Chapter 485: Ambush and Mutation

The battle erupted completely in the blink of an eye.

The two Noren Workshop wizards clashed fiercely with the two enemy fifth-ring wizards in the sky above the freshly formed lava basin.

The male wizard specialized in the water-element law. With a wave of his hand, he summoned dozens of water serpents—each one brimming with terrifying impact force and corrosiveness—that lunged toward the Chaos Secret Cult wizard from every angle.

The female wizard excelled in runes and barriers. She continuously hurled pre-prepared runic tools into the air, layering restrictive, disruptive, and weakening barrier fields while simultaneously providing protection and enhancements for her companion.

Their opponent, the Chaos Secret Cult wizard, though gravely wounded, fought in an extremely eerie manner.

He rarely used direct offensive witchcraft. Instead, he unleashed wave after wave of curses, hallucinations, and mental interference spells.

Whenever a water serpent was about to strike him, the air around his body would distort, causing the serpent to inexplicably veer off course or simply collapse on its own.

Binding barriers aimed at him would frequently miss their mark for no apparent reason.

Even more troublesome were the lava pools beneath his feet. From time to time they would suddenly erupt, spewing forth writhing, seemingly living tentacles of molten rock that attempted to ensnare the Noren Workshop wizards in midair.

The Tower of Annihilation wizard, by contrast, fought in an entirely different style.

Simple. Brutal. Direct.

In each palm he condensed a mass of energy—pure blazing white light in his left hand, profound darkness in his right.

He forcibly compressed these two opposing forces together, then unleashed them in the form of beams, shockwaves, energy spheres, and more.

Every attack carried a terrifying “annihilation” property capable of erasing both matter and energy from existence on contact.

Four fifth-ring wizards tangled together in chaotic aerial combat.

Explosions from colliding energies, shrieks from clashing laws, and incantations of released witchcraft echoed across the wasteland sky.

Overall, the two Noren Workshop wizards held a clear advantage.

The Chaos Secret Cult wizard was heavily injured; his movements were sluggish. Every spell he cast triggered violent coughing fits, sometimes bringing up black blood flecked with fragments of internal organs.

His defenses grew steadily weaker. Several times he nearly took a direct hit from a water serpent to a vital spot.

The Tower of Annihilation wizard was in slightly better shape, but the female wizard’s barrier tactics were driving him to frustration.

Though his attacks were devastatingly powerful, each required a brief charging period—and that window was more than enough for the female wizard to layer three or more layers of interference barriers, severely diminishing their effectiveness.

At this rate, in no more than three minutes the Chaos Secret Cult wizard would be the first to collapse.

Once he fell, facing two-on-one odds, the Tower of Annihilation wizard wouldn’t last much longer either.

“Quick! Press harder! He’s almost done for!”

The male wizard shouted to his companion while intensifying his control over the water serpents for a fiercer assault.

The female wizard nodded. Her hand seals accelerated; more runic tools flew from her storage space.

Yet… precisely at the moment when the Noren Workshop wizards held an overwhelming upper hand—

The Chaos Secret Cult wizard’s face suddenly split into an extremely chilling smile.

The male wizard locked in direct combat with him felt his heart lurch.

Something’s wrong!

It’s a trap!

Almost instinctively he raised his guard. His spiritual force spread outward at full strength, wary of a possible hidden third enemy or some curse witchcraft from the man before him.

But he never could have anticipated that the danger came from beneath his feet.

More precisely—from the half-charred corpse of his Noren Workshop comrade lying ignored in the lava basin below.

Pfft.

A faint sound, like a sharp blade piercing flesh.

The male wizard’s body suddenly stiffened.

He slowly lowered his head and looked toward his chest.

A charred hand—reduced to bone and scraps of carbonized muscle—had pierced straight through his torso from behind. The palm emerged from his chest, fingers splayed, clutching a still faintly beating heart.

It was… his own heart.

“Urgh…”

The male wizard opened his mouth. Blood surged out.

With difficulty he turned his head to look behind him.

At some point, that half-charred corpse had “stood” up.

Though it had no legs, it propped itself on the ground with its remaining torso and one arm.

In its empty eye sockets, the two black orbs spun frantically, emitting an eerie red glow.

And from its mouth—the mouth torn all the way to the ears—it opened and closed, producing a voice he knew all too well…

It was the voice of the Chaos Secret Cult wizard.

“I never expected… it would go this smoothly.”

The tone brimmed with delight:

“You Noren Workshop ‘gentlemen’ are always so… easy to fool.”

The male wizard’s pupils contracted sharply.

Only now did he understand—from beginning to end, this had all been a meticulously crafted trap.

That corpse had never been the abused remains of a fallen comrade. It was a “parasitic puppet” prepared in advance by the Chaos Secret Cult wizard.

High-grade mimicry curses and soul disguises had been applied, even simulating the aura of death so perfectly that neither of them had sensed anything amiss.

During the earlier battle, the Chaos Secret Cult wizard’s seemingly desperate dodges and defenses had actually been deliberate maneuvers, subtly guiding the male wizard’s positioning until he unknowingly drifted directly above the puppet’s location.

Even that chilling smile had been bait.

And then, the instant his full attention was drawn to the enemies in front—

The puppet struck. One fatal blow.

“Damn it!!!”

On the other side, the female wizard had also witnessed her companion’s plight. Her eyes nearly split with rage.

She tried to rush over to help, but the Tower of Annihilation wizard had anticipated her reaction. With a savage grin he unleashed an even more frenzied barrage.

Gray-white annihilation beams poured down like torrential rain, pinning her firmly in place. She couldn’t break free.

“Heh heh… no need to rush.”

The Chaos Secret Cult wizard’s voice continued to issue from the puppet’s mouth:

“It’ll be your turn soon.”

At that moment, a flash of grim resolve passed through the eyes of the impaled male wizard.

He knew he was finished.

A destroyed heart was hardly a fatal injury for a fifth-ring wizard.

Even the curse energy that had invaded his body along with the piercing strike was not beyond his ability to handle.

The real problem was that since the enemy had laid such a trap, it meant more traps awaited!

In that case…

“Run!”

With his last ounce of strength he roared at the female wizard.

The moment the word left his mouth, his body began to deform grotesquely.

Countless cracks split across his skin. Thick, slime-covered tentacles burst forth from the fissures, thrashing wildly in the air.

His head elongated. His mouth tore open into four petals, revealing rows upon rows of razor-sharp teeth within.

His bones emitted nauseating grinding sounds as his body swelled dozens of times in an instant, transforming into a writhing, tentacle-sprouting mass of horrific flesh.

This was the “deep-sea behemoth” bloodline gene he had implanted in himself upon advancing to fifth-ring.

Once fully unleashed, it granted terrifying power and vitality for a short time.

The cost… was permanently losing human form, with a maximum duration of five minutes—after which genetic collapse would inevitably lead to death.

Originally intended as a final life-saving trump card, he now activated it without the slightest hesitation.

“ROOOAR!!!”

The fleshy mass let out an inhuman roar. Dozens of tentacles lashed out like steel whips toward the Chaos Secret Cult wizard and the puppet. The sheer force even produced sonic booms.

One tentacle struck the puppet head-on, instantly blasting it into scattered fragments across the sky.

The Chaos Secret Cult wizard let out a闷哼, sent flying over a hundred meters before crashing heavily into the lava ground and carving out a long trench in his wake.

Yet even so…

“Useless…”

The Chaos Secret Cult wizard’s voice drifted from the opposite side of the lava pit.

He slowly rose. Though several more bones had broken, the smile on his face only grew brighter:

“Did you really think… I would come unprepared?”

He raised his remaining right hand and snapped his fingers.

Snap.

The crisp sound rang out with unusual sharpness on the battlefield.

The next instant…

Hum.

Centered on the lava basin, within a five-kilometer radius, countless dark-red patterns suddenly lit up across the ground.

Like veins, the patterns spread and intertwined across the surface, ultimately forming a gigantic three-dimensional array that enveloped the entire area.

The moment the array activated, space was locked.

No—not just space.

Energy flow, law activity, even… “information transmission” were forcibly suppressed and isolated.

The female wizard’s expression changed dramatically.

She attempted to send a transmission spell to the rear, but the spiritual fluctuations she released sank like stones into the sea—no response whatsoever.

She tried spatial jumping, only to find herself like an insect trapped in amber—every movement became extraordinarily difficult.

“This is… the ‘Prison of Agony’ ritual?!” she cried out in shock.

“Correct.” The Chaos Secret Cult wizard grinned. “I began setting it up three days ago, just waiting for big fish like you to take the bait.”

As he spoke, he slowly advanced toward the now-transformed fleshy mass:

“Rest assured—this ritual completely severs all internal and external communication, shields most spatial fluctuations, and continuously absorbs the pain emotions of every living being within range, converting them into my own power.”

“You can’t escape.”

“And don’t expect anyone to come rescue you. This entire area has been thoroughly ‘concealed’ by my ritual. From the outside, it looks like nothing more than ordinary wasteland—no energy fluctuations, no anomalies at all.”

“But inside this ritual…”

He stopped ten meters in front of the fleshy mass and tilted his head:

“Among fifth-ring wizards… I am invincible.”

With those words, he raised his right hand. In his palm began to gather a dark-red energy that filled the heart with dread.

Within that energy seemed to writhe countless distorted, anguished faces, screaming and struggling.

Just as he was about to deliver the final blow—

Another mutation occurred.