Legacy of the Dark Sage

The massive white furball covered the black silhouette just in time before the Echidna's attack reached.

As the magic attack hit the furball, the explosion one would expect did not happen. Instead, the magic attack seemed to seep into the furball, instantly dying its white fur red.

An angry wail escaped the Echidna when it saw its attack was ineffective.

The massive furball, which had now turned red, spread its fur and revealed the black silhouette inside. Silver concentrated energy gathered on its left, and a dark purple concentrated energy gathered on its right.

The two energies overlapped as the black silhouette aimed it toward the Echidna.

Even before the overlapping silver and dark purple energies descended, the Echidna slithered away to avoid the attack. At the same time, it employed a red translucent scaly barrier for additional protection.

BOOM!

A massive explosion resulted after the overlapping energies slammed on the spot where the Echidna had been.

Even with the barrier, the Echidna got caught in the explosion's shockwave and thrown several meters away. The shockwave also destroyed the trees and ground within a fifty-meter radius range.

KWWWIIIISHHH!

The Echidna made a pitiful hiss as it slammed into a small mountain hundreds of meters away from its original spot.

BOOM!

The whole surrounding was instantly covered with dust and black smoke.

The black silhouette suddenly stopped midair, and the red furball behind it changed form into several dark blue and purple plates. They circled the black silhouette and clung to its exterior, forming a  dark blue and purple full-body armor.

From the change, one could now see that the silhouette had a human body. However, instead of a human head, it had the head of a black panther.

The black silhouette, of course, was Kyran. And the furball-turned-plates-then-armor was True Void, who had finally awakened from his slumber!

[Goodness! And I mean, goodness gracious! I just woke up, and this is the situation I see. What kind of trouble have you gotten yourself into this time, huh?]

Kyran's expression behind the black panther mask turned blank.

'Again? You sound like I always find trouble for myself.'

[Well, isn't it? What is that beast anyway? More importantly! This air... we are back in the Human plane, and you did not even try to wake me up?]

'Let's Talk later,' Kyran told him. He then looked at the Echidna and added, 'Let's deal with that Echidna first.'

That was right. the supposed 'baby' Echidna was not a full-fledged 'adult.' Kyran was unsure how it happened, but if he had to guess, the Royal Army members probably triggered its growth. Seeing that those five had likely perished, their corpse and magic energy likely nourished the Echidna further.

A baby Echidna was not that hard to deal with due to its smaller frame. But an adult one was troublesome.

It was like how the Temple Code members tried to subdue Zephyr in his Quilin form. Even if several mages with High Master to Grand Master levels worked together, it would not be easy. Having Exalted mages or a Magus might lighten the pressure. But it would still take days to deal with it.

Aside from this, Echidna used poison magic attacks. If one was not careful, they would end up getting poisoned to death.

[Humph!]

True Void harrumphed and was about to reprimand Kyran further, but the latter did not give it a chance and charged toward the Echidna, who regained its balance and hissed at them.

KWWWIIIISHHH!

Its ruby red eyes flashed as it spread its scaly human-like arms. Magic fluctuated in the air as a ten-meter reddish-green magic array appeared behind it. In an instant, all nearby trees withered as its life force got sucked by the magic array behind the Echidna.

The magic array increased in size, going from a ten-meter to a forty-meter radius in just a few seconds. Several five-meter dark green magic arrays appeared at the magic array's edges. These magic arrays launched reddish-green concentrated magic energy attacks at Kyran.

[Evade! Evade! No! No! What am I even saying? Warp directly out of their path! What are you even waiting for?]

True Void's hysterical complaints filled Kyran's head.

Kyran, on the other hand, ignored him and evaded the incoming beam-like magic energy attacks from the Echidna.

All the attacks that missed Kyran hit the ground, riddling the island with several holes of poisonous scorches.

"Oi! Void halfling! Why are you holding back? Warp now—!"

True Void stopped reprimanding Kyran telepathically and started to shout at him instead. However, he was interrupted by the latter by pointing above.

True Void looked up, and it was only then that he noticed the darkened sky, and there was a massive golden net. Upon closer inspection, the strings that made up the net were actually several gold runes.

He furrowed his imaginary brows and muttered, "That is... the Sovereign's Cradle."

The Sovereign's Cradle was the plane's current Sovereign's ultimate authority. It limits non-human mages' magic output and lowers any foreign Sovereigns' mage level managed to enter the plane.

Kyran did not reply. He only focused on evading the Echidna's incoming attacks.

"Wait." A thought crossed True Void's mind, "You should not be affected by the Sovereign's Cradle. You are not a Sovereign. Besides, you possess Ancient Magic so..."

Still ignoring True Void's monologue, Kyran managed to shorten the distance with the Echidna.

The Echidna, seeing this, hissed in anger. The writings on the dark green magic arrays changed, and all turned dark red. Several dark red and green serpents sprang out from the middle of the magic array, and with a chorus of hisses, they rushed toward Kyran.

Kyran abruptly stopped and raised his left hand toward the rushing serpents. Silver runes circled his right arm, and a massive clawed hand projection formed before him. He manipulated the projection, grabbed the first nearby three serpents, and slammed them toward the ones coming from behind.

HIIIISSS!

Angry hisses filled with air as the serpents slammed on each other.

KWWWIIIISHHH!

The Echidna let out an angry hiss of its own. It lifted its tail and swept it toward Kyran.

Using his right hand, Kyran summoned a three-meter radius dark purple magic array in front of him. Numerous dark purple chains filled with ominous energy sprang out from it. The tip of these chains were sharp black blades with purple runes on them.

These blades pierced the Echidna's tail before it could even hit Kyran.

The Echidna let out a pitiful wail as dark red and green blood gushed out from its tail. Its ruby red eyes glowed as it opened its fanged mouth.

Dark green smoke shot out from its mouth, covering a hundred-meter radius of its surrounding like a smokescreen almost instantly.

"Not good, not good! Don't breathe! It's poisonous!" True Void warned Kyran.

Kyran jumped back to move out of the smokescreen's range with blacklines appearing on his head.

He could not help but sigh inwardly at True Void. He missed the latter's company. But it seemed True Void had slept too much because his mind was still muddled.

Kyran was wearing True Void and on top of that, he was wearing the panther mask. The shape-shifting plates had void properties that easily filter any harmful substance outside. Even if he intentionally tries to inhale the smoke, he would not be able to.

Of course, inhaling it while removing the mask and the armor would be a different story.

...

Or maybe not.

Kyran's resistance to poison was actually excellent after fully fusing with the Elixir and the dragon blood. So far, he had yet to take a poison that showed any effect on him.

Kyran summoned more dark purple magic arrays filling the entirety of the green smokescreen. Similar chains shot out from the magic arrays.

KWWWIIIISHHH!

The Echidna hissed in pain from within the smokescreen as the chains pierced its body.

"Oi, Void Halfling," True Void started his monologue again, "Why are you intentionally holding back your magic? That's a legendary beast. You can't be complacent when attacking it. While you successfully summon the Chains of Erce' to stop its movement, the only reason why you managed to pierce that beast's scales is by using Void magic. You infused the blades with void property, right? If not, it would have recovered and grow stronger."

One of the annoying ability of the Echidna was the more it uses its magic, the powerful it would become. Unfortunately, knew of this. Because none survived when facing the Echidna.

At least, in the Human plane.

"You talk too much," Kyran sighed and willed the plates on the sole of his feet to descend. He had not learned the ability to levitate and the only reason he appeared to be 'flying' was because he was using his magic sense to control the plates. In turn, it was draining his magic energy.

He badly wanted to learn levitation, but had a feeling he could never learn it. As to why, well, he was not sure either.

From within the smokescreen, Kyran and True Void could hear the Echidna struggling to free itself from the chains.

However, the Chains of Erce' held it in place.

The Chains of Erce' was a restraining spell using the Dark Arts. There was also a restraining spell using Light Arts, but summoning it was difficult. The Light Arts' restraining spell was far more powerful and required enormous light magic energy which was limited in the Human plane.

"You are acting way unreasonable. I can't just stay quiet!" True Void retorted. "The Sovereign's Cradle does not affect you, so deal with that beast as soon as possible. Besides, it's not like the humans know about the Sovereign's Cradle. They cannot even see it."

"I know. But there will be 'others' who can," Kyran replied as he looked toward the east where a loud roar sounded a few minutes ago. He was positive that was the Manticore breaking its seal. Now that he restrained the Echidna, his next stop should be restraining the Manticore before the Courtenay Family, Royal Army and the Royal Family return.

But first, Kyran had to get Neo and the rest off the island. That was his main objective in going to the island. Save Neo! Err... Save them all!

"Others?" True Void repeated. Then his imaginary eyes widened as he come into realization, "You mean... those guys found their way into the Human plane?"

Kyran smiled bitterly, "I'm not sure if it's them. But one of them is definitely that guy."

The Sovereign of Ruins.

"Oh my goodness... Why are you using your magic then? Use Draconic magic as much as you like but don't use your Void magic! Oh no, oh no! ME TOO! HIDE ME! MY PRESENCE IS THE VOID THEY WILL FIND YOU!"

Kyran chuckled at True Void's reaction.

"Relax."

"I CAN'T! YOU SHOULD NOT BE LAX EITHER!"

Kyran sighed, "Calm down. Can you even detect my presence?"

"THAT IS NOT IMPORTANT RIGHT NOW! GO AND HIDE— wait... what did you just ask me?"

"Can you detect it?" Kyran repeated.

It was only then that True Void realized that indeed, he could not detect Kyran. Even when he attacked the Echidna, all he detected was the latter's overwhelming presence.

"How...?"

"I'm trying out the... er... uhm... the Shaiha's ability." Kyran hesitated to tell him about the Shaiha but then, True Void probably noticed the massive change in his central core, literally.

"The Sha- what- ability?"

"The Sha-ee-ha," Kyran repeated, slowly pronouncing its name.

"..."

True Void fell silent and Kyran sensed the former's growing apprehension.

"YOU ALREADY ACQUIRED THE SHAIHA?" True Void exclaimed suddenly.

"It seems you know about it."

"Of course I do! Master tried acquiring it. Unfortunately, his body constitution was too weak and failed."

Kyran's eyes furrowed. He suddenly had a bad feeling.

As if, the reason why 'he' was born in the Regis Clan was so he could inherit the Regis Clan's powerful body and succeed in acquiring the Shaiha.

If his assumption was true, did this mean his predecessor had planned everything for this to happen? No, was it even his predecessor who did this? Or...

Suddenly, Stella's words flashed through his mind.

"The Founder knew there would be a new Void Master.... and the Founder's last wish is to make sure the new Void Master doesn't die this time..."

Kyran clenched his fists. Just who was the Conclave's Founder? One of the things he hated was someone trying to manipulate his life.

Kyran stopped in his tracks and closed his eyes. He took a deep breath, and as he exhaled, pushed all these thoughts to the back of his head.

He would have to think of it at a later time. He could not afford to get sidetracked.

"I see, I see... You already acquired it. No wonder you are pretty bold in flaunting your Void magic... But why are you holding back then?"

Kyran tilted his head to one side, "I have to put on a show that I am affected by the Sovereign's Cradle."

"Why?"

Before Kyran could answer, Stella's voice sounded in his mind.

[Kyran, we received a message from the Courtenay Family. The Beast Hunt is canceled and we are asked to fall back. Also, the Royal Army's deputy marshals are coming and it looks like they plan on dealing with the baby Echidna.]