Mage
The entire village was stunned. Tenths of shadow figures came out of the black structures and with their pitch-black eyes, watched the explosion in the lowest level brimmed in full fruit, exploding like mortars.
After the explosion started to die down; an ominous sound of laughter coming from the area suddenly bellowed and echoed everywhere! "PPT--HAHAHAHa!" It was like the loudest laughing sound of mockery!
Atop the third fortress, so high and away, Chris stared wide-eyed as the image of the massive ball of the remaining fragments of the explosion reflected on his blue irises. The explosion was loud and strong, successive, to the point it even vibrated towards him, swaying his hair slightly, making him shiver.
"Wha--what is happening?" he stuttered. No matter how much he looked at it, this was caused by light magic, "Explosion magic?"
A few seconds after, the massive ball of explosion that enveloped the temple disappeared revealing dusts, bricks, and pebbles flying and dropping from the air. The scene was demonic. It was like the aftermath of a great tornado.
Thud! Thud! Thud!
Thud! Thud!
Suddenly, units of black figures--the guards of the other fortresses'--sprung out from the other fortresses! Chris had never seen something like this, both baffled and awed at the sight. He watched the shadows jumping down from their positions, falling to the bridges in gentle motions, to see what just happened. They were like crowds of crows gliding in rush.
Shhh!
Usually, the fortresses guarding the shadow clan's territory was quiet, almost to the point where nothing and no one seemed to be at close proximity. Yet there actually were people there. But now, the explosion in the lowest grounds of the territory was something that seemed to be impossible to just ignore.
"Are we getting invaded...Or could it be Kara?" Chris mumbled. He shook his head, and abandoned that thought as it was more important for them to leave now.
"This is bad. Where could Kara be now?" Chris asked but he suddenly heard someone approaching him from behind.
The boy turned his head immediately. At first he thought it was a guard but fortunately, it was Kara.
He was happy to relieved, but Kara looked quite different. It was not much, but the older boy somehow looked taller now…. His crimson eyes were more radiant, his raven hair lustrous, his face became more chiseled, and no acne could be seen in his face!
'Huh?' But before the young boy could ask what happened, he saw in Kara's eyes that he would not tolerate any talk for now.
"Let's go." Kara said with a calm face as if nothing just happened. But surely, something happened, Chris thought before he followed the crimson eyed older boy to a big hole located in the fissure in the high ground.
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Meanwhile, the eerie sound of explosion had stopped in the lower levels. The smoke and all the dusts had disappeared from the air. The shadows had a few spells suitable to easily clear smog or smoke, thus the aftermath of the explosion was handled pretty quickly. When everything came into full view, those that came to see what happened saw the temple. But it was not the magnificent temple anymore!
It hadn't turned to a pile of ruins where only rubble could be seen but it was ashen! It was practically on the verge of becoming a ruin. The temple was a magic structure, thus it had high durability and could withstand most attacks. So it was a big shock to see it in such a state.
"To think that this temple suffered this much damage. The supreme shadow is not going to be happy about this."
"Who could have done this? An enemy?"
"Did a light mage come here unnoticed? Don't worry. We could just take humans again and feed it their souls."
"Unnoticed? I just received a report and the guardian in Cave X was slayed earlier."
By the scene of the destruction, there were several people dressed in black coats, their aura denser than most. These were the leaders of the fortress' and a few elders that had not participated and were not aware of the fight that just transpired earlier.
Tap Tap Tap
At this moment, some of those elders heading closer to the destroyed temple froze. They found themselves staring at the strange flames still burning around. They looked at one of these strange fires burning a black coat with a skeleton in it!
Obvious enough, based on the black coat's aura, the black coat must belong to an elder. Only an elder's black coat could fluctuate this much magical power.
Not just one though, more skeletons wearing black coats could be seen in the ground. Clear enough, all of them were elders. But that wasn't the most eye-catching! As they remain and observed, they saw the fires burning the skeletons were not just an ordinary flame. It popped like a series of mini explosion!
Just then, they froze even further and they heard a disturbing sound!
"Hehehe!"
For some reason, the fire was laughing as if it had a soul! Upon closer look, a smile could be seen in the fire.
"Huh? Is it laughing?"
"What is this?"
"A magic?"
Thud!
At this moment, three intimidating figures landed from above!
They were the oldest elders around who had lived for at least millions of years. They were very old, but their faces and body indicated otherwise. These elders were usually inactive because they had chosen to not participate in work. But for important matters such as emergencies, they would not fail to appear.
Leading them was the commander of the Seventh Force—Koro Oni! The Seventh Force was the strongest force of the clan, and in the elder hierarchy, there were no more than five people who could surpass Oni.
Oni's eyes were extremely black as though his pupils were oceans of ink. Like him, the two elders with him looked to be in their mid-twenties. Seeing the Great Shadow Elder Oni and the two other high ranking elders, everyone went silent and moved aside as they made way for them.
"What happened here?" Oni asked calmly, looking around, and not failing short of expectation, he immediately noticed the strange fires. "Huh, is that what I think it is?"
"No way!"
Oni and the two high elders glanced at each other before they all walked straight to the strange fires. When they confirmed it, they couldn't help but frowned.
"This is the power of the Tattooed Crimson clan. Blood Scorching Laughter."
"It is hard to believe!"
"Why did they come back after all this time? Did they come to get revenge?"
"Tattooed Crimson Clan?" One of the remaining normal elders from the sidelines mumbled, not completely aware of the high elder's conversations. This was understandable. All information about 'that' clan was highly confidential. Only the general information about them was known.
"Tattooed Crimson clan do they mean the lost clan of Zephyr capable of explosion magic?"
"The highly revered light mage arts users."
Back in the past, the shadow clan was incorporated along the Tattooed Crimson clan to the Zephyr kingdom located in the surface. Thirty years ago, that Zephyr Kingdom was possibly in its golden age. It was a thriving economy and a neutral political territory of the South Continent supporting all the villages of the Flatlands.
In support of this economy, there used to be a powerful clan with the shadows who were known for the brilliance and their distinct explosion magic. If the shadow clan were like the night and the owls protecting the kingdom at dark, the tattooed crimson clan was like the lions of the day. They were the heroes and the sun compared to the assassins of the night.
On one dark night though, when the moon was nowhere to be seen on the gloomy skies, the entire tattooed crimson clan were unbelievably slaughtered in one night only!
Thinking of this, as soon as those words were said, the three elders coldly gazed at each other. There were only a limited number of shadows who could remember what happened thirty years ago, and these three were among them!
"This is not a mere incident."
They connected the dots and a flash of understanding appeared in their faces!
Tattooed Crimson clan!
Not many knew what happened on the one night massacre of the Tattooed Crimson clan, but they knew. And they knew very well whose offspring was Kara, their Lord. The boy was born from the previous supreme shadow's only daughter, and to a father from a member of the Tattooed Crimson clan.
"We concluded that he did not inherit his father's powers, but we could be wrong. He could have awakened it later and had hidden it all this time." Oni said. His eyes widening with great disturbing curiosity.
"If he was in this temple, does this mean he also awakened the powers of the book as the oracle said?"
Looking at the strange flames that were laughing from all around, Oni emanated his aura, and commanded.
"This is a matter of utmost importance. Put out the flames now. Everything of them!"
All the shadows in the vicinity were shocked and afraid by Oni's behavior.
But before anyone could react, the strange flames that did not stopped laughing like "little menaces cursed with something" began to sound louder! Echoing from all direction as they all crackled, and bursted out like laughing ghosts! Out of fear (?), the mage lights stared to float further.
And in that moment, impending doom was felt by those around!
Near the surviving normal elders, the flames suddenly exploded once again!
Boom!
"Ugh!"
BOOOM!
"Ahh!"
Boom!
It was not wide scale explosion, but every bit of flame exploded in little circles, injuring everyone caught even a little near them!
"Hehehe! Boom!"
At this moment, Oni and the two high elders wore cold dark expressions. In front of them, they generated paddles of shadows in the ground and made it as a shield. The explosion magic of the tattooed crimson clan was very unique. It was strange to begin with, and once it was used by the user, it was imminent for the unflushed flames to explode again later.
But unlike other explosion magic, its greatest feature was its unstoppable explosion quality. One cannot simply disintegrate or restrict it from exploding. They can only brace themselves for impact.
Once it formed the circumference of its explosion, the force of the laughing explosion inside the circle would be unstoppable. Most people would die or get heavily injured at minimum when suffering the first wave of the laughing explosion, but the next and final wave wasn't close to the firepower of the first.
It was only the remnants of the real explosion, it was ideal to use a simple shield as it was not strong enough. It could still heavily hurt you, but it would not kill you.
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Hi, Can you give this book 1 powerstone?