Chapter Fifty-Three: Flames of Rebirth

Hey there, readers, Day 3 has come and with it a new chapter, we're officially halfway there, enjoy. Cya.

A few seconds passed before the pillar of flame disappeared, the split body of the great fire spirit hit the ground, with Fana landing on its upper half.

"Nice work, Asta!" Finral called as he made a portal for the magicless mage, he went through it and landed on the ground, his squadmates landing their brooms right next to him.

"Did you see that, that was totally awesome!" the swordsman exclaimed happily as he jumped up and down. "Thank you so much, Finral, Vanessa!"

"Don't mention it, it's pretty easy to see that the three of us make a good team, you clearly make the most of our strengths, Asta," the thread mage said with a smile.

"Hey, what about me, I helped too y'know, it'd be nice to get some praise," Noelle said with her eyes closed and her arms crossed.

Vanessa walked up to her and slung an arm around her shoulder. "Aw, look at you, just wanting some validation, well you've earned it, your attack might've not destroyed Salamander, but we were beyond impressed, so good job," she patted the younger girl's head.

The water mage's cheek blossomed into a light tint of pink. "Thank you,"

Finral then spoke up. "Do you think we should check on Fana? We might've taken down Salamander, but it's very likely that Fana is still in the fight,"

"Good idea, we shouldn't take any chances," Asta agreed as they all ran to where they saw the pillar erupting some time ago.

It didn't take them too long to arrive at their destination, as they looked on ahead, they saw that it was just as the spatial mage had said, with the fire spirit's body cut in half, it was practically out of commission, but Fana had slowly begun to get back up.

"Damn humans, who'd of thought that the swords thief was capable of such a maneuver," the flame mage muttered, but once she had fully gotten back on her feet, her eyes immediately fell on the group of Black Bulls. "You might've been able to take down Salamander, but I'm a different story, I'm going to kill all of you, even if it costs me my life!"

She then hopped off of the spirit's upper body as her grimoire flipped through pages before stopping on one. "Flame Magic: Twisting Inferno!" she exclaimed as fire grew on her hands and she launched the spell.

"Even if it costs you your life?" Asta quietly muttered, he then ran towards the spell and cut it in half. "Don't say that!"

Fana was confused. "I'm sorry, what?"

"You said that you're going to kill us, even if it costs you your own life, don't say that, don't take your life for granted, we mustn't take anything for granted," he said as he stared down at his arms. "Besides, we may be enemies, but I take it you have friends, don't you think they'll be bummed after hearing you gave your own life away, how do you think they will feel?"

As he said those words, Fana's eyes suddenly widened, in the commotion of everything going on, she remembered what she promised before coming to this place.

"Wait!" Annalise called, Fana turned to her. "I know why you don't want me to go, you'll think I'll get hurt if we have to face that Queen, but promise me that you'll come back, I don't want to lose you,"

Fana gave her a small smile. "I promise,"

The flame mage bit her lip tightly until it drew blood. "Damn it," she thought before she opened her mouth. "Don't you dare,"

It was Asta's turn to be confused. "Huh?"

"Don't you dare...talk about my friends, keep the mention of them out of your filthy mouth!" Fana screamed at the top of her lungs as a dark red aura began emanating from her third eye, but in just a few seconds, it began surging. Behind her, Salamander's split body became surrounded in an aura of the same color, but what truly surprised the group of magic knights was how strands started stretching from the two parts of its physical form, the strands with each other as the body began to reconnect itself, the fire spirit then stood behind its master, but it very easy to see that Salamander had gotten smaller, it was now just about 6 feet taller than the flame mage.

"What, Salamander isn't done, but how, we gave that last attack everything we had, can the fire spirit be defeated?" Vanessa said, concern was obvious in her voice, she then took out a bundle of her threads. "It did get smaller though, maybe I can bind it,"

She launched half a dozen of threads towards Salamander, but shock appeared on her face as she saw that once the threads got close enough, they got incinerated in a matter of seconds. "No way, my threads...they burned, and so quickly too. Okay, things have changed, unlike last time, Salamander is somehow exuding more powerful mana, we need to keep our distance,"

"What about your dragon spell, Noelle?" Finral asked as he turned to the water mage. "It's a long-range attack, and you still have the attribute advantage, it's our best shot so far,"

"You're right, leave it to me," Noelle responded as she pointed her wand at the flame mage and her spirit companion. "Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's-,"

"I won't let you use that spell of yours this time, Flame Spirit Magic: Salamander's Breath!" Fana exclaimed, cutting Noelle off as the spirit fired its basic attack at them.

"Don't worry, Noelle, let me handle this, I'll cut that fireball right in half," Asta said as he ran in front of his squadmate ready to jump in the air and slice the familiar spell, but before he got his body into the air, a voice called out to him.

"Wait, Asta!"

The magicless mage quickly turned his head to where he heard the exclamation come from, a good distance away, but regardless, he saw two familiar faces.

Fanzell, and...Mars.

"Old Man Zell," Asta said with a smile on his face.

"Use your sword to deflect that fireball towards us, I have a plan!" the wind mage exclaimed.

"I don't know what plan you have in mind, but you know that I trust you, so here you go!" the swordsman yelled as he did what he was told and deflected it towards the Diamond fugitive instead of cutting it like he initially planned.

"Nice work, Asta," Fanzell muttered, but was soon alerted by a voice behind him.

"Oh Fanzell, Mars, I'm catching up to you, and once I catch you, this Diamond Kingdom will have to worry about two fewer traitors," Ladros said, his tone was sarcastic, but by now, they knew that regardless, it was deadly.

"Wrong, we won't die, because you won't catch up with us," the wind mage whispered before turning to Mars. "On my signal, when I saw now, you move to the far left, and I'll move to the far right," the mineral mage nodded.

Fanzell watched as the fireball got closer to them, and closer, and closer, and closer, and then, it was time.

"Now!" he exclaimed as they both moved in their respective directions, letting the fireball hit Ladros instead of them.

"What the hell is this?!" Ladros screamed in pain.

Fanzell smirked. "You told me I was right when you said there was a limit of magic you could absorb, that was your one mistake, all I had to do was lead you to a place with strong magic and have you get hit with one of its spells, then bam. Thankfully for us, that spell you got hit with is spirit magic,"

"Spirit magic?! No, it's too powerful, I've never absorbed something this strong before, AHHH!" the basic mage exclaimed as he could no longer keep his balance and he began falling into the dense group of trees which made up a part of the forest.

"Good, that's one enemy eliminated, let's regroup with the knights down there," Fanzell told his traveling companion. The two then flew down to where the Black Bulls were before hopping off of their swords as they disappeared.

"Hey there, Old Man Zell," Asta greeted. "Um, quick question, what did you exactly need me to send a fireball at you for?"

"There was someone right on our tail, I told you to deflect it so we can move out of the way and let the spell hit him instead, and it worked like a charm, good work," the wind mage explained.

"Okay, but where are Kenos, and the others, they didn't come with you?" the magicless mage asked once again.

"No, Kenos got separated from us a little while ago, as for Domina and Mariella, they're still where we used to be, fighting off the remainder of the Diamond army while we came here to eliminate that mage from earlier," Fanzell replied again.

"I see, and speaking of we, there's something else I want to know," Asta said, pointing at the elephant in the room that was Mars. "What is he doing here? I'm glad you were able to escape the dungeon, but why is he here with you?"

"You don't have anything to worry about, Asta, Mars is on our side, I assure you," Fanzell told him.

"What Fanzell says is true," Mars added as he turned to Asta. "I know that we used to be enemies, but that's before I remembered what Fanzell taught as a boy, that Magic should be used to protect others,"

Asta looked at the wind mage before looking at the mineral mage. "Alright then, if Old Man Zell says we can trust you, then we can trust you,"

"Well that's good, because we're going to need as much help as we can get if we want to win this fight," Finral said as he pointed, the two newcomers looked in the direction to see who exactly were they facing up against, but once they did, Mars' eyes widened in surprise for the first time that day.

"No way, that face, and that hair, could it be, but that's impossible, but still," Mars thought to himself before walking a few inches towards the enemy, he then came to a stop and opened his mouth. "Fana!"

The expressions of the others behind Mars became those of shock, Vanessa spoke up. "What, you know her?"

"I think so, Master Fanzell, that looks like Fana, right?" he asked his former teacher.

The wind mage looked closer at her. "I think you might be right, it could be Fana, one of my old students, but how is she alive, she shouldn't be after the...Evaluation,"

Mars' eyes tensed upon hearing that word, another memory came to the surface, but unlike the last one, it wasn't happy, in fact, it was the worst day of his life.

[Flashback]

Years Ago. The Diamond Kingdom.

"Alright children, take out your grimoires, it's time to begin...the Evaluation," a voice spoke as it echoed.

One day, after years of training, children were taken to a primarily dark room with hues of red all around, the voice that spoke earlier spoke through some kind of intercom-like device. None of the new mages knew what was going on, but their question would soon be answered.

"For this evaluation, the rules are simple...survive. Kill all the other mages in this room, the last one standing among you will undergo a very special experiment and will be allowed to leave the facility," the voice explained the rules and the prize that came with coming out victorious.

Multiple sets of gasps escaped the children's mouths, all of them had been brought to the facility as infants, meaning they've never really seen the outside, or would ever get to, at least, until now, this was a chance they had to take full advantage of.

"Okay, begin," the voice spoke.

"Begin?" Mars asked himself as he heard that word, immediately, he saw fighting around him, the children took out their grimoires and cast their spells, killing whoever they saw.

The mineral mage began looking around, his eyes widening over and over again as he saw blood being shed for the first time in his life.

"Hey, there's one," he heard a voice behind him, Mars turned to see a boy, blood stained his clothes and face. "Sorry, but you have to die, I'll finally get to leave this place!"

Fear overtook Mars as his grimoire came up to him and flipped to the only spell he had so far in his repertoire. "Stay back! Mineral Creation Magic: Harpe!" he exclaimed as he closed his eyes and launched the spinning blade, he then heard two different things hit the ground.

But as he opened his eyes to see what fell, he wanted to puke.

The first thing that fell was the boy's grimoire, its aura was gone and its form cracking away, as for the second thing...it was the boy's head, his eyes still open, the look of fear was found in them, the body fell to its knees before dropping to the ground.

"Oh my god, I-I hope that Ladros isn't here," he muttered, but then another voice spoke behind him.

"M-Mars?"

The mineral quickly turned around to see who it was, his fear not letting sound alone discern person from person, but once he saw who it was, his eyes widened as he opened his mouth.

"F-Fana?" before him was the pink-haired girl, just like the boy he had just murdered, blood was around her too, but it was a lot more blood, which meant...she had killed a lot more people, and so fast too.

"W-Wait, Fana, I don't want to fight you, you're my friend, I don't want to hurt you!" the boy exclaimed.

The girl slowly began walking towards him with a bit of limp, showing that the previous victims of her murders gave quite the fight. "Mars, I don't want to fight you either, you mean so much to me, more than you could ever know, but...I want to see the outside world, to see everything it has to offer, so forgive me...you have to die!" she then started running at him.

"Please Fana, don't make me do this!" Mars yelled as he closed his eyes and raised both of his hands in an attempt to form a wall between him and Fana, but then he heard a new sound, it wasn't the sound of something dropping, fear of what it could possibly be told him to keep his eyes closed, but he just had to open them.

In front of him, there was a tall hill made of minerals, he kept looking up before his eyes widened, the new sound he heard...it was the sound of his mineral hill piercing Fana's stomach.

"F-Fana?" he said quietly, a single tear dropped down his face, and it didn't take long before more joined it as the boy started shaking his head. "No...no...no," he began whispering as he dropped to his knees.

"NOOOOOOOO!"

[End Flashback]

"After the Evaluation, I was the last one standing, so I underwent the experiment to create the world's first dual mage, they found a way to sustain Fana's grimoire despite the fact that she was dead, the scientists used a procedure to stitch halves of our grimoires together," Mars explained.

"Then that explains how she used one of your spells against us earlier," Noelle mentioned.

"I even assumed that she could've been your sister, but she said she had no siblings," Asta added.

Mars looked at the two before looking back at the flame mage. "Then that's definitely my Fana, I have to call out to her," he said. "Fana! It's me, Mars, from the Diamond Kingdom! Don't you recognize me?! We're friends!"

Fana looked at the man who was yelling to her, her brow raised in confusion. "Mars? I don't know anybody by that name, but regardless, I'd never be friends with someone like you,"

Mars' eyes widened in surprise, taken aback by her words. "S-Stop joking around, we know each other, tell me, how did you survive the Evaluation?"

"What Evaluation? Look, I don't know you, I've never known you, all I do know about you is that you're a human, and that means you must die!"

It was Fanzell's turn to speak up. "This is strange, why doesn't she recognize you?" he wondered aloud before he noticed something strange on the girl's body that genuinely shocked him. "Wait, there, on Fana's forehead, is that...an eye?"

"Yeah, from what we've seen so far, Fana is part of a trio within the Eye of the Midnight Sun called the Third Eye, and it seems this is why, their members can create a third eye on their forehead," Asta replied with an explanation.

"For now, we know that the eye can boost the mage's power, but if Fana is from the Diamond Kingdom and the Eye of the Midnight Sun was somehow able to recruit, perhaps the third eye is capable of controlling her too, it could already explain how she's here despite the fact that you killed her," Noelle added

"Does that mean there can be a way to remove the eye?" Finral asked.

"Maybe, but there's most likely a low chance that that can happen," Vanessa told him.

"I don't care if there's a low chance, as long as there's a chance, I'll take it, I'm going to make things right, I bet she's suffered a lot," the mineral mage said adamantly.

Asta put the Demon-Dweller back in his grimoire as he drew his large sword up. "Okay then, let's save her!" he exclaimed.

Fana heard what he said as a rare chuckle escaped her mouth. "Save me? That's where you're wrong, human, I'm not the one who's going to need saving, you've all left me no choice, I'll eliminate all of you at the same time!" she exclaimed as a familiar dark red sphere surrounded her body as Salamander roared into the sky.

"Wait a minute, I recognize that, isn't that the self-destruct thing Vetto tried to use against us in the Underwater Temple?" Finral asked.

"It is, but unlike last time, Captain Yami isn't here to use that Dimension Slash of his to solve the problem," Noelle replied before saying.

"Not to mention we plan on saving her this time around, talk about making things a lot more difficult," Vanessa stated.

"Please forgive me, Annalise, I wasn't able to keep my promise, but at least one of the greatest threats to our cause will be no more," the flame mage thought before she looked up at the fire spirit. "Salamander, this will take me some time to release, I'm going to need you to buy me a few minutes!"

The spirit roared in response as it began firing large fireballs at the group of adversaries in an attempt to keep them away from its master.

"Be careful everyone!" Fanzell exclaimed as his grimoire flipped to a page and he formed his wind sword, it then flipped to another page. "Wind Magic: Emperor of Slashing Winds - Blustering Force!"

As he declared the second spell, he raised the sword up, forming the rotating wind barrier, but after a mere three fireballs hit it, the barrier dissipated. Fanzell dropped to his knees. "Damn it, my spell isn't made to handle high-level offensive spells,"

"Then don't worry, I'll handle this one," Noelle said to him as her grimoire flipped to the page of its first-ever spell. "Water Creation Magic: Sea Dragon's Lair!" she exclaimed as she formed the barrier of water, protecting her, Finral, Vanessa, and Fanzell, but since Asta and Mars were out the range of her spell, they were unprotected.

Asta saw a fireball coming his way. "I don't need to be protected by Noelle's spell, these attacks won't hit me!" he exclaimed as he used the Demon-Slayer to cut the fiery attack in half.

The swordsman then looked to see how the mineral mage was handling himself since he also wasn't being protected by the water mage's spell, he saw that a fireball was coming at him, but unlike his own performance, the spiky-haired general had done nothing to protect himself as the attack hit him, warranting gasps from the others. "Mars, what are you doing?! Protect yourself?!"

"No, I can't, Fana must've suffered so much, if I'm going to save her, I must suffer the same as she did, it only makes sense," Mars protested. "So-,"

His next words were cut off as Asta ran up to him and slapped him in the face. "It only makes sense? That is by far the worst bullshit logic I've ever heard in my life! If you're truly going to save her, you'll need to stay alive first, don't do anything rash, you may not be a Magic Knight, but you're still a mage, you have to remain calm and think with a cool head,"

Mars grit his teeth as he hung his head down. "You're right, my bad,"

Asta was a bit taken aback by how easily he and Mars were talking to each other despite the fact that the last time they met, one mage was trying to kill the other, he was also surprised at how easily Mars accepted his advice, the swordsman smiled. "No problem, now let's go and save her the right way,"

"But, how, is there any way to stop this self-destruct bomb?" Mars then asked.

"There is one way," Asta replied as he looked at his sword. "No matter how strong it is, this bomb is still made of magic, meaning there's a chance my sword can nullify it,"

"Wait, that's too dangerous," Vanessa said as Noelle dropped the barrier. "My threads burned once they got near her, and you'll need to get near her if you want to negate her bomb spell, you won't make it,"

"We don't know that for sure, our bodies are stronger than thread, we may have a better chance of getting close enough," Asta protested. "Besides, it's the only bet we have, it's either that, or we all die,"

The thread mage sighed, knowing the swordsman had a point. "You're right, then I guess there's no stopping you, just be careful,"

"Should I teleport you closer?" Finral asked.

"No, we'll take the straightforward route, if you make a portal, Salamander could send a fireball through it," Asta replied before looking at the mineral mage. "You ready, Mars?"

"I am," he replied, the magicless mage nodded before they slowly began walking forward.

"Salamander, keep them back!" Fana exclaimed as Salamander fired a quick succession of two fireballs at the duo of mages.

"Don't worry, I got you two, Spatial Magic: Fallen Angel's Twin Gates!" Finral exclaimed as he formed two portal in front of Asta and Mars, as well as two portals on opposite sides of Salamander's head, the fireballs went into the first set of portals and came out of the second one, hitting the spirit right in the head, causing it to roar in pain. "Just keep going!"

"Thanks!" the two mages said in unison as they continued, a few seconds passed before they began to feel the strong heat of Salamander's aura.

"Damn it, that's really hot, a lot hotter than I was first expecting," Asta grunted.

"Tell me about it, I have something that should help us, Flame Recovery Magic: Phoenix Robe," Mars said before casting as the two were cloaked in a protective red aura with a single wing sprouting out.

"Ah, thanks a bunch, I'm feeling better, but it still kind of burns," the swordsman said gratefully.

"True, but we'll just have to endure it," the mineral said back. "Thanks to your friend's move with his spatial magic, I don't think Salamander will be able to attack for a little while, this is our best chance,"

Further away, Fanzell watched his two students slowly trek towards Fana, he bit his lip before turning to the other Black Bulls. "We need to make some distance from them, just in case something happens,"

"No," they all replied in unison.

"No?" Fanzell repeated.

"We won't leave them, we may not be the ones doing it, but we must stay here, to show that we trust them," Noelle told him. "Asta and Mars mean a lot to you, don't you trust them enough to stay here?"

"I do trust them, but...you're right, we all have to see this through until the end, and provide support when needed," the wind mage replied with a smile.

Asta and Mars continued making their way to Fana, but their pace had begun to slow down, even with the Phoenix Robe, the immense heat was taking its toll.

"Damn, this is starting to become unbearable," Mars silently muttered to himself, he then felt the burning feeling increase, he looked down to see his shirt and cape slowly incinerating, with small holes appearing on his pants, the mineral mage turned to Asta and saw that the same thing was happening to him, although, his robe looked unaffected, regardless, there was an adamant look on his face. "Wow, to believe that just about a few months ago, I was trying to kill him and his friends, and despite that, he's enduring so much to help me get Fana back, even going as far as to set me straight so I don't die. Asta, you're a true mage, and even though it's not official between us, you're a good friend," he thought with a smile.

"Yo, Mars, you need something, you're staring at me," Asta said, pulling Mars out of his thoughts.

"Nothing, just thinking to myself, we're getting closer," Mars replied.

Fana put a hand up to her eye. "It'll be ready to release soon, just 10 more seconds,"

"We have to pick up the pace!" Asta yelled.

"9,"

"Right!" Mars responded as they did so, but it was only fast walking.

"8,"

"C'mon you two, just a little closer!" Fanzell exclaimed.

"7,"

"We're right here, we know you can make it!" Finral joined in.

"6,"

"He's right. We trust you!" Vanessa added.

"5,"

"None of us are going to die here!" Noelle finished.

"4,"

"This is the end of you!" Fana screamed.

"3,"

"No, you're wrong!" Asta screamed back as he and Mars finally reached the proper range, the former gripping his sword tightly with two hands as he jumped into the air.

"2,"

"I'M NOT GOING TO LET IT END!" the swordsman exclaimed fiercely as he dropped and the sword slashed through the sphere.

"1,"

The aura sphere around Fana and the blazing aura Salamander was producing were nullified simultaneously, the action resulting in a large amount of wind pressure, Mars crossed his arms, as did Asta, but it didn't stop the wind from blowing his robe off of him, revealing his naked upper body, with the same being true for the mineral mage.

"Alright, they did it!" the others cheered happily.

"Nice work, Asta," Mars said with a grin.

The same grin appeared on the magicless mage's face. "I couldn't have done it without you, that Phoenix Robe with mega handy, if we didn't have it, it'd be pretty safe to say we'd be turned into roasted potatoes,"

"No, it's not over yet,"

The sudden sound of Fana's voice caused the two boys to turn to her, but the fire spirit was no longer present behind her.

"It isn't over yet, just because you stopped my bomb from going off this time, doesn't mean I can't use another one, I'll just establish more distance and redo it," the flame mage said.

Asta brought his sword back up. "We won't let you do that, we're going to-," he was beginning to say, but stopped as he saw Mars start running towards her, once he got close enough, he pulled her into a tight hug as a taller Phoenix Robe covered them both.

"Fana, I know you may not recognize me the way you are now, but still, I want to say that I'm sorry for what happened all those years ago, I know it looked like I had no choice, but I should've found a different way to handle it, and I know that you're sorry too, but now we've gotten what we wanted, a chance to go outside. So please, come back to me, let's go and see what the world has to offer, together!"

The flame mage was speechless, as she finished listening to Mars' words, a faint yet fuzzy memory replayed in her head.

"Oh Fana, look how these humans have hurt you and thrown you away, come with me, our friends are waiting, you can begin a new life," she remembered a man with white braids wearing a white robe said to her as he extended his hand out, waiting for her to take it.

Her face then became one of neutral shock as the flames of the Phoenix Robe died, healing both of their wounds, but the third eye on Fana's forehead began to slowly disappear, until it was fully gone. Her shocked expression then became normal before she opened her mouth.

"I'm sorry too,"

Mars gasped as he looked down at the girl, who was smiling warmly at him as tears rolled down her face.

"You're right, we're both here, so let's do it, let's go see the world, Mars,"

The mineral mage couldn't keep tears from falling down his own face. "Fana, you're back, I missed you so much,"

"Same here, you've gotten so tall," she said back.

The others smiled as they walked to the two reunited friends. "It's good to see we succeeded, but still, how exactly did Fana's third eye disappear?" Noelle wondered aloud. "Does it have to do with a certain threshold of some kind, or even a memory, there's still much we don't know about it, the Third Eye are the biggest threats the Eye of the Midnight Sun has apart from this Licht I've heard about, knowing something about them would give us a great advantage,"

"Whatever the reasoning may be, I'm just glad it was able to bring Fana back to me," Mars told her as he hugged the flame mage tighter.

"Um, Mars," Fana said.

"Yes?"

"Would you mind...letting go of me now?"

For the first time ever, the group saw the mineral mage's cheeks go red as he quickly let the pink-haired woman go and backed up a bit. "O-Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know I was making you uncomfortable,"

Even more surprise came as they saw Fana's cheeks go red too. "N-No, it wasn't like that, you didn't make me feel uncomfortable, in all honesty, it felt kind of...nice, I wouldn't mind if you...did it again,"

Vanessa looked at the two, a sly grin coming to her face. "My my, what's going on here, from what I've heard, these are two of the most nonchalant people you've ever faced off against, I didn't know they could be so...shy, especially around each other, I wonder why,"

Those words just made the faces of the two friends grow redder, they put their heads down to avoid looking at each other, Fanzell looked at them and gave a warm smile. "Domina and I are going to need to talk to them later, but for now all is well, this is a time to celebrate, once we find Kenos that is, the Eye of the Midnight Sun has been defeated, the Diamond Army has been subdued by the witches, and Ladros is-,"

The wind mage was in the middle of his thought, but it was cut short as he picked up on a large mana signature, he turned, seeing that everyone but Asta noticed it too. "Where's that mana coming from?"

"What, you don't recognize my mana, that's a bit hurtful, don't you think...teach?"

Those words made Fanzell's eyes widen, they all turned around to see Ladros coming out from the trees, his clothes a bit dirty, but other than that, his body appeared unscathed.

"That's impossible! How did you survive, that should've finished you?!" Fanzell exclaimed.

"Ah ah ah, don't underestimate the genius of the Diamond Kingdom, what I thought was too much power was in fact too much for my body to absorb immediately at that time, but it eventually absorbed it over a period of time," the basic mage explained.

"So that means, it doesn't matter how strong the spell, there will be a point where you've absorbed all of it?" Fanzell asked, the faint tone of hopelessness present.

"That's right," Ladros replied as he cracked his knuckles and grinned sadistically at the group of mages. "And now I'm ready to fight,"