The Golem Mage

The moment the judge vanished from above, a light shield formed instantly around them.

Alec tilted his head upward, sensing a strange, veil-like energy descending from the sky, despite focusing on it for a moment, he couldn’t discern anything about its structure or origin.

He was just about to activate his energy eyes to examine it more closely when a collective gasp erupted around him, this caused him to turn toward his team members, and he immediately understood why.

The terrain had completely changed.

The solid, black marble battlefield they had been standing on moments ago was gone. In its place stretched a field of dense vegetation. The grass was long, yet carefully measured—not high enough to reach their knees, almost as if it had been designed specifically not to interfere with movement or combat.

Alec couldn’t help but wonder just how powerful the Creation Stone was, to alter the environment so instantly without him even sensing the transition.

Even so, he could still feel it, that his real body still remained in place, and everything around him had shifted because the dome of light energy which had fused with the Creation stone’s power had now enclosed them.

The sensation unsettled him, what truly baffled him was how an astral body had been created so seamlessly, without the slightest trace of the process.

While Alec was still analyzing the situation, the Silent Night mages showed no such concern, they had only one objective, and that was to locate their targets and eliminate them.

“Alec!” Arthur called out sharply, Alec turned just in time to see two figures already closing in from the flanks.

Then, something strange happened.

Fang, who had been approaching from the left, suddenly dissolved into smoke, his form dispersing as he drifted upward into the air, at the same time, Sojin who was coming from the left sank downward, as his body slipped into the shadows as if swallowed whole.

“Deal with them. I’ll regroup with you later,” Alec said calmly to Brandon and Arthur, while he was already moving forward.

His target was clear, just up ahead, Takeda stood waiting, flanked by Shin and Kenta, as if they were expecting him to make this move too.

Seeing Alec approaching, Shin and Kenta stepped forward as if they intended to intercept him first, but before they could engage, two blurs shot past Alec.

On the left was Lucas, with lightning coursing through his body as he surged forward at full speed, without any flashy movement, the moment he reached Kenta, he swung his greatsword in a clean horizontal arc.

Kenta reacted instantly, by raising his arms into a high guard, as his tonfas crossed in front of him, acting as the first line of defense.

Bang!

However; the impact drove him backward, as he dragged his feet across the ground as he tried to absorb the force, but it wasn’t enough, because the momentum still pushed him several steps away.

Only after regaining his balance did Kenta realize Lucas’s true intention, he hadn’t been aiming to defeat him, but to just remove him from Alec’s path.

Immediately, Kenta tried to locate Shin, since they had both moved to stop Alec... but when he located Shin, he realized that he too had also been displaced, and his posture was unstable, as his body was slightly off-balance.

In the next instant, Shin spun the wire hook in his hand, as the line sliced through the air.

A sharp thang! rang out repeatedly as the hook snapped and recoiled midair, before his posture returned to normal.

“Arrrgh! Do you really think that’s enough to stop me? With what—just your mana threads?”

“You better bring out that puppet of yours!” Shin snapped back, settling into a stance, with both his hands controlling his weapon, most of the wire coiled around his left, while his right gripped the middle, guiding its motion as it spun with lethal precision.

By now, the battlefield had fully split into separate engagements.

Alec on the other hand just continued forward without any interruption, at last, he stepped into close range of Takeda.

And yet, even now, Takeda made no move putting his hands behind him, he simply hovered slightly above the ground, looking down at Alec with a calm, almost dismissive gaze.

“Don’t you want to draw your weapon? I wouldn’t want to be known as the one who attacked a man who wasn’t ready... or worse, defenceless,” Alec said with a smile, his left hand resting on the hilt of his weapons which rested at the left side of his waist.

However, despite Alec’s words, Takeda’s expression didn’t change.

“I don’t know if you’re just being foolish... or foolish enough to say something like that,” he replied coldly.

“I know about your ability to summon golems, but as things stand, only one of them has reached the Tier 7 realm.”

“Don’t tell me that’s what’s fueling your confidence to face me... or are you planning to bring that beautiful lady’s puppet into the fight as well?”

The moment Alec heard “beautiful lady,” the veins along his temple pulsed, for a split second, irritation surged through him, but he forced it down, letting Takeda continue.

“If that’s what you’re relying on, then I must apologize... because there’s no way you can defeat me. A few days ago, perhaps there might have been a miniscule chance for you—but now...”

As he said now, Takeda released his aura, spreading his hands out, as a crushing pressure descended upon Alec, with his hands spread out before Alec while he hovered in the air he looked more like a divine being staring at his subject.

The force alone distorted the air around them. Wind currents twisted violently, flames flickered into existence, moisture condensed into visible streams, the earth beneath trembled—and even shadows thickened, manifesting unnaturally in the open.

“Woah!!!”

The northern stands fell into stunned silence.

Those with sharper insight immediately understood that this wasn’t simple as it seems, they knew how incredibly difficult each breakthrough of Takeda was, and from what they understood if he was at the low Tier 7 realm it only means that, each and every one of Takeda’s main bodies had also reached the Low Tier 7 realm too.

And that wasn’t even the most terrifying part, the real question was, if he fused multiple bodies together... what level of power would he display then?

While the northern side stood speechless, the eastern stands erupted into thunderous cheers.

Before Alec, Takeda’s five elemental bodies appeared fully manifested, each radiating power, each standing as a force of nature on its own.