One of the ley lines had erupted.

Two out of the five—right on the edge of the predetermined deadlock point.

“Are you sure about what you saw?”

“I wish that massive blue pillar shooting into the sky had been something else,” Valentina replied grimly.

Derrick’s expression darkened further at her words.

In the end, what they had feared had come to pass.

“We don’t have time to be standing around. If that area gets breached too, there really won’t be any hope left.”

The only silver lining was that even though two ley lines had already been destroyed, the Kasarr Basin was still intact—for now.

But that wouldn’t last long.

Already, they could feel the mana in the air becoming unstable.

It meant the energy within was nearing its limit.

If things continued, the ley lines underground might begin entangling with each other, triggering a massive eruption.

Which direction did it blow from? The New Mage Tower? Or the School Alliance’s route?

There was no turning back now.

Even as he hoped the teams in those areas were still alive, Ludger knew they had to keep moving forward.

Derrick knew it too, and shouted with a firm voice.

“Everyone, move out! We still have a chance!”

His cry snapped some of the mages out of their despair.

But only some—it was still just a fraction.

“It’s over. We’re already too late.”

“Two ley lines are already down... how could we possibly...”

Despair, fear of death, and resignation swallowed them.

Derrick bit his lip at the sight.

He was about to push forward with whoever could still move when the mages of the Old Mage Tower began acting strangely.

“We’re leaving!”

The voice of Gregoryum Solute, the Old Mage Tower’s field commander, rang out loud and clear.

Valentina’s eyes widened, and she strode toward him with a stormy expression.

“Magician Gregoryum. What do you think you’re doing?”

“What does it look like? Retreating, obviously.”

“What did you say?”

“Don’t you get it? A ley line just blew. The second one! You know what that means, don’t you? This expedition is effectively a failure. It’s hopeless!”

“Hopeless? We just have to stop them over there!”

“And if we stop them there, what about the others? What about the rest?”

Gregoryum had already made up his mind.

With one ley line already destroyed, the others could fall in an instant.

Better to abandon this operation and think of another way.

“We never should’ve trusted those New Tower and School Alliance bastards in the first place! This all happened because they couldn’t do their jobs! Why the hell should we be the ones risking our necks?”

“If you want to live, you have to fight!”

“Ha! You think fighting those lunatics is going to leave us with our lives intact?”

“But if the Kasarr Basin collapses—”

“We’ll use the ley line beneath the forward base. That one’s got the largest core of the five. Even if the others fall, that one will hold. If we channel its power into a spell circle and barrier, we can survive.”

Valentina’s eyes blazed.

“‘We’? And what about the people outside the basin?”

“Why should we care about them?”

For a moment, Valentina was speechless.

She hadn’t expected to hear something so brazen so plainly.

Her voice trembled as she asked,

“Do you people have no honor?”

“Honor? That’s for clumsy brutes like you who live with a sword in hand. Lady Knight. Why should we risk our lives for people we’ve never even met?”

Gregoryum’s mind worked fast—at least when it came to saving his own skin.

He had already devised a way to protect his faction, even if the entire basin went down.

Rather than betting on some uncertain ⊛ Nоvеlιght ⊛ (Read the full story) chance of saving everyone, he was putting everything on saving himself.

Naturally, the mages of the Old Mage Tower agreed with him.

They didn’t want to die here either.

“This... this is insane...”

Out of the hundred people here, the Old Mage Tower made up a massive portion.

They were the main force, after all, with the rest being free-contract mages and knights acting as support.

If the core force of the Old Mage Tower backed out, it would be like losing more than half their strength.

Even if fifty remained, they were all from different factions—not a coordinated team.

In practice, that meant more than seventy percent of their effective strength was gone.

Valentina bit her lip.

She had no time to argue with Gregoryum and the Old Tower.

Gregoryum knew that, and that’s why he was pushing it now.

For someone like Valentina, who had always drawn her sword in the name of justice, Gregoryum’s decision was an unforgivable betrayal.

She wanted to draw her sword and strike him down right now.

“Enough.”

Ludger stepped forward and gently stopped her.

With just a single word, Valentina realized how close she’d come to making an irreversible mistake.

She felt embarrassed—and at the same time, a glimmer of hope.

Because to her, Ludger Cherish was the most competent mage present.

If anyone could persuade the Old Tower, it might be him.

With that faint hope in her eyes, she watched.

Ludger looked at Gregoryum and spoke in a cold, flat voice.

“If you’re leaving, then go. Don’t foul the water here. We’re continuing the mission.”

“...Hmph. Playing the righteous hero, are you? Too bad. Heading that way now is no different from marching to your death.”

“We’ll see about that.”

“You think you can stop them without us?”

“What, are you suggesting we run away with you instead? You might pretend otherwise, but it sounds like you’re aware of how selfish you’re being. Wanting to share the guilt tells me you’re at least that self-aware.”

“You’re really going to refuse the chance I’m offering?”

“Opportunity? You don’t give us opportunities. We give them to you. And the Old Tower already threw that away.”

Gregoryum bristled at Ludger’s sharp tone.

The truth was, they could have simply withdrawn quietly.

But Gregoryum insisted on making a scene—keeping up this gloomy, pessimistic act.

It was nothing but petty emotion.

He and his people were bothered by Ludger and Derrick’s leadership and bravery.

The way they remained firm only made Gregoryum and the others look more cowardly by contrast.

This little exchange was nothing more than his childish attempt to salvage wounded pride.

Ludger saw through it all and didn’t even get angry.

“Get lost. Go curl up inside the base and hide. I won’t stop you. But when everything ends safely, you’d better be prepared to take full responsibility.”

“...”

Ludger’s words didn’t sound like a threat.

They sounded like a certainty—as if the outcome was already decided.

It shouldn’t have, but that conviction made it feel real.

“...You’ll regret this.”

Gregoryum’s face twisted as he turned away.

The mages of the Old Tower followed him down the path they’d come.

Some looked conflicted, their eyes wavering—but none had the courage to stay behind.

Ludger watched them go and let out a quiet sigh.

The Truth School had done the same thing in the past—and because of that, Rimle had lost her daughter.

Selfishness had led to tragedy.

Ludger had never agreed with Rimle’s actions.

But now, after seeing this, he could begin to understand what she must’ve felt.

“...But is there really a way?”

Valentina, still glaring at the retreating mages, turned and asked Ludger.

Maybe she had caught a spark of hope in the certainty of his tone.

Ludger shook his head.

“There’s no way. All we can do is stop them with everything we’ve got.”

“What? Then why say all that...”

“If I didn’t say it that way, they wouldn’t feel even a shred of guilt.”

At Ludger’s honest words, Valentina blinked—then let out a small laugh.

“I see... Ah, I’m sorry. I forgot to introduce myself. I’m Valentina.”

“Ludger Cherish.”

“It’s fate that we met, but there’s no time for talk.”

“No.”

Together, they turned their eyes to where the explosions were erupting.

Without needing to say another word, they spoke in unison.

“Let’s go.”

* * *

The remaining people were shaken—but none of them said they would run.

Deep down, they all understood.

There was no guarantee they’d survive even if they fled.

Which meant they had no choice but to cling to the slim possibility and fight until the end.

The fifty remaining individuals squeezed out what strength they had left and headed for the source of the explosion—the presumed core of the ley line.

Soon, the dense forest opened up to reveal a sheer cliff.

Beyond it, the breathtaking view of the Kasarr Basin spread out before them.

And atop that cliff, people were moving busily.

The Black Dawn Society was hard at work destroying the ley line.

“They’re here!”

“Stop them!”

The Black Dawn cried out—but it was Ludger’s group who struck first.

They had prepared their spells in advance, and the moment they spotted the Black Dawn, they launched their attacks without hesitation.

Magic woven from stored mana shot forward with blazing speed.

At the same time, a glowing wall of mana rose before the Black Dawn’s front line.

They had also prepared in advance, anticipating this kind of engagement.

But the attacking side had greater numbers.

The magic barrier held off a few of the spells—but no more than that. It collapsed shortly after.

Spells broke through and tore through the enemy ranks.

Screams rang out, and one by one, Black Dawn mages fell.

“Knights! Forward! Cut down those despicable wretches!”

Valentina and the knights surged forward like arrows loosed from a bow.

Charging across open ground without cover was suicidal under normal conditions—but the enemy’s formation had already collapsed from the surprise assault.

Backed by their supporting mages, the knights closed the distance to the Black Dawn mages in seconds.

The Black Dawn tried to respond, but the spells they fired were easily blocked by the mages covering the knights from behind.

“Fall back!”

A Second Order stepped forward.

As he swung his staff and summoned mana, a massive wall of earth rose before the knights.

It was high—packed with rocks and dirt—too tall to leap over easily.

“Tch! This crap—!”

Valentina, a high-ranking knight, slashed once with her sword, and part of the barrier collapsed.

The Second Order’s face went pale.

Through the opening, the knights surged in, cutting down the Black Dawn mages at close range.

A knight getting that close to a mage? That was effectively game over.

As Valentina slashed through the enemies around her, she suddenly sensed a massive flow of mana headed her way.

It was a high-level spell—one even a knight like her couldn’t withstand head-on.

Too late...!

It was too late to dodge, so she began drawing every ounce of aura she had into her sword.

Just then, Derrick Olson stepped in.

A 4th-circle defensive spell—[Magic Protect].

It was one of the most reliable forms of magical defense.

But it was designed to block lower-tier spells. Against something high-powered—especially with a significant difference in strength—it wouldn’t be enough.

CHANG!

The spell shattered under the overwhelming force of the incoming magic.

But in that brief moment of contact, Valentina gained just enough time to respond.

She channeled her aura into her sword, compressing it into the thinnest edge she could, and swung vertically.

The oncoming magic split left and right, then exploded.

Valentina’s expression tightened.

Even after cutting through the weakened spell, the impact was immense.

Her trained body trembled.

Which meant whoever had cast that spell wasn’t ordinary.

At that moment, someone slowly descended from the sky and revealed himself.

“So, you’ve made it all the way here after all.”

His hair was a pale silver-gray, neatly combed back. A short gray beard framed his jaw. A man in late middle age, with cold, steel-like eyes that stared at them with icy detachment.

Derrick’s eyes widened in shock the moment he recognized him.

“Velkat Benmark? You... you’re alive?”

Velkat Benmark.

A former war mage of the Delica Kingdom and one of those who had ventured into the Mansion of Secrets.

He had been presumed dead—one of the fallen who hadn’t made it out.

The truth hit Derrick like a hammer: the man they thought dead was alive—and he was one of the masterminds behind all this.

Ludger, who had just arrived at the scene, felt the same shock.

“I saw him dead with my own eyes...”

It had been Ludger’s group that had discovered the body.

Velkat turned toward him, having overheard the mutter.

“Why assume that? You didn’t see me die—you only saw a corpse. Was that corpse really me?”

“...”

Ludger’s mind flashed back to the moment they’d found Velkat’s supposed body.

The face had been too disfigured to identify.

They had only assumed it was Velkat based on the clothing and belongings found on the body.

But now he asked himself—who had been the first to say that corpse was Velkat?

Rimle.

It hit Ludger in that moment—the body had been a decoy, a planted fake.

They’d staged it from the beginning.

“...It was all planned. You set it up to remove yourself from suspicion.”

“Nothing makes moving easier than being dead.”

It wasn’t that someone had impersonated Velkat as "Lesley."

Lesley—the fiancé of Isabella—had never even been here to begin with.

It had always been Velkat.

“Let me reintroduce myself. I am Velkat Benmark. Formerly of the Truth School and war mage of the Delica Kingdom.”

He unleashed his mana.

Officially, he was known as a 5th-circle mage.

But the power now radiating from him was far beyond that.

Even being conservative, he was at least 6th-circle.

That meant he had reached Lexuror level—one of the rare few mages in any nation to do so.

“And now, I am an executive of the secret society—codename: [Lesley].”