First Move, Checkmate: How Will You Respond?

“Phew~ I finally got away smoothly.”

Erica was very happy.

She knew that if she used normal means, she would absolutely not be able to get rid of Gwen.

In order to prevent being caught, she had specially started preparing the teleportation spell early.

Waiting for the moment when Gwen was caught off guard, activate it instantly!

She was very lucky that Professor Victor had taught her how to use teleportation magic correctly when he first came to the academy.

Although she couldn’t teleport dozens of kilometers away like a 3rd Order mage, she could still manage a few kilometers.

“Gwen probably still thinks I would teleport very far away.”

Erica didn’t teleport towards the mountain top, but crossed over a few kilometers halfway up the mountain, which was equivalent to running to the other side of the mountain.

The surrounding scenery was still somewhat bleak, with no change.

Erica started walking towards the volcano top. The higher she went, the more she could feel the temperature rise around her.

Not far along, she already felt unbearably hot.

The surrounding rocks were all emitting steam, which was the moisture in the air being evaporated by the high temperatures.

Walking further up, you could even see all kinds of rocks bursting from the heat.

Looking at the surroundings, Erica felt apprehensive, but still braved the heat and continued walking up the mountain.

At the same time, she did not forget to add several heat-resistance states to herself.

She was a mage, and knew this was caused by the fire elements overflowing in the volcano.

“I knew it, this wasn’t a simple volcanic eruption.”

“How could a normal volcanic eruption possibly draw out so much magical energy.”

Erica confirmed her guess, only by going up the mountain could she see more things.

Yet her father and the others only knew to use magic to isolate everything, and had not thought of solving the problem from the source at all.

“Stubborn old mages.”

She grumbled a couple words, then thought of Victor again, also a 3rd Order mage.

The youngest 3rd Order mage, and still no one had surpassed his record to this day.

‘The abnormality of the volcano… was it really caused by Victor?’

Crack-

While she was thinking, a sound of a rock being stepped on came from behind.

“What’s that!?”

She quickly turned around to look, and a red porcupine emerged from the ground, wrapped in faint flames, rushing straight at Erica.

“2nd grade magical beast! Flame porcupine.”

Erica casually traced out a spell formation, aimed at the beast.

【2nd Order Magic: Water Cannon】

As she spoke, a huge water bullet spun continuously in Erica’s hand, bursting out instantly.

The flaming porcupine was blasted back tens of meters, falling on the ground upside down.

The flames on its body completely evaporated, like charcoal.

Obviously dead.

The strength of a 2nd grade magical beast was naturally no match for an elite mage who had cultivated for years.

One shot kill, also within reason.

“So simple.”

Erica couldn’t believe it, this was the first time she had defeated a magical beast in the wild.

Turns out she wasn’t weak at all.

She felt proud of her own bravery.

Mount Vesuvius was a dangerous place to begin with.

The variety of fire-type magical beasts was quite broad.

The higher she went, the more beasts there would be.

Not only that, proportional to the quantity was the strength of the magical beasts.

At first she could still handle them easily, but later it started to become difficult.

The closer to the peak, the stronger the monsters.

Erica could barely deal with them, but she kept feeling something was off.

“Clearly I’ve seen these magical beasts in the academy before, but why is the difference between their strength now and what was taught in class so great?”

Another flame porcupine popped out from the ground. This time, Erica had to use several spells to completely deal with it.

Compared to the previous beasts, its claws had become sharper, and the flames on its back more vigorous.

Naturally, its aggressiveness had also increased somewhat.

“Could these magical beasts have been enhanced?”

This thought flashed through Erica’s mind.

“The rich fire elements around have made them stronger.”

The concentration of fire elements was no coincidence.

She was determined to go up the mountain a bit more, because Erica felt there must be answers she wanted at the peak.

But the terrifying temperature had already started making Erica feel somewhat dizzy, and the increasingly powerful magical beasts also gave her pause.

Even her magic was gradually unable to withstand the scorching heat.

Erica stood in place, deciding to rest for a bit and think of a way to get to the peak.

Suddenly, she thought of the last bottle of magic potion left in her bag.

She looked at the magic potion, then up towards the direction of the peak.

Inspiration struck.

“I’ve got an idea!”

Meanwhile, on the other side of the mountain.

Gwen sprinted nonstop towards the peak, even as the surrounding temperature grew hot enough to make her sweat pour like rain.

The silver sword in her hand was like ice, severing one obstructing magical beast after another.

“First Victor, now the Duke’s daughter too.”

“Why does everyone like making trouble for themselves?”

Did she not want to go find Victor?

No, of course she did, to be precise, she wanted to so much she was nearly going mad.

She wanted to find Victor and confront him face to face about whether the volcano’s abnormality was caused by him.

If he said yes, then the next second, her fist would smash into Victor’s face.

Yet Gwen had to follow orders, she had to protect all the mages, protect the residents.

“Victor… you wait for me.”

Gwen swiftly severed the head of a magical beast blocking her path, and ran towards the peak, as if entering uninhabited lands.

Soon, she too encountered an obstacle.

In front of her, between the cracks on the volcano surface, astonishing lava gushed out.

As if the volcano was wounded and bleeding.

This way, she simply could not continue forward.

The searing heat of the armor made her unable to bear it, she could only retreat a few steps, looking at the peak, pondering a way up.

……

“Gravely injured… it must be gravely injured.”

Veega kept lamenting.

Before it, the shell of the Fire Calamity had peeled off, and wounds on its body flowed out astonishing amounts of lava.

This was the Fire Calamity, large amounts of lava flowing from its body.

That was its “blood”.

“What a terrifying creature.”

Veega kept sighing.

It was talking about Victor.

【3rd Order Magic: Rain Rending】

【3rd Order Magic: Sandstorm Mudslide】

All kinds of spell formations circled in the sky, five formations continuously outputting magic below.

The volcano below also kept churning with lava, and dots of magma also collapsed out of the surrounding rock walls.

Victor continuously cast spells, adding all kinds of negative buffs to Guldon’s body.

After the accumulated damage became critical, Guldon’s movements became extremely slow, it no longer even had the chance to graze Victor.

This battle was enough to change Veega’s cognition.

It couldn’t care less about its burning feathers, its eyes didn’t blink once.

“No way, is he really going to win?”

If Victor won, it would be willing to call him the strongest human it had ever seen.

No, that’s not right.

Regardless of whether Victor was victorious, his might had already become unimaginable.

To be precise, what he possessed was not overwhelming power.

The gap between Guldon and Victor was like that between heaven and earth.

Its body was massive, so powerful that it only needed to hit Victor once to completely kill him.

Yet…

It couldn’t do it.

Clearly Victor needed to defeat it countless times, while it only needed to win once.

Yet in this completely mismatched battle, Victor had taken the impossible with his own hands and made it possible.

After nearly three days and nights of fierce battle, Guldon had only grazed Victor once.

As for Victor?

He was at leisure, composed and relaxed in the battle.

Guldon’s attacks in his eyes were like slowed down more than tenfold, for some unnecessary attacks, he didn’t even need to teleport to evade.

He only needed to walk a few steps to precisely dodge.

The previous injuries didn’t seem to have affected his condition at all, instead arousing his fighting spirit.

After being injured, his magic utilization was even more smooth!

Finally! Someone had fallen into a weakened state first.

The one weakened wasn’t Victor, but Guldon.

A calamity that humans should never be able to defeat, had for the first time been driven into desperation by a human.

Its HP had already dropped to 30%, which was absolute weakness.

Its shell no longer shone, its strength and speed also decreased greatly.

Veega was baffled, just earlier in that astonishing state, it couldn’t even graze Victor once.

And now, it had again fallen into a weakened state.

Wasn’t that to say, Victor had surely won?

Veega looked at Victor, but discovered he didn’t think so at all.

Not only was he not relaxed, but his expression was solemn, on high alert.

And he kept muttering.

“That attack is coming.”

That attack? Which attack?

Veega was startled, then, an astonishing tremor rang out in the air, nearly making it lose control of its physical balance.

The volcano shook madly, even the ground trembled.

The earth gradually crumbled apart, the lava gradually quieted, and a massive being surged forth from beneath the layers of lava in the volcano.

The entire volcano tottered, Guldon’s eyes were like two suns emitting scorching light.

The surging fire pillar burst through layers of lava, melting rock, flooding the sky.

Countless fiery stones wrapped in lava fell everywhere, like meteors.

“【Resentful Rupture of Flames】.”

Victor knew very clearly what this was, and slowly uttered the name of Guldon’s final move.

Veega dodged the sky full of rapidly falling fiery stones while watching the fire pillar about to burst through the crater. It cursed:

“Fire Calamity! You can’t handle this!”

How do you evade something like that?

“Evade?”

Victor gave a cold laugh.

He had never thought of evading at all!

Almost in the blink of an eye, Victor’s eyes lit up an astonishing azure.

Terrifying magical energy enveloped the entire volcano bottom!

Instantly, an enormous, sky-covering phantom castle appeared in the air, as if wanting to completely suppress the entire mountain mouth.

The castle lit up multiple giant spell formations.

Buzz– Buzz– Buzz–

One… Two… Three!

A full three layers of barrier formations swiftly started to form, the formations linked to each other, the veins of the three formations gradually intertwining, forming an ark soaring to the heavens at the center of the giant formation, like a holy tree’s bud suddenly blooming.

The endless power made Veega feel the danger even midair above the volcano.

The sky-blocking formation slowly descended, piercing through layers of murky clouds and mist, abruptly revealing a vast stretch of cerulean sky.

Powerful pressure enveloped all living beings except Victor.

The massive Guldon’s feet sank into the ground an inch, even its head unable to lift up.

Veega was also shaken down by the pressure, coincidentally landing on Victor’s shoulder.

“War magic!? Dammit, when did he set this up!?”

Veega looked at the enormous formation plunging down from the sky.

Those fiery stones carrying lava vanished instantly before the war magic, like pebbles.

Once again on the shoulder, it couldn’t spit out another word.

It could only grumble in its heart: ‘Doesn’t releasing war magic formations require a group of mages?’

‘This freak could unleash it alone, isn’t that too outrageous!’

The next second, the fire pillar rising from the ground collided with the ark in the sky.

The two earth-destroying, heaven-annihilating attacks clashed, Veega could no longer hear any sound around it.

There was only dazzling radiance, and momentum reaching to the heavens.

The intense clashing attacks even completely shattered sound itself, the shockwaves burst through the mountainside, causing mad collapse.

In a daze, it seemed to hear Victor’s chant reaching its ears.

“【Magic Imperial Capital — Fall of the Ark of Genesis】”

Whoosh–!!!

Blinding white light enveloped all of creation