Dance with the Lord

With quick successions, Kaloum sent the tier 3 spell, Nova bullets at the lord. But they were merely deflected by the unseen wall in front of them. There were no traces of a magic circle forming, as he had already cast the tier 4 neutral spell, Obscure.

Sitting at their throne, the lord gazed down imposingly at Kaloum. "Is this all you have to offer?"

The lord's response to their question was a tier 8 dark spell, Mind over matter. It was a hypnotic spell that made its victim feel like their mind was being pulled out of their physical body. Kaloum had been secretly casting it since it took some time to do it.

Not expecting the sudden attack, the lord aimlessly held out their arm to grasp their escaping mind. But in the eyes of Kaloum, they simply grabbed their head in pain. It was all an illusion.

Not losing the chance he created, Kaloum concentrated mana at his legs and ran towards them on the moist floor with a sword he conjured with the tier 1 neutral spell, Creation. The sword was enchanted with countless runes as it gleamed dangerously while sharing its master's bottomless rage.

By now, the lord had recovered from the previous attack. They quickly noticed that Kaloum was rushing at them as he held a sword with the runes of slash, intent, and destruction in its core. It was a deadly combination of runes that could cut rocks like butter.

They figured it out due to using the same element as Kaloum, which gave them an advantage when analysing spells. For two mages that use identical elements, it was a matter of who could outwit who by deconstructing each other's spells and countering with their own.

Deeming the invisible wall useless, the Lord dispelled it and instantly cast the tier 6 spell, Night's embrace. It was a suicidal spell that covered the whole hall in darkness and rendered everyone's vision in it.

Kaloum didn't halt his speed at all upon noticing his eyes going blind. With ferocious focus, he directly struck where the lord was standing before his vision went dark.

Crash!

The recipient of the attack was the bloodied ground, as the Lord was nowhere to be seen. Kaloum was already working on overruling the darkness around him by understanding the core of the spell when a sudden chill made his hairs erect. With no time to cast a defensive spell, he jumped back with his mana-imbued legs, a clear sound of the air being sliced rang out from where he stood.

Not a second passed after Kaloum's landing before he was assaulted from multiple angles, but he had already donned the tier 5 dark spell, Crow's armour while he was free falling. All the attacks just grazed his body as the spell made him elusive as a feather.

It appeared to Kaloum that the lord had trained in this kind of environment many times because of how accurate and flexible he was with his advances. He was at a big disadvantage.

But he had nothing to worry about anymore as he had already dissected the Night's embrace and cast the tier 2 neutral spell, Dispell, to get rid of it. The darkness receded back as a shadow got assimilated with it, unnoticed by the Lord.

The hall went back to its previous state.

The lord was standing quite a distance from Kaloum with a long scythe. Seeing the sliced limbs on the floor, Kaloum simply ignored them.

What has happened… Has happened. There's no changing the past, and losing his mind over anger at the moment will only kill him. This will all go away when I kill this person, yes. Then… I will meet my son.

The lord opened their arms and spoke with excitement, "Woah! That was a great short dance displayed by your sword and my scythe. It's a pity that we were the only audience to witness it. Now, should we go for another dance? Who knows, perhaps this one might be better than the previous dance."

Kaloum's head formed lines. His eyes darkened with disgust. Wanting to end this quickly, he said with a calmness that puzzled the Lord, "I possess two elements."

The Lord, confused by Kaloum's enigmatic statement, shrugged their arms before sensing one of their subordinate's mana signature behind them. Just as they tried to look back, they were met with a sharp wind that phased through their neck horizontally.

That moment of deceit spelled their demise.

Their body stood motionlessly still for a second before it dropped to the red, and watery ground.

The head rolled away from its host, the body.

In the hall, only a single person was on his feet.

As Kaloum was analysing the Night's embrace, he had secretly manipulated the green earring he got from the Lord, Doppelgänger, while simultaneously casting the tier 5 neutral spell, Clone. He used Doppelgänger on the clone to mimic one of the Lord's subordinate's mana signature. He then used the Tier 4 dark spell, Shadow Assimilation, on the clone and assimilated it into one of the shadows of the corpses near the Lord, just as he dispelled Night's embrace.

With only such preparation, the attack would have failed. But he also enchanted Shadow assimilation with the runes of stealth, swiftness, and silence. Additionally, the clone's mana was diminished to only use tier 5 spells, which is at the level of a fourth circle mage. The hall was already chaotically saturated with mana, as such, by lowering the amount of mana the clone had, the Lord failed to notice anything suspicious. Then he finished it with the tier 2 wind spell, Wind Blade.

The biggest advantage he had was that the lord didn't use defensive magic during their fight. Their pride and stupidity contributed to their downfall.

Furthermore, if he had not known the mana signature he used to trick the lord, none of this would not have been possible.

If not for that, Kaloum would not have killed him this easily. It was truly an easy yet tough fight.

The clone had disappeared as Kaloum cut off the mana supply that sustained the spell. Holding his sword, he steadily walked towards the lord's decapitated head.

He wanted to see the face of the person behind this.

Standing above the head with short (cut due to the wind blade), wavy black hair that donned a gray mask with no features, he crouched and took off the mask with a trembling hand.

However, the face of the head was shocking. It was him! His eyes were blood red, and a smile that tore the sides of his mouth was plastered on his visage.

"Surprise."

Kaloum kicked the head away instinctively in terror. An answer to the harrowing questions in his mind was given instantly as the hall broke down like a mirror that had been thrown to the ground.

It was replaced by a cozy room with beautiful furniture. In the room were a lifeless woman who had a baby in her hand, a man who silently watched her, and a middle-aged woman who was sobbing quietly.

The man eerily resembled Kaloum.

No one noticed Kaloum and his sword when they invaded this space.

Kaloum knew what this was; it was an illusion created by the lord.

"Since when?… And why here?" He aimlessly asked no one before gazing at the past fake him, his child, and his deceased wife with tears streaming down.

"Ellie..."

***

Back in the real hall, sitting on the chair with closed eyes, Kaloum cried blood as he was lost within the illusion. From the start, he never fought with the Lord, nor did he get up from his seat.

Opposite him, a tanned, handsome man with black eyes and arched brows sat.

The lord had taken off his mask, revealing his gender.

With a satisfied smile, he said, "Kaloum, oh Kaloum, I'm not so cruel as to commit genocide against your people. I merely erased their memories and let them go on with their lives. As for the map, I now have a better idea of how to get it since I recently discovered its whereabouts. After finding out where it was hidden, I wanted to give you peace from this looming revenge you had for the Ekiya kingdom, you know? But in my opinion the thought of killing you was a huge waste. I racked my head for a solution until I figured out what to do with you. Transform you into a something beautiful! This will be the last time, so, be useful till I get my hands on the map, alright?

"Also, it was pretty clever to split your soul when you were coming here. Were you thinking of escaping if things went wrong? Unfortunately, you underestimated me, my friend. It was easy to identify where you hid that black mold. All it took was to send one of my subordinates and get rid of it."

He stopped as he emphatically looked at Kaloum.

"I know you won't hear me from over there, but I still want to assure your mind. Don't worry about your son; I will raise him well. I can proudly claim to be a good father for your son, whom you never gave love to."

He shook his head and continued.

"Your pursuit for revenge that your ancestors foolishly dawned upon themselves has made your love for your own family not so… Lovely?"

Giving one last glance to Kaloum, he wore his mask and got up as he walked out of the hall, leaving him in an endless dream that would eventually change his life, in and out.