Chapter 1083: Fall
Doroman's agonized, soul-rending curses echoed, but Leon only sneered coldly. With a casual flick, he unleashed an Explosive Flame Spell, shattering the last third of Doroman's body into dust.
Countless rainbow lights burst from Doroman's pulverized form, twisting the entire world. Streams of multicolored brilliance raced through the air, and this once-stable world began to collapse, space warping and unraveling.
A multitude of spells shattered into their most basic runes, and the sky was awash with runes flowing like innumerable stars.
Doroman's body was destroyed, but the primordial power belonging to the Spellbook of Ages was merely scattered, not eliminated. What was slain was only Doroman's intellect and consciousness—the power itself remained within the world shaped by the Spellbook of Ages.
Leon gazed at the spot where Doroman's body had vanished, sneering once more.
In this era, the magical avatars born from magical artifacts are the most compatible with their artifacts, and naturally, the most powerful. For True Spirit Artifacts, most avatars are irreplaceable—even if one is destroyed and replaced, the substitute can never wield the original's full power.
As for avatars of Transcendent Artifacts, they are even more irreplaceable. The destruction of such an avatar, and the idea of finding a replacement, is unheard of. Even if a substitute is somehow found, it likely cannot unleash the artifact's true might—sometimes, the avatar simply cannot control the Transcendent Artifact at all.
Yet in the peak era of Northend's development, this problem had already been solved.
During Northend's grand colonial age, endless battles raged across countless planes. It was common for Heavenly-tier powerhouses to intervene, and Transcendent Artifacts appeared with surprising frequency.
When conquering certain powerful planes, there were indeed times when the Relic Spirit of a Transcendent Artifact was destroyed.
Every Transcendent Artifact is invaluable, but its Relic Spirit is even rarer—without both immense strength and a Relic Spirit to wield it, the artifact's true power remains locked away.
Without transcendent power, it's absolutely impossible to wield a Transcendent Artifact by oneself; only its Relic Spirit can do so.
In fact, many abilities of Transcendent Artifacts can only be activated by their Relic Spirits.
Losing the Relic Spirit of a Transcendent Artifact is far worse than losing several Heavenly-tier powerhouses. The future's war-crazed researchers even developed methods for replacing destroyed Relic Spirits—the key was how to substitute the Relic Spirit of a Transcendent Artifact!
That was Leon's source of confidence: since Doroman refused to submit and even tried to rebel, then let him be destroyed. Even if the Relic Spirit of the Spellbook of Ages is newly born and possesses complete intellect, it doesn't matter—a new one can always be created…
Watching this world slowly collapse—spells shattering, space twisting—Leon remained unfazed and summoned Theo.
Having devoured flame after flame, Theo's true form had become a mass of black-red fire. Now, he possessed all the traits of the flames he had previously absorbed.
As a prime-tier flame spirit able to devour and evolve through consuming various fires, Theo was among the rare few who could truly advance by absorption.
Prime-tier flame spirits were already exceedingly rare; the vast majority perished during their growth.
Every time they encounter a new, unconsumed flame, they do everything they can to devour it. Most prime-tier flame spirits die in this pursuit.
Devouring weaker flames does little for them; only stronger flames can truly fuel their growth.
Most prime-tier flame spirits perish during the process of devouring, burnt to ashes by flames too powerful to handle.
Only a rare few, like Theo, can slowly acclimate by nibbling away at new, powerful flames bit by bit, gradually increasing their intake until they fully fuse with the flame's power.
Such opportunities are utterly impossible for free-roaming prime-tier flame spirits.
Theo hovered in midair, sensing Leon's mental fluctuations, and couldn't help but begin to tremble.
Theo's body flickered, and the burning mass of black-red flame suddenly swelled in size.
Leon let slip a faint smile.
Indeed, becoming the Relic Spirit of a Transcendent Artifact was the greatest opportunity for a prime-tier flame spirit like Theo. If he wanted to grow stronger, this was the shortcut—a chance for his very essence to leap to new heights.
Compared to Doroman, Leon still preferred a subordinate who had signed a contract from the start and whose loyalty was beyond question—such a servant was best suited to control the Spellbook of Ages.
Doroman was born with mastery over every spell within the Spellbook of Ages. Ordinary contracts always had loopholes he could exploit, and he would secretly tamper with them even during signing.
But Theo was different. Even when he truly became the Relic Spirit of the Spellbook of Ages, there would be no chance of betrayal or backlash.
Leon summoned the phantom of the Arcane Wheel. Countless runes erupted from its shadow, rapidly assembling midair into a massive Compound Alchemy Array.
This alchemy array was formed purely from runes—no alchemical lines, no magical patterns.
Once the array was complete, Theo floated above its center, while beneath it another, completely different alchemy array seemed to take shape.
This was the key to replacing a Relic Spirit: a masterpiece from Northend's golden age. A compound alchemy array made entirely of runes, with two faces—each side a distinct array, yet both functioning simultaneously.
Once activated, the reverse side of the array began to operate first, generating a tremendous suction. Doroman's scattered primordial power in this space was irresistibly drawn in, gathering toward the array.
Soon, a faint rainbow vortex appeared beneath the array. The multicolored lights converged into the array, then pooled at its center, condensing into threads of rainbow flame.
These threads of rainbow flame were absorbed by the reverse side of the array, then further refined and released from the front as even finer rainbow flames.
Strands of rainbow flame, thinner than spider silk, were drawn out and slowly channeled into Theo's body at the center of the array's front side.
Theo was naturally able to devour any flame—so long as he wasn't incinerated, even Destructive Flames could be absorbed.
Leon deliberately weakened the primordial power transformed into rainbow flame, making it easier for Theo to absorb and devour.
The instant Theo devoured a thread of rainbow flame thinner than spider silk, half his body was suffused with rainbow colors.
The power within this flame was terrifying—even the faintest strand was nearly at the limit of what Theo could handle.
The first contact with a new flame, the first act of devouring—it was the most dangerous stage. Survive this, and the rest would be much easier.
Under Leon's careful control, the power was dispersed to a very weak level. Within seconds, Theo fully adapted to it. Only then did Leon begin gradually increasing the amount of rainbow flame produced.
After more than an hour, Theo's body had completely transformed into a mass of rainbow flame. On the array's reverse side, a colossal rainbow vortex formed, and the primordial power, converted by the array, erupted from the front as rainbow fire.
The rainbow fire, like a rainbow dragon, surged from the front of the array—every last bit devoured by Theo. His aura grew ever stronger, and before he finished, it had already surpassed the limits of a Title Magus.
Once every thread of rainbow flame was consumed, Theo's aura rivaled that of a true Heavenly-tier powerhouse.
At that moment, the chaotic, collapsing world within the Spellbook of Ages abruptly stabilized. Twisted, turbulent space was soothed, and the broken fragments seemed to be held together by an invisible force.
Theo's true form slowly shifted from a mass of rainbow flame to a mass of gray fire—the original color of the Spellbook of Ages' Relic Spirit.
So much power had gathered, so many spells—like countless colors merging together. Not black, not white; rainbow light merging became white, rainbow substance merging became black, and flame, caught between, turned gray.
Now, as the Spellbook of Ages' Relic Spirit, Theo instinctively supported the world within the tome. His control over the Spellbook was second nature, with countless insights encoded in the primordial power he had devoured. Theo's mastery was now indistinguishable from Doroman's before him.
With the process complete, Leon had Theo teleport him to the region of first-rank spell runes. This was the most chaotic zone—after Doroman's fall, it was the first to collapse. The spells here were lowest in rank but greatest in number, like the foundation of a pyramid.
The mist here had vanished, leaving a world of pure void—no up, no down, no power, not even air. It was little different from the Endless Void.
Even the raging energies of the Endless Void were absent; in the pitch-black world, only countless runes drifted—remnants of shattered spells, both those Leon had destroyed and those broken by Doroman's demise.
Leon floated amid the emptiness, a massive Arcane Wheel phantom appearing behind him, slowly turning.
In an instant, a colossal vortex seemed to form in the void, drawing in every drifting rune.
Gradually, the runes became a torrent, like a celestial river—forming spiral arms, all consumed by the phantom Arcane Wheel.
Leon hovered quietly in midair, his eyes flickering with countless runes. In his mind, endless spells poured forth like rain.