Ian stepped aside and looked toward the camp.

More and more people were gathering.

High Level Apprentices were arriving from all directions. Some came alone, some in small groups, and others even brought along Magic Pets or Mechanical Bodies. Their auras varied in strength.

Ian did a quick count. At the Misty Creek gathering point alone, there were at least a hundred High Level Apprentices.

What drew his attention even more were the few subtle yet powerful waves of energy at the edge of the camp... Official Wizards.

Most of them stood silently in the shadows, either resting with their eyes closed or conversing in low tones. The Energy Force Fields they naturally emanated distorted the light, making others wary of getting too close.

"Ian, I’ve been assigned to the Third Clearing Squad. It looks like I won’t be able to fight with you," Hawke said, sounding somewhat regretful.

He had originally wanted to look after Ian underground, but unfortunately, the team assignments were not up to him.

"No worries. You just be careful. I have some Potions here; use them sparingly."

Ian handed over a wooden box. Inside were several War Potions.

"Thanks. I won’t stand on ceremony with you, then." Hawke took it readily.

In the turbulent environment of underground Magic Power, Refining Potions on-site would be significantly more difficult. Without an Entry-Tier Magic Potion Alchemist and a purified environment, any brewed Potions would be useless.

As noon approached, just after the last combatant had hurried to arrive, the diamond-shaped crystal atop the metal pillar suddenly lit up!

A silver-white pillar of light shot toward the heavens, exploding high in the sky and forming the Badge of the Silver Ring. It lasted for ten breaths before slowly dissipating.

The voice of a white-robed Wizard, amplified by Witchcraft, spread throughout the camp: "Assembly complete. Everyone, board the ship."

At some point, a behemoth had appeared behind the camp, hovering silently thirty meters above the ground.

It was a shuttle-shaped airship, over a hundred meters long and forged entirely from Dark Silver metal. Its hull was covered in dense, overlapping layers of Rune Arrays.

Ian could only recognize the basic Runes for Acceleration, Fortification, Concealment, and Energy Deflection.

The more complex composite Runes made him dizzy with a single glance. They interlinked to form a three-dimensional Witchcraft Array.

On each side of the ship was a row of twenty-four massive Rune Crystal Cannons. Their barrels were as thick as tree trunks, their bodies inscribed with interwoven crimson and ice-blue Burst Runes that pulsed with a disquieting energy.

A silver ramp of light unfolded from the bottom of the airship, extending to the ground.

The combatants boarded in an orderly fashion. Ian followed the crowd onto the ramp of light and entered the cabin.

The cabin was far more spacious than it appeared from the outside, obviously due to the use of spatial expansion technology. A wide aisle ran down the center, flanked by rows of simple seats that were already mostly full.

Ian found a corner seat near the hull and sat down.

Gaga poked its small head out of the special pocket on his chest, curiously looking around.

’So many people... Gaga, and they’re all so strong,’ Gaga transmitted through their Soul Link.

’Mm.’ Ian’s gaze shifted out the window.

The airship slowly ascended. It was slow at first, but as the Acceleration Runes on its hull lit up one by one, its speed began to soar.

The scenery on the ground rushed backward and shrank. The forest turned into a green carpet, the stream into a silver thread. Within a few breaths, the entire Glowing Forest had shrunk to the size of his palm.

HUMMM...

The hull trembled slightly as a translucent Energy Shield unfurled, blocking out the wind pressure and noise from the high-speed flight.

Ian leaned against the side of the ship, looking down at the land below.

A day later, the airship began to slow down.

A breathtaking landscape appeared on the horizon.

Angela Crater.

True to its name, it was a near-perfect ring of mountains with a diameter exceeding ten thousand miles.

The mountainsides were sheer, as if carved by a knife, with an average height of over five thousand meters. It looked as though a giant Celestial God’s palm had been pressed into the Earth, leaving a massive imprint.

Inside the mountain range was a giant basin several thousand meters deep. The basin floor was not flat but was filled with crisscrossing Rift Valleys, raised platforms, and countless dark caves of varying sizes, like scars upon the Earth.

On the crater’s outer slopes, dense, overlapping Witchcraft Arrays were laid out along the ridges, stretching to the horizon.

Defense Barriers, Purification Arrays, Energy Interference Fields, Space Anchor Towers, Elemental Annihilation Cannons...

Tens of thousands of Witchcraft installations, arranged according to some arcane principle, linked their energies to form a seven-colored membrane of light that enveloped the entire crater.

’So these are the scars left by the ancient war...’ Ian murmured.

The airship began its descent, heading toward a large basin inside the crater.

The basin floor was already packed with a dense crowd of figures.

The airship landed in a designated silver-white area. Ian followed the crowd down the gangway and stepped onto solid ground.

He looked up and gasped.

People.

No, not all of them were people.

The center of the basin was divided into dozens of square formations, each representing a different faction.

The most conspicuous were the formations of the four great organizations: the silver-white of the Silver Ring, the deep blue of the Shadow Moon Tower, the blood-red of the Deep Red Castle, and the gray-black of the Withered Council. Each was distinct, with formations several thousand strong, their auras grim and silent like a forest.

Beyond those, Ian saw even more formations of ’Alien Races.’

He glanced toward the formation of Elves, a look of bewilderment on his face. ’Those... are Elves?’

They were not the elegant and beautiful figures of legend. Most had dark green or grayish-brown skin and long, pointed ears. They held Bone Bows or Rattan Staffs, and a natural aura swirled around them.

Then there were the stout Dwarves, but some of their beards were not hair, but writhing metal tentacles. Their arms were modified mechanical prosthetics, and they carried Rune Warhammers the size of door panels.

Barbarians, generally over three meters tall, their skin painted with glowing Voodoo Totems. They wore Beast Tooth Necklaces, and those "beast teeth" would occasionally open crimson eyes and drip corrosive saliva.

...

The most eye-catching were the giants—true giants, over ten meters tall, with skin as rough as Rock. Some even had Wizards sitting on their shoulders, who were clearly their controllers or contracted partners.

Even further away was an exceptionally large formation, emitting the faint, salty tang of the ocean.

The Sea Race.

Their upper bodies were humanoid, but their lower halves were fish tails, octopus tentacles, crab claws, or jellyfish bells. Their weapons were mostly Coral Staffs, Shell Shields, or Whalebone Spears.

The few Sea Race Elders at the head wore crown-shaped bone coronets and held scepters inlaid with giant pearls. Illusory images of tides swirled around them.

’Aside from the Human Wizards, these are the most powerful Alien Races in the Wizard Alliance...’ Ian thought to himself.

Besides these formal formations, the lone Wizards and mutants also drew attention.

Ian saw a Human Wizard whose right eye was a constantly spinning mechanical gear. A ruby lens was set in place of a pupil, flashing with a red light as it scanned the surroundings.

There was a Witch whose face was like a crudely stitched doll, the stitches crooked. The corners of her mouth were pulled up by threads into an eerie smile.

There was also a hunchbacked old man whose hat was squeaking and trying to flee from his head. The old man snatched it and slapped it twice until it behaved. Immediately, several small Bone Hands emerged from the brim and began to massage his temples.

Someone else was leading a "pet." The thing looked like a skinned hound, but its back was covered in constantly opening and closing eyes. Wherever it passed, it left faint black smudges in the air.

Some of them knew each other and gathered in small groups to chat.

Someone pulled an infant fruit from their pocket, which shrieked and cried when bitten. Another pulled out a writhing piece of flesh that splattered green juice when torn apart, then grew tiny legs and tried to run away after hitting the ground.

Animated objects were even more common: boots that walked by themselves, a pair of pant legs arguing with each other, a dagger chasing its own tail, a mirror floating in the air combing its own hair...

These Wizards, gathered together, created a scene that was bizarre, absurd, and unsettling.

But without exception... they were all powerful.

At a minimum, they were Level One Wizards. Many possessed auras as profound as an abyss, utterly unfathomable.

Ian only glanced at them a few times from a distance, but alarm bells screamed in the depths of his Soul. He instinctively looked away, not daring to stare.

A rough estimate put the number of combatants in the basin, including the High Level Apprentices, at nearly one hundred thousand.

"So this... is the Demon Hunting War."

Gaga’s voice echoed in his mind, tinged with a rare solemnity.

’Gaga... so many monsters... I mean, so many powerful ’people.’’