Chapter 681 - 483: The Origin of the Legendary Titles "Star" and "Melting Furnace
"Where do we go next?"
Master Wendel asked, glancing around.
Raylo did not answer immediately.
His gaze drifted toward the edge of the continental fragment, where it stretched out into the void.
He wanted to find more clues to confirm the terrible suspicion he held.
But this world was too big, or rather, too fragmented.
With just the few of them, they were like a lone boat in this shattered world. The slightest misstep could leave them hopelessly lost.
Just then, Mage Delin, who had been silent all this time, spoke up.
"I want to go take a look at the World’s Spine."
All eyes focused on him.
"To see if that World Destruction Level Frost Giant Dragon, Israel, left any traces behind."
Master Wendel’s brow furrowed slightly at the suggestion.
"I have a premonition."
"Perhaps... the answers we’re looking for are there."
He turned to Raylo.
"Raylo, what do you think?"
"I agree."
Raylo nodded without hesitation.
"I also want to know what exactly happened to this world’s last Guardian in its final moments."
"The question is, how do we get there?"
Master Barnaby raised the most critical question.
"We don’t even know which continental fragment holds the World’s Spine."
Hearing this, Mage Delin smiled faintly.
He said nothing, merely closing his eyes slowly.
He stood upon the barren ruins, his simple Mage Robe hanging perfectly still in the dead air.
His expression was pious and solemn, as if he were communing with some great being.
Raylo instinctively looked up.
The next moment, his pupils contracted sharply.
Without warning, a tiny point of light appeared in the eternally dim void overhead.
At first, the light was no bigger than a pinprick, so faint it seemed ready to extinguish at any moment.
But then, it began to brighten and grow at an incredible speed!
In an instant, this shattered, dead world seemed as if...
It had a Sun once more!
Within a few short breaths, that tiny speck of light had become as brilliant as the blazing Sun!
It hung high in the void, its light not scorching or blinding like a blazing sun, but a cool, pure, silvery-white radiance that seemed to emanate from the deepest corners of the cosmos.
The light spilled down, gilding the gray, desolate continental fragment with a sacred, silver trim.
It cast the distant, floating remnants of land, still smoldering with embers, into sharp relief.
For a moment, it was as if this dead world had been injected with a false and fleeting vitality.
Raylo stared up, dumbfounded, at the new "Sun" in the sky, his mind reeling in shock.
He had once read fragmented records of this kind of Power in an ancient tome.
Star Magic!
An ancient and mysterious school of Magic!
It is said that every Star Mage, at the very moment they ascend to the Catastrophe Level, finds a ’Lifebound Star’ of their own within the Endless Star Sea.
They fuse their very soul with that Star, becoming one with it.
From that day forward, as long as the Star remains, the Mage is immortal.
They can draw upon their Star Power to cast all manner of unbelievable Magic, feats bordering on ’Miracles’.
Summoning Meteorites from Beyond the Heavens, twisting space itself, and even... peering into the threads of fate.
And Mage Delin was, without a doubt, just such a living Legend walking among mortals!
The stories he knew of Mage Delin’s past surfaced uncontrollably in Raylo’s mind.
His story circulated throughout the Continent in several versions, each shrouded in legend and mystery.
It is said that a hundred years ago, Mage Delin was born into a moderately influential noble family in the Saint Violet Empire.
His family was caught in the power struggle of a certain Duke. They were ultimately framed by that immensely powerful noble, and his entire house was exterminated overnight.
Only Delin, who was studying far away in the Mage City at the time, escaped the calamity.
He did not choose to take revenge immediately.
After graduating from the Magic Academy, he began to travel the Continent as a wandering Mage.
He traveled through bustling Empire cities and trod the desolate grounds of the Death Swamp.
He exchanged knowledge with Giant Dragons and studied ancient Alchemy Marvels in the subterranean kingdoms of goblins.
No one knew what he experienced, nor how his power grew, step by step.
「Until one day.」
When he reappeared, he had already reached the Catastrophe Level.
Legend says that on that day, he went alone to the very castle of that same Duke.
He did not barge in, nor did he recite any Spells.
He simply raised his head and looked to the sky.
Then, a Star from Beyond the Heavens, trailing a long, fiery tail, tore through the daylight and fell with perfect precision upon the impregnable Duke’s Castle, a fortress that had stood for centuries.
There were no screams, no Wailing.
Beneath that cataclysmic strike, the once-unassailable Duke, all his wealth and power, his Solid castle, and every person within it—all were turned to ash in an instant.
From that day on, the name of Mage Delin echoed across the Continent.
And from that day on, no one ever again dared to provoke this terrifying being who could pluck the very Stars from the sky.
Raylo gazed at the solemn figure standing before him, eyes closed, and his heart was filled with a torrent of emotions.