Zero walked in the direction of Miguel, currently floating in the air, looking down at his location.
"Continue the evacuation and join the others; escape. I don't want anyone to hold me back," Zero said without looking back at Mikaela.
Mikaela walked one step. "That man is a member of the Heralds."
"I know," Zero replied.
"I knew it! You have been watching all this time and just waiting for the best time to do your cool entrance! You really are a big showoff!" Mikaela screamed in irritation.
Zero didn't reply and just acted like he heard nothing. However, the people around them had different reactions; their eyes filled with awe as they watched the interaction between the two former members of the hero's party.
"Lady Mikaela is talking casually with the most unpredictable person in this world." Hyuna could only comment as she stared at them with her enlarged eyes. "If anyone other than Lady Mikaela dares to do that, they are already dead—a brutal and extremely painful death."
"Being friends with the most dangerous person alive is a feat Lady Mikaela managed to do," Vahili commented.
"Continue the evacuation! Let no one be left behind!" Mikaela ordered as she approached the knights. "We need to get out of here. A huge battle will occur."
Understanding what Mikaela meant, Vahili and Hyuna nodded and hastened their movement. They knew something huge was about to go down.
"So, you are Zero, the legendary mage of the hero's party," Miguel said, with a huge smile on his face. "My name is Miguel Edelman, the Dark Star of the Heralds. I came here to take my revenge for the deaths of my younger brothers, Jude and Julian Edelman. And I am taking your life as an equivalent exchange; your death will be slow and painful."
Zero stopped in his tracks. "Who?"
Irritation immediately showed on Miguel's face. "Jude and Julian Edelman, the Twin Star—you—you killed them back in the town of Brookhaven."
Zero laughed, laughter filled with arrogance and mockery. "My apologies, but did you really expect me to remember the names of the insects I killed?"
Miguel's eyes shivered. "Insects, you said? My brothers!" He screamed and raised his hands. "I will make you remember! Corrosion Cloud!"
All at once, ten cloud titans formed and immediately charged towards Zero.
"Your arrogance will be your downfall, Zero!" Miguel continued. "Greater Shadow Hounds! Shadow Spears!" He laughed. "Now, taste the wrath of the ruler of darkness—me!"
An army of Shadow Hounds appeared and rushed towards Zero; at the same time, the dark sky was covered by the Shadow Spears and rained down upon Zero—three forms of attacks, all at once, giving no room for Zero to escape. However, he didn't need to.
Zero raised his right hand. "Embodiment of Gluttony: Shadow Devourer."
As if Zero's shadow gained life, it became bigger and instantly devoured everything around him. The Corrosion Cloud, the army of Shadow Hounds, and the Shadow Spears—all were easily devoured by the pitch-black shadow under Zero's control.
"You thought you had power over darkness? You merely burrowed a small fraction of what it really is. You are not a user of darkness—you are just a pawn to it, an easily disposable one," Zero said as he slowly raised his eyes to Miguel. "I subdued darkness; I made it my own, and now it exists to obey my orders."
"How can it be?" Miguel could only say after he saw the combination of his powerful skills get easily stopped and devoured.
"Ah, I remember now. Your brothers are those two weaklings who tried to stop the caravan of Satirica from reaching me," Zero said with a sadistic tone. "Do you want to know how they die? I gotta warn you, though. Those were not pleasant deaths."
Miguel gritted his teeth. "Zero!" He summoned a massive cloud, an army of hounds, and thousands upon thousands of shadow spears in the sky, then controlled them to rush towards Zero.
"One of them died being pierced by his own piercing light. He could not believe what hit him. I slammed him with my vanquishing slash. Poor guy turned into ashes." Zero shrugged. "And the other faced a slow and painful death being eaten by the monsters he tamed. I remember him begging for mercy. Too bad I didn't give him any."
"You will die today, Zero!" Miguel screamed, and he could no longer resist his rage.
"Corrosion Cloud," Zero uttered. A pitch black—blacker than Miguel's Corrosion Cloud—appeared and easily overwhelmed Miguel's attacks, completely negating them.
And before Miguel could react, Zero reached him by flying towards him at high speed. Miguel could only stare at Zero with his widened eyes.
"It seems I overestimated you. And here I thought you could put up a good fight. Just like your brothers, you are just a pathetic weakling," Zero said, his red eyes focused on Miguel—filled with cruelty and bloodthirst.
"I... may have picked the wrong person to go against." This realization occurred to Miguel.
Zero clenched his fist and assumed a punching stance. "Let me show you what kind of power the ruler of darkness should have: Shadow Punch."
Shadow Punch was supposed to be one of the weakest dark element skills; it was learned even by novice dark elementalists but rarely used because of its low viability, but what showed in front of Miguel was telling a different story.
Multiple purple magic circles appeared next to Zero's fist, each the size of a wheel, making a line of magic circles stack up.
Fear dominated Miguel's face upon realizing his situation. "No! I don't want to die!" He screamed as he tried to fly away.
"It's too late for that." Saying that, Zero rushed towards Miguel, spun in the air, and lunged his fist towards his face. "Can you withstand the power of darkness?"
Miguel's face took the full force of the attack. The attack was so powerful that his face, followed by his body, immediately turned into nothing, withering in an instant. And the thing was, Miguel only received a very small fraction of the power of the attack—the continuity of the attack surged down to the ground, destroying everything.
A huge explosion occurred; the very ground shook, sending tremors in every direction. Anyone who saw it shivered, falling on their feet, their eyes trembling due to both fear and awe.
The battle was over the moment it started—Miguel was defeated without even a chance of putting up a good fight, like an insect crushed mercilessly.
"The darkness doesn't see you as its ruler," Zero said, looking down at the massive hole he created.