Chapter 781: Showdown Between Light and Darkness
“Sure, it’s my pleasure to be able to consult you, High Priest Gergila,” said Lin Li. He didn’t think that Gergila had other intentions or plans to plot against him, so he agreed readily with a nod.
The 24 stone pillars in the arena rose slowly around the field. The dense mageweaths on the stone pillars also radiated magical light one after another, and soon, a transparent magic shield shrouded the field. Lin Li and Gergila were already standing in the middle of the field, each holding a staff and waiting for the defensive mageweath to be fully activated in the arena.
There was complete silence in the arena, and the Werewolves, Vampires, mages, and believers of Darkness were all staring at the middle of the arena with excitement. Battles between high priests were rare, and only their respective disciples would be qualified to watch them.
As for the young mage Lin Li, they had all heard about him in the past few days, and knew that he was the distinguished guest invited by Sendros, and that he was the owner of the Tower of Dusk in the Breezy Plains. They heard that he was a powerful Legendary-mage, and even though they were all in disbelief after hearing the news, they could not help but grow curious, since it concerned Chief High Priest Sendros. They, too, wanted to see what was so amazing about the young mage Lin Li.
The four remaining high priests were talking to each other anxiously in the grandstand in front of the arena. Did Gergila really just want to share his actual combat experience? That was one of the reasons, but not the only one. As a high priest of the Darkness Shrine, he definitely didn’t want to spar with a guest of honor just because he was feeling an urge to practice.
“Zoquila, is it really appropriate for Gergila to do that? Sendros has warned us before,” the Vampire Culostein asked with some concern. Although the five high priests were all members of the Darkness Council, they were all respectful to and fearful of Sendros, especially when they thought about Sendros’ means of dealing with rebels and those who violated the rules. Even the cold-blooded Vampire could not help but feel a chill down his spine.
“It’s just sparring and an exchange of experience, nothing too disrespectful. Besides, Master Felic is a willing party too. I doubt Sendros will hold it against us,” Zoquila said while hiding his face in the large hood, making it impossible for anyone to see his expression. However, his tone revealed the uneasiness within him.
“Don’t scare yourself. After all, we’re doing it for the Darkness Shrine. Besides, didn’t you guys see that Mage Felic seems to be looking forward to the sparring session too? There’s nothing too special about it. We’re doing this for the sake of satisfying him too,” said the Werewolf high priest Poladio, who was rather nonchalant about it.
After giving it some careful thought, the Vampire felt that Poladio made sense too. Although Sendros’ brutal means were frightening, he was not unreasonable. At the thought of this, the several high priests finally felt slightly relieved, and they shifted their attention to the center of the arena. At this moment, the defensive mageweath of the arena had already been activated completely, and the opponents finally moved after the two of them exchanged some polite words.
Neither Gergila nor Lin Li exhibited their respective Magical Domains. After all, it was just a friendly sparring session. Hence, there was no need to go all out. Besides, Lin Li really took it as a sparring session, and although Gergila was not very satisfied with Lin Li’s answer to his question, he did not dare to take Sendros’ words lightly.
However, Gergila felt that even if he didn’t go all out, it wouldn’t be too difficult to defeat Lin Li. He felt that regardless of how great Lin Li’s mastery of magic theory was, it did not mean that he could use his spells well. His mana was almost infinite, but that did not mean that he could use it appropriately. Otherwise, there wouldn’t have been so many battles in this world. There would easily be a distinct winner once they compared each other’s mastery of magic theory. As for experience in adventures, there wasn’t a clear winner.
Besides, the environment of the Darkness Shrine was similar to a Darkness Domain, which allowed the strength of the believers of Darkness to greatly improve. Gergila initially had level-23 power, but with the help of Dark Magic, his power was probably great enough for him to rival a level-24 powerhouse. Gergila thought that the only thing he had to do was to make sure Mage Felic would not lose too badly to protect the pride of the latter.
“Be careful, Mage Felic,” Gergila specially reminded. He pointed his staff forward, and a shadow formed at Lin Li’s feet.
There were some ripples at Lin Li’s feet, and it was as if the ground had turned into black water. There were then black tentacles like giant pythons that emerged from the ground and intertwined around Lin Li’s body.
Upon hearing Gergila’s reminder, Lin Li almost couldn’t recover from the shock. Is this a new battle tactic? It might just be a sparring session, but he doesn’t have to be so friendly and polite, Lin Li thought as he raised the Helios’ Scepter and pointed it toward the ground gently. A ball of flames immediately spread outwards, using his body as a central point.
Resistance Ring Of Fire was a very effective spell that mages could use when they were being besieged. The black tentacles that were moving toward Lin Li were suddenly pushed away from Lin Li by the Resistance Ring Of Fire which caused them to melt quickly. Immediately after casting the Resistance Ring Of Fire, Lin Li immediately waved the Helios’ Scepter and caused a ray of Thunderbolt to condense, after which it immediately crashed into Gergila’s head.
Gergila was not surprised by the fact that there were no effects of using the shadow. If Lin Li couldn’t even counter that, how could he be respected and valued by Sendros? Gergila shifted his footsteps swiftly, and while giving himself an additional shield, he seemed to have become a shadow. At this moment, the pillar of Thunderbolt seemed to have landed too. However, it caused numerous ripples to form in the ground.
Lin Li squinted a little—the Darkness Guardian was a Legendary-level defensive spell, and its effects seemed rather similar to those of Void of the Stars. Of course, it was much worse. It was said that the mages who mastered the Void of the Stars would be able to place their body and soul in the Void of the Stars, and no longer be hurt by the magic spells and weapons. Actually, under the effect of the Void of the Stars, the caster would definitely become an existence that no longer belonged to Anril, and thus would not be susceptible to damage by humans.
The Darkness Guardian would cause the caster’s body to become a shadow with extremely high immunity to physical damage and damage done by elemental spells. Swords had never been able to attack shadows. Besides, there was a special feature of Darkness Guardian which allowed the caster to move freely in the naturally occurring shadows. If the caster was completely in the dark, it would almost be the same as teleportation.
However, the greatest weakness of the Darkness Guardian was that it would greatly reduce the caster’s resistance to Holy Light magic. When the caster was under the protection of the Darkness Guardian, he could probably be injured by a Holy Light spell of the lowest-level despite being in the Legendary-level. Hence, Dark mages would definitely refrain from using Darkness Guardian when battling with the clergymen of Holy Light, for that would be akin to letting the opponent kill them.
When Lin Li was in the Brilliance Shrine, he had not only read the Light Bible, but also received the personal guidance of Pope Rosario. Hence, he definitely wasn’t inferior to the clergymen in terms of Holy Light magic. According to Archbishop Englos, Lin Li’s attainments in Holy Light Magic were enough for him to qualify for a cardinal’s position.
However, in the face of Gergila’s Darkness Guardian, Lin Li didn’t use any Holy Light Magic. One reason for that was that he was, after all, in the Darkness Shrine. Hence, using Holy Light Magic there would definitely make others detest him. Another reason was that they were just sparring, after all, and Lin Li didn’t really want to win. He didn’t want the battle to end too soon, either. Moreover, the use of Holy Light Magic during the sparring session would be rather suspicious, and even if he were to win, he would win because of an unfair advantage.
Will I have no means to deal with you just because I’m not using Holy Light Magic!? Lin Li thought to himself with a smirk, after which he darted to the side quickly, avoiding the thorns of the shadow. At the same time, he raised the Helios’ Scepter while chanting a spell, causing the gemstone at the top of the scepter to emit a dazzling ray of light.
All of a sudden, the temperature in the arena seemed to have plunged drastically as plenty of snowflakes condensed in the void with specks of glitter. They then floated downwards and caused the entire arena to be covered in snow. It was not Lin Li’s Frost Domain, but a level-22 ice element Realm Magic that was similar to Thunderstorm Disaster.
“He actually used a spell of this level at this juncture. Does he really have infinite mana?” asked Gergila, rather shocked—just like the other four high priests, who were also taken aback. Theoretically, a mage should have the ability to cast magic spells that corresponded to their respective levels. Since Lin Li was a level-23 Legendary-mage, it wasn’t surprising that he’d be able to use level-22 spells. However, that did not mean that he could use them casually like they were fireballs, especially since Realm Magic as such would consume mana rapidly. It would be a huge burden even for a level-23 mage.
However, the four high priests could tell that Lin Li seemed very relaxed when casting the spell, and didn’t seem to pause at all when he was accumulating mana. In other words, the mana required by this level-22 spell could be put out by Lin Li immediately, and didn’t have to be accumulated in Lin Li’s body beforehand. Based on that alone, the four high priests began to believe that Lin Li’s mana was almost infinite, just like what Sendros had told them.
At this moment, a priest scurried onto the viewing deck. After bowing, he said to the four high priests, “Sirs, the chief high priest would like you to see him now!”
“What!?” The four high priests sprung up in shock. Although they had already thought of an excuse beforehand, they still panicked when they heard that Sendros wanted to see them. Of course, Sendros wouldn’t really skin them alive, though he would definitely teach them a lesson.
“Just the four of us? He didn’t mention High Priest Gergila?” Zoquila asked as he calmed down, seemingly having thought of something.
“Yes, the chief high priest only mentioned that he’d like to see the four of you. He didn’t mention High Priest Gergila,” the priest hurriedly answered.
“Zoquila, why did you ask that question?” the knight Nostalo asked loudly.
“Nothing much, that just means that the chief has probably given his silent consent to the sparring session. Otherwise, he would have summoned Gergila too, and not allowed the two of them to continue sparring in the arena,” Zoquila explained to Nostalo and the rest after heaving a sigh of relief.
An ordinary mage tower would use crystal balls for surveillance and monitoring purposes, what more the Darkness Shrine. In fact, every slight change and movement in the shrine would immediately appear on the crystal ball at the core of the shrine. Although Sendros couldn’t possibly stay in front of the crystal ball at all times, he would definitely take a look since the strongest defensive mageweath had been activated. If Sendros had really been displeased with the behavior of the five high priests, he would have stopped the sparring session immediately instead of asking to see the four of them.
Upon hearing Zoquila’s explanation, the other three were finally relieved, but they would still clearly get reprimanded. The four of them glanced at the arena, and noticed that the two there were launching their attacks and casting their respective spells while having a whale of a time. They wondered how Sendros would deal with Gergila, but could only sigh deep down and leave the grandstand together.
Gergila, who was in the arena, had no idea that his peers had all been summoned to see Sendros, because his opponent Lin Li left him with no room to pay attention to other matters. He could already sense that Lin Li wasn’t lying or boasting at all. After launching the level-22 spell, he continued to launch another spell that consumed massive amounts of mana. If he had been an ordinary level-23 Legendary-mage, he would probably have gassed out a long time ago.