Chapter 284: He Moved...?
The word barely left my mouth before the chamber exploded into chaos.
Evelina moved first.
Fabric erupted from everywhere: her sleeves, the air, the shadows between the torches, hundreds of crimson threads that shot toward the archmage like striking serpents. They wrapped around his wrists, his ankles, his throat, his chest, binding him in layers of magical cloth that shimmered with succubus-enhanced power.
He didn’t resist. Didn’t even flinch.
Kevin followed a heartbeat later, his serpent-coiled magic lashing out in a wave of violet light. Not an attack, not directly. His spell sank into the archmage’s shadow, anchoring it to the floor, rooting him in place with chains made of darkness and starlight.
Vivianne’s wind came last among the three, a screaming vortex that didn’t aim for the archmage himself but for the space around him. The air pressure shifted, collapsed, compressed, a cage of invisible force that locked him in place from every angle.
Three layers of restraint.
Three different types of magic.
"What!?"
The word tore out of me before I could stop it. Binding magic? Didn’t I explicitly tell them to forget strategy and just attack with everything they had?
But before I could question further, Evelina’s voice cut through the chaos.
"You know for a fact none of us would deal any damage except you," she said, not even glancing my way. "So quit whining and just attack him already."
Her reply pulled a smirk from me despite the situation. She was right. And I wasn’t about to start disobeying her orders now.
Time to unload.
[???]
The spell circle in front of me flickered, phasing in and out of reality like a dying star. The sheer concentration of magic warped the air, tearing at the fabric of the illusion itself. A small artificial black hole formed at its center, tugging at my shirt, pulling loose threads toward the breach.
I didn’t care.
Right now, there was only one thing that mattered.
I raised my hand.
The [Endless Fangs] fell.
Thousands of blades plummeted from the false sky, each one coiled in a [Cursed Serpent], their dark forms twisting and writhing as the enchantment turned them into perpetual homing missiles. They screamed toward the archmage from every angle, a storm of steel and shadow.
And him?
He just stood there.
Bound by Evelina’s threads. Rooted by Kevin’s chains. Caged by Vivianne’s wind. His expression was unreadable, almost bored, as he watched the swords fall and the spell circle flicker and surge before him.
Waiting.
As if he wanted to see what would happen next.
The first wave of swords hit.
Not the archmage, he wasn’t there anymore. The blades plunged into empty space, embedding themselves in the stone floor with a sound like thunder cracking. Craters formed. Dust exploded outward. The chamber shook.
But he was already gone.
"Too slow," his voice echoed from everywhere at once.
I spun, searching the darkness, the torchlight, the shadows between the pillars. Nothing. Just the fading echoes of impact and the acrid smell of ozone.
"Above us!" Kevin shouted.
I looked up.
The archmage hung from the ceiling like a spider, his royal cloak spread wide, his blind eyes staring down at us with something that looked almost like disappointment. Evelina’s threads still clung to his wrists, trailing behind him like broken puppet strings. He hadn’t broken them. He’d just... slipped through.
"You’re fast," I admitted.
"I’m old." He released his grip and dropped, landing silently on the stone floor between us. "There’s a difference."
The second wave of swords was already descending, drawn by the [Cursed Serpents] that still hunted him. But the archmage didn’t move to dodge. He simply raised one hand and snapped his fingers.
The swords froze.
Every single one of them, thousands of blades, stopped mid-fall as if caught in amber. They hung in the air, trembling, their cursed energy flickering against something stronger.
"I thought you would stand still."
My eyes narrowed as the False Hydra and I continued coordinating the serpents, the spell circle in front of me still flickering, still preparing itself. Sweat dripped down my temple, but I didn’t wipe it away. Couldn’t afford to break focus.
"I did," the archmage said, his voice echoing from everywhere and nowhere. "But that was before I realized you had something that would actually kill me."
"So that makes you a coward."
"I suppose it does." His laugh was light, unbothered. "But being a coward is the reason I’ve survived this long. Pride is for the young and the foolish."
The archmage’s fingers twitched, and the frozen swords shuddered. Not breaking free, not yet, but testing the limits of whatever magic held them suspended.
"You’re stalling," I said.
"So are you." His blind eyes drifted to the flickering spell circle in front of me, the one still feeding on the hydra’s calculations. "That spell of yours. You’re unsure when to use it."
"Getting there."
"Getting there," he repeated, amused. "The difference between ’getting there’ and ’there’ is the difference between living and dying, boy. You should know that by now."
Evelina’s threads lashed out again, thinner this time, sharper. They didn’t try to bind him, they sliced through the air toward his throat, his eyes, his heart.
The archmage stepped through them like they were nothing.
Not dodging. Not blocking. Just... moving between the attacks, finding gaps that shouldn’t have existed, stepping where no step should have been possible.
"Your binding magic is excellent," he said to Evelina, not even breathing hard. "But you’re thinking of me as something that can be caught. I’m not. I haven’t been for centuries."
"Then what are you?" Kevin’s voice was strained, his shadow-anchoring spell flickering as the archmage’s movements stretched it to its limit.
"Want me to say something dramatic, child?"
Vivianne’s wind cage collapsed inward, trying to crush him between invisible walls. The archmage raised one eyebrow, then exhaled.
Just exhaled.
The wind cage unraveled like a thread pulled from a sweater, dispersing into harmless breeze that ruffled his hair and nothing more.
"Wind magic," he said, almost sadly. "I invented half the wind spells your family uses, child. Did you think I wouldn’t know how to counter them?"
Vivianne’s face went pale.
I didn’t have time to comfort her.
[Endless Fang]
Another wave of swords descended, not from the sky this time, but from the shadows at my feet. The blades erupted upward, aiming for the archmage’s legs, his spine, the soft tissue beneath his jaw.
He jumped.
Not high, just enough. His feet left the floor by inches, and the swords passed harmlessly beneath him, clattering against each other in a shower of sparks.
"Clever," he said, landing. "But predictable."
"You’re enjoying this."
"Immensely."
The spell circle in front of me pulsed. Almost ready. The hydra’s minds were working faster now, the calculations coming together, the incompatible magics beginning to fuse.
This thing was supposed to be ready ages ago, but that was before he broke his part of the deal and suddenly moved. And now I had to cram it with enough formulas to make sure it homes in so it can actually hit its target.
Although, judging by the archmage’s targeting, it seems like he has no plan to interrupt me just yet.
"Your pet is impressive," he said. "The False Hydra. I’ve read about them, of course, but I’ve never seen one bound to a human before. How did you manage it?"
"Luck."
"Luck," he repeated, disbelief dripping from the word. "There’s no such thing. Not at this level."
"Then maybe I’m just that good."
His smile sharpened. "Maybe you are."
He moved.
Not toward me, toward Kevin. His hand closed around the younger mage’s throat before any of us could react, lifting him off the ground like he weighed nothing. Kevin’s shadow-anchoring spell shattered, purple fragments scattering across the floor like broken glass.
"Kevin!" Vivianne’s wind magic surged, a blade of compressed air aimed at the archmage’s arm.
He caught it.
With his free hand, he caught the invisible blade and crushed it between his fingers, the wind magic dissolving into nothing.
"Your emotions are showing," he said to Vivianne. "That’s dangerous in a fight."
"Let him go."
"Or what? You’ll hit me harder?"
Kevin clawed at the archmage’s hand, his feet kicking uselessly in the air. His face had gone red, then purple, his magic sparking erratically around his fingers.
"Evelina," I said.
"Already on it."
Her threads wrapped around the archmage’s wrist, not attacking, just pulling. Trying to loosen his grip. The succubus at her throat blazed crimson, feeding power into the fabric, strengthening it beyond what normal magic could achieve.
The archmage’s grip didn’t loosen.
But he looked at Evelina with something like respect.
"You’re stronger than you appear," he said.
"I get that a lot."
He laughed, then tossed Kevin aside like a ragdoll. Sending him crashing into a suddenly appearing bookshelf, wood splintering, pages exploding outward in a white cloud. Vivianne was already moving toward him, her wind magic shifting from attack to defense, creating a barrier between Kevin and whatever came next.
"I’ll handle Kevin! You two focus on the fight!"
"Your turn, boy," the archmage said, turning to face me fully.
The spell circle pulsed one final time.
And went dark.
"Finally," I breathed.
The archmage’s blind eyes widened, just for a moment.
Then the light came.
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