When A Mage Revolts

Hearing what had been said, Benjamin stroked his chin, seemingly still quite lost.

Honestly speaking, he was quite curious about Miles’ magic-immune physique, but his physique only rejected elements, not Spiritual Energy. If Miles were to be surrounded and eaten by the spirits after going out, Benjamin would be at his wits’ end too.

However, while Benjamin was still hesitating, Miles immediately jumped out of the huge box to break the soundproof ice sphere, allowing the spirits to rush outwards from where they were.

"You…"

Benjamin felt exasperated. With the breaking of the soundproof ice sphere, all of them would be pulled into the clutches of their illusions. Thankfully, he had made some preparations before leaving and had put on the soundproof magic tool Morris made, therefore making him immune to the revenant’s effects.

After immediately activating the soundproof necklace, Benjamin patched up the soundproof ice sphere, thus awakening Elizabeth and the rest from their illusions. The spirits floating towards them went into disarray, but more spirits were crowding around Miles instead.

Benjamin looked towards Miles, who was lying on the ground with his eyes closed, obviously already trapped within his illusions.

"Shit, shit! The spirits are going to devour Miles soon!" shouted the shorter mage in horror.

Troublesome fellow…

Benjamin hurriedly cast some magic and used water vapor to push the huge box towards Miles quickly. The spirits crowding around Miles were getting closer to him by the second, if they were too slow, he would be entirely surrounded by the spirits and sucked dry.

However, Miles’ immunity to magic made it very difficult for Benjamin to save him using magic.

Once the huge box was hooked onto Miles, Benjamin immediately pulled it to drag Miles towards them. However, the spirits were faster and had already broken through the shield to pounce onto Miles.

There was a shout of surprise and Benjamin gripped his knuckles tight.

He immediately withdrew the box and flew upwards rapidly. The spirits were weak beings; they could probably escape if they quickly get out from the bottom of this abyss to where the sunlight could reach them.

This fellow Miles…

Benjamin really felt like scolding somebody. Did he want to die so bad? No matter how badly he wanted to be rid of his immunity to magic, even if he only had a few years left on his life, he didn’t need to pull a stunt like this!

"Wait, Miles…seems to be alright." Suddenly, Elizabeth piped up after sighing in relief.

Benjamin was stunned.

While still moving rapidly upwards, Benjamin turned to look at Miles. The spirits had already surrounded him entirely and had formed into a semi-transparent cocoon. But what was weird was that despite the spirits’ constant inhalation of his life force, Miles did not seem to be losing any of it.

He seemed to be just fine. His face wasn’t pale, and his body looked normal. Other than the fact that he was passed out, he was completely different from all the unlucky people that were surrounded by the spirits in the past.

Benjamin was dumbfounded.

"What the hell? Quickly find out if anything is happening to his body internally," Benjamin ordered the System.

The System was quiet for a moment before speaking, "It’s pretty weird, his body does not seem to be losing any life force. The spirits are trying hard to consume him, but it doesn’t seem to be working."

Benjamin’s eyebrows furrowed at the System’s words. Finally, he stopped flying upwards.

Could it be…that the magic-immune physique is really related to the undead?

They hid in the soundproof ice sphere, silently observing what was happening, but Miles still did not have any reaction. The spirits were still cocooning him and trying hard to consume his life force, but to no avail, which was obviously causing them to lose their patience.

"What…do we do? Do we look for a way to pull him out of his illusions?" asked Elizabeth.

"We can’t exactly let him remain passed out forever."

Benjamin heaved a sigh and continued rising upwards, Miles in the huge box in tow. Very soon, they reached sunlight. The spirits were obviously not strong enough to survive in places with an abundance of light elements proven due to the fact that the semi-transparent cocoon starting dissolving slowly. One by one, they slowly left Miles’ body.

One of the spirits chose to become a parasite on the small bird.

However, even if the spirits did choose to be parasites, they still weren’t able to consume any of Miles’ life force. After a brief moment, the spirits died one by one as they dissipated into a green smoke that was emitted from Miles’ body.

Miles himself also awakened from his illusions.

"This is…"

"Do you really want to die?" Benjamin asked angrily. "Jumping out there without even a word, you almost killed us all, do you know that?"

Miles looked visibly deflated and peeked at Elizabeth and the rest, who were also glaring at him.

"…I’m sorry."

Benjamin only shook his head disappointedly.

"Even if you want to lift the abyss trial’s curse, that’s not the way to do it." Benjamin pondered for a moment before continuing, "However… while you were in your illusions, what did you see?"

"Just… illusions."

Miles seemed unwilling to share what his illusions actually were.

"Forget it." The illusions are probably unrelated, so Benjamin didn’t question further but instead said, "Your situation is a bit special. Even when you were cocooned by the spirits, you suffered no injuries. There might be some connection there."

"Does this mean that there’s hope of lifting the curse on me?"

"I’m not sure, however…" Benjamin hesitated for a moment before continuing, "These spirits consume life force. Now that I think about it, maybe the reason that they couldn’t absorb anything was because you don’t have any life force in your body anymore."

Miles was dumbfounded.

Benjamin rubbed his neck as he said this.

Indeed, it seemed to be the best explanation for the situation. Life force is something that can’t be seen or touched, it was, however, something that most people depended on as the source of their lives. But in Miles’ case… perhaps what’s sustaining him isn’t his life force anymore.

Maybe this was how the abyss trial worked.

Miles went quiet for a moment before slowly asking, "Then… can my life force be replenished?"

Hearing Miles’ question, Benjamin cast an Elemental Order – Rune over him. Miles bathed in the light drizzle, but the water droplets filled with life force were not absorbed by him. Instead, they would either disappear or fall to the ground.

"… That’s about it." Benjamin lowered his head and continued, "It could be because of your magic-immune physique, or it could be because your life force is now different from ours, but I am unable to replenish it."

Miles was visibly solemn. With a shake of his head, he heaved a sigh.

"And here I thought that there would be some hope left for me." With a shrug of his shoulders, he continued, "I’m so sorry for creating trouble. Then… just forget about it, let’s go."