Chapter 91 (continued)

"No, no, no!" The demon spun around in place, wailing hysterically like a nanny who had burned dinner while engrossed in watching TV. "Why were you alive! The horrible black mage survived! And... God, save me! God of Light, save me! The horrible black mage subdued the lich?"

I seriously doubt that the God of Light would be willing to save a delirious and erratic demon.

"Open the passage." Damala reached out and grabbed the devil's neck... I guessed from the gesture that she was grabbing his neck, because her hand gesture was a standard chokehold. The devil was squeezed like a large, unevenly inflated black balloon, with one eye bigger than the other, and he was begging for mercy.

Damala added, "You are not allowed to deceive your master again, or you know the consequences!"

Oh... don't call me master, it makes me blush.

I expressed my opinion tactfully, Damala thought for a moment, then nodded. The succubi behind her cried out in unison, "Yes, my lady!"

No, no, no, calling me that makes me feel like Five-Star Old Man! The kind of Five-Star Old Man who needs to be chemically castrated!

"You can just call me Xipei," I said, rubbing my goosebumps.

"No!" The banshees looked at the half-finished notebook in my hand with awe... One of them cautiously pointed to the notebook, "Because you are Hailianna's student, we absolutely, absolutely cannot address you by your honorable name!"

"What if Hailianna crawls out from somewhere and tears us apart..." the succubi whispered. "Besides, we're not stupid. Hailianna's previous apprentice could drive demons mad; we're not foolish enough to call your name..."

So, this demon didn't lie to me; it really was tortured by my fellow disciples!

Damala was originally going to take me to the lower level. According to the lich, this underground palace is not a palace at all, but a tower that is stuck upside down into the ground! Their previous owner—my mentor who was active six thousand years ago—uprooted a tower that opposed a bad mage and buried it directly in the ground as his demon-sealing ground and a storage room for his legacy.

As for Radiant Fortress, it was probably just a small coincidence over a long period of time.

The Radiant Fortress was built on the upper level of my teacher's tower. This inverted mage tower slowly sank deeper underground over time. The lower level of the Radiant Fortress is the foundation brick of this mage tower—the level where the liches originally lived should have been above ground.

But after confirming with Damala that the demons in the tower were all safe, I decided to return to Radiant Fortress first—I came here on a mission! I can't forget my main task again!

This time, the demon obediently opened its Inner World —it had indeed deceived me in this respect; it wasn't trapped in its own Inner World at all. As soon as it Inner World, I immediately located Mel's psychic beacon—he had extended his psychic power so I could detect him. Following his guidance, I teleported directly to his side, but before I could adjust to the changed perspective, Damala grabbed my waist, and the entire lich leaped a considerable distance away.

Bang! A shell exploded right where we had just appeared.

What's going on?

I was a little stunned because we found ourselves in a huge hall, clearly still the ruins of a fortress, but now it was completely packed, crammed like a sardine can, filled to the brim with...

Annihilator!!!

Even I was startled when I suddenly saw a huge swarm of massive machines with flashing red eyes. The scene felt like something out of a sci-fi apocalyptic horror movie, a popular theme lately, mainly about robots taking over the world and waging war against humanity. Moli used to be so scared after watching those movies that she wouldn't be able to sleep and would call me crying in the middle of the night, so I would immediately have her come to my apartment... Then this girl would hug me, crying, and watch horror movies all night long, finishing the whole series.

"Xipei!"

"Ciprins!"

I immediately looked down and saw people surrounded by the Annihilator. They were fighting the Annihilator and surrounded by a large pile of dismantled Annihilator parts. They looked pitifully thin.

In reality, Goliath was quite fit. He tried to cover Mel, Reynold, and the two apprentices behind him, but he failed because the Annihilator were everywhere, as if they were free!

"What's going on?" I asked in surprise.

Mel grabbed Reynold angrily and said to me, "That idiot! We just found a lot of Annihilator in this house. They were frozen in place by a magic circle, probably a large one with some kind of time-space freezing effect. We were planning to just slip through silently, but this damn guy actually pulled a staff out of that magic circle!"

As he spoke, he unleashed another dozen spells, which sent the surrounding Annihilator sprawling and staggering.

I'm speechless.

Reynold, his eyes brimming with tears and looking deeply ashamed, said, "That staff was stuck in the wall. I didn't pull it out on purpose at all. I just twisted my ankle and was trying to steady myself against the wall when I suddenly grabbed a staff!"

I looked around. The walls of the hall weren't empty. My heart skipped a beat. I saw human figures on the walls, blending into the wall and dust, as if they were embedded there. Without exception, they were all mages, with their hands outstretched, maintaining a casting posture. One of the mages' hands was loosely clenched. It seemed that Reynold must have been impulsive and pulled out his staff.

Anna and Moli rolled their eyes in unison, and then I saw the two girls use the Mage Hand we taught them to grab the Annihilator's legs, and then work together to tear the Annihilator in two.

Yes, you worked together very well!

I nodded with great satisfaction.

The light of Magic Power has flowed for millennia, still shining brightly beneath the feet of those spellcasters, forming an intricate and vast magic circle that envelops the entire space. However, because a certain component of the magic circle is missing, the dust on their bodies is fading.

One by one, the spellcasters hidden in the dust slowly revealed their true forms.

Goliath sighed softly, "Now I know where those 'damaged Exterminator Prototype's recorded in the files went."

There were about thirty spellcasters by the wall, their expressions calm and peaceful. I guessed that when Radiant Fortress fell, these predecessors used their own bodies to form this magic circle, trapping all the Annihilator here, thus giving their descendants a chance to continue. And the fact that Mel and his group were surrounded by a large number of Annihilator at this moment, yet were still able to fight so easily, was also thanks to the spells that these predecessors still possessed and that had not yet completely lost their power.

Damala then asked, "Master Xipei, shall we make our move?"

At this moment, everyone stared in astonishment at the woman beside me... or rather, the female corpses, especially Goliath. He looked at Damala who was approaching him in shock, his holy light reflexively activated. However, he hesitated for a moment, then immediately turned around and continued to fight the Annihilator with swift movements. The Annihilator seemed to have noticed me as well and determined that I posed a relatively high threat, so they all began to turn their heads to look at me.

Their movements quickened, Moli's Mage Hand its target, and Anna carried her away, dodging a burst of bullets.

"Quick, before the magic circle completely fails!" Mel suddenly said. He seized the opportunity, forcefully broke through the Annihilator's encirclement, and floated to the mage relief missing his staff. He channeled his Magic Power into the wall, and suddenly I saw the hands of the mages on the wall light up one by one. A complete magic circle appeared in the entire room. The magic circle was so complex and huge that even I could not record it in a short time. The brilliant light spread to every brick and stone like burning stars.

Before this radiance faded, the Annihilator within the magic circle, after the circle lit up, moved like ancient goblins, slower than slimes. Taking advantage of this opportunity, I immediately issued the order:

"Tear it all down!"