"Ti Magic—Temporal Stasis!"
Zzzzzing!
A glowing sphere of ti magic enveloped Ethan Hayes completely.
At that mont, Ethan's eyes widened in disbelief.
Even Julius, who had been in his field of vision just seconds ago, began to vanish.
"Is... is it over?"
Marx, still floating in the air, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead.
To be honest, at that mont, he really thought Ethan had succeeded.
But who would have thought—where there's a clever plan, there's always soone cleverer.
The Wizard King he had attacked… was just an illusion.
"You're impressive. Almost caught off guard…"
Julius smiled calmly, his gaze settling on Ethan, who was now trapped within the ti sphere.
First, he had unleashed a barrage of magic to keep Ethan on the defensive, all while secretly observing his movents and patterns from the sidelines.
Only he knew how many spells he had cast in advance.
So of them weren't ant to activate right away, but had been hidden across the battlefield—just like the earth magic that had pinned Ethan earlier.
To be fair, Julius hadn't seen that coming either.
His ti magic wasn't omniscient. He couldn't foresee days, weeks, or years into the future without cost.
The essence of his magic was to steal monts of ti and store them for later use.
In a way, it was just like mana: the more you spent, the greater the effect.
And since this was only a sparring match—not a real fight to the death—he hadn't invested too much stored ti for long-term foresight.
In truth, foreseeing this particular spell from Ethan might've required quite a bit of stored ti.
After all, it was likely a trap Ethan had laid from the very beginning.
Julius could foresee what hadn't happened yet—but not what had already occurred.
Still, he was just one step ahead.
When he escaped the trap of the earth spell, he had already predicted Ethan would strike then.
So he turned the tables, catching him instead.
"No wonder he's the Wizard King... but Ethan's still incredible..."
Seeing the battle co to a close, Marx began to fly toward them.
This was the fifth ti he had witnessed Julius engage in combat personally.
The first four tis had ended in flawless victory.
But this ti... this ti had been different. Twice, he genuinely thought Julius might lose.
To force the Wizard King into such a position—Ethan had done extraordinarily well.
But halfway there, Marx froze in his tracks.
Another Ethan Hayes stepped out from the trees nearby.
Julius blinked in surprise, turning to glance back at the ti sphere.
There was clearly an Ethan inside.
So was this one... a fake?
As he pondered, the Ethan within the sphere dissolved into a gust of wind elental particles.
It had been a fake. But just barely.
Even now, Ethan still felt a lingering chill thinking about how close it had been.
During the barrage of magic, he had been confident he'd find an opening to catch Julius.
Because Julius had remained strictly on the defensive from the start.
It could have been arrogance, or maybe he was just going easy on a junior mage like Ethan.
Either way, he had the strength to pull it off.
Still, Ethan didn't dare trust it.
Why? Because of the weight behind the title Wizard King.
So, from the very beginning, he had summoned a spirit clone to hide nearby.
Even that final strike had been delivered by the clone.
At that mont, even Ethan had believed he'd won—only for reality to slap him in the face.
Julius's battle instincts were downright terrifying.
Ethan's carefully linked attacks had felt completely powerless before them.
Maybe Julius had foreseen the whole outco from the start?
No.
At least... he hadn't realized he'd captured a spirit clone instead of the real Ethan.
"Heh… impressive. I didn't expect your battle tactics to be this solid."
Julius praised him after a brief pause.
He truly hadn't realized it was a clone.
Even in a mont of near-certain victory, Ethan had restrained himself from engaging directly.
Julius couldn't decide whether Ethan had been overly cautious—or had simply predicted everything.
Either way, the duel ended in a draw.
Julius had caught Ethan.
But Ethan had also outwitted him.
"By the way," Julius asked, "how much of my ti magic were you able to comprehend?"
"I sensed a little... but not completely," Ethan replied.
Ti and space were arguably the most intangible forces in existence—concepts, not things.
They couldn't be touched, seen, or heard.
And while space magic had been reduced to child's play here, Ethan had adapted quickly.
But ti magic… that was a whole different beast.
Even now, he could only vaguely grasp its essence.
"No rush. We can train more later. But for now, I think we should leave. Because—"
"Don't move!"
Julius hadn't even finished his sentence when a group of mages suddenly surrounded them from above on magic brooms.
Clearly, these weren't Clover Kingdom soldiers.
They were from the neighboring Diamond Kingdom.
"I think you'd better let us go," Ethan said blandly as he looked up.
How long do you plan to live, exactly?
Surrounding the Wizard King?!
Even a god of longevity wouldn't dare sothing this reckless.
And not to ntion—he wasn't a pushover either.
"Ahem... Gentlen, don't be alard," Julius said with a calm smile. "I'm the Wizard King of the Clover Kingdom. We were simply sparring and an no offense to your country. We'll be on our way now."
With his power, Julius could easily wipe them all out.
But this wasn't about whether he could.
It was about diplomacy.
The Diamond Kingdom often harassed the Clover Kingdom's borders, sure.
But those had only been small-scale skirmishes—never all-out war.
If he annihilated their forces here, that would definitely trigger a war.
And right now, the Clover Kingdom wasn't ready for that.
They still hadn't resolved the issue with the elves.
If the Diamond Kingdom chose that mont to strike, they'd be fighting on two fronts.
"Wizard King? Hah! This guy says he's the Wizard King!"
"Are you kidding ? Shouldn't the Wizard King be so burly tank of a man? What's with this skinny guy?"
"If he's the Wizard King, then I'm the Magic God!"
Laughter erupted among the Diamond mages.
They clearly didn't believe that soone so important would just show up at the border by himself.
What was he trying to do? Launch a one-man invasion?
"Believe or not, it doesn't matter," Julius said, unfazed.
"But can we go now?"
They were still laughing—until the next second, when Rakas stopped cold.
Cold sweat trickled down his back, his expression frozen.
Because sohow, one of the people they'd just surrounded now had a blade of wind magic pressed against his throat.
So sharp… he could almost see the gates of hell.
Gulp…
Rakas swallowed hard and motioned for his n to move aside.
"There we go. Why do people always need a blade at their throat to start thinking straight…"
Ethan clicked his tongue and dissipated the wind blade, returning to his spot.
Rakas had never even seen him move.
Not until the three of them vanished into a spatial portal did he recover from the shock.
His chest heaved, clearly rattled.
In his eyes, the elegantly dressed man might have claid to be the Wizard King
…
But it was the guy with the wind blade who really felt like one.
So fast. So powerful.
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