The Ruined Death Knight

Holding her staff up in the air with both of her hands, Danzel could see the huge amount of mana coming out of Shiro.

Halting his wind blade attacks, Danzel raised pointed his sword towards and activate the enchantment of his sword.

The pieces of metal which missed Shiro and were now burrowed into the snow started to rise up in the air. And with a mental command of the undead, the metal pieces spend up towards Shiro's back like a thousand knives.

Before they could hit Shiro though, the barrier of hers blocked them.

"..."

Danzel nodded internally as he observed that mana of hers changing into a color that made Danzel frown.

The dancing mana slowly gathered into the golden crystal of Shiro's staff, slowly blackening the crystal just as like the mana.

The dark mana next was being sucked into Shiro's staff.

"Haaaah!!!" Yelling out loud, Shiro hit her staff to the ground, releasing her spell.

As if a giant put a nail to the ground, the ground itself started to crack open, spreading the crack towards Danzel like a manifesting earthquake.

Which of the cracks every few meters, small dark flames appeared for put a second.

Making Danzel frown mentally.

'Chaos magic...' Recognizing the dark mana and knowing full well the danger of what chaos magic was capable of, Danzel didn't stay idle in a place like before.

Just as the crack was nearing him and was about to be under his feet, using his one foot, he kicked the ground and jumped to the side a few meters away from the cracks.

He could have jumped much further away, but he decided against it to show Shiro that such slow spells are useless.

Alas, Shiro was aware of the slowness of her own spell, which is the reason why she put a small smile behind her mask when Danzel jumped to the side half-assed.

With her eyes following Danzel's movements, the cracks that were till this point going in a straight line, suddenly made a turn, stopping right under Danzel's feet.

"Annihilate! Element of destruction!" Shiro yelled as she raised her staff.

Releasing the dark mana that she held back into the cracks.

Like a trail of oil being set on fire, the dark mana pushed through the cracks at immense speed, rivaling Danzel's.

And once the dark mana reached the end of its trail, the true spell came to its fruition. In the form of a burst of dark gray flames.

Essentially a flame strike of destruction.

It was a spell strong enough to activate Danzel's danger sense, Danzel hurriedly acted accordingly.

"Shit-!"

Piercing his sword into the ground, magical ice started to spread while dead mana started to surround his armor, activating [Armor of Undying Protection] just before a howling scream spread through the frozen lands.

*Waggghhhh! Waaaaaagh! Wargghgh!

"Haah~haah~"

And Shiro who cast the spell stared at the dark gray flames in worry and anxiousness, making it difficult for her to breathe. At least that was what she thought it was, when it was actually a few black veins appearing on her neck, going up and down, reappearing and disappearing.

"Aah~what have I done..." She whispered with a shaken voice.

'Even for Rue, chaos magic must be too much, even if he can regenerate his skull...' Shiro thought while staring at the dark gray flames.

Unlike what one would think of such flames, the dark gray flames bore no heat. A trait common to the school of chaos magic.

Though it varied from the skill of the magic caster, wherever they had talent enough to adapt chaos magic to bear the heat or their incompetence of being unable to remove the impurities of other mana.

True chaos magic only had one singular purpose.

That was to annihilate everything.

Devastation and destruction were its calling.

To the point that it was universally known to be the strongest type of magic.

In terms of firepower that is.

The ground where the chaotic dark gray flames touched had turned into dust and Shiro was afraid that Danzel had met the same fate.

She had canceled her spell and the chaotic flames started to grow weaker while they continued raging. Despite that though, suddenly the chaotic flames seemed to inflate as if something was pushing them from the inside.

And like a balloon popping from being inflated, the dark gray flames exploded by some necrotic energy.

Making Shiro's mouth hanging wide open.

"H-How?"

Within the dissipating dark gray flames, two dark green flames emerged.

And from them, an armored undead walked through.

"That was unexpected~"

*Crack

His armor was filled with holes.

"Your magic exceeded my expectations, Shiro~"

*Crack

One arm holding the ominous blade, while the other arm turned to dust till his elbow.

Shiro felt relief for a split second, but with the intensity of killing intent suddenly increasing and the look that Rue gave her, she felt genuine fear.

'...'

Staring with his ethereal eyes at Shiro, Danzel opened his mouth.

With half of his jaw turned into dust and half of his skull cracked to the point that it could fall apart, Danzel's death mana came out of his body together with his aura.

"But!!!"

Raising what was left of his arm to the air, Danzel's eyes flared up.

"[Necromatic Restoraction]!"

The dead mana around him started to go back into his body, repairing the damages that his body received, closing the cracks of his body, and reforming his jaw and hand back to whole. The restoration of his body activated the trait of all Death Knights.

Which was the talent [Armor of Death Knight].

Resulting in all damage to disappeared, except for those that were already there before performing the binding.

Closing and opening his hand, Danzel said with his reformed jaw.

"Playtime is over..."

"Ahhhhh~!"

Once the killing intent was focused on her Shiro almost instantly pointed her staff towards Danzel and started casting hastily a spell.

Stone appearing from thin air started to gather into a single point, being pressed to its limit while new earth pilled up. Soon enough made a huge boulder of mana-reinforced stone that float in the air, which weighed several tons.

"M-[Meteor Shot]!" Shiro yelled as a magic circle appeared in front of the boulder, which by contact shot the boulder of several tons to fly like a cross bold towards Danzel.

Staring at the incoming boulder, Danzel raised his hand and received the accelerating boulder of several tons with his newly made hand.

By contact, a shockwave pushed against him while his fingers dug into the boulder.

It looked like Danzel was about to be crushed.

Sadly though the boulder had lost all its momentum, which turned the boulder into nothing more than a pebble in front of Danzel's absurd strength. Which by a simple movement of the hand, tossed the boulder to the side of the mountain as if it was a pebble.

At a greater speed, Shiro threw that to him at that too.

*Booguuhh!!!~

"This ends now." Danzel said as he put his hand to the Overseer's sword, slowly drawing it out of the scabbard.

Which made Shiro panik.

"W-Wait Rue! I-I surrender! I can't defeat you! Any more of this it's pointless!"

Having drawn his sword, the ground under his feet cracked.

And without any other words, Danzel kicked the ground and dashed towards Shiro.

Biting her own lips behind the mask, she raised her staff to the air, making light appear.

"Piercing light! Take form and appear! [Light Spear]'s!

With numerous light needles appearing, way more than she previously managed to make, they were all shot toward the incoming undead.

Raising his chest, Danzel used both of his swords to cut down the needles of light with extreme accuracy while those that he couldn't destroy were dodged by moving slightly his body. All that while his advantage towards Shiro hasn't stopped.

"Haah~Hah~Ha~"

Breathing heavily under all the pressure and the dark veins in her neck progressing further towards her mouth, she pointed her staff towards Danzel.

A small spark appeared before lighting directly pierced the undead.

*Zgzgzgzzzz!!!!

The lighting danced around the undead's armor.

Alas, it was a bad choice against the undead and lacked the punch to inflict any sort of damage.

Brushing the lighting off, the undead raised his swords and swung down one of them at Shiro's barrier.

The impact of the first slash traveled though out the whole barrier before breaking like some delicate piece of glass.

"Aahh!"

Surprised, Shiro stepped back and raised her staff in front of her to block the sword with her eyes closed.

With his ethereal eyes flaring up, the undead swung his sword, not at Shiro, but at her staff that she held with both hands.

"Kyaah!" The impact was so strong that raised Shiro up in the air together, barely holding her staff now with one hand now.

But that was only for a short time as the undead used the first sword that broke the barrier to slash towards the stuff with such force that broke Shiro's grip on the staff and almost broke her wrist in the process.

Using that momentum, the undead made a turn with his body and delivered a kick right at Shiro's stomach.

"Agghhh~!" Sending her flying and rolling a few meters with all the air in her lungs pushed out, she held her stomach in pain while coughing. Tears already building up in her eyes.

"You talked about unfairness, didn't you Shiro? " The undead said in his chilling voice.

"And I answered that you have been mistaking something, do you know what that "something" I was referring to was?"

The undead walked closer, with only his footsteps to the snow and the groans of pain to be heard from Shiro.

"That is the battlefield." The undead declared.

"In a battle to the death, fairness doesn't exist. Be it numbers, dirty tricks, or magic items. It doesn't matter. Only victory matters."

"Either be strong enough to overwhelm the odds." the undead said, remembering Sartan, Agares, and Vanessa's overwhelming strength.

"Or use your knowledge to overcome the odds." he said while remembering, Velkir and Azrael's overwhelming magic.

"If that none are possible, there is only one option left!" he said while remembering his early days of awakening.

The encounter between the merchant who used shadow magic and the Archmage who utilized ice magic.

Clenching the hilt of his swords, the undead continued.

"That is to run away!"

"As long as you get away! As long as you persevere! As long as you can try again! That is an absolute victory! And you failed to see the only available option."

Laying still on the ground, with one hand using healing magic on her stomach, Shiro looked at the undead while slowly raising her hand that conjured mana. The mana veins make Shiro horns enlarge slowly.

Not a second later though, the undead turned into dark mist, and before she knew the cold feet of the undead pressed against her shoulder, pinning her hand that conjured mana to the ground and stopping the growth of her horns."

"You had the knowledge that I was several times stronger than you and despite that, you decided to fight me head-on instead of running away." The undead said while raising both his sword into the air. Both swords are ominously surrounded by dead mana.

Making Shiro's eyes focus on the two swords raised up.

Though she was in pain and was terrified to the point of tears coming out of her eyes, she still found the mana of the undead, despite being dead mana, to bring her a sense of peace, like staring at a painting that resonates with you.

'Ahhh, what kind of magic can I make with this kind of mana? I can't wait to see...' She thought.

As she watched the 2 swords coming down towards her, her face distorted into bitterness, unable to stop her tears.

'I don't want to die.'

Hearing the wind being sliced, she couldn't help but mutter...

"~I don't want to die, Grandpa~"