Magus Supremacy

Grey's world was darkness at first. Then, a rushing roar filled his ears.

His eyes blinked open mid-fall, and all he saw was sky... sky above, sky beside, sky everywhere. Wind tore past his face like a scream, flaying his skin with invisible claws. His limbs flailed uselessly in the air.

He didn't know how long he'd been falling, but it felt endless.

Seconds stretched like minutes, each heartbeat a hammer pounding panic into his ribs.

Below him, the cliff walls blurred into a wall of grey and green, spinning, rushing, distant.

His sword was gone. His breath caught. Gravity showed no mercy.

The cliff behind him had been nothing more than a backdrop earlier, veiled in mist and forgotten until now.

A jagged drop-off stretching hundreds of meters into a swirling abyss. Rocks jutted out like fangs, and the thick fog made it impossible to see what waited below. It was nature's execution ground, silent, cold, and merciless.

"Damn it! Damn it all! I wanted a damn peaceful life far from trouble and problems. I wanted to be free, damn it! I never messed with anybody and I didn't want anybody to mess with me.

Was it too much to ask? I just came to the academy on Yami's insistence and now… look at me, falling down to my death! Curse it all! Curse my life! Curse my fate! Curse those damned descendants!" Grey roared in his mind as he could no longer see the edge of the cliff from earlier.

"I swear, I promise. If I manage to survive this ordeal and I get back, I swear to find them out and hunt them down. I promise to kill them myself with my own hands. This is a damn promise to myself!"

"Now," Grey thought as he managed to spin around in the air to face the fog rushing up to meet him, "how do I fucking survive?!"

"ARGHHH!" Grey shouted as his descent accelerated. The fog began to thin out more and more, and slowly, he could see the full bare ground, just twenty metres away and rapidly approaching.

"Shit! If I hit the ground, there's nothing that can make me survive at all. I'm going to be dead." Grey thought as he saw the jagged terrain rushing toward his face.

"Shit! What do I do now? I could try the breathing technique Yami taught me, but I'll need a damn sword. My sword got broken. What do I do now? I need a good damn sword!" Grey shouted into the wind, desperation thick in his voice.

In response, the pendant around his neck lit up bright.

In a split second, a sword materialised in his hand. He blinked in confusion, glancing from the sword to the pendant.

"Where did the sword come from? Why did the pendant light up just now? Hold on a second… how did I even get this pendant?! Damn! Not having my memories is really annoying!" Grey shouted, the ground still rushing toward him with deadly intent.

"Wait! Right, my death," he thought as he gripped the sword tighter. Determination filled his gaze, and he snapped his eyes shut, trying to calm his breathing.

"Breathing technique: second formation," Grey said through gritted teeth. Invisible steam seeped from his lips. His grip on the sword grew tighter and then…

"Wind wheel!" Grey called out. Instantly, the air around him howled into motion, spinning and swirling. Wind whipped around him as he began rotating in the air like a wheel. The spinning force fought against gravity, slowing his fall.

The ground was now just three metres away.

"Come on!" Grey roared desperately. The wind howled louder and faster, and finally, his descent slowed enough that he smashed into the ground one hand extended beneath him to absorb the impact.

CRACK!

CRUNCH!

A sickening sound echoed as Grey's hand met the ground, followed by the thud of his body. The fall was broken at the last possible moment, but his hand took the brunt of it. Three of his fingers snapped backwards, bones sticking grotesquely out of the skin.

"Arghh! Damn it!" Grey groaned in agony, blood pooling on the ground beside him as he stared at his mangled arm.

"Curse my life," he muttered, teeth clenched. He struggled to pull off his shirt and then carefully wrapped it around his broken hand, forming a crude sling.

It took nearly ten minutes before he managed to finish and finally relaxed a bit. He forced himself to his feet, sword still clutched in his other hand, and scanned his surroundings with narrowed eyes.

Fog rolled all around him, veiling his vision. He couldn't see more than two metres ahead.

"Huh? What's this?" Grey muttered as he waved his hand through the dense mist. After a few moments, he let out a breath.

"Seems the fog is harmless," he muttered with a sigh of relief. "Now, where am I? And how the hell do I get back?"

He looked upward, but the cliff above was gone, swallowed by fog.

"There's no use. I could possibly climb up there, but with one useless arm, it's pointless. Besides, if I get back now, there's nothing stopping that crazy descendant from attacking me again. He might try something worse next time."

He fell into silence. The wind had calmed, the fog lingered, and the pain in his hand throbbed with every heartbeat. But despite all of that, he was alive.

And being alive meant he still had a chance.

And honestly, I have nothing to protect myself with. I'm too weak currently," Grey sighed as he shook his head and began trying to navigate his way out of the fog.

'I need somewhere to lay my head for a while. Can't let something or someone get me out here unexpectedly,' he thought as he staggered around the fog like a drunkard, squinting ahead with barely any visibility. His legs wobbled under him, his balance thrown off by exhaustion and injury.

While stumbling forward, his foot struck a huge mound of stone he hadn't seen in time. He tripped violently and fell face-first into the cold ground, his full weight crashing down on his mangled arm.

"ARGHH! Damn it!" Grey cried out, his voice cracking with pain as fresh blood seeped out from the damaged hand. Tears welled up and slipped from his eyes, more from the unbearable ache than anything else.

But despite the agony, he pushed himself upright again. Breathing heavily, he wiped his face clean with the back of his good hand and glanced around to see where he had landed.

To his surprise, he found himself inside what looked like a small cave.

The cave had barely any light except for four faintly glowing blue crystals embedded in the walls. They shimmered gently, casting a calming light over the rocky interior and allowing Grey to see.

"Wait... the fog isn't even entering here? How is that possible?" he muttered, staring at the entrance where the mist rolled just outside but didn't cross the threshold.

'Why am I even questioning it? This is good. This place is empty, it's dry, and it's quiet. It'll serve as a good resting spot for now,' he thought as he limped deeper into the cave, dragging his feet slightly.

He began trailing his hand gently along the uneven rock wall, searching for a place to settle down, when suddenly his fingers struck something that felt different.

'Huh? What is this?' he thought, pausing to run his fingers over it again. The texture was unusual, too smooth for natural rock. There were markings, carvings, maybe even writing.

Squinting in the dim blue glow, he leaned closer and began to read aloud without meaning to.

"Day 35 of me hiding away from them. I stumbled upon this cave and decided to hide out here. Damn it! I was really a fool, a fool I say. I trusted the wrong people, came here because I was running from those damned people from my own world.

Unknown to me that they already had branches here, they corrupted my trusted men causing them to turn against me and nearly kill me.

I have tried all I can against them, but it's sad that I lost. Now the Aetherian faction is infected by these demons and evil beings."

Grey's voice trailed off as he finished reading, his brows furrowed in confusion.

"Demons? Evil beings? Betrayal? What the hell is going on here? Who wrote this? Who was betrayed? What's going on in the Aetherian faction?

Is there some bigger threat that I don't even know about? Shit! So many questions, and no one to answer them," Grey muttered, staring at the writing like it might somehow explain itself if he just looked hard enough.

'Now what can I do?' he thought, his head spinning, thoughts racing through confusion and a growing sense of dread.

Then…

THUMP, THUMP, THUMP!

A deep, rhythmic thumping echoed through the cave walls. The sound was muffled but steady, like a heartbeat pulsing through stone.

Grey spun around, eyes narrowing, and cautiously stepped toward the source of the sound. His boots scraped softly on the cave floor as he approached, every step deliberate.

He soon found himself standing in the middle of a strange, circular symbol drawn into the floor. It glowed faintly with the same soft rhythm as the sound beating, pulsing, almost alive.

"What is this? These runes… these drawings… what are they?" Grey muttered, crouching down. Curiosity overtook his caution. He reached out without thinking, letting his fingers brush against one of the glowing symbols.

The instant his skin made contact, his entire hand lit up in a blinding white glow.

"Wait! What is this?! What is going on?! Wh—" Grey shouted in panic as a strange sensation surged through his body. Something was leaving him, being drawn out of him, funneling straight into the circle.

The moment it reached the heart of the rune, the entire circle exploded in brightness, forcing Grey to throw his good hand over his eyes.

"What the fuck is going on?! What is happening?!" he screamed, trying to back out of the circle. But before he could take a single step, the light swallowed him whole.

ZOOM!

In the blink of an eye, Grey vanished. The light collapsed inward with a low hum, then died out completely.

The cave was silent once more, bathed in dim blue light.

And Grey was gone.