A Sorcerer’s Journey

The energy was as vast and majestic as an ocean.

Under the metal helmet hid a pair of icy cold eyes. A four-handle longsword hung on his back. Few hundreds of scarlet energy strands that looked as if they were individual living beings flowed constantly around his body.

Although the Tomb Averer only had a human height of around five foot seven, his presence had an aura of a much higher being. A look of hope was painted on many Demon-hunting Sorcerers’ faces, owing to the deep respect and admiration for the Tomb Averer.

The Lava Giant said respectfully, “I am humbled by the presence of the lord of the Sorcerer World.”

Grimm’s robe fluttered in the winds as he looked around the skies around him. It would appear that the Tomb Averer, alongside a few Demon-Hunting Sorcerers were engaging in a quiet negotiation with the Lava Giant.

A short moment later, the Lava Giant followed the Hearkening Whisperer into the fortress!

Right after that, Millie flew over from behind Grimm as he was on patrol, leaving behind a trail of frost dancing around the air.

“What’s happening? I can’t believe it was the Tomb Averer himself that descended just now.” Millie’s question carried a mixture of confusion and surprise.

Slightly shaking his head, Grimm continued tailing behind dozens of Fallen Amonros on patrol. Those tired eyes under the Mask of Truth were lost in thought. “A Lava Giant appeared, his strength was about that of a Level 3 great sorcerer. He was looking to cooperate with us.”

“Caw! Caw! The way I see it, it must be one of this world’s native creatures that are planning to fight back against the Amonro’s rule, so they came in search of support from the sorcerers. Since the ancient times, sorcerers have seen the fall of many species in this world—this situation is quite a common sight,” Myna flapped its wings as it said this nonchalantly.

Grimm and Millie glanced at Myna. A look of doubt flashed on Millie’s face.

‘The ancient times?’

Low-level sorcerers knew the limitations of a simple gaze. In regards to high-level life forms, they had only half the picture so to naively guess the rest only troubled their minds, nothing was to gain so to say.

‘Hmm?’

Suddenly, a group of Fallen Amonros in the distant sky started a riot. Grimm and Millie, leading a dozen Fallen Amonros rushed to the scene. Apparently a horde of about a thousand Amonros had started attacking and killing the group of Fallen Amonros.

There were only about a hundred Fallen Amonro and were no match for the attacking horde.

Regardless, Grimm and Millie used their magic to provide firepower support for the Fallen Amonros the moment they arrived, quickly taking control of the situation. Demon-hunting Sorcerers arrived shortly afterwards to provide backup too.

Huff! Huff! Huff!

They panted, causing their breaths to become labored. Together, Millie and Grimm flew over to the rear flank of the fortress to once again regenerate their magical energy.

In the current situation, very few sorcerers had the luxury to fully replenish their magical energy before going into battle. Many sorcerers left the fortress to defend against constant attacks by the Amonros after regaining a quarter to a third of their magical energy at most.

Consequently, the fighting capabilities of the sorcerers were declining at an alarming rate.

Level 1 sorcerers had rather low magic energy capacities to begin with. Most of the time, they would have to take shelter behind the fortress after constant short-burst skirmishes in order to regain vitality.

In the distant sky, the Shadow Calamity continued on. Dark shadow clouds rolled across the vast sky, as if it were being consumed by Shadow Enigmatic Energy. Hazy clusters of gas enveloped the horizon.

No matter how strong a sorcerer was, even to the Shadow Empire that once ruled this world, humans inevitably found this land to be stranger than–no man’s land.

Even considering the places that were investigated by the sorcerers, it amounted to roughly ten, twenty percent of the Amonro controlled territory.

This world still has many undiscovered features.

This mysterious world. If not for the Original Will emitted from the Sorcerer’s World by the Principal Fortress, the Demon-hunting Sorcerers would have caved in on themselves, facing this completely alien world, seemingly out to swallow them whole.

***

Ten days later.

“Grimm!” Millie yelled as diamond-shaped ice crystals on her forehead shone blindingly. Magical pillars of silver threads hardened up as Force of Nature started amassing in large quantities, then Frost Energy swept across like waves of the sea.

In the blink of an eye, hundreds of Golden Amonro roughly fifty meters away froze into icicles, dropping like stones from the sky.

Even so, there were still a few Enigmatic Amonros left that continued spitting out Enigmatic Energy as they brushed off the previous icy attack—adamant on using Enigmatic Seals against Millie.

Crack! Crack!

Millie was in the process of self-sealing, trying to encase herself within a huge iceberg as she was being slowly crushed by the Enigmatic Energy’s Void Compression. Her tactic succeeded in forcing the surrounding Amonros to back off as the iceberg started falling down towards the ground.

***

Hundreds of meters away, on top of the Void Fortress, Grimm’s eyes narrowed under the gray-white swirling of the Mask of Truth. He roared in anger as he hastily applied a bottle of medicine. His robe started to flutter as magical energy built up in intensity. He then vanished into thin air, leaving behind distorted space, as well as Myna in place.

Boom!

Grimm transformed into a red fireball. With Thunder Energy flashing under his feet, a shot of lighting extended ten meters ahead as he used Space Distortion again, rushing towards the direction of the iceberg that was currently in freefall.

At this moment, the most of the Prism Fortresses on the ground of the Principal Void Fortress were eroded by constant waves of attacking by the seemingly infinite Amonro army. Millie falling directly onto the ground would no doubt mean death!

The identification perimeter of the Void Fortress extended to a three hundred meter radius only due to the recent drop in numbers of Soul Slaves and Fallen Amonros.

Anything beyond that three hundred meter radius was foreign and untrodden territory of the Amonro’s Shadow World.

But right now, Grimm disregarded any such notions and went forward towards Millie without any hesitation. Continuously, he generated an intense stream of Flame Energy. Nearby Amonros that were creeping up on him, felt the heat and gave up on giving chase or attacking.

“Hmph!”

With a loud grunt, Grimm penetrated the tip of the iceberg with his magic, destroying the integrity of the Seal. In his attempt to save Millie, he followed the falling iceberg down as he continued destroying it.

Plink! Plink! Plink! Plink!

As frost was flying in every direction, Grimm grabbed hold of Millie that curled up into a ball within the iceberg. She was only about the size of a fist due to the Void Compression by the Enigmatic Energy.

“Grimm? I…” Millie looked at the sky behind Grimm in a dazed state. “Watch out!”, Millie suddenly yelled out in despair.

Grimm looked back and realised that there were a dozen Enigmatic Amonros, leading a horde of up to ten thousand Golden Amonros on his tail. They were closing in on him from all directions. One of the Enigmatic Amonros even got within arms reach of Grimm, adding horror the situation they were in.

Clap!

Grimm hid Millie in his sleeves then closed his palms together. The eyes under the Mask of Truth flashed brightly as he expanded all of his remaining energy, vanishing into thin air.

A thundering crash erupted as the iceberg hit the ground. But due to its structural integrity, it did not shatter completely. Behind the Enigmatic Amonros, a sizeable portion of Golden Amonros, enough to make Grimm feel despair, fled towards the iceberg—flooding it.

“Tha-thank you.”

Millie regrew into her original size on top of the Void Fortress. She lowered her head in gratitude—her frail body was unable to stand up on its own at the moment.

Grimm’s state was no better than Millie, that bottle of Potential Activation potion from just now had Grimm feel his limits too. He was barely standing up, using his magic staff as a support.

The situation Grimm and Millie were in was an accurate depiction of what most Demon-hunting Sorcerers were facing as of now in the Void Fortress.

As the number of Fallen Amonros and Soul Slave creatures dwindled, the responsibilities of the Demon-hunting Sorcerers stacked up. They were indeed being pushed to their edge. Even the grip on the three hundred meter defense identification perimeter was being gradually loosened.

“Is the Battle Command making any progress in drafting new plans?” Grimm asked with a bitter look in his eyes.

As a low-level sorcerer with no influence, Grimm had to go along with the flow, looking forward to new actions by the Battle Command or high-level sorcerers.

“Hmm?”

In his silent exhalation, Grimm suddenly took out his Crystal Ball. Within it was the solemn face of a Dark Demon-Hunter Sorcerer. “Demon-hunting Sorcerers, bringer of hell to the Amonros, the Battle Command has made the decision—we will be recycling.”

This Demon-Hunter Sorcerer was the one with the Level 3 Badge of Honor who had designated Grimm the mission ‘Amonros’ Tears of Sorrow’.

“Recycling?”

Grimm was stunned, but orders were orders. He nodded his head, as he retrieved a green bottle of medication, passing it to Myna.

“Understood. Caw! Caw! I, Myna will deliver it over.” Myna picked up the medication, flapped its wings and flew towards the Sorcerer Tower located in the heart of the fortress.

Half a day later.

The conditions of Grimm and Millie stabilised as they recovered slightly. They lifted their heads to look at the sky above the fortress. The Hearkening Whisperer, the Tomb Segja, the Tomb Averer, and also… that weird-looking Lava Giant all stood side-by-side.

This Level 3 creature actually…’

A dozen sorcerers, each with a Demon-Hunter Sorcerer Badge of Honor on their sorcerer barriers flew with distinct manners in different directions into the dark, cloudy, unknown skies, as if they had already received orders from the Stigmata Sorcerers.

As of now, the defense identification perimeter of the Void Fortress shrunk to a mere hundred meters only.

Even with the smaller defense perimeter, grips on the Void Fortress was starting to slip. The Stigmata Sorcerers in the sky were all wore a sullen face. There were points where they themselves had to personally fight the attacking Amonro horde, which nearly broke into the fortress square.

Amonro corpses piled high on the fortress square.

Standing in the square, Grimm stepped around a few bodies of Fallen Amonros. Beside him, a five-meter long disabled Hexagonal Wolf soul slave was devouring one of the bodies, taking up huge chunks of flesh with each bite. Disabled soul slaves of similar types from nearby rushed over to snatch away some food for themselves.

At this moment, the conventional force of Demon-hunting Sorcerers within the Principal Void Fortress was being exhausted nearly to its limits.

Rumble, rumble, rumble…

Grimm realised that a formation of voidships had returned and were entering the mechanical hangar beneath the base of the Void Fortress. At the same time, mechanical marionettes started appearing beyond the defense perimeter.

‘What’s happening?’

‘Are they abandoning this Demon-Hunting expedition?’

Grimm and Millie looked at each other, as if to reassure that what they saw was real.

About half the time of an hourglass later, the elite sorcerers that flew off into the dark clouds from before returned one after the other—all wearing a look of fear on their faces. Grimm recognised one of these sorcerers, it was Master Deidarion!

Crash!

Suddenly, the Void Fortress shook violently. It started flying in a direction into the rolling dark clouds that were then forced open by the behemoth-sized fortress.

From the depths of the unknown dark clouds, painful wails of Amonros could be heard from time to time. The resistance of the fortress started to plummet rapidly.