"Clearly, the Tower has spotted the issue with this trial. The final fight is everyone's last shot. It's more useful to snatch this chance to score points than to invite trouble," Lilith said, stopping the team right after figuring out the mission. She spoke up to all of them.
The apprentices who had been eager to take on Adam now have various opinions.
The task given by the Tower provided those apprentices still short of Points a chance to qualify at the last moment. Chasing the hidden puppet master seemed less crucial. Beside the average apprentices, the top ones in the War Alliance also believed so.
During the process of defeating the three main families, one of the newly advanced mages who had their credits stolen by the devil was outraged, "This is an insult to us and to the War Alliance! Whoever they are, they must pay!"
Lilith tried to reason with them, "The goal of the War Alliance isn't to show off our strength, but to secure and expand our wins in the trials. Blind courage will only drain the Alliance's strength. We now have a chance to earn a lot of Points in front of us, why waste time on pointless tasks? Besides, the person behind the scenes hasn't really attacked us."
"Lilith, what are you suggesting? Are you saying we're chasing personal vendettas?"
Lilith felt swamped, finding it impossible to reason with them. She was, for the moment, at a loss for words.
Seeing Lilith silenced, the few new mages thought they were spot on. Their faces turned serious as they asked the other Alliance members, "Do you all agree?"
The others stayed quiet, indicating their stance through their silence.
One of the new mages stepped forward, "In that case, we're leaving the Alliance. Those who want to join us can leave with us now."
In the midst of uncomfortable silence, two people left the group to stand with them. They were apprentices who had already earned enough points. The rest silently watched as things unfolded.
"Alright, very well, let's move." In total, five people - four new mages and an Alliance elite - left the group and headed towards Adam, leaving the remaining apprentices to exchange looks, unsure of what to say.
After some time, someone approached Lilith and asked quietly, "Lilith, I don't get it. Why don't we deal with the sneak hiding in the dark first, then carry out the mission?"
Lilith sighed, "The sudden rise in power has made them cocky and full of themselves. They've lost their old wisdom."
"What do you mean?"
"Don't you get it? This trial has been out of our hands from the start, different from the trials we knew before. Why do you think the Tower gave this mission at this particular time, just when we were planning to stir up trouble?" Lilith said, sighing.
Everyone around her froze, and then gasped. They hadn't thought about it from this angle. With Lilith's explanation, they understood the reason for the Tower issuing this mission: "Could it be... the Tower thinks we might be wiped out by the hidden enemy?"
"You're kidding! How could we possibly..."
Lilith shrugged, "But that could be the reality. This mission from the Tower isn't to help us, but to shield us."
In the middle of a barren land, Adam stepped out of his lab, overseeing the building of the magic array and the metal smelting operation firsthand.
All energy nodes in the outer ring's magnetic field conversion circle had been loaded with ether crystals, as the energy stones couldn't support the enormous consumption of the massive railgun.
Adam stood in front of the inner ring's smelting circle, his hands on the ground supplying the magic power to kick it off. Then, intense flames, coupled with unbearable high temperatures, shot towards the sky, swiftly melting the heaps of metal into a liquid state.
Loads of energy stones were smashed. The devil felt a sharp pain but kept instructing the infected to replace the used up energy, hoping that the smelting process would end quickly.
Annoyed by the sight of it all, the devil turned his back to Adam and said, "Master, should we send the infected to slow them down?"
Adam, his hands still on the ground, molded the liquid metal into dozens of large columns, each one meter wide and thirty meters high. He responded, "Hmm, and also sped up the spread of the third-generation virus. They're becoming outdated."
Obediently, the devil went off, merging with Garfield. At the same time, the infected creatures spread across Ceylon Island entered their final stages. They began to attack everything they saw, fighting each other wildly, steadily increasing their energy levels with each fight. After reaching the antimage apprentice level, the viral genes within them started to break down, disperse, and burn, giving their hosts a final burst of energy.
The devil had already positioned countless infected along the path from the apprentices to the lab. The five of them could barely see what lay ahead, their view filled with infected creatures launching suicidal attacks.
Of course, this didn't stop the five of them, but it significantly slowed them down, increasing their frustration and irritation.
"These damned creatures!" yelled the newly-promoted fire mage, launching a continuous flow of platinum fireballs from his rune array, burning up all the infected creatures they touched.
"These creatures," said another new mage, seeming calmer, "appear agitated. I bet we're getting close to the puppet master hiding in the dark."
The fire mage lifted his rune array, and a huge fireball condensed high above his head, with a burning, unidentified core at its center. He clapped his hands together, and the fireball rushed forward like a meteor, leaving a large, empty space behind after the fiery shockwave settled.
"Carl, stay calm. You just got promoted, and you don't have much magic energy left in your soul. Using magic like this will only drain you, and these creatures aren't worth it," said another new mage, manipulating elemental threads like blades, cutting through hordes of infected.
"I know, damn it! But I can't help it."
Just then, a bunch of infected bodies merged to form a vague humanoid creature, which made a strange noise: "Haha! Master says you can still leave now if you want. If not, you'll only get yourselves killed."
