But Camus seemed to only want to activate the Storm Eye. After the Storm Eye began operating, even though it was temporarily suppressed by Byron, she didn't appear again.
To save Saul, Byron had unhesitatingly used the Elf King's power.
And he used it with all his might.
Using power beyond his capacity like this, he would definitely have to pay a considerable price.
Saul clearly knew this, so after realizing what Byron was doing, he immediately messaged Corey to have her prepare the Ice Lock formation.
"How does he know I have an Ice Lock formation?" Though Corey was somewhat puzzled, she still quickly began arranging according to Saul's request.
Just as Saul was about to ask Pei'er to bring Corey's mirror over, he was suddenly dazzled by a blinding light.
He hurriedly turned to look and saw a black crack had suddenly appeared behind Byron.
This black crack might not actually be black—it was just that nothing could be seen, so anyone who saw it felt the world was missing a piece, leaving only void.
However, colorful halos soon appeared inside the black crack.
These halos had irregular curved edges and kept changing, like rippling water patterns.
The ever-changing halos vaguely presented a human form.
Clusters of halos appeared from behind Byron, protruding several smooth edges like arms or tentacles. Like longing lovers, they caressed from Byron's back up to his shoulders and chest.
"Elves!"
A friend's exclamation came from beside him.
Saul rushed forward, his arms transforming into tentacles, trying to use Soul Fishing to drive away the halos behind Byron.
But when he felt he had already rushed swiftly to Byron's front, in a moment of distraction, he discovered he had only just lifted the sole of his first foot.
Time had slowed down!
No, not time—Saul's perception of time had been distorted.
This seemed to be an ability unique to elves. Saul had witnessed it once before in the wizard tower.
Saul's brain seemed to slow down too. His heart desperately wanted to dispel those halos, but could only watch helplessly as Byron was surrounded by the halos, then gradually dragged into the black crevice.
And until Byron completely disappeared, he continued using the powerful energy from the Elf King to help Saul control the Storm Eye.
After the halos and Byron both disappeared into the black crevice, that crack abruptly vanished.
As abruptly as it had appeared.
The uncontrolled sluggish feeling disappeared with it. With his consciousness and limbs uncoordinated, Saul staggered and nearly fell.
He supported himself against a nearby energy pillar before standing up again.
"This method doesn't work either."
Saul suppressed the turmoil in his heart, breathing deeply to let his rationality return.
Without Byron's suppression, the Storm Eye vengefully accelerated its rotation speed.
Black tidal waters poured out almost in the blink of an eye.
This time, Saul and his friends were the first batch to be swallowed by the Black Tide.
But this time, Saul escaped the Black Tide even faster than before.
Beneath his feet, Ann, Agu, and Herman, who had just used their last rationality to help him break free, transformed into mindless evil spirits amid their wails.
The previous tragedy played out once again.
Pei'er soon lost her mind and fell toward the sky.
Saul beside her tried to grab her, but found that whether he grabbed Pei'er's hand or arm, those body parts would melt like butter meeting a red-hot knife.
He simply couldn't hold onto her.
"Lord Saul!"
A shout came from the distance.
Saul turned his head and saw Marsh, appearing for the first time in the golden book page.
He stood on a huge, inverted mushroom, using another mushroom to paddle through the Black Tide.
But Marsh was now covered with mushrooms.
Mushrooms emerged from every opening in his body, growing wildly. Soon, Marsh's paddling motions became stiff.
Finally, when he completely transformed into hundreds of mushrooms clustered together, his shouting also disappeared.
Saul watched silently.
He waved his hand, collecting all the consciousness bodies that had become evil spirits into the diary.
But the black book pages they transformed into were in tatters.
No silver text appeared on the pages either.
Saul waved his hand again, trying to retrieve Marsh's soul, but found the other was too far away.
Saul no longer felt angry or pained. He turned toward another direction.
"Next, Herbert should also mutate."
Sure enough, firelight soon illuminated Saul's face, which had become a black skeleton.
"After Herbert mutates, others will quickly die too... wait, that's not right!"
Saul's neck suddenly turned, his cervical bones crackling.
"How could Herbert mutate even faster than other low-rank wizards?"
Previously, Saul had either emerged too late or hadn't paid attention to that area, actually never noticing that Herbert's mutation speed was wrong.
It was as if he hadn't struggled at all, actively dropping all defenses and letting the Black Tide pollution take him.
This time, Saul didn't try to escape but used his remaining obedient magic power to summon the giant bird Diu Diu, which was anxiously circling in the sky.
Diu Diu was obviously also affected by the Black Tide. When Saul asked it to lower its tendrils to pull him to the sea of fire, what Diu Diu lowered were dense masses of tendrils like centipede legs.
The sight made all of Saul's bones go numb.
However, Diu Diu's flight didn't rely on magic power, so this function hadn't been lost yet.
Saul reached out to grab the hanging tendrils, and the other tendrils began trying to drill into his skin—of course, they failed since Saul no longer had skin.
With Diu Diu's vigorous wing flapping, Saul finally reached above the flaming sea surface.
And he finally saw clearly what was happening here.
Red flames were indeed burning above the Black Tide, but they weren't touching the Black Tide at all—they were burning on layers of melted, rotting corpses floating on the water surface!
The corpses undulated with the waves, and the fires connected on top kept changing form.
Finally forming a terrifying, demonic smiling face.
"Herbert in this state isn't mutated." Saul finally understood. "He's burning other people's lives to provide power for himself, maintaining his sanity this way."
If Herbert in this state wasn't mutated, then in the prophetic dream, hadn't he been polluted and mutated either?
"Saul!"
Saul heard another familiar voice.
He scanned the flames below and finally saw Brando's head in a corner!
Brando's body was currently burning, but his head seemed protected by that helmet and hadn't been ignited yet.
"Save me!"
Brando painfully called to Saul for help.
Saul clearly knew that in the golden book page's preview scenarios, saving people was meaningless...
But he still rushed down.
But Herbert's flames suddenly lashed over.
"The dead here should be enough for you to leave." Saul had been vigilant about the flames and now controlled Diu Diu to barely dodge.
Herbert said nothing, just sent over several more fire whips.
Fortunately, he was also struggling against pollution, so couldn't focus on attacking Saul.
Saul dodged again, his eyeless sockets already ice-cold.
"Every time you transform into flames, but now it seems you clearly still have strength to leave. But you just pretend to be polluted and keep burning here."
"Why don't you leave?"
"What are you waiting for?"
"What are you looking for?"
"That's it—you're waiting for the Storm Eye to erupt."
"You're waiting for anchor points to appear!"
The flames froze for a moment, then suddenly launched a fierce attack on Saul.
Saul jumped away again, but Diu Diu was ignited.
"Screech—"
It let out a wail, then all its tendrils suddenly exerted force together, flinging Saul far away before the flames could completely spread.
Then the pale yellow giant bird became a large ball of bright flame, crashing into the Black Tide with sizzling sounds.
(End of Chapter)