’It’s time.’

In midair, Malik quickly readied himself.

His earlier interruption and consequence hadn’t been a mistake.

He had baited the White Bear leader into attacking him on purpose.

The ice shard that blasted him away was the escape that he needed.

It was obvious that the nice soldier couldn’t deal with this leader. The man’s ice magic was too strong and fast.

Malik needed to intervene.

Of course, he didn’t want to reveal his weak self. So he let himself be... escorted away from any prying eyes.

Once he was nearly upon the ground, he twisted his body into position and rolled through, spreading the force across his shoulder and back instead of concentrating it in one spot.

He came to a stop in a crouch, stood up, and quickly dusted himself off.

Now ready, he looked at what he had.

—

{Soul Glyphs: Ember’s Touch (Peak) x 1, Shifting Ground (Single) x 2}

—

’Good... I’ll be using Shifting Ground.’

As if in response to that thought, the Soul Glyph immediately activated.

’No, stop!’

Malik tried to stop it...

"..."

But there was nothing to stop.

The Soul Glyph had activated, yes.

The key had turned, and the chain had unlocked, but the spell wasn’t conjured.

Its power sat there, waiting, no more than a drawn sword held in a steady hand.

That confirmed what he already believed.

These Soul Glyphs were simply keys that unlocked the chains on his Runes. In the case that there weren’t any chains, they’d do the same, but in a likely much better capacity.

Everything else—how much power he used, how he shaped it, when he released it—depended on him and his control.

’This is perfect.’

It opened up a completely different way for him to use the Soul Glyphs.

He could activate them early and hold the power, saving the actual spell for the right moment.

There would be no need for him to rush!

But he didn’t celebrate such a discovery.

He had to get back before that bastard stopped wanting to curse at the nice soldier.

And so, going against his earlier thoughts, Malik rushed forth using what remained of his strength, tearing through the sand.

Of course, his appearance had changed.

The white hair, the wrinkled skin, and the shrunken frame were gone.

His body had returned to its young and mightier splendor. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

He looked like the Sultan again.

They weren’t going to recognize him as that frail but surprisingly skilled old man from before.

Malik reached the battlefield quickly, his arrival kicking up a cloud of gray sand that swept through the street.

He saw the nice soldier on the brink of death.

His shield was now completely shattered, while his sword arm hung limp at his side.

Blood poured from a gash on his forehead as three White Bears stood over him, weapons raised for the final blow.

"Fall."

Malik attacked before they could.

Tens of holes were ripped open in the ground beneath the enemy soldiers.

The sand collapsed inward, swallowing every White Bear in front of him, their screams cutting off as they fell into the darkness.

At the same time, a hole shot upward, creating a massive pillar of compressed earth.

It slammed into place right in front of the nice soldier, forming a thick wall that blocked incoming ice shards.

The shards shattered against the stone, and the soldier slumped behind his new cover, saved.

Though ’single-use,’ it was not a single attack, thus allowing him to attack multiple times.

Of course, it had to be in very quick succession.

By that point, however, Malik’s window for attack was closing fast.

Knowing that, in the last moment, he managed to focus what remained of Shifting Ground into a final attack aimed at the White Bear leader.

A wide fissure raced towards the man like a serpent through the sand, appearing much weaker than the others.

Somewhat expectedly, the bastard dodged at the last moment.

A pillar of ice had erupted from the ground beneath his feet, launching him into the air.

Malik’s fissure swallowed the ice pillar whole, but the leader was already too high.

’...hm.’

Okay. Malik wasn’t exactly in the best situation right now. He had failed to kill all of their enemies.

One remained, the strongest one, and he didn’t want to use another Soul Glyph against him.

The second Shifting Ground was his last single-use Soul Glyph. After that, only the peak Ember’s Touch remained.

Still, he didn’t panic and instead calmly walked towards the leader, who was warding off his fall with another pillar of ice.

Landing on the ground, the blue-dressed man looked at Malik.

Almost immediately, his face paled, and his eyes went wide.

A familiar reaction...

"I-Is it really you?"

Though this time for an entirely different reason.

One of unmistakable fear.

Hearing that stutter, Malik made a decision.

He was going to bluff his way out of this!

"Oh?"

The Sultan raised an eyebrow.

"You recognize me, boy?"

The leader’s eyes widened even further.

"I-It can’t be..."

His mouth opened and closed repeatedly.

"Why?... You..."

Eventually, he calmed down from his shock and his breathing evened out.

A smile crept onto his face; rather, it was more of a stuttering, rat-like expression.

"You’re back, b-but not fully yet, are you?"

He pointed a shaking finger at Malik.

"If your powers were fully back, you would’ve simply wiped us off the face of the planet. I know how strong you are!"

Malik internally sighed.

’Why did you have to have a damned brain?’

Of course, he didn’t let any frustration show.

"You think we didn’t see you up there?"

Despite that, the leader continued, his confidence growing.

"Half the planet must’ve felt your flames! You went full force with every attack! I know you don’t have much Rukh left! You exhausted yourself fighting the Demons earlier, trying to show off!"

His words were actually true in a way.

Angel or not, no one could end that many Demons that fast without tiring themselves out.

...with the sole exception of Malik, of course, who did, indeed, show off with his seemingly infinite Rukh.

Unfortunately, such capability was at risk now as he only had one peak Ember’s Touch left.

But the White Bear leader didn’t need to know that.

Ding!

—

{Invaders Fear}

[White Bear Faction (Class Eight) - 12% Decreasing!]

—

Indeed, he really didn’t need to know that.

’This is interesting.’

Malik, though, didn’t seem all that worried.

His attention was now focused on the system rather than his enemy.

He understood many things from the notification.

First, he realized the reason why his Fear Point gain was so slow.

People began to fear him again, but many more didn’t, thinking him dead.

The latter was way more than the former, constantly trying to decrease what he had.

Second, the White Bears weren’t a bunch of nobodies, at least not to the current him.

Their strongest was a Class Eight, which meant that they had five Runes.

Sure, it was only half of what Malik had—ten Runes total—but five Runes was still a good show of force.

Third, their fear percentage was really low.

Twelve percent and dropping.

If it neared zero, Malik had no doubt that the faction would directly attack him and his family with their entire force.

He needed to push it up, to keep them from doing anything but light skirmishes.

That was a fact he’d understood instinctively from the system, much like he did the Runes earlier.

The more fear he spread among his enemies, the better. And if he managed to push it above seventy percent, there’d be a chance of surrender.

Ninety percent, meanwhile, meant that they were highly likely to retreat from the planet entirely.

’The system is obviously nudging me to kick these bastards out of here.’

Even the blind could’ve noticed that, and that, he certainly wasn’t.

’Anyways, I’ve got to double down here.’

Finally, he returned his attention to his enemy.

Another enemy, another bluff!