Episode 1130 The Weight of Blood (1)
Wheeeeeee…
As Verden touched it, subtle waves rippled on the surface of the curtain.A unique curtain manifested through magic.
Movement between all realms has been blocked.
Even if space were to collapse, it could not be crossed. It would be no different even if passing through the fourth dimension. It was the first time I had encountered such a powerful magical barrier.
The problem was that destroying it completely would require opening the Path of Destruction, but the real problem was that there was no telling if it was safe to destroy it right now.It would be a huge disaster if doing so were to have a negative impact on Deus and his party.
Arriving at the battlefield, but in a situation where forced intervention was difficult due to a lack of information… Verden’s immediate options were limited.
Wait, or proceed.
Verden, too, could not easily make a choice, but the rapid changes on the battlefield urged him on.
“The Federation…….”
I focused on Ignatia’s mental body, which was allocating a portion of the thoughts. Through the 7th-tier mental body, the battlefield of the Ternetia Federation was clearly visible.
A knight of the Kingdom of Dinell, who had bathed in blood and sweat, shouted.
───Committee Leader!!! Look at that gate!!!
Changes have begun to occur in the form of the Ternetian Federation. Its scale is shrinking at a slow but visible speed.
The gate has entered closure procedures!
As expected of Adrian.
As news of victory spread quickly, the roar of the legion overwhelmed the screams of the undead. In the meantime, the undead generally hesitated or creaked.
Serendia narrowed her eyebrows.
The flow is strange, Verden.
Shortly after that, the undead began to exhibit the same strange behavior in unison, and the Federation’s punitive forces were engulfed in bewilderment.
───W-what is this?
───The undead are retreating… …?
The undead retreated first from the fierce front lines. I felt a surge of energy, wondering if it was the effect of the destruction of the Four Gates’ source body, but soon bad news reached my ears.
The informants, who were keeping a wide view of the battlefield and relaying the battle situation to the corps commanders, shouted.
───March North! The undead are marching north! All the undead are heading north!
───This is insane… … !!
The massive undead army, which had desperately prevented the punitive force led by Verden from approaching the gate, rapidly advanced northward.
The Xerion Empire abandoned the Gate of Death whose source had vanished.It was a situation that was different yet similar to when Delharun’s Gate of Death was self-destructed.
The location of the Ternetian Federation is the southernmost part of the central continent.
To the north, where the undead are heading, lies the core of the Central Continent, including the Kingdom of Din’el, the Kingdom of Belmair, the Central Beastmen Tribe, and the Unclaimed Lands.If left exposed, it will result in massive damage severe enough to shake the unity of the Alliance.
They devastated the path with a fleet of seaplanes and magic particle cannons, but there were too many of them.A few planks cannot stop a tidal wave.
Death surged toward some of the magic particle cannon emplacements installed in the north.As soon as Eon’s mages moved away, the magic particle cannons were swept away and destroyed. The undead, however, stubbornly insisted on heading only toward the north, as if they didn’t care much about it.
───Kwakwakwakwakwang!! Kwakwakwakwang!!!
We are chasing those corpses. Take them down one by one! Grab them by the ankles!
Mobile units repeatedly pursued and exterminated the undead, but there would have been no concern if they could have handled it that way.Even Arbor’s living tree could barely ensnare a portion of the legion.
The reason the Ternetia Federation was able to attack the Four Gates from the beginning was that the undead of the Xerion Empire gathered around the Four Gates.
Since the undead legion did not stray more than a certain distance from the gate, the World Alliance was able to launch unilateral offensives from all sides and from long range, creating gaps in their defensive formations.
That favorable situation has now been shattered.
The undead advanced northward without forming rows or columns. It was to the extent that they were scattered far and wide, sharing only the same direction.
It is clearly calculated. Akand had defeat in mind.
Had they engaged in an all-out war, they could have effectively reduced the enemy’s numbers; however, by turning their backs on the Allied Forces like this, the battle itself could not take place.Just as one cannot pull the waves no matter how hard one tries to stir them up.The Allied punitive force, outnumbered in scale, can never stop that advance. It would be the same even if there were several Transcendents.
The defenses of the Din-El Kingdom cannot hold out.
If millions of undead are overwhelmed, the World Alliance’s defense lines will collapse one by one.
They had to immediately devote the full strength of the Central Continent, but they also had to support Adrian’s main force, which was now escaping the Gate after completing its mission.
The situation became critical due to a move by the Empire.
“…….”
Verden’s main body, which had been controlling the 7th-rank spiritual body, opened its eyes.As expected, we cannot simply wait around.We must take new measures in response to the changes on the battlefield, and we can only decide this once we clearly know how the battle with the Evil Dragon went.
Entering.
Verden focused on the veil of magic, exerting his magical understanding to the fullest.
Interpreting a part of the magic pioneered by none other than Deus would have been considered one of the most difficult tasks even for Verden… butfortunately, the unique magic before him took the form of a ‘magic circle’.
* * *
The ocean triggers the water cycle, causing the sprouts of various lives to emerge across the continent, and the falling rain cools the heat while embracing countless lives.
Intellectuals identify water as the source of intellect, going beyond the concept of life.
Thud…
The moisture of the living thing rotted. That which flows within the body and maintains intelligence became a deadly poison, instead taking away life.
The grass and trees that had swayed under the presence of the transcendents rotted on the spot.The stagnant water turned an ominous dark green light, and even the ancient groundwater accumulated deep underground soon became corrupted.
The insects swarmed.
As the cradle of vitality fell into corruption, twisted lives descended upon this land.Ignoring the processes of evolution and degeneration according to the environment, things were born with contradictory appearances and functions that were both efficient and inefficient.
The plains of the Maren Kingdom, devastated and collapsing from countless battles, could no longer be found in their former landscape.
At that moment, a wave of power struck their territory.
Deus Widen pressed forward with precision using a weapon technique never seen or heard of before.The dragon’s claws and the staff clashed, pushing both back simultaneously, and Deus lured them into close combat without moving beyond a certain distance.
The moment magic flashes amidst a fierce offensive that makes it impossible to approach rashly.
Boom─────!
An invisible shockwave exploded, lifting Nekbael’s head high. The sound of teeth chattering nervously pierced the ears.Flashing with a fierce glint in its eyes, the creature swung its wings and tail, slicing through the air.
“I can’t believe it. To think the Lord of the Lefragium Magic Tower had such a bold side.”
The sight of such a massive body facing off head-on, and even in close combat, was a nail-biting contest that shocked Indren.
“But for some reason, his fighting style seems similar to Verden or Vangelis… … No, that’s a useless thought.”
Indren quickly cleared his mind and interfered with Nekbael’s movements. *Crack.* He forcibly realigned the shoulder that had been dislocated from the previous roar and the broken arm bone.
Bantoreon and Andes assisted Deus by flying in from the left and right of him.
The Breath of the Dead
Andes spat out a unique breath based on magic, damaging the dragon’s soul, and at that moment, the Transcendents finished their respective calculations.
Deus, Indren, and Vantoreon extended their arms from different directions.
A vision covered in the radiance of magic.
The center of the plain, blocked on all sides by the
[… … .]
The highly coordinated power centered around the Tower Master, who had long stood at the pinnacle of the modern magical world, could not be easily overwhelmed even by an ancient dragon.If dragons are transcendent beings, then they are transcendents who have overcome the limitations of their species.
Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang! Kwa-kwa-kwa-kwang!
Soon, spells flew in from beyond the thick smoke that rose ceaselessly.Nekbael, who had been defending with his wings, took a short breath.
“……!”
A dark green beam swept across the ground in an instant. Soon, an aura of death rose like a barrier, temporarily splitting the Transcendents and Nekhbael.
and.
Kuooooh… … .
The evil dragon Nekbael spread one arm.
An ominous vortex surged from a massive and sharp grip.A death energy of a kind different from that of the ancient king, yet infinitely pure, spread waves and polluted the space, then transformed into a colossal form in an instant.
Sticky bubbles boiled up from the spearhead, which was grotesquely mixed with dark emerald light, and the air exposed to the venom dripping from the spearhead burned black.
Nekbael twisted his body.
[Iktuth Veshma.]
Dragon language, which only a select few dragons instinctively master, struck the plains.
Dark green groundwater gushed out like a geyser from a crack in the earth and covered everything around.
A tearing sound echoed, like tens of thousands of snakes being torn to death amidst a tidal wave of deadly poison.The world was dyed in that same color;even the wind was poisoned and suffocated, a filthy lake enveloped the area, and about 40% of the plains were reduced to a barren space that did not allow life.
“That is the language of the dragon……!”
Indren rapidly ascended while unleashing his full power of magic, but then his breath caught in his throat.
Thump.
My heart had a seizure.
The curtain corroded in an instant. Is it possible to be poisoned merely by brushing against the air? If the poison reaches the brain like this, it will be irreversible.
“Ugh…….”
Indren was engulfed in the agony of blood flowing backward and his insides turning inside out, but he had already experienced much more severe agony on the island in the Hiaremar Inland Sea.
I utilized the experience of extracting dark red magic from within my body.
After expelling the deadly poison absorbed through the skin and spitting it out along with blood, he concentrated his magic on Jeyu and swung his staff hard without a moment to catch his breath.
The trajectories of the raindrops pouring in reverse from the barren land were twisted ever so slightly. My head instantly heated up from the computational power that deflected the showers one by one.Andes personally blocked with his entire body anything that had not managed to dodge.
In the gap created by the two enduring the bleeding, Bantoreon burrowed straight in like a bolt of lightning and summoned the essence of lightning from the realm of the Thunder Meridian.
Thunder from the sky struck Bantoreon.
The deadly poison flared up and was neutralized.
Jeong-rae’s demonic energy extended not only to his internal organs but also to his blood vessels, turning his entire body into a magic circuit. Until the output, pushed to the absolute limit, was gathered all at once.
“Can you endure this with those scales too?!”
Co-inversion of oxidation.
Brain Forest
Vantoreon, having cast the Super-Level Magic, became a blue beam of light and rushed toward Nekbael.
────────────!
The horizon was dyed with light.
A massive explosion and its aftermath followed belatedly.
Many streaks of lightning surged. Heat haze formed in the atmosphere due to the intense heat characteristic of the lightning that Vantoreon boasted of, water vaporized, and the ground turned red. Aphenomenal destructive power spread, powerful enough to burn one’s optic nerves just by looking directly at it.
Deus narrowed his eyes.
Whoosh!
A beam of light ejected from the staff struck the dragon with great force. Although it did not pierce it completely, the scales damaged by Bantoreon were clearly shattered.Drops of dark green blood slowly fell, deeply melting the already dead ground.
The ancient dragon bled.
While others saw potential, Deus heightened his vigilance. Dragons are especially dangerous when wounded.
[okay…….]
Swelling dark fog.
[I will treat you well.]
Nekbael began to memorize a language that could not be interpreted as the continent’s common language.
It was the dragon language of the Four Dragons.
Not knowing what might come crashing down, they tried to distance themselves and regroup… when a huge shadow fell over their heads.
Indren opened his eyes wide.
“That can’t be true.”
[Citadel… … .]
The Citadel, the new imperial city of the Xerion Empire, descended across space. It passed through the curtain spread by the magic of a thousand miles without any resistance.
Deus thought.
You arrived at the right time.
As he had already anticipated this, he showed no signs of agitation, much like his expressionless exterior.Had the battle with Nekbael dragged on a little longer, he would have had to awkwardly reveal his weaknesses, but since that did not happen, it was the flow of events he had desired.
Even if by some slim chance, the Sixth Apostle will not descend upon this land. The Citadel will recover Nekhbael and withdraw far from the front lines again.He was convinced of this because he understood Arkhand’s ultimate purpose.
Deus paused just as he was about to draw attention to proceed with the plan in earnest.
Someone interfered with ‘Yeonri’s Water Tank’.
Unlike the Citadel, which had passed through a fated causality connected to Nekhbael, he had the sensation that his own inherent magic had been arbitrarily modified.As far as he knew, there were only two beings capable of exhibiting such magical miracles.
* * *
He subdivided a portion of the magical barrier, which possessed the characteristics of a magic circle, into several fragments and then divided it into layers. He left half of the layers as they were to maintain the closure, while expanding the remaining half widely to surround Verden himself.
One door was closed while the other was opened.
And restoration and opening.
The layers surrounding Verden were restored to their original state to serve as a substitute for the closure, and the half of the layers that had been closed were opened.
The open door closed, and the closed door opened.
As a result, Verden, who was located between the floors, was able to enter the veil while maintaining the seal. Since it was breached without damage or alteration, no problems would have occurred inside.
Verden crossed the wide plain straight ahead.
Found it.
Not long after, traces of a widespread battle appeared, and Nekbael and the Transcendents facing him came into view.
Even the Citadel of the Xerion Empire.
