In the sky above, the once-clear streams of aether light were being violently shredded by a mass of turbulent, rust-colored clouds.
It was an "Aether Storm," the ultimate nightmare for any mage.
The airship Sanctity was currently tumbling through the sea of clouds like a bird with clipped wings. Its propellers let out a teeth-grinding screech of tearing metal, trailing thick billows of black smoke that were pulled into a distorted line by the chaotic winds.
Inside the vessel, the screams of nobles were swallowed by the deafening roar of the wind.
"Protect the Saintess!"
The guardian mages discovered to their horror that within this iron-hued storm, the mana in their bodies had become viscous and uncontrollable. Any attempt to cast a Levitation Spell resulted in an immediate backfire at their fingertips, erupting into sparks that scorched their skin.
Sylvie clutched the violently shaking porthole, her golden hair whipped into a frantic mess by the gale. She looked out at the wasteland canyon rapidly magnifying in her vision, a flash of despair flickering in her eyes.
Was the glory of the Empire truly destined to be buried in this freak accident?
[System Notification: Physical collision path captured. Interception success rate: 85%.]
[Suggestion: Consume 30% Stamina Reserves to perform a Hyper-Gravity Rebound.]
At that moment, a thousand meters below on the ridge of the canyon, Lu Cen was sprinting with the thousand-pound stone pillar balanced on one shoulder. With every stride, the rock beneath his feet let out a crack like a groan of agony.
Lu Cen looked up at the descending ball of fire.
Without a second of hesitation, he slammed his center of gravity low, his body coiling like a high-tension heavy crossbow.
BOOM!
The moment Lu Cen's legs kicked off the ground, the ridge of the mountain peak—unable to withstand the terrifying reactionary force—instantly collapsed inward by half a meter. Countless shards of rock were buckled into the air, only to be pulverized into dust by the shockwave of his takeoff.
Shouldering the stone pillar, Lu Cen shot toward the heavens like a dark-gold cannonball defying the very laws of nature.
Before Sylvie's terrified eyes, the plummeting airship collided head-on with a human figure.
A man carrying a massive stone had... flown up into a No-Magic Zone?
THUD!
The dull sound of the impact shook the heavens.
The five fingers of Lu Cen's left hand, acting like steel grappling hooks, tore through the composite metal hull of the airship—a hull designed to withstand Mid-Tier spells. In that instant, due to the extreme physical inertia, the momentum of the entire ship's descent actually shuddered to a momentary halt.
Sylvie was thrown across the deck by the violent jolt. She looked up and, through the jagged hole in the cabin door, saw the man's profile.
Steam from evaporated sweat rose from his body in white mists, and silver sparks flickered deep within his pupils.
"Who are you?!" Sylvie choked out, fighting the urge to vomit as she instinctively channeled her last shred of Primal Mana. "Assassin... die!"
Her slender fingertips snapped forward. Three azure ice spears condensed instantly in the air, shooting toward Lu Cen's chest at point-blank range.
Lu Cen didn't even try to dodge.
In fact, he leaned into it, thrusting his chest forward to meet the strike.
[Low-level Ice Damage detected. Conversion rate: 90%.]
[Stamina Reserves recovering. Muscle fiber toughness +1%.]
CRACK!
The ice spears, powerful enough to pierce heavy plate armor, shattered like eggshells against a fortress wall the moment they touched Lu Cen's bare skin. Ice shards exploded across his chest, refracting into a glitter of crystalline dust.
Sylvie froze.
She watched, wide-eyed, as the man seemingly drained the energy from the ice spears. The skin that had been shredded by the earlier lightning strikes healed completely within a single second.
"Your magic is too soft," Lu Cen said coldly.
Exerting his strength with one arm, he slammed the thousand-pound Mana-Suppressing Stone into the airship's burning engine housing. As the stone jammed into the gears, the power core—which had been on the verge of detonating—let out a desperate mechanical howl before seizing up entirely.
"Jump," Lu Cen said, looking at Sylvie as he extended his right hand. "Unless you want to be flattened inside this tin can."
Sylvie gritted her teeth, her pride screaming at her to reject this barbarian. But in the next heartbeat, a dull explosion rumbled from deep within the airship.
She looked back in horror. Deep within the flaming hull, she saw a light that turned her blood cold.
There was a Magic Array etched onto the keel, sitting in a state of perfect, undamaged readiness.
This was no accident.
That array had only one purpose: to force a detonation once the ship reached a specific altitude.
"Stop daydreaming!"
Lu Cen lunged forward, grabbing Sylvie by her waist belt and tucking her under his arm like a sack of grain. He slammed his left leg through the deck, using the last of the reactionary force to leap from the edge of the disintegrating ship.
KABOOM!
A massive fireball erupted in the sky as the Sanctity shattered into countless metal fragments.
The heatwave lashed at Lu Cen's back, but the searing temperature—enough to scorch a soul—was greedily filtered by the System, converted into buffering energy for his landing.
The two of them carved a hundred-meter-long trench through the mud of the wasteland before finally coming to a halt beside a withered old tree.
Lu Cen let go, allowing the "Rose of the Empire" to tumble unceremoniously into the slush.
He turned back to look at the dissipating smoke in the sky. The silver stinging sensation beneath his left index finger grew even more intense.
"Did you see it just now?" Lu Cen asked in a low voice, a hint of danger in his tone.
Sylvie sat paralyzed in the mud, her face deathly pale. She forced two words out through trembling lips:
"...The Royal Seal."
The self-destruct array had been etched with the secret totem of the Imperial Royal Family. Someone wanted her dead, and they had chosen to do it on Lu Cen's path to exile.
Lu Cen let out a cold laugh. He noticed a black, unscathed metal box flying out from the wreckage of the airship. The moment the box hit the ground, it unfolded on its own, revealing a portrait of Lu Cen's mother.
On the back of the portrait, a single line was written in blood:
[Storage Pile 07. Commencing Capture.]