Enigma of Sin

Flapping his wings to keep him in place rather than mana, Kayn focused more and more power into the ball of flame and lava that had grown to the size of a small house by now. He felt like he was charging up an energy bomb much like one of his favorite characters did as a child, so just for fun he assumed the pose with both hands in the air above his head.

His bomb wouldn't quite blow up the world or even the entire city for that matter, but it would definitely wipe out the small army currently launching spells at the golden mana dome. The only ones who might survive would be the two 6th stage mages, assuming they were paying attention enough to react in time.

As most mages couldn't do what he was doing by pumping more and more power into a single spell, the devastation that he could cause with a bit of time was astronomical. He could tell that the power of this massive ball of fire was quickly nearing the peak of the 12th tier, supposedly the last spell tier normal 6th stages were capable of.

Knowing that he would need to utilize his manipulation abilities in order to prevent his spell from destroying what he was trying to protect, he began to force his will onto the roiling ball of fire and lava. With the amount of mana that he packed into the ball already, he was going to have to spend a good amount of mana to control it how he wanted to.

His new core was holding about as much mana as his previous 4th stage core did, only his mana was much more potent. A regular peak 6th stage, if there were any, was probably about two or three times stronger than a new 6th stage.

Kayn guessed once he was at the peak that he would be nearing 20 times or more if he was already this strong while somewhere in the middle of the second stage. At that point, if he wanted to stay and rule over the entire world as a tyrant, he probably could.

Bringing his focus back to what he was doing, he decided that he empowered the lava-fire bomb enough and launched it towards the ground. He had been above the clouds using his mana sense, so none of the attackers realized he was up there or that he was sending down a massively compressed spell.

Honestly, he was quite worried that he would blow up a good portion of the inner ring with this spell, but even after double checking with his Mana Sense, he couldn't find anyone other than enemy combatants within the area. There were thousands of enslaved within the middle ring, but none near where the actual battle was taking place.

Kayn decided that he would try to focus the explosion into somewhat of a doughnut shape, stopping it at the walls to the inner ring and preventing it from harming the very center where the royal grounds were standing firm behind the barrier.

He might let it graze the golden dome just a little to exterminate any of the soldiers currently attacking it with melee weapons, but it wouldn't be struck with the full force. He also didn't add any void element to the attack as it would create an Extinction element which he couldn't control quite like he could regular elements yet.

…

Down on the ground one of the 6th stage mages stopped attacking in order to look up into the sky. It was becoming increasingly bright from the opposite direction of the sun, not to mention he could feel the ambient temperature rising.

Then the massive ball of fire that looked to him like a small sun descending towards the ground peaked its way through the cloud cover at extreme speeds. There was no way he could protect the army from that attack, but if he and his partner worked together, they should manage without much injury. At least he hoped.

"Nord! Barriers, now!" He yelled with urgency.

The other 6th stage named Nord finally became aware of the situation as his eyes widened with shock as he quickly started casting his strongest barrier spells.

As the two 6th stage mages cast several barrier spells while standing back-to-back, the few 5th stage mages in the attacking group noticed the oddity coming from their powerhouses and quickly followed suit after noticing why. Many of the soldiers noticed far too late for them to do anything about it, not that they could survive an attack like that even if they did notice it.

The medium house sized ball of flame and lava impacted directly onto the two 6th stage mages and exploded out from there. Waves of fire and lava poured over the surrounding buildings and soldiers, incinerating everything in their path.

The soldiers before the 3rd stage were immediately incinerated, the 3rd stages were turned into charcoal, and even the 4th stage mages were burned to a crisp within a moment or two. The few 5th stage mages who created barriers were able to hold out for a few seconds, but their barriers were quickly overwhelmed and they too were lit aflame.

Buildings were being demolished for every second that passed as the explosion radiated outward, sending debris and large chunks of stone flying through the air causing even more destruction in the surroundings.

The higher ranked mages currently defending by pouring their mana into the barrier watched the scene in horror as the massive wall of flame engulfed the entire dome that they were under.

To their surprise though, the flames never actually touched the barrier and remained a few centimeters away from it rather than impacting. They couldn't understand why or what was happening, but it gave them a small reprieve to rest for a moment or two.

Similarly to how the flames and lava interacted with the golden mana dome, the wall, or what was standing of it still, of the inner circle was also left untouched by the flames. Soon the entire inner circle of Palatine was lit ablaze as anything and everything was scorched by fire and molten earth.

Kayn was impressed with his own prowess and even the fire he used as it was slightly different than normal flame. He had used purely the destructive aspect of fire, the knowledge he gained from the legacies of the gods of destruction he encountered on Earth.

However, he sighed as he could feel there was one spot that his spell didn't penetrate. While he was happy that he was able to annihilate 5th stage mages quite easily if he was allowed to attack by surprise, he knew killing 6th stage mages wasn't going to be that easy, especially when there were two working together.

Once the last spark of life, aside from the two he couldn't kill, were extinguished from the inner circle, Kayn directed the remaining flames high into the sky before dispersing the mana he was using to control it.

He already knew that his attack would have alerted the other soldiers inside of and surrounding Palatine. By showing a massive inferno blaze moving into the sky, he hoped to give them a bit of pause so that he could deal with the two 6th stage mages before the reinforcements arrived.

The cloud cover he was using was wiped out so when the flames were gone, the two 6th stage mages were already looking up at him.

"Who the fuck is that? Palatine doesn't have anyone like that among their forces, so where did they come from?" The one called Nord asked.

"Wait, I recognize that appearance. When we were doing promotions for the society the year before the war started, there was member who went by the name Jester. Master of Puppets is what his enemies called him. This person's appearance matches the description I was given, the mask he wears being the most distinct indicator of who he is."

"Are you serious Harmon? So, you're telling me our own members just did that to us? Why? Shouldn't he know we sided with Carnet once they paid us enough? Also, that spell was much too powerful for someone of the lower ranks, I surely would have heard of them even if I wasn't part of the elders back then."

Nord was quite skeptical of his partner's claim as someone of their society should know the situation since they were all alerted to it. They were even provided with privileges for themselves and their families if they had them by accepting the contract from Carnet, otherwise they would have been treated just like the rest of Palatine's residents.

"He disappeared and hadn't been spotted since before the initial attack on that healing convention. Maybe he's been in seclusion somewhere and doesn't know what's going on. The only thing I find odd is that there is no information about him having wings. Very draconic looking wings at that. Not to mention he was only at the 4th stage back then.

"Regardless of the how, the fact of the matter is that he's most likely Jester. Meaning that he's also required to follow our commands. I'll try to speak to him first, if not I'll just use that to get him under our control." Harmon spoke as an evil grin spread across his face which wasn't covered up.

Seeing that the two mages were staring at him and one was even smiling at him, Kayn suddenly had a bad feeling and began to prepare his defenses, but was surprised when instead of an attack, he was spoken to and even addressed by name, well one of his names.

"Jester! We are elders of the Black Hand! It appears that you don't know the current situation as you've been in seclusion. Come down so we can update you." Harmon yelled up towards Kayn.

Kayn was hesitant and kept his barriers up, but if this worked out how he was picturing, he could kill both of them without actually having to fight. He descended and landed about 25 meters (82ft) away, "I greet the elders of the Black Hand and apologize for attacking the two of you."

"No harm done as you can see, but that was quite the powerful spell for someone that was only at the 4th stage not too long ago. Anyway, my name is Harmon and this is Nord, both elders of the Black Hand. Why did you attack?" Harmon asked.

"I came out of seclusion a few hours ago from a hidden area of my home and noticed that it was occupied by people I didn't know, so I killed them and decided to clean up the rest while I was at it. I'm not one to forgive those who transgress against me." Kayn spoke with a haughty attitude while also trying to make himself seem unaware of the situation.

"I see. Well please refrain from killing the Carnet Empire's soldiers in the future, we have taken a contract with them for the duration of the war. We took the contract as a society, this includes all of our members, including yourself."

"What is our role then? I didn't think we could be hired to be up front fighters." Kayn's voice was filled with criticism. They were a society of assassins, not mercenaries for hire.

"We started off by attacking specific targets from the shadows, not revealing who we were but still making an impact on the war. Then as we were offered more and more money, and it eventually moved towards a point where we are playing a more active role now. So, it is your duty to now help us finish this war so we can go back to doing what we do best."

Nord was the one to answer, but his answer was criticizing to Kayn towards the end as a junior shouldn't be trying to berate their seniors.

"And what if I refuse?"

"That's not possible." Harmon spoke as he revealed a small black stone to Kayn. "You see, when you signed up with us, a curse was placed inside of your core which acts similarly to a slave collar. Any act of betrayal towards us will lead to your death, do you understand?

"With this small marble I can also directly inflict pain upon your core for disobeying my orders. For attacking us, I'll give you a taste of what it feels like." A malicious smirk appeared as the black marble began to shine.

Kayn grabbed at his chest area and grunted in pain as the small marble lit up. He fell to his knees with one hand on the ground and the other clenching at his chest. As soon as the light from the marble died down, Kayn placed his other hand on the ground and took audibly loud breaths of air before shakily standing back up.

"Now know your place junior. Join us over here. We will start attacking the barrier again when the reinforcements arrive and we tell them that we took care of the threat."

Kayn nodded his head in acknowledgement while still breathing roughly. If only the two elders of the Black Hand could see the grin behind his mask as he took unsteady steps towards them.