Ruthless Retaliation
“What gains are you referring to? I can give them up straight away!”
There was a glint in Celine’s eyes...
“This is your final chance! If this happened before the joint conference, I might have given it a thought, but now…”
Gus shook his head and said, “There is no further need for you to stall for time! There has been no Magus who has ever been able to survive after being hit by my Fog Giant’s self-detonation. Even if Leylin manages to survive the blow, he’s probably incapacitated unable to move a single muscle.”
Celine felt complete despair as her last hope was shattered.
“Get on with it!” She closed her eyes and exposed her pale neck.
“Where is Skrill?” Gus asked at the end while he formed a ball of distortion-filled with destructive energy.
“I have no idea. Leylin personally carried out the interrogation!”
“Then you are no longer of use!”
The indifferent Gus released the ball of distortion in his hands.
*Pu!* A layer of a black scaly shield appeared out of nowhere in front of Celine, and it managed to block the explosion from the attack.
After the smoke dissipated, a black-robed Magus had already appeared in front of Celine.
“Leylin!” Gus’ eyes widened in fear as he fearfully uttered the name.
“Tell me! How do you guys want to die?” The corners of Leylin’s lips curled into a vibrant smile.
“Do it!”
Gus’ face flushed red as he shouted.
“Double the amount! Bear in mind that it is double the amount!” The old man with a hawk nose beside him released large amounts of elemental rings, forming a brass ring with mysterious runes on the surface.
While executing this attack, he did not forget to turn back and remind Gus about his remuneration.
Grey mist started to form immediately and the Fog Giant from their previous encounter appeared once again. Unlike the last time, rays of light which resembled starlight started to emerge from every Magus who was present and connected to the body of the giant, making the giant’s aura rise to a frightening level.
The brass ring was thrown around the waist of the giant and it strapped tightly around it in that instant.
“Roar!”
The giant let out a devastating roar. While its lower body was shrinking non-stop, the mist on its upper body started to aggregate once again, and formed a body of muscle with a toughness that was as strong as granite.
“A combination spell!”
Celine, who was behind Leylin, couldn’t help but to let out a sound at the sight. Even her breathing began to get rough.
“The opposing side has two peak rank 1 Magi, along with ten or so Magi elders. Meanwhile, Leylin…”
Celine had no time to process the thoughts in her head before her jaw dropped at the sight.
Silver!
A faint sliver of light started to appear on Leylin’s body.
At this moment, even the air seemed to be frozen. An oppressive pressure could be felt descending onto the battlefield.
“Materialised spiritual force! A rank 2 Magus!”
The hawk-nosed old man made a strange sound. Despite bleeding profusely from his mouth and nose, the old man started to recall his spells, risking recoil in doing so while he retreated in haste.
It was a pity that this was all too late!
A pillar of silver light streaked across the sky and arrived at the top of the old man’s head.
“No!” The old man exclaimed in anger, and an incomplete protection ruin on his neck exploded, resulting in an inferno of crimson flames.
Following that, the old man stopped in his tracks for a moment and nearly fell to the ground.
He had obviously felt the peak elemental spiritual force residing in the flames being instantly destroyed by the silver materialised spiritual force when the two forces collided.
As the spiritual force being manipulated was dispelled, the inferno of crimson flames lost sight of its target and began spreading to the surroundings.
The silver spiritual force soon descended down on its target. It formed a silver cross-shaped sword after having elongated and pierced the old man in the chest.
*Drip! Drip!*
The old man was bleeding profusely and droplets of blood could be seen dripping onto the ground. He tried humming, but no energy particles were triggered.
The solidified spiritual force of a rank 2 Magus far surpassed the spiritual force of an converted Magus in terms of quality. The spiritual force residing inside the old man’s consciousness was no match for the silver spiritual force and was completely locked down with a single hit.
This rationale was very similar to what had happened to Leylin, when he had been confined by the Gargamel on the mountain of white bones.
After Leylin had completely recovered his rank 2 Magus power, even a peak rank 1 Magus was nothing more than a slightly stronger ant in Leylin’s eyes.
“He...! He...! He...!”
The sight had the Magi from the Dense Fog Forest at a loss.
With just one single blow, the peak rank 1 Magus was on the verge of death! They had only heard of this kind of terrifying power in legends.
Gus' face started to turn pale from despair before it finally became a grim.
“Roar!” Under his manipulation, the gigantic Fog Giant ferociously charged in Leylin’s direction.
Leylin started to slowly open an ancient scroll in his hands which was radiating with destructive energy that could be felt in the surroundings.
“Scorching Touch!” A bunch of red powder started to spill out, and two long and narrow energy beams which carried the destructive force of a rank 2 spell shot out from Leylin’s hands. The fog giant was immediately scorched and two large holes were created from the attack.
*Boom!* A large amount of the mist started to dissipate and all the Magi who were connected to the mist giant started to collapse to the ground.
In the blink of an eye, Leylin appeared in front of Gus.
*Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!*
While he was moving, several snow-white ice arrows were abruptly shot out.
*Zoom! Zoom! Zoom! Zoom!*
Confronted with the might of the arrows, the innate defensive spell formations of rank 1 Magi were shredded easily like pieces of paper. The heads of numerous Magi exploded, similar to watermelons exploding.
“You…”
At the sight of this unbearable scenario, even Gus, who was preparing a spell, could not help but feel anger and a sense of despair.
The number of rank 1 Magi that had died constituted almost half of the Dense Fog Forest’s forces. All his efforts to accumulate this power all these years had gone down the drain as he lost 70 to 80% of his forces.
But at this moment, Gus had no time to think about this as Leylin arrived in front of him.
“Protection of Andes!” Gus shouted loudly and a colony of black ants emerged from his face, clothes, shoes and all over his body and formed a peculiar-looking black shield.
“A futile effort!” Leylin looked indifferent and raised his right hand.
A layer of black rays started to gather around his palm and formed a bunch of black scales. “Kemoyin’s Scale! Partial Snake Transformation!”
*Po!*
Leylin’s palms were filled with an enormous amount of energy which penetrated the shield. The colony of ants on the shield let out a shrill sound as they tried to gnaw at the black scales, but it was to no avail.
“Your last resort is just a scroll engraved by a rank 2 Magus? How disappointing!”
The silver ray of light in Leylin’s eyes started to shine brightly, and with his right hand, he grabbed Gus' wrist.
*Pak!* The scroll, which was already triggered halfway, suddenly lost all its luster and revealed its true appearance of what seemed to be a broken piece of goatskin paper as it fell to the ground.
“Do you have any last words?”
Leylin asked Gus as he sealed his spiritual force.
“You will be punished by the joint conference. I swear on that!” Gus’ eyes turned red.
*Pak!* After which, his brain exploded, white brain juices, blood, and fluids spurting everywhere.
“Just this? How pointless! “
Leylin retracted his right hand.
He appeared in front of the hawk-nosed old man and placed his hands on the head of an old man who was on the verge of death.
“Do you choose death or subservience”?
The old man who was bleeding profusely and nearing death struggled to open his mouth. “I… I’m willing to be subservient to you, my lord!”
“Set a pact now and surrender a strand of your spirit source, or else you will end up like the others!”
The tone of Leylin’s voice was very indifferent, and the pile of corpses surrounding him made the old man have no thoughts of defying the order.
“I, Iren, am willing to serve under your command and become your most humble servant! Your future commands shall be my eternal mission!”
Even with his eyes blurred with tears, the old man still struggled to speak.
A fluctuating thread from the abyss was established between the two.
“Very good!” Leylin recalled the silver spiritual force that was restricting the old man.
“My lord!” Iren kneeled down to give his regards, the wounds on his body already beginning to heal on their own.
He had been restricted by Leylin and lost his ability to recover. Once he was freed from the silver spiritual force that was restricting him, there were far too many ways for Magi to heal themselves.
“Please accept your humble servant’s loyalty!” Although he had regained his freedom, the old man Iren had no desire to fight against Leylin as he had been deterred by Leylin’s actions.
With Iren’s words, a glowing spirit source floated out of his forehead and flew to Leylin’s hands.
After losing his spiritual source, Iren’s face turned pale and beads of sweat could be seen dripping down.
Leylin for his part kept the spirit source carefully.
A Magus’ spirit source was very important to them, and if Leylin were to destroy the source in his hands, the old man would suffer a severe blow and might even die straight away. The best-case scenario would be for him to have a mental breakdown.
It could be said that once Leylin had the spirit source, it was akin to him holding the old man’s fate in his hands.
“All good and done!” Leylin clapped his hands.
This kind of one-sided process and astonishing means from Leylin had made it difficult for Celine to process anything.
“My lord! You….” Celine had no idea of what to say.
“Have you … ascended to rank 2?” She said this carefully after deliberating over it for a while.
“Yes!” Leylin happily smiled “The injury I suffered has, instead, made me break through the restraints to my meditation technique and allowed me to rise to the realm of rank 2.”
Celine did not have the courage to continue probing despite knowing it was not the truth.
A rank 2 Magus! This was already a power that belonged to large-scale guilds! Facing this insurmountable gap in power, Celine could only accept whatever Leylin had to say.
“Wake those acolytes up and follow me!”
Leylin pointed to a few of the acolytes who were lying on the ground that included Obo and Ilya.
“Hm? What for?” Celine’s face was filled with doubts.
“Naturally, it will be to retaliate!”
Leylin’s face broke into a cold smile, “Since the opposing party has been so eager to find us, how can we not repay what they have done?”
“But…. The joint conference….”
Celine had only spoken a few words, but she decided to swallow the rest. At this moment, she had no other choice.