Chapter 88: Discussion and Imagery

Thick fog, extending giant arms with claws and fangs.

Inside, within a conical temple built from piled boulders, a sphere of light from the 【Brightening Spell】 rotated atop the central room, its soft blue-white glow casting the faces of five black-robed figures deathly pale.

On an altar nearby sat a clay bowl and a segment of a snake-man's leg bone.

The clay bowl held clear water, with blood and a piece of rotting flesh settled at its center, now boiling and emitting a magical aura.

That segment of snake-man leg bone also emitted light, but slowly grew flesh and blood upon it.

"Someone has activated the formation: 【Corrosive Rain】 and 【Terror Mist Veil】."

A man with short golden hair spoke.

A black vertical stripe marked his face; a faint smile played on his lips as he occasionally glanced at the ponytailed woman beside him.

"Is it Bert?"

The tall woman with a ponytail spoke up.

When mentioning Bert, clear tension and concern appeared in her expression.

"No, the activation sequence differs slightly from what we originally agreed upon; the mana supply for the second formation was clearly insufficient, requiring subsequent additions to successfully trigger the dual formation linkage."

Another man gave her the answer.

This gentleman tapped the glasses on his nose and analyzed calmly.

"So, it's Cecil then?"

"Most likely her. Although she didn't directly participate in our ritual, observing from the sidelines and listening to our conversation should have been enough to learn the activation sequence."

"Really? Is that girl that smart?"

Another bald man refuted the bespectacled man's words.

"If she couldn't observe the activation sequence even at such close range, what qualification does Cecil have to enter our Dragon Fun Society?"

The bespectacled man frowned.

"Want to take a bet?"

"What do you have that I want, Baldy?"

"Don't call me Baldy! One 【Corrupted Heartstone】 for your 【Soul Dust】; do you dare?"

"You actually managed to find that thing? Interesting. Come on then."

The fifth person was a half-elf lady.

Her pointed ears were much shorter than those of true elves; her appearance, while not as flawless and inherently holy as an elf's, was still enough to be called stunning.

In the human-supremacist ideology of Bahadur Magic Academy, a half-elf infiltrating the Dragon Fun Society was, to others, unimaginable.

Whoosh—

A flash of mana appeared; the ripple of 【Spatial Shift】 manifested on one side of the room.

All five looked over in unison.

The next moment.

Female mage Cecil landed, then immediately collapsed weakly onto the floor, her expression filled with disbelief.

"Cecil, who triggered the ritual?"

The bald black-robed man asked first.

The tall woman with the ponytail asked: "Where is Bert? Where is Bert?"

Clearly, the word "Bert" was what first struck Cecil.

She slowly raised her head, her face still haunted by shock, and struggled to speak:

"Ber-Bert is dead."

The moment her words fell.

Silence instantly filled the room; one could hear a pin drop.

The ponytailed woman raised her hand and shot out a spell.

Mana dragged a trail through the air, swiftly drilling into Cecil's arm.

"Ah—ahhh no!!!!"

The next moment, Cecil erupted into a piercing scream.

"【Heart-Tearing Agony】? Mana resonance and pain simulation are both remarkably clean; truly impressive."

The golden-haired man with the vertical stripe on his face praised.

【Heart-Tearing Agony】.

A mental spell of the Illusion school; it does not act directly upon the body but delves deep into the target's soul and mind, bringing unprecedented spiritual anguish.

This spell is cruel and complex.

Just the casting steps are divided into three parts.

They are emotional resonance, memory distortion, and physical pain simulation.

None can be missing.

The fact that the ponytailed woman could complete the casting in an instant shows she is a remarkably accomplished mage.

The bald man, fearing Cecil might die of pain or suffer a mental breakdown, rendering the bet invalid,

hurriedly cast a spell to 【Unbind】 her.

Cecil trembled violently, curled up on the floor.

She slowly stopped screaming, panting heavily, a puddle of urine with a foul smell appearing beneath her.

"Speak out of turn again, and I'll kill you immediately!"

The ponytailed woman's face was as dark as ink.

Cecil lowered her head, the shadow of her bangs obscuring her eyes.

No expression could be read on her face.

She stopped speaking.

One hand pressed against her own head, the other raised the staff.

Magic surged; the staff held aloft in midair activated a magical image, after which she herself immediately grew listless.

And on the image, there was plainly the scene of their battle with Rod and Lily.

"Memory Backtrack. Using this on yourself, I'm afraid your spellcasting effectiveness will be greatly diminished for the next few days."

The vertical-striped man commented again.

The others then turned their gaze to the magical image.

They began casually, then frowned, and finally, when they saw Bert chopped into nothing but scraps, shock appeared on each of their faces.

"Bert... my Bert."

The ponytail woman stepped back several paces, staring at the magical image in disbelief.

"What kind of spell was that?"

"I sense an ancient aura."

"Hand over the Corrupted Heartstone."

"... Consider yourself lucky."

Cecil swept his gaze around everyone present.

He looked at the bald mage who had cast Gao Jie Zhou for her.

"I advise you to leave right now. That man is far more terrifying than what appears in the magical image."

The bald mage was at that moment reluctantly pulling the Corrupted Heartstone out of his spell satchel.

Hearing this, he let out a derisive snort.

"Let him first dispel the Erosive Rain of Magic before we talk. A halfling mage, a Spirit Warrior... heh heh."

The moment his words fell.

A crisp "ping" sound rang out from the altar.

Everyone turned their heads to look.

The clay bowl, the spell component representing the Erosive Rain of Magic, cracked in two, and foul-smelling liquid flowed from the altar down onto the ground.

"... Interesting."

The bespectacled mage muttered.

Then he drew out his staff and began constructing the spell for Spatial Shift.

"Are you going?" the bald mage asked.

"No, I intend to flee. Judging from the magical image, if I were to contend with him, my chances of victory would not exceed thirty percent. And that sword strike reaching straight to the clouds, I fear even you and I joining forces could not block it."

"... Coward."

Having said that, he too drew out his staff and began constructing Spatial Shift.

"What? Are you going?"

"No, I intend to flee as well."

The vertical-striped man frowned and said:

"What about Rune? He is a rare promising talent of the Dragon Interest Society. Although I am reluctant to admit it, his potential is indeed the strongest I have ever seen."

"No matter how great the potential, he is not my person. Helping him construct the temple to excavate the Dragon Soul was already generous enough. Besides, our strongest, Bert, was one-shotted. What else would I go do? Seek death? Rune's payment is not enough!"

The vertical-striped man sighed.

He was about to persuade them further when the two of them let out a "whoosh" and vanished.

He looked at the ponytail mage and the half-elf who had remained silent, mainly at the ponytail female mage.

"What about you? Leave or stay?"

A moment of silence.

The half-elf spoke first:

"I want to capture that female halfling."

"You want to use her for Biological Weaving? Halflings are everywhere. That Spirit Warrior is simply too strong; none of us here can withstand that sword strike. It's unnecessary."

Having said that, he glanced at the ponytail mage.

The first rule of survival at Bahadur Magic Academy: there is always someone stronger.

They had seen countless geniuses; there was always someone stronger appearing, so a direct clash would never be the first choice.

"... A halfling mage of that intensity is rare. The magical pathways within her body and the dissection of her brain would both aid my 'Racial Research.' I wish to try."

She lightly bit her lip, her eyes cast downward, looking pitiful.

Although the words she spoke were brutal.

(End of this chapter)