Chapter 794: Act 145 – Not an Accident
“Charles!”
Brendel finally drew the attention of the two giant activated spells, countless glimmers rising from the enormous spells, making them look somewhat like stars in the dwarf star phase—gravity could no longer constrain the burning gases surrounding the celestial bodies, the inner layers began to collapse, and the scorching atmosphere violently expanded outward—these two luminous orbs, when expanding furiously, nearly occupied half the size at the end of the square, their interiors flickering with dazzling blue light.
The gap between the two giant activated spells was no bigger than a coach, and this gap was shrinking rapidly. Brendel madly accelerated, attempting to pass through the middle before it completely sealed off. He activated his charge skill and leaped from the ground, that narrow passage almost within sight, but at that moment, a layer of flowing light rose from the activated spells, swirling around like star rings, crashing towards Brendel.
At this time, countless twisted lines of the laws extended from around Brendel, forming two solid light walls in front. The flowing light heavily struck against the light walls, causing the law lines to shake violently, dazzling light flashing everywhere. In that instant, Brendel’s figure suddenly split into a phantom as he dashed forward, the light wall behind him quickly shattered, the heavens of brilliance engulfing him, but he had already landed firmly on solid ground. Looking back, the giant activated spells were already behind him, with numerous icy breaths chasing him into the stellar-like orb, like moths to a flame, leaving a bright spot of light in the expanding orbs, then vanishing without a trace.
Brendel paused momentarily, then sheathed his sword and ran toward the eastern exit.
In the south of the square, the entire scene of the Eternal Silence Square was visible, and the Cruz nobles were filled with both astonishment and fear—astonishment at Brendel’s power and fear of their previous arrogance; Rainwright frowned, remaining silent, even Veronika raised an eyebrow, not expecting Brendel to truly draw so many monsters away. Putting herself in Brendel’s shoes, even she would have to think carefully about what to do next.
“The Lord Earl is actually that powerful…” Shi Do murmured in disbelief.
“That’s just skill,” Veronika said, shaking her head afterward. It was indeed skill, but the question was how many people could see the flaws amidst thousands of monsters gathered together at a glance. Even she couldn’t do it; only after witnessing Brendel skillfully weaving through the ocean of monsters could she follow the path he took to find a safe route, but even to this day, she still didn’t know if this path was the only one or just one among many. Regardless, either scenario made her feel a chill. If it were the former, she couldn’t imagine how Brendel managed to find this unique path in an instant, while if it were the latter, it meant that the net of monsters appeared to have countless flaws in Brendel’s eyes, while she still needed considerable time and thought to find even one.
Veronika glanced at the northern edge of the square with a complicated expression. Though she was extremely reluctant to admit it, the intelligence and courage of that young man still left her feeling amazed, even a bit uneasy. That young man was an Erluin, and he was the most determined Erluin she had ever met. The female commander lowered her eyelashes, momentarily thinking about how wonderful it would be if there were many such outstanding youths among the Cruz. Comparing with Brendel was like contrasting the bright moon with a firefly.
“If there were such youths among the Cruz…” she gently shook her head.
Brendel certainly wouldn’t think that Veronika would misunderstand his actions and overestimate his capabilities. In fact, the tidal wave of icy breaths wrapped around him made him unable to think too much; he was beginning to feel that the situation was becoming a little tricky.
The square gradually transformed into a tall corridor leading to unknown areas in his view. This direction should be the Contemplation Corridor, which was the exit of the central maze, a very famous area within the Temple of the Hibernators. If he remembered correctly, not far ahead was an unknown hall, not much smaller than the Eternal Silence Square. The remarkable thing was that there were no wandering monsters, making it almost a natural place for maneuvering. Brendel planned to turn toward there, but the problem was that he had drawn too many monsters this time; it could be said that no one had ever attempted to draw all the icy breaths in the Eternal Silence Hall along with the two giant activated spells.
The more monsters there were, the slower the turning would be. He didn’t want to turn back only to rush into a monster encirclement. But after thinking about it for a while, he couldn’t come up with a reasonable way to avoid it. He didn’t want to use the Time Pointer; even though the bet had already ended, it wouldn’t count as cheating, but burning experience was painful, especially since he had just begun to awaken his elements. If he were to fall below rank, that would definitely not be fun.
However, Martha seemed to be on his side this time. Just as he was at a loss, points of light suddenly appeared in the darkness ahead; Brendel’s heart stirred slightly. There surely couldn’t be players in this dungeon, and the Blackfire cultists hadn’t yet entered the Temple of the Hibernators at this time. In this sanctuary, aside from them, the only possibility was Anlek and his Everything Returns Society members—he just didn’t know who had come or if it would be Anlek himself. Yet, whoever it was, it was enough for Brendel.
He immediately had an idea.
……
After receiving Anlek’s orders, Dejyar patrolled along the long hall with the knights in black robes. This hall was different from the Contemplation Corridor; the black hall was completely empty, with long arched windows embedded in the walls. When the group passed these enormous arched windows, they appeared as tiny as ants. Within the arches were glacial window frames composed of millennia-old ice, with dim blue light seeping through the ice walls, intertwining within the hall.
A few moments prior, they had turned a corner and beheld such a magnificent scene. However, nobody knew what this place was, or the name of this hall. The group advanced slowly, moving through the light and shadows, the sound of their footsteps resonating into a hollow echo at the other end of the hall, the sound rumbling in the expansive closed space. After a short while, a black-robed knight suddenly stopped and shouted, “What is that?!”
Everyone followed his gaze to look ahead, where suddenly a beam of flowing light surged from the darkness, gradually brightening as if a glowing giant beast was waving its tentacles from around the next corner. The tentacles slowly extended forward, and then its body appeared in the sight of Dejyar and the knights behind him, each of them wide-eyed—they saw two gigantic luminous orbs filling the corridor behind one another, pressing towards them.
“It’s activated spells!” Dejyar, being relatively well-informed, immediately recognized the source. But he had never heard of activated spells this large. Turning back, he saw that the knight beside him was hurriedly drawing his sword, and he swatted the sword away with a swift motion, shouting at the other, “What are you doing?! Run!”
Generally, activated spells are formed from spells of the third to ninth rings, while an activated spell composed of spells above the ninth level is usually referred to as a roaming magic. Since it consists of pure and powerful spell energy, aside from spells meant to dispel magic or deconstruct spells, any magic will only have a healing effect against roaming magic. Additionally, activated spells are immaterial beings that only exist in an energetic form, so mundane physical attacks can only cause them very limited damage. Thus, although roaming magic itself isn’t as powerful as an awakened element, it remains one of the most fearsome presences among monsters at the peak of gold level.
Yet the two before them could no longer be referred to as roaming magic; even if Dejyar had only seen activated spells a couple of times in his life, he immediately recognized that this was a roaming magic lord composed of spells exceeding the tenth ring, with an elemental tier of power that left no room for exaggeration.
Only wizards and equally ranked mage hunters could contend with them; their knights or black-robed knights from the Everything Returns Society would only be fodder. “Run! Let’s split up; there are two of them, and surely someone will make it back to the Duke,” Dejyar immediately shouted to the others.
Only then did the black-robed knights snap awake, hurriedly retreating in different directions. But as Dejyar’s voice fell, countless twinkling lights emerged from the darkness. “My lord, look over there,” someone shouted. But they didn’t need the other black-robed knights to remind them; Dejyar had already seen the sight, as countless icy breaths appeared out of the darkness, like a sudden tide of monsters.
“How is this possible?!” Dejyar’s first reaction was that they had inadvertently triggered some trap; otherwise, how could the activated spells in the sanctuary suddenly go berserk and head straight for them? Until someone beside him reminded him—“There’s someone!” A knight on his left suddenly exclaimed. “Someone is leading them over here!”
The eagle swordsman from the Highlands was momentarily stunned before he grasped the meaning of this statement. He immediately turned his gaze towards that direction, but it was not fortuitous that upon looking, he felt his blood boil with anger.
“It’s you!”
Dejyar almost shouted in anger, his expression akin to seeing an archenemy, filled with rage. Faced with such an ireful eagle swordsman, Brendel also felt somewhat innocent. He believed this was a very unfortunate coincidence; the first time they met, he had severed this man’s hand, the second time this guy nearly died on the battlefield, and now, it seemed that obviously some things this gentleman did not wish to witness were about to happen once again.
Brendel felt sorry for this Highland swordsman, but that didn’t stop him from saying, “Mr. Dejyar, has your hand healed yet?”
“Earl Toniger, you’re dead!” Dejyar’s face, dark enough to drip water, allowed Brendel to sense an anger that felt tangible. If that anger could have materialized, he would have been in tatters by now. Unfortunately, the eagle swordsman had not yet cultivated the skill to kill from a distance with sheer will, thus Brendel could still remain lively for a while longer.
Of course, we can’t question Mr. Dejyar’s courage. If he could, he would certainly draw his long sword and rush forward to dismember Brendel—at least to die together in a bid for revenge. Yet, at the moment, Dejyar felt his legs were rooted to the ground, as heavy as a thousand pounds, making it difficult to even take a step forward.
Because Brendel was leading behind him two gigantic roaming magic lords, along with a tidal wave of activated spells—those icy breaths were charging straight towards them. As long as his intellect remained intact, he would understand what Earl Toniger was planning—after all, leading disaster away was not exactly a brilliant stratagem.
But the problem was—
Dejyar discovered that there was only one reasonable way to counter this despicable scheme. “Despicable bastard!” he cursed as he turned around, issuing the most flawless command to deal with the current situation: “Quick, retreat!”
Brendel couldn’t help but smile internally, just as Dejyar had realized and as he had long planned, what both sides needed to do now was a thrilling race—there was no need to run fast, merely faster than everyone else. However, it wouldn’t be that easy for Dejyar to slip away ahead of him. He snapped his fingers, drawing his index finger through the air, and the retreating black-robed knights suddenly felt the ground beneath them soften; the solid earth seemed to have turned to quicksand.
Secondary Quicksand, a first ring elemental series spell, had the sole effect of making the ground softer; since the spell’s effect was aimed at the ground, not against the people walking upon it, the black-robed knights didn’t even get a chance to resist this spell with their magic resistance. Although under normal circumstances, this spell hadn’t needed to be resisted, as it merely softened the ground a bit, it wasn’t as though it could really cause someone to fall in like proper quicksand; making the ground softer had limited effectiveness, especially on the battlefield—it was hardly useful unless several hundred wizards cast it simultaneously, as it would be utterly meaningless on an expanse of battlefield stretching hundreds of miles.
Yet with hundreds of wizards, wouldn’t it be better to use it to cast other spells to deal with cavalry?
Even this spell had little effect for the black-robed knights: although their speed inevitably slowed down on the softer ground, the change in velocity was negligible—nothing too troublesome. Dejyar heard someone scoff lightly, clearly disdainful of Brendel’s childlike trick. If it had been six months ago, he might have thought the same—using a first ring spell against a being of elemental manifestation? Wasn’t that ridiculous?
But now, he felt alarm bells ringing in his mind. Would the opponent be an easy target? He just needed to look at the scars on his arm to know the answer.
What happened next immediately confirmed his thoughts.
The airflow tangled, turbulent winds, minor rust, ice feet, chains of flames, accelerating fatigue, force of gravity slightly increasing—one after another, first ring spells fell upon everyone. Each spell had minimal effect, but the key was they didn’t need casting time. Brendel almost ran while recklessly casting these low-level spells on the black-robed knights. He didn’t need to breach the magical resistance of the knights with each attempt, so long as one would take effect, the higher-tier believers from the Everything Returns Society would gradually slow down uncontrollably.
In ordinary times, slowing down would be nearly meaningless due to the short duration, and it would consume time and effort. But at this moment, these were like life-threatening talismans for the black-robed knights. Brendel bypassed the knights he had slowed down one by one, while behind him, the gigantic roaming magic lords and countless icy breaths instantly overwhelmed them, as if stones thrown into the sea were quickly swallowed without a trace.
“Despicable!”
These high-ranking devotees from Everything Returns Society were usually regarded as the most sinister and ruthless beings by ordinary people, but at this moment, Brendel appeared as the real demon in their eyes. There was an old saying among the Jiufeng—being an accomplice to a tiger. Just now, Brendel was playing such a role—they could defeat Brendel easily if it were just him—of course, black-robed knights thought so. But unfortunately, Brendel clearly wouldn’t give them that chance; he would instead encase them in magic one by one, leading the icy breaths behind him to take them down.
This was nothing less than a blatant display of leveraging others’ power.
There were, of course, a few black-robed knights unwilling to suffer such humiliation, drawing their swords and turning back to rush toward Brendel, wishing to perish together with him. Yet unfortunately, they soon realized the issue—‘So this guy is an elementalist with pent-up power, but his swordsmanship is surprisingly good.’ With such astonished thoughts, they were swept away into the horde of monsters by Brendel’s Wind Queen’s Nine Stars.
The number of knights dwindled, and soon, in Brendel’s sight, only Dejyar remained.
This eagle swordsman truly deserved to be a confidant of Anlek. Brendel realized that he might possess some kind of Contemplation Talisman or secondary spell resistance brooch-type magical equipment; first and second ring spells hitting him disappeared instantly. He tried to cast a third-ring Fire Arrow, and indeed, it left a charred mark on his back armor. It appeared to be a Contemplation Talisman; the secondary spell resistance brooch could resist spells below the fourth ring. However, Brendel still shook his head; he only knew Fire Arrow as a third ring spell, and his mana wasn’t sufficient for repeated use. After all, trying to defeat a foe who had awakened elements with a third-ring spell was itself a grand fantasy.
If only he had a third-ring spell like Wind Binding; a one-second delay would have been enough to deal with Dejyar.
Brendel had to face the reality of being a second-rate elementalist; no matter how hard it was to cast his second-ring spell instantly, he was still blessed by high willpower. Trying to force-cast a third ring spell was likely to backfire. And requiring him to stand still to cast a spell? He’d have to ask if the horde of icy breaths behind him would kindly wait; the answer was obviously negative.
Now Brendel had to confront two problems:
1. Dejyar could run faster than him.
2. He seemed unable to reduce the other’s speed.
Clearly, our eagle swordsman had also realized this after Brendel’s several attempts. A proud expression bubbled up for the first time on his face; though somewhat disheveled, he turned back to Brendel, laughing mockingly, “You’re crazy! Do you even know what you’re doing? Are you planning to keep running like this? Ha-ha, you’ll surely die before I do!”
After shouting this, Dejyar felt a surge of delight as though for the first time, he was in the advantageous position against Brendel. Yet this satisfaction hadn’t fully left its impression when it was abruptly snuffed out, his expression freezing as he noticed Brendel looking at him with a tinge of pity.
If it were anyone else looking at him like that, he would certainly feel seething anger, feeling insulted and belittled.
But Brendel’s gaze stirred an alarm in Dejyar’s heart.
He must have a scheme!
He must be plotting against me!
Dejyar was all too familiar with that young man across from him. Although they knew who stood to gain the most after the confrontation in Ampere Seale, he had orchestrated their failure as if he had foreseen it, manipulating them—down to the Duke he respected—at his will. If there was something in this world he could consider a demon, it would certainly be this face before him.
In that moment, Dejyar felt every hair on his body standing on end, his focus sharpening on Brendel’s every move, as if he were ready to react with countless premeditated responses the moment Brendel made a move.
But Brendel only made one gesture.
He mouthed a phrase to him.
Our eagle swordsman hesitated slightly; it wasn’t that he didn’t understand lip-reading, but Brendel’s words were too strange.
“Be careful ahead?”
“Be careful of what ahead?”
……
