Varian Greenwich swung his staff with precision.

  As it arced through the air, mist trailed with its motion, leaking out of the blue orb on his staff. The mist obscured all vision in his vicinity.

  A swipe of the Arch Sage LIvia’s own staff caused various explosions to detonate all around this haze, clearing the fog with its shockwaves.

  However, what was left in place were around 30 identical figures of Dr.Varian, each with their very own staff and detailed down to the last hair of their rat-like mustache.

  This was a high level abstract application of water elemental magic. While illusions were available to water mages even with a lower level of soul shapes, they were less detailed, and distinguishable with some effort. At higher levels, however, it was a different story.

  All 30 liches raised its staff, creating another cloud of obscuring fog all around themselves.

  Sage Yeltz, on her rooftop, supported the Arch Sage’s assault, sending icicles upon icicles at the various figures that faded into the fog.

  The icicles joined with the thousands of fireballs still firing downwards, conjured by a devil manifested on a different rooftop.

  That was when a terrifying spear of ice shot from one of the figures of the ancient lich. The spear was almost black, and radiated a horrifying aura. Accelerated to hypersonic speeds, its travel seemed almost instantaneous. The spear tore through the air, leaving behind silence in its wake.

  Yeltz, an experienced mage, had been ready for a counterattack. She had several basic shields up. Using the water globules as a medium, she had been building up layers of protection throughout the battle.

  Despite this, the spear tore through half the layers instantly, just barely earning Yeltz enough time to use one of her water balls to cast an advanced elemental shield.

  All the water converged and compressed with mana to form a tiny bright blue hexagon in the path of the spear.

  As the spear broke through the last of the basic shields, its ground against the hexagon, producing blue sparks as the mana infused constructs interacted with one another.

  Yeltz’s face was almost expressionless as she looked on at the horrifying spear that was aimed at her heart. A deafening boom followed behind, seconds late from the arrival of the actual spear. The rooftop rumbled in protest as the shockwave shook the building.

  She willed her water balls closer together, and released some of her efforts that had been aiding the defense of the school campus. This was evidently a life or death situation even with the support role that she was playing. An Academy could always be rebuilt after all.

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  The Arch Sage aimed her fury on the figure of the lich that had conjured the spear, her battle crazed eyes shining with bloodlust.

  She summoned another devil out onto the material plane. With its help, she drew her staff in an arc at inhuman speed. The staff seemed to leave an afterimage as it curved from the acceleration.

  From its tip formed an intense ball of fire the colour of hell itself. The ball escaped the grips of the staff, accelerating in a deadly line towards the lich that had apparently fired the spear.

  The figure made no attempt to shield itself as the fireball hit. The explosion was eerily silent, as if the air itself was consumed by the heat. The ball of fire engulfed the figure, and scorched the earth around it into magma.

  The figure had been an illusion.

  With a widening smile, the Arch Sage raised her staff into the air and spoke words of horror.

  “Heed my words,

  Lend me the power of the sun,

  Give me the heat of hell,

  Burn the life of all,

  Come, my servants of darkness,

  Destroy all who oppose my might.”

  Incantations were usually a mere verbal aid, where a mage could easily visualise a movement of the soul by associating it with words.

  However, in circumstances involving the spirit realm, words were necessary to invoke certain events. It usually came in the form of requests to spirits, such as with basic charm-making, or in the case of the Arch Sage, a command to her spirits.

  The words served as a medium for their manifestation, bringing mana together to create ideal conditions for simultaneous manifestations of these spirits.

  The two summoned devils disappeared from their spot, from the rooftop and the vicinity of the arch sage respectively. This allowed for a brief pause to the barrage of fireballs down on the lich, only leaving sage Yeltz and her bombardment of icicles.

  Using this brief opening, the lich fired off 5 successive supersonic icicles infused with mana. They were nowhere near as fast or solid as the last spear of ice, but it was enough to force the sage on the rooftop into a defensive position.

  5 pitch black figures, each one carrying an aura evil enough to send the faint-hearted into a coma, tore their way out of thin air.

  All 5 were equally intangible, fire-like, and evil. Each of the figures brought illusory limbs up into the air simultaneously, as they started to chant in unison.

  Their words were not words of mortals.

  Their “sounds” shaped mana itself. They “spoke” in geometric patterns with their souls.

  All 30 liches pursed their lips. They stopped their evasive manoeuvres temporarily, shielding themselves from the onslaught of icicles with a basic defense spell. And they brought their staff down onto the ground, thumping it against the soil with solemnity.

  Lines formed geometric shapes that outlined themselves onto the fields. The grooves engraved onto the soil and mist condensed in their place, filling the magic circle with mana infused water.

  A horrifying gale sprouted from the ground, as illusory constructs started to sprout from the ground.

  Archmage Livia narrowed her eyes slightly. She recognised the potential threat that the lich’s spell could pose.

  Yet, she was delighted to finally be evenly matched with an opponent. With one last word, and a smile still hanging loosely on her youthful face, she brought down the force of terror on the land.

  “Burn”