Ch 11

Sorrow, who had completely transformed, rose to the ground with a flap of his wings and faced Areth directly.

The swords of light were devoured by shadows covering his entire body.

Knowing that it was already useless, Areth stopped playing around and stopped producing the swords.

Bulges appeared in Sorrow's body. These bulges completely split apart from him and turned into clones, exactly similar in looks and in presence. They spread out and surrounded Areth from a safe distance.

"Let's see how you could still be arrogant." Sorrow said.

A symbol flashed on his black eyes, the clones appeared to imitate him and glared at Areth in the same way.

Darkness appeared on the surface of Areth's skin. It started as tiny black dot on his arms, then the dot spread out like ink, intent on devouring his entire body.

"Physical attacks don't work on you, but we have ways to deal this problem." Sorrow smiled confidently after seeing Areth's frown.

"You lot have targeted me twice with this vile thing. I am really starting to lose my patience." Areth said as he clenched his first, radiant light burst out from his body and burned the black substance.

At the same time, golden light manifested on Sorrow and all his clones. The light burned them but they were dealt with quickly and dense mass of darkness devoured the light.

Sorrow extended his hands, and all his clones imitated him and pointed their hands towards Areth. Flame condensed and formed a small ball of fire, radiating intense heat.

All at once, they were released. Areth teleported, however, he saw that he was still surrounded by Sorrow and his clones. The fireballs were still heading towards him.

"Hahaha! How was it? Did you think you could escape? Don't forget, teleportation is also my forte!" Sorrow said.

The flames exploded on Areth. The intense heat spread out from the explosion but the enemies stood faithfully in their formation, charging yet another fire attack while utilizing curses.

Areth's barrier protected him from any sort of harm. The curses were burned away by the resplendence my flames covering his body.

"What now? Are you out of ideas? Why not take out your weak swords again hahaha!" Sorrow taunted as he sent waves of attacks.

Areth condensed light into four spheres surrounding his body. They shot out light rays into the distance and immediately destroyed four clones. After destroying four, the orbs rapidly made a circle around him, the light rays turned into a sharp blades, spinning like turbine and cutting anything on its way.

The sight was very conspicuous to the group of five who was secretly watching from the ground, far enough to be safe but close enough to get a good view.

They were holding monocles to their eyes, imbued with magic, allowing them to see the situation clearly at long distance. From time to time they would lose the two due to teleportation. Fortunately the constant loud sounds from their battle was able to guide them to their location.

"Is that a demon general? That mage is also powerful. They almost seem like gods."

Lijian who carried the scrolls commented. Besides him was the elf Sonia, engrossed in the fireworks and different kinds of spells being displayed.

The leader, Aden could not help but admire. "So mages could be this powerful..."

The two swordsman in the group, the silent young man and the silver armored young lady gave him a look. The young elf also had thoughtful look as she watched the battle.

At this moment, although it seems like Sorrow has gotten the upper-hand, he was becoming more frustrated as he had yet to injure his opponent the slightest, while he couldn't count the time he had almost died. If not for his teleportation and the darkness barrier he inherited from Grievance, he would have died even if he had ten lives.

Thick pillar of lightning bolts descended from the dark clouds, striking towards Sorrow like spears. These lightning left huge scars on the surface of the ground upon landing, immediately turning it black.

Despite possessing the skills to teleport, Sorrow could not keep up with the rate of attacks. His barrier was also unable to devour the lightning, resulting in many burns across his body.

Panting, Sorrow roared to the sky in great defiance. His worn out wings spread out as his shadow expand to cover the land.

Due to his rage, he discarded all his means of defense to trade eye for and eye.

Innumerable creatures of various forms rose up from Sorrow's shadow and flew towards Areth.

Pillars of lightning struck them down one by one, Sorrow was not able to escape. Lightning bolts smashed him down to the ground and strike him relentlessly. His tough crystal skin begun to melt.

His miserable howl echoed amidst the bright flashes.

The spectators from afar watched with dumbstruck expressions. The deafening sound of thunder rumbled, shaking the ground they stand upon.

"I-I think we should just go back. Anyway, the demon generals are dead, we shouldn't need reinforcement right?"

The silver armored lady, Felis suggested.

The others hesitated, unclear of what to do. Bringing a powerful individual to their world could either turn out to be their salvation or it could spell their doom.

They have already seen those powerful blast that could wipe out an entire nation. All that this mage needs to do is to fire a couple of those a few times and their world is done for.

Aden hesitated. "No, we need to at least speak to him. It is not necessary to reveal the rift."

The rest nodded, there was fear towards this powerful mage. They have never seen anyone who could command those powerful spells easily. It would take at least ten Royal Court Mage performing a ritual to achieve the same result.

The lightning bolts finally stopped descending. In the middle of the burning soil lies the demon Sorrow. His head was barely intact, his entire body was burning, revealing his muscles and bones.

Despite his dire appearance, Sorrow laughed.

"I...I lost." He could no longer move, he was too exhausted to even perform a teleport.

"Is that your final words?" Areth appeared on the space above him, looking down at his pathetic outcome.

Sorrow laughed and then uttered the words. "For...the demons...for our great...god."

Energy swirled inside his body, attempting to escape and bring destruction to everything.

"Futile." Areth whispered.

A string of Absolute Rule was displaced slightly, the space around Sorrow collapsed on itself and contained the powerful detonation. Not even sound escaped out, as though the explosion happened far away.

The collapsed space looked like a bright sun, fires raging inside it. Not even ashes remained inside.

Areth felt something trickle from his nose. He gently swiped it with his hand and found that it was blood.

'This body is still too weak. I have overextended myself this time.'

Areth turned to the group approaching him with caution.

'These kids, what are they doing here? Are they S rank hunters?'

Aden the leader of the group stood in front. Though he had seen it with the magnifying monocle, seeing the person up close was shocking.

'A child? Was it an immortality spell? An illusion perhaps?' He thought.

Even the rest following him was guessing his actual age. Despite having the spell to determine it, none of them dared to do so.

The elf lady, Sera stared at the little boy who looking at them with haughty expression. She couldn't help but whisper.

"So cute..."

As it was silent, her small voice was heard clearly. The rest of her team glared at her, cold sweats trickled down their back.

Areth pretended not to hear, he noticed that the person who spoke was quite different. She had long pointed ears and a platinum blond hair.

"An elf?" Areth said, somewhat baffled. Of course he had seen elves before, but that was on his previous world.

However, he soon realized the real purpose of the rifts. 'They weren't dungeons filled with monsters, as Leyfin had implied, they are worlds.'

"Greetings lord mage." Aden said, then the group bowed stiffly, as though they have been practiced the movement before to be coordinated. In fact, that was the case.

"No need to be so formal, you are not from Earth are you?" Areth said.

'Earth, so that's the name of their world. I've never heard it before, but that's natural.' Aden thought.

"That is correct, we have come from Neria. We came here because we saw you fighting the demons. We want to offer our good regards on behalf of Neria, for helping us clean up this place."

Areth was also curious about their world so he asked.

Seeing their hesitation, Areth immediately switched to another question, asking them about this world which had nothing but ruins and demons.

The group explained to him that this world was similar to a station, the demons uses this world to cultivate demons and find pathways leading to other worlds for them to invade. This was also similar to a barracks to them, countless of demons were being produced by thick miasma in the air. Although their numbers were no longer a threat thanks for Areth, they would grow again if left alone.

The group saw that Areth wasn't difficult to talk to so they got along to the point of sharing stories.

Areth noticed that it was already noon after looking at his watch. He said to the group.

"I need to go, let's meet again sometime."

"Sure, lord Areth." The group bade him goodbye. Areth vanished before them.

After he was gone, they talked amongst themselves.

"He seemed to be kind and easy to approach." Lijian said. "Not like the usual snobs."

"It's fine." Aden said. "The rule in Mage society, is the more eccentric they are, the more powerful."

They thought of the mages they have encountered so far, and the rule indeed make sense.

"Let's go, we should start building a fortress around the rift before the demons recover." Aden said.

"Alright."

The group went back to their base.

Areth returned to Earth on top of the snowy mountain, his split soul also teleported over and rejoined. He then teleported to their backyard and went inside their house, where his parents were waiting.

"You just came in time little guy. Come here and eat. Wash your hands first."

Areth sat down and begun eating. His tour to the demon world was a wise choice indeed. If he had fought against them on Earth, it would be a disaster.

Normal demons would not pose a problem to the hunters, which is why he let the rift leading to Earth exposed before he left, allowing them in.

The sooner they learned of demons, the better. It would prepare them in case Earth ends up like Leyfin's world. He also left a barrier to warn him if a powerful demon attempts to enter, buying him enough time to rush over.

Areth returned to his room and was immediately greeted by the excited Leyfin, who passionate about teaching him the core principles of fireball.

Areth sighed. 'I guess I should humor this child a little. She's been through a lot fighting against those disgusting things.'

"Alright master."

"Why do I feel that you are looking at me with pity?"

"That's just your imagination."