End of the Magic Era

“What disguise?” Solomon asked.

The 9th Rank High Mage looked at Dylan carefully, before turning to look at Lin Yun while full of doubt. ‘What does he mean? Is Merlin trying to say that this Dylan is an impersonator? That doesn’t seem right…

‘I’ve been struggling with Dylan for decades, we even fought over ten times. It could be said that I’m more familiar with Dylan than the mages of the Ash Tower. That person before us, whether it is his motions, expressions, or even mana fluctuations, they are all exactly the same as Dylan’s.’ On this, Solomon was certain that he wasn’t wrong.

“Merlin…” Solomon would usually remain silent and not say anything out of respect for that young Great Mage, but this couldn’t happen now. The situation wasn’t very good, so after a slight hesitation, he asked, “Aren’t you mistaken?”

“Won’t you understand if you keep watching?” Lin Yun didn’t explain. He only smiled before fishing out – Key Points for Elemental Spirit Capture – from his pocket…

“Let me see… How to capture Upper Rank Flame Spirits…” Lin Yun said, before also reminding “Dylan”, “What are you watching me for? Your army has already arrived!”

“You…” Dylan was startled and angry, but he hastily turned due to Lin Yun’s reminder and noticed over a dozen Frost Elementals breaking through the wall of flames blocking them and forcing their ways towards him.

Although there were only a dozen Frost Elementals, they would have a steady flow of reinforcements. At this time, Dylan didn’t dare to neglect them and hastily started chanting his incantations, getting ready to fight the dozen Frost Elementals.

At this time, sparks flew within the world of ice and snow as the intensity of the battle was enough to leave any High Mage dumbstruck. The Frost Elementals were almost suicidal, hindering Dylan’s every move. And despite the latter only taking a short time to deal with the first dozen Frost Elementals, unfortunately, many more Frost Elementals were already surrounding him.

Lin Yun’s side was completely different. Those rushing Frost Elementals didn’t seem to care about Lin Yun, and not even a single attack flew his way. But Lin Yun was getting busy. He first put up an Ice Wall before starting to browse – Key Points for Elemental Spirit Capture –.

“Oh, right, what’s your true name?” Lin Yun looked at a few pages, looking as if he had failed to grasp the crux of what he needed to know before raising his head to ask.

“My true name…” Dylan suddenly froze when Lin Yun asked him that question…

As a result of that distraction, a Flame Barrier was cast a second too late and three Frost Elementals suddenly found a gap. A sharp sound was heard as the three Frost Elementals ruthlessly aimed at Dylan’s chest.

Dylan managed to mend his Runic Shield with great difficulty before being able to stop their attack. But as he was flustered, he immediately started cursing, “Fuck, what do you have to do with my true name!”

“I’m just asking, nothing more…” Lin Yun’s lips twitched before he returned to being immersed in the book.

“…”

“Ah, I remember, isn’t it Llanliss? Or was it Eliss? Doesn’t matter, I can just try them…” As Lin Yun said that, he attempted the incantation written in the book, using one true name after the other.

Naturally, these attempts didn’t work.

Llanliss and Eliss definitely weren’t his true name…

The incantation itself had the power to bind Elemental Spirits. Even if the true name was incorrect, that kind of power wouldn’t change. And with Lin Yun acting shamelessly, using true name after true name, that incantation had been chanted over ten times, with ten true names being used. The dozens of chants were enough to put Dylan on edge.

“Shut up!” Dylan, who had been busy being surrounded by more and more Frost Elementals, suddenly lost his mind under Lin Yun’s incessant chanting. After making quite a few mistakes, Dylan was thoroughly flooded by Ice Elements.

At that time, numerous Ice Elements had piled up in the entire hallway, and the visible blue mana fluctuations could be seen converging, almost freezing the air as various Ice Spells indiscriminately rained over. Even Dylan, a 9th Rank High Mage, had completely lost the ability to counterattack. He was completely relying on the Runic Shield for defense.

“Don’t be in a hurry, I remember the names of a few dozen of Upper Rank Flame Spirits. Just wait, I’ll try them one by one. Who knows, maybe the next one is the one…”

“Enough!” Dylan was going berserk.

“That’s your attitude? Then I’ll try other incantations…” Lin Yun wasn’t fazed by him, as he simply turned another page.

“You…” Dylan’s words abruptly stopped. He restrained his anger and tried to use the calmest voice possible to ask, “What do you want in the end?”

“What do I want? I should be asking you that. What are you trying to do? You, an Upper Rank Flame Spirit, disguised yourself as a human and want to scare us?”

“I didn’t want to scare you, I only…”

“Only what? Only wanted to use us to show you the way…?” Lin Yun’s smile carried a hard-to-conceal ridicule. “Deliberately activating the array to be besieged by Frost Elementals before trying to scare us back to Noscent as Dylan, all that to get access to the Planar Path. Your idea was very good…”

“I… I don’t know what you are talking about!”

“Haha, don’t deny it so fast, wait till I’m done talking. Then I’ll have plenty of ways to make you recognize it…” Lin Yun sneered as he continued, “If I’m not wrong, you definitely saw Dylan, which is why you can transform into him and imitate his mana fluctuations. You even know that the one Dylan wants to kill the most is the High Mage standing behind me, Solomon. Thus, you revealed killing intent towards Solomon. Unfortunately, you didn’t know that Dylan wouldn’t dare to kill Solomon today…”

Each of Lin Yun’s words made Dylan panic. After those few sentences, Dylan already made eight casting mistakes. This was simply impossible for a 9th Rank High Mage. Thankfully, the Runic Shield was still powerful enough to hold. Regardless of whether it was taking physical attacks or magic attacks, it displayed a shocking defensive ability.

At this time, there were close to two hundred Frost Elementals surrounding Dylan. And with Dylan making all kinds of mistakes, the Runic Shield could be said to be the only thing protecting his life.

But even so, Dylan couldn’t keep holding on.

At this time, Lin Yun said, “If you want to refute me, it’s pretty simple, just use a non-Fire System spell.”

“I…” Dylan immediately made another mistake.

“Pretending to be Dylan while only using Fire Spells, do you think we are fools?”

“…” Solomon’s face suddenly turned red. ‘Pah, I’m not as cunning as you, how the hell could you tell that this was a Flame Spirit pretending to be Dylan?’

But while Solomon cursed inwardly, he had no choice but to show an “it was obvious from the start” expression on his face.

Nothing could be done about it, he couldn’t admit that he was a fool, could he?

“Speak… What do you want!” At this time, the Upper Rank Flame Spirit pretending to be Dylan no longer attempted to refute him.

Because he simply couldn’t try to refute anymore.

Two hundred Frost Elementals were besieging him, and one human was there holding the – Key Points for Elemental Spirit Capture – while trying to figure out his true name. Each incantation would bring a short binding effect. This wouldn’t normally matter, but in this situation, it was simply pouring oil on the fire. Even a proud Upper Rank Flame Spirit had no choice but to show some flexibility.

“Serve me.”

“Impossible!” The Flame Spirit coldly snorted, “As a king among Elemental Spirits, how could I serve a mere Great Mage? Change your condition, Human. I admit that you are very clever, but honestly, you still aren’t worthy to make me acknowledge you. Wait until you reach Rudolph’s level of power, you might be able to convince me to serve you then.”

“You are wrong again…” Lin Yun shook his head, not getting angry because of the Flame Spirit’s dismissive attitude. “But worthiness is not decided by strength. Rudolph, despite his power as a Heaven Mage, didn’t manage to escape you after falling. You even burnt his corpse to ashes. I do not want this kind of servant, I want complete acknowledgement!”

“You are insane…”

“Haha, do you really think that I don’t know what your true name is?”

“Ridiculous, even Rudolph didn’t know my true name. Is a mere Great Mage like you really trying to guess my true name? Human, I’ll give you a final bit of advice, don’t waste your time with scheming and changing the condition, or else you’ll get nothing in the end.”

“Really? Syudos, that’s what you’ll go with…” Lin Yun flipped to the last page of the book. There was only one spell, which used blood energy to bind an Elemental Spirit. This was the most direct, and also the most dangerous method to bind an Elemental Spirit in the book.

Succeed, and a soul contract would be signed with the Elemental Spirit.

Fail, and the caster would die from his blood being drained to the last drop.