Chapter 74: A Grand Mage
Azarath raised his hand. Invisible energy gathered in his palm—not to kill the body... but to destroy the soul.
Everything was ready. All that remained was the final strike.
Until—
"Am I late?" A laid-back, annoyingly confident male voice echoed through the tomb.
Azarath turned. Daniel, panting, lifted his head. Someone stood at the entrance.
Kayn.
"You bastard... what took you so long? Were those wraiths really that strong?" Daniel narrowed his eyes. It had been about half an hour since the fight started, but this bastard was just now arriving.
"Wraiths? I got rid of them in a few minutes... but well... I went to get reinforcements." He said with a smirk.
Azarath’s expression hardened. As Kayn finished speaking, someone stepped out from behind him.
Heavy armor, a long sword on his back, a stern and familiar face.
Marxil. The head of the city’s security guards.
"This has dragged on long enough." Azarath’s eyes grew more dangerous, a surge of anger boiling within him.
Why the hell are these bastards showing up one after another? He was starting to regret kidnapping the heir of House Irenwald.
Daniel, still on the ground, stared at Kayn in disbelief. He hadn’t expected that guy to actually use his brain. Now it made sense why he had taken so long.
But there was no time to be surprised. Marxil stepped forward, ignoring Daniel and Kayn, staring directly at Azarath.
"So it was you? You were behind the kidnapping of the young lady?"
"So what? Now that you’ve got another Rank B on your side, you think you’ve grown a pair?" Azarath’s eyes gleamed.
"Your fate remains the same. You all die here." Azarath shrugged.
Kayn smiled. Marxil chuckled too.
"They’re laughing? Are they insane?" Daniel raised an eyebrow.
"You think I came alone?" Marxil said with a mocking tone. He wasn’t stupid enough to come to a suspected corruption worship site alone.
"What do you mean?" Azarath frowned.
Before he could get an answer, the sound of heavy, rhythmic footsteps echoed from behind Kayn and Marxil.
"Apologies... I got a little caught up admiring this tomb." An old man’s voice. Calm. Nothing particularly special.
But Azarath felt a coldness crawl into his bones. Even Daniel held his breath.
An old man stepped forward.
A simple white robe, long white hair, a neat beard—no visible aura, and yet... the entire space felt filled.
Daniel held his breath for a moment. An A-Rank Climber! This old man was definitely a Rank A.
"You... what are you doing here?" Azarath was truly frightened now. He could handle two Rank Bs... but a Rank A? Against someone like that, he was like an insect.
"Ha ha. So you recognize me? Seems I’m more famous than I thought." The old man smiled.
How could Azarath not know him? The Corruption Worshipers had been planning this ritual for years—they had gathered extensive intel.
"Impossible..." Azarath took a step back, whispering with fear. Even he knew—death was a breath away.
"Impossible what? That we’re here? I should commend you. You hid things pretty well." The old man tilted his head slightly.
"If this kid hadn’t come to the city guard building and told Marxil everything, we would’ve never found out. Ah, of course, we didn’t believe him at first, but luckily, we decided to give him a chance and followed him here." His smile faded.
Silence... for a moment, everything froze. No words. No breathing.
"By the way... I’m really curious how you got into this tomb." The old man took a step forward.
"A very powerful barrier protected this place. Even the current Emperor couldn’t break it. And now... it’s broken." He glanced at the walls.
This tomb was well known among high-ranking officials, but because of the defense array, no one dared to come here.
"I’m curious how a mere ant managed to break such a thing." He took a deep breath.
"You want to know how I broke the array?" Azarath’s voice had turned darker, harsher.
"I’ll tell you... in the next world." His lips twisted into a grin, and he whispered.
Then—
The ground beneath him cracked. A dark aura, mixed with green-black flames, surged around him.
He raised his arm and screamed:
[Spiritual Havoc: Devouring Labyrinth]
A dark, murky wave exploded outward. Hundreds of giant snakes made of black flame emerged, launching themselves at everyone present.
The goal? Not to kill—but to create a chance to escape.
Azarath still had one trump card. Lorena. As long as he had her, he could summon the Catastrophe. The plan hadn’t completely failed...
If he didn’t get away now, the higher-ups in the Corruption Worshipers would surely execute him.
But... the old man simply stepped forward. He slightly raised his hand. No shouting, no spell, no magical pressure... just a simple motion.
And the entire raging wave... collapsed. All the flame serpents vanished instantly.
Azarath was still running when a massive shadow fell over him. He looked up.
A gigantic hand—pure white light—descended from the sky at unimaginable speed. Azarath screamed, activated magic, jumped back, cursed—but it was all in vain.
"So boring..." the old man muttered, sounding tired.
Then... Azarath vanished.
Or more accurately—was sealed inside a small, transparent cube, no larger than a palm.
"We’ll keep him for interrogation." The old man rotated the cube between his fingers.
Marxil rushed to the cliff immediately. Lorena was dangling, and Leia was clearly badly injured.
He quickly brought down Lorena and Eva, then went to Leia. Her pulse was weak... but she was alive.
"Just a few broken internal organs... the young lady is completely fine."
Elsewhere, Daniel dropped to his knees. He was barely breathing.
"You can all sleep now..." he commanded the fallen ones within him:
Then, he grabbed Kayn’s shoulder to help himself up. With shaky steps and a wounded body, they walked toward Eva.
"You okay?" his voice was hoarse and concerned.
"I... I’m fine, don’t worry..." Eva forced a smile.
But a few seconds later, her lips trembled. Tears rolled down her cheeks.
"I was so scared... Daniel... I really..." This was the third time she had been in a life-or-death situation.
Why her? Why was it always her caught in these things? What had she done wrong?
"It’s okay... You don’t have to be afraid anymore." Daniel gently raised his hand and softly stroked her head.
A few minutes passed. Still wounded and bloodied, Daniel walked toward the old man, who stood at the edge of a cliff, gazing at the sea of blood below.
"Thank you... really..."
"Haha... I didn’t do much, boy. But you—what you did matters." The old man said without looking.
"I didn’t do much either." Daniel shook his head.
"Surviving against a peak Rank B—while being just Rank D yourself? That’s an achievement." The old man gave a faint smile and glanced at Daniel.
He had seen many talents, but this boy truly caught his attention. Unfortunately, he was an Otherworldly Climber. Otherwise, he would’ve definitely tried to recruit him to the academy.
Both stared at the sea of blood.
"You know what this is?" Daniel asked.
"Who knows? Maybe just a huge amount of blood that Corruption Worshiper dragged here—this place is a perfect hiding spot. So it’s not strange if he killed a bunch of people and collected their blood for the summoning ritual." The old man shrugged.
"What’s your name?" Then he turned to leave... but paused for a moment.
"Daniel." Daniel hesitated a second.
"Daniel, I’d be glad to talk to you more sometime. But for now, I need to report these events to the Duke and the Emperor. If the chance comes, we’ll meet again." The old man smiled.
"Of course." Daniel nodded.
The old man left. Daniel slowly returned to Kayn and Eva. Just before they exited the tomb, a girl with long golden hair slowly approached him.
"Thank you for saving me. Really, thank you." Lorena said softly, shyly, and gave a slight bow.
"I didn’t do anything. Saving you wasn’t even my goal. So there’s no need to thank me." Daniel looked at her indifferently.
"But... still, thank you." Lorena lowered her head a little.
Marxil and Leia gave respectful nods as well and left the place.
’Did I see it wrong?’ Though Daniel frowned, for just a moment, he saw a flicker of fear and sorrow in Lorena’s eyes—like she was afraid to go back?
’Maybe I imagined it". After that, they too left the place.