The Sword and The Shadow

World-ending Meteor

"This is my final strike," Nidhogg surprisingly confessed, "You can choose to evade it, but if you do, everything within ten kilometers around Melindor will be reduced to ashes.

Hearing that, Leguna's expression soured. It was apparent Nidhogg also required a long time to dictate such a spell. The smartest move was to kill him when he was midway through the incantation. He was frustrated, however, that Nidhogg had somehow hidden himself away completely. He couldn't detect where he was now.

So, he chose to take Eirinn and the others to somewhere safe first. With Angelista there, it shouldn't be a problem for them to leave.

But when he came to them, Angelista immediately said, "Forget it. The whole area's space has been locked down by Nidhogg. If you don't wipe him out, we won't be able to escape at all."

"What?"

"Have you ever seen anyone who regretted getting on the gambling table?" Nidhogg's voice rang, "Since you made the choice to resist me, you'll have to be prepared to lose everything."

"Nidhogg you underhanded bastard!"

"Don't talk about me like that. I've also bet everything I had on this," Nidhogg said, not minding his rebukes at all. "There's only enough hope for one of us to go around, so we have to fight for it."

"Tch!" Leguna clicked his tongue and turned to Innilis. Surprisingly, she didn't seem panicked or worried at all and instead looked at him with a smile, causing him to not be able to ask her to leave.

"I won't go anywhere if you're not there. I think Sis Eirinn feels the same," she said.

He turned to Eirinn for a silent moment. He smiled and said, "Wait for me a little."

"Okay!" She nodded hard.

Leguna once more went to the center of the rubble and closed his eyes to try to sense Nidhogg's position. It used to be that he could only use his full power during the dark of night, but ever since inheriting Njolvinr's divine power, he could now use Host of Darkness even during the day.

A weak energy wave came from the top of his head. He looked up and saw a needle-width orange dot of light.

"That is…" He narrowed his eyes, before he cried, "That's you?!"

His eyes weren't deceiving him. The dot of light in the air was Nidhogg.

It was the strongest spell he had attempted to cat yet. It was World-End Meteor, a fusion of all his gifts and mana.

The spell transported Nidhogg tens of thousands of meters into the air, from which he fell with the aid of gravity. During that process, he used Host of Terra and Host of Flame to their utmost limit, causing his body to become unbearably heavy and hot enough to melt steel. Even the common folk knew how powerful a level-nine meteor spell could be. Yet, all Nidhogg had to do was use a transference spell and convert his body itself into a meteor to have far more destructive power than the meteor spell.

Naturally, that alone wouldn't make it Nidhogg's most powerful spell. At the moment of impact, he would trigger an explosion with all his mana and send out a destructive wave that would wipe out everything.

Normal magi would probably die from the impact of such a suicidal spell. However, Nidhogg could use the spell to mitigate damage to himself as he had the protective abilities of his wind and earth-aspect gifts. Even though he hadn't had the chance to use it, after multiple calculations, he was doubtlessly certain that he wouldn't be harmed from the spell. Today, it was finally time for the debut of his most destructive spell ever.

Leguna looked at the dot in the sky with a grave expression. He didn't know what in the world the spell would be like, but he knew that disaster would fall the moment Nidhogg impacted ground.

He took a deep breath and slowly raised his hand and forming shadow dagger within it. Then, he looked at Innilis and smiled.

Squelch!

He thrust the dagger into his own heart.

"Leguna!" She panicked at the suicidal act.

"Don't move, lass." Even though Innilis was almost thirty already, Angelista still treated her like a brat. "Watch closely. He just reunited with you and he wouldn't be mad enough to kill himself now. He's definitely doing this for a reason."

Leguna coughed out some blood and endured the paid as he stuck his finger to get some blood from his wound. Then, he used the blood from his heart to trace a complicated symbol on the uneven ground. It seemed like a formation, but no magi would be able to decipher what it did based on their usual formation theories. However, priests might have an inkling to what that symbol did.

It was Njolvinr's divine language. It contained a profound meaning humans couldn't even to begin imagining. The full sentence read, 'Under the Sacred Light is where the Shadow is cast'.

[Thou finally borroweth mine power?] Njolvinr's voice rang in Leguna's mind.

[Your power?] Leguna smiled coldly. [While the power of shadow is yours, no doubt, the ability to manipulate the power of light and convert between light and shadow no longer belong to you, right, former Lord of Light and Shadow?]