Nolan's eyes narrowed as he felt Gael's magic increased.

The truth, he did not want to fight Gael. He's the Grand Marshal, for crying out loud. In terms of large-scale and high-tier mage fights, he had far more experience.

Although Gael seemed weak at the moment, it did not mean he was incapable of thrashing him.

Aside from this, Nolan had reasons why he wanted to avoid facing Gael, but he really could not avoid this fight. When he saved baldie earlier, he had to summon his domain and throw baldie inside. Now he could not leave without taking him out. Since his domain was immobile and he could not leave it there. If he moved away about 60 meters, his domain would crumble along with everything inside.

He actually broke into a cold sweat when Gael summoned a quagmire. His domain almost shattered because Gael's magic influence rose while the quagmire was in effect. It took all his will to preserve the domain and make sure Gael would not sense it.

Nolan actually planned to lure Gael away from using a 'dummy'. Unfortunately, he was unaware of what the 'white' shadows could do and got exposed after getting attacked.

Right now, Nolan's only advantage was Gael still had no idea what kind of magic he had. If he did, Nolan was sure Gael would be able to find ways to limit his usage.

'Actually, I think he already has an idea.' Nolan thought as he remembered Gael's comment about his summoned black steels.

Taking a slow deep breath, Nolan pushed all these thoughts at the back of his mind and observed the white shadows mingled with the black shadows dancing around Gael.

"A slight increase in your magic doesn't mean you can change the tides," he taunted.

While Nolan acted undaunted, in truth, he was analyzing the difference between the black and white shadows around Gael. The destructive power of the black shadow was acceptable. He already proved this when it attacked, and his normal magic barrier was able to deflect it.

As for the white shadow, it had more power and even had a little trick on it. When his dummy avoided Gael's attack earlier and was still cut, Nolan noticed how the white shadow appeared to extend. At first, he thought, it was Gael who willed it to extend, but Nolan was not entirely convinced.

'Better keep an eye on it,' he decided.

"You're right. However, is there a tide that needs to be changed between us?"

Gael had just spoken, but the surging black and white shadows spread out soon after and attacked Nolan.

With the quagmire still active behind, Nolan only jumped back on the square black platform he created. The rest of these platforms, including the mud-like-summon, gathered before separating and forming hundreds of black orbs.

These hundred black orbs turned into pentagon-shaped boards in a flash and connected around Nolan, forming a three-layered arc-shaped barrier.

The black and white shadows hit the first barrier and crumbled at once. It directly attacked the second layer, and cracks appeared on several surfaces of the boards that the shadows hit.

A few boards were still destroyed and attacked the third layer. However, the attack's momentum had greatly decreased, and it did not put any cracks on the barrier's surface.

All of these happened in only a few seconds.

Nolan could feel his cold sweat trickled down his back. He could only manage to create three layers of barriers to defend against Gael's attack, and it was a good call that he decided to have the boards he created from the mud-like summon be the last layer since he applied more of his magic when he created it. If he placed these boards as the first layer and got destroyed, there was a small chance the last layer would not hold, and he would have to use his cloak to defend.

He did not want to use his cloak and reveal his face.

Hiss!

Suddenly, he heard something and looked at the boards in front of him.

'What!' Nolan's eyes grew wide as a crack started to form. Within the cracks in front of him, he saw the white shadows and was surprised.

Glowing white reptilian eyes stared back at him.

'Don't tell me... these white shadows are-!'

BOOM!

The boards on top of the third layer of the barrier burst into pieces, and the white shadows rushed in with a loud hiss. It directly went after Nolan.

Finally, Nolan got a better look at these shadows.

These were no ordinary white shadows. These were white shadow snakes.

If a mage's affinity with his weapon, no matter how ordinary it was, met a certain level, it would give birth to a spirit. This spirit would then strengthen the weapon and even provide the mage with more abilities.

Gael's scythe seemed to have birthed a snake-type spirit. And these white shadows were its representation.

Gritting his teeth, Nolan finally spread his cloak.

"Reinforce!"

The cloak grew in size and circled Nolan. It formed a sphere and protected him against the barrage of attacks from the white shadow snakes.

After the black and white shadows' attacked, Nolan's magic barrier crumbled, and the quagmire below shifted. The mud-like shadow emerged and opened up its mouth to swallow the sphere where Nolan was.

However, countless black spikes emerged from the sphere, looking like a porcupine and targetted everything within 20 meters.

The mud-like shadow was instantly riddled with holes and could not sustain its form. It dissolved in a few seconds. Even the quagmire that the spikes had hit had a change, and it started to erode.

Gael's eyes narrowed as he watched his quagmire getting reduced to smithereens.

These spikes were strange. It had a corrosive effect on his magic.

'What magic is it?' He wondered with a frown.

This cloaked man had unique magic.

In the history of the human race, countless different forms of magic had been recorded. Some were common, and others were unique. However, it was a given that the record was still being updated until now. There was still countless magic to be discovered.

Gael believed this man's magic was one of those. And whether it would become a forbidden type would be determined by how the man utilizes his magic.

So far, Gael has deemed his magic as strange and powerful but not yet forbidden. While it looked as if he could not break the man's magic, if he, Gael, were not restricted in using his full strength right now, he would have used far more powerful attacks against the man and easily defeat him.

Alas, the timing just happened to be inconvenient to Gael.

Then there's the sphere that protected the man. Gael knew that was his cloak. To think that it was actually a very rare defensive type magic item. And it appeared to have high resistance and defence against magic. He wondered if it was the same with physical attacks. If it was, then the level of this cloak far exceeds Gael's initial assessment.

'A saint-tier magic item?' Gael's eyes glinted greedily. Although his robe had immunity against physical attack because of its special enchantment, it would be useless if he could not predict or sense where an attack would come from.

It already happened when those steels summoned by the man pierced him.

"Humph." Gael levitated in the air. He lifted his scythe. The diamond part turned red, and it glowed malevolently. A black and red array slowly formed starting from above his weapon and slowly expanded.

The air crackled, and the wind blew fiercely. His black robe rippled in the air, making him looked like a Grim Reaper.

His eyes flashed red, and he started to chant.

Nolan was sitting cross-legged inside the sphere and was contemplating his next move when he felt the sudden rise of magic fluctuation outside.𝙗𝙚𝙙𝒏𝙤𝒗𝒆𝒍．𝒄𝙤𝙢

He heaved a sigh and shook his head. He could almost predict what Gael was doing.

While it was true that a Magus did not need the use of an array, that was because their power reserve was already at a level that did not require it. Apart from that, in a fight between Magus, speed casting was the key to victory.

Before, speed casting was previously thought to lessen a magic's attack power. However, it was not the case. What lessened a mage's magic power had something to do with his own magic reserves. The more a mage used his magic, the faster his reserves would be depleted. However, if a Magus did use an array in a fight, his magic's attack power would increase tenfold.

Nolan stood up. His dark eyes slowly turning light blue.

"As expected, I really can't fight this guy half-assedly. I'll charge Missy big time for this mission," he said as runes appeared all over his body.

"Release."

The sphere opened up and returned to its cloak form. At the same time, Nolan's hair grew longer, and his usual young looking self aged a bit.

He gazed up and looked at Gael, who was almost finished chanting.

Black and white shadows formed above them, and flashes of lightning rumbled. If one would look closely, these flashes were not really flashes of lightning but huge serpents.

The moment Gael's eyes fell on the man, he took a sharp breath.

'H-Him-!'

However, he reigned in his emotions and finally finished his chant.

"Serpent Scourge!" He cast and pointed his scythe at the 'man'.

Nolan watched as five black and white huge serpents fell from the array above and flew in his direction.

He spread out his arms, and his magic pressure immediately erupted.

"Break out!" He yelled, and the ground below with a 100-meter radius broke down.

Within the crevices on the broken ground, black, silver, gold, and many-coloured fogs burst out. These colored fogs fused and started to form. First, it formed into a huge pair of feet, legs, hip, trunk; finally, it became a huge black, silver and golden golem. The moment the golem's hands formed, it aimed at the serpents and crushed them with its huge palm.

BOOM!

The whole area trembled as the golem, and the serpents clashed.

Gael did not stop to watch, and he immediately flew toward the 'man'.

His eyes glinted malevolently.

"You are supposed to be dead!" He roared accusingly at Nolan.

Nolan looked at Gael and sneered, "Sorry to burst your bubble."

His eyes glowed white, and more colored fog appeared in front of him and slowly formed into a long spear.

Gael swung his scythe, and Nolan deflected it with his newly created spear.

Nolan forced the scythe down, and freeing his left hand, he touched the silver part of the scythe. His eyes glowed, and he said, "Break."

Immediately, the prohibition on the scythe broke, and a crack appeared on the silver part. The crack spread at an alarming speed, and Gael's eyes grew wide, "What did you do!"

Nolan just sneered and touched the diamond part when Gael rotated his grip on the scythe and reversed his swing.

"Come," Nolan said almost in a whisper, and the diamond part of the scythe shattered. Small bits was forced out from the shattered diamond and converged at Nolan's hands.

"Rawrgh!" Gael roared in anger as the spirit of the scythe wailed in pain and slithered out. His eyes flashed red. Black shadows formed on his right hand. It formed into a ball of shadow magic, and he directly threw it at the man.

At the other end of the battle, the moment the scythe's spirit wailed, the serpents that were clashing with the huge golem also wailed in pain. The golem took this chance and grabbed the two of the serpents and smashed its head together. The heads of these two serpents burst into a mixture of black, white, and red flesh. Soon its body disintegrated. The other three serpents roared and bit the golem's head, shoulder and arm, respectively. But the golem was unscathed. Its body turned obsidian black, and the serpents struggled to break free because their teeth got stuck on the golem's hard skin. The golem roared and grabbed the tail of the serpent biting its head and tugged. The serpent was unable to break free and was easily torn into two. Black, white and red flesh filled the air. The other two serpents gave up trying to break free and instead wrapped their bodies around the golem, restraining its movement.

Back at Nolan, the moment Gael fired the ball of shadow magic, his cloak moved and blocked it.

Gael's magic pressure surged, and he swung his broken scythe toward him.

Nolan rotated his spear and countered the scythe once again. "Meld," he said and soon, the silver part of the scythe that touched his spear melted and combined with his spear.

However, Gael forcefully broke his scythe and grabbed the other half before it completely melded with Nolan's spear. Then he thrust the broken snath of the scythe towards Nolan.

Once again, the cloak moved and blocked the thrust.

Gael sneered.

BOOM!

White shadows erupted from the broken snath, slithered to avoid the cloak, and pierced Nolan's chest.

Nolan's eyes narrowed as he barely shifted his body to avoid getting pierced by the white shadow at his vital point. It seemed to destroy the scythe, and removing the spirit did not mean the white shadow ability Gael had would be removed.

Enduring the pain, Nolan gritted his teeth and shouted, "Scatter!"

The spear on his hand scattered, and the colored fogs enveloped Gael.

"Humph," Gael sneered and activated his robe's ability. He immediately turned into a cloud of black smoke that blended with Nolan's colored fogs.

However, when Nolan shouted, he did not direct it only to the spear.

BOOM!

The huge golem burst out and immediately filled the 100-meter surrounding area with different colored fogs.

The last two serpents wailed as the fogs covered their whole body.

"Rawrgh!" Gael roared as his magic pressure surged once again and countered the fogs blocking their vision.

After a few minutes, Gael finally succeeded, and the colored fogs disappeared.

However...

Nolan was no longer in sight.

Gael's eyes turned red in anger.

"GRAY!" He roared in frustration.