Taog sighed as he watched the ongoing battle. This was perhaps the worst situation for his particular set of skills. Sun attribute spells flying around on a bright desert day with nary a tree in sight created a suboptimal environment for Dark mana. At best he could try to interact with people’s shadows. Otherwise it was his mana versus a Sun Elf’s with a disadvantageous match up.

And Holy mana wasn’t as strong against normal people as it was against monsters. The Aesdes did not take sides…besides some of the myths surrounding Velus, that is, but every culture had their own legends regarding their origins. Taog did have a hero skill or two to give him an edge over a normal person…but that was not enough to navigate a disadvantageous battlefield involving Archons.

So…Taog was on standby, watching Seero’s drones take on the Sun Elf soldiers. He was confident he could handle one or maybe a few of those, so he stood in the back. Should they manage to break through the drones, he would reinforce the line. But so far…they had not, so there was no reason to risk cyborg units in that fight just yet. As a result, Taog was just sitting around waiting while everyone else was fighting for their lives.

He was starting to understand why Ateia didn’t like waiting at the Primary Home Base.

But then, something changed. Taog wrapped himself in his Dark Shroud, hoisting his blades. Huge plumes of water began to burst from the ground all across the battlefield. Taog heard a voice from behind him.

“Got you.”

And…he smirked.

“Yes. I do.”

The Dark Shroud Shot behind him, forming into a hand. The Holy-infused Dark mana slammed into the Herald of Rain and pushed her out of the column of water, bouncing her on the sand a couple of times.

Taog grinned as he turned around, his robotic eye flickering. He wasn’t the best at Divination, but he was a hero capable of using Holy mana, so it was possible. And Seero had recorded in exacting detail every bit of data she had on the Herald of Rain, particularly after the Herald had tried to spy on them recently. Taog…and all of the CELIU units…had been tracking the Herald from the start of this fight.

Not to mention…he had seen that trick once before. He was never going to let it work ever again.

“Hello Miss Sidonia, long time no see.”

The Herald of Rain’s eyes widened as she picked herself off the ground.

“Holy mana? You, you’re a hero?!”

Taog bared his teeth as he smiled and spun his blades.

“You’ve missed a lot. I’m not the same helpless kid as back then.”

The Herald of Rain stared at him for a moment before scoffing. The sand beneath her feet started to grow damp as her eyes began to glow.

“Perhaps. But I wield powers beyond your comprehension. You still cannot stand against me.”

Taog leapt forward, his repulsors propelling him forward.

“We’ll see about that!”

The Herald of Rain’s eyes widened slightly but she responded regardless. Another plume of water burst from the ground right in front of Taog, forcing him to pull up. The plume arched, pouring the stream of water down towards Taog. He boosted to the side while swing his blade towards the torrent of water still streaming up. Dark and Holy mana shot from his blade, cutting off the flow of water as it tore through the mana of Deluge.

The Herald of Rain was nowhere to be seen as the water fell…but Taog’s robotic eye spun around and then zoomed in. He could track her presence as she moved through the water underground. Taog grinned, and then dove into the hole left by the plume of water.

He traveled deep into the ground, eventually arriving at a large cavern with a huge underground lake. He heard the Herald of Rain start to laugh.

“You followed me down here? Oh my, you’re dumber than I thought, Taog.”

The lake began to bubble violently, and then several columns of water shot into the air, streaming towards Taog. But Taog just grinned.

He extended the Dark Shroud all around him. In the pitch-black underground cavern, there was plenty of darkness. He shifted out of the attack with a Dark Dash, melding into the shadows.If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

The water columns smashed against the roof, spraying the entire cavern in drops of water. The drops began to accelerate as they fell, filling the air of the cavern with rain. Some of the rain landed on Taog…and then quickly coalesced into a bubble of water.

“Did you really think you could escape from me, here, in the midst of my element? Watching the terrain is battlemage rule number one, boy.”

Taog grimaced.

“This is a lot harder than I thought. Seero makes it look so easy.”

The Herald of Rain grinned to herself.

“The lesson every rookie learns on their first fight. Unfortunately, this is also your last.”

Taog then turned his head…and looked right at the Herald of Rain hiding in the water below. He…was more than a little satisfied as his cybernetic components logged her heart rate increase.

“Excuse me but…I wasn’t talking to you.”

And then Taog executed his experimental protocol. Holy-infused Dark mana spread all across the edges of the cavern, and down into the water, coating the walls, floors, and roof. What little light trickled in from the hole in the roof cut off, leaving the cavern completely dark.

He grinned as he heard the Herald of Rain gasp. Seero had visited the Realm of Eternal Night more than once at this point, recording its mana in great detail. And while the Realm of Eternal Night’s mana was unique, it was ultimately a form of Dark mana, one that took the obscuring aspect of darkness to its ultimate extreme. So regular Dark mana also contained that aspect, though to a far lesser degree.

Ever since becoming a hero, Taog had studied Seero’s recordings. And he had practiced modifying his own mana into a similar form. Now…he finally had it down well enough to use it in combat.

The Herald of Rain’s eyes widened as her perception of everything beyond the cavern cut off. She couldn’t even feel the water flowing in from underground rivers just beyond the cavern walls. Taog’s Shroud was not a perfect recreation and indeed it couldn’t be…against a regular person, that is. But neither he nor the Herald of Rain were normal…for he was a Hero blessed by the Aesdes and she was a Herald empowered by the Domides.

Taog’s barrier included Holy mana on top of Dark. Holy mana naturally opposes intrusions from the Realms of Mana, particularly the destructive Realms that try to destroy it in turn. As a result…the Holy mana in Taog’s shroud automatically cut off the Herald of Rain’s Deluge mana.

Like the Realm of Eternal Night once attempted to smother Seero, now Holy-infused Dark Mana now isolated the Herald of Rain. The Herald of Rain furrowed her brow.

“Clever, but it changes nothing.”

Water began to stream from the lake below, growing the bubble around Taog. The water in the bubble began to swirl around, spinning Taog around as his repulsors tried to fight against the tide.

“All I need to do is incapacitate you, which will happen regardless. Trapping me here does nothing if you can’t defeat me.”

Taog chuckled.

“I don’t need to. Because she will.”

Just then, a light burst through the roof, passing through the shroud with ease. Wings made of golden and silver light illuminated the cavern. Metal armor glimmered in shifting patterns as light reflected between it and the water below. A robotic eye glowed bright red.

Ateia grinned and cracked her knuckles.

“Hello, Miss Herald. I’ve been hoping to see you again.”

The Herald of Rain turned pale. She quickly directed all of her efforts against the newcomer. The water in the cavern turned towards Ateia, mighty streams of water curling through the air as they surged towards her.

Ateia backhanded the stream. Holy mana surged through it…and then all the water in the air dropped back into the lake. The Herald of Rain formed another magic circle…but the water below no longer responded to her command. One of the authorized masters of the world had reasserted control over it, and now no intruder would usurp them.

“S-So it’s true…you have joined the Aesdes…”

Ateia grinned and chuckled.

“All thanks to you, and your cult’s little ritual. So, I figure I should you pay you back for it. And as Seero would say...engaging terminate with extreme prejudice protocols.”

The Herald of Rain formed another magic circle, creating new water from her own mana and surrounding herself. She tried to escape from the Material Plane once more…

But her magic circle shattered, and her water dispersed into the lake around her. The Dark Shroud cut her off from any water beyond the cavern…and apparently Ateia was reinforcing the boundary of the Material Plane along her retreat path, so she could not escape that way either.

She was trapped.

The Herald of Rain barely had time to process the spell’s failure when Ateia dove into the water, and grabbed her by the neck. Ateia was no longer smiling.

“You killed my mother. You forced my father to leave us. You almost killed me. You tried to kill Taog, Seero, Estrith, and Agedia. You and your cult tried to destroy everything and everyone I ever cared about. You tried to destroy the Empire, the entire world. Mighty Victoria and the Aesdes themselves stand against you. The world itself stands against you.”

She stirred up her mana. The Herald of Rain’s eyes widened.

“This is for everything you’ve done, and tried to do.”

Holy mana surged from Ateia into the Herald of Rain. Ateia poured all of her mana into the woman…then connected to the streams of Holy mana flowing through the world to gather more. The cavern filled with golden and silver light.

The Herald of Rain screamed as the Holy mana reacted with the mana of Deluge within her. Her own mana was burned right out of her body. This, of course, left her charred and empty, completely helpless as quantities of mana no normal person could handle flooded her veins. Had she been a normal person, the Holy mana may have stopped at this point, to avoid destroying its own inhabitants. But the Herald of Rain had given herself completely to the Realms of Mana. She had been molded and shaped by them. She had melded her body into Deluge countless times.

She was no longer purely a resident of the Material Plane.

And so the Holy Mana flooded in, attempting to reclaim what was familiar and purge what was not.

The Herald of Rain opened her mouth to scream as her body flickered and faded away, overloaded by the sheer quantity of mana in her body.

And so passed the Herald of Rain, terminated by the two kids from Turannia.