When Kaleb and Arthur noticed the large arrows of mana coming from the beginning and end of this corridor, they both realized the mistake they had made.

By circling their defenses to protect themselves from the offensive formations in that corridor, they were confident they could withstand the offensive power of Vicente's trap. Offensive formations in places like this were not designed for continuous attacks. They aimed to kill or seriously injure as many opponents as possible in a quick attack.

For this reason, simple direct attack formations like the one in that corridor only worked for a few moments before they had to be reloaded. That could take several minutes or even hours, so after the initial attack, they would temporarily go into standby mode.

One could be sure of one's life or purpose by defending against this type of formation. The chances of anything else happening would be minimal, which gave Kaleb and Arthur confidence in their actions.

However, they didn't expect there would be other offensive formations nearby that would be activated at the same time as the one in the corridor!

When they saw Vicente lying on his back on the ground with a golden barrier around his body, the two Mages felt a chill run down their spines at the sight of the many attacks coming at them.

"Shit!" Arthur whimpered as he realized his mistake in using his own energy to defend himself.

Formations were expensive and hard to come by. For every 10 magicians of a certain stage, 2 or 3 would have formations with them.

On the other hand, The Vile Altar's defenses were mostly 3rd-grade since there had never been any Sovereigns in that province, which wouldn't justify the investment in better formations.

That's why Arthur and Kaleb didn't choose to 'waste' their defenses there.

It would've been a waste of resources. Besides, they felt they were strong enough to withstand the onslaught of that corridor's offensive formation.

However, as much as they were able to withstand the offensive power of one of those 3rd-grade formations, it was a challenge for them to withstand the offensive effect of two of them at the same time.

Regretting they had not been more careful, the two men felt their mana defenses fall in the face of the attacks from two formations of equal power.

In the first moment of the attack, they held their positions, feeling their mana being quickly consumed by their defensive spells. But after only 3 seconds, when the laser formation stopped working, they both saw and felt their guards collapse.

While they felt as if the breakdown of their defenses had wounded their souls, they were pierced by at least 6 arrows of mana at various points in their bodies.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaagh!"

The two let out loud cries of pain, losing the strength to stand as they fell to the ground, bleeding from various places.

Vicente watched the two Low-level Mages fall as he lay on the ground, feeling the defensive formation Torne had given him was still working.

The laser attacks that could have killed him had already been deactivated, and it was on standby.

But arrows of mana were still shooting from the beginning and end of the corridor, so he remained motionless for a few more moments, watching the two men in agony.

Arthur's and Kaleb's suffering wouldn't last long, and these two Mages would soon stop screaming, their bodies only moving from the last arrows that hit them.

At the last second, under the protection of the defensive formation, Vicente saw the arrows stop being fired from the beginning and end of the corridor.

Just as Torne had told him, they would only last 9 seconds, while his defense would protect him for 10.

As he felt the protection around him disappear and the core of the formation collapse, Vice sighed in relief.

'Old Torne, you have saved me once again. If I'd had to fight those guys, I'd probably have died at the hands of the enemies on the surface, even if I had defeated those two.' He commented and sighed as he stood up.

'That is no more than my duty. But don't thank me yet. We still have opponents on the surface. But now we won't have any defense. Everything will depend on you, master.'

There were formations that could be used repeatedly. That was the case with the formations in the traps around the ruins of The Vile Altar, which triggered attacks and then went into a standby state to recover the mana used.

But defensive formations generally couldn't last more than one use. Defensive formations were only used when their owners felt threatened by powers greater than their own. Since one would rarely have a formation much more advanced than one's own powers, these defensive mechanisms would be permanently damaged after just one use.

The formation Vicente had used was slightly more powerful than the attacks from earlier. Still, the damage it had suffered was enough to damage it even if it hadn't been destroyed during use.

So now Vicente was without that powerful defense and could only rely on his own powers!

'I know, but that should be enough anyway. How are our enemies on the surface?' He asked as he searched the bodies of the two, quickly taking what couldn't be traced and leaving traceable items behind.

There are still two Low-level Mages on the surface and two Mid-level Mages. But the second strongest Mage is about to be crushed.' Torne said as he felt a huge wooden statue pressing against a single man while the other two Mages seemed to be resting from their recent movements, tired.

As much as the group of soldiers and bandits had had the upper hand against the members of the Congregation of Revelation, it hadn't been easy.

They hadn't risked their lives in the fight, but they had used between 70% and 90% of their strength to reach this moment.

Vicente clenched his fists when he heard it, feeling the difficulty of the situation he was in had decreased significantly.

From the original 10 enemies, he now only had to face 3 opponents before he could return home!

After collecting what those two Mages had for him, Vicente didn't hesitate to leave this level of The Vile Altar, heading to the surface where Tyson had just killed Levi.