Uvrodon can slither or burrow through, Bart can soar across, and Claude can sneeze a hole for a war golem to fit through, but Uvrodon preferred a bit of amusement each morning. Without it, he might succumb to madness in this dreary place or lose sight of the injustices the heavens bestowed upon him.

“Ten seconds.” Uvrodon grins, a mischievous glint in his eyes.

His smile nearly split his head in half, unveiling two dagger-like fangs amidst several jagged teeth. Purple veins adorned his gums, oozing a violet liquid that dripped over the fangs. The purple droplets coated the fangs before falling to the floor, emitting a sizzling sound before they vanished.

Fear grips the mages’ hearts as they push themselves to the point of exhaustion. The lingering remnants of that smoke alone have the potential to annihilate every one of them and then some.

Some of the older mages vomited blood and collapsed to the floor, even though they positioned themselves upwind. Ravi cried out for his fellow mages but felt helpless, unable to provide any assistance. Despite pushing through and contributing to the best of his abilities, it never seemed to be enough.

Most of them were seasoned veterans who lost their connection with the earth affinity due to trauma or other heart-wrenching experiences, while some were born with inherent limitations. The only common thread among them was their shared status as the weakest of the weak.

Not everyone was born equal, and Ravi knew he was the prime example of that statement. Yet, several hands reached out to touch his feet. “No!” he cried. If he had the time, he might have fled far away. The timer ticked closer to death, and he couldn’t muster the strength to reject the offering — their sacrifice, their choice.

“Please,” the elderly at his feet begged him to stay still, their hands clutching his feet tight. “Thank you,” they smiled, their forms dissolving into dust before merging with his body.

This had never happened before, and Ravi was certain that this section of the wall had been tampered with, likely using a mid or high-tier artifact. Despite their individual weaknesses, a hundred mages combined were nothing to scoff at. The artifact must have fortified the wall by gathering more earth mana or condensing the mud particles together.

Ravi had witnessed numerous war artifacts designed to gather, distribute, or magnify a single spell. It wouldn’t be surprising if that snake had implanted an artifact specifically designed to siphon earth mana.

“Wow! That’s quite the display,” hissed Uvrodon. “Say what? You get another ten seconds,” he laughed with a maniacal grin.

Ravi yearned to summon a spike from the ground and impale the slithering bastard.

If only he could!

Twenty soldiers sacrificed their lives, turning into dust, all for the sake of opening a section of the wall. Ravi realized that the sudden boost in energy had powered the spell, not him. It wasn’t a permanent increase in energy, but rather a senseless sacrifice to move mere mud.

A mage broke the formation and seized Ravi’s hand, siphoning energy from him to attack the trio. In a swift motion, Ravi slapped the hand away and redirected the veteran toward the wall.

“It won’t work,” Ravi stated.

The mage wanted to argue, but upon seeing Ravi’s eyes filled with sorrow, anger, and helplessness, he relented. “Flood the artifact,” he suggested. The veteran had already noticed Lary moving in his peripheral vision and opted to assist the young mage instead of risking becoming snake food.

Before Ravi attempted to formulate an argument, the veteran disintegrated into dust, activating the forbidden skill.

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“We made it for revenge,” the mage laughed bitterly. “What a waste.” He then broke down into tiny dust particles, compelling himself into Ravi.

Ravi gritted his teeth so hard they threatened to crack. Seventy of them had sacrificed their life force to power a foolish spell. One by one, they all threw their burdens onto him. He didn’t want the burden any more than they did, yet no one had asked for his opinion, and now he had no choice but to carry it.

Was there a way to throw away his life or all of those lives who had entrusted him to protect the future generation? Among the hundred mages, eighty of them were elderly individuals who had grown too old, unable to maintain their connection with the earth contract. Half of them sacrificed themselves to empower the others. When that plan failed, they chose him.

In his sixties, Ravi was just one year shy of losing the fortitude to maintain the contract, yet only he could bear this burden, as the rest were simply too young.

He gathered every last drop of life force, seizing control of the raw aura of the children, which, though unfocused, held more mana than his own. With great effort, he forced all of it into the artifact hidden in the wall. With a grunt, he heaved, and small cracks covered the targeted section of the wall, forming a hexagonal shape. However, their celebrations were cut short, as the wall still wouldn’t budge an inch.

“Time’s up,” the snake snickered, its tail turning into a blur.

Every second, a child was struck unconscious, and every alternate second, a blow nearly rendered him unconscious. Ravi knelt over the floor, steadied his stance, and channeled his life force into the skill.

He never understood how the others learned a new skill in the nick of time. Rumors suggested a demon whispered in one’s ear during a time of crisis, granting them unfathomable power. No one lived long enough to disclose the potential backlash or the terms of such a deal for power.

A similar whisper reached Ravi, and the sight of a tail whipping a child’s skin clean off was the final push he needed to accept the devil’s deal, which offered power.

Ravi had never peered inside his own body. He often wondered if even a skilled healer was skilled enough to do so. Yet a vision as clear as day imprinted a memory into his mind. A crimson-black mark carved itself into his heart. Against the pain of loss, it felt like a mere mosquito bite—weak and incomparable.

Power surged into his very being, and the slab of mud began to move. The sudden burst of power was overwhelming, yet he knew that even with all of this newfound strength at his fingertips, any one of the trio could kill him ten times over if they so wished.

In this accursed world, no two individuals can ever be truly equal.

Every inch the slab moved, it drained his lifespan by months, and soon the contract he had made with the earth began to waver.

Thankfully, the slab fell out before the contract expired.

“Good,” Uvrodon’s tail rattled with joy. “Not worthless, after all. Now, come with us,” he ordered.

Ravi looked at his shivering hands. The muscles had shrunk, revealing saggy skin and slender bones, while a few strands of grey hair shed and drifted into his hands.

“Bye... old friend,” Ravi whispered, his voice heavy with resignation.

His eyes were too dry to conjure any tears, so the wind carried away the strands of hair as Ravi followed them, taking in his surroundings for the first time. All the elders were dead, turned to dust, and the children under his care were whipped close to death.

A whip-like tail slapped him to the floor, the rough mud leaving several lacerations on his frail skin.

“Are you deaf? Move it, I said,” Uvrodon hissed with anger.

“So weak,” Claude tsked with disdain.

“Pathetic.” Sneered Bart from the side with contempt.

Uvrodon manipulated his tail to wrap itself around Ravi’s leg, dragging and flinging him out of the hole.

“So small,” Claude complained, hunching lower to cross over.

Ravi got back up after the trio crossed over. This time around, he closed the wall with relative ease.

“That artifact is useless,” Claude taunted. He relished the idea of watching the mage struggle to enclose the entry he had worked so hard to open, but today was not his day.

“You waste your money next time then,” Uvrodon hissed back. “I got the best one from the black market for this little show, and you both enjoyed it for free.”

“True,” both of them laughed, tossing Lary a small pouch. “Here, consider it the cost of entertainment,” they snickered.

Uvrodon caught and discreetly stashed the pouches before launching an attack with his lightning-quick tail. Yet it was all for naught as Bart dodged with ease, while Claude kept walking without a care in the world.

Ravi gaped at the scene, unable to even see the tail move. These three were monsters. Even if he had unleashed a concentrated attack with the accumulated power of his fellow men, Uvrodon and Bart could simply dodge while Claude tanked the attack head-on. After all, Claude was known to shrug off middle-tier-two spells, while his combined attack might barely reach lower-tier-three.

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