Chapter 212 Caught
Time passed as he slowly progressed through the tome. Without the beacon from the capital, Lucas had absolutely no idea what time it was, it was always a pleasant evening under the Stars.
He actually enjoyed his time reading. At a certain point, he started to get a little bored, so he decided to go hunt for something to eat. It didn't take long before he found some kind of strange rabbit. It had a darker and more silvery hide than a white rabbit, but tasted the same according to Lucas.
Building a few defensive arrays around him, he kept reading. If the book got too boring, he started basic muscle training before moving on to magic training or meditation. One part of him kept researching spells while the other practiced them.
Losing track of time, the moment he decided to move on, there was a big heap of neatly placed bones next to him from all the game he caught. He didn't have to eat, not at all, but it certainly tasted good.
All that was left was to deal with the final trial, and with the assassin somewhere down the line. He had already faced this opponent once, so he was confident in facing them. He had already seen their tricks.
Of course, he wasn't going to underestimate his opponent, he knew enough stories about how an overwhelming hubris is linked to an inevitable downfall. Trying to figure out how the assassin would improve their fighting, he countered it by creating the necessary spells.
Increasing his repertoire of spells, Lucas was slowly becoming a little confident in the next match. His aura, willpower and energy were at the perfect state, there was no quick way to grow more in a short amount of time, so he made his way towards the trial.
He walked out of the arrays he put down as a safety precaution and slowly strolled through the woods. He was in no hurry to expose himself. Rather, he made sure to spread his willpower far and wide to detect any kind of movement or string.
His willpower detected the smallest bugs, the rustling of the trees, the leaves being crushed as he stepped on them. Stretched out far, he perceived everything his mind could handle until it suddenly stopped.
His willpower wasn't able to enter a specific spot, spreading it a bit further, there was an entire dome that his willpower couldn't enter. It was clear that something was prepared on his path forward.
Lucas brought his willpower to survey a smaller area around him in greater detail. Readying himself, he took a step forward... to avoid the entire area. He walked in a clear arc around the entire place.
He was somewhat confident in his strength against the assassin, but that didn't mean he would walk into their trap. That would be asking for death. He wanted to see the face the assassin would make after he easily avoided it, but after walking for a bit longer, his willpower was blocked off again.
Spreading his willpower, he looked for the edge, but then he noticed. His willpower couldn't even look to any of the nearby trees. Lucas sighed, while he just thought to have avoided the trap, he walked straight into it.
By making him think there was but a single dangerous zone, he walked into a cage only to be locked up. Lucas didn't know how he was able to block willpower, but he definitely knew there was some kind of connection between magic and willpower. The only thing he was missing were the correct runes.
Feeling his harsh self critique emerge from his mind again after falling so blatantly into a trap, he realized that all the time he spent studying, the assassin had to plan ahead. Seeing no quick way out he readied himself.
Without his willpower being able to exit his body, he wouldn't be able to perceive any string that were lying or floating around. Only if the light perfectly reflected into his eyes would he see anything, but for that to happen, he had to be quite lucky.
What mattered the most to him was the fact that without his willpower, he wouldn't be able to forcibly take control of other spells not coming from him. Lucas always used willpower as a steady crutch in battles he had little chance of winning. Now, that was locked away.
It wasn't as he was defenseless though, he was still a Rank 2 mage with heightened senses. Not that his opponent was any different. He opened his arms wide to cause a large wave of Blue Flames that burned everything in the near surroundings.
Trees and bushes all turned to ash as Lucas stood at the very center of his own destruction. With this, the chances of being ambushed lowered slightly. Still, he was up against someone who could turn invisible and was hard to catch even with his willpower.
The chances of them rushing towards Lucas and stabbing him in the back was high. Without willpower, he had no eyes on the back of his head, and creating walls around him only gave the assassin chances to use his walls against him.
For now, the best Lucas could think of was running away or reinforcing his back with hard stone that fused into his flesh and conjuring up a bunch of shields. The shields were mostly useless against a Rank 2, but at least they mitigated some of the damage.
Looking around for a bit, all slight movements in the nearby forest were caught in his watchful eyes, even if it was nothing.
'What now? I still think we should run.'
'There is no way to be sure that isn't what he wants, I think we should stand our ground.'
'Haah, fine, you bastard. Let's think. He uses strings and can turn invisible. High chance of an ambush.'
'No, it could be an attack from far away.'
'True. Conjuring up any kind of weapon could be limiting our movement depending on where he attacks.'
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As Lucas was thinking it all out, far above him, a mage was looking down on him.
'He still hasn't looked up after all this time. So it's true he can't fly, or doesn't know how.', Selicia flew up high thinking on how to capitalize on this benefit as much as possible. When she set up her trap, she made sure to think on all the movements Lucas made so far.
When she was chased out of the castle, she flew from a balcony only for him to stop and look down into the streets, not even thinking that she flew away. From all the research she did on him, Selicia was certain this man was smart, way smarter than any normal mage.
If he didn't think to look up, it only meant that he had no experience with flight. And that was the biggest weakness she found so far.
'If only he was a normal mage, then all of this wouldn't be necessary.'
Limiting his willpower and trapping him in a smaller environment were all side objectives for her as she wasn't focussed on them. She only did those things to confuse him, to make him focus on his immediate surroundings.
Confronting the man straight on was foolish and creating a simple trap would be useless. The best way to fight Lucas would be while he was focussed on something else. Selicia had enough time to spare to prepare all that she needed to face against him.
Seeing that Lucas wasn't able to perceive anything from far away, she flew to the very top of the ceiling of the Underground. It was far away, yet she got there in a matter of seconds.
A place so many had wished to be, among the Stars that look down on everything that happens in the Underground. Everlasting lights that shine upon the birth and passing of so many people, a cornerstone in the religion and culture of so many down here.
In reality, it was nothing more than massive stalactites with fluorescent moss on them. The moss was special in the sense that it was so luminous that its light could be perceived at the bottom of the Underground.
For Selicia to come here, it wasn't for some kind of pilgrimage or belief. No, this was the perfect weapon to kill her target with. Arrays were set up on the stalactites, ready to blow up and fall down.
Just the kinetic power from one stalactite of this size would create a massive crater, but she wasn't confident that one would even be enough to harm Lucas. So she had around a hundred of these stalactites at the ready.
Not only that, but each of these massive naturally formed rocks were covered in explosion arrays that would burst open the entire ground upon impact. This was the strongest attack she could think of.
After all her plans, none worked out if she came to a direct confrontation, so she sought a way to avoid exactly that. The damage from this would most likely cause an earthquake over the entire Underground, ruining all the neighboring countries, but she didn't care.
Her goal was to kill Lucas, that was all that mattered. For extra measure, she placed a Fire Wave array above the explosion arrays. So even if the initial impact of the stalactites and the explosion didn't kill him, he would burn to death. All the time she had, she used for this preparation.
'An attack like this will kill a Rank 3 mage, let alone a barely functioning Rank 2. And yet, this feels like the only way forward.'
She didn't care about anything anymore, this was necessary. All her anxieties and stress peaked when she first ran away from Lucas. Now, she would be the one sending him to his grave. And even if she failed in killing him, there was absolutely no way for him to run away.
With her flight, she was in control of the entire battlefield. Not that there was going to be a fight, no, this was an execution.
She lifted her arms as she spoke the activation rune for the arrays that kept the stalactites lifted. One by one, they came loose from the ceiling as they fell to the bottom. The speed of each massive stalactite increased a ton under the force of gravity.
As Selicia looked down upon the falling bombs, her heart started to increase in tempo. The preparation work took a ton of time, finally letting all of it come to fruition filled her heart with glee.
At first, there was nothing but silence, the only sound came from the falling rocks that kept increasing in speed. When the first stalactite made contact with the ground, the entire forest was uprooted.
Massive craters swallowed the once-vibrant woodland, trees disintegrating into ash in the blink of an eye. Explosions rippled through the debris, their light so intense they turned starry night into day for fleeting moments. The air itself seemed to ignite, a vortex of fire and destruction spiraling skyward.
The ground came apart as the following stalactite ruined it further. The entire underground shook as the explosions started to trigger one another, blasting the entire northern part of the Empire into flames, rubble and dust. Groans came from the earth as if its body was enduring pain.
The entire layout of the land was broken and ruined, nothing remained as the flame arrays sprung into action, bathing everything in a massive wave of flames. A sea of fire and destruction appeared, swallowing any life that had miraculously survived.
For Selicia who flew high above, she only heard the sound of the massive explosions as the light show continued below.
The cacophony subsided as quickly as it had erupted, leaving only the crackle of flames consuming all that remained. Selicia flew down as she observed from above. The silence that followed the cacophony was deafening, broken only by the crackling of flames and the distant groans of a shattered earth.
There was no way her arrays to block willpower had survived this. But that was great to inspect the aftermath of her trap. She had to search for the corpse or what remained of Lucas. Looking for a magical signal was a waste of time since the mana in the air was in pure chaos.
Unleashing so much mana in a concentrated spot ruined her precision with willpower and would also destabilize any spell outside the body. She could still fly, but that was about it.
The flames also made it very hard to inspect the surroundings. Still, she wasn't going to go down and douse them. No, she stayed high in the air and searched each burned or burning patch of ground meticulously. Even if that was very difficult since everything looked the same, she found it a lot safer than going down.
Selicia's eyes scanned the chaos, searching for any sign of movement, any hint that he might still be alive. Not that she believed he would be able to, this attack was enough to finish off a Rank 3.
The fact that she didn't instantly get attacked calmed her slightly. 'There's no way to survive this, I just need proof he's dead, and I can leave!'
As Selicia was searching around in the chaos, a bit further away, in a pile of flaming dirt and rubble, a burning hand shot out of the ground. Creating a hole for himself, Lucas entire body was on fire. His eyelids, scorched, shut tight he was able to protect his eyes from being destroyed, at the cost of losing his sight.
His entire body was burning up, as he slowly crawled out of the dirt. The flames didn't spare him the slightest pity as they ravaged his body, trying to turn it into a pile of ash. His skin cracked with each movement as blood flowed out of every fissure in his skin.
The burned husk that was once his skin was the only thing keeping his organs in place, so Lucas had long stopped trying to heal his skin, purely focussing on regulating his body internal functions. As long as his heart beat, his lungs were filled with air and his mind never stopped thinking, he would never give up.
The pain was immeasurable, the fact that he hadn't blacked out was a testament to how resilient he was. All the painful events in his life only increased his pain tolerance, giving him the chance to not go unconscious, even if he so wanted to.
Laying there, on the ground, burning up, Lucas found no way to turn the situation in his favor. He needed time to recover. There was no counterattack, there was no scheme, there was no special potion, he was left with nothing as everything burned up.
The flames danced mercilessly over his body, a cruel predator gnawing at its prey, but Lucas clung to life like a lone ember defying a storm.
All Lucas could do for now was focussing on staying alive and not blanking out. That was his only way to survive. His scorched skin itched intensely, turning him insane as he could barely move his body.
Even as his life was slowly crumbling away by the raging fire, his anger boiled so much hotter. He would not let this be the end of his path.
Shielding his internal organs from the heat and flames, using Light magic to constantly replenish lost blood and repair damaged tissue, he conjured up fresh air right inside his lungs, Lucas lied there for God knows how long.
The flames never stopped ravaging the wasteland that came from the forest, the magic in the air would only calm down when everything was finally turned to ash, and even then the world needed some time to settle.