Time slowed down after Cyneah and Flos's arrival.
It was not a figure of speech because Stella had used her magic to control Time once more. However, she did not merely cast a spell, but released her domain.
Crackle! Crackle! Sizzle!
The whole surroundings crackled from the huge magic fluctuation that occurred right after.
The cause of the fluctuation was not entirely due to Stella's domain. It was all because Flos and Obstruction chose to release their domains as well!
FOOOOM!
An invisible and suffocating force expanded at least a thousand meters with Flos, Obstruction, and Stella at the center.
The Water Cage that imprisoned Obstruction was destroyed in an instant, forcing Tritus to spat out a mouthful of blood after receiving a backlash. Initially, he did not want to retreat. His master was within the heart of the combined domains and he did not want to leave him alone. However, he sensed his Sigil reacting and had no choice but to retreat.
Tritus was not the only one who retreated. The crowd hiding nearby with mage levels lower than a Legendary also backed away after coughing out blood just from sensing the strength of the combined domains of the three.
Actually, they would have already died if not for Stella's Time domain that suppressed the release time of the energy coming from Flos and Obstruction's domains.
There was also another reason they managed to retreat, and that was Kyran.
Kyran initially wanted to release his Void domain. However, he was afraid that once Cyneah made contact with the Void domain's energy once more, she would be 'poisoned' again.
Instead of releasing a huge domain, Kyran released target-specific domains and aimed at those retreating members of the Regis Special Force.
After confirming they were able to retreat safely, Kyran turned his attention back to Cyneah, who had already attracted the Macabre Glacier. Before he could even use his magic, he found something was amiss.
Kyran could not warp!
Once more, he cursed at the fact that apart from his inability to create an essence, there was another thing he could not do, and that was to fly!
Kyran could only imitate the motion of flying, using his magic sense— by manipulating the magic energy that enveloped the items he attached to the soles of his shoes. But for some reason, he could not release his magic energy.
Could this be an effect of Flos's domain? Or maybe Obstruction?
That did not make any sense.
As far as Kyran was concerned, this was his domain's effect. Or, at least, it was similar.
In the Void domain, anyone inside would be cut off from the surrounding magic energies, making it impossible for them to circulate and summon magic.
Kyran could still circulate magic energy in this body and even absorb the ones from the outside. However, he could not cast any spell. As a matter of fact, he realized he also could not move!
Whose domain had these effects?
Before Kyran could understand what was happening to him, a serene-sounding voice, which seemed to come from a young man, but suspiciously, a woman with a very deep voice spoke.
"What's this?"
Kyran and the others immediately guessed that voice belonged to Flos.
They were not 100% sure because the latter's face was hidden. As a matter of fact, they could not tell if there was a face under the huge headdress he wore— a huge ash-colored flower similar to the clematis that grew in the east.
"I came expecting to find two rare gems. But found three. You have worked hard Obstruction," Flos continued as he calmly descended beside Obstruction.
Obstruction lowered his head slightly toward Flos, "Flos, you're arrived."
Flos nodded his head toward Obstruction in acknowledgement before turning his attention to Stella.
Stella remained calm as she hovered in midair. However, beads of sweat had started to appear on her forehead.
"A rare Time mage..." Flos said. "The Human plane is truly the land of the Ancients. To think there are mages still alive possessing Ancient magic."
"Flos, the Sovereign who leads the Radical Order," Stella said calmly, successfully masking the fact that maintaining her domain and stopping Flos's and Obstruction's domains from releasing their full extent, had taken a great toll on her body— not to mention her magic core.
"I did not know someone from the Human plane heard about me."
Stella only smiled in response.
Flos had no intention of making idle chat, so when Stella did not respond, he turned his attention to the next person he found interesting.
Cyneah.
Seeing this, Kyran tried to warp again, only to fail like before.
"Hm?" Flos tilted his head to one side as he looked at Cyneah, then at Layla, who appeared frozen in place after Cyneah released her magic sense.
Flos looked at Obstruction with a light chuckle and said, "It seems she has played you well."
Obstruction's expression darkened.
He knew what Flos meant.
When the woman who resembled Layla appeared, Obstruction finally understood why she refused to activate the Macabre Glacier.
Layla was only an essence.
Nevertheless, Obstruction knew that the newcomer— right, she was called Neah— was different from Layla.
To be precise, the souls each of them possessed were different.
"But this is very interesting," Flos continued while going to Cyneah. "She can release such a powerful magic sense without possessing a magic core—."
"Stop."
Stella immediately flew between Flos and Cyneah. She looked at him with glowing light blue eyes. Although she did not say anything, her eyes seemed to tell him that she would raise hell if he moved closer.
Flos stopped in his tracks as he chuckled.
"Such murderous intent," he remarked. However, he did not seem to be referring to Stella.
To prove his point, he turned and looked at the one whose eyes alone sent chills down his core.
"Your expression is calm, yet your whole being is screaming murder, new Dark Sage. I am not going to do anything. I only found her body constitution interesting."
Kyran's expression remained indifferent. Nevertheless, he looked at Flos as if he were already dead.
Crackle!
WRIIIIIIIING!
Without warning, an ear-splitting ringing sound came out from the Macabre Glacier.
It was too sudden that Stella, who had her Time domain active, spat out a mouthful of blood from the energy wave that came with the sound.
Flos and Obstruction were fine. However, they also felt a slight sting when the wave of energy passed them.
After the wave of energy, Cyneah's whole body began to glow, and her face distorted in pain. Then the Macabre Glacier shook, and its mirror seemed to have turned into liquid as a ghastly face tried to come out from it.
Layla, who had been frozen a moment ago, finally regained some of her control and screamed at Cyneah.
"WHAT ARE YOU DOING, YOU DAMN BRAT? DO YOU HAVE A DEATH WISH?"
Since Layla was using Cyneah's essence, she could apprehend some of her thoughts and knew what she wanted to do.
Flos and Obstruction's countenance also darkened as they realized what Cyneah was doing.
Kyran was the last to realize Cyneah's intention, and his body shook in fear.
However, before he could even try to do anything to break free from whatever was stopping him from using magic, his Void core suddenly turned hot, and the Shaiha also reacted.
'Ngh...!' Kyran hunched forward at the sudden pain.
Though the pain differed from when the Macabre Glacier forcefully absorbed his magic energy, it was close.
'It's complete.'
His father's voice sounded in his head out of the blue, followed by an earth-shattering sound of a chain.
Flos, and Obstruction got distracted by the sound. While Layla's face turned pale as she realized what it was.
"True Void's awakening has been completed!" She shouted and planned to retreat.
However, although she had regained some of her control, she found her body unable to respond to her will.
After that, a blinding light filled the sky of the Regis Estate. To be precise, the blinding light came from the Grand Array as the obelisk was fully revealed.
However, just when everyone thought True Void's real body was the huge obelisk, they heard several clicking sounds as the obelisk started to dismantle.
It was then followed by the cubes and the rings disengaging from the Grand Array. After that, they flew toward the obelisk and seemed to fill out the gaps that appeared on it while it started to dismantle itself.
Flos looked at the obelisk and could not help but let out an excited laugh.
"So, that is the rumored weapon of the previous Dark Sage?"
"This is not the time to be amazed, Flos. We have to do something about it before the new Dark Sage unleashed it."
"You sound afraid of that, instead of the one behind us," Flos commented while looking back at the Macabre Glacier, which continued to shake violently.
"Why don't we see how things play out first? Then we'll decide who we take with us?"
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