In the first place, they were already underground; all lighting had been man-made, or rather, magic-made. Pearls of light, non-incendiary torches or magical runes; all these cast meagre but pa.s.sable light for the gloomy pa.s.sageways and rooms in this subterranean fortress.

The second thing that happened was the total and complete submersion of the compound under frigid waters, channeled from the neighbouring Gorun River!

One second it was dry and well-lit; the next, pitch-dark with surging currents of smas.h.i.+ng waves flooding the rooms!

'Crazy! He'll kill not just us but everyone in the entire hideout with this - no, he must have suitable preparations to avoid sacrificing his top subordinates down here!'

Lars immediately surrounded himself with a sh.e.l.l of magic defences, placing on the surface of the magic s.h.i.+eld a level of protection appropriate for his Expert-level capabilities while under that thin veneer of Level 3 spell-s.h.i.+elds was a true layer of the Level 8 spells: Greater Protection from Elements and Greater Protection from Magical Weapons; rendering him 95% resistant to attacks of those types.

Perhaps this change of the battlefield into the water element was unnecessary if Lars were the only opponent for the Laughing Man, but it was likely that his extremely cautious personality of killing an ant with a cannon was what had brought him to the peak of the criminal world in this city. It was also possible that Joker feared Duke Silvan's interference due to him being bound by contract to not allow harm to Lars...

Keeping his eyes shut and craning his other senses keenly, Lars expected an immediate strike from the Laughing Man - and he was not disappointed.

Soundlessly and wordlessly, the masked killer shot through the waters as if he were a fish in his element. As this was still in complete and utter darkness, Lars did not see it but instead felt the slight undulations and ripples through the water's movement.

'Gotcha!' He exclaimed in his mind as he brandished his Mana Sabre and infused the vibrant blue energy blade with the twin-elements of s.p.a.ce and Lightning - s.p.a.ce through his comprehension of the laws to form a thin channel of existence-cleaving void; a vacuum devoid of water or air around his blade and the Lightning through the Level 9 Spell: Wrath of the ThunderG.o.d!

The Level 9 Semi-ultimate spell was normally used in the form of an unfettered explosion of lightning bolts, gathering storm clouds to wreak indiscriminate havoc upon everyone around the caster. However in this situation, due to the caster himself being surrounded by water himself, Lars instead compressed the form of the spell to a reduced form, channeled into the slim 3 and a quarter foot blade of his Mana Sabre.

This resulted in a reality-rending nerve rupturing cacophony of skills intertwined into a single sword strike, ready to burst through the strongest blow the masked Crime Lord could throw at him!

Regretting that he could not speak underwater to cry out the name of his newly-christened and created combination skill, Lars could only settle for a silent mental yell as he brandished his blade with his eyes closed!

'Take this!!! Void-Thunder Judgment Sword!!!'

Due to the band of void-s.p.a.ce encapsulating his Mana Sabre, Lars' move was nearly silent except for the swis.h.i.+ng of water as it resisted his swing. However, he was not discouraged by this and swiftly sliced through the water from the direction he sensed the Laughing Man approaching from!

ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZRRRRRRTTTTTTTTZZZZZAAAAAAAAAAPPPPP!!!!!!!!

The instant Lars' sword strike connected with his opponent's attack, a crazy crackling explosion of deafening sound burst forth as the lightning "beam" in blade form crashed directly into the veritable wall of surging waters that were gus.h.i.+ng his way.

At first, the masked mastermind had scoffed when he sensed Lars wielding his sword to counter his Torrential Ruin specialty skill. Was the boy crazy?!? Who in their right mind would try to CUT WATER with a SWORD?!? Moreover, from what Joker sensed, the boy even dared to trigger the lightning element UNDERWATER! How crazy was that? How insane would a person have to be to use a self-damaging nearly suicidal move when they themselves were fully surrounded by highly conductive liquids?!?

The Laughing Man smirked as he peered through the pitch-black waters with his perfect dark-vision and watched expectantly for the boy to be swept away by the death-delivering currents, electrocuted by his own skill and then smashed into a pulp by the tsunami of force!

However, his arrogant expression was quickly wiped away as he saw the direct opposite of what he expected happen!

Not only were the waves cleaved apart cleanly by the sword move, even the force behind his city-destroying wave of turbulent water was dispersed! The void around the blade did not just end 3 and a quarter feet in front of Lars where his sword stroke pa.s.sed, but the moment the tip of his blade was pointed at his black-robed opponent, the area of vacuum s.p.a.ce shot straight forth like a line being struck across a painting; so straight and true that it looked like there were a literal split in reality where his blade sliced through!

Bubbles of air escaped Joker's lungs against his will as he suddenly felt his insides twisting and being shoved aside as the laterally split s.p.a.ce pa.s.sed through his body, parting his unprepared body in two!

And he could only gasping in terror as he regret the fact that, despite him using his full-power in an attack to crush Lars right there and then, he had not been ready for such a potent counter-attack...!

...At least, those were the thoughts pa.s.sing through his mind in the split-second before the Level 9 Spell: Wrath of the ThunderG.o.d lanced through the waters and engulfed his entire body in a white-wash blinding pillar of lightning!

The lightning bolt did not conduct backwards to harm Lars, but was bent according to Lars' will and spread out only the direction he commanded it to; streaking through the waters to connect soundly with the Laughing Man's submerged body!

"!!!!!!" The gaunt, masked figure could not even cry out in agony as the Level 9 Spell that summoned the Lightning Spear of the Heavens swallowed his entire body with waves of nerve-frying voltage in the billions of volts, while the glowing white core in the form of a lance pierced through his heart, instantly executing the dreaded and feared master of the darkness of Gorun City, the tyrannical Underlord of the Underworld...!

Lars watched keenly with his spirit sense and through the information carried by the vibrations in the water as he felt the Wrath of the Thunder G.o.d lance through the gap between them and harpoon Joker's body, smas.h.i.+ng him through one wall, cras.h.i.+ng him right through and crus.h.i.+ng his limp body into the next wall behind it.

In one fell swoop, in one single move and in one split second, it was over.

The Laughing Man was dead.

The war against the dark belly of Gorun City...

Was now over!