Chapter 999: Failure
Although Lin Li had transmigrated, the so-called tactics in his mind were just a 16-character guideline for guerilla battles which did not play a significant role in battles at all.
As the Highlord of the High Elves, Osric had once led the Magic Legion around and waged wars countless times, and could definitely be considered a master of strategy and tactics.
Although Lin Li refused to give up, and was continuously injecting his mental strength into the control crystal in a bid to win using his combat strength, Lin Li gradually lost the space his troops had because of Highlord Osric’s continuous devouring. Eventually, he did not even have room to stand.
In the end, Lin Li was defeated terribly in the battle of mental strength. Not only was the mental strength imprint completely eradicated from the control crystal, a large portion of his mental strength was depleted too. If not for the fact that Lin Li had a massive amount of mental strength, the battle would probably have been enough to turn him into a retard.
After losing the battle of mental strength, Lin Li finally stopped taking any chances, and launched a full-swing attack on Osric after activating the power of the seven pieces of the debris of the stars. Rays of light darted out from Lin Li’s Domain World without any magic. It was purely the power of origin. They continuously bombarded Osric.
However, the situation on the battlefield was still out of control, and the scales were tilting towards Osric. After sustaining several severe attacks, Norfeller finally vomited blood, and was left with no power to stand up like Jeremiah and the rest. Connoris had already lost the Eternal Frost Blade. Although he could still continue fighting Osric for a while with his perfect body, he still ended up being defeated.
Angelano’s Alchemy Colossus was severely damaged during the battle, while Ujfalusi’s Humerus Wyrms were almost smashed into bits. The Lord of Nightmares hovered in the air for a long time, but was still unable to reassemble his body. On the other time, the Demon Gordon was smashed into pieces of iron, and it was eventually immobilized with no power to recover.
Finally, Lin Li stopped and wiped the blood away from the corners of his lips, while the seven pieces of the debris of the stars flew around his body and stopped attacking Osric.
Meanwhile, there were no wounds on Osric, who seemed to have the same appearance as he did when he first appeared. With a cold smirk on his lips, he walked towards the control crystal as the members of the team watched in despair. He reached out and placed the control crystal in the groove of the control panel.
It’s over, everything is over now! Archbishop Martin and the others wanted to stop Osric as they watched, but were too weak to do so. They could totally imagine the disaster that would strike Anril once Osric gained control of the Sky Castle.
A Sanctuary powerhouse who possessed the Sky Castle meant that even if all the Sanctuary powerhouses of Anril joined forces, they might not be able to stop Osric from exacting a crazy revenge on them. Besides, Geresco, the God of Mages, was no longer in Anril. No one would be able to make everyone unite.
Of course, perhaps they might not live to see that, but after Osric succeeded in acquiring the Sky Castle, how would he spare them? Maybe it would be a good thing to die there so that they wouldn’t have to see how miserable the various races in Anril would be when subjected to Osric’s torture.
However, something incredibly strange suddenly happened at this moment when they were all hopeless and waiting to die. The mana in their surroundings suddenly began to fluctuate abnormally, as if the floodgates had been opened. The massive mana was surging everywhere and roaring, and was causing the mana in the entire space to fluctuate as well. They could even hear the rumbling sound of floods.
What exactly happened!? The people only realized now that Osric, who had already won the battle, did not place the control crystal in the groove of the control panel immediately. Instead, he stayed in place, and seemed to have suddenly become a statue.
They could all clearly see that Osric’s body was still trembling, as if he was trying his best to put in the magical crystal. At the same time, Osric seemed to have aged quickly, as if time had sped up by numerous times. They got to watch the aging process of a young man turning into an old man.
Seeing the change of Osric’s body, even a brainless person would probably be able to think of the fact that it was a sign of his vitality being depleted.
What could make a Sanctuary powerhouse age so quickly!? Thinking about the massive, abnormal fluctuations of mana in the surroundings that were surging like floodwaters, everyone suddenly had a terrifying conjecture. Did that mana come from Osric’s body!?
The members of the expedition team could not figure out the reason for such a situation to occur, but they reckoned that it was probably the price to pay for gaining control of the Sky Castle. However, they knew that Osric was definitely at his weakest now. God knew if he would return to that state after gaining full control of the Sky Castle.
Thinking of this, the crowd who had been in despair suddenly came to their senses again. Be it because of their interests or their unconditional love and kindness, none of them wanted a butcher like Osric to rule the current Anril.
Archbishop Martin, Donald, Basel, and the other casters seemed to have been invigorated. Suppressing the severe injuries of their bodies, they stood up with great difficulty, and raised their staffs to attack Osric again in spite of their severe wounds.
However, the surrounding space was now filled with the violent mana that was released by Osric, and was surging around like a tsunami. In this environment, even a caster that was at the peak of the Legendary-realm would face difficulty condensing mana to cast a spell, not to mention the fact that Archbishop Martin and the others were severely injured.
Archbishop Martin had just chanted an incantation with great difficulty when the gemstone at the top of the scepter in his hand lit up. Before the mana even condensed, he spat out a mouthful of blood, and his physical state had clearly been debilitated. The others were the same.
However, even so, Archbishop Martin and the others did not have the intention of giving up. Not bothering to wipe the blood away from the corners of their mouths, they began chanting the incantations again because none of them knew if there would be another chance like this, and no one knew when Osric would recover.
However, at this moment, Lin Li stood in front of Archbishop Martin and the others. However, he, the only Sanctuary powerhouse of the team, did not behave like Archbishop Martin and the others. Instead, he raised his hand and beckoned them to stop casting spells.
Archbishop Martin and the others were baffled to see Lin Li’s behavior. Although the surrounding space was filled with violent mana, they believed that it should not be enough to affect the spell-casting of a Sanctuary powerhouse. However, not only did the Sanctuary powerhouse not take advantage to add insult to Osric’s injury while he was down, he even stopped them from attacking. They wondered, Is he still taking the moral high ground against a butcher-like demon!?
However, despite being filled with bewilderment, Archbishop Martin and the others did not question Lin Li. It was not because they trusted Lin Li unconditionally, but rather that they were too weak to speak after venting everything.
Of course, Lin Li was not the type to refuse to take advantage of others when they were in danger. In fact, that was actually his favorite thing to do. The reason he didn’t want to take the opportunity to attack Osric now was actually very simple: it was redundant to do so.
Indeed, it was redundant because although no one else knew what was going on with Osric, Lin Li was well aware. He was the one who had set Osric up.
From the very beginning, Lin Li knew that he would never be able to get the Sky Castle easily. Even though he was already in front of the control panel, he seemed to be just one step away from his final victory. Even though he did not expect that Osric would regain his body and strength here, that did not affect his plan for the worst-case scenario.
Even when he was in the form of a Ghost, Osric definitely possessed unfathomable strength. Even though Lin Li had managed to advance to level-26 in the Well of the Sun, he did not have any confidence in defeating Osric when he was in the form of a Ghost. Hence, in other words, Lin Li knew from the very beginning that this battle was inevitable, and that his team would definitely lose.
Since he already knew that they would lose, Lin Li obviously wouldn’t pin his hopes on a miracle. In fact, when he was planning the expedition in the Sky Castle, he had already begun to devise some schemes and strategies for dealing with this situation.
In order to scheme against Osric, one first had to know what his real purpose was. Why did he choose to be resurrected in the Sky Castle, and not in his mausoleum which he had spent so much effort to build after a thorough thought process? Coupled with the fact that he had caused the Ghost Osric to be awakened when he took away the control crystal of the Sky Castle, Lin Li was almost certain that Osric’s goal was the control crystal of the Sky Castle.
Besides, Lin Li had a conjecture that Osric probably wanted to obtain the control crystal not just to gain control of the Sky Castle, but also because of some other reasons. After all, with Osric’s current power, it was not impossible for him to get the Sky Castle up and running again even without the control crystal.
In particular, Lin Li was actually creating an opportunity for Osric to seize maximum control and authority over the Sky Castle when he took away the control crystal. In fact, even without the magical crystal, Osric had indeed gained control of a significant portion of the Sky Castle.