Chapter 1376: 134. Shameless

"Clearly, my magic......is superior!"

Muen raised his staff high, magic power surging throughout his body as his tattered robe snapped loudly in the air.

His meticulously fabricated face, its sharp contours seeming carved by blade and axe, radiated an indescribably solemn majesty. Combined with the hundreds upon thousands of compound magical arrays poised behind him, his presence alone created a suffocating sensation as though all things were about to fall into annihilation.

This was the true falling sky.

Everything became insignificant beneath that radiance.

Everything became incomparably fragile beneath that radiance.

When one focused on it, it seemed as though nothing remained in the entire world except that dazzling brilliance.

"How could this......"

Huggins likewise felt it becoming difficult to breathe. His chest rose and fell violently, and every breath required all the strength he could muster. Yet he still forced his eyes wide open, desperately trying to determine exactly what kind of magic the man before him intended to cast next.

There was no magic in this world that could not be broken.

As long as he knew what spell it was, as long as he knew its weakness, then no matter how terrifyingly oppressive it felt, no matter how hopeless it seemed, he would still have some chance of victory.

As long as he could......

"No......"

"No......"

"I can't......"

He could not see through his opponent's magic at all.

Every single magic-power line within those intricate arrays moved in a way that violated all the magical principles he knew. Every intersection between magical pathways went completely beyond his expectations. By all common reasoning, those magical arrays should have been utterly incapable of functioning.

And yet, judging from their radiance and the magic-power aura they emitted, those arrays were unquestionably on the verge of being released.

Exactly.

How could an outstanding Grand Mage who had studied under the earliest master of the Enhancement School, one of the founders of the Origin Tower itself, possibly construct magical arrays resembling a child's scribbles?

Those chaotic magic-power lines were nothing but camouflage.

In a single instant, his opponent had not only constructed hundreds upon thousands of magical arrays, but had also disguised every last one of them.

So in the end, there was nothing wrong with those magical arrays.

It was simply that......

His own level was too low?

Just as an ant crawling across the ground could never understand how an eagle soaring through the heavens remained aloft, how could he possibly understand magic at this level?

"Pfft——"

The moment that thought occurred to him, Huggins abruptly spat out a mouthful of blood, his face visibly turning pale.

His opponent had not even released the magic yet, but his state of mind had already suffered an enormous blow from the terrifying sight before him.

"How could this happen......"

If it were only Enhancement Magic, that would have been fine......

If this man's Enhancement Magic alone surpassed his expectations, Huggins could have accepted it.

But if, aside from Enhancement Magic, this man's abilities in every other field of magic also far surpassed his own......

If that woman was capable of teaching a mage this exceptional......

Then what meaning had there been in his betrayal?

What meaning had there been in accepting the infamy of betraying his teacher and destroying his own school?

What meaning had there been in completely ruining the Enhancement School?

"Could it be......that woman deliberately held back when she taught me?"

After the ultimate sorrow came the ultimate rage. Indescribable hatred filled Huggins's eyes, so dense it nearly condensed into something tangible.

"That woman never taught me seriously at all?"

"Why? Wasn't I her most outstanding disciple? Wasn't I her closest student?"

"She said she would teach me everything she knew. She said it!"

"Liar! Liar!"

"She's a liar!!"

If she had not lied to him, he definitely would never have betrayed her......

This was all her fault!

All of it......

"Is this really the time to be thinking about things like that?"

The cold voice sounded like a judgment.

While Huggins was submerged in rage and resentment, those magical arrays, carrying brilliance too dazzling to look at directly, had already closed in completely.

The terrifying aura surging from them continuously battered Huggins's mind, screaming at him to act, to retaliate.

Yet the hand gripping his staff would not stop trembling.

His consciousness was clear.

But his soul was afraid.

How was he supposed to resist a magical attack that existed beyond the level of his own understanding?

He did not know......

Whenever he did anything, he always prepared thoroughly beforehand.

But for this one possibility alone, he had no contingency plan whatsoever.

Under the fear that seemed ready to crush him completely, he could only instinctively cast several defensive spells around himself before closing his eyes, curling inward, and waiting for those spells to descend.

Come......

Heh......come......

As a mage, if he were defeated by magic this exquisite, then he could at least accept his loss.

Come!!

Buzz——

The radiance descended!

Warmth instantly filled Huggins's entire body, as though he had been enveloped by the light emitted from an extremely high-output magic stone.

It did not hurt.

It was even somewhat comfortable.

Even the despair in his heart faded considerably.

He continued waiting.

Waiting for the scorching heat that would follow that warmth and burn him completely away......

However......

One second.

Two seconds.

Three seconds.

After silently counting through a span of time that felt extraordinarily long even to someone at his level, Huggins still did not receive the outcome he had calculated.

He opened his eyes in confusion.

The first thing he saw was still overwhelming brilliance.

Those magical arrays passed directly through him, completely enveloping him. From a magical perspective, this should already have been an inescapable conclusion.

But.

Nothing happened.

No magic was released.

No terrifying torrent of destruction descended.

No world-incinerating heat reduced him completely to ash.

It was almost as if......

Those magical arrays that had seemed so terrifying and incomprehensible to him had only one actual characteristic......

They were very bright.

They really were very bright.

"Sigh, I know it's a little dazzling, but no matter how you look at it, we're in the middle of a fight."

Within the light that drowned out everything, a figure leisurely emerged not far away at some unknown point.

"Since we're fighting, how can you close your eyes halfway through?"

Muen stood there, looking at him with a gentle smile.

"You......"

Huggins suddenly realized something and immediately tightened his grip on his staff again.

The chaotic magic power around him was instantly reorganized under his formidable control, and several powerful spells rapidly took shape, perfectly demonstrating the skill expected of a Truth-Rank Grand Mage.

But......

At this distance, forget someone who had only recently entered the Truth Rank.

Even a veteran Grand Mage would have been powerless to turn things around.

"Magic......"

Muen murmured:

"Ordinary Punch."

Boom!

The sound of heavenly thunder erupted once again.

Amid the violent trembling, as though an entire mountain were crushing forward, the defensive magic surrounding Huggins shattered instantly like paper.

Huggins mobilized his magic power, trying to do something.

But the pain transmitted through his body shattered his consciousness faster than he had anticipated.

He barely managed to widen his eyes and watched as that fist, crashing toward him like a colossal dragon, savagely drove straight into his abdomen.

This......

This fucking thing was magic?

"You......"

In an instant, everything that had just happened flashed through his mind like scenes before death.

Excellent mage.

Enhancement Magic.

Hundreds upon thousands of magical arrays......

All of it dissolved into illusion.

And only at this moment did he finally understand everything.

Enlightenment struck him completely.

"What you used......wasn't magic at all......"

Huggins ground his teeth. Whether from pain or humiliation, his entire face had turned dark red:

"You fucking......you're a warrior!"

A pure warrior.

A muscle-brained brute who relied entirely on physical strength had actually packaged himself as a mage and even claimed that he relied on Enhancement Magic......

This guy was......

Utterly shameless!

Even more shameless than he was!

"Nonsense!"

Yet in the face of such completely baseless accusations, Muen remained perfectly composed, neither blushing nor showing the slightest embarrassment as he retorted:

"Who says I didn't rely on magic? Look at my illumination magic. Didn't I use that pretty damn well?"