Chapter 661: Act 23 – V
Ten meters.
Seven meters.
The storm of sand and gravel had completely enveloped the entire hall. This underground hall rumbled as the entire space was drawn toward a point by some force. Brendel squinted, enduring the sharp stones scraping across his face, but he ultimately pinpointed the designated position.
The blade of the sword flashed slightly. In the next moment, Brendel’s figure had vanished from his original spot and reappeared beside Avina. The Lightning Maiden seemed completely unaware, looking up in surprise, though a hint of mockery flashed in her platinum eyes.
Brendel quickly realized the danger.
“Shallow.”
Before Brendel could swing the Earth Sword in his hand, he heard Avina’s cold assessment. In the next moment, he felt his sword strike against an indestructible wall; the wall was transparent, and it was as if the blade of the Earth Sword was halted three feet away from the Lightning Maiden, unable to advance further.
“What is this?” Brendel was greatly alarmed. He had never heard of a charging technique also granting a magical shield to the caster. Was there any way to survive this?
“This is not a magic shield, human,” Avina raised the tip of her spear, pointing it at his chin, and calmly replied, “Because you cannot defeat me, this is your fate, much like a predetermined destiny, which is why you hesitate.”
Brendel immediately understood; this was also Avina’s element. This was another form of the power of destiny, planting a subconscious belief in all who opposed her—that they could never defeat her.
In other words, there was no magic shield around her at all. It was merely his own belief that made him think he could not defeat her, causing his sword to come to a halt.
Everything was just an illusion.
But this illusion felt so real, making it utterly impossible to resist. Even if Brendel exerted all his strength, his sword remained forever frozen three feet away from the Lightning Maiden, as if he was contending against himself.
This power was simply incomprehensible; not to mention since crossing into this world, even in his previous life, he had never known of such a thing. He often heard other players speculate on the terrifying nature of the existence force, but it now seemed even more frightening than they had imagined!
“Do you understand?” Avina inquired.
Brendel forced a bitter smile. This was indeed an unbeatable power because he could see the lightning-encircled girl beginning to accumulate her final strength, preparing to unleash her move.
At that moment, the mage from the Silver Alliance had only just begun to chant a spell.
Brendel turned his head and saw a serious look etched on William’s face.
But at that moment, behind the endless storm, a figure emerged in Brendel’s vision. A figure he could never have dreamed of.
It was a long ponytail that resembled flames, her hair scattering as she advanced, swirling the standard long spear of the White Lion army in her hand. It was merely a regular spear, not even counting as a magical weapon, but as the spear’s blade pointed forward, it swiftly reached behind Avina.
It was Xi.
The Lightning Maiden keenly sensed the ambush behind her and swiftly countered with a hand blade that severed the spear in Xi’s hand by half. She turned her head, looking at Xi with some confusion: “Strange, such weak power; how could you escape my Lightning Cage?”
“Because I am also lightning!” the ponytailed girl yelled: “Let go of my Lord!”
“I see.” Avina had already noticed the arcs of electricity swirling around Xi. She raised an eyebrow: “Such pure lightning power. You actually have divine blood, that of Kaosu—”
“Too bad it’s still far from enough.” As her voice fell, she slashed her hand down toward Xi’s neck. This spirit of the Azure Knight seemed to have discerned Xi’s weak power, intending to eliminate this nuisance first.
“Watch out!” Brendel, still beside Avina, now understood that attacking this so-called Azure Knight spirit was futile; unless he could break through the element of destiny, even if the opponent offered her neck, he wouldn’t be able to strike. But he had many ways to disrupt Avina’s movement.
Avoiding the Lightning Maiden, Brendel slashed the Earth Sword downward, shouting, “Rise, power of the earth!” The power of Harangeya burst forth instantly; the ground of the hall seemed to rupture and rise in waves, and the ground beneath Avina’s feet was about to be utterly torn apart.
Avina was suddenly furious, forced to withdraw her hand blade, pressing her hand down to release another “Time Reversal.” This hall was her greatest weakness; she would not allow Brendel to destroy it.
But as she turned around, the ponytailed girl found another opportunity to strike. Without a care for her own weakness that appeared like an ant in the enemy’s eyes, she held her severed spear upright, aiming for Avina’s back.
“Xi, get back!” Brendel called helplessly; he knew that Avina’s element power was tremendously unique. Not to mention Xi, even he found it difficult to deal with her. Xi staying here would only add to his burden.
But it was clearly too late. The relentless attacks from Xi and Brendel could not help but infuriate Avina, and more crucially, the magic power gradually accumulating from the great mage William was becoming a threat. Of course, given William’s capabilities, he could not harm her, but if he were to become serious about destabilizing the hall, repairing it would be a time-consuming and labor-intensive job. “Wasting efforts and time!” the Lightning Maiden finally coldly assessed, as she pivoted her spear, aiming to stab Brendel.
Avina remained quite rational; Xi posed no threat to her, and compared to Brendel who held the Earth Sword, he was more of a bother.
But once she thrust her spear, she immediately realized that she had made a grave error.
Because she felt Xi’s spear stab firmly into her back. Avina showed an expression of utter disbelief—how could an almost peak-gold mortal strike her?
What about her destiny talent?
Xi’s spear, driven with all her strength, hit Avina’s back without even scratching the spirit’s skin and instead sent her flying. But according to the rules of power, that strike had completely interrupted Avina’s charging skill.
With a bang, the black singularity on the Azure Knight’s long spear thoroughly vanished.
An opportunity!
Brendel did not know why Xi was able to pierce through Avina’s element power, but he at least saw that this was an excellent opportunity. Taking advantage of the moment the Lightning Maiden was lost in thought, he raised the Earth Sword high and then thrust it down with force.
With a crack, the power of the earth from the sword instantly spread across the hall’s floor. The stone slabs cracked densely, the earth beneath them emitted a cracking noise as the underground hall rumbled toward one side, seemingly on the verge of total collapse.
“Damn it!”
Avina finally reacted. Although she claimed to have the power of the Azure Knight at her peak, Brendel could see that this spirit merely inherited the strength of the legendary hero. But in terms of battle experience and handling of the battlefield, she was likely still lacking.
As the hall was about to collapse, the Lightning Maiden finally began to panic. She stretched out her hands, and the immense elemental power instantly enveloped the entire underground space. The hall seemed to shatter and instantly restore, but then cracks began to appear again. Avina was covered in cold sweat, gradually realizing she might not be able to hold on much longer.
Because the silver storm of William had joined the fray.
An expanded earthquake spell’s magic power surged into the ground, causing the entire hall to tremble violently. Columns within the hall began to shatter, the ground started to undulate, and then large cracks appeared, sinking, pulling countless stones into the crevices beneath the ruins.
The Lightning Maiden seemed to finally realize defeat was inevitable, but she grit her teeth and raised her head in anger, saying, “Don’t think you’ve won!”
The entire hall was disintegrating into countless fragments falling down; Avina stood under the largest remaining rock, looking down at Brendel and Xi. She reached out her hand, retracting the elemental power that enveloped the entire space, and then shouted, “Destiny, Radiant Fountain!”
History unfolded like a curtain behind her, countless heroes and the glimmering fragments of legends materialized into reality and appeared before Brendel.
Some figures were ones Brendel couldn’t even name, but others were from an era even after the time of the Azure Knight. Among those Brendel recognized, there were the Four Sages, primarily because he was too familiar with the image of Saint Ausoor; these summoned beings formed from fragments of history—Brendel found it hard to put them into existence. Rather than calling them spirits, it was more appropriate to say they were embodiments of rules.
But clearly, the things Avina summoned were not here to have a tea party with him.
The Lightning Maiden pointed her spear downward; her deep voice with powerful penetrating force nearly drowned out the rumble from the collapsing hall: “Heroes are merely beings bound by destiny and desires. Their purpose is to ensure the world’s fate remains on the predetermined path, humanity, face their challenge!”
More than a dozen projections of heroes, as if stepping out from legends, charged toward Brendel. His face turned pale; although he didn’t know how much power these summoned beings possessed, if they were too weak, Avina wouldn’t have released them.
The element of destiny was simply a bug; Brendel mentally recalibrated the order of elements within. In the past, there had actually been quite a number of players with the talent of destiny, but he never expected this element would turn into something so perverse after reaching the realm of existence force.
It was as if you could have anything you wanted.
The first to reach him was the illusion of Saint Ausoor. He didn’t know if it was a coincidence, but the Queen Wind clearly displayed the power one would expect. Brendel had just prepared to raise his sword to parry the attack from the elven Senior Sister when unexpectedly, Saint Ausoor stepped back, already drawing a series of illusions before him.
Queen Wind’s Nine Claws!
Brendel immediately discovered that his Queen Wind’s Nine Claws were utterly incomparable to the ‘genuine’ Saint Ausoor. First of all, the magic power was not on the same level; the ‘Queen Wind’ in front of him seemed capable of incessantly casting Queen Wind’s Nine Claws. Each illusion lasted for a long time, making it nearly impossible to distinguish between real and fake.
And it wasn’t over yet, because on his side, the Flame King Gilt was ready to strike at any moment. Brendel had a profound impression of this renowned ancestor’s flash sword.
Fortunately, Brendel still had his last trump card.
The hall was disappearing beneath everyone’s feet, and he took a step back, reaching for the ponytailed girl’s arm behind him. Xi was momentarily taken aback, instinctively pulling her hand back, “Lord.”
“We can’t win, let’s run!” Brendel responded; he had never had the self-awareness of a top player. He lifted his head to take one last look at Avina at the top; he saw more and more heroes emerging behind her light screen, making his scalp tingle.
This was simply unbeatable, and he didn’t even know which idiot designed such a scenario. What frustrated him even more was that this design was similarly a real phenomenon in this world.
Was there even any science to this?
Brendel shook his head and shouted toward the direction where William had been before, “Master William, we are taking our leave!”
As soon as he finished speaking, he immediately pulled Xi’s hand and leapt into the darkness below.
……(To be continued. If you enjoy this work, please visit Qidian (qidian.com) to vote for recommendations and monthly tickets; your support is my greatest motivation.)
