607 A Swarm of Spells (1/2)
Crack!
As the crisp sound echoed, the blackness around quickly faded away. The colors on every legend vanished, leaving the lackluster greyness. The pure Fire of Soul was frozen, and the Original Fire endured the posture of performing magic.
As for the rest of them, Kritonia was slashing much more slowly, but he was still moving, and Hathaway was struggling to approach Natasha, with blue and grey colors lingering on his body.
The experts who were immune to Time Stop were very rare, and still fewer were those who could resist Advanced Time Stop!
That was why Time Stop had always been the most difficult ninth-circle to learn. Those who grasped 'Advanced Time Stop' had to be legends in time and space. In the entire Congress of Magic, Brook was the only one who could perform it until Douglas understood the relationship between gravity and space-time. Oliver had a good chance to pick it up later, too.
Looking at the Original Fire who was covered in greyness, Lucien suddenly summoned his spiritual power.
The enemy would be in a different time and space when they were under 'Time Stop', and he couldn't directly affect them, but the duration was enough for him to cast multiple spells. When the Time Stop was over, the Original Fire would embrace a storm!
In case that the Original Fire was immune to the spells below the ninth circle, Luxury Cracking did not choose them but simply performed 'Cracking (Advanced)', time and time again!
After five times of 'Cracking (Advanced)', the frozen black second hand of the Moon Timer began to tick. However, it was not moving regularly but jumping forward, pointing at the mysterious symbols made of gems.
As a result, Lucien activated eight ninth-circle spells that had been stored inside before much faster than usual. There were Cracking (Advanced) as well as spells among them!
In the end, as a precaution that the Original Fire might have equipment that provided immunity to some of the ninth-circle spells, Lucien chanted:
”Space Staff!”
Unpredictable light rippled and gathered in Lucien's hands, like the scepter of a king. After he nodded, the space around the Original Fire was frozen. He waited for the effect of 'Time Stop' to be over.
He had hardly performed the legendary spell when the fading blackness came back. The eternal black, white and grey covered the World of Souls again.
The colors on the Original Fire were refreshed. The red, green, white and purple flames bouncing on his magic robe were particularly eye-catching.
He didn't expect that Lucien had already advanced into legendary and would boast a pocket watch that could cast 'Advanced Time Stop'. His eyes constricting, he was braced for a salvo of spells.
”Three legendary spells are not enough to kill you!”
”The spells below the ninth circle cannot affect me!”
”I am immune to Confinement, too!”
His mind sparkled. The Original Fire was hit by a tide of spells before he had the chance to cast any spell. He could only resist them with the spells that he enhanced himself with in advance. As the final security measure, he still had three life-preserving, innate spells!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
Light glowed on the Original Fire like fireworks, only to be torn into shreds by the swarm of 'Cracking (Advanced)'.
”He has indeed advanced into legendary!”
If it weren't cast by a legendary sorcerer, most magic effects on his body couldn't be destroyed at all!
Crack! Crack! Crack!
The level-eight and level-nine items broke apart into grey powder under 'Cracking (Advanced)'.
”Why is he casting so many times of 'Cracking (Advanced)'?”
Although the spells came at the same time, the Original Fire had thought of a lot of things. He suddenly had a bad feeling, but after Time Stop, the spells that Lucien cast earlier overwhelmed him. He couldn't perform any magic at all!
The magic effects were nullified, and the alchemical items were broken. Suddenly, the Original Fire discovered that the space around him was twisting into a maze, but his last alchemical item blinked and offset the space-time change.
”A Maze attached with magic deferment?”
”He has been trying to trap me in a maze so that he can wait for reinforcements to come?”
”Is his Maze a ninth-circle special skill?”
Hardly had he thought of that when the space around him was twisted again. Lucien had prepared more than one Maze with magic delay!
This time, the Original Fire, having lost all his magic effects and alchemical items, couldn't resist it anymore, and found himself in a spacious temple.
The Original Fire snorted angrily. Maze and Confinement were always most troublesome in a battle. By the time he got out of the maze, it was possible that a bunch of legendary sorcerers would be waiting for him outside.
Creating a time gap was the best effect of such spells!
”I've seen too many special mazes. Even the mazes that His Excellency Thanos created himself didn't take me more than twenty seconds. Let's see what you've got!”
The legendary staff in his hands, that was as red as fire, glimmered as he blasted the framework of the maze trying to set himself free as soon as possible so that he could help Kritonia purge Lucien!
It was a shame that Lucien was already a legendary sorcerer. While the special maze was only a ninth-circle spell, it was as steady as a legendary spell. He couldn't break through it for the time being.
At this moment, he had captured the whole look of the maze. It was an empty palace, and the exit was the gate. There were no disguises or a second way out.
”Is it a puzzle?” The Original Fire tried to break the structure while he walked to the gate, only to discover that a few lines of words were written on the water screen on the gate.
”Welcome to Evans' Maze of Quizzes. You can walk out of this place as long as you answer five quizzes correctly. Before you answer any of them, note that you have three ways of asking for help. Firstly, you can ask for another quiz. Secondly, you can consult the mysterious existence with magic. Thirdly, you can ask the audience… Well, sorry, there is no audience here…”