Chapter : 55

  "Who the hell are you?" Mali demanded, standing up and dropping his knife. His hands instantly ignited with bright, roaring orange fire. The heat in the room spiked immediately. "How did you get past the guards? Did you get lost on your way to a costume party?"

  The gang members at the table ughed, pulling out their own weapons. They thought this was just some crazy viginte who had made a terrible mistake.

  The Sovereign slowly stepped into the room. He did not pull out a weapon. He simply stood perfectly straight, his hands resting by his sides.

  "You are Mali," The Sovereign said. His voice was incredibly deep, echoing with a dark, god-like authority that made the ughter in the room die instantly. "You believe your fire makes you powerful. You believe heat is the ultimate weapon. How very primitive."

  Mali’s face twisted in anger. The fmes around his hands grew rger, turning from orange to a deadly, super-hot blue. "I don't know who you think you are, but you are a dead man!" Mali shouted. "I am going to burn that stupid mask right off your face!"

  Mali thrust both of his hands forward, unleashing a massive, roaring torrent of blue fire. It was a spell designed to completely turn a human body to ash in less than a second. The fire rushed across the room, eating up all the oxygen and lighting up the dark concrete walls.

  The Sovereign didn't even flinch. He just raised his right hand, his palm facing the incoming wave of deadly fire.

  He didn't use a shield. He didn't try to dodge. Instead, The Sovereign reached deep into the ws of magic and summoned the exact opposite element. He didn't just summon a spsh of water; he summoned a localized, crushing tidal wave of high-pressure ocean water.

  A massive, roaring wall of dark blue water exploded out of thin air right in front of The Sovereign. It crashed forward with the weight and force of a falling building. The blue fire hit the water and was instantly, violently extinguished. There wasn't even any steam. The fire was just completely erased by the sheer, overwhelming pressure of the water.

  Mali’s eyes went wide with pure horror as the tidal wave continued forward, filling the entire room in a fraction of a second.

  The water smmed into Mali and his gang members. It wasn't just wet; it was heavy. The pressure was so intense it shattered the table and pinned Mali directly against the back wall. The room was instantly turned into a high-pressure underwater tank.

  Mali couldn't breathe. He opened his mouth to scream, but the heavy water rushed into his lungs. He tried to spark his fire magic again, but it was absolutely useless. His fmes couldn't even flicker under the crushing weight of the Sovereign's spell.

  The Sovereign stood in the doorway, completely dry, watching the arrogant lieutenant drown in the middle of a dry building. It took only a few seconds. Mali’s eyes rolled back, his body went limp, and he slid down the wall, completely defeated by the very element he thought he could boil away.

  With a simple flick of his wrist, The Sovereign canceled the spell. The massive tidal wave vanished into thin air, leaving no puddles and no wet spots on the floor. The only proof that the water had ever been there was the lifeless body of Mali and his men lying on the concrete.

  "One down," The Sovereign whispered coldly. "Your fire was nothing but a flickering candle."

  He turned around, his bck cloak spinning gracefully behind him, and walked back out into the hallway. The first lieutenant was gone, but the night hunt had only just begun. There were still two more leaders to deal with before his overtime shift was done.

  ----

  The Sovereign moved silently through the dark, rotting corridors of the Doom Tower. His footsteps made absolutely no sound against the concrete floors. After easily dispatching Mali, he turned his attention to the second target. He didn't need a map to find him. His senses could easily track the heavy, dense magical aura leaking from the floor above him.

  The second lieutenant was a man named Glum.

  Glum was an earth magic user. Unlike the hot-headed Mali, Glum was known for his absolute, unbreakable defenses. He was a man who surrounded himself with thick walls of solid rock and crushed his enemies slowly.

  The Sovereign walked up the stairwell to the third floor. At the end of a long hallway, there was a massive barricade. Glum had literally reshaped the concrete and steel of the building to create a thick, solid wall of rock blocking the entrance to his personal quarters. Two gang members were standing outside the rock wall, holding heavy crossbows.

  Before the guards could even blink, The Sovereign walked right past them. He moved so fast that the guards simply colpsed to the floor, knocked unconscious by the sheer physical pressure of his speed passing them by.

  The Sovereign stopped right in front of the massive rock wall. He could hear Glum moving around inside the room.

  "You hide behind dirt and stone," The Sovereign’s deep, echoing voice pierced right through the thick rock, carrying directly into the room. "You believe the earth will protect you from the sky. Let us test that theory."

  Inside the room, Glum jumped up from his chair. He was a massive, heavily scarred man. He heard the terrifying voice and immediately knew something was wrong. Mali wasn't answering his radio, and now someone was standing right outside his fortified door.

  "Who is out there?!" Glum roared, smming his heavy hands onto the floor. "Earth Dome!"

  Glum didn't take any chances. He pulled on his massive mana reserves and pulled up even more rock from the foundations of the building. A thick, perfectly solid dome of stone wrapped around his entire body, creating an impenetrable bunker inside the room. He felt safe. No sword, no fire, and no bullet could possibly break through three feet of magically hardened earth.

  Out in the hallway, The Sovereign simply raised his index finger and pointed it directly at the ceiling.

  He didn't use an explosive spell. He didn't use a loud, fshy attack. He wanted to mock the earth user's absolute defense.

  "Fall," The Sovereign commanded softly.

  A silent, highly concentrated pilr of pure bck lightning dropped straight down from the sky. It didn't make a booming thunder sound. It was completely quiet. The bck lightning phased right through the roof of the Doom Tower, passing down through the floors until it reached Glum’s room.

  The pilr of bck lightning struck the top of Glum’s massive earth dome.

  The hardened rock didn't crack or explode. It simply vaporized. The intense, unnatural energy of the bck lightning turned the thick stone into fine dust in a fraction of a millisecond.

  Inside his dome, Glum looked up just in time to see his unbreakable ceiling vanish. His eyes widened in absolute terror as the bck lightning washed over him. He didn't even have time to scream. The lightning bypassed all of his magical defenses and ended his life instantly.

  The Sovereign lowered his finger. The bck lightning disappeared as quickly as it had arrived.