Facing the cold pressure from Lucius and the increasing suffocation in her neck, a look of struggling pain appeared on Vila's face.

Lack of oxygen to the brain, gradually losing control of the body... Hmm, this can be considered as a near-death experience.

"Little Vila, you don't seem to be doing well." A boy's voice sounded in her mind, surprisingly with a teasing tone.

"Brother...? Cough, if you don't come soon, I might really die..."

"I have absolute confidence in little Vila. You're not the type to abandon your brother's child so easily. Come on, it's time to open the door."

"The show is about to begin."

"What?!" Reflected on Lucius' lenses was a crimson light.

The ground, covered by ruins and debris, suddenly lit up with red light. Those red lines swam like living creatures, quickly connecting to form a circular magic array. Then, they detached from the ground and floated half a meter above, in the form of a complete spell.

A magic array of this precision-demanding level, even a slight error would render it unable to be activated or even cause backlash. How could an attack of that scale not have caused any damage?

"Otherwise, why would I risk my life staying here? Based on my personality, I would have run away already..."

Seizing the moment when Lucius was distracted, Vila finally broke free from the dark imprisonment. She infused magic power into the floating magic array surrounding her, which immediately soared upwards and rapidly expanded in the process. By the time it floated in the sky, it had already covered the entire city of Milt.

The dazzling red replaced the previously radiant sunlight and shrouded the city of the academy, casting a layer of horror. Being in the city felt like being trapped in a blood-red nightmare.

"Everyone, leave immediately! Escape from the range of the academy city as quickly as possible!"

In the instant of the red shroud, Lucius already felt the magic power and life force in his body disappearing at an extremely terrifying speed. The weakness made him stagger, struggling to stay steady.

"How could the effect of a spell cover the entire city?!"

"Is that so strange? As long as it's big enough, isn't it good?" Vila also stood up, swaying her body. Then, she helped up Johannes and Angelo next to her.

"Enough... big? Could it be..." Lucius looked up at the slowly rotating projection of the magic array in the sky and suddenly understood, "Erytheo?!"

"Correct." Vila revealed a cunning smile, "The terminal underfoot is just a small part. The true magic array that can cover the entire city, isn't there only one right here?"

As the guardian of the academy's treasury, Erytheo was the city's protective barrier powered by the city's ley lines. In other words, it was the city that supported the large-scale protective barrier and the nearly unlimited release of magitech cannon by Erytheo.

"Just need to rewrite the terminal of Erytheo and use a small sacrifice to connect my substitute terminal with the city under our feet. This is our plan to deceive the heavens."

"Shall we continue fighting? It's not a good choice for you to stay in this life-draining Yuan formation without any talisman, and continue fighting," the young man put down his slightly trembling hands and forced a smile at Ciella.

It was not easy for him to resolve Ciella's attacks. Although Ciella's body and laws were not in a perfect state, her magic and life force were constantly depleting. However, she was still a seasoned Holy Rank powerhouse who surpassed him in terms of law strength and application by more than one level.

Ciella completely ignored the young man's words. The crystal ball in her hand brightened, and the laws wove together to form a prison that locked the space around the young man. Then, the translucent blue crystal ball suddenly turned into a fiery red color, like flames dancing within it.

The young man was right. It was not a good choice to continue fighting at this moment. The loss of magic and life force may not be significant in the short term, but over time, the effects would become terrifying.

However, she didn't have any other choice. Even if she could leave, the capable Watchers and teachers could also leave, but there were still many ordinary people in the city who didn't go to watch the competition. They couldn't hold on until they escaped the range of the Magic formation.

The only way to save them was to defeat the person in front of her and then destroy the altered city guardian barrier.

Facing a Holy Rank, she, as a fellow Holy Rank, was the only one in the city capable of accomplishing this.

"Although I always thought this title was a bit ridiculous, the esteemed Holy Trinity is not just a mere title!"

Within the space prison that imprisoned the young man, a black spark appeared and in the blink of an eye, it exploded into a burning storm, only to be compressed tightly within the spatial barrier. Not to mention living creatures, even metals would evaporate inside it.

"Hmm... a familiar sensation, the 'Void Flame' of Musbel, huh? Didn't expect you to know it too," the young man stood unharmed in his original position, extinguishing the remaining sparks on his clothes with his fingertips. "But as a Holy Rank, I may not be superior to you in any aspect, but I am confident that I can persevere and fight to the end better than anyone else."

Ciella stared at the young man's face, her tone becoming colder, "Let me confirm one thing first. Are you related to the incident in Musbel ten years ago involving the old man losing his sanity?"

"Oh, are you referring to that incident with the old man going crazy?" The young man also didn't beat around the bush. He simply nodded and sheepishly said, "That happened because I attempted to manipulate a soul, but at the time my technique was not mature enough, and the soul of a Holy Rank was too powerful, which led to some mistakes."

"Enough talking. You can die now."

Musbel was his fault, and knowing this was enough reason to kill him. One more reason to kill him.

Without resorting to any other means, four black sparks appeared out of thin air around the young man this time and exploded simultaneously.

Most Holy Ranks, in addition to the "time" and "space" laws that served as the basic threshold and existed regardless of time and place, would generally have a specialty they excelled in.

Ciella was quite unique in this regard. She specialized in and studied one of the two most easily perceptible laws, time.

The basic manipulation of the time law by a Holy Rank was relatively simple, but advancing further was incredibly difficult because manipulating time involved causality, which even Holy Ranks found difficult to comprehend clearly—the Realm.

The only thing Ciella, who specialized in this, gained was the ability to manipulate the timeline in a small area she set up herself. Although this was quite an achievement, its application in battle was greatly limited, being mostly used for defense or evasion. Therefore, Ciella's offensive power has always been her weakness. The powerful attacks she displayed at this moment were not originally hers.

This change occurred only after she understood Musber's interpretation of the laws ten years ago. The manifestation of the "Burning" law in Musber's case was this black form of flame that could burn anything with a physical form. Previously, the range of the empty flames was limited by space, but now, when she unleashed her attack, the terror of the empty flames was fully revealed. Flames spread in an unimaginable way, and the underground cave where the treasure trove was located was instantly filled with black flames. The previously sturdy stone material rapidly cracked like combustible wood.

Standing before the door of the treasure trove, in order to prevent the core magic array inside from being destroyed, the boy was forced to create a massive spatial barrier that enveloped the entire treasure trove. Ciella didn't show any mercy either. Whenever the fire weakened a little, she simply snapped her fingers and replenished the empty flames. The raging flames had already begun to destroy the underground support structure of the entire island, and from the outside, the castle on the island was collapsing bit by bit.

"It's truly no less powerful than that redhead uncle. If I removed the barrier, I might turn into ashes in an instant, right?"

"Whether I remove it or not, the consequences will be the same."

A cold voice, as if coming from the depths of hell, came from behind – along with a deadly snap of the fingers. The rules of space, in a battle between Holy Ranks, worked both ways. Anyone could manipulate them, it was just a matter of whose understanding was more accurate. Since you can create, it goes without saying that I can also traverse.

And as a veteran Holy Rank, it would only take Ciella a little time to break through the barrier created by the boy. But what felt wrong to Ciella at this moment was the boy's calmness, as if he had expected this... like a trap.

"That's right, but I assume it will also take some time for you to analyze my barrier, right? Your attack speed shouldn't allow you to analyze it a second time. So, please bear this empty flame with me."

In the instant when the empty flames burst forth, space once again changed, forcibly interrupting Ciella's spatial transferral. The black flames erupted, engulfing both of their forms. When the black flames in the air dissipated a bit, the boy remained unscathed in his original position, while Ciella, having directly suffered the power of the empty flames, slumped to the ground. Although her injuries were not severe, the chain reaction of her injuries caused her time-based body maintenance to collapse, returning her body to that of a normal girl. At the same time, the absorption effect of the surrounding magic array finally reached its critical point and she found it difficult to continue.

Ciella, I can't continue.

"You made a judgment error. If you had attacked me immediately instead of turning your head to destroy the magic array, I would have already failed."

From the boy's expression, it seemed that even he was somewhat startled. The empty flames were attacks at the level of rules and not to be taken lightly. Moreover, Ciella was not expecting her own transference through the boy's spatial barrier.

Ciella knelt on one knee, struggling to hold on, while the Eye of World hovering beside her became dim and lifeless.

"Tch... Was I unconsciously influenced by hatred? What a blunder."