Could it be that all our efforts have been in vain?

  Uhe watchful gaze of Buck, a shower of starfire soon rained down upon them all!

  [Sacred Word - Shield]

  After breaking free from the effects of the [Soul Shriek], Aaron immediately cast a protective divine spell.

  A pure white shield materialized in the void, and the scattered starfire dots began corroding it, leaving behind small craters.

  Is this the power a weakened magical residue possesses, even redug its strength by a hundredfold?

  If the giant fireball had hit him directly earlier, Aaron was sure he wouldn't have been able to stop it!

  Just as he marveled, a series of shrill and agonizing screams echoed through the castle. Aaron turo look, and he was left dumbfounded in pce.

  pared to the priests who practiced divine magic, the guards had yet to recover from the shock of the [Soul Shriek], and tiny starfire dots were already stig to their armor, shields, crossbows, and exposed limbs and faces.

  The horror of white phosphorus fire was soon revealed in the moment. The faint fmes, upon tact with the material, rapidly spread. Leather shoulder pads and gloves were burhrough with gaping holes. The yellowish-white fmes, as if attracted to flesh and blood, directly peed the skih.

  "Ah!" A shieldbearer frantically beat at his chest, trying to extinguish the spreading white phosphorus fmes. However, the result of his as was that his arm also ignited, and in a matter of a few breaths, half of his body had turned into a torch...

  His panions fared even worse. Tiny fmes fell directly into the gaps in their armor. The thousand-degree heat caused them to scream in agony, and they forcibly tore off their armor, then thrust their hands into their bodies, only to pull out a bloody, fming k of meat...

  Flesh and corpses were the best nourishment for white phosphorus fmes, and the fire quickly spread.

  A burning sea of fire, billowing white smoke, and grotesque, terrifying soldiers; this se was as if hell had desded to the mortal world...

  "Devils, this must be the power of devils, fmes from hell!"

  The terrifying sight pletely shattered the elite guards of Nordan Land, and the magic spell [Banish Fear] had lost all effect. A priest who had mao avoid the fmes' onsught screamed himself hoarse, threw away his staff, and fled without looking back..

  Joni and the others, who were equally stunned, almost fot Lynn's advice to hold their breath and use magic to extract oxygen from the air.

  "What kind of magic is this?" Buck shivered deeply. Just getting a little closer, he could feel the pain as if his bone marrow were burning.

  "This is Fireball Magic. You guys don't know it? I just made a slight modification!" Lynn noticed the astonished looks on everyone's faces and expined.

  This is sidered a slight modification?

  Buck's expression became quite strange, as he thought Lynn's uanding of the term might be different from his own.

  Joni, oher hand, was beginning to suspect if Lynn had already broken through the heavy barriers and bee a full-fledged wizard.

  But Lynn had only been exposed to magic for half a year, and that seemed a bit too exaggerated... Plus, their teacher Kora had always beeute, so where would he get the moo purchase a souragical power.

  pared to the intricate thoughts of Jonny and Buck, Barton's ideas were straightforward. He realized that when these apprentice wizards uhey could be so powerful! Barton even believed that, if they all worked together, fag the Church's pursuit might not be as difficult as they thought.

  Just as he was thinking this, a dazzling white light appeared in the distance, breaking through the fmes' barriers and heading toward the group of wizard apprentices.

  Distracted, Barton only saw his brother, Buck, urgently opening his mouth to say something, and then he felt as if a powerful force had smmed into his body. His frail form was torn apart in mid-air, somersaulting several times, and then he plummeted to the ground, being lifeless in an instant.

  The sudden turn of events left Jonny and the others with frozen expressions. Buck's face torted gradually, and he shouted hoarsely.

  "No, Barton!"

  Lynn acted as soon as the white light appeared. Twelve Magic Missiles circled around him, drawing eerie, curved ar the air as they shot towards the end of the corridor.

  In the end, over a dozen Magic Missiles were blocked by an invisible wall, and all they could see were the ripples when they collided...

  Lynn's heart sank instantly, his gaze fixed oher end of the sea of fmes. He uood that the person he had been waiting for had finally arrived, and their strength exceeded his wildest expectations.

  Suddenly, a melodious hymn resounded within the castle, and an invisible pradually enveloped the whole area, causing a light rain to fall even within the enclosed indoors.

  This was the Third-Circle Divine Magic - [Song of Life]! The green raindrops tained an incredibly potent divine pradually suppressing the hellish fmes.

  The uing and nearly all-ing white phosphorus fire rapidly subsided, and Archbishop Anluke, dressed in a white and gilded robe, walked in at a leisurely pace.

  "Yrace!"

  Aaron, who had escaped the starfire's ce by luck, shouted excitedly, though his words cealed a hint of rese and hatred.

  The timing of Anluke's appearance was so clever that Aaron couldn't help but suspect that this Archbishop had been watg them all along.

  Clearly, he and the elite guards of Nordan Land were nothing more than tools for testing the oppo's strength and trump cards!

  Aaron's heart grew ice-cold halfway through, uanding that after this i cluded, he, as the on-site ander, would undoubtedly face severe punishment.

  Anluke paid no attention to Aaron, surveyed the ground strewn with casualties, and the guards whose wills had been pletely shattered. Then, his pupils tracted. Because the fmes that had beeinguished once were showing signs niting immediately after the Divine Magic [Song of Life] had ended.

  This was white phosphorus fire; as long as there was still oxygen in the air and something to burn, it would not stop!

  "Do not linger, retreat!"

  After Lynn's feigned Magic Missile attack failed, he made a choice without hesitation.

  The giant fireball he had prepared, with a casting time exceeding five seds, had ed most of the white phosphorus he had created. The remaining amount was insuffit to defeat the Archbishop, who was now unleashing powerful divine magic.

  Jonny and Dove also uood the terror of Anluke. Despite their deep sorrow for Barton's death, they khat at this moment, the only ce for survival was to escape.

  But Buck, who had lost his younger brother, had gone mad. He roared with anger, pig up a retively intact guard's corpse from the ground as a shield and charged towards Anluke.