As they neared the end of the path, the very last bit of obstruction was left to Himmel to clear, for the sake of everyone's eyes.
Boom!
With a loud crash, the rock and Magic-Suppressing Ore-infused wall before them crumbled under Himmel's powerful strike.
However, just as the Hero was about to sheath his sword, his face suddenly changed, and all the hair on his body stood on end. He raised his weapon, positioning himself in front of everyone, and shouted a warning for caution!
But it was too late.
Caught off-guard and unprepared, even with Himmel's exceptional battle instincts, the preemptive warning still came a moment too late.
Paradise Conduit Magic!
Without any hesitation, Grausam, one of the Seven Destructive Sages, unleashed his fully-charged signature control magic right in their faces the instant Gut and his companions emerged.
Ten powerful War Shadows surged forward. Six of them, along with Qual, rushed straight for Serie. Three others spread out to pin down the rest of the group.
The last one, the War Shadow most skilled in assassination and infiltration, charged towards Gut with the intent to take his head—no matter the cost.
In that moment, it seemed they had truly been driven to the edge.
Paradise Conduit Magic was a stunningly beautiful yet cruel curse.
All those targeted by the spell would be dragged into a mirage-like illusion—one that perfectly recreated a world where their deepest, most impossible dreams were realized.
Even if the target noticed something was amiss, the custom-built fantasy would subconsciously compel them to ignore it.
Because of this, anyone caught in the mirage was incredibly hard to wake.
Normally, there were only two ways to break free from this curse-level control magic:
One was to be a devout follower of the Goddess, relying on Aureole's Blessing to endure the spell.
The other was to attack Grausam directly, interrupting his casting.
But under the effects of Paradise Conduit Magic, with their senses heavily dulled and vision distorted, managing to strike Grausam was a near-impossible feat.
In all his years, Grausam had only encountered two people who could manage it.
One was the Hero of the South, who had already been defeated.
The other was Himmel, but most of the time, he resided in the Royal Capital, so encountering him here was practically impossible.
As memories of those two terrifying warriors surfaced, Grausam shook his head helplessly.
For a fragile magic user like him, just recalling the sheer ferocity of those two fighters—both of whom managed to break through his curse and rush him down—sent chills down his spine.
Surely, such bad luck wouldn't strike twice.
After all, he had sacrificed a precious Predicted Pointer for this ambush. Not only had the assassination-target Gut been successfully killed, but even the mythical Great Mage Serie had been severely wounded in the siege and had only managed to escape by using a secret spell.
As for the others in their party, they were all slaughtered by the War Shadows.
In this ambush, not a single demon was lost, the target was perfectly eliminated, and the mission was a complete success.
When Grausam returned to the Demon King's Castle with his comrades, not only was he praised by the Demon King, but even Schlacht patted him on the shoulder, smiling proudly.
On Schlacht's face, the constant furrow of worry for the future of demonkind finally relaxed.
He had finally been able to share Schlacht's burden and help his brother achieve their dream of a better future for demonkind.
Thinking of this, a genuine smile appeared on Grausam's usually indifferent face.
"Schlacht, I will walk alongside you, bringing a brighter future to the demons."
"Just like how I completed your last wish this time."
"Wait... last wish?"
Grausam suddenly snapped back to reality, his gaze fixed on the supposedly deceased Schlacht and Demon King, and all the hair on his body stood on end!
"This is an illusion! I fell into my own Paradise Conduit Magic!"
"When did this happen?!?"
The illusory Schlacht and Demon King turned to him with puzzled expressions, but before Grausam could steel himself to break free, the mirage simply unraveled on its own.
And along with the illusion, Grausam's own body began to dissipate.
Collapsed on the ground, Grausam looked to his side and saw it—Himmel's familiar magic signature and method of attack.
"It was you, wasn't it, Himmel? Looks like I couldn't escape dying to you after all."
Beside him, the middle-aged Hero wiped the dust from his sword and spoke calmly.
"Last time you slipped away, but finishing you off now means one less threat to worry about."
"Haha... is that so..."
As his body crumbled to ash, Grausam cast his eyes one last time towards the distance.
There, the Great Mage Serie, having just finished off the last War Shadow, looked back at him.
In her eyes, Grausam could see a mixture of puzzlement and admiration.
He couldn't figure out when he had fallen into his own spell. Just as Serie couldn't understand how her disciple, Gut, had remained unaffected by the curse, standing firm with his blade drawn, trying to wake her up.
Time rewound to the beginning of the ambush.
When Gut and his party first burst through the wall, they were indeed all hit by Grausam's full-power control magic. All five of them were dragged into the illusion immediately.
But...
Not all illusions are created equal.
For Gut, Grausam's so-called curse-level illusion—this concept of Paradise Conduit Magic—was nothing more than a white flash.
The duration was so short it didn't even compare to the white screen of loading times in certain games.
In just the blink of an eye, Gut regained full awareness.
On his system interface, the only golden-tier trait he possessed shone brightly:
[Transmigrator (Gold)]
[Trait Effect]: Your memories cannot be read or altered by any form or method; you possess extreme resistance to all soul-based magic and curses; you have an innate affinity for time- and space-based abilities.
The golden-tier trait had already granted Gut extraordinary resistance.
Plus, Paradise Conduit Magic relied on prying into the target's memories to craft the perfect illusion. But Gut's memories were completely immune to any form of access.
Stacked together, the so-called curse only amounted to a flicker of light before his eyes.
And the next to wake up after Gut... was Himmel.
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Powerstones?
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