The Runic Alchemist

Damian swiftly extended his mana sense as he soared above the massive army. He identified four third-rankers—excluding pugilists—alongside hundreds of second-rankers and thousands of first-rankers. Some among them took flight, heading directly toward him, but their speed was unimpressive and made them easy to evade. Their smaller spells, though aimed at the ship, posed little threat in terms of damage.

Yet, Damian allowed none of their attacks to strike.

The moment they entered his range, he canceled their spells using High Lord's Respect. While some second-rankers resisted, their willpower wasn't strong enough to sustain the effort repeatedly. With Damian's vast mana reserves, he had the capacity to try a hundred times if necessary—and none could consistently withstand him without too big a gap in their strengths.

"There are too many of them..." Grace muttered in despair.

"Should we turn back?" Adrian asked. Others bore similar expressions of uncertainty, though not all shared that sentiment.

"What are we doing, Maximus?" Sam asked simply.

"They have third-rankers. Even if we try to flee, they'll chase us down," Damian said, his voice steady. "I can sense the Baron. I'm landing near him and opening the waygate near Toph and Reize—back at the academy. Get as many people across as possible while staying safe. If you're out of mana, exhausted, or injured, cross over. Keep yourselves alive." Then, turning to Sam, Damian added firmly, "We'll hold them off."

Sam's eyes widened, but he nodded anyway.

"Hold them off? Hold who off?" Fiona asked, her voice incredulous.

"You can't be serious!" Maelor muttered.

"That's suicide, Maximus!" Evrin exclaimed.

Damian was too focused to respond, weaving his way through the hybrid monstrosities launching fiery, exploding projectiles. Once he flew low among their clunky war machines, the barrage ceased. They couldn't aim downward. The Emperor truly is a madman to bring these makeshift tanks into war—and in the hundreds at that, Damian thought grimly. The guy definitely will not stop at just Ashenvale and Dawnstar.

Upon landing, the others quickly disembarked from the ship and prepared to defend as nearby imperial soldiers advanced to engage. Sam and Damian retrieved the cube once more, and Damian immediately activated the waygate. Drawing power from the ship's liquid mana storage through himself, he stabilized the gate and tethered it to a mana container. This ensured it would remain active for a while without requiring his direct input.

"Lucian, Maelor, Fiona, and the two of you"—he gestured at Maelor's companions—"the second tank from here houses the Baron. Get him and your people. The rest of you, protect the waygate. Let no one unapproved cross it. Someone head back to brief Reize and the Highswords on the situation," Damian commanded. His tone brooked no argument.

Wasting time would have been their greatest mistake. They had a single, straightforward task, and Damian had already assured them he would handle the larger threats. With the tools at their disposal, they were equipped to accomplish what needed to be done.

Einar, Evrin, and the others stationed near the waygate began cutting and melting the chains of nearby captives, guiding them through to safety. No one resisted or questioned the opportunity—this chance to escape was nothing short of divine intervention. The freed captives followed their instructions without hesitation. Read latest chapters at My Virtual Library Empire

Damian had told Reize to stay in the workshop for the day. He'd planned to use her help for a return trip from Dawnstar, though that moment had arrived much sooner than expected—and with far more people in tow. Still, it would have to do.

Before long, Damian sensed and then saw two third-rankers approaching. He needed to divert their attention, especially when he recognized one of the mana signatures. 'The hell was Moondancer doing here?' Well, Joining the empire was kind of a better choice than joining Eldoris or Dawnstar.

"How much lightning can you handle?" Damian asked Sam abruptly.

"You have spare lightning for me?" Sam grinned. "Hit me with everything you've got."

Damian simply nodded. The ship loomed behind him, five mana threads tethered to its mana storage. With such a direct supply, he didn't even have to consider how much mana he was using.

Even so, he controlled the output, amplifying the spell to only five times its usual strength. Any more and the collateral damage would endanger those around him.

The runic circle he prepared was one he had copied from Sam's old Runic Blade of Storms. It combined five elements and was split into two distinct parts—a complex design, but Damian didn't bother merging them. Instead, he kept the components separate.

With one hand, he traced the bottom part of the circle, positioning it beneath Sam's feet. It radiated with red and brown rustic mana—Fire and Chaos. With the other hand, he cast the second part high into the air, as far as his reach allowed, filling it with black mana and accented with hues of blue and green—Space-time, Water, and Wind.

When the spell activated, the air buzzed with raw, untamed energy. A deafening boom shattered the stillness as lightning erupted from the heavens, an arc of brilliant electric-blue veined with indigo and silver, tearing through the skies.

The bolt struck Sam with the force of a divine hammer. His body convulsed for a moment under the strike, but the lightning didn't harm him. Instead, it danced across his form, searing streaks of electric-blue into the air. The energy writhed like a living serpent before sinking into his skin.

Sam's muscles tightened as if reforged, his veins glowing with luminous cerulean light. His entire body surged with the storm's vitality, each movement radiating with elemental power. When his eyes snapped open, they blazed with storm-wrought brilliance—a crackling electric blue that reflected the raw fury of the lightning he had absorbed.

Damian stared at him, deadpan. 'Now he even glows blue? This kid is broken!'

Sam turned toward Damian, his entire form crackling with lightning, a living embodiment of the storm. The infuriating smile on his silly face, however, was as irritating as ever.

Still, the plan had worked. Moondancer and the hulking, menacing man in the white and khaki army uniform ignored Lucian and the others, fixing their attention solely on Damian and Sam as they advanced.

Damian took a steady breath, redirecting all the mana threads to his back like wires to a robot in some sci-fi movie. With a calm motion, he extended his hand to the side, summoning his flaming red spear. It had been years since he last wielded it, but he knew Moondancer would remember it far better than he did.