Chapter 653 - 61: Cage of Pain

Chapter 653: Chapter 61: Cage of Pain

The greatest difference between a Third-Level Wizard and a Second-Level Wizard lies in the Laws.

Second-Level Wizards can only passively sense the Laws. They are like someone standing on the shore watching the tide, able to perceive the water’s temperature and flow. They can even utilize this water, such as by designing a dam to generate electricity.

However, they cannot change the natural phenomenon of the tide’s ebb and flow, a process driven by gravity.

Third-Level Wizards, however, have already woven the Laws they comprehend into a Legendary Seed. This seed takes root deep within their consciousness, like a living star. It transforms the fundamental principles governing matter in the unobservable world into a power they can wield themselves.

But Laws are one thing, and Magic is another.

Laws are like the basic grammar of a language, while Magic is the poetry written with this grammar.

In the hands of different Wizards, the same Law can be evolved into vastly different forms of Magic. Some use it to weave Shields, others to summon minions, and still others to corrode souls.

This requires a profound understanding of the Law, countless experiments and deductions, and the ability to manifest these principles as a more specialized power.

This process is called developing Magic.

Every Level 3 Magic spell is a crystallization of the Wizard’s wisdom, an extension of their Path, and a part of their very self.

The magic Leonardo developed was named the Pain Beam.

It was the product of him manifesting his Pain Domain—a grayish-white beam of light that condensed the entire essence of pain as he understood it.

Any target struck by it would instantly recall every painful memory from their entire life. These memories were not illusions, but genuine psychic shocks caused by alterations to the very material structure of memory itself. It would utterly warp their recollection, plunging them into despair and fear.

It was over thirty times more powerful than simply using the Pain Domain on its own.

Furthermore, the Dimensional Energy within the beam would dismantle the target’s material and conscious structure from the inside, much like acid corroding metal. It would seep into every crevice, peeling away their once-solid sense of self, piece by piece.

Causing a gradual ’loss of self.’

What was even more terrifying was that this ’loss of self’ was a continuous effect.

Even if one blocked the initial strike, the sensation of one’s ’self’ being devoured and torn apart by pain would linger for a long time.

This was because the Law lingering from the spell would continue to function, as pervasive as universal gravitation. Unless it was dispelled, it would cling to the target like a sickness festering in their bones, ceaselessly weakening their ’self.’

Until they experienced a complete ’loss of self.’

It was a form of Magic specifically designed to counter the undying nature of Third-Level Wizards.

Of course, whether it could truly kill one was another question entirely.

After all, Third-Level Wizards weren’t so easily killed.

But even so, its power reached 25.6.

What did this mean?

Murphy’s all-out attack only reached 20.9, and his defenses were far weaker than that.

25.6 versus 20.9. That was a 26-fold difference.

It was a chasm.

The insurmountable abyss between a Second-Level and a Third-Level Wizard.

It was like the difference between a falcon and a diving fighter jet. One was a creature of flesh and blood, the other a creation of steel and fire. Both could fly, but their speed and power existed in completely different dimensions.

Leonardo’s Magic was more than enough to crush Murphy.

The grayish-white beam shot out from the window, chasing after the distant Crimson sword light.

Murphy sensed it.

The intent to destroy surging from behind him was like the chill that precedes a blizzard, spreading from his spine to every corner of his being.

His sword light veered sharply in mid-air in an attempt to change course, but the grayish-white beam latched onto his trajectory like a living viper.

There was no escape.

The Mind Furnace roared deep within his consciousness, all its computational power focused on a single task.

To analyze the Law structure of the beam.

Information flooded his senses like a cascading waterfall. The deconstructive ability granted to him by Breathing and Guiding ’Entering the Hall’ was pushed to its absolute limit. And then he saw it: the interior of the beam was composed of layer upon layer of Law-based Dao Patterns, resembling a perfectly crafted, intricate structure of building blocks.

But even so, he found a gap.

It was an unavoidable interval in the Energy Fluctuations as the Law operated, like the momentary stillness between heartbeats.

For one ten-thousandth of a second, the Crimson sword light paused, flickered once, and then—

HSSSS.

The grayish-white beam grazed the body of the sword.

His Mind Furnace nearly overloaded. The grayish-white Energy that seeped in from the beam’s edge exploded into countless fragments of pain within his consciousness. Memories of the Old Realm flooded back like a relentless tide: the snowy night in the Duval Territory, the Ironspine Duke’s radiance, Aurora’s tears, and even the past events from another world he thought he had long since forgotten.

The Crimson sword light dimmed.

Its once-brilliant glow now flickered like a candle in the wind, threatening to go out at any moment.

Fine cracks appeared on the sword’s blade. These weren’t just fissures in the observable, material world; they were the marks of the very Dark Matter that constituted his self being torn asunder by the pain.

The cracks spread from the tip of the blade to the hilt, like a spiderweb, like the roots of a tree, like a parched and fissured riverbed.

But he did not shatter.

His 120% Dao Transformation Level brought him far closer to the unobservable world than any other Second-Level Wizard.

And, by extension, closer to a Third-Level Wizard.

The sword light coalesced once more.

The jagged cracks slowly healed amidst the crimson glow, and the dim blade began to shine again. It wasn’t as brilliant as before, but it was enough to allow him to continue his flight.

Leonardo stood at the window, watching the sword light reignite. His fingers were still trembling. Rage and disbelief warred on his twisted face, contorting his once-gentle features into an unrecognizable mask.