End of the Magic Era - Chapter 1240

Chapter 1240: Framed

‘Who cares if these idiots die? They are just here to strengthen the power of the barrier.’

Sensing the terrifying power approaching the ground, Dolos gritted his teeth and threw three True Spirit Magic Tools, even detonating his own magic staff to exert the strongest possible power.

He forcibly merged that Devil’s finger bone into his body, and a pitch-black silky layer enveloped his body, making him blurry and illusory.

Then, a terrifying and pure aura of destruction exploded in the center of the barrier, instantly filling the entire barrier. It looked like the elemental storm was confined inside the cuboid.

A second later, the top of the barrier loudly exploded. The chaotic elemental power turned into a beam of light that shot several kilometers into the air.

It was as if a pillar of light suddenly rose from the ground, visible from very far away.

The barrier that was supposed to resist 3rd Rank Heaven Mages shattered like a mirror.

The forty 9th Rank Archmages didn’t even have time to howl in pain as they instantly evaporated. After casting layers of defenses, Dolos reused the power of the Devil’s fingerbone to turn into a hazy state, but he was still sent flying like a ragdoll. Over twenty of his bones were broken, and the left half of his body almost completely disappeared. His internal organs were completely exposed.

After exploding the True Spirit Magic Tools and a Devil’s fingerbone for their power, Dolos was left at death’s door. With his tattered body, he rapidly rushed away from Lin Yun’s laboratory and started moving through the trees.

He was barely alive, but he didn’t dare to stop. He used mana to envelop his wound and make sure that his internal organs wouldn’t fall out. His body turned into a vague shadow that rapidly flew away.

Meanwhile, the Extraordinary Four Element Bomb’s fluctuations razed everything within a kilometer after shattering the barrier. The arrays set up by the Starry Sky College were torn apart like paper in front of these fluctuations.

Lin Yun slowly walked out of the pillar filled with destructive power. After walking a dozen meters, the rune flickering on his forehead disappeared, and the fierce surrounding elements frantically attacked Lin Yun’s shield.

Lin Yun frowned as he felt the emptiness within his body.

‘Sure enough, it’s too difficult… I can’t last more than a dozen seconds. Without the support of a Demiplane, my mana would be exhausted within one second, and my vitality would be absorbed instead.

‘The amount of mana consumed within ten seconds is already thirty times greater than my mana reserves…

‘I should try not to rely too much on the Elemental Spirit King Incarnation, it’s too difficult to use right now. I might as well limit myself to the Flame Spirit King Incarnation for now.

‘This was just an experiment, but it consumed half of the Demiplane’s Mana Water. Without the existence of that mana lake, my vitality might have already been completely absorbed, and my soul power would have been drained.

‘No wonder the few powerhouses that could use the Elemental Spirit King Incarnation during Noscent’s peak were all at the peak of the Heaven realm or even higher.’

After recovering a bit of mana, Lin Yun looked at the area that the dark mage escaped towards and took a step forward. His body flickered with a silver light as he instantly disappeared.

Lin Yun followed that dark mage’s trail up until he reached a three-story building. There, he saw the dark mage holding a crest and opening the building’s defenses. Just as the dark mage was about to enter, Lin Yun spat out a golden law rune.

The earth instantly shook as a large, lifelike hand stretched out of the ground and caught Dolos.

Lin Yun landed on the ground and calmly looked at the pale Dolos. With a wave of his hand, a dazed Shawn was summoned.

“Lord Shawn, there is work for you. As long as you can find some things for me, you can have as much fun as you want.”

Shawn had been training the workers in the Demiplane when he was suddenly summoned. He was initially about to bare his fangs and complain, but when he heard Lin Yun’s words, he suddenly beamed with joy and took back what he wanted to say.

“Don’t worry! Eh, it’s actually a Heaven Rank powerhouse, and a dark mage, too! Oh, wait, that’s not it… It’s an idiot that made a deal with a Devil… What? How did his contract disappear?”

Dolos screamed and twitched under Shawn’s soul-scrying.

That Devil Overlord had been so terrified that he had decisively torn up the contract…

Since the Devil’s contract was no longer active, Shawn became even more unscrupulous. He turned into a ray of light and squeezed into Dolos’ head, making the fainted Dolos suddenly open his eyes as he let out an anguished wail.

Shawn had recently been feeling stifled. He couldn’t casually play with the souls of the workers in the Demiplane since he could mistakenly kill one or turn one into an idiot. How could he act as their leader if he did so?

He would be very cautious when disciplining them and didn’t dare to use too much power. At most, he would use a Mind Whip. How could it be like now, when he could casually open someone’s mind? In any case, the soul of a Heaven Rank powerhouse wouldn’t dissipate so easily.

Dolos’ face was already devoid of color. His eyes had lost focus, and he could only instinctively let out a mournful howl.

After a dozen seconds, Dolos’ howls stopped, and he lost control of his mana. Half of his internal organs fell out, and his life aura rapidly dissipated. At that time, Shawn drilled out of Dolos’ skull and regretfully shook his head.

“Merlin, this guy belongs to the Jackson Family. The mastermind is a man named Layford and is in this building. Do you want to get rid of him? It would be for the best if you gave him to me alive… He could be hiding some precious resources, after all.”

As Shawn said those words, a magic signal suddenly rose into the sky from the building in front of him.

Layford flew up and his pupils shrank when he noticed Dolos’ miserable condition. He then coldly glared at Lin Yun.

“Mafa Merlin, you wretched guy! You came to snatch the copy of my results? Don’t even think about it!”

After those words, Layford directly released a spell on Dolos’ corpse and turned it into ashes. He then cast a Flame Impact at his own laboratory and blew up half of it.

After doing that, Layford loudly sneered.

“Mafa Merlin! Don’t even think of stealing what I copied!”

With a roar, a powerful wave of mana fluctuations covered the surface of his body. Pitch-black darkness power surged as those words loudly echoed.

Shawn turned palm-sized and stood on Lin Yun’s shoulder while grinning.

“Merlin, that guy isn’t too stupid. He first attacked you, and then used it to frame you, not even giving you the opportunity to denounce him…”

Layford’s loud roar spread over ten kilometers with the power of mana.

After a few seconds, Lin Yun could already sense Griffin Riders approaching. Instead of being angered by Layford’s shameless actions, Lin Yun actually smiled.

He first destroyed the corpse before framing him and letting out a roar informing everyone in the general vicinity about his “indignation”.

In this situation, Lin Yun couldn’t directly get rid of Layford. If a battle happened here, then the Starry Sky College wouldn’t be able to use Temporal Recall by the time they arrived.

Heaven Rank powerhouses used Extraordinary Power in battle. At the lower ranks, they would still be able to see a scene.

But if the fight was too intense, they might need a High Rank Heaven Mage’s Temporal Recall to see what had happened.

Would they dispatch a 7th Rank Heaven Mage to deal with these matters? Definitely not…

Even if investigating what happened would be very easy, it might also end up working against him.

After all, those that attacked Lin Yun’s laboratory had all died and didn’t even leave a fragment of bone behind. Their souls exploded and were torn apart.

Layford stood at the doorway of his laboratory looking pleased with himself.

‘Sh*t, how could these idiots lose? That was a 2nd Rank Heaven Mage leading four 1st Rank Heaven Mages and forty 9th Rank Archmages. They also had three True Spirit Magic Tools…

‘Yet, they still lost. Ultimately, he was chased back here by Mafa Merlin. But it doesn’t matter, everyone already turned to ashes, so there is no proof. In fact, it’s perfect. I can take advantage of this opportunity to snatch the outcome of his research.’

Layford proudly sneered and took out his magic staff. His mana started fiercely fluctuating as he was ready to fight at any time.

“Mafa Merlin, you can be considered lucky for not dying. But that’s as far as your luck will go. I can capture a shameful thief like you, curse your soul, and steal all your wealth…”

Layford’s magic staff shone with an intense black radiance, which slowly spread and filled the surroundings with a large amount of black fog. That fog had a powerful interfering effect on mana, and probing spells became ineffective there.

But Lin Yun suddenly laughed, while Shawn couldn’t hide his mocking gaze.

“Merlin, that idiot thinks you don’t dare to get rid of him. He thinks he can effortlessly kill you. Are you still up for it? Get rid of him and give me his soul…”

As Shawn spoke, strange muffled whispers kept echoing in the surroundings, apparently continuously converging from all directions.

Shawn’s eyes instantly shone brightly.

“Devil’s whispers! Merlin, there must be many interesting things about that guy’s soul. Let’s get rid of him, I want to tear open his soul. He’ll definitely be useful to me. In exchange, I can help you three times… No, five… Ten times!” Shawn shouted.

He’d had to hold back quite a bit lately.

Ever since he had seen the mana lake formed in the Natural Demiplane, Shawn no longer cared about the power of mana crystals. The mana lake’s pure mana was the best tonic for Shawn and allowed him to rapidly regain his strength. Even now, his strength was constantly increasing.

Shawn’s power had already reached the peak of the Archmage realm, and with his identity as a Soul Walker, playing with souls became increasingly easier. If he wasn’t careful, he could kill Heaven Rank powerhouses by toying with them.

His strength had already exceeded the limits of his Magic Tool, and he even seemed to show signs of breaking free from it. After separating from the Magic Tool, Shawn’s strength might perhaps rise to the Heaven Rank. No one would want to be his enemy then.

Lin Yun nodded and looked at the confident Layford before sneering.

‘What a foolish guy. I could fight him to a standstill before advancing to the Heaven Rank, and the main reason he could suppress me was my lack of Extraordinary Power. I’m already a 2nd Rank Heaven Mage now, yet he is still that confident?

‘Has he not even considered what happened to the five Heaven Rank powerhouses? The elemental explosion that occurred at my laboratory turned into a beam of light that flew several kilometers high. How could that guy not notice it?’

Those few thoughts flashed in his mind as his body became covered in a layer of red flames.

This could be displayed after Fire Elemental Incarnation reached its peak. He could no longer maintain that Elemental Spirit King Incarnation, but he could still turn into a several-dozen-meter-tall Elemental Giant.

As the flames covered Lin Yun’s body, the black fog acted as if it was being blown by the wind. It rapidly scattered towards the surroundings, blown far away.

Those whispers became increasingly more chaotic, as if more and more people were whispering. The Devil’s whispers had already transformed into ripples that kept attacking Lin Yun’s Fusion Shield.

Unfortunately, Lin Yun’s Fusion Shield was a lot more powerful than a typical one. In addition to the Mana Shield supported by an almost endless supply of mana, there was also a Four Element Shield and a Law Runic Shield formed from perfect law runes.

After these three shields fused together with Lin Yun’s Extraordinary Power, which far surpassed Heaven Mages of the same rank, the Devil’s whispers simply couldn’t pass through. Those Devil’s whispers were like ordinary voices stuck outside a Silent Boundary. They were completely useless.

Countless runes flashed in Lin Yun’s eyes as he tried to locate Layford’s trail in the black fog. That guy was a bit smarter this time, he knew his weakness and first hid his body.

A few seconds later, only those whispers, which could make an Archmage go crazy, remained. Lin Yun managed to catch Layford’s trail, but it was elusive, and it would take him a few seconds to catch him. But Shawn could no longer wait.

A slit appeared on his forehead, and an evil eye carrying a strange aura could be seen. Shawn instantly left the Fusion Shield and disappeared into the black fog.

The ripples in the air seemed to automatically slide away upon contact with Shawn. They seemed completely useless against him.

Soon, an evil light beam pierced through the black fog and rapidly dissipated it as if it had been illuminated by holy light. Layford could be seen at the end of that light beam.

Layford paled as he was hit by the evil eye’s ray of light. The whispers disappeared instantly as the powerful curse spell was forcibly interrupted. Even his soul was affected by the Evil Eye, and the backlash of a curse was quite bad.

The backlash of elemental spells wasn’t an issue for Heaven Mages since their mana wouldn’t be shaken. But the backlash of a curse spell, and one released through Devil’s whispers, wasn’t that easy to deal with.

Shawn took advantage of Layford being interrupted to charge into his body. His fist-sized body was covered in a layer of a strange aura, and his small claws carried a kind of power that could tear through souls.

Lin Yun suddenly frowned and shouted in an unquestionable tone, “Lord Shawn, return.”

With that sentence, Shawn immediately flew back. He might usually be arrogant, but he could also tell good from bad.

Sure enough, Shawn had barely returned when the surrounding dense fog completely vanished as a powerhouse covered in a terrifying aura suddenly appeared.

The powerhouse’s body was covered in a layer of Extraordinary Power, and a large red disk with a layer of orange flames could be seen under his feet. Numerous strange decorative designs could be seen on top of the red disk, emitting fierce, fiery power.

Lin Yun threw a quick glance and noticed that the disk wasn’t a Magic Tool. It was made of pure flames that had been continuously compressed before being condensed through an array. As long as it was spread open, it could instantly be arranged into a powerful fire array.

Although the newcomer emitted the power of a 4th Rank Heaven powerhouse, he was also an Artisan proficient in arrays.

This Heaven Mage arrived with a dignified expression. The magic imprint he wore on his black robe was exactly the same as the one on Zeith’s robe. Clearly, this person was also an assistant dean.

The Starry Sky College was extremely huge and wasn’t just limited to Neverwinter City’s domain. Their influence spread all over the Odin Kingdom, and the assistant deans were managing one corner.

When compared to the Merlin Family, their position was similar to that of a manager with high status. They were truly managing everything since the three deans didn’t pay attention to these kinds of matters.