Magus Supremacy-Chapter 889

Chapter 889

After everything was said and done, Thalos gathered Borfan’s hollowed, frail body into his massive arms.

Grey, his movements heavy and labored, painstakingly opened a shimmering portal back to the Demonic Clan’s territory, where Dame was still waiting anxiously at the base of the mountain.

On seeing the swirling rift of the portal open up, the young warrior jumped to his feet with a spark of hope.

However, that hope was instantly replaced by a cold dread when he saw Grey wobbling forward, the Supreme Magus barely maintaining his footing before collapsing onto his knees, bleeding and gasping for air.

Before Dame could even rush forward to assist the mage, he saw the towering silhouette of Thalos walking out, carrying the lifeless remains of his father.

***

It took a long while for Thalos to explain the staggering sequence of events to Dame.

To the gargoyle’s surprise, the young warrior listened calmly, his features schooled into a mask of stoicism without raging out or lashing out in grief.

Glancing at Grey’s battered state and sensing the terrifying, sudden surge in power radiating from the mage, the warrior realized they were speaking the truth.

... Well, what could he possibly do?

His father had always been an unpredictable man, a legend who moved to his own rhythm and was prone to moments of profound, selfless recklessness.

Though Dame tried to hide his internal turmoil, he felt a sharp, stabbing pain in his chest that wouldn’t subside, yet he knew there was no changing the past.

Taking a deep breath to steady his voice, he requested Grey to open another portal directly into Borfan’s private chambers.

He wouldn’t want the rest of the clan to see their formidable leader in such a diminished, skeletal state.

Calling upon all the mana he could still conjure in his weakened, post-evolution state, Grey forced the portal into existence. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Dame received his father’s body with a solemn nod, turning to walk into the rift, but he paused at the threshold to look back at the mage.

"The leader trusted you with his power. He gave you all he had and withheld absolutely none," Dame said, his gaze piercing.

"I already swore to follow you wherever you go and will help you in whatever way I can. So, I want you to also withhold nothing when the time comes to defeat the leader’s foes."

With that final vow, he stepped into the portal, which snapped shut immediately, leaving Grey and Thalos standing in the sudden silence for a few hollow seconds.

Feeling a bone-deep exhaustion finally creeping into his marrow, the mage hurriedly opened one more portal—this one leading back to the Aetherian faction.

Before their remaining energy could be completely sapped, they both jumped through the shimmering veil.

****

A full week passed since that world-shaking incident.

Grey, now appearing more composed but radiating a much denser, more intimidating pressure, called a private meeting between himself, Thalos, Fenrir, and Leo.

"I have come to a firm decision," Grey uttered, his voice low as he stared around the room.

"Hm? What’s up?" Fenrir asked, tilting his head with curiosity.

A week ago, when the mage had returned with that sudden, monstrous surge in power, everyone had been taken aback, bordering on fearful, until Thalos took the effort to explain the sacrificial transfer.

If Grey could previously go toe-to-toe with stage eight warriors alone with his previous strength, now even a stage nine warrior on the cusp of Celestial ascension would struggle massively against him.

In fact, with the dual-energy core stabilizing in his Dantian, he could likely eliminate ninety-eight percent of all local threats with a single flick of his finger.

That was the sheer, terrifying scale of the mage’s current potential.

"I won’t beat around the bush. We all have so many things to do, so here it is: I will be returning to my home world tomorrow," Grey replied firmly.

Everybody cast a quick, startled glance at each other before looking back at him with various expressions of surprise and understanding.

"Why so soon?" Leo asked with a raised brow, crossing his arms.

Grey leaned forward, his eyes reflecting a distant memory.

"I have been here for a year and a half now. I don’t know how my friends are doing over there... I have allies, people who likely think I’m dead or missing.

I need to get back. If we want to hit the Otherworlders where it truly hurts, we need all hands on deck. I have powerful friends who must have grown even stronger in my absence. Besides," a lump suddenly formed in Grey’s throat before he forcefully swallowed it and sighed,

"I miss home."

Nobody voiced any objection whatsoever after hearing those solid reasons.

They gave him the go-ahead, knowing that, besides, who could realistically stop him at this stage?

After sorting out the logistics of the faction’s leadership, he decided to make a stop at one more significant place before he finally left this world behind for a time.

****

The evening air was crisp and cool when a portal suddenly tore through the atmosphere, manifesting directly in front of a sprawling, familiar house.

Stepping out of the shimmering rift, Grey stared at the sturdy wooden door for a few silent seconds before finally moving forward to give it a solid, echoing knock.

He waited for a minute or so, his heart hammering against his ribs, before the door swung open to reveal a middle-aged woman standing there.

She wore a simple apron over her clothes and held a cleaning rag in her hand, looking every bit the picture of the domestic life he had left behind.

"G—G—GREY?" The woman’s voice trembled, and her eyes suddenly became teary as she stared at the tall, powerful figure standing before her.

"Hello, Mother Clarice," Grey greeted, offering the warmest, most genuine smile he could possibly muster.

....

Before he could even blink, the woman suddenly lunged at him.

She wrapped her arms around his neck so tightly that it felt as if he were being choked, but he didn’t mind the constriction in the slightest.

Tears began streaming down her face, dampening the fabric of his travel-worn tunic.

"Oh, my boy... look at how much you have grown. I’m just so glad you are safe," she sobbed.

Grey froze for a momentary heartbeat, his hands shuddering with suppressed emotion before he gripped the woman back, holding her just as tight.

Tears began falling down his own face, carving tracks through the dust of the road.

"I—I—I missed you too, Mother Clarice," Grey uttered softly, his voice thick with a year’s worth of unspoken longing.

"Ohoy, my love, who’s at the door?"

Grey heard a familiar, gruff voice call out from deep within the house.

A few heavy, rhythmic footsteps later, the door opened wider to reveal a bulky, broad-shouldered man standing in the threshold.

"Yami Sir," Grey acknowledged, his voice cracking.

The man paused for a long moment, blinking rapidly as if he were seeing a ghost, before reaching up and slapping himself across the cheek to snap back to reality.

"It’s really you. And—and you have actually become a stage eight warrior? How in the world...?" Yami tilted his head confusedly as he stared at the young mage, sensing the immense, dense pressure radiating from him.

"Oh. Congratulations, kid. Word traveled fast; I heard you are now the new head of the Aetherian... Dawn faction."

Grey beamed at the man, his vision blurring as his eyes welled up with fresh tears of gratitude.

"It’s—it’s all because of you both," he croaked out, the crimson staining his memories of the past few weeks finally giving way to this warmth.

"If—if you had abandoned me when you found me at death’s door in that forest... if you had left me at my most vulnerable and decided not to teach me martial arts or the ways of Ki... I—I wouldn’t be standing here right now. I wouldn’t have been able to achieve this height or survive the trials I’ve faced. Thank you both."

Grey uttered those words as he fell to his knees, sobbing continuously while the duo stared at him with shocked, heartbroken expressions on their faces.

They saw not the Supreme Magus or a stage eight powerhouse, but the broken boy they had saved once before.

Yami opened his mouth, his own eyes glistening as he prepared to say something comforting, when a harsh, venomous voice suddenly shouted from inside the house:

"What the fuck are you doing here, murderer?!"