Earth's Greatest Magus

Seeing the empty spot where half of the golden warriors should have been standing, coupled with the flames and waves of ice approaching from two different sides, Emery and company immediately knew that things had just gotten worse. In that instant, they felt their life was threatened.

Thrax quickly faced the approaching wave of ice and swept his golden glaive onward, launching a powerful flaming slash in the hopes of nullifying it. On the other hand, Klea chanted incantations and fired ice element magic toward the approaching flame attack.

The attacks of the two shot forth toward their respective targets at the same time, and a powerful conflict ensued on two sides. However, the two attacks were much more powerful than what they had expected.

Akin to a bonfire being washed by a torrential rain, both Klea and Thrax's attacks were crushed into nothingness and the waves of flame and ice continued its way towards them at breakneck speed.

Seeing this, Julian quickly jumped in front of the Thracian. Brandishing the shield in his hand before his body, the Roman dug his feet firmly on the ground and braced himself for the incoming impact.

At the same time, Emery's figure appeared before Klea as a blinding rune materialized on the ground in front of them. A tall and thick wall of jade quickly rose to the air, standing in the trajectory of the flame wave.

BOOM!!! 

A loud deafening sound resounded in the air as the two attacks crashed into the obstacles put in their paths. But fortunately, the two-pronged attacks were finally stopped. Emery and his friends had come out relatively unscathed.

However, at this moment, Emery realized that both Chumo and Yuria, as well as the other golden warriors, had unknowingly disappeared out of their sight. Their shadows couldn't even be seen, because the surroundings were only filled with a wall of bamboo trees.

"Chumo?! Where are you!" shouted Emery hoping for a reply, but to no avail.

Realizing the situation they were in, Emery quickly grabbed Klea's arm and at the same time he cast [Ash Blast], causing havoc on the row of bamboo trees in the direction where Chumo was last seen. 

The bamboo trees were blasted apart by the successive explosions the spell created, but there was only empty ground behind all those bamboo trees. Chumo's figure was nowhere to be seen.

Seeing such a sight, Emery shouted at his other two friends. "Julian, Thrax, stay close!"

The four of them quickly took action, but just as they were about to reach each other suddenly another strong gust of wind swept between them, forcing them to take a few steps back. In that split second, the distance between them no longer existed because rows of bamboo trees were already standing there.

"Dammit!" cursed Emery, staring at the bamboo trees in front of him.

Klea shouted

"The formation just upgraded into 6 layers; 6 different elements, if this really was the East sage work, he's a damn genius"

Hearing this only makes Emery hold Klea's arm tightly, never letting go for fear that she would be separated from him. While doing so, he screamed as loud as he could. 

"Senior, please! We just want to talk!"

"Emery, something is coming!" shouted Klea, and just as Emery turned his gaze to where she was pointing at, his ears picked up the sound of waves, just as if he had stood next to the shore.

His eyes widened when he saw what it really was. The great flood was approaching them at an unprecedented speed, towering as tall as a bamboo tree. In an instant, numerous kinds of curse words appeared in Emery's brain. How could such things happen in the middle of the mountain?

The deluge charged towards the two of them and Emery rushed to cast [Jade Root]. Familiar-looking roots quickly made its appearance. It attached itself onto Emery's waist while its other end quickly tied around the boulders and trees in the surrounding area. That way, Emery would not be swept away by the deluge.

"Klea!!"

Not having enough time to do the same to Klea, Emery held the girl's hand as tight as he possibly could. However, the deluge that swept them wasn't a normal deluge at all. Instead of pushing Klea's along the current as one usually expected, she was actually sucked in. This unusual phenomenon forced her to let go of her grasp.

"Emery!!"

Not willing to let her get swept away and separated from him, Emery let go his control of the roots and jumped into the current. He swam through the raging current, trying to chase her but ended up crashing into a huge boulder.

"KLEA!!!""

Seeing the girl getting further and further away from him, swept away by the current, Emery decided to transform as he realized his normal self won't be sufficient.

[Twilight Transformation]

With the added strength the transformation bestowed, Emery crushed the boulder that held him back. He once again swam in the direction of Klea, only to find an empty air in front of him before a feeling of weightlessness struck.

Emery's shadow descended downwards as he encountered a waterfall.

A spurt of water rose high to the air, and from within Emery's figure resurfaced, whereupon he let out a loud howl. The howl reverberated in the air, causing the leaves and grasses in the surrounding area to shake.

HOWLLLLLL!!!!

The powerful howl turned out to be powerful enough to break him free out of the constraint of water but when his feet touched the ground again, Emery discovered that he had returned back to the bamboo forest.

Alone. By himself.

"Klea!?" shouted Emery anxiously. "Everyone?!"

Hearing not even a single faint reply, Emery apparently decided to change his approach.

"Senior! Don't you hurt my friends!! Please, we mean no harm! We just want to talk!!"

Again, hearing no answer, Emery heaved a sigh of helplessness. He saw that the path in front of him was free of bamboo trees, so he moved onward going deeper into the forest again. Moments later, he stopped in his tracks when he found a figure standing a distance away in front of him.

Emery's eyes bulged when he saw the figure. It was a figure of himself in his Twilight Form.

"Wha- This is not real! There's no way this is real!"

The figure, however, seemed to deny Emery's words as it acted exactly just like him. It then beamed a smile before it suddenly shot towards Emery at breakneck speed.

At first, he planned to dodge the figure. But then, with spirit reading he quickly realized what exactly it was, Emery cast [Seed Bomb] instead to destroy it. In the face of the attacks thrown at it, the figure still ran towards Emery.

BOOMMM!!!

An explosion occurred and dark smoke obstructed the vision. Moments later, the smoke dissipated and the real identity of the figure was revealed. Its cracked body and broken parts were clearly made out of clay. It was a clay golem.

"What are you trying to do?!!"

Before long, another figure made its appearance. This time, to Emery's surprise, it was the centipede creature. Emery quickly destroyed it with [Ash Blast], and saw it was another clay golem.

"Why are you probing my mind?!!"

After the centipede golem was destroyed, another made its appearance. This time, there were half a dozen figures. Figures that Emery knew well.

One by one it came out of the bamboo forest, Eeshoo Nephilim, Zach Talon, there were even his teacher Magus Xion and the half blood Demon wolf Heorgar. The one that attracted Emery's attention and made his eyes twitch madly was the figure of a girl – Silva Ouroboros.

"What are you trying to do?!"

Emery was irritated, it felt even more annoyed when another figure came from behind him. It was a huge, black-scaled monster. It was the dragon Killgragah.

Knowing that his mind was being used against him, Emery became very upset and angry. He had never been this angry in his entire life. In his rage, he created a dozen [Seed Bombs] in a matter of seconds and blasted all the clay figures into smithereens.

It was at this moment that he caught a glimpse of a figure hiding behind a row of bamboo trees in the corner of his eye. 

A man dressed in a gray cape and Emery their gaze met. The next instant the man appeared right in front of him. It was a thin looking middle-aged man with long white hair.

A grand magus individual.

Seeing the approaching figure and feeling his power, Emery felt helpless and said

"Are you… him? Senior? Are you?"

Without saying anything, the man placed his finger on his forehead and there was a powerful spirit attack that entered his body, and instantly Emery started to lose his consciousness.

As he was dropped to his knee, Emery heard the man say. "Third generation... it's been too long…"