Bro, I'm not an Undead!

A blaring noise ruptured the ears of the nearby civilians as an explosion of magnificent proportions erupted the moment a bright white glow reached Terian!

A blinding flash of radiance had devoured the night sky for a few moments as the building that Terian had been standing above was demolished, degraded into dust and chunks along with everything that was in a 30 meter radius!

The casualties were not few as many of them had died painlessly in that single instance!

Only a large gouged out space, like a crater remained with intense billows of dust and smoke that rose obscuring the view of what remained!

In the distance, an octopus humanoid was standing above the Guilds Association building as it extended its staff.

It had noticed this powerful being that had been killing too many of its own at a time and had thus considered it a threat enough to kill.

It hadn't even considered Tulnas a threat as the man was merely delaying the inevitable. With his ability, which it discerned from his core, it decided to ignore him even as he took almost half of its fellow spawn outside the city.

They would be back soon enough.

The beast then sucked in a deep breath, like a raspy wheeze, pulling on the air and mana from the atmosphere and the surrounding mercenaries that were battling against the beasts!

Dozens of mercenaries who had been fighting the invaders in their groups of five to ten, suddenly clutched their necks as they felt the breath and mana from their bodies being forcefully stolen!

The only exceptions were those with their Full Body Auras active as the rest fell to death quickly!

In a few moments, massive amounts mana gushed towards the creature and it swiftly consumed them all behind the tentacles that covered its face!

"You're not very cautious, are you?" a voice sounded from behind the creature as its narrow, slanted eyes with lateral slits turned with surprise, finding Terian to have suddenly emerged behind it, his fist already barrelling towards its face!

It was merely an aged fist hurtling through the air, however, a white flame that distorted the surrounding atmosphere with a stifling heat and melted the roof encased the old man's hand as the Hawk of Conflagration remained as his source of extra oomph to his already monstrous strength above him!

The moment the punch connected with the head of the beast, a searing heat bubbled outward and practically erased the top of the Association building, melting it and blasting it apart simultaneously as the figure of the tentacled beast flew away while its face was roasted with severe burns!

It screeched loudly as it flew tens of miles in a few seconds and crashed horribly over the rough ground with a graceless roll!

A majority of its tentacles had been burned into gooey masses of charred flesh that bubbled and boiled, giving it a pathetic appearance!

Terian fist died of the terrific white flame that he had and he instantly bolted ahead to finish off this creature which had suddenly attacked him.

The attack it released was much more deadly than he had anticipated and that coupled with its Tier being possibly higher than any of the others from the little he could sense, didn't give him a good feeling.

That said, it was feat to consider, how Terian managed to survive the beam of white light that the octopus humanoid had sent his way as it shone a light over the special property of Genuine Incarnations!

The ability to NEUTRALISE all mana and basic Aura generated phenomenon to a certain extent!

With a Genuine Incarnation active, depending on the core and potential of the individual using it, it was possible to perfectly neutralise all mana and Aura augmented attacks, leaving the user unscathed!

This was how Terian had seamlessly escaped death as the Hawk of Conflagration had instantly reacted even when he had barely been able to!

After surviving the attack, the old man had used an ability he had demonstrated to have before, an aspect beyond the base standard of all Mages which was the Elemental Patch.

Teleportation!

He had manipulated space to appear behind the creature and dish out a fine beating!

With this partial knowledge on the next Patch of Magecraft above the Elemental, which gave him weight above that of a normal Mage, Terian was a monster in his own right.

Shockingly however, it seemed that there were things about this creature that he could not discern, such as its core, but he ignored them for now.

He dashed towards the octopus humanoid which grabbed its fallen staff and began standing up when suddenly...

WHOOSH!

An armoured Knight raced passed him, eclipsing him in speed as he was wrapped up in a vicious force of white-coloured Aura while wielding...

A large bastard sword!

The Knight's movement was ridiculous as he reached the position of the octopus humanoid in a single breath's worth of time, his sword swinging mercilessly at the thing's head!

The beast quickly responded by slamming its staff into the ground which manifested a pristine white cylindrical barrier around itself that tanked the attack!

CLANG!

The bastard sword clashing against the barrier caused a heart-shaking shudder on the ground as the two battling individuals sank a full meter deep into the dirt!

The sword wielding Knight was naturally Gin who had pulled out the object he had intended to use on this bastard before!

He and his fellow Knights along with Silrat and Damilla and exited the Association building only to see the chaos outside.

While each had gone to do their part to save the city, Gin had noticed the octopus beast and immediately used rushed forward to finish it off after seeing it in this pathetic state!

The bastard sword he wielded had a sky blue blade that looked spotless with faint runes etched onto it, a golden hilt and guard allowing for an incredibly comfortable experience during his handling!

This sword, the Hollow Culling Blade, granted him boosts to his speed and strength that allowed him to potentially exceed even those a Stage above him in physical ability!

As the sword and barrier reached a stalemate, Gin grinned as his hatred towards this creature knew no bounds.

"Your judgement for allowing a heretic to escape is due!" he called as the Hollow Culling Blade suddenly shone with a luminous blue hue, a skill from the sword being activated.

The octopus humanoid noticed the looming danger and sucked in a deep breath with a raspy wheezing being heard!

Gin felt his mana being drawn upon but he didn't let up even as this suction by the beast eclipsed any of its earlier ones, the sharp draw pulling on a vast range which prompted ridiculous gusts of mana and air to be called over to it!

For Terian however, this experience was different, as the pull on mana that others felt, he didn't experience at all!

He resumed his high speed dash to the creature as the cause of this resistance of his to the creature's natural unique ability, was because of a complex symbol imbedded in his core – a requirement for all Mages.

The Reflective Sigil Matrix!

A marvellous construct that set apart Mages from other Classes!

Gin's sword trembled as the skill that had been activated from it, Hollow Culling, made short work of the cylindrical barrier around the octopus humanoid!

The blade sliced at the beast which couldn't react at all and the result was rather cruel!

It wasn't a lateral gash that appeared on the beast's body as one would expect given how Gin struck, but a large arching hole that replaced the creature's entire shoulder and torso!

Red blood sprayed from the creature as Gin landed a few meters behind it with a roll while in the next moment...

VWOOOSH!

A roaring flame devoured the creature that shrieked horribly as the crackling flame spun viciously around it with an orange tint while releasing a blistering heat!

Terian had wasted no time in activating Ablaze to finish off the creature!

The sizzling of flesh was heard as the image of the creature turned into a dark, hazy swirl under the roaring flames, its throes giving a sense of achievement to the two who had attacked it!

Terian relaxed a little while Gin backed away, his Aura still flooding around him.

After twenty full seconds passed without anything occurring to dispel their thoughts of victory, the two finally relaxed.

Huff, huff!

The two men took in breaths.

"What a tough bastard," Gin said begrudgingly as he slowly dropped his sword from its stance.

"It was too reliant on its staff and it clearly wasn't adept at close confrontation. We were lucky..." Terian pointed out as he let out a breath.

The flames continued to crackle as the image of the beast continued to burn between the two.

"There's still work to do. Let us both not waste our Aura," Terian said to which Gin nodded.

There was still much to do and whatever else remained could he decided upon later.

The old man took hurried steps towards the flames to see if he could potentially retrieve the staff that the creature used.

It was probably a natural treasure and if he could get it, it would no doubt become easier to defend the city.

However...

VWOOOOOSH!

The flames of Ablaze that Terian had cast over the beast, roared with a burst of eagerness that made him halt.

'What's going on?' the old man creased his brow.

Why was the flame growing stronger?

If anything, it should have been growing weaker!

VWOOOOOOOOSH!

The flames suddenly rose high with the sound akin to an muffled explosion, their colour changing from the original orange to an unsettling blue!

A sudden arc of wind blew Terian in the face, pushing him a distance away while it called the Knight, Gin, to fully guard!

...!

The old man did his best to steady himself but on his skin, he felt the irritation of an atrocious amount of mana bloom from the flames ahead as the figure of the octopus humanoid that had been dissolving from his view started to become bigger and clearer!

"What in the world...?!" Gin exclaimed as he watched a vastly taller figure walk out of the blue flames with heavy, bulky steps!

Far different from the image of the tentacle covered beast from before, a hulking muscular creature appeared, staff in hand!

It emitted a ridiculous amount of energy that exceeded what it had been emitting before by at least five times!

Furthermore...

"This is... troublesome...." Terian mumbled to himself as he sweated.

Also different from before, the tentacles that hid much of the power of this beast were no longer hiding its powers as now, the elderly man could see with clarity that this monster... had a purple core!

Terian took steps back with the Hawk of Conflagration flapping its expansive wings above him.

He felt stifled for breath, much like Gin who immediately dropped to his knees as he sensed the overbearing energy of this beast!

The beast emitted a condescending grunt as it lifted its stuff with its now bulky hand and pointed it upwards, a stream of milky white energy racing into the air!

It soared to almost a kilometre before it generated a grey mist that expanded to cover an enormous distance!

A distance equivalent to half the entire city!

The grey dust swirled and squirmed as something began to appear from it, slowly and creepily.

Something huge!

Something enormous!

Bits of dirt began to fall from the sky like rain, from the mist, as with this, Terian widened his eyes as he saw what was emerging!

An enormous island!

It cast its shadow over the city as its cone-shaped bottom dripped of chunks of dirt and rock!

The grey mist disappeared as soon as the island appeared in its entirety and then... the colossal mass began to fall.

Everyone looked up at this ridiculous phenomenon, the weight of the island beginning to barrel over the city with a mighty storm of wind blowing everything that was below!

The terror in everyone's eyes was palpable as this was simply beyond everyone's expectations.

An entire island had been summoned?!

From the looks of it, it seemed to have simply been torn from somewhere!

An image like this was enough to cause many to fall into despair!

As the dirt and rocks rained over the city, filling everyone with a sense of hopeless, one individual looked up with trembling hands much like all the regular civilians.

An insignificant-looking hunched old man who had been hiding under the cover of the fruit trees he had grown and the bushes he tended to could be seen looking up as his mouth moved constantly.

His heart was quaking but he didn't stop mumbling to himself.

As he trembled, he gnashed his teeth as he persisted in his chanting.

"Regret brings Regression, Regression brings Strength. Strength brings Salvation and Salvation brings Peace..."

With this chant that meant nothing to anyone else but him, the old man suddenly to change...