Chapter 22: VOLUME 12: CHAPTER 25
"This should be far enough."
The place Lark led the Demon Lord's clone to was a vast grassland called Aldean Plains. It was located three hours away by cart from the capital. And since it was in the opposite direction from the nearest city, there weren't any refugees or evacuees around.
Lark and the Demon Lord's clone landed on the ground.
"Strange," said the clone. "I sense no traps around."
Lark chuckled, "You sound disappointed."
When the Demon Lord's clone followed Lark here, he was already expecting an ambush or traps. But surprisingly, this place was completely deserted, and he couldn't even sense any magic formations around.
"Before we start," said Lark. "Allow me to express my thanks."
Lark lightly lowered his head.
"Thank you for allowing this fight to happen outside the city."
What a strange human, thought the Demon Lord's clone.
Instead of an ambush, what he received upon coming here were words of gratitude.
The Demon Lord's clone gaze moved to the bracer in Lark's arm. It piqued his interest more than the glaive Lark was holding.
"Human, let me look at your shield."
This was one of the things the Demon Lord's clone was curious about. It was not every day one would encounter an item capable of blocking his attack. Even the spatial rift didn't manage to damage that equipment.
"This one?"
Lark's bracer morphed into a buckler. Without hesitation, he tossed it to the Demon Lord Barkuvara's clone.
"Here. Go ahead."
The Demon Lord's clone didn't expect Lark to lend the shield to him. It felt as though the human knew he would definitely give it back after he was done inspecting it.
The Demon Lord's clone touched the shield's surface. After he was done looking at the runes engraved at its periphery, he turned it around and inspected its back.
"This shield…."
As someone who'd been born from the amalgamation of the Dragon Vein – the source of all mana in this world – the Demon Lord Barkuvara could easily recognize something that used a similar mana source.
He realized that this item was created using solidified mana from the Dragon Vein, the cores of Elementals, and generous amounts of adamantite.
It was a piece of equipment that shouldn't be obtainable in this age, especially after the decline of the human race.
Several questions started running through the clone's mind as he inspected the item.
Was he gravely mistaken?
Maybe the humans didn't stagnate after the Cataclysm?
No, that couldn't be. His previous assessment wasn't wrong. Even the capital of the nation that called itself an Empire didn't have proper defensive magic formations.
Then how did this human manage to get his hands on such a precious weapon?
Based on the memories passed down to him by the main body, this item was very similar to the sword wielded by that human.
"Human king, this item…. Do you know its worth?"
The Demon Lord's clone tried infusing mana into the shield to activate it, but the equipment rejected it. Even he couldn't utilize the equipment unless he knew the exact pathway of mana to unlock it.
"In the current era, this item is probably worth more than the entire imperial capital."
"No," the Demon Lord's clone corrected himself. "It's worth way more. No amount of money can buy that item."
The Demon Lord Barkuvara's clone tossed the shield back to Lark.
"And that glaive, too. Based on the runes on its blade, it's no ordinary artifact."
Lark caught the shield and willed it to morph back into a bracer.
"I know their worth, of course," said Lark. He raised his arm, showing the bracer. "I created this thing, after all. And as for this glaive, it was made by my disciple."
"…What?"
For several seconds, the Demon Lord stood there, staring at Lark bewilderedly.
"I said I created it."
And without warning, a blade of mana several times stronger than before flew toward Lark.
Lark grabbed the maginus, activated it, and blocked the attack. The blade of mana was split into two, hitting the ground behind Lark, creating a massive fissure and sending clouds of dust flying about.
The Demon Lord's eyes widened.
After that exchange, the Demon Lord's clone confirmed the human wasn't lying. The way he utilized the maginus to prevent a spatial rift from forming after the attack showed how much he knew about the glaive.
Even now, the Demon Lord's clone could see the domain of the maginus expanding. The mana around them started moving erratically, making it hard even for him to utilize them.
The domain of the maginus stopped expanding the moment it reached around three hundred meters.
All of the mana within this area had begun to move in an unpredictable manner. It was like boiling water: very small particles of mana, invisible to the human eye, kept moving around and colliding with each other, sometimes releasing energy upon contact, and sometimes dissipating completely.
Within this area, all magicians would be rendered incapable of lording over mana. Even casting the most basic spells would be impossible.
The Demon Lord continued mumbling:
"You…"
"No, it can't be… He died a long time ago…."
"But that item…."
Lark warmly smiled.
"No, your presumptions are correct. It seems you've inherited most of the memories of your main body."
By now, the sphere of influence of the maginus had reached its limit. But for the Demon Lord Barkuvara's clone, none of the mattered. The clone was more concerned about the identity of the human before him.
Lark said, "It's been a while, Barkuvara."
The eyes of the clone widened. And for several seconds, he was unable to speak.
"A-Alaester?"
Lark happily nodded. "Do you have the memories of the time when we fought in the Mountains of Yleonor?"
"The Frost Mountain!"
The voice of the Demon Lord's clone was a pitch higher than before. He didn't even bother concealing the glee in his voice.
"The time when I gauged out one of your eyes!" said the Demon Lord's clone.
"The time when I cut off your two arms!" laughed Lark.
It was a fight that nearly killed the two of them. But looking back on it, it had become a fond memory.
"HAHAHAHA!"
The Demon Lord's clone was so happy that he subconsciously infused his laughter with mana.
"SO, IT'S REALLY YOU! ALAESTER!"
After the Demon Lord's clone was done laughing, he carefully studied Lark's body.
"But what happened to you? That body. Although the mana flowing through it is bigger than the puny humans protecting the capital, it's still a far cry from the original."
The Demon Lord looked at Lark's face, at his clothes, his weapons. Aside from the Sword of Morpheus, everything was different from before.
He wasn't even wearing his usual set of armor. The numerous artifacts he'd created, which served both as his shields and weapons were nowhere to be found.
"This body isn't my own," said Lark.
Lark then proceeded to tell the Demon Lord's clone about how he suddenly found himself inside the boy's body. He told him about the struggles he went through to make the body even slightly usable in battle, and he told him some of the things he'd learned about the current era.
Throughout the entire story, the clone attentively listened.
"After your death, the Descent and Cataclysm befell this realm," said the Demon Lord's clone.
Lark already heard about it from Chryselle, but hearing it straight from the mouth of the leader of the demon race felt different.
"We tried to take over this realm, but the Arzomos Tribe went to an all-out war with the entire demon race. After decades of battle, we lost, and I was eventually sealed in the Great Cavern."
It was a pyrrhic victory that had cost the Arzomos Tribe nearly ninety percent of their population.
Had the Arzomos Tribe not chosen to side with the humans, they would still probably be one of the most powerful forces in the demon realm by now.
The Demon Lord's clone looked in the direction of the capital.
"Your pet lizard has probably started attacking the Corrupted Tower by now. It's your plan, isn't it? The reason why you lured me this far."
"My plan's so easy to see through, huh?" said Lark nonchalantly.
"Alaester," said the clone. "If I were the main body, I would have probably left you alone and given you time to grow more. But this is as far as I can go. Although I've inherited most of the memories of my main body, in the end, I'm still a mere clone."
"You cannot go against the will of the main body," said Lark. "I know."
"The main body ordered me to protect the Corrupted Tower," said the clone. "It's a shame, but I have to finish this quickly."
The Demon Lord's clone willed the mana from his body to expand and spread to his surroundings, counteracting the interference of the maginus.
Although his ability to create spatial rifts had been sealed by the maginus, the Demon Lord's abnormal control over mana allowed him to manipulate the mana in their surroundings.
This peerless control over mana was one of the reasons the Demon Lord Barkuvara was terrifying.
"If I die here, the memories of our encounter will flow to my main body," said the clone. "Feel free to kill me. But don't die. Do your best to survive, Alaester."
They were the same words the Demon Lord said to Headmaster Ephiane. And just like before, he meant those words.
The hair of the Demon Lord's clone glowed white. From his back, particles of mana spread out, forming a structure reminiscent of wings.
The Demon Lord's clone raised his hands up. Quickly, despite the interference of the maginus, a massive sword of mana formed in his hands. The sword of mana reached all the way to the sky, and it was so dense that it was visible even to a non-magician's eye.
It was preposterous that a mere clone was capable of wielding this much mana.
The Demon Lord's clone swiftly swung the sword down.
Lark infused mana into his armor, and blocked the attack using the maginus.
"Kuugh!"
The force behind the attack was no laughing manner.
Although Lark managed to block it, he was sent flying and rolling on the ground hundreds of meters by the impact.
The sword of mana, unhindered by his glaive, struck the ground. A deafening boom echoed, and the ground violently trembled. Clouds of dust formed and reached the sky, and a massive fissure a hundred meters wide and several kilometers long was formed on the ground.
If the Demon Lord's ability wasn't sealed by the maginus, the spatial rift created by that attack would have killed Lark in his current state.
The Demon Lord's clone used this opening to move out of the maginus' radius of influence. He leapt back several hundreds of meters, and skillfully used the mana in the surroundings to manipulate the earth beneath them. Two colossal hands made of hardened earth rose, each of them the size of a hundred carriages combined.
Lark gritted his teeth and quickly rose to his feet. Two of his fingers broke after blocking the first attack, but he quickly healed them with magic. He dashed toward the Demon Lord's clone to close the distance, making sure the Demon Lord's ability to create spatial rifts were sealed by the maginus.
Spears of mana flew toward Lark, and he dodged them all by twisting his body.
The gigantic earth hands rose and quickly slammed toward Lark. Their sizes made it impossible for Lark to evade both of them at the same time.
Tenth Tier Magic: Spiral Pierce
Tenth Tier Magic: Wind Burst
With the Sword of Morpheus as the medium, Lark cast two high-tier spells at the same time. Two spiraling wind formed above Lark and shot toward the earth hands, piercing their centers. It was immediately followed by a series of wind explosions, which destroyed the earth hands completely.
The falling earth and dust formed clouds, obstructing Lark's vision.
Inside the clouds of dust, Lark felt several projectiles shooting toward him. He nimbly sidestepped, dodging three spears of mana. The fourth one, whose mana signature was the weakest, was concealed behind the first three attacks. It struck Lark right in the abdomen, but the armor of the Founding Emperor blocked it.
Although the attack didn't manage to pierce through Lark's armor, the impact sent him flying and rolling on the ground.
Lark didn't have a chance to catch a breather.
Looking up, he saw a massive sphere of compressed mana hovering in the sky.
During that short opening, the Demon Lord's clone had managed to gather the mana in their surroundings and compressed it.
Without waiting for Lark to get up, the massive sphere of compressed mana shot toward the ground.
Lark instinctively knew that if he tried to block it, he would die.
He regretted leaving the adamantite cubes behind for Blackie to slowly recharge. If he had it with him, this fight would have been easier.
Lark cast several movement spells on himself. Lightning crackled underneath his feet, and wind enveloped his body.
Three defensive layers of mana formed above Lark, blocking the sphere of compressed mana for a full second each. Like fragile glass, they broke quickly, but they bought Lark enough time to get away from the point of impact.
The sphere of compressed mana struck the ground, and an explosion far more violent than before shook the earth. The ground, the grasses – everything the sphere of compressed mana touched were reduced into nothing. The explosion it created was so great it formed a deep crater spanning almost a kilometer in diameter.
"Tch."
Lark couldn't even use the maginus properly in this battle, as he was forced to evade and keep a distance between him and the clone of the Demon Lord Barkuvara.
The Demon Lord Barkuvara's voice, amplified by mana, was heard.
"In your previous body, you can easily block those attacks even without the use of artifacts. I got to admit, I find this fight a bit disappointing, Alaester. You have become so much weaker."
Lark wryly smiled. "You're comparing a vessel that's been modified dozens of times to this body?"
In his search for immortality back in his previous life, Evander Alaester modified his body several times. His goal back then was to create a vessel perfectly capable of synchronizing with any forms of mana. A body that would not age, while at the same time remaining human. He was so obsessed with eternal life that he even changed his bones into adamantite.
"You keep dodging and running," said the Demon Lord disappointedly.
"I'll die if I don't do that," said Lark. He laughed, "Do you really expect a human body to be able to take on those attacks? And besides—"
The bracer in Lark's arm had turned into a majestic-looking staff. The five gemstones at the head of the staff brightly glowed, and from its body, mana continuously gushed out toward the sky.
The Demon Lord Barkuvara's clone was not the only who took advantage of the openings in their fight. Lark, too, used those openings to prepare his spells.
"—our fight is just starting."
During that short opening, Lark had created two large magic formations in the sky.
"It's my turn now."
Lark had to admit, he was feeling excited about this fight.
It was not every day he got to fight someone this powerful, moreover, someone he knew back in his previous life.
Lark decided to counterattack.
The two magic formations in the sky overlapped with each other.
Unique Magic: Tempest Swarm
Innumerable palm-sized ethereal butterflies descended from the magic formation in the sky. Their glowing golden bodies and their wings crackling with lightning were clearly visible during the night.
They looked stunningly beautiful yet terrifying at the same time.
It was the same spell Lark used when he saved the Beast King from the demons' encirclement in the United Grakas Alliance.
The tens of thousands of ethereal butterflies flew toward the Demon Lord Barkuvara's clone.
And the moment they touched his body, they exploded.
The Demon Lord Barkuvara flinched.
A single ethereal butterfly hardly did any damage to his body. But when there were hundreds of them exploding at the same time, it was an entirely different matter.
For the first time since the start of their fight, wounds started appearing on the clone's body.
His skin was torn open, and the exposed flesh became an enticing target for the ethereal butterflies flying toward him.
The Demon Lord Barkuvara's clone released a torrent of mana blades around him, decimating the seemingly endless ethereal butterflies flying toward him.
The ethereal butterflies that got hit by the mana blades dissipated into particles of mana, while those that managed to survive latched on to his body, exploding upon contact.
The staff he was holding reverted into a bracer. Lark turned his attention to the glaive.
'Let's see. It should be possible to manipulate this thing.'
Lark infused large amounts of mana into the maginus. Skillfully, he altered the shape of its radius. Instead of a circle, he turned its area of interference into a long, slender cone. At the tip of this cone was the Demon Lord's clone.
After altering the shape of its area of interference, the effect of the maginus became concentrated and rose severalfold.
"What?"
The Demon Lord Barkuvara's clone was taken by surprise when he suddenly found it harder to gather the mana in his surroundings.
He realized that the effect of the maginus had become stronger somehow.
The clone could still gather and use the mana in their surroundings, but the process had become much slower and harder than before.
Unlike the main body, the clone had a clearly defined limit on the amount of mana he could store in his core. And now that the maginus' interference had grown stronger, the clone was forced to draw mana within his body to protect himself.
To conserve energy, the mana blades he'd been releasing became fewer and weaker.
"What's wrong, Barkuvara?" said Lark, grinning.
The clone, whose body was now riddled with injuries, grinned back. He looked so happy despite being pushed back.
"This is what I've been looking for, Alaester!"
The Demon Lord's clone laughed, "What a gift! I'm really glad the original gave life to me! Come! Let's continue fighting until one of us ends up dying, Alaester!"
Another series of explosions occurred as hundreds of ethereal butterflies managed to land on the clone's body. Shockwaves and deafening booms rippled throughout the plains.
The moment the last ethereal butterfly exploded, Lark shot toward the Demon Lord's clone, and with his body strengthened with mana, slashed him with the maginus.
The clone's body was in tatters as he didn't even have the time to heal himself under the maginus' interference. Still, he managed to block the glaive with just his fingers.
Or so he thought.
Without hesitation, Lark let go of the maginus. Quickly, the bracer in his hand morphed into a sword.
Lark swiftly stabbed the Sword of Morpheus into the chest of the Demon Lord's clone. It pierced through the torn skin, flesh, and even the bones.
"Kuuuak!"
For the first time since they'd fought, a groan escaped the lips of the Demon Lord's clone.
"It's… that sword again…."
Blood flowed down the lips of the clone.
Based on the memories the clone inherited from the main body, this exact same scene had also occurred back in their previous fights.
The clone already knew what was going to happen next—
—and he was right.
"Kuuak!"
Mercilessly, the Sword of Morpheus started sucking the mana of the clone's body.
Similar to the Demon Lord Barkuvara, the Sword of Morpheus was created using the mana from the Dragon Vein below.
Its blade had the same properties as that of the Demon Lord, and this made it possible for the Sword of Morpheus to suck the mana from his core.
The Demon Lord's clone tried reining in his mana, preventing it from being sucked by the sword. Under normal circumstances, despite being a mere clone, this would have worked. But the maginus' constant interference made this task near impossible.
In the end, the Sword of Morpheus sucked the mana of the Demon Lord's clone completely, and only the mana from the core inside his body remained.
"Hey, Alaester…."
The clone's weak, mumbling voice was hardly audible.
"I'm… just a copy who'd lived for a fleeting moment, but allow me to tell you this."
The hands of the clone fell down limply.
The clone smiled warmly.
"I'm… glad you're alive, Alaester. It's really nice to see you again."
After those words, the Demon Lord's clone no longer resisted the Sword of Morpheus. Willingly, he let the sword suck the mana of his core completely.
Although he knew he was dying, the clone looked so satisfied.
Until the end, until his body vanished into particles of mana, the clone didn't move his gaze away from Lark.
The Sword of Morpheus reverted into a bracer.
Lark stabbed the maginus on the ground.
Silently, he looked in the direction of Cattlewood Plains, the place where the portal to the Demon Realm was located.
Lark knew that the memories of the clone would reach its main body eventually.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone