"Let's go, Karl, we can't keep him waiting too long."
..."Boom!" A portal appeared in the void, and Triss and the other person emerged.
As the two of them clearly saw the scene before them, they found that someone was already standing in front of them, as if he had long known that the portal would open there.
He looked like a middle-aged man with a long beard, wearing a red hood, and some of his hair was no longer black, but streaked with gray.
He wore a bearskin coat over a bright red lining, with a velvet undershirt, black trousers, and brown leather boots.
At this moment, he was observing the two with a stern, unsmiling expression.
His gaze lingered on Triss for less than a second before shifting to Karl; the latter's outstanding appearance made him raise an eyebrow.
Immediately after, a look of surprise appeared on his face.
He took a step closer to Karl, examining him carefully, as if sensing something.
"No, you are not a Magic Source; even if a Magic Source is unawakened, the magical fluctuations around the body cannot be hidden."
"But I can sense a powerful energy in you, though it has nothing to do with magic."
The reason he was so certain Karl was not a Magic Source was because he himself was a Magic Source.
Therefore, he understood Magic Sources better than anyone; Karl's characteristics did not match those of a Magic Source in any way.
"I need to investigate further. Relax, child," he said softly.
Hearing this, Karl glanced at Triss, his eyes seemingly asking, "Are you sure it's okay?"
Triss said nothing, giving an affirmative nod.
Then, he raised his hands and placed them on either side of Karl's temples, closed his eyes, and used his will and magic to delve deep into his mind.
Before long, Triss, who was standing to one side of the two, once again felt that intensely hot and heart-pounding sensation she had first experienced when probing Karl's talent.
Out of safety concerns, she raised her hand and waved it, and a Zhan blue magic formed a circular shield, enveloping them within it.
At this moment, from Karl's perspective, Triss and the unknown middle-aged male sorcerer disappeared, leaving only him in the entire suburban area.
He looked around, vaguely feeling he had forgotten something, but couldn't recall what it was.
After standing still for a few seconds, he lifted his leg and moved forward, intending to leave the area.
But the next moment, the ground vibrated violently, and the surrounding trees fell down one after another.
In an instant, the earth collapsed and shattered, and the ground he stood on also sank.
Because it happened so suddenly and without any warning, he was completely unprepared; his feet lost purchase, and he instantly fell from the ground into a deep pit.
Countless shattered rocks and soil were swept around him by the strong wind.
Falling with them, head-sized fragments of rock struck his body, causing an incredibly real sensation of pain.
The pain and sense of imbalance made Karl extremely terrified; he flailed his limbs helplessly in mid-air.
Under the intense sensory stimulation, his survival instinct quickly surged, and his mental state began to fluctuate violently.
At the same time, an anomaly occurred in the outside world.
Karl's eyes were tightly shut, his eyeballs trembled beneath his eyelids, and his brows were furrowed.
Large beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, and at some point, his hands had clenched into fists.
Triss, her eyes filled with concern, clasped her hands tightly, her heart full of worry, and watched Karl, biting her lip.
She knew that he was using mental will and magic to stimulate Karl, attempting to awaken his source power.
However, this kind of action was usually quite risky because it severely tested the sorcerer's control over all aspects of magic.
Even a slight misstep could lead to both parties suffering a backlash simultaneously, or the caster suffering a more severe backlash, while the target either became an idiot or died on the spot.
She had never seen the renowned founder of the Brotherhood cast a spell and did not know his level of spellcasting proficiency.
From the psychic energy he had displayed earlier, his mental prowess was undoubtedly extremely powerful.
So much so that he could accurately locate them from such a distance and transmit messages using psychic energy.
If he wished, he could easily turn them into idiots or cause their immediate brain death without them even realizing it.
And psychic energy is an ability that heavily depends on the caster's initial talent.
If one's innate talent is not good, even if they learn to use it later, it won't be powerful, at most extending a few or a dozen meters.
Just as she was extremely worried and preparing to step forward, shield up, to check the situation...
An unexpected event, which she had not anticipated, suddenly occurred.
An energy, a blend of yellow and gold, erupted from Karl's body and spread outwards; the shockwave swept over her shield almost in the blink of an eye.
"Crack... crackle, crackle." In an instant, the shield could no longer bear the strain.
Triss looked at the shield in astonishment; the entire shield was covered in dense cracks.
"Ah?! Ah!" She let out a scream.
Then, she was sent flying more than twenty meters by the shockwave, shield and all.
"Rumble... snap, snap!" Starting from the center where Karl and he stood, everything within dozens of meters around them—trees—snapped in half instantly.
The entire land was as if excavated three feet deep; turf and large amounts of soil beneath it were blown away.
Furthermore, the earth and other objects appeared scorched black, covered in flames, and ignited.
However, he, who was in direct contact with Karl and remained in his original spot, was completely unharmed.
Looking closely, at some point, a layer of light blue water curtain had emerged on his body, forming a protective film that covered him completely.
When the shockwave that erupted from Karl impacted his body...
It only caused a brief, ripple-like disturbance for a mere instant and had no further effect on him.
Three seconds later, he slowly opened his eyes, which sparkled with brilliance, and his hands dropped from either side of Karl's temples.
"Wake up, child, it's all over."
He, who was usually unsmiling, now wore a gentle smile on his face.
As soon as he finished speaking, Karl abruptly opened his eyes, his body losing balance and falling backward, but he immediately adjusted himself and stood upright.
He frantically observed the surroundings, then he looked down at the ground beneath his feet and stomped.
Finally, he confirmed that the ground truly hadn't collapsed, and with a lingering sense of trepidation, he looked up and met his gaze.
Heaven knew what he had just experienced... the ground collapsing, him falling backward for a full half-minute.
If the illusion hadn't dissipated, he estimated he could have kept falling all the way to the Earth's core.
Everything he had experienced earlier felt incredibly real: the sensation of weightlessness, falling, rocks striking him, the smell of earth, and so on.
Later, when rocks struck him, his internal organs were damaged, and he coughed up blood from the pain, which made him realize it was an illusion.
However, he couldn't break free from the illusion and could only watch himself continue to fall.
The main reason he could recognize the illusion was that he had previously tested his own physical strength.
Normally, being struck by head-sized rocks falling from a few meters would indeed cause him to feel extremely slight pain.
However, given the size of the rocks and the frequency of impact in the previous illusion, it was nowhere near enough to cause internal organ damage or even severe injury with blood vomiting.
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