Return and Change
“Keefa has already become a living plant. As long as this trueseed of his still exists, he can revive at any time. However, it’ll take a long while for him to amass the amount of life force he had before...” Nonov sighed, fixing his eyes on the green seed.
It was the size of a grown man’s fist, with complicated plant runes on it. She could vaguely sense a familiar spiritual force undulation coming from it, as if there was a gravely injured life that had fallen asleep inside.
“He seems to have let us off intentionally, restraining himself at the last minute. If not, none of us would have been able to survive...” Nonov laughed wryly, “What do you think?”
“We still have our final treasure. If we’re pushed to the limit, we can use it to deal him immense damage,” Marjorie said hatefully, before her expression suddenly changed, “What?”.
The sound of an item shattering could be heard from Nonov’s body. More specifically, it was from a secret compartment in his robes where the final treasure was kept.
“What’s going on? Could it be...” A chill rose in her heart.
Nonov expressionlessly shoved his hand towards the area and fished out a few shattered metallic pieces. There still remained powerful radiations and complicated, intricate patterns and clearly was a part of a high-grade magic equipment.
“The Blade of Avarice! What’s going on? It’s a high-grade magic artifact. How can it suddenly shatter?” Marjorie yelled, her extremely sharp voice even dispersing the clouds in the sky.
This high-grade magic artifact that was the final treasure of the light Magi could recharge itself automatically. It produced a terrifying attack that could destroy peak rank 3 Magi, hence it was regarded as the final trump card of the light Magi, being safeguarded tightly. It wouldn’t be used unless it was a life or death situation.
It was this very item that had injured the Gargamel previously, but now... Nonov looked at the blade fragments in his hands, and suddenly felt like the honour and glory that the light Magi upheld seemed to be collapsing magnificently.
“To be able to go past my defences and even destroy the Blade of Avarice without my knowledge, lowering the energy waves to the limit so that the explosion wouldn’t injure anyone... This strength..." Nonov felt as if all the bones in his body had been extracted as he collapsed to the ground.
He took a deep breath and then guessed, “He must be stronger than the peak of rank 3, having reached the unfathomable Morning Star realm!”
”Morning Star... A rank 4 Magus!” the old woman shrieked, “What kind of joke is this? A Magus of this rank in our south coast... a Magus of this rank...” She kept repeating the words, her voice becoming softer.
She was beginning to believe in this conjecture. Perhaps only Magi at and above the Morning Star realm could break out of their attack so easily, leaving them powerless and in despair.
After staying silent for a long while, she asked a very practical question. “What should we do next? What kind of attitude should we use to face that... Lord?”
“I don’t know,” Nonov laughed wryly, “But what I do know is that the whole situation in the south coast is going to experience a tumultuous change soon. Whatever it is, we know one thing for sure— never provoke the Farlier Family!”
At the end, Nonov’s expression turned incomparably grim...
Flames streaked across the sky. Krupp was instantly terrified by their speed once he opened the door to the carriage.
“If we’d hurried on at this speed earlier, those light Magi wouldn’t even have had any time to react, right? Why...”
“Why did I deliberately slow down and let them chase up to us?” Leylin reclined on the sofa in the carriage, gus eyes narrowed slightly. His expression was hidden by the half-mask.
“Per–perhaps Lord Leylin wanted to exhibit his strength to them. This can be seen from how Lord Leylin let them off at the end!” Darlie stammered out while clutching at her skirt.
“You said it well!” Leylin nodded in praise. Darlie was a smart girl, and her talent and qualities were all good. In addition, with the limitations of her soul vow, she could never go against the will of the Farlier Family, and instead become Krupp’s valuable companion.
"These Magi are obviously nothing to Lord Leylin, but my lord is making plans for us? My Lord is taking precautions so that once he leaves, they will be too terrified to give us trouble,” Darlie guessed.
“Patriarch, are you leaving?” Krupp turned pale in fright.
“Mm, the south coast is just too small. This place is too barren for me and there’s nothing worth my attention here. If not for the Farlier Family being here, as well as some debts I had to settle, I wouldn’t have returned.” Krupp grew disappointed as Leylin nodded, “I’ll leave the task of restoring the Farlier Family to you. The reputation I’ll leave behind won’t count for much; what you’ll really need to rely on is your own strength. I’ll teach you and Darlie well in this period of time..."
.....
News of Leylin’s reappearance did not shock most of the lower-ranked Magi in the south coast. What made them sigh with sorrow was the change in the leadership of Teljose City, as well as the strange death of the rank 3 Magus Alric along with his friends, disciples, and family.
The acolytes and rank 1 Magi were too far removed from the upper echelons, and the news that spread to them was limited. Hence, they believed that Alric had been struck by some unknown curse. Suffering a curse due to some lab accident or mistaken summoning was common in the Magus World, even ones that ended one’s lineage. It was just that the scope of the curse this time was far more terrifying.
Though their guesses were rather close to reality, never did they expect that the one who had caused Alric’s fall was the wanted Magus, the Toxic King Leylin, the name that was just a symbol in their history textbooks.
However, no matter which organisation they belonged to, the higher-ranked Magi were shaken. This trend did not seem to vanish, but instead became increasingly intense. The fall of Alric and his families was like a giant rock being thrown into a lake, resulting in immense ripples in the south coast.
As a rank 3 Magus, Alric was probably one of the top five in the light alliance. Yet he’d been killed just like that. Even his family and disciples hadn’t been let off. Such a ruthless power caused terror in the hearts of both light Magi and dark.
What they did not expect was that the death of Alric was merely a prologue of sorts. The fact that the higher-ups amongst the light Magi had surrounded the murderer and fought him was concealed originally, but eventually it leaked. The Magi that heard of the real situation sank into a mysterious silence.
The news was just too shocking, to the point they believed it to be fake. Three peak Crystal Phase Magi had been grievously injured and lost the Golden Staff, Aquatic Devil Seaweed and countless other treasures. Even the Blade of the Avarice had been reduced to pieces! Such a terrifying battle might dumbfounded the high-ranked Magi of the south coast.
Meanwhile, news of Leylin’s achievements spread like wildfire, and many Magus historians flipped through thick tomes hoping to find all traces of him in the historical records. The most important order now was not to provoke Leylin or the Farlier Family. It wasn’t just the light Magi, even the dark Magi enforced this rule.
In such a situation, a carriage that was being pulled by a flaming skeleton horse slowly entered the boundaries of the Abyssal Bone Swamp.
*Caw! Caw!* A few red-eyed crows flew in the sky, causing nostalgia to arise in Leylin’s eyes. Having moderated his aura, he seemed like a regular human. The only thing that showed he was not normal was the aura of nobility that he inadvertently leaked.
The Abyssal Bone Swamp belonged to the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy, which was Leylin’s destination. As the place that had guided him into the ranks of Magi, Leylin still felt something for his alma mater.
As the place that had guided him into the ranks of Magi, Leylin still felt something for his alma mater. Furthermore...
“Kroft, Bicky, Neela, Jayden, Dorotte, Nyssa...” Leylin announced the names slowly, “Though a lot of them have probably disappeared, I still want to take a look...”
Huge tombs appeared before him after he crossed through the dark forest. Several enormous stone statues of gorillas lined the sides of the tallest tomb in the centre came to life and screeched “INVADERS!”
Shrill alarms began to ring, and white human skulls emerged from the earth one by one. They were followed by torsos and then the rest of their skeletal bodies. The skeletons emitted a dense aura of death as they grabbed rotting metal weaponry before slowly surrounding Leylin and his party.
A few double-headed dogs growled gruffly, with pus flowing profusely from the gaps between their teeth as they circled around them
“Lunatics who dare offend the dignity of the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy, you will learn what it means to pay a price in blood!” The largest stone gorilla snarled, and the undead troops began to attack.
“Wait!” An imposing voice sounded out, accompanied by large amounts of green flames. Many human figures emerged from underground, all having energy undulations of at least rank 1.
“Director!” The magical beasts bowed towards the new arrivals, but what surprised Leylin the most was that standing in front of the many professors was a female Magus.
‘Wasn’t the director of the Abyssal Bone Forest Academy Siley? So it’s someone else now?’ Astonishment flashed in Leylin’s eyes as he curiously watched the person in front of him.