Enigma of Sin

Unaware of Kayn's true intentions, Nord and Harmon welcomed him over to their side, after using the black marble one more time on him to truly drill into him what they could do. Kayn once again fell to the ground as soon as he noticed the glow, getting up afterward with anger laced in his voice.

"I'm obeying! Why are you doing that?"

"For good measure as punishment for attacking us and showing attitude to your betters." Nord responded sneeringly.

Kayn didn't reply to that and only stood to the side of the two while heaving deep breaths. Nord chuckled and Harmon didn't show any emotion one way or the other. Within minutes reinforcements including another 6th stage arrived, only this time he was from Carnet.

Kayn spotted undead, demon, and human alike within the crowd, but no beastkin or other races. The undead and the living came through different entrances and stayed separated for the most part.

A few undead as well as the 6th stage Carnet leader approached Kayn and the two elders from the Black Hand. They asked what had caused the disturbance and the elders spun some story about the defenders using some one time use explosion device. They stated that it took the three of them just to keep a barrier up for themselves to survive.

"Do you need any rest or are you ready to continue the siege? The attacks have already stopped for too long. Giving them even a small amount of time to recuperate is too costly." The Carnet Empire General said.

"We're ready whenever you are." Harmon spoke as he was the most senior of their group and also the most powerful, at least as far as core rank went.

"Good. We will start on my signal." The general spoke before he took his own position on the opposite side of the dome.

…

Inside of the barrier, the defenders looked downcast as they knew their reprieve wouldn't last much longer. It didn't help that the person they thought was an ally turned out to just be misled or something along those lines.

They couldn't hear the conversation happening between the attacker and the two elders of the Black Hand due to a sound dampening formation which was part of the barrier. But they knew that their hopes were dashed when the mystery person walked over to other side and was now standing side by side with the elders.

"How much longer can we last?"

"Probably not much longer, maybe a week at most. If the barrier gets hit with a spell like that fire ball earlier, probably not even through today."

"Everyone form up, continue the mana imbuing rotation. We hold until we can't anymore. They are about to start again."

…

"All troops, begin casting!" The general yelled once everyone was in position. Some of the troops would take longer than others to prepare their spells due to their rank, but every attack mattered when it came to taking the barrier down.

"Fire!!"

Directly after the general shouted the order, thousands of spells began raining down on the barrier once more. Spells ranging from simple tier 1 Magic Bullets to as high as tier 11 from the three 6th stages currently present.

Kayn himself was throwing out simple but powerful fireballs. They would explode near the barrier appearing to be contacting with it when in reality he was exploding them outwards to cancel out the other spells in the vicinity.

Fortunately, no one noticed his meddling and the barrage continued for another few minutes before Nord turned to Kayn and asked, "Can you do another one of those big ones?"

"I'm afraid not. It takes up far too much of my mana, so the best I can do is this without resting to recover my mana for a while." Kayn answered back without stopping what he was doing.

"Pity. Hey Harmon, how about we have Jester rest for a while so that he can launch another one of those. I'm sure the barrier won't last long if we do that. The armies have been at this for months now, surely it and the people powering it are on their last legs."

"Hmm not a bad idea. Jester, get behind us and rest for a while. Once you have enough mana again, use it." Harmon commanded and Kayn quickly stopped casting.

He then moved behind the duo and sat down in a lotus position. He truly did use up quite a bit of his mana for that spell and even with the amount he gained passively, it didn't do much to refill his core with his continuous fireball casting.

Circulating the new and improved Void Star technique allowed him to absorb mana at an astonishing rate. His suction and intake of mana were even enough that the two elders in front of him noticed that the mana around them seemed to be being pulled in Kayn's direction.

Perhaps Jester was more powerful than they assumed, but fortunately they had a way to control him, so they weren't too worried. About an hour later, Kayn was topped up on mana, but didn't stop what he was doing.

He secretly started weaving Mana Threads all throughout the area for several kilometers. He used Mana Sense to guide the strings as they passed between people and wrapped around each and every soldier's neck or undead's head as beheading them wouldn't kill them most of the time.

Soon, a loose noose was wound around every individual's neck who was present minus Kayn himself. Every thread was then anchored high into the sky with an invisible solid block of air that he created.

With his net trap of Mana Threads ready to strike, he finally stood up and took his place to the left of the two elders. Now that he could use and control the void element more effectively, utilizing the Tethers became a lot easier. He would no longer have to use his actual strength to pull on the threads he created and only needed a simple command and they would be pulled back.

He glanced over at Nord who was next to him, "Hey Nord, do you know why they gave me the nickname Master of Puppets?"

"What? Also, refer to me as Elder Nord before I wipe that stupid smiling mask off your face." Nord asked as he was caught off guard by the question while he was focused on casting his spells.

"I said, Nord, do you know why I'm called the Master of Puppets?" Kayn repeated.

"No, why? Also, you should be preparing that large fireball spell again, not talking." Nord reprimanded him.

Harmon was listening to the conversation and Kayn was giving him a bad feeling. He didn't seem to be preparing or casting any spells, and was now talking about how he earned one of his nicknames, one that made him infamous for how he played with his enemies during the short time he was an active assassin.

Harmon secretly pulled out the black marble which was used to inflict pain or kill those who were under the curse. Ready to use it at a moment's notice.

Kayn on the other hand smirked behind his mask as he lifted his left hand in front of his body with his fingers extended up, like he had a ball in his hand.

"It's because of this." He spoke as he clenched his fist tightly.

At the same time, Harmon activated the marble and yelled, "STOP!"

Alas, it was too late. As soon as Kayn clenched his fingers, he also instantly retracted the Mana Threads connected to him.

All of the weaker undead had their skulls torn in half, and the weaker of the living were beheaded including anyone in the 4th stage. All of the 5th stages were yanked into the air by their necks as the noose cut into their throats attempting to behead them as well.

A few were killed instantly as their necks broke from the sudden force, but a few dangled in the air while flailing or attempting to free themselves from the invisible force wrapped around their necks.

The general for Carnet as well as the two 6th stage elders were also yanked into the sky, but their necks were fine aside from being lifted into the air by them. The pressure was attempting to close their airway so they couldn't speak or breathe currently, but at their level holding one's breath was easy.

Kayn was satisfied with the prowess he just displayed. A wide scale sneak attack that killed thousands instantly and incapacitated hundreds more. The ones hanging by their neck would die soon enough whether by hanging or another attack.

Kayn looked over at Harmon who was constantly activating the marble in one hand and trying to find whatever was pulling him off the ground with the other.

"Why- isn't- it- working?" Harmon muttered out while struggling to force the air out.

"Oh, your little curse ball? Never affected me in the first place. I was faking it. I destroyed that stupid curse as soon as it tried to enter my body." Kayn spoke as he lifted his right hand and formed a finger gun pointed at Harmon's head.

"Die." Kayn launched a bolt of Extinction Lightning directly at Harmon's forehead. The elder of the Black Hand had already activated a barrier spell from an artifact he had, but the black lightning wasn't affected in the least, passing through the barrier like it wasn't there and continuing on through Harmon's skull much the same.

For a 6th stage mage, Harmon was like a glass cannon, all offense and zero defense or resistances. Kayn then turned to Nord as Harmon's body slumped midair with his life extinguished. "Your turn."

Nord had a wind aptitude apparently because he was trying to fly into the air and negate the stranglehold on his neck with no success since the Mana Thread was under constant management by Kayn.

Kayn suddenly felt that one of his Mana Threads on the other side of the dome had snapped. Knowing he needed to finish off Nord quickly before the other party arrived, he launched into the sky while weaving more Mana Threads around Nord to hold him still for a second or two.

He quickly arrived in front of the struggling 6th stage elder of the Black Hand and shot an Extinction Lightning bolt at his head as well. Even though Nord was the weaker of the two elders, he had more expertise in defending as he was mainly a magic warrior rather than a spell caster.

Utilizing his main element, earth, to empower his body, he lasted for a bit longer before the lightning drilled a clean hole through his head. Kayn had to shove more and more mana into the spell in order to get it to actually penetrate Nord's defense in time. Kayn was honestly a bit surprised, but it made him realize that there truly was a massive gap between the 5th stage and the 6th stage.

He estimated his power right now with just casting spells would be around the 5th stage, and it seemed he was right. The only reason he could affect the 6th stage experts with simple attack spells in the first place was because the void element was so overpowered.

Everyone besides the one who escaped had died by now, so Kayn dispelled the Mana Threads. He withdrew his sword, the Akikani, in preparation for the arrival of the general from Carnet. It was not going to be an easy fight as the element of surprise was gone.

He would have to fight this experienced 6th stage fighter and hope that his prowess could match up or give him an advantage over someone who had most likely been fighting for centuries or millennia already.