Chapter 76: The Futile Struggle

The monster, a grotesque amalgamation of countless agonies, let out a silent shriek amidst the purifying radiance.

This was a wail that detonated directly within the spiritual plane.

Great swaths of grey energy evaporated from the monster’s surface under the light, revealing a core that was even more foul and twisted, writhing like putrid mud.

Karen grunted, a pale, sickly fluid oozing from the corner of his mouth, yet his eyes blazed with a fierce glint of successful calculation.

An apprentice-level spell, even if it had undergone certain modifications he couldn’t comprehend, could never hope to destroy his ultimate creation in a single blow—a creation he had painstakingly built over a century with countless lives.

Ultimately, his opponent had underestimated him.

Roar!

The monster abruptly contracted inward, condensing all its unpurified, vile power into a single, inky black claw.

The claw tore through the curtain of light, aiming directly for the man’s heart!

“A motley aggregate, ultimately just a motley aggregate.”

No ripple of emotion disturbed the man’s icy blue eyes.

He raised his other hand.

A hexagonal barrier flashed into existence before him, then vanished.

The claw ripped through the air, only to halt abruptly three feet from the man, slamming into an invisible bulwark.

Wild negative energy splattered outwards, corroding the hard stone walls with a sizzling sound, yet the barrier itself showed not the slightest tremor.

Karen’s heart sank.

‘No, this isn’t right!’

Magical power surged wildly within his body, the foul grey energy transforming into dozens of hideous tentacles that coiled around the man from all directions, attempting to corrode and tear through the barrier from different angles.

“A futile struggle.”

The man maintained the force field barrier with his left hand, while his right hand’s five fingers spread slightly.

Magical elements from the surroundings converged in his palm, coalescing into palm-sized, mystical runes.

The runes slowly revolved around him, exuding an intensely oppressive aura.

“This is… Elemental Disintegration?!”

Karen’s voice was tinged with uncontrollable dread.

That was the dreadful magic that had once brought that old Horace his renown!

The man offered no reply, merely pushing his right hand gently forward.

The tiny runes, like a school of fish pursuing death, precisely adhered to each assaulting tentacle.

The moment they made contact, the tentacles began to decompose and collapse from their very tips, forcibly reduced from a material state to their most primordial magical particles, dissipating into nothingness.

Karen’s body trembled violently, his face ashen, and he collapsed.

The monster he had poured all his might into creating let out an unwilling shriek of despair, then disintegrated piece by piece.

“No! I won’t lose!”

Karen plunged into the final throes of madness.

The entire stone room shook violently under his unreserved burst of magical power, the ground cracking.

Streams of grey energy shot skyward, converging into a massive vortex in the air, threatening to drag everything in this area into the abyss of destruction.

The man looked up at the energy vortex, which obscured the daylight, a hint of impatience in his eyes.

The entire space where the vortex hovered subtly rippled, like a calm lake surface disturbed by an invisible stone.

The next moment, the energy vortex, powerful enough to level the entire valley, along with Karen himself, vanished from their original spot as if into thin air.

***

Hundreds of miles away, in a barren Gobi Desert.

Space abruptly twisted, and a colossal grey energy vortex appeared out of nowhere, crashing down!

The terrifying explosion tore open a gaping chasm of unfathomable depth in the earth, and the sandstorm kicked up by the shockwave obscured the sun and sky.

Once the dust settled.

Karen, covered in blood, knelt in the center of the chasm, gasping for breath.

He had succeeded.

He had forced his opponent back with a self-destructive attack, then seized the opportunity to activate a random teleportation with scrambled coordinates, making his escape.

Though gravely wounded, given enough time, if he could just return to his pre-prepared stronghold, if he could reach that place, everything would be alright!

Just as he prepared to go into temporary hiding to recover his stamina and magical power, a hand gently rested on his shoulder.

Karen’s blood ran cold in that instant.

He used every ounce of his strength to slowly, painstakingly turn his head, and saw that expressionless face.

“You…”

“As I said, your struggles are futile.”

The man’s five fingers closed, and invisible chains of law instantly pierced Karen’s body, completely locking down his limbs and spiritual sea.

“Who exactly are you?!” Karen shrieked, using his last vestiges of strength.

“Klein.”

The man stated his name, then pointed a finger at Karen’s forehead.

The last spark of vitality in Karen’s eyes extinguished completely, and his entire body slumped down like a pile of mud.

Klein, carrying the unconscious Karen, did not immediately depart.

He closed his eyes.

A wisp of mental energy extended from him, beginning to construct an intricate miniature model he had once observed.

The moment the magic took effect, his consciousness transcended the barrier of space, projecting into an entirely new perspective.

On the cold floor of the blacksmith’s shop.

Lia, having tumbled in a daze, was grimacing as she tried to scramble back to her feet.

Klein’s consciousness watched her disheveled yet stubborn appearance, his lips curving into a faint smile.

Having confirmed she was safe and sound, his consciousness fully immersed itself in the forcibly replicated spell model.

It was truly an astonishing creation.

With his eighth-ring power and vast mental energy, he could forcibly replicate the model and effects of this spell.

However, he was utterly unable to comprehend its underlying principles.

The connection, which defied common sense by forcibly binding two particles, contradicted every system of knowledge he possessed.

It was like magic conjured by a madman’s fantasy, yet it was so real and effective.

His intuition told him that behind this seemingly simple spell lay a new system capable of overthrowing the entire magical world.

Klein withdrew his consciousness, glancing at the unconscious Karen in his hand.

His figure flickered, then vanished from the barren Gobi Desert.

***

The next morning.

Lia awakened by the noisy chatter downstairs at the inn.

She stretched her body; her mental energy had largely recovered, but her body still ached as if it had been dismembered.

“Did you hear? Last night, Silent Valley was shaking as if thunder had struck!”

“More than just thunder! My windows were rattling! I thought it was an earthquake!”

“I heard Hans from the guard say that someone saw black smoke rising from the valley this morning!”

Lia sat by the window, sipping a cup of hot milk, her ears perked up.

‘A battle?’

‘That old monster went back and got into a fight with someone?’

Driven by intense curiosity, Lia quickly finished her breakfast and returned to her room.

The silver metal scroll glowed faintly in her hand once more, the Cloak of the Unseen.

She quietly left the inn, making her way toward Silent Valley, following a familiar path.

Before she even approached the ruins, a strong scent of char and burning wafted towards her.

The sight before her made her halt.

Centered around the half-collapsed castle, an area hundreds of meters in radius had been transformed into scorched earth.

The ground was riddled with enormous craters and jagged fissures, and the remnants of walls were coated in vitrified substances, melted by intense heat and then cooled.

Two distinct, violent magical fluctuations still lingered in the air.

Lia cautiously entered the ruins; her powerful perception allowed her to easily discern these two residual energies.

One was the foul, grey energy of that old monster.

The other, however, carried a heart-pounding sense of oppression.

‘It seems that old monster really hit a formidable obstacle.’

Lia wandered around the ruins for a while, finally arriving at the site of the stone house.

The stone house had completely vanished, leaving only a bottomless crater.

On the edge of the deep pit, she discovered several abandoned research notes.

Lia picked up a few relatively intact pieces of parchment; their contents detailed a theory of life force transformation and included clues pointing towards the southern kingdom.

Lia pursed her lips, casually tossing these forged notes into her spatial ring.

Beyond these, there were no other valuable discoveries.

Neither the old monster nor the mysterious powerhouse who appeared later had left a trace.

Lia stood in the center of the ruins, a subtle sense of loss welling up within her.

It was like watching a mystery series reach its climax, only to find the antagonist was instantly defeated by a random passerby, dropped in from nowhere.

‘Where was the boss battle? The deductions? The crucial experimental data?’

‘Nothing at all.’

‘She had rushed through the entire grand drama, only to see a post-credits scene and a meticulously cleaned crime scene.’

She reviewed the spoils of this adventure; apart from the fake treasures and a few useless forged notes, it seemed she hadn’t obtained any world-shaking secret treasure.

Still, personally participating in and foiling the plot of an ancient monster who had lived for centuries was a worthwhile experience.

She turned and walked out of the valley.

It was time to go back.

‘I wonder what expression Klein would make seeing me return empty-handed, having secured no treasure.’

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