Translator: AnubisTL
After a tense moment of staring at each other, David finally broke the suffocating silence.
His voice carried an inexplicable weariness and confusion:
"Why? Sage... why would you do this?"
The man referred to as "Sage" slowly raised his head.
His face was unexpectedly calm, even bearing a hint of detached wisdom.
He gazed steadily at David. "Actually, I never truly surrendered from the beginning."
"I understood that under your wizards' rational governance, the common people of Elosia would indeed live better lives after your occupation. And I admit, I lacked the power to stop your invasion."
"But..." His voice suddenly deepened, becoming resolute. "My dignity would not allow me to simply accept defeat! So, once I confirmed that all the surviving remnants of the Elosia Plane had been completely transformed into citizens of the wizard world... I could finally begin my revenge!"
"However, I'm well aware that with my current power, I have no means of inflicting any real harm on you wizards." A flicker of self-mockery flashed in the sage's eyes. "Therefore, I need... to borrow 'external power'!"
As soon as the words left his lips, a terrifying crimson light began to glow slowly from the ground beneath the sage's feet!
Countless intricate and malevolent runes, writhing like living things, spread outward from his feet.
The light expanded rapidly in all directions, accelerating until it formed an impossibly vast, blood-red magical formation that blanketed the entire island!
"Hahahaha!"
The sage's expression finally twisted into a manic grin.
He threw his arms wide, as if embracing his victory, and roared triumphantly at David and Jieming, "Because of your delay outside, I've completed the final ritual!"
"Now! The ritual has begun! You can no longer... stop it!"
"You! Why are you doing this?! You've actually...!" David's face contorted with shock and disbelief. He pointed at the sage, his voice cracking as he howled, as if unable to accept the brutal reality before him.
Beside him, Jieming watched David's reaction and couldn't help but blink.
Then, a look of mixed anger and fear spread across his own face, as if he too had been completely terrified by this sudden turn of events.
The two "panicked" men rushed forward, seemingly trying to stop the sage.
But they were violently repelled by a transparent energy barrier that rose from the edge of the magical formation.
"It's useless! Give up!"
The sage, standing at the center of the formation, completely ignored the clumsy performance of his two "defeated subordinates."
He closed his eyes and began chanting an ancient and malevolent spell.
He sacrificed all the vast sea of vitality he had collected over the past two years through the pseudo-wizards, offering it without reservation to the massive magical formation beneath his feet.
His sole purpose was to use this formation to open a "Gate of Destruction"—a passage to the nest of some forbidden entity!
As the massive influx of life energy gathered above the island, the space began to distort and fold like boiling water, creating a terrifying spectacle.
David's face was filled with anguish and despair. He pounded on the shield, his voice choked with desperation. "How could you do this...? How dare you?! This... this is truly..."
The sage was about to mock their naive foolishness and relish the thrill of revenge.
But then, he suddenly noticed that David and Jieming's expressions outside the shield had instantly transformed from grief, anger, and fear into... a chilling, mocking smile!
"...This is truly perfect!" David said with a terrifying grin.
Hearing those final three words caused the sage's mind to freeze.
At that moment, the space above them finally shattered completely under the immense energy.
A pitch-black spatial channel, like the gaping maw of an abyss, had been forcibly opened!
The instant the sage saw their eerie smiles, a sense of profound unease surged through him.
But the arrow was already nocked, and he had no choice but to release it.
The ritual had reached its final stage, leaving him no time to dwell on what might be wrong!
From the other side of the dark space vortex came a vast voice, brimming with supreme majesty and tyrannical power.
Accompanying the voice was a terrifying spiritual wave, saturated with the forces of destruction and annihilation.
Even a mere wisp of this spiritual energy caused the entire island to tremble violently.
Within this spiritual wave, a clear and arrogant message resonated in the minds of everyone present:
Hmph... Another fool dares to invoke my name, courting death... Mortal creatures, you truly... disgust me!
The sage forcibly suppressed the sliver of unease in his heart and shouted fervently, "Great Lord of Destruction! Descend upon this decaying world! Annihilate these vile wizards who desecrate life!"
Hearing the sage's initial obsequious flattery, the "Destruction Demon God" on the other side of the space vortex continued to exude an overwhelming aura of superiority.
The oppressive pressure intensified, as if preparing to manifest in the most cataclysmic manner possible.
But when he heard the final word—"wizard," a term all too familiar to him—his boundless, sea-like spiritual energy suddenly... faltered.
It was like a high-speed engine grinding to a halt as its gears jammed.
A moment of silence hung in the air.
The Destruction Demon God's spiritual fluctuations pulsed twice with shocking intensity, as if it couldn't believe what it had just "heard."
Then, a roar ten times more terrifying than its previous majestic voice erupted from the other side of the vortex, filled with terror and fury: "Wizard?! Are you trying to kill me?!"
What followed left the sage dumbfounded.
The once-arrogant Destruction Demon God abruptly retracted all its spiritual fluctuations at a speed countless times faster than its arrival.
Simultaneously, the painstakingly opened space vortex above began to shrink and collapse with alarming instability.
The demon god didn't even have time to utter any threats, as if terrified of being contaminated by some unspeakable filth in the next instant.
The sage couldn't help but feel dazed by the demon god's desperate retreat.
Yet, just as the black space vortex was about to rapidly shrink and completely close,
Two hands.
Two seemingly ordinary human hands, yet bearing the weight of an entire plane, materialized abruptly on either side of the vortex.
Though one was a physical hand and the other a phantom spatial gate, at that moment, they made contact with a tangible force, like steel clashing against steel!
And with just a single, forceful outward push from those hands...
Buzz—!
Accompanied by a massive spatial resonance that nearly shattered the fabric of reality, those hands, with such a simple motion, forcibly stabilized the collapsing space vortex!
Under the sage's gaze, which shifted from shock to bewilderment to utter despair, and David and Jieming's mocking, half-smiling eyes, brimming with condescending amusement, a figure clad in a plain black wizard's robe abruptly materialized beside the dark vortex.
With his bare hands, he was forcibly holding open the phantom spatial channel leading to another world!
Judging by the emblem on his robe—a badge glittering with seven radiant stars...
This man was actually a... seventh-tier wizard!
(End of the Chapter)
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