Legacy of the Dark Sage

Lucian looked down at the scene before him.

The Crepuscule Auction House's inner city, which boasted its rich and extravagant structures, was nowhere to be found. Instead, the city was devastated by Lucian's magic pressure and Deus's initial attacks. Bodies that belonged to the Crespuscule Clan littered the top floor of the central mansion where Estrid lived.

However, key figures like the clan auction heads, vice heads, and Estrid herself were missing. Not that Lucian expected them to kick the bucket from his magic pressure and Deus's attack. At the very least, he expected them to be present along the latter and be stuck in a fight against the Void Master.

Unexpectedly, only the dead bodies of lowly members of the Crepuscule Clan were present, and there were only three survivors.

Lucian already knew one of the survivors was Deus, so he disregarded the latter's presence.

After ignoring Deus, Lucian immediately focused on one of the two survivors. A mage who resembled the one he met in the Land of Desolation— the Void Master.

"Finally... It is so good to see you face to face, Void Master."

Lucian started but then stopped when he realized that the one he regarded as the Void Master emitted a different presence. The presence was no stranger to him, either. It came from someone he also knew.

"Azaloth..."

Lucian's voice seethed with displeasure as he glared at Ruin.

Ruin looked unfazed at The Emperor's intimidating glare and overwhelming presence and responded with a mocking grin, "Wah~ So scary~ Did I disappoint you that much for not being the person you want me to be—."

Whoosh! Boom!

Before Ruin could finish what he was saying, Lucian flicked his fingers in his direction, and a streak of golden light flashed at him in the blink of an eye, hitting his head and destroying it.

Or at least that was Lucian's intention.

However, behind the cloud of smoke that resulted from the explosion, Ruin's voice could be heard as he said, "That scared me~ I thought I was a goner~ This body sure is pretty convenient against surprise attack."

The cloud of smoke dissipated, revealing Ruin's head still intact. He also wore a toothy grin as he looked at The Emperor.

"...An automaton body?"

"As expected~ Nothing misses your eyes, it seems," Ruin replied without denying The Emperor's claim. He then looked toward Dues, who had a shocked look on his face, and sneered while saying, "Such irony that the one supposed to be an expert on that field failed to recognize what my body is made of."

"Impossible!" Deus growled, glaring daggers at Ruin. "There is no way for a being to integrate themselves into an automaton's body!"

"HAHAHAHA!" Ruin only responded with a burst of laughter.

Alas, his laughter only infuriated Deus further.

"It's you..." Lucian ignored the two and immediately turned his attention to the last survivor.

The last survivor donned dark purple armor emitting dense Void magic energy. Lucian mistook Ruin as the Void Master apart from his current appearance because he was within the dense Void magic energy range. If not for that, Lucian would have realized immediately that the one emitting the Void magic energy was the mage in the dark purple armor.

"Your Majesty," Deus started, turning his attention to The Emperor. "Azaloth has been working with the Void Master from the start. They have been leading us in a wild goose chase all this time!"

"..." Lucian looked at Deus at the corner of his eyes before returning his attention to the real Void Master.

"I did not expect you to play such a sly trick. For a mage who originated in the Lower Realm, you have truly given me a hard time tracking you."

"..."

Kyran did not say anything and only looked at Lucian and Deus. It was not that he was uninterested in what they were saying. Instead, he was busy wracking his brains on what he should do.

Before leaving the Dragon Plane, Kyran had devised countermeasures to avoid Lucian. He also considered the latter possibly summoning a Dimension at the get-go to trap him. Since Kyran did not know what Lucian's Dimension could do, he planned to escape before the latter could even cast it.

Kyran never expected Lucian to integrate the initial phase of his Dimension into his magic pressure and even exert enough influence that could stop him from using any escape skills.

As Deus mentioned, the Pseudo-Dimension would finally be completed once Lucian arrived. Though there was no visible change in their surroundings, Kyran confirmed that the magic energy in the surroundings was now centered more around Lucian. This meant that the whole Crespuscule Auction House had now indeed fallen under the complete form of his Dimension.

[There is no use... I can sense the magic energy in the surroundings but can't absorb them.]

True Void informed Kyran. After sensing Kyran's thoughts, he started observing the surroundings because they could only make a move by understanding how Lucian's Dimension worked.

Kyran did not respond. True Void was not expecting any since he did not want Lucian to notice that they had a way to communicate without being detected.

True Void did not use telepathy when he talked to Kyran just then. Thus, there was not any magic fluctuation around them. Instead, he took advantage of one of his armor form's features when talking to Kyran. Unfortunately, Kyran could not respond in the same way as True Void did.

Therefore, he would cause a magic fluctuation that Lucian could quickly notice, given how his Dimension seemed to have total dominance of the magic energies in the surroundings.

[This may also be why that guy and Ruin had not made any move. They could not freely use their magic inside The Emperor's Dimension.]

"..."

Kyran more or less guessed that was the case. The first time he experienced a Dimension was against an automaton that Deus created. He admitted feeling helpless because he could not use his magic back then. Honestly, he would not have been able to escape if not for Ruin's intervention back then.

After coming to the Higher Realm, Kyran researched Dimensions a lot. Adding all the things he learned by himself to those others told him, he was able to find ways how to counter it. One way of destroying a Dimension was there was a powerful attack from the outside that would distract the caster.

Another was if the mage trapped inside the Dimension managed to summon a more powerful attack that could destroy it from the inside.

Thus far, the only ones who could do the latter were dragons. At least, the few records of a Dimension getting destroyed from the inside were them.

Being part dragon and the Draconic Core's possessor, Kyran could do the same. However, he did not want to use that if he could help it. It was too early to expose his dual innate magic to Lucian. Besides, the moment Kyran used Draconic magic— or Chaos magic— he was sure that Lucian would order the destruction of the Dragon Clan at once.

Kyran wanted to avoid that, especially since they barely started the first phase of their plan before waging war against Lucian and his faction.

Lucian smiled, interpreting the Void Master's silence as a show of despair.

"You seemed to have already noticed," he said, spreading his arms. "Indeed, you are now inside the influence of my Dimension, so escaping is no longer an option."

Lucian finally touched the ground and waved his hand toward the mansion.

Rumble! Boom!

"!"

Following Lucian's action, the lower floors that had managed to withstand his magic pressure earlier and the magic attack exchanged between Deus and Ruin crumbled.

Kyran barely escaped getting buried under the mansion's destruction by jumping around the falling debris and into a clearing.

Ruin was okay, though. Unlike Kyran, Ruin could levitate. So when the mansion was destroyed, he jumped back and stayed afloat.

"Hm?" Lucian tilted his head in amusement after seeing the Void Master landing on a clearing.

One of the rules of his Dimension was for him to have absolute control of the magic energies inside its area of effect, but that did not mean mages trapped inside could not use magic. As long as they had enough magic energy in their body, they could still use skills or cast spells. The only problem they would face was after they exhausted their internal magic energy.

They could replenish their magic energy with potions or pills, but at the end of the day, they could only do that as long as their supply lasted. Considering this, anyone trapped inside Lucain's Dimension would fight a helpless battle.

Putting that aside, Lucian found it amusing that the Void Master could understand one of the rules of his Dimension so soon and was quite extreme in trying to conserve his internal magic energy.

'Does he think he can escape if he casts one powerful attack inside my Dimension?'

Lucian could not help but chuckle at the Void Master's immature thinking. He did not even consider the possibility that Kyran could not levitate in the air, so he could only jump around after the mansion was leveled down.

"Let us not waste any time," he started and looked at the Void Master with narrowed eyes. "I'll let you live if you surrender the Void Core."

"..."

"I have been patient with you for some time now, so I will only offer this chance once. If you refuse, I will no longer hold back and show you the gap between us."