“This is it. All devious plots are useless to us. All we can depend on is solely strength to fight it out!”
Ernis yelled, his sword tip flying into his hands and shooting out great amounts of light.
Seeing this, Vinas sighed and retrieved a silver-white sword blade from behind her back and besieged Ernis with Aaron.
“Hmm?”
The Magi outside suddenly made sounds of astonishment.
“These three middle-grade magic artifacts have reached the peak. Also, why does it feel like the sword hilt, sword blade and sword tip can be combined to create a magic artifact with more power?”
A Clash Of Destiny
“These three are definitely high-level artifacts, to the extent that they can be combined to make a magical weapon!” The Rank 2 Magus sitting beside Leylin guessed.
“I think so too!” Leylin smiled and nodded, his gaze secretly heating up.
In the center of the secret territory, three silhouettes continuously collided fiercely, and the glowing radiance emitted by the magical artifacts in their hands destroyed the meadow around them until it was unrecognisable.
“Kill!”
Aaron and Vinas looked at each other and exerted their spiritual force to its extreme so that the silver sword flew towards Ernis.
“Battle Chain!” At that moment, a different expression flashed across Ernis’ face and a black chain covered in black runes flew out from his chest, covering Aaron and Vinas.
“You really thought I was so foolish, eh? One person against the two of you?”
Upon seeing the chain, Ernis finally had a smile on his face, indicating that he had achieved what he had wanted.
“This is the secret weapon of the Haylin Guild. It can bind two semi-elemental Magi for at least 10 seconds. I had never thought that this Magus would be in possession of it. The others will definitely lose!” Some of the Magi outside secret territory could recognize this evil object.
But soon after, they were struck agape.
They only saw Vinas smile indifferently. Another “Vinas” appeared from the center of her body, and the other Vinas, one with a stern and firm aura, charged towards Aaron.
Among the flickering light rays, Aaron, who was bound by iron chains before, was now floating in mid-air and the Vinas-doppelgänger replaced him.
“Quick! Now!” said the two Vinases. The constantly tightening iron chains made the defensive runes on Vinas’ body shatter one after another.
“Doppelgänger! Using a doppelgänger to be free from the binds of the chains? This is actually very worthy of study!” a Magus said while stroking his white beard.
Aaron, who saw Vinas vomiting blood, was somehow enraged and charged forth towards Ernis.
It was obvious that Ernis, who was trying to restrain the binds of the chains, had used up a huge amount of his spiritual force and magical power, and was thus unprepared to deal with Aaron’s sudden attack.
Aaron’s eyes turned red. Drawing the sharp end of his sword, he held the sword’s handle and pierced Ernis’ chest.
But Ernis did not summon any escaping spell and only had a weird expression on his face, as though he was crying and laughing at the same time.
“What happened? Is there something wrong with the spell? Extract him!” a Magus immediately commanded.
But the characteristic white light had not appeared yet.
“Sigh…” Ernis coughed out a huge amount of blood.
“You…You’ve won!” Ernis said as he struggled.
“What? Why aren’t you escaping?” Aaron asked. He found this all extremely hard to believe.
“Tsk tsk! Why do I have to escape?” Ernis’ facial expression changed, as though he had changed into a completely different person.
“Don’t… don’t kill me!” Soon after, a dreadful expression shadowed Ernis’ face.
But following the huge loss of blood, the expression gradually disappeared. And everything eventually returned to its original state.
“You need…. Need to be careful of the black hand behind. My brother, I saw…..”
Ernis shuddered and gave the long double-edged sword and calligraphy pen to Aaron. His eyes suddenly turned white and without finishing his last prophecy, he lost his life’s aura.
*Peng!* Ernis fell to the ground.
*Kacha!* Aaron felt a mysterious energy emerge from Ernis’ body and enter his own as Ernis died. The Sacred Flame rapidly swirled, as if it were absorbing something unknown from his body.
Soon after, he broke through the semi-converted elements and finally achieved the position of a peak rank 1 Magus. But he was not happy at all.
“Let’s go,” said Aaron, as he helped lift Vinas, who was seriously injured, and disappeared among the milky, white light beams.
The day’s events had been thoroughly confusing for him, so much so that he no longer held any interest in the final showdown between Baelin and Longbottom.
Outside the secret territory, Leylin touched his chin as he pondered deeply.
“Schizophrenic symptoms are getting more severe. Signs of benevolence, viciousness, weakness and other personalities along with intense suicidal tendencies are being exhibited! This experiment is a failure! Even if one is alive, it’s no use!”
He appeared regretful as such thoughts passed through his head.
Soon after, he then turned to the last screen and said, “Let the first fated confrontation start!”
In the center of the secret plane, a majority of the Magi had already been eliminated. The only two to survive were Baelin and Longbottom, who, combined, had more than forty wounds on their body.
Furthermore, these two people were gradually getting close to each other, on the verge of converging.
“If no mishaps happen, the champion will arise from one of these two Magi. Let us wait and see!” The host excitedly declared as the screens on site constantly fused and finally, the two last huge screens were split respectively on Baelin and Longbottom’s side.
The two screens merged, as the two Magi walked closer towards each other. They were going to form a single large screen.
“We finally meet again!” The strong body armour on Baelin had 13 eyeballs with oddly-shaped cyclones on them, as though they were absorbing something from the surroundings.
“Can you stop me?” Longbottom, disguised as the green-robed Carl, sneered.
“Whatever happens, I must defeat you today!” Baelin firmly said with confidence as he pointed his crossbow towards Longbottom.
“Tsk tsk! You know what, Baelin? The more I see you, the more annoyed I get, ever since I saw you at Potter Town!”
At this time, Longbottom said to Baelin: “Why did Leylin choose you the previous time, and not me? What do you have that’s much better than me?”
“So you still do care about this!” Baelin’s expression darkened upon hearing all this.
The other Magi outside the screens looked doubtfully at the two Magi settle down without producing any energy waves.
“So these two Magi knew each other beforehand?” questioned some Magi as they exchanged doubtful looks.
*Xiu!*
And at this moment, the two Magi in the middle of the screen started moving.
Energy particles stormed forth from their bodies just like a gale, producing immense pressure and causing the airflow around them to reverse.
It was an uncommon sight to see two rank 1 Magi competing against each other in Twilight Zone.
Leylin, who understood and knew these two Magi, naturally knew that what they showed to the public now is far from their true powers.
*Bang! Bang!*
The green and red silhouette continued bumping against each other in mid-air so much that the air around them got compressed and exploded.
“I never thought that you can also enter the Rank 2 Realm!” Longbottom said to Baelin in the midst of the intense battle.
The Magi outside did not notice anything strange with Baelin and Longbottom’s first sho
wdown between the screens. Although the energy waves were only at the peak of rank 1, only Baelin and Longbottom, who knew each other very well, could tell the terrifying capabilities of each other!
On top of that, they were able to control these abilities without the slightest spillover and maintained the facade of being rank 1. With this amount of strength, it would be a good showing even for a rank 2 Magus.
“Give it up now, Longbottom!” Baelin said as his willpower decreased a little.
Originally, Longbottom was not someone with such big aspirations and ideals. Furthermore, to even confront face to face with a friend he knew since young, he simply had no strength to do it.
“Give up? I’ll give up now!” With a fierce front, huge drops of green corrosive liquid started forming at Longbottom’s lower body, forming a whirlpool.
“Whirlpool of Death!”
*Zila!* But this was just the beginning. Longbottom tore open a scroll upon seeing strong energy particles being emitted, provoking the whirlpool to increase in size. This sparked the radiation of a dangerous aura, causing some rank 2 Magi to frown and disperse from the sides of the whirlpool.
“It’s the scroll of a rank 2 spell!” cried out some of the Magi, standing outside the battlefield.
This sort of thing was so rare to see. Even if a rank 2 Magus were to create such things, a lot of time and effort is wasted and success is not even guaranteed. Thus, it is rarely seen in the marketplace. Who would’ve thought that such a precious thing will be in the hands of Carl?
Besides, was it even worth it to waste such a precious thing during this competition?
“To use a rank 2 Magus’ scroll for protection now, is it because he has to resort to using all of his strength in a split second?” Leylin said outside the battlefield as he chuckled lightly.
“If nothing untoward happens, the champion will obviously be our Carl from the Western Regions!” exclaimed the rank 2 Magus who had spoken to Leylin previously, as he stroked his beard with a hint of pride on his face.
“Not exactly!” Leylin shook his head. Baelin was a destined child, and he would not lose so easily.
“What now then? Do you want to bet with me?” the rank 2 Magus from the Western Regions immediately said. He was inwardly very worried as he remembered how he was previously defeated by the Fire Scorpion spell.
“No need! I do not have anything good to bet against you, Sir!” Leylin said as he forced a smile and shook his head.
“No worries, we won’t bet with money. Just a simple bet of the outcome!” said the Western Region’s rank 2 Magus.
Leylin nodded. He knew that these rank 2 Magi have already reached their limits of what they could achieve on the path to becoming a Magus. Thus, they focused all their energies on other areas such as upon younger talents.
This rank 2 Magus from the western region had previously won over him. If Leylin did not win this time, he was afraid of the discomfort that will remain in his heart for a few years.
The enormous and brutal whirlpool continued expanding, like how a monster widens its mouth, and immediately engulfed Baelin.
Upon seeing this scene, Longbottom smiled.
“Die!” Longbottom suddenly charged into the middle of the whirlpool and came out holding a green sword handle.
*Rumble!* The 13 eyes on Baelin’s armour started staring and in the middle of the pupil, numerous fine-textured runes shot out, spiralling around Baelin’s body and forming a strange pattern.
The runes on the armour started evolving and radiated dazzling rays of brilliance. The whirlpool of death emitted huge ripples of corrosion, striking the armour. Yet, it caused no damage
*Pa! Pa! Pa!*
Baelin roared and the entire whirlpool surprisingly broke apart. Longbottom was not prepared for the sword slash that was aimed at him.
The Conspiracy Unravelling
”Ripple of corrosion!”
A green circular ripple immediately appeared before Longbottom, and shook continuously, as if it was trying to push Baelin out.
However, Baelin’s face remained composed, and from his blade large amounts of vertical eye phantoms appeared.
”Bio Boosting armour and sword!”
The sword with the vertical eye phantom gave off rays of flames, and evaporated all the green ripples. With indomitable strength, it directly targeted Longbottom’s right chest.
Blood flowed through the corner of Longbottom’s mouth, and a long wound opened up on his chest. He flew through the air, and landed on the ground, giving rise to a long trail of blood.
*Boom!* The many soil layers behind him had piled up into a small mountain, and had finally offset the inertia in Longbottom’s body, which had caused him to be unable to stop.
”You lost!” Baelin landed calmly in front of Longbottom, his emotions complex. There was no visible hint of joy or victory in his expression.
”I lost!” Immediately, Longbottom’s face registered his defeat.
*Cough!* He violently coughed out a mouthful of fresh blood: “Bro… Brother Baelin, I have some things regarding my sister that I wish to talk to you about!”
”What about your sister?” Having heard Longbottom’s familiar address, Baelin’s heart softened. Moreover, Longbottom’s sister was his first love!
Baelin could not help but lower his body.
”My sister, she… she…” Longbottom’s voice gradually became softer, which caused Baelin to get closer to him.
”She wants you to die!” After seeing that situation, a hint of a maniacal smile flashed across Longbottom’s face, and a crystal in his hands was launched like a lightning bolt.
”Not good!”
Baelin’s eyes widened, and he unceasingly flew backwards, his Bio Boosting armour continuously adding layers of defense.
But it was too late. A grey ray of lightning detonated in front of Baelin’s chest, and smashed the milk-white talisman.
*Boom!* A pillar of light enveloped Baelin, and caused him to disappear from the secret plane in an instant.
*Crash! Bang!*
Baelin’s figure appeared at the site of the competition, his face still registering shock and grief. He looked at the charred area above his chest and remained silent.
”Haha! Even though the tactics weren’t entirely legitimate, at least I won!” The Magus from the west, who had bet against Leylin, immediately laughed loudly.
”That’s right! You won!” Magi were not knights, and did not have to conform to a code of honour. Even though Longbottom’s tactics were overboard, and he used whatever he could to obtain success, he was undoubtedly the champion! Leylin naturally had to recognise this point.
What was more important was that there was nothing wagered on this. To concede defeat was nothing much.
Leylin’s attitude actually caused these Magi to feel embarrassed.
”Actually, the Magus that you thought highly of was strong too. Not only has he reached the level of a peak rank 1 Magus, he is walking the ancient path of the Bio Booster. If I am right, his armour was inherited from at least an ancient rank 2 Bio Booster. If we were to compare their true strengths, he would still surpass Carl”
”En!” Leylin nodded outwardly, but he did not agree with the claim.
Even though Baelin was strong, Longbottom was not a person to be provoked. A son of destiny just like Baelin, his most terrifying dark elven meditation technique and other secret cards had not been revealed.
Of course, both of them had suppressed themselves for the sake of the Magi who were watching, and Baelin himself had concealed his trump card, the Underground Winter Spider Emperor. Were the two to have battled without considering the consequences, both parties would have equal chances of winning.
By now, Longbottom had finished off the remaining few Magi in the secret plane, dominating his opponents, and the host announced loudly, ”The champion has already emerged. He is Green-robed Carl from the west! Let us cheer for him!”
”Carl!” “Carl!” “Carl!
””
The Magi present instantly let out cheers of happiness, and welcomed Longbottom.
”What are we to do? Should we openly reveal his identity in public?” Aaron secretly communicated with Baelin.
”No! Not at all! He threatened me earlier on. Should we do so, he will immediately initiate his plot and bring huge amounts of casualties to the Magi present. Before we clearly understand what he’s planning, it would be best not to do so!”
Warlock of the Magus World 1-596 Page 272