Ashen Witch Tracy

"Hah—hah—hah—"

Ragged panting came from somewhere not far from Dago.

The sound carried the wheezing of lungs scorched by searing heat.

A nauseating stench of burning hung in the air.

Dago turned and was surprised to see that Fink, the young wizard swallowed by the terrifying surge of flames, was still alive.

But his current condition was worse than death.

He stood in midair, his face deathly pale.

The elemental shield that had surrounded him, a symbol of his supposed glory as a genius, had long since shattered.

Particle turbulence darted chaotically around him.

Only half of one pure-white wing of light remained on his back, and it was still melting.

It was not melting like wax. Its light-element structure was being forcibly dismantled by a higher-order law.

Like a drop of snowmelt falling into boiling oil, it hissed and evaporated into nothing.

His moon-white robe was covered in burn marks.

The expensive fabric, once inscribed with defensive runes, was now blackened and curled like a dead man's skin.

He looked utterly bedraggled, without a trace of his former arrogance or composure.

But what truly struck Dago was his eyes.

His pupils were fully dilated, no longer even able to focus.

All that remained in Fink's eyes was thick, almost impenetrable terror.

Like a rabbit frightened out of its wits, he repeated the same words over and over through pale lips.

"The Red Lotus Staff! She's here! She's here!!"

Every syllable sounded as though it had been dragged out of his throat.

After rambling incoherently for a while, Fink glanced at Dago.

There was no plea for help in that look, only an absurd sense of, You're still alive?

Then, without the slightest hesitation, he retreated.

He rapidly fled the airspace that was about to become an inferno.

By then,