Chapter Seventy-Six: The Lord of Fire Elements

The news of Lysa’s return to the Viscount’s manor had already been accepted by all within the household. At dusk, Lysa stood before the assembled servants and announced that henceforth all affairs, great and small, of the manor would be managed by Hardy.

Before Viscount Karl had fallen unconscious, Hardy already wielded considerable authority, though many matters still had required the viscount's final approval. Now, with Viscount Karl incapacitated and Lysa obeying Hardy’s direction, the entire manor had come under his control.

There remained a handful of loyal retainers to Viscount Karl, but most had left with him and, on the return journey, all were murdered by Hardy’s schemes. Now, Hardy was the most powerful within the manor; should anyone grow suspicious, he would not hesitate to seize an opportunity to eliminate them.

“Miss Lysa, should we not ask someone from the Mage Guild to look at the master’s illness?” asked an elderly man with a face full of worry.

He was the old steward who had served Karl for many years. With age, he had gradually stepped back from management, but still remained at the manor, doing light tasks to pass his twilight years.

The Church of the Goddess of Life remained unreliable; they could only rely on the mages from the guild to save the master. Yet, though the suggestion was reasonable, Lysa only shook her head. “I have my own way to resolve this matter. There’s no need for you to ask further.”

With no family left and his wife long deceased, Viscount Karl’s collapse left Lysa naturally as the one with the most authority.

After making her announcement, Lysa added before everyone, “Hardy, you will come with me shortly to help treat Father in his chambers. No one else is to approach the sickroom tonight, under any circumstances!”

Though the household sensed that Miss Lysa’s manner had changed from before, they reasoned it was only natural; after all, she had been away for months, and hardship often alters the spirit.

None suspected Hardy; they assumed the young mistress simply wished to tend to her father’s illness herself. This, in fact, was exactly what Hardy had instructed Lysa to say. He did not yet have the power to control everyone in the manor, and if anything unusual were discovered, it would be most troublesome.

As the crowd dispersed, Hardy, leering, followed close behind Lysa. Soon, the two of them arrived in Viscount Karl’s sickroom.

Chu Yun had already arrived in advance. Fire elementals are living beings; those summoned from the mirror world are special entities and cannot be directly brought into the real world. However, Chu Yun had devised a safer method: spellcasting through the mirror. In theory, this made him absolutely secure—even if summoning a fire elemental took time, none could interrupt him.

A loud thud.

Hardy, unable to wait any longer, slammed the large door shut and then began to command Lysa.

“My noble, pure lady, let me gaze upon your beautiful, alluring body. Let me savor…”

Before he could finish, Hardy’s nerves drew taut in an instant.

Somehow, a tier-two fire crystal, ignited, had appeared on the decorative mirror in the room, its glow masking the surface in firelight. They could not see Chu Yun within the mirror world; as a precaution, Chu Yun had activated his invisibility ring, donned a festival mask, and changed into new garments.

Those in the real world could, through the mirror, sometimes glimpse the mirror world. Chu Yun was always careful not to be discovered when acting there; he planned to wear this mask from now on.

“What’s happening? What is this?” Hardy was rattled by the sudden turn.

“Spell Counter!” He used the very magic he’d once deployed in the mirror world.

Though he cast it during Chu Yun’s conjuring, it had no effect on Chu Yun within the mirror world. At that moment, only Chu Yun’s spiritual force and the spell model he constructed could cross between realms.

Watching the fire elemental swiftly taking shape, Hardy, furious, barked at Lysa, “Out! Take Karl and get out of here!”

It seemed Hardy’s obsession ran deep; even faced with danger, he still wished to preserve Lysa and Karl for future revenge. This, in turn, made Chu Yun’s battle all the easier.

Focusing intently, Chu Yun quickly completed the summoning of the fire elemental into the real world. This time, however, he invoked the Law of Distortion, which could only be used once per day.

When activating the Law of Distortion, one could, to some extent, choose the result. In the case of fire elemental summoning at a higher level, there were two paths: summon two level-36, fourth-tier fire elementals, as Chu Yun had previously, or strengthen a single elemental in quality.

Chu Yun lacked the spiritual power to control two fire elementals at once, but controlling a single, more powerful one was not a problem.

“Summon: Fire Elemental Lord!”

With the 50% power boost from his Fire Elemental Commander specialty, the fire elemental Chu Yun summoned was already an elite. Now, combined with the Law of Distortion, though it remained at level 36, its quality ascended from elite to lord-tier.

A fourth-tier Elemental Lord on the mortal plane was a force of utter devastation; uncontrolled, its full destructive power could lay waste to half of Blackstone City.

“Good heavens—I’m simply too powerful!” Chu Yun was thoroughly satisfied with his summoned creature.

The spell’s might derived from many sources: his intelligence attribute and Fire Elemental Commander specialty as the foundation, the Law of Distortion as its amplification, and above all, the divine shard he’d previously acquired—a true starting point.

Under normal circumstances, no mage could learn fifth-tier magic, let alone cast it at reduced effect. The insight into fire elements contained within the divine shard helped Chu Yun immensely.

He could well imagine how chaotic this world would soon become. When the fortunate ones obtained divine shards, few would be foolish enough to offer them up to the Goddess of Life; if they succeeded in absorbing them, their strength would increase dramatically.

The weak would become strong; the strong, stronger still!

Chu Yun was determined to claim the divine shard in Hardy’s possession. He commanded the Fire Elemental Lord to attack.

Unlike Hardy’s mirror-world counterpart, the real Hardy was nearly petrified with terror. He had thought it was merely some fool seeking revenge on Karl, but the sheer size of the fire elemental was far beyond anything he could handle.

“Snowstorm!”

His tactics mirrored those of his doppelganger: using this spell to block the fire elemental. Yet the situation was fundamentally different—Chu Yun had never left the mirror world, and Hardy had no idea where the elemental lord had come from, so he could not attack the caster.

Thus, Hardy opted to flee, darting for the door under cover of mist and rain.

Having suffered at his hands once before, Chu Yun had anticipated this tactic. As Hardy was about to throw himself at the door, a bolt of lightning crashed down from the crystal chandelier above.

Hardy hurriedly activated the shield on his magical gear to block the attack, but in that brief moment, he lost his only chance of escape.

The Fire Elemental Lord’s perception was vastly superior to that of ordinary fire elementals, and under Chu Yun’s direct command, it targeted the door. A terrifying, meter-wide beam of flame engulfed Hardy.

The searing beam pierced the luxurious residence, lighting up the night of Blackstone City. Witnessing this shocking scene, countless people in the city screamed in terror.