Chapter 1316: Chapter 1316: Rain-Prayer Golem
Shard frowned and looked at the enemy in front of him:
"Are you from the Blood Spirit School?"
Unlike that talkative man with glasses, Shard’s opponent seemed not to like talking. He charged forward again, then exploded into a cloud of black mist. Compared to this, Shard’s method of spatial movement, Lagre’s Leap, was much superior. This method not only required a charging motion but also had conspicuous sounds and black mist during the movement.
Shard’s keen spatial perception ability allowed him to detect the opponent’s landing point even before he appeared. Instead of using the Spatial Stabilization Aura to block his opponent’s movement, Shard directly thrust his longsword backward.
The moment the opponent materialized, the crimson Moonlight Greatsword had already pierced through his abdomen. The flesh rot trait of the Red Moon Moonlight Greatsword took effect almost immediately, and the festering wound made the sword in Shard’s hand shine even more brilliantly.
But this did not constitute a fatal wound. The blood-colored phantom behind the man extended its hands to embrace him and then grabbed Shard’s sword with its hands in front of the man. The strange spiritual body’s head extended from the man’s shoulder towards Shard, its elongated neck resembling a slender crawling snake as its mouth bit towards Shard’s neck.
Although he didn’t know what would happen if bitten, Shard released the sword in his hand and retreated.
The brief exchange lasted less than half a minute, and Shard of the Five Rings barely held the upper hand.
Due to Shard’s release, the red dagger piercing the man’s abdomen disappeared. The Inner Ring Sorcerer clutched his stomach, glaring at Shard with resentment. The Ring of Fate behind him emitted an even more dazzling light, and this time, he exploded into a red blood mist.
"Black mist and red mist again, so skilled at mist usage... hmm? Vampiric powers?"
Shard saw no small mark indicating the Vampire Kind on the opponent’s head, which meant he was a half-blood with extremely diluted lineage:
"Are you really from the Blood Spirit School?"
The blood mist drifted towards Shard, with the sound of dense mosquitoes buzzing inside it. Shard completely ignored the disturbance from the mosquitoes and deftly extended his finger, pointing slightly above the red mist:
"Sunlight Ray!"
A slender warm yellow light pillar shot out, and after a scream, the small bat hidden above the red mist was pierced by the light pillar, falling directly to the ground and reverting to the man’s form. However, his face was pale, and the attack just now was even more severe than the Moonlight Greatsword’s piercing wound:
"How could you know the weakness of racial secret techniques?"
"I have a Vampire Kind friend."
Mr. Benhart shared these secret techniques of the Vampire Kind with Shard when he was in Huntington City.
The man fell silent, crossing his hands before his chest, and uttered a low growl, then transformed into a blood-colored cross that struck towards Shard. Shard was even more familiar with this move, as Mr. Benhart had demonstrated it to him, and he could do it himself:
"Moonlight Slash!"
Similarly crossing hands before his chest, Shard also transformed into a resplendent silver cross that struck forward. The two crosses collided head-on, and after the explosion of dust, Shard drank essence while dusting off his clothes — the fourth form of the Moonlight Slash was truly exhausting to the spirit. Meanwhile, the Inner Ring Sorcerer was supporting himself with one hand on the ground, constantly vomiting blood onto the ground.
He was seriously injured now, well aware that continuing the entanglement with Shard had no good end, especially since Shard hadn’t even revealed his Ring of Fate. Hence, he resolved to launch a final attack. Shard originally worried he might take a risk with the Sublimation Incantation, but he merely let the Ring of Fate behind him flash with light again.
The Miracle Soul Rune [Blood-Colored Phantom], the Desecration Spirit Rune [Suicidee], the Whisper Rune [Corpse]. These three spirit runes jointly supported the forthcoming arcane technique, which made it appear as though the man was on tiptoes, with the wraith crouching behind him as if genuinely supporting him on its feet.
Suddenly, the wraith leapt forward, causing the man to leap along with it. The height of the first jump directly surpassed the top of Shard’s head, and upon landing, the second springy bounce took him to a height of three stories.
"What kind of arcane technique is this?"
The rotating red and black streams flowed around the wandering soul and the Circle Sorcerer, and the ground he tread upon even seeped with crimson blood due to it. Shard stood prepared to face the opponent’s desperate strike, but witnessed the opponent’s third bounce leaping over the Earth Wall summoned by the witch.
"Hmm?"
A moment of bewilderment later, with a swift motion, a silver Thunder Spear followed. The man bouncing in the air used the blood-colored phantom behind him to forcibly block the strike, cried out, and landed behind the Earth Wall, falling unconscious.
"What an interesting arcane technique,"
Shard remarked, confirming that the opponent was indeed unconscious before turning to look at his companions.
Just as Shard concluded his battle, the other two battles were also nearing their end. Miss Benanis, despite not being adept at combat, easily subdued the Eight Rings opponent with the power of an Eleventh Rank Witch who doubled as an Eleven-Ring Sorcerer.
The battle between Luviya and the Low Ring Sorcerer holding an Obsidian Pendulum was even simpler. The two stood staring solemnly at each other, neither moving. The man frantically shook the relic pendulum in his hand, while Luviya tossed coins repeatedly, as if demonstrating her Divination Arts to the opponent.
After a full three minutes, Luviya suddenly pulled out a golden dagger she carried and threw it at him. He dodged sharply to the left, only to have the dagger hit him right in the chest, as if he was deliberately using his body to catch Luviya’s dagger.
The man looked in astonishment at the weapon impaled in his chest, the obsidian pendulum in his hand falling to the ground:
"Fate, in the end, has given me the ending I deserve."
Luviya’s dagger clearly didn’t have a one-hit kill effect, but he still breathed his last. The battles of Diviners were always hard to understand, but at least Luviya was quite happy when she picked up that Relic obsidian pendulum.
The bespectacled man, suppressed by the Witch, was also at his last step, the earthly hand emerging from the ground grabbing his ankle, while the Witch bound his right hand holding the black skull Relic with silvery threads of memory. He intended to risk using the Sublimation Incantation, but Miss Benanis spoke:
"Think carefully, if captured by me, you’ll only be handed over to the True God Church. The Church generally won’t execute someone like you, a High Ring Sorcerer, on the spot. You still have instrumental value, perhaps as pathfinders in containing Relics, or testing the characteristics of new Relics. But if you use the Sublimation Incantation now, unprepared, even if you defeat me, you might still drop dead during your escape."
The man hesitated for a moment, the Relic in his hand falling to the ground:
"I surrender."
He thought the grotesque woman disguising her appearance before him was quite right.
"Are you from the Blood Spirit School?"
"Yes, one of my two companions is also from the Blood Spirit School, the other is a believer in the Stone Heart Demon."
"How many of you are still around here?"
"Three High Rings, three Inner Rings. They will appear shortly to hinder the Church’s actions. As long as we can delay a bit, the plan can proceed smoothly."
"What Relic are you waiting for exactly?"
The man looked out at the lake, gradually freezing over again. Amidst the battle between six people, the Church had already repaired the pollution zone that was nearly out of control due to the earthquake. Because their manpower was insufficient, they hadn’t sent anyone over to see exactly who was fighting:
"You’ll soon know. I can’t say, it’s bound by a contract."
Then Miss Benanis clapped her hands, and the man, restrained at the lakeside, cried out and clutched his ears before fainting from dizziness.
"The Blood Spirit School and those cultists seem well-staffed, sending three people even for the cleanup work."
The Witch remarked.
"Perhaps they’re not even doing cleanup work; let the Church discern the lies."
Shard frowned, as the two women walked over to him, the three of them looking towards the starry sky over the frozen great lake.
Frozen black mud, still standing like a winding giant serpent in the center of the lake, yet resembling some ancient sky-reaching stone pillar. As the clouds scattered, the moonlight poured over the ice, also illuminating the bustling people on the opposite shore.
The lakeside, of course, wasn’t only occupied by the Church and Shard’s group. Local Ring Mage Groups had people arriving here for various reasons. Everyone awaited what might happen next, while the Church had nearly taken control of the situation.
Shard was the first to notice the change, as the Whisper element abruptly descended before them.
It was hard to say whether another earthquake erupted again, or if Shard was the first to detect the Whisper element. The rumbling earth noise this time was more terrifying than ever before, and the lake surface, just refrozen, shattered completely this time.
The Divine Arts glowing from across the lake was so intense it nearly illuminated half the night sky, yet it was still unable to halt the unnatural seismic effects.
Waves pounded the shore violently due to the earthquake, contaminated lake water mixed with black mud brought hard ice to the shore, but only the colossal black mud column, frozen solid, remained eerily standing at Elderon Lake’s center.
Once another round of tremors concluded, rippling waves still disturbed the lake surface. Not just Shard, any Ring Sorcerer with a bit of perception ability could feel the incredibly frightening strength of the Whisper element around.
Soon, the airborne Ring Mages noticed a swirling vortex forming under the giant ice pillar’s base on the lake surface. Deeper darkness than the blackest mud appeared beneath the water’s surface.
Rain clouds quickly gathered, obscuring the starry sky and moon. The air was filled with the wet earthy scent, signaling impending rain.
Finally, a massive stone head ascended from the lakebed, followed by neck, shoulders, and the entire body. It was a colossal stone statue of ancient design, left hand on right shoulder, right hand on left shoulder. Not a modern-style detailed sculpture, but a symbolic statue as used in ritual sacrifices.
Its eyes and facial features were all angular cubes, with steam pipe-like carvings tracing across its form. On the two pillar-like legs were engraved giant runes forming a sentence:
[I offer everything, in pursuit of even a single drop of rain.]
The Relic thus abruptly descended.