"Hehe…"

Suddenly, a shrill laughter broke the silence of the night.

The black-robed old man who was originally standing motionless, tried all his might to suppress the agitated Spell Models inside him and stood up unexpectedly. His deadly stare fell onto the massive fireballs, and an unmistakable excitement washed over his pale face.

"It seems that this dying old man is still able to contribute."

The black-robed old man's body sparkled with bright, violent fluctuation of Fire Elements. An enormous surge of Mind Power washed over him as if he had been thrown into a pool of Fire Elements. There was a kind of frantic air that permeated the night, turning it into a peculiar scene.

Disregarding the instability of the Spell Models in the black-robed old man's Awareness, he forcefully activated them to release spells.

"Swoosh!"

A group of fireballs appeared out of thin air. With the control of the black-robed old man's Mind Power, the fireballs shot across the night sky, heading right toward the direction where Merilung had disappeared earlier.

"Bang!"

The attack of the black-robed old man was accompanied by a muffled noise. Then, a vague silhouette appeared at the empty space where the fireballs had landed earlier. It was Merilung!

Merilung appeared as pale as a sheet. He did not let his guard down although there were several walls around him, protecting him from the black-robed old man's attack of fireballs. On the contrary, he glared right into the open space in front of him as if he had predicted something terrible was going to happen.

It was those eight massive fireballs cast by Merlin earlier, speeding toward his direction.

…

There was nothing but a vast field of emptiness – no sound, no object, and no one. This place resembled a void world.

Merlin was trapped in such a place. His Mind Power spread out to his surrounding frantically but to no avail. Although he knew that this must be one of the effects from Dark Mist cast by Merilung, he was unable to break out of it.

Merlin had never heard of Darkness-type spell, not to mention encountering with one. He estimated that Merilung must be somewhere around him but he was not able to trace his whereabouts.

Finally, Merlin understood why the black-robed old man who had survived the Slaughterhouse would be severely wounded under Merilung's Dark Mist!

"Bang!"

Then, a violent collision happened. In an instant, as if a crack had formed in this void world, Merlin saw a glimmer of light – it was the flames.

His Mind Power, which had failed to detect any movement, suddenly regained its capability. Merlin witnessed the panic-stricken look on Merilung's face as well as the raging flames, which surged frantically on the black-robed old man's body due to a total loss of control over the Spell Models.

At this very moment, Merlin felt that he had returned from the void world into the reality.

Merlin glanced at the black-robed old man in the distance. He knew that it was only the black-robed old man who could bring him back from the illusion of Merilung's Dark Mist because the black-robed old man had just experienced the spell himself.

Ignoring the risk of collapsing his own Spell Models, the black-robed old man still cast Fireball to combat Merilung's Dark Mist. Naturally, Merlin had to grasp this one-in-a-million opportunity.

"Boom!"

Merlin's lips curled into a sneer. With Mind Power, he controlled eight massive fireballs and ignited them as they got nearer to Merilung.

There were eight gigantic fireballs. Each of them had an infinite power close to a First-level spell, and now the eight of them exploded at once. The powerful force was enough to break any kind of defense.

"Booooom! Booooom! Booooom!"

The catastrophic explosion rose and fell like waves. The violent flames swept through a radius of approximately ten meters around Merilung, turning the whole area into a sea of flames.

Soaring flames illuminated the entire castle, and everyone expressed shock. The current raging sea of fire triumphed over the attack of ten thousand arrows over the sky earlier.

Beads of perspiration formed on Merlin's face. He puffed and panted, and his left hand gently stroked the Bell Pendant. Although there was no difference in the appearance of the pendant, Merlin knew clearly that this casting tool had already exhausted its function.

The blazing flames melted the snow on the ground. Merlin lifted his foot and found that both his feet were soaked wet all the way through his shoes. The feeling of wet feet was extremely uncomfortable on a cold night like this.

However, Merlin was not bothered much. Instead, he focused on the middle of the sea of ​​flames. As time went by, the raging flames gradually calmed down until it was finally extinguished.

Merilung's body laid on the ground. His entire body was burned beyond recognition.

"Is he dead?" Count Selin asked.

He obviously still had not recovered from the shock of the battle. He who had initially sunk into the depths of despair was feeling loss at the situation which had undergone a major reversal.

Merlin appeared as composed as always. He was not really surprised. Even with the possession of a First-level spell Scroll, it would not help in the attack of eight large fireballs, let alone Merilung, who did not have any.

Merilung was a genius Four-elemental Spell Caster. Otherwise, he would not have been scouted by the core members of the Abyss Fort. Today, Merlin's destiny would have been changed dramatically if he did not possess the Bell Pendant, a powerful casting tool, or if the black-robed old man had not helped him in destroying Merilung's spell.

He was definitely a more terrible opponent than the previous Wizard Jason!

Merlin moved his dampened feet toward Merilung's dead body, squatted down, and began fumbling through the corpse.

He noticed that the combined force of eight large fireballs was exceedingly great. In just seconds, the fire burnt Merilung's clothes into ashes. At first glance, there was nothing eye-catching on Merilung's burnt body.

The only thing that caught Merlin's attention was the black ring on Merilung's finger.

Suddenly, a thought hit Merlin's mind. He was reminded of the ring old man Etha passed down to him. Inside the ring was a relatively large space which stored old man Etha's Spell Manual.

Hence, Merlin hurriedly removed the ring from Merilung's finger, wiped off the dust on its surface, and inspected it carefully in his palm.

The ink-black ring reflected faint light in the dimmed fire. Without any hesitation, Merlin focused his Mind Power on the ring.

"Boom!"

Almost instantly, his Mind Power picked up the ring's feature.

"Indeed, there's a space within!"

Merlin was overjoyed. His Mind Power only roughly scanned the space inside the ring. It was similar to the space inside old man Etha's ring but it seemed more occupied.

Merlin did not continue to investigate further but withdrew his Mind Power. He looked into the distance and what he saw was an old man who looked rather uncomfortable.