Rumble!
Within the headquarters of the Four Seasons Garden at the Eternal River Plain's secret plane, immense energy waves from exploding spells could be felt everywhere. Mixed within those terrifying sounds were the miserable cries of the dying and the maniacal laughter of the invaders.
The dark Magi's attack, this time, was incredibly fierce. They had quickly carved their way straight to the center of the headquarters, throwing myriads of explosive spells into the surroundings without a care for the infrastructure.
The Magi in black cloaks were freely venting their darkest desires, and some Light Magi could be seen bursting into violent, uncontrollable flames. The flames engulfed the area, rapidly turning the prosperous and busy trading center into a roaring sea of fire.
The official Magi of the Four Seasons Garden were doing their utmost to hold back the dark horde while desperately awaiting support from their superiors. Meanwhile, the independent Magi who had chosen no sides in the conflict were mostly standing around the fringes to look on without lifting a finger.
Only a small handful who were on exceptionally good terms with the Four Seasons Garden chose to participate in the defense. Magi were a notoriously cold and calculating bunch; seeing that the dark and light factions were participating in a large-scale battle of attrition, most of the Magi present chose to look after their own hides and quietly observe.
This was obviously the case for the acolytes as well. While official Magi were fighting, the apprentices did not even have the chance to intervene. Usually, just a single stray wave of residual magic from an official Magus could cause a large number of acolyte deaths.
The entire battlefield revolved around two distant behemoths, the Rank 2 Magi whose battle shook the secret plane with unbelievable force. Those elemental clashes and the sheer aftershocks of their spells were more than enough to instill absolute horror into all the Magi watching them.
The battle at the Merit Point Exchange Hall was by far the most intense, with various spells and volatile energies flying all over the place.
Within the shattered rubble, Magi of the defense squad clad in the white robes of the Four Seasons Garden and Magi in the black robes of the Thousand Meddling Hands were now completely tangled together in a bloody melee.
All sorts of pieces and fragments of discarded resources, rare ingredients, and broken artifacts were strewn all over the ground.
There was even a high-grade intellectual crystal ball that had been carelessly discarded in a corner within the debris, flickering with dying magical light.
Shua!
Suddenly, a black streak moved from far away with unbelievable speed, slicing through the smoke and reaching the merit point exchange point in the blink of an eye.
The ground shook with a resounding force as a massive kinetic shockwave blasted outward, throwing a few Magi who were fighting close by onto their backs.
As the shockwave settled and the thick black smoke whooshed out, a new group of figures emerged.
They wore the distinctive robes of the Astral Requiem, flanked by heavily armored knights. At the lead stood Leylin Farlier. He possessed a terrifyingly calm demeanor, his handsome features completely unbothered by the chaos around him, his ruby-colored eyes reflecting the dancing flames with a cold, detached amusement.
Directly behind him stood Lancey, her face concealed beneath the stylized, imposing lines of the Virago Mask, the identity she famously used as a ruthless dark Magus within the Thousand Meddling Hands.
Beside her were a few other Requiem Magi donning bone-white skull masks, while Anna, Greem, Dexter, and Faisal stood directly behind them like loyal, unyielding servants.
Beside them stood Ivy, clad in her sleek silver armor, but her eyes had completely changed, now glowing with a predatory, luminous yellow tint.
"Hm? The courage of these cubs is admirable," Leylin murmured.
From the corner of his eyes, Leylin discovered a few hidden black figures crouching behind the collapsed pillars, their leaking energy waves clearly belonged to acolytes.
They had to be incredibly reckless to even think of scavenging in a battle between official Magi. These figures lay in wait at the sidelines of the meatgrinder, their greedy little eyes fixated entirely on the precious items strewn all over the ground.
Even if they were to pay with their lives for this gamble, there was no guarantee they would ever be able to obtain such rare resources in their lifetimes.
Taking advantage of the chaotic situation, a few of the more daring acolytes actually crept forward, having designs on the items.
Rumble!
An icy blue ray of light dispersed from a nearby clash, and the remaining wave of energy accidentally clipped one of the scavenging acolytes.
The boy didn't even have the chance to make a sound before he turned into a solid ice statue amidst the blue light, tipping over and shattering into frozen dust.
Such a miserable scene instantly scared away a large number of the hovering acolytes, who fled into the smoke.
There were, however, a few exceptionally lucky acolytes who successfully managed to slip away from the battlefield after retrieving a few resource pouches and ingredients.
Though the official Magi present had discovered their presence, they couldn't be bothered to waste magic on existences that were as unremarkable as ants.
Making use of the Magi's logical reasoning, these acolytes betted their lives and struggled toward this hint of an opportunity, despite knowing that if any passing official Magus found them to be an eyesore, they would immediately lose their lives.
Leylin strode forth at a measured, elegant pace, walking directly into the heart of the crossfire.
"It's Virago!!" one of the Thousand Meddling Hands' Magi present gasped, his eyes widening as he recognized the masked figure walking a step behind Leylin.
Amidst the dark faction, a huge, mutated Magus with rodent-like features quickly tore his claws out of his opponent. He scurried over, bowing his head in deep reverence toward Lancey while casting a cautious, sweating glance at Leylin, who didn't even spare him a look.
"It's actually Lord Virago! It's been a long time!" The huge rodent-man possessed green eyes the size of longan fruits, and he looked ready to bootlick at any given moment to secure his safety.
"Who is that man?" the opposing Four Seasons Garden Magi asked in deep suspicion, their defenses raising as they failed to recognize Leylin or the core members behind him.
"I know the woman behind that man! She is Virago from the Thousand Meddling Hands!" another old Light Magus shouted, his eyes revealing an unspeakable fear as he stared hard at the mask.
"It's said that her crimes are insane! In just the short span of a year, she has already committed multiple major atrocities and has been labeled as a notorious criminal on the highest wanted list!"
"Those robes... those knights... they are the new emerging force, the Astral Requiem!"
"But they have always stayed strictly neutral! Have they colluded with the Dark Magi organizations?!"
"Damn it! There was already the Thousand Meddling Hands, and now the Astral Requiem too? It's going to be impossible to hold them back!"
Leylin merely laughed gently, listening to the frantic conversations of the combatants as he approached.
Seeing his absolute confidence, even the dark Magi of the Thousand Meddling Hands backed off, naturally wary of a man who could command the notorious Virago as a mere follower.
"It is such a crowded place," Leylin spoke casually, his voice cutting through the crackle of the flames. "It has been a while since I have been in such a lively crowd."
He stopped, his ruby eyes scanning the entire hall. "Well, since the Astral Requiem is currently conducting official business here, everyone present is requested to vacate the premises immediately, lest any unfortunate misfortune befalls you."
"Are you crazy!?"
Hearing Leylin actually dare to threaten an entire gathered group of Magi, even a few of the dark Magi from the Thousand Meddling Hands thought him to be completely insane.
However, a few individuals with highly refined intuition felt their scalps go numb, instinctively taking several steps backward into the shadows.
"Once Lord Reynold returns, the whole lot of you insane dark Magi will… ugh…"
The Light Magus who cursed Leylin stood out from the rubble, speaking with righteous fury. However, shortly after the words left his mouth, a translucent, silver flash seemed to completely travel through space, appearing directly in front of his face.
It was Ivy. She had fully activated her newly stabilized bloodline, her blade already unsheathed. Extending her sword, which shone with a malevolent, phantom-like light, she cut directly toward his neck.
Ka-cha!
A piercing, metallic shattering sound was produced. The Light Magus's innate defense formation was destroyed to pieces in less than a second under the sheer armor-piercing kinetic force of her strike.
Before he could even blink, the blade directly slashed through the Magus's unprotected flesh. The body was cleanly ripped into two pieces, and a torrent of flesh and blood flew everywhere, painting the rubble crimson.
Upon having seen Ivy kill an official Magus in a single blow, everyone present, light and dark alike couldn't help but be thoroughly shocked.
Currently, Ivy's entire body looked like a translucent, shifting spirit. She possessed eyes like a hunting hawk, and even the official Magi present couldn't properly locate her aura; it was as if she were an inanimate object completely devoid of spiritual force, or perhaps just a cruel mirage.
This was the power of the Pala Nighthawk bloodline that Ivy had successfully awakened, marking her ascension as a true, stabilized Bloodline Knight.
The ancient Pala Nighthawk possessed unparalleled eyesight, specialized absolute stealth, illusion-casting abilities, and a terrifyingly sharp fighting intuition. Ivy was now a perfectly trained, lethal assassin.
Lancey, hidden safely behind her Virago mask, looked at Ivy's sudden display of speed with genuine surprise. She subtly utilized her specialized internal mini-chip to run a diagnostic scan on the girl.
[Target Scan: Ivy Langster. Bloodline Knight (Pala Nighthawk.) Age: 15 | State: Healthy. Strength: 19.9 | Agility: 25.5 | Vitality: 31.3 | Spiritual Force: ??. Innate Spells Detected: Advanced Stealth, Mirror Illusion, Bloodline Berserk]
"Togo! She actually killed Togo!" a female Four Seasons Garden Magus screamed. She looked at the bifurcated corpse of her comrade, her mind snapping into absolute disbelief and rage. "I'll kill you!"
With a crazed look upon her face, her body was suddenly wrapped up in a blinding bundle of milky-white light.
Ka-cha!
Under the violent shroud of light, her robes split apart, revealing the curvy, athletic body of a young woman. At the same time, layers of clean, pristine white feathers sprouted rapidly from her back, eventually expanding and forming a pair of large, majestic white wings.
"The Holy Form! Looks like she's going to go all out!" the surrounding Magi whispered in surprise, their expressions varying wildly.
Some chose to immediately retreat, while other light Magi rushed in from the sidelines, reinforcing their ranks and completely surrounding Leylin and his group.
"Holy Judgment!"
As if a vengeful angel had descended upon the ruined hall, the female Magus's face shone with a blinding, righteous radiance. Her eyes turned a pure, solid gold as she pointed her glowing hand straight at Ivy, who merely looked back at her with the cold, unblinking glare of a hawk.
Light! Pure, concentrated holy light materialized into a massive knight's lance, accompanied by an eerie, echoing holy chorus that manifested in the background. Along with a huge spurt of volatile energy, the lance charged directly toward Ivy!
"Kill them! Let's kill them all!"
Immediately after the lance was thrown, the surrounding Light Magi unleashed their best spells. Colorful, destructive magic rays rushed toward Leylin's group like a tidal wave, threatening to swallow them whole.
In the face of such a coordinated attack, the dark Magi of the Thousand Meddling Hands instantly scattered, fleeing the center of the hall to hide themselves away.
"Such a pity," Leylin said softly, shaking his head.
He didn't even lift a hand. He merely tapped his foot against the stone floor, releasing his true Rank 2 power for the first time on this battlefield.
"Rank 2 Spell: Shadow Domain."
A pitch-black, abyssal shadow emerged from under his feet, rapidly expanding into a dense, towering black sphere that crazily spread to the surroundings, swallowing the hall whole.
Within the boundary of this sphere, all light, sound, movement, and elemental energy completely stopped, as if reality itself had been overwritten by nothingness.
When the black sphere snapped out of existence a mere second later, the wave of colorful light spells was gone. Dozens of the surrounding Light Magi lay flat on the ground, turned into headless, cold corpses. In a single, casual instant, Leylin had entirely wiped out a small army of official Magi.
He stood in the center of the carnage, his face expressionless as he called upon Soulbound Devourer quietly feast on the escaping souls of the dead, ignoring the cowering, trembling Dark Magi who were left standing.
"This... This power...?"
"I have heard of him! He must be the Eternal Nightmare of the Astral Requiem... a rumored Rank 2 Magus!!"
"Ra—Rank 2?!" the remaining dark Magi gasped, their knees knocking together in sheer terror.
"Lord Virago! We respect your organization deeply! Please, let us follow this esteemed Master!" some of the smarter dark Magi immediately shouted, completely changing their tone.
Those who had once worked alongside Lancey practically begged, hoping to find a way out alive. They knew that if the news of a neutral force's Rank 2 Magus slaughtering light factions broke out, it would be a diplomatic headache, and a Rank 2 Magus might choose to silence all witnesses.
Their only hope of survival was to attach themselves to the Astral Requiem right now.
"Deal with them. I am going inside," Leylin said coldly, not sparing them a single glance as he strode forward into the depths of the Merit Exchange Hall.
"Understood," Lancey replied from behind her mask.
With a flick of her wrist, she unleashed a massive, churning wave of pressurized water spells, cutting off the dark Magi's escape routes.
Beside her, Anna drew her signature dual daggers, a sharp, heavy metallic scent wafting from her armor as her physical aura exploded.
Greem, Dexter, Faisal with the rest of masked magi, drew their runic weapons with a heavy roar, throwing themselves into the terrified dark Magi.
Ivy's figure completely dissolved into the shadows, disappearing from sight only to reappear behind a screaming dark Magus, her blade flashing in the chaotic, blood-drenched field.