No one knew how much time had passed.
Liya was already deeply dissatisfied with the situation.
This feeling of being trapped and unable to do anything hadn’t plagued her since advancing to the sixth rank—and now, it was just a few fourth-rank opponents, like ants, that were nearly driving her out of patience.
“….”
A fresh splash of blood stained Liya’s delicate face.
She had killed another magician, and right before her mana was about to run dry, she managed to draw in another breath of magic.
Among everyone present, only the young man and a few warriors remained.
“Bringing magicians along really backfired.”
In the young man’s original plan, even if they couldn’t kill Liya outright, they could at least buy some extra time, enough for him to accomplish his real goal.
He had meant to wait until the main gate fell, and Avilina’s elite students were all scattered and demoralized, before making his move.
He hadn’t expected them to hold out so long, or for there to be even a hint of a counterattack.
“Advanced magic, magic beasts, and… unexpected characters.”
The young man slowly raised his head and looked at the curled-up Airella in the sky, narrowing his eyes.
Clearly, he couldn’t afford to delay any longer.
Not only did Liya look completely unpressured, but she was even deliberately controlling the tempo of the fight, treating the magicians as living mana batteries.
She was, indeed, a monster among monsters.
Her magical talent and combat instinct were both at the very top.
Once again, spatial magic unfurled at his sides, brimming with anxious power.
She couldn’t see the outside environment.
Now, her greatest source of pressure came from the external crisis.
A trace of wariness flashed in Liya’s eyes—she knew she had to end this quickly.
Otherwise, the situation in Avilina would spiral out of her control.
She could see clearly that, among everyone present, the young man was the absolute core.
If she could decapitate him, the surrounding warriors—whom she was ill-suited to handle—would fall apart like a kite with its string cut.
But without the aid of spatial laws, killing him was a bit tricky.
Advanced magic consumed too much energy, and the power of law wasn’t available to her.
Since her debut as a sixth-rank Archmage, she’d rarely fought such grueling battles.
As she pondered, she suddenly sensed a trace of familiar origin power.
“Professor Liya!”
A slender, fair finger stretched out from the black barrier, clutching a blue crystal in its palm.
She instantly recognized this as her chance to escape.
The power of space law surged back to her.
She reached out and caught the blue crystal, preparing to crush it in her hand.
Not good!
The young man’s mocking eyes abruptly grew tense.
He tried to shatter the outstretched hand from beyond the barrier, to stop Liya from gaining the key to a comeback.
But the moment he extended his own hand, he found it was as if his palm had plunged into the void—he felt nothing at all.
Until blood began to drip from the severed stump, pooling on the floor.
He froze in shock.
He whipped his head around and saw Liya gripping the energy stone, magical light flashing in her eyes.
With one squeeze, she crushed it to powder.
Origin power surged out instantly, unleashing enough resources within the magicless domain for Liya to finish the battle with ease.
The black barrier flickered, teetering on the edge of collapse.
Standing outside the barrier, Isabella suddenly lost her balance and stumbled into the domain.
Liya glanced at Isabella’s face and showed a hint of a smile.
“You’ve been a great help.”
…
“Tch…”
The young man clicked his tongue.
Since he couldn’t stop Liya, killing this little girl from House Valiana was still well within his grasp.
He silently gathered divine power in his palm, preparing to kill Isabella outright.
Everything happened in a flash of lightning—at the spot where Isabella had just stood, a pillar of holy light crashed down, scorching the entire floor to cinders, obliterating everything.
Had she remained there, death would have been certain.
But as she came to her senses, she realized she hadn’t even used her magic, and was now floating in the air.
She turned to the face even younger than hers, astonished.
In a split second, she transported me here?
She remembered how long it took her to master Lin Yue’s spatial magic before—much trial and error.
In comparison, Lin Yue’s spatial magic was half-baked at best.
In front of Liya, the founding master, it was as clumsy as an infant’s.
“You… are Isabella? Or maybe not…”
Liya studied Isabella’s calm gray pupils, recalling the woman she’d met briefly at Lin Yue’s camp.
Upon meeting a sixth-rank Archmage, Isabella thought for a moment, then respectfully said, “It’s our first meeting. Forgive the trouble my sister has caused you. I’m her younger sister, Isabella. On behalf of House Valiana, I greet you.”
“Oh…”
She looked almost identical to the one in Liya’s memory, yet with an entirely different aura.
A strange thought flashed through Liya’s mind.
“Do you like Lin Yue as well?”
Liya’s sudden question caught Isabella, who still hadn’t figured out the situation, completely off guard.
She hadn’t really thought about this.
Whether during the engagement or now, she’d never looked at Lin Yue that way.
In fact, she’d never thought of anyone like that.
But just now, seeing him standing with her sister… she felt something.
“I’m not really sure. Maybe I do… There’s something about doing things with him—it feels like anything’s possible.”
Hmm, she might have the makings of a disciple’s wife.
Watching Isabella struggle to sort out her feelings, Liya felt as if she saw a younger version of herself.
Still, when it came to choosing a future daughter-in-law, she preferred Airella a bit more.
Isabella seemed a little too cold—she worried Lin Yue would get neglected and then come running to her to complain, and that wasn’t something she wanted to see.
“There’s something else I’m quite curious about…”
With victory in hand, Liya’s sixth-rank pride surfaced.
Even ordinary spatial magic could cross most realms—yet this bizarre black domain had been unbreakable until now.
“Tell me, how did you get in here?”
Now that she had law power again, Liya could break the domain from inside.
But she was curious how this little second-rank magician had managed to open a path.
“It’s a long story…”
“……”
After being freed from the fight, Isabella followed Lin Yue’s instructions and ran to Avilina’s central square.
There, she saw a round, fountain-sized black orb.
Her instincts told her Professor Liya must be trapped inside.
Even if not, the state of Avilina was definitely tied to this big black orb.
She approached the sphere and touched the barrier.
It was abnormally tough, as hard as glass.
Isabella gathered her mana and tried blasting it with ice spikes—not even a crack.
She stood in place, stroking her chin, pondering how to open this big black sphere.
[You know how to use House Valiana’s law power, right…?]
Suddenly, she remembered Lin Yue’s question from the expedition ceremony, and it clicked—she knew what to do.
“Sis.”
She thought of her first time picking up a wand, able to use basic spells right away, while Isabella had taken a whole week to barely catch up.
It was the same with contacting law power.
She slowly closed her eyes, lifted the energy stone, mana flowing in her palm as she touched the black barrier.
A feeling of sinking into the abyss welled up.
Connection, deconstruction, descent.
That mysterious sensation of brushing against the world’s origin surged through her.
A bit deeper… a bit more mana to deconstruct…
Found it.
It was like twisting a Rubik’s Cube for ages and finally solving it.
Threads of space in the [Divine Domain] before her were assimilated to match the outer world’s attributes.
She knew she’d succeeded and called out: “Professor Liya!”
“…..”
“So that’s how.”
Liya now understood what had happened.
“It’s House Valiana’s power of fusion and deconstruction…”
She thought about it and realized Isabella’s timing was almost too perfect—and who would just happen to have a precious energy stone on them for backup?
She pressed further: “How did you know where I was? And happened to have an energy stone with you…”
Isabella pressed a hand to her chest, recalling that afternoon when the black-haired boy handed her the item.
“It was Lin Yue who asked me to do it…”
Liya’s gaze softened, as if all illogical points had vanished.
She smiled in relief.
“I see…”
That explains it.
The two seemed to forget the ongoing battle, chatting away, completely oblivious to the young man’s dark, seething expression.
So at ease—truly arrogant.
Fine, the longer they chatted, the more time he had to make his move at Avilina’s main gate… Just as he was about to slip away, he remembered that this body—cultivated for years to the peak of the fourth rank—couldn’t be lost here.
“When did I ever say… you could leave?”
Suddenly, Liya dropped a wave of spatial pressure, pinning the two warriors beside the young man so tightly they couldn’t move, to prevent any sudden attacks.
“Tch…”
So, they’d been watching my every move while pretending to chat?
Liya, having gotten all the answers she wanted, relaxed.
She stretched lazily and said, “Let me think… That spell was called Dark Freya’s Flame, right?”
Liya cast a deep look at Isabella, then—rarely—took out her magic staff, eyes tinged with disdain.
Isabella’s pupils shrank.
She didn’t know why Liya had brought that up.
Dark Freya’s Flame was House Valiana’s secret family technique, one usually only passed to the heir.
Outsiders were deterred by its complex magic circuits.
Only legitimate heirs could master and truly understand it.
Even Isabella, who had used the move, had only grasped the theory—she’d never practiced it before her exams, her ability still too weak.
To cast Dark Freya’s Flame, one needed both an advanced Archmage’s power and the family’s secret method.
But the one about to wield it now was the bug among bugs.
All common sense failed in her presence…
Liya pinched her left hand into a sign, and with her right, circled her staff, effortlessly constructing the magic circuit.
Could it be…?
“Oh great spirit of flame, your favor brings us the blessing of warm light. In the pitch-black night sky, grant us a fire to guide our way…”
She recited the incantation without a single error, and the magic began to condense before her.
No way…
Everyone present stared in shock at the exalted sixth-rank Archmage.
In that moment, it was as if she were a deity walking among mortals, summoning hellfire upon the wicked.
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