"I'd read the descriptions in the records long ago, but no words or pictures could ever do justice to the splendor of the world's edge…"
Leilin murmured with a sigh. At this moment he found himself in a bizarre pocket of space, surrounded by immense darkness. Countless streams of silver spatial light shot past him, and in the distance floated nebulae and luminous spheres resembling stars—vast and magnificent, just like the grand universe of his previous life.
Opposite him, Galliel wore a grim expression. Faint spatial currents struck his body but were deflected by a layer of soul force, leaving him entirely unscathed.
Morning Star Wizards inherently possessed the ability to survive within spatial rifts—it was precisely this that allowed them to traverse between worlds!
Of course, it depended on the grade of the rift.
The one Leilin had chosen was located at the edge of the
But if it had been one of those berserk spatial currents from the ancient wars—the kind found in the rift between two worlds where spatial storms raged uncontrollably—forget Morning Star Wizards, even a Radiant Moon Wizard who ventured in would be reduced to dust. The scorpion-man from the Frozen World had perished in exactly that way.
Because the destructive power of Morning Star ultimate strikes was so vast, a battle between two Morning Star Wizards could shatter an entire continent. Thus, even when Morning Stars had grudges to settle, they would only ever choose to fight in these spatial fissures. No matter the devastation, the stability of the main world would remain unaffected.
The site of today's battle was the Phosphor Marsh—headquarters of the Ouroboros Circle. If they actually fought there, regardless of who won, Freepack and the others would certainly all perish. It was even questionable whether the Phosphor Marsh itself would survive.
Leilin obviously couldn't allow that, so he had dragged his opponent here of his own volition.
"You've got some nerve!"
Galliel's brows bristled. Flickers of blue lightning circulated ceaselessly between them—he was clearly furious beyond measure.
Being ambushed by a junior was an enormous humiliation. Though he didn't dare risk the wrath of the other Morning Stars by fighting in the main world, the battlefield should have been his choice, not something forced upon him.
"Galliel! What happened in the Land of Oblivion last time—let's settle it today!"
Leilin's voice was soft yet unyielding. He had never forgotten the grudge of being nearly crushed to death by that single grab, of being forced to hide in the headquarters for over a century. He hadn't sought revenge before simply because he lacked the strength—back then it would have been a joke to even mention it. But now, debts were being repaid in full.
"You dare bring that up???"
Galliel was beyond furious. If not for their interference, every last resource in the Land of Oblivion and the Quicksand Secret Realm would have been his alone—none of it would have fallen into their hands.
To make matters worse, he had been oppressed by three other Morning Star sorcerers simultaneously, driven to the point where there was nowhere to flee.
"You'll pay your master's debt this time!"
A razor-sharp gleam flashed through Galliel's silver pupils, and a black spear materialized in his hand in an instant. From its tip came the faint sound of countless demons weeping—soul-rending and terrifying.
"You've only just advanced to the fourth tier. How much could you possibly understand of Morning Star combat? Accept your fate!"
Galliel roared: "Fourth-tier Wizard Spell—Demon's Wail!"
He hurled the spear forward. BOOM! It was as if the primordial age had returned—the legendary giant Argan hurling the Spear of Akinus to annihilate the sun, slaying the Sun's Son in a cataclysm redivivus!
A torrent of savage power descended. The black spear transformed into a bolt of black lightning, scattering even the ambient spatial turbulence as it arrived before Leilin in an instant.
Soul force of a Morning Star Wizard driving a fourth-tier spell template—that was the kind of earth-shattering, heaven-cleaving power it produced!
"The Demon Hunter Galliel—truly not a reputation built on empty fame," Leilin remarked with admiration. "A pity I'm not as weak as you imagine."
His preparations for advancing to Morning Star had not been a matter of a single day. Over that long span of time, he had already acquired several incomplete fourth-tier spell templates. With the Chip's supplementation and simulated deduction, he had mastered them instantly and could deploy them with effortless fluency.
Moreover, having obtained the bloodline inheritance and a wealth of memories, when it came to combat experience at the Morning Star level, he possessed no less—and likely more—than Galliel.
Hiss…
Behind Leilin, a pair of enormous amber eyes materialized, followed by sleek scales, fangs as sharp as blades, and the terrifying phantom of a Komoin giant serpent.
"By the ancient covenant—bloodline power, answer my call and become my shield…"
Leilin spoke, his voice long and keening like the hiss of a great serpent, chanting the archaic incantation. Though every syllable was perfectly audible, he finished the spell and completed his preparations before the spear arrived—giving one the uncanny sensation of time itself flowing out of order.
"Bloodline Shield!"
A shield of black scales, as though it had existed since the dawn of ages, bearing the image of a ferocious Komoin giant serpent, erupted from the void. Blood-red lightning danced across its surface.
CRASH!
As if sun and moon had collided, or a comet had struck the earth, the black lightning formed by the Demon's Spear slammed into the shield. Blood-red and black entwined, unleashing a terrifying shockwave. Vast tides of spatial turbulence radiated outward like a tsunami. Had this occurred in the main world, the entire headquarters of the Ouroboros Circle would have been obliterated in this very first wave.
"Im… impossible!" Galliel's voice was hoarse in the distance. Through the soul-force link, he could clearly see the tip of the Demon's Spear losing its luster under the wash of blood-red lightning, while the Komoin serpent on the opposing shield seemed to come alive, spreading its jaws and sinking its fangs into the spearhead with a vicious bite.
CRACK! The black spear snapped clean in the serpent's maw and detonated.
BOOM! Raging spatial currents tore through the void, opening fissures so vast that even Leilin and Galliel had to暂避锋芒.
"Shield Bash!" The colossal shield toppled toward Galliel like a collapsing mountain, and Leilin followed close behind, pressing his attack with lethal precision.
"Impossible!" "Impossible!" "IMPOSSIBLE!"
Galliel frantically parried while shouting in disbelief: "You're a newly promoted sorcerer—how can you—"
Bitterness twisted his heart. Leilin showed none of the telltale signs of a freshly advanced Morning Star. He was intimately familiar with combat within spatial rifts—his tenacity even surpassed that of
"Looks like my bloodline inheritance is exceptionally rare," Leilin observed, reading Galliel's expression. He understood now that his performance was too extraordinary—even Gilbert and his peers likely couldn't match this level.
"Because my own bloodline purity is abnormally high, the inheritance I received is far richer than theirs. Gilbert and the others received much less…"
The inherited memories of bloodline creatures were always inscribed within the blood itself. The purer a descendant's bloodline, the more abundant the awakened inheritance, and the greater the benefits.
With bloodline purified by the Chip, supplemented by the serpent-woman's bone joint, the purity of Leilin's bloodline was arguably among the very top of all Morning Star Komoin serpent sorcerers!
In the space between heartbeats, Leilin had already grasped the reason, yet his hands never relaxed.
CRACK! A cascade of fine black scales materialized across his right hand, forming a razor-sharp blade.
Fourth-tier Komoin Scales. The runes inscribed upon them were more ancient, their glow entirely internalized, yet they carried an extraordinary keenness of edge.
SHICK! A layer of dim black radiance enveloped the blade. Leilin carved it mercilessly across Galliel's chest. The opposing soul forces cancelled each other out, and then the blade, carrying Leilin's formidable physical strength, shattered Galliel's innate defense and tore a gaping wound across his chest. Blood sprayed. One could almost glimpse the organs and bones within.
"Wh… how… ?" Galliel clutched his chest, staggering backward, eyes filled with utter disbelief.
"How could I lose? To a junior who just advanced?"
Galliel roared, his face twisted with fury, all trace of his earlier composure gone. Even his silver pupils were now threaded with crimson.
"No! I haven't lost yet! I still have one final card!!!"
Galliel's head snapped up, and a profoundly dangerous aura erupted from his body. "Leilin Farell! Today I will show you the true trump card—the true reason that we Fourth-tier Wizards, Fourth-Ring Wizards, are called Morning Stars!"
A ring of innate spell light blazed into a brilliant halo around him.
"First-rank Innate Spell—Disordered Field!"
Then came the halo of the second-rank innate spell…
By the end, Galliel's aura had surged to its absolute peak. Four spell halos hovered and flickered around his body.
Morning Star Ultimate Strike! Driven into a corner by Leilin, Galliel had finally unleashed his Morning Star trump card—his ultimate reserve!
"Morning Star Ultimate Strikes, huh…"
A faint smile tugged at the corner of Leilin's mouth. The memory of watching the recorded footage came vividly back to life.
"I have one too!"
The smile vanished. A layer of blood-colored radiance shimmered into existence around Leilin.
"First—the first-rank innate spells: Komoin Scales! Petrifying Gaze!"
A coat of fine black scales spread across Leilin's body, and his eyes transformed into amber vertical slits.
"Then—the second-rank innate spell: Venomous Gall!" Primordial toxin materialized around him in an instant.
"And the third-rank innate spell: Fear Intimidation!" Having advanced to the fourth tier, the majesty radiating from Leilin was even more terrifying—he had truly restored the Komoin giant serpent's dominance as an apex predator of antiquity.
"Finally—the fourth-rank innate spell: Bloodline Metamorphosis! Combined into the ancient Morning Star Ultimate Strike—Komoin Serpent Transformation!!!"
The singularity within Leilin's sea of consciousness spun violently. Under the drive of his soul force, his four innate spells interacted and amplified one another, producing a terrifying qualitative transformation!!!