37. Elian's Psychological Destruction

While Elian's lower pair of hands cast spells to transmute Helen, and his middle pair clenched in prayer, his uppermost pair was by no means idle, instead weaving an intricate and complex spellcasting gesture.

Three pairs of hands casting spells simultaneously!

With a swift motion, Elian raised his topmost two hands above his head, and a golden sphere of force energy instantly materialized.

At that very moment, Gutt's body began to tremble instinctively.

Merely by laying eyes on that golden sphere of force energy, he could sense the unimaginably terrifying and surging power contained within it!

This did not appear to be any sort of advanced spell, yet Elian had imbued it with metamagic techniques or some other special enhancement.

"No, I have to dodge!"

Though it felt like a long time had passed, in reality, all three sets of Elian's hands had moved simultaneously.

The battle had only begun a few seconds ago, and Gutt had not yet recovered from the backlash of casting "Meteor Swarm."

The Chief of Evocation flew backward at top speed.

Simultaneously, the sphere of force energy in Elian's hands shot straight toward Gutt with blistering velocity.

"This... this sort of shaping-energy magic..."

"It's clearly a spell from the School of Evocation!"

"Why do I, the Chief of Evocation, find it so utterly unfamiliar?"

In the blink of an eye, a flurry of thoughts flashed through Gutt's mind.

Relying on his high-speed flight, he darted and shifted continuously through the night sky, leaving behind string after string of afterimages in an attempt to shake off the sphere of force energy's lock.

However, this sphere of force energy seemed to possess a built-in tracking ability.

No matter how Gutt flew, shifted, or tried to dodge, it remained right behind him, clinging to him relentlessly.

It was as though being struck by this attack was a predestined fate, an inevitability pursued by the entire universe, a settled outcome decided even before the attack was launched.

Seeing that the golden sphere of energy was about to strike him, Gutt broke free from the post-casting cooldown of his powerful magic at the very last second and uttered a short, sharp syllable.

A massive barrier forged of force energy materialized before him, blocking the path between Gutt and the golden sphere.

"Phew, close call, I blocked it..."

Crack.

The next instant, Gutt heard the sound of the magical barrier shattering into countless fragments.

And the golden energy sphere smashed into him with unhindered momentum.

Rumble!

A massive explosion lit up the night sky, its brilliant golden radiance turning the dark night almost as bright as day.

Gutt plummeted from the sky, crashing heavily onto the ground.

The once haughty and self-assured Chief now had his magnificent robes largely torn to shreds, his entire upper body soaked in crimson blood, teetering on the brink of consciousness.

This single blow had completely destroyed all the pre-cast magical protections upon his person.

At this moment, even the weakest goblin could easily slay this Chief who had lost all capacity for combat.

"This... this cannot be..."

***

"Helen, Gutt, both of you..."

Cade, who was still maintaining the suppression of the necromantic magic domain, was already trembling like a leaf.

The Chief of Abjuration and high-ranking eighth-circle mage had never imagined that:

The two Chiefs stronger than him would be utterly defeated in the span of a heartbeat.

Then, he watched helplessly as the six-armed Elian turned his gaze toward him and began walking his way, step by step.

"No, I must make a final stand! I cannot simply sit here and await death!"

Cade chanted frantically, hurling spell after spell toward Elian.

The majority of these spells were not destructive in nature, but rather designed to dispel the transmutation and abjuration magic already active on Elian.

Dispelling an enemy's magic was likewise the forte of the School of Abjuration!

Consequently, mages of the Abjuration School were both the spear and the shield adept at countering other spellcasters!

Bang, bang, bang.

Elian made a gesture, and a shimmering barrier materialized before him.

Those multi-colored spells shattered one after another the moment they drew near him.

Even with the Abjuration Chief exhausting every trick at his disposal, he could not pierce Elian's defenses!

With the leisurely stride of someone taking a stroll in a garden, Elian walked right up to Cade.

Then, his fingertip traced an arcane symbol in the air.

"Dispelled!"

Clang.

Amidst a crisp, shattering sound, Abjuration Chief Cade watched as the defensive magics upon his own body ruptured one by one, dissolving into brilliant, multi-colored shards.

His own protective spells had been counter-dispelled.

Overwhelmed by profound terror, Cade completely broke down.

The pot-bellied, bald-headed man threw himself flat onto the ground, weeping bitterly:

"Spare me, O Great Supreme Magus, Emperor of Arcana, Your Majesty Elian!"

"It was Gutt and Helen who coerced me into joining the fight and providing auxiliary support."

Elian glanced down indifferently at the prostrate Cade, then shifted his gaze toward Helen the toad, who was croaking in terror amidst the grass, and Gutt, who was struggling painfully to pick himself off the ground.

All three Chiefs had been defeated.

"Do the three of you have any other accomplices? I do not mean your subordinates or your families, but rather other Chiefs or equally powerful high-ranking mages."

Neither Helen, transformed into a toad, nor Gutt, struggling to prop his broken body up from the earth, uttered a word.

After a brief silence, Abjuration Chief Cade stammered tremblingly:

"Yes, yes, yes, Your Majesty Elian. There is another powerful mage who has been secretly supporting our plan and supplying us with intelligence."

"However, it was Gutt and Helen who communicated with that mage; I do not know their true identity..."

Elian looked toward the injured Gutt and Helen, who was still a toad.

***

With a gentle snap of his fingers, Elian lifted the curse on Helen, restoring her to human form.

"Well then, can the two of you tell me who your accomplice is?"

Both Gutt and Helen remained tight-lipped, seemingly unwilling to betray their confederate.

In the era of Old Eldoron, spells capable of directly reading thoughts were exceedingly rare, nor could they extract clear, deep-seated memories!

This was precisely why they believed that as long as they kept their silence, their secret would remain safe.

"Cassandra, Chief of Divination." Seeing that neither answered, Elian supplied the answer directly.

Gutt and Helen both widened their eyes in shock.

"She was dissatisfied with my reforms, yet unwilling to openly make an enemy of me."

"Thus, Cassandra chose to hedge her bets. Using divination magic, she communicated with a mysterious otherworldly entity in the Bottomless Abyss to glean my movements and leak the intelligence to you."

"If your assassination failed, she could feign ignorance. If your assassination succeeded and Gutt became the new Supreme Magus, she would have shared in the glory of the dragon-slayers."

"Quite a cunning creature, wouldn't you say?"

Under the horrified gazes of Gutt and Helen, Elian casually laid bare their enemy's secrets.

As though all of this had transpired right before his very eyes.

"Wait, Elian, you knew all along..."

Gutt, the handsome Chief of Evocation who had always held himself in such high esteem, felt a wave of irrepressible despair wash over him for the very first time.

He had imagined the outcome of the assassination countless times.

In most of his fantasies, he successfully struck down Elian and became the new master of Eldoron.

In a very few, he failed, and Elian broke through the necromantic barrier to curse or slay them all.

Yet he had never anticipated an ending like this.

An outcome far more terrifying and humiliating than the mere defeat of the three of them...

"Elian, you did this on purpose, didn't you?"

"Purpose?"

Elian raised an eyebrow.

Gutt gripped the soil beneath him so tightly that veins bulged on his hands, his voice choked with grief and indignation:

"You defeated the Chief of Evocation with evocation magic, the Chief of Transmutation with transmutation magic, and the Chief of Abjuration with abjuration magic."

"And finally, you defeated the Chief of Divination in a battle of prophecy and counter-prophecy."

"My dearest Lord Elian, Chief of Necromancy!"

"Indeed," Elian replied calmly, his tone devoid of emotion.