CHAPTER 696: CHAPTER 691: THE GROUND

The explosion blasted towards him head-on.

The young caster named Yann stood rooted to the spot, completely motionless.

His legs had turned to jelly with fear, rendering him incapable of fleeing—even if running would have been futile.

The rate of the explosion compared to Yann’s potential full-speed escape.

There was an absolutely insurmountable gap between them.

Before being engulfed by the orange-red flames, gray smoke, and thunderous noise, Yann also caught sight of the state of the Banica campsite.

——Utterly obliterated.

Whether they were casters he got along with or powerful casters that Yann couldn’t even hope to touch.

In the face of such a disaster, they and the houses they lived in were no different, all destined to be destroyed in an instant.

Myself...

Am I going to die...?

In that instant, a flood of memories suddenly surged through Yann’s mind.

Childhood friends, the mentor who led him into the arcane arts, his parents waving goodbye when he left home, the hardships of his training in Yizi Forest...

All the memories he could and couldn’t ordinarily recall rushed to his mind.

Boom——

At that moment, the blast reached his vicinity.

The vegetation that constituted the original Banica camp was struck by cataclysmic destruction.

Yann didn’t know if it was an illusion, but he felt as if everything before him was moving incredibly slowly. He could even see the severely compressed air that presaged the destruction before the explosion arrived.

But then...

Just a few meters in front of Yann, the all-destructive explosion suddenly veered away in a perfect arc, as if the shock and heat had been erased by some mysterious entity, unable to even graze this spot.

"..."

"Sir, that’s an impressive spell."

"Costate, I’ve already told you there’s no need for that."

A male and female voice conversed behind him, prompting Yann to make an effort to twist his head and look back.

There.

A man and a woman who had just arrived at Banica were engaged in conversation.

On both of them, there was no trace of fear towards the horrific explosion.

Who... who on earth are these people?

Plunk——

As he thought this to himself, Yann thudded to his knees.

He finally managed to move again.

Feeling the fear and shock draining his strength, Yann’s legs buckled, and he leaned sideways against a nearby doorway.

"..."

Meanwhile, Ronald, who had directly nullified the blast, had yet to finish his action.

He perfectly blocked the initial blast with the "End of Humanity," but the Complete Technique, with its massive energy consumption, was not something he could maintain constantly.

So, after withstanding the most terrifying first wave of the explosion,

Ronald cast another spell to open the ground beneath their last bastion of safety, allowing them to duck underground and then sealed the surface again.

Only after completing these tasks was everything properly dealt with.

At this time, Helle’s puzzled voice emerged from the darkness:

"Brother Ronald, why are we hiding underground? Shouldn’t we be heading towards the sky?"

Ronald patiently replied:

"The high temperature from the blast spreads more fiercely upwards—and for an explosion of this magnitude, the violent reaction will completely deplete the oxygen around us. Suffocation is one of the biggest threats to life."

"We can only leave once the most violent part of the explosion has passed."

He offered a simple explanation to the curious Helle.

Ronald’s gaze then turned to the man kneeling on the ground in front of him.

The Caster from Banica, due to being close enough to them, Ronald had conveniently rescued him as well.

But after what had happened,

the young man was now so scared that he had become paranoid.

Even after Ronald had saved his life, he was still curled up in the corner, his face showing fear.

What an unlucky innocent...

Ronald could sense the guy’s state, so he went over and comforted him in a few words:

"Young man, don’t be afraid anymore."

"If I were the main culprit behind all this, there would have been no need to save you, the attack was by another."

Ronald’s explanation was concise.

The Magic Fluctuation that had appeared just before the explosion indicated that the creator of the explosion was also a member of the mysterious side; it was highly likely that this young man from Banica was so terrified because he had mistaken Ronald as the mastermind behind the attack.

Indeed, after Ronald’s explanation, Yann’s condition significantly improved.

Although he was still kneeling in the corner, his state was at least no longer so severely trembling and curled up.

Then, Costate’s voice rose in the darkness.

Compared to Ronald, who was concerned about the surroundings, the maid’s attention was still on the words Ronald had just used to comfort Yann:

"Sir, you are also very young right now."

Ronald immediately replied:

"Isn’t it because I saw he was scared that I spoke like that? I’m aware I’m young too!"

"..."

"Sir, you are correct."

"..."

As someone confident in facing all problems,

Ronald and Costate began to chat casually, with young Helle also occasionally chiming in with questions, while Yann sat on the side, at a loss.

The underground discussion continued for some time.

Ronald felt the commotion above calm down, whereupon he ended the discussion.

"Alright, let’s go up."

"It looks like the situation on the ground is no longer problematic."

As he explained, "Angel" was activated again, and the magic of the Complete Technique turned into strength that pushed aside the soil, sending them smoothly back to the surface.

"..."

"What a disaster..."

Back on the ground, Ronald couldn’t help but shake his head upon seeing the surroundings.

On the ground, every emerging thing, be it buildings, rocks, or trees, had been completely swept away by the explosion; now, in every direction you looked, there was a vast expanse of open ground.

Moreover, after the explosion, a mysterious orange-red substance appeared on the charred ground, resembling blood vessels. These shining substances faintly retained traces of Magic Fluctuations, looking very much like the aftermath of the explosion.

And if one looked closely,

you could see that these orange-red substances, while containing extremely high temperatures, also rhythmically expanded and contracted.

Although the range was small, it was as if it hinted at a special kind of vitality.

—After all, this attack was backed by the mysterious side.

—Could this become a very important clue?

Ideas swirled in Ronald’s mind as he immediately wanted to thoroughly investigate these substances.

However, just then, a new change interrupted his actions.

Not far from them, the ground was suddenly lifted from below by someone, and a few men and women with sickly complexions emerged from it.

This seemed like a signal.

Banica Casters who had escaped in time to save their lives during the explosion began to emerge from the ground one after another.

And among them as someone Ronald had had deeper contact with, the leader of Banica—Orland.

He now wore a look of indignation.

And then he approached them.