Gazing at the few scattered lights flickering within the massive city of Duze—lights that had sensed danger and fled beyond the attack range—Leilin sighed with a hint of melancholy. "Even wizards have lost their sharpness for detecting danger..."
"It's not that they've lost their sharpness for danger. They simply can't believe it! The safety of Duze City is like the sun rising in the east or water flowing downhill—it's a truth! A law! It has never once occurred to them that Duze City could be attacked!"
Melinda looked rather disdainful.
"Wizards like these are a disgrace to our entire wizard world! Vermin! Let me do a thorough cleanup!"
With icy resolve, Melinda's hands slammed downward.
Boom!
Crack!
Countless serpents of lightning converged, their ferocity amplified tenfold, and crashed down upon Duze City.
The earth seemed to buckle under an invisible crushing force, the entire ground sinking inward as though the air itself had rolled over it.
Massive numbers of apprentices and ordinary people were instantly reduced to bloody mist.
Crash! The entire thunderstorm zone descended upon Duze City, immediately inflicting devastating losses upon the second-rank and third-rank wizards who had narrowly escaped.
"Thunder Prison Storm! Wash away this filth!" Melinda's expression was cold, her voice eerily reverberating in all directions as violent lightning struck, plowing through the entire city.
"That woman has gone mad!"
Leilin's pupils contracted, sensing the immense power contained within this fifth-level spell.
He himself was hardly a saint, but he would never slaughter people so senselessly. Even when he killed, he expected tangible gains in return. Melinda's actions, however, felt more like some long-suppressed... catharsis?
Leilin stroked his chin, a few guesses forming in his mind.
"Enough!" After witnessing this scene, one of the Morning Star wizards—a man who looked like a steward—finally stepped forward and shouted at Leilin and the others. "Even if you are all Radiant Moon wizards, you cannot trample upon Dawn Sun territory so wantonly. My lord, the Flame Throne, will surely deliver judgment upon you!"
The dozen-odd Morning Star wizards surrounding Leilin's group all wore wizard robes inscribed with flame runes, as if they were uniforms, and this steward-like wizard was their leader.
"Oh ho ho! He says he's going to deliver judgment on us! I'm so scared!"
Melinda covered her lips with her hand, her voice shifting to the cadence of that girl.
"Delightful! How will he judge us? Burning my soul again? After all these years, couldn't you come up with something more creative?"
Though her face wore an innocent expression, the words Melinda spoke sent a chill down the spines of every wizard nearby.
"What? None of you are going to judge me?"
Melinda took a single step forward, and the dozen-plus wizards around her instinctively stumbled back, cold sweat beading on their foreheads.
Truth above! They served under the Flame Throne, yes, but their own strength was merely Morning Star. To suddenly face five Radiant Moon-level wizards?
If Karl, Eugene, or any other Radiant Moon wizards were still around, they would certainly have the nerve—but right now?
"Heh heh... if you won't come to me, then I'll come to you!" White lightning seemed to flicker through Melinda's eyes, and in an instant, she transformed into a hurricane of force.
"What are you doing?"
"I won't let you get away with this! Morning Star Domain! And my killing move—" The head steward, a Morning Star wizard, struggled desperately, the halos representing four innate spells already flickering to life behind him.
Bang! But in the very next instant, Melinda appeared before him. Her slender, porcelain-white hand pierced straight through his innate defenses, and with an expression of utter disbelief on his face, the steward watched as she extinguished the halo of his innate spell.
"You... how is this possible?" The old steward coughed up blood. The backlash from the severed spell had even caused cracks to form in his sea of consciousness.
"Still this same kind of isolating power. Truly uncreative!" Melinda shook her head, grabbed him by the neck, and hauled him back.
"Peak Radiant Moon! She's a Peak Radiant Moon wizard!"
Though Melinda's actions had been exquisitely precise, they still required at least Peak Radiant Moon-level strength to completely suppress a Morning Star's killing move and even cause a backlash.
Once this was shouted out, the remaining Morning Star wizards looked at Melinda with even greater fear.
In Melinda's grip, the steward's face flushed crimson. Through gritted teeth, he forced out a few words: "The Flame... the Lord of the Flame Throne will not let you go!"
"I'll be waiting! And even if it doesn't come to me, I'll go looking for it myself!"
Melinda smiled, and this utterly brazen attitude only deepened the terror of the surrounding Morning Star wizards.
"Alert! Alert! Massive enemy presence detected—classified as fifth-rank Radiant Moon wizards! Automatic defenses activated! Deploying the Punishment Legion!"