A Wizard’s Secret

The passage was so dark that it was impossible to see anything in front of them. It also seemed that they were descending to the underground. There was a trace of cold draught that seemed to be resistant to Spell Casters’ spells.

Chi!

A flame flickered to life before Merlin. He had released a spell to illuminate the entire passage. Merlin finally saw right then that the passage he was in was not very big. At most, it would only allow two people to walk side-by-side.

To add to that, the passage also bore manmade chisel marks. There were some strange murals on the uneven surface of the stone walls. Merlin stroked the murals inside the passage gently. The icy sensation made him felt as if he was in another world.

“These stone carvings are very ancient…”

Merlin could almost feel the progression of time underneath these stone carvings. This passage was definitely not built in the last few decades but a very long time ago. Maybe more than a few thousand years ago. It could be a remnant from the Molta Empire era.

“Wizard Merlin, this place had been discovered by the southern Spell Caster world before and was almost destroyed. We’ve been through here many times, but it remains as mysterious as ever.” Wizard Tamo whispered as he stared at the stone-carved murals.

Ozmu Headquarters had always had a trace of mysteriousness about it. Nonetheless, all the other Wizards did not know of the secret within aside from the two Ancient Great Wizards of Ozmu and Kleis.

Merlin continued to walk down the passage and soon saw a glimmer of light. Just as Merlin was about to exit the passage, Wizard Tamo hurriedly spoke up behind him. “Wizard Merlin, although your abilities are outstanding, there are still many Great Wizards inside Ozmu Headquarters. Kleis has always been arrogant, so he had only brought a small number of Great Wizards with him for the final battle with the northern Spell Caster world. A majority of them are still in Ozmu Headquarters. If you barge in like this, I’m afraid it might be somewhat dangerous.”

“Dangerous?”

Merlin’s lips quirked into a smile. Wizard Tamo still had not grasp that no number of Great Wizard would pose a threat to him with Merlin’s current abilities.

Thus, Merlin did not heed Wizard Tamo’s ‘advice’ and stepped out of the passage.

Bright dazzling light flooded Merlin’s vision immediately upon exiting the passage. Nevertheless, he had adapted to the brightness in no time and began to examine his surroundings.

This was a huge underground palace. It was glorious and sparkling with gold. Huge gemstones were inset on almost every surface of the place. These gemstones were considered immaterial to Spell Casters, but the elements inside this underground palace were abnormally concentrated. In fact, they were more concentrated than any place in the Glorious Land.

Merlin had only ever sensed such concentration of elements in some of the dimensions in the Void Zone that contained large lodes of elemental crystal stones. It was unbelievable that such a place existed in the Glorious Land where resources were increasingly scarce.

However, after a careful search using his Mind Power, Merlin realized that there was no elemental crystal stone lode underneath this place. The reason the elements were so concentrated was that the entire underground palace was built with elemental crystal stones.

Every inch of the palace was polished out of elemental crystal stones. From the tiles on the ground to the glistening walls of the underground palace. Such extravagant behavior was completely unthinkable in the Glorious Land.

“Who is it?”

It was only at this moment that some of the Spell Casters in the underground palace discovered the anomaly in their midst. All of these people carried powerful elemental fluctuations, so they must be Great Wizards at least.

t]These Spell Casters were taken aback when they realized that Merlin was not a Spell Caster from Ozmu. After all, Ozmu Headquarters had never been breached by external Spell Casters.

An invisible Mind Power shrouded all the Great Wizards in the underground palace just as some of the Great Wizards regained their wits and were about to release some spells.

“Hallucinate!” Merlin growled softly.

All the Great Wizards fell into a hallucination, their expressions became blank and drunken. Judging on how powerful Merlin’s Hallucinating spell was now, these Great Wizards would never recover from the hallucination unless Merlin canceled the spell.

Merlin seemed to have entered a completely deserted place as he made his way deeper inside the palace.

Swish! Swish!

Despite their wariness, Wizard Tamo and Wizard Gilles followed in tight footsteps behind Merlin. Once they had stepped inside the underground palace, they were stunned to find that Merlin seemed to be splaying a large cloth all over the place and all the Great Wizards around them had blank looks on their faces. Even with a single glance, they could tell that these Great Wizards had been trapped in an illusion.

“All trapped in an illusion. Every last one of them! This is the majority of Great Wizards in Ozmu. Ozmu’s force should be greater than the Seven Major Spell Caster organizations of the northern Spell Caster world even without Kleis!”

If they had not witnessed it with their own eyes, Wizard Tamo and Wizard Gilles would not believe that Merlin was able to entrap so many Great Wizards in an illusion with just a single wave of his hand. This was even more staggering than his act of defeating Kleis!

“Wizard Tamo, which of these people are the two Ancient Great Wizards of Ozmu?” Merlin asked as he cast a glance over the Great Wizards in the underground palace.

Wizard Tamo looked around hurriedly. His expression changed when he whispered, “Wizard Merlin, Great Wizard Savaron and Great Wizard Terian are not here. They must be inside the inner chamber.”

“Inner chamber?”

Merlin looked at the huge dazzling golden palace around him. There seemed to only be one palace. Where was this inner chamber?

Wizard Tamo stepped forward and said, “Wizard Merlin, you may not know but this underground palace is very complex and very ancient. In fact, I suspect that this was not built by Ozmu but was built a long time ago. This is only the outer chamber. The Great Wizards usually have access to the palace up to this outer chamber. The inner chamber can only be entered by the two Ancient Great Wizards and Kleis.”

Following the direction of Wizard Tamo’s finger, Merlin looked toward the front of the main chamber. There was a very large mirror installed at the front of the main chamber. A very bizarre accessory indeed.

What was even more bizarre, though, was the fact that this mirror could not show any reflection. Its surface was covered densely with runes. Merlin could sense the complexity of these runes when he inspected the runes with his Mind Power.

“How do I enter?”

Merlin frowned, finding this Runic Magic Circle to be slightly tricky.

Wizard Tamo shook his head helplessly. “This is the most secretive place in Ozmu. No one except for a handful of people can enter. I don’t have a clue as to how I could enter the place.”

Merlin tried using the beacon ring, but there was no response.

“Wizard Merlin, why don’t we wait for a while. Maybe Great Wizard Savaron and Great Wizard Terian will emerge from the inner chamber soon.”

“Wait?”

Merlin snickered. “There’s no need. If we can’t slip in unnoticed, then we’ll just enter by force!”

Merlin stood up and gave stared at the gleaming mirror with a piercing gaze. Then, he walked towards the mirror slowly.

“Shatter now!”

Merlin extended a hand and slammed it down viciously. At once, ice crystals converged together to form a large hand, and there was even a layer of white flames wrapped around it.

The co-existence of ice and fire was only possible to those who had fused the two spells and consolidated a Wizard Heart.

Hum.

The large hand slammed onto the gleaming mirror violently. The dense runes began to flash brilliantly in an attempt to block Merlin’s spell-conjured hand.

Surprisingly, it did manage to block it, but only for a brief moment.

Crack!

The flames on Merlin’s spell-conjured hand burned strongly and devoured the large mirror entirely. The mysterious and powerful runes were unable to withstand the attack and shattered at once. The ferocious force even formed spiderweb-like cracks all across the mirror.

“Shatter!”

A tiny smile appeared on Merlin’s lips when he saw the cracks forming across the mirror. He stretched out a finger and pointed gently. Just like that, the large mirror shattered into smithereens.

After the large mirror was shattered, Merlin’s expression changed dramatically as he stared at the dark passage behind the mirror. At this moment, a familiar aura wafted from the passage.

“This aura…”

Merlin was so astonished that he disregarded all else and dashed directly into the passage toward the inner chamber.