One of the shadows grew shorter until it was the height of an average human. Marduk had white hair, moustache and beard. His eyes looked solemn and old. He wore a tallow robe with red stripes.

“I am Marduk,” he said. “Begin!” shouted the darkness.

I jumped towards him with my sword ready to slash through his torso, but he stopped it with his hands.

“Child, I do not wish to fight,” he said.

“Why should I believe you?” I said as I cast Distortion Binds, pulled my sword, and ran away.

The chains avoided him as he stood there and said, “Because I still retain my humanity.”

He walked slowly towards me and I tensed. I readied my sword in front of me and prepared to cast spells once he showed any hostility.

“I tire of being his plaything; I submit,” he said bowing.

I raised my eyebrows at this, and the darkness said, “Really...? After all this time, this is what you give me?”

“My fate after this fight is clear: I will lose my humanity and become an obedient lapdog to my new master. But I could not kill a child no matter what,” he said, continuing to bow.

“... You were the hardest to bind... Fine have it your way... The winner is Zed! Oh and by the way as a punishment for you Marduk. I am sealing your full power until Zed can get rid of it.”

As he said that, Marduk turned into small glowing countless white orbs that combined to form a necklace. It was made of gold and the pendant was a skull on top of a shield.

“He’s yours,” said the darkness as I put the necklace on.

“Because of how short that fight was, I present, the Third and Fourth Generals!”

Two shadows turned into giant beasts. One of them became a giant black furred wolf with lightning jumping from its spiky fur, gold eyes and sharp claws. The other was a giant greater black dragon with red menacing eyes and four large wings with blotches of red. The dragon flew in the air as its forked tail drifted back and forth.

“The Fourth General, Fenrir and the Third General, Midgar! Begin fighting!”

As he said that, Fenrir, the wolf, launched forward so fast that I had barely enough time to block with Magic Shield and slow down time. As that was happening, Midgar slapped his tail at my side, forcing me to fly away.

Galahad caught me with his swords again, but I still felt the impact; I was going too fast. I twisted around and was already surrounded by swords blocking the attacks from the two generals.

Fenrir jumped back and looked to be about to howl, but instead, lightning gathered near his mouth and shot straight towards me. It snaked through the swords and electrocuted me. Paralyzed from the lightning, Midgar breathed fire burning my body.

When I was finally able to move, I was still covered by the fire. When it stopped, I was assaulted again with lightning. It continued on and on. I was about to die when I managed to cast Primordial Burst.

The attacks stopped, which caused me to kneel down, and I quickly ate a seed. My wounds healed and I no longer felt the pain. I looked up and Midgar and Fenrir were uninjured.

I cast Tempest and Ice Age at the same time. Midgar was blown everywhere and Fenrir was frozen and electrocuted at his spot.

As that was going on, I cast another spell, Wrath of Lightning – Lance. This created a giant fifty meter long, ten meter high and ten meter wide lance made entirely out of lightning. Intricate designs of lightning covered it from end to end.

I aimed the lance at Midgar and fired it. Several sonicbooms resounded and instantly hit him. Lightning assaulted him over and over, inside and outside, until he fell from the skies, hitting Fenrir. Midgar’s corpse disintegrated and Fenrir was released from his frozen state.

He stared at me with rage and launched at me but he was already pierced by another of my spells, Wrath of Earth – Lance. Right after launching the first lance at Midgar I had already creted this lance to strike at Fenrir. This lance was of the same size as the first one but it had no ornate designs. It was purely a giant piece of earth in the form of a giant lance that struck fear and killed its targets.

Fenrir’s body exploded from the speed and power that the lance brought, leaving his remains as blotches of red on the ground.

“You’re very vicious; I want you so bad. Winner is Zed once more!” said the darkness.

“Their true forms are armor that can change to how you want. They can even be clothes if that is what you wish.”

I chose Fenrir to turn into boots and gloves because of his lightning speed and Midgar as an armor with a cape. Looking at myself, I was slowly becoming much more powerful. I replaced my self-made armor with Midgar and Fenrir. Midgar became a black plate armor with blue edges and an ornately designed black cape with a dragon imprinted on the back. Fenrir became blue plated boots and gloves with small claws. I looked very menacing; the only thing remaining was a helmet.

“Now then, we move on to the second General: Necro, Spirit of Hell.”

One of the remaining shadows stayed as it was–dark and menacing–only now it shaped itself into something similar to what I thought death looked like. It held out its skeletal hand and a giant ominous scythe appeared.

Having no time to familiarize myself with my new summons, I told them to help me as much as they could when the darkness said, “Begin!”

Necro swung his scythe on the ground, which created a black rip. From that rip, skeletons with a dark purple glow rose. Each one carried either a sword, axe, lance, staff, or bow. He kept on swinging around until I was completely surrounded by hundreds of skeletons ranging from human size to giant dragon size.

“Each skeleton has immunity to magic, Master,” said Shiade.

“Master, release us, we will be able to help keep the skeletons at bay,” said Midgar.

“Master, assimilate with me Chronos, and merge with Fenrir. Our abilities will be the most compatible in this situation,” said Chronos.

“I, Galahad, will remain here to protect you,” said Galahad.

“I recommend releasing Midgar, Shiade, and Molx,” said Fenrir.

“Trust us master,” said Molx.

“Release. A spell that only a master summoner can do. You are powerful enough. You need no teacher for this spell. Trust is the most important thing,” said Marduk.

“Master...” said Chronos.

I nodded and felt everything around me. My summons support me even though I defeated them. The mass of skeletons inched closer and closer. I felt a bond between myself and my summons and I leeched onto it. Feeling that I was doing the right thing, I pulled more and more until I shouted, “Release!”

Suddenly loud cries rang through the air. Midgar flew in the sky, only this time he had a silver sheen around him. Shiade joined him in the sky, also with a silver sheen. Molx towered above me next to Galahad. Chronos was in his Golem form. Fenrir was crouching in front of me ready to strike. Marduk stood next to me, his hands clasped.

All of my summons appeared and they each had a silver sheen or aura on them. A thin line of this aura connected them all to my own silver aura. Fortunately, their appearance didn’t leave me without their true forms.

“Release is a spell that reveals our battle form to aid you. This silver sheen or aura you see is Link. A passive ability only Sage ranked summoners have. It strengthens everyone that is connected to the master. The more links there are, the more powerful everyone gets. If the master is injured, the damage is split between all of his summons,” said Marduk beside me.

“Leave your protection to us, concentrate on defeating Necros,” said Marduk as he led me to climb up Fenrir’s back, “I’ll coordinate their efforts. My power is sealed for now so this is all that I can do.”

A roar pierced the atmosphere and fighting clashed around us. I saw Midgar fighting in the sky with five skeletal dragons. Shiade was darting in and out of the mass of skeletons everywhere. Molx teleported everywhere causing disturbances and fire pillars. Chronos moved very quickly and gracefully for a golem, killing several skeletons at a time.

I assimilated with Chronos and another link was established between us. I merged with Fenrir and the same thing happened. I looked at Marduk and he said, “While released, they do not go within you. And you should be able to assimilate with another one as well.”

I assimilated with Galahad who was protecting us from attacks nearby.

When the link was established, I urged Fenrir to lead us to Necros.

Necros kept on swinging his scythe on the ground, endlessly creating skeletons when he saw us. He swung his scythe directly toward the ground and a massive rip opened toward us.

Fenrir dodged out of the way as Galahad dealt with the skeletons and I cast Lightning Dragons. I couldn’t use any massive spells, as it might hit my summons.

The spell passed through him as if he were never there, and skeletons with robes appeared from the rip he made. These skeletons stabbed the ground with their staves and more skeletons appeared from where the ground had been stabbed.

“Only Spirit or Inner magic will work on Necros,” shouted Marduk in my head.

Cursing my luck that I had no readied Spirit or Inner magic, Fenrir kept running around, dodging the attacks of the skeletons and killing them while keeping track of Necros. Necros started attacking us with green energy waves every time he swung his scythe.

Continuing our evasion, I tried to think up spells that would affect Necros.

I have to think of something that only hits the spirit. Demoralizing will not work and what is the spirit made of anyway!, I thought.

Necros stopped attacking and reared back its head. “Not good!” shouted Marduk in my head.

A reverberating scream echoed in the arena. It made me scream. It felt like my brain was being melted from the inside. I heard roars and screams all around me as my summons were also affected. They stopped what they were doing and dropped to the ground. Midgar and Shiade crushed some of the skeletons when they fell.

We were all incapacitated when the screaming stopped and the skeletons kept coming once more. We all suffered their attacks for a few seconds while we got control of our body back and retaliated.

I healed everyone’s wounds, but it didn’t do much to our situation. We were in trouble if Necros screamed like that every chance he could get.

Hoping that it would work, I healed one of the skeletons and his body burnt itself and became a pile of ashes. Seeing that healing spells might defeat Necros, I set about trying to think of massive area healing.

Gathering the necessary mana of Healing, Holy, Nature, Water, and Wind, I raised my hands in the air and cast the new spell, “Heaven’s Rain!”.

The red sky turned bright white as if we were no longer in Hell but rather in Heaven. Bright white rain drops fell from the clear white sky. Clouds did not form in the air but drops of healing water rained down.

My summons and I felt relieved and healed but I felt that my mana was running out. Fortunately, it affected the skeletons and burned them all to ashes. Necros was shielded with his black robe but he couldn’t move.

At least he stopped moving, I thought, I need a spirit attack.

I concentrated Healing, Holy, Light and Spirit mana into my outstretched right hand that targeted Necros. A large white orb containing smaller winged orbs formed in the palm of my hand. I exhausted all of my mana into this one spell that I was creating: Holy Spirit Bolt.

I launched the bolt at Necros when my mana was exhausted. It traveled at a speed comparable to an arrow towards him but Necros didn’t move. As it got closer to Necros, I could see that he was a skeleton in the inside. It made sense now. He couldn’t move because the rain would hurt him, and the only reason he was unhurt was because of the robes he wore.

The bolt hit him and his whole body burst into blue flames, burning the bones as well as the robe. He let out a paralyzing scream and he threw all caution to the wind and flew straight at me with his scythe.

We couldn’t move as he swung his scythe, bathed in flames, toward my body. I couldn’t do anything but stare at him with half closed eyes. When he was too close, I had to look down because it was too bright and then all I heard was a scream.

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