I Cast Forbidden Spells Until the World Breaks-Chapter 106 I’m messing with you, kid

Zayne felt a brutal suction tear down from the top of his skull.

His consciousness blurred, bit by bit. Something inside him was being ripped out, yanked away by the Eternal Scales in Astrachior’s hand.

"Ahhhhh!"

Zayne screamed until his throat felt raw.

His tolerance for pain was already obscene. Losing an arm, losing a leg, even carving out organs barely registered anymore.

But this was different.

This agony had nothing to do with flesh. It felt like invisible hands were peeling his soul apart, shredding it into strips. Physical pain did not even belong in the same category.

His vision started flashing like a highlight reel. One scene after another from his past flickered across his eyes.

The scent of death grew thicker.

Zayne could feel it clearly. His immortality was slipping away, piece by piece.

He tried to fight it, but his body would not listen. All he could do was watch Astrachior do whatever he wanted.

Then, right as that soul ripping pain peaked, a blinding beam exploded out of Zayne’s body.

Within that light, the outline of half a delicate black balance scale appeared. It resonated with the Eternal Scales in Astrachior’s hands from across the room.

That half scale looked like it had risen straight out of Zayne’s soul. It carried an ancient, eerie power.

But if you looked closely, it was covered in cracks. So many that it seemed ready to crumble at a touch.

Zayne was drenched in cold sweat. His muscles twitched uncontrollably.

He could feel it with terrifying certainty.

His immortality was gone.

That familiar sensation, the one where a thought was enough to make his cells multiply and rebuild, had vanished without a trace.

Right now, he was nothing more than an ordinary Forbidden Spellcaster.

He forced himself through the pain and stared at the half black scale.

Was that the thing that had given him immortality?

Why did it look so much like the Eternal Scales?

Did the Eternal Scales exist as two separate scales?

Questions flooded his mind.

At that moment, the Eternal Scales in Astrachior’s hands began to shake violently, like they wanted to break free and fly to the half scale.

The half black scale pulsed too, trying to dive back into Zayne’s body.

"Celestial Star Annihilation!"

Astrachior remained calm.

Stellar power gathered at his fingertips. He split his focus cleanly and tapped both the Eternal Scales and the half black scale.

The black scale was pinned down by starlight, unable to return to Zayne.

The Eternal Scales stopped struggling at once. Strands of black energy leaked off them, only to be shredded by the starlight the instant they surfaced.

When the last trace of black energy vanished, the Eternal Scales transformed into a golden fragment.

It no longer thrashed.

It simply hovered in Astrachior’s palm, silent and obedient.

The golden fragment and the half black scale echoed each other across the air, radiating an ancient pressure that made Zayne’s skin prickle.

Zayne stood there, stunned.

Why did he have half a scale inside him?

Why had the Eternal Scales turned into a golden shard?

Unless...

Unless the Origin Relic, the Eternal Scales, had always been split. And one half had been inside him all along.

"Eternal Scales, light and dark. When the scales tilt, the ability on one side gets amplified without limit."

Astrachior spoke softly, like he was talking to himself. Or like he was making sure Zayne heard every word.

"The one who controls the Eternal Scales grows stronger as the sun rises."

"At noon, they become invincible."

"As the sun sets, their strength weakens."

"But their recovery skyrockets."

"When night fully falls, at the moment before dawn, they gain immortality."

"Invincibility and immortality in one relic. That is why the Eternal Scales were called the strongest Origin Relic."

He paused.

"But the world has not had the Eternal Scales for a long time."

"It was shattered in the wars ten thousand years ago."

Astrachior continued, voice steady.

"And the complete Eternal Scales also had an absurd ability. Equivalent exchange."

"As long as both sides agree, you can trade anything. Levels, class, lifespan, even gender."

"Back when the Eternal Scales still existed, Forbidden Spellcaster was the strongest SSS class. No exceptions."

"All it took was a level ninety awakened swapping levels with a Forbidden Spellcaster."

"In an instant, you would create a level ninety Forbidden Spellcaster."

Zayne stared at him, unsettled.

"Why are you telling me all this?"

Astrachior’s pale face curled into a smile.

He did not answer.

He simply raised a hand and nudged his glasses up.

The half black scale and the golden fragment floated in front of him.

His eyes sharpened with a focus that felt inhuman, like he had stepped into another world entirely.

Stellar power danced between his long fingers, lively as sparks. It looked like an artist playing a brutal, technical masterpiece.

The golden fragment trembled inside the starlight, as if responding to his call. Then it began to melt.

It was refined into a pool of golden liquid.

"Cough. Cough, cough."

Astrachior hacked violently again.

His face went even whiter, yet his hands never stopped.

With a subtle pull of his fingers, the golden liquid flowed like a living stream toward the half black scale.

Under the pressure of starlight, the half scale began to glow faintly. The light was warm, mysterious, almost alive.

The golden liquid seeped into the hairline cracks.

Zayne watched, stunned.

Astrachior was repairing it.

Repairing a legendary Origin Relic.

In Zayne’s horrified gaze, the cracks really did begin to close, little by little.

Astrachior moved like the finest master craftsman alive. His fingers flickered as he sealed every fracture and stitched every gap with eerie precision.

Time passed.

The half black scale, once twisted and incomplete, began to shine with a new brilliance.

Then, a complete scale appeared.

It looked exactly like the Eternal Scales, except it no longer carried one gold side and one black side.

Now it was entirely black, deep and bottomless. It flowed with a dark sheen, and it tilted toward one side as if it could swallow time itself.

Astrachior was so weak he looked ready to collapse. His face was pale enough that even a thousand year corpse would lose its last bit of warmth standing near him.

Yet the instant he gripped the black scale, color rushed back into his cheeks.

Life returned to him in a surge.

Zayne’s stomach dropped.

He knew that look.

That was the same glow he used to have when his immortality was active.

"It worked."

Astrachior’s eyes filled with joy.

Then he looked back at Zayne, and a cold killing intent slipped into his gaze.

"Now you are useless."

He raised his hand.

Stellar power gathered in his palm, terrifying and dense. It was enough to erase the current Zayne hundreds of times over.

Zayne watched that hand come down toward him, and pure fear flooded his chest.

He had never truly thought about dying.

With immortality, death had been a joke, a concept for other people.

Only when it stood in front of him did he realize how terrifying it really was.

He shut his eyes, waiting for agony.

But it did not come.

Instead, he felt a warm hand ruffle his hair.

"I’m messing with you, kid."

Thud.

Astrachior collapsed like a mountain falling, hitting the ground in a heavy crash.