"It is said that when third-level wizards enter the crystallization stage, they undergo a complete transformation and their strength skyrockets. Now it seems that's truly the case!"
Leilin stared with a grave expression at the bloody throne behind Toland.
Originally, the other's Pseudo-Domain had already been squeezed into a corner by his Fear Field, nearly on the verge of shattering.
But now, the entire Domain had surged in power, and that massive dark-red throne in particular seemed to have solidified into something tangible, radiating a majesty incomparable to before—it even faintly surpassed the Fear Field.
"Haha! Excellent! This is the kind of opponent I've been wanting!"
On this battlefield, Leilin felt pressure for the first time.
But contrary to that, a delighted grin spread across his face.
Only this Toland—whose spiritual power had surged and broken through to crystallization—was the true opponent he had been seeking!
"Come! Show me the true power of a crystallized wizard!"
Leilin's expression turned fervent as his body was enveloped in a layer of fine black scales, and beyond the scales, a dark membrane formed by the glow of numerous runes created a second layer of defense.
Facing a crystallized wizard, he dared not hold anything back.
"As you wish!" Red liquid was now streaming from the corners of Toland's eyes like tears of blood, making her look even more grotesque.
Whoosh!
Two figures instantly blurred into dark afterimages and collided.
Deafening booms and terrifying waves of energy continuously radiated outward in all directions...
"L-Lord Leilin is... actually this strong?"
Damanshi, who could see the horrifying scene at the center even from outside the camp, stood with his mouth gaping wide, nearly unable to form words.
Toland was the second-in-command of the Hand of Vengeance! A rumored peak-stage liquefied wizard!
Not only had she been a renowned powerhouse for years, but rumors had long circulated that this wanted fugitive of the Ouroboros Ring had already advanced to crystallization!
And Leilin could actually fight her to a draw—or even gain a slight upper hand? What kind of power was that?
The only thought in Damanshi's mind at that moment was that he had to cling to Leilin as his patron at all costs!
"Crystallization Field has been fully recorded! Begin collecting combat parameters!"
At this moment, Leilin, locked in combat with Toland, did not look relaxed at all.
Although Toland had entered crystallization through a secret technique, the sheer strength of her power still somewhat exceeded his expectations.
Not only had she formed a fully crystallized spiritual power armor around her body, but all of her other spells had received terrifying amplification as well.
It seemed the rumors about undergoing a complete transformation upon entering crystallization were probably true.
Moreover, Toland was fighting with the determination to drag Leilin down with her, completely disregarding her own well-being. Her madman-like fighting style had given Leilin some trouble as well.
But regardless, a crystallization achieved through secret techniques and the like certainly had its limits!
Drops of blood kept flowing from Toland's body, staining the ground red, approaching nearly half the total blood volume of a human body. For an ordinary person, such severe injuries would have been fatal long ago. Even though Toland was a wizard, her current state was far from tolerable.
A secret technique that forcibly compressed spiritual power to enter crystallization ahead of schedule—how could it come without a price?
Even if her body suddenly split apart in the next instant, Leilin would not feel the slightest surprise.
"Shadow Swift Flame!"
Dark red flames surged violently, and with the aid of this spell, Leilin immediately created distance between himself and his opponent.
Carefully scanning the densely recorded data in the Chip, Leilin smiled. He turned to look at Toland, who had become a blood-soaked figure not far away, her face deathly pale. "You are a respectable opponent! But I'm afraid..."
Sensing that the life force radiating from Toland was rapidly weakening, on the verge of falling below crystallization, Leilin showed no more mercy.
"Final experiment: the lethality of the Finger of
"Experiment initiated. Data collection in progress!" The Chip executed Leilin's command with meticulous precision.
The terrifying spell that had previously shattered the defensive magical array and caught the Hand of Vengeance off guard appeared once again in Leilin's hands.
Terrifying energy particles converged, forming a black dot that hovered at the tip of Leilin's finger.
"Third-level Spell—Finger of Death!"
Leilin sighed softly and pointed his hand toward Toland.
"Secret Technique! Crystal Shield!"
Though Toland knew what Leilin intended, her instinct to survive and her hatred for the Ouroboros Ring drove her to fight with everything she had.
One crystalline spiritual power shield after another materialized densely in front of Toland, the runes upon them still flickering with a pale glow.
Crack!
The black beam of death arrived before Toland almost the instant Leilin pointed, striking the first crystallized spiritual power shield.
Crack!
A rough hole the size of a finger immediately formed in the shield, with numerous cracks spreading outward from the hole like a spider's web.
Pop! Pop! Pop!
As if piercing through sheets of paper, the death beam broke through shield after shield, arriving before Toland.
"The taste of death, is it?"
A moment of vacancy flickered through Toland's eyes, but it was immediately replaced by even more terrifying flames of hatred.
"Even in death, I refuse to die so humiliated, without even leaving a scratch on my enemy!" Toland roared, and blood-red flames erupted across her body.
"Soul Sacrifice! The flames of hatred have indeed blinded her reason!"
Leilin's expression grew solemn. In the understanding of wizards, death was not the end. The souls of high-level wizards after death would return to the Astral Plane, awaiting their next rebirth.
The Soul Sacrifice, however, was a secret technique developed specifically to target the soul.
By burning one's own soul origin—even one's true spirit—to gain a brief surge of power!
Doing so essentially destroyed one's last shred of hope for any future.
It seemed that this wizard named Toland harbored a hatred for the Ouroboros Ring that ran extraordinarily deep.
The instant the blood-red flames ignited, a sinister aura spread across the entire arena.
A blood-red crystal emerged from Toland's forehead, bursting forth with gore to meet the beam of death.
The black beam of death collided with the blood-red crystal.
The entire space shuddered, yet at the same time it seemed as though nothing had happened.
But after a moment of stunned hesitation, Leilin's expression shifted rapidly. Cursing inwardly, he retreated at full speed.
BOOM!
The sound of shattering glass rang out. Where the blood-red crystal and the death beam had met, a black hole seemed to appear, sucking everything around it inward.
In an instant, even the air appeared to warp beyond recognition.
After the violent contraction came a terrifying explosion!
BOOM! A massive mushroom cloud rose into the sky from the epicenter, and enormous shockwaves swept across the ground, scouring everything in their path.
Damanshi, who had been watching from the outermost perimeter, was swallowed by the massive wave without even a scream.
After the explosion, terrifying spatial cracks began to appear densely across the area. Anything that touched these cracks instantly vanished from where it had been.
In that moment, the sky roared and the earth trembled.
It took more than ten minutes for the aftershocks of the explosion to gradually dissipate.
Tzzt! A flash of light shimmered in the void, and Leilin's figure materialized out of thin air.
However, his expression was far from pleasant. In that terrifying collision, he had been caught by the aftershocks and sustained injuries of moderate severity.
As for his opponent Toland? She had been at the epicenter of the explosion, and not even bones remained.
Setting everything else aside, merely using that terrifying secret technique, combined with the final full eruption of the Soul Sacrifice at the cost of her soul's annihilation—even if Toland had somehow survived the explosion, she would not have lived much longer.
"What a pity..."
Leilin sighed, though no trace of dejection showed on his face. For him, all the objectives of this mission had been accomplished. Although the ending held some surprises, it was still within control.
He descended to the ground and trod upon a rock blackened by soot.
"Damanshi, come out!"
"Sir, what are your orders?" The soil shifted, and Damanshi's figure emerged from underground.
When the explosion had occurred, he had been fortunate enough to be on the outer periphery, and being a wizard himself, he had managed to survive—but he had sustained severe injuries.
From Leilin's vantage point, Damanshi's clothes were entirely tattered, and his exposed skin was covered with burn marks—a somewhat harrowing sight.
"Write up a report on what happened and submit it! I have other matters to attend to, so I won't be returning to headquarters for now." Leilin ordered.
Since the mission was complete, someone needed to provide proof.
"Understood, sir!" These matters naturally fell under his purview as the intelligence chief, so Damanshi agreed immediately.
"And what about that female wizard—how should she be dealt with?"
"That little ant? Issue a wanted notice!" Leilin thought of Toland's apprentice but didn't give it much thought.
A mere low-level wizard would need at least five hundred more years to pose any threat to him. Setting aside the fact that Leilin would have long since advanced to far more terrifying realms by then, it was questionable whether the apprentice would even live that long.
"Understood..."
Although Damanshi desperately wanted to voice his intention to pledge loyalty, when facing Leilin, he found himself trembling uncontrollably, unable to utter the words he had planned.
Leilin, now carrying the immense pressure of having slain Toland, would make even an ordinary third-level wizard feel uneasy upon seeing him.
Moreover, although his injuries were not severe, they were still a problem that needed to be resolved as soon as possible.
"I'll leave the cleanup to you!"
Leilin thought coolly as his figure vanished from the spot, leaving behind Damanshi with a face full of reluctance and regret...