But ever since he had entered, he hadn't seen a single person, or even a cat or dog. It was almost as if they had opened the door and were waiting for him to arrive.
The farther Baifeng Uesugi walked toward the center of the base, the more he felt that something was wrong.
To be safe, Baifeng Uesugi decided to leave for the time being.
Just as he was about to turn around and leave, Demon Hunters suddenly began appearing all around him. Most were at least B-rank, and there were quite a few A-rank magicians, as well as several S-rank magicians among them.
(Note: The original work doesn't provide a detailed explanation of strength levels, so the author has added one here. Magicians are ranked from lowest to highest as follows: E-rank, D-rank, C-rank, B-rank, A-rank, S-rank, SS-rank, and SSS-rank.
The author has defined Tatsuya Shiba's strength in the original work as that of an S-rank magician. As for the protagonist, he is currently S+. The plus sign means that a magician is on the verge of breaking through to the next rank.)
Baifeng Uesugi was briefly stunned to see so many Demon Hunters appear out of nowhere. Then he remembered that he was invisible and that they probably couldn't see him, and he breathed a sigh of relief.
But before he could fully relax, Baifeng Uesugi suddenly noticed something was wrong. The group's gazes seemed to be fixed on him.
Ever since they had appeared, their eyes had never left him, making Baifeng Uesugi wonder if his invisibility magic had stopped working.
Baifeng Uesugi looked down at his hands and confirmed that he was still invisible. He was thoroughly puzzled as to why they were looking in his direction.
After thinking it over for a moment, Baifeng Uesugi came up with a reasonable explanation: perhaps something over here had caught their attention.
He looked around behind him, only to find that there was nothing there, nothing that could have drawn their eyes.
"Baifeng Uesugi, stop looking. We're all equipped with thermal contact lenses. We can't see what you look like, but we can still see where you are."
Watching Baifeng Uesugi, Pulisi couldn't resist mocking him.
Hearing that, Baifeng Uesugi thought, Fuck me. He had forgotten that technology existed in this era. Invisibility magic could prevent people from seeing its user, but certain special methods could still reveal him.
Thermal detection was one such method. Only now did Baifeng Uesugi notice the fluorescent glimmers in the group's pupils. That was probably the effect of wearing the lenses.
"Pulisi, I didn't expect it to be you."
Baifeng Uesugi knew the man who had spoken. He was the one who had ambushed him on the battlefield three years ago, and the one who had been in charge of capturing him all these years.
"Baifeng Uesugi, what do you think of this base? I wonder if you're satisfied with it."
Pulisi smiled.
"Oh? It looks like you knew I was coming here all along?"
Baifeng Uesugi's expression grew grave.
"It wasn't that I knew all along. I deliberately lured you here, and I deliberately leaked the location of this base to you, all for this moment."
A proud look appeared on Pulisi's face, as if he greatly admired his own plan.
"Oh, is that so? Then how do you know I didn't come here on purpose?"
Baifeng Uesugi smiled.
He really hadn't known. Baifeng Uesugi had only said that to take Pulisi down a peg.
"Heh, it doesn't matter. I've made extensive preparations for you. Today, I'll bring you back to headquarters."
Pulisi spoke calmly.
"You think these people of yours can stop me?"
Baifeng Uesugi didn't think much of the people before him. Although those few S-rank magicians might be troublesome, to him, that was all they were.
"Why don't we find out?" Pulisi sneered. Then he waved his hand and spoke to his subordinates.
"Get him."
At his command, the people around them rushed at Baifeng Uesugi in a frenzy.
But the ones who came forward were all B-rank and A-rank magicians. There were so many of them that the dense mass seemed to dim the sky.
As he watched the vast crowd charging at him, Baifeng Uesugi appeared calm on the surface, but he was still somewhat worried.
After all, he had a limited number of Psions in his body, and Pulisi's objective was obvious.
He intended to use these low-level magicians to wear down Baifeng Uesugi's magic power, his Psions.
But Baifeng Uesugi had no choice but to fall into the trap. If he simply let them get close to him, he would be in danger.
"Sparks Set the Plain Ablaze."
Baifeng Uesugi immediately activated an S-rank area attack spell.
In an instant, the dim sky lit up and turned fiery red. An endless stream of sparks streaked through the air and fell among the crowd.
The crowd that had swarmed forward just moments ago was instantly reduced by half.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk. An S-rank area attack spell. Baifeng Uesugi, your magic really is enviable. Once I capture you, I'll definitely cut open your brain and analyze every spell inside it."
Pulisi watched the magic Baifeng Uesugi had used, his voice full of desire.
Hearing that, Baifeng Uesugi instantly understood why they had been hunting down ancient magic all this time. They obtained those rare ancient spells from people's brains.
The thought sent a chill through Baifeng Uesugi. He had usually only seen such things in novels. He hadn't expected to encounter it himself today, with himself as the protagonist.
Baifeng Uesugi had now put this organization on his death list.
"Keep attacking! Don't stop!"
Eager to obtain Baifeng Uesugi's magic, Pulisi hurriedly urged his subordinates to attack again.
At Pulisi's command, quite a few more low-level magicians appeared and began charging at Baifeng Uesugi.
Watching the magicians advance again, Baifeng Uesugi felt helpless. He had just noticed that these low-level magicians seemed to be gathering here in an endless stream.
Looks like I can't stay here long. I need to move the battle elsewhere as soon as possible. But since you don't want this base anymore, I'll be kind and get rid of it for you before I leave.
"Meteor Fire Rain."
Baifeng Uesugi activated another S-rank area attack spell, but this one was very different from Sparks Set the Plain Ablaze.
Sparks Set the Plain Ablaze struck targets rapidly with arrow-like fireballs, while Meteor Fire Rain struck them with flaming meteors.
It was highly destructive to the terrain.
"Oh no, fall back!"
When Pulisi saw Baifeng Uesugi activate another S-rank area attack spell, he was filled with desire, but a voice in his mind kept urging him to get farther away.
At first, Pulisi thought he was imagining it, but when he saw the flaming meteors in the sky, he quickly retreated, not forgetting to warn the other S-rank magicians.
When Baifeng Uesugi saw that Pulisi and the S-rank magicians had left the spell's range, he was delighted. That had been his objective as well.
(P.S. More "power-ups," more happiness! As a new author, thank you all for your support. I hope you'll click to request updates and send some power-ups.
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