They couldn't afford to delay outside any longer.
If someone was using the Book of Death to resurrect Zahra’s corpse for some nefarious purpose, continuing the battle outside the dungeon was far too dangerous.
He had to settle this quickly!
“Zeno, prepare to initiate the transfer plan.”
Dalun Li quickly issued the order to Zeno, who was in the middle of the fray.
Zeno immediately activated the Collapsed Atmosphere to begin the transfer.
However, the mutated Zahra seemed to sense the spatial power of the Collapsed Atmosphere. His body blurred into an afterimage, vanishing from his spot instantly.
The transfer effect of the Collapsed Atmosphere missed its mark.
Though it was a treasure grade magical artifact, the Collapsed Atmosphere wasn't omnipotent. If the target's speed exceeded the user's reaction time, the spatial power could fail to connect.
Despite being only a 5th-rank mage, Zahra’s current speed was no less than that of a swordsman of the same rank.
How could a 5th-rank mage possess such a powerful physical body?
Zeno gripped the Collapsed Atmosphere and completed a self-teleportation in an instant.
A second later, an afterimage streaked through the air, lunging toward her.
Countless vines burst from the earth, reaching out to bind Zahra.
Simultaneously, the Collapsed Atmosphere activated again.
This time, spatial power was infused into all the vines. They emerged from the void like an airtight net, tightly entangling the high-speed Zahra.
Crowd control was Zeno's specialty.
Without needing a prompt, Feiwan condensed a white-hot fire spear and hurled it at the restrained Zahra.
The moment the spear touched the vines, it didn't burn them away. Instead, it passed through the foliage, striking Zahra directly.
Zahra’s body had swollen significantly. His skin was stretched nearly transparent by the rapidly growing bones beneath.
His elbows, spine, shoulders, and areas where the skin was thin were already pierced by gruesome white bone.
Facing the white-hot spear, Zahra’s eyes turned blood-red. He reached out to meet the attack.
The bone tore through his skin completely, growing frantically as if the final shackles had been broken.
Boom!
The white flames exploded, swallowing Zahra whole.
Zeno seized the opportunity and activated the Collapsed Atmosphere.
Hum!
As spatial power enveloped the entire area, Zeno, Feiwan, and Zahra were all transferred to the edge of a wasteland within a subordinate floor of the Well of Eternal Imprisonment.
The ground here was shattered, devoid of any vegetation. The sky was dim, looking as though it might collapse at any moment.
Dalun Li hadn't fully restored the damaged parts of the subordinate floor, specifically keeping some of these ruined wastelands.
If anything went wrong, he could simply sever this wasteland and cast it, along with Zahra, into the chaotic space.
The subordinate floor was important and provided great power, so Dalun Li didn't want to discard it unless absolutely necessary.
As the flames dissipated, Zahra was scorched beyond recognition. His charred flesh clung to the constantly proliferating bone.
The vines binding him were also withering rapidly.
The aura of death poured out of his body in a steady stream as his bones continued to grow.
Had this not been a wasteland in the subordinate floor, the entire environment might have been corrupted by this overflowing death power.
Feiwan manipulated her fire dragons to fly toward Zahra again, suppressing him with their breath attacks.
But Zahra merely raised a hand, and a death beam shot out, instantly annihilating the approaching fire dragons.
His rapidly growing skeleton had now reached three meters in height, and his flesh had almost entirely vanished.
His whole body had transformed into a monster made of bone.
The skin on his head was nearly gone, leaving behind a terrifying, gruesome visage.
The Book of Death remained tightly bound to his arm. The chains extending from it pierced through his entire skeleton, binding and controlling him.
The Book of Death continued to flip.
It turned from Chapter One: Birth of Life to Chapter Two: Learning Knowledge.
In an instant, flames ignited in Zahra's eyes.
His eyeballs melted into a pitch-black liquid that flowed down the bone of his face, leaving behind dark tear streaks.
With a non-human scream, Zahra clutched his eyes with his skeletal hands. But he couldn't suppress the black flames erupting from his sockets.
The black flames seeped through his fingers, spraying in all directions. They were filled with death power, threatening to ignite the very earth.
Feiwan quickly activated her ability.
Orange-red flames transformed into a giant dragon that swallowed the erupting black fire.
However, the fire dragon that consumed the black flames quickly began to flicker out and wither.
Even as the dragon faded, the swallowed death fire didn't vanish; it continued to burn in mid-air.
Zahra slowly lowered his hands.
His eyes were gone, replaced by two flickering pits of black flame within his skeletal sockets.
He raised a hand, and the chains wrapped around his bones flashed with light.
An invisible domain of death exploded outward. Both Zeno and Feiwan felt their vitality draining away rapidly.
Zeno quickly used the Collapsed Atmosphere to teleport herself and Feiwan out of the area.
Zahra’s hands hung down as his body vanished from his spot.
His previous speed hadn't even been his limit!
Zeno's visor flashed, and countless vines erupted around her.
At the same time, she activated her ability: life absorption.
She rapidly absorbed the vitality of the earth, causing the vines to grow frantically and uncontrollably to resist the death domain that was siphoning their life.
Zahra, now a white blur, streaked into the air. Sharp bone blades extended from his hands, mana coiling around their edges.
Swish!
The bone blades slashed down. In an instant, two black sword qi beams infused with death power tore through the vines, striking downward!
The moment the sword qi touched the vines, the death power was injected like a lethal toxin, corroding their life force and causing them to wither instantly.
“I want... Forbidden Fire...”
Zahra’s sanity was nearly gone. The flames in his eyes flickered incessantly as he repeated the same simple words.
“Give me Forbidden Fire... burn... the book.”
Under Zeno's perception, the Book of Death was still continuously pumping death power into Zahra’s body.
This power granted him strength far beyond common logic, but it was also eroding his mind.
With the death power from the Book of Death, the closer Zahra came to death, the stronger he became—and the harder he was to kill.
The more he was attacked, the more powerful he would grow.
Just then, a new figure descended from the sky.
He was encased in stone armor engraved with complex patterns.
Inside the armor, there was only darkness and a plant mimicry orb that served as his avatar.
“Leave the rest to me,” Dalun Li said slowly, the Collapsed Atmosphere flying into his hand.
“As you command, my Lord.”
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