There was a steep greyish-white mountain around five kilometers to the west of Rodu. The area annually produced vast quantities of rocks to be used as construction materials, and it was said that the mighty city walls of Rodu were raised with rocks excavated from this area.

  There was also another legend surrounding this lone mountain. It was said that when the royal craftsmen first attempted to excavate this mountain, the mountain suddenly became extraordinarily hard, making it impossible to break even with the finest of metal tools.

  This incident had alerted the king of the Roth Empire at the time, and he issued an order for the mountain to be exempt from excavation, which was how it received its name of “Exemption Mountain”.

  Due to the fact that the terrain over the mountain was very steep and smooth, there were almost no land-dwelling beasts to be found there—nor many flying beasts, for that matter.

  There was a dark cave close to the summit of Exemption Mountain, and it was slightly slanted, so the cave was virtually out of sight for anyone looking up from the foot of the mountain.

  Of course, no one was going to take the risk to climb such a perilous mountain, so the cave was very obscure and secluded.

  Heavy rain pelted the grayish-white mountain, but even the royal craftsmen were unable to excavate this mountain, so this storm was naturally not going to affect it in the slightest.

  Right at this moment, two specks of purple light suddenly lit up within the pitch-black cave.

  A flash of lightning suddenly illuminated the entire sky, shedding some light into what lay within the cave.

  An enormous creature slowly rose up before ruffling its folded wings. Dirt and rock shards clattered all over the ground as the creature made its way to the entrance of the cave. As it did so, the two specks of purple light lit up even further as if they were a pair of lanterns in the cave.

  The massive creature stopped at the entrance of the cave, casting its bright purple gaze toward Rodu as it let loose a low growl.

  Another bolt of lightning flashed past, and the gargantuan creature standing at the entrance of the cave was finally completely illuminated. It was a giant griffin!

  Its entire body was quite dirty as it had just been rolling around in the mud. It was quite difficult to imagine how this colossus that had a wingspan of over 10 meters was able to force itself into the tiny cave.

  Despite its disheveled appearance, it was still giving off an air of majesty and intimidation, even as it stood in silence.

  “Howl!!!”


  The griffin suddenly let loose a loud roar, and the purple light in its eyes resembled a pair of dazzling bright stars!

  The griffin spread open its wings amid a series of loud cracks and pops from its joints. It flapped its wings, and flew into the air like a sharp sword piercing into the ferocious storm.

  The dirt and grime all over its body was washed away by the heavy rain, revealing its eye-catching purple scales and wings. Even in the darkness, its massive purple lion head appeared quite menacing, and the gruesome blade wound on its glabella further contributed to its intimidating appearance.

  With each and every flap of its wings, it would cover a distance of several hundred meters as it rapidly sped toward Rodu.

  There was an extremely familiar aura there.

  In order to wait for him, it had been hiding here for three years, and now, he had finally reappeared……

  Mag withdrew his sword from the forest troll’s body before using its shoulder as a stepping stone, launching himself up into the air as he swiped his claymore at the pair of incoming octopus tentacles.

  His claymore sliced through the pair of tentacles like a hot knife through butter. The tentacles fell to the ground, writhing furiously as the eyes all over the tentacles blinked in a frenzy, seemingly refusing to come to terms with the fact that it was about to die.

  However, the massive octopus wasn’t affected in the slightest by Alex’s attack. Its cross-sectional wounds squirmed, and two more tentacles sprouted from its body, both of which were almost identical to the tentacles that Alex had just severed. The only difference was that the eyeballs on those tentacles were still only pink fleshy bulbs that had yet to open.

  Mag appraised the creature with a grim expression. This trypophobic’s nightmare was not a real octopus, but instead a massive spatial beast known as the Eye Beast.

  These giant beasts only existed within space, and not only were they extremely massive, but they possessed freakish regenerative abilities. Unless one could slay the beast with a single attack, it was virtually unkillable.

  However, the most fearsome trait of an Eye Beast wasn’t its regenerative ability, but the countless eyes all over its body instead.

  No living being could remain completely calm while being scrutinized by so many eyes at once, and during their split-second-long emotional turmoil, the Eye Beast would gain control over them, reducing them to its slave.

  It was very rare even for spatial demons to be able to find and tame Eye Beasts from within space.

  An Eye Beast of such a massive size was no weaker than a normal powerful 10th-tier being, and its abilities were quite troublesome to face even for Alex.

  As for why Alex knew so much about these creatures, that was because he just so happened to have slain an Eye Beast in the past, and he also disabled its spatial demon rider in the process.

  If Mag wasn’t mistaken, then the 9th-tier spatial demon he had disabled at the time was most likely the son of this spatial demon patriarch.

  As such, Mag was at the height of Alex’s powers, and he also possessed Alex’s prior experience in slaying an Eye beast. However……

  “There’s not much time left; you have to make haste!”


  “3:00…… 2:59…… 2:58……”


  The system’s urgent voice sounded within Mag’s mind, and Mag could even see a small red light shimmering on his chest, just like the one Ultraman had.

  “Do you really think I’m Ultraman, system?! How about you give me an Ultra Beam!” Mag rolled his eyes, but he was also aware of the fact that time was indeed quickly running out for him.

  Unfortunately, this Eye Beast and the spatial demon patriarch were a much more troublesome duo to deal with than all of the other 10-tier beings that Mag had just slain.

  There were only around 100 10th-tier beings on the entire Norland Continent, yet even among them, there were massive discrepancies in power.

  Gajeel and those beings that had surrounded Irina earlier could only be referred to as normal 10th-tier beings. In contrast, Krassu, Urien, and the spatial demon patriarch were on another level, and could easily defeat a normal 10th-tier being.

  Alex was naturally the most powerful among this exclusive group of powerful beings, and he didn’t fear anyone in a one-on-one battle.

  However, it was almost impossible for Mag to defeat this duo before making a successful retreat within three minutes.

  This was because it was quite likely that he wouldn’t even be able to touch the Eye Beast within three minutes.

  No matter how powerful he was, he couldn’t fly.

  In contrast, the Eye Beast could hover in the air, and could even tear through space to travel in a manner akin to teleportation.

  Time was ticking away second by second, and even though Mag’s expression remained calm, he was desperately scrambling for a plan.

  He stared at the Eye Beast with an intense gaze. He would only have one chance to leap up from the ground and kill it, and he would only be able to escape if he could kill this duo.

  “Where’s your little purple bird, Alex?” The spatial demon patriarch looked at Mag with a sinister, derisive sneer from above as he said, “Without it, you’re just a little ant who can only jump around on the ground. You disabled my son, so I’m going to make you experience what it’s like to watch Irina being molested right before your eyes!”


  A series of octopus tentacles several dozens of meters in length surged toward the Mag and Irina. The eyes on the tentacles were blinking in a frenzy as if the octopus were excited at the prospect of encountering new prey.

  Right at this moment, a loud griffin cry rang out in the distance.