I had confirmed with my clone that Bomba was safe, which is good because Bea had just casted her third [Meteor].


    [Meteor] is one of those skills you don’t want someone to finish at all costs. Bea’s [Meteor] had a 10-second cast time but mine has a 1-second cast time so I could easily pile on to this but I was making sure Bea could cast these [Meteors] without a problem. Half of the council had flown up and were attempting to stop them from destroying the city. A familiar sight.


    “So, are we going to stay here until a [Meteor] crashes down?” Remi has a good point. We need to get out of here.


    Hey Bea we’re getting out of here


    “Not until I burn them to the ground!”


    She used a skill and created… are those phoenixes? No, they’re eagles. Oh, Crimson Eagle, duh! It seems that no more [Meteors] are coming. Nilah was having a great time absorbing attacks left and right and the remaining council members were complaining about her.


    “It feels good to be on your side for once, I do however know how they feel…”


    Heh, this is nothing. I went easy on you most of the time.


    I stole some hats and shot some council members down with some [Frost Arrows].


    “Does magic even work on you?” Remi had created some [Tornados] and they were also feeding the [Crimson Eagles].


    Of course, it does, it doesn’t work on Nilah though.


    I sent all the mana I got to Nilah. Nilah caught attacks with her tails and hunted down 2 [Crimson Eagles]


    Bea''s flames flared and she glared at me. “Hey! Your fox ate my [Crimson Eagles]!”


    Woops, sorry. Nilah don’t eat the red chickens!


    “They’re eagles!”


    Nilah was hitting her limit on how much attacks she could protect us from in her large form.


    Hey Bea, how about you deal with those in the sky. I will take care of those on the ground.


    Remi had healed up enough and she seemed to be battle ready. “Do you need any help?”


    I will be fine, go help Bea.


    I connected to the air leyline currents and started to use [Drowning Pulse].


    Nilah! Small form, stop eating the chickens!


    “They’re eagles!”


    Nilah became small, as in almost as big as me, and ran over to me as I was slowly flooding the area. It was quite difficult because the academy was built on a hill. I sent several [Flushes] at some council members that thought could fry me.


    So, I already knew this but leyline energy doesn’t like to mix with most forms of magic. It ate through the magic defenses as if it was nothing. I was as surprised as my opponents. Is it possible that magic can’t defend against this?


    The [Meteors] had been successfully stopped by the other council members so we were stuck in a 4v26 and bystanding Misha were either fleeing or helping the council out.


    “Ugh, it’s the conservative faction, we need to run!” Remi seemed to prepare to run but we were quite stuck.


    “There is no running, you will die here. I see you have borrowed the help of a mythical race but that’s not going to help you, we will show you the true power of the Council!” They all sent out mana bursts and their hair started to act like various elements. I saw thunder hair, fire hair, sand hair, ewww who wants sand hair? I suppose this happens when they get serious, similar to my tailed mode.


    Remi did the same, Remi had wind hair and Bea had already done her fire hair stunt. Do I need to get serious? I think not!


    I did see something that looked like collaboration magic. Something that 2 or more people use when they are in sync. It is difficult to execute and strong so I had no intention of letting it through. However…


    “We will keep you busy!” A flame hair council member, a lightning hair council member and a wind hair council member flew at me, readying various types of magic. I guess I can ignore the flame and lightning hair. I used [7th Waterfall] and rushed at them while [Drowning Pulse] was still going. I knocked the wind Council member off her staff and juggled her with [Vanishing Ripple].


    I ignored the fire spells and I caught the lightning spells with water.


    “What!? Water is supposed to be weak against lightning!”


    This shit again. I blasted the wind council into the air with [Flush] to deal with the lightning council member. A water veil protected me from the lighting spells and I followed up with [Churning Waves] and [Ocean’s Wrath].


    All the magic attacks got caught in the currents swirling around me.


    Here have a taste!


    I sent an electrified current at the wind Council member and it went through her defensive magic and almost killed her.


    “Be careful! It is impossible to guard against his attacks!”


    Took them a bit too long. I bet they also don’t know what [Ocean’s Wrath] does. I kept it up until it was fully charged. Each Council member had gotten hit by 1 current.


    They got fired at them since they were fully charged. I prepared a follow-up but it took them all out. I directed my attention to the council members that were casting the collaboration magic and I stole their hats which made them fail.


    The magic circles reappeared behid them as hey had recovered the interrupted collaboration magic. I didn’t know this was possible. I guess I still have things to learn about magic.


    Nilah, it’s time for [Eternal Winter], don’t hit Remi or chicken lady.


    “I heard that! They’re eagles!”


    Nilah and I used [Eternal winter] and wiped-out mana in a 50 meter radius.


    “I see! We have an anti-magic expert to deal with!”


    They brought out talismans. I suppose they are supposed to counter anti-magic fields. The problem is that this is the nature of frost magic.


    “It isn’t working!?”


    I was getting an insane amount of mana in and Nilah was almost saturated. I guess our frost shenanigans are over after this. The water I had created had frozen over and trapped several Misha.


    We used some [Frost Novas] on the Misha that were responsible for the collaboration magic before we dropped [Eternal Winter]. We could one shot most of them with [Kryokym] now but I want to save that for when a god decides to sneak in and sneak attack us.


    A barrier appeared around the city when [Eternal Winter] dropped.


    “You are trapped now! You can’t leave!”


    Remi and Bea started to panic when they found out. This barrier looked different and seemed complicated. The city was quite empty. Only a good 24000 Misha had stayed behind to fight us. I suppose it’s the conservative faction. Quite small. The whole city housed about 300000 Misha the last time I was here. It is not a number one normally wants to fight though.


    “It is over… Bea can’t even use [Meteor] as a threat anymore…” Remi seemed as if she wanted to give up. A 4v24000+ are terrible odds. Nilah is saturated with mana so abusing frost magic is quite rough. I will have to waste mana like when I block lasers.


    I created 3 triple clones after giving myself a [Frost Cloak]. I disconnected from the leyline air currents and used [Foxfire: Sapphire Ring]. All the mana that rushed in was feeding the sapphire ring behind me.


    I wonder how Nilah is doing. She can only use frost magic and foxfire as far as I know, she isn’t great at using foxfires yet so she won’t be able to get rid of the mana unless she uses [Kryokym]. She was trying to swat flying Misha down but wasn’t very successful. I beckoned her over and had her return to her smaller size. I dove to the side to dodge an [ice spike].


    Are you ok Nilah? Do you have ways to use this mana?


    Nilah shot a pure mana blast and sniped a Misha out of the air. I guess that works. I decided to keep her as a sword for emergencies. If I was a god, I would wait till this was over and I was weakened to capture me.


    I created various [Frost Mirrors] to absorb and reflect attacks flying at me. The sapphire ring behind me burnt hotter and I had melted and evaporated all the water in the area. Bea seemed relatively fine but Remi was getting affected by the heat.


    Another ring appeared as I had to waste more mana.


    “Hey Agnis, I don’t want to complain but can you keep the temperature down?”


    I don’t think Remi is complaining, the walls of the academy were slowly melting, indicating how hot it was. I tried to focus the sapphire ring in front of me and use it as an attack. It shot out a blue beam of foxfire and obliterated anything in its path. It wasn’t as fast as a real laser but I don’t care, this is a laser!


    I did it! I finally have a laser! A [Foxfire: Sapphire Laser]!


    Remi and Bea didn’t understand why I was so excited but this is the best thing that happened to me in a long time! I started firing of my sapphire lasers but Misha are smart, unfortunately. They stopped feeding me mana by hitting into my frost skills.


    Ugh you guys suck, can’t a 9t have any fun?


    My lasers got weaker and weaker and my [Foxfire: Sapphire Rings] disappeared as I had emptied my basic mana reserves.A flash suprised me and I got blasted away. It broke a layer of [Frozen Skin]. It had a lot of power behind it but there was a problem. The Misha that just hit me with a [Teranova Blast] had erupted in orange light.


    Uh oh I don’t want to deal with a Misha in a Critical Rush!


    But instead of pressing her attack she flew up.


    “Agnis! This isn’t good! If you have something that can teleport us away and out of this barrier, do it now!” Remi and Bea said as they started panicking.


    Uhh, it will take a while to disable this barrier, why is this a problem?


    “You see… we Misha can share our critical rushes with others and every Misha that receives this will have the combined duration of the critical rush, it will also only end after the duration expires and not just after 3 critical hits…”


    Uhm 3 minutes times 24000+ isn’t this cheating?


    All the opposing Misha burst in orange light and entered critical rush. My napkin math tells me that this is a critical rush with a duration of 50 days, we are quite dead if we don’t get out of this.


    “Feel the true potential of our race!” They targeted Bea and Remi first.


    I swapped them with some frost cubes to get them to safety. Normally I would play some [Bossmusic] but I don’t think I can afford to in this situation. I grabbed them with my tails and weaved between the attacks raining down.


    “It is over… we can’t win…”


    “Hey this is our fight, I’m sorry for getting you into this. Go back to being Aya’s mean tea or something. This is our problem.”


    Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    A bit too late for that.


    I stole some hats but that didn''t stop them from being angry, overpowered and ready to kill us.


    Right. I guess it’s time to show them what my race can do then if they want to play it like this. There is a reason a 9t is a mythical race. It’s time to show them that if you play stupid games, you win stupid prizes.


    A mana burst went out as I went 9t mode. Space started to distort and time started to glitch. I folded pockets of space to send their attacks back. Hacked some cast times so that some Misha were locked into casting something that had an infinite cast time and I put Bea and Remi down.


    We won’t get out of this if we keep running. I need to beat them up.


    I warped to the group of flying Misha and reduced the space between them and the ground to 0 which made them all crash to the ground. Increased the time it took for them to get up and lopped off some heads with [Dimensional Sword].


    I think it’s only fair that I also show you the capacity of my race.


    I caught some attacks in wormholes and sent them back at them. I snapped my fingers and created 15 illusion layers dropping the Misha in their worst nightmares.


    I used this time to knock out whoever seemed to be the biggest threat. The Misha that had started casting collaboration magic would never finish since I had increased their casting time to infinite. I could ignore those. I could now forcefully end their critical rush because it’s time based but I would inflict maximum despair if I defeated them while they were still in this.


    The council members were the first ones to break out of the illusion. It was nothing impressive, I had created them so they were easy to break out. It did put them in mental distress. I shattered some more illusion layers and put [Confusion] on them.


    I got hit by a [Triple Flare], at least that’s what it looked like, the council member had ignited her ally that looked like me because of illusions. She also landed a critical hit. I revealed the mistake she had made and it added to her mental distress.


    Space, time and illusions are mine to command. The nature of these 3 makes the power of my opponent quite irrelevant. They might be able to instant kill me in 1 attack, cool, they will have to land that hit first!


    I had some Misha turn into monsters with the aid of illusions, which caused them to attack each other. Those who wouldn’t fall for this trick saw me going in for an attack.


    Witchaven was filled with uncertainty, what was an illusion or real was completely up to me. But I was unsatisfied. Defeating them like this will only cause them to avoid dealing with me. It won’t have them stop messing with Remi or Bea, nor will it make them finally accept Azu.


    A decision was made. I will reduce their numbers and attempt to address this problem. It might be risky but most seem to have realized already that messing with me was a bad idea.


    I froze some Misha that were knocked out so that they wouldn’t become a problem if they woke up. I will kill if necessary but there is no lesson to be learnt if they all die. Chaos continued until only 5491 Misha were left. Only several council members had perished, the rest were still active.


    I started [Elgard Overload] as there is something they neede to experience. I teleported Remi toward me as near infinite illusion layers formed.


    You knew Azu… Ayaru well right? You have memories of her stored in your hat, right? Do you mind if I access them?


    “That is possible? I see… you truly have taken over her research. Go on.”


    I touched her hat and reduced the time needed to go through all the memories about Azu to 1 second.


    Thank you.


    I might be able to create Azu in the 2 windows where I am not limited to reality. I prepared for the first window. This would be Azu as Remi knows her, the second one will be the Azu I know. This might backfire on me even with [Elgards Overload] but I truly believe Azu could wipe the floor with any of them if she was here.


    The first window came up and I made Azu as she was known here in Witchaven, as Ayaru Mistflower. She looked quite different from as I knew her. I took a backseat and saw how she made countless [Ice Mirrors], similar to how I used [Frost Mirrors]. She also dropped a [Meteor] from inside the barrier. I’ve learned another thing, apparently this is possible.


    She had used [Tsunami] and was probably going for the combo that made her known as the Azure mist, but my window expired. My eyes ached as Azu’s strength was at the upper limit of what my eyes could handle. The second window is going to hurt.


    I kicked multiple impossibilities out of reality. The opposing Misha seemed in disarray. Remi was crying but I think it’s the good kind and Bea was staring.


    “This is impossible! There is no way Ayaru is this strong!” The council members seemed in denial. They are right, she is stronger now. The Misha kept landing critical hits on each other as they couldn’t figure out where I was or what they were hitting.


    The second window came up and a bubblegum witch appeared. My sight got hazy as my eyes started to bleed. Another [Tsunami] and an [Azure Spear] the size of the academy went out. I wish this was a made-up illusion, but there is a 99% chance that the real Azu can do this.


    It instantly decimated the opposing Misha. Then came a skill I’ve never personally seen. It was called [Mistflower Field]. Countless mistflowers made out of ice grew and violently exploded, scattering ice petals everywhere, which could cut nearly anything. The academy got ripped into shreds as did many Misha. The petals settled and grew into new mistflowers, continuing this process until there were none left.


    This skill is brutal… Forget [Azure Mist] this skill took out most of the Misha.


    I had known about this from the memories Remi handed to me but seeing it is completely different. I tried to keep my eyes open and sent nature energy to them which helped a bit.


    The bubblegum witch wasn’t done yet. [Azure Mist] got used and all the Misha fled. Some were too slow and screams could be heard from within the mist which slowly disappeared. I might have made them scared of Azu, not sure if they will accept her now…


    I had to end my [Elgard Overload] prematurely because I was afraid I would take lasting damage. The illusion layers folded into each other and disappeared. It also took away my 9t mode. My eyes healed a bit. They still hurt but they were useable.


    Ugh, I’m sorry Remi, I think they are even more afraid of Azu now.


    “That is fine… at least they know the full potential of Aya. Thank you for letting me see her again.”


    I didn’t do this for you but for Azu. I am not yet done with them though.


    I put [Frost Cloaks] on Remi and Bea, and walked over to the remaining Misha.


    Hey assholes! You might think Azu is a monster now, eh? Do you realize that any of you could have been that strong if you had listened to her? Halting progress is saying no to power like that. Had you listened and became as powerful as she is, this wouldn’t have happened. I wouldn’t been able to do this to all of you. But you might not believe me. So, I will present to you a simplified version of her work.


    I pulled mana that Nilah was holding on to into my body. This was the first time in almost forever that I have mana circulating through my system. The mana was pure so I should be fine. This was the default state of many living beings including 9t. It is very well possible that I am way stronger with mana running through my system, who knows. It’s time to find out.


    When I studied here, when I studied Ayaru’s research, I was disguised as one of you. They called me the ‘Fireball Misha’


    I made a normal [Fireball] and approached them.


    The reason being is because fire is my main affinity but also my most powerful affinity, so anything besides [Fireball] would turn the area and surroundings into ash. That was true but only true until I studied Ayaru’s research. Now none of my fire abilities are safe for the environment. Let me show you Ayaru’s version of ‘Magic’


    I dynamically changed the magic circle of the [Fireball]. And it became larger, hotter and more mana efficient.


    This is just a [Fireball] and I am only applying Ayaru’s research to its magic circle.


    They soon had to put up multiple fire barriers because the heat was getting extreme and it was melting the whole area. I had to keep it above my head because it had reached a diameter of 3 meters. And it was still growing.


    Remi and Bea were safe because of my [Frost Cloak]. I just kept going and going. [Fireball] was quite an inefficient magic circle so there was a lot to fix about it.


    The academy burnt down and the area had turned into an inferno, just by a [Fireball] that hadn’t been shot off yet. Many Misha had died. I could tell because of the familiar scent of burnt flesh.


    This power could have been yours, only if you had accepted her. And this is just a [Fireball], this can be applied to any skill.


    I improved the [Fireball] until the barriers of the council members were about to give out. I shot it to the sky and it destroyed the barrier covering the whole city.


    This was a simple demonstration on what Magic truly is. All credit goes to Azu. Don’t be fools. Start accepting progress. It disgust me to see that you cast out members of your race because of a disagreement, truly the luxury of races that do well. They lose sense of solidarity and the mindset of protecting their own no matter the cost. I am done with you. If I ever find you harassing Remi, Azu or Bea, you know what’s waiting for you.


    “So, this is what happens when you challenge a mythical being. We concede…” The 4 remaining council members put their hats on the molten ground to demonstrate they conceded.


    One council member swiftly picked up her hat and used [Incinerate] on me. I responded by countering with an improved [Fireball] and incinerated her.


    It seems you have learnt nothing.


    I took 0 damage from the fire attack. It had some blunt force behind it but nothing to worry about because a [Frozen Skin] layer took care of that.


    Bea poked me. “Hey, you’re not our enemy, are you?”


    I can be if you want.


    We looked at the burnt and molten area filled with thousands of passed out and dead Misha. There was also a group of Misha stuck in frost cubes. I returned the mana in my system to Nilah. I didn’t need much in the end.


    Remi also looked around. “Truly a Silver Menace.”


    I hope that the remaining council members do something about this.


    “Hey, that was some impressive magic! Can you teach me it’s magic circle?”


    “Bea you already know that spell, it’s [Fireball]...”


    “Huh? How?”


    You should ask your daughter Shelly; I had given her some tips on improving [Fireball]. Anyway, time to get out of here, I don’t want to deal with this mess.


    “This is the councils problem” Remi looked at the 3 remaining council members that had surrendered. “I will get all my belongings and leave immediately for the elven village.”


    Oh, I won’t be there for a while. I will eventually return so I will see you there.


    Remi left but she didn’t go inside the academy.


    Bea was ranting at the council members. I used [Shadow Swap] with my shadow clone that was waiting outside the house of Bomba and Leanne.


    My clone had given them some privacy.


    I sat down and leaned my back against the wall and returned Nilah to her fox form and petted her. I got lucky this time but I don’t counter magic that well once Nilah is saturated. I didn’t think it was possible but I can somehow tell. She can take a bit more mana, using frost magic there would have cause me to freeze over quite swiftly.


    I was forced to find another way to deal with all that magic because I had no other way to shut down an army of magic using Misha, especially not if they’re all in a critical rush. They forcefully ended it when they surrendered but it could have turned out quite bad if I didn’t do what I did. The collaboration magic was also risky. It is a synergy not a sum so the resulting magic is many more times stronger than the sum of each Misha that cast it. I have multiple lives but Remi might have been killed. Bea is stronger than her so she might have survived.


    It was good that I seemed so oppressively overpowered there because it could have gone so wrong if I had made different decisions. They might not realize how close this was and that’s a good thing. They now know that sending an army after me isn’t going to work. Which is true, I could have used [Hsien] to stop the army but the first 2 minutes are crucial and they will have to somehow ignore me for 2 minutes so that I can get it off.


    I kept pondering and thinking of methods on how to make sure I don’t get into a similar situation until nightfall as Bomba was in there for a long time. My shadow clone in Witchaven had confirmed that Remi had left for the elven village 2 hours after our battle.


    It didn’t pay attention to what Bea went to do but she had left too. I decided to draw a transportation magic circle. There was still one in Bomba’s house from our departure so this should have better accuracy. I was about to knock on the door when I felt a wave of nausea.


    I opened the correct filter and saw some dimensional tears. I fixed them and knocked on the door.


    Bomba! It’s time to go back!


    It took a while but Bomba opened the door.


    “Cya Lea! I’ll be back soon!”


    Bye Leanne!


    “Thank you for bringing him here and good bye!”


    Leanne waved at us as we stepped on the transportation circle which activated.


    A bright flash went off and we were back in Bomba’s house.


    “Whoa! What a day! Thanks a lot, bud!”


    Quite a long day yeah.


    “So, what did you actually do up there?!”


    Well, you won’t believe it!


    I told Bomba what happened and left after I had finished my story. I walked back to the AA on a cold desert night when I saw it again. The Blur. I went into stealth and covered myself in illusions. It didn’t seem to have seen me and it just went into a random street.


    It didn’t go where I needed to go nor where I came from. Maybe it isn’t looking for me? Do I want to find out? I decided to just go back to the AA and sleep. Nilah had fallen asleep when I was talking to Bomba so I had turned her in her sword form so I could carry her. I hate to say this but I might have to find a minor god and fight it to get all the mana out of Nilah’s system. I am toast if I encounter a threat that possesses a lot of mana, like an army.


    I got to my room and curled up in my tails. I will have to start looking for materials tomorrow. Fatigue washed over me and I fell asleep.