MMORPG : Ancient WORLD-Chapter 565: Broken Strength of Time

'The city is going to fall, everyone is going to die, and while I can take a chunk out this army and let some civilians live a bit longer, in the end it would not even matter,'

'So, do I need to go overboard and put a possible target on my back when I can always do a lot more damage in the future to avenge Licinia,' Alex thought as he evaluated his situation.

The more time passed and the more Alex envisioned the fate of the city and its inhabitants, the fate of people he knew and liked, and the fate of the person he considered a friend, the more his blood boiled and his anger grew.

Alex knew he couldn't change the city's fate, and while he felt deeply for the innocents who were doomed, he could find some peace in taking down as many Skavens as possible and playing his minor part, but doing only that when Licinia was going to one of the victims really did not sit well with him.

'I am going to give her a send-off by taking a pound of flesh from these sewer vermins,' Alex thought, making up his mind.

Alex shifted his focus to his side, where stood a lion Beastmen, standing fully transformed, his sun-yellow eyes staring at the site of Domesday standing at their doorsteps.

"Captain, we have less than eight minutes before the shield goes down or a few seconds if that bastard acted himself to bring it down,"

"So, do you have a plan that absolutely requires me? Because if not, I would like you to give me the order to bathe in the blood of those swine before I meet my maker," The man said, his every word echoing with hatred.

Vakkan was one of six platoon leaders under his command and also the strongest of the six, and Alex knew that in his vague request, all he was asking was to be put on the frontline because he knew that, as the two strongest individuals present one of them need to stay back and maintain order.

"Vakkan, You are going to the frontline," Alex said before disappearing from the sky and appearing next to his three platoon and squad leaders.

Among the individuals present, there was a dwarf with a stuffy beard, a handsome man with a bow and a quiver of arrows on his back, and a female magician.

"I am going to tackle the Skaven forces head-on, and anyone who wishes to do the same is welcome to do so," Alex said, and he was quickly interrupted.

"Have you gone mad, or do you just want to stretch our already limited manpower so thin that we are butchered within the first few minutes?" freewēbnoveℓ.com

"We need to stick to the plan concentrate our forces to maintain the defence wall for as long as possible, just as we are ordered by Brigade Captain Marcus," Runo, the archer, said but was quickly silenced by Vakkan.

"I don't know whether we will survive or not, but I am prepared to defend for as long as I can, to give everyone a chance to either wait for a miracle or leave for the front lines and die a glorious death in battle,"

"I understand that all of you want to ask how I can give you that chance without allowing the Skaven tide to tear through our defenses and, in turn, endanger all other areas," Alex said, and without another word said, he moved away from the group towards the open field of grass.

Darkness began to seep out of his body, engulfing him in mere moments, only to slowly dissipate away in the following few seconds, leaving him wearing a dark crown, a flowing cloak, and two gloves of pure darkness.

The changes brought by the Ruler of emptiness were just a facade to hide Alex changing his normal mask to Reverie.

Alex followed by using Ruler Pride, and once ten seconds passed, he used Summon Elemental, picking the aspect of his to summon before utilizing every ounce of his mana to create a summoning circle, creating a massive mesmerizing circle with ever-shifting runes and circles, before they were blanket beneath a veil of darkness, creating a pool of oozing darkness that stretched for a few hundred meters in diameter.

Alex let twenty seconds slip by as he waited for the summoning circle to fully develop, and the moment it did, he used Temporal Reflection to de-age himself by twenty-one seconds, a second before he used the skill.

The connection with the summoning circle was served in an instant, but since the circle was fully developed, it was not going to collapse until it tried to bring the summon to the other side and discovered there was no summoner to bind it with.

It was more than enough time for Alex to build a connection with the summoning circle, and once he was done, he was free to repeat the process since his skill was no longer on cooldown because, technically, it was never used.

Alex could repeat the process with any skill he wished as many times as he wished, at the cost of a few seconds of his memories, and as for the memories that would be erased, he could always remember them by recordings he had been keeping for past weeks.

The skill also allowed Alex to have unlimited stamina, mana, and recovery, giving him a broken loophole that could truly make a broken individual against anyone who could not kill him in an instant.

While the downside was not bad since he could more or less get his memories back, he could not recklessly use the skill in battle because while he could get away in a fight by being blind to the present, he could not have people know about his secret.

While Alex used the summoning one after another, only stopping after nearly two minutes and creating four massive pools of darkness, everyone watching had their jaw hanging open, not because they knew what kind of monsters would exit through those portals but because of the sheer mana oozing out from them.

"By the forge, I am not the only one who is feeling this sickening presence of Mana," Strornuk said, his eyes as wide as two eggs, his face stretched enough to make him look ten years younger.

"Old man, you are not the only one," Kiera said, a similar expression of shock and disbelief painting her face.

As seconds passed, the four pools of darkness began to shrink, darkness began to gather in their center, contracting to take the humanoid form, and after sixty seconds, the darkness of the first pool dissipated, leaving behind a human, or at least one that appeared to be one.

The man wore a black suit that left no part of his body exposed, adorned with white buttons, chains, crests, and buckles, all accented with diamonds and precious jewels.

A similarly decorated black hat sat atop his head, while his face was concealed behind a crow mask with a long, pointed beak.

He appeared to be an aristocrat, but Alex knew at a glance that he was a monster beneath his decorated attire because not only did his appraisal come back blank, but so did his senses, making it seem like he was not looking at a man but a lifeless statue.

The man spread his arms wide, his head raised toward the sky, and as if it was not already clear from his gesture that he was enjoying the moment, his aura began to grow, unfurling like a pure white cloud over the surroundings.

It exuded immense pressure, and completely different from its pure appearance the aura was accompanied by a nauseating sense of gloom, and Alex did not need to turn around to know that some of the gathered soldiers were dropping to their knees, their faces turned pale, their bodies shivering with fear.

So, without a moment's delay, Alex used his own mana pressure to erase the growing pale cloud, making the two auras visible clash, trumping and tearing the surrounding air.

The man lowered his hands and slowly walked toward Alex, his aura not fading but growing fiercer with each step. As he stopped just a few feet away, the clash between light and darkness came to life, a battle of opposing forces locked in a tug-of-war for supremacy.

"Veritas"

The man said as he took off his hat and placed it on his chest, and with a small nod and having given his name using telepathy, he walked away, stopping once he was a small distance away.

'He should be a necromancer, and from his mana, I sensed the aspects of poison,' Alex thought, both surprised and intrigued by his summon.