Before Kai could use his fire magic, Lars and the other hooded mages used their magic at the same time and what happened next, deeply shocked Kai.
The crystal spell and the mist spell started to combine to form into a more powerful spell.
Crystal and Mist combination magic: Endless Crystal spikes
Countless crystal spikes were formed in the air, aiming towards Kai and the villagers.
"Compound Magic." Kai mumbled in shock as he saw the countless crystal spikes aimed towards him and the villagers.
Compound magic is the combination of multiple different spells to create a single, more powerful spell. It allows the user to the users to combine multiple different spells or magics to create a single, more powerful spell.
"Do you think you can win under these conditions? I don't doing things slowly like this, but.... this way is sure to get the job done." Lars said before commanding the crystal spikes to shot towards kai and the villagers.
Kai quickly responded by creating multiple fireballs and shot it towards the crystal spikes, destroying it in the process.
"You aren't going to win like that, you know. My spells will just keep coming and you won't be able to fight back." Lars stated suddenly.
He was right, if Kar wanted to defeat them, then he had to abandon the Villagers and it didn't the mages were running out of magic power.
"I have to do that." Kai thought as he kept destroying crystal spikes that was heading towards him and the villagers.
Kai suddenly stopped shooting fireballs and immediately slammed his fist on the ground, creating a huge fire barrier, covering the entire area containing the villagers and himself.
The crystal spikes slammed heavily on the fire barrier but they were unable to break through and got burned to a crisp.
Using this chance, Kai shot a huge fireball spell towards the hooded mages and Lars. Lars calmly responded by creating a crystal wall Infront of them, protecting them from the powerful fire spell albeit barely.
But that spell was just a distraction, with the villagers protected inside the fire barrier, Kai used burst step and appeared several feet's on the right side of the mage group.
He then unleashed several fireballs towards the mage group. The hooded mages were unable to react and got hit by the fire magic spell which exploded upon impact, immediately knocking them out.
Lars managed to protect himself from the attack by using his crystal magic to form a set of armor around his body, shielding him from the attack.
The armor consists of breast plate, spaulders, gauntlets, and greaves. The armor is composed of crystals with some of them protruding from the surface, thus creating a rough and amorphous surface.
"It's about time I got serious." Lars voiced out. He decided to use his full power since his subordinates have been defeated.
Crystal Magic: Armored Titan
After saying so, Lars body got covered by crystals from the shoulders down forming armor. The crystals take a humanoid shape, complete with arms and legs. The surface of it is very amorphous with sharp crystals protruding at different directions.
"He finally getting serious, huh. I should respond in kind." Kai said as he took a battle stance.
Both Lars and Kai stared at each other, waiting for the other to make the first move. Kai was the first to act. He used burst step and dashed Lars with blinding speeds.
Lars reacted quickly and swung his hand towards Kai, hoping to crush him. But he was disappointed as Kai used burst step and moved to the side, dodging the attack.
Kai then engulfed his right fist in flames and slammed into the humanoid leg, breaking its leg, causing Lars to lose balance.
Lars seeing his situation, shot his armored hand forward. If he attempted to repair his armor leg, then Kai will attack him leading to his defeat, therefore he decided to attack Kai.
Kai responded by engulfing his fist in flames and shot it towards Lars armored fist. Upon impact, the Lars armored exploded which shocked him. Seeing that Lars was distracted, Kar sent his fist enveloped in flames towards Lars chest.
Lars tried to shield himself from the attack by covering his chest with more armor but he underestimated the destructive power of Kai's attack. Kai's fist slammed into Lars chest, breaking through the armor and slammed him into the ground.
Thus, Lars was rendered unconscious and defeated. Kai had defeated the the group of mages by himself.
Several minutes later, Kai had restrained the mages using his fire magic and he also removed the fire barrier he placed to protect the villagers.
The mages had regained consciousness already and Kai is about to question them about their motives.
"Alright, start talking. Who are you, why are you here and what are you after." Kai asked the mages who were currently sitting on the ground.
"So he sealed my magic." Lars thought
"What makes you think that we will tell you that? you have no way of making us talk" Lars said shortly.
"Oh, you may be right. But once I take you guys in, I'm sure the magic knights will be able to make you talk."
The Magic Knights were quite ruthless when it comes to situations like this. They will use the most gruesome torture methods on the offender to get answers.
"Hell no." Lars voiced out which surprised Kai and then mana started gathering in the mages bodies. Mages normally gather mana in their bodies but this was different.
Crystal Burial
As Lars said those words, several spikes shot out from his body and the other mages bodies as well, killing them in an instant. They planted a magic Item in their stomach in case a situation like this happened. It was destroy any information leaks.
"This bastard committed suicide. The person he was working for must a lot to him." Kai voiced out as he looked at the gruesome scene in disgust.
"Damn fool, I hate bastards like this." Kai said with a angry voice as he clenched his fists.
----
Somewhere in the continent of Ishgar, a tall man wearing a black hooded cloak can be seen standing Infront of a sephirot. The place was dark so his surroundings was unknown.
The man was then approached by one of his subordinates who knelled and said "Lars has fallen, great one."
"Really now... however that doesn't change anything. Our plans are almost complete." The man said while installing a piece of stone into the sephirot and continued.
"Our lord's revival is... on the horizon."