City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

I felt the massive mana gathering, forming a hand made of soul. It is enormous, bigger than the monster I am riding, made out of translucent soul energy.

Pale Hand.

I recognised the spell immediately, and it made me shudder as this is an extremely dangerous spell.

All the spells he had used before were nothing compared to it, including the soul spell that he used on me earlier.

The only purpose of this spell is to kill, not to maim or injure.

"It's time to die, Silver," he said and sent the Pale Hand toward me.

He intends to kill me; I could see it in his eyes. Whatever order or reservations he had before disappeared. Now, there is a clear killing intent.

Seeing it coming at me, I released the full power of the aura and formed Root Mind. I also activated the charms and the protections.

The hand reached me, and I thought it would come directly at me, but it did something unexpected.

It broke into six pieces: five fingers and a fingerless hand, before surrounding me. Seeing it, I couldn't help but get shocked.

I have not read about his spells doing this. He had not shown this variation before in the battle.

He is smart; he had seen how I defend against the attacks and is now using the spells flexibly to deal with me.

I swung my sword toward them, but the sword also swirled around me, infused with the power of the artifacts. It's the only thing I use since I didn't have any soul skills.

The only thing like a soul skill is Still Mind. In which I am pushing as much aura into as I can.

Rip!

My sword ripped through the middle finger before going for the index finger.

Normal artifact shouldn't be able to do that, but mine could. Earlier, I had dealt with the attack with only the power of the artifact; this time, I used the aura blade.

I could see the surprise flash in his eyes, but that didn't change the smile on his face, nor did it make me relieved.

The blade ripped through the index finger and went to the pinkie, and I began cutting through it, when I felt the other four parts touching me.

They touched the swirling aura around me, before breaching through it by the time I finish with the pinkie.

"Haha!"

I heard the mage laughing, but I didn't have time to care about it as the three parts of the spells struck me.

They didn't come as the individual parts, though; they merged and hit my mirror-like soul with a sledgehammer.

"Ahhhhhh!"

I screamed as the spells hit me. It is powerful, and it wants to destroy my soul.

I fear it's might. Root Mind, which is like a layer on the mirror, is protecting it, but I could feel the strain and felt like it might break.

'I cannot have that!' I pushed more power into it, but the spells aren't something that can be brought back down. It is designed to destroy the soul, and it is what it will do.

I also poured more aura into Still Mind while assaulting the spells with the power of my artifact.

If I had had a few more weeks, I would have been able to use the power of the artifact to cut the spells in my soul or at least chip it faster.

'Another spell is coming!' a voice rang out in my head. She didn't have to tell me; even in this pain, I had sensed the attack.

It is another Pale Hand.

Seeing that, I pushed my efforts to the highest and swung my sword toward the spells.

I destroyed the spells in my soul, but was only able to eliminate one finger of the second Pale Hand, before it came at me.

I formed Root Mind again, just a moment before the spells struck me.

The spell clashed against my soul once more, with greater power than before, but this time, the Root Mind held, better than the last time.

It is the second method, which I had comprehended and practiced daily since then. Unlike the other three, I couldn't challenge it, which helped me improve them.

So, when the first Pale Hand clashed against it and began to crack, Root Mind, I studied the weaknesses in the method and tried to fix them in the second one.

I had stopped the first clash, but it is far from over; it is pressing harder, and the cracks begin to spread once more on Root Mind.

Once Root Mind is destroyed, Pale Hand will go to the soul, and that will be the end of me.

So, I absolutely can't let it happen. I have to stop it, no matter what. I pushed more aura, harnessed it from the deepest part of me.

I was straining to survive with everything I have, when I sense another spell.

Not a soul spell, but just as dangerous of a spell.

…

Tamal Wraithhearth

He became pale and began bleeding through every orifice as my spells hit him, but it didn't do what the spells were supposed to do.

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They were supposed to kill him instantly, but they did not.

It is my most potent soul spell, but he had somehow defended against it. I could still feel my spell active, but he is holding on against it.

'He shouldn't be able to do that!' I said to myself.

He is technically Lv. 40, but not in a combat class. I had killed those with the skill that has soul defence skills, and I could not sense one from him.

He is defending with the artifact and aura method, which makes this even more shocking.

Only a second had passed since I launched the spell at him when my staff lit up with another spell. The spell could kill him, but I am not going to wait.

This spell is just as powerful as Pale Hand. Even more powerful than it, considering the massive mana it consumes, not only during the casting, but also after.

That put me in a dangerous position.

It's one of the two reasons I don't use this spell. The second is that I did not need to. Most were finished with Pale Hand or spells before that.

Now, Silver had forced me to use my strongest spell. Even Liorian won't survive it, much less Silver.

'Tamal, they have forbidden us from killing him.' Liorian's voice rang out in my mind.

I am not surprised. What surprised me was that he didn't call me before.

He is still fighting the giantblood general. He should have finished him by now, moving to kill the others, and I wanted to say that much, but I couldn't.

The plan was to capture Silver and kill all the higher-ups who could take command.

We have utterly failed. Even Yark is held back.

'There is no choice; you have seen what he did and how he is fighting. He is too dangerous to keep alive,' I replied, and the spells began to materialize in front of me.

There was no answer from the other end. Nor, I expected, could he understand how dangerous Silver could become if we let him grow.

…

It was a struggle to open my eyes, since the spell was still attacking me, but I managed to do so and looked up.

There is a massive coffin above, immense enough to swallow me whole, and it is now falling toward me at a breakneck speed.

It is a pure white coffin with unselling swirly designs over it. I have to destroy it before it covers me, or it will be very hard for me to survive.

It is Dymiran's Coffin, or some call it the Coffin of the Silent Screams.

This spell is just as dangerous as the soul attacks. I am struggling against to protect my soul.

I gritted my teeth and felt a pain that made me want to scream. I bore it, because I need to do it. If I let this spell do what it does, it will be horrible.

The cyan blade formed on my sword and shot toward it with the power of the artifact.

Rip Rip!

It tore a hole through it, but it didn't destroy the coffin. Seeing that, my aura formed another fractal and shot it toward it.

I could sense it weakening a little, but not enough to cause substantial damage.

Now, it appeared right above me, and I swung my sword toward it, while it moved to swallow me and the beast.

Rip!

I heard the ripping sound before everything turned dark as the coffin enveloped me.

Dymiran's Coffin is one of the most powerful Grade V necromancer spells. Once inside, it cut off vision, hearing, even the sense of smell and taste.

The aura makes the spell even worse.

This is why this spell is also called the last destination, because it is the last destination for people.

Once inside, people die.

It has a heavy expenditure, though. It is why, rarely, do necromancers use this spell. It consumes too much mana; even for the necromancers, who could pull mana from the undead, it is a heavy spell.

I had thought I wouldn't be able to use such a powerful spell. So quickly in the battle, but it seemed that seeing his spells getting cut apart left him with no choice.

The silence descended with the suppression. Making the horse nervous.

It is the first time it has shown such nervousness.

"Calm boy," I said, activating the skills that shot the pain through my head.

The horse calmed a little, which made me feel relieved. It needs to be calm. If it panics, it will kill itself and also me.

Seconds passed, and nothing happened. We remained in absolute darkness.

It is unbearable, but I remained calm. Half of my focus stayed on the coffin, while the other half remained focused on soul spells, which I am still struggling against.

Over ten seconds passed before the coffin finally acted.

Immediately, two fractals begin to form at once. Immense pain is shot through my head as I am still struggling hard against the soul spells, but there is no choice.

Clang Clang!

The fractals formed, and immediately, they clashed. The shield clashed against the bones while my blade cut through them.

Others might not be able to sense something once they are inside the spells, but I could.

Rip Rip Rip!

I defended, but not against it all. Two bone blades cut through my shoulder and arm, while the horse's back and legs were cut.

Clang Rip Clang!

I activated the skills to calm it, while moving my sword to defend against another attack and forming a fractal for another shield.

It made me feel like it would split my head apart, but I did it, and a second aura shield formed.

Still, it wasn't enough to defend against it all. The horse and I got cut again.

Here, in this spell. He has the absolute authority. I could not do anything but defend.

Then how would one survive this?

There are two ways: the first is raw power. Simply smash through it, which is not an option for me; I am utterly strained.

The only reason I am continuing is that I am pushing myself every moment.

The second is to survive longer than the spell. As I had mentioned, this spell costs a lot of mastery. To cast to maintain, the caster cannot do it for long.

I do not have raw power, but surviving till the Necromancer is exhausted is going to be a monumental challenge as well, but I have no choice.

I have to do it to survive and win.

Clang Rip Clang

The attacks kept coming, and their intensity increased further. More cuts appeared on my body, some shallow, while some were deep.

The same with the horse, which I am controlling, because staying in one place is dying here.

Though the coffin isn't big, it's big enough for small movements, and that is what the horse is making with lightning blazing across its legs.

"Good boy," I praised as it dodged a big bone spike.

The horse seemed to understand what was at stake as it followed my command without hesitation. There used to be faint resistance before, but now it has vanished.

It had fully submitted to me because it understood. I am the only one who could save it.

Time passed, and I sensed awakening and another belonging to my people, but a few seconds after that, I sensed another one.

It is from the undead.

This battle is pushing us, as well as the enemy. They are under no less pressure than we are, especially after I wiped away over 80% of the horde.

They need to win this battle at any cost, and so do we.

Another awakened, and this one, too, from the undead, making it four. I was cursing it when I sensed three awakening one after another in a span of nine seconds.

It was so shocking that I didn't dare to believe it. Especially when all three were from me.

It brought me joy, which only dimmed when I sensed another awakening from the undead.

Minutes passed, and then another and another. I sensed the awakening from both sides. Soon, the numbers went over ten.

It is shocking; fountain events are very rare, but to me, there was no surprise.

In my domain, I could feel their emotions, the stress they are under, and how they are pushing themselves.

Clang Rip Clang!

The attacks intensified further and put every bit of focus on the coffin. It had injured me and, many times, nearly killed me.

If I didn't focus, I would die, and so would the monster I am riding.

So, I defended. Focusing on everything, getting better, every moment, despite the enemy attacking from all sides with powerful attacks.

'The spell is ready. It will be activated in three seconds,' Caena's voice rang in my mind, finally.

Her words felt like water to the thirsty.

Seeing that, I decided to push everything and go beyond what I have. I need to do it because her spells will not affect this coffin.

I need to get out before she activates the spell, or I will lose the chance, the only chance I will have.

Six fractals appeared in front of me; it gave me such pain that I felt like I would split apart. Even die, and that is a real possibility, given sheer strain, but I bore it and pushed forward, with gritted teeth.

A moment later, the fractals transformed into six cyan blades.

I couldn't do this when he trapped me in the coffin, but I could now, and I am going to break out of here, because it's time, I kill that bloody Necromancer!