Chapter 39: Evil Arts

Marcus quickly recovered from his dazed state. With a leap, he picked himself up off the ground, unsheathed his sword, and assumed a combat stance. 'This guy is more perceptive than I thought. How did he figure me out?'

[Shadow Camouflage] was a darkness element spell of the 2nd level, which allowed the user to blend in with the surrounding shadows. In addition to significantly increasing stealth, the spell also concealed the user's fluctuation of magical energy. This spell was so effective that even if the thaumaturge was 5 centimeters(Two inches) away from a person, they would not have noticed the difference between him and a normal shadow.

Thanks to this spell Marcus had been able to infiltrate through the chimney of the house and had managed to get so close to Aylinor. In addition, Marcus' mastery of the darkness element had almost reached rank 3, so the effectiveness of his spell was more powerful than average.

However, Aylinor had not only been able to detect Marcus' presence but was also able to determine the exact spot where he was and attack him. This only proved that both the perception ability, as well as the priest's senses, had already transcended those of a mere normal human.

"If you thought you could kill me with that poor concealment spell, then you are underestimating me or you are very stupid."Aylinor said as he approached his attacker. When he was finally able to visualize Marcus' figure, the priest couldn't help but raise an eyebrow. "Who the f**k are you?".

"I'm the guy who will kick your ass until you die."

"...Pfff, Hahaha... You're going to kill me? Are you stupid or did your brain get damaged by the energy blast?"Aylinor wasn't impressed that Marcus would use telepathy. But still, the priest could not believe what he had heard. How a measly wizard from the 2nd realm was going to kill him?

Just by the magical energy he was giving off, Aylinor was able to determine that Marcus was just a magic user from the 2nd realm. To him, Marcus was nothing more than a small ant that he could kill with a single move.

For magic users, the difference in power between each realm was like the distance between heaven and earth. Just the strength of one wizard from the 4th realm was equivalent to the combined power of a dozen wizards from the 2nd realm. Besides, Aylinor had been a 4th realm wizard for quite some time, so his strength was superior to that of an average 4th realm wizard.

"Well, I'll never know if I can kill you unless I try." Although he sounded confident, the truth was that Marcus had no f**king idea how to kill the priest. 'But seriously, this guy's stats are no joke.'

Almost an hour and a half ago, Marcus had discovered that the monsters attacking the city were being controlled by someone else. Furthermore, each monster had an energy trail that linked them to the thaumaturge that was controlling them. If he followed the energy trail it was highly likely that he would meet the one responsible for the attack on the city.

After some thought, Marcus had decided to follow the energy trail. So after traveling more than 20 kilometers and killing more than a dozen monsters, he had finally made it to the abandoned town. But Marcus had not done this to save the city. His only goal was to be able to reap the most benefits and increase his strength.

No sacrifice, no reward, no effort, no progress, no pain, no gain. Marcus was very clear that if he wanted to level up and increase his strength, he could not stand idle and would have to take the risk of facing opponents stronger than him.

This sudden attack on the city was a one in a hundred thousand chance.

Controlling an army of over twenty thousand monsters was no easy task. No matter how powerful or skilled the person behind the attack was, he still needed to use a large amount of energy to control such an army. So he would be very vulnerable and weakened.

If one thought about it a bit, it was much safer to kill a weakened boss than to take on a whole horde. Also, since the guy controlling the horde was strong it would surely give more experience than killing a dozen of low-level monsters. Of course one also had to recognize one's limits.

If the opponent turned out to be stronger than he could handle or was protected by dozens of monsters, Marcus would immediately opt to walk away from the village and escape. After all, Marcus was not one of those who would throw his life away without thinking. If the risks outweigh the benefits, then it wasn't worth the risk.

So once he entered the village, Marcus used his [Energy Sense] to search for any possible enemies. Once he determined that Aylinor was alone, Marcus only had to get close enough to assassinate the priest before he noticed.

But now that that plan had failed, the only thing Marcus could do was to engage Aylinor in direct battle.

'His MP is below 30% and he has yet to maintain control of the horde, so he is unlikely to use high-level spells. This guy is a wizard, so if I use my reinforcement spells and force him into a melee battle...' Marcus squeezed his non-existent brain to the max to formulate a plan that would guarantee him victory, or at least escape the village alive.

"Hmph. You've got balls to stand up to me. I'll give you that," the priest replied with disdain, "But since I'm a kind soul and in a good mood, I'll be merciful and give you a chance. If you kneel before me and plead long enough, then I might consider giving you a quick and painless death. What do you say?"

"...Do you have sh*t for brains or did you hit your head when you were a baby? I mean, who in their right mind would choose that? I told you, I'm going to kick your ass until you sh*t blood and die."

"You...How dare you...You...You...You f**king heretic!"Aylinor shouted. The moment he heard those words, the priest's face turned red, the hair all over his body bristled and the blood vessels on his forehead swelled to the limit. " How dare you despise my goodwill?!! Die like the rat you are!"

In that instant, Aylinor raised his left arm and a green-colored magic circle appeared in the palm of his hand.

'Here we go... Acrto, Nesso, Clarmo, Mheric, Klarru!' In a split second, Marcus activated all of his magical artifacts and enchanted artifacts; thus gaining over 50 points of temporary physical stats. Although it would have been much more effective to use reinforcement spells, they require more time to activate.

But just as Marcus was about to lunge at the priest...

Ding!

....

{Monarch of the eternal garden: Don't start yet. I'm going to get some popcorn and soda. I'll be right back}

....

{The [Monarch of the eternal garden] has gone AFK}

....

'What the f...?! Come on bro, read the room!'

"Poisonous Javelin!"

Aylinor finished conjuring his spell and a flash of green light shot out from the magic circle on his palm. Marcus didn't even have time to react when the priest's spell hit him squarely.

*Bam!*

The poisonous javelin struck its target with a loud boom, creating a cloud of green poisonous mist in the process. Aylinor rejoiced at how his attack had hit its target and a horrible grin formed on his face.

[Poisonous javelin] was an extremely lethal and terrifying 2nd level spell. The spell's poison caused the target to suffer from terrible convulsions, dizziness, vomiting, abrupt temperature changes, and muscle paralysis.

Although the poison only took 20 to 35 seconds to kill the target, the spell also caused the victim to experience a distortion in their perception of time; so from their point of view, the person affected by the poison would suffer from excruciating torture for up to an hour or two.

"Hehehe, you silly heretic. You should have taken my kind offer when you could. Now suffer the excruciating pa..."

Before Aylinor could finish his sentence, a shadow stepped out of the poisonous mist and charged towards him at full speed. In less than a second, the shadow traveled more than 15 meters(16.4 yards), closing the distance between them and when it was only a few steps away from the priest, the shadow jumped, rising almost 4 meters (13.12ft) in the air.

*Slash!*

Marcus leaned forward, swung his sword, and made a downward slash towards Aylinor's head. However, the priest raised his left arm to block the blade before it could even cut a hair from his head.

Just as Ouroboros was about to sever the priest's arm, something strange happened.

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*Clang!*

The sword and Aylinor's arm collided with a metallic clang, generating sparks in the process. The priest's arm that was supposed to have been cut off was almost intact.

"Get off!!!"Aylinor shouted. His eyes flashed with hatred and madness.

The priest shook his arm hard, pushing Marcus back, forcing him to back away and distance himself from him.

'What the hell, how did he block it?' Marcus was truly shocked. Even if he hadn't used any spells to increase Ouroboros' edge, the sword's attack power was around 200! That was more than enough to cut through steel armor like paper.

At that moment, Marcus focused his attention on Aylinor's left arm.

The priest's arm was covered by a red exoskeleton, similar to that of a lobster. On the forearm, where Marcus' blow had impacted, there was a cut a little less than 4 centimeters (1.57 inches) long and a centimeter (0.39 inches) deep from which a greenish-blue liquid was dripping.

The moment he noticed the wound on his arm, Aylinor burst out in anger.

"Bastard! How dare you harm my precious body!! My body belongs only to her!!!"The moment he noticed the wound on his arm, Aylinor burst out in anger and his eyes turned red." I will have my insects dismember, ****, and devour you!!!"

In that instant, Aylinor's right arm began to fracture and deform, until finally splitting and transforming into six worms, each as wide as a grown man's fist. Their mouths were filled with circular rows of sharp teeth that reflected a metallic sheen.

The six worms on Aylinor's arm began to writhe and stretch as if they had a life of their own and, in the blink of an eye, they lashed out at Marcus.

Marcus reacted quickly; he swung his body to the right and dodged the attack.

*Bam*

The worms didn't stop their charge and slammed into the wall of a house, shattering it into hundreds of pieces.

'I see. So this is a user of evil arts.'Marcus thought as he regained his balance and immediately jumped backward, to distance himself from the worms.

Evil arts were not just one type of magic, but multiple types of magical arts such as demonology, curse magic, destruction magic, plague magic, and necromancy. Its origins date back more than 140,000 years to the beginning of the Third Age.

Originally the only types of magic that existed in Genaerrsis were elemental magic, which consisted of manipulating the elements present in nature; elemental sorcery, whose power was based on forming a bond with a being of the elemental plane to borrow its power; and sacred magic, with which the gods lent their powers to mortal beings.

However, the inhabitants of the first age never intended to use these powers as an instrument of war and only used magic as a tool to build and develop their society.

On the other hand, the evil arts were magics from another dimension, brought to this world by the five calamities and demons at the beginning of the age of chaos. But these magics were only created to kill and destroy.

Even when the demons and the five calamities were sealed in the demonic realm, the existence of the evil arts had already become deeply rooted in the earthly plane and could not be removed.

The wizards of the church of plagues specialized in the use of plague magic; a group of evil arts among which stood out the manipulation of poisons, the creation of diseases, entomancy, among others.

In that instant, the worms moved and attacked Marcus once again.

Making use of his acrobatic skills, Marcus again dodged the worms, while swinging his sword to counterattack.

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

The clashes between the sword and the worms echoed throughout the village. Unlike what Marcus believed, the worms' skin was tougher than steel, so their attacks hardly left any marks.

However, Marcus could not afford to waste his precious MP, so he had decided not to use any spells. So he could only continue to dodge and block Aylinor's attack.

But while Marcus was an undead with infinite stamina and was not consuming his MP, Aylinor was spending a lot of energy on maintaining control of the horde and his active shapeshifting. So the longer the battle dragged on, the greater the chances of Marcus winning.

*Clang! Clang! Clang!*

As Marcus dodged and blocked the worms' attacks, the anger and hatred the priest felt reached a new level.

'Why isn't he dead?! It's been more than 30 seconds and the poison still hasn't taken effect! Does he have any resistance against the poison?... In that case... let's see how you survive this!' Aylinor took out a vial from his clothes, uncorked it, and drank the yellow liquid it contained.

In that instant, yellow veins began to appear on the priest's face. The yellow veins soon spread all over his body until they finally covered the worms on his right arm.

"Yellow plague fog."

A few seconds later, the maggots began to vomit a yellow gas that spread in all directions. Soon after, the entire village was covered by a layer of yellow fog.

[Yellow plague fog] was a long-range 3rd level spell. When used, everything in a 300-meter (328 yards) area around the thaumaturge would be covered with a yellow fog which contained a large number of viruses and pathogens. These viruses would enter the victim's body, causing him to become sick and his body to weaken instantly.

Normally, if a person was poisoned, all they had to do would be use magic or consume a potion to dispel the poisoning. But [Yellow plague fog] could not be dispelled as easily as poison.

The reason was that even if someone tried to use a potion or magic to dispel the negative effects on the affected person, the fog viruses would simply re-enter their body.

A person's body could not generate antibodies to defend against a normal virus that quickly, let alone generate antibodies against a virus that was created from magic. The only way to repel the disease was to use a dispel spell of 5th level or higher.

After about 10 seconds, the worms stopped spitting out the yellow gas and began to contract. Then the worms merged, and Aylinor's arm regained its original shape. At that moment, the priest's eyes shone with jubilation.

"Hehehe, you should be grateful. This Yellow plague fog is a modified version that I invented myself. The sickness caused by the spell is seven times more painful than normal! You can die happy knowing that it was me, Aylinor Danul Kalgar who sent you to the next life!"Aylinor said as he began to laugh maniacally.

*Whoosh*

In that instant, Marcus jumped with all his might, managing to get out of the yellow mist and rising several meters in the air. A white magic circle had formed in the palm of his hand.

The moment he saw Marcus, Aylinor stopped laughing and his eyes widened like saucers.

"WHY THE F**K ARE YOU STILL ALIVE?!!!"

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