When A Mage Revolts

Grant, however, seemed prepared. As soon as Miles flashed his dagger, Grant suddenly twisted his body sideways, narrowly dodging the attack.

But it was not like Benjamin was hoping to kill his opponent in one go anyway.

"Let us face you first!"

A hoarse voice cried out as the wind and dark elements in the air became restless all of a sudden. Grant had just avoided Mile’s sudden attack but was quickly encircled by four elderly mages immediately after. Among them, three mages simultaneously cast the High-level Magic - Descent of Hurricane, trapping Grant inside a powerful column of wind.

Tiles, trunks, debris that was lying on the streets, were all stirred up by the wind too. Eventually, it turned into a tornado that stretched up to the clouds. Grant was stuck in the center of the tornado, such that his body could not be clearly seen from the outside - only the dull flickering of the Holy Light could be vaguely seen.

Meanwhile, another old mage had completed a magical spell known as Shadow Gate and a tiny, blackhole-like structure appeared in the air near the tornado. After a moment’s pause, pitch-black bat-like shadows started to surge out from the hole.

Upon closer inspection, these bats were constructed entirely out of dark elements; they looked endless and tightly packed as they charged around the sky like a huge swarm of mutant locust. They followed the path of the tornado before darting headfirst into the eye of the storm. They went in wave after wave, eventually, it looked as if someone had tied a pitch-dark belt onto the tornado.

As for the Holy Light that shone faintly in the wind, it gradually became dimmer after the crazy gushing of the bat shadows.

"So much for being a pope, you’re too young." Upon seeing this, a mage snorted proudly.

Nonetheless, after a few seconds, Benjamin shouted abruptly, making his team jump in fright, "Back off immediately! Mage Margaret, be careful of the light threads that he is shooting out!"

When the mages heard him, although they had not realized the situation, their intense training allowed them to instinctively react. Mage Margaret who was controlling the Shadow Gate immediately flew sideways.

In the next second, an extremely thin light thread shot out from the wind, darting over the vast sky in the blink of an eye.

The mages could not help but look stunned.

"This fellow...he’s already being suppressed by such powerful magic… not only is he not dead, but he still has residual powers to counterattack. Is the legacy of the Church really so horrifying?"

However, it was at that moment that they heard Grant’s voice from within the strong wind. It sounded solemn, and yet, ethereal.

"This has nothing to do with legacy - this is merely the will of God." His voice sounded like it was coming from all directions. Meanwhile, the odd light elements from their surroundings started draining away, "Just like how ants will never know of the abilities of birds, you’ll never understand how far the distance is between you and me."

The mages shifted uncomfortably.

At that moment, despite not noticing any magical movements, they started to have a bad feeling.

What was it...

Benjamin frowned as well. The System did a scan and told him that Grant had put his hands together devoutly in the eye of the storm and that everything within a meter radius around him was… calm? The strong winds and bat shadows could not get any closer to him – even Grant’s hair lay flat and undisturbed by the wind.

He looked very calm and was surrounded by three runes, as if brewing some sort of scary concoction. Meanwhile, the light elements around him seemed to also be getting consumed by Grant.

"Be careful, I can smell the scent of the elemental plane from his body." The System warned.

Benjamin understood the seriousness of the matter. Other than himself, no one else could contest with the energy and power that came from the elemental plane. This was proven by the priest who had attacked the academy during the opening ceremony.

Therefore, they could not let Grant perform his stunt no matter what.

"Miles, quick! Charge in and cut him off!"

Miles was standing on a roof somewhere in the streets, when he heard the order, he could only nod and jump into the tornado without hesitation. The invisible wind blades and bats that were hidden in the wind were not threats to him and he easily moved towards Grant who was at the center of it all.

But at that moment, Grant opened his eyes - his eyes shone with a golden light as he looked at Miles indifferently.

"A dead body… do you really think that you have the strength to contend with the Realm of God?"

That time, Grant made no attempt at dodging. As Miles stabbed his dagger downward into Grant’s throat, he made sure to make the cut deep and fatal. But despite this, there was no sign of blood from the wound.

Miles subconsciously frowned.

He felt as if... as if he stabbed at the air just now and had not hit anything.

When he retrieved his dagger, the wound on Grant’s neck immediately recovered and became as good as new, with absolutely no sign of damage. Since Miles had no magical abilities of his own, he promptly fell back to the ground soon after.

"There’s no way. I couldn’t hurt him..."

Miles looked anxious as he turned around and shouted. But when he turned around, he saw that Benjamin had already flown behind him, in his hand was a weird rune that was carved out of ice.

Before Miles could react, Benjamin placed the ice rune before him and said sternly, "Go up to him again, then, use your own blood and draw the same rune on his body."

"What, what..."

"There’s no time to explain, just hurry up and remember how the rune looks. It’s really simple, all you have to do is use your blood to draw it on Grant’s body!"

"Well... alright!"

Miles did not understand at all, but still nodded and memorized the simple rune. Then, he lifted his dagger to cut his fingertips, allowing fresh blood to be drawn from it.

After this, he jumped again and arrived beside Grant, this time looking straight into Grant’s shining eyes.

At that moment, he noticed that there seemed to be weird runes flashing in Grant’s eyes. The strange thing was that the shape of the rune was made out of three overlapping rings. Coincidentally, it was almost the same rune as the one that Benjamin had made him remember, the only difference being that one of the rings had a gap in it.

Was that a coincidence...

Miles completely did not understand the theory of it, however, he suddenly felt more confident with the orders that Benjamin had given him.

"A dumb person likes to repeat meaningless things over and over again," Grant said, his voice still sounding indifferent. He acted if he had entered a different world, and that nothing in this world could cause him any worry.

"Life is already meaningless to me." Miles grabbed at Grant’s neck and held his bleeding finger against it firmly, "So, I like to attempt all sorts of meaningless things."

Before Grant could react, Miles had scribbled the rune on the right side of his face.