“I still have one last question, Raymond Wizard.”
Dago took a deep breath and said, “Doesn’t the Academy have the inheritance of a Formal Wizard? Why did you go to such great lengths to plot for Viser’s inheritance?”
Raymond laughed loudly after hearing that, but there was no joy in his laughter, only surging madness.
“Do you think the Academy’s employment order for the guidance of a Formal Wizard is real? That’s to trick these fools into hiring wizards to risk their lives. I’ve been at the Academy for thirty whole years, and I’m still just a Half-step Formal Witches. Do you think the Academy would give the inheritance of a Formal Wizard?”
“Thirty years, how many thirty years does one have in a lifetime? Without becoming a Formal Wizard, all are merely ants. Even that old ghost, the Academy Dean, he is nothing more than a pawn of the Emerald Life.”
“So I must become a Formal Wizard and see the scenery at the top. This idea, like poison, erodes my soul daily, driving me mad.”
Raymond’s cold gaze fixed on Dago, as if giving him a final ultimatum.
Dago pondered for a moment, then said, “There’s a saying in my hometown that’s very true: Villains die because they talk too much.”
With that, he shot the ice ball from the tip of his Ice Crystal Magic Wand towards Raymond.
Seeing this, Raymond shouted, “You’re seeking death! Then I’ll grant it to you, Dago.”
He hurled the fireball he was holding towards Dago.
The ice ball and fireball collided with a roar in mid-air, instantly erupting into a spectacular fusion of ice and fire.
The ice ball, condensed from ice energy, glowed with an eerie blue light, its surface shrouded in fine white frost. The moment it struck the fireball, the flames surged three feet high.
Eventually, the ice ball shattered into countless ice crystals under continuous scorching, while the fireball also dimmed significantly under the erosion of the cold, turning into a sky full of sparks that fell into the rain of ice crystal fragments.
In the instant of cold and heat cancellation, a large amount of white mist and water vapor spread out.
Dago raised the Ice Crystal Magic Wand in his hand, his gaze piercing through the white mist, his Detection Art firmly locking onto Raymond’s position.
The next second, the air and light at the tip of his Magic Wand began to distort.
A large concentration of ice energy and air formed a strong wind around him, causing Dago’s cloak to billow upwards.
An Ice Crystal Cannonball, as large as a basketball, condensed and formed.
Aim, fire, all in one smooth motion.
The terrifying Ice Crystal Cannonball was launched, tearing through the white mist, kicking up large amounts of snow and mud along its path.
“Boom!”
The spinning blue-black Ice Crystal Cannonball directly struck a layer of fire wall in front of Raymond, and was completely melted away.
Raymond held a completely red Magic Wand in his hand, his face somewhat grim. It seemed the power of this move had quite an impact on him, forcing him to draw his Magic Wand to fight back.
Dago’s Detection Art provided him with a piece of information: Flame Wall, a thick wall of flames rises in front of the caster, which can not only block physical attacks but also incinerate elemental energy upon contact.
A safe zone forms behind the wall; the flames only release heat outwards, while remaining gentle as warm light inwards.
Dago’s expression was grim; the Ice Crystal Cannonball was essentially ineffective, and he constantly calculated his next move.
In terms of experience, could Raymond’s thirty years as a wizard not surpass his own? In terms of strength, a Half-step Formal Witches was several times stronger than him.
However, he also had the ultimate killing move, the Flame Core Air Bullet, but its charging time was too long, making its release almost impossible.
To win, he had to utilize the environmental advantage.
Thinking of this, Dago took out a bottle of purple Mental Potion from his storage pouch and drank it.
Then, using his mental power, he compressed a small amount of air under his feet, activating 'bouncing man' mode.
Dago leaped several meters, jumping towards the vast farmlands between the Town and the forest.
Raymond saw Dago trying to escape, and a pale purplish-blue halo flickered in his eyes. His body actually lifted off the ground, hovering a meter in the air, and he pursued Dago.
Dago looked back and was instantly horrified. This Half-step Formal Witches could fly!
Raymond flew a meter in the air, while Dago leaped across the wide fields. The distance between Raymond and Dago continuously closed.
Raymond’s Magic Wand began to gather red energy, condensing into fireballs, and he started to bombard Dago.
Dago had no choice but to grit his teeth and increase his mental power to compress more air, using the resulting air blast to fly further.
This, however, meant he couldn't maintain a stable landing posture and would damage the ground beneath his feet.
Thus, Dago was bombarded by Raymond from the air for about ten minutes. During this time, Dago nearly got hit in the back several times, narrowly jumping away each time.
His cloak was no longer recognizable; it had been torn into countless rags, like tattered flags hanging on his body, with charred edges.
A foot-long gash had opened on his shoulder, revealing a seeping wound beneath. The torn fabric was stuck to his skin with blood, trembling slightly with each breath.
His sleeves were so tattered that only half remained, exposing forearms covered in scratches. The cleansing runes originally embroidered on his magic robe had long since faded.
That tattered magic robe had more power than any ornate decoration.
Every tear was proof of a narrow escape from death, and hidden within every charred and ragged patch were unbroken sinews and an unyielding spirit.
Dago stopped. He turned to look at Raymond, who was calmly observing him from the air about a dozen meters away.
Raymond said mockingly, “Run, why aren’t you running anymore? This game of cat and mouse is quite fun.”
Dago, with a composed expression, said, “Raymond Wizard, haven’t you noticed something? I’ve actually been jumping around in a circular area.”
“Oh? For a hunter, what’s the difference between a mouse running straight and running in circles?”
“There’s a difference, of course, Raymond Wizard. Now it’s my turn. I hope you can handle it.”
The reason Dago got injured during his continuous escape, without the protection of ice armor formed by a pristine white skin, was because he had been constantly using his mental power to bury dormant ice elements in the fields.
Like a diligent old farmer planting rice, now it was time for him to harvest.
He chanted the incantation for the Ice Crystal Technique, continuously gathering ice elements into his palm, forming a massive blue energy orb.
Raymond initially thought he would attack him, so he also began chanting, condensing a fireball at the tip of his Magic Wand.
Dago then shouted, “Blossom, Ice Crystal Flower!”, and with that, he pressed the blue energy orb into the ground.
Ice energy moved across the snow-covered field, connecting the dormant ice elements Dago had buried in the snow, forming dense ice veins beneath Raymond.
Raymond quickly turned the fireball at the tip of his Magic Wand towards the field and unleashed it, but in the face of such immense ice energy, this fireball was like a drop in the ocean, instantly extinguished.
Crack, crack, crack, the crisp sounds of cracking were particularly jarring in the dead silent night, as if something was breaking free from underground.
At first, tiny ice shards pierced the frozen ground, their tips glowing with an eerie blue cold light. Immediately after, more and more ice spikes grew wildly along the veins, shooting upwards at a visible speed, directly piercing towards Raymond.
These ice spikes were not smooth columns but were covered in ferocious barbs and sharp edges. Every inch was condensed with cold air that seemed to have not melted for a thousand years, their surfaces covered with frost-like ice crystals.
Countless ice spikes rose from the ground, eventually forming a crisscrossing ice forest in this frozen purgatory. Their sharp tips pierced the gloomy sky, and cold air flowed along the ice spikes' veins, lowering the temperature of the entire hell by several degrees.
They were like countless hands reaching out from the abyss, cold and sharp, with an irresistible might, trapping everything that mistakenly entered this place in a cage of ice spikes, forever devoid of warmth.
Just as Raymond was trapped in this cage, he smiled and looked at Dago, saying, “Dago, do you think this can kill me? You underestimate a Half-step Formal Witches too much.”
But the next second, he was terrified out of his wits, seeing Dago raise his Magic Wand, a Flame Core, like a small sun, shining at its tip.
Raymond shouted hysterically, “Impossible! The Pinnacle of Art! This is not something you can comprehend at your age.”
Then, with a pleading look, he said to Dago, “Please, Dago, everything can be discussed. Don’t release it on me, for the sake of the Academy.”
Dago, with a pale face, said mischievously, “I don’t make the decisions, go talk to my little Flame Core.”
“Boom—”
A sudden explosion tore through the heavens and earth, forming a circular flame shockwave. Wherever it passed, rocks melted, vegetation turned to ash, and even the ice forest formed by ice crystals was instantly vaporized.
A mushroom-shaped fire cloud rose from the center of the explosion, with a glowing white core churning within. Raymond had already been reduced to ashes in the first instant.
The flames he once controlled now became the most violent destroyers, carrying his ashes and engulfing everything within a hundred meters in this scorching catastrophe.
After the firelight receded slightly, only a charred pit, dozens of meters deep, remained. Unextinguished sparks still lingered at the bottom of the pit, and the air was filled with the smell of sulfur and scorched earth.
There were no remains, no traces, only the utterly incinerated land as proof.
