A mage? A spell engineer!

Chapter 547 Two Out-of-Control Incidents

Iltsov saw a fraction of a house floating slightly.

Standing atop him was a handsome young man, his eyes sharp and resolute, ethereal and otherworldly. His uniform was soaked with blood and sweat; he was clearly a seasoned soldier who had fought his way through hordes of monsters. For a moment, Iltsov hadn't considered that Richard was surrounded by numerous "shipwrights" casting [levitation] spells beneath his feet.

"Help! Help!"

Fate is so strange. His ritual was about to succeed when suddenly a blue unidentified object fell from the sky, almost piercing the ground. The subsequent explosion caused him to lose many of his generals who had been transformed into flesh and blood monsters, and also smashed the mage tower where he lived to pieces.

Iltsov cried out in alarm, for the unusual daylight had robbed him of his sense of time. The general was certain that the attack had come from a high-level spellcaster (he could not imagine that it was some kind of archmage with a peculiar way of thinking).

Just as he was about to ask Gregory what to do, the kid, carrying the still unconscious Hench, stepped onto the brass door and began to drift towards the crash site.

Iltsov also embarked on the old general's fantastical journey. He was initially trembling like a leaf until he encountered two scattered blood knights and regained control of them using a magic ritual, which brought him some peace of mind.

However, what could not be stopped was the accelerating trend of the flesh carpet being devoured. The blood knights desperately tried to lift the spire against the current to prevent their masters from sinking, but they could not outrun the speed at which they were being sucked in.

Therefore, when Iltsov saw Richard standing there unharmed, he was overjoyed. The man he had previously desperately wanted to kill had now become his lifeline—and this lifeline could fly!

As the general saw Richard approaching, his mind raced with conflicting emotions: resentment, jealousy, and finally, overwhelming joy. He cried out from the bottom of his heart, "Help! Help—me—!"

Richard was taken aback at first, then composed himself and asked, "Who are you...?"

Iltsov cursed inwardly: Can't you grab me before you ask me anything?

The current intensified, and as Irtsov watched himself drift further away from the young officer, he was forced to shout at the top of his lungs, "I am the supreme commander of this operation, Lieutenant General Irtsov! Richard, save me!"

Richard indeed extended the "Mage's Hand," which Iltsov seized, thus escaping his fate of being swept into the black hole. He thanked him profusely.

The general's response to his thanks was a dragon's breath attack, and the general, caught in mid-air, was about to be roasted into a pig. Just as the dragon's breath was about to burn his eyebrows and beard, a blood knight soared into the sky and carried his dying master away, while another knight caught Richard's [Dragon's Breath] with his bare body.

It was charred black on the spot, but it could move again after being shaken off. The charred outer shell cracked open, like a dark armor made up of many scattered pieces.

By this time, the two Blood Knights had recovered from Rorschach's attack, and their horses, now one with them, were galloping wildly on all four hooves, allowing them to remain relatively still with Richard atop the "Flood Peak."

The sight of Iltsov, being carried in a princess carry, choking his bodyguard, was quite gruesome. Richard scoffed; as expected, anyone still alive was no good. From the beginning, Richard had sensed something amiss with Iltsov. He wasn't injured, but his aura was disordered, with several filthy forces swirling and lurking around him.

The "Black Armor" Blood Knight unleashed a brief dash, then leaped into the air, attempting a jumping slash at the enemy.

What to do? Richard made a decision the instant the Blood Knight charged forward. He flipped his hand and produced a delicate little car model from his ring, its surface shimmering with the unique iridescent light of the ethereal membrane.

Richard's second action was to release the etheric membrane, and his third step was to throw it out using the [Flying Arrow Technique].

Within five meters of the knight, this "little toy" rapidly expanded, and when it reached the Blood Knight, a several-ton vehicle crashed down on him.

If it were a carriage or something else, the Blood Knight's blade would surely cut it in two, but this was Rorschach's ride for his good brother, a prized possession he was trying to sell to the imperial high society. How could it possibly be destroyed so easily?

The blood-stained blade touched the surface of the car, where the high-grade paint reflected a beautiful sheen. The passive magic circuit reacted, perfectly resisting the initial attack.

Next came the chariot's turn. Its own weight was enough to knock down the Blood Knight, not to mention the additional spells. After crushing the monster beneath it, man, horse, and chariot were swept away by the current, hurtling towards the black hole.

The strange thing Richard threw out caught Iltsov off guard; he could only barely make out that it was probably an expensive contraption.

"Is your mage battle very expensive?" The old general tightened his grip on the knight who was holding him. Although the blood knight did not understand language, he immediately understood, stopped entangled with Richard, and tried to leave this place as quickly as possible.

Iltsov's attempt to escape failed, the flow of contaminants continued to accelerate, and a section of marble pillar, lying sideways, bobbed and rolled in the crimson pulp, brushing against the legs of the struggling, kicking horse.

Finally, Iltsov became entangled with the pollution he called "granted immortality."

"Richard! I know your father! I'm on good terms with the Marshal. Save me, I will..."

He subconsciously shouted, pleaded, and made random promises, but unexpectedly, a force actually pulled him up and lifted the fat pig up.

"Did you cause all of this?"

"No, no, oh yes, yes, I said everything."

It turns out that the "scorched earth strategy" was Hench's first idea, but in his view it was a last resort, provided that the defenders of Overward were unable to resist the National Guard and that other civilians were fully evacuated.

However, Iltsov took advantage of everything Hench had planned, and even incorporated rituals of worship and invocation of the Earth Mother. The arrangements for these rituals were carried out by his barbarian guards, who were believers in ancient gods from childhood.

"Is there any way to stop the ritual? Tell me quickly!"

After being pulled out of the water, Iltsov began to despair, shaking his head and saying, "My ritual has failed. It was supposed to send down a second snow of ashes, burning the entire city and drawing out more of the power of the Great Mother Goddess."

"But the strange timing and the alternating day and night prevented me from completing everything in time, and the prematurely forged mountain of flesh and blood didn't receive enough nourishment," he said, unable to contain his grief.

"Now another strange thing has appeared, devouring my last remaining fruits of labor. It's out of control! Everything's in chaos!"

"Wait, you mean the celestial phenomena and the current black hole weren't your doing?"

"If I were that good, I would have succeeded long ago. Wait, what are you doing?"

"Richard von Dahlberger, you cannot execute a Reich Lieutenant General!"

He was being held up, watching as the spellcaster in front of him condensed a dangerous aura.

"Look at this world! Is this still the human realm? What meaning do imperial laws and titles hold? I saved you just now so I could finish you off myself, you bastard."

To prevent the resurrection of Iltsov, a devotee of the Mother Goddess, Richard meticulously dissected his remains. After he finished, a head popped out of a hole in the floor beneath his feet—it was Paul's.

"What were you doing just now? The infection here is weakening; we've opened a safe portal."

"You can leave now, I still have things to finish." While torturing Iltsov, Richard obtained new information: the Mother Goddess's priest was also present, and he took Hench away.

Just as Richard made up his mind, the ominous black sphere embedded in the horizon suddenly expanded. What was originally just the sticky force of the flesh-and-blood blanket pulling other objects on the ground into its suction was now creating a strong pulling force out of thin air.

Moreover, numerous thick arcs sprouted from the surface of the black hole, transforming into tentacles that constantly gnawed at everything around them, clearly the ravenous maw of a starving creature, with the upward-pointing tentacles seemingly trying to devour even the rising sun.

(End of this chapter)