A few minutes earlier.
"All of you stay here! Kenji, melt Ning out of the ice! I'll go check out what's going on!" Alex spoke, activating the wind enchantments on his boots to take off into the air.
*BOOM*
*Sizzle*
Unfortunately, just as he was about to head towards the pillar of darkness, a beam of light-blue energy came shooting towards Alex.
"Hmph! I suppose it is true what they say, birds of a feather flock together, though I suppose in this case, it's more rats festering in the same nest!" Said the high-elf who just appeared out of thin air.
As the light faded, Alex was nowhere to be seen. Seeing the black-haired elf was nowhere in sight, the sage of the fay clicked his tongue and turned to look at the half frozen dragonnewt and the disciple trio below.
"Tsk! I suppose that scourge got away again, but no matter! I seem to have found another pest that needs to be gotten rid of!" Willhelm muttered as he looked down at Shinji.
*Swoosh*
However, before he could tell his contracted spirit king to rain down lasers of death down upon the sparring arena, the spirit king of light acted on its own to move the elven sage out of the way of the scythe heading for his neck.
"Not running for your life? My, you have grown rather bold since last we met!"
"So, I guess you're the old goats she was talking about?"
"Provoking me will not do you any favors, filth!"
"Oh? Do I smell? Sorry, I just had a workout session and haven't had time to shower yet!"
"Trying to hide your fear with silly banter will not change your fate!"
*Sigh*
"Oh, I'm afraid all right! Just not off you!"
"Hm? What is that supposed to mean?"
"The person you are picking a fight with, is way out of your league! If you want to live, then take my advice. Run!"
"Hmph? You have grown too arrogant for your own good, or you have finally lost what little remains of your sanity, if you believed I would ever flee from a mere peasant rat like you!"
Just then, the two elves were encased in a globe of pure light, shining brightly like the sun, cutting them off from the rest of the world.
"A barrier? No! A spirit realm? This is ..."
Aside from the world of the demons and the divine realm of the gods, there exists a number of other dimensions alongside the mortal plane collectively referred to as the spirit realms. The spirit realms are 9 infinitely large pocket dimensions filled to the brim with a near endless amount of pure energy belonging to one of the nine elements, and the name of one of those spirit realms is…
"… Alfheim, the spirit world of light!" Alex said.
"I see you have not gone blind from your rabid nature! Yes, indeed! Using the immeasurable power of a spirit King which lay far beyond your feeble self, I have trapped you inside this world of endless light! Do not bother trying to flee because it would be futile! In the past, you would have fled before I could deploy this method, but you foolishly wasted your only chance to survive on a failed surprise attack, and in doing so, you have sealed your fate! This place cannot be escaped with some simple spatial movements, and any attempt you may try will only result in incineration or being torn between dimensions! If you have any sense left inside your head, you will surrender your life quietly without resistance!" Willhelm spoke, already sure of his victory.
"Oh? Is that right?"
*Pop*
*BOOM*
Just then, Alex, wanting to confirm the hunch he had, opened up a small portal right next to Willhelm's head and threw an explosive artifact through it, which was dodged again due to the spirit king transporting Willhelm's body out of harm's way. While spatial movements are restricted, that only applies if you are trying to move in or out of this barrier. Meaning that any spatial movement happening within the limits of this place would be almost completely unaffected.
"Guess I was right! Hm!" Alex muttered, before pulling out his necrosis scythe, using its blade to cover his back.
*Clang*
*Sizzle*
Shortly after, a light beam came flying out of the barrier behind Alex, bouncing off his necrosis scythe. Alex then pulled out a black ominous lantern, containing a blue flame which proceeded to spew out a white smokescreen, just before countless numbers of lasers came shooting towards him.
For spirits, it's vital to have the field advantage when entering combat. Unlike cultivators, elemental spirits do not produce elemental energy on their own, in exchange for having much greater control over the elements, fairies have to borrow their power from their surroundings. Hence, an elemental spirit's combat power directly scales to the environment they find themselves in, and to a spirit King of light, there is no better environment than Alfheim itself.
"Hm?"
*Pop*
*Sizzle*
As the light beams were shooting through the smokescreen, Alex teleported behind Wilhelm with his scythe and lantern in hand. Having noticed the spatial distortion in advance, the spirit king had fired a giant laser aimed at him the moment he appeared. However, Alex had predicted such an action and activated his cloak ability. His cloak is called 'The Robe of Death's Embrace'. It's a legendary item that when activated, turns into a black, fog-like substance that absorbs energy-based attacks, though it does have a limit to how much it can take. By the time the laser disappeared, Alex's robe had turned white, and he now sported light burns through his body, as his garment had not been able to absorb all the light heading his way. He then created another smokescreen, enveloping both himself and the high-elf before teleporting out of the way of the ensuing barrage of light-beams. However, something strange happened.
*Poof*
"Greater spirit of the Winds! What is the meaning of this?"
Wilhelm had been staying in the air using a wind spirit. However, without any warning, he had suddenly started falling, until he left the smokescreen. The reason for this lies with Alex's lantern, 'Wisp of the Will-o Lantern', a Unique grade artifact created by his master, which has the ability to create an artificial aura in the form of a disorienting debuff mist. Normally, Alex only bothers using this item when he plans to ambush an enemy or need a smokescreen for a quick escape, but today is different. As luck would have it, the mist created from his lantern is essentially an artificial aura, and unfortunately for Willhelm, because both processes happen to incorporate willpower in some way, when aura and spirit magic collide, they interfere with each other. Meaning, Alex's lantern has a debilitating effect on spirit magic. So, when Willhelm was covered in mist, the wind spirit that was keeping him in the air lost control of the air currents keeping him afloat, and he started falling.
*Poof*
"HOW DARE YOU!"
*Poof*
Of course, Alex, knowing this would happen, had teleported down to where Wilhelm was falling ahead of time to greet him with another smokescreen, and then another, and another until they neared the bottom of the barrier. Though the barrier was meant to keep Alex from escaping, if Willhelm's body was to collide with the rim of this area while covered in this mist, he would not survive.
Though Willhelm may have claimed to have brought them to the spirit world of light, it would be more apt to say he had brought them just outside of it. The spirit realms are all incredibly inhospitable to living creatures due to the absurd amount of energy within them. The energy concentration is so high even fairies who feed on elemental energy, need to be above a certain rank just so they don't choke on it and die! For a number of spirit realms, including Alfheim, most flesh and blood creatures would just evaporate the moment they stepped inside. That is why, instead of fully transporting them to Alfheim, the spirit king had merely opened a portal and stretched it around the two elves. That way, the spirit king of light could simply pull out as much energy as he wanted without endangering Willhelm.
"DO SOMETHING!"
Before the sage fell victim to his own spirit's interdimensional-gate-barrier, the spirit King opened up a hole in the portal exactly where the high-elf fell, and Alex followed after before the gap had time to close itself back up.
"The reason why I ran from you in the past, is not because I am afraid of you! It's because I don't feel like risking my life over a fight where I have nothing to gain, but I'm not risking anything this time!"
"Hm? What is this?"
"You're invading the base of the magician who dared to steal the Walpurgis island from under the noses of the sages themselves! Did you really expect this place not to be armed to the teeth!" Alex spoke, as countless miniature golem turrets popped out of the ground, aiming their barrels towards the high-elf.
The moment Alex's words left his mouth, the turrets opened fire. Some spewed out infernos, while some shot lasers, others fired pressurized water streams, and so on. When Nox had planted turrets around the estate, she had made sure to include ones with attacks from each of the nine elements in case of enemies who are impervious or highly resistant to one specific element appearing. Unfortunately for Willhelm, to come out of this unscathed, he would at least need a greater spirit from every element on hand, and although he may have a lot of spirit contracts, he is a few elements short of what he needs. Additionally, the turrets all have their own magic barriers, specially designed to work in tandem with the ones around them, strengthening each other to a point where even spirit lords would only be able to destroy one or two at a time.
*BOOM*
"UGH! DO SOMETHING!" Willhelm screamed, after losing an ear from a spatial bullet from inside a crumbling dome of earth, wind, and fire.
Just then, the spirit King of light, without a word, just flew into the sky, about to fire lasers all across the estate to destroy every single turret littering this land in one go. However, before he could, Alex threw his Necrosis scythe at him, disrupting his concentration as the spirit prioritized dodging the soul weapon covered in green aura fire over saving the sage. After which, Alex brought out a legendary grade artifact, called the 'Banshee's Whispers'. It has the appearance of a small locket, but once it is opened, anyone standing within 30 meters of where it is facing, will feel like their head is about to explode as the soul shattering screams of a banshee is directly transmitted into their head.
*Hiss*
Although, the spirit King of light will not die or suffer any significant injuries from this attack on his soul, it still caused him pain, and so he decided to give up on this assault on the Yang estate, and instead just grabbed Willhelm and retreated.