Upon hearing this, the man's face changed drastically, and with a look of rage and humiliation, he shouted, "Hmph, so you've seen through me! That's right, I'm not Braun. I'm Brownie, Braun's twin brother! You killed my brother, and today, I'm here to avenge him! I'll take your lives to honor his memory!"
Dean Bruce sneered, "Heh, so you're Brownie. And you think you can avenge him? Your brother wasn't even a match for us—do you really think you stand a chance? I suggest you surrender now and save yourself the trouble of suffering."
Brownie gritted his teeth and spat out, "Less talk, more action! Take this!" With that, he swung his hands, and dark lightning bolts shot from his palms, heading straight for Dean Bruce and the others.
Dean Bruce shouted, "Everyone, watch out—defend yourselves!" The three of them quickly cast their magic, raising protective shields to block Brownie's lightning attack.
Seeing that his first strike failed, Brownie pulled a black wand from his cloak. Muttering an incantation, he pointed the wand, and dark mist began to pour out from its tip, spreading toward them.
Krupp frowned, "That mist looks dangerous—probably toxic. Don't let it get near you!" With a swift motion, he swung his sword, sending several golden sword waves toward the mist, attempting to disperse it.
But the mist seemed almost alive, dodging the sword waves and continuing its advance toward them. Prolo Hawthorne panicked and said, "What do we do now, teacher? The mist is getting closer, and we're running low on magic power!"
Dean Bruce focused on the mist, his mind racing for a solution. Suddenly, he remembered a method to counter dark magic that he had seen in the room full of magical instruments and books earlier. Perhaps it would work now.
He called out to Krupp and Prolo Hawthorne, "Cover me, I'm going to try something to disperse this mist." With that, he began to concentrate, drawing upon the remaining magic energy in his body. Recalling the method from memory, he cast a special purification spell.
A white light emanated from Dean Bruce's hands, growing brighter with each passing second. The light shot toward the dark mist. As the mist came into contact with the white light, it reacted as though it were ice meeting the warmth of the sun, rapidly dissipating.
Brownie's eyes widened in shock, and he stared, dumbfounded, "You... How do you know this kind of magic? This is impossible!"
Dean Bruce sneered, "Hmph, what's impossible about this? Today is your end—prepare to die!" With that, he, along with Krupp and Prolo Hawthorne, launched their attack on Brownie.
Although Brownie fought back with all his might, he was ultimately no match for the three of them and gradually started to lose ground. Just as they were on the verge of defeating him, Brownie suddenly shouted, "Don't get too cocky! Even if I die, I won't let you have an easy time. I've activated the self-destruct mechanism here! Hahaha, we'll all die together!"
Upon hearing this, Dean Bruce and the others' faces changed drastically. They looked around but could see no signs of a self-destruct mechanism. Prolo Hawthorne, panicked, said, "Teacher, what should we do? Is he trying to scare us?"
Krupp gritted his teeth and said, "Whether it's true or not, we need to figure out a way to leave here fast. We can't just sit here and wait to die!"
Dean Bruce, looking at Brownie, felt an uneasy premonition. He knew that Brownie wasn't lying—once the self-destruct mechanism was activated, they'd be in real danger. Without hesitation, he shouted, "Don't mind him, let's run down the corridor and see if we can find an exit—quick!"
With that, the three of them turned and sprinted deeper into the corridor, hearing Brownie's crazed laughter echo behind them. At the same time, red lights began flashing along the walls of the corridor, accompanied by the sound of alarms. Clearly, the self-destruct mechanism had started its countdown.
They fought their way through, retreating while fending off the black-robed guards, and made their way back down the corridor. The blaring alarms and flashing red lights felt like they were pushing them to the edge, adding to the mounting pressure.
When they finally returned to the room where they had seen the stones, they searched frantically and, after a tense moment, found them.
Prolo Hawthorne, holding the stones, said, "Teacher, these are the ones! Let's hurry up and try them!"
Without wasting another moment, they rushed back toward the crystal ball, focusing solely on deactivating the self-destruct mechanism.
Upon reaching the crystal ball, Dean Bruce placed the stones into the grooves, aligning them carefully. As soon as the last stone settled into place, the flashing red light from the crystal ball slowed down, and the alarm noise decreased in volume.
Prolo Hawthorne, excited, shouted, "It's working! We did it, didn't we? Is it over?"
Before Dean Bruce could respond, there was a loud "BOOM!" and a nearby wall suddenly exploded. From within, a group of people emerged, with Leizor at the forefront.
Leizor looked at them, anxiety evident in his voice. "Finally! We've been looking all over for you. We ran into a lot of trouble on our end, too. What's going on with the self-destruct mechanism?"
Dean Bruce let out a sigh of relief. "We've just stabilized the self-destruct mechanism—barely avoided disaster. Leizor, what's the situation on your side?"
Leizor furrowed his brow and said, "Don't even get me started. We've been walking straight into traps and enemies all along the way. But we did manage to gather some important intel about the Black Hole headquarters. The defenses there are incredibly tight, so we'll need to come up with a solid plan to take it down."
Krupp walked over, brushing off the dust from his clothes. "Yeah, we've come this far, but we can't let it all fall apart now. Let's all share our thoughts—how are we going to bring that Black Hole headquarters down in one blow?"
Dean Bruce looked around at everyone, then paused for a moment before speaking. "First, let's compile all the intel we have. If we can identify any weaknesses in their headquarters, we can create a detailed plan. This time, we need to uproot the Black Hole organization completely. We can't let them continue to wreak havoc on the magical world."
With that, everyone sat down and began laying out the clues and intelligence they had gathered.
"Leizor, why don't you start by telling us what you found?" Dean Bruce asked.
Leizor cleared his throat before speaking. "As we followed the path we took before, we encountered a shape-shifting magical creature. It disguised itself as various traps and almost tricked us. Luckily, we found its weakness and drove it back with fire-based magic. Afterward, we came across an ancient relic covered in inscriptions about the Black Hole headquarters. The relic detailed some history and clues about their defensive layouts. According to the records in the relic, the Black Hole headquarters has a core energy chamber. If we can destroy the energy supply there, the entire defense system will collapse. However, the path to the energy chamber is filled with magical wards, and we'll need a specific magical password to pass through."
Dean Bruce nodded thoughtfully. "A specific magical password? That's tricky. We've encountered similar password-based puzzles before, but we've managed to solve them one by one. Krupp, what about you?"
Krupp replied, "While we were looking for you, we stumbled upon a Black Hole supply warehouse. Inside, we found a large stash of dark magic tools and weapons. This indicates that their logistics are well-stocked. If we can destroy this warehouse, it would weaken their strength significantly."
"And that's not all," Krupp continued, "I also found some clues about their troop deployments. They're heavily guarding the entrance to the headquarters, but there's a relatively weak side passage. However, it's protected by a powerful magical shield, and we'll need to find the shield's generator and destroy it to get through."