The Novice Mage nearly lost his breath. He could instantly tell that he was next on the chopping block!
Unwilling to just die, to just let all of his comrades die, the Novice Mage forcefully surged every ounce of Mana he had left.
His head nearly shattered from the overwhelming use of his soul force. He wanted to collapse straight on the ground.
But the Novice Mage desperately clung to life, his Mana blasting out in unfathomable waves.
Rippling arcs of lightning Mana spewed from the Novice Mage's right hand. The swirl of lightning Mana glistens within the dark shade of the twilight woods.
"Hah!" The Novice Mage roared, pouring every ounce of strength into his body to kill this manslaughter.
All pain was forced down by the Novice Mage. He jumped straight at Ervin, aiming his lightning Mana palm close to his heart.
Even in a critically injured state, with his torched nerves, the power of lightning Mana still amplified the Novice Mage's speed by a considerable sum.
The roaring thunder of lightning was close to Ervin in just two seconds. Rippling lightning arcs slashed at the ground, torching parts of it to leave behind a sizzling crater of smoke.
The swirls of lightning Mana did cause Ervin to feel a genuine sense of danger. He would absolutely die trying to take this attack without any sort of magical defense.
But defending was useless for Ervin. His Complete Invisibility Mana flowed at light speed.
Faster than the Novice Mage, the Mana flow condensed in a large of the left side of Ervin's chest.
The Novice Mage's deathly lightning Mana palm had already arrived. It brilliantly gleamed, intending to tear Ervin's flesh into charred pieces.
The Novice Mage expected to feel some kind of tearing of the flesh.
However, to his utter dismay, he watched on with pure bewilderment as his lightning Mana palm completely phased straight through Ervin's chest!
The powerful flow of lightning Mana couldn't touch a single spot on Ervin's chest.
At that moment, Ervin quickly slashed his magical sword straight towards the Novice Mage's chest.
The cold flash of seeming death overpowered the arcs of lightning.
The Novice Mage had poured all of his Mana into this single strike. Nothing was left to defend against the magical sword!
'Chi!'
One last splattered flow of blood spewed across the land. The magical sword brutally tore straight into the Novice Mage's lung, promptly spewing waves of Mana to completely suppress his body.
Splatters of blood sprayed across Ervin's indifferent face. He quickly pulled back his crimson-coated magical sword and forcibly pushed the Novice Mage away.
With a sickening thump, the Novice Mage smashed to the ground, his lightning Mana disappearing along with all of his hope.
Silence soon suffocated the area.
Ervin was the only one left standing out of a group of four Novice Mage and one Adept Mage. Anyone else seeing this would feel as if a nightmare was playing out before them.
Worst of all, it appeared Ervin suffered zero injuries despite going up against overwhelming odds.
Ervin may have come out unscathed. But that Novice Mage genuinely put him on the edge of death. Beads of cold sweat drenched his entire body.
Just a second slower and he would be the one bleeding out on the ground with no hope to ever get up again.
The experience left a deep impression in Ervin's mind. But all of his hard work was worth it.
A certain sensation flowed within Ervin's hand. When he summoned the Demon Orb, intense feelings of pure hatred, frustration, and regret faintly swirled through his mind.
Ervin looked around to see that these emotions were practically spewing out of the eyes of the fallen patrol team.
Evidently, the one there's one thing the patrol team would ever feel is pure hatred. Especially when seeing that Ervin was wearing the exact same Mage Enforcer robe!
A Mage Enforcer meant to uphold justice and be the good people of this world just cruelly killed his fellow enforcers without a hint of remorse.
None of the fallen patrol team could accept such a gruesome way of dying. But nothing could save them from this situation.
Ervin went on to quickly use the Demon Orb to absorb the Mages' blood, gaining their Magical essences and bloodline.
No matter who Ervin stared at, not a single person made Ervin reconsider his decision.
When everything was finally done, Ervin felt satisfied with the spoils. Nobody had any Innate Abilities, but that's to be expected when dealing with average Mage Enforcers. Still, his Demon Orb was ready to use again and the spoils from their spatial pouches seemed very hefty.
Ervin only needed a few seconds to catch his breath and regain his Mana from the vial potions.
Back at full Mana reserves, Ervin surged his Complete Invisibility and began running home to start his next set of Demon Orb absorption.
...
A day quickly passed.
Hours into the day, everything seemed relatively normal at the Mage Enforcer estate.
The massive Manor containing thousands of other Mage Enforcers was doing their daily duties and patrols without any issues.
The generals were issuing orders as per usual. Most Mage Enforcers had zero clue that a strange issue was unfolding within one of the meeting chambers.
The chamber contained two senior Mage Enforcers both exuding a natural breath of Magic superior to thousands of other Mages. The force of their Magic could make entire small towns tremble to their knees. No force not equal to their level can even hope to stop them.
These senior generals were Mages surpassing that of the Adept Mage realm. Important figures like them wouldn't meet unless something critical or very strange had occurred.
And this last case was just one of those strange cases.
The general with a long, jagged scar running down his face was saying, "Alright, this is too strange to ignore. Both cases are weeks apart. But both times, our best trackers had zero clue whether or not a human or beast killed the patrol team. And even that, it's impossible to track down any source. There must be a connection we're missing."
Being stumped like this never felt good. Especially when it concerns a seemingly dangerous force that can without any regard of being caught.
The other general went into deep contemplation. Numerous matters swirled his mind as he spoke after a moment, "I am truly having difficulty on where to start on this. We gathered all kinds of reports, but not a single detailed any strange movements from other patrol teams. It was just a regular night like any other. Haaah...doing anything rash will cause panic and unease to settle in. And the City Mansion along with other Noble Families are just eagerly waiting for us to make the slightest mistake. The best we can do now is continue to uncover investigation and pray to the Light Gods we can reach some sort of breakthrough. We can't have too much of our attention dived with the Heavy Black Mist supposedly coming earlier than usual."
"I see...understood." The other general had his opinions, but he could only choose to swallow them out of concern for the city and the organization.
However, the strangeness of this silent killer could never leave either of the generals' minds.
...
Two weeks quickly passed.
As the warmth of early morning settled in, a change was swirling through Ervin's living room.
Gleaming red lights of sparkling Mana shimmered across the entire room. A powerful force of Mana continually radiated out of Ervin's body, the sheer power behind it directly cracking apart the ground beneath him.
The sensation of Magic itself became even more clear in Ervin's mind. The properties of how to condense Mana, how to feel out the vibrations of Magic essence flowing through the air, it was like a new chapter opened up for him.
Within Ervin's Magical Space, his red core grew even larger, shiny a greater exuberant light that would illumine a small town itself.
The growth of Ervin's magical core meant he finally entered the next stage.
The Late Stage Novice Mage realm!
Additionally, his magical veins grew sturdier, the quality of his magical core became purer and his entire body felt far more intune with the various properties of magic.
This wasn't the end of Ervin's gains. Both of his palms suddenly opened. A swirling mass of beautiful orange flames amassed on his left palm in an almost hypnotizing rhythm.
His control of flames seemed seamless as if he could summon the force of Fire Mana without thinking much at all.
Ervin's left palm gleamed the brilliance of light blue Mana of telekinesis. Telekinesis Mana flowed out of his palm and seamlessly phased into several objects around the living room.
Ervin didn't even furrowed his bows. He casually lifted his left palm, perfectly floating the objects into the air without experiencing any mental stress.
This mystical force of magic lasted for several minutes. Even after some time of controlling two Noble Mage Arts at once, no sweat could be seen on Ervin's face.
When the rays of the sun gleamed through the window, Ervin dispersed his Mana and slowly opened his eyes.
An immensely pleased smile split across his face.