Shatter!

As the barrier blocking The Foe shattered, the air changed. A sharp and heavy energy, like a caged Beast being released, rushed out into the surroundings.

Gasp…!

The Celestial Spirit Maiden, who was sensitive to Sensory Perception, even gasped for air.

This is Stage 4…!?

She had only felt the Aura that had leaked out. It wasn’t even properly emitted, nor was it meant to threaten. Nevertheless, she felt a suffocating pressure.

Sky Breaker thrashed as if in envy. The energy of the Path of Hegemony does not tolerate anything stronger than itself.

Accordingly, the Celestial Spirit Maiden felt both exhilaration and tension at the same time.

However, exhilaration gradually swallowed up the tension, growing larger.

As if to prove that he was already walking the Path of Hegemony.

Meanwhile, Kim Songcheol, whether fortunately or unfortunately, was feeling nothing at all.

This was because the activated Lucentem had canceled out the Voidor’s Aura.

So he was able to launch an attack one step faster.

The moment the sphere of light that had appeared in front of Kim Songcheol seemed to brighten a little more.

Flash-!

Three Golden Lines were drawn in the air.

But the Foe was no longer there. It vanished as if sucked into a single point, then was spat out again somewhere in the air.

The Foe’s purple eyes turned towards Kim Songcheol.

As it elegantly raised its hand slightly, the sphere began to divide.

Hundreds, thousands of black spheres instantly multiplied, filling the space.

“Be careful! If they touch you, you’ll disappear!”

Simultaneously with the Celestial Spirit Maiden’s cry, the spheres were shot at the three people.

The spheres covered the space. It could almost be called saturation.

Their speed was also immense. Striking them down was impossible; one could only prepare a shield and hope it was enough.

Thump-thump-thump-thump-thump!

Dull sounds echoed everywhere. Each time a sphere hit the ground, a rock of similar volume to the sphere disappeared, and each time a dull sound was made.

The Celestial Spirit Maiden offered dense Sky Breakers to the spheres, and Setsu lost multiple layers of shields.

Kim Songcheol blocked the spheres with the light that brightly illuminated the front. He could feel his Mana rapidly disappearing as he greatly increased the output.

‘Ugh…’

His expression naturally contorted.

Not to mention the speed, the range was also too wide.

Seeing the ground disappear, physical force was best met with evasion.

Leaving Setsu aside, it was impressive that the Celestial Spirit Maiden managed to evade with Sky Breaker.

‘I need to gather more information.’

Immediately after the opponent’s attack ended, Kim Songcheol split his shield into six beams of light and fired them towards the Foe.

As expected, the Foe once again did not engage, disappearing as if sucked in and reappearing somewhere nearby.

It was avoiding all of Kim Songcheol’s attacks without blocking them.

It seemed to have already noticed that the golden light was its antithesis.

‘Is there a pattern…?’

The spheres and Spatial Teleportation all looked like magic, but they weren’t magic, and naturally, no Mana was felt.

Could he discern the Blink locations based solely on patterns, without any hints?

The Foe was already preparing an attack with both hands spread. Three spheres appeared, instantly growing to dozens of meters in size.

They were too big.

“What in the world…”

Kim Songcheol first shot a beam of light. Surprisingly, the light pierced through the sphere. A hole appeared in the giant sphere.

The brilliant beam of light not only pierced a hole but also targeted the Foe behind it.

But the Foe was not easy to deal with. At the same time as he moved through space again, a sphere tens of meters in size was shot towards the three of them.

The gigantic sphere filled their vision in an instant.

Then, Setsu stepped forward in front of the Celestial Spirit Maiden and shouted.

“I’ll do it!!”

Setsu created a large cube. As the cube touched the sphere, the sphere’s size visibly decreased.

Setsu frantically created cubes. His outstretched hand trembled, and his tightly clenched teeth were visible.

At some point, green light began to emanate from Setsu’s eyes, but as soon as two spheres disappeared, he stopped using his ability and the green light also vanished.

Setsu quickly looked up at Kim Songcheol with black eyes.

Because he couldn’t touch the sphere that flew towards Kim Songcheol.

“Brother!!”

Setsu shrieked with a tearing voice.

He saw the sphere engulfing Kim Songcheol.

He had completely disappeared inside, becoming invisible.

Kim Songcheol is also a substance with mass. It was easy to imagine what might have happened to him.

The sphere stopped right where Kim Songcheol had disappeared, as if revealing its satisfaction.

Setsu was frozen in place, unable to do anything.

But the Celestial Spirit Maiden was different. She moved even before Setsu screamed. She seemed to move under the Foe in an instant, then her figure suddenly blurred. She appeared behind the Foe.

A crimson Sky Breaker, wreathed in her hand, was shot towards the Foe’s nape.

But the Foe did not dodge. Instead, he created a black sphere from the center of his body.

Just before the Celestial Spirit Maiden’s hand touched his nape, the black sphere enveloped his neck, and the Celestial Spirit Maiden, after thrusting the Sky Breaker into the sphere, had no choice but to push off the air and retreat just before her hand made contact.

At the same time, a small sphere was created and quickly pursued her.

“Kid, snap out of it!”

The Celestial Spirit Maiden shouted as she blocked the sphere with her Sky Breaker.

Another sphere was already flying towards Setsu.

Setsu was looking at the large sphere that had swallowed Kim Songcheol, instead of the sphere flying towards him.

His side was completely exposed.

At this rate, he would lose Setsu too. No, he would definitely lose him. He couldn’t physically go to save him.

‘…Was it futile?’

The Celestial Spirit Maiden sensed defeat. Defeat meant death. This was not a place where they would be let go just because two teammates had died.

She had never thought she wouldn’t die, but when death actually stared her in the face, it was difficult to accept it easily.

No, she could never accept it.

Nevertheless, the escape route was merely a formality.

It was then.

Whoosh!

Golden light spread from Setsu’s entire body.

At the same time, a purple sphere collided with Setsu’s temple, but it caused no damage whatsoever.

It had been blocked by the brilliant golden light and disappeared.

Just as light drives away shadows.

Just as the darkest dawn recedes when the sun rises.

“Brother!!”

With Setsu’s illusion-filled cry.

Whoosh!

The gigantic purple sphere blurred, and a golden glow brightened.

Soon, the sphere disappeared, and only a bright golden light shone nobly.

And in the center of that golden glow was Kim Songcheol.

“Sorry. I got sucked into something strange.”

Kim Songcheol awkwardly extended his hand towards the Celestial Spirit Maiden. Then, a golden light began to flow from her body as well.

…Sorcerer, do you really want to die?

The Celestial Spirit Maiden ground her teeth with pleasure.

I didn’t know either. I didn’t expect to be sucked into a place like that.

Kim Songcheol was confident he could protect himself with light. So, he intentionally allowed himself to be swallowed by the sphere to gather information about it.

What Kim Songcheol hadn’t anticipated was that the sphere didn’t just annihilate objects, but moved them somewhere else.

Thanks to this, Kim Songcheol had been moved to a ‘Strange Space’ and had just returned.

If he hadn’t fixed the entrance with Lucentem and specified the coordinates beforehand, he would have been lost in that space.

But he had gathered all the necessary information. It was enough to devise a countermeasure.

If the sphere was a rupture pushing from the Sea of Chaos, he simply needed to erect a lighthouse to guide them in the correct direction.

Kim Songcheol strengthened only the ‘marker’ and ‘guidance’ concept of light and wrapped it around the two of them. It was a method that could save a considerable amount of mana.

From now on, the light would guide them. That meant they would no longer be sucked into the sphere, and they had immunity to the purple sphere.

Celestial Spirit Maiden, go scratch him a bit. Let’s see what happens.

Kim Songcheol’s fresh voice spread beyond the golden light.

He had surrounded the Celestial Spirit Maiden with a golden shield, adding to her nothingness power. She was perfect to use as a vanguard.

May I kill him?

That would be great.

Hmph.

The Celestial Spirit Maiden smiled faintly and immediately charged towards the foe.

The aura, clad in golden light, was extraordinary as it rushed forward.

The foe hurriedly stretched out his hand towards the Celestial Spirit Maiden. A sphere formed in front of his hand, but the sphere didn’t attack directly. Instead, a bundle of purple tentacles sprang out from within the sphere and shot towards the Celestial Spirit Maiden.

It was not a living creature. Rather, it had a texture closer to rock.

They twisted and swirled together, becoming sharp as if to pierce the Celestial Spirit Maiden.

Whoosh!

The Celestial Spirit Maiden’s Sky Breaker flared brightly. And the moment she thrust her fist forward, a massive burst of energy began to advance, shattering the tentacles.

It was an easier attack to deal with compared to the Purple Sphere.

The Celestial Spirit Maiden accelerated once more, rapidly closing the distance. Then, the foe moved through space.

He vanished instantly and reappeared tens of meters away in mid-air.

The Celestial Spirit Maiden propelled herself through the air, chasing the foe at full speed.

Kim Songcheol stretched out his hand towards the foe. The light of Lucentem enveloped the foe, but the foe brazenly used spatial teleportation again.

The light of Lucentem could not prevent the Foe’s direct Spatial Teleportation. This was probably because the subject enveloped in light had no intention of following its guidance.

‘Anyway, Spatial Teleportation is Spatial Teleportation, isn’t it? There’s no choice. Do I have to do something with Nothingness?’

Kim Songcheol opened his mouth to Setsu.

“Scatter it around and make them disoriented.”

“Ah, yes!”

Setsu continued to send small Green Lights into the air.

It wasn’t hundreds or thousands like the Foe’s attacks, but it still filled some of the space.

When the Foe appeared after moving through space, the Green Lights followed like guided missiles.

If they took even a moment to deal with them, the Celestial Spirit Maiden would attack from behind again.

The Foe had no choice but to keep using Spatial Teleportation.

And after several Spatial Movements, Kim Songcheol felt a small sensation.

It was the light of Lucentem he had cast on the Foe just before.

After the Foe disappeared with Spatial Teleportation, just before reappearing, the light of Lucentem faintly ‘marked’ its coordinates first.

It wasn’t intentional. It was a completely unexpected gain.

‘Oh, this is… unexpected…’

The sensation was so faint that it was difficult to notice at once, but once he felt it, there was no fear of missing it.

The opponent was Kim Songcheol.

He stretched his hand forward.

The Foe appearing with Spatial Teleportation and the Polyhedron of Spatial Segmentation enveloping its surroundings happened simultaneously.

Lucentem was already applied to the Polyhedron.

The Foe emitted Purple Spheres in all directions. But Lucentem thoroughly turned the spheres into Nothingness.

It was a bird completely trapped in a cage.

The Foe’s abilities were great, but the situation was terribly bad.

Now that it was trapped, it was almost over.

However, maintaining Spatial Segmentation while activating Lucentem was quite a headache for Kim Songcheol as well.

So, he simply enveloped the Celestial Spirit Maiden with the Polyhedron of Spatial Segmentation and then merged the two Polyhedrons.

He simply put the Celestial Spirit Maiden and the Foe into the ring.

A Mage knew best the situation a Mage feared most.

…!

The moment the Celestial Spirit Maiden entered the Polyhedron, the Foe’s eyes widened.

Immediately, the Foe’s entire body blazed with purple light and Tentacles were shot out, but the Celestial Spirit Maiden’s hand shattered all the Tentacles as it advanced.

As her hand immediately grabbed its collar, the Foe began to struggle, scratching at the Celestial Spirit Maiden’s forearm.

Spheres spread in all directions and Tentacles shot out targeting the Celestial Spirit Maiden.

The Celestial Spirit Maiden’s other hand moved like lightning, and she ripped out the Foe’s heart.

And so, Stage 4 ended.

The Foe’s corpse, the golden light, and the Polyhedron of Spatial Segmentation all scattered together.

As if to prove the end, a large purple Portal and a blue Portal of Rupture were simultaneously created.

The purple Portal was in front, and the blue Portal of Rupture was behind.

“I have no choice but to admit it, Sorcerer. Thanks to you, we’ve come this far.”

The Celestial Spirit Maiden uncharacteristically acknowledged Kim Songcheol directly.

The fact that she was speaking directly like this must have been because even she was deeply moved by reaching Stage 4’s Castle.

The Celestial Spirit Maiden’s gaze turned towards the Rupture-colored Portal.

Their goal was achieved.

It was time to leave.

However, Kim Songcheol was staring at the purple Portal.

Reading his gaze, the Celestial Spirit Maiden narrowed her eyes.

Setsu, unaware of anything, was simply relieved by the fact that they had won.

Soon, Kim Songcheol opened his mouth.

“There’s something I haven’t used yet, you know? I originally planned to use it in Stage 4, but it turned out I didn’t need to? So, about that…”

He pointed his thumb at the purple Portal.

“How about we go one more stage further?”

Stage 5.

It was a completely unknown territory even for the Celestial Spirit Maiden, and it was a proposal that even she thought was ‘nothing short of amazing’.