Chapter 256

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Freya looked at the astral gate with intense concentration and resolve, tightly gripping Leylin's hand as she let out a suppressed breath of air and spoke, "Let's get started!"

"Yeah not now, there is still something else we have to do." Leylin chinds in from behind, looking teasingly at the super serious Freya.

"Ok—What!?" Freya started walking towards the astral gate eyeing the stary blue formation when she completely heard Leylin words and turned around in puzzlement.

"These is an item I have to give you."

"Give me? Didn't we already prepare all the necessary things?" Freya was utterly confused, Leylin has already gave her a lot of information, resources, Trump cards etc and she tried her best to mastered them all in these twenty years while effectively increasing her powers too.

Twenty years are truly very short amount of time for a Magus, especially a high ranking one. It's homologous to a simple laboratory sitting, one cannot underestimate the difficulties of finding Purgatory World just from a mere time frame of twenty years.

Firstly, Leylin calculation ability in addition to A. I. Chip help is simply unbelievable. Leylin also didn't have to start from the very scratch he had thousands of years of research already done by the Elders Association of Ouroboros Clan. Leylin is a peak Breaking Dawn, both his resources reach, ability, knowledge, application is far beyond what Morning Star could compare to. He also had some minor help from invading dreamscape multiple times and created a spell formation which multiplied his effectiveness.

Simply speaking Leylin efficiency is most probably around ten times more than other, and not just that he was also very lucky in his finding because the fifth section of the Calm Jade constellation that A. I. Chip searched was also the position of Purgatory World coordinates. One must know that A. I. Chip roughly divided the huge constellation into hundreds of section each taking a considerable amount of time to fully search. Simply speaking in a strict sense Leylin invested around 200 years worth of search, a mind blowing amount of resources and was successful only because of amazing luck.

But these twenty years was a tad too little to finish all preparation on Freya's front, she has been rushing far too much not even resting for a minute these years hence, last minute changes caught her off guard.

"It's not like I didn't want to give it to you later but there was no way. The item is stored here and cannot be taken out easily." Leylin shook his head shrugging helplessly as he walked forward reaching exactly behind the astral gate and slamming his five right hand fingers on the wall as a secret opening revealed itself.

From within another instantaneously opened summoning chamber, the surrounding walls were covered with a huge amount of binding runes, it was a technique with the power to isolate dimensions, every single rune was incomparably complex and precise, to the point where it could make a rank Magus 3 immediately faint and gave a major headache to a Morning Star.

"This!?" Freya felt the unusual atmosphere and eerie cold air, she hasn't even walked in but discovered in horror that her body was shaking minutely.

"This is the reason why Anna and Ivy almost died!" Leylin spoke absentmindedly as if recalling an amazing scene. His eyes were sharp and expression stoic remembering those unexpected circumstances.

"Wha—Is this reason why you had to act personally all those years back?" Freya cried out loud in astonishment, all of the upper brass of the Ouroboros Clan mildly knows about this event when almost a whole team of four Morning Star Warlock were wiped out! and ultimately Leylin made a move himself, Emma Freya's mentor was one of them and what was suppose to be a simple event turned into a disaster.

Not many knows but Freya is a bit more clear about this event, it's rumored that even Leylin himself was injured ultimately. Obviously no one from the upper echelon actually believed it, as the four critically injured Rank 4 Warlock were saved and recovered by Leylin himself and the those four never talked about the event in particular.

It was a major situation though because it's the sole time in these twenty years when Leylin left his research laboratory to act personally. For any situation to arrest his personal involvement must be very earth shaking.

"What is this?" Freya herself is not clear about the real reason of this event, all she knows is bit and pieces Emma told her about, but now looking at the reason behind such an unusual situation she was bewildered.

Emma, Adam, Ivy and Anna these Four Morning Star were critically injured with wounds very peculiar, it was concluded that they were poisoned and corrupted from an unusual energy undulation which corroded their body and their lives was hanging by a tread and eventually deteriorating.

It was Leylin himself who surfaced again from his confinement to revive them a few weeks after saving them and sending them for intensive care. Leylin used his law of primordial chaos brimming with the life energy vitality of sentient force to heal them, Leylin law could be considered as the strongest venom as well as the most powerful tonic as it eventually helped them exit critical condition.

But the injury was so bad that even now the four have not recovered completely, Emma herself is only able to showcase power similar to a newly advanced Rank 3 Magus! There was a lot of commotion about this event but slowly it was suppressed, many were curious but without answer so, obviously Freya was a very much interested looking at the reason of such a tragedy.

In the very center of the binding room, was a black pentagram breathing out the terrifying power of evil which was continuously lingering, and from time to time it generated a flow of black air above the matrix.

*Crash!* After a flash of light, Leylin walked a bit more forward and snatched away a shield of light breaking the spells showing the state of the formation.

*Ka-cha!* *Ka-cha!* Numerous cracks appeared on the light shield, and they finally broke open, exposing one umbra black scaly tattooed severed hand. It was a long and muscular hand and Freya can even make out some bulging veins, it wrapped brutally in dense red colored barbwire chains which seems to try digging into the black hand's flesh keeping it immobile.

One by one, the evil suppressing runes filled with small power of laws which only Leylin could sense twisted, full of strange feelings, so much that even the center of the pentagram was attracted, the black stream of air above intensified, and even let out a terrible whining sound.

"I can't really say for sure what it is, but so far from what I have gathered it's most probably «Hand of Hades»!" Leylin looked at the lone black sever hand solemnly with a tensed guarded expression.

"All those years back, I send Anna and Ivy to investigate about some unusual activities in Western Plains. They found that the whole continent seemed to be ruled by a group of Crystal Phase Magus families but actually it was some 'Dark Devil Clan' which calls the shots from behind the scene, on the surface the whole continent was headed by a crooked Morning Star Magus, obviously such a person is a joke and they easily took care of him but the story wasn't as easy as it seems. There was some secrets hidden about it, more they investigated more resistance they discovered to the point where they had to break a sweat, knowing this I just assigned Elder Adam and Emma to their help. From different bases they found some remnants of a secret plain called "Heavenly Gate" from there they discovered dozens of rare types of abyss and dark mediation resources including Kaladil fruit, Tamkumar petals, Rakshas Eye, etc."

Freya eyes widen in surprise listening to these items names, Leylin purposefully only revealed the names which someone like Freya would know about, as for higher level things she didn't have much information, even still which of these things are not rare and very sought after resources even in Ancient Magus Era.

"All of these were just the scratch of the surface, tip of the iceberg the more they entered the more interesting it got, to the point I suspected it's the final subterranean level or something but it was too little to be that even, which means it's a high level secret plains which would be considered cream of the crop even in Ancient Times." Leylin eyes were full of awe and excitement, this was really an extremely amazing discovery.

"But, then what actually transpired for the situation to turn so lethal?"

"This happened!" Leylin pointed at the black hand and spoke with slight apprehension, "Eventually clearing the plains the company of Four Rank 4 reached the core and found that it was actually a sealing area for something but the seal was corroded from some unusual abyssal energy, it was still intact but a horrifying evil intent permeated from it, this evil intent was the cause of the rise of Dark Devil Clan who were just some Magus forsaking their identify for power."

"After the four reached there, they stimulated the sealed entity inside which used all its power to summon all its minions and all the four were attacked brutally. As a Morning Star you can guess that the only way they would be in any danger would be when.. "

"The opponents are at Morning Star level too!"

"Exactly, and they were, almost two dozen Morning Star Magus level devils attacking the Four of them at the same time without any concern for their own wellbeing. The horror you can guess!"

"Thankfully both Emma and Adam were peak Morning Star Warlock and Anna and Ivy were no slouchs either, everyone also had many magic equipments which helped them to barely resist till I reached there myself."

This event was really a very bizarre one, Leylin as a leader of a huge organization was glad to find such a rare treasure land but as Breaking Dawn even these things are not very important to have him participate personally, for someone who pursue the power of laws normal objects and items have lost all appeal even still, he imported various samples so didn't miss out on anything.

All of his high ranking Magus were very busy taking care of many miscellaneous task in different worlds and the strength of four Morning Star was more than enough to complete a simple mission like this but this mishap occurred.

Leylin was immediately alerted by them about this situation and he took action instantly using full strength to reach their location. Fortunately there was already a teleportation array created between the two continent otherwise Leylin would have been helpless, the distance between the two continent isn't as much as between South Coast or Central Continent but it wasn't less either. With a distance so vast even a peak Breaking Dawn like him who can travel through the void would need some time.

Thankfully the four persisted and Leylin arrived before they collapsed in disparity, with his entry into the fray the suspense of the morning star enemy was over, let alone a few dozen not even a hundred together is his match. Anna, Ivy, Emma and Adam successfully dealt with nine of the Morning Star and got the opportunity to witness Leylin prowess unparalleled under Rank 7.

With but a wave of his hand and flicker of Adhishesha's hundreds of thousands of kilometer long tail emerged into existence and the whole place was leveled.

But it wasn't the end, that was when the real confrontation started. A match which was too short to explain but extremely dangerous to omit, the repercussions of which Leylin has to face for a decade.