The Sorcerer's Handbook

The forest was ablaze. Molten fire spewed from the Hell Region, the artificial Sea of Knowledge surged like a boiling ocean, and the River of Flowing Gold ran completely dry. Built on the immense fortune of the Belldet family, the grand fortress garden had been reduced to nothing more than a cheap, pathetic firework display.

Evelyn leaned against the front garden railing, gazing at the standoff below. The moment Quinna captured Annan, her contract with the Funeral Agency was officially severed. She had only promised them protection, not absolute safety.

The Funeral Agency no longer needed to gather the six thousand Belldet Points, and she was entirely absolved of responsibility.

It was a highly profitable trade. Five Sacred Realm masters and sixty-three elite sorcerers had been silently implanted with seeds that left them ripe for her control. All she had sacrificed in return was property worth over a hundred million, along with a few recently acquired "friends."

In truth, she quite liked them.

Pankey was an ageless youth. Beneath his boyish appearance lay a calm, mature mind, and he even shared the same deep blue hair as Evelyn. Being around him brought her a strange, kindred comfort.

Lys was as beautiful as Evelyn herself had been in her childhood. Her white hair flowed like silk, and her face was as soft and delicate as a peeled, boiled egg. She was so cute it made people feel a strong urge to bite her.

As for Harvey, his most prominent feature was his dark skin. He had a bizarre personality and radiated the chaotic energy of a destructive whirlpool. It's as if he would drag everything around him into madness. She found herself wanting to watch his ultimate end up close.

Ashe... just thinking of him made the corners of her lips curl slightly upward. She struggled to define him with a few simple labels, knowing only that life around him was never boring. If Harvey was a vortex of destruction, Ashe was the exact opposite, though she had no idea how the two of them could even stand to be together. If possible, she truly wanted to keep him.

And then there was Annan. They had once been sisters who talked through the night, confidantes who shared their innermost secrets, and rivals who competed for attention. In Evelyn's otherwise uneventful life, those shared adventures with Annan were among the rare moments of pure color.

Watching the distant battlefield, Evelyn shrugged and whispered to herself, "I'm losing my friends."

Yet, her heart remained perfectly calm. When you ruled over the wills of millions, you were no longer moved by the joys and sorrows of a single individual. In a way, the Belldet family controlled everything, but also possessed nothing.

***

Slash Me Miracle!

Ashe successfully activated the Miracle, yet he remained pinned to the grass, unable to move so much as a fingertip.

He had barely managed to force the Miracle out through a desperate resonance with his spirit, but his disrupted mana, paralyzed nerves, and fading senses showed no sign of improvement. It wasn't that the Miracle itself was ineffective. Rather, it was Ashe who was failing it. By the same token, it wasn't that a Sacred Realm-level Miracle could naturally overpower a Gold Rank sorcerer. If Ashe could only understand the true nature of this binding Miracle, he could still use Slash Me to purge it.

The very essence of Slash Me was to sever any foreign intrusion. In most cases, this was an incredibly practical ability, because such elements were usually visible or directly perceptible.

However, this time was different. Quinna's bullet was both vicious and stealthy, leaving Ashe with no idea what was actually suppressing him. It was as though the Slash Me Miracle could only stand there confused, like a swordsman looking around wildly in all directions, ultimately only managing to "slash" Ashe's fingernail as a token effort.

If Slash Me were enhanced with spirits capable of minutely inspecting body and soul, its purification power would be significantly stronger. Ashe suddenly understood a potential direction for improving his Miracle, but at this exact moment, the realization was meaningless.

Bang!

A Sacred Realm barrier rose beside Quinna, effortlessly blocking a stray frost bullet.

She looked with mild surprise at the young butler, who had just risen from a body completely covered in frost and snow.

She said uncertainly, "To break through my Soul-Sealing Bullet's suppression... could it be the Frozen Youth Miracle?"

The butler boy nodded as sheets of frost slid off his shoulders. "As expected of Lady Quinna. You saw through it at a glance. It is indeed the Frozen Youth Miracle. Just that it is slightly different from the original. Frozen Youth works by consuming the soul's lifespan to freeze one's physical time, generating frost-based mana in exchange. But my soul can no longer afford such waste. And given the state my body is already in, I modified it a little... Now, this Miracle should be called Melting."

As the frost gradually thawed, the butler boy's voice shifted, bleeding from a youthful tone into a deep, magnetic adult resonance. A tall, handsome, blue-haired butler now stood before them. Holding twin frost pistols, he aimed them directly at his former master.

"During the melting phase, I possess combat power on par with a Sacred Realm sorcerer. Madam, please release the young lady."

Quinna smiled faintly. "Does growing up physically alter your personality as well? Someone who hasn't even been to the Distant Sky Domain truly doesn't understand what the Sacred Realm means. Still, after all these years, this is the first time I've seen you so determined. I'll give you a chance. If you can take Annan from my hands, I'll let all of you go."

Bang! Bang! Bang!

Ice and frost blossomed violently across the sky. Pankey's bullets swept outward like freezing rivers and spiraling currents, surging toward the Senheiser family leader.

Quinna grabbed Annan by the back of her collar as if she were lifting a kitten. Evading with effortless grace even while carrying the girl, she casually deflected Pankey's relentless attacks.

Bullets scattered and Miracles surged. Positioned at the very edge of the battlefield, Ashe was nearly caught in the devastating aftermath of this Sacred Realm-versus-Gold Rank clash. Just then, he felt someone dragging him backward by his clothes. Even without looking, the small hands and the labored, heavy panting told him exactly who it was.

Ashe focused his remaining strength, concentrating every ounce of his willpower into his mouth. Slash Me! Slash Me! Slash Me!

After three consecutive activations, Ashe finally managed to slightly loosen the restraints binding his tongue and throat. He rasped weakly, "Run..."

Lys nodded hard, tears blurring her eyes. "Mmhmm! I will take you away quickly!"

"You... go..."

"I'm already running! Don't rush me, Daddy!"

"Put me down," Ashe whispered, his vision swimming. "Then go to the main residence and seek Evelyn's protection. You've never appeared in the Woven Festival. As long as you're not there, no one will target you..."

"Evelyn is a bad woman! How can we ask her for help?!"

"Evelyn... Annan said she's not bad at heart. At least when there's no conflict of interest, she wouldn't mind taking care of you. You're so cute..."

Lys sniffled loudly, wiping her nose. "If I'm that cute. Why would you still want to leave me behind?"

"We'll... pretend to be captured by Quinna first, and then we'll come back for you soon..."

"Then I want to get captured too!"

"What if... something goes wrong? There are other families, and the Red Hats. If we get separated... I don't want to be stuck in some strange prison, worrying all night about whether you're kicking off your blanket..."

Lys desperately dragged Ashe toward a more concealed area. "Daddy! I am not getting separated from you!"

A faint trace of joy colored Ashe's voice as he responded, "When I first met you, you were much smarter and far more decisive than you are now... On the very first night we met, you came to me and said you wanted us to partner up as a fake father and daughter."

Lys wiped the tears and snot from her face. "It's all your fault! Being with you made me stupid!"

Ashe let out a soft sigh. "Is that so... then there's nothing to be done about it. Let go of me."

"I won't—"

"What I mean is, there's no need to run anymore... we can't escape."

A wisp of shadow suddenly coalesced, snatching the necromancer into the air. A drifting laugh echoed across the battlefield. "I thought I'd return empty-handed, but I didn't expect the Senheiser family to be so generous as to leave behind such precious prey. The Mercury family will gladly accept this gift—"

"How dare you!"

Quinna and Pankey immediately redirected their fire, but the shadow moved with staggering speed. After seizing Harvey, it instantly reappeared directly above Ashe.

In that split second, Lys stepped forward decisively, shielding Ashe with her small back like an unshakable fortress.

However, Ashe didn't look at Lys. Instead, his gaze was locked onto the necromancer trapped in the shadow's grasp. For some reason, a specific scene from the Family Rankings flashed through his mind, and his lips moved slightly as he whispered, "Harvey, save me."

Snap!

The long-ignored coffin suddenly burst open. Seven chains shot out faster than light, binding the shadow and dragging it backward. At that exact moment, a figure leapt out of the box, tearing the necromancer from the shadow's grasp.

Since the entity cloaked in shadow was a Sacred Realm sorcerer, the chains couldn't hold for long. It forcefully shattered the bindings mid-air and condensed into a young man in black robes. He stared at Harvey in absolute shock and disbelief.

By then, Harvey had already dissolved into a mass of thick mist. He enveloped Alice like a suit of living armor until the two merged into a single being. The living and the dead had fused into one.

Hiss!

A surge of emerald-green fire ignited within Alice's body, turning him into a blazing torch. Yet instead of harming Alice himself, the fire caused the surrounding grass to rapidly wither, rot, and decay.

Alice turned back to look at Ashe. Harvey's voice echoed from within the corpse. "Maintaining good relationships really does pay off... See? The only person Lys cared to save was you."

Ashe's eyes widened. Lys was equally stunned. "You... Uncle Harvey..."

The youth of the Mercury family hissed. "As expected of a madman capable of inheriting the Angel's legacy... A Necromancy Class Miracle forged from your own twisted interpretation of spirits? To merge the living and the dead into one... How utterly inverted and grotesque!"

He once again dissolved back into a shadow and surged forward, intent on capturing the necromancer with a single, decisive blow.

The Alice–Harvey fusion flashed a stiff, unnerving smile. "Cold as it is, this body still waits for the day it finally burns to ashes."

Boom!

A raging torrent of ghostly green flames erupted, and vast surges of mana burned away all remaining life around them. With the coffin at its center, Harvey's domain actually managed to withstand a direct strike from a Sacred Realm sorcerer.

"Tonight is a night fit for the dead," Harvey said. "Perhaps... it is finally my turn to die."