His walk was uneven and sluggish, his body wrapped tightly in black lengths of cloth, a heavy black cloak draped over him. Behind him was a trail of black sludge that seeped from his body at all times. The person that was James once existed no longer. The boy died back in that swamp after getting killed by Ethan, the only thing remaining was the persona of James which was kept alive by evil spirits and the remnant power of the wight king. Guided by the god that promised to elevate him to a higher form of existence.

But after being sanctioned by the system for interfering in the tutorial, that god had lost all control over his puppet, now the evil spirit in his flesh wrings for control over the others which left him as a deformed mess. Still they managed to use their knowledge to formulate a plan that would give them the chance to be reborn as something more, stepping into the realm of demonhood but for that they needed a sacrifice bordering on the divine.

With janking movements did this creature continue towards the mountain, their needle filled mouth stretched apart by a macabre grin, quiet giggles erupting in dozens of different voices from their body. Suddenly it stopped, their head turned away from the mountain without their body moving, the crack of bones could be heard as their neck broke. There in the distance sparkled something in the bright sunlight. The creature squints, its white dead eyes leaking more black ichor. But before it could react a spear slammed into their body, ripping a deep hole into their stomach. It screeched, their voices fighting for dominance as the cold spread out from the wound.

"Sssssstop thissss…I will take control for now you imbecilesssss…" a female sounding voice hissed at the rest of them. The left arm of the creature grabbed the spear and pulled it out with one strong pull. "Tend the wound…I will deal with this opponent. We can fight again after thissss dissstraction isss dealt with."

****

Ethan held his shoulder and rotated his arm a few times. "Fuck, I think I pulled something…" he didn't use a lot of magic to propel the spear forward, fearing that the necromancer could detect a large amount of mana in the air. So he had to throw it mostly with his own strength and some boosting from runes. He shielded his eyes with his hand and looked at the black point amidst the green jungle. He looked down from the ice pillar where Lorena and the others were waiting.

"We got his attention! I will take it from here…support me when you think it's safe." He called out to them and he saw how they quickly vanished from sight. Ethan looked back to James, he still stood there a black sphere growing in his hands. It was roughly the size of a football at this point, instead of waiting Ethan jumped on a cloud of snow, squatting down on it to make himself a smaller target. Using his staff as a conduit for his magic he shot towards James at an impressive speed, this time Nora wasn't a house sized snake but was wrapped tightly around his arm ready to support him.

Ethan's eyes were fixed on that black sphere and when James finally threw it he nearly lost the content of his stomach, the arm snapped back, breaking multiple bones in the process and ripping his shoulder apart, only to launch the sphere like a sling, the whole arm remaining as a broken floppy mess, bones sticking out of it a weird angles only to be pulled back into the arm by some force.

The sphere was flying at an impressive speed but Ethan decided to take it head on, erecting multiple walls of ice in front of him that he kept aloof with his perfect ice manipulation. He was shocked as the sphere slammed straight through the first three walls and damaged the fourth one before fizzling out.

For a moment Ethan couldn't comprehend how his eternal ice got broken so easily. He took a deep breath and tried to firm up his resolve, there was no way back now as all elves counted on him to fight. Ethan himself wanted to win this and after the display of power he just witnessed there was no chance he would let James live and return to earth.

He floated higher into the air and kept at least two shields of ice ready for the chance that another attack would be launched at him. James was certainly different from before, his body moved even jankier that in the desert and that move he pulled off with his arm was too much even for someone looking for revenge, especially since it's just some petty revenge and nothing serious.

If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.

Ethan cracked his neck and looked at Nora, since the beginning they were sharing their thoughts but mostly she mirrored his own, there was an unknown component to this whole mess. The solution was easy, you just needed to look behind the curtain and find out what James was capable of now. Ethan smiled, he wanted to use his rituals for combat as well so this was the perfect opportunity. He kept his staff in one hand while raising the other into the sky, his palm facing upwards.

"I thought about this a while ago…now let's see how good it works." he nervously licked over his dry lips and took a deep breath while closing his eyes. Nora kept watch on James the whole time.

The moment Ethan opened his eyes again the glowed in that pale blue of his mana, runes made from ice formed over his palm before floating outwards, slowly a ritual circle of white ice formed over him, growing bigger and more complex by the minute. Creating the ice wasn't difficult, he worked with so much more before, but keeping it in shape and in a precise location was the challenge. Once finished a ritual of multiple meters in diameter rotated over his palm.

Those with knowledge in the art of ritualism could guess what it was used for. Runes for attraction and gathering, for focus and compression were the most prominent, a huge amount of runes that acted as a failsafe too. Like overloading and losing control were present. Ethan slowly closed his hand and the circle shrunk at the same time.

Once his fist was closed firmly the circle was only a meter in diameter, moving with his arms, which he pointed at James who was working on a massive black fireball which would surely destroy large parts of the forest.

It seems both finished at the same time but James, with his otherworldly strength and reflexes launched his attack first. Like a comet the fireball flew towards Ethan. He took one deep breath and opened his palm, the runes started to glow, the brightness was so intense in the middle and then it happened.

Silent and cold a beam of concentrated ice magic shot towards James, like a laser it formed a solid line of pure cold mana that penetrated the fireball on its way up. Ethan felt multiple channels rip apart in his arm and he lost vision in one eye, hopefully temporary. His hand, which was already missing two fingers from past experiments, evaporated instantly, leaving a frozen stump behind.

Despite the pain he smiled and watched as James got penetrated by the ice beam, but to his shock James, or rather the creature, split in multiple parts and vanished in the undergrowth, only the legs and belly were standing there frozen solid.

Ethan stared at it in disbelief but before he could form a proper thought he had to avoid the remnants of that fireball. The cloud under him vanished and he fell a few meters until he was in the clear. Floating the rest of the way down where he was already awaited Lorena and the others. The healer that got attached to their small group was fussing over his wounds instantly.

"That's not a person anymore." Ethan said, his breath was still coming in clouds of cold air and nobody could get too close to him, the amount of energy he used still having an effect. Lorena nodded and looked back to the point of impact, a lance of ice as big as Ethan's palm was penetrating deep into the earth, his eternal ice keeping the massive lance from breaking.

"If that didn't kill him, I don't think we have a chance. Maybe he will stop fighting and hide?" she suggested, her face marred by deep furrows, worry was clearly written all over her. Ethan shook his head, he wished she was right but soon they would return to earth so he guessed James would try again before that happened.

"We need to reach the mountain, better if we get to the top and talk with the guardian. I'm sure it can be reasoned with. Could you inform the others? It seems there we will make our last stand."

His vision slowly returned as the healer worked her magic. His eyes wandered to the top of the mountain.

"Our last stand…"

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.