Promtus and friends vs the Chronicler continued with the charges of the desperate.

To be fair, it was pretty easy for men, women and children to get dramatic. Imagined the downpour, the raging wind, and one mysterious superhuman who just dropped a small lake on an army standing there, shielding your target like an unbreakable shield. Now imagined said figure drew a lightsaber.

That was Hikma — a mythical savior, right from the fairytale. The remaining A-ranks took one glance and knew taking him half-heartedly was impossible. In one desperate plea toward the cosmic of victory, they put everything they got into the assault.

Challenger one was an uber warrior. The man yelled like his life depend on it, burst out of water like a winning lottery was infront of him, and thrusted his spear with everything his STR stat could provide. It was a blow that could cave an aircraft carrier, packed with at least 1600 ton of force.

Hikma responded by flicking his Arcana — the Symphony Blade. The psychic blade parried the blow, scrapping against the metal and found its purchase in the wooden shaft. Hikma seized the change in tension, and in a move ripped from Satholia’s playbook, cut his opponent weapon in half and blast him across the horizon with a gust from [Aero Lorde].

Challenger two arrived next, swinging his blade in a maximum velocity. This man was the true speed demon whose dumped his END stats for the sake of maxing attack and speed. His blow was fast enough to rival S-rankers. His draw once decapitated 8 men in a bar-fight before anyone could see.

But he wasn’t Satholia. Hell, Luxinna’s [Overflow] was more terrifying, and that was a month ago. Hikma held his own against that Luxinna and even gave the current version of the elf something resembling a sword fight. His SSS-grade [World Supreme Magus] wasn’t just a skill that involved only magic, but one indicating his attunement to the world's phenomenon. From the collision of air-molecule, the vibration of the earth, the very temperature gradient and light-path through vapor and air — Hikma’s understanding of fabric of creation was comparable to the divine.

A quick sword alone won’t make him sweat.

Hikma dodged the swipe no man successfully evade in a long time and drew in Symphony Blade across his opponent in a motion encapsulating the harmony of time and rhythm. The man collapsed unconscious. He should be thankful psychokinetic blade such as the Symphony Blade had an anti-magic and anti-material mode. While anti-material function could sever molecular bond itself, the anti-magic mode he got hit directly disrupted his Mana, knocking him out instead of bisecting him.

Challenger three was a magic knight. To his credit, he knew how to walk on water. But to his detriment, he picked unleashing a flaming sword wave of the man whose very proficiency in the element was written on his status card. Hikma grabbed the sword wave with his bare hand, refocused it and fired back with triple strength at challenger four — specifically at the magic hammer charged with smiting light. The magic weapon shattered in a disorienting shock-wave.

Challenger five just deployed a massive tiger spirit, but Hikma finally pressed his offensive with a saber-throw he learned from Luxinna. The spinning saber cut through challenger three and challenger four like a saw. It sawed apart the spirit tiger like merciless rotor blade and impaled challenger five through her chest. It spoke for her caliber as a mage that she stayed on her two feet for a solid second despite getting stabbed with Mana disruption blade, but alas the hit to her very magic was too much and she collapsed a breath later.

To Hikma, every action he took was a careful calculation, but to everyone else it was instantaneous. All the saw was two A-rank being easily dispatched in a blow each, a fire attack being deflected back at several times its magnitude, a disorienting explosion, a spinning blade that cut through two more A-rank plus one high-ranking spirit and their strongest A-ranker falling down in a single attack. All of this happened in less than 30 seconds, and it sank the opposing morale like a nuke to an aircraft carrier.

Hell, even the people behind Hikma didn’t believe their own eyeballs.

“Five A-ranks in an instant,” Atlanta gasped after witnessing her former colleague — the swordman — slid in the whirlpool.

“General,” her men whispered in reverence. “Who is he?”

“I don’t… oh,”

The ‘oh’ came from the numb despair at the towering pyroclastic cloud formed above the ground. It was like a cylinder of darkness 2 kilometers in diameter and towering high above the cloud. That was it. Promtus was going for the kill.

Contrary to expectation, Hikma actually felt relieved. The thought of accidentally drowning the opposing army gnawed by the corner of his mind. Luckily, the enemy are C-ranks and above, so being stuck in a rampaging water for a few minutes won’t kill them. But the unconscious? Yeah, they were going to die, superhuman stats or not, unless he moved the water somewhere. Promtus’ attack provided the perfect reason.

“[Oceana],” Hikma ordered an [Aqua Lorde]

Promtus hurled the titanic pillar of hot volcanic ash down. Meanwhile, the churning lake twisted into a massive tornado of luminescence water to meet it. Men and women struggling inside the lake of nausea with no solace of gravity or direction found themselves tossed into the air, floating high with the earth rushing to meet them. Their experience at abrupt skydiving was interrupted with a burst of force and vapor created by the water tornado clashed with the pillar of pyroclastic cloud, resulting in a massive expansion of air and steam that sent turbulent wind flying.

…

Philip watched the biblical image of the wall of water fending off the curtain of volcanic ash in a contest of natural disaster.

Promtus’ side lighted with multiple magic circles, but with a wave of Hikma’s hand, those mighty spell-craftx shattered. His greater understanding of the reality pivoted his counter-magic into another league.

Promtus’ teeth gashed. It appeared throwing magical bombardment won’t work.

“Your attainment in the way of magic is extraordinary,” Promtus admitted, gathering another bundle of pyroclastic cloud amidst the roaring wind. “Chronicler, isn’t it? I have never heard of such a name in the Divine Fist. How did you evade the gods’ mandate and attain such power? And why bother revealing yourself now?”

“Revealing myself?” Hikma replied amidst the roaring rampage of steams and the arbitrating current of ashen cloud. “To be honest, I never hide away much. It just that I never boast about my existence, that is all.”

The cloud behind Promtus spat out a series of high velocity fireballs on to the remnant of the royalist, which Hikma greeted by releasing the interlocking shield of [Trinity] made from the black conceptual ink.

“Lord Promtus,” Hikma spoke the name of his opponent in a warning. “These people are under my protection. Your army is toasted. Let save us all the trouble and just go back on our separate way.”

Promtus eyed the young man.

“You spoke like you already won,” the elderly S-ranker said. “Your weakness is more than transparent. Even now, you refuse to use lethal force. You know my troops wouldn’t die from something like water rapid or being tossed several meters into the air. You never aim to kill any of them.”

“True enough. I refuse to take the easy way out.”

Atlanta’s jaw dropped. This wasn’t a joke, right? S-rankers or not, did this guy believed he could rescue them, challeng an army and walk out without killing a single person. That was akin to tying both hands behind his back while fighting Promtus.

“Mercy to your enemy is the cruelty to yourself. Your naivete stink of weakness.”

“Oh, I am aware of the sheer difficulty of what I am doing,” Hikma recalled the Symphony Blade to his hand and ignited it with a flick. “But like my friend often said, what doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.”

“Fool,” somehow hearing the boy perspective which ran against the Phantasia he knew his entire life irritated Promtus. The elderly mage glowed with power, and Hikma knew playtime was up.

“[Terrafon], [Tempest],” Hikma cast [Nicholas], constructing a new move using [Geo Lorde], [Electro Gift] and [Paradiso].

The highly fatigue, unprepared army experienced the floor beneath them transformed into a giant pit and screamed like 10000 little girls. They fell past an enchantment that caused the disruption in their neural activity, knocking every one still awake unconscious. A bar of reinforced rock closed the pit entrance effectively sealing and neutralizing the opposing army.

[Paradiso]

Hikma cast a barrier protecting Phillip’s company and raised a [Trinity] to protect himself from a massive explosion from unleashed by Promtus.

…

Phillips’ eyes shut tight from the explosion of light.

The moment he opened his eyes and witnessed the doom hanging above. He fell to his knee from raw, unmitigated despair.

What he witnessed was a massive towering behemoth whose head scrapped the cloud, radiating heat and fire to warp the very air. Promtus had turned into a giant with the height approaching 1200 meters. His skin was like the blackened volcanic rock. Pyroclastic cloud exhaled from the beastly maw of a predator. Plumes of flames erupted from the humongous giant cracked skin. The muscle of rock and flames creaked as Promtus in his titanic formed stepped to meet. His eves were merciless pool of ashes and flames.

“Muspel Transformation,” Atlanta’s voice was so small it was imperceptible. “It is testament to the power of the most ancient guardian of Starland. A technique gifted to him directly by the Heavenly Prism Court.”

Hikma wasn’t hearing any of that. He was annoyed. No, he wasn’t annoyed at the giant. Hikma was furious at the fact Promtus became the giant fire-demon on top of his own troop. If Hikma didn’t bury most of them under the earth, three-quarter of them would be roasted by now. Did he not care about accidentally squishing his own army? The callous disregard for life lit a fire in Hikma. It was the same grim determination which brought Orwell Mehest to his knee.

“Behold my true power,” Promtus said. “You will regret ever lifting your hand against me, boy.”

“Good for you,” Hikma said, measuring the weight being supported by his enchantment. Good, those people would be fine. “Don’t expect it to save your behind.”

Hikma was totally honest. He decided it was high time to show Promtus how magic worked.

…

[Pyro], [Cryo], [Electro], [Umbral], [Aqua], [Aero], [Geo] and [Holy]

Those were the series of elemental Arcane existed in the Multiverse's history. A competent mage might associate them with an element, but the master recognized them for something greater.

Elemental affinity indicated an individual preference toward an element. That was a fact. But that fact was like saying the leaf was green. They lacked the depth and sound too simple. In reality, those affinities were the reflection of the eight Primal Arcane mages mostly aligned with. Those eight Arcanes encompassed everything the element got to offer both scientific and mystic.

Took [Pyro] for an instance. Most people would correctly associate with fire, but those assumptions were only the mystical aspect. [Pyro] encompassed exothermic emission and transferred of heat energy. The internal kinetic energy in systems and substance plus the related reaction such as rapid oxidization.

Meanwhile, people believed [Cryo] is the manipulation of ice. They were half right. Yeah, the mystic and supernatural aspect of [Cryo] Primal Arcane mostly associated with creation and manipulation of water crystal. However, it represented the concept of heat sink. The whole where thermal energy was constantly drained.

As someone who mastered all this truth, Hikma’s arsenal of tricks could be called bottomless. The very law of mystic and physic was his oyster to play with and Promtus felt this the moment he touched the ground; literally.

“[Terrafon]” Hikma commanded, “[Geo Gift].”

[Geo]. The Earth. While this element encompassed the rock and stones, its scientific nature was in another league. Namely, the ability to control the various bonds between solid lattice. Solid substance existed in a closed-pact structure link by atomic bond. [Geo] was the specialized manipulation of this bond inside the solid. Such ability allowed the analysis and separation of phase and grain boundary inside solid, manipulation of internal stress, and influencing the substance dislocation density.

Such bonds and boundaries were the reason solid behaved like solid, and Hikma could alter such property as he saw fit. For example, he could cancel the intermolecular bond responsible for surface adhesion.

Promtus massive body slipped from the earth beneath him with friction being switched off, but Hikma wasn’t done stacking his combo.

“[Mistral],” A pale green light flickered beside into being beside Hikma. “[Aero Gift]”

If [Geo] was the ability to manipulate solid, then [Aero] was the manipulation of gaseous state particle, particularly its kinetic, pressure and momentum. It sounded pretty simple, but the true test of [Aero]-proficiency was in implementing the same mechanism of kinetic with object much larger than air particle.

Object such as 1200 meters tall giant.

The green gust of wind carried the giant high into the sky, ignoring all the air drag. It was an admittedly a brain-melting sight to see. The towering mass of rock and flames surrounded by a cloud of dark pyroclastic launched across the horizon like it got kicked in the face. Promtus gigantic body crashed with the force to shake the earth and created avalanche. He rolled across the surface, changing the very topology before stumbling head-first into a mountain, collapsing that hill of stones under his weight.

The mage wasn’t hurt. He was too shocked to feel anything. In less than a minute, after producing such awe-inspiring power, the stranger just sent down to his back.

It was then a voice dragged him back to reality.

“Get up. We aren’t done here.”

And there he was.

Levitating high in the air, glancing down at the rune landscape and uproot landmark was Hikma De Darwin. Black sigils and letter danced across the very air as the symbol of his esoteric aura. Seven lights — blazing red, oceanic blue, pale green, sunlight yellow, mild auburn, snow white, midnight purple — rotated around Hikma, charging the very air around him with power.

Promtus glowed, lifting his body up on two legs and drew a kilometer long sword out of thin air. A ring of rock and fire materialized above his head.

The two godlike being — one stood for survivalist nature of old Phantasia, another the dawning age of heroes — finally went all out.

…

Out in the distant sky, a red-hair woman with a crew cut riding on a wyvern felt the clashing of Mana and rumbled with excitement. It appeared the old man was meeting his match. What a fun opportunity to see the uptight bastard struggled.

Kakia — the most dreaded woman in Centuria — broke the sound barrier. She transformed into a red comet, streaking toward the humongous giant in the distance.

Unbeknownst to her, she missed the flicker of golden lighting on the distance horizon.