Earth's Greatest Magus

Chapter 2801: Shadow after Victory

After enduring a sequence of tedious procedures to claim his winnings, Emery finally walked out of the gates of the colosseum. Night had begun to descend upon Dawnstar City, the sky tinged with ember-orange light as the sun dipped behind the jagged skyline. Beside him, Tessa followed closely.

The deafening roar of tens of thousands of spectators had long faded. Most of the crowd had already dispersed into the city’s arteries—flooding taverns, gambling halls, and street-side establishments, all eager to relive the spectacle of blood and glory they had just witnessed. Music echoed from distant alleys, mingled with laughter, drunken cheers, and the clatter of spirit coins changing hands.

”With this kind of winning streak, we won’t need to worry about our finances for a long while,” Tessa said.

Emery walked calmly, his expression composed as he replied casually. ”Still far from our end goal.”

Tessa’s excitement faltered slightly. She exhaled and nodded. ”Yes... You’re right. Unfortunately, now that Thrax’s strength has been exposed, this method will no longer work. The odds will never be this generous.”

Her steps slowed. The confidence in her voice softened, replaced by a faint hesitation. After a moment of silence, she spoke again.

”Actually... before I came here... my grandfather articulated of fully supporting you...”

Emery stopped walking.

She continued, lowering her gaze. ”He was willing to commit... if you want... twenty billion spirit stones... we...”

Before she could finish, Emery raised a hand and interrupted firmly. ”No.”

Tessa looked up, startled.

”Your help is already more than enough,” Emery said evenly. ”We will acquire that amount ourselves.”

There was no arrogance in his tone—only certainty.

Tessa studied him for a long moment. Then, slowly, her hesitation vanished. The familiar determination returned to her eyes. She straightened and began speaking rapidly, outlining several alternative plans—trades networks, underground exchanges, investment routes.

But then she stopped mid-sentence.

Her brow furrowed.

”Why...” she muttered, glancing around, ”has the road become this quiet?”

The realization struck her a heartbeat later.

The sounds of the city—music, voices, footsteps—were gone.

Completely gone.

Tessa turned sharply toward Emery, her instincts screaming. But he remained calm, his gaze already fixed forward.

”Stay near me,” he said.

In the next instant, the warm twilight dimmed unnaturally. Shadows stretched and twisted, climbing the walls of nearby buildings like living things. The space around them darkened as if swallowed by a veil.

A formation had been activated.

The street warped, its boundaries dissolving into an enclosed domain. The buildings remained, but something was wrong—their edges blurred, the air thickened, and the world felt sealed.

”We need to break out—now!” Tessa said sharply.

Tessa spun in place, her gaze sweeping across the warped street as she tried to decipher the structure of the formation. Spiritual threads pulsed faintly in the air—layered, overlapping, deliberately obscured. Whoever had set this trap knew exactly what they were doing.

Before she could complete her analysis, Emery’s hand snapped out and clamped tightly around her arm. He yanked her sideways.

At that same instant, the shadow on the wall near her peeled like liquid darkness.

A figure burst forth—silent, lethal.

A dagger coated in abyssal energy lunged toward where Tessa had been a heartbeat earlier. The killing intent packed into that strike was overwhelming, heavy enough to suffocate the air itself. It was a power that exceeded the Magus Realm.

Tessa felt her scalp go numb.

If Emery had been even a fraction of a second slower, she would already be dead.

The assassin missed and did not hesitate. His form twisted mid-strike, dissolving back into the shadows as if he had never been there at all.

”Grand Magus assassins!” Tessa exclaimed, panic surging through her voice. ”How could—?!”

Emery did not answer.

He had not moved to retaliate.

His eyes were half-lidded, his expression unnervingly calm.

Divine Sense unfurled silently, expanding through the sealed space like an invisible tide.

Three, he confirmed.

One presence lingered behind them—the dagger wielder, perfectly concealed, waiting for another opening.

Another hovered above, crouched atop a nearby rooftop, suppressing his aura with practiced precision. The outline of a long weapon—no, a spear—was barely discernible, its tip radiating dense cosmic fluctuations.

The third stood at a distance.

A woman.

She did not hide.

She stood openly within the formation’s boundary, dark robes fluttering despite the absence of wind. Her eyes glowed a deep, unnatural violet, runic light revolving slowly within her pupils. Layers of spell matrices overlapped around her like an invisible crown.

The spirit master who conjures the formation.

For a brief moment, genuine surprise flickered through him.

He was still disguised as a Magus-realm cultivator.

To deploy three Grand Magus–realm assassins against two apparent Magus...

That was not caution.

That was extermination.

”A definition of overkill,” Emery murmured.

He raised his head slightly and spoke aloud, his tone casual, almost bored.

”What do you want?”

The woman did not respond.

Instead, she lifted one slender hand.

The ground trembled.

Dark chains erupted violently from beneath the stone pavement, forged from condensed spell energy and engraved with suppression runes. They coiled around Emery and Tessa in an instant, locking down spiritual circulation and anchoring them to the formation itself.

Tessa gasped as her spirit energy stalled.

At the same moment, the rooftop assassin moved.

He launched himself downward like a falling meteor.

The spear in his hands ignited, cosmic energy spiraling tightly around its shaft. Space screamed as the weapon descended, its trajectory precise—aimed directly at Emery’s heart.

Tessa’s pupils constricted.

Emery did not dodge.

He did not even raise his guard.

”I suppose,” he muttered calmly, ”I have to force words out of you.”

His eyes flared open.

Gold flooded his irises.

Spectral Gaze—ignite.

The chains binding him shattered instantly, exploding into fragments of dark mist. The descending spearman was held mid-air as overwhelming pressure crushed down upon him.

Time stretched.

One breath.

That was all Emery needed.

His hand reached outward.

Light answered.

A brilliant radiance erupted before him as a sword materialized. Jewels embedded along the hilt ignited one by one, golden runes blazing to life across the blade.

Excalibur.

The sacred sword hummed violently as its seal loosened.

The spear struck.

Clang—!

The collision sent a shockwave rippling through the confined space, cracking nearby walls and scattering dust into the air. The spearman’s eyes widened in absolute disbelief.

His full-power strike—

Blocked effortlessly.

He did not even have time to gasp.

Emery stepped forward and swung.

A single, clean arc of light flashed through the air,

SPLATTT!!!

Blood sprayed outward as the spearman’s body separated cleanly at the waist.

The upper half slid from the lower, lifeless before it hit the ground.

Instant death.

Silence followed.

The remaining two assassins recoiled in shock.

”Retreat!” the woman shouted sharply, her composure finally cracking.

She turned to flee— but the ground beneath her feet darkened, and in the next instant, twilight roots erupted violently from the stone pavement. They twisted like living serpents, coiling around her ankles and calves with crushing force, anchoring her firmly to the formation itself.

Her escape was cut off.

The dagger assassin reacted faster.

His form flickered, blinking upward into the air as he fled at full speed. In a heartbeat, he was already dozens of meters away, accelerating toward the edge of the sealed domain.

Emery turned his head slightly.

”Who told you... that you could leave?”

He raised his arm.

Space warped.

The fleeing assassin screamed as an invisible force dragged him backward, tearing him from his escape and slamming him back into range.

”NOO—!!!”

Excalibur flashed again.

Another arc of radiant light.

SPLAAATTT!

The assassin was cleaved cleanly in two, blood spraying across the floor in a violent crimson arc. His body fell lifelessly to the ground, but his soul did not perish so easily.

A flicker of distorted light erupted from the corpse as the assassin activated a unique soul-escape technique. His soul tore free, twisting violently as it fled toward the void beyond Emery’s grasp.

Emery watched it go.

He muttered a word before he let the escaping soul vanish.

Then he turned.

The restrained female grand magus struggled violently, terror overtaking her expression.

Emery approached her unhurriedly, his footsteps measured, Excalibur still radiating faint astral light in his hand.

”Now,” he said evenly, ”you are going to tell me who you are—and who sent you.”

”I won’t tell you anything!” she screamed, her voice trembling with desperation.

Her aura surged violently.

Without hesitation, she burned her life essence, crimson light igniting beneath her skin as she began forming a self-destructive spell. Runic patterns carved themselves into the air, a spell that could erase herself, while hurting anyone nearby.

Tessa gasped.

But Emery was already moving.

His finger touches the woman’s forehead, and a crushing spirit attack slammed into the woman’s consciousness, freezing her spell formation mid-cast.

She was a spirit master—one whose strength might have been comparable to Mo Yan, the hunchback slave master. However, Emery was no longer the same person. His recent breakthrough in soul power had fundamentally changed him, and its effects were now fully manifesting.

A massive Six-Floor Soul pagoda descended.

Each tier was etched with sealing sigils, radiating overwhelming suppression. The pagoda crashed down upon her spiritual core like a divine hammer.

Her eyes bled instantly.

Her scream was choked into silence.

A restraining seal materialized on her forehead, glowing faintly as her resistance was completely crushed. In the next instant, her body dissolved into motes of light as Emery pulled directly into the prison within his domain.

The formation trembled.

Cracks spread across the sealed space like shattered glass.

Then—

It collapsed.

Reality snapped back into place.

In the blink of an eye, Emery and Tessa stood once more on the open streets of Dawnstar City. Citizens passed by in clusters, laughing and arguing, utterly unaware that three Grand Magus–level assassins had been slain at this very spot moments ago.

No blood.

No bodies.

Only silence.

Tessa stood frozen.

She had encountered many Grand Magi before, and she understood what it meant to face even one of them. Yet Emery had executed three of them with absolute dominance—without injury, without hesitation.

She had heard the rumors of Emery’s breakthrough into the Second Cosmos.

She had believed them.

But she had never imagined strength on this level.

Emery sheathed Excalibur.

The sword’s radiance dimmed, retreating into a calm, obedient hum. A faint expression of satisfaction crossed his face.

Excalibur was one of the first artifacts he had fully refined using his newly perfected [Astral Link]. The sword no longer resisted his will as it once had.

He could now safely unleash nearly eighty percent of the sword’s true power.

He drew a deep breath, steadily calming the turbulent energy within his body.

Then he turned to Tessa.

”Let’s head back,” he said calmly. ”We have a celebration to attend.”