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When the devil loved the infected like his kids, there's a moment I feel I liked him a bit too. I mean, he has a dark side, but now he seems like a poor guy, but he's at least parental and loyal to the ML, right?
Upon hearing the insulting words from the grotesque creature before them, not just the hot-headed fire mage, Karl, but also the rest of them became even more angry. This rage made them burst into laughter without thinking.
"Are you mocking us? Us noble mages?!"
Five magic spells hit the virus at the same time, instantly wiping it out. Afterward, Karl firmly stated, "It seems the puppet master is scared, we must be very close to him, I will tear him apart, no matter who he is!"
Adam disliked pointless fights, even more so fights among his own kind. Since the Tower had issued the order for the final battle, it meant this trial was nearing its end. All his preparations were to end this somewhat boring trial of war earlier. It was better to push away these newly advanced mages who came to bother him, and add some power to the decisive battle on the other side.
The devil came to Adam unwillingly, saying, "Master, they destroyed the viral avatar, and still didn't want to leave, and they even said they would tear you to pieces."
Adam was instructing the infected to place the metal pillars on the energy nodes of the outer magic array. Hearing the devil's words, he fell silent for a moment, somewhat helplessly saying, "If that's the case, I have to kill them."
Adam really wanted to avoid pointless fights and losses. Once the magic array was activated, however, even he himself also didn't know how powerful it would be. There was just one thing that was certain: Considering the power level of the newly advanced mages deduced from observation, the railgun Adam carefully prepared was definitely something they couldn't resist. But Adam wasn't a man who would wait to be slaughtered. One warning had already shown his kindness. Since they ignored his advice, it was every man for himself.
Adam told the devil to use the infected to slow them down and to tell him where they were, while he himself went to each power point of the magic array, turning on the runes etched within.
Ether crystals began to 'burn'. Huge magic power connected all points through energy paths, and a magical storm happened inside the magic array. All elements in the world were held back and turned into a magnetic field at once, creating a massive Lorentz force.
In the mage world, all places outside the Mage Continent, including Ceylon Island, hadn't gotten blessings from the World Guardian, making their space fabric weaker. With the magic array turned on, a sound beyond words echoed in Adam's ear, the soft cries of space itself.
Adam temporarily took over the devil's body through their pact and combined with Garfield. All the infected became his eyes and ears, and under the watchful gaze of countless eyes, the five attackers had nowhere to hide.
When the energy buildup reached a certain point, Adam swapped emotional thinking with logical thinking. All threads were working beyond their limit, calculating and predicting all possible changes of the spatial coordinates where the attackers were.
"Railgun targets set. Launch countdown: five, four, three, two, one."
"Be careful, these infected creatures seem to have changed again."
Even though he seemed a bit hot-headed, Karl, the fire mage, was proud but not stupid. In other words, no idiot would be in a war trial. The moment Adam took control of the infected, Karl felt something was wrong. While controlling his flying movements, he said seriously, "Their attacks have become more aggressive, and it seems like they're watching us."
"True, if the infected before were just wildly charging, now there's clear reasoning in the eyes of the infected. They must be under someone's control."
"They're organized, disciplined, like they're trying to keep us here."
Looking at his Point bracelet, Karl could only see five dots that represented their team, showing they were still a fair distance away from Adam. "It's not about stopping us, but slowing us down. Why this sudden change?"
The rest of the group shared Karl's confusion. Although the infected had always been in front of them, constantly attacking and bothering, they had never been this desperate, seemingly not caring about their own losses.
This issue went back to the different views of Adam and the devil. Adam didn't care about the lives of the infected, but the devil felt strangely unwilling. After joining with Garfield, each infected creature felt like his child. Telling its children to rush to certain death was a choice the devil found hard to make.
Suddenly, Karl looked up and whispered, "Unless he's already targeting us. The reason for slowing us down could be his plan to wipe us out with long-range magic."
The other four laughed. They're all mages, yet even they themselves couldn't cast magic beyond the detection distance of the Point bracelet. If the puppet master had such power, he wouldn't have to spread infection to get Points.
"Karl, you're overthinking. I think he's just scared and wants to make us stop chasing him with this tactic. No matter how much these infected evolve, they still can't..."
The mage's words suddenly stopped. Nobody interrupted him. He had seen the 'bullet' flying from the far horizon. The powerful magic in the bullet made the space around it warp unpredictably. Even though the bullet was still far away, they could already feel a deep, bone-chilling fear from their souls.
"We're going to die. If it hits, we will definitely die!!" The four newly promoted mages yelled together. Their magic armor, which had been improved after being promoted, was now equipped with their strongest defensive magic, while the high-ranking apprentice pressed his activated seal crystal to his chest.
Each mage held a teleportation scroll, but nobody dared to rip it open. In such unstable spatial conditions, using teleportation would only cause them to be destroyed by the violent space turbulence and the ethereal storm.
"Everyone, run!" Karl shouted bitterly, his body wrapped in flames. He flew sideways like a fireball. Meanwhile, the other three mages, each covered in elements, scrambled in different directions.
But, it was all pointless. The speed of the massive bullet fired by the railgun was beyond everyone's imagination. What was on the horizon just seconds ago was now right in front of their eyes. All their possible escape directions and paths were in Adam's calculations. From the moment they saw the railgun, their deaths were already decided.