90 Destroying the shadows
In the beginning, Azel was sure that the plan was flawless. Not only did they consider external factors like the Magus that accompanies Zatiel, but they also utilized a magic item that could imprison Peak Rank 2 life forms for a long time and erase any escape route.
The three Eye Lord had discussed for a long time how to proceed, and in the end, they decided to use Mira's Shadow Cage as the battleground.
Shadow Cage was a magic item that looked like a dot of shadows that could be used to trap an enemy inside the dimension it contained momentarily.
This was Mira's life-saving card since it wasn't made to withstand the energy a fight between Rank 2 individuals will release, and his use was only to give the Eye Lord time to escape.
Azel and James took out material from their storage and, along with the woman, worked together to transform the Shadow Cage into a stable battleground with tracking abilities.
This took a long time, and since neither James nor Mira could give themselves the luxury of ignoring the excavation of fallen stars and infuriating the powerhouses behind them, they had to divide their time. In the end, it took them five months to complete the transformation.
The ideal scenario would have been that Zatiel would have attacked them. In that case, capturing him and anyone who would have followed him would have been very easy, but unfortunately, that didn't happen and seeing that the end of the excavation was approaching, they were forced to act first.
Although they failed to capture Kira, Azel was still confident in the success of the assassination.
He was very old and knew of the infamous nature of Magi and the fact that they would never put themselves in danger for another individual. Even if she acted, the dimension defenses were strong enough to withstand until Zatiel died.
But that confidence was shattered when he felt the entire dimension trembling as if it was about to collapse.
When James and Azel realize the precarious situation of the Shadow Cage, they look at Mira. She was in a meditative position with her eyes closed and a small sphere filled with all sorts of inscriptions floating two meters above her head.
This was the core of the dimension, and putting part of her consciousness in it, was how Mira controlled this space.
The Eye Lord's face was ashen, and a thin trail of blood came from the corner of her mouth as she used the consciousness inside the core to withstand the damage dealt with the dimension.
"Mira, what is going on? How can a Rank 2 Magus release a power so high that surpass the dimension defenses?" Azel's face was filled with distress. If by any chance, Zatiel manages to escape, then his future is going to become a living hell.
"She is not alone. There are two other individuals with her," Mira's eyes remained closed as she moved her hand, creating a screen that showed what was happening outside.
Azel saw three figures attacking the air, but all their attacks seemed to impact an invisible wall, and cracks started to form due to the immense power they released.
One figure corresponded to Kira, who had a green pentagram made of flames in her back and constantly released fireball into the invisible wall.
Next to her was a woman with black crystal wings, her body was covered by runes that glowed with a dark light, and her palms were pointing at the invisible wall, but although nothing seemed to come out from them, more and more crack filled the air.
The last one was a man, he was a fifty-meter tall lightning giant, and just like the woman, his entire body was covered by runes, but these had a metallic light.
Logically, such an immense body should be slow. Still, the man's arms transformed into pure lightning and only returned to their physical form when they were about to land in the invisible wall, greatly increasing his speed and the amount of damage he generated.
Although these Eye Lords recognized both Ezequiel and Sophia as Rank 1 individuals of the empire, they didn't have the time to figure out how they could get so strong since the periphery of the dimension was already beginning to break.
"You have to hurry up! With the three attacking together, I can barely withstand another minute before having to shut down the dimension," Mira's face was pale and more blood came from her mouth and nose as she focused all of her power on enduring the bombardment from outside.
The faces of James and Azel were solemn as they understood that they had to kill Zatiel immediately or else when the dimension is broken, they would have to face him and three other individuals equally powerful.
The white aura covering James' body increased significantly before most of it was redirected to his right hand, where it started to rotate and transformed his entire arm into a gigantic drill.
There was a great resolution on Azel's face as he made the blue eyes on his forehead glow and bleed.
When the Eye Lord did this, his energy increased tremendously, and he channeled all of it, making a thirty-meter tall dragon head made of pure ice appear behind him.
The dragon head roared, and along with James, it launched itself at Zatiel.
The energy that those attacks carried was so immense that even the cloaking abilities of the dimension could not hide them, so Zatiel was able to see them immediately, and the threat he felt from them was immense.
'Any of those attacks is enough to put me in a critical condition if they land unhindered even with my vitality and regeneration, especially the dragon head,' Zatiel focused as he looked at the dragon head, James, and finally in Mira's direction.
A cold and vicious light appears in Zatiel's eyes as he decides how to respond.
He raised his two palms pointing to the dragon head, and from each one, he released an immense beam of chaotic dark golden energy.
"Abyssal Blast!"
The beams were incredibly fast, reaching the dragon head in an instant, but even together and being potentiated by all the power of Dexisus, they were only able to equal the dragon head, creating an immense explosion when they crashed against each other.
Zatiel did not have the time to be happy to neutralize a threat as the white drill that was James' arm was about to land on his chest.
Making the sword appear on his hand, he uses all of the power he could gather in such a short time to hit the arm and try to change the trajectory of the drill, producing an explosion of dark flames.
Unfortunately for Zatiel, James' attack was too powerful, and although he was able to save his chest from being perforated, the drill landed on the left side of his body, destroying his shoulder and harming his lung greatly before sending him flying away.
James was surprised that Zatiel could redirect his attack in the last second and jump back to reduce the damage, taking advantage of the power in his attack to get away from him.
He was about to chase after him when a great feeling of danger assaulted him.
It took him less than a second to find the origin; it was a finger-sized humanoid figure covered by gray armor filled with runes that had hidden in flames.
The runes on the automaton glowed with a blinding light before exploding.
It happened so fast that James couldn't escape the explosion range and could only focus his withe aura over his body to protect himself.
The explosion of the automaton was the straw that broke the camel's back, as it provoked the entire dimension collapse.
Mira coughed blood as the dimension core started to tear and was about to extract her consciousness when she heard a voice and saw Zatiel bloody figure less than fifty meters from her.
"Take my last blast and die!" Zatiel had a bloody smile, and his eyes were full of madness as he pointed his palm at her.
Mira's mind filled with fear as she remembered the beam of energy that was powerful enough to stop the spell that needed Azel's life force to be created.
The Eye Lord created a set of shields made of shadow around her, but when Zatiel released the beam this time, it was only half as strong as the original, and she knew that this attack could not severy harm her.
But then she saw Zatiel's cold smile and realized that the beam of energy did not target her but the core.
The attack was too fast, and before she could do something, the beam destroyed the core with the piece of her consciousness in it.
"AHHHHH!" Mira screamed due to the immense pain, and blood came out from her eyes.
The dimension exploded with the core destroyed, and from the blast, four figures emerged.
