I train my body alone in the magical world.

Chapter 21 Returning to the Origin

"Damn brat, my loot!"

Frass growled in a low, guttural voice...

"No way? Even the leader goblin would be severely injured if it took that attack from me..." Fu Xiao said with some doubt.

This was my first time facing a professional, and I was still quite inexperienced. Are all professional hunters this tough?

"Buzzing..."

Frass emerged from the smoke and dust, brandishing his scythe.

The scythe, along with its chain, spun rapidly like a windmill. Under the moonlight, Frass, who had been meticulously dressed, was now in tatters, with a tear on the left and a small piece missing on the right.

His face, contorted in a grotesque grimace, was covered in filthy mud, with unidentified yellow and black substances mixed with blood.

"Pfft... What? So you landed face down?"

Upon seeing this scene, Fu Xiao couldn't help but burst out laughing.

Frass's back teeth were almost grinding to powder, and the veins on his forehead were slightly bulging.

The nameless rage made his whole body feel hot. Even in this situation, this brat still had the nerve to laugh at him!

It's been a provocation from the very beginning!

"Go to hell!"

Frass swung the scythe in his hand toward Fu Xiao, and the chains were once again imbued with the wind element bonus.

What he pursues...whether it's art or professional ethics!

All of that had been forgotten by Frass, a mage who wasn't even a professional...

He actually drove himself to such a pathetic state!

Die!

Fu Xiao had no time to react; the flying scythe was about to strike his face.

"Thump!"

Ok?

Fu Xiao couldn't help but move his throat...

The sickle was less than a finger's width away... yet it seemed to be controlled by some force, and crashed heavily to the ground, sinking deep into the somewhat muddy soil.

"This is..."

Force field control!!!

Grace!

"You've worked hard! Xiao Fu, you've persevered until now... Now, leave the rest to me!"

A familiar and reassuring voice came from behind him, and Fu Xiao turned around to look at Grace, who was wearing a black mage's robe.

The faint glow of the rising sun in the east cast a soft light on Grace's face...

This was the first time Fu Xiao had seen Grace with such a serious expression; beneath her purple eyes, an barely suppressed anger was almost overflowing.

"...Have you broken the magic-suppressing stone?"

Frass gritted his teeth: "Where are Emma and Alice?"

"Oh? Someone like you actually cares about others?"

Grace didn't act directly. Instead, she walked to Fu Xiao's side and fed him the last jar of green recovery potion.

"If I remember correctly, your name is Frass, right?"

After confirming that Fu Xiao's wounds had begun to heal, Grace walked slowly toward Frass.

Frass's body trembled slightly, his hands gripping the hilts of the two magical weapons at his waist, yet he hesitated to draw them.

"Fu Xiao, it's a rare opportunity to spar with a professional. Shall I give you an advanced lesson for mages?"

"Why... do mages hold such an unshakeable position in this world compared to other professions?!"

Grace extended her left hand, bending her middle and ring fingers to pinch her palm, and a purple magic ring appeared behind her head...

"If casting learned spells requires using magic to sense and connect with the elements, then a mage who masters a fundamental spell can, in a short time, elevate the power of their fundamental spell to another dimension by melting their own magical aura and isolating themselves from naturally existing elements!"

"As expected..." Frass's heart skipped a beat.

Actually, he had already considered it beforehand, but...

The moment Grace made that gesture with her left hand, he understood that things were spiraling out of his control.

"Are you still resorting to despicable and underhanded tactics? Perhaps you understand that from the very beginning, we weren't...on the same level!"

A purple ripple spread outwards from Grace, and the magic ring behind her had disappeared.

"The origin...return to the true self!"

Her figure floated slightly, and Frass did not hesitate at all, not even having the courage to draw his magic tool.

He turned around and tried to run away...

"Aaaaaah!!"

As if something was pressing down on his body, Frass collapsed onto the muddy soil.

"Now, want to run away? Weren't you just...having a lot of fun?"

Grace's eyes flashed with a purple light, and she extended her right index finger... At her fingertip, the surrounding air currents seemed to be drawn by something, forming a vortex.

Magic continued to gather in the wind at the center of the gravitational field in front of Grace. The ground was greedily churning up huge craters, and the surrounding air was distorted in a vortex, torn and imprisoned by a terrifying gravitational force.

Fu Xiao shielded his face with one hand against the strong wind; just watching it, he couldn't even imagine getting close to that force field...

I'm afraid it will be torn to shreds in an instant!

"lonely!"

The force field moved straight forward, and the center of the force field generated a huge gravitational force that swallowed everything around it. Sensing the terrifying magic contained within, Frass struggled desperately to stand up.

But something held them firmly in place in this muddy area...

"Alice!!!"

Frass screamed hysterically; he hadn't been unaware of this possibility before the assassination attempt.

Now that things have come to this, we have no choice but to give up everything. As long as we can stay alive, we can start over!

On the other side, next to Alice, whose body was almost twisted into a mangled mess, lay Emma, ​​who was coughing up blood and unable to resist. There was a string of strange characters on the back of her neck, ending with the number 044.

As if sensing something, Alice, who had transformed into a black phantom with long hair, suddenly twitched.

Having nearly reached her limit, Rias instinctively gripped her broken longsword...

The dark figure in front of her completely ignored Rias, grabbed Emma beside her, and disappeared without a trace.

A terrifying gravitational field swept through and destroyed everything in the jungle, and the farther away from Grace, the wider the area became.

Just as Frass was about to be sucked into the edge of the force field, a dark shadow darted out from behind him, swallowed Frass, who was being suppressed by gravity, and disappeared under the terrifying destructive power of "Abyss-Return to Dust".

"Buzz...Bang!!!"

A terrifying trench was blasted out in front of Grace, eventually creating a deep crater in the jungle, and everything returned to dust as if it had never been born.

Grace landed softly, her fists clenching involuntarily...

Ran!

Was that cyborg faking his death?

Damn it, you bastard!

"Ugh..." Before Fu Xiao could finish speaking, a wave of dizziness washed over her.

Everything was blurry...

In the jungle, a long-haired black figure was holding the dying Emma at one end, while Frass, with bloodshot eyes, was being held in his mouth.

"Damn it, the intelligence was wrong!"

The Raiders' loot is gone, two of their five magical artifacts are broken and three are missing, Alice's expensively crafted body is nowhere to be found, Emma is seriously injured... and the Anti-Magic Stone is likely destroyed as well.

Everything is over. All the assets I've accumulated over the years have been wiped out overnight!

"Flying Dawn Chris!!!"

"I'm going to make that guy pay me a huge sum of money..."

Ok?

"Stop! Alice!! Put me down!"

"Uh... Lord Frass?" Alice stopped, though puzzled.

Frass leaned against a tree, his body trembling slightly...

"Get out! Take Emma with you...get out!! You two pieces of trash...get out!"

Frass's sudden change in attitude left Alice's shadowy expression somewhat bewildered...like a child who had made a mistake and wanted to explain something.

But he was interrupted sharply by Frass: "Get out! Useless trash! I've spent so much money supporting you, and you just let a Grace, whose magic is sealed, break the magic-suppressing stone I bought at great expense? Get out! Useless trash!"

After being reprimanded like that, Alice's shadowy figure seemed somewhat dejected... She took Emma a couple of steps away, glanced back at Frass leaning against the tree, and finally disappeared into the depths of the forest.

"That's truly 'amazing'! Do you think they can escape?"

A kind voice came from behind the tree, and just hearing that voice made Frass's body tremble uncontrollably.

He took a deep breath...

Then, a relieved smile appeared on his lips.

"I never imagined that the legendary Archmage Gwen would live in seclusion in a place like this?"

Granny Gwen, dressed in a plain-colored robe and hooded, looked indifferently at the disheveled Frass.

Her grey-brown eyes were devoid of emotion, as calm as still water.

Those eyes... Frass had seen them before!

. . . . . .