Chapter 653

"It’s over, Kaecilius. Surrender, and I’ll make your death as painless as possible."

The chase was finally coming to an end.

The Ancient One stood with her hands behind her back, her expression calm as she delivered what amounted to her final warning to Kaecilius and his remaining followers.

The traitors glared at her, furious and helpless.

Ever since they’d fled the library, they’d been running through New York like rats in a maze, desperate to escape the Ancient One’s pursuit.

Except she hadn’t actually been chasing them.

She had simply converted most of the city into a Mirror Dimension.

They were trapped.

No matter where they ran, the Ancient One only had to think about it, and space itself would rearrange until they found themselves standing right in front of her.

Kaecilius had tried opening a portal out of the Mirror Dimension. The moment he finished drawing the circle, however, the portal had appeared a hundred meters in the air.

Unless he’d suddenly developed flea DNA, there was no way he was reaching it.

Calling their resistance futile was almost generous.

The landscape continued shifting around them, filled with spatial traps the Ancient One had laid throughout the city. One wrong step could send a sorcerer randomly across the world.

The middle of a desert.

The edge of a cliff.

The heart of an untouched jungle.

And even when they somehow avoided those traps and managed to reach the Ancient One herself, none of them could withstand even a single exchange with her.

One kick was usually enough.

Sorcerers disappeared through portals and were left stranded who knew where.

Before long, Kaecilius had only a dozen followers left.

At the moment, they were standing on Stark Tower.

Or rather, Stark Tower had been turned completely on its side and repurposed as part of the Mirror Dimension.

Inside, its owner, Tony Stark, was standing beside a window with a deeply thoughtful expression, contemplating either a scientific problem or something roughly equivalent to an eighth-grade biology question.

He remained blissfully unaware that the Ancient One’s boot was, metaphorically speaking, stomping all over his face.

"Make my death painless?" Kaecilius asked, buying time while desperately searching for some way out. "That doesn’t sound like you, you hypocrite. What happened to that righteous image you’ve worked so hard to maintain?"

"I’m merely stating a fact."

The Ancient One knew perfectly well what he was trying to accomplish and had no intention of stopping him.

"If you consider what you did in the library, being captured by me is probably the best outcome you could hope for."

Her eyes narrowed slightly.

"If that person catches you instead, I doubt anyone can say what you’ll face."

Kaecilius froze.

"What we did in the library?"

That person?

Who was she talking about?

Even the Ancient One seemed wary when she mentioned them.

Then a possibility occurred to him.

"Could it be..." Kaecilius’s eyes narrowed. "The girl’s real master?"

"Hmm."

The Ancient One frowned slightly.

"That person has taught Clea some things. But their relationship isn’t one of master and disciple."

"Not master and disciple?"

Kaecilius’s eyes widened.

"Then... father and daughter?"

The Ancient One nearly laughed.

But something changed in her expression.

She looked toward the distant edge of the Mirror Dimension.

Someone had just entered.

Evenson stepped through the shifting landscape in his Corruptor’s Robes, lifting his head to look toward Kaecilius and the remaining sorcerers above him.

He flicked his left hand.

Three green spheres of fel energy shot forward, crossing one another as they raced toward their targets.

At the same time, a demonic gateway tore open beside Evenson.

He stepped through.

In an instant, he appeared between the Ancient One and Kaecilius.

Kaecilius hadn’t been standing around doing nothing either.

The moment the Ancient One turned her attention elsewhere, he had started drawing a portal.

By the time Evenson arrived through his demonic gateway, Kaecilius’s portal was already complete.

"I’m going to make sure you never know peace again!"

Kaecilius turned to leap through it.

Then he heard an enraged shout behind him.

He looked back.

Evenson had produced a massive scythe from somewhere and was already winding up to throw it.

Kaecilius dove through the portal without hesitation.

The few followers behind him had no choice but to stay and defend themselves.

Yellow magical shields flashed into existence in front of them.

They raised them to full strength just as the scythe screamed toward them.

Then the weapon stopped.

It simply hung motionless in midair.

A translucent female demon with enormous wings emerged from the scythe.

The apparition spread her arms wide.

It looked almost as though she intended to embrace every sorcerer standing before her.

The mages desperately reinforced their shields.

It didn’t matter.

The demonic arms swept through them.

"Sorry. Nice try."

That was the last thing some of them heard.

Every sorcerer touched by those spectral arms withered in an instant.

Their flesh collapsed.

Their bodies crumbled.

Then they disintegrated into ash.

Ordinary life-draining magic could reduce a person to a skeleton by stripping away the life held within flesh.

This was different.

Ulthalesh, the Deadwind Harvester seemed to devour everything.

Flesh.

Blood.

Bone.

Hair.

Nothing remained.

"Tch. Damn it."

Evenson recalled the scythe.

This time, there was no hesitation.

He immediately stored it in his personal inventory and rubbed the rune on his left arm, which had grown scorching hot.

He stared at the portal Kaecilius had opened.

It was already fading.

Five followers had escaped with him.

Five.

"Damn it!"

Evenson ripped the hat from his head and turned toward the Ancient One.

"Couldn’t you make your Mirror Dimension a little more secure?"

The Ancient One simply shrugged.

"If you hadn’t suddenly barged in and distracted me, they might not have escaped at all."

"Really?"

Evenson shot back immediately.

"This entire space is yours. You can rearrange it with a thought. The moment Kaecilius opened that portal, you could have displaced it somewhere else."

He pointed at her.

"But you didn’t."

"Are you getting senile in your old age, or did you deliberately let them escape?"

The Ancient One tilted her head.

"You may assume I’m getting old."

"You..."

Evenson almost called her shameless.

He was seriously considering smacking that polished bald head a few times when he suddenly stopped.

His expression changed.

"Wait."

His eyes narrowed.

"You want to use him as a whetstone for your new disciple."

A disciple could be trained inside a tower of ivory, but knowledge alone didn’t make someone capable of standing on their own.

Real strength needed real combat.

And Kaecilius and his followers made remarkably convenient training dummies.

"That’s your interpretation."

The Ancient One shook her head, refusing to confirm or deny it.

"I’ve never said anything of the sort."

"Hmph."

Evenson snorted.

He took several slow breaths, forcing down his anger.

"Fine."

He looked toward the portal through which Kaecilius had escaped.

"Before I finally send them into eternal torment, letting them experience being used and manipulated first is almost fitting."

"Eternal torment?"

The Ancient One raised an eyebrow.

"You mean that scythe?"

"I do."

Evenson nodded.

"You’ve seen me use it before, back during the Battle of New York."

The Ancient One studied him.

"That artifact is extraordinary."

"Hmm."

Evenson nodded.

"Ulthalesh, the Deadwind Harvester."

He ran a hand along his sleeve.

"I’ve thought about it."

"There are plenty of ways to torture someone. But no matter how I look at it, I can’t think of anything more painful than sealing their souls and flesh inside an artifact whose very nature is suffering."

The Ancient One stared at him.

Then slowly shook her head.

"I honestly don’t understand why I ever thought you were a good person."

"Maybe you’re just too old."

Evenson threw her own words back at her.

"Warlock isn’t exactly a profession chosen by saints. And choosing the path doesn’t exactly make someone nicer."

His expression darkened.

"And..."

He clenched his teeth.

"They hurt Clea."

His voice dropped.

"I’ll never forgive them."

The Ancient One opened her mouth.

Then closed it again.

She had raised Kaecilius herself.

That meant she still had some attachment to him.

But that did not mean she intended to spare him.

Kaecilius had betrayed Kamar-Taj, caused its division, killed its people, and now threatened the entire world.

He had to die.

The Ancient One simply wasn’t eager to condemn even an old student she had raised to an eternity of torment inside a magical artifact.

After a moment of silence, she asked,

"How is Clea?"

"You knew I brought her back?"

Evenson looked surprised.

He didn’t remember telling her.

"You appearing here tells me enough."

The Ancient One smiled faintly.

"You wouldn’t have come looking for revenge unless Clea had survived."

"If you hadn’t managed to save her, you’d be on your way to Los Angeles right now."

"To make a deal with Mephisto for her soul."

She gave him an amused look.

"Or perhaps you’d break into Heaven and steal her back yourself."

Evenson couldn’t deny it.

"When it comes to Clea’s safety, revenge will always be second."

"You’re getting to know me rather well."

Evenson clicked his tongue.

"I’ve lived a long time. I occasionally get something right."

The Ancient One spread her hands.

"Enough. There’s nothing left to do here."

She turned.

"Let’s go back. I want to see how that girl is doing."

"Wait."

Evenson stepped in front of her.

"You’re not going anywhere until we clear something up."

The Ancient One didn’t appear surprised.

"What is it?"

"The person who saved Clea wasn’t me."

Evenson’s expression became serious.

"It was her."

The Ancient One’s eyes sharpened.

"When she recovered, I noticed something inside her."

He paused.

"A kind of power that made my skin crawl."

"I want to know exactly what you’ve been teaching her lately."

He stared directly at the Ancient One.

"I know she’s been spending a lot of time in the library."

"What was she reading?"

The Ancient One answered without hesitation.

"Prelati’s Spellbook."

Evenson took an involuntary step backward.

His finger rose toward her.

"You..."

His voice shook with disbelief.

"How could you let her read a book like that?"

The Ancient One slapped his pointing hand away.

A flicker of anger entered her expression.

"She asked to read it."

"And the reason she made that choice..."

The Ancient One glared at him.

"...was you."