Infinite Paths: The Raging Phoenix

"... I don't believe that father would sacrifice so many people to get us like this," Esmeralda said.

"He knew that in the battle against the dragons, they would suffer casualties in one way or the other," Rain said and then clicked his tongue when he realized that his body was done for and he would have to heal naturally from now on. "With this power, he was planning to control the dragons… he was forced to use it a bit earlier."

"... Where is father?" Seara asked when she arrived in a hurry

"... He is under the king's control now," Rain replied. "Everyone else is, and they are planning to use them against the magic people."

Everyone knew that Rain was the most hated enemy of the king, and that was why he escaped, but now he was essentially useless in the battle… but they had to do something before the magic people suffered a crushing defeat… everyone realized that he couldn't use magic anymore, but they couldn't say that or the morale would drop considerably.

"We need to regroup… you need to control your people to avoid further losses," Terra said while looking at Seara.

Seara clicked her tongue in annoyance, but she understood that she had a point. Getting angry now wouldn't do anything… She wanted to rescue her father, but they needed to learn more.

"... All right," Seara said and then sighed.

Rain stopped to think for a moment what had happened and understand it. He took that attack directly, so he should be able to analyze it… considering what he knew, most likely, the king didn't know that he had that kind of ability, but Joanis knew and told him that he could use it to leave his mark on the world… in that case, wouldn't the royal family be like one of the tribes of the magic people?
Your journey continues at M-V-L

Joanis' ability to learn that kind of forgotten knowledge was annoying as ever… that kind of ability could be used to attack and subjugate enemies and control them, and the king could use another relic to make his allies and enemies able and unable to use magic.

So, Rain would only be able to use his magic again once he got rid of the blood… but it wasn't like it was in his bloodstream… it was in his cells, and the king would be able to attack him once he entered the barrier again.

"... Dana, use earth magic to support my legs on my knees," Rain said. "I need to get up, and I can't stay sitting all day."

"You need to rest, leave the communication to us," Terra said. "Trying to stand up like that will only worsen your wounds."

"That won't do it. We lost half of our forces, perhaps more with the sea emperor," Rain said. "The magic people won't take us seriously, even more so since the king will be using the sea emperor to attack them. Unless I look like I can do something, they won't listen to us."

"Appearances don't matter now, Rain," Leiah said. "You need to calm down and think of a way out of this mess… we will send a message to the magic people and explain the situation and leave immediately."

Leiah had a point… he had to calm down and think things through… he couldn't let anything worse happen, and he wouldn't be able to do anything in that situation. Right now, he could only use his head.

The groups began to split up and check the enemy's base while keeping their distance… Asche could use the wind version of Impulse, so she went to talk with the magic people. At the same time, Terra and Rain's sisters tried to clean him and tend his wounds. However, even though they finished the cleaning, his skin was still blood red.

"Until now, I used magic to solve problems like this, so how can I solve this without magic?" Rain thought.

The enemies had plenty of time to plan this; it was a variation from their original plan, so it wasn't that hard for them to come up with such a measure. While they sealed Rain's ability to wield mana, they also used mana to do that and to prevent healing.

So, he could be attacked with magic, but healing and supporting magic wouldn't work… most likely because the blood had the anti-magic substance and because it had the mana of the king.

"... There is no way out of this?" Rain thought. "It can't be it…"

Rain took several deep breaths again …he couldn't let such a thing stop him. The opponent was annoyingly resourceful, but he was someone who had modern knowledge… to some extent. He could use that in his favor.

Unfortunately, nothing came to mind as of now… aside from the most obvious option: kill the king or force him to cancel the spell and take all the blood that invaded his body. The second option was probably impossible since he was the only one that the king wanted to kill… the fact that he was being protected by an anti-magic and anti-physical attack barrier was also another nuisance.

"It is no good… I couldn't reach them, and they were being pushed away by the sea emperor, who created a massive wave to chase and drown them. Many already died," Asche suddenly returned and then said it.

Terra looked at Asche with annoyed eyes… bad news was the last thing that Rain needed to hear… that would make him feel eager to fight again in one way or the other. However, much to everyone's surprise… he was quite calm.

"Mom, we have to retreat. As soon as the king and Joanis are tired of hunting the magic people, they will come for us," Rain explained. "It will take some time for them to be able to control the powers of everyone, but once they do that, it will be over. You should go with Dana, Gila, and Kei to inform Seara of that. Orcis and Lorene should be helped with their diplomacy skills…"