Throne of Magical Arcana - Chapter 488
Chapter 488: Ups and Downs II
In the endless silver moonlight, a fine black line appeared and grew bigger and bigger.
It was a long sword covered in black flame. The black fire blazed so brightly that it seemed like it could devour anything.
Francis who was at a distance could only tell that the black was drawing in all the light. Even time was slowed down and become solidified in it.
But he soon realized that this was simply his illusion, as he saw the dark green and greyish white colors as well as bright and rigid light coming out from the darkness.
In the end, the darkness overwhelmed everything again and retreated within a second.
When the silver moon rose up again, under its brilliant rays, Lucien was floating in the air. His Pale Justice had been thrown to the other side of the river and was now stuck in the ground beside Natasha, his left hand was hanging beside his body weakly, and his face was as pale as a piece of paper. This one strike had consumed all of the power that Alterna had accumulated as well as Lucien’s blood power after transformation. Now Lucien had gone back to the original shape of his figure.
The Temple of War and the peak where the temple once stood on were both gone. Congus stood still in midair, while Rudolf II had fallen to the ground. His black-and-white scale was gone as well. Maybe the scale was also just a projection.
The night breeze blew lightly. Congus’s black magic cloak and robe fluttered and turned into tiny pieces. The white skeleton inside was revealed, and then as if the skeleton was melting, drops of white liquid fell to the ground, taking away the last slight of life force from the ground.
Congus’ whole set of skeleton had broken down. When the skull cracked, the two needle-like light spots instantly died out. However, underneath the white skull, a smaller delicate golden skull was revealed. It possessed an extremely horrible power. In the eye sockets of the golden skull, the needle-like red spots lit up again.
“You’ll never be able to run away.” Congus, who was now only a golden skull, said to Lucien gloomily, the two lines of teeth opening and closing.
Then the golden skull also cracked. Inside the skull, there was an ancient ring. In the next second, the gold skull and ring disappeared together.
Lucien’s heart suddenly sank. Congus had a resurrection spot nearby!
Lucien did understand that it was impossible for Alterna to kill Congus and Rudolf II using one strike when Alterna was still recovering. However, since he was now facing the projection of Rudolf II, Lucien was still hoping that Alterna’s power could completely destroy this body of Congus so that he could only resurrect in his phylactery in the main material world. This would win him some precious time. However, things did not go as he wished.
But Lucien did not panic. He was the Secretive, and he had reunited with Natasha. Lucien just need carefully hide himself and find the Congress of Magic, then he would not need to worry about Congus anymore. It would at least take Congus half an hour to return. And what was more important was that…
Lucien’s sight shifted to the solidified pieces of black, white and grey floating in the air — Once Alterna absorbed the pieces, Congus would definitely try to stay away as far as possible.
When Alterna’s power further recovered, Alterna would be able to completely wipe Congus out!
A creepy smile crept onto Sun God Bero’s face, and He suddenly collapsed onto the ground into a pile of ash.
Ell, Natasha, Camil, Francis, Danniel, and the rest of them had all either became unconscious or lost all their strength, while Asin had become an undead creature, yet it still kept some consciousness and knew that Lucien was definitely the one it should stay away from.
“I’m starving…” Lucien’s left hand reached out and pulled Lucien up. It pressed against one of the pieces in the air, and then the rest of the pieces were also gradually pulled over and blended together.
Suddenly, the sound of wind disappeared in Lucien’s ears, and colors disappeared in Lucien’s eyes. All he could see was a space filled with black, white and grey. Anything that was over a meter away looked completely blurry. Lucien felt that he was in an isolated space, and even his mind had slowed down.
Francis tried hard to look up at Lucien, who was floating in the air still. He saw that, on Lucien’s left hand, the color of silver was fighting against a mixture of black, white and grey. Lucien’s eyes had lost focus as if he had lost his soul.
At this time, Danniel the Fire of Purification turned his neck. A mysterious smile rose on his face. Then he slowly stood up and flew towards Lucien with the sword in his hand.
“You know that my projection wouldn’t die easily, but you have still turned to take in the essential pieces. Have you become too pretentious?” Danniel spoke, but the voice definitely belonged to Rudolf II!
However, the power from the projection was lower than the legendary level. It seemed that the power of the projection depended on the host.
“Huh, Lucien Evans knew that the projection would not die easily? How did he know?” In the noble district of the city of Husum, Sophia was sitting on the bed, staring at the black and white scale in front of her. She was watching the fight at the Temple of War using the divine item and the connection she had with the projection. However, her father’s words confused her.
She would never forget what happened in the underground palace of Sun’s King three years ago. She had looked for the mysterious sorcerer for a long time to take her revenge but had not gained a single clue. Later, she gradually put this aside and started focusing on improving herself.
Before leaving the Congress, Lucien had submitted the two magic spells which he used in the underground palace. Because the principles of the two magic spells were quite simple, many sorcerers had also created similar spells based on the principles. As a result, the intelligence section ignored this, and Sophia thus missed the most important clue for tracking the mysterious sorcerer.
However, as a legendary, Rudolf II had instantly recognized Lucien Evans. After all, Lucien was not trying to hide his spiritual power at all.
Rudolf II talked to Lucien first to show that this was not a sneak attack. Then, lifting the long sword named the Fire of Purification, Rudolf II hacked at Lucien against the moonlight.
The sword was quick. The sword reflecting the silver moonlight seemed to possess many virtues, such as honesty, kindness, order.
When the white sword inlaid with the patterns of flame was only an inch away from Lucien’s head, an ordinary-looking long sword came horizontally and blocked its way.
The clang of the blades was crispy. The Fire of Purification bounced back, and so did the ordinary-looking sword.
“You’re still able to move?” Rudolf II said in astonishment to the beautiful young lady with a determined look standing in front of him.
Although it was not surprising that Natasha was still alive since she was not the main target of Congus’s Life Ritual, it was indeed a miracle that she could still fight.
“Because, from the very beginning, Lucien had reminded me that the power of a legendary was coming. so I was prepared.” Natasha’s silver-purple eyes stared at Rudolf II tightly. “Although two items were destroyed, it was Aunty Camil’s power that was consumed. I wasn’t very injured, and even took the chance during Life Ritual and slightly recovered from the previous fight.”
Holding Pale Justice in her hand, which was thrown to her side by Lucien on purpose, Natasha stood between Lucien and Rudolf II. Her duplicate of the Shield of Truth and the level-eight Sword of Balance had been destroyed. Pale Justice survived because of its special property against Necromancy power.
“So he knew that Congus would come…” Rudolf II sighed.
Then he lifted the sword and launched a new round of attack as fast as raindrops in a storm hitting the ground. The area around him started to become hotter and hotter as if all the filthy things in the dimension have started burning.
The power of Danniel, the Fire of Purification, had been improved to the level of a gold knight with the projection of Rudolf II.
Natasha, however, was only focusing on defense, and her defense was perfect.
The metal blades were clanging like a string of notes.
Natasha was a level-seven knight, and even with Pale Justice, her power and defense had only reached level eight. However, her fighting skills and supreme blood power had compensated for the gap between the power of Rudolf II’s projection and hers. Also, Rudolf II himself was not good at fighting as a knight as he had chose the other path of balance, and he was now not capable of casting many spells because of Alterna’s previous strike.
After a minute, the two sides were still fighting, with no one showing any dominant advantages.
“You’re indeed very talented among the younger generation.” Rudolf II nodded and said, “but if you keep staying in my way, I’ll kill you.”
Natasha sneered. “Have you ever seen a real knight running away from the battlefield?”
“Then I’ll let you die as a decent knight,” replied Rudolf II.
The white wings spread out behind Rudolf II again, but this time, the feathers were less abundant and much dimmer.
Luminescent spots flew out of the wings and joined together. A thick book began to take its shape. Rudolf II hacked his sword down, and the book turned itself to a specific page.
The Angel King! The Prothonotary in Mountain Paradise!
Smile disappeared from Natasha’s face. With a very serious look on her face, Natasha immediately swung her sword. As if the sky just cracked, a number of illusionary gaps appeared around her. Acting like a shield, the gaps blocked the attack from the Fire of Purification.
Bang! The sound was so loud that Sophia, who was watching far away, could not help covering her ears.
Sophia saw that Natasha’s hands were bleeding hard. However, the pair of hands were still holding the sword tight, and the owner of the pair of hands was still standing at where she had been. Sophia was very impressed. She knew that her elder brother had a secret crush on Natasha, and now she had understood the reason.
Then, in great astonishment, Sophia saw that, behind Natasha, Lucien’s eyes rolled and then his whole person came back to life!
However, what shocked Sophia the most was the staff inlaid with the big Sun Stone that Lucien was now holding in his hand and pointing at Rudolf II.
“It’s him!” Sophia burst out. Her body was slightly trembling. The deep fear was still in her mind.
“That Bastard!”
Lucien felt that he had just woken up from a long, long dream after a few years. His soul had reached the seventh circle. However, nothing around him changed. Lucien remembered the situation that he was facing. Therefore, Lucien quickly calmed down and lifted the Sun Staff to cast Confinement.
A flash of light sparkled. Rudolf II’s fierce attack continued. Natasha could barely have the time for taking a breath.
To Lucien’s great surprise, Rudolf II was immune to Confinement!
Lucien did once learn that some really powerful legendaries were immune to spells like Confinement and Maze, but he had never met one before. He had not expected to meet one today. But it might also be because what was standing in front of him was just a projection of Rudolf II.
On Lucien’s left hand, the silver light suppressed the mixture of black, white and grey, but it would take quite a while for Alterna to fully take in the power. Therefore, without hesitation, Lucien took out a colorless tube and started chanting.
“It’s that spell…!” Sophia hurriedly shouted, as if she was trying to remind her father. Her forehead was covered with a fine layer of cold sweat.