by Zhuang Bifan
Elder Randy even vaguely began to admire Lin Li because he was well aware that the reduction of the casting time could not be achieved overnight. He was sure that it definitely took Lin Li plenty of effort and time to become capable of. Talent in magic would not do much for him in this aspect.
Lin Li could not be bothered with whatever others would think of him, for according to his understanding of the debris of the stars, Thunderbolt was the shrewdest of all pieces of the debris of the stars. Even though the lightning magic that they were facing now was not a direct attack from Thunderbolt, the nomological power that was contained within it was definitely related to Thunderbolt.
The nearly infinite lightning magic was shot instantly, and even the defensive spells that the Legendary-mages had cast could not withstand it. The deafening roar of thunder was like a hammer that continuously shattered the fragile defensive spells.
Elder Randy suddenly couldn't care less about Lin Li, and instead focused all of his attention on casting defensive spells continuously, only to barely catch up with the speed of destruction. However, that did not mean that they were already safe. The solidified magic in the sky was continuously activated. The numerous pillars were only the beginning.
There was already a golden sun in the sky which appeared out of nowhere. It seemed just like a succulent fruit produced by the sky. However, everyone who saw the wonderful scene did not seem to appreciate it at all. Instead, their hearts grew even heavier.
Even if they were not Legendary-mages, they could still sense the horrifying mana within the golden sphere which had definitely reached the Legendary level. The mages were no strangers to the golden sphere in the sky, either. They knew that it was actually the Legendary magical sphere of extinction, and it wasn't just one.
The shiny and dazzling spheres of thunder exuded a terrifying aura which seemed to be capable of destroying everything, making everything become warped. Finally, the time seemed to be ripe. The spheres swayed and slowly descended from the sky. Compared to the pillars that were still falling continuously, the speed of the spheres seemed to have slowed down a little, though they were still way more oppressive than the pillars.
The spheres that had fallen seemed to have devoured all of the pillars, causing their power to still increase slowly. The immensely overwhelming magical dominance lived up to its name and seemed to be destroying everything in this realm.
"BOOM!"
The outbreak of the spheres immediately broke several layers of magical defense, making everyone around sway unsteadily because of the tremors. The residual force overwhelmed everything nearby, and even destroyed a layer of defensive spell when it hit one of them.
Resisting the bombardment of the thunder spheres was not something worth celebrating, because there were still plenty of such spheres dangling in the sky.
The addition of the thunder spheres made it even more difficult for them to keep up with the defense, but removing it at this point seemed to be futile. They had to wait for the guardians to appear in order to retaliate.
The only thing that they could all do was to bite the bullet and push their speed to the limits again while adding more and more layers of magical defense. At the same time, they were still hoping that the damned guardians would show themselves as soon as possible, regardless of whether they were Legendary powerhouses or not.
Seemingly having heard the voices of everyone and angered by their stubborn attempts at retaliating, the enemy that they were all looking forward to seeing had finally appeared. However, it was not the guardian, but the wind elementals that they had encountered previously.
More than 10 of them appeared and began bombarding the people immediately. The power of these wind elementals was not as scary as the solidified magic spheres in the sky; they were much more concentrated, and the power of more than 10 wind elementals could not pose a threat to them, but remained annoying…
A series of electric snakes landed around them, and after the thunder roared and lightning flashed, the shape of the wind elementals was revealed. Indeed, less than 20 wind elementals would be insignificant to the people there, but dozens of them would be terrifying. However, the summoning did not stop, and the unassuming electric snakes sandwiched between the pillars would signify the summoning of a new wind elemental whenever one of them landed on the ground.
An emerald green light was emitted from the elves' defensive spells and accurately hit one of the spheres in the sky. All of a sudden, the sphere detonated with much power; the massive explosion seemed to have drowned out everything else in sight.
Although the melodious singing could not be heard, Lin Li knew that it was Princess Elune using the Song of Heart again. Lin Li had never asked them about the price of using the Song of Heart, but there was no free lunch in this world, and the Song of Heart was not a magical artifact. Even if it was, it would be impossible for people to use their power freely without paying. Clearly, Princess Elune had to pay a hefty price for using the power of the Song of Heart.
Several spheres in the sky were exploded by Princess Elune, but her efforts were insignificant overall, though she at least managed to buy some time for everyone.
Everyone took the rare opportunity to tacitly gather together, and advanced forward. The appearance of a large number of wind elementals meant that a real battle was about to begin, and there would only be a dash of hope if they were to cooperate actively. Otherwise, they would only be destroyed and killed.
The three forces moved closer together amidst the endless attacks. The short distance somehow seemed to be huge at this moment. Even though there were no longer any terrifying bombardments for now, they dared not delay in casting defensive spells.
The elves first gathered together with the Tower of Dusk team, and the four Legendary powerhouses continuously cast defensive magic. The layers of light engulfed everyone, and although the defensive magic outside was still continuously collapsing, the rate was slower than that of their spell-casting.
Lin Li's speed was especially bewildering; they could not even make out what he was chanting. His hands were moving at godlike speed too, and the only sign of him casting a spell was the Helios' Scepter.
Chapter 655 - The Stars of Fury
Cheyenne only had to be concerned with himself. Actually, it was not that difficult to support each other. However, after the wind elementals appeared, he was left all alone, and the pressure that he had to withstand was not just a little bit. It was increased exponentially.
Under tremendous pressure, Cheyenne moved towards Lin Li and the rest, but when he was about a few steps away from their magical defense layer, the thunder roared loudly in the sky and dozens of lightning pillars suddenly slammed into the ground. The defensive spells around Cheyenne were immediately broken together with the dozens of layers of defense.
Before Cheyenne could catch his breath, a purple thunderbolt suddenly bolted out amidst the roaring thunder. It seemed to have pierced through the layers of magical defense without hindrance, and fell onto Cheyenne's head.
"It's a divine punishment!" Upon sight of Cheyenne, the others could not help but shriek in terror. The Divine Punishment was not an actual punishment sent by the gods, but rather a single-stroke attacking spell that could be up to level-23 in power. Although the purple thunderbolt was tiny, it contained all of the concentrated power of Thunderbolt that was stronger than the thunder spheres.
Although it was just an alliance that was formed based on interests, the loss of a Legendary-mage before the guardian appeared would be detrimental for them. However, no one could give Cheyenne any help at this moment, and it seemed that the Malfa Family's leader would never escape this ordeal.
However, while everyone was worried about Cheyenne, Lin Li looked up at the huge vortex in the sky. The instant the level-23 Divine Punishment appeared, Lin Li seemed to have sensed a surprising magical wave coming from it.
The magical wave was entirely identical to the Stars of Fury, be it in terms of the magical aura
or nomological power. Could it be that apart from Thunderbolt, the Stars of Fury was also present in that vortex?
However, Lin Li carefully recalled that the magical waves that he had just seen, and began to doubt his own guess again. Although the magical wave was almost identical to the Stars of Fury, it was still too weak. Lin Li had once possessed the Stars of Fury, and used it countless times.
However, as the former owner of the Stars of Fury, Lin Li was very sure that he had identified it correctly. Apart from being too weak, the magical wave just now was completely the same as that of the real Stars of Fury.
What exactly is going on? Lin Li was really puzzled, and he really wanted to use his mental strength to look at the vortex again, but he was always hindered when he was close to the edge. Besides, the current situation did not allow him to be too distracted, and he had no choice but to turn to Cheyenne and see if there was any way his ally could escape the Divine Punishment.
While everyone gazed at Cheyenne helplessly, the purple thunderbolt hit Cheyenne accurately. However, at this very moment, a yellow halo appeared on Cheyenne all of a sudden, shielding him from the purple thunderbolt a few centimeters away from his body. In the blink of an eye, the purple thunderbolt disappeared together with the halo on Cheyenne, who then seized the opportunity to speed up and join the magical defense perimeter of Lin Li and the rest.
With a loud and crisp noise, a ring on Cheyenne's finger suddenly shattered and fell to the ground before he could even regain his balance, escaping awkwardly. A look of pity formed in Cheyenne's eyes, but he quickly looked away and smiled at Lin Li before joining the team while holding his staff tightly.
Lin Li could tell that the ring was probably what helped Cheyenne escape the attack and resist the level-23 Divine Punishment. The defensive power of the ring was truly incredible. Cheyenne was a Legendary-mage who supported the Malfa Family all by himself while going against the Dark Blade for years. If he had not had any trump cards that allowed him to protect his own life, he would have probably been destroyed by the Dark Blade a long time ago. Unfortunately, the level-23 magic was still too strong, and had exceeded the capacity of the ring.
The team gathered together again, and immediately slipped back into the cooperative mode that they had been in when dealing with the wind elementals. Each of them performed their respective duties, except they mainly focused their energy on defense this time.
In the face of the countless formidable spells and the level-23 Divine Punishment, Cheyenne could not afford to protect the rest at all. After Cheyenne joined in, Lin Li and Elder Randy continued to cast defensive spells, while the three remaining elves and two Undead creatures dealt with the wind elementals.
If there were only a dozen wind elementals, they would barely pose a threat to the Legendary powerhouses. Although everyone exhausted all their energy on continuously casting defensive spells to resist the powerful offensive spells, it was not a problem for the rest to destroy the wind elementals, since they were all Legendary powerhouses.
However, what would happen if there were dozens of wind elementals? Each wind elemental reached level-18 and had great immunity to magical and physical attacks. That was not comparable to killing a level-18 Archmage. All it took to kill a level-18 Archmage was one Legendary powerhouse. However, in order to defeat a level-18 wind elemental with a single attack, one Legendary powerhouse might not be enough. The combination of two or three Legendary powerhouses could indeed kill the wind elementals quickly, but that speed seemed to be a little too slow for dispatching dozens of wind elementals…
In fact, it didn't matter if they slowed down, since the defensive spells that Lin Li, Cheyenne, and Elder Randy had continuously put up were not broken easily, unless all the Divine Punishments were overpowering. What was really terrible was that there were dozens of wind elementals, and the summoning still did not end. The rate of destruction of the wind elementals was far behind that of the summoning.
Only a few minutes had passed, and the team had already killed more than 10 wind elementals. However, the number of surrounding wind elementals had not only decreased, but also reached the order of hundreds.
How the heck are we supposed to continue this battle? Even the Necromancer's Tide of Death wasn't this abnormally overpowering. The wind elementals were all level-18, and the strong wind magic continuously bombarded the defensive spells. Faced with the hundreds of wind elementals, there was no way to resolve the matter even if Lin Li and Elder Randy could free up some time.
Lin Li and the others who were responsible for putting up the defensive layers continued to supplement the defensive layers, while the rest was a little helpless. Should they continue to attack the wind elementals? That would be useless because now there were hundreds of wind elementals that would take a long time to kill. However, death would be the only way out if they did not kill the wind elementals. No matter how powerful the Legendary powerhouses were, it was impossible to endure such an endless fight. The layers of defense would ultimately be broken.
In the sky, the pillars of lightning continued to fall endlessly. The spheres also fell down one by one, and every one that hit their heads could blast off several layers of magical defense. As for the level-23 Divine Punishment, everyone would be shocked each time it appeared.
Their defeat was already set in stone. Facing the endless bombardment of magic and the wind elementals surrounding them menacingly made them feel hopeless about escaping. The team were just lingering and waiting for Lin Li and others to run out of magic. Once they were no longer able to support the defense, it would be the end of the team.
Culofen had already rejoined the casting of defensive spells, leaving the two elves and two Undead creatures behind to attack the wind elementals which were hard to deal with. An emerald arrow was put on the bowstring, and Princess Elune slowly pulled the Song of Heart while aiming it at the spheres that were falling from the sky. However, she was soon stopped by Gildor.
It was not that Gildor had any weird intentions, but rather that everything they did would seem to be redundant. Since they already knew what the outcome would be, they felt that there would be no point in wasting their energy.
Norfeller and Ujfalusi were still attacking the wind elementals outside, but with their power, it would be difficult to deal a fatal blow to the wind elementals. It was not that they were too weak. Well, they were a level-21 Vampire and a level-22 Lich, respectively. Who would dare call them weak?
However, their opponents were the wind elementals. Although Norfeller was fast, he wasn't faster than the speed of lightning. Death would be the only thing that awaited him if he were to leave the range of magic defense. As a Lich, Ujfalusi was a master of toxic Necromagic, but the wind elementals were not afraid of toxins at all. As soon as the summoned Undead creatures appeared, they were instantly destroyed by the lightning magic. They did not help at all.
In this situation, no one could think of a way to resolve the crisis, and the future seemed much bleaker compared even to the time when they'd faced the Green Dragon King. Until now, the mysterious guardians had yet to appear, but they had lost all hope of escaping. It was no wonder that the guardians had been slow to show up. If they couldn't even pass this stage, they wouldn't be qualified to meet the powerhouses at the peak of the Legendary level.
Everyone was in despair; the only thing they could do was wait for death.
Elder Randy glanced at Lin Li, but soon turned away to look at Princess Elune. Miracles were miracles because they rarely happened. Hence, how could there be another miracle so soon after the first one happened? The answer was obvious.
Elder Randy wouldn't regret dying for the sake of finding the artifacts of the elves. His only regret would be bringing Princess Elune to despair. As early as Princess Elune had gotten infected with Viper's poison, he should have withdrawn from the operation together with her, but he had not done so. When encountering the Green Dragon King, he should have also thought of letting her withdraw, but he stil
l hadn't done that. He wanted Princess Elune to have the glory of finding the relic, but he had clearly overestimated his own abilities.
The elves had probably never felt so desperate and hopeless before in their long lives. Even when they faced the coalition forces of various races which had almost destroyed them, none of them were in such despair. However, Elder Randy had not expected to feel hopeless twice in such a short time. The power that he used to be proud of was now rendered useless, and they did not know what else could be done other than to cast defensive spells.
The lightning flashed across the sky, while the numerous Razer Pythons and pillars of lighting persisted on. The golden dazzling spheres slowly fell from the air, and the aura of destruction was overwhelming. The hundreds of wind elementals surrounded everyone, while the wind and thunder element surged wave after wave.
Their efforts to keep up the casting of the defensive spells seemed to be futile, and they had no idea when they would be defeated.
Although Lin Li seemed to be calm on the surface and was maintaining high-speed casting, he was actually extremely anxious as well. Faced with the endless magic bombardment, the speed of the destruction of defensive layers had exceeded that of replenishment. At this rate, it was only a matter of time before the defense was rendered useless. By then, no one would be able to escape.
However, they had to at least find out what their enemies were if they wanted to find a way to get out of the crisis. Only then could they find a weakness to tackle. It was similar to when they'd faced a dead end during the battle with the Green Dragon King. However, the emergence of the Elemental Wyrm Xiao Hua saved the day. Unfortunately, while Lin Li reckoned that the guardian of the last realm was Thunderbolt, a piece of the debris of the stars, he could not find out who was using it.
