79: Chapter 79 Dramatic Changes on the Island

The group had been searching the tower for a long time.

Richard helped Jinbao clear a storage room door blocked by metal debris, and he noticed out of the corner of his eye that the silver-haired mage's figure had disappeared around the corner of the hallway for a long time.

A few hours later, Morpheus returned. He was trembling all over, and the expression on his face looked unusually excited.

"What's wrong? Did you find anything?" Richard asked curiously, noticing a slight bulge in the outer pocket of his robe.

"Uh... no, nothing. I was just too excited. This is a place of precious knowledge from a thousand years ago."

Morpheus's face flushed red as he continued, "I have already recorded quite a lot of rune content. This trip was absolutely worth it!"

Richard nodded. "Don't worry, we can explore more ruins later."

When Selan strode over from the other end of the hallway, the half-elf leader's face was no longer as calm and composed as before.

Vera followed behind him, her face also showing a suppressed anxiety.

Selan stopped in front of Richard, scanned the storage cabinet they were rummaging through with a scrutinizing gaze, and then spoke.

He didn't use an inquiring tone, but rather a questioning one, his attitude very arrogant.

"Did you find a book? The cover is made of demon skin, you can see dense blood vessels on it, and the book clasp is a finger bone."

"That book is very important to us; it is the only goal of this commission... If you found it, please tell me."

Richard turned around to face Selan directly.

His tone was very calm. "Haven't seen it. Everything we found is here... Most of them are cursed items, not the book with a demon skin cover you mentioned."

Selan's blue eyes stared fixedly at Richard's eyes, as if judging the truth of his words.

Richard did not look away, nor did he say anything more.

He really hadn't seen the book with his own eyes, and he didn't want to communicate with the other party anymore. He felt this half-elf was a bit too disrespectful.

"I can pay a large sum..."

Before Selan could continue questioning, the floor under their feet jumped violently.

A violent tremor suddenly arrived, and the foundation of the entire high tower was pushed up by this force from below.

The remains of the magic lamps on the corridor walls fell from their bases with a clatter, shattering into countless pieces on the ground.

The runes on the walls that had already gone out suddenly lit up all at once. The eerie light was like a rapidly flashing dark red pulse, as if the entire tower had been suddenly activated.

Immediately following, a second tremor came from deeper down, and it began to shake continuously.

The tower emitted a teeth-grinding sound of metal twisting. Gravel on the corridor floor began to bounce, and dust and debris from the wall surfaces rained down.

Cecilia grabbed Jinbao, who was about to fall. The black cat emerged from the shadows, its hand crossbow already strung, scanning the surroundings vigilantly.

"Everyone! Evacuate the tower! Immediately!"

Selan's command was concise and decisive. He grabbed Vera's wrist and rushed towards the stairs.

The Silver Leaf Sentinels' Archers followed closely behind. Evelyn had already begun summoning dryads in the open space outside the tower while running, in case they encountered threats outside that needed to be faced head-on.

Everyone in the scholar team was running wildly, and Richard and the others followed them towards the exit downstairs.

The moment they rushed out of the Black Tower's gate, the world outside was completely different from when they entered.

The sky was gradually darkening. A darkness thicker than the night spread from the center of the city, swallowing the sunlight overhead layer by layer.

The concentration of magic in the air was so high that even those without spellcasting ability could feel it.

It felt like countless fine needles were gently pricking the skin, and every breath brought a sense of discomfort from chest pressure.

Then, a terrifying roar came from the depths of the city!

It was a sound emitted from directly beneath the pyramid-shaped building in the center of the city, clearly rushing directly into everyone's brain.

Everyone's ears buzzed simultaneously, followed by sharp pain.

Eardrums felt like they were being pierced from both sides by steel awls at the same time, and many people with poor physical constitution had blood seeping directly from their ear canals.

Jinbao, the black cat, and others knelt on the ground, covering their ears tightly with their hands, but it was useless.

Not long after, a violent explosion occurred.

A blinding, white-gold ring of light that was impossible to look at directly exploded in the center of the city.

The ring of light expanded rapidly to the diameter of half a city block, swallowing everything in its path—stone pillars, ruins, debris, etc.

The ring of light lasted for several seconds before gradually dimming.

The next moment, a person riding a silvery-white pegasus rushed out from a crack in the top of the pyramid, fleeing frantically towards the outskirts of the city with all their speed.

Every beat of the pegasus's wings projected a large swath of silvery-white radiance onto the ground, illuminating the dense ruins and broken streets below.

The person riding the pegasus wore light golden breastplate armor, with exquisite runes engraved on it.

The tower shield in his left hand had already shattered, the fragments strapped to his forearm by leather straps. His right hand held high a longsword still burning with holy flames, the golden fire trailing in the wind with a hissing sound.

Half of his helmet had been smashed flat by some immense force, and the exposed half of his face was covered in blood, but he was roaring, desperately urging the pegasus to accelerate.

Morpheus let out an exclamation: "That's St. George! The leader of the Ember Oath!"

"Really?" Jinbao asked, unable to believe it.

"Would I lie to you? That holy silver pegasus is St. George's exclusive mount."

Richard frowned and said vigilantly: "But why does he look so disheveled? Something isn't right..."

At this moment, the ground beneath the pyramid in the center of the city cracked open.

The crack spread in all directions with the pyramid as the center, and the streets, buildings, and stone pillars along the way were all swallowed into the depths of the crack.

What gushed out from the crack was not magma or seawater, but pure black-red magical evil light.

Richard widened his eyes, seeing a giant hand reach out from the crack.

That hand could be described as blotting out the sky; the shadow of its palm covered nearly half of the Third Ring area.

Each finger was several times thicker than the Black Tower, the skin was dark red, and the surface was covered with continuously flowing lava veins and dense twisted runes.

The nails at the end of the fingers were pure black, sharper than any metal, and the moment they extended from the ground, they scraped away the outer walls of several buildings.

That hand had only just extended from the ground, and the magical turbulence it brought was already making everyone feel fear from the bottom of their hearts.

The person riding the pegasus had already flown to the outskirts of the Third Ring.

But the giant hand just slightly opened its five fingers, and a dark red magic shockwave silently diffused from the palm, instantly catching up to the pegasus.

The moment the shockwave touched the pegasus's wings, all the silvery-white radiance extinguished simultaneously.

The pegasus let out a shrill neigh that could tear through the sky, and horse and rider were pinched between two fingers by that hand as if pinching a mosquito.

The holy flames extinguished the moment they touched the skin of the fingers.

The weapon was crushed into fragments like a biscuit, and the rider's breastplate and body were crushed together into a mass of twisted flesh and metal mixture.

All that squeezed out from between the fingers were flesh and blood remains, as well as a trace of holy light embers that quickly dissipated in the air.

This Gold-ranked Adventurer, the leader of the Ember Oath, St. George.

He didn't even last three seconds before he was declared dead.