Chapter 133: System Evolution Required
The furious explosion tore through the light, casting the world into complete darkness.
The army watching the clash immediately lost sight of Max. Their eyes could not stay open beneath the destructive winds tearing across the battlefield, and even those who tried to force themselves to look could only see black void, green wind, and purple ice fire twisting together in a massive storm where their king had vanished.
Henry’s body was also blown away, thrown far into the distance as the pressure tore him from his place between the two progenitor dragons. His wings spread desperately, purple frost and green wind crawling over them as he tried to resist, but no matter how hard he fought to keep his footing, he and his army of undead were forced to retreat.
The only thing that could still be heard clearly through the chaos was the cracking of ancient bones, the hollow sound of the two progenitor dragons being crushed under the pressure of Max’s void magic.
Henry’s face paled.
He did not know whether his final attempt to fend off Max had truly succeeded or not. The orb of destruction still spun in the middle of the battlefield, swallowing everything around it like a hole had been ripped into the battlefield itself, and Max was somewhere inside that darkness.
But if Henry left his summons there for even a few more breaths, they would be devoured completely, no matter how durable the ancient bones were. Even the remains of the progenitors could not endure that collision forever.
And worse than that, Henry had almost no mana left. That realization twisted his expression into a disgusting smile.
"You did it, Max... once again..." he muttered, though his words were swallowed by the raging storm before anyone could hear them.
Purple flames suddenly burned around every single summon. The dead wind dragons, the ancient skeletons, the half-rotten corpses, and even the two progenitor dragons were all wrapped in that same cursed fire.
For a moment, their hollow eyes burned brighter, green and purple lights trembling inside empty sockets as Henry’s golden snowflake mark pulsed beneath the skin of his right hand.
The summons burned from the inside, their bodies turning into ash before the void could fully consume them. Even the enormous bodies of the progenitor dragons began to collapse, their bones cracking apart piece by piece as purple fire crawled over them and dragged what remained of their power back toward Henry’s mark.
Their massive shapes vanished from the edge of the spinning orb, leaving only trails of ash, frozen wind, and dying purple embers behind.
Henry gave the massive orb one last look.
His smile faded for a breath, replaced by something closer to hatred, but only for a moment. Then he spat on the ground, spread his wings, and vanished beyond the horizon, flying toward the north while the ruined capital continued to shake behind him.
Only one person remained suspended inside the massive orb, his life and death unknown.
Voidstar’s army waited in suspense, barely breathing as their eyes stayed fixed on the storm of darkness, wind, and purple fire twisting above the ruined capital. All of them expected their king’s body to fly out at any moment, to tear through the destruction and mark their victory with his return.
Yet no matter how long they waited, Max did not emerge.
Instead, the ground began to vibrate beneath their feet.
One after another, the warriors of Voidstar’s army turned toward the south. At first, they only noticed something small behind the horizon, a dark shadow moving beneath the distant light. Then more shapes appeared beside it, and more after that, spreading across the edge of the world like a wave of shining sun rays slowly rising from the earth.
The sound came next.
Countless feet slammed against the ground in coordinated rhythm, growing louder with every passing breath until it slowly replaced the fading aftermath of the explosion. What had first sounded like distant thunder soon became something far clearer, far heavier, and far more dangerous.
An army was marching toward them.
"Are those... elven armies?" Marcus said softly, yet his voice still reached the warriors around him.
"Forget about them... the king... he..." someone from the back of the front squadron shouted, his voice cracking as he pointed toward the air.
Everyone quickly turned their heads, but confusion spread across their faces the moment they looked back at the massive orb. The storm was still there, still twisting, still devouring what remained of the light, but the figure they had all been waiting for was nowhere to be seen.
The same warrior spoke again, his finger trembling harder than before.
"The king... our king... where is he?"
Max’s body was nowhere to be seen, as if the massive explosion had swallowed him whole.
The marching sounds intensified before finally halting in the distance. From afar, the young elf stood at the front of his forces, observing the scattered army of dragons, the ruined battlefield, and the flattened capital city of the Wind Dragon Empire. His eyes narrowed slightly as he looked at the destruction left behind by powers far beyond ordinary war.
Then a disgustingly amused smile rose on his lips.
-------
The darkness swallowed a single figure suspended in midair.
Sharp winds tore at his body from every direction, slicing across the black armor that protected him until pieces of it scattered like living smoke, dissolving into the same void that had created it. The storm around him did not feel like an enemy’s attack anymore. It felt like his own power had turned on him, chewing through every layer of defense he tried to hold together.
It was Max.
His body was slowly being destroyed by his own magic. When his void sword released that wave of power filled with almost all of his mana, the force had not simply gone forward. It had folded back onto him, lashing against his body and sinking into his flesh like a hungry curse.
The void ate at him from the outside, tearing through his armor and scales, while the backlash gnawed deeper from within, scraping against his bones, veins, and mana channels as if trying to hollow him out completely.
Max clenched his teeth, trying to force his eyes open, trying to stay awake long enough to pull the magic back under control before it dragged him into death. But the darkness was too deep. It pressed against his mind from every side, thick and endless, making his thoughts slip apart no matter how hard he tried to hold onto them.
Then, just as his consciousness began to slip, something reached out from the void behind him.
A hand.
It was pale, thin, and bony, with almost no flesh clinging to it. The fingers looked too long to belong to a normal person, stretched and crooked, while the fingertips were black, sharp, and claw-like, as if the nails had been stained black long before they touched him. They moved slowly at first, almost gently, before wrapping around Max’s neck from behind.
Max’s eyes widened.
He did not even have time to turn his head before the hand tightened.
The grip crushed around his throat, cutting off his breath while those long black fingertips dug into the gaps of his broken armor. His body jerked once, void magic flaring weakly around him in a desperate attempt to resist, but the hand only pulled harder, dragging him backward toward a narrow tear in the air that had opened silently behind him.
There was no roar, no flash, no warning for the army below. Only Max’s body being swallowed into that thin wound in space, his black armor scattering into smoke as the pale hand dragged him through the opening and into whatever darkness waited beyond it.
Then the tear closed.
And Max vanished without a trace.
The next time Max opened his eyes, he felt his body being swallowed by black mist, the very same mist he had once been trapped in during that strange dream.
It wrapped around him from every direction, cold and heavy, clinging to his skin as if it wanted to drag him deeper into the darkness. His irises narrowed, and the truth finally settled in his mind.
"I’m here again... that means... the last time... it wasn’t a dream."
His voice sounded strangely small in that endless place.
Max slowly looked around, only to see countless eyes suspended in the air all around him. He could not even begin to count them. Some were large, some narrow, some barely visible through the mist, but all of them were locked onto him with the same cold stillness.
They were scanning him.
He could feel their gazes crawling across his skin, sinking past his flesh, bones, mana channels, and bloodline as if they were trying to examine every hidden part of him.
"Let me go!"
Max roared and struggled against the mist, but the eyes did not care. They continued their work, spinning around him faster and faster until the darkness became a storm of staring pupils.
All of a sudden, a system screen materialized in the air before him, shining with golden light.
[Consuming the user’s mana...]
[Insufficient mana...]
[Error... Error... Unexpected error occurred...]
Max’s expression twisted.
"I can’t stay here. I need to go back and finish him off! I must kill him!"
No one answered his roars. The eyes kept circling, the mist kept tightening, and the golden screen flickered as if even the system itself was struggling inside this place.
[System evolution required due to insufficient time...]
[Upgrading the system...]
Suddenly, Max felt as if someone had reached into his chest and squeezed his heart with terrifying force. His entire body locked in place, pain spreading through him so violently that his thoughts began to break apart. His consciousness faded in and out, slipping between the black mist and flashes of the battlefield he had been dragged away from.
[Upgrading...]
His heart clenched once more, and for a single breath, Max felt it stop.
