Fire Mage

Chapter 393: Astral Projection

Edith frowned deeply and cast [Multi-Vision] skill.

A second later, more than twenty types of different possible future images appeared before her eyes and soon engraved in the depths of her consciousness!

Without any delay, she cast [Accelerate Thoughts] skill and started reading the visions.

As she skimmed through those visions, she raised her hand and activated the [Sleight of the Mystery Hand] skill.

The next instant, thousands of invisible strings came out of her hand and started forming a gigantic net around her surroundings.

All these happened in less than a second!

As the invisible strings moved in different directions, she started to think about her opponent.

'From the visions, I can tell that this Archmage is an expert in stealth and assassination. Out of 28 different visions, he managed to injure me in 21 visions.. But how did he get close to me? Why didn't my forewarning skill warn me? How did he bypass my wisdom power surveillance?' Questions whirled in her head.

'Before that, I need to gather information about this guy. Even though Andy failed to complete his summoning incantation, Marcus managed to find out his exact location and sent his incarnation first. That itself is an amazing feat. After he confirmed his descendant's death, he only took two to three seconds to come here. It's an impossible feat even for a Rank-5 Mystic. But this guy did it so casually. How is that possible?' A frown appeared on her face.

At that moment, a small space rift appeared next to her neck, and soon a sharp knife flew out from it.

But what shocked Edith was that she felt no spatial fluctuation from it.

Before that knife could touch Edith's skin, it collided with one of those invisible strings and then repelled in a different direction.

On the other hand, Edith released another invisible string and sent it towards the opened spatial crack.

Unfortunately, her action was too slow. Before the invisible string could appear near the crack, the spatial gap shrunk and soon disappeared from her eyes.

But at that moment, Edith managed to gather some more information about the enemy!

'There are two possible explanations. First, Arch-Mage Marcus must have a unique skill that could help him travel to other planes at his will. Second, he must belong to the [Spatial Mage] Class. Rank-5 [Reality Warper] Class Mystic? It is possible.'

But she suddenly recalled the earlier anomaly and froze.

'Wait, I saw two bony hands earlier. An undead-related class? Now that I think about it, why didn't I sense any spatial elemental fluctuation earlier? A unique class related to the undead?' At that moment, she also realized that there was another way to travel to other planes and widened her eyes.

'Is it astral projection method? Although I don't have any clue about how it works, I experienced it on my own. Did he appear here through the astral projection method? A soul-related class?' A look of understanding appeared on her face.

But before she could think further, a deep cut appeared on her right hand!

This time, she couldn't even saw any sign of spatial cracks in the surrounding areas!

At that moment, the [Multi-Vision] skill activated on its own and sent out more than 20 different visions to her mind.

A second later, a look of shock, confusion, and disbelief appeared on Edith's face.

'I died in all those visions! But why?' As she looked at the surroundings in confusion, she suddenly felt that some invisible power entered her chest, touched her consciousness, and went pale.

'Some invisible power is crushing the core of my consciousness!' Without any delay, she separated a small part of the gathered information, made it into a cloud, and sent them into Charles's Inner World through the strange link that connecting her consciousness.

On the other hand, the invisible power crushed the core and started erasing all of Edith's remaining consciousness from a separate realm!

When her consciousness faded, she finally noticed that this power appeared similar to the Dream Powers!

Unfortunately, her thinking process stopped, and soon Edith's body fell on the ground with a loud thud.

Charles's second clone died!

A second later, all those invisible strings started to crack and broke into multiple pieces before disappearing.

In the meantime, a humanoid figure appeared a few feet away from Edith's corpse.

But unlike an ordinary human, this figure's appeared looked more like a foggy appearance!

If a mortal or an ordinary Mystic looked at the area now, they wouldn't notice his presence at all.

It was the same skill Eve used to contact Charles before her death!

The old man walked towards Edith and soon frowned.

"Where is her soul?" He tilted his head in confusion. After some thought, he shook his head and shifted his attention towards Andy's headless corpse.

"Hmm, something is not right. It seems I've to come here personally and find out the root cause of the problem." He said in the same ancient tone and closed his eyes.

A second later, the foggy form started to distort and soon disappeared from there!

...

Rebirth Tower, Iron City, Iron Kingdom.

At that moment, a commotion happened at the Tower's entrance.

Jessie placed Titus's body at the entrance and knelt on the ground with a pale face.

Crystal-like tears fell from her scarlet eyes from time to time and splashed on Titus's cold body.

Meanwhile, hundreds of students, robed mages, commoners, and even some well-armored knights stood around her and whispered among themselves.

Some guards tried to approach her but soon stopped as they saw the arrival of a golden carriage.

A second later, Rhea and Noel jumped down from the carriage and ran towards Jessie while excluding the crowd.

Soon, both of them arrived near Titus's corpse and almost fell.

"W-What happened?" Rhea asked in a panicking tone.

Her face and head started to tremble uncontrollably.

Noel also appeared in the same condition. He knelt on the ground and punched his hand on the concrete floor in anger.

"WHY? Who did this?" His angry roar echoed at the entrance.

In the meantime, Jessie remained motionless for a few seconds and spat out two words.

"Griffin Family!"

Just as she finished her words, she suddenly sensed a change in Titus's spatial ring and paused.

She then extended her hand, removed the ring from his finger, and sent a part of her wisdom power.

But the next instant, she blurted out in surprise.

"His soul imprint is still there!"

"It's a common occurrence, My Lady." The nearby mage responded in a polite tone.

At that moment, another mage took this opportunity and explained the reason.

"I once heard from a scholar that it will take more than 24 hours for a soul to reach the Eternal River of Life. Although his soul imprint is still there, you won't feel any resistance if you try to erase it, My Lady."

Jessie nodded her head in disappointment upon hearing his words, shifted her attention towards Rhea, and asked.

"Where is our Teacher? Did you try to contact him?" There was a trace of anger appeared on her face as she asked the question.

Earlier, she came to the Tower to look for their Teacher, but couldn't find his whereabouts.

She tried to ask the Tower Spirit, but all she got was a disappointing response.

"I tried, but no response came from the other side," Rhea said with a bitter smile, then looked up at the Rebirth Tower's top and asked.

"Zera? Are you there?"

Just as she spoke, a silver-haired woman's figure appeared in front of them.

She appeared illusionary, had long hair, blue eyes, an oval face, pointy ears, and appeared to be around 25 to 30 years old.

She wore a red floral dress, emerald gem-embedded necklace, and had a delicate figure.

She was none other than the Tower Spirit of the Rebirth Tower!

"Take us to the 24th floor," Rhea ordered in a cold tone.

On the other hand, Zera mimicked human etiquette and nodded her head while bending her waist.

A second later, Rhea and others felt that the whole surroundings started to distort and soon found themselves in the middle of a largely empty hall.

At this moment, Jessie turned her gaze towards the Tower Spirit and asked.

"Do you know anything about our Teacher's whereabouts?"

Zera paused for a moment and soon shook her head.

"I'm not authorized to tell you guys about his current whereabouts, My Lady. But he did predict your friend's demise much earlier and told me to pass a message to all of you." She paused for a moment, mimicked Oswald's voice, and then added.

"Stay in the Rebirth Tower and wait."

Upon hearing those words, confusion appeared on everyone's face.

"W-Wait! Our Teacher predicted Titus's demise? Then, why didn't he save him?!" Jessie's eyes went bloodshot all of a sudden.

She felt that they were betrayed by their Teacher!

"I'm nothing but an artificial spirit, My Lady. If you want the answer, please stay in the Tower and wait for his return. He may give you a satisfying answer." Zera responded politely and disappeared from there.