Chapter 919: Calamity
As the headquarters of all Guilds of Magic, the Alanna Guild of Magic could afford that batch of supplies and resources, but they would definitely be reluctant to give it away, not to mention the Tower of Dusk that had just been established a few years ago.
However, Lin Li was mentioning that matter to Mason’s teacher, President Joey, at this moment. They would be heading to the Alanna Guild of Magic, and there were Magical Crystal Cannons and magical crystals in Lin Li’s Ring of Endless Storm. Hence, there was no need for Lin Li to move them over from the Breezy Plains at all. He could just let President Joey bring the things back this time.
At first, Mason was still worried about how he should explain this to his teacher. After all, it was because of him that the New Crescent City might stop providing aid. However, when Lin Li mentioned this issue again, Mason and Orrin finally realized that he hadn’t been kidding earlier on.
President Joey knew that the Tower of Dusk possessed the Tera Mine which was bringing it almost endless wealth. However, he was still very shocked that Lin Li could offer such a generous amount of supplies to aid Chevan City for free, all because he had been roommates with Mason before!
President Joey didn’t know Lin Li well, but he knew that the arbitrator wouldn’t think highly of a nobody. He also knew the situation his faction was in now, so he didn’t reject any further[1], and thanked Lin Li continuously while forcing down his immense joy.
Just as Lin Li was talking with them while walking slowly towards the Teleportation Portal, hundreds of translucent organisms suddenly shot down from the skies at the edge of the Sky Garden.
These organisms looked like crystal clear water balls, making light refract upon passing through them. Some of them landed on the Teleportation Portal. A bright light shone from the portal, and the portal was destroyed instantly following a loud explosion.
For most of these translucent organisms, they changed their direction immediately upon landing, and rushed towards the mages closest to the Teleportation Portal. In the process of shooting down, these organisms’ bodies had changed into almost human-like figures by the time they got close to the mages.
Joey and Hahnar gasped, “It’s the Calamity! Why is it happening now?!”
After coming to the Sky Garden these few days, Lin Li had quite a bit of understanding of the Supreme Council now. The Calamity that Macklin had talked about wasn’t actually a natural disaster, but rather these translucent organisms invading the Sky Garden—the Souls of The Dead that the High Elves had left behind.
This Sky Castle had originally belonged to the High Elves. Although Geresco had snatched it and wiped out all the High Elves in the city, there were still many High Elven Souls of The Dead left behind. These Souls of The Dead had already lost their sense of identity, and had forgotten the pride and honor that belonged to the High Elves. They hid all around the Sky Castle out of instinct.
These Souls of The Dead were extremely different from Vengeful Spirits. They didn’t possess a strong death aura, and were actually products of the High Elves’ unwavering will and blood power. The way they accumulated strength was also not through engulfing soul fire like the Undead creatures, but rather through converting the omnipresent magical elements into their own mana, just like mages.
Whenever these Souls of The Dead had accumulated enough strength, they were driven by their instinct to attack the Sky Garden. For the past 1,300-odd years, the attacks had never ceased. This had caused huge damage to the Supreme Council initially, and thus the mages called it the Calamity.
After some time, the Supreme Council gradually figured out the patterns behind their attacks. Thus, they made preparations before each attack, and reduced the losses to a minimum. The Calamity was even used as a trial for the mages in the Supreme Council. It was for this reason that the three arbitrators didn’t step in and destroy these Souls of The Dead completely.
However, the timing of this Calamity seemed to have disregarded the patterns that the Supreme Council had found out. Its scale was also larger than those recorded in history, almost similar in intensity as the first few times. Out of the Souls of The Dead, there were tens of Legendary-level ones, and the rest were all approaching Legendary-level.
Souls of The Dead lower than Legendary-level didn’t really pose a threat. The fact that it was called a Calamity was because of the Legendary-level Souls of The Dead, who had inherited all the merits of the High Elves. Although they had lost their bodies, they could now use nomological power with greater ease than before.
Although these Legendary-level Souls of The Dead were similar in strength compared to mages of the same level, they could integrate themselves into the world’s rules. That was already a Sanctuary-level ability; the only difference was in the level of strength. Thus, a Legendary-level mage was no match for a Legendary-level Soul of The Dead at all.
If the councilors of the Supreme Council hadn’t left, there would probably have been enough people to deal with a Calamity of such scale. However, many councilors had left one by one. The remaining councilors had almost all chosen various Teleportation Portals based on their needs, so the strength of the council had been spread out.
Like wolves eyeing their prey, the Souls of The Dead swarmed towards the mages standing closest to the Teleportation Portals. Even when facing Archmages who were relatively lower in power, the Souls of The Dead didn’t give them any chance.
Standing in front of Lin Li were the councilors from Rosen’s faction and their students. Although they hadn’t made their opinions known directly during the meeting like Leddings and Canuman, so they didn’t need to worry about Lin Li revenging them, they still felt nervous that they were standing so close to Lin Li, and wanted to leave immediately.
However, those councilors didn’t expect the Calamity to come just as they were about to step into the Teleportation Portal. Those councilors were all Legendary-mages, so they reacted speedily and used defense magic to protect themselves. However, their students weren’t so fast.
Of course, it was evident what the outcome would be for an Archmage when facing the combined attack of several Legendary-level Souls of The Dead and many more level-18 or 19 ones whether or not he was prepared. The Archmages following their teachers didn’t even have time to shriek before being engulfed by the swarm.
Meanwhile, their teachers could only watch their prideful students being engulfed by the swarm helplessly since they were struggling to protect even themselves. In fact, they didn’t manage to sustain for long, either. In less than a second, the Legendary-level Souls of The Dead had penetrated the Elemental Shields of these level-20 or 21 Legendary-mages.
For Lin Li and Joey, these High Elven Souls of The Dead didn’t even stop at all from invading the Sky Garden, destroying the Teleportation Portals, and engulfing the Legendary-mages and their students to pouncing towards them.
Joey and his team were stunned, and their faces turned pale, especially after seeing those in front of them being engulfed by the Souls of The Dead almost instantly.
Joey was only a level-19 Archmage, while Hahnar had just reached Legendary-realm not long ago. With their knowledge of Lin Li, he had only reached Legendary-realm two or three years ago. As such, Joey thought that his team’s power was similar to those in front of them. Even though they had a bit more time to react, that wouldn’t change the outcome.
Just then, the alarm in the Sky Castle rang. The mages at all places rushed towards the Sky Garden to help. However, being the Sky Castle of the High Elves, the Sky Garden was so vast that the mages could only arrive in a few minutes at their maximum speed.
Meanwhile, at the Eternal Tower, Chairman Andoine and Deputy Chairman Rosen had also gotten the news of the Calamity. After knowing that the location of the attack was at the Teleportation Portal to Alanna Guild of Magic, Andoine didn’t dare to hesitate even a second.
When Lin Li had come to bid farewell just now, Andoine had heard him say that he would be going to the Alanna Guild of Magic. Given that not a long time had passed, Andoine was almost certain that Lin Li was among those facing the attack.
Rosen had the same guess as Andoine. He was even a little glad at this news, hoping that the Souls of The Dead could kill Lin Li. However, he didn’t want the arbitrators to think that Lin Li’s death was due to his incapability in rescuing him.
Andoine and Rosen held their magic staffs and flew in Lin Li’s direction. When they arrived, the High Elven Souls of The Dead had just engulfed those councilors, and were rushing towards Lin Li and his companions.
Seeing the power of those Souls of The Dead, Andoine got more anxious. Although he knew that Lin Li was stronger than he was, there were dozens of Legendary Souls of The Dead in this swarm. These Souls of The Dead were skilled at group attacks. Even a mage at the peak of Legendary-level couldn’t take the combined attack of dozens of Legendary-level Souls of The Dead.
Although Rosen was rather disappointed that Lin Li was still alive now, he hid his disappointment deep in his heart, and pretended to be very anxious. When he saw the swarm of Souls of The Dead pouncing towards Lin Li, a glimmer of hope arose in him again.
After numerous Calamities, there shouldn’t be more than 10 Legendary-level Souls of The Dead in total, while those approaching Legendary-level should be around 100-200. However, their numbers had more than doubled in this Calamity.
In the face of a Calamity of such scale, even Rosen was shocked. He couldn’t think of any that matched the scale of this one. Those Legendary-level Souls of The Dead made use of their high integration of nomological power, making them almost incarnations of the rules themselves. This was unmatched by any Legendary-mage of the same level.
Rosen speculated that even if Andoine and he rushed over to help, they would most likely not be able to match these Legendary Souls of The Dead. With the swarm of Souls of The Dead rushing over like the tides, Lin Li and his companions would be engulfed instantly. Nobody would be able to save them. Nobody!
Although Joey and Hahnar had already cast their strongest defense spells, every one of them could clearly feel how fragile their defense was in face of these Souls of The Dead. It was like a bubble that could be easily popped.
Any Legendary-level Soul of The Dead couldn’t be dealt with easily with Joey’s and Hahnar’s power, not to mention a swarm of them. Everyone’s face turned as pale as a sheet because they knew they had slim chances of escaping this time.
Meanwhile, Lin Li didn’t cast any defense magic. Instead, he gently lifted his hand and pointed towards a spot of nothingness. Almost instantly, those aggressive Souls of The Dead, as well as the spells the mages were casting, froze into stillness.
Maybe it was a second, or even less than that, but Joey and Hahnar all felt as if their hearts had stopped beating for a long time. They could clearly see those Souls of The Dead’s twisted and hideous faces outside of the magic shields as well as their claw marks left on the magic shields.
Next, the mana wave around Lin Li’s body that seemed so insignificant just a moment before suddenly erupted like a volcano. The mana waves rushed out in all directions, and even the space around started to bend. No one could describe how powerful it was, because its power had gone beyond the limits of their imagination. It was like looking at the peak of a mountain from the foot, but only seeing the mist surrounding the mountainside.
With the mana waves, an extremely glorious, sacred, and powerful aura compressed this space. At that moment, Joey even saw fear on the grimacing faces of the Souls of The Dead.
After that, the Souls of The Dead who had just engulfed several Legendary-mages and Archmages seemed to have experienced some great pulling force from their surroundings. They couldn’t let out a sound, but shrieks of pain had already overwhelmed the depths of their souls.
[1] It’s polite in China to reject favors and such once or twice first, so the author prolly implies this.