Chapter 304: The Wall

That was magical chanting.

When powerful mages use the spells they’re adept at, they can often omit the chanting process. For example, Muen had seen his senior release a simplified version of an explosion spell with zero delay.

But some complex spells still need chanting to construct.

And the longer the chant, the more terrifying the spell constructed—this is common sense even a bear cub who just learned to read would know.

Thus, when everyone’s gaze followed that ethereal chanting, they saw a silhouette hidden within hazy clouds, the outline tracing a woman’s alluring curve. She was brandishing an enormous staff, her posture graceful like a dancer beneath a spotlight.

And... around the silhouette, that vast magic power surged madly like the rising blazing sun.

Suddenly, Muen felt the air grow oppressive, as if the whole space were being compressed. In the distance, the white clouds and blue sky actually began to twist. As the magic power surged, that distortion gradually expanded, like a gigantic transparent barrier slowly pressing down on them—beasts trapped in a cage.

This was...

Spatial magic!

The crash course in magical knowledge he’d crammed recently let Muen recognize the essence of this spell in an instant.

He couldn’t distinguish exactly which spell it was in detail, but the crisis alarm in his head kept buzzing, warning him this was absolutely not a kindly express bus specially sending him to the Holy City!

“Mr. Adolf!”

“Relax, I’m not that blind with age yet!”

Adolf’s face looked somewhat ugly. Indra King advancing instead of retreating had already left him a bit embarrassed, and now even the employer was starting to get dissatisfied. As the Belrand Branch President of the Adventurers’ Guild, who had always prided himself on service supreme and the money-man as god, how could he tolerate this?

Ding—

Like crystals lightly striking.

Brilliant radiance shone, outlining a floating coronet of countless stars and diamonds. The power symbolizing “near to gods” burst forth in an instant from that immaculately suited frame.

Adolf’s eyes grew distant and profound. Innumerable stars flickered, sketching an ancient, timeworn tableau. Daylight began to dim, as if even the air had thinned.

This was the origin of Adolf Lovis’s title “Starseer”: to pierce illusion, behold the real, and even influence reality through the contemplation of the void—the Starseeing Eye.

Where Adolf’s gaze fell, the rules constructing the spell were silently altered in the unseen. Even a Truth-tier archmage could not, under his gaze, successfully complete a spell’s construction.

But his gaze was blocked.

By a single hand—a hand that looked very ordinary.

That hand was covered in wounds, the calluses clearly visible, rough to the extreme, like the hand of an ordinary farmer or hunter.

Yet it was such a hand that kept countless twinkling stars from overstepping by even a hair.

A resplendent coronet hung above Indra King’s head as well. With one hand he forced Pink Bear back, with the other he blocked Adolf’s Starseeing Eye. His face was a touch pale—clearly not feeling great—but the corner of his mouth held a faint smile.

“Just like the two of you together can keep me from laying a finger on Muen Campbell, so long as I spend a bit of effort, I can likewise hold the two of you.”

Looking at the furious Adolf, Indra King’s eyes were full of mockery:

“This world is precisely this fair, isn’t it?”

...

“We’re leaving!”

Right after Muen shouted that, without waiting for Adolf’s response, he immediately directed everyone to prepare to depart.

“Eh? Why?”

Liya’s gaze swept over Adolf and Pink Bear besieging Indra King, a trace of puzzlement flashing in her eyes:

“Right now we still seem to hold the advantage.”

“Advantage doesn’t mean we can win.”

Muen’s face was expressionless; he didn’t even look at the battle on the other side. “At this level of combat, us staying here is of no help—only a burden.

“And the effect of that spatial spell is unknown. We can’t gamble.

“So just like I said earlier, we move first. We’ll head to the border and wait for Mr. Adolf and Pink Bear there. The two of them are the ones less likely to meet with accidents.”

Muen stretched out his hand and pressed hard on the prominent family crest on the carriage’s body. In an instant, golden light flowed. The magic that had long been engraved into the carriage’s material activated: lightness, shock absorption, acceleration, protection. In the crowd’s dumbfounded stares, all sorts of magic—like stacking buffs—surfaced layer upon layer over the gorgeously appointed carriage.

“Let’s go.”

“Yes!”

Muen’s look of prior preparation worked like a shot of courage, gradually calming the still somewhat chaotic group. They were elites of Saint Maria Academy to begin with, and quickly got into form, learning from Muen’s example to grasp the carriage’s magical structure at speed and take complete control, pouring all focus into velocity.

Still two people per carriage, the three carriages sped toward the distance at a pace unimaginable to ordinary folk.

“So amazing...”

In the front compartment, Liya looked at Muen beside her, focused on handling the reins, and couldn’t help but murmur with a hint of infatuation.

“Classmate Muen... to think you could come up with so much in such a short time...”

“Hmm?”

Muen flicked her a puzzled sidelong glance, then gave a self-mocking smile:

“I’ve just suffered too many losses and learned a tiny bit of a lesson, that’s all. Nothing to be proud of.”

“But... it’s still amazing.”

Liya hugged her knees, curling up:

“If it were me, facing a Crowned-tier, I definitely couldn’t stay this calm.”

“...”

Honestly, I couldn’t either, in the past.

But after seeing too much of things like Evil Gods, even if a Crowned-tier is an enemy, they actually feel kind of cute by comparison.

Muen grumbled inwardly.

“Classmate Liya.”

“Mm?”

“Can you help reveal the outline of that spell?”

Muen lifted his head, squinting toward the gradually warping firmament.

He could vaguely make out the magical trace like a glass cover slowly pressing down, but couldn’t see it clearly. At the very least, he wanted to know how wide its coverage was.

“Is it doable?”

“It is!”

Like a keen elementary schooler in class, Liya responded without a moment’s delay.

She interlaced her fingers. Faint Holy Light turned into countless wing-spreading butterflies, fluttering gracefully, then blossoming in the air.

Under the illumination of Holy Light, Muen finally saw clearly the spell’s shape and edge.

It was like an upturned bowl, about to trap all of them—fleeing ants—within.

However...

Muen did a quick estimate, and joy rose in his heart at once.

At their current speed, they could completely escape before the spell fully descended. That way, even if Mr. Adolf and Pink Bear were held back, the enemy’s ➤ NоvеⅠight ➤ (Read more on our source) move would be utterly meaningless.

Being a bit cautious really did pay off.

“Very impressive.”

Muen smiled and praised Liya: “I didn’t expect Holy Light to actually have this kind of use. Big help.”

“N-no... not really.”

Liya’s cheeks flushed pink. She turned her head aside in shy embarrassment.

But strangely, though she knew he was just offering a courteous compliment, she felt sweet, as if honey had been smeared over her heart.

“So cute...”

Seeing how she blushed bright red from a single compliment—and even let a bit of Holy Light leak out uncontrollably—Muen couldn’t help but admire her inwardly.

But he quickly drove these thoughts, which had no place right now, out of his mind and turned back to focus on handling the carriage.

“Hold tight. I’m going to increase speed and aim to make it within an hour—”

Suddenly, Muen’s voice cut off.

“Hmm? What’s wrong?”

Liya looked at Muen in confusion.

Then, on Muen’s face, she saw shock, doubt, bewilderment—many complex emotions at once.

Liya blinked and followed Muen’s line of sight.

And then she saw it too.

Right there, illuminated by the Holy Light she was letting spill out, not far ahead—no, rapidly approaching because of their racing carriage—there suddenly appeared an outline.

A faint outline like a wall, laced with drifting golden runes.

It barred the road ahead.