arcanists through Arcane Rune Spells, but the results have only been subpar.
As Gorm landed on the planet, there was no catastrophic shockwave. Instead, an enormous pillar of light began to spread in all directions, purifying all the undead in its path.
However, after traveling a few hundred meters, another grey pillar of light appeared and stopped Gorm's attack. So, he looked in the direction of the attack with a look of disgust.
He knew the grey pillar was a tactic the undead used as a countermeasure for purification. They sacrificed countless individuals with pure souls to create the pillar, which can also be used to give Light Purification Resistance Buffs to any legion.
Gorm saw another human with gray skin leading this battalion, holding a magical artifact that was the source of the spell that blocked his attack.
'Tier 6 Zombie,' thought Gorm with slight excitement. As he looked at his opponent, a large magic circle appeared behind him, and a battalion of people teleported behind him.
This battalion was composed of muscular men and women with tattoos all over their bodies; they also had different melee weapons–mostly axes and hammers.
The Viking Battalion.
"Another battle? Maybe I can finally reach Valhalla," said a beautiful woman with defined muscles.
"First-Commander, you know Valhalla is not real."
"If you believe it is real, then it's real," she replied. "Plus, who says that we cannot create Valhalla one day in the future."
"Enough with your nonsense. Let's fight," ordered Gorm, and she grinned. She raised her hammer above her head, and a small magic circle appeared on the handle.
Boom!
She smashed on the grounds, creating thousands of Earth Spikes that impaled and purified the undead army full of skeletons and dark knights. At the same time, Gorm rushed straight to the Zombie.
Bang!
Gorm smashed his axe, but his opponent responded by punching him instead. The shockwave of these two's clashes sends all the undead away.
"Hahaha, finally, a worthy challenger. I've had enough of these mages who disdain fighting head-on like real men," roared Gorm as lightning suddenly emanated from his body, exponentially increasing his speed.
He smashed the head of the Zombie, but the latter moved his head to the side, resulting in the ax hitting the ax, leaving a gushing wound. However, the zombie did not care about such a wound; he buttheaded Gorm instead, sinking in his skull.
The Viking Warrior did not care about such an injury as well as he naturally healed. He began to spin around with his axe, creating a small tornado that left thousands of cut wounds on the zombie.
The zombie ignored his wound and made a crushing motion with his hand.
Dark Magic: Crushing Heart.
Gorm spewed mouthfuls of blood as more leaked from his nose and ears. However, a small golden light appeared on his chest to regenerate the destroyed heart.
Then, he began exchanging blow-to-blow with the zombie. Meanwhile, Abiodun began to act.
He walked to his squad, where the majority of them wore knight armor and held long swords.
"Ready?"
"Yes, Captain."
"Begin."
All the squad members took out a headphone and put them on. Then, a voice straight from Heaven entered their hearing, nourishing their souls and bodies. These muscular men, full of bloodlust, had an intoxicated look as they closed their eyes, enjoying themselves to the fullest.
Thirty seconds later, they finished.
"Miss Aishwarya's voice is angelic; I wish I could marry her," said one of the soldiers.
"Aishwarya Kapoor is literally the biggest star of the milky way galaxy, a Tier 7 Arcanist, and you think you can marry her?" commented another.
"I can dream, can't I?"
"Don't listen to him. We live in an era where nothing is impossible. Pursue her, and maybe you will have a chance."
"Stop wasting time. Let's deploy," said Abiodun, who also listened to the thirty-second song. Although he, too, was fascinated by that voice, he had to control himself in front of his man.
After listening to it, all the squad members felt their strength, spirit, and mana drastically increase. Aishwarya's songs had buff abilities for anyone who listened. So, the Empire recorded them in unique magical artifacts to use in the military.
A latch opened from the spaceship, and Abiodun flew out. And as soon he entered the vacuum of space, an enormous dragon with two wings and four legs appeared underneath him.
Abiodun sat on the dragon's neck like a car seat. And as soon as he did, it was as if he and the dragon were one entity. The same applied to his squad: they had dragons to rise since their Arcane Class was Dragon Knights.
Technically speaking, these men should be Dragon Riders, and Dragon Knights should be Arcane Knights with dragon bloodlines. However, the two groups have been fighting for control over that name for many years, and the Dragon Riders currently have the advantage, so they kept the name.
As the group of Dragon Knights floated in the void, Abiodun used a spell for his voice to echo in space:
"I know you're here. Come out."
Then, a woman with dark clothes appeared. She had long and disheveled hair that floated in the air. She had no feet underneath her coak, an extremely tin face, and razor-sharp teeth.
'Tier 7 Banshee,' thought Abiodun.
"How do you know I was waiting for you?"
"Isn't your usual tactic to send a Second General with a First General? You guys seem never to evolve," said Abuidun with a sneer.
"Not necessarily," replied the Banshee as the space next to her cracked open, and a phantom-like figure appeared next to her.
'Danm it, a Tier 7 Ghost.'
Abiodun knew his mission was to use number advantage to stall the Tier 7 Second General until Gorm came to support him. Then, they had to wait for John to finish and reunite with them to finish or drive the enemy off.
But now, there was another Tier 7 entity that the intelligence department did not detect.
Abiodun quickly analyzed the situation to come up with countermeasures. He first sent a red code to Gorm and John to tell them the situation was out of hand. Then, he ordered his men through their Mind Communication.
'Begin Mana and Soul Frequency Synchronization.'
Despite the dire situation, these men were elite trained through the harshest method. So, they had no fears and quickly executed their orders. They controlled their mana and soul frequencies and wavelengths to perfectly match, allowing them to enter a stage of perfect fusion with their comrade.
Adding to that, their already fusion with their dragons, this fusion was on another level.
After the fusion, Abiodun felt he was perfectly synchronized with his man, having access to their mana and even soul power; they felt like a hive mind. Then, he used a spell perfect suited for this occasion:
Expecto Patronus.
The squad of 108 men and dragons turned into an enormous silver white, and transparent dragon before rushing toward the enemy.
In recent years, it has been proven that the Expecto Patronus Charm has excellent power against the undead and could purify many like ghosts, wraiths, and Banshees.
With this spell, Abiodun knew he could do maximum damage to his opponent, making them weary of attacking or coming close. At the same time, their translucent state granted them defensive abilities against many spells.
'The perfect spell to buy time,' he thought.
John took out his long staff to confront his enemy. He tapped into the void, and thousands of clones appeared around him, and he controlled them to attack the Lich. All the clones raised their staff to cast a spell.
At the same time, the Lich reacted.
Dark Magic: Blood Suction
Hundreds of the clones suddenly dispersed into motes of lights.
'Illusions?' thoughts the Lich as he marveled. He could not tell the difference. And before he could further analyze the situation, one of the clones' spells hit him, activating his passive defensive measure to create a shield to protect him.
'So, some illusions can use spells, but some cannot?'
The situation was tricky as it would be a disadvantage to him if he had to constantly worry about which of his opponent's spells were mere illusions and which ones were real.
So, the Lich decided to defeat his opponent as rapidly as possible. Based on the information received from headquarters, the weakness of these Arcanists that use technology to fight Tiers above them is their souls.
It is challenging for them to control vast mana without their souls reaching the same tier.
Dark Magic: Hell Flame.
A dark flame manifested from the Lic's staff, burning all of the illusion clones. The Lich planned to use a spell with a large area of effect to force the real body to defend itself, thus finding John's location.
However, to his surprise, all the clones were destroyed, but the real John was nowhere to be seen. Then, the Lich felt a sudden danger behind him. A laser beam pierced his shield before passing through his body.
'Danm it,' thought the Lich. He did not care about the destruction of his body. However, that spell had purification capabilities and could have killed him. Luckily, he used a Soul Protection Spell to protect himself, but he was still injured.
The Lich turned around, his soul flame obviously displaying unbridled rage. Then, he said something in an eerie voice:
"In the name of the great god, Guzznad, ruler of death and heir of the Magus, I shall pass judgment upon my enemy."
Death Authority: Death Light
A dark beam of light came from above John containing the power of death.
His face contorted as he knew that once this attack reached him, he would not survive. So, he clenched his teeth and said: "I am an Arcanist, and I shall pursue the truth–even in my death."
Then, he suddenly aged rapidly, turning from a young and handsome man in his 20s to an older man about to die. Then, a golden shield appeared to protect him, an act that made the Lich sneer.
As a First General, he could borrow Death God Guzznad's [Authority] to execute his enemy. Although he will use all his mana and enter a deep state of weakness for a while, it usually gets the job done.
Soon, the Lich frowned as he saw the golden shield lasted a few seconds against his spell. However, considering his opponent had sacrificed their lifespan to boost their powers, he felt it was plausible to resist a little longer.
And as expected, after a few minutes, the golden shield broke apart, and John was annihilated from the face of the world by the dark beam. The flames in the Lich's eye sockets became smaller, but his bones seemed to smile even brighter than before.
He flew to the position of John's death for a final check before taking out a magic scroll from his interdimensional bag to exit the mirror dimension. Regrettably, before he could activate it, a bunch of chains appeared to tie him; they sealed his mana regeneration and his soul.
Then, to the Lich's horror, John appeared before him, perfectly intact without a scratch.
"Do you want to know how I did it?" asked John with a smile as he took out a black jewel. "I won't tell you." John placed the jewel on the Lich's forehead, and it disappeared, entering his Soul Dimension and isolating his soul.
As a follower of a Death God, the Lich's soul belong to his god. So, John has to use a special magical artifact to prevent Guzznad from summoning his follower's souls.
'With this Tier 8 Soul, my Illusion World Magic should take another step.'
John is one of the best Illusionists in the Empire, even ranking in the top 10. And that's because his spell, the Illusion World, allowed him to craft an entire world of illusion.
From his first confrontation with the Lich, he was never present. He created his illusion world, similar to the concept of a domain. Inside that domain or space, he can create illusions within illusions.
He can also influence people's emotions, which was one of the reasons that the lich quickly became so enraged, deciding to destroy his opponent with one powerful attack that drained most of his mana.
So, from the very beginning, he never came close to the Lich. And when the latter used that powerful spell, he had teleported countless distances away to ensure not to get hit.
According to the law, the lich was not his war trophy, and he could use it as he pleased. So, John placed the body away before exiting the mirror dimension. The first thing he did was remove an orb from his Soul Dimension as it put significant pressure on his soul, hence his mind or spirit.
The orb was a magical artifact that allowed him to access the ship's mana core in the mirror dimension. He could not bring the ship with him since he would lose his power if the lich destroyed it.
He looked in the distance to see a silver-grey dragon and giant fighting two Tier 7 Undead. John did not waste time before taking action. He controlled the spaceship to launch one is its canon.
The two Tier 7 Undead tried to evade once they felt the danger, but John used a restriction spell to render them immobile. And after the canon almost killed them, he captured the two.
Immediately afterward, he felt intense pain in his body. Then, the veins in his neck began to spread to his neck. John held his head, screaming. At the same time, some age spots appeared on his face and hands.
"Activate emergency healing protocol," said John's Artificial Spirit. Then, he disappeared before reappearing in a healing cabin inside the spaceship.
Gorm and Abiodun checked on him and saw that his condition was slowly stabilizing. Then, they reported to HQ, who would send people to this star system.
Although this region had no life, all the planets had precious resources, so a mining crew would soon arrive with the proper equipment. Finally, the crew returned home once the minors arrived.
Meanwhile, back at HQ, Olivier received visual records of the victory in the Red Number Star System. After checking for any anomalies, she focused on the different battlegrounds of this war.
For a moment, things appeared stabilized before a red screen appeared before her, making her concentrate.
"Luna, what is it?"
"Omicron, Shasta, Cala, Prenut, and Cafree: all these star systems are being invaded," Luna said with her eyes completely white. "No, I'm too late. Omegon has gone dark."
"Did you say Omegon? Show me the visual," Olivier hurriedly said. And soon, she saw a star system completely enveloped by darkness. She suddenly thought of something and called two people.
"Did Guzznad show up in your area?"
"How did you know?" responded Rowena. "I have detected a Tier 9 individual was coming my way, most likely a clone."
"The same for me," responded Dumbledore. All these people had the same weird veins as Olivier in their necks.
"You two must use the floating cities to deal with your opponent as swiftly as possible. Do it, no matter the consequence."
"What is the situation?" asked Rowena.
"Omegon is too close to our territory's border. If the Undead Legion can create a base there, it becomes easier to attack us. So, we must destroy Omegon at all costs."
"I'm sorry I could not detect it beforehand," Luna said.
"No, if it were not for you, we probably would not have detected anything until the base was created."
If the Undead Legion created a base, removing them would become a thousand times more difficult since each base is connected to Guzznad's Divine Kingdom.
From these bases, they essentially have an infinite amount of reinforcements, and Guzznad can quickly descend on these bases without being noticed.
So, Olivier would not let one appear so close to the Empire's borders.
----
For anyone wondering, the last chapter was a mistake. The ship was 5 kilometers wide, not meters.
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