Earth's Greatest Magus

Emery stood before the old magus with a sense of unease. The man's piercing gaze seemed to bore into his very soul.

Unfortunately for him, having Annara, a Bat Bloodline magus as a companion only added to the old magus' distrust. After all, the Wolf and the Bat bloodline had a long history of conflict, they have been at each other's throats for hundreds of years.

Emery respectfully said, "Elder, we are not part of the bat faction, nor are we here as spies. We came uninvited, yes, but we didn't realize it was such a crime, and for that, I apologize."

The Elder's eyes narrowed until they turned to slits, and Emery could clearly feel the weight of his judgment bearing down on him. He tried to maintain his composure, but it turned out to be difficult when he could see several magus positioning themselves to block his escape.

Looking at the unconvinced old magus stood so close to Annara, he added.

"There is no need for this, we came with no intention to harm anyone."

"That is a lie"

As expected, it would be a difficult task to lie to such an experienced magus. Because of this, Emery needed to choose his next words carefully.

But then, to his surprise, the old wolf nonchalantly said, "Besides, you did harm someone."

Emery was taken aback. He hadn't expected the elder to bring up his altercation with the young Corvin.

Could this all be about his fight with Corvin?

Emery couldn't fathom it no matter how he thought about it. He knew the old wolf wouldn't do all of these things and call him out just for that. There had to be something more to it.

After racking his brains, Emery finally came to one possible conclusion.

"This is not about me beating that Corvin magus, isn't it? ...Tell me, what do you really want?"

A little sly smile appeared on the old wolf. Before Emery could ponder over its meaning, a wave of energy washed over him.

"Your real identity," He said. "I need to know who you are!"

Emery felt his mind being assaulted by the sudden surge of power emanating from the old wolf. He quickly tried his best to resist the attack, shielding his thoughts from the intruder.

"You will tell me", he commanded.

The pain was excruciating. The old wolf was definitely trying hard to probe his mind. Fortunately, being a magus came with a set of its own benefits. One of them was that his mind could not be easily penetrated as it lies deep inside his soul.

But with time, the intensity of mental attack went on to increase, accompanied by excruciating pain. The pressure to reveal his true identity was almost unbearable, and he began struggling to keep his thoughts hidden.

A voice came to mind that revealing himself might not be as disastrous as he thought. In fact if they knew who he really was, he might even be rewarded for his deed at rescuing the Magus Academy's acolytes among other things.

Yet, it was not just the fear of the Elven army that kept him from revealing his true self. Emery would prefer not to lose his leverage of having his true identity hidden until he could enact revenge on Lucius Corvin.

Thus, despite the excruciating pain, as the mental assault continued to chip away his defenses, Emery fought tooth and nail to maintain his secrecy. Either it was because of his light element affinity or his high rank bloodline, or both, he was able to withstand the grand magus power to bend him under his will.

After what felt like an eternity, the pressure began to ease. The old wolf let out a deep growl, a mixture of frustration and grudging respect.

"To think you could resist my mental attack, you're indeed a talented magus," He paused for a second as if expecting a reply before continuing his words. "But it's only a futile struggle. With just a little more force, I could get what I want. However it would damage your soul permanently, so tell me the truth now, or else…"

Emery knew he couldn't hold on indefinitely, he needed to give the old wolf something which would sate both his curiosity and suspicion.

Gathering his scattered thoughts, he painstakingly said, "Elder, the truth is… I can't tell you about myself as I don't even know much about it."

The truth had been spoken. Emery had indeed lost his memory. The magus appeared able to find some truth in it and it seems like this answer was more acceptable. After a second, the pressure on his mind eased and disappeared as if it had never existed. Emery breathed a sigh of relief as the burden was removed from his mental defenses.

Yet, to Emery's shock, the magus responded by unleashing an even more potent mental attack. This time, however, it was not a blade that sliced through Emery's mind, but a blow that struck him like a hammer, rendering him unconscious.

…..

When he came back to his senses, his eyes met with the cold, hard bars of an iron cage, with no Annara around.

"Great, am I now a prisoner?" He sighed aloud.

Emery's heart raced as he lay trapped in the pitch black confines of the cage, moving towards a distant light. As he drew nearer, his anticipation grew, as his mind raced with possibilities of what awaited him on the other side.

Finally, he emerged into a bright circular arena, one hundred meters in diameter, with sand covering the ground. The cage came to a stop, and the door swung open to the entrance of the arena.

Emery strode out of the cage and as he surveyed the arena, his eyes landed on the figure of the old grand magus, Warwick, who watched him intently from a seat high above, beyond a glass wall.

Annoyed, Emery bellowed at the man, "Elder, What is the meaning of this?! Why have you brought me here?!"

Before he could receive an answer, a new cage was opened, and a high-level ferocious beast was unleashed into the arena.

As the monstrous beast roared and charged towards him, Emery finally realized that the grand magus had brought him here for one reason alone – to test his capabilities. which means the reason the old wolf put a lot of interest in him was because of his strength.

"I guess the more I show my strength, the higher chance I will have to escape this."