Diary of a Dead Wizard

Two First Rank official wizards—within the Wizard Tower, they were already the most powerful figures aside from the Tower Master himself.

Yet when facing the fully restored Gorsa, they still stood no chance at all.

The pitch-black magic formation drained two powerful First Rank wizards completely dry in just a short span of time.

Anze, already exhausted to his limits from the battle, was the first to die. Even in his final moment, his eyes remained locked on the Wizard Tower behind Gorsa.

Rum, on the other hand—charred all over and bearing the worst injuries—lasted longer.

But as the formation continued to operate, his once-burly frame began to shrink, bit by bit.

When the alternating black and white light faded, the man who had once stood over two meters tall was reduced to a shriveled body barely one and a half meters in height.

Yet strangely, the disappearance of all that muscle gave Rum back a more normal appearance.

“Gorsa... I’ll kill you...” he was still muttering.

A head of newly grown, soft platinum hair fell past his ear.

“You hate me that much? I was the one who saved your life, you know.”

“You... you slaughtered my entire clan...” Rum trembled as he stretched out his hand, fingers curling around Gorsa’s neck in the air, as if he could choke him like this.

Gorsa shook his head. “I already told you—I was just passing by and picking up corpses... but fine, hate me if you want.”

He crouched slowly, reaching out to touch Rum’s ruined body. His expression was as if he were caressing a fine piece of leather.

“So this is the pinnacle of your light-element wizardry? Converting energy into matter, while maintaining dual defense and attack against both forms. No wonder you managed to last this long.”

Gorsa’s eyes began to brighten, bit by bit. “Truly... the perfect material for a vessel.”

Suddenly, he turned around, looking toward the 20th floor of the Wizard Tower. After a moment of thought, he let out a soft laugh and shook his head.

“Well, that kid did save me once.”

Gorsa’s hand moved from Rum’s back to the back of his skull.

“Hm. First, we’ll need to remove the impurities.”

A faint glimmer flashed, and Rum’s head vanished on the spot.

All that remained on the ground was a trace of ash, perhaps the last remnants of what could still be called his remains.

The rest, Gorsa casually collected with a wave of his hand.

Not far off, Monica was helping Kaz as they made their way over.

Both of them were trembling, their faces pale as corpses.

Gorsa stood up. “Where’s Gudo?”

Monica bit her lip. Arcs of electricity still danced across her body, and patches of her skin were alternating between black and white.

It was the price she paid every time she expended her magic on a large scale, and also a serious, lurking danger.

“While you were... ad—advancing... he escaped.”

Gorsa raised an eyebrow.

Now that he had eyebrows again, their color was slightly darker than his irises.

“You let him go on purpose?”

Beside her, Kaz was clutching his neck—it had healed somewhat, but the injury was still serious enough that he needed Monica’s support just to walk.

“Tower Master,” Kaz sent Gorsa a voice transmission, “Gudo has Alpha-radiation toxin. We couldn’t get close to him.”

“Alpha, huh?” Gorsa didn’t sound angry. “Supposedly a strange name Saul came up with. Now even the developers of the Alpha toxin have collapsed under its effects—it’s unclear if they’ll even survive. You not daring to pursue Gudo makes sense.”

As for what had happened to Keli, all of them had their suspicions.

Gorsa looked at Monica, and she flinched instinctively.

Because she couldn’t fight for long periods, Monica had chosen to stay out of the fray at the start.

Though she did protect Saul at the last moment, that act also served under threat and promise to treat her critical condition. So when Gorsa suddenly advanced Rank Three, fear had already gripped Monica’s heart.

The only reason she still had the courage to walk over was because Gorsa had always kept his word.

Even though most of the time, he was a complete liar.

"Now that I’ve advanced to Third Rank, I have to return to my family and inherit the Wizard Tower that’s rightfully mine. You’re coming with me."

Monica abruptly looked up, eyes filled with both fear and joy.

She didn’t quite understand why Gorsa, who already owned a Wizard Tower, would need to inherit another one, but just hearing that he was returning to his family made her that much more confident that he could heal her body.

The Glare Family that Gorsa belonged to was a powerful clan with a Fourth Rank wizard among their members! It was said they’d even produced a Fifth Rank wizard in the past—though none had appeared for the last hundred years, and no one knew if that rumor was true.

If not for the gossip that Gorsa had been exiled to the western regions of the Stat Continent, Anze and the others would never have dared to covet Gorsa’s Wizard Tower.

After deciding to take Monica, Gorsa turned to look at Kaz.

The old man was already on the verge of collapse.

Gorsa raised his hand and pressed it against Kaz’s wound. When he let go, the half-missing neck had already returned to its original state.

“What is this?” Kaz touched his neck—it had healed that fast?

“Got the idea from Rum—turning energy into matter. But it’s fragile, so take care of your cervical spine.” With a smile, Gorsa then asked, “I’m handing this tower over to Saul. Do you want to come with me to Glare, or stay here?”

Kaz clearly hesitated, but before he could decide, a voice suddenly burst out from inside Gorsa—

“Kill me... kill me...”

“You’re already awake?” Gorsa pulled out a dark, writhing shadow from his cloak. Deep within the shadow, even darker currents of black twisted endlessly.

Gorsa frowned. “I let you absorb that much evil thoughts, and now the contamination’s gotten worse.”

Monica straightened her back, concerned for her boss first. “Tower Master, you weren’t contaminated just now, were you?”

“I was. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have nearly mutated from that interlayer riot… But Glare’s inheritance has its ways of dealing with contamination. I’ve already returned it to Yura, which is why she’s even worse off now.”

As the group spoke, Yura’s cries of “kill me” echoed around them like background music, growing sharper and sharper.

Kaz couldn’t bear it any longer. He was from the Kema Duchy and had known the living Yura. Now, seeing that the resurrection experiment had failed and that Gorsa had reached Third Rank, he tried to plead, “Tower Master… could you… maybe let Yura go? She’s been like this for so long—it’s torture.”

Gorsa smiled. The curve at the corner of his lips was exactly the same as when his face had been wrapped in bandages.

“I can let her go, but only once the resurrection experiment is complete. Then I’ll personally kill her. Clean and swift.”

Kaz shuddered all over, feeling like even his breath came out with shards of ice.

Monica hurriedly tugged on Kaz’s robe, silently begging him not to speak again.

Only then did Kaz come to his senses, and slowly lower his head.

“Alright, I’m going to check on Saul…” Gorsa clearly didn’t want to talk anymore. He tucked Yura’s soul, now condensed into a tight ball, back beneath his cloak.

He’d just gotten halfway through speaking when he suddenly noticed that from the twentieth floor downward, cracks had begun to appear along the Wizard Tower’s outer wall—spreading all the way to the first floor and then sinking into the earth.

The whole tower started shaking violently. From inside came several terrified screams.

Was the Wizard Tower collapsing?!

But right then, from within those cracks splitting the outer walls, countless slender white arms reached out.

Some wrapped around the tower to keep it from breaking apart, while others extended to the ground, holding up the structure to prevent it from toppling over.

Hundreds of delicate white arms gripped the Wizard Tower, barely maintaining its original form.

Gorsa whipped his head around to glare at Kaz and Monica, uncharacteristically flustered. “You see that?! And you’re still talking about letting him inherit the tower? He’s already looted almost all my secrets!”

In that moment, Gorsa understood very clearly—after the mouth and eyes, even the last of the interlayer’s limbs—the arms—had switched allegiance.

(Chapter ends )