Blade Over Magic

Might of an Archmage

Dressed in his casual clothes, Xavier Lowell regarded the large crack in space that appeared from the mountain range, his eerie green eyes not showing too much emotion, and around him, there was a faint green aura.

He was currently very high in the sky, above the mountains and even higher than the peak of the infant Hell Gate.

After a moment, he rubbed his chin thoughtfully.

’Now I understand what she was talking about.’ He mused as he thought back to the fight between Xander and the ant. He had to admit, he was pretty shocked.

When Xander was pushed into a corner, he’d contemplated stepping in, but Mia had stopped him and simply told him to watch. The result was beyond his expectations.

He sighed and shook his head, but he wasn’t disappointed. If anything, he was pretty happy as well as glad.

’But it’s also a bit frustrating. He’s so close to touching upon concepts, but he’s just short.’ He sighed again.

When Mia had said Xander was outpacing both Keir and Mary in terms of training, Xavier was doubtful. It was only shortly after that he realized that she was referring to attainments in the physical plane. When it came to conceptual attainments, Xander... wasn’t quite there yet.

If he was being honest with himself, Xavier was quite astounded by Xander’s progress and the stark change he experienced. So much so that he began suspecting that there were other factors at play. Yet try as he might, he couldn’t find any issues with him. He asked Mia and even she confirmed that there was no external influence acting on him.

Hence, Xavier could only accept hat Xander was a genius in his field. Which was a bit weird, considering that he hadn’t paid much attention to him for most of his life due to his status as an untalented illegitimate child.

He rubbed his temples.

’You reap what you sow.’ With one last sigh, he looked down at the base of the Hell Gate.

The ground near it had turned a sinister mix of dark colors, with strange and vile protrusions emerging from it.

The corpses of the ants Xander had killed were closest to the gate, and their bodies were also affected. Strange growths appeared all over their bodies. Some began to fuse into unnatural monstrosities, some had their abdomens bloat unnaturally as strange ’life’ gestated rapidly, some simply melted into puddles of volatile fluid. It was a scene straight out of a nightmare.

This was Demonic Corruption. True Demonic corruption. Not the diluted energy the ant gave off. It was an energy that corrupted anything and everything unable to defend itself.

However, the Corruption didn’t spread too far, as though an invisible pressure was weighing down on it. This same force was also why the Hell Gate hadn’t properly opened yet, allowing whatever horrors lay behind it to spill forth into the world.

Xavier then shifted his gaze downwards, and he saw an... entity there.

Calling it a creature would be slightly inaccurate due to its nature.

It was an entity that defied every known logical law of biological architecture. A walking monument of existential despair.

Rising over the destroyed outposts on extremely elongated, silt-like limbs, its torso consisted of hollowed out chassis of segmented, grey limbs. But it was the creature’s head that would make the minds of anyone who wasn’t strong enough completely shatter.

It possessed no face, no eyes, and no mouth. Instead, a massive, featureless crescent blade of smooth white chitin curved sharply towards the heavens, like an inverted, vile moon.

Wherever its needle-thin legs touched the ground, reality itself seemed to give out. Massive boulders and rock formations didn’t simply break under its weight. They tilted and collapsed as though the concept of structural integrity had simply forgotten to do its job.

With its appearance, the sky curdled into a toxic, deep crimson. And the sun itself died, turning into a pitch-black eclipse with a rusted corona of gold.

It did not cast a spell. It did not unleash an aura. It simply existed, yet that was enough for it to serve as a living calamity. If the word ’living’ could even be used on it, as the baseline laws of the surroundings where thrown into jagged chaos. The laws of the world experiencing a ’bug’.

This was the Calamity Invoker. Hell’s Herald.

Because of its presence, the laws of the world that had been pressing down on the young Hell Gate and its influence began to weaken and cease, which would have allowed the Hell Gate to open freely, bathing the area in Demonic Corruption so thick that no living creature could even approach, and unleash all sorts of incomprehensible horrors.

The implications of a Hell Gate opening so close to Solvaren would be devastating, and the loss of life would most likely be unimaginable if it was left alone.

...

That is, if things developed as they should have.

The thing was, despite Xavier calmly observing this, the situation hadn’t worsened.

In fact, from the moment he appeared in the sky, it hadn’t even progressed.

...

Nothing had.

The reason being?

Well, it was mentioned earlier that he was surrounded by a faint green aura. This wasn’t just there for show.

As he was within this aura, his colors remained normal. But everything outside of it? They appeared to have their colors stripped, revealing a bland monochrome that seemed to encompass everything.

The movement of the air ceased. All living creatures ceased. The Hell Gate ceased. The Calamity Invoker Ceased. Even the degradation of laws came to a halt as the world appeared like a hyper-realistic painting on Xavier’s eyes.

And, if one were to somehow look above him, they would see...

A clock.

It was Verdant in color and was about a meter in diameter, and currently, all the hands were still.

Xavier would be lying if he said that the existence of the Hell Gate wasn’t irritating.

He knew as soon as he arrived. The issue was that he hadn’t known beforehand. Meaning if Xander hadn’t sent him a letter, he wouldn’t have known.

Sure, Mia was there, so she would have probably resolved it if things got very bad, but it didn’t change the fact that he had been unaware.

He made a mental note to grill the Kingdom’s higher ups before he raised his hand and snapped his fingers.

Suddenly, the monochrome began to recede like a tide, and as it did so, the surroundings began to change with it.

Starting from Landor, the destroyed artillery began to be ’reverted’ to the state they was in before they were sliced in half.

The rubble and destroyed terrain followed suit as everything started returning to how it once was, as though someone had pressed one huge rewind button. Everything began rearranging and repairing itself to the state it was in before. The sun and sky returned to normal, and even the unstable laws returned to how they once were.

Finally, the monochrome receded until it covered just the area around the Hell Gate where the Calamity Invoker and the corruption had spread.

When he reached this point, Xavier noticed the Calamity Invoker suddenly twitch. The motion was slight, but it was there.

As an entity whose existence was to erase laws, it was only a matter of time before.

"Ashes to Ashes: Dust to Dust." Xavier spoke without hesitation.

The terrifying Calamity Invoker which alone could bring an end to lesser worlds froze, then its entire body crumbled into particles of fine dust. Unlike the surrounding reversal, Xavier had ’accelerated’ it to an obscene speed. So much so that even it couldn’t withstand the corresponding weathering. This wasn’t by a few months or years. No, it was far, far more than that.

Hence, the fate of the Invoker was to be reduced to nothing.

When that was dealt with, Xavier turned his attention back on the Hell Gate and resumed the reversal.

The surrounding Demonic Corruption and its effects began to recede. The ant corpses had their horrific changes undone, and finally, the crack in space began to be mended as it was returned to the state before it even happened.

Just like that, an apocalyptic disaster was ended.

Nodding, Xavier took a step and appeared in another location.

This time, it was the absolute depths of the catacombs, within the largest chamber that should have held the original queen.

It should have been bustling with ants of different variants. Yet it was strangely silent.

Because they were all dead.

While the specimen and that specific ant chamber rushed Landor, the rest of the ants gathered to complete the ritual, their flesh and blood getting sacrificed to spur the opening of the Hell Gate. Meaning there was literally nothing left of them.

In the center of the now empty chamber, a complicated altar made of otherworldly materials stood. It was covered in incomprehensible symbols and patterns. If an ordinary person stared at them, they would have suffered an irreversible to their being, down to the core of their existence.

But Xavier just glanced at it, snapped his fingers, and the altar rapidly aged before crumbling into dust.

He looked around and muttered to himself.

"No traces." With that, he vanished.

A few seconds later, a hooded figure emerged from a shadow.

They took out a formation plate and prepared to activate it. But as soon as they did, their surroundings turned monochrome as their figure froze.

Xavier reappeared next to them and snorted.

"Dumbass." He placed his hand on their shoulder, and both of them disappeared, leaving the chamber truly empty.