In front of the now broken and ruined altar stood two very powerful men, staring at each other with daggers drawn, almost invisible sparks starting to bristle between them.
One was cold as ice, with a stoic and stony countenance, while the other grinned an exaggerated smile, arrogance and defiance oozing from every pore.
To a neutral observer, the latter seemed to be the more aggressive one, intentionally giving off an aura that taunted the Grand Iudex of Prfound Architect Sanctuary as if daring him to make a move.
This standoff lasted for a short while, until, seeing the attacker had no intention of backing down, the Iudex finally decided to take the young man on his offer.
Zssstt…. Zssssttt….Zsssssstttttt…
Streaks of silvery lightning began to flow out of the man's alabaster hands and snow white hair, and seeing the aura before him visibly change, Estrmound's gaze briefly flickered, a trace of fear birthing in his heart.
The 'Grand' in the title 'Grand Iudex' was not just for show. The man before him was a legendary mage known throughout all the Hidden Enclaves of the Magus Realm. And frankly, the young man was not his match, not even by the wildest of estimates.
"Hahaha! Good!" However such considerations were brutally suppressed as soon as they appeared in the young man's heart. Since things had gotten to this point, how could he step down?
:etting out an even greater grin, the man smashed his knuckles together and fearlessly stepped forward, challenging,
"I remember how you used to kick my butt every day Iudex. It's time for some payback."
Saying so, the man charged his mana, a violent swirl of fiery magma enveloping him as two deadly fireballs soon manifested on each of his hands, each resembling a miniature sun.
The mere heat coming from these white hot blobs was so deadly that it began to set the surrounding trees on fire and cause the surrounding rocks and stones to literally melt.
"Lightning Foci! Lightning Surge! Lightning Supercharge!"
Then as if that was not enough, Estrmound shouted out these three buffing spells in quick succession, each of which worked to increase the channeling and casting speed of all his other complementary spells.
Thus when they were superimposed one after the other like this, the result was very striking, as the ambient bright red mana around him became much thicker and darker, streaking with blackish blue lightning.
As he was doing this, the Grand Iudex was also not sitting idly.
He too cast the exact spells… for people from the Profound Architect Sanctuary, this set of spells was the most basic of standard procedures.
But unlike Estrmound, the Iudex was not done just with this.
Shield of Wards- a magical, multicolored layer of light then shrouded his entire body, decreasing all magical damage.
Kinetic Buffer- a thin, translucent shimmering layer that reduced all physical and kinetic attacks came next.
And lastly,
Stave of Purity- a spell that buffed one's resistance to mental and spiritual attack was cast, as a blue pillar with many intricate golden runes grew right at the center of his mana pool, radiating a pure light and covering the entire place in a thin, protective golden film.
And then, if all that was not enough,
*Zooom*
The space right behind him tore a slit as the Grand Iudex summoned a contract creature from the mysterious Spirit world- a Watcher.
It was a huge green floating eye with multiple tentacles floating around, each such appendix housing its own eye of various colors.
And on it, the Iudex cast several more spells like Aim of the Prescience, Mark of the Hunt, Gigalith's Strike, and Guided Projectiles, hyper buffing its offensive capabilities and turning it into a magical turret.
By now the aura around the once cool and collected man had completely changed- if he was like a tranquil lake before, now he was like a raging ocean.
And in witness to all this, Estromound was momentarily stunned beyond words.
This was not his first time fighting the Iudex, but it was definitely his first time fighting him seriously.
And he could not believe the speed at which the man could cast spells.
Whereas he had managed to cast just three spells, during the same time the man before him managed to cast nine, in addition to summoning a deadly, mythological creature.
And if all that was not impressive enough, the Iudex did everything in silence as opposed to Estrmound shouting it aloud!
That was perhaps the most astounding part of it all- silent incantation.
Young master Estrmound knew this technique too, but prefered to avoid it as it was a very difficult technique to master- one needed to have a very high level of attunement and understanding of the spell to use it properly.
Else, he risked it failing or worse, suffering a backlash due to improper casting.
And even when successful, the spell usually lost some potency as well as making it more taxing on the body.
However the Grand Iudex seemed to break all these general rules, perfectly showcasing how potent silent incantations could be if properly used.
Not only the speed of casting was rapid, but if Master Estrmound had not been so close, he might not have even noticed how many spells had been cast.
There was no visible indication and only the slightest of mana deviations- something too easy to miss.
The sight extremely alarmed the young master, making him swear in his heart, 'I can't let him cast any more spells! Attack!' as he quickly hurled the two fireballs in his hand, wanting to stop the man.
Yet…
Phew… Phew…
The attack was almost instantly neutralized by two magical rays from the summoned Watcher, which, buffed to the nine heavens, then let out its own torrential hail of attacks before Master Estrmound could even react.
First came Physic Piercing which smashed into the young man's mind like a fiery meteor, setting all his thoughts on fire and letting him internally howl in excruciating pain.
Immediately following it came 'Astral Seal', which attacked the body's mana pool, constricting the flow of mana and thus making spell casting more difficult.
Then there was Petrify and Frenzy, the former trying to freeze the mana pool by working in tandem with the spell Astral Seal, making casting spells almost impossible.
While the latter made Estrmound's thoughts erratic and unsteady, supplementing the very first Physic Piercing spell and preventing the man from thinking, thus rendering him ineffective at coming up with any counter.
The efficacy of these four combined spells was really beyond words as the man's mind felt like it was being frozen and roasted on a skewer at the same time.
Then to make the nightmare even darker for the upcoming superstar, there was one last spell the Grand Iudex decided to gift him.
He cast it himself and even shouted it aloud, more to drive the man into despair than to offset the disadvantages of silent casting.
"Energy Severing Pulse!"
This was a very high level spell that acted kind of like an EMP burst, one which sent all the mana around the body into chaos.
And being attacked on all fronts simultaneously like this, Master Estrmound was unable to mount any kind of defense. He only felt a profound sense of defenselessness and weakness, such as he had never felt even once in his life.
His body felt like it was being endlessly tortured by the malicious magical energies, his organs seemed to be ripped apart by his own chaotic mana, while his mind could do nothing but flash pure whites of excruciating pain, helplessly watching as his central mana pool turn solid and then grayish… like stone.
Young Master Estromound had not felt such a deep sense of dread and death ever since he had become an 'Ascended.'
'Dammit! How is this possible? How is this all happening? Aren't we both supposed to be at the same Rank? This… this feels like I am fighting 'master'. No! I have to do something!'
Realizing his grave predicament, the man thus quickly summoned a golden sword, one whose hilt was inlaid with four gems, each as precious as entire countries.
Yet now…two of them shattered instantly as he cried out three short burst incantations almost simultaneously,
"Infectious Insanity of the Damned! Revelers' Heart of Carnage! Order of Law and Victory!"
It was one of the shattered gems that allowed Master Estromound to cast these spells so quickly despite his extreme plight.
And he targeted all of them on himself!
Infectious Insanity of the Damned, as the name suggests, made one go temporarily insane. Or at least hinder one's ability to think.
While Revelers' Heart of Carnage made one go berserk with bloodlust.
Both were extremely detrimental to the psyche of the cold, calculating, logical nature demanded of a magus.
But right now, such typically detrimental status proved a great boon for the man, for this mind was in the midst of seizing up and petrifying.