The Archmetamagician: The Weave Collapses Again

How had they found out? Obviously, they'd seen it with their own eyes!

But a thought suddenly struck Anser. Remembering that "symbiote" from earlier, he immediately realized there was more behind that question.

This so-called "discovery" wasn't referring to the obvious fact that Mind Flayers were hiding in the city. There was a deeper implication behind it.

Today's large-scale coordinated operation had clearly caused the Mind Flayers to misunderstand something.

With that thought, Anser was in no hurry to kill him. He leaned closer and said, "How did you make those symbiotes? Come on, tell me about it."

The Mind Flayer arcanist said nothing, but a faint ripple passed through his gaze as he looked at Anser before quickly returning to calm.

Anser narrowed his eyes. It seemed these Mind Flayers really had been secretly plotting something, and they'd just happened to stumble across it.

"Where's your leader?" he demanded, staring him down.

The question seemed to strike a nerve. The Mind Flayer arcanist's gaze instantly locked onto Anser's face, and a terrifying surge of psionic power suddenly erupted from his head—

Smack!

A dragon claw came crashing down. The Mind Flayer's head burst like a rotten watermelon, spraying brains and blood across the rough wall in a grisly splash of graffiti.

The psionic power that had been concentrated to its peak abruptly collapsed without a will to control it.

[Target killed. 7,290 experience points gained.]

'That's a ton of experience!'

Killing one with just two casual swipes of his claws was ridiculously cost-effective.

'This guy was hiding in the Mages' Guild. He should've been fairly high-ranking, so why did no one in the guild notice anything?'

Wizards were an intelligent bunch. Anser found it hard to believe that none of them had noticed anything unusual at all.

He casually tossed the corpse aside and left it under the soldiers' guard, then smashed through the glass window of the Mind Flayer arcanist's room and entered the Mages' Guild tower.

The room was ordinary and simply furnished. A quick glance revealed nothing unusual.

He opened the door and stepped into the corridor, searching every room one by one.

Time was precious. He didn't bother knocking. He simply shoved the doors open, and if one wouldn't budge, he smashed it apart with a claw.

It wasn't particularly courteous, but it was extremely efficient. Everyone remained silent, obediently stepping aside with their hands at their sides once their doors were opened.

Powerful wizards rarely stayed at the guild for long. Most of the people here were ordinary wizards and staff members.

He searched from top to bottom until he reached the main hall.

He had thought he would come up empty-handed, but one sweep of his eyes revealed a cluster of purple light!

More than a dozen gray-robed apprentices stood quietly in a corner, heads lowered and eyes downcast. They looked uneasy, yet couldn't resist sneaking glances at Anser.

Under his Truesight, several purple tentacles were clearly wrapped around the heads of three of them, their roots buried deep within their brains. The sight was extremely bizarre.

Anser strode over to the group and pointed.

"You, you, and you. Step out!"

The three apprentices' expressions changed drastically. Their eyes were filled with fear as they repeatedly exchanged glances, their meaning impossible to discern.

One look was enough for Anser to understand. These three were fully conscious, and they knew exactly why they had been singled out.

These so-called symbiotes really were anything but ordinary.

While the three were still hesitating, the other magic apprentices scattered like startled birds and beasts. Within mere seconds, they had all fled, leaving only the three standing frozen in place.

"Arrest them. Keep them under strict guard!"

Anser waved a hand. The soldiers rushed forward with cold expressions, slammed the three to the floor, stripped them of everything they were carrying, gagged them, bound their hands and feet, and dragged them out onto the street.

The three apprentices let out muffled whimpers, earning several hard jabs from sword hilts that left them rolling their eyes in pain.

Anser shot rapidly into the sky and looked down over Middle City. Fighting had broken out in several districts, but he could see only two Mind Flayers. The rest were local Professionals.

'There really is something wrong!'

He decisively abandoned the Great Market and flew straight toward the upscale residential district behind the Mages' Guild, which lay at the edge of the Spatial Anchor's area of effect.

With a single glance, he spotted scattered points of purple light, some bright and some dim, spread throughout the area. There were at least a dozen of them.

One belonged to a disguised Mind Flayer. The rest were humanoids.

'So the Rock of Bral was infiltrated by Mind Flayers a long time ago. I've been here several times and never noticed.'

After grumbling to himself, Anser dove straight toward the Mind Flayer.

The Mind Flayer probably hadn't expected anyone to see through his disguise at a glance from sixty or seventy meters away, amid a crowd no less. Realizing he couldn't stay hidden, he immediately turned and fled without the slightest hesitation.

The moment he barely cleared the Spatial Anchor's barrier, he immediately activated Plane Shift.

But amid the howling wind, a flash of magical light enveloped him. The spatial disturbance was instantly smoothed away, and his psionic power vanished without a trace, producing no effect whatsoever.

"You run as slowly as a turtle."

The Mind Flayer spun around and unleashed a Mind Blast. The cone-shaped psionic storm swept outward, only to be stopped as effortlessly as a gentle breeze by a Protective Field constructed from psionic power. It failed to slow Anser down in the slightest.

Psionics!

The Mind Flayer froze in surprise. Looking up, he saw a dragon claw blazing with platinum radiance rapidly expanding before his eyes, moving too fast to follow.

His attempt to dodge looked like slow motion. Even exerting every ounce of strength, he couldn't get out of the way in time.

Bang!

The razor-sharp dragon claw punched straight through the Mind Flayer's body. With a casual flick, Anser tore him in half.

The Mind Flayer's head and the right half of his body fell into the pooling blood. He stared fixedly at Anser as the light gradually faded from his eyes.

[Target killed. 3,800 experience points gained.]

'I know you won't talk, so I'm not even going to ask.'

A Mind Flayer's melee capabilities weren't even as good as those of a 4th-level Barbarian. As long as he didn't fear Mind Blast, killing one wasn't much harder than killing a werewolf.

Anser shook the filth from his hand, grabbed the half of the Mind Flayer's body that still had its head attached, and turned back toward the residential district.

By then, the soldiers had followed Anser into the area and completely sealed it off.

Hovering low above the ground, Anser raised his hand and hurled the Mind Flayer's corpse in front of a stone building.

"Do you understand why I'm here now?"

His icy voice rang throughout the residential district and the surrounding streets, causing an uproar as the crowd burst into discussion.

"You, you, you..."

Anser drew his Sword of Sharpness and began pointing people out.

Everyone he singled out went deathly pale. Their hands tightened around their weapons, and their eyes turned toward the relatives or friends beside them, but everyone around them lowered their heads and kept their eyes down, not daring to make a sound.

If anyone currently had the greatest reputation on the Rock of Bral, it was undoubtedly Anser. His distinctive six wings had become known to everyone along with his heraldry.

Hearing about someone was one thing; seeing him in person was another. He had killed two Mind Flayers as casually as slaughtering chickens. Who would dare bare their teeth at him?

Submitting obediently might still give them a chance. Bristling at him to his face would definitely get them killed horribly.

Paladins might have a sterling reputation, but they could also be utterly ruthless when they struck!

The guards and army soldiers clenched their teeth, struggling to contain their excitement. In groups of three to five, they rushed forward and restrained each person Anser had singled out without the slightest hesitation.

It was different now. Completely different!

How could being a soldier possibly be the same everywhere?!

Before, there had been no one they dared offend. Whenever they tried to do anything, they had to constantly second-guess themselves, terrified they might provoke someone powerful. And if something went wrong, the royal family wouldn't even back them up. They had to keep their heads down and swallow every humiliation.

But their new boss was tough, imposing, and decisive. Even the way he killed people was domineering as hell.

These so-called rich people didn't dare let out so much as a fart. All their usual arrogance had vanished without a trace.

Working under someone like this, how could they not stand a little taller? It felt fucking fantastic.

Hunting dogs, hunting dogs—only with a master backing them up could they truly be called hunting dogs. Otherwise, they were nothing more than strays!

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I will post some extra Chapters in Patreon, you can check it out. >> /TitoVillar

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