Enemy Mage (V)

Clark suddenly laughed as he looked at Adam. "Unknown apprentice, are you interested in my magic? Interested in Anti-Mages?"

Adam watched him silently, utterly unconcerned with whatever trick Clark was trying to play. In truth, Adam was not absolutely certain he could capture Clark. Capturing someone alive and killing someone required completely different levels of difficulty. If Clark had some means of escape that could instantly take him beyond Adam's perception, there would be nothing Adam could do. But like raking grass to flush out a rabbit, it was good if he caught one, and no matter if he did not.

Since Clark was willing to waste words now, Adam could use the opportunity to cast a rather difficult spell. If he successfully completed its construction, his chances of keeping Clark would rise considerably.

"I come from the Om Family. My grandfather is a family elder, a Formal Mage," Clark said, flaunting his background. He had two intentions: first, to reveal his backing and make Adam wary; second, to recruit Adam.

Clark continued, "If you are willing to follow me and join the Om Family, with your talent, you will surely become a rising star of the family. You will gain endless resources, with a future far brighter than staying in the Mordo Element High Tower!"

Adam tilted his head. So this was how the Anti-Mages passed down their inheritance—using family and bloodline to preserve the secrets of their Meditation Methods. What a foolish method. How could the bloodline of a single clan, with its limited numbers and wisdom, possibly drive the advancement of knowledge? No wonder they could only be cast aside by the Mainstream and hide in the darkness like rats.

Clark did not sense Adam's disdain. He seemed immersed in his own emotions. "Follow me. Help me complete my final accumulation. I, Clark Om, am about to become a Formal Mage. As my first follower, you will gain supreme status!"

Adam pointed at Fuen's corpse. "And then be abandoned like him?"

Clark froze. His expression shifted from bewitching to awkward, but he quickly concealed it. "No, no, no. Fuen was a fool. He wanted to betray me..."

The spell's construction was complete. Adam suddenly smiled. "Yes, he wanted to betray you. But I want to capture you. Surrender without resistance, fool."

A startling Mana Fluctuation erupted from Adam. Realizing his persuasion had failed, Clark immediately tried to retreat and flee. But then he felt everything around him become viscous, as though an invisible force had bound him and was pulling him in the opposite direction of his exertion.

"What did you do?!" Clark asked in panic.

Naturally, Adam did not answer. This spell was called Gravity Pull. It came from the highest floor of the Mordo Academy library Adam had access to. It used calculated constants to wield gravity. Because the required calculations and Mana consumption were enormous, ordinary apprentices found it difficult to learn. Even Adam required a long period of preparation to cast it.

Seeing that Adam would not answer, Clark's face darkened. He said to Adam, "You are courting death! Feel the power of the Om Family. Perhaps that will wake you up." Clark struggled to pull a scroll from his robes and tore it open in Adam's direction.

Adam saw the surroundings abruptly darken. The light seemed to be swallowed by the grayness pouring from the tear in the scroll. That grayness was so dense, its presence so overwhelming that it stood starkly apart from its surroundings. Its Energy Fluctuation was twisted and bizarre. The next instant, the grayness spread and shot toward Adam. Within every streak of gray light, countless faces of living creatures struggled, radiating boundless evil.

"Despair! Wail! Be destroyed beneath the power of the Om Family!" Clark shouted with a fanatical expression, incomparably melodramatic.

Clearly, this shared the Same Origin as Clark's earlier Negative Energy Magic, but it was probably an upgraded version originating from a Formal Mage. Adam did not dare receive it head-on. Just as he was about to dodge, he sensed a powerful craving from the abyssal egg in his hand. So Adam lifted it before him with telekinesis.

Then something happened that left Clark dumbfounded. Like a Black Hole, the abyssal egg greedily drew in the gray light. The gray light that had been shooting straight at Adam actually curved away and all landed on the egg.

After absorbing every streak of gray light, the egg actually let out a full belch. The shell creaked, and a few shallow cracks appeared.

"Is it about to hatch? Or is it about to break?" Adam looked strangely at the abyssal egg and discovered that there seemed to be another layer beneath those cracks. Then he looked at Clark and said to him, still wearing that absurdly melodramatic and disbelieving expression, "Very good magic. Do you have any more?"

"Soul Devourer was eaten? Eaten by the egg of a mere Abyssal Creature?" Clark cried out in collapse. "How is that possible?"

Adam was also puzzled by this. From what he knew, Abyssal Creatures did not seem to have any preference for or resistance to souls. They preferred flesh and energy. By that logic, this egg resembled a devil's egg instead? But it clearly looked like an Abyssal Creature's egg on the outside.

Clark panicked. He knew the Negative Energy Magic he had once been so proud of was useless against Adam, and the upgraded scroll had been countered by the egg. All he could do was keep pulling ordinary Elemental Magic scrolls from his robes and hurling them at Adam as though they cost nothing.

Apprentice-level magic was useless against Adam. After gravity had imprisoned Clark, Adam casually cast spells to neutralize the scrolls while making a startling move.

He smashed the egg viciously onto the ground.

The eggshell gave a crisp sound. It was clearly not about to finish hatching—it was about to shatter.

Clark was overjoyed. Destroying his own Trump Card in battle? He could scarcely believe someone could be so stupid. Ecstatic, he pulled out another scroll. Another Soul Devourer activated and surged toward Adam, blotting out the sky and covering the earth.

Adam did not look up. He continued staring at the egg as its shell fell away in constant crackling pieces. That smash had not destroyed the abyssal egg. Instead, it seemed to have restored its true appearance, revealing a flowing gray gaseous protective layer. It could no longer be called an egg; it looked more like a balloon.

That grayness looked very... Adam could not find a fitting adjective for it at the moment. The gaseous protective layer flowed smoothly, except that the Master-Servant Contract occasionally surfacing upon it ruined its wholeness.

Adam scooped it up with telekinesis. Clark's Soul Devourer Magic was absorbed once again. Adam saw the grayness grow denser, and the emotion it conveyed was no longer obscure but clear joy.

Adam raised the balloon toward Clark and asked, "Do you know what this is?"

Of course Clark would not be foolish enough to answer. Without hesitation, he used his final Trump Card. Ether powerful enough to affect reality descended in an instant. Adam's gravitational confinement shattered directly, and Clark abruptly vanished from where he stood.

"Teleportation Magic?" Adam did not panic, because the mana he had left on Clark was still within his perception range. Clark had not gone far.

Adam rose into the air and sped toward the direction of the Mana Fluctuation.

Clark's luck was terrible. He had actually teleported to the vicinity of Bran Town several kilometers away.

Inside Bran Town, several apprentices watched helplessly as Negative Energy Magic polluted a large section of the Rune Barrier. Then, trembling with fear, they waited for the attack that should have immediately followed. Yet the Follow-up attack never came. Just as they grew tense, William sharply noticed a figure appearing out of thin air beyond Bran Town.

"Look, who is that?" William pointed at Clark and shouted.

The gray aura surrounding Clark was an unmistakable identity marker. Zack and Thomas recognized him as an Anti-Mage at a glance, and without another word, fired two rune Shells at him.

"It's an Anti-Mage! Those dog-bred bastards!"

Everyone immediately returned to their rune weapons, attacking continuously while guarding against the Anti-Mage's bizarre methods.

But they soon realized something was wrong. Clark did not dare approach Bran Town at all. Terry weakly asked, "Doesn't he look like he's running away?"

Never in Clark's not-so-short life had he felt so helpless. Born into an Anti-Mage family, he had displayed astonishing talent and had been kept at his Formal Mage grandfather's side for training since childhood. He had never lacked resources, could take whatever spells he wanted, and had slaves in droves. If the family had not required him to obtain his own advancement resources, he would never have come to the Mage Continent. If he had not come to the Mage Continent, he would not have encountered Adam. And if he had not encountered Adam, he would not have ended up like this.

"Run, I have to escape! As long as I return to the family, I will make you die. Everyone will die!" Clark was flying as well, but he was not proficient in Elemental Magic. His flight speed was not fast, and those irritating rune energy attacks slowed him down even further. He could only place his hopes in luck.

But luck had always belonged to the strong. Or rather, to the strong, luck did not matter at all.

Adam caught up from behind at a speed several times greater than Clark's. When he saw Clark's location, he could not help laughing speechlessly. Was this seeking his own death?

Because of the change in position, the gravity constants calculated earlier had become ineffective. But that did not trouble Adam. After raising his hand and firing several spells that left wounds on Clark, Adam successfully forced him to the ground.

In an instant, Clark was utterly disheartened. The conviction supported by his status and identity collapsed. He said to Adam, "Kill me."

Adam looked at him strangely. "Kill you? A dead you has no value. Only a living you are useful to me. Now tell me, what is this?"

Whether Mainstream mages or Anti-Mages, mages were fundamentally cruel. They were researchers, scientists. Especially on a supernatural plane, they had no moral concepts at all. When a mage told you that you were useful to him, what awaited you was a fate worse than death. They would never hesitate to use the coldest attitudes and cruelest methods to process Test Subjects.