I regressed and became the Sword Ice King

The Crimson Lord stood in a dome of red that vibrated terribly under the weight of attacks that plunged him.

Two of them.

Two products of Transcendence blasted upon him.

His shield had cracked so many times. Broken under the weight of the force as the unnatural occurred around him.

Lightning tore through the skies. Volcanic eruptions slammed against his small dome of blood.

The Darkness began to phase through his dome. Invading his defence with tendril-like projections.

The opposing powers began to combine. A shuddering effect seeping out from its edges. It began to overwhelm, and soon, not only was he stopped, but disarmed.

Fighting back had become…a bit taxing.

The wave of black and star, nebula, hummed like a billion explosions occurring at once.

Darkness spread through the air like ichor.

It rippled the surface of reality itself, adjusting everything it touched on a molecular level.

And the ravaging destruction triad magic did nothing but boost its effects.

The Crimson Lord had watched all this occur through his eyes.

Vermillion pupils with an ancient hue, deep within them.

He witnessed both the destruction wrought and the subtle devastations hidden beyond human comprehension.

He saw it all.

And quite frankly, he did not like it.

His pupils constricted as he pulled his gaze towards the trio ahead.

Rebecca Jun. Thalia Jun. Raffaelo Jun.

All sources of his current predicament.

His expression hardened at the thought.

'Annoying.'

He thought to himself as he raised his arm in the air.

The trio, who had their eyes on him had been panting heavily. Evidently strained from their attacks and defence.

Energy may have been made abundant, but their bodies? They were far from abundant.

Slowly, but visibly, fatigue bore through their stand.

It was no surprise.

Exertion to this point was only a small sacrifice if they wanted to smell the hair that adorned his head like a crown.

'But…they are not worthy of it.'

"Pups of the Jun." He began.

His voice was loud and clear. Booming with intent and regality.

He was an overlord.

A man who came to check the source of his predicament.

'Two Executives dead…' He thought with unamusement in his eyes.

'Resources spent on their growth and development…wiped clean by…WASTED!'

His gaze landed on the children. Then at Phestus, who hovered above the others.

Standing and observing as he always did.

He had found him suspicious, but unworthy of his attention.

System Users were remarkably unable to touch the air that he breathed.

Instead, he focused on those four.

His frown deepened with the ever-rising tide of discomfort that plagued him.

'That boy…'

His eyes peered within him.

The energy that flowed through his body.

The spark of something new from the forbidden combination of two forms of energy.

'Mana and aura…mixing…and not clashing?'

No.

The darkness was immediately swallowed by a drop of vermilion.

A dense array of power descended upon his opponents as blades of red and black formed from thin air.

'He can not be left alive.'

"You have fought well. But now…it is time you faced the true nature of power."

The dome of red spread from his form and pushed the attacks with it.

Increasing with fervent size as it dwindled the space that separated him from his prey, while keeping the effects of their attacks outside his reach.

The trio reeled in shock.

Raph could barely contain himself as his body began to shake, terribly.

'What the fuck?'

He thought to himself.

Smile, broken as it was, remained fixed on his face.

But his eyes did anything but smile. It pulsed, in fear.

He was torn completely by what they witnessed.

His sisters were no different.

Analysing with a trembling heart and a vibrating body.

'He simply pushed the attack away with his dome…and increased the size so he could reach us.'

Thalia thought in complete shock.

'What now? This man can't be stopped!'

Unable to calculate, nor line her thoughts in order.

Rebecca had simply stared, but she knew just like everyone, the terrible fate that awaited them.

But, at that moment, Kira stepped up.

Hovering in front of the four who watched in silence.

Their gazes shifted to her. Staring intently at her back.

"Foolish children of Jun. Did you seriously think your combined strength would strive against a 14th Star?"

The Crimson Lord's gaze narrowed to pinpricks.

"Hmm…to pry into the mind of a god…" his voice grew cold. An icy hue in his scarily composed tone.

"...you must be courting a painful death."

It startled them, but Kira didn't seem to care.

"Hah? Death."

She held out her hand as a scroll rolled open with a loud snap.

"The only one who is worthy enough to judge me dead…"

The scroll shimmered with a vibrant hue. A sudden rush of mana siphoned into the old animal skin paper.

Her lips curled into a smile– almost maniacally as her gaze held the Crimson Lord's.

"...Is me."

She felt her heart tug in her ribs. An uncontrollable shiver that ran down her bones like lightning.

Fear. An unexplainable emotion had completely gripped her. Its source, unknown, yet she knew more than anyone to think of it as such.

Her instincts, as her gaze was locked on his, told her more than enough to know who it came from.

Or what it meant.

'He's planning something. Something to finish us off.'

No.

Before that, she must act.

"Forbidden Arts of the Merlin Household."

The trio Jun behind her turned to her with inquisitive looks, but their curiosity was cut short the moment the scroll dispersed into the air in a dust of white light.

Silence followed.

A heavy-tensioned one, where every moment counted, and every second paved a way for either survival or death.

They chose the former.

—--

The Crimson Lord arched his brow as the silence stretched for far too long.

He waited a moment longer, then dropped his shoulders in disappointment.

"Is this your last stance, Merlin?" He asked with a frown of disapproval.

"How ridiculous."

He attempted to raise his hand to begin his slaughter, but something went wrong.

The Crimson Lord frowned. His eyes darted about as his senses began to prick him.

One by one.

He turned his head to the left. Then to the right, but his confusion deepened.

Just then, Kira's voice boomed in the air.

"What is it?" She asked.

Her tone dripped with mockery and sarcasm.

Her lips widened. Her teeth bared. White, tranquil, and stained with blood.

Her beauty had turned demonic– almost.

"Cat's got your tongue?" She continued with her tease, knowing fully well, that right now.

They– No, fuck that. SHE won.

The Crimson Lord shifted back, then froze.

'What?' His thoughts slammed against his skull at the mere realisation of what he had done.

'Did I…just move back?'

No, it wasn't just moving back.

Anyone could move back.

It wasn't a sign of weakness. When one needs to run, they must.

Life is better than death.

This was something else. Primal. Evident…and most importantly, not meant to be there.

Fear.

It crashes into him in tides, and in the next second, he flashed Kira a deadly glare.

Then, in the next moment, blood boomed out of his finger towards her at the speed of light.

Consuming the space before anyone could even breathe or blink, nearing her chest with hungry precision.

Death. Death. Death!

'They need to die!'

But just then, reality warped.

The sky broke. Literally.

The already formed cracks of mana reflux spread like spiderwebs through the air, as if it were glass.

Shifting at unnatural speeds through the entirety of the Academy.

The Academy gave one last scream.

Guttural as it was pained. A screech that followed as the sky flipped, becoming a floor of collapsing stars, while the earth dissolved into an abyss of black.

A portal forged to life.

Then a vortex boomed into fruition.

All occurring before his blood could reach Kira.

The Crimson Lord's eyes bulged wide open.

As what seemed like time slowed to his vision, it became smooth as silk.

Playing as it should.

The blood blasted through Kira, or what should have been her.

Her body dispersed like dust into the air. Scattering with the violent wind and her true self blinked to life above the masses.

"Uncanny world."

Floating with her arms folded in front of her chest while the portal swirled to life beside her.

The others– Raph, Thalia, Rebecca and Phestus turned towards her in unison, gaze slowly bulging at the woman before her.

Kira had been wounded. Her clothes had been torn.

Her poise had been damaged, and her hair had been dishevelled like a Barbarian.

But the Kira before her was new. Unblemished.

As if she had nothing to do with the fight that had been in full swing since a moment ago.

Raph did not just snap in shock, but in realisation.

His smirk faltered. A shiver ran down his spine as he thought to himself.

'The Kira with us had been a clone, all along.'

The realisation came raw. Like data that hasn't been confirmed into a theory or reality, but her next words were more than enough foundation for the process to begin.

"It's about time you finished." She sighed– Heavily.

Turning her head from the Crimson Lord, frozen not just by her appearance, but by the vortex behind her.

It had begun to swallow the Academy whole.

Pulling and tugging at everything in its path like a hungry whale.

The air surged into its maw, and the sky soon followed.

The Earth was no less. Swallowed as soon as it appeared, with the remnants of what was left of the Academy.

Its appearance was simple.

A phenomenon higher than a Mana Reflux.

A Mana Vortex.

It's cause? Spells and techniques of far Transcendence clashing against themselves in a monstrous hybrid of power.

'The Jun's skills had already begun to pave the way for its appearance.' Kira thought to herself.

'I just needed to tear it further. Enough so that he would suffer from it.'

And he did.

The Crimson Lord watched as his dome broke into pieces and was quickly absorbed into the Vortex behind him.

His attention was focused so much on Kira that he had not noticed the metallic smell in the air.

And when he did, his eyes dilated.

Below, the right half of his body…was gone. Limbs. Trunk and up to his neck. Swallowed by what he assumed was the spell which made the sky their ground.

'How?'

His eyes pulsed in confusion. 'When?'

He was untouchable. An existence representing humanity's strongest…and yet…

He fell prey to her…the Witch of the West and her tricks.

His expression hardened as he looked up while his body regenerated what was lost. He focused his gaze on Kira, but the latter paid him no mind.

Any attacks were fruitless now.

Not only did the Mana Vortex perform the same effect as the Mana Reflux, but it tripled it…If not more, and swallowed everything into its maw.

Kira had focused on this very concept the moment she noticed the spark the Juns skills had caused.

Yes, not only was it seen by The Crimson Lord, but by her as well.

'Unexpected scenarios, huh…' The thought lingered in her head as her gaze never left the children below. 'Perhaps this is where the Jun's strength comes from.'

The others seemed too stunned to speak, but she wasn't having it.

Her portal wasn't eternal after all. It would disappear soon.

"What are you gawking at?"

Her tone snapped them back to the present.

They flinched. Slowly turned to the portal next to her.

Even without the need for her to explain, they knew what it was.

Still, Kira took it upon herself to bring them home with words first.

"Come, let us leave this place."