His obsidian gaze seemed to prate into Reemush''s very soul, swirling with an endless cyclone of screaming, unremitting hatred. Of the utter disdain and revulsion, his kind felt for this mage''s sanctimonious defiling of what he would dare call the higher arcana.


    Reemush channelled his magic into the writhing ck tentacles, willing them to shield him from the relentless mes. The tentacles surged and twisted, a dark, living barrier against the fire''s assault. Yet, despite his efforts, the mes continued to consume them, burning through the protective tendrils as quickly as they could regenerate.


    Sweat beaded on Reemush''s forehead, and his face contorted in concentration and pain. Each time the fire seared through a tentacle, he poured more of his magic into spawning another, a desperate and exhausting cycle. The tentacles writhed and iled, a chaotic dance of shadow and me, but the fire''s relentless hunger seemed insatiable.


    Jaegar watched the struggle intently, his eyes narrowed. The air around them had be suppressive. The heat from the fire radiated outward, singeing the edges of Jaegar''s awareness, while the dark energy of the tentacles hummed with a low, malevolent resonance.


    "You wish to plumb the true depths of the deepest terror, mage?" Jaegar spoke, his every utterance dripping with the cold promise of scourging annihtion. "Then bear witness to the least of what the abyssal cknesses can unbirth onto your paltry reality..."


    His outstretched hand convulsed, and the profane cyclone rapidly intensified in size, temperature, and ferocity—no longer bound to the physical nes by a mere practitioner of the lower arcana''s petty geometries. The unstoppable vortex swelled to eclipse Reemush entirely as he shrieked and gibbered in mortal panic, his every woven counter wildly failing to gain even the meagrest purchase.


    And within that turmoil, reality itself splintered, the balcony''s very stonework melting away into a skewering tesseted implosion.


    Reemush''s consciousness was unhinging from the futile attempt to contextualise what his fraying sanity could no longer process, drowning in the rising tide of utter annihtions.


    Then, with a subtle clenching of Jaegar''s fist, the nightmare contracted, rebounding against itself with the force of a harnessed singrity to disappear in a violent snap that whited out all surrounding actuality.


    When the static of that thunderous oblivion cleared, Reemush had simply ceased to exist. The mage''s physical and spiritual essences had all been entirely unravelled. Nothing remained save a scorched, fractalized distortion scarring the very air where he''d foolishly stood.


    And Jaegar stood motionless amidst the aftermath, his chest heaving up and down. He lowered his hand as thest ember-like flickerings of that detonation winked out.


    He couldn''t believe his eyes, seeing the might of the earth me, even though he was the one who unleashed inferno hell just moments ago. Just how powerful was this me?


    He tried calling the me deity who was resting inside his deep space, but there was no response.


    Sighing, Jaegar shook his head and took a rest for a moment before he started moving again.


    *


    After delivering the final blow that ended the mage''s life, Jaegar turned and walked towards the edge of the balcony. His keen eyes scanned the battlefield below, where the sh of steel and the cries of thebatants echoed through the air. The fight seemed far from over, with remnants of the enemy forces still putting up a determined resistance.


    Continue your journey at м??


    After watching them for a brief moment, he turned and strode back into the fortress''s interior, his boots drumming against the gstones.


    The narrow corridors were alive with the sounds of battle as the soldiers fought tooth and nail to repel the invaders. They had the number advantage and their morale had been boosted by the mage''s death.


    The soldiers who were present near the scene were utterly shocked by what Jaegar had done to that mage.


    Jaegar''s eyes narrowed, and he snatched up a discarded sword from the floor. Channelling his innate power, he ignited the de with a scorching me that flowed like moltenva across the steel.


    The red-hot sword was an extension of his arm, a whirling dervish of death that cut down anyone who dared stand in his path. Foe after foe fell before his relentless onught, their dying screams echoing through the halls.


    Yet, as the battle raged on, the intense heat took its toll, and the once-formidable de slowly melted away, the molten iron adhering to Jaegar''s hand in a grotesque parody of a gauntlet, yet nothing happened to him.


    Undeterred, he pressed on, using his makeshift weapon to deadly effect. When an enemy soldier rushed at him, his sword raised, Jaegar deftly dodged the clumsy strike andshed out with his zing hand, searing the man''s flesh. The soldier''s agonised screams reverberated through the corridor as he fled in terror.


    Leaving a trail of broken bodies in his wake, Jaegar fought his way deeper into the fortress, until atst, he reached a vast, yawning entrance—the maw of a giant cave. It was there that he paused, his chest heaving with exertion, and surveyed the scene before him.


    *


    As dusk fell over the embattled fortress, it became clear that Drasus had ordered his remaining forces to enter the fortress. By nightfall, the fortress had been reimed, and not a single Daikrimore soldier was left standing.


    Jaegar stood poised, yet wary, at the cave''s entrance as Kaeso approached, his face etched with a mixture of pride and trepidation. For, unbeknownst to them both, a shadowy figure garbed in emerald robes watched from a high vantage point beyond the fortress walls – one of Li''s men, no doubt.


    The mysterious observer took in the scene for a few tense moments before melting back into the shadows, intent on reporting the day''s events to their master.


    Kaeso stood before Jaegar, his armour caked with dried blood and deep gouges marking where enemy des had found their mark. Though battered and weary, a sense of hard-won contentment emanated from the grizzledmander.


    All around them, Kaeso''s soldiers bore simr marks of the brutal battle - some leaning on their swords to remain upright, others binding weeping wounds with torn strips of cloth. But their eyes shone with a newfound respect as they beheld Jaegar.