Krian controlled several thousand weapons and arrived at the Random Name Magic Association with an air of invincible arrogance. The moment he struck, he gravely wounded Green. When Ye Chui appeared, Krian’s face was filled with mockery. As he declared “I’ve come to kill you”, he even struck a dramatically cool pose, fully expecting Ye Chui to be overwhelmed by his aura.
Yet Ye Chui only spared him a cold glance before walking straight to Green, pulling the longsword from Green’s shoulder and beginning emergency treatment. Debbie, Resha, and the others hurriedly changed clothes and rushed over from the rear of the castle.
Ye Chui handed Green to Debbie for healing, then finally turned his icy gaze on Krian and asked in a voice devoid of warmth, “Who are you?”
Krian was inwardly furious. Ye Chui’s earlier disregard, tending to his subordinate instead of acknowledging him, felt like a blatant insult. He gave a cold snort. “Hearing my name will scare you stupid. Listen well. I come from the Magic Association. My name is Krian. My father is the Bell-Ringing Phase Archmage!”
“And?”
Ye Chui continued staring at him coldly, thinking to himself that this explained the arrogance. Given the current prestige of the Random Name Magic Association, probably no power or individual in the entire Star Empire would dare come here to make trouble. This Krian clearly had the backing to be insolent. The son of a Phase King Archmage?
Ye Chui had dared to beat a Phase King Archmage himself. What did this daddy’s boy amount to? He had actually injured one of Ye Chui’s people!
“I am here for Persily!” Krian roared angrily. Ye Chui’s lack of reaction was enraging him, and a faint trace of unease was beginning to rise in his heart.
For Persily? Ye Chui glanced at Green, wondering if this was because Green had pursued Persily and made the man jealous. He quickly realised that was not the case. Krian continued shouting, “Persily is a Phase King Archmage. Only someone as outstanding and noble as me is worthy of her. Who do you think you are? Some All-Around Archmage! A mere mortal daring to call himself all-around. Today I will kill you!”
“…” Ye Chui was speechless. He was taking the blame for something he had not done? For some reason Krian had misunderstood that it was Ye Chui pursuing Persily. Regardless, the fact remained that he had come to cause trouble and injured his (former) logistics minister. Fury began burning in Ye Chui’s chest.
Seeing Krian open his mouth to continue, Ye Chui’s body suddenly dissolved into a swarm of bats that shot towards him at blinding speed. The bats coalesced into a fist that smashed straight into Krian’s face. Krian cried out in pain as a layer of lightning instantly wrapped around his body. He staggered sideways, shock on his face. He had not expected Ye Chui to attack so decisively.
In his imagination, once Ye Chui learned his identity he would show fear. He was the son of a Phase King Archmage! In the future he might even marry another Phase King Archmage. Someone of such noble status, and Ye Chui attacked without hesitation?
Caught completely off guard, he took the full blow. His handsome face immediately swelled. Realising his beautiful features were now ruined, Krian’s anger surged.
“A mere guild master dares to strike me—” he roared. Seeing Ye Chui reform from the bats and approach with raised fists, he hurriedly thrust both hands skyward. “Very well. You’re all dead!”
Advanced magnetic spell: 【Thunder-Magnetic Heavenly Punishment】!
Every weapon gathered high in the sky sprang to life. Lightning coiled around each blade as if they had gained sentience, then hurtled towards the association’s castle. In an instant the sky was filled with thunder-light swords flying in all directions. Bang! Bang! Windows in the castle shattered one after another. Flowers, plants, and trees in the garden were instantly sliced to pieces.
Resha hurriedly cast 【This Lady’s Got You Covered】, condensing a protective shield around herself to shelter the servants and maids working in the villa. Debbie summoned Gilga to resist the flying swords. Realising the spell’s source was Krian, Gilga turned into a streak of golden light and shot towards him, but Krian merely waved a hand. Swords wrapped in lightning intercepted Gilga and rapidly entangled her.
Guni and Xiles also took cover inside Resha’s shield. Swords rained down on the barrier, attacking relentlessly. Fatigue appeared on Resha’s face; cracks were already spreading across the shield. She would not hold much longer.
Even more thunder-lightning swords were now swarming Ye Chui.
Ye Chui dispersed into a flock of bats to evade a wave of strangling blades, then quickly reformed and summoned armoured swordsmen to sweep away several swords. He tried freezing them with ice magic, but more swords instantly broke through the frost.
He cast gravity magic, but it was of little help in this situation. Although gravity magic could alter the direction of gravitational pull on weapons and make them float, it was far less precise than magnetic magic. Direct contact was needed to multiply gravity dozens of times. While he had spells like 【Gravity Field】, under such conditions it could only increase weight several-fold. Even a sword weighing several times more was still only a few dozen or few hundred pounds.
Ye Chui’s gravity spells only managed to ground a few greatswords; lighter longswords and shortswords were completely unaffected.
It was clear that although Ye Chui was holding off this terrifying swarm, he had no real counterattack.
【Thunder-Magnetic Heavenly Punishment】 did not merely control swords with magnetism; it also vastly amplified their lightning-element attack power. Every sword carried a bolt of thunder, making both the blades and the lightning lethally dangerous.
Ye Chui tried several types of magic but found none particularly effective against Krian’s assault. Finally he sighed in resignation. His grimoire currently held over a hundred thousand points, but he had not intended to spend them yet; he had a plan and wanted to save them for later.
Now it seemed he had no choice.
“If I want to comprehend magnetic magic, he is the perfect target…”
…
At that moment Krian let out a manic laugh. “My magnetic magic is the strongest magic of all! It counters every other attribute. Ye Chui, turn to mincemeat under my 【Thunder-Magnetic Heavenly Punishment】! Let’s see how long you can last!!!”
Countless onlookers had already gathered outside the Random Name Magic Association. They stared in stunned disbelief at the scene inside. The mighty All-Around Archmage appeared utterly powerless against this magnetic magic. Everyone was shocked and wondered who this magnetic archmage could be to wield such overwhelming power.
Some of the more knowledgeable spectators vaguely guessed his background.
“The grimoire he uses must have been passed down through countless generations. Only someone from the Magic Association could wield a grimoire like that!”
“Only the Magic Association possesses this level of power!”
“Ye Chui is in real danger this time.”
“Magnetic magic is extremely strange and terrifying. The only thing that can fully counter it is magnetic magic itself…”
“Ye Chui is called the All-Around Archmage. Maybe he knows magnetic magic too?”
“Magnetic magic is the advanced form of lightning magic, one of the hardest attributes to comprehend. Although Ye Chui is powerful and his all-around title comes from mastering many attributes, he may not possess magnetic magic… He has never used it before!”
At that exact instant a loud crash came from within the association. Resha’s protective shield finally shattered!
Krian burst into triumphant laughter. Countless flying swords were about to rain down on Debbie and the others.
Yet in that split second, every sword suddenly froze in mid-air.
The arrogant expression on Krian’s face faltered. One hand still raised, it trembled slightly as he tried to regain control, but another force suppressed him, locking the swords in place. Panic filled his face as he whipped around to stare at Ye Chui, who stood beneath a large tree some distance away.
He could feel it. The power restraining his control came from Ye Chui.
How was Ye Chui doing this?
“Nmp, wasting a whole ten thousand points on me…”
Ye Chui walked forward from the tree, looking deeply annoyed. With each step he took, the frozen swords began to quiver. Sword tips that had been aimed at his companions abruptly swivelled round to point at Krian.
Sweat beaded on Krian’s forehead. His earlier arrogance had vanished completely. He stared at Ye Chui in terror and roared hoarsely, “You… impossible! You can actually use 【Thunder-Magnetic Heavenly Punishment】 too!”
Ye Chui was now casting the exact same 【Thunder-Magnetic Heavenly Punishment】 spell. His stored magical power far exceeded Krian’s, making his version of the spell stronger. He had forcibly seized control of every sword!
All of this had cost Ye Chui ten thousand points.
First he spent five thousand points on 【Designated Enlightenment】, comprehending Magneto from the X-Men series. This unlocked the magnetic magic attribute and granted him a magnetic spell, 【Magnetic Dominion】. However, 【Magnetic Dominion】 only controlled metal. Although its destructive potential was immense, it differed from 【Thunder-Magnetic Heavenly Punishment】, which infused weapons with lightning. Ye Chui’s 【Magnetic Dominion】 could not fully dominate the swords Krian controlled, so he had no choice but to log into Krian’s memory website and thunder-download the 【Thunder-Magnetic Heavenly Punishment】 spell itself.
That cost another five thousand points.
Only by learning the identical spell could he completely counter Krian.
Now every single thunder-lightning sword was under Ye Chui’s command.
Ye Chui halted, extended his hand towards Krian, and gently pushed forward.
Instantly the countless swords turned into streaks of sword-light trailing lightning and shot towards Krian.
Krian’s face contorted in horror. He instinctively raised both arms to shield his face.
Bang bang bang—
Although he could no longer control the swords, the power of 【Thunder-Magnetic Heavenly Punishment】 still lingered. The incoming thunder-swords twisted around him and plunged into the ground.
Ye Chui frowned, realising that using the same spell prevented him from killing Krian outright. He changed tactics. Raising his right hand skyward, he cast the advanced magnetic spell 【Magnetic Dominion】. Every sword answered his call, soaring upward once more before clashing and fusing together. Clang after clang rang out as the thousands of swords condensed at Ye Chui’s side into an enormous arm of steel.
Lightning still coiled along the arm. Ye Chui leapt into the air, commanding the colossal steel arm. Its massive fist blotted out the sun as it descended towards Krian.
Krian let out a scream of pure terror, flailing his arms wildly in a futile attempt to block the falling fist.
His own 【Thunder-Magnetic Heavenly Punishment】 could only deflect individual swords. Now that every sword had merged into one entity and Ye Chui was personally driving the attack, the force was far beyond anything his spell could resist.
BOOM!
Before the stunned eyes of the crowd, the gigantic steel fist smashed down onto Krian, cratering the ground where he stood…
