One-Eyed Monster

The Golden Seats of the Alchemy Workshop had never imagined the people of the Kangen Family would be this hard to deal with.

They were forced to entangle themselves with these Wizards here, and that sabotaged Alchemy Array—they really had no time to care about it.

Of course, that Alchemy Array hadn’t made much noise. Only the Exchange Beast that was anchoring the array had started acting abnormally. This anomaly wouldn’t be enough to collapse the entire array, but it would definitely affect its power and range.

This was exactly what these Golden Seats were most worried about. What they feared wasn’t that the Alchemy Array itself had been damaged, but what was hidden behind the array. In that experimental field, the Chief’s most valued Spirit Core was being imprisoned. This Spirit Core was a living core, and its situation was very special.

If this Spirit Core were to leak out, then they would truly have failed the Chief’s trust.

They absolutely did not want to see such a situation. No matter what, they had to go to the area around that Alchemy Array and take a look. They needed to know what exactly had happened there, and who had tampered with those Exchange Beasts.

”Cover me. I’m going to open my Spirit Vision!” Milo ordered. Ice Arrows and blades of fire were whirling around him. Wizards were always used to remote-controlling these weapons to fight, which was extremely annoying for them Alchemists.

Even though these things weren’t enough to crush them, they were still a huge nuisance, constantly entangling them.

Milo prepared to open his Spirit Vision. All those Exchange Beasts were under his Spirit control; the Ant Connection Spell was his specialty!

As long as he opened his Spirit Vision, he could understand what was happening over there without having to go himself. He’d done this sort of thing countless times before; by now he was very practiced.

Under the cover of the many Golden Seats, Milo opened his Spirit Vision.

Huh? What’s going on—why is it completely blank, why can’t I see anything at all? How could something like this happen? This is simply unbelievable!

Milo was utterly shocked. Logically, this Alchemy Array was a manifestation of his own ability. His Ant Connection Spell could bring the entire Alchemy Array under his control. Yet now, even with his Spirit Vision opened, he still couldn’t see anything. This was truly a highly abnormal situation.

Milo refused to accept it. He pushed his vision deeper; he was determined to see who exactly was obstructing his sight. Once he tracked that person down, he would definitely make sure to ”exchange pointers” with them.

This interfering spellwork was honestly quite brilliant, and Milo couldn’t help wanting to probe further. He was itching to confront this guy face-to-face and have a proper duel.

Huh? What is this? How can it be like this—why don’t I even have the slightest bit of vision? This simply shouldn’t be happening!

Milo was shocked yet again. The more he pushed his vision forward, the more he felt things were veering into something uncanny—because his field of vision suddenly snapped!

At first it was blank, then deeper in it became blurry, and finally he discovered that his Spirit Vision had actually been severed!

Who had that kind of skill, able to sever his Spirit Vision? This was completely inconceivable. Milo hurriedly retracted his Spirit Power; he had to use the Ant Connection Spell to locate the source of this anomaly!

As long as he deployed his Ant Connection Spell, he could reclaim his Spirit Vision. Even if it was cut off right now, it didn’t matter!

As long as the original roots were preserved, everything could be alleviated, and everything could be brought back within his control! Milo had experienced this many times already; he no longer felt any unfamiliarity.

Bang!

Suddenly, Milo’s heart gave a violent thump, because he was shocked and overawed by his own Spirit Sensing. This situation was just too unbelievable!

Until now, no one—no one—had ever broken his Ant Connection. He was the progenitor of this spell and its most skilled practitioner. Other than him, nobody knew where the weaknesses of the Ant Connection Spell lay. The spell was invincible; although it served no purpose offensively, its very existence was a kind of invincibility!

Yet now, someone had actually cracked his Ant Connection Spell. His Ant Connection had been severed!

Who could possibly do this, cutting off his spell like that? This was utterly absurd!

And yet it had just happened, right here and now. Milo found it hard to accept and immediately slipped into hysteria!

The Golden Seats’ state made the members of the Kangen Family all the more excited, because it meant Igor and the others on that side had penetrated deeper. Although they didn’t know exactly how Igor’s group was progressing, they were still encouraged and each of them quickened the tempo of their attacks.

On the other side, Igor and Kadi had cautiously stepped into that experimental field…

Even though they had successfully slipped inside, Igor and Kadi still acted with great care. They had promised Princess Juliette they would keep quiet, and they had indeed been quiet the whole time. Even when they spoke, they kept their voices very low.

”Tell me, how exactly did you crack the secret of this formation?” Kadi was still very curious about what had happened just now. He had never imagined Igor would break the formation in just a few moves. At the beginning they had been completely at a loss before this thing. The condition of staying quiet had really been far too harsh.

”That’s a long story. Once you’ve spotted the pattern, though, it’s actually simple, because the fact that these Exchange Beasts are linked together is just too obvious.” Igor said to Kadi as they walked.

At first, Igor had still been stuck on the level of Energy Fluctuations and had overlooked the Spirit connections. But the fact that the Exchange Beasts weren’t moving at all piqued his curiosity, so he had Kadi probe with his Devouring Power.

Kadi’s probing made the Exchange Beasts knit together even more tightly. Only then did Igor realize there was a kind of power the Devouring Power couldn’t devour—and that was Spirit Power united as one.

From there, Igor returned to the Spirit layer, and then he recalled the Ant Connection Spell. After that, everything fell neatly into place.

Milo could never have known that in this world there was someone whose understanding of the Ant Connection Spell surpassed that of ordinary people…

Igor broke one of the Ant Connection nodes, then slipped into the array with Kadi, moving in stealth.

The experimental field was extremely dark, without a single glimmer of light. Fortunately, they had both learned night-vision techniques to save Energy; that was one of the benefits of their special training on Guru Mountain!

”Do you feel it?” Kadi asked. As they went deeper, he felt the flames on his body growing more and more sensitive.

”I’m sensing something. It’s like this place is some sort of cage. They’re sealing something in here…”