Diary of a Dead Wizard-Chapter 370: Tentacles

Just one step into the Death Season, and the world fell deathly silent.

It was as if ears had suddenly gone deaf. As if someone had pressed pause on reality.

An curled her fingers in instinctive fear under the crushing silence. She was about to speak to break this suffocating stillness when she saw Saul raise his index finger.

Silence.

He was feeling the pressure too, but the more oppressive it was, the less room there was for reckless outbursts.

The tremors of his mental body had stopped the moment they stepped into the Death Season. But at the same time, an immense pressure weighed down from all around him.

Yet no matter how sharply he scanned their surroundings, he couldn’t find the source of it.

“Could Kongsha and the others have used the Death Season to stabilize their mental fluctuations? If that’s the case, then it’s possible they really did manage to survive here for over half a year.”

Just then, Agu lightly tapped Saul on the shoulder and pointed back toward where they’d come.

Saul turned and saw that while the sparse trees at the edge of the forest remained, something else now filled the view: humanoid figures standing motionless, arms hanging by their sides.

They were the same enemies who had attacked them earlier, but now, like tamed beasts, they stood quietly at the edge of the woods, unmoving, unspeaking.

Since these strange humanoids weren’t attacking, Saul didn’t intend to provoke them either.

But that unnerving clarity of their boundary—they stood precisely at the edge, no further—made him uneasy. freēnovelkiss.com

Even though their heads were lowered, Saul could feel their silent gaze.

There was no going back now.

He gently set An down—both of their mental tremors had subsided, and they were in a much better state than before.

Looking ahead, beyond the forest lay scorched black earth stretching to the horizon, where a steep mountain rose abruptly from the ground.

The mountain’s face, just like the land under his feet, was dark brown and completely barren. Not a single blade of grass.

It looked as if a firestorm had passed through and destroyed everything.

Saul’s gut told him—don’t approach that mountain.

So, he decided to walk along the boundary between the forest and the Death Season. Neither entering deeper into the Death Season, nor retreating toward the woods.

Gradually, they approached the palace ahead.

Just as Saul was considering whether they should enter the palace now or wait for the humanoid figures to disappear and go in together with Kongsha and the others, the ground beneath him suddenly shifted.

He instinctively moved to adjust his footing, but before he could, the ground jerked violently, and a sharp spike erupted from below.

Saul and the others instantly leapt aside.

But before they could find stable footing, the earth beneath them began to heave again.

The black soil writhed like it had come alive, every inch trembling.

Saul immediately crouched, bracing one hand on the ground to lower his center of gravity.

Looking down, he spotted a black object surging toward him. He hastily cast Soul Armor.

Thud!

Before he even saw what hit him, he was launched backward.

“Master!”

An ran to him immediately.

“I’m fine,” Saul muttered as he stumbled and caught his balance.

Agu, meanwhile, fired a light beam as thick as his wrist, striking the shadowy figure that had attacked Saul.

The shadow was pierced through—its front section snapped off and fell to the ground.

Only then did they clearly see what had hit Saul.

A massive black tentacle, as thick as a grown man’s thigh!

And it looked disturbingly familiar.

“Isn’t—isn’t that your Little Algae, Master?” An gasped in shock.

Saul took another look, then shook his head. “This is the Soul-Devouring Mire. Not my Little Algae.”

Just then, another black tentacle emerged from the writhing earth, striking straight at Agu.

Agu fired another First Rank Ray of Holy Light, severing it with ease.

“Watch out!” Saul suddenly shouted, his eyes wide. Ignoring the crushing pressure all around, he raised his voice to warn Agu.

Agu heard a sharp whistle of wind closing in fast. The uneven terrain and unstable footing left him sluggish. All he could do was raise his left arm in front of his face.

A shield appeared at his right, but was instantly shattered by a tentacle as thick as two men’s arms locked together.

Just as the larger, more terrifying tentacle came crashing down toward Agu, a translucent hand appeared behind him and yanked his collar sharply.

Boom!

The massive tentacle slammed into the cracked ground, blasting open a deep pit.

Agu tumbled to the edge of the crater.

If that blow had landed, never mind his mental form—this vessel would’ve been utterly destroyed.

Saul pulled his hand back—he had used Mage’s Hand to yank Agu out of the way. But then he heard that all-too-familiar sound of something slicing through air.

He shoved the still-stunned An aside and launched himself backward.

Another black tentacle, thick as an elephant’s leg, brushed past them and stabbed into the ground where they had stood.

Saul could’ve blocked it with a spell or dodged with magic, but at the last moment, he chose to rely solely on his physical strength to leap away.

Agu had just gotten up and was about to rush over when Saul signaled to him with a sharp gesture.

Stop.

Behind Agu, another enormous tentacle was rearing up, but Saul wanted him to stay still.

Confused, Agu held his ground under the crushing pressure behind him.

A moment later, he realized—the tentacle behind him was also aiming for Saul.

Saul stomped the trembling earth and launched himself into the air again. But before he could land, a third tentacle swept in from the side.

An had just pulled her gaze from the massive crater when she saw Saul being swarmed by tentacles.

Eyes wide under her black veil, she suddenly shouted, “I know what it is! Master, don’t come over!”

As soon as she finished, she spread her arms—her fingertips dissolved into countless threads of blood.

The three enormous tentacles chasing Saul immediately turned and charged at An instead.

Saul had already begun to suspect the tentacles were drawn by fluctuations of magic.

But even when he stopped casting spells, the new tentacles continued to target him.

In the end, three giant tentacles as thick as elephant legs attacked him from all directions. He dodged with difficulty, nearly forced to use magic again.

But now, with An drawing the tentacles away using her strange, unknown spell, Saul had a brief reprieve.

Yet the fourth and fifth tentacles, even thicker than the last, surged toward her.

Saul swept a glance toward the pale white figures in the forest, then back to An, who was under heavy assault. His mind raced.

“To the palace! We’ll relay to each other!”

Agu and An instantly understood his plan.

Just as Saul was about to cast a new spell to draw the tentacles again, the ground beneath them rocked—this time with a vertical motion over a meter high.

The tremor disrupted Saul’s concentration before he could activate his magic.

Then they saw it.

The ground beneath them had turned entirely into black, writhing tentacles—twisting and coiling in every direction.

As far as the eye could see.

They had fallen into a nest of giant snakes.

If they shifted their stance even slightly or lost balance, they’d be caught between the undulating tentacles and dragged under.

Staring at the bottomless, pulsing mass of black tentacles, Saul felt a chill crawl up his spine.

Even with his physical resilience, being pulled into that pit would mean certain death.

But the worst was still to come.

Even more titanic tentacles emerged from the depths. The closer to the mountain, the bigger they grew.

In the distance, one tentacle was so massive it rivaled a small mountain.

The enormous, terrifying tentacles reached into the sky and swayed with the land’s undulations—like seaweed beneath the surface.

But Saul knew—once they caught you, they would drag you down and drown you with relentless force.

The pressure they gave off was suffocating. Especially the mountain-sized one—just its distant presence crushed Saul’s spirit.

With black tentacles writhing around him, if Saul cast another spell now, he’d likely attract dozens at once.

Just then, An—barely holding off five tentacles with her blood threads—shouted hoarsely: “Don’t worry about me! Go to the palace!”

The bloodshot on her hand was resisting five huge tentacles at the same time, and it seemed that she couldn't hold on for much longer.

As soon as she finished speaking, she suddenly opened her mouth, and another stream of blood spurted out of her mouth, stretching between Saul and Agu, and forcibly pulling apart the two tentacles, allowing the two to see the palace not far away.

The soil near the palace was still sold, it hadn’t turned into a writhing mass of tangled tentacles!

Saul and Agu turned around at the same time, stomping on the constantly squirming tentacles as they ran with all their might toward the passage An had opened for them.

After a few steps, Agu couldn’t help but glance back and what he saw made his heart seize with fear. An’s limbs had already transformed into threads of blood, pulling at the tentacles to keep them from getting any closer.

But in the very next second, a black tentacle, three meters in diameter, came crashing down from the sky.

It slammed An and all the tentacles attacking her brutally into the ground in one devastating blow!

(End of Chapter)