Smoke.
Dark, thick plumes rose like tongues of vengeance from the arcane laboratory, twisting skyward in furious spirals.
The generals, stationed across various corners of the complex, saw it instantly—the signal. Josh's message had been sent not through words, but through fire and destruction.
It was time.
Without hesitation, they leapt into motion.
Limro's spear spun through the air, piercing the neck of a sentry. Arroid sent a volley of arrows into the chest of two patrolling guards before they even had time to scream. Lola, still cloaked in her masculine disguise, unleashed her Earth rank, high level thunder whip, which slithered as she danced through enemy lines like a wind possessed.
Chaos erupted.
Everywhere.
Guards clashed with armed strangers. Magical blasts flew across the courtyards, turning sacred statues and rune-pillars into rubble.
But the chaos didn't stop there.
The clueless initiates—many of whom had seethed earlier at the outrageous potion prices—saw the masked "mages" attacking the guards and mistook it for a rebellion.
"Finally! Someone's had enough of that overgrown fraud-frog!"
"I'm in! Death to the potion scammer!"
And just like that—an uprising was born.
The entire base devolved into bedlam as spells, swords, and screams clashed into a maddening orchestra of fire and fury.
——————————
Meanwhile, in the burning laboratory…
Xerm—the Golden Toad—stood amidst the inferno, his eyes bulging with both rage and confusion. The fire licked the stone walls, illuminating his twisted silhouette.
But he wasn't fleeing.
He was casting.
He forced a glowing rune into the air, carved directly from his own magical core—a spell so powerful, it drained nearly half of his magical stored reserves in a blink.
He pushed it forward.
The rune shimmered, rotating rapidly. It split the air like a blade, warping reality around it. A temporal spell—designed to replay the past and uncover the unseen.
Josh saw it.
Still cloaked by the Vanishing Powder, he knew hiding was useless now. That spell would expose everything.
Time to strike first.
With silent fury, Josh dashed forward, his gold grade, high level sword gleaming like a ray of divine retribution. He moved from the left flank, swift and deadly, aiming to impale the Toad God before the rune finished casting.
But Xerm—damn him—was sensitive to the arcane tension in the air.
He didn't need to see.
He felt the killing intent crash over him like a wave.
He spun and thrust his arm in Josh's direction—just in time to intercept the sword's path.
A mistake.
The gold-grade, high-level blade cut through his outstretched arm like it was wet paper.
SCHLIKT!
The severed limb fell to the ground, twitching like a dying fish.
The gold grade sword was a high level one, and even the golden toad in all his glory was not qualified to stop it with his body.
The sword cut through the golden toad- Xerm's hand, who was now in his human form.
But Xerm didn't scream.
He didn't even flinch.
He merely raised his bleeding stump and spoke in a dark, ritualistic tone:
"I call on the Golden Light—Limb, Reassemble."
The golden toad spoke, quoting a page from the magical tome of the golden light's magic. A book so powerful that it can transform an average mage into a legend.
A golden aura burst from his shoulder, and before Josh's eyes, flesh reknit, bone cracked into place, tendons laced themselves back together like strings being tuned.
The arm was reborn.
Xerm then narrowed his eyes and uttered again:
"Golden Light—Reveal All That Is Hidden."
A beam of radiant, almost holy light erupted from his hand and washed over the chamber, shattering the veil that cloaked Josh.
Suddenly, a special kind of power fell on Josh Aratat and revealed where he stood clearly. The effect of the vanishing powder wore off, with 10 minutes left for it to naturally wear off.
Josh frowned but he didn't panick. It doesn't matter in whichever direction today's battle goes, this golden toad would meet his end..., he made up his mind as he stood in a battle stance.
The invisibility broke.
Josh stepped out of the fading shimmer, sword in hand, his worn mask covering his facial features, gaze unfazed.
So be it.
Xerm glared.
"Who exactly are you, and why are you attacking me. If you were unhappy with the price of the potion, why bother staying and then incite a riot, you could have taken your leave, but no, you decide to stay and now you're destroying my base. Do you see the damage you have done?"
His voice cracked with fury.
"Before I could repair this damage, it could take close to a year or more. To get the reproduction of the damaged equipments, to restock, to employ decent workers. Why exactly are you doing this? In fact, who are you?"
Xerm got angrier and angrier as it spoke and looked at the masked Josh Aratat. It didn't know anything about the motive of this individual or his Identity, and Josh didn't say anything which deepened his confusion.
Josh just kept looking. He uttered not a single word. He simply tilted his head, watching Xerm spiral.
The silence made the Toad God twitch.
Why won't he answer? What's his reason? Who even is he?
He had tried to come up with various plausible reasons for Josh's behavior but they all seemed too weak to justify such anger, especially when you compare it to the risk Josh took to cause such damage.
Xerm's eye twitched, the overthinking was starting to hurt his magically-enhanced brain. Every theory collapsed under the sheer audacity of Josh's actions.
"ENOUGH! It doesn't even matter anymore!" Xerm roared. "I'll tear your heart out and use your internal organs, including your blood and bones to restart my projects!"
With a savage leap, Xerm lunged.
Josh smiled—finally.
He activated Kingly Awareness.
Suddenly, every inch of the battlefield around him lit up in his mind like a living map. The radius spread outward—50 meters of flawless clarity. Hidden weapons, incoming spells, hostile mana—nothing escaped his sight.
Xerm hurled a spinning rune toward him.
Josh twisted mid-air and sliced through it, the magic shattering into a cascade of artificial light, like fireworks exploding during a wedding ceremony.
Another blast came—Josh dodged.
Two more—Josh parried and spun.
He was moving like a storm in human form, blade whistling through the air, his golden aura igniting with every swing.
> "Now," Josh growled, eyes locked on his foe,
"you'll die like the slime-slick toad you are."
More attack kept coming, but the kingly awareness skill was on top of it all. Fortunately for Josh, he had upgraded the kingly awareness skill, so it covers a 50 meters radius for the duration of 3 hours without losing power or ending abruptly.