379 A Difficult Decision Was Made

Just as Baiyi was having a great time spamming forbidden spells, which made him feel a high that only the Sorcerer Class could provide, Godsfall's day was coming apart at the seams. If the Wise Mad King lived on earth, it was at this point he would be getting a consistent stream of beeps from an alarm system, saying, "Nuclear Launch Detected! Nuclear Launch Detected! Nuclear Launch Detected!".

However, he and Godsfall were quick to react. After Baiyi's first spell, they took action. Despite calibrating the coordinates of the second location three times, Baiyi still failed to hit the target. Godsfall quickly cast a large defensive barrier over that location.

For powerful beings, it was not very hard to defend against forbidden spells, especially long-ranged ones. A flaw of long ranged forbidden spells was the fact that they were formed from only one element; once an enemy makes a defense barrier out of another element that counteracts the element used to create the forbidden spell, the long-ranged forbidden spell would be nullified on contact. Furthermore, defense spells required less mana to cast than offensive spells.

In order to avoid pushing Mia too hard, Baiyi had had to reduce the might of the spells he used, which, in turn, reduced the burden it had on Mia.

Godsfall cultists were not novices; their period of panic was momentary, and their reaction was swift.

When Baiyi saw his forbidden spells get nullified time after time, he stopped the onslaught and turned to the Void for a solution. "Does anyone here know any forbidden spells that I can use at full power without pushing Mia to her limit? A forbidden spell composed of multiple elements would also suffice."

"Excuse you! Do you think that altering magical formulae is as easy as tapping on your keyboard once or twice?" The Archmage snapped. "Besides, what makes you think that forbidden spells composed of multiple elements would work against them? Remember, whenever our forbidden spells got nullified, we would instantly cast another forbidden spell with a different element, but this still failed to breach their defense. This shows that our enemies have tons of resources at their disposal, so they definitely will do everything to prevent your attacks from hitting home."

"The fastest workaround we could implement would be to significantly improve the piercing power of a forbidden spell. Do you possess any equipment that we could use to do this?" The Scholar Walker asked.

Baiyi was quiet.

The equipment he currently had were exemplary. His armor was the Santus, which was crafted with superb artisanship. His Book of Servitude was a Divine Regalia. If he liquidated his Saint Quartz Staff, the gold coins he would earn would be enough to drop a full grown man. He also had the War God's Sword, which had been crafted by a real god. When combined, the aforementioned equipment was enough to make one feel invincible.

However, he did not have gears that could improve his magical prowess, neither did he have gears that could improve the piercing power of a spell. Baiyi had never thought of equipping himself with defense equipment. The few he had made and obtained were given to his students.

When was the last time Baiyi needed such equipment? He definitely had not expected a day to come when such gears would be important to him.

He was starting to feel embarrassed when the Paladin Walker suddenly said, "Do you want to boost your spells? Look no further than me!"

The Cleric Walker's help was instrumental in turning the tide of the battle in Eom Village; the Bard Walker offered an important piece of advice that had helped Baiyi, and the Astrologer Walker had helped Baiyi in his first attempt at hitting key locations on the rock map. All these had spurred the Paladin Walker to want to contribute something to the cause — something other than voicing his desire to lick the thighs of young women. 

"As a seasoned paladin, I may not have as much talent in theurgy as Sir Cleric, but that is an insignificant problem! I can support you with aiding auras, which will not only mitigate much of Mia's burden but will also improve the effectiveness of your spells," the Paladin Walker added.

This claim made sense, but it would have made more sense if it had come from the Cleric Walker, instead. However, that Voidwalker was still being muted, and he still had not yet recovered from the embarrassing situation with Laeticia. The Cleric Walker was not keen on descending to the real world anytime soon.

After pondering for a short while, Baiyi cast the Pseudo Descent Spell on the hammerhead shark plushie, and the Paladin Walker descended into it.

A few moments after this happened, from his communication slab, Baiyi heard Nydore cry out, "Ah~! Sharkie is suddenly moving on its own! S-Stop! Not there; you can't go there, either!"

Baiyi silently swore that if the Paladin Walker failed to meet his expectations, the Voidwalker would find himself stranded in the real Void, for a month, without any protection.

Fortunately for the Paladin Walker, after skipping past Mia, the plushie only rubbed itself on Nydore briefly before flying out of the treehouse, and in a few moments, it had landed on Baiyi's head. Afterward, the hammerhead shark plushie raised its fin and began to cast theurgical spells.

Compared to the Cleric Walker's theurgical spells, the Paladin Walker's was significantly inferior. He could not use high-level theurgical spells like Word of God; all he had in his arsenal were run-of-the-mill theurgical spells, which did little to improve things. 

The hammerhead shark plushie coughed in embarrassment, as it knew the faith that awaited it should it fail in the task it volunteered to do. "C-Cough! H-How about... My auras! Right; we have the Judgement Aura! Effective at improving the effects of all spells and physical attacks made by the caster and their allies! It can also boost the piercing power of one's spell, which is just what you want. It can also decrease the defensive capabilities of enemy spells!"

Suddenly, the hammerhead shark plushie began to radiate bright green light, which formed a circle. Since the plushie was on Baiyi's head, one could mistake it for a green halo hovering above Baiyi. Mr. Bear looked amused at the sight.

It was not exactly sure why a holy aura would choose to glow with the color of infidelity, but Baiyi felt its effects immediately. He quickly cast another forbidden spell at the location he had been unable to take down despite trying three times. Mr. Bear used Nature's Eye once more, and moments later, it removed a large stone from the rock map, meaning that Baiyi's attack was successful.

The Paladin Walker beamed. Now that was more like it! He was the Holiest Grand Paladin to ever exist, and his talent in using aura magic was indeed unparalleled!

This was not good news for the cultists of Godsfall. They did not expect Baiyi, who should have given up, to return with more devastating spells. Now, despite their hard work, they had lost another key location!

When the news reached the Wise Mad King, his expression turned to one of insanity. He roared at the Royal Principal Advisor, who was the unfortunate bearer of the bad news. "I thought we erected f*cking defense barriers around those sites! Didn't they successfully withstand the spells he cast before? How is he suddenly able to destroy them?"

"None of us are holding back. It is the enemy who has found a way to boost his power. Could this be the work of theurgical spells? When our men attacked Eom Village, they encountered a hammerhead shark plushie that was incredibly adept at theurgy," the Advisor explained. "Lord Revered, should this persist, it would not do! The main sites, which are guarded by powerhouses, are still safe enough, but other sites are incapable of withstanding these attacks. We have to come up with something, quick!"

The Wise Mad King's face darkened, and he fell silent. He had begun to think about everything that had happened so far. The size of the formation was just too big, and there were many areas that required protection. He had tasked his elite followers to guard key locations close to Hope's position, but he had no idea how the man was able to move around without encountering his guards. 

It was fortunate that he had Morningstar Sage and the demons around to help hold off the attacks. Many of the spells that Hope had cast were neutralized because his followers were able to reach there in time. However, Hope was no fool; whenever he failed to destroy a location in one or two attempts, he would quickly switch to another key location. He made it seem as though he had an unlimited amount of mana.

It was a good thing the Wise Mad King's underlings were just as capable. Although they were stretching themselves thin, the installation of transporter portal at every key location had helped them move through multiple sites with ease. This also gave them more than enough time to set up defense barriers whenever they arrived at one of the key locations. This was the reason why the damages incurred was still within their threshold.

Just as they thought that they had reached a stalemate, that bastard, Hope, had suddenly found a way to increase the power of his forbidden spells! They were already having to deal with his seemingly unlimited mana and diverse array of spells, and then his happened; he had found a way to increase the power of his spells. Even if he was a true messenger of a god, the advantage he had was just too unfair!

What confused the Wise Mad King was that Hope had managed to figure out the locations of his altars. From what he knew, long-ranged forbidden spells needed to be locked onto a fixed set of coordinates before they could be cast. Could Hope have sent out exceptional assassin's adept at stealth to get the coordinates of the altars for him?

No, that could not be possible. Hope had no such experts at his side. Besides, his own underlings were not so weak that they would not notice assassins sneaking around. He could only come up with one explanation for this conundrum: the War God! He must have descended into the world or done something to help his favored messenger. The War God was a god of space, so why would he be unable to do something as easy as pinpointing coordinates for his messenger?

Just as the Wise Mad King was fuming over the disturbing turn of events, the Royal Principal Advisor rushed in with more bad news: another key location had been damaged! The location was being guarded by the Green Sword Saint. When the Demigod saw a forbidden spell hurtling towards his location, he tried to block it with his combat chi shield, but the shield was not vast enough to cover the entire area. Thus, the altar there was damaged so much, nothing could be done at that location for now.

"We can't continue on like this! Even if we manage to defend against his reinforced spells, that shameless War God might appear and help him, keeping us at a disadvantage!" The Royal Principal Advisor panicked. "I suggest we activate it now! If we wait any longer, we won't get the chance to!"

The Wise Mad King was just as disturbed. Even if he sacrificed his Demigods now, the energy generated would be less than what was required. Furthermore, due to the damage done to some key locations, the formation may not even work. If they hurriedly activated the formation now, they may experience disastrous results!

However, if they did not, then Hope would easily destroy the remaining key locations, and everything would be gone; their plan would crumble to nothing!

After a very brief moment of hurried brainstorming, the Wise Mad King reluctantly made a hard choice.

"Initiate Operation: Marionette immediately!"Well, would you look at that?! How convenient.