As more time passed, the Mages became more and more nervous and fearful.
They had over 50 High Mages on their side, and they had all prepared their Spells.
They were all ready to launch a devastating wave of attacks at whoever was attacking them.
Yet, they just couldn't find the opponent!
What were they supposed to attack when there was nothing to attack?!
"Don't panic," the Patriarch told everyone via voice transmission. "This is not a fight to kill the opponent but to survive. In ten minutes, at most, the barrier will deactivate. After that, the Enforcer will arrive very quickly."
The other Mages nodded.
The Patriarch was right.
They only needed to survive for a while, not kill the opponent.
"Everyone gather at my location and be careful while you move," the Patriarch ordered.
The Mages quickly made their way to the Patriarch.
SHING! SHING! SHING!
Yet, several of the Mages still died on their way to the Patriarch.
The Patriarch gritted his teeth. He wanted to do nothing more than just directly jump toward one of his dying people and kill the attacker.
Yet, he had learned by now that he didn't have the ability to do so.
As soon as he arrived, the attacker would have already retreated.
And worst of all, the attacker didn't even leave behind any trace of Mana!
He could have gone upward, downward, left, right, anywhere!
The bright light in the hallway only heightened the fear of the Mages.
There was nowhere to hide.
But they were also afraid of the dark.
They already had a hard time finding the attacker. If everything became dark on top of that, it would only become even more difficult to find them!
Eventually, the last 45 Mages gathered at the same spot.
In this spot were the Patriarch, eight Peak High Mages, and all the other High Mages inside the castle.
The High Mages quickly gathered and created a powerful Magic Circle to share all their Mana in one gigantic Mana Shield.
This Mana Shield would even be powerful enough to resist the Spells of a Mid Archmage for a while.
For several seconds, the Mages only kept watch over their surroundings.
Except for the couple of weaker Mages running in panic through the castle, everything else was silent.
The attacks had stopped.
SHING! SHING!
Or, more accurately, the attacks on the High Mages had stopped.
The black afterimages returned, and every time they did, another corpse of a weaker Mage was left behind.
"Get to the fifth floor in the middle of the castle!" the Patriarch ordered to everyone inside the castle.
There were still the children, parents, and service staff left in the castle.
The people that were near the place the Patriarch had called out ran towards him, while the others despaired.
Most of the people simply ran into their rooms and tried to hide there.
Sadly, they couldn't hide from a Spirit Sense, and they were killed.
The ones that had been running towards the High Mages had also been killed.
The High Mages could only grit their teeth helplessly as they watched their friends and family die around them without being able to help.
If they left the collective Mana Shield, they would also die.
This was the most frustrating and infuriating part of their entire lives.
They had never felt this helpless before.
Just like children, the only thing they could do was wait.
After a couple of seconds, only a couple of Mages near the front door of the castle remained.
In horror, those Mages burst through the front door and charged into the darkness outside the castle.
As soon as someone touched the Darkness Mana outside the castle, all the Darkness Mana in their surroundings was pulled towards them.
It was like all the Darkness Mana was water and the lives were drains.
CRACK!
The Mana Shields of the Mages broke within a second, and they were consumed by Darkness Mana.
Every single person that had fled the castle had died.
On the fifth floor, the Mages were silent, but deep inside, they were seething with fury and hatred.
All their families and friends had died!
Even their children had been killed!
The castle fell into silence again as the killings stopped.
All the High Mages waited, their destructive Spells ready to be unleashed any second.
They only waited for their target to appear.
As soon as their target appeared, they would rain pure destruction on them!
Nothing happened for several seconds.
There was only silence.
One minute had already passed, which meant that they only needed to survive for nine more.
The attacker hadn't shown themselves in nearly a minute.
Was it working?
Was the attacker afraid of their combined power?
Crr.
Something happened.
All the Mages looked at the ceiling of the hallway.
Just now, they had felt a small cut appear on the ceiling of the hallway a floor above them.
They couldn't see through the floor, but they could feel the change in the hallway above them with their Spirit Senses.
Most of the High Mages were barely fast enough to take note of what was happening above them, but the Patriarch was fast enough.
The Patriarch was an Early Archmage, and his mind was many times faster than the minds of his people.
While the others were only just turning their attention to the tiny cut, he had already fully analyzed it.
The cut was small, but it was very thick.
It was almost like a huge blade had left it behind.
On top of that, there were signs of burning along the cut.
And the burning felt very unnatural to the Patriarch.
It felt way too dangerous to be normal fire!
All of this happened in an instant.
While the High Mages were looking at the cut for the first time, the ceiling above them exploded.
The High Mages only saw a wall of black flames charge at them.
When the Patriarch saw the black flames, he knew what had happened.
The attacker had launched an attack from the sixth floor, right above them.
His attack had scratched the ceiling on the sixth floor and then launched at the floor of the sixth floor, which was essentially the ceiling of the fifth floor.
The attack then broke through the ceiling of the fifth floor, launching directly at the collective Mana Shield.
SHING!
The Patriarch used Mana Step.
The attack felt way too powerful!
With the Patriarch suddenly gone, the collective Mana Shield lost its biggest backer.
And then, Dusk hit the Mana Shield.
