With a swift, practiced motion, he drew a staff from his back, its tip carved with a ferocious ram's head, and slammed it into the ground with a resounding thud!
Hummm—!
In an instant, an intricate, massive light-gray magic circle unfurled around the staff, spreading out to cover hundreds of meters of the surrounding ground!
Then, the four other staves strapped to his back seemed to come alive, trembling violently before shooting out with a whoosh-whoosh-whoosh, each one embedding itself precisely into the four key points of the magic circle!
With every staff that landed, the glow of the magic circle surged brighter! When all four were in place, a blinding gray-white light erupted skyward!
A thick column of gray light shot up, piercing the heart of the swirling vortex in the sky!
Wooosh—
As if struck a heavy blow, the massive vortex faltered! Its spinning slowed visibly, growing sluggish… until it finally came to a complete stop!
The vortex began to collapse inward! The size of a millstone… a basin… a ping-pong ball…
Beads of sweat rolled down Mystogan's tattooed cheeks from his forehead, his once-sturdy frame trembling slightly. As time dragged on, he leaned heavily on the ram-headed staff just to stay upright.
"Just一点点 more…" he gritted his teeth, his face pale as paper. Casting this array wasn't just draining the magic power stored in his tools—it was sapping his own stamina! A crushing wave of exhaustion flooded his limbs.
At the moment the vortex shrank to the size of a soybean—
Crack!
The magical crystal embedded in the ram-headed staff flickered and went dark!
"Oh no! The crystal's drained!" Mystogan's pupils constricted in panic!
The towering light pillar dimmed and shrank instantly! The vortex in the sky, no longer suppressed, shuddered violently, threatening to spin and expand once more!
At that critical moment—
Hummm!
Another equally powerful gray light pillar shot out from the side, striking the nearly out-of-control vortex with pinpoint precision!
That beam was the final straw!
Pop!
A faint sound, like a bubble bursting, echoed in the air. The soybean-sized vortex, caught between the two forces, finally collapsed completely, vanishing without a trace! The sky returned to a pristine, clear blue.
Huff… huff… Mystogan panted heavily, staring in disbelief at the one who'd intervened—Roger. "Roger?! How… how do you know how to dispel Anima's magic?!"
Roger shrugged, his expression calm. "I didn't. But I watched you cast, and I figured it out."
He pointed at the magic circle on the ground. "The core structure of this array is similar to an ancient one recorded in the guild's library. I tweaked the magic flow and nodes a bit, and it worked about the same."
"Not bad for the guild's strongest," Mystogan said with a wry smile, utterly spent. He pulled the ram-headed staff back and collapsed onto the ground, exhaustion crashing over him like a tidal wave.
"I come from another world—Edolas," he said, leaning against a tree trunk, his voice tinged with a distant tone. "It's… completely different from here. Magic is a limited resource there. People aren't born with magic power in their bodies. All magic comes from tools like these."
He continued, "Over time, Edolas's magic has been running dry. To prevent the world from losing magic entirely, the king of that world… created 'Anima'—a super-dimensional magic that forcibly draws magic power from other worlds."
His voice grew heavy. "Anima doesn't just absorb the stray magic in the air… The larger its range, the more terrifying its pull. At its peak, it can suck in everything within its reach—people, buildings, plants—and turn them into pure magical energy, drawn back to Edolas and crystallized into cold magic crystals… for the king to squander."
His right hand rested on his knee, his gaze unfocused as he stared at the ground, as if seeing a village dissolve into specks of light before his eyes. His fist clenched unconsciously.
"In this world, even ordinary people have a faint trace of magic power in them. When I first arrived, I was too weak, short on funds, and lacked enough magic crystals. I couldn't stop a small Anima in time, and I watched a village…" His throat tightened, his voice thick with suppressed pain. "That's why I decided to join a guild. Last year… the guild master found me and invited me to join."
He looked up at the now-clear sky, his eyes full of worry. "Anima's been appearing more frequently, and its range is growing. I can only predict the general areas where it might show up, using my unique observation skills."
"But pinpointing its exact location takes searching, time and again. At this rate, in two years, it could easily swallow entire towns."
Roger's brows furrowed. "So, to stop it for good, we'd need to go to Edolas and destroy the source of Anima?"
"Exactly," Mystogan nodded gravely. "But it's heavily guarded, hidden deep in the heart of the kingdom. It's not something we can just waltz in and destroy."
Suddenly!
Mystogan's body tensed, his pupils shrinking as he stared westward in disbelief. "Another one?! That's impossible! How could Anima activate twice in such a short time?!"
He struggled to stand, desperate to rush toward the disturbance, but his legs felt like lead. With a thud, he dropped to one knee, unable to rise.
"Damn it…" He gave a bitter laugh, sweat pouring down his forehead. "I used up too much just now… and my spare crystals are drained. I didn't expect Anima to activate twice in a row."
"West?" Roger followed his gaze, sensing no magical disturbance yet.
Must be too far to feel it.
He turned to Mystogan. "That's the direction I'm headed. Leave it to me."
Mystogan met Roger's steady gaze, his tense body finally relaxing as he slumped back against the tree.
"…I'm counting on you. Remember, when Anima forms, the sky turns gray, followed by heavy rain. That's the clearest sign. Find it, and you'll locate the magic's source quickly."
"Got it," Roger nodded. The air behind him shimmered, and a deep purple magic circle materialized silently!
Illusion Magic: Tangible Illusion
Countless purple specks of light poured from the circle, rapidly coalescing and taking shape! As the glow faded, a pair of massive, pure-white wings made entirely of magic power appeared on Roger's back!
With a powerful flap—
Whoosh!
A gust of wind swept the area, and Roger's figure shot into the sky! Fast as an arrow, he became a tiny black dot on the horizon, speeding westward in a blink!
"Contract Magic… what a terrifying power," Mystogan murmured, watching Roger's figure vanish. A complex glint flickered in his weary eyes.
"If I had magic power of my own, could I form a contract with him too?"
The wind roared in Roger's ears as the landscape blurred below. Soon, the sky ahead shifted—an ominous gray, heavy and suffocating.
That eerie sense of magic scarcity crept in from all sides!
"Here it is!" Roger hovered in midair, ready to cast a spell to shut down the Anima.
"Lisanna! No—! Run—!!!"
A terrified, distorted female voice pierced the forest's silence like a sharp spike, reaching Roger's ears!
"Mira?" Roger's heart clenched. His wings folded, and he dove like a meteor toward the source of the cry.
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