Saul hadn’t even finished speaking when Monte on the opposite side suddenly leapt up.

A pair of fleshy wings burst out from his back, their span instantly exceeding the diameter of the circular platform!

With a fierce snap, those wings slammed together, propelling him straight across the platform to attack Saul directly.

Saul’s expression grew solemn.

He knew that pulling a Second Rank wizard into his own mental battlefield was an extremely dangerous move.

Because there was no way for him to determine whether his enemy also possessed extraordinary spiritual power.

Monte before him was clearly skilled in this domain—he not only immediately grasped the situation he was in but also turned the tables in the very next moment, launching a proactive assault.

As the massive flesh-wings neared Saul, they transformed again, the tips becoming as sharp as blades.

Saul raised his arms, which instantly morphed into two round shields at the moment of impact.

Seeing Saul actually attempt to block his attack head-on, a trace of disdain flashed in Monte’s eyes.

But in the next instant, blade met shield, and the entire mental space let out a heavy, mournful wail.

The flesh-wings were blasted back, while the steel shields were merely dented.

“Impossible!” This time, Monte was truly shocked. “A First Rank wizard—how could he possibly possess spiritual power on par with a Second Rank?!”

He could no longer maintain his composure. Another pair of wings sprouted from his back.

But this pair was not as perfectly shaped as the first—it was as though a mutation had occurred, resulting in a pair of malformed wings.

The twisted flesh-wings were covered in tiny branching protrusions, like infant hands that extended and retracted with eerie motion.

The two pairs of wings swept toward Saul again, the gusts they stirred up reeking with a foul stench.

This time, Saul didn’t try to take the hit.

The moment he saw those malformed wings, he immediately sensed the dreadful, warping contagion emanating from them.

It was like a plague.

He hurriedly flew into the air to evade them.

However, the twisted power on those wings didn’t seem to require direct contact to spread. Just a few glances at them made Saul’s eyes sting and water—as if a dozen eyelashes had embedded themselves into his eyes, impossible to remove.

Saul shut his eyes tightly, and instantly lost all visual perception of the outside world.

Monte’s heart leapt with delight. With a pair of normal flesh-wings, he launched relentless attacks at the airborne Saul, pinning him down and blinding him to the changes around him.

At the same time, a long, thin tail sprouted from his back and crept silently through the storm-like assault, inching closer and closer to the back of Saul’s neck.

But a silver butterfly, appearing to be made of twisted metal threads, floated gently onto the sneaking tail.

Then came the crisp voice of a young girl.

“Brother Saul, he’s trying to sneak up on you!”

Still focused on blocking the flesh-wing assaults, Saul instantly became alert. He jerked backward just in time, causing Monte’s sharp tail to strike nothing but air.

“You actually dare to cultivate another consciousness within your mental form?” Monte was both astonished and envious—then his surprise twisted into resentment.

How could this be something a First Rank wizard was capable of? Even Third Rank wizards didn’t have such a setup!

“I have to finish off this brat quickly. If not, my body outside really might get killed by those termites.”

Monte was growing desperate.

He no longer concealed his murderous intent, and relying on Saul’s temporary blindness, launched a fierce, high-speed barrage of attacks.

Even with Penny’s reminders from above and Saul’s efforts to defend himself, wounds gradually began to appear on his mental form.

Losing his sight was just too much of a handicap!

“Even if I grow eyes on other parts of my body, it won’t help. Monte’s warped corruption targets visual perception itself. Unless I somehow had a second set of vision…”

At this thought, a sudden spark lit up in Saul’s mind.

But just then, he was once again blasted backward by the wings. After retreating a few steps, he was suddenly caught—trapped between the waiting flesh-wings from behind.

The wings curled inward, instantly sealing off all movement in front, behind, below, and to the sides.

And from above—a sharp tail came plummeting like a spear from the heavens!

That tail moved with such speed that it let out a screeching whistle as it tore through the air within Saul’s mental space!

It seemed utterly impossible for Saul to dodge this fatal strike. But at the very last moment, he suddenly looked up—seemingly intending to take the attack head-on with his face.

And in that instant he raised his head, his cheeks, forehead, neck, the backs of his hands…

All the skin exposed outside his clothes began to boil like scalding water, erupting with one eerie eye after another.

As these eyes emerged, they all snapped open—staring directly at Monte.

Each of them had multicolored pupils, and the moment they appeared, Monte’s entire body went rigid.

Monte stared into those colorful eyes, his mind going completely blank, forgetting his situation.

And those eyes on Saul’s skin were still multiplying—splitting, enlarging, splitting again, expanding again…

Saul’s entire body was suddenly covered in a dense layer of eyes.

Monte, frozen in place, was struck by a fear that pierced straight to his soul.

And it wasn’t just Monte—Penny, upon seeing the eyes all over Saul’s body, let out a shriek and scrambled back into the diary, tumbling and flailing as she went. She didn’t dare show herself again!

Only Saul seemed unaware of his own abnormal state.

He noticed Monte’s sharp tail was just half a meter away from him, and immediately twisted and turned, slipping out through a narrow crevice.

As he moved, the eyeballs on his body rubbed against each other, producing a strange “glug-glug” sound.

But the situation was urgent, and Saul didn’t notice.

He had merely tried to imitate the feeling of twinkling stars in the night sky, attempting to add a layer of vision to himself. He hadn’t expected it to succeed on the first try.

However, the sensation of this new vision was rather strange—like switching to a god’s-eye view.

He could see in all directions—above, below, left, right, front, and back.

And yet, his own figure was absent from all these perspectives, as if the eyes themselves were avoiding something.

Saul didn’t have time to adjust. He could only force himself to focus on Monte.

“Why did Monte suddenly stop moving?”

The thought flickered through his mind, but was quickly replaced by another: I need to buy time.

Monte’s mental strength was formidable. He finally broke free from the frozen state.

Even though he had never seen anything like Saul’s current form, he knew very well that the young wizard before him had entered an extremely dangerous state.

He couldn’t allow the transformation to continue.

Screw it! Monte thought. His body began to shift form again.

Freely changing the form of a soul body was extremely dangerous. At first, Monte only dared to make changes he was confident in.

But seeing Saul practically becoming something inhuman—and with no idea what state the Second Rank humpback termite outside was in—Monte could no longer afford to hesitate if he wanted to survive.

His fleshy wings and tail trembled twice, the surface becoming smooth and hard. His movements grew even faster.

Saul had just escaped the assault of the wings when he saw the tail lash toward him from behind, a mere blur.

Danger—I have to block it!

All the eyeballs on his back swiveled to focus on the incoming sharp tail. The eyeballs on his arms contracted and squeezed, bending his limbs backward.

With a stretch of his hand, he actually managed to catch the tail, its trajectory nearly impossible to trace.

Only then did Saul notice something strange about the hand gripping the tail.

But before he could get a good look, the tail in his hand suddenly shattered into dozens of fragments.

Saul’s first instinct was that Monte had once again changed the form of his attack—but just as he went on alert, he noticed that Monte’s entire body was beginning to fracture and disintegrate.

The eyeballs in front of Saul clearly saw Monte’s expression shift from confusion… to panic… and finally, to hatred.

But at that point, Monte could do nothing.

With a crash, he shattered into countless fragments, drifting through the air.

His body in the outside world… was dead.

And so, the soul body within the platform could no longer exist either.

Perhaps some lingering obsession remained, because the fragments in front of Saul paused briefly—then began to drift toward him.

But before they could reach Saul, the red hardcover book above his head slowly opened, drawing in all the fragments completely.

Then the book shrank, dropping gently into Saul’s hand.

Saul noticed that the book now contained… half a black page.

“Why only half a page?”

(End of chapter.)

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