Chapter 104: No Escape.
Chapter 104: No Escape.
The torrent of inferno spread across the battlefield like a living tide, swallowing every possible escape route in an instant. Walls of crimson flame rose from the ruined streets, connecting into an unbroken sea of fire that completely sealed the battlefield. The four found themselves trapped within a blazing prison, while beneath their feet the ancient formation continued to pulse with sinister light, greedily drawing away every shred of vitality they possessed.
Agonizing screams echoed throughout the ruined city.
The flames clung to their bodies like starving beasts, refusing to be extinguished no matter how desperately they struggled. Flesh blackened. Armor glowed red from the unbearable heat. Every attempt to force a path through the inferno only resulted in them being driven back deeper into the formation’s range, where the relentless siphoning of their life force grew even stronger.
Their strength continued to plummet.
Their bodies became weaker with every passing second.
Hope gradually disappeared from their faces.
The man shrouded in cursed aura stared at the inferno surrounding him before finally realizing there truly was no escape.
His face twisted into one of hatred.
"You traitorous fiend!"
His furious roar echoed through the sea of flames.
"You won’t get away with this!"
"The others will find you!"
"They’ll skin you alive! They’ll torture you until you’re begging for death!"
The brown-haired man simply stood amidst the blazing inferno, watching him in silence.
There was no triumphant smile on his face.
No satisfaction.
No anger.
No fear.
His expression remained calm, as though he were merely watching the inevitable conclusion of something that had long since been decided.
The flames continued burning.
One after another, the screams faded.
The woman wielding the vine whip was the first to fall, her charred body collapsing before crumbling into ash beneath the relentless inferno. The lightning wielder soon followed, his once brilliant aura extinguished forever. The ice-haired woman struggled until the very end, only to share the same fate moments later.
Eventually...
Silence returned.
The only things left within the ruined battlefield were drifting ashes carried away by the hot wind.
The man remained standing for several more seconds, his sharp green eyes sweeping across the battlefield to ensure not a single one of them had survived.
Only after confirming the last trace of life had vanished did the calm expression on his face finally break.
The blazing formation beneath the city instantly dimmed before disappearing altogether.
At almost the same moment, the man staggered forward before collapsing onto one knee, supporting himself with one hand against the fractured ground as heavy breaths escaped his lips.
"That..."
"...was rough."
His voice sounded noticeably exhausted.
If anyone had witnessed the battle from beginning to end, they would have believed he had dominated the fight from the moment the formation activated.
Reality, however, was far less glamorous.
That formation was far from the perfect killing technique it appeared to be.
It was an ancient forbidden formation capable of devouring every trace of life within its range while sealing the surrounding space to prevent escape. On paper, it sounded like the ultimate ambush.
Unfortunately...
The formation possessed one fatal flaw.
It didn’t distinguish between friend and foe.
Anything caught within its influence became nourishment.
Including its caster.
The reason he hadn’t activated it at the beginning of the battle was because he couldn’t.
Before the confrontation had even begun, he had secretly consumed one of his most precious treasures, the fruit of a fully matured Life Tree. The overwhelming vitality contained within the fruit had continuously sustained his body, barely allowing him to survive the formation’s indiscriminate drain.
Without that fruit...
He would have died alongside his enemies.
As for the streams of vitality that had appeared to flow into his body...
That had been nothing more than an illusion.
A carefully crafted deception.
He had deliberately manipulated the appearance of the formation to make it seem as though it was strengthening him while draining his opponents. It wasn’t intended to heal his body.
It was meant to break their spirit.
An enemy who believed their opponent was growing stronger by feeding upon their own life force would inevitably panic. Rather than risking everything in one final desperate assault, they would instinctively search for an escape route.
And that was exactly what had happened.
Had they realized he was enduring the same fate as they were...
The battle would have become infinitely more dangerous.
Cornered beasts were always the most terrifying.
They would have abandoned all concern for survival and thrown everything they possessed into one final exchange, even if it meant dying together with him.
Instead...
They chose to flee.
That single decision had sealed their fate.
The brown-haired man slowly pushed himself back onto his feet, dusting the ash from his battered armor. His breathing gradually steadied, yet a faint frown settled across his face as the dying words of the curse man echoed once more within his mind.
The threat wasn’t an empty one.
He had made far too many enemies over the years.
The four people who had just died were merely one hunting party among countless others still searching for his whereabouts. It wouldn’t be long before another group discovered this place.
Perhaps stronger.
Perhaps even deadlier.
His expression remained unchanged.
"Let them come."
His quiet voice drifted into the empty ruins.
"I’ll deal with every last one of them."
Only after they were all gone...
Only after every loose end had been severed...
Would he finally be able to return.
His emerald eyes drifted toward the distant horizon, a complicated emotion flickering across his face.
"I wonder..."
"...how they’re doing now."
The thought lingered only briefly before he released a quiet sigh.
The space before him suddenly rippled like disturbed water.
Without another glance at the battlefield behind him, he stepped forward and vanished into the distortion.
The ripples faded.
The ruined city once again returned to its eternal silence, as though the battle that had just taken place had never happened at all.