Magus Supremacy

"Sir! Excuse me, sir! It's an emergency, we need the elders here now!" a young man shouted down a dimly lit hallway as he tried to catch up with a middle-aged man walking briskly ahead of him.

"What is it? What do you want with the elders?" the middle-aged man asked without even turning around.

"Sir…" the young man gulped loudly before continuing. "A corrupted primordial beast has appeared on the continent."

"So? Why should we deal with it? The continent has three factions; let them handle it. We have remained in the shadows for years now, and it is not yet time to reveal ourselves." The middle-aged man replied curtly, resuming his stride without hesitation.

"Sir, not only that," the young man said, trying to catch his breath, but the middle-aged man did not slow down.

"The leader has gone ahead to deal with the beast, and that is why I was asking for the elders."

At those words, the middle-aged man froze mid-step, one foot still raised. Beads of sweat instantly began forming across his brow.

"Shit… this is bad." In one fluid motion, he spun around and appeared directly in front of the young man.

"Where did the beast appear? On which faction's land?"

"Si… sir… it appeared on the Noxarian faction's land," the young man replied.

"Oh boy." The middle-aged man swallowed hard and took a step back.

"Is… is there any problem, sir?" the young man asked nervously.

"If it is about the beast, then no, there isn't. The leader is more than capable of annihilating it. But what I am worried about is—"

"The leader of the Noxarian faction?" another voice interrupted as someone strode into the hallway.

"Young master." Both men immediately bowed slightly to a young individual with blonde hair and an ever-present grin.

"This is why we have stayed hidden for years. The Noxarian faction believes themselves to be the strongest because they have him. The other factions avoid provoking them, and so do we.

But now, Father has decided to go out. Why did he have to get involved? The Noxarian leader could have handled this." The blonde-haired young man rubbed his forehead with a weary sigh.

"According to what I was told… the beast appeared with a strange artifact. And… and you know the leader," the young man said with another gulp.

"I should have known. Father is so obsessed with strange and rare artifacts that he has an entire room dedicated to them," the blonde-haired youth muttered, shaking his head.

"What shall we do now, young master?" the middle-aged man asked.

"What shall we do?" The blonde-haired youth gave a short laugh, waving his hand dismissively before turning to leave.

"It will be a battle between gods. There is no need for mere mortals like us to interfere."

---

Far away, in a desolate land where nothing remained except pure destruction, a lone figure stood. For miles in every direction, the ground looked as though a giant had stamped it into ruin.

The man had two swords strapped to his back, his long black hair whipping in the wind. Before him loomed a massive beast, almost like a behemoth, its colossal body partially cloaked in writhing shadows.

Its hide was covered in deep, terrible sword wounds, yet it still stood strong, glaring at the man with fierce black eyes that burned with malice.

"I have to end this quickly before he arrives. I need to claim the artifact you carry before he comes for it," the man said, his voice carrying power that seemed to reverberate in the air. His ocean-blue eyes narrowed as he grinned at the beast.

"Breathing technique: Eleventh formation."

He took a stance, his swords rattling on his back as the beast let out a thunderous roar and charged.

Steam escaped his nostrils in sharp bursts, his breathing changing entirely. His eyes turned pitch white, and the ground beneath his feet cracked apart, sending debris scattering. His gaze never left the monster racing toward him.

"Hurricane plus Lightning Storm!"

He exploded forward, drawing a blade in one swift motion. In the blink of an eye, he was directly before the beast. At the same moment, its massive jaws opened wide, unleashing a torrent of fire.

"Tsk." He scoffed and kicked off the air with such force that a deafening bang rippled through the atmosphere. The very air distorted as the flames hurtled past, slamming into the ground and melting it as though acid had been poured upon it.

Then, with a single mighty swing, he unleashed a massive twisting tornado intertwined with crackling lightning. It tore through the air with frightening speed and smashed into the beast with an earth-shattering boom that shook the land to its core.

The ground shattered so violently that the entire area boomed like an explosion had just occurred. The man grinned widely as he slid his sword back onto his back, striding toward the beast that now lay on the ground with its head completely blown off.

"Tsk! So much for a beast they claimed was on the level of a god beast, all because it was corrupted," the man scoffed, stepping to the side of the creature. His eyes suddenly widened, hands clenching as his expression twisted into a glare.

"Damn it! I destroyed the artifact in my haste to end this fight quickly. Curses!" he roared in anger, shooting his foot forward. With a deafening cannon-like sound, his kick sent the beast's massive body hurtling nearly a kilometer away.

He turned, spotted a huge mound of rock protruding from the ground, and walked over to sit on it.

"This mortal realm is far too boring. I sometimes wonder if I made a mistake by refusing to ascend," he muttered, tilting his gaze toward the sky before letting out a heavy sigh.

"I wonder how that runaway son of mine is doing right now. I heard he got married and even had children. I wonder what my grandchildren look like. Hmm… should I go see the fool? He really thought he could hide from me." The man chuckled, brushing back his black hair streaked with strands of gray.

"Well, well, well." A voice suddenly echoed, and a shadow loomed over him.

Glancing up, he caught sight of something plummeting from above. In a split second, it crashed into the ground, kicking up a storm of dust and debris and making the earth rumble violently.

"What is the family head of the Cromwell family doing here?" a voice asked from within the thick haze as a man stepped forward, his golden eyes locking on him.

"And what is the leader of the Noxarian faction doing here?" the seated man replied with a smirk.

"The Noxarian faction is made up of two main clans, and I'm the leader of one. So technically, I'm not really the leader of the faction," the golden-eyed man corrected.

"But everyone respects and fears you. To them, you're practically a god, am I wrong?" the Cromwell family head said with a low chuckle.

"And I ask again, what do you want here?" the Noxarian leader pressed.

"To help you deal with a minor problem. And I think I did a good job. So I'll be leaving now," the Cromwell leader said with a grin, rising from the rocky mound.

"I know you feel the same way I do," the Noxarian leader said as the Cromwell leader began walking away. "This mortal realm is so dull that we hardly have anything to do. So why not make it a little more interesting?"

"What do you mean?" the Cromwell leader asked without turning, though his steps came to a halt.

"A spar. A light spar between the two of us. I've been yearning to use my strength for far too long. Even with the restrictions placed on us, preventing us from using our full power here, there's no one else who can handle our strength except each other. So, how about it?"

"Are you fine with us destroying this entire place?" the Cromwell leader asked, smirking as he swiftly drew both swords from his back.

"I take that as a yes," the Noxarian leader replied with a smirk of his own. He punched his knuckles together, a reverberating ring echoing out as the air trembled. Then, in the blink of an eye, the two figures blurred forward, colliding as their battle began.