Humanity's Hero Of Despair

Malrik, one of the Emperors Of Light, is looking directly at us.

He gives us a look that is cold and as endless as the void.

Around him, the last Eradicators look like ants compared to his aura. Their forms of light shine with the brightness of a flickering candle compared to his aura of a solar flare. This is no mere enemy or Eradicator. He is the embodiment of pridefulness and greed nicely packaged into one.

Justus joins me by my side, his face an expression of horror as he recognizes the figure. It seems as if these two have a very complicated past. Malrik's eyes focus in on Justus as he notices me glance at him. The emperor raises his glowing golden wand in the air, his movements slow and deliberate.

I mentioned how much I hate people raising their hand in the air, right?

An arc of bright light explodes from the grey sky straight at us. My instinct takes over and creates a shield of darkness to protect us. The ground rocks beneath us as the lightning makes contact. It takes every ounce of strength and willpower to withstand the blast. One effortless attack is all it takes for the emperor to create this much damage.

"Why are you here ugly face?!" I shout at the emperor, trying to buy us time.

"Why, of course, to annihilate all of humanity. Unless they are light mages who can transform into superior beings. My underlings have told me that Tarondar has been causing us the most trouble."

"If we can't begin the annihilation ritual without the elemental orbs, I will just destroy humanity myself country by country," he says as he casually vaporizes another one of our knights who tries to attack him.

Seeing someone being so easily killed is rattling to all of us humans. Is he toying with us with these attacks?

Justus and I glance at each other, a silent understanding passing between us. I lunge forward, turning my wand into my dual scythes. Justus vanishes into the crowd as I distract the emperor.

Clash!

The emperor doesn't even bother creating a shield. He uses his fingertips covered in magic to block both my scythes. My face lights up in shock from this display of power. Before I can react, he grabs both of my scythes and uses them to swing me into the nearest house. I don't have enough brute strength to prevent the swing.

Smash!

My body goes flying through a window, glass shattering everywhere onto the floor. My injuries are slowly becoming more severe, leaving me bruised and battered. The force of the throw feels like being run over by a thousand horses. As I look outside the window as I get back up, I see the Emperor of light continuing his advance toward the palace, destroying everything in his way with a flick of the wrist and a flash of light.

The power feels overwhelming compared to the Eradicator King.

As I climb back onto the battlefield, I notice Justus launch a surprise spell at Malrik behind his back. He gets a surprise light slash in, slightly cutting the emperor.

Then I see it.

For a moment, when the emperor is injured, it feels as if the injury has been inflicted on all the Eradicators, too. It might be my imagination, but I swear I see it. My thoughts are interrupted as the emperor tosses Justus into the sky with an advanced spell, sending him crashing into a roof.

Ouch. That probably hurts a lot.

The blood from my cheek vanishes as I wipe it with the sleeve of my shirt. It's time to show what humanity can really do. The emperor notices I am back on my feet and prepares to strike me with another arc of lightning. He has the biggest smirk on his face. His golden eyes glow, looking at me as if I am pirate treasure.

The arc of lighting comes straight down for me. The power behind it must be the equivalent to ninth affinity magic level. I would have been roasted turkey if I hadn't narrowly avoided being hit.

I close the distance between us quickly, my feet picking up dirt as I bolt toward the emperor. If my attacks aren't powerful enough to overwhelm him, I will just have to attack fast enough where he can't block it. Dark magic pours out of me, encasing me in a purple aura. It's as if I have become the reaper himself.

Nobody can interfere with my fight with the emperor.

My wand turns into a massive sword made out of dark magic.

I become a tornado of death as I hit the emperor with blinding speed from every direction. My body becomes a blur in time. The emperor keeps blocking my attacks with his hands covered in light magic, but I notice he is sweating. Every ten swings, he takes a step back. It gets to the point where he has to summon a longsword that is so bright it looks like it comes from heaven itself.

With every clash of our blades, I know one good swing from the longsword would be my end. I have to be careful. My arms are shaking as our weapons continue to clash. The strength in my body is waning. The worst thing is, I am pretty sure the emperor knows this.

The wall behind me comes closer as the emperor pushes me back. This time, though, his energy is sky-high while mine is decreasing. He is one of the Emperors of Light for a reason. His mana capacity is probably a hundred times Leena's.

Is this the end of me and everybody else? The weight of the world comes crashing down on me. They expect Maura and I to be heroes and to save everyone yet; it feels like I can't even save myself.

"AHHHH!" Justus screams as he appears in the air above the emperor.

His sword of light beams with power as it whooshes through the air in a deadly arc toward the emperor's head. The emperor, forced to react to Justus's attack, halts his assault on me. Justus's sword clashes with the emperor's longsword. The emperor, taking advantage of Justus's weakened state, deflects his attack easily.

However, Justus will not go down that easily.

His body glows brightly, causing everyone in the vicinity to put their hands up to protect their eyes. It's as if his magic is his life force. He radiates hope to all of humanity that we can win this. Justus swings his sword of light in a blur at the emperor. The emperor parries it, but not without some effort.

CLASH! CLANG! SWING! CLASH! SWING! CLANG!

Justus and the emperor fight it out, swinging and parrying each other's magic swords aggressively. The rest of the fighting going on around them seems to fade into the distance as both Justus's and the emperor's auras become even bigger, swallowing up everything around them. They are moving so fast with so much power I have zero chance to get in an attack without interfering.

After a few more minutes, Justus's aura fades.

The emperor is a completely different beast.

"I had enough of you!" the emperor snarls as he lifts Justus up from the ground by the throat. Justus's face is pale, his arms are limp by his side, and his expression of power is gone. He attempts to pry apart the emperor's fingers, but it isn't working.

Fear freezes me in place. I am about to watch my mentor die before my eyes.

"Ninth affinity level magic, Phoenix Sacrifice!" Ignis shouts as his body bursts into powerful crimson flames like a phoenix. His crimson sword overflows with power.

"Sorry I am late, Nico! I needed time to recover and take out the underlings who were close to the palace," Ignis says covered in fire magic as he readies himself to launch at the emperor.

It's all or nothing.