1347 Hammer Part 2 (1/2)

The idea behind the crystal armor was ingenious, but the armor was mostly meant for fending off attacks from meteor armor. Such close-quarter cutting by air currents was sharper and deadlier than that of sword aura of golden grand sword masters.

The thing is, the air currents were of short duration. If they missed their target and were intercepted by equipment like the crystal armor, follow-up attacks would have been needed.

Armors usually weren't designed this way, because that crystal armor was not really effective against common types of physical attacks.

A huge furry hand extended from the other side of the black vortex while both the skeleton and the angel were whipping the abominations about with their bludgeoning weapons, catching Rafel's meteor hammer.

Powerful explosions blasted through that hammer, forcing intense air currents through cracks on the head, wringing itself free.

The master of the huge hand seemed momentarily stunned, its bloodied hand extended again. But it was the entire arm showing up from the black vortex.

Rafel quickly retreated to evade capture. Unsuccessful in dodging the first catch, she was taken aback at the realization that the enemy's martial prowess was on par with hers.

The wounds on the hand healed right away. While it failed to resist the meteor hammer's attack, it didn't get blown to bits either. Rafel reeled the meteor hammer back and stabbed using the spear on her right hand. The thrust, which dealt a huge puncture wound, caused the hand to pull back.

The six evil eyes on Rafel's spear were even eerie than that huge hand, as it sucked the hand's evil power right there and then.

That was, however, due to the insufficient levels of her spear: If it had been Nailisi's Gray Memory she was wielding, half the body of the hand's master would have been torn apart.

Nailisi was unable to bring the best of Gray Memory's powers to bear because of her own insufficient level.

But then again, it didn't really matter since no more abominations were emerging from that black vortex for the time being. The Winged Skull kept swinging its weapon, every attack bringing enough explosive power to obliterate all abominations in close range.

If it had been Saleen, he would have doubted such tactics. The power of magic was all about balance. While bloodstones were deemed precious commodities on Myers Mainland, they were commonplace in the spirit plane.

The explosive power brought forth by such cheap things had already exceeded the value of the bloodstone itself.

It was similar to having a level-9 magic nucleus emitting level-11 magic energies.

Anything that could not be explained was meant to be researched. Saleen, however, hadn't looked into the meteor hammer since the Winged Skull rarely used it. Besides, he was unable to spare the time because he had all sorts of wars to fight, all sorts of experiments to conduct, all sorts of objects to design.

The minds of mages had always been filled with creativity.

The Winged Skull spread its wings as the meteor hammer was swinging, having its way with the massacre at the hall. Rafel stood at the side of the black vortex to kill any abominations that emerged.

The battle lasted over an hour.

The black vortex slowly shrank and finally dissipated. A huge array that was drawn using the symbols on the abominations were revealed on the ground. The Winged Skull put the weapon away and lowered its head, studying the array.

”Are you staying?” Rafel was curious. What is there to research about the array? It's just something similar to the teleportation portals of elemental mages, after all. If Saleen were to get to it, he would have been able to design something similar.

”Abominations do not have writing systems. Something this complex couldn't have been developed by the abominations themselves.”

”The Heretic God. Those are the scripts of the Heretic God.”

A memory surfaced in Rafel's mind. She then said to the Winged Skull, ”The Heretic God once invaded many divine kingdoms and possessed his own as well. He was later...killed. The one we're dealing with now is either a resurrected one or his successor.”

The Winged Skull took out a piece of crystal and recorded all runes on the array before destroying it with the Reaper Scythe. Then it went on to look for a passage going above.

The Winged Skull knew there was a stable set of coordinates at the central Magical Element Tower on the Floating City. Saleen could have laid out a teleportation portal and returned there at any given moment.

He didn't need to protect the underground city, as the abominations had yet to gain an advantage in the entire place. The Qin soldiers had retreated. It was pointless for the abominations to take the outer regions of the underground city.

The abominations were not spirits. They were even inferior to demons. That was because abominations got hungry quickly and had to eat nonstop. The reason they were capturing humans was to stockpile food.

A human mid-level swordsman could sustain an abomination for two or three days. Demons, however, could go without eating for a month, unlike abominations, which needed to eat at least once a day to sustain their combat capacity.

Saleen was still talking with Ojarvis about how to repel the abominations in the magic cube. With the magic door relieved of the pressure from the abominations and shut tightly, the core of the underground city would be safe for now.

The mages opened a magic array in the central room, filling the place with three-dimensional, transparent images. From here Ojarvis could observe what was going on outside. The magic cube slowly became operational. Saleen felt the place was similar to his Magical Element Tower.

Corpses began piling up outside the magic door. Some ”dead bodies” were trying to piece themselves back together, a scene many there had grown accustomed to. The capacity to stomach such revolting images increased through constant exposure.

Safilos was resting inside the magic door, watching the mages assemble the large-scale puppet. They were almost finished.

Regardless of where the attack was planned, any abomination intending to attack the magic cube would eventually have to pass through that door.