Leovite’s words were soft, yet they acted like an indestructible barrier, isolating Bell from the frenzied world behind him.
Bell’s body continued to tremble uncontrollably, but he could feel the arm holding him was steady and powerful.
Warm.
It was a sensation of safety that he had nearly forgotten after so long.
Cecilia floated in midair. Her small face, which had been distorted by jealousy and rage, slowly regained its composure the moment she saw Leovite.
It was a deathly calm, like the silence before a storm.
She ignored Leovite’s words.
Her gaze was pinned firmly on Bell, or rather, on the arm Leovite was using to hold him.
It was as if that arm were the filthiest, most eyesore of a thing in the world.
“Let go of my brother.”
Her voice was not loud, but it carried a commanding authority that brooked no argument.
Leovite raised an eyebrow. Instead of letting go, he held Bell even more securely in his arms.
“And if I say no?” A playful smile played on his lips.
Cecilia stopped speaking.
She simply watched him in silence.
In the next second, the air around her small, naked body began to warp in a strange way.
Strands of pure white silk emerged from the void, weaving and intertwining.
In the blink of an eye, a brand new, spotless white dress reappeared on her body.
Having finished this, she turned her gaze back to Leovite. Those obsidian eyes no longer held any of the innocence belonging to a child.
Only pure, cold killing intent remained.
“Then you can die.”
Before her voice even faded.
Boom!
The entire earth wailed!
It was no longer a single spell.
Crimson meteors, azure ice spears, pitch black shadow spears, holy light swords... hundreds and thousands of distinct high level spells condensed behind her simultaneously, forming a barrage of destruction that would drive any legendary mage to despair!
That barrage covered the sky and earth, blotting out the heavens and sealing off all space. With a momentum that threatened to blast the entire world into dust, it poured down toward Leovite!
Standing on the ground, Lilian managed to push herself up. Looking at that apocalyptic scene, a feeling called fear surfaced in her blood red eyes for the first time.
She couldn't block it.
Even if she drank another liter of her master’s blood, she absolutely could not block that!
However, Leovite just stood there, not even changing his posture as he held Bell.
He raised his other free hand.
Then, he gave a gentle push forward.
Hum—!
An invisible wall, unseen by the naked eye, instantly expanded in front of him.
That wall was as thin as a cicada’s wing, yet it was indestructible.
The world destroying torrent of magic slammed into that invisible wall, producing deafening explosions. “Boom! Boom! Boom!...”
“To reach this level at such a young age... you truly are a monster through and through, kid.”
It was praise.
It was also a sentence.
Leovite’s figure vanished from where he stood.
In the next instant, he appeared behind Cecilia. One hand still held Bell, while his other hand was flattened like a blade, carrying a cyan edge that tore through space as he slashed toward the back of Cecilia’s neck.
Cecilia’s reaction was incredibly fast.
Without even turning her head, seven layers of composite shields made of different elements instantly expanded around her body.
Crack!
The wind blade easily tore through the first six layers of shields, but it was hindered for a brief moment by the final layer, which was composed of pure holy light.
That single moment was enough.
Cecilia had already completed her turn. She aimed her small hand at Leovite, who was close at hand, and clenched it tightly.
“Gravity Compression!”
Thud!
The air around Leovite suddenly grew heavy, as if an invisible mountain range had been slammed down upon him.
Holding Bell, he fell from midair. His feet slammed heavily onto the ground, stomping two deeper footprints into the cracked earth.
“Cough...”
Even Leovite couldn't help but let out a muffled groan after taking that hit unprotected.
He had to admit.
If he hadn't used the wind element to bleed off ninety percent of the force in advance, that hit would have been enough to break several of his bones.
This kid...
If she were given a few more years to grow, he might truly have to hand over his title of the Kingdom’s Strongest Mage to her.
“Brother!”
Cecilia did not follow up her attack. She saw Bell.
She saw Bell being protected in that man’s arms. Though his pale face was still filled with fear, it no longer held the pure despair he showed when facing her.
A sharp, stinging pain stabbed deep into her heart.
Why?
Why could this man receive her brother’s reliance!
“Give him back to me!” Cecilia let out a shrill shriek.
She stopped casting those flashy spells and instead condensed all her power into the purest, non elemental torrent of mana.
A grayish white pillar of light, filled with the aura of chaos and destruction, erupted from her hand and shot straight for Leovite!
Leovite shielded Bell behind him, his expression finally becoming completely serious.
He let go, allowing Bell to fall to the ground, while he took a step forward and spread his hands.
“Wind Domain: Absolute Sovereignty.”
Cyan gales constructed a massive, visible tornado with him at the center.
The grayish white pillar of destruction plunged into the wind domain.
Then, it was shredded, decomposed, and ground into the most primitive mana particles by the laws of the wind.
“It’s over, kid.”
Leovite’s voice rang out amidst the howling wind.
He raised his right hand, pointing his index finger at Cecilia.
A cyan wind needle, thinner than a strand of hair and nearly invisible, condensed at his fingertip.
It was the product of compressing the wind element to its absolute limit.
It was also his strongest single target attack.
Cecilia felt a fatal threat. She wanted to dodge, she wanted to defend.
But in that moment, a strange light flashed in Leovite’s eyes.
Eye of Truth.
Activated.
In Leovite’s vision, the seemingly perfect flow of mana around Cecilia revealed an imperceptible flaw, caused by her emotional turmoil.
Now!
Shoom!
The wind needle left his finger.
It didn't shoot toward Cecilia’s body. Instead, it precisely struck that flaw in her mana flow.
Like a needle piercing a balloon blown to its limit.
Puff.
A soft sound rang out.
The vast, world destroying mana around Cecilia instantly spiraled out of control, racing wildly through her body.
“Gah—!”
She suddenly spat out a mouthful of blood. Her tiny body fell weakly from midair like a kite with a broken string.
She had lost.
A total, crushing defeat.
She crashed onto the scorched earth, struggling to crawl back up, but she didn't even have the strength to move a finger.
She lifted her head, her small face stained with blood and dust, now deathly pale.
She looked at Leovite not far away.
Then, she slowly turned her head to look at the unharmed Bell, who was being protected behind Leovite.
In those beautiful obsidian eyes, all the light went out.
The anger, the jealousy, the madness... they were all gone.
Only a bottomless sorrow and resentment remained, the look of someone abandoned by the entire world.
Brother...
Betrayed me.
Under Bell’s gaze, her body bit by bit transformed into transparent points of light and dissipated into the air.
The wind stopped.
The world returned to a deathly silence.
Bell slumped on the ground, gasping for breath. The relief of surviving and an even deeper fear intertwined in his heart.
Leovite turned around, looking down at him.
“So, can you give me a proper explanation now?”
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