When A Mage Revolts

Benjamin's gaze swept across the bloody mess all over the ground a couple times to ensure that the three revenants had been completely destroyed, before dismissing the deep sea domain. He turned his head and spoke to the mages, "Gather all useful materials, and let's head back to the academy."

Hearing that, the mages were startled.

"...We return now?"

Benjamin nodded.

Seeing that, the mages naturally did not object. The food and water in their bags were still enough to stay further, but if Benjamin wished to end the expedition now, they would not say anything more. They already had gathered a really good harvest so far.

They cautiously walked forwards, taking out their special equipment to collect the remains of the exploded revenants bit by bit.

Miles, however, suddenly came to Benjamin's side. He did not look well.

"We can still continue the expedition, the netherworld… This is only the beginning." He lowered his voice, saying, "Don't you wish to know what lies deeper inside?"

Benjamin did not answer immediately. He signaled for him to be silent, and turned his head towards the mages, urging them to move faster.

"We don't have to bring the bone fragments. Quickly, it's best that we leave this place within ten minutes."

"Alright, alright…"

The mages felt slightly bemused, but they did not question him, and hastened their work. They collected the pieces of the three revenants' skulls as best as they could, and stored some blood in small bottles. Packing everything up, they flew into the air with Benjamin.

"It's done, Director. Let's go."

Benjamin nodded, and turned around. Just as they were about to leave the place…

It was at this moment that billows of thick smoke began to fill the entire forest. The white bones all over the ground began to shake violently, and the branches of the trees began to shake as though an earthquake was taking place. A loud rumbling sounded out from all directions.

Everyone was shocked.

At that moment, even the water elemental sprite, which had alighted upon Benjamin's shoulder, laid its body low and emitted sharp yelps.

A grave expression fell upon Benjamin's face. "We're in trouble now. I thought we could get away in time…"

"Director, sir, what's going on?" The male mage asked in a slight panic, "Haven't the three revenants been destroyed? What happened?"

"Something even more terrifying is asleep, underneath this forest." Benjamin surveyed their surroundings carefully as he replied, "And the fight that we've just had seemed to have inadvertently awakened that thing."

It was only after he had activated the deep sea domain that he had begun to notice something was not right.

While he had been feeding the revenants to their deaths with water elements, he had clearly felt a powerful surge of spiritual energy radiating strongly towards him. An aura of death, gloom, hatred… Complicated oscillations reverberated out from beneath the ground, like a sea monster awakening from its deep slumber.

He had felt uneasy at that time.

In answer to the question in his heart, the System had replied that it had a very bad, instinctive feeling. The runes contained within the deep sea domain seemed to have startled something. They had best leave the place quickly.

This was also the reason why Benjamin had kept on urging for them to move faster.

However, right then, it was obvious that whatever the thing sleeping underground was had woken up completely. The black smoke contained high levels of dark elements. Together with an aura of death much like the ones on the liches, it was surging towards them fast. Benjamin hurriedly activated the Elemental Technique - Defense, forming a gigantic hemisphere and protecting everyone inside it.

Thus, the black smoke wrapped around the elemental barrier, emitting a sizzling noise which sounded like acid being splashed onto a human body.

The water elements within the barrier were being consumed rapidly, being evaporated into nothingness by the strange energy. If it were not for Benjamin supplementing new water elements from within, the barrier might have been breached instantly.

Although none of the other mages present specialized in water magic, but they activated their own elemental affinity, assisting Benjamin in defense.

However…

"Ah!"

There was a terrible cry of pain coming from amongst them. Everyone looked, stunned, to see Miles suddenly clutching his head with both hands and kneeling on the ground. His face was white, contorted in excruciating pain.

The mages did not dare to come near him, and could only ask from the sidelines, "What is happening to you?"

Miles did not seem to be able to hear them at all. All he did was grab his head in pain, unable to make any sound other than screams.

"His magic immunity force field has suddenly been activated and has started to attack its own host." The System stated, "Do not touch him. This thing is too dangerous for human beings."

"So what should we do?" Benjamin asked in his heart.

"There's nothing to be done. It depends on his own willpower, now." The System advised, "You guys should first deal with the fellow outside now, no matter what… I have a very bad feeling about this. You guys should not have come here."

Hearing that, he gave the screaming Miles a few more glances before finally sighing and summoning a water bubble to protect him, not allowing the other mages to come near him.

After that, he strove to extend his senses into the black smoke outside of the elemental barrier.

"The living… Should not be here."

The moment his spiritual energy was sent out in a probe, Benjamin was startled. He could hear a low and raspy voice that sounded as though it came from a deep abyss, slowly traveling into his mind.

Benjamin looked around. It seemed that he was the only one who could hear this voice. The other mages were still busy maintaining the barrier, their expressions normal.

Thus, after some thought, he spoke in his heart, "We also do not intend to stay on for long. Please let us leave."

If there was a possibility for negotiation, he did not wish to clash head on with the other being. The netherworld had always imposed limits on magic. It had already been so troublesome getting rid of a few liches, and now here came something that was so much more powerful. To force a fight against it would be digging a grave for oneself.

He even regretted slightly that he had killed the three liches.

He should have just taken his men and left. The danger in the netherworld was even more frightening than they had imagined.

"Who… Are you? Why is there such a disgusting stench on you?" After a moment, the voice spoke once more, making Benjamin's heart skip in nervousness.

A disgusting stench?

"Dismiss the water elemental sprite, quickly!" The System shouted suddenly.

Hit by realization, Benjamin hurriedly kept the oddly excited water elemental sprite back into the space of consciousness through the spiritual connection. A few seconds after he had hidden the water elemental sprite, the voice sounded out once more.

"The stench has gone…"

Benjamin hurriedly replied, in his heart, "Yes. Can you please let us go?"

"That cannot be done." The voice, however, became grave. "You have broken the rules by breaking into the world of the dead. I cannot let you leave just like that."

Benjamin's heart sank.

"What rules? We don't know anything about them, we're innocent because we did not know. You cannot blame us for it." There was no other way. He could only ramble on with unreasonable excuses, while instructing the System to check outside for a way to escape.

"Rules are rules." The voice spoke somberly. "The spirit rift splits the world into two, one for the living and one for the dead. Unauthorized crossing of the boundaries between life and death leads to a punishment that no man can escape from."

Benjamin immediately replied. "So who are you? What right do you have to enforce the rules and punishments?"

"I am the Spirit of Bones who slumbers under this land." The voice answered. "Every revenant has a duty to rid this place of living trespassers. I must fulfil my duty."

With that, all of a sudden, the black smoke outside of the barrier surged back and was slowly withdrawn. Their vision of the outside, which had been completely blocked, was now slowly cleared, revealing an empty path.

Along that path, everyone could clearly see a gigantic bone dragon, tens of meters tall, crawling towards them.