Chapter 135
[Sense of Caleb's fight]
The first Guardian was dust.
But the second—
Still breathing. Still raging.
It stood like a corrupted mountain—broader, bulkier, with jagged bone protrusions climbing its back like a crown of death. Four glowing eyes scanned the battlefield independently, their crimson pupils twitching erratically. Black steam hissed from cracks in its cursed flesh, rising like smoke from a forge.
It roared—a sound that rattled the stones beneath them.
Then—
CRACK!
It slammed a clawed foot into the ground, sending a localized quake rippling outward. The terrain cracked and lifted violently. Sharp rock spires burst forth, tipped with dark energy.
But Caleb was already moving.
His boots barely touched the earth as waves of gravity magic cushioned his stride, letting him glide over shifting rubble. His white cloak flared behind him, marked with countless elemental sigils—evidence of all the magic he had copied and refined over time.
"You picked the wrong one," Caleb muttered, his voice low and dangerous.
The Guardian lunged.
A beast of rage.
Claws swung wildly—but there was brutal instinct behind its savagery.
BOOM!
Caleb vanished in a blur of wind, reappearing behind the creature with a spark in his eye.
"Element Wind Style: Rushing Gale Fang!"
A crescent of compressed air shot from his palm, slashing across the Guardian's back. The attack left a gash, but the creature didn't even flinch.
It spun—and brought down a claw the size of a wagon.
"Element Gravity Shield: Null Pulse!"
A dome of gravitational energy pulsed outward. The claw hit it—BOOM!—and was forced off-course, barely grazing Caleb's shoulder.
The Guardian screeched, and then cursed energy gathered in its chest.
Its ribcage split open to reveal a pulsating core eye, black and glowing.
Caleb's pupils dilated. "That's new."
SHHRRAAKK!
A wave of curse tendrils exploded from the core like spears. They tore through the ground toward Caleb, aiming to impale and infect.
Caleb planted his foot.
"Element Fire Magic: Crimson Barricade!"
Flames burst around him in a blazing wall. The tendrils burned—some screamed, some melted—but several pushed through.
Caleb didn't panic.
He flipped backwards and clapped his hands.
"Element Water Magic: Binding Torrent!"
From his palm, a serpent of water surged forward, wrapping around the curse tendrils and hardening into ice with a flick of his other hand.
"Element Ice Magic: Frozen Snap!"
The ice shattered—taking the tendrils with it.
The Guardian charged, undeterred. Its spine pulsed—those bony protrusions lighting up as if channeling a ritual. Its arms split in two—now four massive claws, all seething with cursed corruption.
Caleb exhaled.
"Alright, let's go wild."
He tapped his chest, activating a copied internal buffer.
"Element Lightning Sync: Arc Drive Mode."
Crackling blue lightning exploded around his limbs. His speed tripled.
The Guardian brought all four claws down like thunderbolts.
BOOM—BOOM—BOOM—BOOM!
Caleb dodged each strike by a breath. Dust and debris flew everywhere as the ground cratered. Sparks flew from Caleb's boots as lightning-enhanced movement bent time itself around him.
He countered mid-dash.
"Element Earth Style: Meteor Fist!"
He punched the ground, launching a slab of earth like a cannonball into the Guardian's chest. It staggered.
Then Caleb weaved hand signs—his body moving faster than thought.
"Element Curse Style: Bone Bloom!"
Bones erupted beneath the Guardian's feet—its own magic, turned against it.
It roared in rage as its ankles were skewered by sharpened spikes made of cursed marrow.
"Painful?" Caleb smirked.
But the Guardian flexed.
A pulse of raw curse magic burst from its core again—breaking its own bindings.
The sky turned dark as black rain began to fall, sizzling on impact with the ground.
Caleb's smirk faded. "Tch. Environmental curse… That's not good."
The Guardian raised its four arms, channeling power toward the sky.
A massive clawed construct—shaped like a spectral beast—formed above them, made entirely of condensed curse aura.
It came crashing down.
Caleb's eyes widened.
"...Guess it's time."
He clapped his hands together.
A glowing glyph appeared beneath him.
"Original Spell: element Merge – Elemental Fury Form!"
All his copied elements surged into his body at once—flames curled along his arms, lightning traced his veins, wind spun around his feet, water pulsed in his palms, and gravity anchored his core.
The beastly curse construct crashed down.
BOOOOOOM!
And was met mid-air by a massive wave of combined elements.
A vortex of flame, wind, and lightning burst upward—Caleb riding the front of it like a god of battle.
The explosion lit the night.
The Guardian stumbled back, screeching, arms seared and bones cracked.
Caleb landed, skidding to a stop.
His body steamed from overload. His arms trembled.
The Guardian, barely standing, roared once more and launched its final assault—a barrage of cursed needles, shadow clones, and a beam from its core eye.
Caleb's breath hitched. "One shot…"
He activated the last spell he'd been holding.
He raised one hand.
"Element Light Magic: Heaven Splitter—Refraction Beam!"
A beam of pure light surged from his palm—refined, focused, devastating.
It tore through every clone.
It disintegrated the needles mid-air.
And when it hit the core eye—
CRACK—KOOOOM!
The Guardian's chest exploded in cursed fire, its body breaking apart into steaming shards.
Its roar faded into the wind.
Silence fell.
Caleb stood amidst the ashes, chest heaving, and sparks dancing around him.
His skin was scorched. His right arm hung limp.
He dropped to one knee and exhaled.
"...Both down," he said, looking at the blackened field around him.
He turned slightly, seeing Soren in the distance, sitting by the ruins of the gate, bloodied but alive.
Caleb smiled faintly. "Now we rest…"
Then collapsed.
[Then sense shift to imperial's fight which is still ongoing.]
The guardian attacks some many curse spheres towards imperial.
But imperial that sheathed his both blades now raise his right hand index finger.
Suddenly a dark vortex creates on his finger tip and absorbed the entire spheres.
The Curse Guardian hovered above the cracked terrain, his eyes glowing red with abyssal power. Cursed sigils formed in the air around him, spinning like bladed halos.
He raised his hand—and the entire zone reacted.
Dark petals rained down like ashes.
"In this domain, I command agony itself," he declared.
"You, boy—will drown in every sin you've ever touched."
He clenched his fist.
The petals twisted into razor-sharp vines and shot toward Imperial.
SWISH! SLASH! CRACK!
Hundreds of cursed tendrils lashed forward, each one imbued with rot, weight, and chaos.