Fire Mage

Chapter 548: Confrontation

It was around 7.17 A.M.

Charles stood on the roadside while holding a book in his right hand and quietly observed the surroundings like a hawk.

On the other hand, seven people stepped out of those three luxurious carriages, moved towards the nearby food store, and started ordering.

To outsiders, they looked more like regular mages one could see anywhere in this city. They all wore black and grey robes and even had unique badges on their dresses!

At that moment, Charles even saw Hayden among the group but decided not to make any abnormal movements.

For them, he was nothing more than a stranger who happened to be standing quietly near the street road shop.

To not make things complicated, he took a step forward and tried to stop an empty carriage for a ride.

While doing so, he suddenly saw a silver-haired man from the corner of his eyes and instantly cast [Eye of the Runes] skill on him.

On the other hand, the silver-haired man walked in his direction, held an umbrella in his hand, and appeared in a hurry.

He walked past many shops and the three luxurious carriages and finally arrived closer to Charles.

Suddenly, he seemed to have perceived his gaze and slowed down his footsteps.

"Are you okay, young man?" His eyes glowed in silvery light as he asked that question and even peered into his soul.

Although Elder Seer couldn't understand why this young man suddenly used a mysterious skill on him, he felt that he was quite different from others.

'Strange. Why do I feel the power of 'Time' in him?'

"You seem to have encountered too much trouble in the past few-" He abruptly paused in surprise, halted his footsteps, and soon furrowed.

"Why is your future changing continuously? Even if you are a Seer, that shouldn't be possible, right?" Puzzlement appeared on his face.

On the other hand, Charles showed a forced smile and shook his head.

'I thought things would go smoothly, but it can't be helped.' While muttering to himself, he touched his space ring and took a stopwatch from it.

Then, he flipped open the outer case and checked the time.

"Twenty more seconds." He spoke calmly, turned around, and locked his gaze on the seven robed-mages who stood right before the nearby food stall.

At the same time, a voice echoed in Elder Seer's head.

'They are planning to assassinate you here, Elder Seer. I don't know how, but they seemed to have found a way to intercept the city's defensive array structure and stop it for a while.'

"What do you mean?" Elder Seer blurted out in shock and stared at him in surprise.

At that moment, Hayden and the other six people also sensed something went wrong and turned their gazes towards Charles.

Meanwhile, Charles curled his lips upward and started to count the seconds.

"Ten… Nine... Eight...

...

Three… Two… One."

As he finished the countdown, he suddenly raised his hand and cast the [Finger of Destruction] spell on a grey-robed mage who stood next to Hayden.

A dense, chaotic fire bullet came out of Charles's forefinger, flew towards the grey-robed mage at an incredible speed, and arrived in front of his forehead the next second.

But just as it was about to pierce his head, a strange blackish void appeared between the chaotic fire bullet and the grey-robed mage's forehead and devoured it like a black hole.

Alas, not a single sign of anxiousness or worry appeared on Charles's face.

"See? I'm not dead yet." He pointed his finger at his chest and spoke casually.

Meanwhile, Elder Seer showed a dumbfounded look and asked in shock.

"H-How?!"

The only thing that appeared in his mind was nothing but confusion and unanswered questions.

Thankfully, he managed to calm down his mind in a second, shifted his gaze towards the group of robed mages, and hurriedly muttered.

"Ice Cocoon."

A second later, a crystalline form of ice appeared around Charles and Hayden and sealed them inside like a real cocoon.

"This [Ice Cocoon] spell should be enough to stop them for a while." He spoke in a confident tone.

On the other hand, Charles snorted coldly and shook his head.

"They managed to completely trick your Seer skills and even assassinated you in other timelines, Elder. They must have prepared for this long ago."

At that moment, Hayden looked annoyed by the sudden disturbance, walked closer to the crystalline ice cocoon, and took out a strange pink paper from his space ring.

After that, he injured a bit of his wisdom power, placed it on the ice cocoon, and made strange hand signs.

Simultaneously, he opened his mouth and spoke in an unknown language.

Two seconds later, the whole [Ice Cocoon] turned into an eerie pinkish color instead of a crystalline one, shook violently, and shed thin pinkish ice layers like a snake shedding its skin!

It was a God-Rank spell called 'Softness of Love'!

Any defensive spell, be it a powerful Ice spell or an Earth-based spell, or even a Mental forcefield spell, would melt away like water as long as it was touched by this 'Softness of Love' spell!

Elder Seer's eyes went wide-eyed as he saw such an unimaginable thing and soon blurted out in shock.

"How can he break a Rank-6 spell so easily?" In truth, [Ice Cocoon] was a Rank-6 unique spell filled with pure law ice essence.

Even a Demigod-level Mage would find it hard to break it!

But what appeared in front of his eyes truly shocked him to the core.

He suddenly realized something, turned his gaze towards Charles, and asked.

"Wait. Who are you actually, young man? How did you know about their assassination?"

Instead of answering, Charles conjured an orb of white cloud, tossed it towards his head, and spoke.

"That orb contains the memories of what I encountered all this time. Cast another Ice Cocoon spell on yourself and watch it patiently. Meanwhile, I'll take care of these assassins."

As he spoke, the surrounding crystalline ice cocoon suddenly broke into many thin layers of ice, fell one by one, and disappeared.

Meanwhile, Charles calmly touched his space ring, took out the [Blackened Heart] sword from it, and dashed towards Hayden.

But just as he took two-step forward, he suddenly entered his Inner World and let another consciousness take control over his body.

At that moment, Hayden locked his gaze on Charles and cast the [Forgotten Curse] spell on him.

The next instant, his other consciousness got affected by the spell, and it didn't know how to run!

Just as Charles's body was about to stumble and fall, his main consciousness took control of his body and took the third step.

Simultaneously, Charles opened his mouth and muttered.

"Sphere of Invulnerability."

A sphere-like layer of fire appeared around his body and completely covered him like a forcefield.

Before the Defensive Fire spell could cover his body, a clanging sound reverberated on the street road as an invisible pillar descended from the sky and crashed onto the spherical layer of fire!

Thankfully, Charles's defensive spell managed to stop the invisible pillar for a millisecond and deflected it towards the direction of the nearby carriage.

Due to the powerful force, the defensive spherical layer of fire also shook violently and broke into pieces.

But Charles didn't stop for a single moment, cast the [False Field] spell, and moved at a much faster speed.

Only Hayden managed to perceive his movement!

He hurriedly cast an eerie blackish wing spell and shot up towards the sky.

On the other hand, Charles had already arrived before a grey-robed mage, slashed his sword at an unimaginable speed, and cleaved his neck into two.

Then, he calmly withdrew his sword, casually evaded the Rank-5 [Frozen Knife] spell from the left side black-robed mage, and locked his gaze on another grey-robed mage.

After that, he cast the [Burning Thoughts] spell on him, erased his current thinking, and thrust his sword at the enemy.

The next instant, his [Blackened Heart] sword tore through the air, arrived in front of the grey-robed mage's chest, and plunged directly into it.

It took him less than two seconds to kill two Dual Rank-5 Mystics!

Just as he was about to move towards his next target, he quietly observed the future images in his left eye and blinked.

A moment later, he disappeared from there and reappeared next to the Ice Cocoon that Elder Seer had already cast on himself.

At that moment, Hayden also appeared above the crystalline cocoon, placed another pinkish paper, and started destroying it.

Like the last time, the whole cocoon started to shed pinkish ice layers at an incredible speed and revealed the silver-haired human to everyone.

But instead of fear and anxiousness, Charles saw a profound aura appear around the Elder Seer.

Without minding Charles's gaze, he quietly looked up at Hayden, raised his hand, and spoke.

"Cold of the Graveyard."

A moment later, a terrifying amount of ice elemental energy came out of his body, spread everywhere like a powerful storm, and froze everything in its path.

The terrifying ice-elemental power soon reached the nearby streets and alleys, then further moved towards the faraway streets and almost covered the Underground District in crystalline ice!

Other than a few Rank-5 and Rank-6 Mystics, those who stayed in the Underground District were frozen into ice and died.

In the meantime, Hayden flapped his eerie black wings, descended from the sky, and stared at Elder Seer with bloodshot eyes.

"What have you done?!" At that moment, many types of emotions like shock, disbelief, anxiety, confusion, and panic appeared all over his face.

The main reason for that was because his family was also staying in the underground district!

At that moment, Hayden knew that Elder Seer's spell had long killed his family members and went pale.

"You look like a stupid, Mr. Villain." Charles chuckled.