1072 Imperial Curse Part 2 (1/2)

Sika was hardly bothered. She did not like doing brainwork much, unless it was something that concerned Saleen.

In many instances, petty shrewdness had no effect on people with laid-back, casual personalities like Sika. Jalin's provocation was entirely useless. The only way to truly go against Sika was through the fist. But Jalin's fist was hardly the size of Sika's.

Energy degeneration concerned magic arrays. Any magic array, however perfect, inevitably suffered energy degeneration problems, even those imbued with energy balancing rules. Most of the time, it was not the problem of the magic arrays themselves, but the surroundings they found themselves in, where the flow of elemental energy was not permissible.

After being around for tens of thousands of years, it was inevitable for the internal puppets to suffer energy degeneration.

Principle of Crystal Coffin was a theory concerning powers of planes.

The ruins of giants had maintained the highest power within that plane. The ruins possessed power which far exceeded the limit of power of Myers Mainland.

It seemed that a large cover of the crystal coffin had affected the ruins. The cover controlled the power of the ruins. If the power of Myers Mainland increased, the ruins would increase in power as well. As such, it would maintain a limit without violating the rules of the plane.

The ancient humans discovered it when they conquered planes. There were cases where powers exceeding those allowed by their respective plane rules existed, but said powers were immutable and incapable of being unleashed. The formless cover of a crystal coffin limited such existences.

The ruins was one place limited by the cover of the crystal coffin.

Gods did not possess such powers, yet divine personas had such attributes.

Under the workings of Principle of Crystal Coffin, the ruins would maintain the strongest power allowed by Myers Mainland, but the puppets within the ruins ran according to energy degeneration principle, and would continue to lose power.

But then again, it meant that the puppets were not constructed for defensive purposes, or the ancient humans would have merged the power of the puppets with the ruins. In that case, Saleen would be going against level 12 puppets instead of something with power comparable to only level eight or nine.

”There are probably tens of thousands of those parasitic puppets within the stomach of the giant then?” Saleen sighed, thinking that he had painstakingly found a ruin of such value, yet it seemed to be near impossible to enter. Even if the power of the puppets was to degrade even further, they were not something he could contend with. They would easily overwhelmed him with sheer numbers.

”How about we just turn around?” Saleen asked Jalin. Since Daliang City was under his control again, he could enter the ruins any time he fancied, so long as the people of the Holy See do not end up taking the city.

There was no way Jalin would agree to that. There was no telling where she would be next time.

”We'll either make it or die trying or we don't get to call ourselves mages?” Jalin smiled. Saleen was able to feel her insistence despite the mask covering her face. She took out a magic fire shell; Saleen never expected her to be carrying equipment of such low levels.

Jalin wrapped the shell quickly with a layer of air currents using air element, before throwing the shell down the hole.

”Wait, no...”

Saleen did not say it in time. The magic fire shell fell deep into the hole in no time, making it untraceable. Saleen heard a loud rumble about a minute later. Flickers of fire and light were seen from beneath.

Cracking noises were heard. There was nothing special about it but Jalin smirked. She turned around and said to Saleen smugly, ”how about that? There aren't all that many puppets down there. The one back there was probably the last.”

Saleen nodded. Sometimes, luck went hand in hand with courage.

”Look out!” Sika yelled. Saleen heard heavy breathing sounds and deafening screeches. The space was suddenly filled with wind element. It was so thick that Saleen felt himself unable to breath.

Roarrr!

A peculiar roar was heard from the hole. Everyone, including Sika, was sucked into the hole by the huge force generated from the hole. Saleen was somehow able to summon Tempest Dragonmights in a hurry and wrapped everyone in wind element.

There were more than 200 people in the expedition, but Saleen was unable to afford to ignore the 12 sorcerers and Jalin. Some soldiers were not so lucky. Unable to get used to being wrapped in wind element, they felt so bad that their eyes became bloodshot.

Saleen had no time to deal with petty matters like that. Even the Tempest Dragonmights were unable to control the raging wind element. They had already given all they had just to keep the people alive. Everyone banged on the walls every now then as they fell.

Tens of soldiers were sucked into other branches of the hole, never to be sensed again. Saleen knew that there was no way they could come out alive.

They fell at a frightening speed. Saleen put up a large Water Shield in a hurry, which covered all 12 sorcerers. Saleen upgraded that spell back in the Imperial City of the Abyss, turning the Water Shield into a level ten spell.

Boom!

More than a hundred of them landed hard on the ground. The ones protected by the Water Shield bounced immediately after hitting the ground. Saleen was no longer the minor mage he used to be. The large ball formed by the Water Shield clung to the ground, and Saleen fixed it to the ground before it was able to bounce for more than half a meter up.