Chapter 175: Fall of the Kingdom (4)
Morgos was a mage. At just seven years old, his magical talent had earned him a place at the Moduo Kingdom Royal Magic Academy.
After forty years of rigorous training, he was now a Grand Magus who had mastered over twenty spells.
He had even become an outstanding tutor at the Moduo Kingdom Royal Magic Academy, dedicating his youth and sweat to the kingdom's development.
He had fully expected his life to play out along this quiet path. Perhaps in another two or three decades, when his body began to fail him, he would retire from the academy and return to his hometown with an honorary knighthood. Or he might join the Kingdom Magic Research Institute to delve into profound magic, cementing his name in history.
But a sudden war had shattered that peaceful rhythm.
The unexpected conflict plunged the royal capital into flames.
As an academic mage, Morgos possessed some combat experience, but not much. After all, no one would send a precious spellcaster to clash on the front lines. He only needed to stand safely in the rear and take his time chanting spells.
Once the incantation was complete, he simply watched his dazzling magic blast the enemy to a bloody pulp.
Oh, what a beautiful sight that was.
Morgos watched the kingdom's soldiers clash with the green, humanoid monsters ahead. Those had to be the legendary goblins.
Although this was his first time seeing goblins in person, he had read records of these mythical alien creatures.
The books described goblins as filthy, lowly, and despicable creatures.
Legend claimed they never bathed and were incredibly cowardly. If they encountered a human hero, they would immediately break and flee, posing absolutely no real threat.
They were the lowest tier of monsters found in storybooks, the weakest and most frequent foes a hero would face at the start of their journey.
Yet for some reason, the creatures before him felt entirely different. These goblins were frenzied and greedy, showing absolutely no fear of death.
Kingdom soldiers were dying continuously under the goblin onslaught. Fury ignited in Morgos's eyes as he raised his meticulously crafted magic staff. The staff in his hand was a flawless masterpiece; he had spent years gathering its materials and consulting other academy mages to finally complete it.
He had commissioned a renowned kingdom woodworker to carve the staff, and hired a master jeweler to flawlessly inlay his carefully hoarded gemstones into the wood.
Melted gold had been traced along the wood to form elegant lines. From a distance, it resembled a sculpted lion wreathed in countless golden veins—the Golden Lion Wooden Staff.
Cut rubies were set into its eyes, and a ring of vibrant emeralds encircled the grip.
The other mages at the academy all praised his staff as a perfect work of art.
Morgos slowly chanted a magic incantation. Thanks to thirty years of relentless practice, he had compressed his casting time from over ten seconds down to a mere 6.7 seconds.
Heavily protected by a ring of soldiers bearing tower shields, he safely finished reciting his incantation, breathing out the final obscure syllable.
The next moment, the bluestone pavement ahead rolled like ocean waves. "Earth Wave Magic!"
The earth heaved. Under the spell's influence, the churning ground was kneaded and warped like soft clay.
Caught completely off guard, hordes of goblins sank waist-deep into the sudden mire. Many lost their footing and crashed to the ground. In the dense, chaotic press of the battlefield, the fallen creatures had their legs snapped as the frenzied horde behind them continued to surge blindly forward. In such a tight formation, stopping was impossible; they either pressed the charge or were trampled to death by their comrades.
Countless goblins were trampled to death.
A smug smile spread across Morgos's face as he watched the goblins dissolve into localized chaos.
He immediately began preparing his next spell.
As he muttered beneath his breath, another string of obscure syllables echoed out.
Suddenly, a glint of cold steel flashed right beside him.
A sharp agony pierced the center of Morgos's back. He jerked his head up in disbelief, his incantation immediately collapsing. Fortunately, his realm was low enough that the magical backlash merely left his head throbbing.
But that throbbing pain was rapidly seeping outward.
Morgos felt every ounce of strength draining from his body.
His brow furrowed deeply in agony as he opened his mouth, struggling to call for help.
Were his guards idiots? Or were they just blind? He had just been assassinated right in the middle of them, yet no one had reacted!
With agonizing effort, Morgos raised his staff and whacked the back of the head of the can-like, armored shieldbearer standing directly in front of him.
Clang!
The soldier glanced back in confusion, only to see Morgos's pain-twisted face and violently trembling body.
"Lord Morgos, don't worry. I will definitely keep you safe," the soldier promised solemnly.
Because the wound was squarely in the mage's back, the soldier merely thought Lord Morgos was making a strange expression and didn't suspect anything worse.
"Medic... I'm hurt." Morgos collapsed heavily to the ground.
A highly lethal poison was rapidly taking effect; every goblin infiltrator had coated their daggers in potent venom.
It was a toxicity far beyond what a transcendent of Morgos's level could endure.
Three of the esteemed mages, despite being heavily guarded by kingdom soldiers, had been assassinated. The killer here was a sneaky goblin, and a few human soldiers had finally spotted its tracks.
But it bolted far too fast. Hunching over, the creature darted into the nearby tall grass, leaving only rustling blades in its wake.
By the time the soldiers rushed over, the patch of grass was completely empty.
BOOM!!!
Amidst blinding plumes of smoke and fire, the castle was smashed into a pile of rubble by the Fallen Titan.
Even though it was only an immature legendary life form, it remained a terrifying behemoth utterly immune to low-tier magic.
The Fallen Titan waded through the royal capital like a giant stomping on toys. The city's defenders had managed to mount an effective resistance at first, but now, only scattered arrows and weak spells rained down on its body.
Lynn watched the destruction without a shred of emotion.
Standing atop his wizard tower, he hadn't even needed to act personally. His followers alone were enough to drive the capital of this human kingdom to total collapse. Complete subjugation was only a matter of time.
Yet for some inexplicable reason, razing the capital of the Moduo Kingdom brought him little satisfaction. All he felt was a faint emptiness and isolation.
It was much like how a sane adult wouldn't feel any satisfaction in crushing a swarm of bugs beneath their boot—even if those bugs disgusted them.
Suddenly, Lynn sensed something. A mountain just outside the royal capital exploded.
Spatial ripples washed over the blasted peak.
It was some kind of one-time spatial teleportation spell. Even demons from the Abyss possessed means of cross-realm transit; it was impossible that these wizards lacked the same.
However, the cross-realm transit of demons relied mostly on the power of the Abyss. While a wizard could also borrow the power of the wizard network, that was not something an ordinary wizard could access. Thus, for ordinary wizards, this kind of long-distance teleportation could only be a trump card.
Lynn's gaze remained calm. At some unknown point, the Fallen Titan rampaging through the city had paused its destruction, following Lynn's line of sight to stare toward the outskirts.
The next moment, a tunnel appeared in space.
Several blurry silhouettes surfaced within it. However, this spatial channel could not bear their presence. Two of the shadowy figures shattered, leaving only the final two to slowly solidify.
"Break," Lynn said, his lips parting slightly.
The next moment, the Attack Module—which had been charging ever since it was summoned—unleashed its power. A scarlet beam fired from the tip of the Broken Horn, streaking directly toward one of those two figures.
The scarlet light moved with blinding speed, arriving almost the instant they descended.
There were no excessive visual effects. Only after it struck its target did a red afterimage gradually condense in everyone's eyes.
Protective spells surfaced one after another around that figure.
But like bubbles pierced by a steel needle, they were effortlessly popped one by one. The sounds of barriers and protective magic being shattered echoed from his body one after another, like exploding balloons.
Piece after piece of defensive magic equipment loaded at high power, only to completely collapse midway, crumbling into wisps of smoke.
The figure elementalized his body, hoping to rely on his elementalized form to evade most of the destructive power. But in the face of this scarlet beam, even elementalization appeared utterly pale and powerless.
Like a black hole, his elementalized body was continuously squeezed, collapsed, compressed, and devoured inward.
In the end, he was reduced to zero.
When the scarlet light faded, one of the two beings who had descended through the spatial channel had died instantly!
Anyone capable of descending through a spatial channel was absolutely an official wizard, yet one had died directly.
Seeing this, even with a wizard's mental fortitude, the remaining figure was terrified to the point that his body flashed like a lightbulb. Defensive spells were stacked one after another, alongside wildly layered defensive magic equipment and single-use protective magic.
Glowing in multiple colors, he looked like a giant lightbulb.