Chapter 316 -: 315 Humans in the four stationary continents.
As soon as those words echoed across the arena, Magnus’ expression changed completely.
His eyes widened as an overwhelming fluctuation spread outward from the center of the battlefield.
Beginning with the arena itself, every trace of color was stripped away as though an invisible force had drained the world dry.
The crimson stains upon the shattered stone faded into dull gray, vibrant banners lost their brilliance, and the blue sky above dissolved into a bleak monochrome expanse.
The transformation continued without slowing, swallowing everything in its path until the entire arena had become a lifeless world of black and white.
Even Magnus looked down at his own body and found that the colors had vanished from his skin, clothes, and weapon alike.
It was as though reality itself had been repainted into a silent, colorless canvas, and with that unnatural silence came a suffocating sense of dread that settled heavily upon his heart.
"What the hell...?"
The words escaped his lips almost instinctively. This wasn’t merely an illusion capable of deceiving the senses.
The spell had reached a level where it seemed to overwrite the very perception of reality itself.
Even someone of his strength found his instincts screaming at him, warning him that this place had become unimaginably dangerous.
Yet the terrifying spell wasn’t what occupied Magnus’ thoughts the most.
The instant the disguise artifact had fallen away and the young man’s true appearance had been revealed, recognition had struck him like a bolt of lightning.
Those golden eyes, though slightly paler than he remembered, were unmistakable.
They resembled molten gold, a trait so rare that there was no possibility of confusing them with anyone else’s.
Combined with that brilliant golden hair, the answer had become painfully obvious. He had seen those features once before, many years ago, during a battlefield deep within the Three Floating Continents where he had infiltrated human territory in disguise.
There, he had encountered a woman who could only be described as the embodiment of death itself.
Every step she took had left mountains of corpses behind, while countless soldiers fled in terror rather than face her.
Even after all these years, merely recalling that battlefield was enough to send a chill crawling down his spine. There could be no mistake.
The young man standing before him was her son.
Julius Augustus Hayes.
As that realization settled in his mind, another rumor resurfaced almost immediately.
Five years earlier, rumours had spread across all Four Stationary Continents claiming that the heir of the Hayes Clan had somehow seduced the greatest prodigy of the Velentina Clan.
At the time, countless people had dismissed it as little more than absurd gossip, yet everyone had still paid attention because the names involved belonged to the two greatest talents humanity had produced in the last thousand years.
If the man before him truly was Julius Augustus Hayes, then those rumors had never been false to begin with.
Magnus’ gaze instinctively shifted toward the woman disguised as Jasmine, and another terrifying realization struck him.
That woman...
She could only be Rosalina Velentina.
The legendary genius whose eyes were often described as blooming rose petals.
For a brief moment, Magnus simply stared at her in disbelief before an uncontrollable rage surged through his chest. The veins along his forehead bulged as his grip tightened around the handle of his axe.
Two humans... not just any humans, but heirs of the two most terrifying families among mankind... had infiltrated their lands, deceived everyone, and walked freely through the tournament while the entire Zlycon race remained oblivious. The humiliation burned like fire within him.
Unacceptable.
Without another thought, Magnus summoned his massive axe into his hand.
The weapon materialized instantly as immense mana erupted around his body, and in the very next heartbeat he shot toward Julius with the clear intention of cleaving him in half before anyone else could interfere.
However, before he could cover even half the distance, the arena trembled violently beneath his feet.
The stone floor ruptured in countless places as enormous cracks spread through the battlefield, and from those openings emerged grotesque creatures unlike anything he had ever seen.
Their twisted bodies were as large as houses, their limbs malformed and their mouths overflowing with jagged teeth as they clawed their way out of the earth.
For the briefest instant Magnus assumed they had been summoned to protect Julius, yet his expression immediately changed when he realized they weren’t moving toward the approaching spell casters at all.
They ignored the powerful.
Instead, they charged directly toward the defenseless civilians seated throughout the arena.
At the same time, the ground beneath the audience began collapsing entirely. Massive sections of the arena caved inward as countless Zlycons lost their footing, screaming in terror while the earth swallowed them whole.
The once magnificent stadium descended into utter chaos as panic spread faster than wildfire.
"Uncle!"
Salena’s terrified scream cut through the madness.
Magnus’ face turned pale. His killing intent vanished instantly as he spun around, searching frantically for his niece.
Yet before he could even locate her, something searing wrapped violently around his body. A chain forged from molten lava burst from the darkness, coiling tightly around his arms and torso before locking him firmly in place.
Blazing heat surged against his skin, while an endless darkness crept across the monochrome world, swallowing everything in its path like an approaching abyss.
Magnus immediately turned toward the source of the attack.
The instant he saw them, every hair on his body stood on end.
Two men stood silently within the advancing darkness, their expressions completely devoid of emotion.
Neither displayed anger nor satisfaction. They simply watched him with an icy indifference that chilled him far more than hatred ever could.
The first possessed short black hair that brushed against the back of his neck, while his eyes resembled twin pools of endless darkness.
A killing intent so vast that it seemed almost tangible radiated from him, yet beneath that murderous aura was an unsettling emptiness.
He looked hollow, as though every emotion had long since died within him. Magnus recognized him almost immediately, and the realization made his scalp tingle.
Victor Velentina...
His trembling gaze slowly shifted toward the second man, the one calmly holding the molten chains imprisoning him.
He was tall, impossibly handsome, and possessed long black hair flowing all the way to his waist.
His blue eyes, now robbed of their color by the monochrome world, appeared like lifeless pieces of polished glass.
There wasn’t the slightest ripple of emotion within them. Only an endless, freezing cold remained, one that seemed capable of extinguishing hope itself.
Nathaniel Augustus Hayes.