"Ah!"
Chirade looked around, then he couldn’t see anything anymore. Swept along the torrent, he couldn’t even distinguish north from south from east from west. He could no longer control his arcane skills either.
In front of this terrifying force, no one could control their own bodies.
"Ayrin!"
Even Charlotte, when fully using her Heavy Ions, her body extremely heavy, could only let out a shout before being swept away.
Everyone seemed to be sucked into the depths of a whirlpool. They suddenly couldn’t breathe, couldn’t open their eyes.
Ivan, the one closest to the hole they’d come from, could feel himself sent flying by the current into the hole behind.
"Ayrin and Joyce’s final struggle… can prevent the matrix from breaking damage and stop Eichemalar from falling…" Ivan had no thought about his own life or death. Instead, this was the only thing in his mind.
…
In the sky on the southern side of Eichemalar, many terrifying energies were still clashing against each other, energies completely at the level of taboo incantations. Even some members of powerful teams couldn’t go any nearer when they closed onto the edge of the battlefield.
On a mountain range west of Eichemalar, an arcane master soundlessly flew in circles in the air.
There were two shadows, like two long wings. Each time they beat, he’d appear several dozen meters away as if he’d moved by blinks.
Clearly, this arcane master’s power was at a level that even high-level masters couldn’t comprehend.
All of a sudden, he stopped in the air.
A handsome red-haired man appeared in front of him, his frame tall and slender, wearing a high-necked red robe, a devastating dragon flame starting to radiate from him and burn all primordial energy.
This was the one who’d once presided over the national tournament’s opening ceremony, the chief adviser Angil.
And not far on the left of that arcane master with two long shadow wings beating around him, another three silhouettes appeared.
"Angil, Harris, Liszt, Donna." This shadow-winged master started laughing, a laugh full of a sinister flavor in the dark night. "One’s the chief adviser, an influential big shot in the entire kingdom, one’s a chief judge of the Law-Keeping Department, and the others are two of the most outstanding and most powerful among the young arcane masters in the Office of Special Affairs. Am I really worthy of so much attention from the kingdom?"
"Dias, I just don’t understand where you got such a big courage from. You still dare appear in Eichemalar," Angil chided coldly.
"There’s no need to try and probe me with words." With a faint smile, Dias turned his head in Eichemalar’s direction.
A tremendous boom suddenly seemed to explode in Eichemalar just then.
"I can tell you now why I came to Eichemalar." Dias turned around and faced Liszt and Donna, as well as Harris, one of the presiding judges in the Law-Keeping Department.
Harris was definitely someone who’d leave a deep impression behind with a single glance.
He was a middle-aged man, tall and slender, with skin deep like a dark night, black hair, but also pointy ears like Rinloran.
Almost any experienced arcane master could tell with a single glance this was an extremely rare high-level night elf bloodline.
In a dark night and under the moonlight, night elf bloodlines could manifest more powerful and more numerous innate arcane skills.
Dias had recovered his original appearance by now. His genuine looks were likewise unforgettable at first sight.
His hair was silvery white, but his eyes and his skin glinted with ashen-gray luster. Just like Harris and Rinloran, his ears were also the pointy ears of high-level elves.
"Liszt, just like how you think all the time about killing me, I also think all the time about killing you and taking revenge for my brother. Only, even I am a mere bait this time.
"When I appear in Eichemalar, your attention will naturally be drawn to me. And because you’ll be afraid I’ll once again try to assassinate the teams participating in the tournament, you’ll seal off the athlete village.
"It’s unfortunate for you. You never imagined that the place where victory is decided happens precisely to be inside the village.
"You probably already found out that Lotton is someone I planted in the tournament. You must have sent arcane teams to tail his team. But he and his team are also a death squad to attract your attention.
"Apart from Lotton’s team, I arranged for three genuine strike teams. One of them is a traitor team among the teams patrolling inside the athlete village. Another team is comprised of young men from participant teams who hope to gain the power of the Evil Dragon. The focal point of these two teams’ offensive is your team Holy Dawn.
"Liszt, you want to kill me, but how will you end up feeling when your entire tournament team are the ones ending up killed?
"This isn’t the entirety of my plan either. I still have a team that’ll make its way through the athlete village’s sewers to the bottom of the Holy City’s water tower. Then they’ll break the water tower. The force from the water washing out of it will be enough to damage the closest magic sky crystal matrix."
With a faint smile, Dias mimicked an egg slowly falling. "Then, the entire city of Eichemalar will fall, just like that."
"Did you hear that? The wonderful sound of huge waves exploding in Eichemalar," Dias added, sounding drunk with his own words.
"Madman." Beside Liszt, Donna started shaking, no longer able to contain herself. She’d never have imagined Dias’ plan would be so insane.
"This is the greatest praise an opponent can offer." Dias looked at Donna. "Especially coming from old opponents like Liszt and you."
Liszt’s eyes were still on Eichemalar.
Even the air seemed to soak with droplets of water.
However, he looked back at Dias and said, "Is that magic sky crystal matrix very far away from the water tower?"
Dias’ smile gradually disappeared.
His eyes also fell on Eichemalar in the faraway sky.
The tremendous wave-like rumbles were already slowly receding, but the floating city of Eichemalar was still floating in the sky. It didn’t seem about to drop any time soon.
Donna blinked. She also understood what Liszt meant and couldn’t hold back her smile. "It seems the water tower’s indeed very far away from the matrix. I think it might take several months before the water reaches it."
Dias’ lips twitched slightly.
Angil and Harris also sighed in relief and looked at each other. "Dias, it seems your plan ended again in failure."
"Also, I can tell you very responsibly." Liszt turned his eyes back and looked at Dias, saying with a very lazy air. "The two teams you sent will never ever kill our academy’s team."
"You, the shame of elven bloodlines," Harris said with a cold smile, his figure slowly merging with the darkness. "Do you have any last word?"
Dias breathed in deeply. Then he shook his head. "Though I might not know why my plan failed, you still won’t be able to kill me."
"Boom!"
No one replied to his words. Angil’s body immediately enlarged, transforming at an alarming speed.
He awoke all the power sleeping inside him and turned into the shape of a dragon.
Like a long river of flames, a red fire dragon breath, mightier and more terrible than even almost any taboo skill, instantly engulfed Dias’ figure.
Liszt’s aura burst and grew nonstop.
His body gave off the feeling of quickly expanding just like Angil, but in fact, there was no change at all to it.
"What!" However, Donna exclaimed in surprised just then.
Angil’s flame breath originally extended over several hundred meters. Dias’ stature seemed extremely tiny compared to this pure, terrifying dragon breath. However, inside the red flames, a huge silhouette was emerging, even bigger than the dragon breath, likewise shrouded in a pure, unadulterated dragon aura!
"Is this… a dracolich?"
Harris’ face was overwhelmed with shock.
An ashen-black dragon flew out of the dragon breath.
This wasn’t a living dragon, but a zombie-like dead dragon shrouded in a thick aura of death.
A dragon crystal was faintly visible inside the death dragon’s maws. Dias stood behind the dragon crystal, ashen-white arcane particles gushing out of every part of his body.
"I didn’t think you already got your hands on a complete dragon skeleton, and even grasped the Evil Dragon King’s Art of Dracolich!" Liszt’s expression was also very grave.
Heavy rumbles came from inside him at this instant, like great, heavy gates rumbling open.
"Seal of Departed Spirits—Purge!"
His figure stood in place, but together with a swift chant, a man of light shining with a thousand rays dashed out from inside him, and, as though it directly crossed through space, crashed on the dracolich as it flew out of the dragon breath.
The dracolich that not even pure flame dragon breath could damage started rotting as though it were being corroded.
"Liszt, I’ll definitely kill you."
Dias suddenly cursed him with deep rancor.
Ancient and abstruse dragon words came from his mouth. A pale flame emerged on the ashen-black dragon crystal inside the dragon’s maws; endless streams of particles sprayed from every part of the dragon’s body.
"Puff!"
In the space of a breath, the huge dragon completely turned into a giant flow of particles crossing through the air. Its astonishing speed was such that even Liszt and the other merely caught the glimpse of a flash before they saw a glint disappearing into the distance.
"This scum actually became so powerful now!" Harris said, his face very unsightly.
"We let him run away again." Liszt shook his head and heaved a sigh.
"No matter what, this guy’s plan didn’t succeed. And he also had to damage his arcane level and use the dracolich to flee. He’s lost the painstaking accumulation of many years this way." Donna heaved a deep sigh, comforting Liszt.
"I wonder who stood up to the task this time…" Liszt nodded. He turned to look at the city of Eichemalar still floating in the sky, an inexplicable emotion in his eyes.
…