Ian raised his right hand, his fingers splayed.
Above his palm, three black dots the size of rice grains appeared silently, arranged in a triangular formation.
Ripples of gravity that warped space flowed across their surfaces.
Gravity Collapse Ball: Miniature Piercing Mode.
"This is the first interest payment."
As the words left his mouth.
The three black dots shot out simultaneously!
They carved three nearly invisible trajectories through the air.
There was no sound, no light, only the faint ripple of distorted space.
The first shot toward the point between Silas’s eyes, the second toward his chest, and the third...
...shot toward the silver ground three meters in front of him!
"You little bastard!"
Silas roared. His withered hands shot up, and a frenzied surge of gray-green energy erupted from them!
Wraith Barriers stacked frantically!
Three gray-green walls materialized in an instant, layering themselves in front of him.
At the same time, he pushed off with his feet, his body rapidly retreating to the right.
But the third black dot had already struck the ground!
BZZZT!
A three-meter-wide gravitational singularity erupted!
The silver ground caved inward around the black dot, forming a bowl-shaped depression. A terrifying gravitational turbulence, like a great, invisible hand, latched onto Silas’s legs, instantly slowing his retreat!
It was a delay of a single millisecond.
In that instant, the first two black dots arrived!
PTHH!...
The shields shattered one after another.
Silas’s face was ashen.
’At least five layered Wraith Barriers were the strongest defense I could currently muster.’
’And they were crushed by just two black dots?!’
’What’s even more terrifying is that gravitational turbulence...’
"This isn’t Level One Witchcraft... This definitely isn’t!"
He gritted his teeth, his withered left hand slapping down toward his waist.
A deathly-pale Bone Token hung there, its surface covered in twisted Curse Runes.
Death Replacement Bone Token, a Tier Two Cursed Witchcraft Tool.
When activated, it could create a Bone Puppet with thirty percent of the user’s power to draw all attacks.
Simultaneously, it teleported the user to a random location three hundred meters away.
This was one of his ultimate life-saving trump cards, and now...
’I have to use it!’
Silas’s fingertips poured gray-green energy into the Bone Token. The runes on its surface flared to life, letting out a bloodcurdling shriek!
But just then.
"CAW!"
A piercing cry that seemed to penetrate the very soul exploded from the shadows on the platform.
Somehow, Gaga had already crept to the edge of the platform.
Its wings were spread to their full thirty-meter span, its pitch-black feathers gleaming with a profound luster.
It opened its beak, the eerie light in the depths of its mismatched eyes flaring to its absolute limit!
’Gaga knew that its Omen Eye was highly ineffective against a Level Two Wizard.’
’So...’
Shadow Storm—full power!
With Gaga at the center, the Shadow Energy within a fifty-meter radius instantly began to roil.
The shadows flowing beneath the silver ground, the darkness stretching from the building’s wreckage.
Even the shadow cast by Silas himself... all of it came "alive"!
They churned like boiling water, converging and twisting...
...transforming into countless sharp fragments of shadow that shot toward Silas like a torrential downpour.
Each fragment left a pitch-black trail, its trajectory cunning and vicious, sealing off all his room to evade!
As they flew, the fragments continuously split and reorganized.
Like a living swarm of black hornets!
"What the hell is this stuff?!"
Silas’s pupils constricted. The activation process for the Bone Token in his left hand was forcibly interrupted.
The shadow fragments were already upon him, and he had no choice but to divide his attention to defend himself!
Death Ripple—Simplified Version!
Ripples of gray-green energy exploded from him, wildly colliding with the shadow fragments!
HISSSSSSS!
The dense sound of annihilation was like rain drumming on banana leaves.
Gray-green and pitch-black intertwined, dissolved, and exploded into a sky full of energy debris!
Silas let out a muffled groan, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth again.
The simplified Death Ripple was greatly reduced in power and could only barely withstand the first wave of the Shadow Storm’s assault.
And the second wave, the third... they were already following close behind.
But what was more deadly...
A thousand meters away, Ian raised his right hand again.
He splayed his fingers, aimed his palm at Silas, and then...
...gently clenched his fist.
Entropy Change Domain—Full power deployment.
VWOOM!!!
A pale purple Domain, one hundred meters in radius, erupted with Silas at its center.
Inside the Domain, the temperature began to fluctuate wildly.
One moment, Silas’s gray-green energy condensed into thick ice crystals; the next, the temperature soared to several thousand degrees.
The ice crystals shattered, and the gray-green energy was violently eroded by the thermal energy, its structure beginning to spontaneously break down!
"Wh-what is this Domain?!"
Silas’s pupils quaked. The Death Energy inside his body was becoming "chaotic."
’It isn’t being dispersed or counteracted.’
’Instead... it’s becoming "disordered"!’
’It’s like a carefully constructed tower of blocks being gently pushed by an invisible hand, causing the entire structure to spontaneously collapse.’
The energy model of his Wraith Barrier was disintegrating, and the wave frequency of his Death Ripple was becoming erratic.
Even the liquefied Spiritual Power in his Sea of Spirit began to spin at an irregular, lurching speed!
"I can’t drag this out any longer..."
A vicious glint flashed in Silas’s eyes as his withered left hand shot toward his chest.
Hanging there was a dark red pendant, inlaid with a black, constantly beating heart.
Rotting Heart Pendant: A Tier Two self-detonating Witchcraft Tool.
When detonated, it could release a "Rotting Soul Poisonous Miasma" with a three-thousand-meter radius.
The souls of anyone who inhaled it would be forcibly corroded and left to putrefy, eventually turning them into mindless, rotting corpses.
It was a method of mutual destruction, but now...
’I have to create a chance to escape!’
"Let’s die together!!!"
Silas shrieked, frantically pouring gray-green energy from his fingertips into the pendant!
The black heart on the pendant’s surface throbbed violently, and a dense network of cracks appeared on its surface.
Dark red poisonous fog began to seep from the cracks...
But Ian was faster.
The instant Silas raised his hand to grab the pendant.
Mimicry effect—fully activated!
The light around him distorted, and his body seemed to melt into the starlit background, his presence vanishing in an instant.
The next second, he appeared at the edge of the platform, less than fifty meters from Silas!
For the current Ian, that distance was as good as point-blank range!
"You..."
Silas’s pupils constricted. The pendant’s activation process was interrupted yet again.
Ian had already raised his right hand, his index finger pointing toward the point between Silas’s eyes!
Frost Ash Beam—Extreme Compression—Continuous Fire!
FWOOSH! FWOOSH! FWOOSH!
Three pale purple beams shot out like vipers striking from a hole, tearing through the air.
They aimed precisely for three vital points: the space between Silas’s eyes, his throat, and his heart!
Silas retreated frantically, layers of gray-green shields materializing before him.
But the interference from the Entropy Change Domain made his shields form half a beat too slow!
PTHH! PTHH!
The first two beams pierced through two layers of shields, exploding against the surface of the third in a halo of interweaving ice and fire.
FWOOSH!!!
The beam pierced through Silas’s left shoulder, leaving a thumb-sized hole straight through it.
The edges of the hole were as smooth as a mirror, while Ice and Fire Energy clashed wildly within the wound.
It churned flesh, bone, and meridians into a chaotic pulp!
"Arrrggghhh!"
Silas let out a bloodcurdling scream as his left arm fell limp.
The pendant slipped from his fingertips and fell to the silver ground.
He staggered backward, the ghostly flames under his hood flickering violently, on the verge of being extinguished.
The Rule contamination on his right shoulder, the ice-and-fire annihilation wound on his left, the continuous interference from the Entropy Change Domain...
Under this triple assault, his aura had weakened to an extreme degree.
"N-No... Impossible..."
Silas gritted his teeth, dark green blood constantly seeping from the corners of his mouth as he stared intently at Ian.
"You’re only Level One... How is this possible..."
"Level One?"
Ian slowly approached, his footsteps making a soft, shuffling sound on the silver ground.
There was no emotion in his black eyes, only an icy coldness.
"Who told you I was Level One?"
As his voice fell.
He splayed the fingers of his right hand, and the rice-grain-sized black dots appeared in his palm once more.
This time, however, the black dots didn’t shoot out.
Instead... he clenched them in his fist.
Furnace Body Tempering Skill—Maximum Output!
A jade-like radiance shone from beneath his skin, enveloping his entire right arm like flowing moonlight.
His muscles, bones, and meridians emitted a low hum as they were tempered by the glow.
Layer upon layer of Power built up, finally converging in his palm.
Then.
Ian took a step forward, his right fist shooting out like a cannonball.
Before the fist arrived, the force of the punch had already torn through the air, carrying a pale purple after-image laced with interweaving ice and fire as it shot straight for Silas’s chest.
"Get back!!"
Silas roared, his withered right hand rising as gray-green energy frantically coalesced into a three-meter-long Spear of Death, which he thrust toward the incoming fist.
The tip of the spear met the fist.
BOOM!!!
A storm of gray-green and pale purple energy exploded, spiderweb cracks spreading across the platform’s surface as the building’s wreckage was blasted into a cloud of debris!
Silas’s eyes went wide.
His Spear of Death, the instant it made contact with the fist... crumbled inch by inch!
It spontaneously disintegrated at the level of its Energy Structure!
It was as if the most crucial block had been pulled from a tower, causing the entire model to come crashing down!
"The Entropy... Change... Domain..."
He finally understood.
That bizarre, pale purple Domain could not only interfere with energy, but it could also... dismantle Witchcraft Models.
And Ian’s fist, after shattering the Spear of Death, continued onward with unabated force, slamming viciously into his chest!
THUD!
The dull impact sounded like the beat of a war drum.
Silas’s chest caved in.
With a CRACK, all the bones in his chest shattered.
He flew backward like a broken ragdoll, carving an arc through the air before slamming heavily into a pillar at the edge of the platform.
Fine cracks spread across the pillar’s surface as Silas slid down limply, collapsing into a sitting position on the ground.
Dark green blood poured from his mouth and nose as the Ice and Fire Energy within him began to freeze, scorch, and annihilate his internal organs, bit by bit.
He raised his head. His hood slipped off, revealing a face as gaunt as a skeleton, the two ghostly flames in his eye sockets as faint as candles flickering in the wind.
"What... in the world... are you..."
Silas asked hoarsely, coughing up a mouthful of blood with every word.
Ian walked over and stopped three meters in front of him.
He calmly regarded the dying Level Two Wizard.
"I am Ian Marcus."
His voice was utterly devoid of emotion.
"From Shadow Moon Tower. A Level One Wizard and Magic Potion Alchemist."
"Level One... Ha... Haha..."
Silas gave a bitter laugh as dark green blood dripped steadily from the corner of his mouth.
"A Level One Wizard... can kill a Level Two... can dismantle a Rule... can..."
His voice grew quieter and quieter, and the ghostly flames in his eye sockets gradually dimmed.
But in the instant before they were extinguished.
Silas’s withered right hand suddenly shot up, a final, fine, gray-green needle coalescing at his fingertip and shooting toward the point between Ian’s eyes.
Soul Piercing—Dying Counterattack!
This was a mandatory life-saving technique for the upper echelons of the Withered Council. At the moment of death, it condensed the user’s remaining soul into a single strike aimed directly at the target’s Sea of Spirit. A direct hit would, at best, severely wound the soul; at worst, it would mean instant death!
But Ian... was already prepared.
The moment the fine needle shot out, his eyes opened slightly.
He opened his palm to block it.
PFFT!
After hitting his palm, the needle disintegrated inch by inch, turning into a cloud of gray-green specks of light.
Ian, however, continued his motion, thrusting his fingers forward and piercing the point between Silas’s eyes.
"Gaaah!"
Silas let out one last, utterly bloodcurdling scream, his body convulsing violently.
The ghostly flames in his eye sockets were completely extinguished, his pupils dilated, and his face froze in an expression of ultimate pain and unwillingness to accept his fate.
A second later.
The screaming stopped abruptly.
Silas’s body fell limply to the ground, silent forever.
Silas the Dead Speaker, a Level Two Crystalized Wizard... was dead.
Ian slowly let out a long breath and withdrew his fingers.
A faint sense of exhaustion emanated from his Sea of Spirit.
’Using the Entropy Change Domain, Gravity Collapse Ball, and Frost Ash Beam in quick succession had indeed consumed a significant amount of power.’
But his gaze remained clear, and was now... even sharper.
"That’s the first one taken care of."
He muttered to himself, bending down to loot the spoils.
Silas’s grayish-black long robe looked like a decent set of Curse-Protecting Witchcraft Tools.
Although its effectiveness had been greatly reduced after being eroded by the Entropy Change Domain, the materials themselves were still quite valuable.
Inside the Dimension Bag hanging at his waist were twenty-three bottles of High Level Curse Potions, forty-seven Flawless Magic Stones, the remains of three Tier Two Cursed Witchcraft Tools, and...
...a dark silver Metal Token.
The Token was palm-sized, and on its surface was carved the badge of the Withered Council: a black tombstone.
On the back, a line of small text was engraved in an ancient wizarding script:
[Endless Sea - Dark Tide Fjord - Shipwreck Graveyard - Coordinates (████)]
"This is..."
Ian’s gaze narrowed slightly.
’Dark Tide Fjord, a famous Death Sea Region deep within the Endless Sea.’
’Legend had it that countless ancient ships had sunk there, forming a massive undersea graveyard.’
’But for the Withered Council to specifically mark coordinates there...’
"A resource point? A secret base? Or... something else?"