Sempas took a deep breath.

It was a long-held habit of his to calm himself before a tough fight—but this time, he had to breathe differently.

Toxic air hung thick around him, the acrid fumes clawing at his lungs.

He stared straight ahead.

A man stood there, glaring at him with unwavering focus.

“Amar Chubaka.”

A black mage from a southern jungle tribe.

Though his magical rank was low, he combined tribal shamanism and curses with standard magic in unique, dangerous ways.

And now, he was a traitor—one who had turned against the mages of the New Mage Tower.

“Never expected a collaborator would still be among us.”

Sempas looked at the overflowing leyline behind Amar, unable to hide his frustration.

His team had successfully navigated past enemy traps and arrived at the leyline site without losses.

There, they discovered remnants of the Black Dawn Society attempting to exploit the leyline—and moved to engage.

But in that moment, Amar Chubaka revealed his true colors.

Just as everyone’s focus was drawn to the Black Dawn members, Amar cast his spell.

Poison, rot, and large-scale curses.

Several mages foamed at the mouth and collapsed before they could react.

Even those farther away who managed to respond were still poisoned.

‘Was it a mistake to let my guard down just because he was a survivor from the mansion?’

He should never have trusted anyone but himself.

And at the most critical moment, he’d made the biggest mistake.

The result: the leyline before him now lay in ruin.

‘The only relief is that the other two sites are still intact.’

Roina and Arfa had gone to one. Ludger to the other.

If anyone could stop this disaster, it was them.

But worst-case scenarios had to be considered.

What if things hadn’t gone wrong here alone?

‘This site is lost. That means I should head out and support the others—’

But he couldn’t—not with an enemy standing right in front of him.

Amar Chubaka, having exposed his betrayal, clearly intended to eliminate all witnesses.

And with Amar being the source of the poison magic, defeating him was the only way to create an antidote.

There was only one path forward.

“Amar. I’ve been meaning to take you on for a while now.”

“Enough bluffing.”

Amar glared at Sempas with eyes so white they showed no pupils.

“You’re already poisoned. My toxin delivers a very special pain—it doesn’t just disable you. It shreds your body whenever you try to use mana.”

Amar’s poisons weren’t normal.

Cursed poisons.

They didn’t simply suppress mana or decay the body.

Instead, they twisted the sensation of channeling mana into pure agony—bones snapping, muscles tearing, every nerve screaming.

A mage’s worst nightmare.

Just as someone wouldn’t breathe if inhaling air tore their lungs apart, no mage would dare use mana under that kind of threat.

Thus, mages instinctively suppressed their mana and fell right into Amar’s control.

“Pain? What pain?”

But Sempas sneered at him.

Without hesitation, he summoned mana and began casting.

A blinding flash of white flooded his vision—an instant, searing pain.

Electric sparks danced before his eyes.

His body and instincts begged him to stop.

But Sempas ignored it all.

“Doesn’t even tickle.”

The poison only inflicted pain.

It didn’t resist mana itself.

Then that was enough.

This level of pain? He could take it.

“I see. So the nickname ‘Mad Dog’ wasn’t just exaggeration.”

Amar conjured sickly green mana between his hands.

It dripped like thick tar onto the ground.

Hssss—

Where it touched, the earth blackened, releasing clouds of white smoke.

The smoke quickly filled the area, becoming a toxic miasma.

Breathing it in meant turning the fight into a race against time.

“Come on, then!”

Sempas, unfazed, charged at Amar.

* * *

A supersonic slug of metal cut a blazing arc through the sky.

By the time the eye could register it, it was already point-blank.

Velkat had been certain that his railgun would strike Ludger.

But what followed made him doubt his own eyes.

“...What?”

The projectile, milliseconds from hitting Ludger, bent off course and missed.

Even the straight trail of current it left behind warped in the middle.

‘He bent an attack this powerful that easily?’

He hadn’t parried it.

That kind of smooth deflection was impossible without warping space itself.

Warped space?

“...So that’s what it was.”

Velkat realized what kind of miracle Ludger’s shadows had just pulled off.

“Incredible. A spell that distorts anything, regardless of force?”

Ludger stood there, black shadows writhing around his cloak—a striking sight.

That must have been the ability of his summoned beast.

For this moment, Velkat considered him an enemy—but couldn’t help admiring the magic.

“If I’d known, I might’ve been nicer to you.”

“Don’t say things you don’t mean.”

“It was worth a shot.”

Clang!

The metal cubes gathered into a towering pillar and dropped toward Ludger.

Ludger tried to dodge—but his body wouldn’t move.

The iron dust in the air had clung to him, forming a net that bound him in place.

The pillar, with all its weight, came crashing down.

Ludger’s body shrank into a point and vanished.

‘He disappeared?’

Not just camouflaged like before—he had literally vanished like a mirage.

The net of iron crumbled to the ground, the only evidence.

Velkat’s eyes narrowed as he felt something behind him.

“...Now you’re bending space too?”

Clang!

Ludger’s staff came down toward Velkat’s back.

But the rotating cubes around Velkat blocked it.

Still, the attack wasn’t just a swing of the staff.

Swish—!

His billowing black cloak twisted like a beast’s claws, slamming at Velkat from both sides.

As Velkat moved to defend, a flash of blinding light burst before his eyes.

Ludger had used light magic to blind him.

Momentarily sightless, Velkat was too slow to respond.

BOOM!

The shadow-claws crushed him from both sides.

He might have died then and there—if not for the voice that rose from within the darkness.

“That’s... dangerous.”

CRACK!

Dozens of steel spikes shot up, tearing through the shadow’s grasp.

Ludger backed off instantly, sensing the danger.

‘That attack was supposed to end it...’

Surrounded by countless protective cubes, Velkat was a fortress.

That’s why Ludger had planned a spatial ambush—to finish it in one blow.

But Velkat was no First Order for nothing. Even under assault, he endured.

Now visible, patches of Velkat’s skin were covered in steel plates.

He’d hidden thin sheets of metal under his clothes.

And even now, more metal was spreading over his body in real-time.

CRUNCH!

A vortex of wind slammed into Velkat’s solar plexus.

It was Derrick’s spell—powerful enough to slice through stone.

But the steel armor encasing Velkat absorbed the impact.

Only a few cracks appeared, and even those were filled instantly.

Metal from the surroundings rushed to patch the damage.

“...That tickled.”

With that, a steel helmet locked into place over Velkat’s head with a heavy click.

From within the black visor, his gray eyes flared.

Crackle—

Purple sparks crackled across the dull-toned armor.

The steel plating began to hum with magnetism, drawing the surrounding metal cubes toward Velkat’s back, where they assembled into wings.

Wings of a steel angel, each feather a shard of hardened metal.

His magic was now complete.

Fusion Magic.

[Iron Thunder God]

KIIIIIIIEEEEK!

Answering their master’s call, the Thunder Dragon and the Golden Roc took positions on either side of him.

Around them, countless metal cubes spun in orbit, drawn by magnetic force.

RUMBLE—

Electricity surged from Velkat’s armor, splitting the air with thunderous crashes.

The sheer scale of it broke the fighting spirit of the mages.

“We... We can’t win.”

“How the hell are we supposed to fight that? He’s a goddamn monster.”

Velkat reached out a hand toward the demoralized mages.

At that moment, the floating cubes that had been drifting in ordered patterns stopped cold.

Mages on the cliff held their breath.

The number of cubes vastly exceeded anything he’d launched before.

If they all dropped at once, nothing could stop it.

“Block it!”

Derrick and Ludger tried to intervene, but the Thunder Dragon and Golden Roc cut them off.

The Thunder Dragon snapped its jaws toward Ludger, while the Golden Roc slashed its wing-blades at Derrick.

“Stop!”

Just then, Valentina, riding her magical beast, charged into Velkat’s range and swung her sword.

Velkat watched her silently before raising his left hand.

Not the one holding the magneta sword—but his bare gauntleted hand.

CLAAAANG!

Aura and armor clashed.

Valentina aimed to cut through his suit of armor, but her eyes widened at the resistance she felt in the blade.

She couldn’t cut through.

“How can you block aura... with your bare hand?”

“Did you think you could win just because you dragged it into melee?”

Velkat sneered and swept his leg toward her.

Aimed directly at her forehead.

Valentina barely managed to lean back in time.

The sight of the greave brushing past her eyes sent a chill down her spine.

‘That force...!’

She’d dodged it, yet her cheek still throbbed—this, despite her knight’s physique.

Gritting her teeth, Valentina readjusted and swung again.

But Velkat didn’t even bother to defend.

He simply spread his arms wide, as if daring her.

SWIPE SWIPE SWIPE!

Her blade traced a series of violet arcs across the air, striking his entire body.

Sparks flew from the collision of aura and steel.

But not a single scratch appeared on Velkat.

Instead, it was her aura-imbued blade that had chipped.

Unbelievable hardness.

His magically compressed steel armor was strong enough to withstand even a high-ranking knight’s aura.

“Strength test’s over. Now disappear.”

Velkat swung his magneta sword horizontally.

Valentina raised her sword vertically to block.

CRAAACK!

Her aura-covered sword shattered in the ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) air, fragments scattering like glittering shards.

Valentina stared, stunned, at the broken pieces falling around her.

Had Derrick’s magical beast not pulled back just then, the next swing would have killed her.

Velkat looked at her with a hint of disappointment and muttered,

“I meant to finish it with that. Lucky. Still—holding onto your sword till the end earns some praise. But what can a knight without a weapon do now?”

Only the broken hilt remained in Valentina’s hand.

Though she had refused to let go, her wrist—unable to bear the recoil—was red and swollen.

“Just sit back and watch your subordinates get crushed.”

Velkat dropped the steel meteors.

Massive, accelerated bombardments pounded the cliff from above.

The mages raised shields with desperate resolve—but they were paper-thin before that force.

Defensive spells shattered like brittle glass, and metal rained down through the cracks.

Explosions, dust, and screaming voices filled the air.

Even the most robust knights couldn’t walk away unscathed.

Even those known as superhuman knights were stomped out by that overwhelming weight.

Like meteors had struck, the cliff was now riddled with crater scars—and all that remained of the people were smears of blood.

And yet Velkat still wasn’t satisfied with the scene.

“Hmm. Still not enough power?”

He had wiped out the nuisances, yes—but the cliff still stood.

Though the situation favored him, Velkat did not drop his guard.

He intended to seal his victory in one final blow.

“Let’s end this.”

Drawing on an immense reservoir of mana, Velkat began to focus on a single spell.

“...Oh fuck.”

The normally reserved Derrick cursed aloud.

He could feel it in his skin—the scale of that mana. The formation being drawn in the sky.

“It’s coming.”

A large-scale spell—one usable only by Lexur-class mages or higher.

Magic that warped space and vibrated the atmosphere, concentrating into a single point above.

For a moment, the sky rippled, and it felt like everything darkened.

It wasn’t just a feeling.

A massive cube had appeared in the open sky, blocking out all light with its sheer size.

On its black metal surface glowed golden, otherworldly runes.

And it slowly began to descend toward the earth.

6th-Tier Metal Magic.

[Heaven-Collapsing Meteoric Jade]

No one even considered trying to block it.

Not even Ludger.

To attempt to stop that would mean getting pulverized yourself.

“Move!”

As Derrick shouted the warning, the meteor just grazed past them—

KUUUUU-GGOOOONG—!!!

The instant it touched the cliff, the entire rockface was pulverized into dust and rubble.

There was no explosion.

Just mass—so immense, so far beyond reason—that it simply ground everything it touched into powder.

Moments later, from beneath the shattered cliff, blue mana surged up like an underground spring.

“It’s done.”

That marked the destruction of the third leyline out of five.

With the leyline distorted, the mysterious phenomena covering this land would vanish.

The Casarr Basin would collapse.

But as time passed, Velkat began to sense something was off.

“...Why hasn’t it collapsed yet?”

Three leylines were destroyed.

The ground should be ripping apart by now, the land shattering into pieces—but it was still intact.

“No way...”

Velkat turned toward the location of the remaining leylines.

One was missing.

The pillar of energy that should’ve been erupting in the distance was gone.

In the direction where the secret mansion once stood.