They simply unleash incredibly powerful magic to overwhelm others.
On the other hand, the opponent who disliked alchemical tools made things easier for Alex. He didn't have to worry about complex strategies and even felt confident enough to face him alone.
However, someone like Phoenix was a different story.
While she might not rely on brute magical force as much as the Thunderbird, her unpredictable methods made her far more dangerous.
That's why Alex never considered confronting her solo.
His recent discoveries confirmed his concerns: without fully understanding the equipment Phoenix wielded, he could easily be caught off guard.
After a brief moment of reflection, Alex composed himself and continued sorting through Phoenix's relics.
What he found next immediately lifted his spirits: a vast collection of written materials, enough to fill an entire bookshelf.
For Alex, money and valuables were secondary; knowledge was the real treasure that could help him directly.
He quickly began reviewing and categorizing the documents and soon divided them into three groups.
A small portion was useless to him but valuable nonetheless, consisting mainly of Silver Wand documents.
These included records of black market materials from the French branch, personnel lists, warehouse inventories, addresses, and other details.
There were also German files, such as information about East German civil society organizations she had contact with, personnel lists, files on leaders, records of past operations, briefings, and more.
This showed just how deeply the club had infiltrated German political and business circles, with many prominent figures involved.
Although these documents didn't benefit Alex directly, they were a godsend for Andre, providing targeted intelligence to counter the club and serving as powerful evidence.
Beyond these, the rest of the information was incredibly valuable to Alex.
What caught his eye first was the large number of rare magical books and manuscripts, many of which were unique and unlike anything he had ever seen before.
Most of these books focus on alchemy, potions, and dark magic.
There are even plenty of materials about the soul and the mind.
To Duin, these texts are incredibly valuable.
From Alex's perspective, their worth probably surpasses everything they had found before combined.
The last part of the collection is the smallest, but it's by no means insignificant. It's a research journal that belongs solely to Phoenix!
As Alex skimmed through it, he discovered numerous potion recipes invented by Phoenix herself, detailed blueprints for alchemical devices, and original spells she had developed.
Among them were the spells 'Elegy of Soul' and 'Umbra Excidium,' which Alex recognized from before.
The latter is like a stronger and improved version of the [Corrosion Curse].
This spell isn't only more powerful but also has unique features. It's silent and creates complete darkness.
However, to use it effectively, it needs to be combined with an alchemical item called [Matte Dust].
Alex discovered a large supply of these during a previous inventory check.
These come in metal cans that look like small wine bottles.
Upon inspection, Alex found them quite ordinary except for one key feature: they automatically explode after being thrown.
This alchemical item functions similarly to smoke bombs but with enhanced abilities.
When the [Matte Dust] spreads, it significantly blocks vision and also dampens other senses, making it almost like the affected person is blind, as their vision turns pitch black.
Additionally, the dust is very resistant to wind, so normal spells like the 'hurricane spell' can't easily blow it away; it has to settle naturally.
According to Phoenix's notes and letters, this [Lightless Dust] is meant to be used alongside the [Umbra Excidium] spell.
The strategy in battle is to first throw out the [Lightless Dust] to blind the enemy and then cast the silent, invisible [Umbra Excidium], making it a deadly combination for stealth attacks.
Another powerful spell introduced is the [Elegy of Soul], which is a
Large-scale area-of-effect magic.
To cast this, the user must first gather and store enough souls inside their body or a container.
When the spell is activated, it emits a piercing scream that targets the souls of enemies.
This scream combines sound waves and soul energy to deliver a triple effect: fear, repulsion, and spiritual damage to all enemies within at least a 50-meter radius.
After this initial attack, the caster releases all the stored souls, which form multiple "soul aggregates."
These aggregates independently seek out enemies and attack.
Their strikes cause corrosion and fear, and they have a unique ability: when hit hard enough, a soul aggregate self-destructs but then splits into multiple smaller aggregates, continuing to harass and entangle the enemy relentlessly.
If Alex hadn't acted quickly and unleashed the incredibly powerful spell [Thundris Tempest] to wipe out those soul fragments, they might not have harmed the group of wizards directly, but they could have trapped them for a long time.
After reading up on the spell [Elegy of Soul] from the information he had, Alex realized that the version Phoenix had cast earlier was clearly weaker than it could have been.
The strength of this spell depends not only on the caster's determination and magical control but also, most importantly, on how many souls have been sealed inside beforehand.
Then Alex remembered the pile of alchemy supplies he had sorted through earlier and pulled out several pot-shaped urns made of magical metal.
During his previous inspection, he had noticed these urns could store souls, but he didn't understand why Phoenix kept them, so he had set them aside.
Now, seeing them again, it became clear that these urns were the key components for casting [Elegy of Soul].
Phoenix probably only used the souls sealed within her own body because she had to act quickly against the enemy.
If she had these urns with her at the time, the power of [Elegy of Soul] would have been devastating.
Both [Umbra Excidium] and [Elegy of Soul] require special alchemical props or spell materials to reach their full potential.
Yet, even without these materials, Phoenix was still incredibly tough to face, which made Alex realize just how far behind he was compared to these ancient immortals who had lived for countless years.
Most of Alex's power came from his equipment; without it, he might not be nearly as strong as Phoenix was tonight.
Still, the magic notes he had gathered were incredibly valuable.
[Elegy of Soul] is a tricky spell that can be harmful to the caster's own spirit, as it requires spiritual contact with the souls involved.
He didn't plan to learn the spell himself, but just from studying the talisman, he gained enough knowledge to get a glimpse into the mysterious world of soul magic, an incredibly rare and complex branch of magic.
Props and spells like [Lightless Dust] and [Destruction Shadow] are handy tools that can be picked up and used effectively.
Take [Lightless Dust], for example.
When Alex was working on tactical gear, he had already considered creating something similar to smoke bombs.
However, from his experience in actual combat, he knew that ordinary smoke wasn't very useful in wizard battles.