Louispold deemed Rudger's words a bluff.
Real magic?
He had no business discussing such nonsense in the presence of the ultimate being.
"Why don't you start by stopping this?"
Louispold snapped his fingers, and a black ripple spread out. It sliced through Rudger but Rudger was still standing.
Louispold narrowed his eyes. The whites of his eyes, blackened by demonic power, and his pupils, tinged with a yellowish hue, gave off a puzzled expression.
"Strange."
Louispold's first reaction was one of annoyance, but his next was questioning.
A force that ate away at his mind and dug in, weakening his spirit, an attack that no amount of magic and aura could defend against, that was the kind of demonic power he dealt with.
"A human being would inevitably have scars and weaknesses. How come you're fine? Do you also deal with demonic power?"
"You talk a lot."
"Then it's even stranger. How can a mere mortal be unharmed by demonic power?"
Louispold couldn't understand Rudger.
A man, who was no more than an academy teacher, withstood an attack that would have knocked out a Master and a Lexer wizard and now, at this very moment was still giving him an uneasy feeling that made his temples tingle.
"I've never been fine."
Rudger didn't answer and Louispold arched an eyebrow.
"That filthy power must have burrowed into my mind. It showed me some really dirty memories."
"What?"
"Only, the moment I realized they were false, I woke up."
Hearing this, Louispold tried to determine whether Rudger was telling the truth and he didn't sense any deceit in those imposing words.
That meant that Rudger had indeed resisted the demonic power with his own mind.
"Is that possible?"
"What you think you know isn't the whole world, and it makes me very angry."
Rudger flicked the ash from his pipe.
"I'm in a bad mood, and you've made it less so. I couldn't have asked for a better opportunity."
Louispold rolled his eyes and studied Rudger.
Ever since he'd taken a drag from his pipe, the mana around him had been flowing outward, forming a blue mist. But instead of dispersing, the mist had grown denser, hovering around Rudger.
It was a strange phenomenon since normally, a wizard would not be able to handle all of his mana at once.
A wizard level is not determined by the amount of mana they can release and the amount of mana they can control. Yet Rudger was now handling more mana than he could possibly contain.
Is that even possible?
It was bizarre, like watching a cart with a set maximum size for what it could carry, move without a hitch, even though it was carrying something dozens of times larger.
Moreover, the color of his eyes had changed. Or rather, they had regained their original color.
The blue color of his pupils was due to the enormous amount of mana within them.
'That's strange, too. How does it manage to keep that much mana stored even in battle?'
Maybe that was the source of the unpleasantness he'd been feeling from Rudger for a while now.
"Ha. Yeah, well, it doesn't matter anyway."
Louispold chuckled to himself, realizing he'd gotten himself into trouble.
It was interesting to see what Rudger was doing, but that might be all there was to it.
Besides, he's already been implanted with the cells of the World Tree and the bodies of several wizards, and he even has demonic powers.
He realized that the magic teacher in front of him was not ordinary, but he was still a human.
"I'll admit that you have a strong enough mind to resist the demonic power, but fighting isn't just about mental strength."
"That remains to be seen."
His firm voice didn't sound like mere bravado.
Louispold didn't like Rudger's attitude since he was so cranky in the presence of a man of absolute power. He even spoke as if he were a teacher, giving instructions.
"First of all, you need to lower your head a little more."
At the same time as he muttered that the face on his shoulder opened its mouth. It was like a signal to activate the wizard magic he had absorbed and a gust of hot flame and icy cold air was activated and shot toward Rudger.
Rudger stood still, drawing in some of the magical mist that floated around him. The swirling miasma shifted, then thinned, forming a formula.
Flames and ice clashed in a matter of moments.
Rudger's flames neutralized Louispold cold, and vice versa, the ice extinguished the flames but after that wind blade after wind blade shot toward Rudger.
The ground vibrated and a wall rose up in front of Rudger. The wind blades slammed into the wall, leaving scars like the claw marks of a beast.
Out of thin air, Louispold formed a massive boulder and dropped it directly on Rudger's head.
Just before the massive mass crushed him, the wind swirled around him like a drill and a surging geyser pierced the center of the boulder, scattering debris in all directions.
Throughout the fierce confrontation, Rudger did not even move from his position and Louispold didn't like it.
The face protruding from his abdomen opened its mouth, eyes widening and a magic circle was carved into the front of the face, as a tidal wave of water, centered on Louispold, rose up and washed over Rudger.
The miasma of mana wriggled, and then spiraled as the trunk of a giant vine of magical power rose like a tidal wave.
The wave of vines grew in size, sucking up the water that Louispold had created and threatening to swallow him whole.
"What?"
Louispold was dumbfounded by the sight but he immediately unleashed a flame that consumed the plants.
As countless embers scattered in the air, he stared at Rudger.
"Have you been hiding your power?"
Rudger did not answer. His will became magic, and the spear of light that had tormented Louispold so many times shot forth in a torrent.
He knew that light magic was the trickiest of all and the attack was so fast that it's hard to parry.
Louispold summoned demonic black magic and wrapped it around his body at once. He planned to block the attack from all sides.
At the same time, he gathered his energy in his hands and created a lightning bolt and when was about to shoot it at Rudger he realized he couldn't see anything.
'What?'
He looked around, puzzled as a pitch-black darkness surrounded him.
The ground caved in beneath his feet and because he was unprepared, he lost his balance and fell into the pit.
From the bottom of the pit sprouted countless metal blades and Louispold was naturally pierced by them.
[Crack!]
Louispold grabbed the metal spearhead that had pierced his back and protruded from his chest.
The spear was created with metal magic, alchemy, and reinforcement but he squeezed his hand, and the pole cracked and shattered.
"For nothing!"
He swung his black, enchanted arm, shattering the spears around him in a torrent, then leapt to his feet and ran out of the pit but a feast of elemental magic awaited him.
Tree roots bound his limbs and a spear of light stabbed him in the abdomen.
As he strained his limbs to break the roots, a wind bullet flew by and struck him in the forehead.
Ignoring it, he tried to push through, but he felt a huge weight on his back. A huge boulder had fallen from the sky and crushed him.
'Respond to…….'
Crushed by the boulder, Louispold rolled his head as he fell to the ground. At that moment, the ground suddenly rose up and a cubical, sleek metal pillar rose up.
As he crashed through the rocks, Louispold was pinned between the rocks and the metal.
In the aftermath of the impact, the rock shattered, sending shards raining down and through the cracks in the rocks, all manner of elemental magic flew like arrows, pummeling Louispold nonstop.
'What?'
The magic storm raged on without giving him a moment's respite and in the midst of it all, Louispold could do nothing but be pummeled.
'What is this?'
It was only one opponent but he was struggling more than he had when he fought several at once.
'How is it possible for a human to control all the elements?'
This is what Louispold couldn't understand.
Common sense told him that a wizard could only work with a limited number of elements.
Of the ten elements in the modern magical world, no one had ever been recorded as having mastered more than seven, no matter how many they worked with but Rudger was using all ten elements right now.
He thought Rudger was blessed since he could use rare light magic, darkness, plants, and even metal but this was too much.
'Talent.'
The short but powerful word echoed in his mind.
He didn't want to admit the limitations he faced as a wizard and pushed himself to the limit in battle. Still, there was a wall in front of him, a wall of talent that could not be crossed, no matter how hard he tried.
It didn't take him long to realize that he could never cross it the right way so he decided to take a different path, an ugly, dirty one, but one that would make him stronger and that's what he saw: black magic.
So he joined the Liberation Army, forged a connection to the underworld, and became a guinea pig.
He experimented on humans to strengthen their bodies, harvested living wizards, grafted them onto his body, and even embraced demonic powers all in the name of breaking through the barriers of talent.
It was all about results and power.
Indeed, Louispold had become stronger, and now all that remained for him was to wield this power at will. He would use it to stamp on those who looked down on him and feel inferior.
You were wrong.
To be strong, you must do whatever it takes.
The winners will tell you what's right and wrong.
He definitely thought that.
'What the hell is this guy?'
A man of real talent, hiding his power, standing among the criminals appeared from an unexpected place. He wielded a variety of magic that he hadn't learned, and possessed unbelievable mana control along with a mental power unaffected by demonic power.
That sent ripples through Louispold's mind.
No, no, no.
It shouldn't be like this.
The world shouldn't be this unfair.
Rudger's magic failed to do any serious damage to his body but it had succeeded in shaking the inferiority complex deep within him.
The man who used his demonic powers to penetrate the minds of others was now mentally outmatched.
It was the height of irony.
"Kaaaah!!!"
Louispold unleashed his demonic power and the black power surged, pushing back Rudger's magic. No, it didn't just push it away, it disintegrated it but the changes didn't stop there.
The black energy concentrated in his arms, and they inflated like balloons.
His arms grew to his size and balled into fists then he slammed his arms down on the ground.
The bare earth cracked like a spider's web, and the ground turned over as a cloud of dust rose with the flying debris.
There was a flash of yellow light in the dust, and Louispold shot out of it like a cannonball toward Rudger.
At the same time, black waves shot out from his body. Unlike before, they were not scattered in a wide area, but focused on Rudger.
The first wavelength to arrive struck Rudger's body hard and although Rudger was not dazed it did not prevent the fog of mana he had been manipulating from being momentarily disrupted.
His control was affected and that was exactly what Louispold wanted.
Even if he wasn't stunned like the others, he figured that if he focused the power of the wavelength, he could stop Rudger spell casting and his plan worked.
As he approached Rudger he jerked his massive right arm back.
The corners of his mouth curved into a creepy smile that stretched all the way down to his ears. At this rate, his fist would tear Rudger's frail flesh like soaked paper.
I admit it.
With your magic alone, you are clearly the strongest here.
But fighting wasn't about magic alone.
Fighting is about using all the power you have.
In that regard, Louispold had no qualms about wielding demonic power.
That's when Rudger's behavior became bizarre. It was as if he was making a last stand.
He stretched out his open hand toward Louispold.
"Stop your pointless resistance……!"
Louispold's shout was unfinished when suddenly an immense pressure crushed his body from top to bottom. He didn't even have time to swing his fist before he was flattened to the ground like a frog.
"……?!"
Louispold's eyes fluttered open as he tried to comprehend what was happening.
Against tremendous resistance, he managed to crank his neck to look up at Rudger.
His left hand held upright against his chest as if in prayer and his right hand was still outstretched toward him.
It was a simple gesture but the effect it produced was unimaginable.
"A hand seal?"
It was similar, but different and Louispold could feel it instinctively.
"I told you."
Rudger said to Louispold, who looked up in disbelief.
"I'm going to show you real magic."