"Goodbye then, Constantine," Carmen said.

"Can you get me a cushion? I’m afraid it’ll hurt."

Baron tried to stall for time, but Carmen gave him no such opportunity, immediately releasing the unseen hand formed of Spiritual Power.

He plummeted straight down from the sky.

The Azure Fire Dragon caught a glimpse of this from the corner of its eye. Having never carried a passenger before, it assumed its own inexperience was to blame—that it had somehow let the legendary Red Dragon Knight lose his balance and fall.

It instinctively dipped its head and dove to catch him, but the Witch planted a foot on its skull, halting the motion.

"A fall from this height won’t kill a Bronze Knight. I can sense someone in Prole has their eyes on him. If I’m with him, I’ll just get dragged down too."

"Let’s go," Carmen said.

But the Azure Fire Dragon still circled the spot where Baron was falling. Clearly, in its heart, Baron, the Red Dragon Knight, took priority over Carmen.

In response, the Dragon Witch could only sigh and unleash the aura of her Red Dragon’s Soul.

The Azure Fire Dragon bucked, nearly plummeting from the sky again.

Ultimately, it beat its wings and flew away.

Meanwhile, Baron, still in mid-fall, casually pulled the poker card from his coat. He also deactivated the Lucky Goddess Necklace; it wouldn’t be needed for what was to come.

The poker card was immediately ripped from his grasp, snatched by the wind and air pressure, and sent hurtling upward into the sky.

Baron stared at his empty hand. "..."

’Seriously? You’re not even going to pretend? The moment I say I’m unlucky, I’m unlucky?’

Baron cursed his damned fate. Without the poker card, he couldn’t enter the dream to escape the impact. A fall from this height, even if it didn’t kill him, would be enough to peel him alive.

And to make matters worse, Wizard Fei was waiting for him down below.

’Use Spiritual Power to slow my descent? The drain is massive. I’m not sure I’d have enough to last until I hit the ground.’

His mind raced, and in just a few short breaths, Baron had a plan.

He used his newfound ability, Promise, to summon one Little Flame Demon after another, having them clamp their flame-wrought teeth onto his back and shoulders.

They flapped their wings furiously, trying to lift him.

One wasn’t enough, then two. Two weren’t enough, then three, four, five... Finally, the Little Flame Demons coalesced into wings of fire, holding Baron up. But this stability didn’t last long; his downward velocity was too great, and he continued to fall.

He was now only a hundred-odd meters from Wizard Fei below. With his excellent vision, Baron could even see the man staring up at him.

The forest below was lush and dense. The knights stood like dark, unmoving mountains. Silver Wizard Fei’s gaze was cold and lifeless, as silent as a statue.

He raised his Magic Staff, and Spiritual Power began to gather in the Magic Crystal at its tip.

Baron sized up the situation. ’He’s not using a Magic Card,’ he thought. ’This is true Magic, exclusive to Wizards.’

He’d learned from books that the difference in power between the sorcery from Magic Cards and true Magic was like night and day.

For the same amount of Spiritual Power, the sorcery produced by a Magic Card—depending on the user’s tier and innate talent—was only 10 to 50 percent as powerful as the original Magic. At best, it was half as strong. Perhaps only a Golden Mage could cast card-based sorcery that exceeded half the power of the real thing.

Which brought him to the current problem.

’A Silver Mage has his Magic Staff aimed at you, and he isn’t using a Magic Card. What do you do?’

Baron’s choice was simple: Run like hell!

The Wizard’s lips twitched as he completed the incantation. A radiant Holy Light gathered at the tip of his Magic Staff, coalescing into a faint point of light.

Baron had a premonition that if that point of light hit him, even if it didn’t kill him, his life would never be the same.

He sliced open his palm with a knife, letting the blood spatter out under his control.

Two of the Little Flame Demons he’d dispatched shot upward and snatched the poker card as it fluttered in the sky, bringing it back down.

Just as the point of light erupted into a blazing beam and shot toward him, Baron smeared his blood across the poker card.

A moment later, the beam passed right through his body...

Baron suddenly understood why the Undead Knight had ended up in such a pathetic state at the hands of Wizard Fei.

Logically, the Undead Knight should have been able to hold out for a long time by relying on its nauseating "Spiritualization" state—the ability to hit without being hit.

But he never expected that this Silver Mage from the Palmer Wizard Tower was actually a Holy Wizard!

This beam wasn’t some incredibly powerful offensive spell; it was a Holy Light Shock that struck the soul directly!

The pure power of the Holy Light washed through Baron’s mind, leaving it pristine and empty. It was a sudden, profound enlightenment, like snow vaporizing on a red-hot furnace. He felt that life was empty, living was empty, and even death was empty.

The world was a vast expanse of white.

’So this is what Wizard Fei meant by ’purification’ back in the room,’ he thought.

In this state of profound apathy, Baron’s thoughts drifted. The poker card he clutched tightly began to flicker under the continuous wash of Holy Light. The Little Flame Demons had also been dispelled by the light. He was falling, just falling, endlessly.

’What rotten luck,’ Baron thought.

Wizard Fei ordered a Palmer Witch Rider to catch Baron, but the Demon Hunter medallion on Baron’s chest—a gift from Ludwig—suddenly vibrated, tearing a momentary gap in the constant stream of Holy Light.

In that brief window, Baron’s senses returned. The Little Flame Demons reappeared, dragging him toward the edge of the pillar of Holy Light. They were continuously annihilated and reborn, but they finally pulled him out of the light’s domain.

"Are those Fairies?" one of the Palmer Witch Riders asked as he stepped forward, his brow furrowing beneath his faceplate.

"From their silhouettes, these winged flame fairies... they look a bit like dragons."

"We’ll know what they are when he’s down and we can question him," Wizard Fei said. "After being betrayed by the Witch, I’m sure he knows what he ought to do."

Just as Wizard Fei spoke, he heard the surrounding Palmer Witch Riders cry out in astonishment.

’What happened?’

With that thought, Wizard Fei looked to the sky. He then let out the same gasp as his Palmer Witch Riders.

"How is that possible!?"

In the sky, the Demon Hunter, who had been less than a few dozen meters away, had vanished!

It wasn’t just the wizards staring at the sky who were dumbfounded; a lone Little Flame Demon, left behind in the chaos, was equally bewildered.

It looked left and right.

’Hey, where’d my buddies and my master go?’

"Seize that fairy."

Before Wizard Fei even had to give the order, a Palmer Witch Rider had already used a Magic Card, summoning a fierce gust of wind that blew the Little Flame Demon down.

As it drew near, everyone saw that it was no Fairy or Elf, but a Dragon-shaped Energy Body made of burning flames.

One of the Palmer Witch Riders, full of curiosity, reached out with his Magic Staff to poke the small, aggressive creature.

Wizard Fei’s Silver-Tier intuition prompted him to shout a warning, but it was too late.

The explosion engulfed them faster than the Wizard’s cry.

When the smoke cleared, Wizard Fei, who was carrying a defensive Alchemy Object, was unharmed. The remaining five Palmer Witch Riders, however, were a truly miserable sight.

Their custom-made Iron Armor and Copper Helmets, engraved with Defense Runes, had cracked in the blast. The expensive black horses beneath them, purchased from the Far North Suluka, were instantly scorched by the intense heat, burned blacker than their own hides.

Because explosions are accompanied by shockwaves, even if the knights appeared uninjured on the surface, some were vomiting blood and others had nosebleeds... one had even passed out.

A single Dragon-shaped Energy Body had managed to severely wound five fully-armed Palmer Witch Riders! And that wasn’t even mentioning that two of them were Bronze Tier!

What in the world was that thing!?

"L..."

For the first time, a dark look flashed across Wizard Fei’s jade-cold face.

Clearly, he couldn’t pursue them under these circumstances. Even if he caught up, he couldn’t defeat the seemingly recovered Carmen without his five Palmer Witch Riders to execute their Alchemy Array.

In that case, there was no longer any reason to remain here.

He glanced at his subordinates, then pulled out a silver-white Magic Card and injected it with Spiritual Power. He stomped his foot hard on the ground, and an Array Pattern appeared. As he chanted, a translucent barrier covered in etched spells materialized.

The group vanished, reappearing a moment later atop the Palmer Wizard Tower.

"Teacher!"

Wizard Fei bowed. "KK still managed to escape."

"I saw everything."

His teacher, Kuman, the Golden Mage and Master of the Wizard Tower, said, "Go and receive your punishment."

"Yes!"

Wizard Fei walked around the corpse of the Palmer Witch Rider that had been sacrificed as the price for the Teleportation Array, and vanished on the spot.

The Golden Mage waved his hand, and the Witch Riders’ bodies vanished. His gaze burned like a torch as he stared at the sky. "Dragon Knight... KK, what exactly are you trying to do?"

...

In the dream, Baron felt something wet on his face. He awoke to see a black sheep licking him. He pushed the sheep’s head away and saw the Shepherdess nearby, quietly sipping a cup of black tea.

Noticing Baron looking at her, she spoke in a faint, lifeless voice, "Would you care for some herbal tea, Lord Constantine?"