Seeing the impending blast of mana and spiritual energy coming for him, Marcus cast his tier six iron magic spell, and flung his cataclysmic iron sword forwards.
Quickly the three-hundred-foot-long iron sword smashed through the floor and ceiling of the Sky Citadel and impacted Teivel's blast, carving through it.
As powerful as Teivel was, he was not used to using pure mana attacks, and was also still not at full power after using his tier nine spell.
Even the eldritch essence he had injected into himself was not enough to fully recover from the backlash of using his strongest spell.
'Umbral Web.'
Casting a tier six darkness magic spell, Teivel quickly wrapped up and halted Marcus' cataclysmic iron sword, stopping the hundreds of tons blade in its tracks.
Still the blade had forced Teivel to stop, and he had to take a couple of seconds twist his webs around and constricted sword in order to crush it.
And as he did this a thought came to him.
Certainly, it seemed that Marcus was not hurt by his magic, but it was still possible that he could restrain him.
Pouring spiritual energy into his umbral webs, Teivel sent them flying towards Marcus planning to ensnare him.
Unfortunately, for Teivel, his umbral webs began to break apart and dissipate the second they hit Marcus, putting a quick and bitter end to his plan to restrain him.
'Quasar Blast.'
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtCasting hist tier six light magic spell, Marcus kept the pressure on Teivel. He knew he needed to keep him locked down, and he was more than willing to chain his strongest spells back-to-back to do so.
Of course, even a heightened tier six spell from Marcus was not enough to put a single scratch on Teivel, but he was having to expend his time to deal with them.
His frustration having hit its peak, Teivel rushed towards Marcus who was still ethereal, his body glowing with mana and spiritual energy, as he planned to unleash everything he had to take Marcus out.
Barely able to react in time to Teivel's extreme burst of speed, Marcus reflexively deployed his mana barrier and cast his radiance scales spell right before Teivel impacted him.
An instant later all of the mana and spiritual energy he had been accumulating unleashed in a massive explosion, that completely engulfed Marcus and began busting through the walls and rooms of the Sky Citadel.
Taking the blast Marcus felt his ethereal form being overwhelmed, and his defenses quickly cracked and shattered.
Following that both of his arms were blown apart as he used them to shield his head, and the rest of his form began to be destroyed as Teivel's mana and spiritual energy attack overwhelmed him.
'Surely that was enough.' Teivel thought looking at the destruction his attack had caused.
The entire structure of the area was destroyed, and the building was even now shaking and rumbling from the damage it had endured, after repeatedly having devastating attack released within it.
Yet as he looked out still channeling spiritual energy into his eyes, he saw that Marcus was still clinging on.
Certainly, he was in rough shape, both his arms missing, and half of his head blown off, along with plenty of other injuries, but he was definitely still alive.
'It will take more than that to destroy me.' Marcus sent telepathically to Teivel taunting him.
His eyes going bloodshot with the sickly black color from the ichor he had injected himself with, Teivel's anger had exceeded its peak and he wanted nothing more than to eradicate this insect that had given him so much trouble.
Charging up another strike filled with mana and spiritual energy, Teivel planned to finish Marcus with one last attack now that he was incapacitated.
But as he was about to discharge his attack, it broke apart and became unstable.
What he had accumulated then went wild sending his mana and spiritual energy in multiple direction, causing more damage to the already ravaged area.
Except since the attack had broken apart, not even the smallest bit of it hit Marcus who was in a long straight line away from Teivel.
Trying to build up his mana again, Teivel quickly realized what the problem was and his was astonished by what it was.
'I'm out of mana?!'
Teivel had no idea how he could possibly be empty on mana.
Truly had used up almost all of it when he cast his tier nine spell, but after injecting himself with the black ichor, he had reached a huge boost. Not to mention his high-level mana regeneration skill that should have been constantly supplying him.
Yet as his brain rapidly analyzed what was going on and searched for the problem, he saw it.
What looked like thousands of nearly invisible threads of mana were flowing away from his body and heading towards Marcus.
"Oh, looks like you finally noticed." Marcus said as he became solid again, most of his terrible wounds already having fixed themselves.
Quickly even Marcus' destroyed arms were good as new and all of the hard-fought damage Teivel had inflicted was gone.
"Mana Thief!" Teivel said with surprise and rage in his voice.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmHe was furious that this spirit apparently had such a rare skill, along with all of his other busted skills and abilities. But he was also pissed at himself for just now noticing that his mana was being stolen.
"Correct. I indeed have the mana thief skill. If only you had been calmer, you would have noticed that I have been siphoning your mana from the start. Of course, it was just a little at the beginning, but after you used your tier nine spell, I have been draining you almost as fast as you recover your mana."
With a smug smile on his face, Marcus was very pleased with the performance of the skill he had dumped most of his skill points into in preparation for this encounter.
He knew that he was going to need multiple ways to deal with Teivel, and for a mage having their mana taken was the greatest disadvantage.
Slowly and cautiously walking towards Teivel, Marcus aimed to incapacitate him, and then quickly wrap things up.
However, what he heard next sent a chill down his very soul.
"I guess everyone will just have to die."
The absolute and ominous tone in Teivel's voice stopped Marcus in his tracks, and a truly sinister aura began to emit from Teivel.
'Where is that coming from.'
Marcus had no idea how Teivel was emitting such an aura without any mana, but it felt incredibly ominous, even more so than his strongest death magic spell.
Not going to allow Teivel to continue doing whatever it was he was trying, Marcus cast his voltaic bombardment spell hoping to electrocute Teivel into unconsciousness.
But as the hundreds of bolts of lightning struck towards Teivel, the horrid grimoire he kept on his belt rose up on its own and blocked the raging storm of electricity.
As Marcus looked at this he finally understood where Teivel was getting this power, since he had a skill that did the same.
'He is burning his own soul.'
The book then ripped open and began shaking violently as its pages sped by and black ichor began pouring out of it like a waterspout, as droves of ungodly creatures began to form.