Chapter 962: Legion Of Mages
After all, the previous battle between Lin Li and Osric happened rather far from the ground above Alanna City. Donald could not figure out how exactly Lin Li had killed Osric, and how many times Lin Li had used Thunderbolt during the battle. In his opinion, if Lin Li could still use that magical weapon, he would have used it without hesitation given the situation that they were in now. Otherwise, he might not even have the chance to use it later.
At this moment, Lin Li did not take out Thunderbolt. Instead, he used another piece of the debris of the stars, Gloomy Dark. There were two black balls around Gloomy Dark, revolving around it like they were satellites.
At Lin Li’s current level, Legendary powerhouses were all like insignificant ants to him. His so-called trump card was not reserved for them, either. He did not use Thunderbolt and ignored the covetousness of Donald and the others simply because it was inappropriate. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have used Thunderbolt without any restraint when he had killed the High Elf at the peak of the Legendary-realm back then.
This time, Lin Li took out Gloomy Dark, but he also used his mental strength to suppress the mana waves of the Gloomy Dark out of consideration for the Undead creatures. Otherwise, all of the Undead creatures in this world would instantly go berserk because of the power of Gloomy Dark as soon as it appeared.
The two small black balls revolving around Gloomy Dark were left behind after Lin Li killed the Twin Dracoliches in the green dragon graveyard back in the Haiga Mountain Range.
All along, Lin Li had been unclear on the relationship between Gloomy Dark and the two black balls. He did not know how to make use of them, either. However, after stepping into the Sanctuary-realm, Lin Li could be considered to have made a qualitative leap in his mastery of the debris of the stars. Although the leap would not allow Lin Li to completely exert the full power of the debris of the stars, he had gained a considerable understanding of the nature of their power.
Under Lin Li’s mental strength stimulation, the two black balls that were revolving around Gloomy Dark suddenly sped up. After reaching an extreme velocity, they flew out one after another. Next, everyone heard the dull sound of two explosions, and a large wave of black mist erupted. Two identical Dracoliches appeared in the sky above the team.
Compared to when they were in the green dragon graveyard, the two Dracoliches had already become much stronger. They had reached the peak of level-23, and were only one step away from level-24. However, in reality, Lin Li knew that the two Dracoliches were already powerless. Their power was given by Gloomy Dark; to be more precise, they were like weapons that contained the power of Gloomy Dark.
Although Lin Li was not certain if existences like Gloomy Dark were sentient, the two Dracoliches were undoubtedly manipulated by Gloomy Dark. If Gloomy Dark was Lin Li’s magical weapon, the two Dracoliches could be considered the tools of Gloomy Dark. To a certain extent, they were incarnations.
Seeing that Lin Li did not take out the mysterious and powerful magical weapon like he had expected, and instead took out another item while summoning two Dracoliches[1] with powerful magical waves, Donald felt like he was about to lose his mind. Deep down in his mind, he was already roaring, Just how many more trump cards does this President of a nameless force have!?
Although Donald couldn’t recognize the mysterious existences the Dracoliches were, he could clearly sense the massive level-23 mana waves from the two Dracoliches. Even in a force like the Rotterdam Kingdom’s, level-23 power was definitely in the top tier.
In fact, even powerhouses who had just stepped into the Legendary-realm would be won over by the royal family in every possible way, what more level-23 Legendary powerhouses. They would receive any noble title and any amount of wealth they wanted. Actually, the Rotterdam Kingdom was not the only one. Any other force would probably do the same. Besides, even if they were to come up with ways to tie down the mages, they might not be able to make every Legendary powerhouse feel tempted, let alone the ultimate level-23 powerhouses who were about to reach the peak of the Legendary-realm.
As for cultivating their own mages, they would have to pay an even greater price. Even if they spent a massive amount of resources, they might not get to nurture a Legendary powerhouse. That was precisely the reason that the Rotterdam Kingdom decided to spend more energy on the Alchemy Colossuses, which would at least be better than nurturing a person who might not even reach the Legendary-realm in the end. That was also one of the reasons that the people of the Rotterdam Kingdom believed that alchemy would inevitably eventually replace combat professions such as Mages and Warriors.
However, two possessors of such a massive combat power that was highly coveted by all forces were actually summoned by an unassuming magic prop! Looking at the two level-23 Dracoliches who were surrounded by black mist in the air, Donald and the others were almost vomiting blood out of jealousy. Damn it, where did this kid come from? He’s actually so powerful. Why haven’t I heard of the Tower of Dusk before!?
Of course, Lin Li was not concerned about the thoughts of others at all. After summoning the Twin Dracoliches, he immediately gave them orders through Gloomy Dark.
Next, the two Dracoliches that were shrouded in black mist were seen rushing out of the group without making a single sound. They then charged towards the Undead Greater Demons that were approaching the expedition. One of the Dracoliches stretched its arm out, and a Poison Domain was suddenly exhibited, shrouding everything including the Undead Greater Demons in a layer of green.
Although the Undead creatures had extremely high resistance to poison, the power that the Dracoliches now had belonged to the debris of the stars, Gloomy Dark. The poison was no longer a simple toxin, but a type of Law. After being engulfed in the Poison Domain, the movements of the Undead creatures immediately became significantly slower and stiffer. Even their soul fire seemed to be eroded by the poison.
However, at the end of the day, the Undead Greater Demons were much stronger than the Skeletal Warriors. Even though their bodies and soul fire were stained by the poison, they didn’t seem to be affected very much. They wielded tridents and were striding towards the expedition. It seemed that they would not stop until they stabbed a few people with their tridents.
However, immediately afterward, the other Dracolich attacked too. Similarly, it displayed its Magical Domain—the Death Domain—that emitted the aura of silence, and immediately fused with the Poison Domain. That was the characteristic of the Twin Dracoliches. Due to their relationship, their Magical Domains could be fused together. The Laws of death and poison complemented each other, and there would be no conflict at all. With such characteristics, the Twin Dracoliches would probably be able to rival the Sanctuary powerhouses if they could advance to the peak of the Legendary-realm.
With the appearance of the Death Domain, the soul fire in the eye sockets of the Undead Greater Demons immediately trembled vigorously. The ones that were less powerful even flew out directly, and merged into the Magical Domains of the Twin Dracoliches. All of a sudden, everyone could clearly see large light green sparks flying out of the Undead creatures’ bodies shrouded in the Magical Domain before gradually disappearing in the air. With the disappearance of each spark, an Undead creature on the ground would crumble, as if its skeleton had suddenly lost the force that bound it together.
The people from both the Rotterdam Kingdom and the Brilliance Shrine were dumbfounded to see such a spectacular scene. Actually, they ought not to be blamed for having such a reaction. They did not know that the power of the two Dracoliches actually came from the debris of the stars, Gloomy Dark, which contained pure Laws of Darkness.
In less than a moment’s time, hundreds of Undead Greater Demons were silently wiped out by the two Dracoliches together with the Skeletal Warriors that were blocking the expedition. The expedition’s members only came back to their senses and immediately sped up in advancing towards their target when they heard Lin Li’s urging.
However, the two Dracoliches did not lead the way in front of the expedition. Instead, they immediately leaped towards the other Undead Greater Demons after destroying the first batch. Under the full-swing attacks of the two Dracoliches, the Undead Greater Demons actually did not reach the expedition.
Ujfalusi and Norfeller were guarding them from above, while the two Dracoliches were constantly blocking the Undead Greater Demons. The expedition would not be in a predicament for a while. However, after feeling surprised, the members of the expedition did not feel relaxed, because they knew that the truly powerful Undead creatures had not appeared yet!
Although no one knew if the Immortal King had researched and created some strange and weird Undead creatures in this world, they knew, according to common sense, that terrifying existences like the Humerus Wyrm were at the top of the hierarchy of Undead creatures.
Humerus Wyrms were not necessarily all skeletons of wyrms, but as long as they were Humerus Wyrms, their strength would at least be at the Legendary-level. With the scale of Undead creatures in this world, one would not even be able to imagine how many Humerus Wyrms would appear. However, one thing for sure was that the Immortal King definitely would not be satisfied with just creating some low-level Undead creatures.
However, they did not have a backup plan. They could either stop and wait to die, or go all out and fight! Everyone in the expedition now knew that the further they delved, the more dangerous their situation would become. However, they also knew that they had no other choice but to keep advancing. Stopping would only allow them to survive for a while.
If one decided to go all out, they would often be able to explode with greater strength. The expedition no longer considered retreating. All they could think about was advancing towards their goal. There was instantly a huge increase in their speed.
Of course, the increase in speed was only relative to before, and their speed was at most similar to that of ordinary people walking. After all, the resistance that the countless Undead creatures brought to the expedition would not vanish because of their emotions.
It wasn’t that the expedition had never tried killing all the Undead creatures in front of them with all their might in order to achieve the goal of increasing the team’s advance speed. Even the magic spells that the mages of the Tower of Dusk had used to kill the Undead creatures in front of them were only as effective as using a knife to split water. Although they could kill many Undead creatures at once, the gap was filled with Undead creatures again at the next moment before they could even take a few steps forward.
With the sunrise and sunset of this world, the expedition fought continuously against the tide of Undead creatures for two days and two nights without stopping. Finally, the sky that was being shrouded by shadows in the distance seemed to be getting increasingly large in front of them. However, they still could not tell what existences those shadows were with their eyesight.
The members of the expedition had also thought of using the Warlock’s Eyes to check out the situation over there in advance, but there were too many Undead creatures that were casting spells. The Warlock’s Eyes would be consumed by the magic spells before it could even go far. However, no matter what, the expedition was still advancing. As long as they did not stop, they would finally reach their destination at some point.
However, the expedition had paid a huge price to make it that far. The Rotterdam Kingdom had already completely abandoned four Alchemy Colossuses. Although they had enough magical crystals, the long duration of operation of the Alchemy Colossuses had resulted in major great wear and tear on the various components of the Alchemy Colossuses.
Besides, the Skeletal Warriors did not quite pose no threat to the Alchemy Colossuses. Water drops could drip through stone slabs through accumulation. Although the attacking power of the Skeletal Warriors was low compared to the defense of the Alchemy Colossuses, the endless attacks of the Skeletal Warriors would cause even the strongest defense to eventually collapse.
As for the team of the Brilliance Shrine, the Holy Light Knights were in charge of guarding the two sides of the team, but the pressure they endured was actually not less than those fighting at the front. If they were facing ordinary Undead creatures, perhaps the Holy Light Knights would have a much easier time, but all the Undead creatures in this world seemed to have no fear of the Power of Light.
A large number of ants would be able to bite an elephant to death. Besides, the Undead creatures there were not ants, and the Holy Light Knights were not elephants. After two days and two nights of battle, the Holy Light Knights had already suffered seven casualties, and the number of severely wounded knights had reached double digits. Fortunately, they had the support of the priests who were constantly empowering and healing them with Holy Light Magic. Otherwise, the number of casualties would have been twice as big.
The mages were right in the middle of the team of the Tower of Dusk, and the Undead creatures would not be able to reach them without breaking through the outer layer of defense. Because of that, there still had not been any casualties among them even till now. Although Donald, Archbishop Martin, and the others were jealous of that, there was nothing they could say. They could not make their mages fight the Undead creatures in melee.
Besides, the mages of the Tower of Dusk had not been slacking at all. They were suffering the attacks launched by the enemies while continuously bombarding the surrounding Undead creatures with powerful magic spells. In terms of battle results, the mages of the Tower of Dusk definitely killed many more Undead creatures than the teams from the Rotterdam Kingdom and the Brilliance Shrine combined.
[1] The raws said “dark mages”, and it appeared later. I assume it’s a mistake, but I leave a note for y’all in case Donald thinks they are dark mages, and that’s what the author was getting at.