The scene shifts back to an earlier time, in a different region of the Elorcia Plane.

On the edge of the marshland, Bert Villa Augusta leads a small squad, struggling through the mud.

Aside from her, the squad consists of two equally skilled apprentices from Nolun No.13 Academy.

They were all carefully selected by Augusta, each a genius in their respective fields.

A few years ago, Augusta's squad would never have been this meager.

But during her years of dedicated study, Horn had poached most of her followers, and these two remained only because they, too, belonged to the Augusta Family.

However, Augusta no longer felt much about it.

Upon arriving at the Elorcia Plane, she secretly gathered intelligence and successfully advanced to a First Level Wizard on her way to the camp.

Unlike Jeming Squad, Augusta, upon entering the Elorcia Plane, quickly adopted a more efficient strategy thanks to her excellent judgment and family background.

As the most gifted lady of this generation of the Augusta Family, she easily found her clan's wizard in the camp—her aunt, a seasoned Third Level Wizard stationed there.

Using this connection, she swiftly established her network of contacts and intelligence in the unfamiliar camp.

At this moment, Augusta's mission was to clear a "Corrupted Swamp Fortress" deep within the marsh.

This was one of the core faith sites of a powerful Evil God in the Elorcia Plane, housing a powerful "Fallen Priest"—a Tier Two Creature, along with hundreds of swamp creatures and fanatics corrupted by the Evil God's power.

In the past, these Evil Gods and cultists were firmly suppressed in the depths of darkness by the Elorcia Gods, but with the onset of the planar war, they not only returned to the historical stage but even reached agreements with the gods to jointly oppose the wizards.

Compared to followers of righteous gods, these fanatical and unscrupulous heretics were even more troublesome for the wizards.

The rare instances of Second Level Wizards' fall in the Elorcia Plane War all involved these heretics.

To the wizards, these heretics were like toxic insects, always unpredictable as to when they would strike.

Thus, within the Wizard Camp, there were quite a few missions to deal with these heretics.

Armed with detailed intelligence, Augusta easily pinpointed their fortress.

However, as she approached with her squad, Augusta couldn't help but furrow her brows: "Watch out!"

The thick, corrosive aura emanating from the Corrupted Swamp Fortress was like an invisible toxin, beginning to sap the wizards' life energy.

As the fortress's defense system was alerted, corrupted creatures emerged from the depths of the swamp, vast in number, fearless of death, surging towards the wizards like a tidal wave.

The heretics could summon toxic mist, corrosive acid rain, and continuously draw divine power from the fortress core to rapidly heal themselves.

Although Augusta's teammates were strong, facing the tidal wave of enemies and the priest's bizarre continuous healing ability proved challenging.

They felt their spiritual power rapidly depleting, and their attack efficiency was far below expectations.

The swamp was muddy, and the air was filled with stench and corrosive power, making every spell cast extraordinarily difficult.

"This can't go on; we'll be drained to death here!" shouted a teammate.

Augusta stared emotionlessly at the fortress ahead, slowly raising her hand.

As Augusta took action, the sky began to change.

Above the fortress, the clouds quickly gathered under her spiritual power, forming a massive black vortex.

Inside the vortex, lightning flashed, and thunder grew louder, as if a Thunder God was awakened by her call.

"Celestial Punishment Thunder Prison!"

Augusta raised her hands high, like a deity wielding thunder.

Her vast spiritual power surged like a flood, resonating with the gathered thunderclouds in the sky.

In the next second, dozens of purple lightning bolts, as thick as tree trunks, tore through the clouds with destructive power, descending from the sky!

Each carried destructive force, striking precisely at the swamp fortress.

The first wave of lightning blasted into the group of corrupted creatures outside the fortress, instantly vaporizing them and leaving smoking craters, with the stench of the swamp burned away.

The second wave of lightning struck the Fallen Priest surrounded by the heretics.

The priest let out a wretched scream, his summoned toxic mist and acid rain instantly evaporated, and the divine power shield on his body shattered like glass under the relentless lightning barrage!

Augusta's body seemed like a great nexus of lightning, channeling bolt after bolt into herself, then releasing them with greater power.

Her hair danced, electric arcs swirled around her, and her skin glowed with a translucent quality in the electric light, as if she might transform into pure lightning at any moment.

The wizard's staff in her hand became scorching hot, the runes flickering uncertainly, as this staff made during her apprentice stage was barely able to withstand such immense energy.

But Augusta was oblivious, completely immersed in a state of extreme resonance with the thunder, as if she were a glowing fountain.

Vast swathes of lightning effortlessly eradicated the tide-like corrupted enemies in front, evaporating the pervasive corrosive black fog, and continuously bombarded, piercing through the fortress's solid outer defenses.

When the fortress's interior was completely exposed before the three due to the collapse of its outer defenses, both Augusta and her teammates couldn't help but be shocked!

Appearing before them was not only a severely injured Second Level Fallen Priest, but standing behind him were more than a dozen other Second Level Creatures who were also transcendent!

Among them were undead clad in bone armor, a barbarian leader holding a totem, fanatic knights wielding holy light, and even a few who seemed to be hidden local mages.

"Damn! It's a trap!" Augusta instantly realized.

The scene rapidly descended into an unprecedented crisis.

More than a dozen Second Tier Creatures launched an attack simultaneously; various divine magics, fighting qi, spells, and curses poured down like a torrential rain.

Although the three of them quickly used their high tier protective witchcraft artifacts to release shields and block the enemy's fierce initial attack, the foes had also laid down a no-fly barrier and an energy suppression field to prevent their escape.

Even though she was the eldest daughter of the Augusta family, Bert Villa Augusta did not have as much wealth as Jeming to casually produce high tier witchcraft artifacts.

The high tier protective witchcraft artifact on her was already an extra trump card given by her family!

If they remained at a stalemate, it would undoubtedly end with her death.

Looking at the cautiously surrounding enemies, who were ready to pounce like a pack of wolves, Augusta couldn't help but close her eyes.

Before her eyes seemed to appear the proud silhouette of Jeming during the academy trials.

She knew she had worked hard enough, her talent was sufficient to outshine most others.

However, after that academy trial, Jeming was like a shadow, always ahead, advancing in a way she couldn't understand.

No matter how hard she tried, he always managed to stand at a height she couldn't reach in a more astounding way.

"I'm not... defeated yet!"

Augusta suddenly opened her eyes, her pupils shining with dazzling lightning, as if thunder had exploded within them.

She ceased the conventional thunder magic, and her aura underwent another earth-shattering transformation.

"Come on... witness the fruits of my years of effort!" she murmured softly, her voice sparking with a faint crackling like an electric current.

Since witnessing Jeming's power in a trial a few years back, Augusta had set aside her previous arrogance and began studying arduously like a true ascetic monk.

She no longer was satisfied with pre-made witchcraft models.

Throughout these years of study, she dismantled all the witchcraft models she had previously purchased and, relying on her profound understanding of thunder knowledge, independently constructed three entirely new thunder spells.

Later, during the advancement to First Level Wizard, she combined these three thunder spells into one, ultimately constructing her fourth and core witchcraft model—Electromagnetic Control!

As Augusta unleashed her power, the entire land suddenly trembled as if responding to her call.

The muddy swamp revealed the tiny grains of sand hidden beneath.

Dense black metal sand particles, under her powerful electromagnetic power, rose from the soil as if attracted by a magnet, rapidly gathering around her.

The surrounding enemies attempted to disperse these grains or burn them with divine power flames.

However, sheer physical destruction could not affect Augusta's manipulation; as long as the metal existed, she could continue to control it.

A vast sea of metal sand gathered behind her with a subtle sound of friction, like a black tide.

Seeing this, the ambush predators couldn't help but swallow nervously.

With a cold expression, Augusta raised her finger, and under her control, the metallic sand surged towards the enemies like a tsunami!

For a moment, many enemies found themselves overwhelmed by Augusta's offensive.

Under the stunned gaze of her two companions, the battle turned into Augusta's solo performance.

Under her control, the iron sand formed into iron whips, striking the enemy with sharp whistling sounds, shattering their bones.

They would also instantly condense into spikes, attacking the enemy from all angles.

As time progressed, the amount of metal gathered around her continued to increase.

At its peak, Augusta controlled hundreds of flying shuttles, over ten meters long and two or three meters wide, made of metal sand particles all at once!

These flying shuttles circled around her at high speed, tracing paths in the air that were difficult for the naked eye to catch, delivering high-speed impacts to the enemies.

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