CHAPTER 121: ARCHMAGISTER SUPREME LUCIEN ARKVALE

Standing amidst the carnage was a middle-aged man cloaked in swirling elemental energy. Flames, lightning, frost, wind, earth, and other elements continuously shifted around him like a storm.

His name was Lucien Arkvale, a Four-Star SSS-rank Awakener with an SSS-rank All Elements Mage class.

At this moment, his expression turned solemn as soon as he heard the Demon King of Decay Xalvureth activate his attack.

Even amongst the thirteen known SSS-rank Awakeners, Lucien was one of the top five strongest as he was the Archmagister Supreme of the Grand Council of Magi, located within the Arcanthia Continent.

There were twelve continents on Earth, and the Grand Council of Magi was the governing body of the Aetherian Dominion within the Arcanthia Continent.

As the Archmagister Supreme, he held the responsibility of protecting not only the Aetherian Dominion but also Earth.

However, unlike the Valtoria Empire, the Britannia Empire, and the Eastern Dragon Empire, which governed their respective territories through a reigning imperial monarch, the Aetherian Dominion was largely neutral in its geopolitics.

It only represented itself as the gathering place of mages and magic-based Awakeners on Earth. In other words, when it came to magic theory and knowledge, as well as even the power of magic, the Archmagister Supreme Lucien was the greatest on Earth.

But even with that, Lucien knew that despite him being one of the top five strongest on Earth, he’d undoubtedly die if three SSS-rank beings ganged up against him.

Facing the Demon King of Decay’s Death Grip, Lucien gripped his SSS-rank magic staff tightly, waving it as he set up countless magic barriers around.

"Multi-Cast: Fire Barrier, Wind Barrier, Magic Barrier x 10, Enhance Durability, Enchant Magic Resistance..."

Lucien rapidly multi-casted countless magic spells. But due to his rapid chant class trait, he could chant all of it in under a millisecond.

Faced with the dazzling magic barriers surrounding Lucien, Xalvureth merely scoffed and waved his Death Grip.

A huge phantom of a dark-colored skeletal hand materialized above the sky, seemingly a hundred meters in size. Any weaker monsters who saw it immediately died as soon as they perceived it.

The death and decay element materialized out of the Death Grip was something that could kill anyone below SS-rank within a certain range.

Even its mere manifestation was enough to slowly erode the magic barriers that Lucien had set up, but it was still far from enough to render them useless.

Demon King Xalvureth didn’t have any expectations that such a manifestation of his Death Grip alone could deal any great harm to Lucien. As much as he despised human awakeners, Lucien was still a bigger ant that even required all three of them to guarantee his death.

With a falling-down motion of his hand, Xalvureth then followed up with a hand gripping motion as he chanted, "Die! Die! Die! Die! Die!"

The hundred-meter dark-colored skeletal hand fell and held the magic barriers set up by Lucien. In an instant, it immediately tightened its grip, causing the outermost layers of the magic barriers to shatter.

The Death Grip’s decay element took effect immediately. The longer it gripped the magic barriers, the more gradual the weakening of the magic barriers became.

As if that wasn’t enough, every chant of "Die" uttered by Xalvureth was a combination of word and death magic. Each time his Die chant resounded, the stronger the Death Grip became, and the magic barriers could only crack continuously.

Every second, three layers of the magic barrier would shatter. Lucien knew that at this rate, he could only stall for half a minute at most, and all his magic barriers would shatter.

’If not for that SSS-rank Ancient Space Dragon, I would have already used space magic to teleport out of here.’

He wasn’t foolish and hot-blooded enough to fight against three SSS-rank beings, as he knew that would inevitably lead to his death being the only outcome.

Lucien was only tasked by the Earth Will to deal with Xalvureth, but who knew that Xalvureth schemed against him? Not only was there the Demon King of Hellfire Varnak eying him and waiting to attack if he showed any flaws or opening, but there was even the strongest monster in the Monster World blocking his escape.

He truly didn’t expect the SSS-rank Ancient Space Dragon to awaken from its slumber. After all, the last time the Ancient Space Dragon participated in any battle was ten years ago.

Even when in the past, the SSS-rank Awakeners had managed to besiege an SSS-rank Demon King and kill him in the Monster World, the Ancient Space Dragon remained indifferent to it and didn’t protect that Demon King.

Because of their ambush and with the Ancient Space Dragon sealing the space within this area, Lucien couldn’t escape and could only hope that reinforcements would arrive.

Otherwise, if those SSS-rank Awakeners didn’t support him, this damn ice and snow field would become his graveyard.

’Damn it! I can’t die now! I haven’t become a Magic God yet!’

’Even if I go all out and put my life on the line, I can only bring one of them down with me. I can only stall for time at this rate and conserve my mana so that when reinforcements arrive, I can assist them in defeating these Demon Kings.’

While inside the magic barriers, Lucien decided to fight back and stall for enough time for the arrival of reinforcements.

To conserve mana, he used chantless magic spells that drew upon the elements and mana of his surroundings.

Due to that, countless ice spikes formed outside the magic barriers. Locking onto the Xalvureth who continued chanting his Die spell, a hail of ice spikes bombarded the skeleton demon king.

However, Xalvureth didn’t stop controlling the Death Grip as he was indifferent to those ice spikes. While each of them was indeed a basic attack of an SSS-rank Awakener and could easily pierce and kill SS-rank Monster Lords and harm SSS-rank Demon Kings, Xalvureth didn’t make a move as he knew he didn’t have to.

Aware of his role in this battle, the Demon King of Hellfire Varnak snapped his fingers, and pillars of fire from hell appeared to block Lucien’s ice spikes!

After successfully fending off Lucien’s ice spikes, Varnak mocked, "Truly a weak human, give up the struggle and just die at our hands!"