Chapter 76 The Battlefield

Chapter 76 The Battlefield
Third-Person Point of View

Elder Mara was clearly displeased by Coriander’s response. Her expression darkened, and without the slightest hesitation, she slowly raised one hand into the air. A sinister smile curled across her lips before she shouted, her voice echoed throughout the garden.

“Strike!” she commanded, as though the single word had triggered everything.

At her signal, thick violet smoke rapidly spread across the area. In the next instant, countless wolves and mages emerged from the swirling haze as if the smoke itself had become portals leading from another world. More enemies poured out from inside the hall, throwing the entire place into chaos.

In the blink of an eye, the peaceful grounds of Obsidian Fang Hall descended into complete chaos.

No one in the garden had expected such an ambush. They were given no time to recover, let alone prepare a proper defense. Shouts erupted from every corner as steel clashed against claws and spells exploded into the air.

“Fuck! Disgusting bastards!” Gamma Fengk roared as a crazed wolf lunged straight at him.

The beast showed no fear or hesitation. Thick saliva dripped endlessly from its gaping jaws while its bloodshot eyes stared at him with mindless hunger. It looked less like a warrior and more like a rabid monster that had completely lost its sanity.

Gamma Fengk barely managed to sidestep before the wolf’s fangs snapped shut where his neck had been moments earlier. He immediately retaliated, driving the beast back with a powerful strike, only to realize several more were already rushing toward him.

Delta Gun wasn’t faring any better.

He found himself locked in combat against another frenzied wolf that fought without concern for its own life. Every attack was reckless, relentless, and strangely calculated, as though the creature knew exactly how to exploit his openings. Each exchange forced Delta Gun farther onto the defensive.

Meanwhile, something even more unsettling was happening nearby.

Lief’s body slowly rose from the ground as streams of violet smoke coiled around him. His expression gradually emptied of all emotion, and the familiar color of his eyes faded until they became the exact same shade of violet as Elder Mara’s.

He looked less like himself and more like an empty puppet awaiting its master’s command.

“Finished them,” Elder Mara ordered coldly.

There wasn’t even a flicker of hesitation, and without speaking a single word, Lief obeyed.

He didn’t crouch. He didn’t run. He simply vanished.

The space where he had been standing rippled for an instant before his figure reappeared directly behind Mavros. The movement was so impossibly fast that even the Lycan King was caught completely off guard, his instincts only beginning to react as Lief materialized at his back.

“This is the consequence of being weak… and soft,” Lief whispered coldly.

Without the slightest hesitation, he swung his arm and drove a crushing blow into Mavros’s back, sending the Lycan King hurtling across the garden.

The moment Mavros crashed into the ground, the impact sent a violent shockwave through the area. Stone shattered beneath him as dust and debris erupted into the air.

“Mavros!” Coriander’s desperate cry echoed across the battlefield.

She instinctively rushed forward, intending to help Mavros, but Elder Mara stepped into her path before she could take another step.

Thick violet smoke wrapped itself around Elder Mara’s body. It pulsed with an unnatural energy that distorted the air around her, making the very atmosphere feel heavy and suffocating.

The aura radiating from Elder Mara was far more terrifying than the forbidden magic Alpha Xuamel had once stolen before.

“Shit... this is far worse than Alpha Xuamel’s magic back then...” Coriander muttered under her breath.

The overwhelming presence radiating from Elder Mara was enough to be considered a warning—not only to everyone within Obsidian Fang Hall but also to those living in the surrounding territories. Unlike Alpha Xuamel, Elder Mara possessed an extensive mastery of magic. Alpha Xuamel had stolen the forbidden spell, but he had never fully understood it, which meant he was unable to unleash the true power of Shadow Blaze.

Elder Mara was different because she understood magic far too well.

And the truth was, when it came to magical knowledge and mastery, Coriander knew she was at a disadvantage. Elder Mara far surpassed her in both experience and understanding, making her an opponent far more dangerous than Alpha Xuamel had ever been.

There was, however, one thing Coriander understood that no one else did.

The Solar Sigil.

It was a power that belonged to her alone—a mystery that no one else had been able to comprehend. While Elder Mara’s knowledge of magic was vast, the Solar Sigil remained beyond her understanding. And that alone might become Coriander’s greatest advantage.

Without another word, Elder Mara lifted her hand.

Several spears of violet magic shot through the air, tearing across the battlefield toward Coriander.

Coriander reacted at once. She leaped to the side, narrowly avoiding the first wave before raising both hands.

Golden light gathered around her fingers. A heartbeat later, six golden daggers formed in the air.

“Go.”

The daggers shot forward like arrows, leaving bright trails behind them.

Elder Mara calmly waved her hand. A wall of violet energy rose before her, blocking the attack. The golden daggers struck the barrier one after another, sending sparks flying across the garden.

The barrier cracked, but it did not break.

Elder Mara smiled. “So you’re still holding back.”

Coriander said nothing. She simply created another set of golden daggers, her eyes fixed on Elder Mara alone.

She still hadn’t called upon the full power of the Solar Sigil.

“Master, let me ta—”

“No. I’ll handle this,” Coriander cut Nico off before he could finish.

She already knew what he was about to say. Nico had been itching to fight ever since the battle began.

She couldn’t really blame him, though. After all, this was their first real battle in decades.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the battlefield, the clash between Lief and King Mavros had already reached a fever pitch. With every exchange, the air grew heavier as the two warriors pushed each other harder, neither willing to give an inch.

“Is this what you traded everything for?” King Mavros asked, his voice calm despite the relentless assault. He narrowly avoided another of Lief’s lightning-fast strikes before sliding back to create some distance. “Power that burns away your own soul? Magic that was never meant for our kind?”

Lief laughed, the sound was cold and empty. As he charged again, streams of violet energy poured from his body like living smoke, twisting around his arms before exploding toward Mavros with every attack.

“You call it burning?” Lief sneered. “I call it clarity.” His next strike came even faster than the last, forcing Mavros to block instead of dodge. “It shows me exactly what you refuse to see—that mercy is weakness...” He grinned, his violet eyes devoid of emotion. “...and peace is nothing more than a dream for those too cowardly to fight.”

Mavros gritted his teeth as he caught Lief’s fist with one hand. The force behind the blow sent cracks racing beneath his feet, but he refused to back down.

“You’re wrong.”

With a powerful shove, Mavros forced Lief back before swinging his claw across the air. A crescent of black aura tore toward Lief, only for him to vanish in a burst of violet smoke.

He reappeared above Mavros an instant later, and without hesitation, Lief drove his heel downward.

Mavros crossed both arms just in time.

Boom!

The impact shook the entire garden, blasting a wave of wind in every direction. Trees bent violently, while broken stones skidded across the ground.

The two locked eyes from only inches apart.

“You’re still holding back,” Lief said with a faint smile. “You won’t kill me because you still think I’m your Beta.”

Mavros’s expression remained unchanged. “No,” he replied. “I’m holding back because I believe you’re still in there.”

For the briefest moment, something flickered in Lief’s violet eyes. A trace of hesitation. But it vanished as quickly as it appeared.

His expression hardened once more as the violet smoke around him erupted with even greater intensity.

“Then let me destroy that illusion.”

With a roar, Lief unleashed another barrage of attacks, each one faster and more brutal than the last, forcing Mavros back step by step.
“Why hasn’t he shifted yet?” Mavros wondered.

Now that he thought about it, ever since seeing Lief again, he hadn’t sensed Ludwig’s presence even once.

As the Lycan King, Mavros possessed the ability to sense the wolves around him—especially members, or former members, of the Obsidian Fang Pack. That ability was even stronger when it came to pure-blooded Lycans like Lief.

Yet there was nothing. It was as if Ludwig had completely vanished.

Is the forbidden magic the reason? Or... has it already consumed Ludwig entirely?

Meanwhile, on another part of the battlefield, Luka fought desperately to reach Coriander and help her against Elder Mara.

But no matter how hard he pushed forward, he couldn’t get close.

Every path was blocked by waves of enemies.

What troubled him even more was the strange violet smoke scattered across the battlefield. Wherever the smoke appeared, more wolves and mages emerged from it as though the mist itself had become a gateway. They had already defeated dozens of enemies, yet the attackers kept coming without end.

It was as if they were endlessly regenerating.

“Shit! What the hell is going on?” Luka muttered through gritted teeth as he drew another arrow and released it with flawless precision, dropping another enemy before quickly aiming at the next. “What kind of forbidden magic is Elder Mara using?”

The battle showed no signs of slowing down.

Explosions echoed one after another as gold and violet magic continued to collide above the garden. The once-beautiful grounds of Obsidian Fang Hall had been reduced to rubble, stained with blood and littered with broken weapons.

Everywhere they looked, there was fighting.

The Obsidian Fang warriors were gradually being pushed back despite their desperate resistance. For every enemy they defeated, two more seemed to emerge from the violet smoke.

“This can’t keep going...” Luka muttered, his breathing growing heavier.

At this rate, they would eventually be overwhelmed.

Then a powerful gust of wind swept across the entire battlefield.

The violet smoke trembled.

Even Elder Mara paused for the briefest moment, her eyes narrowing as she turned toward the northern entrance of the hall.

Mavros, Coriander, and everyone else instinctively looked in the same direction.

Thud.

A single pair of footsteps echoed through the deafening chaos.

Then another.

Thud.

The sound wasn’t loud, yet it somehow silenced the battlefield.

A lone figure slowly emerged from the fading smoke, its face hidden beneath a dark hood. An overwhelming aura spread from the stranger with every step, causing both allies and enemies to freeze where they stood.

For the first time since the battle began, even Elder Mara’s smile disappeared.

“You...” she murmured, her voice carrying a hint of disbelief.

The hooded figure stopped a few meters from the battlefield.

Then, with one slow movement, the stranger raised a hand.

Everything went silent.