Heir of Synthesis: The World Mage

Daraen clenched her teeth after hearing Priam’s words, then got to her feet. At the same time, both Inigo and Sallya narrowed their eyes. Then, the three of them turned toward the same direction: Walhart’s faction.

Not even the dumbest Mage could fail to at least suspect what was really going on.

The first Corrupted Beast had come straight for Priam’s faction, but everyone had believed it was just a coincidence at the time.

Now, it was obvious that a horde of fifty-one of them had been led to him by another disciple of the sect. By sheer chance, some of them had ended up entering the nearest channel.

Why would that disciple do such a thing? Obviously, he was acting under the orders of the Elders of Law.

Which meant Walhart, the son of their leader, was undoubtedly involved.

On the front line, the Mage Master-level factions bore just as much responsibility as those five factions of new Mages stationed behind them. Letting even a single powerful beast slip through was the same as condemning every defensive line all the way to the fortress and, as a result, allowing the final blockade to be breached.

In other words, this entire scheme to destroy Priam was a crime of the highest order against the sect branch.

If they actually succeeded, it would be an outright act of treason capable of bringing enormous consequences upon the entire Outer Branch.

It was worth remembering that every Sage and powerful figure of the sect was away from the planet. The entire responsibility for its defense rested solely in the hands of the disciples. So if one faction were wiped out, there would be no one left capable of salvaging the situation.

Priam walked straight toward Walhart’s faction. Daraen immediately ran after him. The expressions on both their faces remained calm.

The weaker Corrupted Beasts had completely stopped coming through the channels, even though there was still a little over an hour left in the round.

As soon as he entered Walhart’s faction’s channel, Priam shouted coldly,

”Walhart, come out and fight me to the death.”

His voice echoed with power. The air around him twisted violently, and a cold, murderous wind brushed across the skin of every member of that faction.

”Priam, are you declaring your betrayal of the sect? At a time like this, how dare you act with such arrogance?!” Walhart shot back, his face ice-cold.

”You can keep spouting your nonsense all you want. No one here is stupid. Now I’m ending this once and for all. Anyone who stands in my way dies,” Priam replied indifferently.

His footsteps never stopped. His aura continued to rise.

”Hahaha, then let’s see how you plan to kill me!” Walhart sneered.

He waved his hand, pulling out a multicolored tablet. That very same second, every Mage in his faction did the same.

Suddenly, the aura of the entire army underwent a bizarre transformation.

”That’s a Sage-level War Inscription! HOW DARE YOU USE THAT?!” Inigo recognized the artifact from afar and shouted in fury.

That inscription was a supreme resource reserved exclusively for the most extreme emergencies against the Sorcerers. It wasn’t a matter of monetary value. To the sect, every one of those inscriptions was priceless and essential to its security, so they guarded them with the utmost care.

In other words, an ordinary disciple should never possess something like that.

Walhart’s father had clearly broken the regulations to hand that trump card over to his son. Another violation of the rules. Another blatant act of treason.

But Priam didn’t hesitate for even a fraction of a second.

[Activate Power Rune?] [Yes / No]

Priam accepted.

At that very instant, his eyes changed dramatically. A pulsating glow of blue, black, and green burst from his pupils. It was an extremely high-level Yin Enchantment Rune.

His Elemental Physique reached its peak, releasing a dense light-green aura.

From afar, everyone watching swallowed hard. The Priam before them gave off the terrifying feeling of a colossal volcano on the verge of erupting.

”KILL HIM!”

More than six hundred Mages from Walhart’s faction charged at Priam all at once.

Their auras intertwined, connecting them to a divine power that wasn’t theirs. A euphoria bordering on madness overtook them. Feeling the strength of a Sage flowing through their veins gave them the illusion that they were invincible.

But Priam merely snorted and clenched his right fist.

A black, deathly flame ignited over his knuckles.

He had already faced the power of a Sage lent to ordinary Mages before. So he burned his mother’s bloodline, and the flames of Hellfire erupted at full strength.

Priam’s expression remained completely cold, devoid of any emotion.

He had no pointless desire to kill just for the sake of killing. If those soldiers had stayed where they were, he would have ignored them. But since they had chosen to charge at him, he wouldn’t hesitate to wipe them from existence.

He had already learned the hard way. In that brutal world, unnecessary mercy was a death sentence. Either you saw things through to the very end, or you hesitated and suffered a thousand times more for it.

Priam had given them all the chance to back down.

They chose to draw their blades.

Now, they would reap the nightmare.

*Woosh!*

With a smooth, ghostlike movement, Priam vanished before the army’s eyes.

The next instant, he appeared high above, hovering over the crowd of six hundred Mages.

Priam decided to test something entirely new.

Thanks to his new Elemental Physique, he could feel absolute control over the wind element. Taking advantage of that, he perfectly fused the black flames of Hellfire with the power of the wind for his attack.

In a single second, the two distinct energies merged flawlessly.

*Sky-Rending Wind!*

The world simply lost all color for the six hundred Mages.

They heard no explosions. They felt no pain. They didn’t even have time to think.

The collision between Priam’s Hellfire and the Ether empowered by the Sage-level inscription triggered a catastrophic chain reaction.

That immense borrowed power, which they couldn’t control, became completely unstable. As a result, the Mages’ internal Ether collapsed, and their magical defenses crumbled.

In a fraction of a second, the bodies of six hundred high-level Mages became as fragile as those of ordinary people.

And then, they were all swallowed whole.

The cyclone of black flames and spinning wind blades descended upon the army like a gigantic meat grinder.

The scene was beyond horrifying.

All six hundred bodies were shredded instantly. Bones shattered, organs burst apart, and a torrential rain of blood, minced flesh, and severed limbs blasted across the ground in every direction.

Not a single survivor remained.

No screams of pain.

Only a thick crimson mist of blood drifting where, moments ago, an army had stood.

The Mages from the other factions stared with wide eyes, frozen in absolute horror. Some dropped to their knees, vomiting and trembling before the incomprehensible massacre.

But without question, Walhart was the most horrified of them all.

He had firmly believed Priam would never slaughter an entire faction—that he would try to subdue them without killing them, and that the Sage-level War Inscription would be enough to stop him. Even if he had the power, Priam would never go all out...

What young Mage would be insane enough to do that?

Even if Walhart himself had been in Priam’s position, he never would have gone that far.

Unfortunately, Priam wasn’t just a young Mage anymore. And he had already lived long enough in that world to understand exactly how it worked.

Everyone witnessed the complete extermination of six hundred soldiers in the blink of an eye.

”Face your death!”

Priam’s voice echoed directly into Walhart’s ears.

He appeared only a few meters away, wearing an utterly bloodthirsty expression.

”FUCK! BURNING SOUL!!!”

Walhart roared in pure desperation, activating his strongest forbidden technique.

*Woooosh!*

His body expanded monstrously, swallowed by disgusting dark-red flames. In mere milliseconds, he transformed into a true fire abomination.

The creature roared, feeling its power burn several times stronger.

This was his race’s ultimate trump card.

**PENG!**

An arrow tore through the air like a blazing bolt of lightning, letting out a chilling whistle.

”!”

To everyone’s shock, the arrow pierced the blazing monster’s chest, blasting a massive crater through the center of its body.

”AAAHHH!”

Walhart let out a guttural scream of agony as he clutched his chest. The wound left by the arrow began spreading like a plague, completely infected by the Yin element.

It was Daraen. She had fired that shot using every last bit of strength she had left.

She dropped to her knees in the dust, struggling not to pass out from exhaustion. Even so, she refused to close her eyes.

She had to see that bastard fall.

Priam merely snorted.

He instantly appeared in front of the abomination and threw a single punch filled with pure destructive force.

*BOOM!*

A violent explosion of flames tore through space.

Walhart’s true body was launched like a blood-soaked meteor, crashing into the ground with devastating force.

The people watching from afar swallowed hard.

One punch.

That monstrous form had been completely overwhelmed.

Priam’s mastery over the wind element had now reached such an extreme level that the gap between his elemental control and that of ordinary Mages created a peculiar phenomenon.

His wind attacks simply pierced through and ignored other elements.

As the smoke and sparks slowly began to clear, Walhart writhed on the ground in unbearable agony.

His entire body had been burned raw. Dozens of his bones had been crushed, and his sacred bloodline had been completely sacrificed for nothing just to invoke that transformation.

The technique had barely taken effect before the Yin energy from Daraen’s arrow destabilized its structure. He hadn’t even had time to defend himself against Priam’s punch...

Not that it would have made much difference, though he didn’t know that.

Slow, heavy footsteps echoed as they drew closer.

Consumed by blind desperation and feeling death closing in, Walhart crawled through the dust, desperately trying to escape despite the agony.

”So now you’re scared, huh?”

Priam’s voice was ice-cold, devoid of even the slightest trace of humanity or compassion.

”YOU... DON’T YOU DARE!”

Walhart screamed with the last of his strength, suffocating under indescribable pain.

In one final act of panic, he twisted his hand and pulled a hidden artifact from his spatial ring.

Without hesitating for even a single millisecond, he crushed it between his fingers.

*Crack!*

The sharp sound of something breaking echoed through the air.

Priam kept walking forward, merely curling his lips into a mocking smile.

’Truly a fool beyond redemption...’

As he looked up, he saw the very fabric of space beginning to twist and tear apart.

Priam clenched his fists.