Legacy of the Dark Sage

Deus frowned at how easily Ruin destroyed the automaton he summoned. He might have summoned the lowest type among his many automatons, but it was still made from quality materials and should not have been destroyed that easily.

'Does that mean Azaloth's automaton body is made from tougher materials than mine?' he wondered while observing from behind. He wanted to use one of his main automatons, but first, he had to grasp the strength of Azaloth's automaton body.

Thus far, Deus had discovered three things about Azaloth's automaton body. First was its auto-deployment of an anti-magic attack barrier. That very barrier was the reason Azaloth survived The Emperor's attack. But even with that barrier, it should not have been enough to counter The Emperor's attack completely. This brought Deus to the second thing he discovered.

The Array Formations engrained within the automaton's program were saint-tier or above. If not for that, the barrier would not have been able to stop The Emperor's attack. Lastly, which was also the recent one he discovered, was its toughness.

'Just who gave that automaton body to him?' Deus wondered, his frown deepening in contemplation.

Crackle! Boom! Boom!

While lost in thought, another one of Deus's summoned automatons was destroyed by Ruin.

"Azaloth!" Deus ground his teeth in anger at the sight of another one of his creations getting destroyed.

Ruin scoffed at Deus's direction without saying anything, much to the latter's annoyance.

To be honest, Ruin was far more annoyed at Deus shouting his old name over and over. But seeing how pissed the latter was from having his automatons destroyed, somehow even it out.

Deus was now convinced that his lowest type of automaton was insufficient to assess Ruin's automaton body. Not wanting to waste the last one from the first three he summoned, he ordered it to pull back before summoning another three.

This time, the three automatons that came out held a sword and a shield. These defense-type automatons also belonged to the middle type in terms of their programming and quality. Thus, they should be enough to assess Ruin's automaton body.

Ruin pulled back as soon as the three defense-type automatons appeared. He might trust the quality of Kyran's automaton, but he had been over-exerting it for a long time and knew that it was near its limit no matter how robust and sturdy it was.

'This is not good,' he thought, glancing at Kyran's direction from the corner of his eyes.

At the moment, The Emperor was relentlessly attacking Kyran with Light explosions and Light weapons. The way the former stood there made him appear like an authoritarian figure looking down on his enemy.

On the other hand, Kyran looked like a pitiful frog, hopping around while avoiding The Emperor's attacks.

The Emperor did not have to attack Kyran like that now that Ruin thought of it. The Emperor could have easily disabled Kyran, but he stubbornly attacked the latter instead.

Why?

Ruin shook his head and pushed that question to the back of his head. He had no time to wonder about another's situation when he was in the middle of a fight. He needed to focus because having Deus as The Emperor's support was the worst match-up for him and Kyran.

This was because Deus's automatons' internal magic energy was separate from him. As long as he had enough magic energy to summon his automatons, he could exhaust Ruin and even Kyran.

Unfortunately, The Emperor was fixated on Kyran and utterly disregarded Ruin's existence. Then again, maybe The Emperor simply ignored Ruin because he knew Deus would handle him.

Regardless of the reason, Ruin knew he would not be able to support Kyran as long as Deus was around. If he wanted to create an opportunity for him and Kyran, he had to disable Deus first.

'...But thinking it is easier said than done,' he thought as he continued to move back and gain distance from Deus's newly summoned defense-type automatons. His lips curled in disdain as he looked toward Deus's direction. 'I need to create an opportunity to disable that traitor... no... not just disable... I need to kill him.

After all, I discovered something good about this body.'

At the moment, Deus and the Emperor believe Ruin cannot replenish his magic energy. However, the energy core of his automaton body could absorb the magic energy of its destroyed opponent. If he could utilize that and use it to his advantage, he could create an opportunity for him and Kyran.

Ruin chuckled to himself. He never thought he would be this invested in helping his prey!

Meanwhile, Kyran gave True Void free will over his movements. This was so he could focus on observing the surroundings with his enhanced senses.

[Gah! This is insane! You are insane! You should have given me free rein over your movements when we could still escape! Why torment me now?]

"..."

Kyran wanted to rebuke True Void badly. It was not as if True Void was the only one suffering from Lucian's attacks. Kyran also suffered internally, even though True Void successfully dodged it.

[I get that you are not responding because he is focusing right now and did not want to alarm The Emperor about sending telepathy messages, but does that even matter now?]

Kyran still had not responded to True Void. Instead, he conveyed his thoughts through their special connection— similar to how he and Shaiha communicated. However, he found communicating with True Void difficult because their connection differed from his with Shaiha.

Simply put, True Void was connected to Kyran externally because he was his magic weapon. In contrast, Shaiha became part of him after merging with his central core.

While Kyran wondered how to convey his inner thoughts to True Void, he sensed Shaiha stirred and whirred in his sea of consciousness. His eyes widened in surprise because he knew she was not talking to him but True Void.

[!]

True Void was somewhat stunned after hearing Shaiha's message.

[What? Is that true?]

Whiiir!

Shaiha responded to True Void's question.

Kyran was speechless.

[How is it that he did not—! Gah!]

"...kuh!"

Distracted by what Shaiha told him, True Void failed to dodge one of the Light blades flying toward them. One of the blades pierced Kyran's shoulder, and True Void felt like his body was suddenly set on fire.

Kyran had it worse because the Light blade managed to pierce even his bones, and the pain that wracked his body was almost similar to the time he first drank the Elixir.

The Emperor's expression remained unchanged as he watched the Void Master drop to his knees. The remaining Light blades hovered just above them. A smile appeared on his lips, and he simply looked on as the blades rained down on the Void Master.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Light blades relentlessly came down at Kyran and exploded upon contact.

Sizzle! Sizzle!

Fortunately, True Void managed to disengage himself from Kyran and changed into a Void Shield before the Light blades hit.

"...ugh!" Kyran gritted his teeth and grabbed the blade that pierced his shoulder. Enduring the piercing pain, he removed the blade and bit his lips to stop himself from crying out in pain.

[!]

True Void almost rebuked Kyran's action telepathy but managed to stop in time. Nonetheless, he inwardly cursed Kyran's stupidity in removing The Emperor's Light blade. Because of that, Kyran might bleed out to death.

The Emperor's Light magic did not have the exact nature as the Void magic that prevented anything it touched from healing. However, its piercing nature made any wounds it created heal slowly.

For this reason, True Void was angry at Kyran for removing the blade. In his opinion, he should have cut off the protruding part of the blade and just let the remaining pierced part on his shoulder so he would not bleed out.

But then.

[!]

True Void was once more shocked after seeing Kyran's shoulder start to heal. Moreover, the Light blade still in his hand decreased in size.

Whiiir!

Shaiha whirred inside and explained what was happening to True Void.

Kyran was currently using the Chaos magic to absorb the Light blade. It then amplified the Chaos magic in his body and allowed him to increase his natural healing ability.

'This is... just what in the world did Kyran learn while I was away?' True Void wondered.

Whiiir!

Just as True Void was dumbfounded at Kyran new found trick, he heard Shaiha speak to him again.

[!]

Shaiha's message was as follows:

"Kyran found a flaw in The Emperor's Dimension. The Emperor may be the only one who can absorb and control the magic energies in the surroundings. However, he cannot control the magic energies inside living things. He also has little control over the magic attacks he releases."

In short, they could absorb the magic energy from other living things and The Emperor's attack!

Right. Why did True Void forget about his very own ability?

Beads of sweat trickled down Kyran's sweat as his shoulder healed completely. It was really convenient for Shaiha to communicate with True Void without alerting The Emperor. This allowed them to take advantage of another point that he discovered while observing the latter.

This was about why Kyran was not responding to True Void.

Apparently, The Emperor was unaware that True Void was sentient. He only considered the latter as regular magic armor and nothing else.

Kyran preferred that The Emperor remain unaware of True Void's sentient, so he avoided replying to the latter.

Meanwhile, after being reminded of his specialty, True Void did not waste any moment and started to absorb the Light blades that continued to rain down on them from the outside.