Chapter 379 - 368: The Bell No Longer Tolls
Chapter 379: Chapter 368: The Bell No Longer Tolls
The tip of the pen had just touched the paper again when the sound returned.
This time, it was no illusion.
A shriek like scraping metal came from the northern skyline, moving from far to near, its frequency growing higher and higher, as if something was tearing through the atmosphere at high speed!
Layne snapped his head up.
He saw the aurora in the sky, as if it had been instantly crushed by an invisible, giant hand!
Terrifying Magic Power radiation, like a solidified dark cloud, instantly enveloped the sky above the academy. The heavy pressure made Layne’s heart clench violently, almost causing him to spit blood on the spot.
A thought exploded in Layne’s mind, making his blood run cold:
’Second-level Wizards! And three of them!’
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Three tremendous explosions erupted at once.
The Defense Array of Glacier Academy, personally established six hundred years ago by its founder, the Morning Star Wizard Herland Ice-Thorn, shattered in an instant under the direct impact of three powerful streams of Magic Power!
Blue motes of light drifted down, falling upon the academy’s spires and rooftops. They mixed with the ceaseless snowflakes of the Frost Wind Plane, making it impossible to tell which were ice crystals and which were the remnants of a thousand-year history.
With proper maintenance, this Array could theoretically withstand three Second-level Wizards for at least twenty minutes.
But four hundred years of peace and neglect had reduced this Dawn Star-level legacy to a sheet of thin paper.
WHOOOO—!
The toll of an alarm bell rang out from the academy’s main tower, muffled and urgent.
Layne didn’t hesitate. He turned, rushed out of his office, and kicked open the door at the end of the hallway.
"Get up!"
Aisha shot up from her bed. Her eyes weren’t fully open, but she had already released her Spiritual Power out of habit.
The next second, her face went pale.
Griffin, from the next room, had already thrown on his coat and rushed out as well.
"Level 2. Three of them."
Every word Layne spoke seemed forced through gritted teeth. "They’re Black Wizards."
Aisha and Griffin’s faces were filled with terror.
The three of them combined wouldn’t be enough to even be a snack for a single Second-level Wizard.
This was a fact that needed no explanation.
---
Herold, the seventh headmaster of Glacier Academy and a Second-level Wizard of a Witchcraft School, was the first to rush out and face the invaders.
He was the longest-serving headmaster, having protected this academy for four hundred years.
From its glorious peak with over four thousand apprentices and twenty-nine Official Wizard instructors per class, to its current bleak state, barely maintaining a thousand-some apprentices and twelve First-level Wizards.
He had watched his fellow wizards leave, fall in battle, or simply vanish into the meat grinder of planar wars, until he was the only one left supporting the academy.
Three days ago, he had received a message.
The founder of Glacier Academy, that Morning Star Wizard, the protector of them all, had fallen during a planar expedition.
He knew this day would come sooner or later, but he never expected the hyenas to arrive at his door so quickly.
Three dark figures hovered in the sky above the academy, their Magic Power radiation descending like dark clouds, completely blocking out the moonlight.
Herold wasted no time with words. His four-hundred-year career as a Wizard told him that only Black Wizards possessed such a bloody and terrifying Magic Power.
He immediately unleashed the most powerful Witchcraft he had cultivated in his entire life.
"Ice Coffin."
A very soft whisper, like a prayer recited for four hundred years.
Bone-chilling ice crystals spread from beneath his feet. The air sublimated, the raging winds froze, and even the dark clouds in the sky were coated in a layer of white frost.
CRACKLE CRACKLE CRACKLE—
The ice spread at a terrifying speed, freezing the cliffs, forests, and buildings for several kilometers in front of the academy into a massive iceberg.
The three hovering Black Wizards, along with the dozens of their Black Wizard minions behind them, were all enveloped in this deathly, freezing cold.
The temperature throughout Glacier Academy plummeted to a level that even the temperature-regulating Runes could not counteract.
However, from within the iceberg, a deafening, crazed laugh rang out:
"Old man, your ice is too brittle."
The iceberg trembled violently.
Among the three leading Black Wizards, the burly Bloodline Wizard made his move.
The black robe on his body instantly exploded. His muscles swelled madly like an inflating balloon, and bone spikes shot up one by one from his spine.
In the blink of an eye, he had transformed into an Ancient Giant over thirty meters tall.
A violent, destructive Magic Power, accompanied by a scorching aura, erupted from him.
Cracks spread from within, covering the entire surface of the iceberg like a spiderweb.
One punch.
The ice crystals within a radius of several hundred meters were completely vaporized by that burning, giant fist.
The three Black Wizards were completely unharmed, even having enough power to spare to protect the minions behind them.
They gave Herold no chance at all.
The Wizard on the left snorted coldly. Without any warning, a corrupting aura wrapped around Herold’s body, turning nearly half of it into pus.
The "Whisperer" on the right launched a mental assault, an invisible shriek that directly tore apart Herold’s Sea of Spirit.
A Second-level Wizard who had studied ice-type Witchcraft for four hundred years was crushed in a single exchange, besieged by three Black Wizards of the same level who specialized in slaughter.
The Ancient Giant casually created a twenty-meter-long bone spear and threw it like a javelin.
SQUELCH!
The bone spear pierced through Herold’s ruined body, sending him flying for several hundred meters and pinning him firmly to the wall of the ancient clock tower in the center of the academy.
Blood flowed down the bricks, staining the giant clock face red.
The second hand caught on the edge of the bone spear, made a sickening CLICK, and stopped completely.
"Clear the area," the Ancient Giant commanded coldly, having reverted to his human form.
The academy fell completely within the next twenty minutes.
Of the twelve First-level Wizard instructors, five attempted to resist using the academic buildings but were killed on the spot by the swarming Black Wizards. One was severely injured and captured. Four knelt in the snow and surrendered without hesitation, while the remaining two escaped by some strange means, their fate unknown.
The thousand-some Wizard Apprentices were herded like a flock of sheep into the main square.
Cries and pleas for mercy sounded exceptionally harsh in the cold wind.
The psionic Black Wizard known as the "Whisperer" hovered above the square, his eyes glowing with a strange purple light. His vast Spiritual Power swept over the crowd below like a comb.
"This one, and that one..."
His finger jabbed repeatedly.
Chains of Runes, coalesced from black Magic Power, materialized out of thin air. They precisely snared the necks of thirty-one apprentices, violently dragging them out and isolating them to the side.
These thirty-one were the apprentices with the highest aptitude for Spiritual Power and the purest souls.
Throughout the entire process, no one explained why.
And no one dared to ask.
Layne did not go to the square.
From the moment Headmaster Herold was instantly killed, he knew there was only one possible outcome.
Teleportation was sealed, space was disrupted. Under the very noses of Second-level Wizards, he couldn’t escape.
Layne took Griffin and Aisha and hid in a storage room on the second floor of their branch building.
His two young assistants were already limp with fear. Aisha’s tears flowed uncontrollably, and Griffin’s body trembled like a leaf.
Layne himself was scared to death. He was a First-level White Wizard who had advanced through peaceful means; his combat experience was less than even that of a Black Wizard Apprentice.
Through the window, he watched with his own eyes as the normally high-and-mighty instructors were beheaded, and as the young apprentices were selected like livestock.
This was the true underlying logic of the Wizarding World: without power, you didn’t even have the right to live.
"S-Sir..." Aisha stammered, her voice a trembling whisper. "Are we... going to die?"
Layne forced himself to calm down.
He pulled a palm-sized, silver metal disc from his Storage Ring and pressed it onto the storage room floor.
This was a standard Defense Array issued by Vera before their departure—a small set of protective Runes whose quality far surpassed that of common goods.
A Magic Stone was inserted. The metal disc began to spin rapidly, and a faint blue shield of light rose up along the storage room’s walls, enveloping the three of them.
This shield could, at best, block a few attacks from first-level Witchcraft.
Layne knew that in front of a Second-level Black Wizard, this wasn’t even as good as a sheet of paper.
But it was all that he, a mediocre First-level Wizard, could do.
"Don’t be afraid," Layne’s voice was hoarse. "We’ll stay in here for now. Rescue will come soon."
Heavy footsteps echoed from downstairs.
"This building hasn’t been searched yet. Hurry up, there might be some fat sheep hiding inside."
Two Black Wizard Apprentices kicked open the main door of the branch building’s first floor and began searching their way up, level by level.
The footsteps climbed the wooden staircase, drawing closer and closer to the second-floor storage room.
The footsteps stopped outside the storage room door.
"Hmm? There’s a fluctuation of Magic Power here," a sinister voice came from outside the door.
"You people inside, roll yourselves out now, or I’ll roast you alive before dragging you out!"