"#*&^#!!"

The ominous murmur came again, rumbling the air and shaking the hall's walls.

The Forsaken Magus summoned seven Demonic Sentinel Gargoyles and a Corrupted Bale Ogre, horned, muscular, and as tall as the temple.

Before the warriors could get to him, they had to pass through this horde, and even then, the Forsaken Magus was launching attacks from his altar.

Darien and Vynsera agreed nonverbally for him to take on the towering ogre while she handled the gargoyles.

With a flashing HP of 2500, the brute roared, swishing a massive spiked club thicker than a pillar.

Though outnumbered by the gargoyles screeching and hurling fireballs at her, Vynsera knew it was wiser to keep them occupied while Darien faced the powerhouse.

KRAAAASHHHH!

The spiked club smashed into the wall, cracking it like glass as the ogre swung wildly at the evasive, snow-haired warrior.

Darien lurched beneath the mountainous brute stealthily, and with a swift slash of his sword, he tore through the creature's bark-like thigh, severing its right leg.

"ROAAAARRRR!!"

The Corrupted Bale Ogre howled in agony, retaliating by slamming its colossal club downward in blind rage.

BOOM!!!

Darien pounced backward, but the shockwave of the strike, which shattered the floor, tossed him up into the air.

He controlled his flight with his skill, precisely thrusting out one of his fire chains straight into the ogre's eye.

Darien unleashed another <Mythic Pyrolash>, drilling it into the other eye, ignoring the monster's earth-shaking scream of anguish.

A second later, the beast's head was ripped off with a gruesome snap and tear.

Flames and blood burst from its hollow neck as its giant body collapsed thunderously.

After slaying the monster, Darien thought of helping Vynsera.

She looked overwhelmed.

But before he could do anything, his Defense warned him of an imminent lightning bolt strike coming from the Forsaken Magus.

The spell slammed into the warrior quicker than his escape.

Spinning through the air, Darien scraped down on his heels, landing hard but upright.

'Darn,' Darien remarked at his weakened magical shield.

He was glad that he had some sort of defense to sense the Magus's attack, as high defense was often a rare trait in magehood.

It made Darien wonder about the Shrine Monster's.

With all these relentless attacks and summons, there had to be a downside to the Forsaken Magus's power.

"Bad news, senior! I left my mercy back in the city."

Darien said as six <Sovereign Lances> ignited behind him.

The blazing spears lurched forward, streaking toward the Forsaken Magus, where they struck with thunderous explosions that rumbled the hall.

But when the smoke cleared, the Forsaken Magus remained untouched, a glowing barrier pulsing before its extended hand.

Darien expected nothing less.

"#^*&!!"

When the Magus began wailing again, Darien attacked to interfere.

"Solar Purge!" he roared while sprinting across the womb.

Darien's spell obliterated everything in its wake, everything before him.

The Forsaken Magus was pushed backward by the force into the dark cavern the warrior created, and the warrior lunged in too, helping himself to a Nightseer Potion.

Vynsera was spellbound when she saw the devastation.

She knew she had to join Darien quickly, but before she could finish off her final gargoyle, a legion of Soul Skeletons began crawling from the massive hole.

Inside the cavern of destruction, the absence of his partner meant Darien could cast other skills.

He gashed and sheared the Soul Skeletons that the Forsaken Magus, now desperate, continued to summon.

Then, he split the air with a dark rift that sucked in every remaining skeleton before it collapsed with vehement force, releasing a shockwave of annihilation.

-4890!

The Forsaken Magus was immensely hurt.

The damage it dealt drove it mad, forcing its arms to manifest a cloud above Darien that poured bolts of lightning on him as punishment.

However, Darien had already renewed <Totem Bastion> after enduring the skeleton claws.

He managed to resist the thunder strikes before thrusting out his trusted pyrolash at the cloaked creature, aiming for a weak point he could see.

But the monster countered by using <Magisteal> to return the warrior's spell back to him.

Narrowing his eyes, Darien snuffed out his own spell midair before it could harm him, but he also appreciated the idea of the skill the Shrine Monster used.

However, this was not the time to consult the Creation Panel.

The Forsaken Magus had already leapt into the air, ascending after sensing the ground quake from <Seismic Clutch>.

Without hesitation, Darien readied Energy Bolts, while above him, the monster's chants grew louder.

Snarling sparks of lightning flickered from its palms, illuminating the dark shrine.

In return, the warrior's hands blazed as he fused seven bullets together!

He condensed them into one devastating charge just as a jagged bolt from the Magus zigzagged toward him.

The two projectiles collided midair, but Darien's overpowered the lightning.

His dense bullets tore straight through and pierced the monster's shoulder, sending the Forsaken Magus hurtling backward into the deeper darkness.

–1129!

When Darien saw the HP of his enemy, it was still standing at 10,000, its vitality regenerating steadily because of no high successive damages dealt.

This was the kind of monster to be tackled by guilds or a graduating party.

The positioning of the Sanctum said it all.

But that didn't mean Darien intended to back down.

It was clear the Forsaken Magus could resist most of his spells, only succumbing to a few, while its <Decaying Air> continued to drain his own HP!

As the Shrine Monster towered once more, muttering deeper, darker incantations, Darien realized he had to inflict greater damage.

But he had weak skill ideas to create, and there was no actual time to think. So he devised another way for massive damage output.

Summoning a <Frostfang Javelin>, Darien simultaneously manifested <Sovereign Lances>, channeling the two forces together.

Ice and fire began to spark, intertwining violently as the warrior attempted a fusion of the incompatible skills.

Darien had never attempted fusion before, nor had he ever seen another warrior perform it, but his knowledge of theory and faith in his control gave him confidence he could succeed.

Although fire and ice weren't fundamentally similar, they weren't entirely volatile together either.

Much like light and darkness, these two elements repelled yet harmonized when balanced with the right flow by a warrior with both affinities.

~frisssssh!

It became a struggle of concentration and balance.

Darien wrestled with the raw puissance of the two forces, adjusting the quantity of one element over the other in perfect rhythm.

A slight combustion followed, a whole new spell forming.

His first successful fusion.

Darien was more attuned to Fire than he knew, but this was something he would get to learn later.

Moments later, the warrior stood surrounded by seven reddish-white spears, each eight meters long.

Laced with bluish veins and molten cracks, sizzling and hissing with steam, they looked dangerous.

He had done it!

He had succeeded!

Even without any true cultivation, Darien had fused a simple-tier spell of Ice and Fire into one.

'Unbelievable!' he gasped.

The fusion technique wasn't rampant among any known faction in the provinces.

Only dual or multi-affinity awakeners ever stood a chance at attempting it, and even then, they were rare.

What Darien had just performed was a feat many would pay to witness, and perhaps, even greater sums for his head.

Some dual-affinity awakeners devoted their entire lives to mastering the art of fusion, yet he had achieved one on his first venture into the Primordial World.

If his fusion ability was discovered, there was a high chance he would be forcibly conscripted into a faction… or eliminated in secret.

Power was a threat to authority, and no dominion desired a warrior capable of growing beyond control!

As Darien finished fusing his skill, the Forsaken Magus let out a final, furious bellow.

It was an invocation, the spell erupting the corpses of the fallen Soul Skeletons scattered across the battlefield.

The cavern was turned into a maelstrom of bone and gore.

The bursting corpses exploded erratically, blinding Darien and pelting him with splintered shards of enchanted bone.

The Shrine Monster seized the opening, launching three colossal lightning bolts, each zigzagging from unpredictable, incalculable angles through the chaos.

It was impossible for Darien to evade; even his instincts screamed futility!

So he threw his blazing, fused spears, each one sizzling and hissing through the air, leaving behind trails of molten frost and firelight that tore toward the creature with unreal, divine brilliance.

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