"Not good, this thing is summoning something!"
Richard's expression changed abruptly, and a ring of fireballs instantly appeared around him, ready to destroy the mother entity.
But before he could act, Jimmy stopped him.
"What's the rush? Let it summon," Jimmy said calmly. "The Dean and the Floating City are both here. If we can't win even with this, then we're doomed sooner or later anyway."
After erupting with vitality, the vine mother entity immediately began to proliferate. Massive roots surged out from its body like a flood, filling the hall where Richard and Jimmy stood in an instant.
Soon, the roots realized that the surroundings were entirely metal, offering no nutrients to absorb.
Then, like drills, the roots began boring into the ground. The hard alloy of the Floating City sparked violently under their assault.
The commotion quickly drew the attention of other Wizards, but upon seeing Jimmy and Richard—both Third Circle Wizards—they retreated again.
With two Third Circle Wizards watching, what trouble could possibly arise?
Jimmy frowned slightly as he watched the vine mother entity damaging the Floating City.
Damaging the Floating City meant paying compensation.
He pulled out two sets of knuckle blades from his pocket, their edges densely inscribed with runes so intricate that an ordinary person would feel dizzy just glancing at them.
After strapping them on, Jimmy threw a punch toward the vine mother entity.
In an instant, the air in the entire hall was disturbed by the strike, transforming into a massive vortex of wind blades.
This technique, nearly akin to Stio's Metal Storm, seemed effortless in Jimmy's hands.
The vortex shredded the proliferating roots into fragments, yet the mother entity continued its relentless growth.
Jimmy's frown deepened, and he stowed the knuckle blades back into his pocket.
He tapped himself twice, and his body immediately erupted with intense Life Radiation.
The moment Jimmy unleashed his Life Radiation, the vine mother entity instantly redirected all its roots—every single one surged toward him.
As a Third Circle Wizard who had evolved his physique, Jimmy's vitality was an irresistible beacon to any living creature. For parasitic organisms, he was the perfect host.
In this environment, devoid of soil for nutrients or ley lines for energy, Jimmy was undoubtedly the vine mother entity's primary target.
The flood of roots swallowed Jimmy's towering figure in an instant, but Richard, standing beside him, remained utterly calm, making no move to intervene.
He trusted that Jimmy had a plan.
Richard watched as the roots wrapped Jimmy into a cocoon, slowly dragging him toward the mother entity.
Then, with a dull thud, the mother entity suddenly froze.
Richard narrowed his eyes as he observed it.
"Is this… Sealing Art?"
In his energy vision, the vine mother entity's energy circulation had completely halted after that muffled sound.
It bore a striking resemblance to Sealing Art.
"Exactly. Sealing Art," Jimmy's voice echoed from within the root cocoon.
A pair of large hands, covered in eerie blue magical patterns, tore open a gap in the cocoon.
Jimmy, now covered in glowing sigils, stepped out leisurely. Not a single scratch marred his body—despite the roots that had been able to drill sparks from the Floating City's alloy.
"You have a keen eye. Few can recognize my Sealing Art without being told. You're the first Third Circle Wizard to spot it without my mentioning."
Richard smiled, pointing to his eyes, about to introduce his soul talent.
But before he could speak, the metal floor beneath him trembled slightly.
"It seems that thing has arrived," Jimmy said confidently. "Let's find a safe spot to observe. The Dean's battles may not seem too intense, but for us..."
Before Jimmy could finish, a loud boom echoed, and the Floating City beneath them shook once more.
Both their expressions darkened.
"Is it just me, or..." Richard asked with difficulty.
Jimmy shook his head, his face grave. "No, it's not just you..."
Outside the Floating City, countless Wizards stared in shock as the city slowly rose into the air.
Beneath it, an enormous vine was steadily growing.
"The Floating City is really 'flying' now..."
...
[Danger Alert! All Wizards must evacuate the Floating City immediately. Those inside, seek shelter at once!]
[Danger Alert! All Wizards must evacuate the Floating City immediately. Those inside, seek shelter at once!]
The command center's warning blared from every Wizard's Communication Crystal Ball. Outside the Floating City, whether White Wizards or Black Wizards, First Circle or Third Circle, all swiftly retreated from the city.
Against that colossal vine, without the strength of a World Master, distance meant safety.
Those trapped inside the Floating City had no choice but to take refuge in the command tower—the sturdiest shelter available.
Amid the chaos, a figure suddenly appeared beneath the Floating City. Yet compared to the vine, even this towering human form seemed minuscule.
"Tch, another one of these things."
Grand Wizard Galon stared at the vine, his brow furrowed in exasperation. "A World Tree that's taken over an entire world... How do things like you even exist in the Astral World?"
The massive vine seemed to sense Galon's presence, its growth halting abruptly.
A voice—vast yet layered with countless echoes—resounded from the vine.
"Leave this place, outsider!"
The sound was so deafening that most Wizards inside the Floating City fainted from the shockwaves, while weaker ones even suffered ruptured organs.
Grand Wizard Galon shrugged. "Believe me, I'd love to, but..." His body suddenly expanded, transforming in an instant into a colossus that dwarfed the sky.
"...how could I let a treasure like you slip away?"
His voice boomed like thunder, and his speed matched lightning.
The observing Third Circle Wizards in the distance didn't even see him move before the enormous vine shattered into splinters, scattering like sand.
And the Floating City, once held aloft by the vine, was now cradled effortlessly in Grand Wizard Galon's palm.
A Wizard murmured in awe, "Is this the power of the strongest beneath Truth?"
Grand Wizard Galon, as the first Great Wizard after the Enlightenment Era, had already reached the peak of the Sixth Circle several epochs ago.
Among the Wizard community, there were even rumors that Grand Wizard Galon's power had surpassed the limits of a Sixth-Level being, standing just one step away from the Truth Wizard.
All that remained was for him to complete the legendary ritual of ascension to Truth, and he would attain that realm, establishing his own school of thought.
"Absolutely not, I must record this!"
A First-Circle Wizard from Galon Academy shouted, pulling out a Crystal Ball from his pocket to capture the sight of Grand Wizard Galon lifting the Floating City.
Years later, this moment would be immortalized in a sculpture carved into the base of a mountain, becoming the most renowned landmark in the Wizard World.
The World Tree offered no further response to Grand Wizard Galon.
The next moment, countless vines surged from the ground, lashing toward him like whips.
BOOM!
A deafening explosion resounded across the sky.
The massive vine-whips shattered into splinters, and amidst the debris, Grand Wizard Galon stood gripping his bone staff, laughing like a demonic god.
"It's been so long since I last fought—this feels exhilarating!"
With a wave of his staff, Magic Power within thousands of kilometers around him began to flow in an instant.
Near-infinite runes poured from the bone staff, coalescing into an unassuming yet world-obliterating sphere of runes.
"Thir... Thirteen-Circle Forbidden Spell!" an elder Wizard trembled in horror.
"The Great Wizard is going to destroy this world!"
In the Wizard World, while a Spell's power wasn't strictly tied to its Circle rank, any Spell strictly forbidden by the Council of Truth from being cast within the Wizard World had to exceed the Ninth Circle.
Among Forbidden Spells, Thirteen-Circle ones were exceedingly rare—only two had ever been recorded in the entire history of the Wizard World.
One of them was the Spell Grand Wizard Galon was about to unleash: Singularity Summoning.
Singularity Summoning, a Thirteen-Circle Spell from the School of Evocation, conjured a singularity of near-infinite mass.
Against a typical World Master, this Spell was ineffective—any World Master could simply escape its range before it fully formed.
But for a world itself, it was an undeniable apocalypse.
The singularity would endlessly absorb the world's energy and mass until it consumed everything.
"Kekeke, against creatures like you, destroying the world is the best solution."
Grand Wizard Galon let out a sinister cackle as the runic sphere in his hand compressed further. Once it shrank to its limit, the singularity would manifest.
But as the sphere continued to condense, his grin slowly faded.
He scanned his surroundings suspiciously, searching for any trace of the World Tree—yet found nothing.
After he cast Singularity Summoning, the World Tree didn't even send out more vines.
"Still not showing up? Did I overact and get exposed?" he wondered inwardly.
This was indeed Singularity Summoning, but he had no intention of actually destroying this world.
With so many ruins of the Precursors here, there might even be the star charts the Council of Truth had been searching for.
To lose all that over a mere World Tree would be a waste.
He was doing this merely to force the World Tree's true form to reveal itself.
Although a World Tree that had taken over an entire world was troublesome, its difficulty lay only in its sheer size and near-infinite energy reserves.
Such a World Tree could utilize the principle of magic missiles, stacking energy to unleash an impact equivalent to hundreds of thousands of energy levels. Moreover, their colossal size meant that without locating their true form, the only way to destroy them was to annihilate the entire world.
That was precisely why he deliberately used Singularity Summoning—to force the World Tree to exert its full power, thereby allowing him to locate its true form.
But now, with the singularity about to emerge, why was this World Tree still unmoved?
"It seems I'll have to demonstrate some power to get this thing to react."
Grand Wizard Galon gazed at the nearly formed singularity in his hand and hardened his resolve, deciding to give this native World Tree a taste of Wizard World shock and awe.
After all, there were ways to terminate Singularity Summoning prematurely...
Bzzzt! Grand Wizard Galon suddenly heard an extremely high-frequency hum.
In the next instant, his figure appeared amidst a scorched wasteland. Before him stood a towering black tree, its crown covering the entire sky, majestically rooted at the center of the barren land.
Embedded in the trunk of this colossal black tree were over a dozen creatures emitting terrifying auras, wailing in agony.
"Outsider, since you refuse to leave, you might as well stay and keep me company!"
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