Chapter 149: Understanding

This magical disaster was incomparable to anything I saw in my entire life so far. The only moment when I could experience a might rivalling it, was when I meet someone akin to a god. Even though the difference was still vast, the might of the magical storm was already on the scale that made it impossible to grasp with one's mind. 

The disaster itself didn't look all that scary. After all, there were no explosions, no huge noises… Not even a breeze appeared to rustle the hair of those who observed the effects of the stone. And those were just as devastating as the scale of the disaster.

Crack.

More cracks appeared on the reality as if the world itself couldn't hold the violent reactions of magic. Then, as if an illusion fading away, the entire tribune and northern part of the camp, simply disappeared. 

The leftover ruin was mindboggling. Rather than creating some kind of inversed dome or any other familiar pattern, it turned next several kilometres of ground into a sea of stone-spikes of any size. From ones at the bottom of the devastated land only reaching a few centimetres, all the way to those who could reach the previous height of the surface, growing for over forty meters from the enormous ravine. 

For a moment, no noise could be heard. Faced with a disaster so illogical, so mindboggling, everyone had to take their time to digest what actually happened. But while every survivor in the city was dazed by the scale of the attack, I couldn't help but click my tongue. 

"Still far off from a nuke, huh?" 

While I didn't really have such high hopes for the still-developing craft of carving stones, its firepower wasn't cheap. According to the note that Sander passed me, a single stone like that could take as much as five specially prefabricated stones to be made.

But if I thought about the materials necessary to create such a disaster, I couldn't really count them according to the market price. As disastrous as my actions were in regards to the finances of my cult, they yielded nearly two storehouses full of precious and semi-precious stones that Sander discovered to still work as magic stones. 

If I went with the real price that it took to obtain those stones, a spell with effects comparable to a single round of carpet bombing, cost more or less just two thousand bucks!

Of course, with the rise of the magic stone popularity and consumption, the current marketable price of the magic stones was reaching seven digits, while the market of non-magic precious stones exploded by a few times just by affiliation. Adding my actions of buying off any precious stone available, the current cost of recreating this disaster would easily reach the price of a single magic stone!

"I wonder how much those prices will skyrocket when someone introduces a way to turn magic into ene…" Making use of the moment of silence to ponder over this topic, I froze when it actually appeared in my mind. Just as the female general finally managed to gather her guts and launch herself forward. 

"You okay?" Ayda asked, instantly appearing in front of me. With a look of nothing but disregard in her eyes, it was rather clear that this girl was pretty convenient. Yet I was still unwilling to let her defend me for no reason. 

After all, she was the one that I myself wanted to protect. 

"It's ok." Placing my hand on Ayda's shoulder, I added. "But don't let your guard down either." Pulling with my hand, I forced the girl to take a single step to the back, before using the momentum to rush forward. 

Just in time to face the villainous girl. 

"DIE!"

Swinging her sword right in my face, this female instantly proved that the gap between Earth and other words couldn't be underestimated. Even if I had plenty of means on my end, this woman was, in a sense, a product of millennials worth of perfecting the fighting techniques. In terms of raw firepower, she was likely to be far stronger than any of the experts on earth.

But I wasn't some random expert from the earth. 

"If it only was that easy…" Going as far as to take the leisure of speaking right before the clash, I finally allowed all my bottled emotions to explode.

There was no finesse in my witchcraft. But there was an accumulation in it. 

Ever since I appeared in this camp, I should feel a plethora of emotions. From disgust at the dirt sprawling all over the place, through hate whenever I saw wizard officials all the way to pity and desire whenever I saw someone injured or attractive. 

All those feelings should bustle through my soul back when they were activated. But so far, I kept my perfectly stoic attitude. Only now, with the addition of the wrath directed at the oppressors of the victims, I allowed all those emotions to run free. 

"Don't kill…" right before my consciousness faltered for a moment, Ayda's shout reached my ears. Realising what I was about to do, I quickly rushed to calm myself down…

But the deed was already done. 

All those raging emotions instantly found the outlet through the valves I prepared. All at once, the body of the female general was pushed away by my repulsion only to be pulled back by my attraction. Burning up from my desire and freezing from my indifference. All at once, the female experienced all forms of witchcraft that I ever formed. 

There was no second bout between the two of us. With the momentum from my own jump dying out during my release, I simply fell down to the ground. Softening the fall by lowering myself on my knees, I then heard a thump right beside me. 

Looking at the source of the sound, I could see the devastated state of the once beautiful female. 

Her entire body was either burnt to the crips or frostbitten. After being squeezed by my repulsion and attraction, it seemed as if the girl suddenly became shorter and fatter. Smeared with blood, there wasn't even a single hint of her former beauty on her. Even her eyes, now bloodshot, didn't give any hopes for her survival. 

But her chest was still moving. As little and as frantically, she was clearly not dead yet.

"Go and take care of those fuckers! I will do something about her!"

Dashing from behind, Ayda shouted while shooing me away. With clarity returning to my senses and reason once again taking the reins of the body, I only nodded my head before reaching forth with my other hand. 

With exactly the same stone as the one that I unleashed before. 

Now, people knew what would happen to anyone unlucky enough to be in the path of the disaster. Once a moment of paralysing terror dawned on them, the crowd finally turned the place into what I wanted to see the most. 

Complete and utter chaos, radiating outwards of the arena. 

Those threatened by my hand would run to the sides. Those currently safe would run as far away as they could. But no one dared to approach the shackled witches that we came here to save. 

"Go." With just a single word escaping my mouth as I once again pressed the activator on the stone, the recurring mechanism inside started to heat up. Moment by moment, the energy from the storage part of the stone continued to thicken, only to burn the crystal circuits and unleash another wave of the disaster. 

Given that I couldn't see how far was the reach of this spell, I dared not to aim it in the direction of the village of witches. Whenever my hand would move in that particular direction, I would repeat calm but loud "go" to alert everyone of my actions. 

But when the stone would reach the critical point, I would slightly move my hand to the side, ensuring no harm would come to my allies. 

There was no opposition to my actions. No one was daring or brazen enough to challenge me after seeing what I did with the allegedly strongest wizard in the entire camp. Right now, the spirit of rats overwhelmed the entire crowd, turning them into a chaotic and unorganised mess. 

Making them an even easier target for my constant releases of those disastrous stones.

"I will have to have a talk with Sander… If those things appear on Earth…" 

Given how actually simple it was to create a recurring stone like this, I suddenly felt a wave of doubts, just like the last ashen remains of the camp inhabitants and the visitors fell to the ground. The ease of manufacturing such stones was too overbearing. If this knowledge came to see the light of the day on earth, all that remained of the society of old would crumble into dust. 

And that wasn't something that I was willing to allow.