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Chapter Sixteen, End and Beginning (Part 2)

  The bipedal flying dragon flew at full speed, with mountains and rivers passing by below like a slow-moving backdrop. However, Asa knew that this apparent slowness was just an illusion created by the distance, even the fastest thousand-mile steed couldn't keep up with half the speed of this giant reptile. Moreover, it was advancing in a completely straight line, and would reach Oufu in just one more day.

  The bipedal flying dragon pierced through a thin cloud, smashing the cotton-like clouds into fragments. The water vapor contained in the cloud whipped across his face at high speed, even causing a slight stinging sensation. If it weren't for the peculiar eye mask on his face, Asa probably wouldn't have been able to open his eyes.

  Goggles are a piece of leather with two pieces of glass inlaid, which can be worn on the head to see things through the glass while avoiding being blown by the wind. This thing is obviously made by the skilled craftsmen of Europe for the guests who ride this strange flying beast, and ordinary lizard drivers do not need such a thing, as lizards have a transparent keratin membrane on their eyes since birth, so they don't need such a weird gadget.

  But this is only the patent of the lizard people. Asa can be sure that Gulu's body absolutely does not have such an organ, but he seems more at ease than the lizard people. The high-altitude cold wind is like a knife, if it were a slightly delicate ordinary person, probably even the skin would be peeled off a layer, but Gulu is as calm and composed as if working at a desk. He held a charcoal pen, with a piece of leather on his knee, observing the terrain below while drawing on the leather. Those slender and elegant hands holding the charcoal pen made quick strokes, and the mountainous area below was outlined clearly.

  Asa still remembered the first time he went to the west, crossing this complex mountainous terrain took a whole day. Now sitting on the Double-legged Flying Dragon, it only took more than ten minutes to fly over. Asa suddenly thought that if he sat on this thing to travel around the continent, it would probably take less than a month. But that would be meaningless, the road was meant to be walked, not flown over.

  "Who would have thought there'd be flies in a place like this." Gru suddenly gave a cold, hard smile. His eyebrows and eyes didn't move, only the lines around his mouth changed, forming an expression as cold and hard as granite.

  "Flies?" Asa hesitated for a moment and looked around. Under the influence of the Double-Footed Flying Dragon's aura, not even a single bird could be seen nearby.

  "Probably came looking for you." Gulu put away the drawn map in his bosom and looked down coldly.

  Asa followed his line of sight and finally saw five small black dots approaching. Just by looking at the shape and size, he knew it couldn't be flies, and the spread-out wings seemed a bit like bats. But there was no way any bat could fly to such heights. Asa suddenly woke up with a start, almost jumping off the back of the Double-Footed Flying Dragon: "It's Death Spirit Mages."

  Five small black dots are rapidly approaching, and their shapes have become increasingly clear. Mouse-like faces, monkey-like bodies that are hundreds of times larger, with a pair of huge wings on their backs. They are the same stone statue demons seen outside the Whispering Woods. Moreover, three figures can be seen sitting on top of each of them.

  "What to do?" Asa's forehead was slightly sweating. "Rush down to the ground?"

  These three necromancers would not have simply ridden their stone golems through the sky and passed by here. For high-level mages like them, especially necromancers, a two-legged flying dragon, the strongest ruler of the skies on this continent, was no different from a chicken. And if they had come for him intentionally, they would not be afraid to let him escape. No matter how strong the two-legged flying dragon was, it was still a living thing, and its endurance could not compare to that of the stone golems driven by magical power.

  "What's down there? Fly over it." Gru replied coldly.

  "Where are we flying to?" Asa yelled back, pulling on the reins. With a loud grunt, the dragon's feet left the ground and its wings beat even harder.

  Gulu frowned, took the reins from Asa's hand, but instead of urging the Double-footed Flying Dragon to fly forward, he twisted the reins and turned the dragon around to fly towards those stone statue ghosts.

  "What are you doing?" Asa was shocked, his eyes wide with amazement.

  "Go see what they want to do." Gulu replied calmly.

  "I think it's better for us to go down and find a place to hide." Although Asa also believed in Gru's combat power, after all, this was at an altitude of several thousand meters, not land where they could gallop freely.

  "We're not mice, what's there to hide?" Gulu said calmly.

  A Sa sighed and looked at the five stone statue ghosts that were getting closer and closer. It seemed that there was no other choice but to take advantage of the situation.

  Five stone statue demons quickly approached. The silver skull masks of the three death spirit masters on top shone with a strange light in the sunlight high above. They did not get too close to the two-legged flying dragon, but stopped at a distance of twenty or thirty meters, forming a fan shape. The three death spirit masters dispersed in three directions, looking at the two people on the two-legged flying dragon.

  "What's wrong? Why didn't you escape?" asked a necromancer on the left. Although his voice was distorted by the prop in his mouth, the tone of surprise still came through.

  "Because we don't want to run." Gulu replied calmly.

  "So you're here to surrender to us?" The death spirit mage on the right nodded, curling up the corners of his mouth. "Looks like your judgment is pretty good."

  "What brings you here?" Asa asked.

  "Nature is here to kill you. Kill you, since you're with him, might as well take him out too. So you'd better run away quickly." The Death Spirit Master in the middle spoke up. He should be an old man, despite wearing a mask, his curly white hair and dark skin full of wrinkles around his mouth were still visible, his voice seemed a bit violent. "Whether you come to surrender on your own initiative or want to discuss some conditions with us, we don't accept either way. You only have one dead end."

  Gulu smiled. This originally good-looking smile mixed with the light in his eyes. Asa felt that he saw a leopard with its mouth open.

  "I'm really sorry. Nimbas's mood isn't good because he lost the bet." A death spirit mage chuckled and pointed at Asa. "He originally thought you should have left the capital already, but our deputy guild leader bet that you would definitely go to the duke's mansion. He said you would definitely see that beautiful duke's daughter before leaving, and we just needed to wait for it to happen. And indeed, he was right."

  "I didn't think you, of all people, would understand me so well." Asa smiled unnaturally.

  "Is that Tatalia's Sage Nimbasa?" Gulu looked at the middle Death Spirit Master. "I didn't expect you to be a member of the Necromancer Guild."

  "It seems they really don't plan to leave us alive, since they're calling out our names directly." Asa sighed. The wise Nimbas held a position in Tetaria similar to that of Bishop Ronis in the Empire of Ainefrost - even kings would often seek the opinion of this venerable sage. Who knows how the people of Tetaria will react when they find out the person they revered was actually a necromancer? "But since you've already decided to kill us, why bother with the charade? Won't you let us see, and die with our eyes open?"

  "Sorry, it's a guild rule."

  "Don't be afraid. Although we will kill you, how you die is still your choice." The smiling death spirit mage chuckled again, speaking in a gentle and affectionate tone, as if coaxing a child. "As long as you tell us where that world tree leaf is, so we don't have to waste our energy searching for it, we can make your death easier."

  "Then I won't tell you where the leaves of the World Tree fall, can't we at least keep our lives?" Asa replied.

  "You won't tell us, we'll naturally go find out. As long as this thing is still on the continent, it's impossible to escape our grasp." The Death Spirit Mage sighed and persuaded Asa with a very serious and kind tone. "I advise you to tell us after all. Each of our members are busy people, with countless important matters to attend to, and in their free time, they have many noble and elegant forms of entertainment and artistic pursuits. If you tell us, it will help us save that precious time, and we will naturally repay you. Without suffering, perhaps you won't even feel the concept of 'death', and you can return to that eternal peaceful land of death."

  Nimbas shook his head and said, "No need, you'd better escape. We came here with three people on purpose, anticipating that you would either fight to the death or run away. I haven't experienced the thrill of hunting for many years." He paused, using a tone that was half merciful and half encouraging, "Maybe you're lucky, maybe you can really escape. If you lose your will to fight like this, it's also very boring."

  Three necromancers, with the tone and demeanor of masters, seemed very relaxed. However, they were not slackening off. They were well aware that what was in front of them was not a lamb to be slaughtered at will. But it was precisely because of this that they also had enough interest.

  Asa spoke while observing the breathing, eyes and mental state of these three necromancers. As long as there was a slight weakness, he would immediately take advantage of it and strike with all his might.

  Unfortunately, he never found such an opportunity. Three necromancers, three directions. No matter how complacent they appeared, the three stone golems they rode always maintained a distance of tens of meters from the twin-legged flying dragon. In this high-altitude airspace of thousands of kilometers, this distance was enough to eliminate any sudden close-range attacks. And among them, in mid-air, they formed an equilateral triangle, with equal distances between each other, no matter which one was attacked, the other two could react and rescue in the first time.

  Three dead spirit masters emitted faint magical fluctuations on their bodies, constantly flowing and wandering in the triangle. Although they were complacent, they did not become arrogant. Each of them was an extremely intelligent and outstanding individual who would never commit such a low-level error as becoming careless due to having an advantage.

  But Asa didn't lose hope, and instead had a glimmer of expectation, because the person behind him shouldn't let himself down. Even if he couldn't find an opportunity to strike, that person certainly would.

  "What's wrong. You'd better run away." Nimbas seemed a bit impatient. His hand had a wave of dark green light jumping, which was one of the high-level death magic - Death Ripple.

  This magic has little destructive power against objects, but the fluctuations that imply death and chaos are fatal to living things. Moreover, this is a range magic, almost no sense of dodging. Even if the two-legged flying dragon was swept by this magic, it would lose half its life.

  "I said. We never thought of escaping from the beginning. And I'd like to ask you a question," Gulu's gaze swept across the three necromancers' faces, saying word by word: "Why didn't you escape yourselves?"

  "Haha..." "Hehe..." The three necromancers all laughed. Nimbas was especially delighted, the green glow in his hand surging violently.

  But in the next instant, like a meteor's fleeting flash of light, this radiance suddenly vanished.

  Along with that, Nimbas's hand also disappeared. The control of this magic was already prepared, and the resonance was ready, just like a ball of smoke in his hand, as soon as he opened his hand, the simplest action would immediately burst out. But unfortunately, even this simplest action, he didn't have time to do it, his hand and the magical power condensed on it scattered together like a pile of paper scraps in the wind.

  The massive body of the two-legged flying dragon sank down, and the place where Gru was standing just now had already sunken in completely. At the same time, two dull sounds of broken ribs came from inside the dragon's body.

  The screams of the Nimbasi were no less than those of the bipedal flying dragons. Their screams rang out at the same time, equally mournful and indistinguishable from one another.

  Gru, who was standing still on the Double-Headed Flying Dragon just a moment ago, is now standing on the Stone Statue Ghost in front of Nimbas. The place where he landed was the head of the Stone Statue Ghost, and it was already crumbling with flying stone debris. At the same time as he stood on the Stone Statue Ghost, Gru also stretched out his hand.

  His hand, like Nimbas', had a layer of light on it, but it was white. With this white light, his hand seemed to just casually slap, and Nimbas' green light-filled hand that was condensed with magic flew apart into a piece of minced meat.

  But Gru's body also paused for a moment, and a white light with countless tiny colorful spots shone on him. The countless small light points dissolved into his body as soon as they came into contact, and he immediately paused.

  The blow lasted only for a fleeting moment. But in that instant of hesitation, Nimbas had already retreated with a scream and jumped off the stone statue. The other hand that could have crushed his head into pulp merely brushed past his chest, bringing up a burst of blood.

  A blow that was supposed to be a sure hit somehow missed, and he even got hit by magic. Gru turned his head to glare at the death mage on the other stone golem. A white glow lit up all over his body.

  The necromancer's whole body shook. He saw the boiling and violent killing intent and fighting spirit in those pitch-black eyes. For the first time in his life, he felt fear, terror.

  Although he had been smiling from the start, thinking that victory was within his grasp, he could also see that this person should be very formidable and understood that he would definitely make a move. Moreover, since the opponent was so confident, there must be capital for that confidence. So, with a triumphant laugh, he condensed a magic spell ready to be released at any time. He was deliberately waiting for the man to make his move, guessing that he would jump onto the stone statue. He waited to see the man become stiff in mid-air and then fall from the thousand-meter-high sky, smashing into pulp.

  That person's attack method he had indeed anticipated, only he hadn't anticipated was his own reaction. His line of sight, reaction speed and the opponent's movement were unexpectedly so far apart. Not until Nimbas' hand shattered, did the opponent's figure stop due to the attack, that he realized what was going on, and had the opportunity to cast this magic that had been prepared long ago. Moreover, it was also because this magic had almost no casting time, that he barely managed to save Nimbas' life.

  This isn't taking advantage of a weakness, this is true strength. This undead warlock knew that if the person was charging at him, his full guard would be completely meaningless. In reality, perhaps even the concept of 'death' wouldn't have time to emerge before his head shattered like Nimbas's hand.

  That is to say, in front of this person, he was actually no different from a worm. This unprecedented fear instantly swept through his entire nervous system.

  A top-level white magic paralysis technique that could petrify an elephant for half an hour, but it only brought a momentary delay. If this were a battle between two evenly matched strongmen, this might have been a fatal opportunity. However, the three of them were just magicians. Even if they were the most elite magicians, their physical reactions, judgments, and those of ordinary people did not differ much, and this instant was simply too short.

  The undead mage didn't cast any attack magic again, his confidence had vanished in an instant. Fear and urgency made him subconsciously use all his might to cast a high-level defensive white magic, 'Heaven's Blessing'. Under the almost top-tier level of white magic, he instantly possessed dozens of auxiliary spells such as 'Power Spell', 'Blessing Spell', 'Lucky Spell', 'Invigoration Spell', 'Stone Skin Spell' and so on.

  Gulu bent his waist, jumped up, and the stone statue of the giant ghost suddenly split into four or five pieces. His figure became a straight line with white light in the eyes of the death spirit master who had added 'Eagle Eye Technique', shooting towards the stone statue where the death spirit master was located.

  'Tian's blessing' indeed blessed the life of this dead spirit master. 'Eagle Eye Technique' allowed him to see Gulu's posture as he was about to rush over, 'Swift Technique' and 'Power Technique' gave him enough reaction and strength to dodge. He didn't even have time to manipulate the stone statue, and like Nimbas, he hastily jumped down.

  A loud cracking sound came from behind. The necromancer made a strenuous gesture in mid-air, chanting an incantation and using flight magic to desperately fly away. When he turned around, he saw that person standing on top of a stone golem, bowing down and punching it. After a deafening crash, the magical creature, dozens of times larger than him, burst into pieces, shattering into a pile of rubble falling to the ground.

  The only remaining gargoyle escaped under the control of that necromancer and rushed down to catch Nymbasa who was falling towards the ground.

  Gulu jumped back onto the double-footed flying dragon from the wreckage of the stone statue ghost and nodded at Asa: "Well done."

  When Gru moved, the first one to react was Asa. He immediately began to condense his magical power and when the Double-Winged Flying Dragon let out a mournful cry, he instantly used a high-level healing spell on it. Otherwise, the Double-Winged Flying Dragon would have fallen to the ground with a broken rib at the base of its wing.

  When Nimbra's hands shattered, the death mage's paralysis technique was launched, and another death mage was about to launch an attack as well. However, Asa's three fireballs had already arrived in front of him. The death mage had no choice but to use three flashes of lightning to shatter the fireballs. Just this delay, the opportunity for a paralyzing moment was lost. Seeing Gru's body shape like an arrow that could not be caught by the eyes, the death mage did not dare to launch another attack and hastily drove the stone statue down to catch Nimbra who was falling.

  The airborne undead mages simultaneously fell onto the golem, and now all three of them were gathered on a single golem. In this brief moment, their emotions plummeted from heaven to reality, causing them immense pain. Like an erudite scholar who suddenly faces a ferocious beast, they found that the things they relied on for pride were as pale and powerless as a joke. No matter how great their magic, wisdom, or skills, under the most primitive, brutal, and direct speed and power, they were like useless trash. For the first time, they felt as helpless as ordinary people.

  The lips under the Death Knight's mask were trembling slightly. Whether it was due to anger, pain or fear, what had been destroyed was not just the four stone statue demons, but also their confidence.

  Terror, dread, shame, and the most intense pain had turned into hysterical rage. Nimbasa grasped her severed hand, staring at the flying dragon with a crazed gaze as she shrieked: "Kill him, kill him! I'll kill him!"

  Although he looked as if he was going crazy, this wasn't nonsense. The three of them were after all the top magicians on the mainland, and as long as they kept their distance and had sufficient preparation, the advantage would still be theirs. After all, as long as they could cast a powerful spell, flesh and blood would be absolutely no match for it.

  But before they could make any preparations, the Wyvern let out a screech and suddenly dived straight down towards the Golem.

  The opponents on the Wyvern were also clear that they must not be allowed to pull out their distance and prepare for a big spell. The Golems had only one left, and the Death Knights' room for maneuver was no longer large.

  Just like before, a figure with white light shot out from the double-footed flying dragon and rushed towards the stone statue ghost at a speed that was almost impossible to catch with the eyes.

  Still, only the necromancer who had been granted 'Heaven's Blessing' could see this faint human figure. Although he still couldn't accurately grasp such a high-speed opponent, the distance between them was now much farther than before. He was already using his full strength to boost his magical power in preparation, and the key was that he could clearly see the direction of his opponent's charge. However, at such a fast speed, no mage would be able to cast large-scale high-level magic; with both hands open, he poured all his enhanced magic into a low-level spell and released it instantly.

  A strange cracking sound came from mid-air and spread through the air. Then, that figure suddenly paused, its speed weakening as it descended.

  The necromancer slumped, knelt down, and collapsed. His face outside the mask was pale, coughing up a small mouthful of blood. He only felt that the rebounding magic seemed to have twisted his internal organs into a mess.

  Magic is low-level, but he used all his magical powers to enhance the effect. The 'force field shield' used to block arrows and enemy movements was originally a dangerous low-level magic, if the force field shattered, the magician's own magic would be disrupted and hurt himself. Although his full-strength 'force field shield' could withstand a giant stone thrown by a catapult, it was fragile like thin paper under the impact of this figure. If not for the gentle and pure white magic in his body, the magical backlash after the force field shattered would have taken his life.

  However, the magic he desperately used did indeed take effect. Although Gru was still diving towards here, after breaking through the force field, he had transformed from his original white light shadow into a person who could be clearly seen by everyone.

  Moreover, he was already in mid-air, completely unable to borrow any force. The other two Death Spirit Masters cast their gaze on him with eyes that seemed to be poisonous corpses.

  Nimbas let out a shrill cry, and a dark green wave surged out of his only remaining hand, gathering. The dark green was so intense that it seemed as if he had grasped a pool of stagnant water that had rotted for thousands of years. This pool of stagnant water churned and transformed in his hand into an arrow that seemed to have a tangible form.

  Nimbas raised his hand, aiming at the figure suspended in mid-air. Even the most skilled fighter would be a living target floating in the air without any support. The Death Spirit Arrow on his hand was the essence of his decades-long magical cultivation, and no one, no creature could withstand this blow.

  A fierce explosion suddenly burst in mid-air above Gru's body. The violent airflow and flames instantly grew into a large cluster of death flowers in space, even the stone statues began to shake under the impact of the airflow. The huge fireball produced by the explosion instantly engulfed Gru's figure within it.

  The three necromancers were stunned for a moment, because none of them had made a move.

  But in the next instant, the figure burst out of the flames and resumed its original high speed, continuing to charge towards the three dead spirit mages on the stone statue. The violent magical energy failed to tear him apart, and the explosive shockwave instead suddenly accelerated him.

  His body's white aura had reached its limit. He raised his hand, and his slender fingers curled into a fist. Even amidst the explosion, the three Death Spirit Masters felt a rumbling sound.

  On the back of the flying dragon, Asa withdrew his palm and panted laboriously. This fireball, which was even faster than an arrow, still contained such great power; if he hadn't studied with old Sandru for the past two days, he really wouldn't have been able to bring it out. Although he and Gru didn't have any prior agreement, he also knew that this fireball was absolutely the right choice at this moment.

  Nimbas's face showed a look of terror. Because of this sudden acceleration, he knew that the magic in his hand was no faster than this punch. However, he felt his collar tighten and his body suddenly start to float backwards.

  Gulu's foot finally stepped on the stone statue, and the hard black rock suddenly burst and splashed. But the stone statue was empty, no one was there.

  Three necromancers had flown into mid-air. Or rather, one necromancer was carrying the other two.

  Just as the first lich was about to collapse from exhaustion, Nimbas prepared to attack. The last lich, however, had no time to spare and also gathered magical energy. As soon as the explosion occurred, Gruel accelerated in mid-air, especially when he saw the raised fist. A subconscious fear involuntarily converted his originally intended attacking magic into a fleeing force.

  In terms of physical ability, he was indeed an old man similar to ordinary people, with no sharp physical movements, let alone any explosive power. If it were just a matter of dodging physically, he would have been dead a thousand times over. However, the magic he had refined for a lifetime was unleashed at a speed almost rivaling that of his opponent rushing towards him. He grabbed the backs of two companions with both hands and immediately took off into the air at the speed of a startled vulture, shouting "So it was you that day!"

  "It was you who killed Aisley that day!" The necromancer, dragging two companions behind him, bellowed in mid-air, his eyes gleaming with half anger and half fear from beneath the skull mask.

  Ge Lu didn't answer. He bent his waist, jumped up, and the stone statue of a ghost's head under his feet shattered. Then he shot straight into the air like a crossbow arrow towards the three dead spirit masters in the high sky.

  But this time he missed. Fear had already crushed the necromancer's nerves to the extreme, and almost as soon as he bent down, the necromancer began to make evasive movements, dragging two companions to the side like a fish in water, and Gru just swept past them a few meters away.

  Nimbas gazed at the fleeting figure, the flustered look in his eyes had completely disappeared, replaced by ferocity. The magic in his hand had taken shape, he raised it, grasping a death spirit arrow condensed from pure magical fluctuations, and with a loud shout, "Go..."

  The word behind should be "die". He must have shouted "go die", but Nimbas didn't shout out because his mouth was gone in an instant.

  It wasn't just his mouth, his entire head suddenly shattered into pieces. It didn't shatter like a tomato egg, splashing everywhere, but rather his head suddenly became a small, silent firework that exploded without warning. The two dead spirit mages beside him were evenly covered in his blood and flesh, bone fragments, and other debris. The silver skull mask was the only thing on his head that hadn't shattered, but it had also been completely twisted and deformed into a mess.

  His head gone, the Death Spirit Arrow in his hand, which was only a hair's breadth away from being released, let out a "poof" sound and dissipated.

  His momentum unabated, Gru still charged forward in the imperial court, withdrawing his fist and taking a deep breath. For the first time, he showed some signs of fatigue, because when he threw his punch, there was at least twenty meters between him and the undead lich.

  The lich in mid-air let out a terrified scream.

  He was terrified not because he saw his companion's death, but because he knew that if it wasn't Nimbasa's impending attack, then the one whose head would be smashed would be his.

  There were no prior signs, nor any magical fluctuations. He only seemed to see that person rapidly passing by, turning around in mid-air, and punching out a white fist into the void. Then Nimba's head just exploded. It wasn't until then that he felt the abnormality in the air with his own subtle sense of airflow. That was not magic, but pure power and speed. The punch swung at the void was really too fast, too powerful, and it actually punched out the air. The mass of air that was punched out by this fist may have had only a fraction of its power, but for a human skull, it was more than enough.

  Without any hesitation, the Lich threw down Nimbasa's headless corpse and dragged another companion to fly far away. It was several times faster than when they came by riding the Golems, and in a few blinks of an eye, it became a small black dot.

  Gru's speed weakened slowly as he rose higher and then began to fall. Asa caught him riding a two-legged flying dragon.

  He stood up on the Double-Headed Flying Dragon again, and Gru looked a bit disheveled. However, this dishevelment was caused by Asa's hand, as that one fireball that exploded on his back had almost completely blown his clothes to shreds, revealing a body full of powerful beauty like a sculpture. His hair seemed to have been burned off by half, and his face was also somewhat black. However, his expression was one of relief and affirmation, smiling at Asa: "Well done."

  "Ah Sa also smiled: 'You hit better.'"

  "I'll have to be more careful next time." Gru sighed, seemingly not entirely satisfied with the previous battle. "I didn't think those three flies would be more troublesome than I expected."

  "A little?" Asa asked.

  "Alright." Gru nodded.

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