novelVoid of the Stars
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The motive of that was to squeeze out more energy to deal with those High Elves while hoping that the fake Highlord could use up more energy of Lin Li's artifact. It would be even better if both of them suffered serious injuries.
Although Donald had never seen a real artifact before, he knew that its user would suffer huge consequences if he didn't have the level of abilities that matched that of the artifact. For example, while the Magical Crystal Cannon was very powerful, its consumption of magical crystals was also immense.
Donald didn't believe that a 20-year-old like Lin Li could use that artifact endlessly, releasing the terrifying power that could kill a powerhouse at the peak of Legendary-level in a flash. Moreover, Lin Li didn't choose to attack that fake highlord before this. Instead, he chose to attack that High Elven leader from another direction. This just made Donald more certain of his guess. If the usage of that artifact was limitless, why not attack the fake highlord first? Obviously, it was to save a chance of using the artifact!
Just a moment before the start of the battle, Donald wasn't worried about others having differing opinions about his battle strategy anymore. This was because the High Elves had rushed towards them before they could continue to discuss anything else. Moreover, Donald didn't give Lin Li any time to respond. He led his men towards the High Elves immediately after he had finished his sentence.
How could Lin Li not guess Donald's intentions? Since he needed those Rotterdam people to act as cannon fodder, he couldn't be bothered to deal with Donald. Actually, Lin Li had intended to face Osric himself in the first place even without Donald's tricks. That would be a fight between kings.
In Anril, it was often said that the power of a powerhouse at the peak of Legendary-realm could match that of a Sanctuary powerhouse. However, once Lin Li had truly reached Sanctuary-realm and understood more about its powers, he realized that peak-of-Legendary-realm powerhouses were like ants to Sanctuary powerhouses.
Thus, if Lin Li went for the High Elves Magic Legion from the start, and left the fake highlord for the others in the expedition to deal with, the end result would still be similar: Lin Li would annihilate the Magic Legion, while not many in the expedition team would be able to survive. As such, it would still be a battle between Lin Li and Osric.
Lin Li didn't really care about whether those from the Rotterdam and the Brilliance Shrine would be dead or alive at the end of the battle. After all, he had planned to use them as cannon fodder in the first place. However, he didn't want to exhaust his own troops from the Tower of Dusk, since he had brought out the majority of the elite forces of the Tower of Dusk for this expedition. If they perished just like that, it would be detrimental to the Tower of Dusk.
Thus, Lin Li intended to attack the fake highlord himself regardless of whether the sneak attack was successful or not. He chose to kill the High Elves' commander first because he knew that this move might not work on the fake highlord given that he still had some of the real Osric's will. The other reason was to completely enrage the fake highlord so that he would only attack Lin Li.
The fake Osric was still Osric. If Lin Li destroyed all his subordinates within seconds, it would undoubtedly be a slap on Osric's face. Although Lin Li probably couldn't prevent it if Osric had wanted to slaughter everyone on the spot given his powers, how would the proud Osric copy Lin Li's actions?
If Lin Li did just that, it was more likely that the sadistic Osric would leave Lin Li for the last to deal with so that he would see his teammates getting killed one by one. After all, the true Osric had done this many times when clamping down the opposition forces in the Dark Age.
Indeed, after Osric announced the start of the battle, he didn't even look at any of the expedition team members, and pointed his magic staff right at Lin Li. The enormous gem at the tip of the staff erupted with a blinding glow. A flame dragon appeared and pounced on Lin Li with astounding speed.
Lin Li shot up towards the sky without caring about those expedition team members behind him. It might seem like he was trying to avoid the flame dragon's attack without caring about his comrades' lives, but in fact it wasn't because Lin Li was cruel, but rather that he didn't need to care about that.
Not only did the fake highlord possess Sanctuary-realm power, his understanding of World Rules was vastly superior to that of Lin Li. Thus, the edge Lin Li had over Osric, other than the seven pieces of debris of the stars, was his understanding of Osric's personality. Osric, on the other hand, knew nothing about Lin Li.
Seeing that the flame dragon was almost reaching the expedition, Osric fling his magic staff slightly, and the flame dragon changed its direction immediately towards where Lin Li was. Next, Osric's body disappeared from where he was, and instantly appeared opposite Lin Li.
The flame dragon had already flown near Lin Li by then, its scorching flames almost distorting the space. Lin Li didn't appear to be anxious at all. He pointed his Helios' Scepter at a point just beside the flame dragon relaxedly, and a roaring river appeared in the midair. This river was like a water snake even bigger than the flame dragon in size, wrapping tightly around the flame dragon. Within moments, both the river and the dragon disappeared, leaving behind a thick cloud of vapor.
"Intruder, you've successfully gotten my attention. It seems like you're very confident in your skills." The rage on Osric's face had disappeared. Evidently, he had seen through Lin Li's trick. However, geniuses were all stubborn. Judging by Osric's personality, he couldn't touch the expedition before he had crushed Lin Li under his feet, since he didn't see the expedition and Lin Li as true opponents at all.
When Osric was speaking, the cloud of vapor had disappeared. However, Lin Li wasn't interested in talking to Osric. The Helios' Scepter shone again, and a Light and Darkness Sword slashed towards Osric.
The Light and Darkness Sword wasn't condensed beforehand. Instead, it was turned from virtual to concrete during the time Lin Li was slashing it down. The purest power of light and darkness tore the space apart as it landed on Osric's head. The entire space became monochromatic.
An ordinary person wouldn't need to be struck by the Light and Darkness Sword, for the extreme conflicting auras would be enough to split his soul in half. The power of the sword was much higher now compared to the one that had torn Stephen's Magical Domain apart. A peak-of-Legendary-realm powerhouse would probably find it hard to resist such a blow.
However, Osric didn't even flinch at this attack. He also didn't appear to be mad that his opponent didn't answer his question. Instead, he lifted his magic staff to counter the Light and Darkness Sword. When the two weapons met, it seemed like time had stopped at that very moment.
A soft glow radiated from the tip of the magic staff, and penetrated the sword body of the Light and Darkness Sword effortlessly. Next, the concrete Light and Darkness Sword dissolved into stardust like sand being blown away by wind.
Lin Li's expression changed upon seeing this. Although the fake Osric was only around level-26 or 27, and still quite far from reaching the peak of Sanctuary-realm, his understanding of World Rules was way above Lin Li's. With such knowledge, this fake Osric could be considered half a ruler of this world. To a certain extent, he could apply the powers only a powerhouse at the peak of Sanctuary-realm could.
The merging of Light and Darkness in the Light and Darkness Sword was a usage of World Rules. However, the fake Osric had used the same understanding of World Rules to dissolve its nomological power, causing the powers of Light and Darkness to break free from Lin Li's control, and return to their fundamental nanomagic form.
The only good thing was that the fake Osric seemed like he hadn't reached the stage where he could fully control the World Rules. If not, all the Rules would repel Lin Li once Osric had given his orders. Lin Li would turn into an ordinary human, and wouldn't be able to release even a small fireball.
"The combination of Light and Darkness... Interesting power." After dissolving Lin Li's Light and Darkness Sword, Osric didn't retract his magic staff. Instead, his lips rose mockingly. Next, the gemstone at the tip of this magic staff shone again. A more gigantic and concrete Light and Darkness Sword appeared, clashing towards Lin Li's head while tearing the space above it apart.
Unfortunately, Lin Li wasn't Osric. He couldn't dissolve the powers of Light and Darkness so easily. When facing this sword that could tear apart space, Lin Li could only activate his Space Robe he was wearing and transport himself to another position, barely escaping the earth-shattering blow.
Immediately after Lin Li's body appeared on the other side, he pointed his Helios' Scepter at Osric. Strikes of thunderbolts the thickness of a water bucket rolled towards Osric. Lin Li didn't use the debris of the stars, but his understanding of Thunderbolt alone was enough for every strike of thunderbolts to be able to crush a small hill.
However, such tremendous force didn't even hurt Osric an inch after landing on his body. It was like a breeze passing through his body.
"Damn it! Void of the Stars!" Lin Li was rather familiar with what Osric was doing now. Back in the Blackstone Mountains, he had witnessed the God of Mages Geresco use such magic via the Spacetime Beacon Spell. With the Void of the Stars, the caster could place their body and soul into nothingness and be immune to any magic or physical harm from the mortal world.
Clearly, the real power of the fake Osric was insufficient for him to cast the Void of the Stars. However, with his understanding of World Rules and the power of half a ruler of this world, he seemed to have cast the spell with greater ease than Geresco.
As the strikes of thunderbolts passed through Osric harmlessly, the mocking expression on his face didn't disappear. Such attacks weren't even considered a scratch to him.
After seeing Geresco cast the Void of the Stars, Lin Li had thought more than once that someday he would be able to stand calmly at the center of a massive magic storm, witnessing all sorts of magic passing through his body harmlessly.
However, when it was his opponent using the Void of the Stars, Lin Li couldn't stay calm. There were two types of opponents that were the most nerve-wrecking and appalling. One was those who wouldn't die no matter how many times you attacked them, and the other was those you wouldn't be able to attack no matter what you did.
Opponents that wouldn't die could at least be sealed off somehow, but those that he couldn't attack were the worst. Looking at Osric's face that would warrant a good whacking, Lin Li felt very annoyed, though his attacks didn't stop.
However, at least Lin Li managed to prove one thing: Osric's understanding of World Rules was insufficient to prevent Lin Li from casting his spells normally. If it was another person, Lin Li would still doubt whether that was another trick down his sleeve, but with Osric's pride, even the fake Osric wouldn't bring himself to such a low level as to use trickery on an opponent who had just entered the Sanctuary-realm.
Enveloped by thunderbolts and with his body and soul placed in nothingness, Osric held up his magic staff again. With a little recitation, the entire space shook violently, and the thunderbolts that Lin Li had cast vanished instantly as if faced with unbearable pressure.
Lin Li didn't panic. His Helios' Scepter disappeared, and was replaced by two pieces of debris of the stars: Holy Light and Gloomy Dark. Although Lin Li possessed seven pieces of debris of the stars, his grasp of Holy Light and Gloomy Dark was much stronger than the rest's. When facing a strong opponent like Osric, Lin Li couldn't afford to test the other pieces of debris of the stars, and thus chose to use those that he could release the most power with.
With the appearance of Holy Light and Gloomy Dark, Lin Li recited a string of notes rapidly. Nobody knew what language he was reciting in, as it seemed like a string of meaningless syllables. However, the recitation was filled with a sense of sacredness and solemnness.
The sky which had been forcefully turned into day by Osric reverted to night sky. Not with night with dark clouds, but complete darkness.
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