Chapter 78

Pahomel, having consumed Groen’s soul, quickly fled and hid in his new sanctuary. Although he had failed to kill Enria and Hayden, he had succeeded in one of his plans by absorbing Groen’s soul.

Of course, not killing Groen was actually part of his perfect original plan. The truly ideal plan was to eliminate the owner of the oracle and Caldeon with Panz, and then use Groen to command the tower magicians as he pleased.

However, since Groen and Belona had discovered his true identity, he had no choice but to absorb Groen’s soul and wear his skin. Once he killed those who knew he was a black magician and finished all his work, he could transform into Groen and rule the tower magicians at will.

It was regrettable that he would have to kill the Empire’s only light-attribute magician, but that would be after killing Caldeon, Enria, and Hayden, so the magic that could temporarily bind black mana wouldn’t be necessary.

With that thought, Pahomel decided that if he only killed Belona, who knew he had consumed Groen’s soul, he could then transform into Groen and take control of the tower.

‘But I have to kill everyone before that.’

Pahomel reluctantly decided to summon Panz, who was not yet complete.

And when he summoned him before his eyes, he realized that Panz might already be complete.

Panz’s appearance was very similar to the description of the Evil God written in ancient texts. When Panz had just consumed a spirit’s soul, he had two long horns on his forehead and massive, bat-like wings covering his body.

But now, the two horns had merged into one long horn soaring from the center of his forehead, and the bat-like wings that covered his body had transformed into massive, hardened black wings surrounded by countless feathers, like the wings of a gigantic bird.

[Do you have spirits’ souls?]

Having gained an unbearably large amount of power, Panz seemed to crave even greater strength, repeating like a parrot that he needed spirits’ souls.

[I need spirits’ souls.]

His own will seemed to have vanished, and he was only chasing power, like one who had lost their self-awareness after being consumed by power.

Pahomel’s eyes glittered as he looked at Panz.

“I have prepared many spirits for you inside the magic tower. And humans, of course. I will let you eat the humans who possess black mana, divine power, and, most importantly, the light attribute.” Pahomel tempted Panz, saying that the soul of a light-attribute magician would be tastier than any other human soul.

“Now, it is time for the hunt, Panz.”

At that, Panz instantly spread his massive wings and soared up. Without being told where the prey was, Panz vanished somewhere without hesitation, as if he could find his targets in the constantly warping space inside the magic tower using his own power.

A sinister smile spread across Pahomel’s lips as he stared at Panz’s retreating figure. Pahomel thought it was an extremely wise decision to have waited for Panz to become complete.

With Panz as he was now, he felt they could kill Caldeon, Enria, Belona, and Hayden. And of course, the others who followed them.

“The age of black magic is not far off.” Pahomel’s vile smile deepened.

***

“I think we should go back.” Roseanne said, gently taking Enria’s arm as she watched Belona shriek while holding Groen’s corpse.

When Enria turned to look at Roseanne, Rahar, who was beside her, seconded Roseanne. “The black magician who devoured Groen’s soul might do anything. He could bring Panz. So, for now, let’s retreat…”

It was at that very moment. A rumbling sound was heard from the ground, and soon the enormous, red-skinned Panz with giant black wings appeared. The people and spirits’ eyes widened in shock upon seeing the tall horn rising from the center of Panz’s forehead.

[You are here, prey.]

Panz grinned wickedly at the countless spirits, whose faces had turned pale at the sight of him.

Incensed, Lonn used his earth attribute to throw large boulders.

Panz merely twitched a finger, pulled Groen’s corpse from Belona’s arms, and used it as a shield to block the boulders. Groen’s corpse was ripped and shattered in various places by the boulders, becoming ragged.

“Groen!!”

Belona’s eyes rolled back in fury. She rushed toward Panz, who had used her lover’s body as a shield, and cast light-attribute magic.

Before Enria and Caldeon could even finish telling her to stop, Panz casually choked Belona’s neck with a stream of fire, lifted her up, and then used black magic to instantly rip out her soul while she was still alive and consumed half of it.

“Aaaaahk!!”

A ear-splitting scream erupted from Belona’s mouth due to the agony of her soul being ripped out while alive. Everyone froze in place, unable to even swallow a gasp at the lightning-fast situation.

Caldeon, who was frozen in shock like the others, only regained his senses when half of Belona’s soul had been extracted, and he used black mana to cut the black magic.

Immediately after Belona lost consciousness and collapsed to the floor, he summoned his spirits. Rahar also summoned Silri.

Windel, Graum, Blizzan, Eva, and Silri, who were summoned, looked at Panz, who was licking his lips, complaining that he only got half of the delicious light-attribute magician’s soul because of the interruption, and their faces hardened.

“Is that… Panz?” Silri asked, slightly furrowing her brow.

Caldeon nodded once and said, “It seems he succeeded in converting the spirits’ souls into his own power.”

“My goodness, he succeeded and ended up with such a disgusting appearance?”

Silri frowned, muttering about the abnormally large horn.

Panz stared at her.

[Silri, it is an honor to be able to eat your soul.]

At Panz’s words, Silri let out a hollow laugh, with an expression that said, What nonsense is this?

“You talk about eating my soul when I have no intention of giving it to you. You thick head.”

Silri scoffed, saying that he must be thick-headded to join hands with a black magician and consume the souls of spirits. Then, she instantly wiped the smile from her lips and looked at Panz with a chilling expression.

[You haven’t changed.]

Panz said, his lips curling into a wicked smile.

Seeing that smile, Silri scowled in annoyance as if she had seen something repulsive, and generated a massive whirlwind around her body.

At this, all the spirits, except for Blizzan and the fire spirits who couldn’t freely control the fire attribute, also activated their elemental powers around their bodies.

Panz laughed derisively at the spirits’ battle stance toward him. Having absorbed countless spirits and humans, he now considered himself close to a god, making the spirits weaker than himself simply laughable. The reason being, he possessed the power to instantly gulp down their souls if he wished.

‘Yes, just like right now.’

Millions of thin, black strings shot out from Panz’s wings. Those strings, made of black smoke, flew toward the weaker lower-ranking spirits, piercing their entire bodies.

The black smoke then extracted their souls and absorbed them into Panz’s body. Countless spirits met their demise with a single movement from Panz.

Although black mana could nullify the black smoke Panz unleashed, Caldeon’s black shadows were insufficient to make all the black smoke Panz emitted disappear. Caldeon’s black shadows could only split into a maximum of 10 threads, and their range was limited. Furthermore, Panz was absorbing spirits with black magic while attacking humans with fire magic. Enria extended a divine power barrier, and Roseanne and Rahar blocked the fireballs with their respective magic, but it was difficult to stop all the numerous fireballs.

Ultimately, Panz was overwhelmingly dominant even in the one-against-many fight. Caldeon, who was cutting the black smoke impaling the spirits with black mana, hardened his face at the sight of the spirits losing their souls and dying, despite countering the black magic with superior black mana.

“Panz!”

Silri, whose voice was close to a shriek upon seeing their comrades being eaten by Panz, attacked him with the wind attribute.

Panz casually swatted away her whirlwind with a stream of fire, then split the fire stream into two and drove one of them into Silri’s abdomen.

“Cough!”

“Silri!”

Silri’s abdomen was instantly pierced by the fire stream. Enria and Rahar, seeing this, called out to her in alarm. Silri spat blood and collapsed onto the spot.

Panz, still smiling wickedly, emitted millions of black smoke threads from his back, attempting to devour Silri’s soul.

Caldeon threw black shadows to stop it, but he couldn’t block all the millions of black smoke threads.

Tens of thousands of black smoke threads ultimately attached to Silri’s head, shoulder, abdomen, thigh, and legs, beginning to extract her soul.

It was right then.

Then—

Light erupted.

“E-dya. Bad.”

From Hayden—still in Enria’s arms—burst a glowing black shadow, a blend of black mana and holy power.

The shimmering shadow split into hundreds of thousands of strands, vaporizing the tendrils ripping at Silri’s soul and swallowing the dark magic pouring from Panz’s wings.

Panz’s devouring magic collapsed instantly.

His massive black wings—formed of pure dark magic—dissolved into nothing.

Silri’s half-dislodged soul slipped back into her body.

She collapsed, gasping violently from the pain.

[What?!]

Panz’s eyes widened.

As shock gripped him, Caldeon, Enria, Rhozan, and Rahar resumed their attack.

Spirits joined in, bombarding him with everything they had.

Enria poured the last of her strength into healing Silri’s pierced stomach while maintaining a holy barrier over the frontline.

Stripped of his devouring wings by Hayden’s radiant shadow, Panz was pushed back—and finally, Caldeon’s black shadow severed one of his legs…

Eventually, Panz instantly set his own body on fire and vanished, leaving only black ashes where he had stood.