Chapter 930: Act 103 – Nature Affinity Emblem II
When QiYala posed this question, Brendel had already figured out what the issue was. In “Amber Sword,” any high-grade magical equipment—excluding artifacts and sub-artifacts—required a certain level of willpower to use. However, there was one exception: magical items with storage capabilities. The fact that the sprite could use the demon-slaying gun without any hindrance showed that the gun was indeed a type of special storage item. The characteristic of storage items is that using them beyond their limits can lead to various unforeseen dangers due to overload.
Much like his Queen Wind ring and Freya’s flame ring, which operated on the same principle, anyone with a slight understanding of magical item characteristics generally wouldn’t make jokes about such things. The disintegration or explosion of magical items is mild at best; should backlash or chaotic magic phenomena occur, one would truly have nowhere to cry.
However, the sprite was evidently unaware of this. Having forgotten to remind her earlier, Brendel felt awkward about bringing it up now.
He deflected QiYala’s question with a laugh, leading her to believe he was upset and deciding not to ask further. The forest rushed past Brendel’s side as the scenery gradually became blurred, merging into a brownish-yellow and deep green mass. Indeed, as QiYala had suggested, Brendel began to find it challenging to focus on anything else.
Modest had grown tired of the repeated dive attempts that ended up empty. She seemed to have lost the pride of a dragon and simply began spewing fire mid-air.
This left Brendel in an increasingly precarious situation.
The dragon’s flame could be considered one of the most famous elements in countless legends, but contrary to common mortal imaginations, dragon flames often did not need to hit their target directly to cause harm. The temperature of these flames was beyond comprehension, capable of igniting a forest from just a spark. As dragons soared over the forests, they could ignite entire woods without intentionally breathing fire; the flames they emitted had the same effect. For a warrior at the pinnacle of the sword master level, just entering a fifty-meter range was enough to turn to ash.
Things were slightly better for Brendel; as long as he stayed out of a thirty-meter range, he would be fine. However, he was not the one in danger—his three companions could not endure it. For this reason, he had to extend the time for the Pointer of Temporal Passage, accelerating the rate of experience decay.
The second-level Frost Earth Guardian faded into nothingness, and Brendel felt like crying. It meant that the experience that Mistral had compensated him with yesterday was about to hit zero.
Fortunately, the vision ahead suddenly opened up. The forest’s edge revealed a steep cliff, and below the cliff was a valley surrounded by mountains. Brendel felt a wave of excitement; this place resembled the location he was looking for. However, since he had never been here before, whether it was truly the entrance to the underground world remained to be confirmed.
At that moment, the crackling sound of flames behind him grew louder, indicating the approaching black dragon Modest. She seemed to have grown wiser, likely realizing that chasing after Brendel, who had a sub-artifact, was futile. Instead, she casually breathed fire and followed behind, waiting for this little fellow to exhaust himself before striking.
Brendel dared not delay. He reached the edge of the cliff and leaped off, the silver lines of space-time flickering. The next moment, they found themselves directly in the valley.
“Spatial transfer!” Modest exclaimed upon witnessing this scene, unable to restrain her anger. As a dragon with profound heritage, she had long recognized that the sub-artifact Brendel wielded was the Pointer of Temporal Passage. However, she had not expected that after chasing for nearly half an hour, this little creature would have a new trick—spatial laws. For the first time, the mother black dragon felt challenged. The series of tricks Brendel displayed had caught her attention.
But while she was vigilant, she could not change the established facts. Spreading her wings, a golden line of law extended from her flesh wing, instantly covering dozens of miles of the sky like a vast arc-shaped net. At the same moment, Brendel felt a tightening sensation; the space-time laws that he had been able to perceive clearly seemed to lose contact, severed in an instant. He instinctively looked up to see the interlacing golden lines shimmering in the air—undoubtedly Modest’s law power.
The existence of the Extreme Plain could pull a person into its law world, while the Sage Field could project one’s domain into this world. The relationship between the latter and the former resembled a projection of a clone—though the latter was significantly safer, as it avoided the kind of fatal error Williams had made.
Brendel was no stranger to the projection of the Extreme Plain; he had seen it many times in the previous world. However, what he did not anticipate was that Modest’s law not only suppressed his feeble laws but also affected the Pointer of Temporal Passage on him. Its consumption suddenly accelerated sharply—what was once stable consumption doubled in an instant, leaving Brendel unable to cope. The level of the Frost Earth Guardian dropped another level in an instant.
Could the law’s power really affect artifacts? This bizarre situation left Brendel baffled. Although the law power could suppress most magical equipment, in the Extreme Plain, the attributes of non-legendary items generally could exert only about sixty percent of their efficacy, but sub-artifacts and artifacts had their own inherent laws. These top-tier magical items were immune to the influence of any law power and were hard to destroy, just like Oulf’s Creation Ring, which could only be destroyed if the specific celestial alignments occurred. The Pointer of Temporal Passage was the same; as a time-oriented artifact, the only way to destroy or influence it was to lose it in the abyss of darkness near Lady Ylian’s historical flow.
But that place was an illusion, so saying that time-oriented artifacts were flawless was not an overstatement. Now, how had it been affected?
Even Modest did not expect this situation; otherwise, she would have long ceased discussing reason with Brendel and would have likely made her move much earlier. Brendel found himself in a predicament, having guessed the ending, but not the beginning. Unexpectedly, the BOSS she referred to was actually him, not Modest. He couldn’t help but feel exasperated, thinking he was essentially an elite template in the game, something that could barely be considered a minor BOSS.
Brendel wanted to slap himself.
The merchant miss perched on his shoulder finally seemed to notice the seriousness of the situation. Even with her lack of perception, she had to confront the two massive dragons. Cautiously, she asked, “Brendel, are we going to be eaten by them?”
“Perhaps it’s worse than that,” Brendel thought.
Before Gwendolyn, even Modest dared not speak lightly. The former looked down from her height at Brendel; her eyes differed significantly from typical black dragons. While Malaxias and Modest’s eyes resembled enormous graphite spheres, Gwendolyn’s looked akin to molten lava balls, emitting a hint of golden light in the deep blackness, evoking a coldness mingled with regal majesty from afar.
Gwendolyn finally spoke, “Little one, where have you hidden the Sword of the Earth?”
That first sentence struck Brendel like a lightning bolt. He gaped and found himself speechless—how had she seen it? The Sword of the Earth was hidden in a dimensional rift. If she could see inside that rift, wouldn’t that mean she could pierce the conventional boundaries of space? What level of power was this? Brendel felt a wave of chaos wash over him.
“You needn’t doubt. I can sense its presence, though I can’t surmise where you’ve hidden it,” Gwendolyn answered coldly. “If you don’t respond, I will need to confirm the answer myself.”
Accompanying her words was a chilling intent to kill.
