89 Swallowed by shadows

After a day, the dome of dark flames disappears, showing the figure of Zatiel, Ezequiel, and Sophia.

Zatiel was sitting on the floor with a pale face. He was exhausted to the point that his breathing was rough. The energy on his body was mostly depleted, and his head hurt due to the prolonged period of intense concentration he had to keep.

Ezequiel and Sophia were by his side, they seemed perfectly fine, and the only difference from before entering the dome of flames was the traces of incredibly thin rune inscriptions that could be seen in the exposed part of their bodies.

When those Rank 1 Magus saw them, all of them felt an immense desire and envy. They did not know the rank of those runic sets, but even if it was only a Rank 1 runic set, it was something most of them would find impossible to get.

Despite that greed, all those Magus looked away immediately when they saw the duo staring back.

Before they obtained those runic sets, Ezequiel and Sophia were already undefeatable among those at Rank 1, so now that disparity only grew, and no one wanted to follow the path of the werewolves.

That scene also calls the attention of Gregori and Kira. Although neither of them was a runic master, thanks to their experience, they realized that the runes that formed those runic sets were of equal quality to the ones in Zatiel's body.

To the duo, Zatiel was a supreme genius that should have trained a special path technique and whose body was altered with a bloodline or an especial source of vitality. That let him withstand a runic set that elevated his fighting power to the Master Rank 2 level.

But beings like him were incredibly rare, and that other two would show up just like that should be impossible, but still, there was doubt in their eyes as they saw the man and woman covered by runes.

Ezequiel and Sophia felt those stared but were indifferent to them and only gave Zatiel a meaningful stare before flying away back to the cave.

Zatiel remained sitting on the ground with his eyes closed and every certain time would take a piece of meat from his spatial ring and devour it, enhancing his recovering speed. He already gave indications to the duo, and they will be staying together from now on.

For his part, he will continue working with Kira so that the other party does not think that something has changed, but still, he didn't make the Magus part of his plan.

It wasn't that she did something that made him suspicious about her intentions or that he was unsatisfied with her power. The reason he didn't include her was simple, Zatiel could not fully trust her, and she was strong enough to provoke great damage if she were to try to disrupt his plans.

This project had all his parts covered by him, Sophia, and Ezequiel. As for the Magus, whether she would help or not was a mystery.

After Zatiel's condition returned to its peak, he signaled Kira, and the two continued with their excavation work.

The days passed, and there was no sign of those Eye Lords, but Zatiel was sure that they would attack soon, and when they did, the situation would be dangerous since they would obviously also have a plan.

The excavation work was advancing faster than Grigori thought, and it won't be long before this expedition finished. Once that happened, they would lose any opportunity of getting their revenge.

It was in the seventh month that they finally acted.

Zatiel and Kira were in the main tunnel, around twelve hundred meters deep. As they advanced, he saw it, from one of the side paths, a dot made of shadow so insignificantly small that was invisible to the eye and capable of hiding from their consciousness.

The only reason Zatiel was able to detect it was because his Eye of Life and Creation allowed him to see a large amount of energy it contained.

Zatiel felt an immense threat from that seemingly insignificant dot approaching them at a ridiculous speed, but he didn't lose calm. Without hesitation, he activates Overload before pointing his palm at Kira and releases a beam of golden flames that reached her instantly and sent her flying away.

They were very close to each other, and due to the swift action of Zatiel, Kira was barely able to react when the golden flames reached her, but as they did, her eyes became cold.

From an outside perspective, this was clearly a surprise attack from Zatiel, and these were Kira's thoughts until she realized that the golden flames didn't bring her any damage and only worked as an impulsion force throwing her in direction to the entrance of the cave.

"Run!"

This was the only response Zatiel gave to her doubts before flying in the opposite direction, deeper into the tunnel.

She had a lot of questions, but as a Rank 2 Magus, she was not foolish, so taking advantage of the impulse, she fled with her maximum speed in direction to the surface.

The dot of shadows seems to realize their actions and moves even faster, reaching in a mere instant their previous location.

The energy on the dot augmented, and it seemed like it was about to explode, but then from Zatiel's feet, a great number of golden flames were released, pushing his body one hundred meters deeper into the tunnel in an instant.

When this happened, the dot froze, and after a moment, it flew in the direction of Zatiel.

"It is too fast," Even after using his maximum speed and obtaining help from Sun Push, Zatiel could only see how the dot was shorting the distance between them.

In less than three seconds, the shadow dot was a hundred meters away from Zatiel, once there, its energy once again grew, and this time it finished his charging, resulting in an explosion.

Shadows were released from the dot and spread over a diameter of three hundred meters, encompassing Zatiel in them.

In less than a second after those shadows covered Zatiel, they started to compress until they left nothing left.

After a moment, Kira's figure could be seen approaching the place where the dot exploded.

Although her eyes could see nothing, as a Rank 2 Magus, her consciousness was powerful enough to detect the thing that was hiding in this place.

"So he was sent into a shadow dimension. The price to do this type of spell with the powers of an Eye Lord is immense. They are set in killing him."

Kira's expression was indecisive. She could attack this dimension and try to free Zatiel, but by the time the dimension breaks, whether or not he remains alive, she will have to face the individuals inside it, and they are definitely strong.

Finally, Kira's eyes become extremely cold.

"If you were targeting him alone, I might have left, but it appears that you were also considering me your prey, so for that, you must pay!"

Her energy exploded, and it formed a green pentagram made of flames behind her, but just as she was about to begin her attack, she felt something approaching, and the power it released made her eyes narrow.

...

When Zatiel opened his eyes after being swallowed by the shadows, he realized that he was in a place of complete darkness that blocked his senses and consciousness.

The only silver lining was the fact that his Eye of Life and Creation still could see sources of energy, but even that was weakened.

He didn't even have the time to explore the place when a spear covered by a white aura and a lightning bolt was fired in his direction.

Normally Zatiel would have been able to detect them sooner, but by the time he felt them, they were already too close.

Just as the attacks were about to reach him, an explosion of golden flames was released from his shoulder, moving his body away from the projectile trajectory.

Before he could rest, another attack approached him, but it was only the lightning bolt this time.

Once again, Zatiel was forced to use Sun Push to dodge the spell, but the spear appeared on his path as his body was ejected, forcing him to use his sword to block the attack.

As the spear crashed against the sword, Zatiel could feel his arm trembling and bones cracked due to the immense power the attack carried.

'Dammit, they are careful. Despite my disadvantage, they do not approach me. Luckily it was only me who ended up in this dimension, had we attacked head-on, all of us would have been trapped here.' Zatiel's expression is calm as he evaluates the situation and makes arrangements for his plan.

The attack did not stop, and every time he dodged one spell, another came crashing in his direction, forcing him to block with his sword.

This continued for half a minute, but then a smile appeared on Zatiel's face as he felt them.

'They have arrived!'

In that instant, the entire dimension started to tremble as if the world itself was cracking.