Dense black fog rose from the ground, rolling before everyone along with the howling wind.
Levi raised one hand to block his mouth and nose, bracing himself against the gale as his eyes stared into the black mist, repeatedly trying to observe what existed within it.
Vladimir stood where he was, silently watching the black fog sweep past his feet, his gaze fixed solemnly on the place where the fog was rising.
The black mist kept winding and spreading, even brushing past the towering treetops, swallowing Safiroth as well.
She lifted her head, raised one arm to shield herself, closed one eye, and desperately forced herself to stay conscious as she watched the strange black fog gradually engulf her.
A huge yet narrow black shadow was slowly stretched out, completely blotting out the moonlit sky.
The stars overhead were completely drowned, and the sky fell into a deep, deathly silence.
Levi narrowed his eyes. The air around him rapidly compressed, tiny droplets of water slowly gathering and floating on both sides of his body, trembling faintly.
At last, in the sky, the enormous black shadow took on physical form.
A black silhouette that blotted out the heavens, as if it could clamp the round moon in its beak and peck it into pieces.
Massive, razor-sharp pitch-black talons tore faint cracks through space itself. Thick, luxuriant feathers around its body continuously squeezed out black mist, completely covering the world.
A damp, cold stench quickly filled Levi's mouth and nose. It was like the lingering obsession left behind in an ancient tomb, suffocating.
The jet-black giant eagle swept across the boundless sky, as if the very next second the entire sky would be completely swallowed by darkness.
The black fog behind them had already spread far into the distance.
Even the sky above the royal capital was slowly contaminated by the encroaching mist, sinking into absolute darkness.
Sensing the immense danger rushing toward him, Levi tried to strike back.
But the moment he looked up, the water molecules gathered around him suddenly froze in midair.
As if time itself had stopped, every droplet hung motionless in the air, not even trembling anymore.
"What is this?"
Levi stared at the droplets around him and cried out in shock.
All around them, countless magi collapsed, their bodies going limp, eyes tightly shut. After being wrapped in wisps of black mist, they lost consciousness and fell unconscious.
Levi instinctively glanced around, but only he and Vladimir still retained their awareness.
There was no one left who could answer their doubts.
The massive black body of the eagle blocked out the sky above their heads.
A huge single eye slowly opened in the sky, as if tearing through endless darkness.
A vortex slowly twisted itself into being from absolute blackness.
That enormous pupil replaced the moon's original position, the dim yellow giant eye constantly rotating.
The pale yellow iris began to press and distort space itself, becoming grotesquely twisted.
The vertical pupil split into countless densely packed smaller eyes, all of them without exception staring fixedly at the two below.
When Vladimir was locked onto by that gaze, he could even sense the hairs all over his body beginning to move unconsciously.
As if they had broken free from his body's control and developed an instinct to flee.
In an instant, the surrounding world became unstable, like reflections of flowers in a mirror or the moon on water. The shaking world began to reorganize itself, chunks of blurred color constantly being thrown before their eyes.
The distorted colors seemed to form misshapen, warped abominations, chaotic and blasphemous.
Levi and Vladimir both sensed the abnormality around them.
"Illusion…"
Levi narrowed his eyes, but aside from some slight wavering around him, he did not sense any terrifying presence approaching.
Vladimir noticed the same thing. Instead, he calmly withdrew his battle stance and stood quietly within the space.
This illusion that had been created seemed to have no intention of targeting them at all.
Before long, the hallucination gradually faded, like colors dissolving away in flowing water.
The world returned to its original state.
When they came back to their senses, the severely injured Safiroth seemed to have already been taken away by someone, gone without a trace.
Vladimir spat on the ground and started cursing, "F*ck, what the hell was that thing just now?"
Blue ripples were still flickering in Levi's eyes.
Looking at all the magi lying unconscious around them, he spoke slowly, "I can't understand it."
He raised his head and looked around.
All around them were suddenly raised, thick walls.
Like an astonishing earthen barrier, completely surrounding them.
Levi reached out to touch it, feeling that the earthen walls around them were slightly damp, with straight vertical lines covering their surface.
As if realizing something, he lifted his head.
A full moon pierced through the towering treetops and fell into his sight.
Only then did Levi suddenly realize, they weren't blocked by a high wall at all. The ground they had been standing on had sunk deep into a massive crater.
The forest floor had completely collapsed, yet the surrounding trees showed no signs of breaking.
The crater was enormous, so vast it made one tremble just looking at it.
Like the scars left on the land after a catastrophic magic disaster, unimaginably deep.
Seen from the sky, this giant pit appeared abruptly on the land, extremely out of place.
Yet none of them felt as though they themselves had been injured.
A divine miracle…
At this moment, Levi suddenly noticed something.
Near the crater, a narrow path had been left behind.
The path was perfectly straight. He could even see clearly that on both sides of the road, the ground had been completely shaved flat.
"This direction…"
Straight to the royal capital.
Levi fell silent.
That unknown monster... spared them.
———
Within the fog, Safiroth dragged her heavily injured body, sprinting through the outskirts of the royal capital.
Above her pale head, Vega sat comfortably, looking utterly composed.
Even as she staggered across the uneven ground, her steps unsteady, it seemed completely unaffected, as if isolated from the world.
"I told you, when we meet again."
"Don't disappoint me."
The sharp yet deep voice sounded above her head. Though it was just a simple sentence, it sent a chill racing down Safiroth's spine.
She suddenly stopped in place, bracing herself against a tall tree nearby, breathing heavily.
Her green, serpentine pupils slowly contracted as she gazed toward the distant sky.
"I…"
In her mind, the jet-black silhouette of that crow flashed again and again.
She had disappointed it.
Safiroth didn't know why she would even have such a thought.
But she knew very clearly that in front of that crow, she had absolutely no room to resist.
Then Vega's voice rang out by her ear once more, "So, I'll give you another chance."
"Become stronger."
Safiroth froze in place. Her emotions tangled together, as if sealed in ice, impossible to put into words.
How… was she supposed to become stronger?
Suddenly, a violent wind howled around her, kicking up fragments of grass from the ground.
The space ahead of her, under the raging wind, gradually formed a jet-black vortex.
Safiroth turned to look. That area of space seemed to be rapidly twisting under some force.
The next second, blackness spread out of nothingness. A rift in the void was torn open, forming a writhing gateway.
A man wearing a black trench coat, exuding extraordinary bearing, stepped out slowly.
When the crow saw the newcomer, it flapped its wings and flew onto Viktor's body.
The moment Safiroth saw Viktor, she froze in place.
She could clearly sense the extremely profound presence carried by the man before her, far surpassing the two from earlier.
Yet when her gaze swept over Viktor, an evaluation of danger level flashed before her eyes,
[Target detected! Danger level: None]
That's right. None.
Even though that void rift just now had made Safiroth clearly feel that this power was already twisted to an extreme degree.
So powerful that even shattering the sky wouldn't be surprising.
Could it be… that her body had misjudged?
At this moment, Viktor's voice slowly rang out, "Hard to understand?"
Behind him, his coat seemed to ignite once more. Crimson magical patterns gradually lit up, quickly spreading across the entire surface of the coat.
The instant the red light finished spreading from top to bottom, faint flames even ignited along the hem.
Safiroth's eyes widened instantly.
[Target detected! Danger level: Extremely High]
That dangerous aura was still rising, with no sign whatsoever of stopping.
In a daze, Safiroth felt a burst of frost descend instantly, followed by an icy sensation from her back.
She let out a painful, hoarse scream, piercing and miserable.
Even the birds within a ten-mile radius were startled into flight, scattering in all directions.
She collapsed to her knees, the veins beneath her skin bulging violently.
From her back, a white wing was brutally severed.
It fell to the ground, gradually soaked in blood.
Scalding red blood gushed from the massive wound, flattening all the surrounding grass.
Blood continued to flow steadily from the injury.
Safiroth curled her body, lying on the ground, breathing painfully and rapidly.
Viktor stood before her, holding a transparent wind blade formed by rapidly flowing air, looking down at her coldly, "Our first lesson..."
"Has begun."