After Gegewu appeared, every wizard on the scene fell into an eerie silence.
They had the most profound understanding of the terror and tenacity of this being.
Gegewu not only possessed formidable magical abilities, but his body could be replenished with wraiths and undead, restoring him to peak condition at any time. Even after being struck by the White Warlocks' ultimate treasure, the Blade of the Avaricious, he had merely been wounded rather than killed — and after lying dormant for a period, he had soon emerged once more to wreak havoc.
If not for the fact that no one could do anything about him, the Soul-Slaughtering Cult would never have risen to prominence on the South Coast, standing as equals against both the White and Black Warlocks.
But now, the supreme leader of the Soul-Slaughtering Cult — the very object of their faith, that Gegewu who had spawned countless horrors — had been captured by the other party and suppressed beneath the steps?
The overwhelming sense of contrast left many of the wizards with an unreal feeling, as though they were trapped in an illusion.
But after checking several times over, they had no choice but to reluctantly accept this fact — even Leilin's subordinates possessed the strength to apprehend a peak third-tier wizard!
Under the same tier, capturing someone alive was considerably more difficult than killing them. Every wizard present understood this reasoning.
If it had been Leilin himself who had apprehended Gegewu, they might only have felt a greater sense of awe. But the fact that it was Leilin's subordinates who had done so made the effect absolutely devastating.
The two Void Assassins gave a slight bow before vanishing back into the void. This uncanny method caused the many wizards present to change color. Only now did they truly realize that with a single command from Leilin — without him even lifting a finger — these two subordinates alone could eliminate every wizard present!
Once they realized this, they didn't even dare to let any stray thoughts about Leilin cross their minds, for fear that he might perceive them.
"Gaga... kuh-kuh... you are... Leilin!"
A hoarse voice emerged from the white bone mask between the horns on Gegewu's head, carrying a halting quality, yet noticeably more spirited than when Leilin had first encountered him.
"I am. Those poor wizard mother and daughter — what happened to them?"
Leilin asked calmly. He was, of course, referring to the old ghost and her daughter from Trionis City. That old hag, in order to resurrect her daughter, had not hesitated to strike a deal with Gegewu, even offering Leilin as a sacrifice.
Naturally, after suffering Leilin's retaliation, they had reaped their own bitter harvest — transformed into a two-bodied monster fused as one.
"Them? I ate them long ago. Two useless wretches..."
Gegewu's speech grew increasingly fluent.
"Is that so..." For an instant, Leilin's eyes seemed to lose focus, as though he were recalling some distant memory.
"Gwaaa!!!"
And right at that moment, beneath Gegewu's bone-white mask, two pillars of blood-red flame erupted. A massive cascade of runes detonated across its body, and a thick veil of black mist surged outward.
"It's broken free of the old bindings!" the Wizards cried out in alarm and fury, their bodies blazing with multicolored innate defenses.
"All things return to oblivion — only the eternal soul graveyard remains… Gegewu!"
The previous Gegewu's voice rang out like an incantation, echoing ceaselessly from the creature's body.
Boom! Amid the chanting, Gegewu's entire body exploded. Innumerable phantom figures poured forth — old and young, male and female — their only shared features being hideous, twisted faces and streams of blood weeping from their eyes.
"Kheh-heh-heh! Let us be destroyed together! Spiritual Catastrophe!!!"
The bone-white mask shattered into a storm of powder. Specks of light drifted into the phantoms before it, and the aura of horror they radiated turned the face of the Night Lighthouse's Supreme Ruler pale.
At the absolute peak of Tier 3, Gegewu had already set half a foot on the threshold of the Morning Star rank. A suicidal attack born from annihilating every last shred of its own existence — even a fellow Tier 3 Wizard like him had zero confidence of surviving it.
He knew all too well that once this spell's full power erupted and spread, every Wizard in the great hall would die. Not even the Black Bone Forest Academy would be spared.
"I have no choice! Using a secret technique will drain what little vitality I have left, but it's still far better than perishing here and now!"
The Supreme Ruler of Night growled, and a layer of fine, dark runes materialized around his body, wriggling through the void like tadpoles — on the verge of colliding with those intangible spirits.
Hnnng! Hnnng! Hnnng!
At that very instant, a cascade of blue starlight descended from above. The Supreme Ruler's entire body shuddered. To his horror, he found his Spiritual Power had stalled completely — even the secret technique he had desperately activated was forcibly suppressed. And no sign of backlash came; it had been smothered as well, without consuming a shred of his remaining vitality.
"This… this is…"
The Supreme Ruler's eyes went wide as he stared at the expanse of stars unfurling behind Leilin.
A pale blue starlight, cool and luminous, pierced through the layered defenses of the Black Bone Forest and through the ground itself, flooding into the great hall. The ceiling above became a night sky canopy, scattered with motes of starlight that cast shifting, prismatic shadows across the floor.
Along with the starlight came a terrifying pressure. Elemental particles were driven outward in every direction. Even the Supreme Ruler's prized Night Domain burst apart like a soap bubble under its weight.
"Aaah…" "Gwaa…" "Squeeee…"
The spectral figures suspended in midair froze as though trapped in amber — utterly motionless. Not a single Wizard was harmed.