Chapter 336: The Divine Scales

A deafening detonation tore through the air. From the muzzle of the Conqueror erupted a searing crimson beam, a full ring thicker than even the charged shot of Fury of the Forge. The beam was aimed at the two figures marked by Wang Yu's Chariot.

The scorching heat and crushing impact of the physical round melted through the thick floor as if it were wax. On contact, the collision triggered a violent explosion.

Compressed energy burst from the projectile as flames swept through the stairwell below. The confined space filled instantly with blistering fire, with a shockwave rippling out in all directions. The ground beneath Wang Yu swelled violently upward, splitting into a web of cracks.

"Even at this speed, it didn't strike the targets..."

At close range, any target below the level of an intermediate grand knight would have been crippled outright. Yet for all its devastating force, the attack missed the mark.

He saw what had happened clearly through the power of the Chariot. The moment the round struck the floor, the young man below snapped his head up and grabbed the man beside him, whom he called Joey, and launched himself away with explosive force.

His speed was startling, easily at the level of a high-ranking grand knight, or perhaps by an intermediate grand knight at maximum focus.

But what astonished Wang Yu even more was that, when he yanked the other man Joey along, it was as though Joey weighed nothing at all. It was as if he were grabbing at empty air.

"The surrounding space has been partitioned into small cells," Avia cut in, her voice brisk and calm even as her hands worked. "It's meant to isolate us from the rest of the Council to destroy us one by one. The split is being enforced by one of Skyborne City's great arrays. I can't counter it for the time being."

She layered enchantments over Wang Yu without pause: Fleetfoot, Stonehide, Molten Bulwark, Storm Mantle, and more.

These were straightforward buffing spells that Wang Yu and Avia had prepared for in advance. Not only would Wang Yu's raw strength and speed be augmented, he would temporarily possess abilities no knight's training could replicate.

"Shall we clear the field?" Wang Yu asked, eyes narrowing as the young men below broke into a retreat and vanished into the maze of buildings.

Though no building would get in the way of his Chariot, they had gone beyond his maximum range of observation.

"Mm."

Avia drew forth a stone-like object wreathed in the translucent brown aura of earth energy from the Seed of Eden.

The stabilized space allowed only small items through the Seed of Eden, rendering much of their prior preparation unusable.

Even so, it was astounding that the Seed could be used under such circumstances where even entry into a demiplanar space like the Void Realm was forbidden. It was a sign of the Seed of Eden's true potential.

Without hesitation, Avia hurled the core at the ground. On impact, the earth mana surged forth. Cracks spidered across walls, floors, and every surface they were connected to.

This earth-elemental core was a perfect vessel for earth magic, and Avia had packed the utility-type sixth-tier spell Earth Collapse into it. Originally meant for mining, it now served to level all obstacles in their way.

Fractures continued to spread for a dozen seconds before the affected structures lost all stability. In an instant, the buildings came crashing down in the form of rubble. Gravity seized the falling debris, driving it into the earth and sending dust billowing upward.

With a sweep of the Chariot's unseen hand, Wang Yu cleared the falling stone from their path, while Aivia's conjured gale scoured away the dust before it could cloak them.

The collapse revealed the true shape of their prison: a vast cubic space partitioned much like the interior of the Seed of Eden, though far larger in size. It contained the entirety of the Council of the Arcane's compound.

The buildings' destruction no longer mattered—lives were at stake. Now, with the terrain leveled, their enemies would have nowhere to hide.

Thirty meters away, dust still hung thick, blocking Wang Yu's sight—but not Avia's. Data streamed in through the Perfect Fractal lens on his right eye: wind speed, heat anomalies, magic signatures, all distilled into a coherent target.

"He's coming, but I don't see the other one..."

In the lens' overlay, a single figure running at full tilt was highlighted in crimson. It was the young man, Wood. Joey's whereabouts remained unknown.

A bolt of lightning leapt out of Avia's staff and tore through the dust toward the runner. The young man rolled, dropping low so the bolt would pass overhead, but the arc curved in mid-air and swept toward him with elegant lethality. This was the targeted fourth-tier spell Lightning Arc.

Wood's hand flashed to his waist as he drew a dagger. Fighting spirit flared along its edge as he slashed at the incoming bolt.

The elemental force split under the strike, scattering into harmless sparks that dissipated on contact with the layer of fighting spirit that surrounded him.

Through the thinning dust, his eyes locked on the mage standing behind the knight. His lips barely moved. "Joey, find a way to take out the mage. I'll keep the knight busy. If I can avoid using my potential, I will. I'll try to save it for the others."

"Got it."

The answer came out of nowhere.

Wood's pace quickened. Abandoning stealth, he charged straight for Wang Yu, speed flaring once more.

Wang Yu narrowed his eyes. His acceleration was formidable and at the level of a high-ranking grand knight, a challenging opponent for him to take on. He'd have to probe his opponent's strength.

As he gestured, his shattered starsteel blade streaked forth, fragments spinning and weaving unpredictable arcs through the air to meet Wood head-on.

Wood drew a second dagger with his other hand. His arms blurred into afterimages as they formed an impenetrable barrier of steel around him. Twenty fragments of Wang Yu's starsteel blade struck at him from every angle, but he held fast.

The clash continued. Wang Yu couldn't help but be impressed with Wood's speed, yet the power of the Chariot made one thing clear: Wood might have impressive speed, but his strength fell far short. His blows carried the force of a mere beginner grand knight. He was a specialist in speed—a ranger who had abandoned balance for swiftness.

That made things simple. Once Wang Yu found an opening, he would be able to deal Wood a fatal strike.

Wood deflected another fragment of Wang Yu's blade with a swift slash. As it spun away in a shower of sparks, his eyes locked onto Wang Yu. In the same heartbeat, he sprang backward in a coiled leap, widening the gap between them. The swarm of fragments pursued him in a deadly storm, but they were utterly unable to keep pace against Wood's blistering speed.

Wang Yu watched his enemy retreat and deliberately widen the distance between them. So be it. It made no difference. All the better if the man didn't give him an opening... though if he did, he would show him no mercy.

He didn't break off the chase. The Perfect Fractal lens over his eye flared as it linked with the girl, their mana threading together. One spell gathered within his grasp.

Then, without warning, Wood suddenly shifted direction. He dropped low, skimming along the ground in a burst of sudden acceleration, the dagger in his hand flashing toward Wang Yu's unguarded throat.

At that very moment, close to Avia, a blade materialized in empty air. It sliced open a rift in the void. Through that rift stepped a figure silent as shadow, who emerged directly behind the girl. The dagger in his hand spun once before shooting toward her back.

Shadewalkers were an ancient offshoot of knights that possessed incredible capacity for stealth and assassination, and were second only to antimagic specialists in terms of prowess against magicians. When they struck unseen, a magician's frail throat tended not to survive the confrontation.

Avia didn't turn around. She gave no sign that she even noticed the danger. But in her hands, a spell model took form in the blink of an eye—a spatial spell.

The dagger shot toward her at breathtaking speed, cloaked in the fighting spirit of a knight's secret art. That aura scattered and masked mana perception, making detection near-impossible. In half a second, her heart would be pierced.

Joey heard a roar in the distance, but couldn't afford to take his eyes off his prey. His target, the magician, would die in an instant.

Yet the instant the dagger tore through her robe, poised to drive through her flesh, Avia's spell ignited. The fighting-spirit-hardened dagger pierced straight through flesh—though not her flesh.

Shadewalkers possessed extraordinary stealth that rendered them immune to most detection spells, but Perfect Fractal was made precisely to unmask such tricks.

It didn't rely on sensing mana at all; it worked by parsing the environment itself, distilling every shift and deviation into anomalous data on a map. The more disruptive forces there were at play, the easier it was for the Perfect Fractal to discern the seams in the world.

The moment Avia saw him emerge, she had alerted Wang Yu and begun casting her spell in one fluid motion.

The spatial spell Castling instantly swapped the positions of two pre-marked targets. A fixed swap was always far simpler than dynamic movement.

On receiving her alert, Wang Yu responded immediately. He unleashed his dragonbreath in a broad blast that left Wood no escape. He was hurled backwards. In the same breath, Avia's magic took hold as he and Avia exchanged places. The dagger found his back instead.

Not that it mattered. His blood pushed the blade back out as the wound knit itself shut with unnatural speed. At such close range, the Shadewalker's stealth was laughable against the power of the Chariot. Wang Yu spun, sweeping a leg toward the point where he sensed Joey's presence.

A sharp crack split the air as the kick scythed through empty space. Joey was gone—both he and his partner were blindingly fast. It was irritating, but Wang Yu didn't mind. The Conqueror was already in his hand. In the next instant, Castling triggered again.

Avia and Wang Yu swapped back. Before Wang Yu was Wood, lunging forward at him. After being blasted back by the dragonbreath, he had seen her and gone for the kill without hesitation.

Wang Yu lifted the revolver. The spell Avia had prepared earlier through the Perfect Fractal now poured its frigid essence into the weapon's Frostheart module, activating it ahead of time. The gun was primed to fire its next shot.

Specializing too much was a weakness...

A violet arc flared for the briefest flash, then vanished. The bullet was gone, transmuted into invisible force. It found Wood instantly and locked on to him with unerring precision. Gravity crashed down like a warhammer, slamming the speedy knight into the ground and pinning him there with crushing force.

Wang Yu was a generalist, exceptional nowhere save for his regeneration. Even so, he was equipped with a counter for every foe—like this speed-focused knight, for instance.

He surged forward, leg raised, body and fighting spirit in perfect harmony, and stomped down on Wood's skull at full strength.

A hand burst free of the crushing weight, catching his heel. The strength behind it made Wang Yu's eyes widen in alarm. Something was wrong—the man's strength now matched his speed.

With a brutal heave, Wood smashed him into the ground. The ground bucked; his bones cracked audibly.

The potential that Wood had been trying to save had finally been unveiled.

His Divine Scales allowed all his physical attributes to match his strongest one for ten minutes, his pinnacle now shared by all in perfect harmony.