As Leon sat inside the orb, legs crossed, he calmly began to recover his mana while monitoring the situation.

The Curse of Pain, followed by the Curse of Forgetfulness, and eventually, the Curse of Oblivion.

Normally, transitioning between stages in a battle of equals would take around 10 minutes. However, since the enemy was of a much higher level—Insight High—the transition to the next stage would take at least 10 hours.

But time flowed differently inside the orb. Ten hours in the orb were equivalent to only 10 minutes in the real world.

Despite having expended a large amount of mana, Leon knew that he could sustain the Curse of the Black Night for 10 minutes while resting in the orb.

As the curse progressed, the target’s belongings would gradually darken with shadow. Once everything the target possessed was consumed by the darkness, the curse could no longer evolve.

But such a restriction didn’t apply to the blood mage.

Leon glanced at the blood smeared on his wooden sword as he caught his breath. The blood from the blood mage was enough to sustain the curse.

Using the opponent’s blood or physical remains to power such a curse was no easy feat, especially against someone of such higher skill.

But the curse was slowly but surely taking hold of the blood mage.

Leon had no intention of letting the curse reach its final stage, as Kito would finish the job before that.

[How’s it going?]

 

As soon as Leon disappeared, Kito immediately understood his plan.

She paused briefly, then shook her head from side to side.

The Seventh Elder, who had been perched on her head, was abruptly thrown off.

“Gah…!”

He quickly cast a levitation spell to rise back into the air, panic evident on his face.

He had feared that falling into Kito's poisonous mist would dissolve him instantly.

Fortunately, the mist hadn’t touched him.

Kito had adjusted her control to ensure the Elder's safety.

“Take care of yourself,” Kito said coldly.

“…Understood.”

Kito shot him a glance, then turned her attention back to the enemy. Without hesitation, she charged toward the blood mage.

Countless blood spikes shot toward her from every direction.

However, since she had canceled her breath attack and focused all her mana on defense, the spikes couldn’t penetrate her barrier.

The poisonous mist gradually spread, eating away at the blood mage’s control over the space. Though he had initially dominated the area, Kito’s mist was now slowly taking over.

The blood mage could feel it.

He instinctively knew that if Kito got too close, her mist would dissolve him completely.

Sensing the danger, the blood mage submerged himself into a pool of blood. In his place, a massive blood creature emerged.

The blood mage continued using this tactic to escape.

Oddly enough, Kito hadn’t prepared a strong, direct attack like her breath, which puzzled the blood mage.

If she had launched such a powerful attack, that would have been his opportunity.

In this space saturated with blood, the blood mage could escape almost indefinitely.

Unlike normal teleportation, this method of movement left no traces of mana to predict where he would go.

With the entire space covered in blood, tracking his movements was impossible.

Yet, despite this, his attacks were proving ineffective. He could summon blood creatures from anywhere, but none could get close to Kito.

He could have revived the countless corpses littering the area.

But against Kito, they would be useless.

As time passed, the blood mage began to feel something off.

It started as a small sting at the tip of his finger, but it didn’t fade. Instead, it grew stronger and spread.

After five minutes, his entire arm throbbed with sharp pain. Only then did the blood mage realize that the pain was increasing at a frightening pace.

By the time ten minutes had passed, the pain felt like his flesh was rotting from the inside.

Yet, outwardly, there was no sign of injury.

The pain became unbearable, and the blood mage gritted his teeth as groans of agony escaped him.

Looking up, the blood mage locked eyes with Kito.

The bird-like creature still appeared calm and composed.

Her serene expression infuriated him.

Enduring such excruciating pain while facing an opponent who seemed to toy with him drove the blood mage to the edge of madness.

Clenching his hands together, the blood mage gathered his remaining strength.

Any gradual attacks would be useless against her magic.

“I’ll crush it all at once,” he muttered.

His body dissolved into blood and merged into the pools around him.

Suddenly, the blood that coated the entire space began to compress.

The walls of blood tightened, collapsing in on themselves as if trying to crush everything into a single point.

The entire space seemed to be shrinking toward that singularity, poised to collapse entirely.

But then, the compression stopped.

Just as the blood was about to fully contract, it froze in place.

The blood mage reappeared, confusion etched on his face.

“What…?”

The spell that controlled the entire space, the Crimson Spirit Heaven's Curse, unraveled in an instant.

The blood that had covered everything drained away as if someone had pulled the plug.

Kito observed the blood mage carefully.

The blood mage’s gaze shifted between Kito and the distant Seventh Elder, who remained huddled in a corner.

“Who are you? Where is the priest?” the blood mage demanded.

The Elder looked baffled, but Kito let out a small, mocking laugh.

She knew exactly what had happened.

With a flap of her gray wings, Kito swooped toward the blood mage, her eyes gleaming.

Her massive leg lashed out, claws slicing through the air.

The blood mage barely managed to retreat, glaring at her.

“What are you doing? Do you have a death wish?”

“Ha!” Kito barked with laughter at his question.

Rather than explaining that he had lost his memories, Kito struck again with even greater ferocity.

The blood mage, realizing he was outmatched, began pouring mana into his body to enhance his physical abilities.

But no matter how much he strengthened himself, he couldn’t match Kito’s raw power. Her colossal form and immense strength were far beyond his reach.

In a physical contest, the blood mage was no match for Kito.

“You’re no match for me,” she said coldly.

The blood mage, still struggling to understand what was happening, could barely keep up with her relentless assault.

He tried to summon a high-level spell, but most of his mana was already depleted.

At last, the blood mage found himself backed into a corner, with no room left to evade.

Kito didn’t miss the opportunity. She opened her jaws wide and snapped them shut around him.

The moment her jaws closed, green smoke began seeping from her mouth.

The poison was slowly consuming the blood mage from the inside.

The sounds of his desperate struggle echoed from within Kito’s maw, growing fainter until they ceased entirely.

[It’s over.]

[Can you leave the body intact?]

[Hmm… I suppose so.]

[At least leave the core intact.]

With that, Leon emerged from the orb.

“Is the blood mage dead?” the Seventh Elder asked as he approached.

“Yes, my familiar’s poison likely dissolved his body completely,” Leon answered nonchalantly, pretending ignorance.

He made no mention of the corpse that had vanished inside Kito.

Leon had no intention of handing over the body to Astellia. If there was valuable information, he would relay it to Arfina, but nothing more.

“Where did you disappear to earlier?” the Elder asked, suspicious.

“I have an artifact that allows me to hide. I didn’t want to interfere with my familiar’s fight, so I stayed hidden.”

Leon’s calm explanation made the Elder nod reluctantly.

“I see...”

Although the Elder still had his doubts, he didn’t press further. He had realized that Kito, the familiar, was far stronger than Leon's rank suggested.

That same mouth that devoured the blood mage could easily turn on him if Leon so willed it.

In the world of mages, unnecessary knowledge could sometimes lead to misfortune.

Just then, Kito returned to Leon’s side.

She glanced briefly at the Elder, then vanished back into the orb.

The look she gave was a clear warning.

The Elder understood the message perfectly.

“Where are the others?” the Elder asked.

“I felt the mana disturbance and came as fast as I could. No response from the communication orb?”

The Elder shook his head.

“It seems there’s some kind of magical interference.”

“The ground seems to have collapsed further down. We should search for them,” Leon suggested.

“Yes, but that blood mage was likely the strongest of their group. Things should be safer now…”

Before searching for their comrades, the two decided to investigate the altar more thoroughly.

Their mission wasn’t just to eliminate the blood mages but also to uncover any hidden clues.

As the Elder examined the altar, he noticed a strange symbol etched into the wall.

“This is new… I’ve never seen a symbol like this before.”

“Could it be a symbol of the blood mage's organization?” Leon asked.

“That seems likely. Even though this fight was tougher than expected, discovering this is a solid achievement.”

The Elder glanced at Leon with a tinge of disappointment.

“If only we had the body… There must have been something valuable.”

“…Too bad,” Leon replied, feigning regret.

The Elder didn’t press the issue, instead focusing on examining the altar.

Neither of them walked on the ground, avoiding the piles of corpses.

Leon hovered carefully, scanning the area around the altar.

His eyes caught sight of a small book lying beside it.

Cautiously, he picked it up.

The moment he opened the first page, an intricately drawn magic circle greeted him.

The structure of the magic circle seemed familiar to Leon.

It was written in runes.

Calmly, he flipped through the book.

Each page was filled with rune-based magic circles, and from what he could gather, the book documented the rites and rituals performed on the altar.

‘Were they trying to resurrect the dead?’

The writings seemed to describe a process for reviving a sealed god, complete with detailed instructions for the ritual and the necessary magic circles.

Leon flipped back to the first page to re-examine the initial magic circle.

As he studied the rune-based formula, he suddenly noticed something.

‘Wait…!’

His mana was slowly being drawn into the magic circle on the page.