Assassin’s Chronicle - Chapter 181

It was easy to think about notorious necromancers whenever zombies were mentioned. People on the outside of the crowd suddenly run away. Anfey only saw a few areas of fighting there. Maybe it was because their friends and families had been killed by zombies, or they had nowhere to hide from if the zombies chased them. Each battle had over ten mercenaries fighting hard with one or a few zombies. When people were pushed to the corner, they usually would become terribly crazy. At that moment, the roaring of the zombies was overcome by mercenaries’ noises. Without the protection of dark magic, warm sunlight had caused a lot of damage to the zombies. They were just struggling before they died. Anfey made a decision not to join the battle, since it was obvious the mercenaries were going to win.

“Anfey, what are you doing here?” A person walked in big strides towards Anfey..

“Orsie, we are seeing each other again.” Anfey had a good impression on Orsie. He was the commander of Warflame mercenary group. Orsie was the only one who had spoken up for Anfey. In other words, he was the only one who spoke up for justice.

“Why are you here?” Orsie looked up and down at Anfey.

“Anfey, are you messing with us?” Ozzic came from nowhere. He looked angry, and few mercenary commanders followed him.

“Don’t be so rude. If we had not destroyed their magic array, you would have turned into zombies,” Riska said coldly. Ozzic was shocked for a second. The other mercenary commanders looked at the each other and had awkward smiles on their faces. They would not have become commanders if they were stupid. They felt they were in an unknown dark world with that unknown magic array. They could not see anything, but were still able to hear each other. The endless dark weakened them physically and mentally. They had felt like they were about to go crazy. Mages found their ability to call elements slowed down to nothing when they chanted. They heard their companions screaming and felt helpless. They were finally saved from the dark when the beautiful sunlight came. Ozzic and other mercenary commanders thought it might have been Anfey who had saved them, and now were sure it could only have been Anfey saving them after hearing Riska speak.

“We discovered a group of necromancers in Hengduan Valley. We have been tracking them since yesterday,” Anfey explained.

Ozzic suddenly looked terrible. “Anfey, what did you say? A group of necromancers?”

“Yes, a group of them. I am not sure about the specific number,” Anfey said slowly. “There is a senior necromancer in that group. He is the leader. I did not want him to see me, so I was only able to watch from a distance.”

“A senior necromancer?” Ozzic raised his voice. It was rare to see a necromancer. They never thought they would see a senior necromancer. Ozzic started to doubt whether he was “blessed” by Moros. He had stumbled into all kinds of bad luck.

“You are right. You are not the first mercenary group that came under surprise attack by necromancers. You will not be the last one either,” Anfey sighed. “There have been several mercenary groups attacked by them.”

“How do you know?” Ozzic asked.

“There are more than a thousand zombies. Where are they from?” Anfey asked a rhetorical question.

“These damn necromancers.” Ozzic cursed and gritted his teeth. He had killed other mercenaries for his own benefit or some other reason, but could see others killing mercenaries in the Country of Mercenaries. From one side, mercenaries were united. From the other side, there had been conflicts and struggles among mercenaries. This could be a rare scene for the Country of Mercenaries.

The battle with the zombies had approached its end. The zombies who received direct sunlight had no strength to fight back. They were slayed on the ground one by one by mercenaries. Some mercenaries worried that slaying them on the ground was not enough to kill them. They got cruder. They cut the zombies into pieces until they thought the zombie had no way to survive.

Over a dozen of mercenaries who had first joined the battle finally felt relieved. They felt like they had beaten vicious senior magic beasts. They straightened their backs and walked to Ozzic with proud faces. They did not realize how other mercenaries looked at them until Ozzic stepped back to dodge them. They were shocked and froze in their places.

The battle was over, but the wounds on their bodies were still there. One of the mercenaries had been bitten on the face. His left cheek was so bloody that it was hard to tell the bare bone from the flesh. The blood ran down his face and neck, and dyed half his shoulder a blood red. The wound caused by zombies’ scratches on another mercenary’s chest was so deep that his bones were exposed. Two mercenaries were missing an ear. They stood side by side, which made them look funny. At least half of the other dozen-plus mercenaries were hurt to some degree. Other mercenaries seemed to have similar situations as they did. Most of them had gotten hurt fighting with zombies. Ozzic felt discomfort in his throat, and he swallowed. He looked sophisticated. He looked like he was making a tough decision.

The mercenaries standing over there seemed to know what had happened. Some mercenaries immediately looked for wounds on their bodies, while others looked desperate, since they knew they had wounds on them. They had been through thick and thin together. They might not be scared by death, but they got scared by actually facing the reality they were turning into zombies.

“Do not panic. I know a Priest of Light. He can remove the Breath of Death from you,” Ozzic suddenly said loudly. “All the people who got hurt by zombies need to step out. Stand here. Let me make arrangements for you guys.”

Ozzic’s claims had encouraged those desperate mercenaries. They looked relieved and gathered together quickly as Ozzic instructed.

“Ozzic, where is the Priest of Light?” A skinny young man asked loudly.

“In White Water City,” Ozzic said.

“How would the Priest of Light come to White Water City?” the skinny young man asked.

“That is not your business. It is my secret,” Ozzic yelled in anger.

“Ok, it is your business. I just have a question to ask. How long does it take for us to get to White Water City?” the young man named Ye asked, neither in an arrogant nor obsequious tone.

Ozzic did not know how to respond to that question. He slowly lowered his head.

“The Breath of Death will come out when dark prevails. They all will become zombies. Unless you are a Space series archmage, they could not reach White Water City before the sun rises,” Ye said slowly. “I also doubt whether you know a Priest of Light.”

“Ye, what do you mean?” Ozzic yelled.

“I am saying you are lying,” Ye said.

Ozzic had nothing to say in response. His body started to slightly tremble.

“Actually everyone knows about it, but they do not want to admit it,” Ye said, looking around. “Even if the Priest of Light suddenly showed up here, he might not be able to save them. I did not mean to say all of this out loud, but I had to. They were our companions and brothers before, but they will die soon.”

“Right, they will attack us,” a mercenary yelled. Ye’s speach had won some mercenaries over.

The wounded mercenaries went quiet. They turned to look at Ozzic, waiting for their union leader’s promise that he would keep his word. Ozzic suddenly squatted down. He pulled his hair hard with a painful look. His reaction made those wounded and unwounded mercenaries all understand what was happening.

Anfey had a slight grin on his face. He had not had much contact with Ozzic, but he knew Ozzic had many schemes. Anfey did not believe Ozzic could not control himself and had to show his struggles visibly. Obviously, Ozzic knew what strategies he needed to take at the right time. He wanted to win those wounded mercenaries’ sympathies. Therefore, he and that young man, Ye, had this show.

An older mercenary around fifty years old coughed to draw everyone’s attention. He said with a coarse voice, “I am getting old and not afraid of death, but I do not want to be a zombie without any spirit in me.” That old mercenary kneeled on the ground with his eyes closed. He prayed silently.

Other wounded mercenaries followed him and kneeled on the ground. Everyone could hear their praying. The sad atmosphere was hard to describe in words. The female mercenaries at the scene could not help crying. Men’s face became tense and their fists clenched. They looked like they were ready to hit someone. The wounded mercenaries knelt down, which meant they had made their decision. It would just be a sad scene if they would not make any compromise. No matter whether they chose to try to convince the unwounded mercenaries to asked them to save their lives, or chose to die themselves, the situation would have a horrible outcome, but the latter choice was slightly better than the former option.

“If you still think we are your friends, please save us,” the older mercenary said as he opened his eyes.

“I am sorry.” Ye, hesitated for a second before he pulled out his sword. He quickly went up to the old mercenary. He raised his arm and thrust his sword into that old mercenary’s chest.

“No!” Ozzic yelled with such a painful voice. He rushed forward, but stumbled and fell on the ground. Obviously, he looked like he was in such pain that he had passed out. Orsie and other mercenary commanders were shocked by what they saw. They surrounded Ozzic.

“Don’t worry. Let me take a look.” Anfey walked up to Ozzic. He grabbed Ozzic’s wrists and shook a little bit. He pressed the Qi on Ozzic. He did not try to save Ozzic with the martial art skills passed on in his family. Those martial art skills, Fenjin Cuogu, could tear tendons and break bones like nothing, which caused tremendous pain for the opponents. So many mercenaries were willing die to save unwounded mercenaries’ lives, while Ozzic was still putting on a show for everyone. Ozzic made Anfey feel sick, so he decided to teach Ozzic a lesson. The pain from Fenjin Cuogu was unbearable for most people, Ozzic screamed and sat up like a spring. He looked at Anfey in panic.

“Are you alright?” Anfey asked, holding out his hand.

“Y-Yes,” Ozzic said. His voice was shaking and he was trying to calm himself down. There was nothing wrong with Anfey’s warm, bright smile, but it set Ozzic on edge.

“Alright. Everyone please be quiet. Let’s…” Anfey’s eyes turned to the young man called Ye, and stopped. Even though he was still keeping up the act with Ozzic, there was an uneasiness in his expression, as if he was uncomfortable. As he killed, he was fast and determined. As Anfey and Ozzic talked, he had already killed half of the mercenaries who were injured by the zombies. Even though the mercenaries did not resist, his ability of killing his former companions without hesitation shocked Anfey.

“It seems you do not have any experience dealing with necromancers,” Anfey said, walking over to him.

“Thank god I do not,” Ye said, “or else I would not be here, talking to you.” He was talking to Anfey, but he did not stop slashing at the mercenaries. Another wounded man slumped to the ground.

“This won’t stop them from turning into zombies,” Anfey said. He glanced around and found that all the mercenaries had sword wounds. One could kill a man this way, but could not stop them from turning into zombies.

“How do you propose we do this?”

“Find some mages. Only fire can stop them from changing,” Anfey said. He raised his voice and said, “Everyone, listen to me. The necromancers have escaped, and trust me when I say they will return with even more zombies. We have to leave immediately.”

“Leave? No. We cannot let our brothers die in vain!” one of the mercenary leaders called out.

“You do what you want,” Anfey said. “I am leaving.” He glanced at Suzanna, who walked over slowly.

“Coward,” the mercenary leader spat.

“Be quiet!” Ozzic bellowed. “If it wasn’t for Anfey and Suzanna, we would all be dead.” It was unclear what Ozzic thought of Anfey, but no matter what, he had his own moral standards he needed to follow. For a leader of a group of mercenaries and the person who forged a major mercenary coalition, he had to have some good qualities, or else no one would work for him, and he would not survive in the world.

“Are we just going to run, then? What of our fallen brothers?” the mercenary leader asked.

“There are thousands of zombies back there,” Anfey said, pointing in the distance, “and at least a dozen necromancers, one among who is a senior necromancer. This isn’t the time for revenge. What we should do is prevent the number of zombies from increasing.”

The mages Ye had fetched released fire magic, and turned the middle of the grassy clearing into a fiery inferno. The sun shone bright overhead. It didn’t matter whether those mercenaries would turn into zombies or not. They would never be able to leave the place.

The mercenary leaders glanced at each other. There was no possible way the mercenaries could defeat thousands of zombies and a dozen necromancers.

“We just have to wait three more days for the arrival of the Priests of Light. They are more experienced dealing with dark creatures like zombies,” Anfey said slowly.

“Priests of Light? Why would they come to Country of Mercenaries?” Ozzic asked.

“I sent my man back to White Mountain City to contact the Church when we found the zombies. All we need to do is wait for backup.” Anfey paused. He glanced at the mercenaries and added, “I think we all know what the right choice is.”

“Alright. We depart immediately,” Ozzic said. “Are you leaving with us?”

“No, I need to return to my men,” Anfey said, shaking his head.

“You saved our lives today. We are in your debt,” Ozzic said. “We will be on our way. Farewell.”

“Goodbye,” Anfey said.

Mercenaries were not like real soldiers, but their movement was still very fast. Seeing the mercenaries disappearing into the forest, Anfey smiled. “Debt?” he murmured and shook his head. It was all for show. The mercenaries had just called him a coward, and it was clear what the mercenaries thought of him.

“Anfey, let’s go,” Suzanna said quietly.

“Wait.” Anfey walked over to the side slowly. The large butterfly that led the mercenaries to the middle of the magic array was lying on the ground, half hidden under the dirt. It was not glowing like it had been moments ago, and was no different from usual butterflies except for its enormous size. The situation was too chaotic and intense, and the butterfly stopped moving after it fell to the ground. The mercenaries must have forgotten about it.

Anfey reached out with his foot and flipped the butterfly over. Somethings could only be observed from the distance, like this butterfly. Its large black eyes were unblinking and ferocious, its body was covered by short, sharp hairs. The two antennae were blood red and dangling, like the guts of a butchered animal. The legs were the size of a child’s forearm, and the hairs on it reflected cold light. It did not look like the divine being it did a few minutes ago. Instead, it looked like a demon that just escaped hell.

No matter how far a man travels from his homeland, its effects would be hard to wear off. For someone from the far east, butterflies were beautiful and delicate. Anfey was interested in the butterfly because he thought he had encountered a butterfly spirit that could morph into humans. He was sorely disappointed.

“What is this?” Suzanna walked over and asked.

“I don’t know.”

“I’ve never seen anything like this,” Suzanna frowned and said. “Never heard of one, either. It’s dead now. It’s been dead for a long time.”

Anfey held out his right hand and summoned his fire sword. He stabbed the butterfly with the sword at the point where there was a piece of gold chained to the butterfly’s body with silver chains.

Anfey did not try to pick it up with his hands. He summoned a ball of water, and enveloped the golden fragment in the water. He turned the water ball into a ball of ice, and placed it into a box made with antimagic crystal.

“We should bring the butterfly back to show Hui Wei and Hagan,” Anfey said, shaking his head. “Riska, destroy it.” His dimensional ring was made by Saul himself and was very powerful, but it still had a limit. There were already too many things in the ring. Anfey didn’t trust anyone with his crystals, scrolls, books, and weapons. Those were the life collection of Saul, and he knew he had to keep it safe. There was no place for the large butterfly.

Riska whispered a spell and waved his hand. A wave of flame swept towards the butterfly, and the creature was swallowed by flame.

“What’s that smell?” Suzanna frowned, sniffing. “Do you smell that? It smells good.”

Anfey smelled the pleasant aroma as well. He glanced around, and realized the aroma was coming from the burning butterfly. He lowered himself to observe the creature. He could control the elements, and it did not bother him. He was so close his face was almost in the fire, but he could not feel any burning sensation. Of course, Anfey was only strong enough to control flame that was not controlled by other mages. If he was standing in the way when Riska released the flame, he would surely burn.

Something was oozing out of the butterfly, then the liquid solidified and turned into stones. The pleasant aroma was coming from the stones.

“Something’s wrong,” Riska suddenly said. “I think the necromancers are coming back.”

Anfey glanced towards the distance and shook his head. “Don’t worry. They aren’t fast enough.” He released a dozen small fireballs that grouped together and formed a large hand. The hand reached into the flame and grabbed the stones, then it returned and dropped the stones in front of Anfey.

“It’s not magic crystal, is it?”

“I don’t think so,” Riska said, looking over his shoulder.

“What is it then?”

Suzanna and Riska glanced at each other and shook their heads. Suzanna reached over to grab a stone and observe it up close. Anfey stopped her and said hurriedly, “Wait. We don’t know what it is. I don’t want you getting hurt.”

Suzanna smiled and let her hand fall back to her side. Riska thought it was a normal response, but Suzanna knew that was how Anfey cared for her.

Anfey found another box and placed the rocks inside. “Let’s go,” he said.

“Where?”

“Nowhere,” Anfey said, grinning. “Let’s play hide and seek with the necromancers.”

During the next few days, Anfey and his team wandered in the forest. Necromancers now knew of their existence. The forest was big and thick, and Anfey was always cautious and alert, which made it hard to locate where Anfey and his team were in the forest.

When necromancers gathered as a group, Anfey would keep a distance away from them. Once a necromancer set out on his own, he would very likely experience a surprise attack by Anfey. After this happened a couple of times, necromancers chose to leave Anfey alone and allow him to wonder in the forest. They stopped bothering him.

“A new day! I would like to praise this world,” Riska said loudly as he looked at the reddish sunrise in the distance. He sounded like a bard who was sentimental about life and had so much understanding of the world.

“Ok, come down. You do not look like a poet.” Suzanna smiled as she walked toward Anfey. “Anfey, here you are.”

Anfey took the bread from Suzanna and started to eat it bite by bite.

“I do not look like a poet?” Riska did not like Suzanna’s comment. He turned around and asked, “Who looks like a poet? Anfey?”

“Of course.” Suzanna felt Riska’s question was stupid. Of course, she believed Anfey looked like a poet. In Suzanna’s eyes, Anfey was a treasure with so many different sides. He was assertive when he was on mission. His assertiveness was tough and manly to Suzanna. When he was in thought, Anfey’s eyes sparkled with wisdom that only philosophers have. Anfey’s sweetness and gentleness made her melt when he was with her. Anfey was just perfect in Suzanna’s eyes. Up to this point, Anfey had never let her down or made her sad.

“Nah, he does not look like a poet. He looks like a country bumpkin,” Riska murmured. It was the kind of impression Anfely left everyone when he walked into Saul’s house for the first time. Back then, Anfey did not know anything about magic. He smiled to everyone and asked all kinds of questions. He liked to give compliments about things he had never seen before. He looked like a fool to everyone.

“Who are you talking about? I think you are a country bumpkin!” Anfey laughed. He did not mind what Riska’s comments, but Suzanna did.

“Me, I am talking about myself.” Riska immediately corrected his mistake after seeing Suzanna’s mad face. He released levitation magic and landed in front of Suzanna. He held his right hand out. “Where is my share?”

“You do not have a share. Go read your poem,” Suzanna said.

“Don’t do this to me. I am hungry.” Riska put on a smile to please Suzanna.

Suzanna rolled her eyes at Riska. She took out a piece of bread from the bag and tossed it at him. After catching the bread, Riska was about to take a seat on a nearby branch, and then noticed Suzanna and Anfey sitting close to each other. He sighed and stood up, “I am not going out with the two of you if there is another assignment.”

“What do you mean?” Suzanna did not know where that comment came from.

Steel had to go through high heat to be made. Capacity was built by practicing hard. Shamelessness was developed by doing a lot of shameless things. When Anfey started to date Suzanna, Suzanna felt fast heartbeats and blushed if Anfey sat next to her. As time went by and they had been together for a while, Suzanna got used to sitting next to Anfey. Sometimes if Anfey did not go find her, she would go find Anfey, just like what happened today.

“Look at you. You are together all the time,” Riska sighed. “Don’t you think you should consider others’ feelings. For example, consider a single, talented, junior magister’s feelings?”

“You…” Suzanna blushed. She nudged Anfey to ask Anfey to argue with Riska since she was not good at it.

“Your feelings? Sure, it’s my bad.” Anfey smiled.

“Great if you understand it,” Riska said proudly, “I am very forgiving. I can forgive you. No problem.”

“After we go back to Moramatch, I definitely will make it up to you. Riska, what kind of girl do you want?”

“What kind?” Riska was a rookie at dating. He felt a little embarrassed talking about what kind of girl he liked. “I do not have specific criteria for a girl, as long as she treats me well.”

“Be more specific, Riska. Don’t you like smaller girls?” Riska was a head shorter than Anfey. That was why Anfey asked that question, since most men did not like their girlfriends to be taller than themselves.

“Yeah,” Riska said.

“Do you like blond or dark-haired girls?” Anfey asked.

“Either is fine,” Riska said.

“Do you like shy or aggressive girls?” Anfey asked.

“Of course the former kind of girls,” Riska answered.

Anfey gave it some thought. “Oh, you like this kind of girl. She has black hair and big eyes. She is small and shy. She would just peek at men and dare not look at men in the eye. She would smile with her mouth covered when she feels happy. She is timid and scared to death if she were attacked by aggressive magic beasts or faced with other threats. That would give you a chance to be her hero. She is very obedient. Once she likes you, she would follow exactly what you say. Even when you asked her to kneel down to serve you, she would not hesitate for a second.”

“Yeah.” Riska felt something weird about Anfey’s words, but did not take it seriously.

“Trust me. I can find you one in our legion,” Anfey said, smiling.

“Who are you talking about? Do I know her?” Riska felt even more weird since there were only a few girls in the legion. He could not think of any girl who fit Anfey’s description.

“Don’t you trust me? Don’t worry. I will pick a girl from gnomes when we get back,” Anfey said.

“Gnomes?” Riska almost fell from the tree.

“You look so excited. Are you that happy?” Anfey asked.

“Ok, ok, Anfey, I am begging you to shut your mouth.” Riska helplessly waved his hand. He just realized Anfey was playing with him. No wonder Anfey stressed out small girls. Gnomes were indeed the smallest in terms of their body type.

“You don’t like gnomes? Dwarves fit into your criteria as well,” Anfey said.

“F*^k those dwarves!” Riska stood up. “Let me take a walk over there. If you like dwarves, you can keep them as long as Suzanna does not mind.”

“Wait a second,” Anfey said.

“I cannot wait.” Riska released his levitation magic as he shook his head. When he turned around to look at Anfely, he was shocked. Anfey’s smiles had gone, and he had put on a serious look.

“Anfey, what happened?” Suzanna noticed the look on Anfey as well.

“Not much. Today those necromancers should take large-scale action,” Anfey said slowly. Not long ago, he sensed an evil spirit from the Evil Abyss screaming and struggling. Obviously, the evil spirit he sent out had been found by a necromancer. That necromancer must have the ability to attack an evil spirit and at least have the ability to kill a low level evil spirit from the Evil Abyss.

“How do you know?” Riska asked in surprise.

“Let’s get ready for it.” Anfey did not respond to Riska.

It had been a clear day, but suddenly it was getting dark. The dark clouds were in all kinds of weird shapes. They looked like pieces of lead floating in the sky. They were getting bigger and bigger and connected together at the end. The clouds covered the whole sky. Looking from the ground, the sky looked like it had turned into a gigantic turtle shell hovering in the sky.

This kind of darkness was not as pitch dark as late night, but made people feel worried. Even the wind slowed down in the forest. It seemed that the wind even took on a lot of pressure.

Riska saw groups of zombies walking out of Kekkai and stepping into the forest. The Kekkai behind the zombies used to give Riska headaches, and now was disappearing at a speed that could be noticed by the naked eye.

Riska hurried to switch the angels Eyes of Sky to the areas he wanted to watch the most but could not see. The thick dark fog had moved away and showed the real scene behind it. Riska was confused since he did not see anything but bones everywhere.

“They have finished it,” Riska murmured. “No matter what it was that the necromancers wanted to do, they have finished.”

“Not exactly.” Anfey shook his head. “Necromancers sent out all the zombies. They must want to do something big. Maybe this is what they really wanted to do the whole time.”

“Anfey, did you notice we still could not sense the Breath of Death even though those zombies had left Kekkai?” Suzanna said in a worrying tone.

Anfey and Riska looked at each other. They could see the shock in each other’s eyes. Necromancers were powerful, and their potential had no limit, but they did have a fatal flaw. Once they used the death magic, they would be hanging a plate on their neck, saying “Come to kill me.” The more death organisms necromancers would call out, the more powerful they would get. Of course, they expose themselves in a shorter time.

If that senior necromancer could hide his magic surges when he called out the death organism, it meant death magic had reached a milestone in their magic. People usually would not feel terrified if their enemies were not easy to beat, since there were one person in their legion who definitely could beat them. However, it was terrifying to have an invisible enemy.

“What do those necromancers want to do?” Riska sounded like he was asking himself. He looked confused.

“I don’t know what made them take such a large-scale action.” Anfey shook his head. “I have no other way but secretly following them.”

“Riska, I feel…” Anfey hesitated for a second. “Those zombies seem different.”

“I have noticed that as well.” Riska nodded. “When those death organisms reach a certain number, necromancers would add contract incantation to death organisms to better control them. It is nothing. It is only used to prove the ability of that senior necromancer.”

This time, Anfey was much more cautious. The necromancers had brought their entire army, which had one, or possibly several, senior necromancers. This was not like the other battles. This was the matter of life and death. Anfey thought the necromancers would not go through so much trouble for someone as insignificant as him, but it was still better to be safe.

When a man was looking for something, sometimes it was easier to simply stop looking and let the thing come. Anfey, Suzanna, and Riska were following the zombies, and discussing amongst themselves what the necromancers wanted. However, they could not dream of a possible answer. When Riska was changing the angle of the Eyes of the Sky, one of the coordinates was slightly off, and what appeared shocked all three of them. Even Anfey could not keep calm anymore.

An army appeared In the Eyes of the Sky. The soldiers marched in close formation, the tips of their spears gleaming under the sunlight. This wasn’t just a scout. This was the main body of the army. Flags fluttered in the wind, weaving into a sea of red, black, white, blue, and gold. According to Anfey’s source, Shansa Empire had recalled thirty thousand of its elite soldiers. Now it seemed like the news was right. Even as he watched the army march through the Eyes of the Sky, Anfey felt intimidated by the army.

The army kept marching. Behind the infantry were thousands of men on horseback. Compared to the infantry, the formation of the cavalry was looser. Flags with a black scorpion flew over the cavalry. This indicated that these riders belonged to the fearsome Magic Scorpion Cavalry Legion. Like the Sacred City Palace Guards of Maho Empire, the Magic Scorpion Cavalry Legion consisted of elites among elites. It was mainly tasked with the safety of Shansa Empire’s royal family. Only a legion of similar prowess could slow this legion.

Hundreds of mages followed the cavalry. The Eyes of the Sky was too far away for Anfey to tell exactly what rank these mages were, but if they were serving in the army, they had to be at least senior magisters. What was more shocking, there were five carriages among the mages. Those who could afford carriages must be exceptionally powerful.

Anfey took a deep breath. He realized he had severely underestimated the necromancers. He didn’t know when the Shansa army had reached the Transverse Mountains, but the necromancers knew the army’s route very well.

What he was seeing made Anfey realize how limited his resources were, and how powerful the Evil Mist was. Clearly, the Evil Mist either had spies among the Shansa army, or they had been watching the Shansa army very closely since the army set foot in Transverse Mountain.

Anfey knew that he had underestimated how powerful the necromancers were. The Shansa army had thirty thousand men, and the necromancers would not be this ruthless unless they knew they could defeat the army. Suddenly, the skirmishes seemed stupid and useless. A thousand zombies were a terrifying number: What would happen if the necromancers turn all thirty thousand men into zombies?

Riska had tried to figure out the necromancers’ plans, but now, it didn’t matter whether they wanted to build a graveyard, create a killer zombie, or collect Death magic. They would have no trouble achieving it with thirty thousand zombies in their hands.

“What should we do? Should we warn them?” Riska asked. A few days ago, Shansa Empire was one of his greatest enemies. Now, he was considering helping them.

“No. Let’s wait. It is going to be a good play,” Anfey said.

“A play?”

“Let’s keep watching,” Anfey said. “Don’t attract any attention from the necromancers…”

Before Anfey could finish his sentence, he heard screaming and yelling off to his right. The scout must have already encountered the zombies, and was at a disadvantage.

The sound of drums, powerful and intimidating, echoed through the valley. Soldiers of an elite army never expected ambushes. However, being an elite army, its soldiers were able to prepare themselves for a fight as soon as they were given the order. On the other hand, the necromancers never planned to ambush the army, either.

A powerful magic surge ripped through the air. As far as the magic touched, all the tree branches lowered to the ground, and leaves fell from the branches. The grass bent down, as if a large foot had just stepped onto the grass and forced it to the ground.

Anfey felt his body growing heavy, and almost fell off of the branch. He reached out and grabbed a nearby branch with his right hand, and grabbed Riska with his left hand. Suzanna was sitting on branches, but the magic did not affect her. However, she appeared shocked.

“It’s gravity magic!” Riska called suddenly.

“Isn’t that a forbidden spell?”

“It is,” Riska said. “How did they know it?”

No one could answer his question. In the distance, a dark gray ball of light raised above the tree crowns and exploded in the air. Thousands of sparks scattered throughout the forest. Riska frowned, staring at the sparks. Clearly, he did not know what kind of magic it was.

“Can you use the Eyes of the Sky?” Anfey asked.

“Yes. We are far enough from the scene,” Riska said as he released Eyes of the Sky. “The Shansa soldiers are in big trouble.”

Anfey didn’t feel anything when Riska said that the Shansa soldiers were in trouble, but saw that it was something different. In the Eyes of the Sky, he saw that all the trees were bent into strange shapes. The trunks held their shapes, but the branches had all broken off the trees under the pressure of the magic. Compared to the trees, the people were much weaker. The soldiers writhed on the ground. Their armor, once providing protection, now turned into the source of their suffering. Some of the more powerful men were still standing, but they could not stand straight.

Forbidden spells could not distinguish between friends and foes. The soldiers were affected, and so were the zombies. However, Anfey could tell the zombies were still moving towards the soldiers. Even though the zombies’ movements were slow and difficult, they could still attack. The Shansa soldiers, however, could hardly move. It was almost impossible for them to win this fight.

Magic Scorpion Cavalry Legion was in obvious trouble as well. When the spell took effect, only a few soldiers jumped off of their horses. Most horses were crushed under their riders, and the riders in the cavalry legion were heavily armored. Because of this, the soldiers could hardly stand, even though they were carefully selected elites.

A single forbidden spell was enough change the outcome of the battle. Anfey finally learned how powerful and terrifying senior magisters could be. If this continued, the Shansa army would be decimated.

Suddenly, a bright light shone from one of the carriages. The light expanded and covered the entire area in a few seconds. The soldiers pushed themselves off of the ground as the light touched them. They didn’t immediately attack. Instead, they began organizing their armor and weapons. The attack was surprising, and they had lost their horses, but the riders did not panic.

An old man with a long, white beard stepped out of the carriage. He was grasping a magic staff, and the gold light came from the staff.

The mages pushed themselves up as well. Another old mage walked over to join the first one. He did not say anything. Instead, he raised his hand and pointed towards the distance.

There was no change in the environment. Riska moved the Eyes of the Sky several times before finding a wall raised out of the earth.

“Brilliant,” he murmured. “Brilliant! Now the Shansa army has the advantage.” He was very excited, and the Eyes of the Sky disappeared with a flicker.

“Why?” Anfey didn’t understand why it was so brilliant. An earth wall was only an intermediate spell, something even Anfey was sure he could do in a few weeks.

“Magic has time limit, and forbidden spells are no different,” Riska explained, grinning. “The necromancers wanted to use the gravity spell to briefly disable the army, and kill as many soldiers as possible to create more zombies.”

“So?” Anfey still could not figure out why it was so brilliant.

“What is the most precious thing? Time! If the army could hold off the zombies until the magic wore off, they could fight again. The zombies are affected by the increase in gravity as well, and there was no way they could climb over that wall. Not even killer zombies.” Riska rubbed his hands together and smirked, “This is a real magic duel. Using intermediate magic to cancel out the effects of forbidden spells is a brilliant, brilliant move.”

“Did you say those necromancers lost the battle?” Suzanna asked.

“Well, maybe not.” Riska faked a smile, and then his smile froze on his face. “No, that is not right.”

“What is not right?” Anfey was shocked by Riska’s comments.

“If that mage released the magic from middle unit, how could the location of the wall be so far away? It was several miles away. Could he be the Archmage Dardanibry?” Riska asked.

“Is that the Archmage who has a nickname of playing with space?” Suzanna was shocked as well.

“Who is Dardanibry?” Anfey asked.

“He is th

e Chief Palace Mage in Shansa Empire, just like our professor. He is a space series archmage.” Riska had a bitter smile.

Anfey went quiet for a second and sighed. “Hurry up and release the Eyes of Sky. We need to check it. I feel those necromancers would not lose that easily.”

The situation on the battlefield had changed a lot when Riska released the Eyes of Sky again. Zombies actually could not crawl over the wall, but black worms had crawled all over the walls, although it was difficult for them to tell when this had happened. Anfey and his team tried to see the sizes of the black worms from the Eyes of Sky, but they could only see worms emerging from the wall like receding tides.

Those worms did not seem to be affected too much by the Great Gravity. They still could move very fast. There were more worms coming out of zombies’ eyes, mouths and even their wounds. They moved forward with momentum more terrifying than a flood.

The howling wind was heard from a distance. A visible green hurricane swept through the whole battlefield. That visible green hurricane actually had been called out by mages. That hurricane picked up and carried many leaves, branches and grass with it. Looking from the Eyes of Sky, the hurricane appeared green.

All the flags were either pulled out from the ground or broken into halves and wrapped into the hurricane. Some soldiers were picked up and wrapped into the hurricane, screaming. They only flashed in the air and then completely disappeared. Everything had two sides to it. So did magic. No matter how well the magic was done, some unlucky soldiers on the mages’ side were accidentally hurt by it.

The hurricane smashed hard into the wall. Countless worms created waves of worms just like ocean waves. Some waves of worms were as high as dozens of yards, but they were black.

The weird worms were not scared of Great Gravity, but could not take the hit from the hurricane. In the blink of an eye, walls that were miles long became as clean as if they had just been created by the mages.

Those worms were tough. They were brought to a height of dozens yards in the sky, fell to the ground, or smashed into each other, but they immediately rushed towards the walls as the wind got less strong.

“Annunciata, you have fallen even further.” A huge sound amplified by Amplification magic was heard in the distance. “Flesheaters should not be at this level of space. They are the magic pets of evil spirits.”

“Falling has always made me happy, hasn’t it?” A gentle voice rose. “Dardanibry, you surprised me. You should not be here, should you?”

“I only show up where I am needed,” a voice rose to reply in a neither arrogant nor obsequious tone.

“I did not expect you to be here today. I have prepared this for a long time for today. Dardanibry, you do not have a chance. Forget about it and leave now,” Annunciata said.

“You are not only failing, but also stupid. I was not concerned about your threat. I am a Space series archmage,” Dardanibry said.

“You have no idea what I want to do,” the girl with a gentle voice sighed. “You will pay for underestimating me.”

“You have no idea what I want to do,” Dardanibry said slowly, “Don’t underestimate me. I will pull your thighbone off and stick it into your ass if your rotten body still has an ass.”

Dardanibry was polite at the beginning of the conversation. He was able to keep his voice calm in speaking with an evil necromancer. Anfey respected the manner of a powerful man, but Anfey totally changed his idea after his last few statements. He and Suzanna gave each other a look. Within the range of Eyes of Sky, Anfey could tell the mages around Dardanibry were not enthusiastic, but they started to laugh really hard. Dardanibry not only cursed the opponent, but also made those mages feel good about themselves. It allowed them to feel proud of what they were doing and disdain for their opponent.

“How many times do you think you can perform a spell of a hurricane? I hope you can keep your rudeness to the end. I will treat you very ‘well’.” The voice was still very gentle. She did not care whether she could win the argument with Dardanibry at all.

“I will always leave my rudeness to you, my falling and rotten lady. Besides that, I really could not figure a way to show my ‘sincere respect’ for you.” Dardanibry was not only good at magic but also at arguments. He did not give all his attention to arguing and cursing at his opponent. The hurricane moved higher in the sky. Suddenly the hurricane carrying countless worms smashed upwards to the dark clouds. The black hurricane looked like a black curtain from a distance.

The clouds in the sky were knocked apart by the hurricane. A hot sunlight came through the crack. With the direct sunlight, the countless worms in the hurricane turned into black smoke. The worms could not take sunlight, just like evil spirits’ magic pets and zombies. Obviously, Darnanibry knew it.

The zombies started to scream when the sunlight reached the ground. The leftover worms moved in waves to avoid the sunlight. They ran in panic in every direction. Their intelligence was unexpectedly higher than zombies. They knew when to run away from the dangers.

Suddenly there was an electric blue light flashing in the sky and a half circle of light appeared, blocking the sun outside it.

“Canopy of the Death!” Dardanibry sounded surprised. He did not even have time to respond. The walls he created had already turned into dirt elements and disappeared. The barriers between zombies and soldiers had gone. Black worms moved towards them in waves.

Dardanibry gathered magic and released Earth Breaking without any hesitation. The spell of a hurricane was senior magic. It needed more magic but had a very short lifespan. Walls could not stop those worms. As an experienced archmage, he would not make mistakes on common sense.

A deep trench appeared in front of the frontier soldiers with the surges of the dirt elements. With the effects of Great Gravity, a trench a few yards high could kill anyone who fell in, while the trench created by Dardanibry did not seem to have a bottom. Without even thinking much, it was easy to guess that those soldiers had no way to survive if they fell into the trench.

A sea of worms had submerged the soldiers left on the other side of the trench. Their screaming could be heard, but they had disappeared in the sea of worms. Their screaming gradually disappeared as well, and silence fell.

The worms knew there was no way to cross the trench, so a sea of worms suddenly moved backwards. Dardanibry heaved a sigh of relief and the corners of his mouth curled up. Great Gravity was going to lose its effectiveness soon. It would be their chance to fight back.

On the other end of the battlefield, a person in weird clothes slowly walked out of the forest. The worms retreated to the foot of that person and started to pile up. The way they piled up was like a gigantic mushroom growing from the ground. It grew bigger and bigger. When every worm finished retreating, there was a black ball six yards tall in front of that person.

The zombies in the front started to lay on the ground one after another. They fought the Great Gravity to pile up together. The person in weird clothes suddenly moved. The gigantic black ball also started to roll and sped up. It rolled onto the zombies, who had piled up into a ramp to give a start for the gigantic black ball to jump. The gigantic ball rolled onto the incline and jumped over the valley. With a huge crashing sound, the gigantic black ball turned into countless black meteors and fell into the crowd.

Great Gravity started to lose its effectiveness at the same time. The mage group of Shansa Empire had reached the protection of kekkai and was ready to fight back.

By knowing the nature of their enemies, mages performed large-scale aggressive magic. Waves of heat had created an upside-down triangular area in the sea of worms. Freezing ice circles were released one after another. Over a dozen mages cooperated to release the spell of firewalls to set a barrier between the sea of worms and the soldiers. The barriers they set could block worms’ attacks for a short time. Although they did not do it perfectly and left some gaps of different sizes between the firewalls, it had damaged the combat powers of Flesheaters. A few mages turned the area behind the firewalls into swamps to try to buy those soldiers some time to reorganize themselves to fight again.

Some soldiers were not killed by worms and just had some time to take a breath from the fighting when they were hit by that mages’ attacks. They got stuck in the swamps and screamed for their fellow soldiers to help them. Unfortunately, their companions pretended they did not see them. They reorganized themselves under the instruction of their commander. This was the rule of battle. Winning was the priority. As long as there were enemies, no commander would waste their time on the wounded soldiers.

it was no wonder mages were called “Battlefield Sweepers.” Without the protection of mages, their enemies could do whatever they wanted. A sea of worms used to be invincible for the soldiers, but could be wiped out by mages in the blink of an eye. Flesheaters had always won their battles by making up numbers. Their individual ability to fight magic was not even worth mentioning. A sea of worms could be burned to ashes by waves of heat and frozen to worm sculptures by Freezing Ice Circles.

The battle was getting more intense. Anfey, Riska, and Suzanna were watching it through the Eyes of the Sky, and were too absorbed in the fighting to say anything to each other. When his magic was almost depleted, Riska even opened a bottle of magic replenishing potion that Hagan made from unicorn blood. He had been saving it ever since Hagan gave it to him, but now he felt he had to use it. Riska realized the female necromancer was much more powerful than he expected, and witnessing the match between two archmages was almost a once in a lifetime chance. What was slightly disappointing was that neither mage had used forbidden spells against each other since the fight began. Both were much more focused on their soldiers. Both used many high level magic spells, but they avoided directly attacking each other.

In truth, Dardanibry wanted to use forbidden spells, but he could not right now. The gravity spell caught him off guard. This was strange and did not comply with the rules of magic. He knew his opponent must have a rare magic scroll. A forbidden spell was the last thing he wanted to use, because if the magic did not reach his desired effect after he released it, he would lose. The depletion of his magic combined the cooling off period after a spell was used would turn him into a useless man. His opponent, on the other hand, would have enough magic to perform another forbidden spell.

For the two sides on the field, the battle was ferocious. For onlookers, the fight got boring after a while. The only thing that kept Anfey, Riska, and Suzanna watching was the anticipation for the match between two archmages.

Time ticked on, and the Shansa soldiers were too absorbed in the fight to notice that a normal man was slowly changing the battle.

The man’s first action was to push back large black balls made up of hundreds of flesheaters, and soon he joined the fight himself. However, he was only a little stronger than a zombie, and did not attract any attention. Even a common junior swordsmaster could easily have defeated him. However, his recovery rate was much faster than a zombie’s. Whenever he was severed by a soldier or burned to a crisp by fire magic, he was able to recover and return to the fight. Due to the intensity of the battle, however, none of the soldiers and mages noticed him. Even Dardanibry, who was observing the fight through Eyes of the Sky and aiding the soldiers with magic from a distance, did not notice him.

The man may not have been powerful, but there were soldiers who were less powerful than he was. Several soldiers fell before him. Corpses of people who were killed by zombies were usually bloody and unrecognizable. After a while, the body would turn into a zombie as well. However, the bodies of the man’s victims were all dry. There was no blood, no eyes, and no Breath of Death. The bodies turned to dust under the feet of the soldiers and zombies.

The sun was covered by a dark grey cloud, and it was very hard to tell time. No one knew when night would fall. The tactic of Shansa Empire’s mages had turned from attacking in unison to taking turns attacking. Only a dozen mages would be using magic, while the others were meditating and replenishing their magic. Zombies, on the other hand, never became tired. Compared to the flesheaters, they were much more tenacious. No spell could effectively slow down the attacks of the zombies. Some zombies were still fighting, even though their bodies were charred by fire magic.

The most effective way to stop a zombie was to remove its head, but it was very hard for the mages to achieve that. Using soldiers for that task would be sending thousands of men to their deaths.

The zombies were best at long, drawn out battles. The humans had no backup, and, among the thirty thousand men, the six thousand archers found themselves in a difficult situation. They were meant to be assisting the mages, but now they did not know what to do. They could only use normal arrows, and an infantryman’s attack was much more powerful than a hundred arrows.

Unlike the humans, the zombies’ numbers were increasing steadily. At first, it was thirty thousand men against a thousand zombies. Now, the zombies could form a crescent formation, and were close to being able to surround the Shansa army. The Shansa army was slowly losing its advantage.

Finally, the man hidden among the zombies caught Dardanibry’s attention, because the man had just killed a junior swordsmaster. Even though the junior swordsmaster had been fighting for too long and was exhausted, the man was still exceptionally strong for a zombie. This sudden appearance of a powerful individual among the zombies alarmed Dardanibry.

The more he killed, the more powerful the man was. The shields and armor were nothing to him. The generals noticed him as well, and sent a man with a intermediate swordsmaster badge to stop him. The man caught the swordsmaster’s sword, coated in blinding combat power, and punched the swordsmaster in the face, sending the man stumbling into a group of soldiers. Seeing this, Dardanibry narrowed his eyes. He had figured out who, or what, that man was.

Powerful magic surges washed over the battlefield, and the drums rang. The Shansa soldiers began stumbling back, and the mages stopped using magic as well and began retreating. The entire battlefield was suddenly cleared. The zombies were too slow, and even though they were roaring and chasing after the soldiers, the soldiers were still able to place some distance between them and the zombies.

Suddenly, the wind subsided and the grass and trees stopping swaying. The air was suddenly very heavy. Through the Eyes of the Sky, Riska, Anfey, and Suzanna saw that Dardanibry’s mouth was moving. Even though they could not hear the spell Dardanibry was using, the three knew that what they were waiting for was about to happen.

A bright dot appeared in the sky. The zombies were not affected, but many soldiers crouched down and covered their eyes. Then the dot turned into thousands of light streaks and rained down and enveloped the zombies under a dome.

The zombies suddenly stopped moving. They were still walking, roaring, and clawing the air. Some were crawling on the ground, and some were lying on the ground, tripped by the weapons the soldiers left behind. It did not matter what the zombies were doing. All were still, as if frozen in time.

A drop of blood fell off a dead soldier’s finger. The droplet, splattering onto the grass, was frozen still. A soldier lay dying nearby, and his prayers were preserved under the light. A grasshopper jumped from a nearby patch of grass, and its wings were fixed in the air.

Inside the light dome, it was as if everything was nothing more than part of a painting.

The beats of the drums changed. The mages all floated in midair and began using fire magic against the dome. The fireballs and fire meteors all turned into bright yellow marks on the light dome as they hit it. The dome was clear, and it was easy to see that the magic elements did not enter the dome. However, they were not stopped by the dome, either. Except perhaps for Dardanibry, no one could say where the elements had gone to.

The Shansa mages kept releasing magic. Their movements were so fast their hands began to blur. Some mages had used up all their magic and returned to the ground. Those still in the air was still releasing magic.

More and more marks appeared on the dome. The entire dome was almost completely covered by the yellow marks, obscuring what was inside, and the light dome turned a bright yellow. There were only about twenty mages in the air. They were using meteor magic, which was high level magic with a brief cooling off period. However, they did not stop attacking during the cooling off period. They used fireballs to attack when they could not summon meteors, adding to the brightness of the light dome.

The old mage who was standing next to Dardanibry walked over to the soldiers, his expression grave. He pointed his staff straight towards the sky, whispering a spell. A magic shield began to lower over the remaining soldiers.

The dot of light over the light dome flickered, and the entire dome began collapsing. As the dome disappeared, the marks in the dome returned to the form they had when they were created. Fireballs and meteors rained down. The amount of fire magic stopped by the dome was so great, the bright blaze had turned the dark grey cloud yellow.

With a loud explosion, the ground shook violently, roaring. Magic surged across the field, and grass, shrubs, and trees were reduced to dust in the blink an eye. Rocks, some as large as a wheel, flew through the air. The rocks had appeared as light as leaves when the magic sent them tumbling.

Perhaps it was because the magic’s perimeter was too great, the shield shook upon impact. The outer edge was quivering visibly like a balloon in a storm. The old mage was sweating, but his arm was still straight and stiff.

There were still some rocks and dirt falling from the sky after the explosions. The area that had been attacked by magic already had a big hole, and all the zombies had gone. No matter how powerful the zombies were, they would not survive such an attack. Those zombies lucky enough to be outside the light dome were torn into pieces by the shock waves.

The soldiers from Shansa Empire could not see how deep the holes were. Anfey could not see it clearly either. As the magic explosions were about to happen, Anfey felt something wrong by instinct. He grabbed Suzanna and Riska and jumped off the tree. They hid behind a little dirt mound. They were not in the mood to continue to watch what was going on through the Eyes of the Sky. Luckily, they were far enough away; otherwise they would have gotten hurt as badly as those zombies if they had been two or three hundred yards closer.

Anfey got hit the most among three of them. Suzanna protected herself with combat power, while Riska released a protection shield. Anfey did not have any way to block the rocks and dirt falling from the sky. Anfey stood up when the explosions were over. He looked like he was made from dirt. He immediately performed Qi to shake off the dirt on him. He bent over to get the dirt out of his hair, but he could not get all the dirt off him.

“Annunciata, you lost!” Dardanibry’s voice rose. It was a victory claim, but he sounded like he was tired.

The female necromancer did not respond to him with an argument, but with magic. A terrifying magic surge swept the forest. The magic surge got stronger and stronger. After a moment, the surge suddenly disappeared. Hundreds of black balls flew up from the forest. They flew towards the battlefield like flocks of birds.

Those black balls did not attack right away. They only hovered over the hole with a radius of 50 yards. Black fog arose from the big hole. The amount of fog was getting larger and larger. The black fog seemed like it got instructions from somewhere. It gathered to create a black light pillar more than ten yards high.

The soldiers from Shansa Empire were amazed by what they saw. No one dared to walk out of the magic dome. They knew there was no point for them to be part of this battle anymore.

The black pillar continued to condense and turned into a egg-shaped object. Only the shape was not so irregular. The shell of the egg was constantly moving. It looked like there was something inside the egg, trying to crawl out. It was a battle, comparable to a checker game. There was no time to think what was the next step was for the battle. A few meteorites fell from the sky and hit the egg-shaped object. The egg-shaped object suddenly gave out a bright light.

The hit did not break the eggshell. After the bright light disappeared, that weird egg still floated in the air.

Before the mages could attack again, the eggshell shattered like glass. It turned into countless black lights. A person showed up in front of everyone. Because of the distance, most people could not see the person’s face clearly, but the long hair flowing in the wind indicated it might be a woman or female monster.

“Annunciata, why don’t you give up?” Dardanibry’s voice rose again.

“Are you talking to me?” The voice was low compared with the voice before. The talking was not from the forest. Instead, it sounded like the person with long hair was talking.

“You…” Dardanibry’s voice trembled. Later everyone knew what made his voice tremble. “The spell of Great Disassembly?”

Dardanibry only knew a few forbidden death magic spells, but he had never seen any of them. When he saw Annunciata came out from the eggshell, he knew the answer: she had used the spell of Great Disassembly.

“Powerful attack! Who was that person? How did she appear?” Anfey asked in surprise. Riska released the Eyes of Sky, but could not see anything in front of him.

“I do not know. It seemed to be a woman,” Riska said in a low voice.

“Ok, I asked for nothing.” Anfey helplessly shook his head. “What is Great Disassembly? Is it forbidden magic?”

“Oh, right. Riska, can I practice Death magic?” Anfey was not scared of death and was interested in everything.

“No.” Riska rolled his eyes.

Annunciata’s voice arose. “Dardanibry, you ruined everything I did for the past decades. Do you know how would I respond to you?” Annunciata had always sounded sweet, but her voice suddenly became very high pitched. Obviously, she could not control her anger anymore.

“Do you want to use advanced Great Disassembly?” Dardanibry asked.

Annunciata answered his question with silence. The magic surges around her body started to get stronger and stronger.

“No wonder you dare to do this. The reason you dared to get out of your cave is your body, oh, no, your bones are about to collapse.” Dardanibry knew he had guessed right. He sounded happy about it. If Annunciata could move one more level, it would take a lot to destroy her. Of course, he knew Annunciata was a lot more powerful with Great Disassembly. He had to be ready to face Annunciata’s anger, but he would never regret today’s battle.

“Go to hell!” Annunciata yelled in anger. She started to chant with her head down.

The mages from Shansa Empire immediately release magic, trying to attack Annunciata before her spells could be completed. Annunciata’s spells were finished a lot quicker than they expected. A gigantic person’s shadow suddenly appeared in the sky. It stood right in front of Annunciata. All the attacks were blocked by that shadow.

“The Fallen Angel?” Dardanibry yelled in surprise.

The gigantic shadow was more than ten yards tall. The two black wings on its back moved like light fog. The shadow held her right hand in front of the chest with a sword. Her left hand was down, with a shield six or seven yards in length and width on her arm. Meteorites and lightning hitting on her did not cause any damage.

The fallen angel had slammed her sword down on the magic dome. The gigantic sword and magic dome collided and made a huge clashing sound. That older magic made a low pitched noise in pain. The magic dome broke, and so did the fallen angel.

Dardanibry heaved a sigh of relief. It was fine as long as it was not Fallen Angel’s magic. But his smiles disappeared right away.

Gigantic bone spears appeared in Annunciata’s hands. Those gigantic spears flew towards the soldiers. Regular bone spears should disappear after hitting the target, but the bone spears from Annunciata were really unusual. They were moving around like fish swimming in the ocean. They moved everywhere, thrusting to the left, right, up and down. Everyone who got stabbed by the bone spears had a big bloody hole in their bodies. Those bone spears did not stop or disappear. They quickly moved on to their next targets.

One bone spear should not have too much power, but dozens of them moving around in the crowd looked terrifying. A few powerful swordsmen from Shansa Empire had successfully broken some bone spears. However, for every bone spear they broke, five more were released by Annunciata. Bone spears moved everywhere in the crowd, which did not allow swordsmen to push soldiers away from the spear with combat power. Swordsmen could not chase after the bone spears either. They had to stand there and wait for the spears to come their way.

Fear Kekkai, Weak Kekkai, Older Kekkai and other spells were performed on the battlefield one after another. Spells could not turn soldiers into lambs waiting to be slaughtered as Great Gravity. However, when the effects of all spells were added together, it made soldiers lose over half of their combat power. Especially, fear Kekkai had put the whole military array in chaos.

The over six thousand archers finally got the chance to showcase their talent. With mages in the center of their formation, dispel magic had taken the cursing effects off them. At the instruction of the commander, they uniformly pulled their bowstrings, and aimed at Annunciata in the sky. Countless arrows shot towards Annunciata. It looked like a flock of birds departing together.

A gigantic bone shield appeared in front of Annunciata. The bone shield easily blocked the arrows. The effects of the magic domes and shields totally depended on the mage’s magic power and telephathy. Annunciata used to not be able to protect herself with just a magic shield, but she could now that her magic power was at its peak.

Dardanibry started to worry. He knew necromancers could get very powerful in a very short time with Great Dissemble, but he did not know Annunciata could be this powerful. Cursing, Magic shield, bone spears and other magic were performed one after another without any break. Even Dardanibry could not do it. Only legendary archmages could release their magic like this.

The soldiers who got hurt by bone spears suddenly started to move. There was rotten power in Annunciata’s bone spears. Therefore, every soldier she killed would become a zombie.

Around forty zombies on the other side of the battlefield rushed into the battlefield from the forest. They howled as they ran. Judging from their speed, they had advanced to become battle zombies.

Dardanibry took a deep breath, smiling bitterly at his own Dimension ring. In the blink of an eye, there were hundreds more zombies. There would be more zombies coming. Dardanibry could not waste any more time. Everyone carried some responsibilities that they could not shake off. If Dardanibry wanted to leave, Annunciata could not stop him, even though her power had increased dramatically. Dardanibry could not leave thousands of soldiers behind. Where could he go without them?

“God bless…” A clear and elegant voice suddenly came. The voice was not loud, but everyone on the battlefield could hear it clearly. That voice sounded so soothing. The soldiers from Shansa Empire stopped panicking. Zombies looked up to look at her.

Dardanibry was shocked for a second when he heard this familiar voice. He looked so exhilarated. Dardanibry was rude, but he could always keep calm when something big happened. He rarely lost control of himself.

Annunciata screamed in the sky in the way girls might react when they saw snakes, rats and roaches. She backed off as she screamed. Obviously, she knew the newcomer and had lost many battles to her; otherwise she would not have backed off when her power had increased dramatically.

The sudden change on the battlefield made Anfey even more interested. He leaned in closer to the Eyes of the Sky to observe the battle. However, the Eyes of the Sky flickered and disappeared.

“Riska?”

“It’s not my fault,” Riska said hurriedly. He looked shocked. Judging from the magic surges, he knew someone had used a forbidden spell. However, this was the first time he learned that a forbidden spell could disrupt other elements and cause his Eyes of the Sky to disappear.

On the battlefield, the forbidden spell had already taken effect. What was surprising was that the forbidden spell did not unleash blinding lights or deafening sounds. There was only a small halo that hung over Annunciata’s head.

Annunciata screamed in agony. She didn’t use any amplifying magic, but her scream could be heard for miles. She moved around, trying to get away from the light halo. However, no matter what she did, the halo followed her persistently.

Suddenly, thick, black smoke obscured Annunciata’s figure. People could not see Annunciata, but they could see the small halo, hanging in midair. The black smoke streaked through the air as Annunciata escaped.

Clearly, the halo was still following her, because her scream could still be heard.

“The necromancers have lost,” Riska said. He could not see the battlefield, but the scream told him what had unfolded.

Anfey narrowed his eyes, and Suzanna reached for her sword. Riska looked like he did not feel anything was wrong, and kept on talking. “Did you hear that?” he asked. “By the mercy of gods, the Priests of Light have arrived! Thank god Black Eleven spread the news.”

“Who’s Black Eleven?” a deep voice asked.

Riska frowned and summoned an earth wall, then a magic shield appeared around his body. He floated through the air and was about to use a lightning spell when he realized neither Anfey nor Suzanna were moving. Riska hesitated, but did not use the lightning spell.

“Don’t worry,” the voice said. “I mean no harm.”

A man in his seventies stood by an old tree, looking at the trio, grinning. He looked like a normal old man. His clothing and his appearance were common, and did not seem threatening. However, Anfey still felt strange. He could see the old man, but he could not feel him. It was as if the old man was a part of the forest.

“Who are you?” Anfey asked. He was very respectful towards the old man, because the man was able to approach him without alarming him. That proved how powerful the old man must be.

“Bruzuryano,” the old man said. “Who is this Black Eleven you speak of?”

“His real name is Armin,” Anfey said. “Black Eleven is just a nickname.”

“That’s an interesting choice for a nickname, don’t you think?” Bruzuryano said with a smile. He looked at Anfey and said, “Let me guess. You must be Anfey.”

“You must be an acquaintance of Armin’s, then,” Anfey said.

“And this young lady must be Suzanna.”

“Bruzuryano? Which Bruzuryano?” Suzanna asked. She did not treat the old man with the same respect Anfey did.

“Are there a lot of people with this name?” Bruzuryano asked.

“I never expected to run into you here, sir.” Once she confirmed his identity, Suzanna replied respectfully.

“I’m old now, and there are very few things that interest me. I heard the commotion at Transverse Mountain, and I had to come and see for myself,” Bruzuryano said. “Who knows if this will be the last time I will witness something like this?” Bruzuryano smiled and turned his gaze to Riska. “You must be Riska.”

“Yes,” Riska said. “Nice meeting you, sir.”

“All good men,” Bruzuryano said. “You are younger than most junior magisters.” He turned to Suzanna and said, “And you, my dear. I think the world will see the rise of a new master swordsman in no time.”

“I am nothing compared to you, sir,” Suzanna said.

“Compared to me now? If you can beat me, then that means I have accomplished nothing in my seventy years in this world,” Bruzuryano said.

“No, that is not what I meant,” Suzanna explained, blushing.

“I can’t really understand you, child.” Bruzuryano turned his gaze to Anfey and observed him carefully.

“Surely you don’t have to understand everyone, sir,” Anfey said. He knew that Bruzuryano meant no harm to him and his companions, or else he would not engage Suzanna and Riska in conversation. He also knew that Bruzuryano must have been one of the most powerful men in the world at that moment.

Logically, men like Bruzuryano did not lack respect. In reality, being favored by a woman and being favored by a powerful man were two very similar things. One needed to be as interesting as possible to gain their attention. People like Suzanna and Riska would not catch the attention of a powerful man. Anfey didn’t want to try and befriend every powerful man he encountered, but he knew that it was better to leave a strong impression than to leave no impression at all.

“You are not wrong, child,” Bruzuryano said with a laugh.

“Sir, are you here to fight the necromancers?” Riska asked. He wish he could see the old man in action, even if it meant there would be another group of necromancers.

“I just wanted to see what had happened. Hunting down those necromancers is Slanbrea’s job.”

“Slanbrea?” Suzanna gasped. “The High Priest of Light? You are here with him? But…”

Anfey smiled and shook his head. Another powerful man? Plus Annunciata and Dardanibry, this was a gathering of the most powerful men and women of the world.

“But what?” Bruzuryano asked. He knew what Suzanna wanted to say, and was clearly toying with her.

“But you are an Arch Druid, sir. You and Slanbrea…” Suzanna hesitated.

“You mean Slanbrea is my arch rival?”

The Church of Light antagonizes all the other religions. Sometimes, the antagonism would lead to bloody battles. As a believer in the Goddess of Nature, Bruzuryano was not a likely associate of Slanbrea.

Suzanna nodded.

“Just rumors,” Bruzuryano said. “We are too old for petty brawls now.”

“It’s not just petty brawls, sir. You’re fighting for your honor!” Riska had always treated battles as something serious and sacred. Hearing Bruzuryano describing it as petty brawls, he felt he needed to correct him.

Bruzuryano stared at him and smiled. He looked as if he was reminiscing about something. Over the years, he had fought for many different causes. Now, he was too old, and none of it mattered.

Suzanna kicked Riska and told him to not correct Bruzuryano again. “It’s disrespectful,” she said.

“Fighting is something for the youth,” Bruzuryano said. “We are old now, and we know that not everything can be solved by violence. Do you know what I will do if I run into Annunciata?”

“The necromancer? Surely you will challenge her to a duel,” Riska said.

“No. I will invite her to have a drink with me. If only she was still beautiful,” Bruzuryano said, shaking his head. “This time, though, she has gone too far. She killed too many people. Even I am angry with her.”

“Would you invite her to bed, if she was still beautiful?” Anfey thought, but kept his thought to himself. The few powerful men he had encountered before all had some notable traits. Saul was kind and generous; Ernest was serious and meticulous; Miorich was loyal and passionate. They were very different, but every one of them worthy of great respect. Bruzuryano clearly did not hold a grudge against the necromancers like most of the world. Bruzuryano did not finish his sentence, but Anfey thought his guess wasn’t far off.

“Was that necromancer beautiful?” Suzanna asked.

“She was stunning. In fact, she became a necromancer to preserve that very beauty.

She is in trouble this time, though,” Bruzuryano said with a sigh. “Slanbrea’s Seal of the Gods will follow her. Perhaps for a few months, maybe half a year or longer. When that seal is gone, she will be as good as dead. Don’t make the Church your enemy. They may appear kind, but really, they are capable of cruelty beyond a common man’s imagination.”

“You like to talk behind people’s backs. When are you going to change this bad habit?” A voice was clearly heard. A middle-aged man in white gown appeared about a dozen yards behind Bruzuryano.

“Who said I am talking behind people’s backs? I knew you were here. I said that to you on purpose. Don’t you get it?” Bruzuryano frowned.

Anfey glanced at the middle-aged man. From the way they talked, the middle-aged man must be the Priest of Light, Slanbrea. Maybe it was the nature of Light magic. He looked humble, honest, and kind.

Two not-so-young mages slowly landed behind Slanbrea. Slanbrea’s face did not change. They seemed to be friends; otherwise, Slanbrea would have been concerned about it. It was taboo to have a person behind a mage without knowing whether that person is a friend or an enemy. It would pose too much of a threat to the mage.

“Don’t you want to introduce your friends?” Slanbrea asked with a smile.

“Armin was sent out to spread the news. This is Anfey. He…” Bruzuryano said.

“I got it.” Slanbrea was shocked for a second. He immediately interrupted Bruzuryano.

“Are you the Anfey?” Dardanibry suddenly asked.

“Yes,” Anfey answered him curtly.

Dardanibry gave Anfey a long look, but did not ask Anfey more questions.

“Your bravery has won my respect. If you did not send the news out, I would not know how many people would die from necromancers.” Slanbrea slowly walked up to Anfey. He held his finger out and pointed it at Anfey’s forehead.

Anfey did not move, quietly looking at Slanbrea. He was wise. If Slanbrea wanted to hurt him, there was no way he could avoid it. If Slanbrea did not intend to hurt him, his move could make Slanbrea misunderstand him. It would be better stand still than dodging.

Slanbrea’s finger lightly touched Anfey’s forehead. He pulled his finger back with a smile. He turned around and said, “Dardanibry, we should go and clean up the battlefield now. We need to find Annunciata’s nest around here and destroy it as well.”

“Sure.” Dardanibry nodded. He made a path for Slanbrea.

Slanbrea did not say anything before he left. He slowly walked into the forest. Dardanibry and the other mage caught up with Slanbrea in big strides. Seeing the three of them disappearing, Bruzuryano stayed where he was without moving.

“Getting old, getting old. I cannot keep up with the times,” Bruzuryano said with a smile.

“You talk too much.” Anfey started to look calm.

“You should not blame me for that.” Bruzuryano stared with wide eyes.

“But Slanbrea’s response time was a lot shorter than yours,” Anfey said.

“I am telling you. First of all, Slanbrea is twenty years younger than me. Secondly, I can call him Slanbrea, but you cannot. You would be punished or torn apart by his manic disciples if you called him Slanbrea. Last, there are a lot of cause-effect relationships in this world. The cause is on you, not me. You cannot blame me for that,” Bruzuryano said.

“I did not blame you, did I?” Anfey said.

Bruzuryano looked at Anfey for a while and said, “Are you scared?”

Anfey grinned, but he did not answer the question verbally. However, his facial expression clearly told Bruzuryano that he was not afraid of anything.

“Then I am leaving?” Bruzuryano turned half way around and pretended to walk away, but he still looked at Anfey out of the corner of his eye.

“Take care,” Anfey said.

“I am really leaving now,” Bruzuryano said.

Anfey felt helpless when he had to deal with this naughty, old, powerful man. He had to nod to signal him to leave.

“Kido, you are too stubborn.” Bruzuryano turned around with a helpless look. “No matter what, Saul is my friend. I do not want him to come to my house to kick my ass. In addition, I did make trouble for him. What should I do?”

Anfey continued to keep quiet. He was sentimental at that moment. He thought to himself that he would be treated so differently if he did not have a “well-known” master. If they were not the students of Saul, who would care whether they were alive or dead. Master Swordsman Philip’s chase sounded terrible, but did not actually do anything to them. The chase was stopped by Yolanthe’s constraint, otherwise the worst case scenario might have played out.

“How about I give you one thing?” Bruzuryano held his hand out as he talked. There was a piece of leaf with a fine gold chain on his hand. That leaf looked and felt no difference than a regular leaf. It did not have any magic surges. No one knew what it could do.

“Thank you,” Anfey said.

“You are welcome. But let me tell you first, you can borrow it for now. I did not give it to you. Do you understand?” Bruzuryano said.

Anfey smiled and nodded. Bruzuryano gently put the leaf on Anfey’s neck. “Tell Saul I do not owe him anything anymore.”

Anfey was shocked. His first reaction was to take the leaf off and return it to Bruzuryano.

“I am just joking. I do not owe Saul anything,” Bruzuryano smiled.

Anfey’s hand froze in the air. He did not know if he should take it off or not. He was confused and could not tell if Bruzuryano was telling him the truth.

“Ok, you guys should leave now.” Bruzuryano waved his hand and strode into the forest. Others had to walked around the ancient trees. They would not be stupid enough walk into the trees, but Bruzuryano walked straight forward. The bushes and ancient trees turned into objects that could walk and made a path for him.

“Anfey, should we go back to Moramatch now?” Riska did not understand their conversation, but he was not interested in it anyway. He cared about when he could go back to Moramatch to see the rest of the legion.

“We are not going back.” Anfey shook his head. “Let’s go. We need leave as soon as we can. We will talk as we walk.”

The dark clouds in the sky had gradually disappeared as Annunciata fled. The sky started to look clear. It was sunset as Anfey and the two others were running towards the direction of the sun.

Riska was indeed flying, while Anfey and Suzanna were running. Without knowing how long they had run, Anfey started to be out of breath. Suzanna and Riska were still fine. Anfey was physically stronger than Suzanna, but Suzanna was a lot better than Anfey when she used combat power.

Anfey took a deep breath and calculated the distance in his mind. He waved to signal Suzanna and Riska to stop for a second.

“Anfey, what happened?” Suzanna immediately asked. She had no idea what this running was for. Anfey looked as though he was in thought when he ran. She did not want to interrupt his thinking. She finally found an opportunity to ask.

“That Dardanibry would not just let us leave like this,” Anfey said in a low voice.

Suzanna and Riska gasped quietly. The news that Anfey wiped out a Griffin Aerial Unit had spread. Dardanibry must have known about it. He was as a palace mage of Shansa Empire and would not easily just let Anfey go.

“I got it. Bruzuryano slipped. Damn it!” Bruzuryano was one of the most powerful men, but he was not here. Riska did not care what he said about him.

“It was not that simple,” Anfey said slowly.

“Of course. Top powerful men are never simple,” Riska said.

“I did not mean it that way. I mean he slipped on purpose and then…” Anfey said.

“Then he took the opportunity to give you that leaf?” Riska said.

“I know these conclusions sound a little ridiculous, but I just have a feeling that he did it on purpose. I could not figure out why he would do it.” Anfey held the leaf in front of his chest. “Do you know what this is?”

“Let me take a look.” Riska felt it with his fingers. “This just looks like a regular leaf.”

“You are talking bulls*#t. I should not have shown it to you.” Anfey did not know whether he should laugh or cry. He pushed Riska’s hand away from the leaf. “Suzanna, can you tell what this is?”

“It looks like a badge a druid would wear. Anfey, do you feel anything different when you wear it?”

“Nothing different.” Anfey went quiet and pulled the leaf with his hands. He pulled slightly on both sides. The leaf seemed to have really good elasticity. When Anfey let his hands go, it went back to its original shape.

Anfey gradually pulled the leaf harder, but the leaf would always go back to its normal shape when Anfey let his hands go. Anfey even used half of his strength to pull the leaf apart, like he was tearing a piece of paper at the end. Suddenly a bright light flashed and Anfey’s hands released the leaf.

Anfey, Suzanna and Riska looked at each other, confused. The moment the light flashed, they all felt strong magic surges. Obviously, this was not an ordinary leaf.

“Never mind. We will study it when it is dark.” Anfey gave it up. The magic surges were too strong. If Dardanibry chased after them, the magic surges would allow Dardanibry to find them easily. Anfey dared not experiment with it anymore.

“Oh, right, Anfey. Did that Slanbrea do anything to you? I saw him pointing to your forehead,” Suzanna asked in a low voice.

“I feel something went into my head, but it seemed like nothing happened either.” Anfey looked confused. This difference in ability make him feel helpless. If a patient had surgery and the doctor refused to tell the patient what organ he had cut out, that patient must be confused as well.

“Do you think it was a good thing or bad thing?” Suzanna asked in a worried tone.

“I do not know,” Anfey sighed. “If they wanted to hurt me, they did not have to go through so much trouble. If they wanted to help us, what is the reason? I still do not get it.”

After a short rest, Anfey, Riska, and Suzanna continued traveling to the west. Anfey decided that it was very unlikely Dardanibry would come after him. The Shansa army just battled the necromancers, and had suffered great losses. As the heart of the army, Dardanibry should stay with the soldiers. However, he could not eliminate the possibility of Dardanibry sending an elite team to hunt him down. He only had Suzanna and Riska with him, and would be severely outnumbered. If he could make it to Moramatch, he could stop worrying about having an elite team on his trail. However, Moramatch could be placed under siege.

Shansa Empire’s Griffins Aerial Unit had less than a thousand riders, but every single griffins knight was a treasure to the nation. Destroying an entire squadron was disastrous. Anfey could only imagine how much Edward VIII must hate him. Even though he was the one that warned the Church, Shansa Empire could ignore that and still try to kill him.

The three did not stop until the moon was high in the sky. Anfey stopped and estimated how much they had left to travel, then gestured for Suzanna and Riska to stop. They were lucky, and found a hole in a tree where they could rest.

The trio was ready to rest, but not before they prepared the hole. The tree was very large, and the hole was big enough for Anfey to stretch himself out. However, it was infested with ants, insects, and venomous animals like snakes.

Anfey was responsible for the cleanup. For someone who could control hundreds of fireballs, it was a very easy job. After a few minutes, the entire interior of the hole was charred. Touching the wall would result in a handful of soot. Anfey looked at his hand, reached over and wiped the dark soot on Suzanna’s face. Anfey could control his emotions, but Riska couldn’t. His reaction tipped off Suzanna, who wiped some soot on Anfey’s face as retribution.

Anfey and Suzanna kept wiping soot on each other’s faces and laughing. Riska sat nearby, and was bored and jealous at the same time.

Riska though of the saying about women and crooks being hard to keep under control, meaning that if one became close with a woman or a crook, the person would forget that he was not the one in control. If one try to distance himself, than they would began to hate him.

Many believed that women should obey men’s every order and respect men, and men did not have to do anything.

Anfey had alway thought the belief to be nonsense. When he was still an assassin, he believed that a home was somewhere he could be by himself and completely relax. Since he could not and would not relax, he had always rejected every woman. For the longest time, he had never had a relationship that lasted for more than a night. If Anfey hadn’t believed that home was a place where he should relax, he might have already married.

Since he and Suzanna began their relationship, the two of them had became incredibly close. For some more conservative men, perhaps even disrespectful. However, Anfey loved that about Suzanna. In the past, Suzanna had been so sullen because of her past. Now, Suzanna was acting more like a young woman her age.

In the end, Anfey admitted defeat and called Riska over to use water magic. Anfey wanted to help, but Suzanna insisted on Riska helping. She didn’t know whether Anfey really wanted to help her or he simply wanted to play another prank.

After Suzanna and Riska fell asleep, Anfey sat there and played with some leaves. Then he closed his eyes and began taking slow, deep breaths.

His usually calm state of mind was different. Anfey discovered that this time, the meditation was a whole new experience. Not only his surroundings, but almost the entire forest was clear in his mind. If he wanted to, he could see everything.

If he was a normal person, maybe he would try to see as far as he could, or try to see everything. However, Anfey knew the effects meditation could have. When a person’s mind was calm enough, he could see many realistic mirages. Like the woman he fancied, the beasts he feared, his troubles and joys. Everything was a simple mirage, and it was a difficult step in achieving the next level in his skills. If one really believed the mirages, he risked losing himself.

When he was learning, his mentor stressed that he should be calm at all times. Nothing was real. Anfey was not moved by the mirages. He took a deep breath and began to calm his mind down.

A colorful snake slithered towards the hole. It stopped outside, hissing. It turned away and left as if it could sense what was inside. Two bugs nearby were mating, but before they could finish, a bird swooped down and pecked them off of the ground. The bird chirped happily. Normal birds could not see in the dark. Clearly this bird was not a common species. A group of rats were ripping chunks of flesh off of the body of a small magic beast. There were too many rats, and the body was soon picked clean. A wounded rat limped over, but the small magic beast had no flesh on its bones anymore. Driven by hunger, the wounded rat began licking the bones. The rats swarmed the wounded one, and soon only bones were left.

Anfey frowned. Usually, he only needed to concentrate and calm himself to make a mirage disappear. This time, however, the mirage lingered. What was even stranger was that the mirages happened all at once instead of one after another. In this moment, his mind seemed infinite, large enough to hold everything.

Anfey decided he should stop meditating. He took a deep breath and opened his eyes. The leaf on his chest burst into blinding white light. Anfey’s heart skipped a beat. What was even more shocking than the glowing leaf was the fact that he could see the forest even after he had opened his eyes.

He realized he might have just lost himself meditating. Anfey took another deep breath, and did not panic. He kept his breathing steady, and began to search for ways to escape the mirages.

Even after more than three hundred breaths, Anfey still could not find a way to escape. Mirages could cause people to lose themselves because people chose to believe the mirages were real. Anfey always tried to keep warning himself that what he was seeing was not real.

After a few minutes, Anfey began trying to move his body. He couldn’t just sit and wait for the mirages to disappear. It would take forever. Waiting wasn’t the right thing to do.

He could see the inside wall of the hole and the tree’s bark. He could even see something between the inside and the outside of the tree. He closed his eyes, then opened them slowly, but he discovered that no matter what he did, the image did not change.

There was a caterpillar climbing down the tree. Anfey walked out of the hole and poked the caterpillar. He flicked the insect away, and felt its body on his fingers.

He had to admit that the mirages were unbelievably real. No wonder so many people lose themselves because of these mirages.

A normal man might have already believed that the mirages were real, but Anfey kept reminding himself that they were not. He still had so many things he hadn’t done. He did not want to die this way. He couldn’t let himself believe it was real.

But how would he find a way out? Anfey frowned and walked back into the hole. His gaze fell on Suzanna and he noticed something strange. In the mirage, he could see through the tree and see what was inside it. Logically, he should be able to see what was inside Suzanna, as well. However, she was simply lying there, no different from how he had normally seen her.

Perhaps Suzanna would provide a way out for him. Anfey walked over and sat down next to her quietly. He lifted her head up with his hand and let her rest in his arms. Suzanna’s eyes flickered open, and she stared at Anfey.

Anfey knew that mirages were the reflection of what he was thinking. In the mirage, Suzanna would display the expression Anfey believed she would display. Anfey felt angry. He didn’t like the mirage controlling Suzanna’s expression. His hands reached down and grabbed her breasts. Her body was warm and soft under his fingers.