Hidden

Wizard Mara swept a glance over the knights and pressed his palm downward.

A curtain of fire spanning five kilometers descended from the sky, engulfing all the knights within it.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—"

Eight blood-red sword auras tore through the fire curtain and continued hurtling toward Wizard Mara.

The knights whose sword auras failed to break through the fire curtain were burned directly into charred husks.

"Rumble—"

Directly below, the old knight swung his sword again, but this time he only extinguished a single Fireball.

The last Fireball doubled in size again, reaching a diameter of five hundred meters. It was now only a hundred meters away from the old knight.

At that distance, he had enough time to unleash only one more sword aura.

High above.

Wizard Mara glanced at the sword auras coming at him from other directions. After confirming they posed no threat, he ignored them and hurled another five massive Fireballs at the old knight.

"Sizzle, sizzle, sizzle—"

The sword auras were instantly annihilated by a red barrier when they came within one meter of Wizard Mara.

Only two sword auras caused slight ripples across the barrier.

Elsewhere.

"Cough, cough~"

Lohr dropped onto the floor on his backside and coughed twice miserably.

When the airship had plunged at high speed just now, he had been flung straight into the ceiling.

Not long after, the airship's descent suddenly slowed, and he fell back onto the floor, leaving him dizzy from the impact.

After taking two deep breaths, Lohr got back to his feet and quickly walked to the porthole to look outside at the battle.

"Chain Burst Fireballs and Heavenly Fire Curtain—both are ancient, classic fused second-circle spell models!"

"That third-rank Divine Grace Knight definitely won't be able to defeat Wizard Mara. But Wizard Mara probably won't have the time to deal with the other Divine Grace Knights either."

Lohr frowned deeply. "The other Divine Grace Knights can't do anything to Wizard Mara, so they'll most likely come aboard the airship to sweep through it."

"Before the airship lands, I have two choices. First, I can go to the third floor and rely on the spell traps Wizard Mara set up to stay alive."

He pondered for a moment. Thinking of the temperament Wizard Mara's disciple usually displayed whenever he encountered him, he ultimately shook his head and rejected the idea.

He had no desire to be ordered around and sent to his death as cannon fodder. The other man had authority, though, and Lohr could not contend with him. He might as well gamble on another path.

"Going to the third floor won't work. Then I'd better hide in the dining room on the first floor. With the golems blocking the way outside, the knights might search everywhere after they chop the golems to pieces, but they'll never expect someone to be hiding in the dining room behind them."

"Once Wizard Mara finishes his battle, all of this will be over."

Having made up his mind, Lohr left his cabin and ran toward the first floor.

But as soon as he reached the first floor, he saw many apprentices running toward the second floor. A few of them looked familiar; he had exchanged a few words with them while eating in the hall before.

"Lord Lohr, a huge hole has been blasted through the first-floor hall. Hurry upstairs!"

As a brown-haired young man ran past Lohr, he suddenly warned him, "Even Vess died in the attack just now."

"Vess died? He really was unlucky."

Lohr shook his head, not taking it to heart, and said to the brown-haired young man, "Go on ahead. I have something to do. I'll be there soon."

"All right. Hurry up—the airship is about to land." After speaking, the brown-haired young man turned and followed the crowd to the third floor.

"Sigh~"

Lohr watched his departing back and sighed.

If possible, he would not have minded giving the man a hand. Unfortunately, he was gambling on his own luck now. He could not bring along dead weight and increase his risk of dying.

At the stairwell, Lohr lowered his eyes and looked toward the first-floor hall.

The first-floor hall was now completely empty.

Only several rock golems stood at the entrance to the dining room, blankly staring at the massive hole torn open at the front of the hall.

He walked downstairs, passed the golems, and entered the dining room.

"Sure enough, this is the food storage room."

Lohr swept his gaze over the three piles of fruit, bread, and vegetables in the dining room, and a faint smile appeared on his lips.

Leaving the dining room door open, he decisively walked to a three-meter-high pile of bread, bent down, and crawled inside. Curling himself into a ball, he hid himself completely.

Whoosh, whoosh—

The airship continued falling.

After the other Temple Knights saw that their attacks were ineffective against Wizard Mara, they immediately followed the previous plan and headed toward the airship's expected crash site along its descent path.

Wizard Mara stopped bombarding the old knight, whose body was already blackened all over, and was about to switch targets when the old knight suddenly erupted.

Red divine power of the God of War surged out from his body, covering an area three hundred meters wide.

At that moment, every sword aura he unleashed was twice as powerful as before.

Wizard Mara had no choice but to keep firing Chain Burst Fireballs at the old knight.

The hand holding the scroll twitched, but in the end, he did not activate it.

Even if every apprentice died and the airship was destroyed, it would still not amount to one-tenth of the value of the scroll in his hand.

That was because this was not a third-circle spell scroll, but a Fourth Circle one.

In this era, when the strongest wizards were only at the Fifth Circle, the value of that scroll was self-evident.

"I hope my student and Lohr don't die, or this trip will have been a huge loss."

Wizard Mara sighed and looked indifferently at the old knight below, whose body was covered in both crimson and black. "As long as I hold on a little longer, I'll be able to kill him."

Whoosh—boom—

The airship crashed down.

"Charge in!"

"Kill!"

The eight Temple Knights who had long been waiting there immediately rushed into the airship through the breach the old knight had cut earlier.

The moment they entered, they saw three golems made entirely of rock raising their fists and smashing them down.

"Crack—"

The knight at the front swung his sword, and the sword aura split one of the golems directly in half.

"Crack—crack—"

The two knights behind him each unleashed a sword aura as well, severing the other two golems.

Seeing the hall in complete disarray, with no enemies remaining and many traces leading toward the stairs to the second floor, the lead knight immediately said to the youngest of the seven knights pouring in behind him:

"Xiani, search the first floor. Kill all the wizard apprentices still hiding on this level. The rest of you, come upstairs with me."

"Yes." The young knight at the rear nodded.

"Move." The lead knight immediately took the others upstairs.

Xiani swept his gaze around the hall, then directly overlooked the dining room, whose doors stood wide open and whose interior was visible at a glance.

Finding nothing else, he immediately headed toward a corridor on the left side of the hall.

Before long, screams rang out from the corridor.

"Aah—"

"Don't kill me! Please, I worship the God of War too!"

"Blasphemer, die!"

"Aah—"

"Don't—"

Listening to the miserable cries, Lohr did not dare breathe. He held it in with his mere 2.7 physique points, terrified of being found.

Anyone who could survive a round of Mara's Heavenly Fire Curtain was at least a second-rank knight.

No matter how lacking their methods might be, they were not someone he could fight.

Time passed second by second. After an unknown amount of time, the screams gradually grew fewer until they vanished completely.

Xiani, covered in blood, returned to the hall and looked toward the stairs, somewhat puzzled as to why his companions had not come back down yet.

Just as he was about to go upstairs and take a look, he suddenly heard footsteps behind him and was about to turn around.

"Boom—"

A Fireball exploded, turning his entire body into charred remains.