Extraordinary Magic Domain

Ronan sprinted more than ten meters in a few bounds and saw Old Wells, Venecia, Wizard Barry, and the others standing several dozen meters away, looking at him with concern. They had not yet gone far.

Ronan was frantic. He opened his mouth to urge them to leave at once, but in the next instant, a powerful, icy Spiritual Power locked onto him.

His heart tightened, and he quickly turned to look.

The black-robed man in the distance was staring coldly at him, the chill and indifference in his eyes making it seem as though he were watching an insect desperately trying to escape.

He was chanting, strange syllables spilling from his mouth one after another.

Amid the severed limbs and chunks of flesh scattered across the field, pieces of ghastly white bone floated up and gathered in the air before him. Guided by an invisible force, they rapidly assembled into the shape of a Bone Spear. Blood-red runes flowed across the spear as its tip pointed directly at Ronan. In an instant, a needle-like pain stabbed into Ronan's brow. I can't let him finish this spell! Otherwise, I'll most likely die!

Ronan's pupils constricted as a voice roared in his mind.

I have to interrupt his casting!

Ronan made his decision in an instant.

He fiercely wiped the blood and sweat from his face. Gritting his teeth, his pale and handsome face took on a savage look.

"Buzz—"

Energy Missile! As the incantation syllables left his lips, resonance formed between his Spiritual Power and the energy particles. A massive blue-black sphere of light appeared before Ronan, then shot forward at high speed in the direction of his will.

The instant he launched the Energy Missile, Ronan staggered slightly.

He had not had much Spiritual Power left to begin with, and casting the Energy Missile this time drained it completely.

The blue-black Energy Light Sphere carried terrifying force, whipping up fierce winds across the ground as it howled toward the black-robed man.

Ronan had expected the other man's expression to shift at least slightly, but the black-robed man, absorbed in his chanting, did not even raise an eyelid in response to Ronan's attack.

Just as the Energy Light Sphere was about to strike him, a tall, ghastly white figure wreathed in thick black mist rushed out from the side and firmly blocked the sphere.

Boom!

An explosion rang out, and the Sword and Shield Skeleton struck head-on by the sphere staggered backward.

The rotten shield in its hand had shattered the last time it directly blocked Ronan's Energy Missile. This time, it relied entirely on its skeletal body to withstand the blow.

Stray currents of energy raced across its body. The ribs across the entire front of the Sword and Shield Skeleton's chest shattered completely, bone fragments raining down in streams. Yet the green ghostfire in its eye sockets did not go out, and after only half a breath, it steadily straightened back up.

The fragments that fell from its body were all drawn away by the black-robed man's spell, instead speeding up the formation of the white Bone Spear.

"Damn it!"

Ronan's face darkened as he cursed the black-robed man with his undead servant for being so shameless.

In a fight, he had his fearless undead underling take the hits while he calmly cast spells himself. He could attack or defend as he pleased—how was an ordinary person supposed to deal with that?

If Ronan had not also trained his body, the black-robed man would not even need to make a move. The Sword and Shield Skeleton alone would have been enough to give him a massive headache—though it was already giving him one now.

Ronan quickly pulled out the Sleepy Potions he had gotten from Sean, popped the caps, and poured two bottles down his throat in one go.

Then he swiftly drew the spare dagger at his waist and viciously plunged it into his thigh!

"Ugh!"

The instant the blade pierced flesh, the veins bulging across Ronan's forehead jumped violently, and he let out a muffled groan.

The intense pain instantly extinguished the drowsiness that had only just begun to rise.

The price of stabbing himself was Spiritual Power restored to full capacity once again.

Without wasting a moment, Ronan, his Spiritual Power replenished, coldly cast Energy Missile once more.

I'll fire two more. Whether they work or not, I'll turn around and run immediately!

The thought flashed through his mind as he fired an Energy Missile.

Without even looking at the result, Ronan suppressed the nausea brought on by the slight backlash of casting spells in rapid succession and prepared to fire another missile without pause.

But before he could utter the incantation syllables this time, the Spiritual Power in his mind became active first.

For no apparent reason, a strange and wondrous resonance formed.

Ronan froze. Before he could figure out how this bizarre change had happened, his Spiritual Power suddenly began to be wildly drained, like water released from a broken dam.

In only a few breaths, the Spiritual Power of a Level Five Apprentice, which had just been fully replenished, was consumed completely.

"Ah!"

Ronan let out a scream and clutched his head tightly with both hands.

His expression was twisted in agony, dense veins bulging from his forehead. The long hair draped over his shoulders fluttered despite the absence of wind, and some strands silently changed from chestnut brown to grayish white. Enduring the pain that felt as if his head were about to split apart, Ronan saw mottled streams of energy flowing past before his eyes, converging toward a single point.

Vast swathes of light distorted before him, and the air collapsed along with them.

An indescribable, unfathomable mysterious aura spread out, intertwining into a terrifying force field beyond description. Within that force field, a pitch-black point of light silently appeared.

Like a microscopic black hole, it rapidly sucked in all surrounding light and energy particles. Ronan's face was contorted, his mind muddled and his vision blurred.

Only then did he realize that the chanting that had constantly lingered by his ears like the sound of death had stopped at some point.

He instinctively looked toward the black-robed man and could barely make out a figure standing motionless in place.

The black-robed man's spell seemed unfinished. The white Bone Spear that had filled Ronan with unparalleled dread still hung incomplete in midair.

Yet for some reason, the black-robed man had stopped chanting, his eyes fixed blankly in Ronan's direction.

The expression on his face was bizarre—stunned, astonished, bewildered, dazed. As if he had witnessed something utterly impossible happening to an utterly impossible person in an utterly impossible place.

He had completely lost his wits.

"Transcendent... Domain?!"

Ronan barely heard the black-robed man muttering to himself. He watched him shake his head again and again, questioning himself over and over, muttering that it was impossible. Ronan's head hurt as though it were about to split apart, and his body swayed unsteadily. He had no attention to spare for what the black-robed man was saying. Gathering every ounce of strength he had, he stretched out a finger toward the black-robed man from afar.

"Go. Go."

Guided by his will, the pure-black point of light before Ronan—entwined with the aura of a terrifying force field—shot forward with a dreadful momentum that seemed capable of crushing and shredding all things. Without a sound, it smashed through everything in its path. "Thud!"

When it was all over, Ronan dropped to one knee in exhaustion. His entire body was soaked in sweat, his mind utterly blank, leaving him with nothing but instinctive, ragged gasps.

The cleaning rune on the Gray Magic Robe took effect, and a faint, smoke-like bloody haze rose from Ronan's body.

The vast arena sank into deathly silence.

Time itself seemed to have stopped completely.

No one knew how long passed before several figures finally snapped out of their daze upon seeing Ronan force himself unsteadily to his feet. They rushed toward him as fast as they could.