The Wizard's Pursuit of Truth

A roiling mass of shadows engulfed the entire area behind Max. The candlelight flickered and died, one flame after another. Faced with such terrifying darkness, even light itself was swallowed whole.

She cradled a black sphere in both hands, her indifferent gaze sweeping over the Wizards in the hall. Her Power was more than enough to crush them all; she had laid this trap to leave nothing to chance.

The aura of a Level 3 Wizard Apprentice saturated every corner of the hall, causing a heavy, suffocating pressure to settle over the Wizards present.

Shadowy silhouettes materialized in the darkness behind her. They were Black Souls, packed tightly together, revealing hideous, contorted faces. The heads of various Extraordinary Creatures could also be seen among them.

They jostled and fought to push their heads forward, their gazes fixed greedily on the Wizards in the hall.

To the Black Souls, the Wizards were a delectable feast. A Wizard's soul, in particular, could bolster their own spiritual foundation once devoured.

A chorus of maddened whispers arose as the Black Souls began to size up the Wizards.

"I want to eat this Wizard. His flesh must be delicious."

"You're the bastard who hit me! I'm gonna gnaw on your kidneys!" a Black Soul snarled at Zack Antuun. It had morphed into the head of a vicious, tusked hound, drool dripping from its maw.

Zack, however, paid it no mind. His eyes remained locked on Max as he slowly began to back away.

'Zack Antuun wasn't chickening out; this was a strategic retreat. He would return to settle this score another day.'

'The situation was beyond his control. Staying here meant throwing his life away and bringing shame upon the Antuun Clan. He could not become a disgrace to his family.'

'The worst part was, he had seen the flare of Particle Energy from Wang Ya Harak and assumed he was about to attack Max.'

'Trusting in Wang Ya's Power and intellect, Zack had decisively struck out as well. But that bastard had simply bailed! Zack's face flushed red. He'd vanished without a sound, and Zack hadn't even noticed.'

'No warning, not even a signal. This Wizard Task had turned into a complete and utter disaster for him.'

"What is this masked guy doing? The arrogance! Just sitting there, not even moving. Is he looking down on me? I'll eat him first!" A human Black Soul with a hawkish nose flared with a black, cursed aura. It glared viciously at Wang Ya. "Before I was killed by Lady Rilis, I was a renowned genius Wizard in the Natural Ring Tower!"

Wang Ya raised an eyebrow. 'It seems there are some issues with these Black Souls' emotions and intellect.'

'Natural Ring Tower?'

He seemed to grasp something, and a theory about the Black Wizard's identity began to form in his mind.

The Wizard Influence on the other side of the Apollo Giant Mountain Range was, in fact, the Natural Ring Tower.

Compared to the other Wizard Cities in the Divine Eagle Territory, Celestial Wings Wizard City was the closest to the Apollo Mountain Range.

A bizarre smile touched the lips of 'Max'. The shadows in the darkness behind him erupted in maniacal cackles, swirling out in every direction.

A dense, cursed aura flooded the hall. The numerous Black Souls descended upon the mansion's Wizards, using their Curse Soul Power to forcibly push through the oppressive pressure of their Biological Force Fields and squeeze inside.

The faces of the targeted Wizards paled, their eyes wide with horror as they stared at the grotesque and terrifying Soul Bodies.

Once inside a Biological Force Field, the Black Souls' forms became visible.

The mansion's Wizards could sense from the creatures' auras that these spiritual monstrosities were surprisingly not much weaker than they were.

"Your soul is mine." This Black Soul had been an Elemental Wizard in life, and its use of Curse Soul Power thus leaned toward aspects of Elemental Witchcraft.

It transformed into an all-pervading torrent of black miasma. The mansion's Wizard, his Particle Energy completely depleted, was powerless to resist. In his despair, a wind of black energy scoured him down to a bare skeleton.

CLATTER. It fell to the ground.

The Black Soul, now cloaked in flesh and blood, wore the face of the dead Wizard. It stood in place, a wide smile spreading across its features as it seemingly adapted to its new body.

As for the Wizard's soul, it had naturally been devoured.

Similar scenes were playing out all across the hall.

The Law Enforcement Wizards and City Lord's Mansion Wizards near the entrance also wore the same bizarre smiles.

The entire banquet had become a veritable hellscape.

'Max's' gaze fell upon Wang Ya. A faint smile touched his lips. "So, you're the one who was spying on me."

"So troublesome. You risked exposing me."

From the darkness behind Max, several wolf-headed figures wreathed in black smoke shot out, lunging toward Wang Ya to tear him apart.

SIZZLE!

Droplets of black liquid corroded the floor, leaving a foul stench in their wake. Before the wolf-headed Black Souls, the entire rectangular table dissolved into nothing.

The Wolf-Headed Black Soul was incredibly fast. It opened its cavernous maw, five meters wide, to envelop Wang Ya completely and cut off any path of retreat. A powerful suction pulled from its dark mouth, suppressing everything within range.

The Black Souls were all enemies this Black Wizard had killed in the past. Some had been fellow Wizards, others were Extraordinary Creatures.

They retained their consciousness and combat experience, making them terrifying foes. If they managed to seize physical bodies, they could likely form an army of Extraordinary combatants in short order.

It was impossible to know how many Black Souls the black sphere contained, but the few revealed so far were enough to force Wang Ya to take this fight seriously.

Wang Ya rose from his chair. As the Curse Witchcraft saturated the area, the resonance between his Illusory Body and the Dream Gap was severed, forcing his true form to appear.