Chapter 757: Magic Devastation

Chapter 757: Magic Devastation

Open, Dallion whispered once he cast a new flight spell.

The metal sphere opened up, returning the armadil shield to its normal state. Given the multitude of vortex minions that had formed in the sea, one could expect a greater variety of far stronger creatures here. That turned out to be true. Yet, none of them seemed particularly interested in Dallion. Rather, they were roaming the air, focusing on an entirely different type of preychainlings.

Not this, Dallion thought.

Rising twenty feet in the air, he split into half a dozen instances. As expected, the smooth purple surface that was the endless floor erupted in a series of spikes. Several of them almost managed to reach the feet of his instances. Seeing that their prey was out of reach, then quickly drew back, vanishing within the surface. At least this was one less concern Dallion would have.

Unfortunately, there was no time to relax. The other side of the sea proved to be a battleground. Towering blobs of black void floated like caterpillarsteeth and tendrils floating all over their surface. The lack of emotions emanating from them was so absolute that one could almost say that they were draining that of the onlookers.

Back at the Academy, Dallion had been told that one of the mages duties was to protect the world from unseen creatures trying to enter the world. So far, he had assumed that meant beings such as shardflies, platypains, maybe the occasional cloud creature or two. Never had he expected that this was the method through which void beings entered the world as well.

Aether spiders the size of trucks flew everywhere. Mercilessly, they plunged their sharp legs of pure magic into the black blobs, simultaneously bombarding them with as many spells as they could master. Individually, Dallion could probably win in a fight against them. If only a dozen grouped up on him, it was all but certain that theyd be victorious.

If Nil were here, hed probably get into a long and boring explanation, presenting the event from a purely theoretical angle and conveniently forgetting the practical aspects. Thankfully, after half a year, Dallion had gotten to know a thing or two about life and awakening. The only thing that the current scene reminded him of was a realm invasion.

In a way, this presented a huge opportunity. The vortex minions were preoccupied with the chainlings, so he could take them out one at a time without fear of them focusing on him. From a logical perspective, hed never get a better chance. Would that be worth risking chainlings entering Nerosal again?

Was that how cracklings appeared in the world? Mages focusing on their own advancement while leaving others to take care of their mess?

A chainling exploded, as the cluster of aether spiders covering it managed to drill through. Lesser blobs of void floated about, quickly melted down by spells of flames and energy.

Dallion gritted his teeth. There was no way hed let the chainlings get anywhere close to the real world.Finnd new chapters at novelhall.com

Ranged markers appeared on one of the less mobile specimens. The size of his native village, the creature floated in the air, keeping the vortex minions at bay. Not being overly aggressive worked in its favoronly a dozen or so aether spiders were engaged with it, most of the rest focusing on more immediate threats.

Ruby, slice anything that gets near, Dallion said, as he infused his harpsisword with spark. Chaining or minion. He let out a point attack, targeting the center of the chainlings body.

CRITICAL STRIKE

Damage dealt has been increased by 200%

The wave of energy hit the creature dead center, puncturing a small hole. The wound was quickly filled up. Even with spark, Dallions present attacks werent as efficient as hed hoped. Similar strikes had destroyed entire crackling villages in the realms, they had even wounded chainlings. This wasnt either. It shared chainling properties, but it was a lot more primal, larger, and less intuitive.

Halving the distance, Dallion did a line attack. This proved a lot more efficient, creating a giant cut across the chainlings side and killing off a few minions in the process. One more strike and the being was slit in two halves. That wasnt the end of it, though. Just as Dallion shifted hands, ready to continue with his attacks, tendrils shot out from both halves of the creature in an attempt to merge them together again.

Not yet, Dallion whispered. In the past, he would have cut the tendrils with his next strike. Instead, his strike split each of the halves in two.

Unsummoning his weapons and gear, Dallion then quickly cast a series of aether shield spells. Purple rectangles appeared in force all above the creature, then thrust it towards the floor.

There was a loud, thundering splash. Thousands of inhuman screams filled the air as aetherspikes pierced through the surface of the blob.

VORTEX BREACH

Overall stability 94%

Holding his breath, Dallion attempted to split into instances. No matter how hard he tried, he found that he was incapable. The lack of red rectangles was encouraging. At least he hadnt suffered a self-inflicted status effect.

Lux, Ruby, is there anything left? he asked.

Nothing, boss, the firebird quickly replied.

Unlike him, the shardfly made the effort to flutter about before giving a negative answer.

Nox, do you feel anything?

Im not setting foot in a vortex. The crackling puma hissed from his realm. And no.

That was a relief. At least Dallion could take a few moments to regain some strength. On the negative side, he still had the vortex guardian to face.

Ill be fine, he said, aimed at Harp. If this hadnt worked, Id have resorted to the Moonstone.

That isnt the point, she replied with the calm and warmth of a mother. Youre not facing guardians anymore.

As seconds passed, Dallion started feeling warmth return to his body. Slowly at first, it allowed him to move his fingers, then hands, then everything else. After close to a minute, he felt as if hed been hit by a moderately large truck. One minute more and it was closer to being hit by a bicycle. In all that time, there was no sign of the vortex guardian.

Its not your job to attack me, its my job to defeat you, Dallion said, moving his arms around. Same as before, he made an attempt to split and this time he succeeded.

Dallions first thought was to try to use a music spell again and find where the guardian was hiding. His second was to find an alternative approach.

Not making this easy for me, are you?

Casting a spell to enhance his perception further, Dallion looked around. With the fight over, the entire realm had been reduced to an infinity of purple and black. From what was written in the Academy tomes, vortex guardians had to be linked to the vortex they belonged. Once exceedingly terrifying possibility was for the guardian to be somewhere in the sea.

After thinking about it for a few moments, Dallion dismissed the idea. Following the presented logic, the vortex was at its weakest at the bottom, consistently getting more and more challenging further on. If that held true, the current space represented the shell that kept the chainlings from infiltrating the world. That would mean that the strongest elementthe guardian and heart of the vortexshould be higher still.

Where are you hiding? Dallion wondered.

Splitting into forty instances, he flew in all directions. Magic nature was based on math. If he found the center of the room, hed have a starting point to go by.

Ruby, let me know if you feel any illusions. It might

Dallion stopped mid-sentence. One of his instances had found what he had been searching for: a barely visible thread of magic that rose up from the floor, continuing up into the darkness.

If this were a common guardian, Dallion might have made a sarcastic remark. Since it wasnt, he infused his harpsisword with spark and did an arc attack aiming to sever the thread.

The blade of the harpsiswird struck the thread but moved no further.

Purple light bled from above, shattering the darkness.

COMBAT INITIATED