The tear in the sky from Michael's attack put a smile on the warlock's face. Being a grand enthusiast of a fair fight, he felt thrilled to witness the archangel's golden eyes peering out through the realm of forever night. Its golden lashes, and the light emanating from the iris, made him want to fight the familiar right this instance.
"So these creatures are your doing, Michael?" However, running into the summoner himself, Almuld had no choice, but to face Michael instead.
"Why did you draw me out here?" Opening his fist, Michael called back his lance. And in a few seconds, it materialized between his fingers.
"Draw you out here? What on earth are you on about, dragon slayer?" Standing by his horse Almuld put up a burning shield of blue flames around him to burn all the invisible monsters dumb enough to attack him directly.
Putting up a barrier around himself, Michael did the very same. Seeing how they were both using magic, their fingers tightened around their weapons in case someone tried to attack the other without any visible warning.
"Don't try to fool me! What are you trying to achieve by destroying human cities so far out of Scorchen Gaia?" Although Michael could hear steps approaching from the back, he continued to speak to the warlock. "Being out of your domain, you're nothing but a giant target, especially since a demon lord's powers are weakened away from their army."
To Michael's assessment, the armored warlock simply began to chuckle. He even went so far as to plant his axe in the ground, and move his hand over his chest while laughing, just to illustrate how hilarious Michael's statements were to him.
"Ahaha! You really think I need to be at full strength to crush a bug like you?" All of a sudden, he stopped laughing and shot Michael a gaze colder than a frost dragon's tears.
"You-" Right as Michael was about to retort, he felt a fleet of demonic presences heading right over to him from behind.
'What now?' He wondered as the Archangel's buffs allowed him to sense and see through every illusion or spell.
"Sir Michael!" Hearing the voice of a familiar adventurer, Michael was even more shocked than before. "We're here to help!"
Slowly shifting his gaze to the side, he glanced at the approaching demons.
"Stay back," Michael warned, not wanting to deal with them at the moment. "I do not need help from monsters."
Watching it all unfold, the king of wrath felt insulted for being ignored by the dragon slayer. Taking hold of his giant silver axe with a reddened blade, he held it directed firmly towards his enemy.
"Die, you imposters…" As Michael said those words, the angel's eyes began cackling with flames. In the very next second, the sound of a charging laser rippled through the air. Right after which, a beam of concentrated light shot out of the angel's eyes.
While the beam ran in a straight line toward the enemy, it burned everything and turned into a scorching desert. Even from a distance, the heat was so intense, that Haruki had to abandon the whole plan and escape with Asuka through a dungeon portal. The others, however, were not so fortunate.
"Don't ignore me, you weakling!" Unfazed by the dignified display of strength, the king of wraths leaped towards Michael with his axe held high.
Sensing the warlock's attack, Michael swiftly turned around and blocked the trajectory of his axe with his lance handle. The impact from their weapons caused such a powerful gust of wind that everything behind Michael was flung away toward the ruined city. Even the burning flames were extinguished in an instant, and the ground under their feet had turned into giant craters.
"Never look away from death!" Announced the warlock, cackling.
So close to his face, Michael saw countless souls burning in his eyes, and even the screams of his past victims echoed in his ears. Finally, as the force of the blow subsided, they both leaped away from each other.
"Your illusions won't work on me, Almuld!" Referring to the demons, Michael was convinced that the warlock was trying to distract with familiar posing as reinforcement.
"Ahaha, how ignorant can you be? Or perhaps…" Extending his hand forward, Almuld sprouted skeletal hands from the ground to grab onto Michael's feet. "You're just a tool who knows nothing about what's really happening."
Not far from the mark, the warlock knowing Haruki's true identity was much closer to the truth, than the dragon slayer who was barely aware of what was happening inside the empire.
"Keep trying to delude me, but I don't care for the words of a monster," slamming the lance's handle against the ground, Michael shattered the skeletal hands into pieces.
'He's… not wrong, but admitting that right now wouldn't be the wisest choice.' Recognizing his own lack of knowledge, Michael swore to find out the truth about the situation once he managed to get out of this mess.
"How foolish," saying that in a monotone voice, the warlock simply smiled at Michael.
The very next moment, however, they both disappeared in thin air before appearing back with their weapons clashing against each other. Once again, the ripples from the impact tore through the trees in a circular pattern, and all the monsters and undead left around them were crushed to dust without direct impact.
Left alone on the battlefield they could both fight each other without any hindrance.
'Keep fighting.' Or that's what they thought at least.
Watching the fight in an astral projection of her body. The mistress of darkness had her eyes fixed on the two, all the while, her clones went around the forest itching magic circles on the ground. Restricted to a hazy projection of her true self, she couldn't cast a spell or use her abilities without the use of magic circles, and so to take hold of this golden opportunity she had to resort to using archaic magic to get rid of the two once they were too tired to fight back.
'I'm sorry, Atlas, but I can't take this anymore. Your curse needs to end, for the good of this world and the good of all kinds.' Calling out to god, she wished he was watching.
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