Chapter 3: Chaos
The heavy door slowly swung open. Under the illumination of the light ball spell, the dark passage inside and outside was clearly visible. Yet, to everyone’s surprise, there was no reaction at the entrance. The brilliant light from the spell shone straight in, revealing an empty passage that seemed untouched for a long time. Suddenly, as the door was opened, a faint white mist, like dust, seeped out quietly, but no one noticed this anomaly.
“What’s going on? There seems to be nothing unusual. Newman, are you sure this is what we’re looking for?” Rebrí looked doubtfully at the emptiness inside the door.
“That’s right, Rebrí. Look, this passage has reached its end. Whether it’s the final point of the entire secret passage or not, think about how many ambushes and traps might be hidden here, and consider the dangers we’ve faced. I bet there must be something worth exploring inside. Look! There’s another secret door here. Hmm, it seems there’s also a restriction. Let me take a closer look.” Newman, the first to step into the passage, eagerly pulled out another detection tool to examine it carefully. This tool not only had extremely sensitive magical sensing capabilities but could also calculate the presence of traps. It was Newman’s favorite device.
After a tense period of detection and calculation, Newman could finally breathe a sigh of relief. According to the readings, there were no traps in this secret door—everything was normal. However, it required a series of complex calculations to find the method to activate it. Fortunately, this set of calculation rules was exactly what Newman knew best. Through mental calculation, he figured out that pressing and rotating the center of the seventh circle from the left among the countless circles on the surface of the secret door would open it.
The light ball spell suddenly vanished, replaced by even brighter holy light that illuminated the entire passage. To everyone’s astonishment, the mysterious mage’s eyes seemed filled with confusion and bewilderment. The emergence of holy light at this moment seemed pointless, even provocative, as most of the people present possessed dark magic. Such unrestrained holy light seemed like a declaration of war. The radiant holy power, capable of weakening dark magic, bathed everyone in its light. Even Mihajević realized something was wrong.
“Miss Lomei, what’s wrong? Please stop using your holy light—it’s not suitable here!” Although his tone was much stricter, the puppet mage still maintained a polite demeanor in his words.
Ignoring the puppet mage’s words, the mysterious mage suddenly clasped his fingers together and thrust them upward into the air, as if throwing something out. A series of light-based attack spells were unleashed at the ever-vigilant dark knight. Two high-level light spells, “Holy Flame of the Blue Sky” and “Snowfall from the Heavens,” appeared out of nowhere above the dark knight. The light sphere formed by “Holy Flame of the Blue Sky” quickly grew into a flame ball the size of a brazier, and it seemed that all surrounding light and shadow were drawn entirely to this flame ball, which then focused all its power on the dark knight, who was already prepared.
“Snowfall from the Heavens” exploded into a wide band of flames that descended rapidly, encircling the dark knight completely. Even though Vladkov’s combat energy had reached its peak, each flame particle that landed caused a series of tiny explosions within his surging combat energy.
Filled with shock and anger, the dark knight could no longer afford to be cautious. He raised his knight’s spear, creating a long blue-black shadow that pierced toward the mysterious mage’s throat. The mysterious mage moved swiftly, using an extraordinary fighting style to dodge, while continuing to cast one after another of the purest and most powerful light spells, each more fierce and intense, as if driven by a deep-seated grudge. These spells also affected the other dark knight, who was waiting nearby, eager to join the fight.
Sorenberg had been mentally prepared. The wind generated by the knight’s spear quickly worked together with Vladkov to block the mysterious mage’s path. By now, the mysterious mage was floating in mid-air, continuously chanting spells. His large cloak drifted slowly in the air, and with his face completely covered, he resembled more of a dark mage casting spells.
With his arms crossed, Komer watched everything coldly. An unusual emotion arose in his heart. Taking a deep breath, he was surprised to find that even his emotions were fluctuating. His desire to test this mysterious mage grew stronger. Acting on impulse, he focused inward to examine himself and realized that the anger surging within him was becoming increasingly intense. This phenomenon was clearly influenced by external factors, but the battle between the mysterious mage and the two dark knights shouldn’t have caused such a reaction in him.
He took a deep breath, carefully distinguishing the faint scent in the air. Glancing at Lebray and Mihajic, whose faces shone with excitement and eagerness, even licking their lips in a bloodthirsty manner, Newman had also put down his work and focused his gaze on the two fighters. “Mist of Madness!” The term burst out of Komer’s mind almost instantly. No wonder even he found it hard to control his emotions. Looking at the expressions of the puppet mage and Lebray, this extremely faint, almost colorless and tasteless mist was not a magic spell but rather a type of covert plant-based substance. Its effects didn’t kick in quickly, but they lasted quite long. It could cause the person who inhaled it to become neurologically agitated, greatly intensifying their emotions toward those they despised or hated. In other words, it would trigger the victim to express the emotions they inwardly loathed, often manifesting as violence. What puzzled Komer most was why this mysterious mage suddenly directed her hatred toward Vladkov.
Although this covert poisonous mist also had some effect on practitioners of dark magic, it wasn’t significant. However, its impact on other practitioners, especially those of light and divine magic, was particularly pronounced. Komer had spent some time learning potion-making from a peculiar half-orc apothecary and acquired quite a few skills in that area.
A series of light shields continuously surrounded the mysterious mage. The combat energy emitted by the two dark knights’ lances couldn’t completely destroy her protective shields. The powerful light magic attacks forced the two dark knights to dodge left and right to avoid the devastating force. This was the true manifestation of the mysterious mage’s strength. Her swift movements, as fast as the wind, were truly astonishing. Both Komer and Lebray had to admit that no one in their exploration team could compare to her in this regard.
“Mr. Mihajic, I must ask presumptuously—where exactly did this mage named Lomei come from? Who recommended her for this adventure? Was it you?” As the two dark knights grew increasingly struggling under the mysterious mage’s increasingly fierce attacks, and given the powerful light magic she displayed, it was clear she must have an extremely close connection with the Light Holy Church. With everyone’s secrets now almost exposed to her, if she managed to escape, everyone, including Komer, would face endless troubles. Komer had to prepare in advance.
“Uh, this was recommended by a friend of mine. He couldn’t come himself due to his travels, so he recommended this mage from Lome, who is said to have great expertise in light magic. Rest assured, my lord—our friends are all of the same kind; no one else can mix in.” Mihajevic naturally understood the implication in Komer’s words and hurriedly explained.
“Mr. Mihajevic, I’m afraid your words won’t satisfy us. Look at her technique—‘Heavenly Serenity’—this is pure light magic. I can’t imagine any dark mage capable of mastering light magic to such a level. Aside from those born as light mages, no one else can do this!” Shaking his head, Komer clearly couldn’t accept his reasoning, especially since he didn’t even know much about this mysterious mage, and it was just a letter of recommendation from a friend. “Mr. Mihajevic, if you can’t get this mage from Lome to stop and undergo our tests, then we’ll have no choice but to be rude to her.”
Glancing at Rebril beside him, Mihajevic realized that the only way to dispel everyone’s doubts was to make this mage from Lome stop. He didn’t understand why she suddenly attacked the two dark knights—after all, they hadn’t done anything to provoke her during their journey. Why would she launch such hostile attacks without reason? And with the current situation, it seemed like there would be no turning back. No wonder everyone was suspicious of this mysterious mage who had arrived through their own channels.
“Mage from Lome, please stop! If there’s any issue, we can resolve it peacefully, okay?” At this moment, the puppet mage could only muster the courage to make one last attempt.
It seemed the mysterious mage could sense the puppet mage’s gentle plea. As she spun around, facing the puppet mage, before he could react, two beams of bright flame shot down from the sky, aiming straight at his head. Despite the puppet mage’s astonishing reaction speed, he was unprepared. After dodging one beam of flame, the other struck the skeleton warrior who had taken a hit for his master. The powerful light magic hit the dark warrior from the depths of darkness, causing cracks to appear on the skeleton’s skull. The red headscarf tied to its head also slipped off after the silver shield and short sword fell to the ground. After shaking slightly, it finally collapsed into a pile of debris.
Furious to the extreme, seeing the luxurious skeleton warrior he had painstakingly trained killed in one strike while he was unprepared only deepened his anger. The puppet mage was utterly devastated—never expecting such a reward for his good intentions. Mihajic roared, “Tch!” As he made strange, complex gestures with his fingers, a black mist wafted out—“Black Snow Break!”
This was a long-lost dark magic, a forbidden spell that drew upon the caster’s own vital energy as its source. Generally, mages avoided using it unless in extreme emergencies, as it was not only difficult to cast but also caused harm to the caster himself. After using this spell, the caster often needed a long time to recover. Yet now, it was far from such a desperate situation—this showed just how enraged the puppet mage was at losing his puppet.
At the same time, Lebri also succeeded in casting his spell. Three overlapping layers of faint black shadows successfully encircled the mysterious mage, who was busy fighting off two dark knights. Komer, however, chose to use the powerful lightning spell “Heavenly Thunder Strike.” The strength of this mysterious mage far exceeded everyone’s expectations. Not only were the two dark knights overwhelmed by her magic attacks, but she still had the strength to unleash two blazing lightning bolts, destroying a top-tier skeleton warrior. Although it was unclear why this man chose to turn hostile at this moment, there seemed to be only one explanation: perhaps the treasure hidden behind that secret technique had driven him mad with greed, making him attempt to claim it all for himself. It seemed this was the only reason that could barely justify his actions, aside from Komer having a vague understanding of the truth.
The forbidden magic cast by the puppet mage transformed into patches of black feathers in the air, which lightly adhered to the surface of the massive light shield formation already surrounding them. Even the knight lances of the two Dark Knights, who had exerted their combat energy to its limit, could only cause the shield to emit a strange glow when they struck it, never managing to break through its barrier. However, as soon as these black feathers touched the shield, they exploded with intense noise, and black and white glows burst forth. Yet after each feather combined with the shield and triggered a massive reaction, the shield’s brilliant colors dimmed slightly. When Komer’s “Heavenly Thunder Smite” transformed into countless black grid-like nets covering the shield, the powerful lightning magic further weakened it, causing numerous cracks to appear. The Dark Knights, who had waited so long for this opportunity, wouldn’t miss it. Almost simultaneously, two streams of black light shot out from the tips of their knight lances and struck the shield in an instant. With a crisp cracking sound, the shield formation finally collapsed. At that moment, Rebril’s triple darkness bindings tightly secured the mysterious mage’s body.