A Display Of Power

(A/N: Just so you guys know, your author is a God of YuGiOh AND MTG. All while being a handsome son of a bitch. Truly a lucky man.

https://discord.gg/sQvYSzk

Enjoy <3 )

Tsar'Rin rises as he looks at me "What is your command?"

"Nothing for now, where are the other Liches? I heard there were a few." I ask, turning to the large door above.

He points at the large door I'm already looking at "There is only one other room on this floor and it's Val'Kuz's sanctum. He and his four apprentices never leave the sanctum, they just stay there and test magic like monkeys with fire."

My eyebrows raise "Oh, and what are your thoughts?"

His sockets flicker in now black light "I think they should focus more on mana and manipulation rather than the intricacies of spells. It's the reason why I'm almost as powerful as Val'Kuz yet being substantially younger. He is… a spell enthusiast is a gentle way to put it."

I smile "I would say you are correct, if you can manipulate the power itself well then you will have no trouble casting any spell. Anyway, I plan to head in alone, if you go below you can meet up with Xavier and Siro, they are slaughtering the rest of the trash below."

He lowers his head as I walk up the stairs into the large doorway. The stone is well laid and feels incredibly strong, I guess this entire area is inlaid with powerful enchantments.

Walking down the hallway I eventually reach the opening to a massive room. The room is star-shaped with lab equipment and books lining the walls. There are five labs with one on each corner with the one in front of me being oversized like it was made for a small giant.

At each of the labs are Liches hard at work either with beakers or studying a book. The one in front of me is taller than the rest at about ten feet tall. He is wearing typical lich robes so I can't see his skeletal body.

Despite my walking in a few feet none of the Liches seem to notice my presence. I mean yes the room is massive but I feel they may just be a bit slow.

As I near the center of the room the big one turns around with his glowing blue eye sockets. "What is it now? Wait who are you?" He says with surprise running through his dead voice.

"I'm the person who has been thrashing his way through your citadel for the last hour… Honestly, how did you not notice?" I ask in a manner degrading him.

The other four Liches turn to face me as well "I was busy creating a new spell. Since you are here how about I test it out?" he holds up his skeletal right hand as arcane light ignites in his palm.

I hold out my hand "Wait, give me a moment, a duel of magic sounds fun but I gotta do this first." He looks at me confused but stays still obeying my words. The Liches around us begin to ready their magic but hold still as I speak.

I smile as I hold out both of my arms. Pyromancy flames quickly bath my arms as I drop to my knees slamming both of my palms onto the ground. The surrounding Liches look at me confused, especially the big one in front of me. A second later the room's floor is covered in dark red light.

Like miniature volcanoes, the floor begins to spew pillars of dark flames from the ground. To the lich in the middle, it appears random but the four at the other corners quickly find themselves bathed in flames. They cast protective spells but to no avail.

As the flames fade all that is left of the liches are their bones. Even the desks they were working at being destroyed. The big one looks at me as his eyes glow brighter. If he could have an expression I'm sure it would be pure rage.

"WHY YOU!" His dead voice echoes through the room. Bolts of arcane energy fly at me as I stand back up.

I smile as I raise a hand to him and send a few small soul arrows at him hitting the arcane missiles blowing them up before they reach me.

I let him begin to channel magic as I speak up "Now don't mind my lack of finesse. I will admit sorcery is my weakest subject, despite training for a thousand years I can't fly. I know, I know, shameful."

Ignoring me probably from anger the Lich raises both arms. I can feel mana massing above me so I look up and I see a massive meteor made of magic coming down at me slowly.

I smile "Neat trick." I mutter as I get low to the ground. Amassing mana at my hands letting it leak onto the ground I quickly rise. I tug on as I raise my arms as if pulling invisible chains from the ground.

Giant pillars of crystal raise from the ground piercing the meteor making it into a crystal porcupine ball in the sky. The crystals slowly begin to devour the ball and once fully swallowed it shatters raining beautiful crystal dust.

As I stand up straight I stare at the Lich with an annoyed expression. "It's rude to attack someone while they are talking, you know? I was going to ask if you are Val'Kuz or not? It would be pretty embarrassing if I was murdering some random Lich."

"Keep my name from your mouth, Mortal." His dead voice makes my ears perk up.

"Mortal? Oh, how wrong you are." I smile as I decide to make a display of power. Mana gathers around me as I pull the stray souls from all around the necropolis pulling in all weak souls or tormented souls to fuel my spell.

A giant field of magic builds a wall in front of me as the souls gather at eight points making balls of blue light. The mana circles around them creating an intricate design connecting them and finally a massive circle encompasses them all.

The lich holds up his arms in front of himself creating a barrier as if that would do anything. I smile as I push forward willing the mana to move.

Eight giant beams of light pierce forward striking the Lich piercing through him even going through the wall behind him. The Lich falls to the ground as his bones are reduced to ashes and the wall is left with eight holes the size of Smough's belly.

I hold out a hand and gather the fragments of the souls from the liches before their consciousness returns to the phylacteries where the rest is held. Even though they will not die they will also never live again.

I put their souls with the rest I have collected and begin to look through what is left of the bookshelf. I had wanted this duel to test what a strong being was capable of but I ended up ending it quickly because of the Liches stupid words.

As I read through the books I begin to notice that mana in this world is different than in my world. Here the majority of the mana comes from the world itself, naturally hidden within leylines. That means that mages are pulling mana into themselves to gain power not pulling it from within.

This small fundamental difference changes everything. It means magic may no longer be my weak area, now that I know magic is more readily available. Not wanting to wait to test my theory I sit down cross-legged and begin manipulating my mana.

I begin to pull in mana slowly but am quickly forced to stop, the air around here carries a lot of mana but that's only from the items in this room. The actual mana content from the world in this part feels weak.

I shrug as I stand up thinking to myself. I probably should have noticed this when Lor'Themar was telling me how the mage tower fueled itself but I was thinking about other things at the time. Although it is a big revelation it doesn't change much in the grand scheme.

Gaining mana isn't the same as gaining power; it's only fuel for the engine.