End of the Magic Era

The lava pond had been maintaining its position for ten seconds, but Dubois hardly cared. The Lightning Spirit was already just thirty meters above Lin Yun, and as it suppressed the lava pond, everything within a few hundred meters turned into a sea of lightning.

It was like a lightning domain destroying all other forces, or to be more precise, all forces that weren’t controlled by the Lightning Spirit.

The lava pond had already become several hundred meters deep during that time. The deeper it was, the stronger the pressure. At thirty meters, Lin Yun had already encountered a magma chamber, but he didn’t stop.

Hidden in the lava pond, he kept paying attention to the slowly falling Lightning Spirit while completely disregarding his mana consumption. It took three to four seconds for Lin Yun’s mana to be drained by the Lightning Spirit, and thus far, he had already replenished his mana seven times.

The Lightning Spirit’s body was ethereal, as it was made of lightning. Its speed was very slow, especially as it just rushed out of the Demiplane to fight. It was like a drifting thundercloud.

Heaven Mages would very rarely fight like Dubois. Usually, a Lightning Spirit putting pressure on someone would be a way of bullying them. After the Lightning Spirit suppressed someone, there was no need to spend a lot of effort to attack. It would only need to pour out endless amounts of lightning to inundate the whole area. Each second spent within the affected region would make someone suffer from countless attacks.

Anyone under the Heaven Rank would definitely die, and no one could resist such unreasonable attacks…

“Mafa Merlin, you don’t stand a chance, you can no longer escape. Pay the price for your stupidity…”

Dubois floated in the air, laughing heartily and looking quite carefree. He hadn’t managed to kill Lin Yun last time, and with the recent matters, Dubois had already been restraining himself for too long.

The Lightning Spirit arrived ten meters above the lava pond, and the ink cloud surrounding its body was already touching the lava.

Everywhere around it, lightning bolts were appearing out of nowhere. The crackling sounds grew as lightning spread like cobwebs, wrapping over the entire lava pond.

A hint of regret appeared on Lin Yun’s face within the lava pond.

‘What a pity… If he had waited a few more seconds, I would have been able to draw out even more power.’

The lava pond was like a huge awl piercing into the depths of the earth, already drawing in the magma from the magma chambers. But Lin Yun wanted to draw in even more power and had kept the magma chambers suppressed.

Now that the Lightning Spirit was already starting to push down on him, Lin Yun could only give up on storing any more power.

The originally fiercely roiling lava suddenly became calm, as if some power was forcibly freezing the lava pond, and then, a terrifying aura burst out from the lava pond like a volcanic eruption.

“Rumble…”

It felt like thunder was echoing in the depths of the earth as the ground started fiercely shaking… It was as if there was some terrifying creature emerging from the ground.

Dubois no longer looked as relaxed, and he felt compelled to use his most powerful attack.

Endless lightning bolts fiercely rained down. Behind him, the shadow of an immense world appeared, and inside, crackling lightning bolts formed a river that entered the vortex at the center of the world.

And in the sky, a huge lightning bolt appeared in the center of the vortex and coursed down like a raging river.

The Lightning Spirit’s eye also turned into lightning that roamed about on the lava. Countless bolts were slicing the lava pond like sharp knives.

At the same time, the lava pond thoroughly burst out, and at its center, a hundred-meter-thick pillar of lava soared up.

It was like a terrible volcano suddenly erupted as the lava directly engulfed the lightning.

The thick lava pillar pierced through the center of that sea of lightning and rose over several hundred meters in the sky. Within that lava, lightning could barely flicker two seconds before disappearing.

At that time, the illusory world behind Dubois surged with lightning. It was as if his world was being destroyed, and the edge of the world even showed signs of collapse.

A small portion of the world crumbled in an instant, and the world only started stabilizing when a Lightning Spirit slowly appeared in the center.

Dubois became extremely pale as the mana fluctuations on his body became chaotic, and he even spat out three mouthfuls of blood.

“Mafa Merlin! You are dead! Dead! No one can save you! Anyone related to you will die!”

Dubois flew into a rage and started casting recklessly.

Five seconds later, the huge lava eruption finally dissipated, and the ocean of lightning also thoroughly submerged the lava pond. Lightning was flickering through it, making Lin Yun, still in his Lava Giant Incarnation, spit out blood. His incarnation was smashed, revealing the traces of burns on the surface of his body.

After flashing away a few times, Lin Yun dragged the lava pond over a kilometer away, separating it from the powerful ocean of lightning.

After emerging from the lava pond, Lin Yun drank two Health Potions, alleviating his pale complexion. He then grinned as he looked at the enraged Dubois.

‘Taking risks? You should have checked who your opponent was! Even if I had to take risks to do so, I would still destroy your Lightning Spirit!

‘Two bottles of Health Potion are enough to deal with that kind of injury, and mana consumption is irrelevant. I’ve yet to hear a mage with a Natural Demiplane ever running out of mana…’

Entities like that Lightning Spirit were simply unkillable because they would be revived in the Demiplane after being destroyed. As long as Dubois wasn’t dead, that Lightning Spirit was effectively immortal unless the Demiplane collapsed.

But once the Lightning Spirit was destroyed, it would need Origin Power to revive in the Demiplane!

This was the same as using the mage’s vitality. Aside from ranking up, it would be very difficult for the Demiplane to increase its Origin Power. Origin Power being consumed, in some severe cases, was no different from crippling a Heaven Mage.

Just from the death of the Lightning Spirit, a quarter of Dubois’ Demiplane crumbled away. Based on the size of his current Demiplane, if the Lightning Spirit died two more times, the Demiplane would thoroughly collapse.

Dubois was floating in the air, his eyes completely red. He looked at Lin Yun from above, but no longer dared to summon his Lightning Spirit. He could only crazily cast spells, continuously making it rain lightning bolts.

And underneath, Lin Yun knew that he would no longer be able to trick Dubois, so he could only fight back with all his strength, continuously sending exploding Lava Spells upward.

The two kept trading spells, recovering their mana as it was consumed.

For an entire day, neither of them faltered. The destruction spread for several kilometers around them, with vegetation and even mountains disappearing without a trace.

The land all around them had become scorched earth, and not even a fist-sized rock could be found there.

The terrain had originally been mountainous, but now, the earth had been stripped bare down to a depth of several dozen meters.

The river that had been going around the area was now flowing into this huge depression, but even though it flowed down, not a single drop of water could be seen… It was as if the water went into the void after flowing there. It completely evaporated.

The surging steam transformed into smoke that continuously covered the sky, eventually condensing into clouds that started the Four Seasons Plain’s rainy season ahead of time. A rainstorm broke out at the Grey Beastmen’s fort, seemingly endless.

At the very center of the destroyed area was a two-hundred-meter-wide lava pond being controlled by Lin Yun. He looked pale and exhausted as hurricane-like fluctuations were surging out of his body.

In the sky, Dubois was also pale. After being caught off-guard by Lin Yun and having his Lightning Spirit destroyed, his Demiplane Origin Power had been damaged and he didn’t dare to borrow power from the Demiplane. He only used it to replenish his mana.

But after fighting for a day, he had already replenished three times his base mana. If he continued, the Origin Power of his Demiplane would be damaged even further.

From the sky, Dubois looked at his pale opponent who still seemed to have endless mana, and doubt and disbelief could be seen in his eyes.

‘Sh*t, what’s going on with that Mafa Merlin? His mana capacity is actually that excessive? It’s already comparable to a newly advanced Heaven Mage!

‘And how could his Demiplane hold so much mana? Did he inherit a God’s world?

‘One day, an entire day… How many times did that damn guy replenish his mana? Ten times? Twenty times? Thirty times?’

Dubois was still hovering in the air, no longer planning on fighting.

He had fought for an entire day and still couldn’t kill Mafa Merlin. Anyone with the slightest bit of a brain would know that he wouldn’t be able to kill him now.

But Dubois was unwilling to give up like that.

A Heaven Mage that transcended mortals, who even summoned an Elemental God, was unable to kill a 7th Rank Archmage. He fought for an entire day, wanting to crush his opponent in a contest of endurance.

But ultimately, it was his own mana reserves that were reaching their limits…

‘How could this be this way? How could such a strange thing happen? Do I really have to leave like this and let that damn guy off?

‘He was an easily killable ant last time, yet I can no longer do anything to him. If I let him off now, I’m afraid I won’t have the opportunity to kill him later on…’

Dubois’ expression changed as he suddenly looked at the Grey Beastmen’s fort in the distance.

He sneered, “Mafa Merlin, you are really defying expectations! Not only did you destroy my Lightning Spirit, but you also fought me for such a long time. I can’t kill you today, but our battle has already destroyed this entire area.

“I might not be able to kill you, but I can destroy your foundation, your subordinates, your force! I can easily destroy everything.

“I’ll give you a final opportunity! Hand over the control of the Four Seasons Plain and that puppet technology, and I can let you and your subordinates safely leave this place to fight in the front lines.

“I can’t kill you today, but you are also unable to stop me from doing whatever I want!”

Dubois glared down at Lin Yun as the lightning above his head transformed into lightning snakes. With a single thought from Dubois, these snakes would charge into the Grey Beastmen’s fort.

Lin Yun sneered and quickly used Flight before disappearing in less than two seconds.

Dubois was stunned. He completely couldn’t understand, because Lin Yun hadn’t been flying towards the Grey Beastmen’s fort, as if he had given up on it.

‘What’s going on? Does he truly not care?

‘Damn, is that Mafa Merlin really that cold-blooded? How could he abandon his own people to run? Especially in a situation where he didn’t even need to escape…’

Dubois couldn’t understand.

After a day of fighting, they both knew that they couldn’t do anything to each other.

Since he couldn’t kill him, Dubois wanted to settle for the second-best thing: He wanted to threaten Lin Yun into surrendering. He wanted him to hand over the gold mine that was the Four Seasons Plain, as well as that innovative puppeteering technology. He even wanted the Grey Beastmen.

As long as he got those benefits, he would be able to make up for the loss of his Demiplane’s Origin Power sooner or later.

But now, Lin Yun had left without a word, puzzling Dubois…

His eyes suddenly lit up. “That Mafa Merlin is truly crafty, he almost fooled me. You think that by pretending to not care about those people, it will make me let them off?

“Damn, I don’t believe it! Once I attack the fort, your subordinates will die one by one! Let’s see if you still don’t care then!”

Dubois sneered and flew towards the Grey Beastmen’s fort.

The fort had shut down the Teleportation Gate the previous day, and the entire fort was under martial law. Apart from Lin Yun’s subordinates and puppets, as well as some Grey Beastmen that had signed contracts of some sort, no one was allowed to leave their dwellings. They were all confined.

The entire fort was under full martial law, and the three huge mana reactors were operating at full capacity for the first time, integrating the entire fort as a whole.

The buildings stretching within the fort and the newly revised railroads looked like countless runes and patterns when seen from the sky, while the three mana reactors were placed at three corners of the fort, forming an array over the entire fort.

The transformation of the city walls was already complete, and those defensive metal plates arrays were linked to the entire fort.

The unified energy system integrated the outside and the inside of the fort, and there were also a large number of puppets at key locations, keeping the array operational.

At that time, an absolutely enormous lightning bolt violently fell towards the Grey Beastmen’s fort.