Everything within a hundred meters radius was eradicated. The forests, mountains, and even the nearest towns and villages. Luckily, this was in the mirror dimension, so it did not matter.
The only exception is Julius. He had a long horn, and his eyes were red. However, half his body was gone, and black tentacles could be seen coming from the destroyed part.
"You already knew, didn't you?" asked Julius.
"You mean the fact that you were Lucius Zogratis, a Spade Kingdom spy that infiltrated our kingdom, and also the Devil Host of Astaroth, the Supreme Devil of Time? I had my suspicions."
All the people watching this broadcast were shocked by this reveal. Julius is the mage in the kingdom with the second most popularity after Edward. His heroic deeds are mentioned in both the Daily Prophet (Edward's Newspaper) and Noble News.
So, when it was revealed that he was, in fact, both a spy and a devil, this was shocking news. Many people did not know how to react, while the Magic Parliament nobles panicked.
They almost made such a person the Wizard King, one of the highest political and military power of the Clover Kingdom.
"You have made a grave mistake forcing me out," Lucius said as his body regenerated.
As Edward watched all of this, his eyes lit up.
'Is this the power of Devil Heart?'
At Tier 6, Arcanists can survive with their bodies destroyed as long as their soul is intact. In fact, they can even live as a Soul Entity, similar to the concept of Nascent Soul in Xianxia.
Nevertheless, the body is still essential–especially the heart since it is the place that houses the magic core. The Devil Heart allows high-level devils to instantly regenerate any part of their body as long as the heart remains intact.
Additionally, the heart can move to different body parts, and ordinary methods or spells cannot destroy it. In some ways, it is similar, if not better, than Horcruxes which requires specific spells or techniques to destroy.
'If all Arcanists could have a Devil Heart, their survivability would drastically increase, along with their strength.'
Edward has the Phoenix Bloodline for healing purposes, but he would still benefit from a Devil's Heart.
"90% Devil Power," said Lucius as another horn grew from his head, along with two wings made of bones. His fingers turned into claws, and many black spots appeared all over his body.
Most Devil Hosts need the Gate to the Underworld to open to access more than 70% of their devil's power. However, he is the only exception.
Chrono Magic: Time Stop
Time in the surrounding doze miles diameters suddenly stopped. Even the magical item Edward had to record this battle stopped functioning for a moment. Even Edward's Absolute Space Spell stopped working.
However, Lucius soon frowned as he saw a sphere surrounding Edward blocking the effect of this spell.
Erudite Magic: Time Burning.
A blue flame so powerful came out from Edward that it literally burned time and destroyed the Time Spell. This was a technique he prepared in this world against Time Magic since he could not use it.
He even created Ice Freeze to create the same effect as Time Stop. Both of these elemental magic have been raised very close to the conceptual level by him.
Lucius rushed towards Edward with a sword in his hand.
Time Sword: Time Erasure Slash.
Edward could feel that if that sword slightly scratched him, his time would be erased, and he would die. So, he teleported away, or he tried. Unfortunately, Lucius had placed the surrounding space in a time loop to remain unchanged.
That way, it cannot bend, tear or portals cannot be opened from it. So, Edward moved his body slightly to dodge before using Gravity Push to send Lucius flying away.
After being a few meters away, Lucius again went on the offensive. He jumped into the future to appear in front of Edward to cut him once again.
Erudite Creation Magic: Sword of Purification.
A sword made of golden light appeared in Edward's hand as he clashed head-on with Lucius' sword. The Light Sword was instantly destroyed in the confrontation. However, Lucius groaned in pain.
The hand holding the sword was now completely black. Although the Light Sword was destroyed, it released a golden light with the power of purification.
The light seemed the nemesis of the negative mana of devils.
Lucius then used Time Magic to revert his arm to its original state. Subsequently, he realized that the process took longer and exponentially more mana than usual.
Additionally, the time needed to revert was also astronomical. He has killed many people and stored a lot of time compared to the persona of Julius. Additionally, he can access Astaroth's [Stored Time], which is very abundant since the latter spent countless millennia killing devils in the underworld to steal time.
Ultimately, he cut off the purified part and let his body regrew. It was not worth it to use time magic to heal.
Lucius looked at Edward while pondering: 'I need to take some risks.'
A clock appeared in front of Lucius before he fired a beam at it. Immediately afterward, Edward's left hand suddenly aged until it became that of an older man.
He did not feel or sense anything, but he was injured. Immediately, he began to calculate what had occurred. He found a slight discrepancy in his memory.
'He is sending his attack to my past self.'
This was a very advanced use of Time Magic: Killing the opponent's past to eradicate him in the present. Luckily, Lucius could only send his attack a couple of minutes to the past.
And Edward's past self is as strong as his current self, so he could still dodge the attack despite the unexpected.
'I need to end this battle to prevent any change in the situation,' thought Edward as he looked at Lucius, who was panting heavily. One of his primary purpose for this battle was the live broadcast to ensure he became Wizard King.
That's why he had to ensure the broadcast continued after Lucius froze time. Now that his plan succeeded, there is no need to continue playing.
Erudite Magic: Death Aura.
A black aura came from his body, spreading to the surrounding at an unimaginable speed. Everything the aura touched, decayed or died–including space and time.
Before Lucius could react, the black aura attached to his body. In less than a second, his lower body, torso, and limbs rapidly disappeared. His future sight or reaction ability proved to be useless.
In the end, he held his heart in his mouth before casting one last spell:
Chrono Magic: Time Disturbance.
By creating a disturbance in time, he managed to open a breach in the mirror dimension to teleport away. Unfortunately for him, numerous chains suddenly appeared and caught his Grimoire and prevented it from teleporting away with him.
Holding the Grimoire in his hand, Edward secretly sneered as he watched space tear closed. Then, he looked at the camera as he smiled at his fellow citizens.
He retired to the Capital to wait for the day he took the throne. Two days later, the 27th Wizard King succumbed to his injury, and Edward succeeded him.
As the first commoner to achieve this position, this was a historic moment for the Clover Kingdom. So, commoners from the Common Realm to the Forsaken Realm watched the coronation ceremony, and the kingdom celebrated for a week.
Spade Kingdom:
Lucius had regenerated his body in secret before meeting his other siblings. He stood with his shirt off while the others surrounded him.
"So, what do you think, Vanica?" asked Lucius.
"This curse is quite interesting. There are many effects, but all of them hide their true purpose. I did not expect this new Wizard King to be so knowledgeable with Curse Magic."
"Can you remove it?"
"Of course; who do you think I am?"
Her Grimoire floated in front of her. Tentacles made of strange runes appeared from her body before connecting to the tattoo on Lucius's body. Unfortunately, the moment they touched, the tattoo activated, and a black light entered Vanica's body before she could react.
The black light even used her connection to the underworld before also planting a curse on her devil, Megucila.
"Damn it. His target was me the whole time," the devil in the underworld exclaimed. She immediately activated her Curse Warding Magic to remove the curse.
Unfortunately, this curse was not as simple as it seems as it contained other magics that counter hers. She was furious. As the primogenitor of curses in this world, she cannot believe that she could not remove a curse.
Meanwhile, in the Clover Kingdom:
Edward–who was enjoying reading Lucius's Grimoire, suddenly felt something and looked toward the Spade Kingdom. He smiled before sneering, then continued his reading.
Time passed, and many changes occurred in the kingdom. Captain Bernard took over the Blue Ravenclaw Squad before Yami eventually became the Vice-Captain and created his squad.
The same thing for William Vengeance.
The Clover Kingdom continued to prosper. However, trouble at the borders did not stop and intensified with time. Lucius seemed determined to take advantage of Edward's curse to attack the borders.
The odd thing is that he found another Grimoire that he could use. Nevertheless, the damage that both the Spade Kingdom and the Diamond Kingdom could do was minimal.
Today was special because an odd young boy with no magic power took the Magic Knight Entrance.