End of the Magic Era

“High Mage Mafa, we have already lured all the Ice Field Mammoths to the location you pointed out. What’s next…?” Thorne, who was covered with a thick Aura Protection, roared with a pale face, and anger could be heard in his voice.

The current situation wasn’t very optimistic. In the past half an hour, everyone had followed the young mage’s plan and used a large amount of mana. Having suffered untold hardships, they led all of these Ice Field Mammoths to the place the young mage had designated, but the young mage didn’t say anything after that, as if he wasn’t even the one who brought up the plan. This made anger rise within Thorne.

This time, everyone, including him, had used all their energy and would be able to last at most ten more minutes. Once they ran out of mana, only death would await them.

Under such circumstances, he was truly unable to keep his calm and felt worried.

“Mafa, if your plan won’t work, just tell everyone. There is no point in delaying, we can look for another plan…” Thorne sounded exasperated, but this Commander clearly knew how to act and refrained from flaring up in anger.

Lin Yun, who was still in his Fire Elemental Incarnation, was wandering between these Ice Field Mammoths. He couldn’t help frowning when he heard Thorne’s shout. After a few seconds, he lightly answered, “Keep waiting…”

“Keep… Keep waiting?!”

Thorne suddenly froze, a snarl appearing on his face.

If he could, he would grab that young mage’s neck and ask him if he knew how dangerous the current situation was.

‘Wait? How long can everyone even hold on for? Everyone will die if we keep waiting! You are going to get us killed!’

Even the accomplished Thorne couldn’t control himself. He was feeling extremely regretful. Had he known earlier, he wouldn’t have agreed to the young mage’s plan. They were full of energy at the start… Had they found another way out, they might have been able to survive.

But now, everyone’s mana was almost exhausted and they were surrounded by the thousand mammoths. It would really be hard for them to escape.

The young mage had truly led them into a deathtrap.

But suddenly, a loud rumble echoed. Thorne felt the ice under his feet shaking. He was certain that this hadn’t been caused by the Ice Field Mammoths’ trampling because the entire Ice Field was shaking. Although the destructive power caused by hundreds of Ice Field Mammoths was formidable, it couldn’t have such a huge impact.

At the same time, the others also noticed this change.

“That’s…”

As a 5th Rank Sword Saint, Thorne had formidable insight. He clearly sensed the changes in this area. When the Ice Field shook, he discovered a shadow in the originally blue Ice Field and an appalled expression appeared on his face as a single thought flashed in his head.

‘Could there be something below?’

This thought truly scared him…

He couldn’t imagine just what kind of thing this huge, several-hundred-meter shadow under the Ice Field was.

“Rumble!”

At this time, a deafening sound disturbed Thorne’s train of thought. He suddenly saw the Ice Field rupture without any warning as that thing ruthlessly rammed into it with shockingly destructive power. In a flash, big chunks of ice were sent flying.

Then, an unforgettable scene spread before Thorne’s eyes, shaking him to his core.

What rammed into the Ice Field was an enormous head, slowly extending from that huge gap. And the shocking part was that its neck was at least ten meters long. It was certainly a magic beast’s head, and two neat rows of fangs faintly shone with flickering lights while its two red eyes looked like empty cavities, devoid of feeling. Thorne felt a chill quickly spread through his body when he looked at it.

Just one glance brought unimaginable pressure to the 5th Rank Sword Saint of the Merlin Family. It couldn’t be described with words, it was too frightening. He could even conclude that this was the most formidable power he had ever experienced in his entire life. Even Peak 8th Rank Archmage Ryan did not give him this kind of feeling.

“Rumble…”

While Thorne was frozen in shock, the massive magic beast’s head extended to the surface of the Ice Field, its long fangs biting three Ice Field Mammoths.

There was no resistance, and not even a roar was let out. Those three Ice Field Mammoths had already become food for that magic beast. Sounds of its chewing echoed. Even though the Ice Field Mammoths had steel-like skin, they were easily chewed into pieces by that magic beast. In a few seconds, the originally lively Ice Field Mammoths turned into minced meat as blood flowed down the magic beast’s mouth.

“This… This…”

Thorne was instantly roused from his stupor. He felt a chill running through his body and cold sweat dripping down his forehead. He felt that those hundreds of mammoths had completely calmed after that magic beast appeared. They were known as the overlords of the ice fields, but they were all crawling sluggishly now, shivering as if they had met the most terrifying thing in this world, unable to muster the courage to resist that magic beast.

Thorne was shocked speechless.

These Grim Reapers had always preyed on other magic beasts, but today they were just prey to this magic beast from under the Ice Field… and they didn’t even try to resist.

“Rumble!”

Suddenly, another deafening sound could be heard. A large area of ice shattered a few dozen meters away from that gigantic head as another head rushed out, stretching its long neck before biting into more Ice Field Mammoths.

The new head was almost identical to the previous one.

But before Thorne could think about what this meant, more rumbles and crashes kept echoing, shaking the entire Ice Field. After roughly five minutes, a total of nine heads had drilled out in the area, all exactly identical.

‘These heads must belong to the same magic beast…’ Thorne quickly discovered that the nine heads had the same aura! He was shocked when he noticed that… What kind of magic beast had nine heads…?

“Hey, everyone, shouldn’t we leave? Disturbing that thing’s meal wouldn’t be a sensible choice…” Only Lin Yun seemed relatively calm. Although his voice was very gentle, it reached everyone’s ears.

Everyone was instantly startled awake. They immediately realized that they shouldn’t remain there after being reminded by Lin Yun.

A Heaven Rank magic beast wasn’t something they could handle.

They were convinced that this nine-headed magic beast that had appeared from under the ice Field was a Heaven Rank magic beast!

Let alone the pressure, they deduced it from the behavior of the thousand mammoths.

Would the Ice Field Mammoths look this scared if it weren’t a Heaven Rank magic beast?

After all, even a Peak Archmage had a high chance of dying when facing so many Ice Field Mammoths.

It could only be at the Heaven Rank.

Only a being using World Power could ignore numbers and kill a thousand mammoths as easily as killing a few dozen.

This definitely wasn’t an exaggeration…

All the Ice Field Mammoths had been restrained, no longer attacking Lin Yun’s group. Lin Yun and the others quickly departed, taking to the sky.

The group quickly made use of Flight to soar across at a low altitude, spending over ten minutes putting some distance between them and that part of the Ice Field before finally descending in a safe area.

Everyone felt like they had experienced a nightmare. They were extremely exhausted, especially after having dashed between the Ice Field Mammoths while protecting themselves for over thirty minutes. They had used too much mana.

It would be very dangerous to keep moving forward in such condition…

They had now realized that this world of ice comparable to the Raging Flame Plane in size might be even more dangerous than the Raging Flame Plane. After all, they had arrived less than an hour ago but had already met hundreds of Ice Field Mammoths, as well as a nine-headed Heaven Rank magic beast.

Fortunately, their luck was good…

Otherwise, even if their group had been ten times as powerful, it still would have been difficult for them to flee.

They soon found a place to rest, and everyone, including Lin Yun, entered meditation, slowly extracting mana from the air. Lin Yun kept his Magic Array working at high speed. It was necessary because this ice plane was filled with countless unpredictable dangers, giving him no choice but to be on guard.

Who knew if there was an even stronger magic beast below their feet, or if magic beasts like the mammoths would appear on the Ice Field and attack them?

They had managed to escape from the Ice Field Mammoths through pure luck earlier…