"All worldly sinners must repent!"

  The blinding white light suddenly became soft and warm, but the light elements in the air grew ten times denser. People with dark element affinity began having trouble breathing.

  After the light spell was cast, Luo Wei, Hol, and Jack all focused their attention on Lurice—interrupting the chanter would stop the spell. That was basic mage knowledge.

  None of them expected that the Divine College's light spells could be continued by someone else taking over the chant.

  Even Siria Magic Academy's professors probably didn't know this, or Professor Moses would have warned them beforehand.

  Now Luo Wei cursed silently. This was bad.

  Divine Calling, the second skill of Light Purification—supposedly those affected would feel compelled to repent.

  Luo Wei herself didn't feel like repenting anything. She looked at her four teammates.

  Gladys was still unconscious. Axina and Hol looked grim—clearly not repenting, more like they wanted to kill someone.

  But Jack was having problems. First he looked dazed, muttering something unclear. After repeating it several times, he dropped to his knees with a "thud," looking up with tears streaming down his face.

  "I need to repent!" He raised both arms toward the sky, screaming with intense regret: "I repent! I'm guilty!"

  Luo Wei's heart sank. Shit, was Jack carrying some death sentence too?

  She was about to rush down and stop him when Jack started wailing.

  "Waaah, I shouldn't have eaten two pieces of black bread in one meal! I shouldn't have stolen the beef organs the priest threw to the hunting dogs! I shouldn't have hidden my copper coins when the bishop called for everyone to buy indulgences!"

  "Waaah, how could I be so greedy! So evil! God! Please forgive my sins! From now on I'll only eat half a piece of black bread and offer the rest to you! I'll donate my coins too! Please forgive me, waaah!"

  "Shut up!" Feiru's eyes turned red with rage. "You shameless sinner, how dare you openly slander the sacred Church!"

  "You're talking nonsense, slandering the Church, blaspheming the gods—you deserve to die!"

  Feiru raised his wand, angrily aiming at Jack: "Light—"

  "BANG—"

  Luo Wei flashed forward, knocking his wand away with her sword and slashing hard at the back of his neck.

  Feiru reacted quickly, ducking to avoid the blade and drawing his sword to counterattack.

  Seeing this, Hol immediately joined the fight, swinging his iron pot as he charged toward Lurice and the other two.

  The three reflexively clutched their heads at the sight of the pot. If they hadn't worn helmets today, their brains would probably be splattered out.

  "There's only one of him—let's split up!"

  Herbert was fastest, disappearing in a flash. Gustav said nothing but leaped away in one bound, leaving only Lurice to endure the iron pot's beating alone.

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  With Gladys unconscious, Axina severely injured, and Jack still beating his chest and crying, Siria was outnumbered and ultimately couldn't stop the Divine College from casting their final spell.

  "Light Purification!"

  "All worldly sinners must be cleansed!"

  Overly active light elements darted everywhere. Hol's body stiffened—he had the illusion that light was piercing his soul, leaving him nowhere to hide.

  Axina's expression changed dramatically. Trembling, she gripped her magic wand and chanted a transformation spell. Two seconds later, she transformed into a tiny burrow rabbit with a "whoosh" and burrowed into the pile of fallen clothes.

  As a burrow rabbit, the lead garment covered her body completely. That feeling of light piercing her soul finally lessened.

  Luo Wei caught this scene from the corner of her eye. Her brow furrowed as something flashed through her mind, but she had no time to think—sword light was already approaching.

  There was no point in continuing this entanglement.

  From the start, Luo Wei had only feared that the Divine College's light magic would expose their true forms, which was why she'd tried everything to stop them from casting Light Purification.

  But now the Divine College had used all three of their spells. She didn't need to keep playing around anymore.

  With this thought, Luo Wei swung her sword once more, then flew backward, throwing a water shield behind her with her magic wand. Her wings swept low as she grabbed Jack and Hol.

  "Hol, hold onto Jack!"

  She didn't have enough hands—Hol would have to figure it out himself.

  "Yes, Captain!"

  Jack was awake but might as well have been unconscious. Hol simply knocked him out with his iron pot, bit down on his shirt collar to tear off a strip of cloth, and tied Jack's arm to his own.

  Luo Wei released Jack to free her right hand, flew toward Gladys and Axina, handed Gladys to Hol, then pulled the frantically kicking long-eared burrow rabbit from the pile of clothes.

  "Stay still if you don't want to die!"

  The burrow rabbit didn't dare move, dangling its four short legs while glaring at her angrily.

  Luo Wei placed it on her shoulder: "Hold on tight. If you fall and get blown up, that's not my problem."

  Axina was sensible—she immediately hugged Luo Wei's neck tightly.

  With all four teammates gathered, Luo Wei shot into the sky. Her holy wings soared above the Divine College students as she looked down at them, slowly raising her magic wand.

  This was a magic tournament. It began with magic, and it would end with magic.

  She chanted her spell as a ball of blazing white light gathered at her wand's tip—countless times brighter than the light from Light Purification.

  If magic runes could be nested, there was no reason spellchants couldn't work the same way.

  What if she condensed a fireball but didn't release it, then condensed a second fireball and fused them together, kept fusing until she had a hundred of them, then launched them all at once? What would happen?

  On the ground, the four Divine College students watched helplessly as the fireball in the sky grew bigger and bigger, like the sun falling from the clouds, wrapped in molten fire as it pressed down on them.

  Fear flashed across Herbert's face. Why did she still have enough mana to condense such a massive fireball?

  After releasing Light Purification, their mana was nearly drained. They had no excess magical power to waste like she was doing.

  Light Purification was an advanced light spell—not something they should be able to learn at their level. His Highness the Prince had taught them this spell to give them a better chance of winning.

  But they'd disappointed His Highness. Light Purification hadn't shown its proper power—only one of Siria's five members had been affected by the spell. They were complete failures!

  Feiru's shoulders trembled as he tried to summon his wings again, but no matter how hard he tried or prayed, he couldn't feel even a trace of divine favor. It was as if the god's blessing had been nothing but an unreal fantasy.

  "How can this be!"

  Feiru stared at his hands, completely unable to accept this result.

  Why? Why had his divine favor disappeared? Why couldn't his wings unfold?

  Feiru clenched his fists and let out a pained roar.

  In the stands, Prince Alfried's eyes darkened.

  Bloodline suppression. Only bloodline suppression could explain why Feiru couldn't transform into phoenix form.

  The massive fireball dominated half the arena's sky. The golden barrier Feiru had set up had long since disappeared with the temporary concealment of his divine favor. Only the cage Prince Alfried had thrown still firmly covered the arena below.

  Luo Wei liked eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth. She floated in the exact position where Feiru had been hovering, and just as he had done to them, she spoke with contempt: "Let's see whose flames are stronger."

  "This battle—no one is allowed to surrender."

  "I don't like cowards. Either take the hit, or die."

  She raised her chin, pointing her magic wand at Feiru as she looked down: "How do you choose? Have you decided?"

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