"I hope you can still keep up that carefree attitude when you're being besieged by the Kiss of Gluttony!"
Leilin's casual, offhand tone immediately enraged Roya, who was lurking in the shadows. A sinister voice echoed from every direction, making it impossible to pinpoint his exact location.
"Everyone knows that a barrier's weakness lies in the caster themselves. The moment the caster comes under attack, the entire barrier's stability collapses!"
Leilin maintained his lofty, detached tone, as though critiquing Roya's magic.
"So what if you've figured out the weakness? My Cage of Appetite has been improved—it now carries a fraction of the power of a Morning Star realm. A mere Crystallized Wizard like you will never see through it!"
Roya's voice came again, though this time it carried a note of barely contained frustration.
Anyone would grow angry upon seeing an enemy who should be trapped and writhing in a cage acting so nonchalantly.
On his command, the multitude of horrifying maw-like mouths began gnawing at Leilin.
"Scale Shield!" Leilin snapped his fingers, and countless black crystals materialized, forming a shield with a scaly surface. The white teeth bit into it, producing sharp, screeching sounds and sending showers of sparks in every direction.
Under the relentless assault of the teeth, the Scale Shield's defenses immediately appeared precarious—it would likely shatter completely within minutes.
"Ha… ha ha…" Seeing this scene, Roya burst into hearty laughter.
"So what if you saw through it all? You're still going to be ground into minced meat under the siege of my Cage of Appetite! I've decided—I'll preserve your tongue and savor it slowly…"
Though his thoughts were still lucid, the Gluttony Brand clearly had pushed Roya into a state of mental instability.
Listening to the other's victory proclamation and the crumbling remnants of the Scale Shield around him, Leilin shook his head.
"If this barrier were the only obstacle, it would be nearly unsolvable among third-rank Wizards. Even I would need to expend enormous amounts of Spiritual Power to force my way out. But unfortunately…"
Leilin sighed, sounding as though he genuinely sympathized with Roya's predicament.
"You shouldn't have allied with the Oakheart Family!"
"How did you kn—" Before Roya could finish, a terrifying beam of death pierced through the layers of hidden barriers and obstructions, striking him dead-on where he lurked in the dark crevice.
Finger of Death! A devastating Wizard spell custom-designed for Leilin by the Chip, carrying a one-hit-killing effect among third-rank spells!
*Pu! Pu! Pu!*
Roya's defenses were torn apart under the Finger of Death like wet paper. Even his innate defenses shattered as easily as eggshells before the black ray of death.
"Appetite! Appetite! Great Beelzebub! You are the master of appetite, the ruler of gluttony!"
A sound that seemed part chant, part prayer erupted from all around Roya.
Amid the prayers, the black mark on Roya's face blazed with violent light, then detached itself from his skin of its own accord, forming a black seed that positioned itself in front of the Finger of Death.
"A belief? Or a god?" Leilin had always harbored wariness toward that legendary world of countless deities. Combined with knowledge from his previous life, he had some understanding of such things.
The moment he recognized the form, he immediately made the connection.
But then a cold smile appeared on his face: "If Beelzebub's true body—or even a clone—were here, it could crush me with a single finger. But now? A worthless seed cut off from its main body's Spiritual Power?"
Having conducted Astral Plane experiments, Leilin was intimately familiar with the vulnerability of Spiritual Power Seeds that descended into other worlds independently—especially once the connection between both sides had been severed.
One could say that even if the entity's true body had surpassed the seventh rank and reached a terrifying level, it couldn't provide the slightest bit of support to the Spiritual Power Seed here.
Moreover, this black seed wasn't even a true Spiritual Power Seed—it was merely the spiritual contamination left behind by the annihilated clone, mixed with a few fragments of memory.
With a cold snort, the beam of death crashed mercilessly into the black seed.
*Pu!* After a flash of black light, the black Spiritual Power Seed fell to the ground, a hole appearing on its surface. It gradually petrified, forming a stone-like runic shape.
The Finger of Death pierced through Roya, whose face was twisted in despair. Had Leilin not deflected it slightly at the last moment, Roya's entire head would likely have exploded.
But now, Roya lay on the ground like a dead dog, a gaping hole torn through his chest, muttering in disbelief: "H-How… how can this be?"
Leilin walked over and mercilessly destroyed his Sea of Consciousness, his voice dripping with cold.
"Speak! When did you start collaborating with the Oakheart Family?"
"Seventy years ago, I went to Blue Mountain City seeking a way to remedy the flaws in my Cage of Appetite. It was then that the Oakheart Family helped me correct the defects…"