Legacy of the Dark Sage

After hearing the thunder-like voice, fear gripped Kyran's heart. He recognized the voice, and his eyes immediately looked at the lanky man's body that fell below.

The lanky man's body was indeed there, but the voice just now was definitely his.

Once again, Kyran got slapped on the face for his naivety. He might not have underestimated the lanky man and even looked at him as if he was standing on a very high pedestal. The lanky man was a Sovereign, after all.

Would a Sovereign be killed just like that? Even if his physical defense was weak, Kyran's initial attack was magic base. Though he cut off the man's head in the end, Kyran knew he would not really 'die' that easily.

Kyran would never feel disappointed for failing to kill the man. His main reason for attacking was to buy as much time as possible for them to escape.

This was the reason after cutting the man and seeing him fall, Kyran immediately focused on getting True Void out from the red light's influence. He even created a hole for him to escape from if those pillars had a way to reconstruct. If his magic had destroyed the pillars, it would not be easy to do so.

Still, the few seconds Kyran thought he had bought for them were actually pointless.

It was the feeling Kyran had after seeing the gigantic hand stopping the circular door above from closing.

That hand was different from the red one earlier. This one looked more solid and real, which made Kyran feel it was the real hand of the lanky man.

All sorts of scenarios ran through Kyran's mind in an instant. Scenarios that all ended in their gruesome death, and it was all thanks to his naivety.

True Void, who had ignored the gigantic hand even after seeing it, focused on flying over to Kyran. He might be surprised at yet another turn of events, but it did not hinder him from moving and prioritizing his escape from the red light's influence.

However, at this point, he saw Kyran's look of disbelief and suddenly had a bad feeling. It was okay if Kyran's look was his regular disbelieving expression, but it was not. The time True Void had finally managed to attain a somewhat conscious state in Kyran's magic core after learning how to convert Kyran's life force into magic energy that could sustain him,  he had witnessed some of Kyran's everyday life.

True Void remembered when Kyran had the same look of disbelief on his face when he was in military school.

Because of a certain two-faced girl's schemes, Kyran ended up getting bullied by several senior students in school. However, just when True Void felt pity at how his possibly new master's life would end at such a young age, the scenes that unfolded before him left him reeling.

Those senior students managed to escape the worst-case scenario, but only because Kyran's magic was sealed at that time and the instructors had arrived just in time.

Now...

Snap!

At this point, something snapped within Kyran, and in an instant, his expression turned blank.

'This is bad! This is bad!' True Void thought, and his illusory arms shivered from fear.

BOOM!

The gigantic hand had successfully pulled open the circular door, and a massive pressure fell on the whole plane.

The ground erupted, and a massive chasm appeared where the bottom could not be seen.

CRACK! CRACK! CRACK!

All the cracks in the sky burst, and huge fragments crashed below as if the sky itself was made of glass. From where these fragments had been, star-filled night sky could be seen. These night sky had a feeling of being from another space and time.

"COME AND PLAY WITH ME, YOUNG HUMAN."

The thunder-like voice said, and the gigantic hand moved along with the red light glow toward Kyran. It seemed as if the gigantic hand wanted to take Kyran inside the circular door.

As the gigantic hand and the red light descended, a small black figure suddenly appeared right underneath their path.

A deafening pressure erupted as a pure black mass burst from the small figure and shot up toward the gigantic hand.

The moment the pure black mass collided with the gigantic hand and the red light glow, a massive ripple appeared on the sky, which spread out for more than a hundred thousand kilometers.

The gigantic hand froze midway while cracks appeared within the red light glow.

BOOM!

"THIS—."

The thunder-like voice was cut off midsentence as the small black figure rushed up toward the frozen gigantic hand. A reddish-purple light formed around the figure giving anyone who saw it the illusion of looking at a blazing reddish-purple comet.

As it pierced through the red light glow, sparks flew from every direction. Blood-red color dyed the outer edge of the reddish-purple comet as the red light glow's effect kicked in.

As the lanky man called it, Ruin had the ability to taint everything it touched into a blood-red world. Any living lifeforms corrupted by Ruin would have their souls crushed, preventing them from being reincarnated, and their bodies turned into red soil. The area where Ruin fell would also be turned into blood-red ruins that humans would never be able to live in again.

Just as the red light appeared to have overwhelmed the reddish-purple comet, the surroundings crackled as fissures appeared everywhere.

If one looked into these cracks, one would have the illusion of looking at the depths of the abyss.

The appearance of these fissures stopped the red light's advance. It also affected the reddish-purple comet's breakthrough, resulting in a stalemate in power between the two.

The huge chasm on the ground shook, and soon more crevices appeared on the ground, looking like a colossal complex spider web. From the crevices, dark gray smoke rose, followed by the eruption of red hot lava.

These crevices were not limited to the area covered by a hundred thousand kilometers, but the whole plane.

Those creatures that had prostrated themselves were now in a frenzy, not knowing what to do. This occurrence was different from when the Sovereign of Ruin was angry. The feeling they got from this destruction was far more sinister. Because the Sovereign of Ruin might destroy parts of their plane when he was angered, but he would never go too far.

However, this time, they felt as if their plane would face total annihilation.

"Void Halfling! Stop! Don't destroy the plane my master had saved!"

True Void's pleading voice boomed amidst the sound of crackling and constant eruptions below.

However, whether it reached Kyran or not was the question.

That was right, the reddish-purple comet that had rushed toward the gigantic hand and the red light was indeed Kyran, who appeared to have entered a trance.

Kyran did not fall into a state where he was not in control. On the contrary, when he snapped, his mind suddenly cleared. He could see everything in a new light, which also made him realize that he had the ability to take complete control of everything. Yes, everything. His emotions, his movements, his thoughts, his magic. Everything.

It was because of this reason he rushed up toward the gigantic hand.

When Kyran's mind cleared, finally understood if he wanted to escape from the lanky man and also 'pass' the training the tower had given him, he first had to close the circular door forcefully because the circular door was the lanky man's domain.

The lanky man's domain was in the sky because it could not be summoned inside the plane. If he did, the whole plane would immediately crumble.

As for the 'body' of the lanky man Kyran had cut earlier, it was only his manifestation or part of his real essence, as others might call it. Killing it might wound his real body, but not fatally.

If Kyran succeeded in closing the circular door, it would take the lanky man some time to return to this plane. Because the essence he left in this plane had been destroyed.

Of course, to close the circular door, Kyran had to deal with the gigantic hand first. He would also have to face the red light head-on. Though he had no idea what the red light's effect was, he was not afraid. He knew he could handle anything.

The fissures filled the sky, and the gigantic hand trembled.

"YOU DARE?" The thunder-like voice boomed in anger.

It might be his first time seeing those fissures, but he sensed how it was trying to destroy his power.

Creaking sounds reverberated from the circular door as the fissures finally crept toward it.

"NO!"

The pressure the Sovereign of Ruin had released earlier intensified, worsening the state of the plane below.

WHOOOSH!

Suction force erupted from the fissures above, and the pressure coming from the Sovereign slowly lifted.

True Void, who had been watching this whole time, felt his illusory body tremble.

'This...!' He recognized that the fissures were absorbing the Sovereign's power. But what got his mind reeling was not how it was absorbing it but how the power it absorbed was now getting transferred into Kyran.

The reddish-purple comet grew in size, its power tripled, as it finally broke the stalemate.