Chapter 145: At the Foot of Mount Baal

After a long while, Ace on the summit of Mount Baal slowly lowered his raised hands. Looking down, Bayen, barefoot, had arrived at the foot of Mount Baal with the gathered Wizard Apprentices.

They, along with Daina and the others, looked at the recessed area at the foot of Mount Baal with shock.

The thick black smoke had dissipated. The fierce chain explosion had increased the size and depth of the recessed area several times over. The pitted, uneven crater, accompanied by a pungent odor and violent, turbulent Mana fluctuations, seemed to narrate the events to everyone.

“Except for those few Pseudo-Heroes, the bodies of the other soldiers were melted by the explosion!” an Enchanted Wizard Apprentice who participated in the luring operation said excitedly to his companion.

“I’ve been to this recessed area before. It wasn’t this big or this deep. Did His Excellency the Torch-Bearer really cause all this?” another Enchanted Wizard Apprentice chimed in.

They looked at the massive, man-made crater. Recalling the days and nights they were pursued by the legion, their hearts were filled with mixed emotions.

The crowd looked up at Ace standing on the summit of Mount Baal. The afterglow of the setting sun bathed Ace entirely in gold. His arms moved rhythmically. Mana gathered. He slowly floated down, descending the mountain, stepping through the void one step at a time.

This complex application of Advanced Magical Trickery used an incantation to create invisible air platforms. This quasi-spell served no purpose other than boosting his prestige at critical moments.

As Ace descended step by step, the reverence and trust in their hearts surged. This was the result of the quasi-Suggestion effect activating, guiding and amplifying the inherent emotions of everyone present, and influencing their thoughts.

As a collective entity proficient in mental and illusion spells, Ace was very skilled at utilizing spells to guide the situation and manipulate human minds.

Unlike the host body, who suffered a form of severance and loss due to the splitting and the use of the Demon-taught ritual, the mirror image was, in a sense, closer to the Ace of the past—one who possessed emotion, self-interest, and a bottom line.

“The host body cannot be separated from me for too long. We must synchronize our mental frequencies often, or he might slowly lose some of his emotions.” The mirror image thought this, his conviction solidifying as he descended the air staircase.

He slowly walked to the center of the battlefield, the place where the two Pseudo-Heroes died, under the gaze of the crowd.

In Ace’s view, these Divine Descendants were not entirely wicked.

On the contrary, they adhered to their own code of conduct and their own convictions. Although they had self-interest, they were capable of uniting on public matters and standing together against external threats. If they were on the same side, they would likely be reliable people.

The regret was that their factions were different. Their hero was Ace’s enemy!

“Rest in peace! Although not even your souls remain.”

Ace stood aside. He activated the Soul Spell Advanced Magical Trickery. His body moved with the pulse of Mana. He muttered a strange cadence and peculiar words: “Strip, Heart Recall!”

Accompanied by the pulse and gathering of Mana, the undamaged hearts of the few Pseudo-Heroes were stripped from their corpses. Three hearts in total floated around Ace.

He continued to cast spells, summoning Anhel’s Wonder spear, the Wonder shield, and Shean’s Wonder longsword. They floated around him.

He closed his eyes. The Soul Spells Mana Sensitivity and Insight Perception activated simultaneously. In his special perceptive state, everything around him, including the three hearts, was revealed in minute detail.

Mana was still turbulent. There was nothing noteworthy on the charred corpses of the Pseudo-Heroes. Their souls had vanished; only residue remained.

The hearts, like the one belonging to the Divine Awakened Sharp Ace had captured earlier, contained hidden rune structures. In the visually imperceptible field of perception, complex planar patterns covered the interior of the hearts.

Ace then perceived the three Wonders. In the visually imperceptible field of perception, their interiors were covered in complex pattern structures. A never-before-seen structure in the Unmissable Spear caught Ace’s attention.

This structure was very unique. It was only a Soul Rune-level structure, yet it cleverly masked the other rune structures.

To understand it using the mindset of his past life, most of the rune structures Ace had found were like open-source code, directly exposed. This particular rune structure on the spear was encapsulated and encrypted by a unique rune structure.

“This is a novel discovery! It is fascinating! This means we can encrypt the rune structures of Magic Items, and even encrypt Spell Models in the future. This is a very valuable research subject!”

Ace stood in the deep crater, immersed in observing the encapsulated rune structure of the Unmissable Spear, forgetting the passage of time. He did not remember the crowd of Wizard Apprentices waiting for him until the sky began to grow dark.

He transformed the three cold hearts and the three Wonders into six metal buttons using the Soul Spell Imperfect Transformation, pinning them inside the fur-lined black cloak. He then turned, stepping onto the air platform, walking toward the crowd one step at a time.

The barefoot, gray-robed Bayen saw Ace approaching. He inconspicuously glanced at Sulu, then immediately stepped forward. He raised his hands high, bowing 45 degrees, and declared loudly:

“Respected Torch-Bearer, you are the pioneer of the path of Magic, the only light in the long night, and the guide of all Wizards. All of us Wizard Apprentices salute you! Thank you for completely eliminating the legion remnants who stained themselves with the blood of the Wizard Apprentices! We deeply admire your resolve and decisiveness!”

Sulu, watching Bayen, bit his tongue. Envy fiercely gnawed at him.

Next time, I absolutely will not let this old man steal my thunder. He is so old, yet he is such a shameless bootlicker!

Sulu thought this furiously, completely forgetting his own opportunistic behavior.

Daina looked at Ace and Bayen, a small smile appearing on her lips. She joined the chorus, shouting: “Great Torch-Bearer! Thank you for eliminating the legion hunters stained with the blood of the Wizard Apprentices! You are our only light in the long night!”

And the only light in my heart, Daina added silently.

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