Caleb Illionis pov
'Niflheim breath'
I cried out an 8th teir spell to but us time, he responded with can't have that and with his eyes glowing a shimmering blue he looked at my spell and with that it canceled in the same moment he said
"parallel world"
and we were transported into a realm of pale blue where none of our attacks could hurt the outside world
"can't have you destroying the castle now can we"
he said with a tentative smile on his lips, I grimaced before responding with vision magic where one insta casts based on the picture of spells in their minds a dozen magic circles appeared behind my back but he looked at them with the shimmering eyes and they disappeared but I knew he had fallen for it, I had held his attention long enough for him not to notice that Karla was no longer by my side, behind him a crimson flash appeared she had a sword that had been kept in a spacial rune in whicjbonlybi knew about because I made it for her, balde ki appeared around her sword as she struck down with full force, yes my wife was a blade master and not just any but one capable of holding her own against the first sword of Rowian this was a secrete only he I and a few others knew about and it would land us our victory, or so we thought
The man disappeared front Karla's alighted appearing at her back in a an instant this time with a 6th teir fire spell at the ready I responded with a 7th teir water spell and watched as the two cancelled each other out Karla reappeared at my side as fast lightening while steam filled our veiw our plan being to rush the man once he became visible but instead I heard his voice
"this place is a little too cramped don't you think"
he snapped his fingers enlarging the space we were in my several fold and with another wave of his hand the mist dissipated
"that's better"
that's worse I thought, I had a feeling but I thought fate couldn't be that cruel, to be able to use parallel world so easily a 9th teir spell and match the power of my spells with lower teir ones and now spatial manipulation he was undoubtedly one of the same type of mages that founded the kingdom and that I claim decesent from, a god class mage or 10th teir one teir higher than my 9th teir but still there was a world of difference between us not to mention he could use anti magic, I looked to Karla her hand tightly gripping her sword and thought to myself, if we fought one on one I would most definitely loose but I wasn't going to face him one on one,
'you take the lead I'll support'
"gotcha"
she said, I placed several boosts on her as she activated her blade ki, our plan was to.make him choose, he would either have to use anti magic to cancel the buffs on Karla reducing her offence and taking a defensive stance allowing me to barrage him with spells long enough for Karla to take hik out at close range or he would go full offensive throwing caution to the wind, this was a risky gamble for on one hand all we had to do was to resist his offensive for long enough for him to make a mistake or until his mana ran out and finish him but we also ran the risk of wasting time and getting ourselves caught by his colleagues, although it was two against one our vest options only put us on the same level as he instead of above.
As Karla reached him ready to strike he used warp to escape her blow, I caught sight of his towards our side and conjured over a dozen spells which were all cancelled by his superior anti magic but Karla was on him again thus time even faster than last time
'Karla no'
I yelled, but it was too late, the figure she cut evaporated into mist and she landed on a 3rd teir spell called land mine,
"boom sfx"
she easily avoided it as I quickly casted dispel, she was surrounded by a pletra of spells some offensive some capable of reducing someone's status, I quickly conjured barriers around her giving her time to escape, as she avoided bombardment Karla cried
"imperial style lioness stampede"
a blade technique, skills used by blade masters to increase offence defense and even buff themselves, this was one of Karla's strongest one's, a technique that summoned several lionesses in the form of ki apparitions to attack an enemy but why was she sending it at me, I looked back to see our opponent standing behind my back with his hand outstretched around it a sky blue mist which I quickly pegged as the 5th teir spell disorientate, I swerved as the lionesses streamed past me into the man, the attack continued even after reaching him streaming forward until it reach the end of our massive enclosure and crashing against the wall with a sound like thunder, the whole world felt like it was shaking but despite the power of the attack we still remained trapped and our opponent was no where to be seen, we rushed to each other and stood back to back expecting another attack, we stood for a few moment for an attack that never came, Karla threatened to drop her guard but I stooped her instead saying
'enough we know your still there parallel world only ends when either the user dies or releases the spell and it can only be broken by someone of a higher level than the caster'
motes of light began to shift all around us and took the form of our opponent who seemed to have a slight smile on his face as he answered
"you're right, but I see no point in attacking you anymore"
"what do you mean"
said Karla
"I was supposed to capture and bring you both back unharmed but now I see I can't do that so instead I'll simply hold you here until my colleagues show up"
he didn't mean he couldn't apprehend us he meant he couldn't do so without hurting us and honestly he was right I could sense it through out the fight it wasn't simply a matter of our power difference although he seemed to be only a little older than me he was obviously much more experienced in fights than I or Karla and his use of spells even though they weren't particularly powerful ones was quite exquisite, I saw no way out of this and actually considered surrendering hoping to be able to convince his Don that foul play was at work but then I remembered the possibility of him being a blood thristy murderer and thought it would be better to take my chances with the Don in aegis, I looked towards my wife once again, she didn't take her eyes off the man in front of us but sensed my gaze and said
"I'll trust your judgement"
and with that a dozen more spells appeared in front of us this time more tightly woven partiallly there so as to make anti magic harder to perform and to blindside him for Karla's next charge but before I could let them fly I heard a cracking sound, we all heard it, it started out soft and gradually got louder before a thunderous roar echoed and we found ourselves back in the outside world, I half hoped the caster had gotten tired and decided to release the spell but I knew that was unlikely so instead I grabbed my wife and tried to run before the monster got here but before I could take a single step an otherworldly pressure pressed upon me from all sides completely restricting my movement, Karla was under the same restriction, my ears picked up soft footsteps that gradually then stopped, a flash of black passed by us and we came face to face with a black haired blued eyed man that gazed at us without expression instead opening his mouth to utter two words
"found you"
and even though it was just those two I still felt fear unreal.