novelA Swarm of Spells
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Chapter 607: A Swarm of Spells
Translator: Henyee Translations Editor: Henyee Translations
Crack!
As the crisp sound echoed, the blackness around quickly faded away. The colors on every legend vanished, leaving the lackluster greyness. The pure Fire of Soul was frozen, and the Original Fire endured the posture of performing magic.
As for the rest of them, Kritonia was slashing much more slowly, but he was still moving, and Hathaway was struggling to approach Natasha, with blue and grey colors lingering on his body.
The experts who were immune to Time Stop were very rare, and still fewer were those who could resist Advanced Time Stop!
That was why Time Stop had always been the most difficult ninth-circle to learn. Those who grasped 'Advanced Time Stop' had to be legends in time and space. In the entire Congress of Magic, Brook was the only one who could perform it until Douglas understood the relationship between gravity and space-time. Oliver had a good chance to pick it up later, too.
Looking at the Original Fire who was covered in greyness, Lucien suddenly summoned his spiritual power.
The enemy would be in a different time and space when they were under 'Time Stop', and he couldn't directly affect them, but the duration was enough for him to cast multiple spells. When the Time Stop was over, the Original Fire would embrace a storm!
In case that the Original Fire was immune to the spells below the ninth circle, Luxury Cracking did not choose them but simply performed 'Cracking (Advanced)', time and time again!
After five times of 'Cracking (Advanced)', the frozen black second hand of the Moon Timer began to tick. However, it was not moving regularly but jumping forward, pointing at the mysterious symbols made of gems.
As a result, Lucien activated eight ninth-circle spells that had been stored inside before much faster than usual. There were Cracking (Advanced) as well as spells among them!
In the end, as a precaution that the Original Fire might have equipment that provided immunity to some of the ninth-circle spells, Lucien chanted:
"Space Staff!"
Unpredictable light rippled and gathered in Lucien's hands, like the scepter of a king. After he nodded, the space around the Original Fire was frozen. He waited for the effect of 'Time Stop' to be over.
He had hardly performed the legendary spell when the fading blackness came back. The eternal black, white and grey covered the World of Souls again.
The colors on the Original Fire were refreshed. The red, green, white and purple flames bouncing on his magic robe were particularly eye-catching.
He didn't expect that Lucien had already advanced into legendary and would boast a pocket watch that could cast 'Advanced Time Stop'. His eyes constricting, he was braced for a salvo of spells.
"Three legendary spells are not enough to kill you!"
"The spells below the ninth circle cannot affect me!"
"I am immune to Confinement, too!"
His mind sparkled. The Original Fire was hit by a tide of spells before he had the chance to cast any spell. He could only resist them with the spells that he enhanced himself with in advance. As the final security measure, he still had three life-preserving, innate spells!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Light glowed on the Original Fire like fireworks, only to be torn into shreds by the swarm of 'Cracking (Advanced)'.
"He has indeed advanced into legendary!"
If it weren't cast by a legendary sorcerer, most magic effects on his body couldn't be destroyed at all!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The level-eight and level-nine items broke apart into grey powder under 'Cracking (Advanced)'.
"Why is he casting so many times of 'Cracking (Advanced)'?"
Although the spells came at the same time, the Original Fire had thought of a lot of things. He suddenly had a bad feeling, but after Time Stop, the spells that Lucien cast earlier overwhelmed him. He couldn't perform any magic at all!
The magic effects were nullified, and the alchemical items were broken. Suddenly, the Original Fire discovered that the space around him was twisting into a maze, but his last alchemical item blinked and offset the space-time change.
"A Maze attached with magic deferment?"
"He has been trying to trap me in a maze so that he can wait for reinforcements to come?"
"Is his Maze a ninth-circle special skill?"
Hardly had he thought of that when the space around him was twisted again. Lucien had prepared more than one Maze with magic delay!
This time, the Original Fire, having lost all his magic effects and alchemical items, couldn't resist it anymore, and found himself in a spacious temple.
The Original Fire snorted angrily. Maze and Confinement were always most troublesome in a battle. By the time he got out of the maze, it was possible that a bunch of legendary sorcerers would be waiting for him outside.
Creating a time gap was the best effect of such spells!
"I've seen too many special mazes. Even the mazes that His Excellency Thanos created himself didn't take me more than twenty seconds. Let's see what you've got!"
The legendary staff in his hands, that was as red as fire, glimmered as he blasted the framework of the maze trying to set himself free as soon as possible so that he could help Kritonia purge Lucien!
It was a shame that Lucien was already a legendary sorcerer. While the special maze was only a ninth-circle spell, it was as steady as a legendary spell. He couldn't break through it for the time being.
At this moment, he had captured the whole look of the maze. It was an empty palace, and the exit was the gate. There were no disguises or a second way out.
"Is it a puzzle?" The Original Fire tried to break the structure while he walked to the gate, only to discover that a few lines of words were written on the water screen on the gate.
"Welcome to Evans' Maze of Quizzes. You can walk out of this place as long as you answer five quizzes correctly. Before you answer any of them, note that you have three ways of asking for help. Firstly, you can ask for another quiz. Secondly, you can consult the mysterious existence with magic. Thirdly, you can ask the audience... Well, sorry, there is no audience here..."
The Original Fire's veins bulged. It was a humiliation. Was Lucien Evans so confident of his maze?
Having no time to read the long introduction, he began to solve the puzzles.
"The first question. A barber in a town once said that 'I shave those and only those who do not shave themselves'. So should he shave himself?"
The Original Fire was immediately stunned. He thought quickly but couldn't find an appropriate answer. His brain almost exploded because of the logical contradiction.
"Change the question." He said gloomily, while he tried hard to break the maze.
"The second question. Please prove that every even number that is greater than 2 can be written as the summation of two prime numbers."
...
Not having the slightest clue, the Original Fire hurried to consult the mysterious existences with prophecy, only to be answered with nothing. It made him curse in a low voice."Change the question!"
"I'm sorry, but you can only change the question once."
"..." The Original Fire burst into fury. His eyes bloodshot, he destroyed the maze with magic and spared some of his attention to the question.
As time went by, a miserable and angry roar suddenly exploded inside the maze:
"Ass*ole!"
His voice seemed to be containing certain doubts about his intellectual faculties.
...
On the rail between Rentato and Allyn, the magic steam train pressed forward as if nothing had happened. Grand Duke of Orvarit and Camil, who were transferred by Hathaway earlier, did not understand what had happened. They could only contact the Lord of Storm as per Lucien's instruction before the wedding.
After the line was connected, before Grand Duke of Orvarit said anything, the other side of the line spoke fast."I got it."
On the thirty-third floor of the Allyn, Fernando, in his red magic robe, chanted the spell, with a storm surfacing in his eyes:
"Regather!"
Sensing the waves of the magic, Douglas also chanted on the thirty-fourth floor:
"Regather!"
'Regather', aside from being triggered passively, could also be cast voluntarily to regather around the target that was set earlier!
However, if the distance was too far, it might not be as fast as a direct space jump. It was only suitable for the scenario where the target's coordinates were unclear!
Fernando and Douglas were surrounded by swirls of air currents before they vanished.
...
After 'Advanced Time Stop' was over, Hathaway recovered first, but the Primordial Mummy and the Lich King weren't any slower.
One of them was a melee undead creature that was immune to plenty of spells, and the other was a spectral sorcerer that had a myriad of weird spells. They were the dominators of the area outside of the Temple of Spirits.
The Lich King's spells, in particular, were different from the current arcana system but close to what the ancient sorcerers were capable of. It was a pity that he was faced with a grand arcanist who had profound magic knowledge. She had cracked all his spells easily.
Therefore, Hathaway had suppressed both of them, though she had only become top legendary two years ago.
Also, Hathaway did not seem interested in assisting Natasha, or maybe it was because she was too busy suppressing the two legendary specters. She stopped approaching Natasha.
Kritonia's longsword slashed Natasha after Time Stop, but it merely passed through her as if she were a shadow.
Countless cracks appeared on Natasha, before she broke apart like a mirror. She then appeared far away, with an additional small and delicate shield in her hands. There was also a weirdly-shaped crown that seemed to be made of starlight above her veil.
"A real illusion!"
It triggered the effect of the Thorny Crown!
Lucien felt that it was somewhat similar to the gravitational lens. The moment Natasha was consumed by the crack, she immediately activated the Thorny Crown according to the plan.
She was only a gold knight and could take two legendary items at most, so she did not bring out the Sword of Truth.
After the first attack failed, Kritonia noticed that the Original Fire had been trapped by Lucien's Maze and that Lucien had advanced into legendary. Greatly shocked, the very first idea he had was to flee immediately!
But his battle experience calmed him down. Although the Original Fire was trapped and Lucien had become legendary, the experts of the World of Souls had stalled Hathaway, too. Under such circumstances, should he, a level-three legendary knight, be scared of a newly-advanced legend and a gold knight, even though they both had powerful items?
"I'll leave if I cannot finish Lucien and Natasha in thirty seconds!"
He set a time limit for himself in case he was surrounded by reinforcements and Hathaway after she got rid of her enemies. Also, he was very confident about his power of time and believed that it could disrupt most of the life-preserving spells.
"Space Staff!" Lucien's low voice echoed again, as he took action to help Natasha.
The space around Kritonia was immediately frozen as if it were about to cage him inside.
You are dealing with me with the power of time of such a level? In a mocking smile, Kritonia, wearing a black tuxedo, seemed to be wandering in a different time and space and directly walked out of the frozen space, before he slashed at Lucien with his glistening longsword!
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