Chapter 1217
Within the Mistveil Layer, Laborde, clad in silver robes, shed his usual playful grin. Silver light shimmered around him as he repeatedly opened and closed silvery portals, slipping in and out of them.
Meanwhile, Leon frowned the moment he saw five black crystal statues appear.
Five dormant black mirror elementals—trouble. These things don’t have any buffer time when they wake up, and all five are Sky Rank mirror elementals...
The instant they sensed Leon’s mana, the five black crystal statues instantly morphed into perfect copies of him—even the staff in their hands was identical.
Expressionless, the five Leon lookalikes—each shrouded in a black aura—raised their staffs. In that moment, extraordinary magical power surged forth as a torrent of spells from all four elements crashed toward Leon like a flood.
Flames, frost, hurricanes, and boulders merged into a chaotic elemental storm, sweeping up everything around. Even the mist was sucked in and seemed to be shredded to pieces...
Leon silently counted the seconds, then spat out three runes. In an instant, twelve massive fire vortices materialized above his head.
An endless flood of fire element surged forth like a dam bursting. Leon’s body shot upward, flames engulfing him as he instantly unleashed his Fire Elemental Avatar...
With a flash of fire, Leon appeared more than ten meters away. He took another step, slipping into a drifting pocket of space, then soared skyward, crossing into yet another shifting space.
After crossing three drifting, fragmented pockets of solidified space, only three Mirror Elements remained in pursuit behind him.
The other two failed to catch the overlap in spatial timing and slipped into other small pockets of space...
Leon frowned as he glanced back at the three relentless Mirror Elements. In his left hand, he summoned the Death Tome and swiftly chanted a short incantation. Runes of power shot forth, erecting seven colossal Gates of Eskrym behind him.
The massive frost gates blocked their advance—even as, every second, three Gates of Eskrym were torn to shreds...
Leon ignored the three Mirror Elements behind him and looked ahead into the mist-filled void, which appeared utterly unchanged.
The instant a faint spatial fluctuation—barely detectable even with a magitech array—appeared, Leon stepped forward. As two pockets of space linked, and the pause between them ended, he crossed over...
In that moment, the three Mirror Elements behind him vanished without a trace...
Stowing away the Death Tome, Leon pressed on with a calm expression. These Mirror Elements were endlessly annoying—not only difficult to deal with, but utterly worthless unless one encountered a Triune Mirror Element of Sky Rank Five or higher. Only then, after defeating it, might one obtain a Mirrorgem—now that was a prize worth having...
These black or white Mirror Elements were nothing but a nuisance. Kill one, and not even a scrap remained behind...
Leon continued onward. The group of Sky Rank mages standing beside the crystal orb were left utterly stunned...
Faced with such a terrifying figure, no one wanted to be the first to step forward. After all, everyone here was a senior member of the Merlin family, many of them distantly related. Some were old monsters from Lin Yun's grandfather's grandfather's generation.
In this situation, losing to a youngster in front of so many people would be humiliating, but winning wouldn't be much to brag about either—after all, they'd all spent at least centuries more studying magic than him...
When Blackman finally made a decision, a crowd of mages who had been pretending to be dead all let out a sigh of relief...
At that moment, as they sat outside the mage tower, a voice called out from beyond.
"Is anyone there?"
Hearing this voice, the group of mages seemed to be struck by a petrification spell, frozen in place...
Then, everyone turned to the crystal orb, but the image inside had already lost track of Leon...
Redman stared in shock, manipulating the crystal orb to shift its view toward the outside of the mage tower—where Leon now stood, quietly watching them...
"Damn it, when did he get out? Hell, it hasn't even been an hour, and he's already made it through?"
"Did anyone see how he got out?"
A group of Heaven-rank mages all wore horrified expressions. So many people, yet not a single one had seen how Leon managed to escape the Mistveil Layer. In just a brief moment, he was silently standing outside their gathering place—the mage tower...
No one spoke. Outside the mage tower, Leon furrowed his brow, gazing at the tower before him. There were clearly Heaven-rank mages inside—more than one, judging by the magical fluctuations—but why was nobody answering?
"Matthew Merlin greets you. Is anyone present?"
Leon asked again. The Heaven-rank mages exchanged glances, at a loss for words. So many of them, yet not one had noticed how Leon had left the Mistveil Layer or appeared outside the mage tower...
Suddenly, silver light flickered in the air. The gleaming radiance swiftly coalesced into a spatial portal, and Laborde stepped out, looking thoroughly disgruntled.
"Damn it, I hadn't even found him yet, and you called me back. What's going on? Has that kid favored by the Lord of Misfortune already fallen inside?
What a shame. After so many years, we finally had a promising youngster—rumor has it his talent rivals that monster Thornton Merlin—and now he's perished in that cursed Mistveil Layer?
Damn, how could five Black Mirror Elements appear at once in there? His luck really was rotten...
Huh? Why are you all looking at me like that? If Master Merlin has fallen, I'm just as regretful, but why are you staring at me..."
Laborde glanced at the now-empty crystal orb, sighing with regret. Just then, another voice echoed from outside the mage tower.