As Kayn flew through the sky, he cleared all unnecessary thoughts from his mind to focus on the task before him. He planned to follow through with Yelena's request and take out the 6th stage enemies that were hindering her rescue operations in the area. She could kill them on her own most likely, but it would take more time than she wanted to spend fighting someone.
Not to mention, she was a well-known figure. If she engaged with an enemy that she couldn't kill within a few exchanges, reinforcements would definitely arrive and she would then be forced to retreat quickly.
Kayn on the other hand didn't have such problems. He would be just another random nobody that they expected to crush beneath their boots. They would never expect for him to put up a fight against them, especially dying to him. Why would they call for reinforcements when the person in front of them was a mere 4th stage loser?
What also played to Kayn's strength was the fact that all three liches and the Carnet Empire's lackey all were said to have core stage sensing abilities according to Yelena. Hence, why she asked him to target these four specifically as she knew they would underestimate him after examining him, even if he got a good sneak attack off.
Yelena hadn't seen Kayn fight at full power personally, but she believed that these four shouldn't be an issue to kill given that he had defeated Griselda. The issue arose with the fact that three of them were liches.
Sure, he could kill them, but they would come right back after resurrecting from their phylactery. At that time, they would bring reinforcements and Kayn would be in trouble. He needed to figure out where their phylacteries were and how to destroy them.
Kayn himself wasn't as worried as Yelena was about the lich fights. He already had several ideas on how to kill them, permanently at that.
But where did his confidence come from?
His confidence stemmed from three important aspects or pieces of knowledge that he had. The first was from the knowledge he gained from Baldr. The god was an attack oriented light mage who specialized in purifying things, things like the undead.
One of the spells that was ingrained into Kayn's mind before he started holding off on absorbing the knowledge was a simple marking spell of the light element. It would mark a soul with a specific attack and could lead you to that soul if you were within a specific range.
Kayn theorized that if he could attack the half of the lich's soul that he was fighting, he would be able to follow it back to the phylactery once he killed their physical form.
The second aspect of his confidence stemmed from the All-Seeing Eyes. If the marking spell didn't work as he expected, he was fairly confident that his eyes would be able to lead him to where he needed to go or he would be at least able to catch a glimpse of the soul that was fleeing its broken physical form.
Lastly, and the thing Kayn was most excited to test out, were his Extinction elements. The fusion of the void element with any other element brought about devastating results which completely erased things from existence without leaving a trace.
He didn't know how to attack a soul while it was still housed within a body, but what about a soul that was housed externally or not inside the body at all? Would the Extinction elements work in one of those situations? What if he could ignite the half of the soul inside the physical form with Extinction Flames and it simultaneously ignited the half of soul within the phylactery?
Kayn couldn't help but get excited at these prospects. Chaos had told him that his unique fusion elements were his most powerful weapon and should be able to accomplish things even he would be frightened of if Kayn reached his level of power.
Now that Kayn had a better understanding and control of the Void, he hoped he could discover exactly why Chaos thought so highly of the fusion elements.
…
It took Kayn a short 15 minutes before he reached his first destination. His first target was the only non-lich. A standard fire mage who excelled at physical and spell resistant fire barriers and destructive area of attack spells.
Yelena had already attacked him a few times, but she would only give herself 15 minutes before retreating. She was never able to break through his impossibly hot fire barriers within the allotted time, so he lived on.
The place this mage was staying was what used to be a thriving small sized town of around 20,000 people. Now, it was just a burnt ruin with tents set up all around the outside, housing around 15,000 soldiers ranging from the 5th stage all the way to non-mages.
Kept within the town ruins were their prisoners who were slaving about trying to clean the town or being abused by their captors. In the very middle of this town in the largest building, which was pristine and unburnt, Kayn could sense the 6th stage expert.
Kayn didn't have a sword that would be usable at this level of fight anymore, but he never needed one to begin with, it just felt better to fight with one than without. He also needed to do things as quickly as possible now that he was on the clock. It was no longer about buying time, but of doing things as quickly as possible before moving on.
To accomplish this goal, he was going to try something that he had only theorized about since gaining his mastery over liquids from Danu's temple. He was going to try and kill them all from the inside, with their own blood.
…
Varion Clarth was sitting on his makeshift throne in the middle of an insignificant village he destroyed a few years back while listening to his second in command deliver his daily report.
Varion always hated this posting, and he never understood why his emperor put him here to begin with. Why spend so many resources keeping pests alive with so many guards who could be pushing to finish this blasted war?
Varion was a lazy man who solved all of his problems by swinging the biggest stick, or in his case throwing the largest fireball. He would prefer to stay at home enjoying the company of his many wives and concubines, but when the emperor called upon him for the war, he couldn't say no.
He earned his place within the Carnet Empire through countless years of battle and hardship, even progressing himself to midway through the 6th stage. All he wanted to do now was enjoy his time in leisure as his core slowly grew to the peak of its power.
But alas, here he was, in the middle of nowhere with no one worth even putting in his eye or by his side. He had played with a few of the captured enemies and villagers, but none of them lasted very long or even appreciated the effort he put in to try and present himself as a gentleman. He never forced himself on anyone as he felt it was below him, but that didn't mean he wasn't intimidatingly persuasive.
The only real excitement he had during the last couple years of the war was when The Illusion Spear, Yelena would show up for a very short period, trying to kill him before retreating right away. He never felt satisfied with these fights though due to how short they were.
The first time she appeared, he almost soiled himself because of her fierce attacks. He was positive that his barriers wouldn't hold up against her relentless onslaught for more than an hour, but to his surprise she would always retreat within 15 minutes of attacking him.
Varion could guess why though, someone always noticed her attack and would call for reinforcements. He appreciated it, but it made him feel like his subordinates thought he was weak.
While he would definitely be killed by Yelena if the fight continued, he wasn't about to admit that to the insects surrounding him. The first few times Yelena attacked and one of the soldiers reported it, he would always kill them after the fact for "disrespecting" him.
The next two times she attacked, he didn't kill the person who reported it because the emperor specifically assigned that person here as his second in command to make sure he didn't kill them, it was his own son.
Yes, the person standing in front of him currently was his 34-year-old son who had reached the 3rd stage already and was quite talented with the fire element, much like himself. He treasured this child of his since he was his most talented offspring and the emperor knew it. Hence why it irked Varion to have his son used against him in such a manner.
Varion hardly ever listened to the daily reports though as nothing new ever happened and it was always the same thing day after day. The combination efforts of Carnet and Inmortuea were still trying to bring down the barrier in Palatine blah blah blah.
Except today something new did happen.
"-and that's all I have to report Fa-" Varion stared at his son as he paused in the middle of addressing him and watched as his face began to contort in pain. Not long after, blood exploded from every hole in his son's body before he collapsed to the ground.
Varion dashed forward before his son's body could hit the ground and quickly examined his condition only to realize that his son was already dead. The child he cherished most, taken from him before his very eyes in almost an instant!
"WHO?!?" Varion cast his sensory spell which allowed him to feel the mana capacities of individuals in his surroundings through the heat that they radiated.
To his surprise, the only signals he got back were those of the weaklings he had captured who had stopped moving, from what his spell's feedback was telling him anyway. There was one being above the 1st stage besides himself was hovering in the air above the town in the sky though.
Varion exploded out from the top of the building with fire shooting from his feet like jets. He faced the mere 4th stage ant that dared to kill his son, forgetting that he had wiped out an entire platoon of soldiers, including two in the 5th stage, almost instantly. He was too blinded by rage and surprise to think rationally about the situation.
Fireballs began to manifest around him as he lifted his hands while staring at the figure flapping with black wings before him like a savage beast.
"You're going to die an excruciating death." He spoke with his jaw clenched and mouth barely opening. However, the figure draped in black with an off-putting black hood, flying in the air with jet black wings only sneered at him.
"Heh. Let's see whose fire is more powerful," the person sneered. A second later, hundreds of small balls composed of purple fire began to appear around the figure.
The fight to determine who had superiority over fire was about to begin.