Looking at the vast city of Duze, where only a few scattered lights indicated those who had sensed the danger and escaped the attack's range, Leilin sighed with a touch of melancholy: "Even wizards have lost their keen sense of danger..."
"It's not that they've lost their sense of danger — they simply can't bring themselves to believe it! The safety of Duze City, to them, is as certain as the sun rising in the east or water flowing downhill. It's truth! It's law! It never even occurred to them that Duze City could one day come under attack!"
Mirinda looked thoroughly contemptuous.
"Wizards like these are a disgrace to our entire wizard world! Vermin! Let me do a thorough cleaning!"
With cold resolve, Mirinda's hands slammed downward.
BOOM!
CRACK!
Countless serpents of lightning converged, their ferocity increasing tenfold, and crashed down upon Duze City.
The ground seemed to buckle under an invisible crushing force, sinking inward as if flattened by the air itself.
Scores of apprentices and ordinary people were instantly reduced to bloody mist.
*Crash!* The entire thunderstorm zone descended upon Duze City, inflicting devastating casualties on the second-rank and third-rank wizards who had been lucky enough to survive.
"Thunderstorm Prison! Wash away this filth!" Mirinda's expression was ice-cold, her voice eerously reverberating in every direction as violent bolts of lightning rained down, plowing through the entire city.
"That woman has lost her mind!"
Leilin's pupils contracted as he sensed the power contained within this fifth-rank spell.
He wasn't exactly a saint himself, but he wouldn't go around killing indiscriminately like this. When he killed, it was always for some expected gain. Mirinda's behavior felt more like... a release of something that had been suppressed for far too long.
Leilin stroked his chin, forming a few private conjectures.
"Enough!" After witnessing the scene, a steward-like figure among the Dawn Star wizards finally stepped forward, shouting at Leilin and the others: "Even if you are all Radiant Moon wizards, you cannot trample upon Solara's domain with such impunity! My master, the Throne of Flames, will surely bring judgment upon you!"
The dozen-odd Dawn Star wizards surrounding Leilin and his companions all wore wizard robes inscribed with flame runes — uniform-like in appearance — and this steward-like wizard was clearly their leader.
"Oh my! He says he's going to bring judgment upon us! I'm so scared!"
Mirinda covered her lips with her fingers, her voice shifting into that girl's cadence.
"And what kind of judgment? Simply burning my soul, like before? After so many years, you'd think there'd be a bit more creativity!"
Though her face wore an innocent expression, the words Mirinda uttered made the surrounding wizards instinctively shrink back.
"What's the matter? None of you are going to judge me?"
Mirinda took a single step forward, and the dozen-odd wizards around her involuntarily stumbled back, cold sweat beading on their foreheads.
By the Truth! They served the Throne of Flames, yes, but they were merely Dawn Star wizards themselves. Facing five Radiant Moon-level wizards all at once?
If Karl, Eugene, or any of the other Radiant Moons were still around, they would have had the nerve. But now?
"Hehe... if none of you are coming, then I'll come to you!" White lightning seemed to flash in Mirinda's eyes as she suddenly transformed into a howling tempest.
"What are you going to do?"
"I won't let you! Dawn Star Domain! And my killing technique—" The chief steward-like Dawn Star wizard struggled desperately, the halos representing his four innate spells already flickering to life behind him.
*Bang!* But in an instant, Mirinda appeared before him and reached out, her slender white hand piercing straight through his innate defenses. With a look of sheer horror on his face, she snuffed out the halo of his innate magic as easily as pinching out a candle.
"You... how is this possible?" The old steward coughed up blood. The backlash from having his spell forcibly interrupted even sent cracks through his consciousness sea.
"Still just this kind of power-sealing technique? Truly uncreative!" Mirinda shook her head, seized him by the throat, and dragged him back.
"She's at the peak of Radiant Moon! She's a peak Radiant Moon wizard!"
What Mirinda had done was exquisitely executed, but it required at least peak Radiant Moon-level power to completely suppress a Dawn Star's killing technique and even inflict a backlash.
Once her strength was called out, the remaining Dawn Star wizards stared at Mirinda with even greater terror.
In Mirinda's grip, the steward's face flushed crimson as he forced out words through clenched teeth: "The Throne... the Throne of Flames master will not let you go!"
"I'm looking forward to it! And even if it doesn't come to me, I'll go find it myself!"
Mirinda smiled, and this brazen attitude only deepened the surrounding Dawn Stars' fear.
"Alert! Alert! Massive enemy force detected — classified as fifth-rank Radiant Moon wizards! Automatic defenses activated! Deploying Punishment Legion!"
From the golden sacred fire at the very heart of the royal city of Duze, a mechanical voice issued forth — the spirit of the formation controlling the entirety of Duze City's defenses.
And in accordance with its words, the alchemical cannons and defensive runes on the city walls that hadn't yet been destroyed began to glow.
*BOOM!* From nearby, two wizard legions slowly advanced, rolling forward like dark tidal waves.
"Hmm! They responded in under thirty seconds and can deploy entire legions. That's quite the coordination ability!" Leilin remarked with a note of admiration.
"Hehe... those are the Throne of Flames' two most elite forces — the 'Red Fire Legion' and the 'Punishment Legion.' Too bad both legion commanders died at our hands..."
Mirinda glanced into the distance, then asked with disdain: "Who's going to handle this?"
The moment the words left her mouth, a streak of black light shot straight into the Punishment Legion. Through the chaos, one could glimpse a massive black greatsword carving through the ranks, leaving torn flesh and blood in its wake.
Terrorizing magical attacks were utterly ineffective against the black greatsword, and the Punishment Legion immediately descended into chaos.
"Hehehe... since Clark chose the Punishment Legion, I'll take the Red Fire one. I do need a fresh supply of spirits, after all..."
The Mirror standing nearby let out a sinister chuckle. At that moment, it resembled a projected image of light, its form hazy and indistinct. It suddenly swelled in size, its black robe unfurling like a dark sky descending upon the Red Fire Legion.
*Whooo...* Accompanied by eerie wailing, the Red Fire Legion's wizards fell one after another. Faint motes of light — something that looked like departing souls — drifted from the tops of their heads, flickering like tiny white flames, before being wholly absorbed into the black robe.
Whether they were first-rank or second-rank rank-and-file soldier-wizards, or third-rank and fourth-rank squad and battalion commanders, all of them collapsed. Countless wizards roared, unleashing dazzling spells in rapid succession. Faint ripples of Dawn Star killing techniques even surged forth — but the Mirror deflected them all with effortless ease.
The black robe, carrying merciless finality, continued its ceaseless harvesting of souls.
"Soul-targeting magic?" Leilin's eyes glinted. "It can only handle wizards below the fifth rank, but for reaping the weak, it couldn't be more perfect!"
In the span of a single exchange, the Throne of Flames' two most elite wizard legions utterly disintegrated — immediately prompting many of the remaining wizards to contemplate flight.
Several of the outermost Dawn Star wizards exchanged glances, then tacitly transformed into streaks of light and fled.
"Don't... you... dare... leave!" The steward wizard dangled in Mirinda's grip, still struggling uselessly. It was futile. With both elite legions completely annihilated and the Throne of Flames still refusing to show its face, any Dawn Star wizard who stayed to fight a Radiant Moon wizard head-on would have to be insane.
"I suppose I should do something too!"
At this point, Leilin also stepped forward, regarding the alchemical cannons, golems, and other defenses controlled by Duze City's formation spirit.
"Would be strange if I didn't lift a finger, wouldn't it?"
He smiled faintly and produced several grey vials from the pouch at his waist, tossing them into midair.
*Crash!* The vials shattered against one another, and a massive quantity of white powder billowed outward. The powder multiplied rapidly, in an instant covering the entirety of Duze City in a thin layer.
*CREAK! CREAK!* The alchemical cannons on the city walls groaned under unbearable strain, then collapsed with a thunderous crash, revealing frameworks already thoroughly corroded.
The golems, too, sprouted thick layers of rust across their bodies, as if having endured countless ages, transforming into heaps of scrap metal.
Runes flickered and died inch by inch. Even the mechanical voice of the formation spirit within the sacred fire at the city's center began to sound discordant, clearly suffering from some powerful interference.
"Well done, Leilin! If that formation spirit were given full control of the city's defensive arrays, it could exert power rivaling a Radiant Moon. We wouldn't exactly be afraid, but the fewer complications, the better!"
Mirinda grinned and offered encouragement.
"How do you — ?" The steward hovering in midair stared with bulging eyes, looking thoroughly astonished.
"You don't need to know! Now that you've seen this place has completely fallen, there's only one thing you should do — die, utterly and completely, and decay together with this city!"
Mirinda intoned the words almost like a dirge, and the light in the steward's eyes gradually faded.
*WHOOSH!* In that very instant, the situation changed without warning!
The void beside Mirinda suddenly collapsed, and a semi-transparent figure burst forth, driving a three-edged spike straight toward Mirinda's abdomen.
From the translucent figure radiated unmistakable fluctuations of a fifth-rank Radiant Moon wizard! Even if it was only at the Crescent Moon level, such a sudden attack was more than enough to deal Mirinda a serious blow.
But Mirinda merely chuckled, releasing the steward wizard's corpse from her hand.
A crystalline shield materialized before her.
And not far away, Joanna — who had remained motionless until now — suddenly acted. Massive vines erupted from the void, wrapping around the assassin and binding him tight.
"So you're the hidden card in the Throne of Flames' secret vault — a Radiant Moon-level assassin? A single city like Duze has over a dozen Dawn Stars and a Radiant Moon guarding it. I'm growing quite interested in what we'll find next!"