Volume 2 chapter 74
WHOOSH...
The wind howled, carrying a torrent of solidified mana that swept across the continent. The scene was apocalyptic.
Clyris stood on the sidelines, witnessing a battle from over twenty thousand years ago.
Ian's power was terrifying. Every slash seemed to cleave heaven and earth. Some blade beams were like blazing suns suppressing all creation; others were thin threads that sliced the world itself apart.
Even fighting Phyllis and the Dark Giant simultaneously, he remained dominant, suppressing Phyllis to the point where she could barely parry.
"So strong..."
Clyris sighed in awe.
Then, unable to bear the impending defeat, Phyllis invoked the Will of the Demon God hidden deep within the Demon Lord's power!
BOOM...
Instantly, an unimaginable force descended!
Even as a spectator in a memory, Clyris felt the crushing pressure. It felt like an entire mountain range was pressing down on her skull, threatening to grind her bones to dust.
Phyllis was enveloped in pitch-black mana, deep as the Abyss itself. The energy formed a set of dark golden armor around her. Finally, behind her, it coalesced into a figure with an indistinct face.
"That is... the Will of the Demon God?"
Clyris looked at the blurred figure. She knew what it was.
She had made contact with it before, but only through voice. This was the first time she had truly seen it.
Talisk Fortress. The Present.
Returning from Phyllis's memories, Clyris exhaled a long breath.
"Is that her power at her peak? ...If she hadn't been crippled for twenty thousand years, I would have had zero chance of winning back then..."
Stimulated by the memory of Phyllis's prime, Clyris felt a surge of urgency. She activated her Elemental Sight.
Instantly, the world transformed into a flow of colorful mana.
Black, Yellow, Cyan...
Different elements flowed and intertwined in Clyris's eyes. The mana in the air gathered naturally, while in the distance, spots of concentrated mana—some large, some small—shone brilliantly.
"But Elemental Sight only sees the surface..." Clyris reached out, touching the cyan elements in the air, feeling only a breeze against her fingertips.
"At the true bottom layer, it is the entanglement and transformation of the Eight Elements! But a Ninth-Rank cannot see this! This... is the Vision of a Saint!"
No wonder the gap between Ninth Rank and Saint was so vast. Unless one saw it with their own eyes, it was unimaginable, even if a Saint explained it directly. One usually had to spend an eternity feeling it out blindly.
Only when one could perceive the underlying rules of the elements could one ascend to Saint. If you couldn't feel it, you remained Ninth Rank forever!
"Three Space, Three Time, Two Earth, One Light, One Dark!"
Clyris shaped her spiritual force into scissors. Like a master tailor, she cut the specific proportions of elements she needed from the natural flow and mixed them together.
Finally, she attempted to infuse her Gravity Authority into the mix.
But then, disaster struck!
Her other two Authorities reacted as if provoked. They rioted suddenly, latching onto Gravity and locking it down tight. Clyris couldn't mobilize it at all!
"Again..."
Clyris gritted her teeth, cold sweat breaking out on her forehead.
It was always like this. Whenever she was on the verge of completing a Domain, the other two Authorities would interfere!
She dispersed the mixed elements and drew in a different combination.
"One Space, One Time, Four Dark, Two Light, Two Earth."
This time, she tried to guide the Darkness Authority. But Gravity and Death refused to cooperate, dragging Darkness back like two jealous siblings.
"Four Light, Four Dark, One Earth, One Time!"
She switched to the Death Authority. But again, Darkness and Gravity pinned it down!
"Damn it! What is going on?!" Clyris slammed her fist on the armrest.
She couldn't understand why. Her three Authorities were like a tripod welded together. If she tried to move one, the other two wouldn't allow it.
To ascend, she would have to move all three together. But how could three different Authorities transform into a single Domain simultaneously?
A Domain was exclusive. Within a Domain, "I am the Law," and all other laws are void.
The process of transforming Authority into Domain could not tolerate "impurities"!
Furthermore, for a triple-mixed Authority, how would she gather the elements? What were the ratios?
Each Authority leaned toward different elements to varying degrees. Those elements would conflict with each other. How could she balance that?
Clyris collapsed onto her throne, exhausted. Cutting the elements three times in rapid succession had drained her spiritual force completely.
If her power hadn't already exceeded the Ninth-Rank limit, she couldn't have done it three times. An ordinary peak Ninth-Ranker would need half a year to recover from one failed attempt! Even a limit-breaker would need ten days of rest after two attempts.
Yet, she was merely dizzy from spiritual exhaustion.
"Forget it... there's no way for now!"
After a long while, Clyris stood up shakily. "I should focus on how to deal with the Alliance first..."
__________________________
Alliance Southern Grand Camp.
Archbishop Daniel of the Holy Light Church looked at the report in his hands, his brows furrowed deeply.
"Is something wrong, Archbishop?" Grand Mage Sylvan, the Elf, asked from the side.
"The Demons have new weapons again..." Daniel put down the report and sighed.
"What?" Sylvan was startled and hurriedly took the report to read.
"This..."
After a long silence, Sylvan put the report down weakly. "How do these demons come up with endless strange weapons..." The Elven Mage sighed in confusion.
"With things like this, I don't know if our newly transported weapons will be of any use..." Archbishop Daniel looked outside the tent.
In the clearing of the camp, row upon row of Steel Behemoths stood silent!
These were the true war machines of the nations, mothballed ever since the invention of the Charge Formation.
Constructed from refined steel and forged using Supreme Alchemy, their surfaces were covered in dense, glowing runes. Their bodies bristled with long steel tubes. These tubes had no rifling; instead, both the interior and exterior were etched with explosive arrays.
Unlike the low-profile tanks of Seres, these machines were towering and massive. Although they had been relegated to city defense after the rise of the Charge Formation, their original purpose remained: Offense!
"They should be useful..." Master Sylvan also looked outside, but toward the other side of the camp.
There stood the pride of the Elves—Ancients of War.
Massive War Treants sat quietly in the camp, their broad canopies obscuring the sky, shielding the steel behemoths from aerial reconnaissance.
"These machines aren't useless. It's just that the Charge Formation was more flexible and offered comparable firepower, which pushed these machines out of the meta. But now, facing the Demons' hedgehog-like fortress, these clumsy but heavily armored and heavily armed war machines should be the perfect counter!" Master Sylvan argued.
"They should be..." Archbishop Daniel's voice was low. "I'm just worried... that one day the demons will pull out a weapon specifically designed to kill these Behemoths! They change too fast... and we are only ever reacting passively..."
Comments (0)
Please login or sign up to post a comment.