Chapter 363: Unexpected (2)
Translator: Leo Editor: Frappe
Mud and grass leaves were blown into the air along with the mangled, bloodied pieces of flesh of the corpses. Nico’s vision was blocked by the pieces of rocks that were blown.
Everything splattered everywhere like raindrops. After a few moments’ time as it fell to the ground, everything returned to normal again. The gigantic hand and the black clouds had dispersed so quick that it almost seemed to have never been there.
The sky regained its clarity and sunlight shined upon the land once more.
A gigantic handprint was all that was left at the original location of the small hill. Everything within the scope of that hand had all been completely flattened.
From carriages, soldiers, warhorses, war banners, and the three wizards—all of them had disappeared.
*Crack*
A crisp sound echoed in the sky.
The diamond-shaped crystal shattered into fragments and disappeared into the wind as it seemed to have been ground into white powder.
Nico stilled for a second and glanced around, then she raised her hand.
"Surrender to me!"
"Surrender to me!" Her voice echoed throughout the battlefield.
****************************
Inside the stone room, the atmosphere finally regained its former form.
Angele took a deep breath and watched as the white circle vanished from the table.
Morrian, Seth, and Milan’s hands separated from each other’s and put it down at the same time.
"It is finished." Milan sighed in relief. "Are you all right, Seth?"
Seth’s face had turned pale as he seemed to have spent too much mentality.
"I’m fine. That strike has already decided the outcome of the battle. Problem solved. I will recover if you let me eat some of that worm meat." He looked at Angele, his eyes blinking.
Angele only shrugged, though he felt a tad speechless.
He had finally discovered just how powerful magic circle legacies were after seeing the three’s combined might.
Vivian’s magic circle legacy was the gravitational magic circle which had almost been destroyed due to Henn’s schemes. At that time, Angele never thought about it too much when Henn asked him to destroy the circle. However, seeing the effect of the circle that increased wizard’s power to a completely different league—
It was an eye-opening experience.
"Angele, have you ever seen Master Vivian’s gravitational circle? It draws power upon the earth and greatly increases the damage output of her spells. With the incredible range of her spells, she can easily destroy everything within an area with a diameter of several kilometers. And, she has more than enough mentality to cast several spells successively. Armies will be wiped out within seconds. Wizards of lower ranks stand not a single chance against her might. Master Vivian had once destroyed a legion of more than 100,000 soldiers with the help of the gravitational circle," Morrian gleefully explained. Compared to the one used on Earth, a ‘kilometer’ of the wizard world was a bit farther.
"Is that so?" Angele inhaled sharply but calmed down after. He finally understood how powerful organizations could keep winning wars waged with their enemies.
The magic circle legacies were the only ones assisting organizations in building their dominance. It was nigh impossible for average members of organizations to overthrow the rule of the people high up the hierarchy. That was most likely the reason major organizations could last for hundreds of years in the central continent.
"All right, we need to rest now. Angele, you can do whatever you want." Morrian knew Angele was in shock. He ended the conversation with this and closed his eyes and began his recovery, like what Seth and Milan were doing at the moment.
Angele stood up, bowing to the three wizards, and stepped out of the room.
The door closed as he re-entered the red tunnel. The temperature within the tunnel high, albeit tolerable, and the only one producing noise was the lava underground.
Angele was still pondering about the battle he had just witnessed and the words Morrian had said.
‘Magic circle legacy, it makes a huge difference. I’m lucky that the wizards I have fought did not possess such power…’
He cleaned the dust off his long robe before he headed straight to the dormitory area.
There were only four people in the ruins at present. Vivian was currently fighting on the frontlines. There were several skirmishes and battles happening. Furthermore, she had to command the army and deal with the Black Earth organization. She would not have much time before everything was solved.
Angele climbed up the ladder and returned to his old room, closing it after he entered.
He needed to make plans for his future.
Angele seated down at the desk and took out an empty leather scroll. He grabbed a quill and dipped it into the ink bottle sitting on one side of the desk.
He pressed it on the paper and inked a black dot on it.
‘This is me, so—’ He drew a line on the left side of the dot and started jotting down a few words. ‘—Henn and the Shadow Lord’s palace. I will need more time on that.’
He then drew another line beside the dot and wrote a few by the end of it. ‘Dark Wizard Tower, Black Earth, and Elemental Hand’s war. I need to pay more attention to them.’
‘Nightmare Realm’ was used to label the third line he drew.
Angele put the quill down and began thinking.
The majority knew he was the one and only son of Elemental Hand’s third elder and was grounded due to the incident with the heir of Black Earth.
However, people had not had the slightest idea that he was one of the elite members of Dark Wizard Tower and had already built a fortress in the Nightmare Realm. He was being tracked down by the Shadow Lord because of Henn, who was inhabiting his body. From another perspective, perhaps without Henn, his life should be much more easygoing.
Angele had already known that the Shadow Lord would find him sooner or later as long as he continued to stay in the main world.
It was highly plausible for high-rank prophets to exist in the forces of the Shadow Lord’s palace. Prophets would cast tracking spells once they discovered any trace he had left behind. A formidable prophet only required a small amount of information of the target, and the process would be even easier if their target was a low-rank wizard.
‘I did the right thing at the Abyss Canyon. I should be fine if I just stay in the organization’s territory.’ Angele recalled the events that had happened recently and calmed down.
Angele desired to slow down his progression and take his time exploring other areas in the Nightmare Realm temporarily. He could collect more bloodlines for his research, too, but this plan of his had been disrupted by Henn.
*CHI*
Angele picked up the paper and burnt it to ashes using fire energy particles, and threw the remains into the garbage bin on one side.
He stood up and placed his right hand on the musical note in the middle of his chest.
Red light flashed in the air. Angele disappeared from the room.
******************************
The Nightmare Realm. A black shadow slowly emerged at the empty ground beside the Ness River.
The bright sunlight shined upon the man’s long hair, reflecting the color of fresh blood.
"It’s still close, a difference of ten meters is acceptable." Angele nodded.
Angele looked at the mansion. A gentle smile appeared on his face.
He promptly headed to the mansion, where a girl jumped into his arms right after he stepped into the barrier surrounding it.
"Green! Where did you go? You have been gone for so long this time." Freia tightly hugged Angele. "I won’t forgive you if you did not bring me any tasty snacks."
"Of course. Come here, cute girl. I have something good this time." Angele took out a small bottle from his sleeves. This bottle was sealed with a wooden stopper and was filled with colorful candies. He shook the bottle before giving it to Freia.
The girl was wearing a black dress and a pair of silk tights. With the white coat and white hat, Freia looked like a girl from a random noble family.
The only thing missing was a laced sunshade.
Angele rubbed Freia’s soft cheeks. Her skin was cold and elastic; it felt like tapping on the surface of a fruit jelly.
"There is nothing to do here, right?" Angele walked into the main building, whereas Freia wrapped her arms around his neck and hung on his body like a koala.
"Yeah, I spend most of my time taking care of the flowers and reading books," Freia replied, "I can’t even step out of the shield."
"Come on, you are too old for this." Angele lowered his head to let Freia land on the ground safely. Raising his hand, he then summoned Phoenix.
"Go play with Phoenix." Angele carefully threw Phoenix into the air.
The bird landed exactly right on Freia’s hat. She screamed and tried to drive it away, but Phoenix never did move.
Angele slightly shook his head then went into the living room. He had finally discovered a way to send himself back to the mansion even when he was at other areas in the main world.
He sat down on the sofa and started skimming through the messages from the communication runes.
His progression speed was similar to that of average wizards. There was not much the chip could do for him. He needed more time to master the fourth stage.
The only difference between him and average wizards was, he had a chip that could aid him whenever he reached a bottleneck.
Suddenly, Angele’s face tightened as one communication rune that looked like a black swan faded from one of his thumbs.
"Cruise, you are the head of the Human Resources Department." He had been working with Cruise for years, so they knew each other quite well.
However, if the communication rune faded away…
Angele quickly tapped on the black swan.
A black light dot left the nail and landed on the table in front of him, turning into a black leather paper with a short message written on it.
‘Dear Master Angele, please head to Mermaid’s Song and attend Department Head Cruise’s funeral on the 20th day of October. Cruise made an attempt to advance to rank 3 on the 13th day of July, but he failed and passed away.’
Angele himself knew many wizards had stopped making any further progress upon reaching rank 2. Some had already completely depleted their potential, while some were just too old already to progress. However, the biggest problem they were facing was in training in advanced meditation techniques unsuitable for them. They had wasted their time and resources to train in the techniques that were not most suitable for them. Many wizards were either severely injured or killed when attempting to advance to the next rank every time.
However, Angele had not expected Cruise to experience the same thing and end his life this way. They had worked together for ten years already, so this news was depressing.
There was also a message sent by Rock. It said that he failed to advance as well and his body had been permanently damaged. Thus, he had given up his life as a wizard and decided to return to his hometown. Rock had only informed his friends about his situation before leaving.
He, Mincola, and Angele joined Elemental Hand together, yet his journey had now ended.
Angele sighed with mixed emotions. He deactivated the communication runes after checking the messages.
Luckily, he had the biochip that could calculate the success rate for him. It could also build a plan for Angele to help himself improve. Angele’s talent level was below average. It would have been hard for him to reach rank 2 if not for the biochip.