Idle Mage: Humanity's Strongest Backer

Chapter 222 Approach Of Chaos

The earth trembled, winds howled and space itself kept getting destroyed due to their clash.

It has been a few hours since Labolas' Army and St. Francis' army clashed against each other and it showed no signs of stopping at all.

Labolas and St. Francis reverted to their true forms due to the intensity of their battle.

St. Francis looked close to what a human but with multiple sets of golden wings and a bright golden halo hovering behind him. He looked like a statue that can move with how pale he was and of course, his entire body and his wings were covered with eyes that shot out lasers.

Labolas was an abomination through and through. He had the body of a four-legged beast and its massive, his pelt was pitch black with bright crimson stripes. He has two heads, placed on top of each other. He also has massive fangs jutting out of his mouth. The raven wings on his back became larger and of course, he also has numerous horns that formed a crown on top of his head.

Their fight already escalated to a personal level at this point and they've stopped paying attention to everything else that doesn't have anything to do with them.

Then again, they wouldn't be known figures from their respective race if they were not experienced enough to know that something wrong was going on.

They already had a sneaking suspicion deep down that the situation was weird. It's as if they're forgetting something incredibly important. However, due to their natural repulsion from seeing their rival race, this instinct became a lesser priority to them.

Boom! Boom!

More craters appeared on the ground. Labolas and St. Francis clashed again and again. They've spent a considerable amount of energy in their battle and they've injured each other already.

At some point, their clash came to a brief pause. Initially, it was to measure each other's gazes first but St. Francis felt something that triggered his instincts.

He frowned and looked around him with mild confusion, he then looked at his army with a perplexed gaze, earning curiosity of Labolas.

"What's wrong Francis? Tired already?" He taunted.

"Be quiet for a bit." Francis flipped him off and paid close attention to the battlefield.

Labolas didn't like that attitude at all, he was about to do something about it but he calmed himself down and waited. He kept his guard up just in case but he also paid attention to whatever Francis was looking at.

"Who's doing that?" Francis asked.

? "Doing what?"

"That..." Francis point down.

Labolas followed his gaze and saw an orb of pure white flames exploding on one of his men, causing them to dissolve into nothingness.

Something in him felt chills when he saw that happening. He initially wanted to suspect someone from the Celestials but he saw something that stopped him.

He saw another orb of pure white flames, this time it struck a Celestial and to his surprise, the same thing happened. The Celestial that was struck by the flames disintegrated into nothing.

Now, Labolas felt what Francis was feeling. Confusion and suspicion. This was certainly weird, how come their army was experiencing this?

"Is it coming from this planet? Like some sort of self-defense?" He mused to himself.

"Unlikely. This is a backward planet. It's hard to believe that it's capable of doing something like that." Francis replied to him.

Labolas didn't say anything to that, but the gears in his brain were already working.

Without uttering another word, he descended from the sky. He was followed by Francis of course.

When they touched down, the war stopped. Their respective armies went to their side and waited for further orders. They had an unspoke truce temporarily, it seems.

The weird part was, even when the battle stopped completely, the mysterious source of danger didn't stop.

Someone got stabbed by a jagged spear made out of the earth by just standing there. Another guy looked as if he got hit by something big and hard, causing him to fly back like a broken kite.

The unlucky ones straight up died due to those orbs of white flames dissolving them.

Seeing these occurrences happening with their eyes shocked the majority of them. If they haven't paused just now, they would probably never notice this at all.

"...t-they're not coming back? Eh?" Someone from the Celestials spoke a little too loud.

All eyes were on him, but the guy didn't even notice it. He kept looking at the spot where his comrades stood previously. He had been waiting for them to be fixed by the Golden Sandstorm.

Usually, it will take no longer than a few seconds for them to be fixed, it's been minutes since they died and they still haven't shown up yet. This wasn't a good sign of course so he started panicking.

"It shouldn't take that long for them to be repaired right? The Golden Sandstorm is still in effect. So why is it taking so long? C-come on you fool, get up now! You're making me nervous."

His words caused the atmosphere in the environment to change. It triggered something in them that had fallen into a deep slumber.

Everyone waited for it but it never occurred. Those who died didn't get fixed, they didn't return even after they'd waited.

St. Francis himself observed it personally and was confused too. He wanted to deny it so badly but he couldn't deny what was obvious.

"...their souls are no longer here." He muttered softly after a thorough inspection.

His words elicited some violent reactions from both armies.

"They've returned to the embrace of the Miracle." He added, but when his gaze met Labolas' he knew that the other party didn't believe his lies.

Nobody from their side returned to anything. They're gone for good. Francis just said that to minimize the impact of the strange occurrences around them.

"Oi, you stupid brats! Come with me!" Labolas roared.

"Sir, yes Sir!" The Hypogean Army under him didn't ask any questions, they were conditioned to listen and follow orders.

As they started marching out of there, Francis called out to them, asking: "Where are you going?"

"To the Ant Hill." Labolas snorted. "Some pesky creatures needed to be reminded of their place."

Francis frowned. He knows what Labolas was referring to when he said 'Ant Hill'. With that guy's superiority complex, he'd deem any race that is not Hypogeans to automatically be lesser creatures.

This was him saying that he was going where Humanity made their camp. He's planning on snuffing out Humans once and for all to stop this nonsense.

Labolas might hate Francis and the Celestials in general, but beneath that hate lies a certain amount of respect.

He hates Francis and everything he stands for, but he knows that Francis will never make an excuse to stop fighting him. He also knows that Francis would never stoop so low to the point of relying on petty tricks to gain an advantage.

So, as much as he didn't like him, he knows that Francis truly had no connection to whatever bullshit this was. And that leads him to suspect Humans cause who else would it be at this point?

Labolas hated the fact that these lesser creatures dared to interrupt them and kill his men. That's why he's planning on going there to make sure that they will never be a problem to them anymore.

Francis had no choice but to follow Labolas. Don't get him wrong, he doesn't hold any negative feelings toward humanity. They simply never mattered to him.

And while he was indeed instructed to do something about them, it doesn't change the fact that he just doesn't care about them at all.

He followed Labolas since he had the same mission as him. That, and he's also curious as to how Labolas was planning to quell humanity's puny attempt at defending their world.

It's a weird sight to see these rival races walk as a unit. Even weirder was that they were dragging the Golden Sandstorm and the Black Fog as they went. This rarely happens.

As they marched toward the Last Bastion. They came across a weird sight on their way there.

Someone was blocking their path. This caused them to halt their march temporarily.

Labolas stepped forward and asked:

"What are you? Human perhaps?"

That someone stood up from his seat and looked at them.

"I am. What about it?"

"Good," Labolas replied. The fact that this human just replied to him using their language completely went over his head. "Tell us where your camp is and you will be spared. Disobey me and I'll make sure you die a horrible death."

Unexpectedly, the Human snorted and broke into a fit of laughter. It almost seemed like this human just heard the best joke of the century with how hard he laughed. He even keeled over and almost collapsed on the floor due to how hard he was laughing.

"Oh, you guys are the best." The human replied, drying the tears that pooled at the corner of his eyes.

Then, he turned around and pointed to the north. Saying:

"If you wanna meet Humans, their base is that way." He said. He then turned back to them and said: "But be warned. They're not fond of you guys."

"Still...you guys should've stayed where you were. However, it's too late now."

The Human then disappeared out of thin air, leaving them guessing as to what those words meant.