Chapter 1640 (2/2)
The Winged Serpent’s tongue flicked out appreciatively. “Hum. Strong strokes with stable foundations. This young man has a lot of talent. But surely he realizes that Engraving Guild will assume he his mocking them purposefully with this method…? Hissssss…. Now I regret not volunteering my own services, kekeke.”
“Imagine, being bold enough to force the Engraving Guild to launch an assault!” Dusk Jackal slapped his knee. His eyes were bright and flickering as he watched below.
With a slow blink, the Frost Matriarch turned from the Nether Spires to their small expedition, still remaining still on th slope. And she couldn’t believe what she was seeing.
Rather than assaulting the Nether Spire directly, the group led by the Ghosthound had settled about halfway down the slope and set up defensive formations. Once everyone was in position, the Ghosthound rolled his shoulders and visibly released a breath. When he raised his head, the Nether in the surrounding area began to spin toward him. Within a few seconds, the amount of significance he seized began to impact the flows around the other Nether Spires. Even the pooling significance wasn’t immune to his grip, rapidly losing much of its dangerous accumulation.
As the Winged Serpent had teased, the Engraving Guild elites immediately fixated upon the Ghosthound. They had warily watched a rival previously; now their heavy gazes seemed to spit indignation and murder. Not that they had a monopoly on Nether Cores in the Nexus, but it was a close thing. And certainly, no one was so bold as to flaunt an independently created Nether Core in front of them.
Technically, a Nether Core not in the Nether Lattice was a delicate subject in the Nexus. Without a powerful political backing, possessing one was a death sentence.
Even more impressive was how quickly a massive Nether Ritual emerged around this small group. The ground was covered in complicated sigils that shifted as soon as you noticed them. The young man stood in front of them all and adjusted his calculations on the fly. The Engraving Guild members began to buzz with tension as the ritual grew more powerful.
However, very soon the Nether around the Ghosthound grew unstable. The three remaining Nether Spires seemed to sense the grand working and naturally adjusted their currents of significance to weaken the new arrival. What the Spires seemed to be doing was sucking away the ambient energy on the battlefield, especially in this area. The beautiful patterns that covered most of the ground flickered as the pressure changed. Nether would continue to function without a portion of its significance, but it would be like an image without shape. Violent, but impotent.
No wonder the Engraving Guild isn’t attempting something similar… The Frost Matarich reflected.
Yet just as the Frost Matriarch thought that the grand Nether working was going to collapse, an image exploded from the Ghosthound’s body. It only took a second for a massive tree to form above him. The thick bark was covered in those same mystical patterns and the emerald canopy was lush and vibrant. A near-infinite amount of leaves rustled as the flows of significance shook the branches. Thick and rugged roots sunk into the ground. A palpable aura of life surrounded the tree, adding to its potency.
However, to the Frost Matriarch’s eyes, such an image wasn’t worth commenting on. It seemed to possess little offensive power and the details of the image were inconsistent and fuzzy in some places. The Ghosthound was growing the emotional presence, but it was still in a weak state. In a direct confrontation, she could crush this projection without difficulty. And she didn’t doubt that both the Nether Heralds and the Engraving Guild could do the same. Based on his youth, making it this far was impressive, but still-
“The roots,” The Winged Serpent hissed quietly. “Such delicate Control…”
The Frost Matriarch blinked. Truly, she had been scrutinizing the image itself so closely she hadn’t really been noticing how the Ghosthound had been wielding it. Rather than clashing against the pull of the Nether Spires directly, the Ghosthound ignored them. Instead, he guided the roots of this massive tree to grow precisely along the lines of his Nether Ritual. If he couldn’t draw the lines with significance, he could draw them by hand and then supply the significance later. The speed and precision of the expansion left even the Frost Matriarch floored.
All it took for the Ghosthound to react and neutralize the Nether Spires was two seconds.
With the physical presence of roots running through the lines of Nether, the significance was shielded. The influence the Nether Spires could exert drastically decreased. For the next five seconds, the huge web of roots radiating outward from the base of the enormous tree shifted and slithered into new positions as the Ghosthound adjusted his Nether Ritual further. The resonance from the array gradually strengthened.
Suddenly, the Engraving Guild seemed to realize that this attempt wasn’t a taunting joke. The Frost Matriarch could see the higher tiered individuals in the Nether Lattice barking out orders and the grunts scrambling forward. Due to its size, the array the Ghosthound created was absolutely massive; he wouldn’t be able to defend all of it from attacks.
But the Engraving Guild had moved too late. Just as the watchers realized they should be interfering, the Ghosthound activated his Nether Ritual. Significance flooded along the predetermined routes created by the golden roots. An ethereal pulse spread through the surroundings as the higher tiered energy engaged with the complex meaning of the array.
Space warped and the massive working shrunk to target only the small area around the Nether Spire. The Frost Matriarch followed the flows of energy with her senses; the array was weaving the spatial barriers together and turning them against each other in such a complex way that even she was having difficulty following the arrangement.
Then, inexplicably, two of the energy flows that made up the dense network of spatial walls were set against each other. Even more inexplicably, after a few seconds of those flows clashing, the spatial walls around the targeted Nether Spire began to fade out of existence. The collision point between the flows crackled and hissed as more and more pressure built up between them.
The phenomenon spread. The impasse between the two knotted energy flows became a furnace of raw heat while the spatial walls in the area toppled like dominos. Soon, the entire crater was free of those pesky walls. Everyone became very, very aware of each other, all watching the spectacle by the Nether Spire.
And the heat from the impacted flows was so absolute that the Nether Spire began to bubble and collapse like a candle tossed into a burning building. The Nether Array at the Spire’s heart continued for a short while, but it too was eventually invalidated by the heat. With one last shiver, everything collapsed to the ground.
For a brief second, the battlefield was silent. Yet just as quickly, the battle was rejoined with increased fervor.
Along with the spatial walls in the crater, the second Nether Spire had fallen. More and more significance began to pool, but luckily the fallen towers were opposite one another. Meanwhile, the Nether Heralds who had been guarding that Nether Spire retreated to the side with burn-related injuries.
Yet after gathering themselves, they looked toward the Ghosthound’s group with rage-filled eyes.