Chapter 33: Rank 5 peak spells

Suddenly, an icy prickle of lethal intent grazed the back of Rose’s neck.

Reacting with razor-sharp combat instincts, Rose whipped around.

A massive, intricate magic circle flared to life directly behind her back, instantly sprouting two magnificent, glowing crimson wings made of pure phoenix fire—the signature Phoenix Wings flight spell.

Before the sudden, stealthy attack from the dark-robed figure could land, Rose used the burst of speed from her new wings to deftly dodge the strike and launch herself high into the air.

Hovering gracefully in the sky, wrapped in a swirl of blazing red hair and radiant phoenix wings, she looked every bit like an ethereal, terrifying Fire Deity. Looking down from above, she finally laid eyes on her assailant: a figure shrouded completely in deep black robes, clutching a long, razor-sharp silver sword.

The blade itself was a terrifying masterpiece, etched with complex runes that violently discharged a turbulent, swirling mixture of dark and silver mana.

A Rank-4 Warrior, Rose assessed in an instant, her eyes narrowing as a cold smirk touched her lips. She glanced back down at Ethan, who stood calmly below.

"A Rank-4 Warrior by your side..." Rose called out, her voice echoing with supreme confidence as she hovered in the air. "But even so, this isn’t enough to defeat me. Do you honestly think you can corner me? Tell me... do you even know how I managed to survive that catastrophic war two years ago?"

Ethan’s ears perked up instantly. For the longest time, that had remained an unsolved mystery—how she had possibly survived a confrontation with a Rank-6 beast, an entity practically verging on a divine beast.

A dark, twisted smile crept onto Rose’s face, turning into an eerie, chilling chuckle. Thick waves of pitch-black aura suddenly bled out from her skin, rapidly wrapping around her entire body like a living shadow.

Before Ethan’s disbelieving eyes, her fiery red hair darkened into an abyssal black, and her eyes morphed into a pair of glowing, blood-red crimson pools.

Feeling the suffocating, corrupted weight of that foreign aura pressing down from the sky, Ethan’s pupils dilated in absolute shock. He stared at her, the chilling realization slipping past his lips in a breathless whisper:

"A... Black Magician."

Ethan stood frozen in sheer disbelief. How is this even possible? his mind raced frantically.

A single person wielding both Mage and Black Magician classes simultaneously? Those are completely distinct, incompatible paths! No one can ever possess two classes at once. Does she have a special constitution too?

A sudden flash of memory cut through his thoughts. He vividly recalled that in his past life, Lumian hadn’t been this overwhelmingly powerful from the start.

However, he had once caught wind of lingering rumors whispered in the upper circles: after Lumian and Lady Rose were formally bound together, Lumian had mysteriously awakened a second class—that of a Black Magician. At the time, Ethan had been utterly shocked, assuming Lumian must have stumbled upon some extraordinarily rare bloodline.

But looking at it now... whatever power Lumian acquired in the future was directly tied to his mother. It was an opportunity that originally belonged to her, Ethan realized with a chilling clarity.

A predatory, calculating grin spread across his face as he slowly licked his lips. He raised his voice, calling out smoothly, "Aunt Rose, why don’t you just surrender? I really don’t want to hurt you too badly."

Rose let out a sharp, mocking chuckle. "My Mage class may only be at Rank 4, but my Black Magician class is a terrifying Rank 5! Do you honestly believe a few tricks and a Rank-5 spatial artifact can save you? Let me show you what a true Rank-5 Black Magician is capable of."

In an instant, thick, suffocating billows of black, viscous fog erupted from her body, rapidly blanketing the entire forest dimension. It was a high-tier blindness and sensory-disruption spell.

Cutting through the swirling dark haze, faint, sinister crimson beams began to flash.

Ethan narrowed his eyes, immediately recognizing the arcane signature. It was an exclusive Rank-5 dark sorcery known only to elite Black Magicians—

Blood Bat Summoning.

And she wasn’t summoning just a few. Within a fraction of a second, thousands of razor-sharp, blood-red bats materialized inside the foggy expanse, screeching deafeningly as they swarmed forward under Rose’s absolute command—half lunging at Ethan, and the other half diving straight for the black-hooded figure.

Despite the overwhelming onslaught, Ethan didn’t panic in the slightest.

He had fully anticipated that Rose would possess a trump card far beyond her standard Rank-6 beast survival instincts. True, he hadn’t precisely calculated that her hidden class would be this destructive, but the situation remained entirely within his control.

After all, the isolated realm they were standing in wasn’t a natural terrain; it was a divine-grade domain artifact he had purchased directly from his System. Known as the Star Concealment Mirror Realm, this powerful trapping treasure possessed terrifying defensive and utility functions that Ethan hadn’t even fully unlocked yet.

Let’s test its true weight, Ethan thought coldly.

Suddenly, every single tree, root, and blade of grass within the dimension began to violently pulse, frantically devouring and absorbing the surrounding black fog and Rose’s dark mana to feed the domain.

Noticing her bats rapidly weakening, Rose’s expression shifted, and she barked a mental command to accelerate their strike. But she was too late.

Thud! Crack!

Sprouting wildly from the soil beneath Ethan and the hooded figure, thick, sturdy wooden vines whipped upward, intertwining into an impenetrable, dome-like shield that completely encased them just as the tide of blood bats crashed down.

This was the autonomous defensive protocol of the domain treasure, shielding its master from incoming harm.

Even though Ethan knew using this treasure would likely exhaust its core energy to the point where he could never deploy it again, he felt zero regret. It had cost him a staggering 30,000 Fate Points—the exact equivalent value of a precious Blue Dragon Heart. It had better not disappoint.

And it certainly didn’t. The razor-sharp blood bats slammed relentlessly against the reinforced wooden barrier, but aside from leaving shallow, superficial scratches, they couldn’t even scratch the surface.

Frustration flashed across Rose’s face as she watched her dark mana drain at an alarming rate. Deciding to end things decisively, she prepared to unleash her ultimate ace.

With a swift, ruthless motion, Rose slashed the first two fingers of her right hand across her palm, drawing a line of dark blood. Instantly, those two fingers turned pitch-black, radiating a terrifying, decayed aura of absolute destruction.

Pointing her blackened fingers directly at Ethan, she unleashed a massive, illusory pillar of dark energy shaped like a colossal, crushing finger.

Rank-5 Ancient Sorcery: Dark Demonic World-Crushing Finger.

The sheer pressure of the descending dark finger felt heavy enough to flatten a mountain, carrying the apocalyptic weight to crush Ethan into dust.

Seeing the incoming doom, Ethan didn’t flinch.

He channeled the full capacity of the domain treasure.

The very black energy and hostile mana that Rose had released into the air were suddenly purified and aggressively funneled straight into Ethan’s body. This was the third and final passive function of the domain treasure—the Host Mana Overload Boost.

Combined with the bottomless energy source of his innate Dragon Heart, Ethan’s aura skyrocketed to terrifying new heights.

"Come forth, My Fire General!" Ethan commanded coldly.

A massive, intricate crimson formation blasted open in the air around Ethan, radiating scorching, world-melting heat.

Rising majestically from the flames was a gigantic, ethereal battle-general constructed entirely of concentrated, blazing mana. The towering figure wore heavy, ancient plate armor carved with roaring dragon motifs, and its face was half-concealed behind a terrifying visor, exuding an aura of absolute martial supremacy. In its massive, glowing hands, it gripped a colossal, serrated broad-blade radiating pure destructive heat.

With a earth-shattering roar, the Fire General swung its giant broad-blade in a sweeping arc, colliding head-on with the descending Demonic World-Crushing Finger.

BOOM!

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