<strong>A sh Of Destiny</strong>


    “These three are definitely high-level artifacts, to the extent that they can bebined to make a magical weapon!” The Rank 2 Magus sitting beside Leylin guessed.


    “I think so too!” Leylin smiled and nodded, his gaze secretly heating up.


    In the center of the secret territory, three silhouettes continuously collided fiercely, and the glowing radiance emitted by the magical artifacts in their hands destroyed the meadow around them until it was unrecognisable.


    “Kill!”


    Aaron and Vinas looked at each other and exerted their spiritual force to its extreme so that the silver sword flew towards Ernis.


    “Battle Chain!” At that moment, a different expression shed across Ernis’ face and a ck chain covered in ck runes flew out from his chest, covering Aaron and Vinas.


    “You really thought I was so foolish, eh? One person against the two of you?”


    Upon seeing the chain, Ernis finally had a smile on his face, indicating that he had achieved what he had wanted.


    “This is the secret weapon of the Haylin Guild. It can bind two semi-elemental Magi for at least 10 seconds. I had never thought that this Magus would be in possession of it. The others will definitely lose!” Some of the Magi outside secret territory could recognize this evil object.


    But soon after, they were struck agape.


    They only saw Vinas smile indifferently. Another “Vinas” appeared from the center of her body, and the other Vinas, one with a stern and firm aura, charged towards Aaron.


    Among the flickering light rays, Aaron, who was bound by iron chains before, was now floating in mid-air and the Vinas-doppelg?nger reced him.


    “Quick! Now!” said the two Vinases. The constantly tightening iron chains made the defensive runes on Vinas’ body shatter one after another.


    “Doppelg?nger! Using a doppelg?nger to be free from the binds of the chains? This is actually very worthy of study!” a Magus said while stroking his white beard.


    Aaron, who saw Vinas vomiting blood, was somehow enraged and charged forth towards Ernis.


    It was obvious that Ernis, who was trying to restrain the binds of the chains, had used up a huge amount of his spiritual force and magical power, and was thus unprepared to deal with Aaron’s sudden attack.


    Aaron’s eyes turned red. Drawing the sharp end of his sword, he held the sword’s handle and pierced Ernis’ chest.


    But Ernis did not summon any escaping spell and only had a weird expression on his face, as though he was crying andughing at the same time.


    “What happened? Is there something wrong with the spell? Extract him!” a Magus immediatelymanded.


    But the characteristic white light had not appeared yet.


    “Sigh...” Ernis coughed out a huge amount of blood.


    “You...You’ve won!” Ernis said as he struggled.


    “What? Why aren’t you escaping?” Aaron asked. He found this all extremely hard to believe.


    “Tsk tsk! Why do I have to escape?” Ernis’ facial expression changed, as though he had changed into apletely different person.


    “Don’t... don’t kill me!” Soon after, a dreadful expression shadowed Ernis’ face.


    But following the huge loss of blood, the expression gradually disappeared. And everything eventually returned to its original state.


    “You need.... Need to be careful of the ck hand behind. My brother, I saw.....”


    Ernis shuddered and gave the long double-edged sword and calligraphy pen to Aaron. His eyes suddenly turned white and without finishing hisst prophecy, he lost his life’s aura.


    *Peng!* Ernis fell to the ground.


    *Kacha!* Aaron felt a mysterious energy emerge from Ernis’ body and enter his own as Ernis died. The Sacred me rapidly swirled, as if it were absorbing something unknown from his body.


    Soon after, he broke through the semi-converted elements and finally achieved the position of a peak rank 1 Magus. But he was not happy at all.


    “Let’s go,” said Aaron, as he helped lift Vinas, who was seriously injured, and disappeared among the milky, white light beams.


    The day’s events had been thoroughly confusing for him, so much so that he no longer held any interest in the final showdown between Baelin and Longbottom.


    Outside the secret territory, Leylin touched his chin as he pondered deeply.


    “Schizophrenic symptoms are getting more severe. Signs of benevolence, viciousness, weakness and other personalities along with intense suicidal tendencies are being exhibited! This experiment is a failure! Even if one is alive, it’s no use!”


    He appeared regretful as such thoughts passed through his head.


    Soon after, he then turned to thest screen and said, “Let the first fated confrontation start!”


    In the center of the secret ne, a majority of the Magi had already been eliminated. The only two to survive were Baelin and Longbottom, who,bined, had more than forty wounds on their body.


    Furthermore, these two people were gradually getting close to each other, on the verge of converging.


    “If no mishaps happen, the champion will arise from one of these two Magi. Let us wait and see!” The host excitedly dered as the screens on site constantly fused and finally, the twost huge screens were split respectively on Baelin and Longbottom’s side.


    The two screens merged, as the two Magi walked closer towards each other. They were going to form a singlerge screen.


    “We finally meet again!” The strong body armour on Baelin had 13 eyeballs with oddly-shaped cyclones on them, as though they were absorbing something from the surroundings.


    “Can you stop me?” Longbottom, disguised as the green-robed Carl, sneered.


    “Whatever happens, I must defeat you today!” Baelin firmly said with confidence as he pointed his crossbow towards Longbottom.


    “Tsk tsk! You know what, Baelin? The more I see you, the more annoyed I get, ever since I saw you at Potter Town!”


    At this time, Longbottom said to Baelin: “Why did Leylin choose you the previous time, and not me? What do you have that’s much better than me?”


    “So you still do care about this!” Baelin’s expression darkened upon hearing all this.


    The other Magi outside the screens looked doubtfully at the two Magi settle down without producing any energy waves.


    “So these two Magi knew each other beforehand?” questioned some Magi as they exchanged doubtful looks.


    *Xiu!*


    And at this moment, the two Magi in the middle of the screen started moving.


    Energy particles stormed forth from their bodies just like a gale, producing immense pressure and causing the airflow around them to reverse.


    It was an umon sight to see two rank 1 Magipeting against each other in Twilight Zone.


    Leylin, who understood and knew these two Magi, naturally knew that what they showed to the public now is far from their true powers.


    *Bang! Bang!*


    The green and red silhouette continued bumping against each other in mid-air so much that the air around them gotpressed and exploded.


    “I never thought that you can also enter the Rank 2 Realm!” Longbottom said to Baelin in the midst of the intense battle.


    The Magi outside did not notice anything strange with Baelin and Longbottom’s first showdown between the screens. Although the energy waves were only at the peak of rank 1, only Baelin and Longbottom, who knew each other very well, could tell the terrifying capabilities of each other!


    On top of that, they were able to control these abilities without the slightest spillover and maintained the facade of being rank 1. With this amount of strength, it would be a good showing even for a rank 2 Magus.


    “Give it up now, Longbottom!” Baelin said as his willpower decreased a little.


    Originally, Longbottom was not someone with such big aspirations and ideals. Furthermore, to even confront face to face with a friend he knew since young, he simply had no strength to do it.


    “Give up? I’ll give up now!” With a fierce front, huge drops of green corrosive liquid started forming at Longbottom’s lower body, forming a whirlpool.


    “Whirlpool of Death!”


    *Z!* But this was just the beginning. Longbottom tore open a scroll upon seeing strong energy particles being emitted, provoking the whirlpool to increase in size. This sparked the radiation of a dangerous aura, causing some rank 2 Magi to frown and disperse from the sides of the whirlpool.


    “It’s the scroll of a rank 2 spell!” cried out some of the Magi, standing outside the battlefield.


    This sort of thing was so rare to see. Even if a rank 2 Magus were to create such things, a lot of time and effort is wasted and sess is not even guaranteed. Thus, it is rarely seen in the marketce. Who would’ve thought that such a precious thing will be in the hands of Carl?


    Besides, was it even worth it to waste such a precious thing during thispetition?


    “To use a rank 2 Magus’ scroll for protection now, is it because he has to resort to using all of his strength in a split second?” Leylin said outside the battlefield as he chuckled lightly.


    “If nothing untoward happens, the champion will obviously be our Carl from the Western Regions!” eximed the rank 2 Magus who had spoken to Leylin previously, as he stroked his beard with a hint of pride on his face.


    “Not exactly!” Leylin shook his head. Baelin was a destined child, and he would not lose so easily.


    “What now then? Do you want to bet with me?” the rank 2 Magus from the Western Regions immediately said. He was inwardly very worried as he remembered how he’d lost the previous bet with the Fire Scorpion spell.


    “No need! I do not have anything good to bet against you, Sir!” Leylin said as he forced a smile and shook his head.


    “No worries, we won’t bet with money. Just a simple bet of the oue!” said the Western Region’s rank 2 Magus.


    Leylin nodded. He knew that these rank 2 Magi have already reached their limits of what they could achieve on the path to bing a Magus. Thus, they focused all their energies on other areas such as upon younger talents.


    This rank 2 Magus from the western region had previously won over him. If Leylin did not win this time, he was afraid of the difort that will remain in his heart for a few years.


    The enormous and brutal whirlpool continued expanding, like how a monster widens its mouth, and immediately engulfed Baelin.


    Upon seeing this scene, Longbottom smiled.


    “Die!” Longbottom suddenly charged into the middle of the whirlpool and came out holding a green sword handle.


    *Rumble!* The 13 eyes on Baelin’s armour started staring and in the middle of the pupil, numerous fine-textured runes shot out, spiralling around Baelin’s body and forming a strange pattern.


    The runes on the armour started evolving and radiated dazzling rays of brilliance. The whirlpool of death emitted huge ripples of corrosion, striking the armour. Yet, it caused no damage


    *Pa! Pa! Pa!*


    Baelin roared and the entire whirlpool surprisingly broke apart. Longbottom was not prepared for the sword sh that was aimed at him.