Chapter 476
Dawn and Twilight
Diomedes did not give Karl any time to adjust. The moment Karl froze, time around him suddenly began to slow. The light receded, and everything grew dim. The tongues of flame that had been engulfing everything around them gradually slowed, almost to a standstill.
As the flow of time around them slowed, a bright golden radiance flashed in Oswald’s pupils. Like the dawn, it carried a hint of extremely faint crimson light within the white gold.
—High-Tier Divine Art: Hourglass Acceleration!
The Power of the Hourglass descended upon him without prayer. Within Diomedes’ domain, his speed was not only not slowed, but was even further enhanced. Oswald instantly appeared before the Flame Demon and stopped. His fingertips were entwined with lines of light very similar to Diomedes’. However, their colors were slightly different—Oswald’s was white, while Diomedes’ was closer to a dim yellow, like light emanating from two bulbs with different color temperatures.
He once again shone with radiance.
—High-Tier Divine Art: Grey Silk!
The threads, strengthened by the power of the Grey Heavenly Envoy, turned into sharp blades. Oswald raised his right hand sharply, and the sharp lines of light tore General Karl’s body to shreds! They were like glass blades, or the claws of a fierce beast. The attacking momentum even cut through the wall behind General Karl!
Karl was severely wounded within a moment of their first encounter. However, no blood splattered from his body. Instead, accompanied by dazzling white light, a large amount of golden-red sparks, like an arc welder, burst outward.
General Karl did not panic at all. He merely grunted, and his pupils burned with intense flames. The torn body parts were reattached by the flames, leaving only a deeper scar.
Shafiya remained silent, shaking the staff in her hand. A silver-white triangle emanated a rainbow glow. Accompanied by the clinking sound of metal, countless silver-white chains appeared from the void, firmly binding General Karl’s entire body! Karl had just begun to lift his right hand when he was trapped, unable to move. But he showed no signs of panic.
He stood motionless, and the scars on his body transformed into a pair of malicious eyes.
—Ritual Spell: Eyes of Malice!
To look directly into them was to be struck with overwhelming malice, freezing one in place, unable to move. The next moment, raging flames erupted! Like a volcanic eruption, golden-red lava, mixed with cursed purple-red flames, automatically counterattacked in the direction Oswald had attacked!
The automatically counterattacking lava cannon instantly blasted a hole in the Silver and Tin Hall, which had been reinforced by the Preservation Technique! The wall couldn’t even hold for a moment before it was shattered by the counterattacking flames.
Additional scattered flames fell outside—a few sparks landed on the grass and ignited purple-red toxic flames. These flames, twisted like living things, resembling thorns or snakes, spread rapidly, emitting black smoke. More flames fell into the lake churning with muddy yellow water, instantly releasing billowing, acrid light yellow steam, accompanied by a loud hissing sound.
The power of these flames was completely different from Karl’s own. The flames he actively controlled were drawn from the Flame Demon’s shell within his body and regulated by his reason. But when he was attacked and bled, this was the unrestrained fire of the Flame Demon, ignited by the “Wrath” imprint!
Eivass, with his rich experience in ability construction, immediately judged that General Karl was exceptionally skilled at counterattacks. Unlike the Succubus Emma, Karl did not have as much faith in the demon within him. The demon within him was heavily sealed and suppressed, and only a small amount of controllable power was channeled out. Under certain conditions, its full power could erupt in a controlled manner. Clearly, the condition Karl set was “being injured and bleeding.”
He and the Flame Demon were not the same entity, so the Flame Demon within him could heal him continuously. Relying on the powerful life force granted by the contracted Flame Demon… and perhaps other Path Traits that enhanced survival. This gave him the confidence for his area-of-effect silence. This was because he was a warrior who relied on “passive abilities,” and the only condition to trigger his passive effects was to be hit!
However, his devastating counterattack missed. The moment he was hit and freed from the temporal stasis, Diomedes re-applied the deceleration effect. Oswald’s speed was so fast that it was beyond the limits of human vision. The moment those eyes of malice opened, Oswald had already appeared behind General Karl. He didn’t even look at Karl; he was even facing away from him. Yet, at some point, five white threads had tightly wrapped around General Karl’s body. The ends of the threads remained in Oswald’s clenched fist.
Oswald’s pupils once again ignited with a red glow.
—High-Tier Divine Art: Dawn Fire!
As the counterattack erupted, the divine flames of the Xi Tian Si ignited within Oswald, forming an invisible barrier of flames around him. The divine flames spread from his palm, igniting General Karl in an instant. The divine flames enveloped him, sizzling and burning his body—for General Karl, who possessed high-level fire affinity, this was not yet a fatal wound.
At that moment, Oswald suddenly turned around. In one second, all three High-Tier Divine Arts had taken effect. He raised his hand, and three light spots of bright yellow, grey, and golden red appeared. They connected to form a triangle and condensed into a white screen of light in the center. His outstretched right index finger precisely touched the newly formed light screen. As if flicked away, the light triangle instantly expanded and flew forward, precisely piercing through General Karl, who was decelerated once more and enveloped in almost static flames.
The moment the light triangle pierced General Karl, the flames on his body suddenly intensified. An invisible storm swept through, extinguishing all the Flame Demon’s fires. From the burning Karl, an seemingly endless white radiance erupted, piercing Diomedes’ summoned dark domain in an instant. The slowed speed around them instantly returned to normal.
But the next moment, the entire world turned into a void, leaving only a purely clean, pure white domain. Oswald’s extraordinarily swift speed suddenly returned to normal. All buffs cast on oneself and all debuffs cast on enemies within this pure white domain vanished and were nullified. These unbalanced forces were all transformed into pure, balanced power, condensed into the next strike.
Oswald brought down a simple, unadorned hand chop vertically. This hand chop, capable of easily tearing through steel and rock, did not actually touch Karl’s body. No lines of light emerged from his fingertips—perhaps not. After all, in this pure white world, “lines” were invisible. Yet, even so, the pure white world was perfectly split into two halves. When the pure white domain was cut, General Karl, in the center, had no power to resist and was directly split in two!
—This was the inescapable powerful strike that was locked on by Oswald! The cold equipoise force directly destroyed the seals within his body, making his body unable to heal. This caused General Karl to resemble a soft-boiled egg yolk cut by a string… after the surrounding “whites” were cut, his entire body erupted into masses of colloidal flames, the “scars” on his surface twisted and spread, and his body gradually fragmented and collapsed, almost melting into a pool of flowing golden lava.
These two old men, individually, might not even be able to defeat a Fifth Tier being on the verge of death like the “Bone Sculpture.” But if they combined their strength, even an elite like Karl would find it almost impossible to resist. It should be noted that after Shafiya was gagged, she could not use any powerful Law Spells except for “Spell Reflection” and “Forced Restraint.” Binding and immobilizing had little effect on General Karl, who specialized in counterattacks. It was basically as if only these two guardian spirits were tacitly attacking Karl.
It was not just General Karl who was cut; even the red barrier in the sky was shattered along with him.
But at this moment, an even stronger sense of crisis struck everyone present at the same time.
“Run!” Shafiya was the first to react. Having regained her spellcasting ability, she unhesitatingly pointed her staff at the wall. Her free hand reached toward the void in front of her, as if finding a node. The next moment, a blue and white rune portal generated.
“Run, Eivass!” she urged loudly while maintaining the portal.
Oswald, having just unleashed his full-strength attack, was still experiencing the backlash from the overload of equipoise force. Eivass pushed Diomedes, signaling him to quickly take the stunned Oswald and escape. Eivass also picked up Sherlock, who was still in a coma, and jumped into the portal. Shafiya, bringing up the rear, saw the remains of General Karl begin to twist and burn. The surging “Wrath” desire, accompanied by roaring high temperatures, continued to condense. She hesitated no longer and dispelled the teleportation array. Just before the portal distorted and disappeared, she flew forward at full speed and rammed into it.
Then, flames erupted. From the embers, the Flame Demon stood upright—
