Hunter looked up into sky and frowned slightly. Although the weather was beautifully clear, he couldn't shake off the feeling that had been bothering him all day. Today was looking like it was going to end up being one of those days. Those ones where nothing ever seems to go the way it's supposed to.
He couldn't have that though. He was already under enough pressure as it was. It would not do if he were to tire himself out mentally before the madness actually began.
The tall dark haired man walked through the forest for several more meters before he suddenly stopped. Slowly he leaned forward and took note of the invisible shimmering veil of energy that stretched out to cordon off the rest of the forest from that point.
"Clever old bastard," Hunter muttered to himself with a smirk. "A single step across this ward and I'd probably set off dozens of traps."
Unfortunately for Manuel, Hunter was no ordinary sorcerer.
With a thought, he released his magic throughout his body. The pleasant feeling of power coursing through him drew a pleased sigh from the man's lips. Empowered by massive boost to his physical stats, it was an easy thing for him to leap up into the high branches of the giant ever green trees that filled the forest.
He moved quickly in a circle, careful to avoid triggering the mystical ward as he skirted around it. Eventually he found a tree that was high enough to allow him a perfect view of his target.
A veritable mansion that sat in the middle of a wide clearing surrounded by an extensive and thoroughly abandoned forest. This was the home of one of the most dangerous men Hunter had ever seen. Manuel, the Hell Sorcerer, the Bringer of Darkness.
But at the moment Hunter did not give a damn about any of those titles. He had a job to do and nothing was going to get in his way.
His hand slipped into his coat's pocket and he drew out a small carving knife. With the weapon, he made a relatively large cut on his left wrist, causing the severed blood vessels to leak out the life fluid profusely. Hunter frowned even as his eyes turned red and he mentally manipulated the flowing blood to converge into a sphere before him. He hated having to waste energy like this but he knew that nothing else would possibly breach Manuel's defenses effectively.
The blood orb radiated a dark pressure that seemed to dye the very air around him with a crimson hue. He focused on the orb fiercely and it quickly morphed to become a large beautiful bow made of crystallized blood. With his right hand he gripped the middle of the bow and drew back the string with his left. More blood flowed forth from the wound, to create a two and a half feet long arrow that Hunter proceeded to pump full of mana until it radiated a dark red glow.
Now for the finisher. Hunter closed his eyes and focused deep within him. Blood Sorcery was a dark magic and it tended to feel like so to the caster. But Hunter was in search of something else besides that darkness. A light that could never be tainted.
Some people who knew Hunter well regarded him as insane because of his experimental nature. But he knew better than to pay attention to them. Especially not after he had already learned so much... after he had already gained so much. His dealings with celestial beings had enlightened him with the knowledge on how to tap into that power that made them nigh untouchable.
It was weak of course, having been a power that was never meant to be wielded by human hands. But while it would never really compete with the real thing, it would be more than enough for what Hunter intended right now.
A spinning white glyph appeared on the back of his left hand. Flecks of snowflake-like shards burst from it and fluttered to coat the pulsating arrowhead with another dense layer of energy. The pressure intensified as the two different energies struggled against each other, the tree branch beneath Hunter trembling vigorously.
Yet the man maintained a perfectly calm visage. His red eyes shone as he locked onto his target. He had no way of knowing exactly which part of the house Manuel could be in at the moment so he simply aimed at the center of the building to cause maximum damage.
"Crush and destroy," he intoned and let go of the arrow. "Artemis's Shot."
Like a streaking red comet of death, the arrow blasted its way through the trees. It triggered over two dozen defensive barriers and traps much like Hunter had predicted. Blasts of raging flames, glaciers of freezing ice, even instantly created golems of stone, all were effortlessly shredded by the torque force generated by the rapid spinning motion of the arrow.
But the real show began as it neared the house. Three dark barriers conjured up using Infernal Magic appeared to engulf the house in protection.
The arrow slammed into the first one and it cracked slightly from the sheer force of impact. Then, as if it was being poisoned, a purifying light spread through the numerous dark magic circles that composed the barrier.
It was a matter of simple logic. The barriers were created using the Dark powers of Hell. Hunter's arrow had been imbued with the Light properties he had obtained from his extensive experiments on Fallen Angels.
Light always canceled out Darkness. In this instance, it meant that the foundation of the barriers were being contaminated and weakened to the point where...
With a sound not unlike the mass shattering of a thousand glass windows, the first barrier was destroyed. The arrow continued on to the next one, though it took considerably longer to shatter it this time. Hunter took note of the massive decrease in the arrow's rotational and piercing power by the time it reached the third and final barrier. This one it failed to pierce, eventually losing its spinning momentum after spreading the last of its Light into the barrier.
That was the difference between a True Light Core and an Artificial one like Hunter had created. There were many limits to what the Light he produced could do. He supposed he would have to try to perfect that skill later.
"But for now..." A dark grin spread across Hunter's face as he snapped his fingers. "Boom."
The stored magical energy within the Artemis's Shot detonated with the force of an exploding missile. Weakened by the poisonous Light, the third barrier was destroyed by the blast, leaving the mansion unprotected and it too was engulfed by the massive fireball that consumed the whole place.
Shockwaves from the blast ripped trees right out of the ground in the immediate range of the explosion and buffeted the ones kilometers away with fierce winds. Hunter absentmindedly created a large shielding barrier to protect himself from aftereffects of his own attack. His red eyes never ceased to watch the place where the now wrecked mansion stood. They suddenly narrowed at a very brief flash of black light within the flames and smoke.
"Finally."
Hunter disappeared instantly. The next second, a dark orb impacted the tree he had been standing on and everything within a hundred meter radius of that tree was consumed in a massive soundless inferno of blazing black flames. Outside of the dome of obsidian flames, nothing was harmed but all matter within it was utterly reduced to nothingness.
Hunter reappeared in the clearing just between the forest and the destroyed mansion. He glanced back at his former position and her couldn't help but suppress the shiver that ran down his spine as he looked at that ominous dome. Artemis's Shot was one of his most destructive techniques. Yet a casual attack from that old man had more than surpassed it in power and range.
"You really are a monster," he spoke to the air.
"I like to think of myself as a scholar but I do suppose that title is fitting for worms like you."
Hunter turned to look up into the sky where an old looking man with styled back gray hair seemingly stood in the air, with his hands folded behind his back. A dark tome levitated beside him within arm's reach, covered in a protective circle of energy that Hunter had no doubt was layered with hundreds of traps and seals each more powerful than whatever had been used to protect the mansion.
From where he stood on the ground, Hunter tried to reach out with his senses to gauge the old man above him. It was like standing in front of a raging flood that sought to crush and dominate all that stood in its way. But that paled in comparison to what Hunter felt from the evil book beside that man. Which was absolutely nothing.
Only one who was knowledgeable about the dimensions of power could fathom what that meant. It was not a normal sensation of nothingness, but rather the distinct lack of sensory feedback despite the target of your focus being right there on front of you. It was like staring into a bottomless abyss, or the infinite void of an all consuming black hole.
In other words, that book was so powerful that Hunter simply could not comprehend it.
He was starting to wonder if it would be such a good idea to let Jeffrey have this book after all.