Countless arms spread from beneath the robe, branching in every direction like a great banyan tree unfurling in the night. The arms varied in length and thickness. Most held nothing; only the two strongest, one on either side of the body, carried a spellbook and a wooden staff.
But that did not mean the other arms were useless.
"...Om... an... boluogedi (offering)... fm'latgh (burn)... 'ai (summon)... bing... ebuman (trap)... n'ghft (darkness)... lin... n'gha (death)... dou... ne... ba... jie..."
A murky, rasping voice echoed over the battlefield. Wotrey's outstretched arms formed ancient hand signs as he chanted incantations drawn from different traditions and faiths. Chaos and harmony fused perfectly in that moment, stirring the magic power in every direction and gathering one sinister, mighty presence after another.
Boom!
Boom! Boom!
Spell-light of every color churned and flowed across the sky in a dazzling, surreal display. The school's three Grand Wizards revealed their true forms: a blazing fire dragon, a white angel, and a purple centipede. Their enormous figures stood like reefs to either side of Wotrey's grotesque bulk and directly before him, like three stars of different colors shining in the night, each as brilliant as he was.
Above the young wizards, the golden mountain silhouette lay outside the direct path of the spell-light. Even so, the force that merely grazed it set it humming, and faint signs of collapse appeared.
"Did that old monster really advance just now?" Hilda touched the copper ring on her ear and stared at the roiling spell-light overhead. "That level of power... that level..."
"That puts him among the very strongest Grand Wizards," the Chi Lian Hunting Team's captain said grimly.
"That's impossible!" another teaching assistant exclaimed in disbelief. "Before we came, we pulled Wotrey's records from the School Divination Group. At least a month