Chapter 216: Magus and a tree
"I wonder if I can turn something like this into my undead?" The fifth circle Magus smiled, his smile as sharp and thin as a sword. "When last did I bring out my collection of undead?"
The two hundred and fifty eyes of sorrow tree focused all its eyes on the fifth circle Magus and without hesitation, all the eyes spewed forth blinding beams of silver light that chased the darkness of the night away and filled the air with a loud humming sound.
But the fifth circle Magus did not move, in fact he laughed with his hands raised. "Come forth!"
A dark blue portal opened up behind him like the door to some kind of otherworldly place. It came with a chill of bitter coldness and then, from within, creatures began to pour out.
The first to appear was a creature that was not bigger than a fist but the undead radiated an intense magical pressure. The small undead raised its hand and suddenly, there was sunlight in the night!
A shield of condensed golden light appeared in front of the fifth circle Magus, completely shielding him away from the beam of the two hundred and fifty eyes of sorrow tree.
Crack! Crack! Crack!
But it was not that easy as the light shield instantly cracked and shattered into splinters. "An interesting spell is this two hundred and fifty eyes of sorrow! They actually use the soul of two hundred and fifty Magus to create just the upper parts of the fruits.
"Each eye is capable of bringing forth some kind of different magic. This is what makes fighting it difficult. But I am a circle five necromancer and I have my own army too!"
The little undead creature came to rest on the Magus’s shoulder, its hand still glowing with golden light. The hand raised and pointed at the tree.
Instantly the space between the Magus and the tree was filled with golden brilliance that boiled the air, an intense beam of kinetic energy or heat and light blasted forward.
The tree, realizing with its limited intelligence that it must bring forth all of its highest attack powers, stirred, its leaves rustled like dancing blades. Then each fruit let out shrieks before they dissolved into ghostly white light and reformed.
Now, instead of fruits, miniature people, Magus, sat on the branches. Two hundred and fifty of them.
One of them quickly expanded into a full-sized human and raised her hand.
The ground beneath them groaned as magic began to work on it and then it erupted, a wall rising up to stand between it and the beam of golden light.
At the same time, another one turned into a human-sized form, raised his hand, and began whispering like an echo. Instantly his magic began to reinforce the wall so that when the beam collided with it, the wall did not melt and fall as it should, it actually took the direct hit!
All of this happened in an instant of course.
The fifth circle Magus’s lips curled. "This is the thing with this two hundred and fifty eyes of sorrow. It has the power to cast multiple different spells at once by using those souls.
"But fortunately, it is not the only one that can do that."
True enough, when all the concentration was focused on him, a new portal had already appeared above the tree and an undead woman with red hair was hovering there, standing on a platform of pure fire.
With her hand down, the courtyard was suddenly filled with scorching fire.
☆☆▪︎▪︎☆☆
Vacuse grunted.
What he saw was only a bit of the fight and already he was glad with his decision not to underestimate the Magus. The combat type of them, especially the necromancers, were dangerously strong.
In fact, they had an advantage over the average Soulbearer as a single necromancer of the, say, second circle could have the power of five second circle through its undead.
What a cheat.
Vacuse shook his head and said to the companion he was running together with. "How do you get your hand on that tree?"
"It is created by the Lord of Umbracrypt. It is his trademark spell."
With the battle and the towers on lockdown, people were not paying much attention to them as they climbed the stairs. They had not reached the high places where they might fall under heavy suspicion at least.
He raised his brows at her words. "Is he not a necromancer?"
According to her, almost all the Lords and important people were necromancers.
"Necromancer is a broad branch of magic! The Lord of Umbracrypt is indeed a necromancer, he just practices his own differently! After all, the core of necromancy is the manipulation of souls! There must be a soul for the undead to retain the power of its former life and abilities!
"So do not think that only controlling undead is the ability of a necromancer. People die faster to thoughts like that!"
Vacuse was surprised. Although admittedly, he did not know much about the topic in the first place, was it not common knowledge that necromancers commanded undead? But now he was learning that there were different types within it!
He shook his head.
"Then how do you get your hand on it? Or are you the Lord of Umbracrypt?"
Even as they were speeding up the stairs she gave him a look as if he was stupid. "It is the magical tablet. It is a magical instrument that lets you copy a spell and release it as if the owner was there themselves to cast it.
"It is so expensive and rare that the fifth circle Magus fighting down there probably does not have one. In fact, in Umbracrypt, the amount in existence can be counted on my two hands!"
An uneasy feeling settled in Vacuse’s heart as he heard that. Because how did she get her hand on one if it was that rare?
"...do not tell me her mentor is actually the Lord of Umbracrypt? That will not really end well for me..."
But before he could ask anything, they had already reached the place where the security was tight. The stairs had been cut off by a door.