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Drip. Drip.

With ragged breaths and brisk and frantic steps, a robed man covered in velvet blood ran for his dear life as strange sizzling sounds chased from behind.

"Hueh.. huff..."

"AHHHHHHHH!"

As the man's body trembled more and more with every step and slowed with every breath, he let out a loud pained yell as he fell forward face-first into the ground.

An audible crack could be heard ascertaining a bone or two had fractured.

The man has been hit in the back by a blood-red small round projectile that ripped right through him and created a shockwave that traveled through his body causing damage to his internals.

Clatter. Clatter.

As the man lay in agonizing pain, footsteps approached from all sides.

"Marvin the traitorous supreme mage, you've been sentenced to death! Do not resist!"

"You s-scum! What traitor! I poured my heart into the kingdom, and this is how I'm repaid!"

Marvin, the man on death's door, looked hatefully at the group of people.

Their faces weren't able to be seen in this dead of night but you could still see their heavy jet black armor and great array of magic weapons which lightly shone somewhat illuminating them.

Most importantly, they had 8 separate magic suppression orbs carried by heavily guarded robed individuals in the back. That is one of the reasons why Marvin was in this situation. He should have been able to easily kill them all but they were using the thing he built to stop the ongoing wars against him.

Now normally, even this would do nothing but, he had long run out of mana and had very little when he was attacked in the first place as he had used up most of it during his experiments. He couldn't put up a good fight without a power source. He had no physical prowess like most mages.

"The crown has declared it no longer requires your services and as such, your a traitor and scum who betrayed, that's the story anyway. Blame your genius for it. I am only a simple hired hand, following the trail of gold."

The man that seemed to be the leader dressed in the strongest armor out of them all said with scorn as he held a blue ether blade, a weapon with a sturdy black handle and blade made out of energy separate from magic.

"B-COUGH-ASTARDS!" Marvin bellowed as he coughed up blood while he looked up with bloodshot eyes at the group.

"Your life offers quite a large sum you see."

Snickering, the leader stopped talking and started to without emotion, approach with his ether blade raised followed by three others from the south, east, and west respectively while he from the north.

Coughing up blood, Marvin laid limply on the ground as he bled and colored the soil and earth velvet. He would die even if they didn't finish him off.

"What an odd color your blood is. Is that what the blood of a supreme mage looks like?" Someone seemed to ask but of course, Marvin gave no answer and only gritted his teeth.

These hired assassins wouldn't know but this was the blood of the 'accursed' the knowledgeable would say, but Marvin scoffs at such words. Cursed? Having mana run through your veins is a curse? Strengthening your power is a curse? How laughable, it's just that you scared cats don't got the spunk! Who cares if it's dark mana, it affects nothing but changing the mind a bit, nothing awful! Cowards!

Even in this situation, Marvin had a fire in his eyes. Even as his body started to cease functioning, he wouldn't lose his will until he lost his breath, he wasn't a supreme mage for no reason. He hasn't come so far with no suffering and effort!

"You want me dead? Then I'll take you lot with me!" Marvin achingly exclaimed with a broken voice right after which he let out a pained groan as his velvet blood started to rapidly leave his body through his various wounds while bringing along with it six small orbs of different colors and six crystals of different mana that were hidden within his clothing.

"Wh-atever creat-ure shall an-swer my- call... hea-d my voi-ce, ac-t as y-ou wish, d-estroy and fre-e this cu-rsed world..."

Flowing weirdly, the blood started to form a magic circle around him as the orbs and crystals lay next to him. His broken laughter full of coughing blood soon began.

He was a man who deviated heart and soul to his craft, he wouldn't care how he achieved his goals as long as he could get results, that is what lead him through countless paths. This magic circle, these items, were something distant from normal magic, they were filled with other sources of power. The circle itself received power from Marvin's blood and the orbs and crystals, while these items acting as power sources started to correct the formation of the circle as it was used as a source.

Seeing all this, the attacking group panicked, this wasn't just magic! This was a witch's craft! MARVIN'S A MAGE, ISN'T HE?!

Understanding they couldn't waste any time, the leader quickly sped towards Marvin along with twelve others, and in a moment, as their weapons were a hair's width away from Marvin, a looming deathly aura filled their hearts with dread giving Marvin the split second required to finish the circle which had just helped him, the rest would be corrected by the orbs and crystals.

The gateway had already been connected, so there were no problems, what will come out is the only concern.

Gritting their teeth, through the sheer panic in their chaotic minds, all twelve and leader hurriedly moved their hands.

'HE MUST DIE NOW!!' They all thought simultaneously as Marvin grinned widely as the weapons impacted his body.

CRSSSCK! SPLAAAAT!!

Within a split second, Marvin's head fell and his body lied in countless pieces. The remaining blood in his body splattered everywhere feeding itself directly into the circle which was now lighting up beneath the feet of everyone within and with Marvin's death, it was the orbs and crystals running the circle now, working as the sources.

This action of killing Marvin in the way they had done had caused a dire situation.

"Sh*t!" The leader cursed stomping heavily on Marvin's head crushing it and scattering his brain matter.

"DAMN! MAGES DESTROY THE CIRCLE! BURN AWAY THE BLOOD!"

Unfortunately, the mages were unable to head the command of the leader. The magic suppression orbs they carried were Marvin's PROTOTYPE products. They required mana to activate and work and it also took all surrounding mana and used it for itself. They had already been sucked dry of mana.

"!!!!"

Feeling a pressure fall on all of them, the magic circle which they could not stop nor shift without a mage's power, started to glow brightly.

The hired assassins were regretting coming here. The dumb king of this country had called upon them and offered a hefty sum because of his fear of Marvin's knowledge.

"SH*T! RETREAT!! OUR JOBS ARE DONE! Don't matter what else happens! Let's go and quickly collect our reward!" The leader ordered as he leaped out of the circle and started running through the trees to escape, he had dropped his weapons and some bits of his armor for more speed which was followed by the others doing the same. Their steps were heavy and full of weight.

The mages were the unlucky, however. With no power, they could only run at a walking speed through the forest, and unfortunately, that was their demise. The pressure from the magic circle turned their weak bodies into mince-meat while shattering the mana suppression orbs. They had zero physical prowess. Not all mages are like these mages though, some focus on both physique and magic.

"@%#$#@>!" The leader cursed as he escaped.

Swooosh!

The magic circle glowing with vigor, a light transparent velvet beam shot up into the sky. The hired assassins had long disappeared into the distance except for the mages who had been crushed to death.

Sizzle! Sizzle!

Swirling in, magic energy or mana flowed in from the surroundings into the circle and gathered at the center where Marvin's corpse lay.

SSSHHHHH!!

In a moment, Marvin's corpse and the other dead mage's corpses dissolved into mana and flowed into the magic circle as their clothes shredded to pieces and floated away as dust.

Glowing brightly, the circle seemed to howl as razor winds gathered around tearing apart the surroundings.

The extremity of this magic circle and its power were beyond what Marvin himself would ever expect. He was aiming high yes, but he wasn't aware of what was in his possession.

While all the orbs had been absorbed by the circle, there was a single multi-colored crystal remaining within the center laying still, glowing slightly.

FWOOOOOSH!

With the weird crystal on the circle, the power and strength had reached a point higher than Marvin could ever hope to reach.

Swirling fiercely, the energy from all around funneled in like a storm into the eye of the circle. The amount flowing in could exhaust the surrounding mana completely for months or years.

SSSSHH!!

With a final gathering of mana within the circle that illuminated the beam brightly, everything started to gather at the center and slowly started to turn into a shape of a being.

Yooooo! Blaaaaast!

Within a moment of forming the shape of a being, a shockwave holding immense strength flowed outwards uprooting the trees and throwing them back as the ground cracked and rumbled.

With a blinding light that for sure could be seen from the capital off in the distance, everything around started to shake and lasted for a good five seconds before stopping causing the light to fade away.

From within the sky, a single bright line of red light seemed to rush into the circle and then disappeared.

Tap. Tap. Tap.

With light resounding steps, a dark figure walked out of where the circle should've been.

It was covered in a chilling aura that spread with every step. Its figure was lean, and its main body was dark black like a shadow. It had two slim golden glowing eyes with a dim brown-ish yellow gem imbed at its forehead along with a few different sized ones around its left shoulder reaching in at the chest, which had a ribcage like dark skeletal armor around it but, of course, it was just apart of its body.

There were also weird tentacle-like limbs originating from the back center of the ribcage like skeletal armor around its chest.

"Hm...? Where? Where is this?"

A rough grainy cold voice escaped from the creature even though it had no visible mouth to speak. The language it spoke was vastly different from Marvin and the assassins.

It seemed confused as it looked around at the destroyed surroundings and drifting dust.

"Hm?"

Turning its gaze down, the creature looked at the weird glowing crystal to the right of him.

Staring vacantly at it for a second, the creature bent down and reached for it with its shadowy arms as the tentacle limbs curled up and sprouted like large dark wings behind its back.

Looking at its hand, the eyes of the creature narrowed as a golden gleam emitted from it.

Without any more movements, the creature merely turned and picked up the crystal and brought it close, analyzing it.

"What is one of my soul fragments doing here? Hm..."

Closing its eyes, the creature seemed to be in deep contemplation.

"My consciousness was called here forcefully so... my body and remaining united soul is still locked in the 'Clock Frame'... Hm... interesting..."

Opening its eyes, the creature looked up at the brilliant three moons illuminating the night.

"Hm... how to proceed..."