Warlock of the Magus World – Redux

On the brink of death, Saurun adopted a fighting stance that would result in both parties being severely injured, for the sliver of a chance at survival.

Even so, Leylin's expression was uncompromising as he allowed the razor-sharp claw to scratch his body. At the same time, the frost greatsword swung down mercilessly as it severed Saurun's head from his neck.

Saurun's head, an unresigned expression upon his face, flew several meters far in the air and finally fell to the ground. Both eyes were opened wide; he was no longer able to close them.

His headless corpse was still kneeling in front of Leylin and blood poured out from it continuously.

The corpse's left hand was still extended — it was his misfortune that it was effectively blocked by the vine armor, a few inches away from Leylin's body.

The vines wrapped around his body instantly withered away and fell apart, but Leylin was completely fine. Had Saurun been at 100% of his power, he may have been able to penetrate the armor. Alas, he was weakened and pressured to end the fight since he was about to die, so he could not direct his claws with the accuracy needed to breach the vines.

Leylin smirked. He was very satisfied with this battle's outcome.

Saurun was only an acolyte who was slightly less inferior than Torash. As soon as Leylin used his techniques and went for the kill, he could not withstand even a few rounds before being completely defeated, with his head even being chopped off.

"It's your turn now, little girl. Show me what you can do!" -Leylin kicked Saurun's kneeling corpse so that it fell to the ground, and charged toward the female acolyte.

"It's completed!" -At the same time, the female blue-haired acolyte exhaled, as if shouldering a huge burden.

A bright red flower unfolded its petals and revealed a green rock the size of a fist. It had a dazzling gleam, with the female acolyte's fresh blood that was sprayed on it. There was also a broken half of a dagger, which was thrown on the floor.

These 3 items faintly resembled a triangular formation, with many grayish power runes surrounding them.

As Leylin rushed forward fiercely, the female acolyte smirked and pointed at Leylin: "By the name of Memphis Rofar Maginent, of the Gigantic Binding Sprite from the abyss, the person that I point to will lose all ability of motion!"

Light began to be illuminated by the triangular formation, which shot a ray of black light at him. He suddenly felt a huge binding strength engulfing him, which made him rooted to the spot.

Leylin continuously writhed and the sounds of shackles sounded from the void. He used all of his strength, but he was still shackled.

'A spell like this was produced by that meatbag? Interesting...'

"There is no use for you to resist further. These are the chains of the Gigantic Binding Abyss Sprite! No matter how many of them you break, the remaining amount would not only regrow, and the binding power will also be doubled!"

As the female acolyte spoke, Leylin felt the chain getting tighter and tighter around his body. By now, his Fallen Star Pendant had activated once again, covering him in a holy silver membrane.

The silver glow from the Fallen Star Pendant continuously clashed against strength from the void producing white mist.

"You despicable maggot! Shameless murderer...! You dared to slaughter so many of our Whitewoods and Gotham's acolytes... You also took the lives of our great champions! Hence, I will grant you death to redeem your sins!"

The thrill of revenge and smugness filled the face of the female acolyte. The muscles on her face contorted, turning the once-beautiful face into an extremely loathsome one.

"You dared to kill Lord Saurun! I will make you pay the price in blood!"

The female acolyte pointed at Leylin: "Strength deprivation!"

As she spoke, Leylin felt the strength in his body dispersing. In an instant, it was as if he changed from a Grand Knight into a regular human infant. He was also forced to his knees.

'This feeling... have I been cursed? Even despite my Fallen Star Pendant?'

Leylin arched a brow.

'I see... the energy which has surrounded me does not constitute an actual offensive formation. Its secondary cursing effect has enough Negative Energy that it is capable of killing, but it's not an attack-type spell...'

'Aralis, prepare a full analysis and run it as a background task. I'm nearly done here.'

Leylin continuously struggled. Yet, much to Biol's surprise, a demented grin appeared on his face.

"It all has ended!" -The female acolyte chanted in an incantation. "Flames of the abyss, cremate this sinner into ashes!"

As soon as the Byron language incantation had been uttered, a black fire suddenly blazed from below Leylin's body.

The flame continuously spread, engulfing Leylin's whole body in an instant.

The frost greatsword on Leylin's hands fell onto the floor. The icy shards shattered and broke into many pieces. Finally, even the refined metal blade of the cross blade melted under the black red flames, turning into a puddle of liquid metal.

The grey light on Leylin's body started to give in, and an alert wildly flashed in front of Leylin's eyes. Still, he showed no fear. Instead, he began laughing.

[Warning, Doctor! The energy from the Fallen Star Pendant is rapidly decreasing. Current charge: 45%. Estimated to be fully depleted in 34 seconds!]

'Ignore it and release all the energy within the Fallen Star Pendant in one go!' -Leylin mentally ordered.

At that moment, the silver-grey light increased its radiance by a dozen times. Behind his back, there was an indistinct huge cross phantom. On the upper area of the phantom cross, a few jewels continuously gave off multi-colored light as a wave of energy extended to Leylin's limbs.

"Break… for me!"

Leylin struggled with all his might, and suddenly, crackling and rattling sounds could be heard from his body. The countless black-rune-inscribed chains became visible and broke from all the struggle done by Leylin. Then they fell to the ground and vanished.

Biol was shocked, and she could simply wish she was having a nightmare.

Her enemy slowly rose to his full stature, and she never thought that a fat kid with a pout could ever be that menacing.

"Well, that was fun!" -Leylin smirked.

Leylin's figure flew like a gust of wind and appeared directly in front of the female acolyte.

"It's the first time in years that I've been so close to losing a fight. Congratulations." -Leylin bowed in a gentlemanly manner, as he then took Biol's shaking hand and kissed it.

"Im… Impossible, how did you manage to counter it?!" -Shrieked the female acolyte and she pointed her finger at Leylin. Then several tiny fireballs directly struck Leylin's body at point-blank.

The flames exploded, burning with the previous black fire, as it extinguished very soon.

"Though when I say 'losing', I mean I actually had to put in some effort." -A chuckle followed these words.

Behind the silver-grey transparent armor of his pendant energy, Leylin was unscathed. Nevertheless, the girl had taken some damage. The left side of her body was burned, including her once-blue hair.

"No! No...!" -The female acolyte fell onto the ground and crawled backward.

Leylin gently kicked the green rock and dagger on the ground, breaking the spell formation.

Two streams of red fluid trickled down from the female acolyte's nose. Even her tears were falling nonstop.

The female acolyte sniveled continuously as she crawled away from her opponent. But Leylin continued his advance as the black flames kept raging around him.

They kept assailing him as if they were trying to break his defenses, to no avail.

"No, don't kill me! My mentor is- !"

"I don't care who you are. I don't care who your mentor is. I don't care about anything other than witnessing your pretty face being melted off by your own spell... Oh, but please, do continue to cry in desperation. It makes it all so much fun." -Leylin's expression appeared extremely satisfied as he embraced the lithe woman.

The Fallen Star Pendant kept defending his body from the abyssal black fire that was still burning on his body, but this female acolyte obviously did not have a similar layer of defense. Upon being barbecued by the flames, she gave an ear-piercing shriek.

The flesh of the girl dropped, chunk by chunk onto the floor, turning into a pile of charred mess. As if Biol had extinguished the fire with her own flesh, Leylin was now free from danger, and his silver cloak of holy light dispelled too.

Finally, the originally beautiful female acolyte turned into a blood-red skeleton. Moreover, the set of bones slowly melted, turning into a white liquid that dripped onto the floor.

Leylin licked his lips and with his hand, he swept away the remainder of the white bone liquid that was on him, but not before he tasted some of it as he enjoyed the scalding flavor. He of course burned himself, but his tongue immediately regenerated thanks to his healing factor.

'In the legends and tales told by the bards, the abyss fire is something which can burn the void. An existence that all children of the earth cannot resist. This is most likely just a projection of the true abyss fire — it does not have even one infinitesimal trace of the original's might. Otherwise, I would have long since turned into ashes... But still, not bad.'

Leylin studied the initial report that his A.I. had provided him for a while, before roaming the battlefield to collect his spoils of war.

|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|

It was still night in the Secret Plane.

Back in the original clearing where Torash's headless body was nailed to a tree, a confused and hurt Bicky was finally awake, and she soon took notice that she had not been gone for long.

Although the battle earlier was extremely intense, the time that had passed was quite short — so much so that Bicky was still in shock.

Looking around at the battlefield, Bicky's expression was extremely complicated.

The person which had saved her was also from Abyssal Bone Forest, and her ally, despite his rude and cruel personality. Moreover, the strength that he possessed was far above that which Bicky could imagine.

She saw the bodies of her schoolmate Jayden and one acolyte who undoubtedly was the famous Silver-Claw Saurun. There was also the charred skeleton of an unknown individual. Naturally, she also remembered Torash, but she ignored him altogether, lest she pukes and faints again.

Torash the Lightning Viper and Silver-Claw Saurun... They were all impressive and notable acolytes from the opposing academies. However, in front of that person earlier, they were as weak as a sponge when they pleaded and were slaughtered mercilessly.

"But... who exactly is he?"

Bicky blinked her eyes. Merlin, Leylin, Fayle, and the others. All of the acolytes' images flashed past from her memory, yet she felt helpless as there was no such person in all of the acolytes that she recalled that resembled her savior.

However, her instincts told her that she definitely knew this person.

//

"Magi are reputed for their rationality. Such a thing as instinct will lower our judgment. Everything has to be proved beyond refutation."

//

The sayings of Professor Kroft surfaced in her mind. For now, she decided to leave the matter be. She had to focus on her own survival as this was not the end, and there were still dozens of enemies out there.

Bicky's expression was seemingly vacant as she gritted her teeth and poured a potion on her wounds.

Sighing heavily and holding back some tears for both Jayden and herself, she too left that place.

|=|=|=|=|=|=|=|

Leylin was, by now, dozens of miles away from this battlefield. He was settled in a cave, checking his spoils.

Those 3 acolytes he massacred were well-known for their skill and talent. Consequently, they were worth a lot more contribution points than the rest of the cannon fodder.

With the Whitewoods badge from Biol and the Sage Gotham's badge from Saurun, on top of Torash's, Leylin was confident in that he would easily be able to afford both the Grine Water and the Advancement Grimoire.

Furthermore, the ingredients and magic crystals that they carried with them were plentiful. They gave Leylin a total of tens of thousands of magic crystals and other valuable resources.

Leylin currently felt the surface of a black-red diary cover that had been in the female acolyte's possession and that he stole from her before she was calcinated.

'This aura is rather similar to the girl's abyss fire.'

Leylin flipped open the diary and a mysterious rune appeared.

'Aralis, compare to your database.'

[Task established. Comparison in progress... Similarity level to Abyss script: 98.7%, Purgatory script: 45.3%…]

'Abyss script, huh?' -Leylin's interest had been sparked by this item.

Characters and knowledge from these mysterious planes were top-secrets and the knowledge was not passed around. He only managed to understand a few runes from derelict pages of a book in the library and stored them in the A.I. database.

'I'll break this code eventually... Tomorrow is the last day of the Bloodbath, so I'll just lay low for the remainder of the competition and then get to work in the lab as soon as possible.'

Satisfied, Leylin stored the black-red diary inside his trusty satchel.