Ch. 18
Chapter 18
Is She Afraid We’ll Run Away?
The iron doors of the elevator closed behind them with a dull crashing sound.
The view suddenly opened up.
This was the very top level of Ashen Harbor, a massive, circular open-air plaza.
Surrounding it was a ring of towering stands, strikingly similar to the Colosseum of ancient Rome, except the spectator seats were completely empty.
The instant the elevator doors opened, every weapon, every staff, was pointed at them as they stepped out.
Standing at the very front was a woman in a deep purple mage robe.
Aina.
The debtor who had borrowed power for twenty years.
Ling Xi shrank her neck.
Even from dozens of meters away, the heavy pressure of a desperate, last-stand resolve from the opposite side made it hard for her to breathe.
“Scarlet Moon!”
Aina’s voice was hoarse, trembling, echoing across the empty plaza.
“You really came.”
Scarlet Moon stepped out of the elevator, her long boots striking the stone tiles with a crisp sound.
Tap.
The once noisy plaza fell into instant silence, as if someone had pressed a mute button.
The breathing of the mercenaries and mages behind Aina halted at that very moment.
Tap.
The hands gripping weapons began to tremble uncontrollably. Teeth chattered faintly with soft clacking sounds.
Cold sweat slid down from their temples, soaking into their collars, bringing a chilling sensation that could not dispel the fear in their hearts.
Tap.
The third step.
Scarlet Moon did not even spare them a glance. She simply walked forward at her own pace, neither hurried nor slow.
It was not killing intent, but something purer—an absolute sense of dominance from the very top of the food chain.
With each of her steps, fear pressed down bit by bit upon every heart present.
Ling Xi, however, felt as if her feet were nailed to the ground.
A sudden tightening sensation came from her neck, yanking her violently out of her daze.
Scarlet Moon had already walked nearly five meters away. That invisible shadow thread had been stretched to its limit.
She stumbled, nearly falling, and quickly lifted her skirt and hurried after her in small, quick steps, trailing behind that composed figure in a rather sorry state.
“It has been twenty years. You’ve gotten old.”
Scarlet Moon stopped walking and stood fifty meters away from the crowd.
Tilting her head, she examined the hysterical woman.
“I remember when you begged me back then, your skin was a little tighter.”
There was a trace of innocent curiosity in Scarlet Moon’s voice, as if she were genuinely concerned about the other woman’s skin condition.
“I gave you twenty years of seventh-tier power, yet you could not even be bothered to study the most basic methods of preserving your appearance?.”
“Shut up!”
Aina let out a scream, her voice turning sharp and shrill from emotional agitation.
“What would you understand! How could you possibly understand the struggle of mortals like us!”
She raised a hand trembling with rage and pointed straight at Scarlet Moon.
“Twenty years old! Do you know what I was doing when I was twenty?”
“I was in the library of the magic academy, poring over those moldy old books day and night, trying to find even the slightest spark of inspiration between the lines!”
“But what was the result? My magic circuits were flawed from birth, and the upper limit of my mental energy was a complete joke!
Fourth tier! That was my limit!”
Her voice rose louder and louder, carrying an almost mad kind of accusation.
“Why? Why was it that I put in so much effort, yet I could not even cast a single high-tier spell?”
“Why was it that that woman, that person who entered at the same time as me, the one praised as heaven’s favored genius, could rise so easily to the fifth tier just by drinking afternoon tea every day?”
“The way she looked at me, do you know?
That pity, that charity!
As if she were looking at some pathetic creature rolling in the mud, unable to crawl out no matter what!”
Scarlet Moon listened quietly, with little expression on her face, only lightly twining a strand of her long hair around her fingertip.
Ling Xi stood behind her, not even daring to breathe loudly.
So what kind of routine was this now?
The standard opening act before someone completely lost it?
“So I found you!”
Aina’s gaze turned feverish, the madness of a gambler staking everything she had.
“I knelt and begged you, offering up everything I had, just to exchange it for power that could surpass her!”
“And you did it, Scarlet Moon! You really gave it to me!”
“When I used seventh-tier Inferno Prison to burn through the Frost Barrier she had been so proud of, the look on her face was absolutely marvelous!”
“I crippled her magic circuits, broke all four of her limbs, seized the research成果 she had worked her entire life for, and then trampled her beneath my feet in front of everyone!”
Aina let out a sickening laugh, her whole body shaking from it.
“For these twenty years, I enjoyed her fame, her status, her wealth! All of it was worth it!”
Standing behind Scarlet Moon, Ling Xi could not stop herself from complaining inwardly.
Wait, this is not right. Boasting to your creditor about how comfortably you lived on borrowed money—isn’t that just reminding the creditor to come collect both principal and interest as soon as possible?
“Now, twenty years are up.
You’ve come to take my soul?”
Aina abruptly stopped laughing and stared fixedly at Scarlet Moon.
“Do you think I’ll kneel before you like I did twenty years ago and let you slaughter me?”
She spread her arms wide.
“This cage is a gift I prepared for you with all my heart and soul!”
“Look around you! These seven layers of magic locks, these three hundred elites, and this anti-magic force field!”
The stone tiles beneath their feet lit up with a glaring red glow.
Countless points of light emerged across the entire plaza. A violent storm rose from the ground, sweeping up broken stones all around.
“Even if you are a calamity, inside this cage built specifically for you, don’t even think about leaving unscathed!”
“Today, the one who dies will be you!”
Ling Xi instinctively raised her hand to shield her face, her skirt whipping loudly in the gale.
If that hit her directly, there probably would not even be ashes left.
“Are you finished?”
Scarlet Moon’s languid voice pierced through the storm.
She lifted a hand to cover her lips and gave a small yawn.
A dark red light screen instantly rose, centered on Scarlet Moon.
Like a massive hemispherical bowl overturned, it sealed the entire colosseum tightly within, cutting off the sky outside.
The light screen radiated a suffocating pressure that made hearts tremble at a single glance.
Aina froze.
The crowd behind her stirred in agitation.
“This is… a sealing barrier?”
“Is she afraid we’ll run away?”
“No, that’s not right. These magic fluctuations are defensive in nature!”
Aina glared at Scarlet Moon, gritting her teeth. “What do you mean? Trapping yourself in here? Do you think that makes you untouchable?”
Scarlet Moon adjusted the edge of her lace glove and spoke unhurriedly:
“Don’t misunderstand.”
“This dome is to protect the outside.”
“Protect the outside?”
“Yes.”
Scarlet Moon turned her head and glanced at Ling Xi, who was shrinking back behind her.
“This city is rather interesting, especially those little stalls below selling scrap metal.”
“My little maid just picked out a pendant down there. She seemed to like it quite a bit.”
Ling Xi’s body stiffened.
All eyes instantly focused on her.
“If the commotion later gets too big and shakes this city into collapse, those stalls will be gone.”
Scarlet Moon reached out and gently pinched Ling Xi’s cheek.
“Since it’s a place my little pet rarely takes a liking to, I can’t very well let it be destroyed just like that, can I?”