What does it mean to burn?

  “█ █ █ █,” she whispers.

  To the Arch Sage Livia, fire represents destruction.

  Flames are calamity. Infernos exist to erase.

  She pursued this truth in her journey.

  Her devils were merely tools she took to create an arsenal of annihilation.

  Now, destruction obeyed only her will.

  Her five devils stir, whispering in voices that seem to curl through her bones,

  each syllable flaking reality apart. They do not scream or roar.

  They hum softly, like a choir singing the last note of creation.

  And at her level, destruction has no physical bounds.

  Today, with the help of her devils, she chose to destroy the very concept of…life.

  A spark ignites into a blazing fury. Yet, there is no light, no smoke, no heat.

  Darkness is cast all around the mirages of the liches.

  A concept cannibalises another.

  Grass withers, falling into a void of death. It lacks vigour, lacks reason for life, merely melting obediently into silence.

  Insects decay, and worms shrivel up and die, evidently having forgotten their purpose.

  Shadows bend inward.

  Light bends outward.

  The horizon flickers, and for one breathless moment, the sky looks back…and recoils.

  This blaze should feel impactful. It should invite struggle. Yet, it lacks passion.

  These lives are freely given. They’ve been robbed of their heart. Their will.

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  There is no sound in the air.

  There is no vitality in the sunlight.

  There are only embers of life, merely corpses of once-living creatures.

  That is, with the exception of a resilient lich.

  The unpleasant mustachioed man withstood the void for a fraction of a second. But that was enough for him.

  His face is still expressionless, yet his eyes held a strange hue. It was confidence. Confidence that he had won.

  From his staff, something squirmed.

  It writhed and pulsated in horrible, inexplicable pain.

  Then, in the blazing chill of death, a symphony resounded.

  A terrible mass of golden tendrils rushed out of his staff, into the deep crevices of his magic circle, filling them up with sacrilegious movements.

  “You should have been quicker, girl.” He stated triumphently.

  His voice echoed through the stillness of decay, resonating icily through the air.

  “Seal”

  Sound rushed back into the spellbound area. The warmth of sunlight returned, and the winds carried life once more.

  One of the most destructive spells of modern magic was simply… broken.

  Arch Mage Livia’s smile froze.

  While she expected the spell to take a few seconds for the full effect of the spell to affect the lich, she was certain that there had not been enough of a gap to allow for such complete nullification of the spell.

  That was when her miscalculation became apparent. The two sages noticed a 4th figure, one who had hidden from the heat of battle. The outline of it shimmered slightly as it shot towards the lich.

  It was a dragon with black scales. Varian Greenwich’s familiar.

  It shed the illusions that had hidden it from sight, as its scales lit up in spectacular fashion, revealing deep engravings of geometric patterns inlaid within each scale.

  With the sound of shattering glass, the glow of the magic circle broke, sending lifeless dust into the surroundings.

  The lich smiled as the magic circle on the ground lifted into the air above the two figures. Mana fell into place like puzzle pieces as beams of illusory chains lifted into the air.

  “I see that you’ve not wasted your centuries, abomination.” The Arch Sage smiled widely, clearly ecstatic to see such a foreign display of magic.

  She clenched a gloved fist, forming a raging storm of fire. Sage Yeltz followed suit, bombarding the lich with mana infused bullets of ice.

  The lich stood nonchalantly, the dragon evidently creating barriers of mana wind elemental shields in his stead. Varian Greenwich raised his fingers fluidly, and he… snapped his fingers.

  “Break” He commands.

  His voice intertwined with the sound of snapping fingers, ringing like gunfire. It resonated all around the Academy grounds, louder than what should humanly be possible. The golden chains in the air wrapped around themselves as if on command, then shattered, spraying golden particles all around the air.

  The echoes gave way to the bustle of the city as the barriers erected across the Academy shattered.

  Mana circulated with the air once more as illusory, glass-like fragments of magic fell down from the air all around them, decorating the sky like starlight in midday.

  The Arch Mage smiled ever more widely, boring burning holes with her eyes into the figure of the lich charmingly.

  With a deep bow, Dr. Varian disappeared into thin air, carried off by a majestic dragon, accelerated soundlessly into insane speeds.

  As the fragments of mana fell around them, the two sages let up their magics. The battle was over.

  The scars of battle showed themselves in the aftermath.

  A circular area with a diameter of 25 meters around the Arch Sage was devoid of all life, the once green grass dead, and the stones of the buildings in the vicinity still harbouring the heat of her fires.

  Sage Yeltz jumped down next to her superior, the Arch Sage, waving her wand to dissipate the remainders of the mana infused steam around the vicinity.

  She stretched her arms, muscles flexing in protest and let out a disgruntled sigh.

  “Fuck that cunt.” She grumbled.

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