The ogre battle servant let out a painful howl, its murderous gaze momentarily shifting towards Felix. However, it quickly had to change its focus. Felix's mental power had infiltrated its brain, and the mental seed he had planted began to take root and grow.
After dealing with the remaining gargoyles, the ogre clutched its head, trembling violently, until Felix regained control over it. Breathing heavily, the ogre picked up its iron club again and approached the Prison of Bones that held the Silver Hand captive.
The scar-faced knight, trapped in the Prison of Bones, was also panting heavily. Since his entrapment, he had been exerting his body's Holy Light power on his Crusher, attempting to break open the bone cage with strength nearly matching that of a Sacred Coffin Knight.
Unfortunately, he failed.
The soul power of the cage negated any form of elemental power. In terms of sheer physical strength, a Sacred Coffin Knight might not surpass a blade ogre warrior.
Upon entering the Silver Domain, a melee fighter's physical strength typically becomes two to three times that of an average adult man. This is why Central Knights can wield Viking greatswords in battle.
After advancing to the Golden Domain, knights' strength grows again, usually reaching three to five times that of an average adult. At this stage, their physical power becomes formidable, with the ability to tear a lion apart with their bare hands.
Approaching the pinnacle of the Golden Domain, knights' strength reaches a critical point, where their physical power can be more than ten times that of a normal person!
Humans have never been known for their strength. Compared to power species like the half-ogre tauren, humans have always relied on combat skills as the foundation of their strength. Affinity for elemental powers and the capacity for magical energy are also fundamental to humans' prowess.
The ogre, dripping with bloodied saliva, came to the Prison of Bones holding the scar-faced knight. Under Felix's control, it grasped the end of its iron club with both hands and started spinning on the spot with a roar!
After two rotations, the ogre let out a bellow and, with the force of a thunderstorm, smashed the thick iron club onto the soul-powered bones!
Bang!!!
The terrifying impact seemed to shake the very air itself!
The soul-powered bones cracked slightly under the impact, and the crack gradually spread until the entire Prison of Bones shattered into dust.
The 500-pound iron club was bizarrely bent, with a deep indent almost snapping it in half. The ogre's rough hands were covered in blood, the intense recoil having shattered its hand bones.
The blood frenzy caused by the Bloodthirsty spell meant that the wounds on the ogre's body couldn't stop the gushing blood. With a sigh, Felix wiped the blood from his lips and finally withdrew his mental control over the ogre battle servant.
The intense recoil had also shaken Felix's mental power attached to the ogre's brain, feeling as if his chest had been punched hard.
With a tinge of regret, Felix watched the ogre, now completely overtaken by madness, charging towards the altar. The thick, dark, bloodstained aura there intensely stimulated it, naturally making it the ogre's first target.
Felix knew that his first creation of a puppet life was now thoroughly over. In perhaps less than three minutes, the ogre with its severely damaged internal organs would succumb to death. When the body's tolerance reaches its limit, the boiling blood would rush into its brain, pressuring its skull – just like a bottle filled with boiling water about to burst.
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Felix gulped down the rest of his magic potion and leaped out of the woods, shouting to the scar-faced knight and others, "Quick, stop that lich! It's performing the True God Descends!!!"
His voice, boosted by magic, thundered through the valley.
The recently freed scar-faced knight's face turned ashen. He lifted his Crusher and charged towards the highest point of the altar. In the sky, sharp screeches of griffons echoed, as twelve griffon knights broke away from the battle formation, bypassing the gargoyles to penetrate the blood-red fog.
As they cried out, the twelve griffon knights traced an arc through the blockade of gargoyles, forcefully reaching the air above the altar.
The griffons formed a circle and then launched a coordinated dive. When they reached about thirty meters above the altar, a series of sonic booms resounded in unison!
Twelve rune javelins shot across the night sky, howling with the force of wind and thunder, aimed at the blood-shrouded central altar. To everyone's surprise, these javelins, capable of easily piercing a mage's shield, were blocked by the lower blood-red fog. The sound was like hitting metal, leaving no mark, as the twelve rune javelins slid down the hemispherical blood-red mist.
"It's a barrier!"
"Damn! The ritual has only just begun!" Seeing the blood-red fog stopping the rune javelins, Felix realized he had been duped.
The lich's previous actions were not preparatory for the sacrificial ritual but were aimed at gathering the power of lost souls and the energy of blood to activate this unknown barrier.
Felix had thought the lich was infusing the power of lost souls in preparation for the sacrificial ritual, using it to mislead everyone. He thought the preparation for the barrier was part of the ritual. Only after the strong barrier was in place did the real God Descending ritual begin.
It seemed the lich had only just gathered enough soul power; otherwise, it wouldn't have resorted to such means to deceive him. The only regret was that he had been fooled by it and failed to disrupt its spellcasting in time. If he had hit the cauldron of boiling blood with any magic at that moment, this barrier would have been completely ruined!
Barriers possess strong defensive capabilities, but they are also extremely fragile during their initial construction. Any deviation can cause the entire magical web structure to collapse!
The sky was gradually darkening, and the sounds of battle in the heavens were dwindling. The gargoyles were no match for the griffon and dragonhawk knights, especially with four elemental mages of the Golden Domain assisting them.
Except for the bone dragon, which was still holding up against the griffon knights, most of the gargoyles were dead.
As the blood-red mist over the altar thickened, the fog in the sky lightened significantly, indicating that the altar was consolidating elemental energy to maintain its defensive power.
The griffon knights reappeared in the sky, but this time their formation had changed. About fourteen injured griffon knights moved to the center of the formation, while sixteen dragonhawk knights and an elemental mage took up their defensive positions on the outside.
The ground was littered with fallen gargoyles, some shattered, others intact.
The soul fire in the bone dragon's eyes had dimmed significantly. Its wings were pierced with dozens of rune javelins, each one severely damaging the death power within its body.
It roared angrily at the griffon knights, but despite its efforts, it couldn't land a single hit. Every time it attacked, four dragonhawk knights would bind it with a magical net. These blood-red energy webs couldn't control it, but they hindered its attack direction and slowed its attack speed.
By the time it broke free from the dragonhawk knights' magical net, its griffon knight targets had already escaped its attack range.
The bone dragon had immense strength but was effectively countered by the dragonhawk knights. Enraged, it attempted another poisonous breath attack, but sadly, the elemental mages quickly blocked and dispersed the poison.
If the cursed wizards were still there, they might have been able to shield the bone dragon with anti-magic barriers, giving it a temporary respite and perhaps a chance for a turnaround. But sadly, those wizards had been devoured by the frenzied ogre battle servant at the outset, leaving only mangled corpses.
"Roar! Roar! Roar!"
The ogre, driven by its berserk strength, seemed unfazed by pain and smashed its arms against the blood-red barrier in a frenzied state. Eventually, its attacks weakened, and its massive body slumped to the ground, lifelessly trembling. The muscles grotesquely twisted, and dark red blood flowed from its eyes, mouth, and ears. Large pools of blood streamed down the stairs toward the depths of the altar.
Felix bit his lip, feeling an unexpected twinge of discomfort – an unimaginable sentiment for a Gamma mage. To a spellcaster, a puppet life is just a tool, nothing more.
Hit once again by more than ten rune javelins, the bone dragon finally felt a trace of fear. It flapped its porcupine-like wings and started fleeing towards the center of the altar. It seemed this low-intelligence undead creature had finally realized that it couldn't overcome the griffon knights alone.
Just then, a deep, time-worn voice echoed across the sky, and a light, like the sun, illuminated the entire valley.
"God decrees, I shall unleash my wrath to burn away all sins!"
"Holy Cross—Purifying Light!!!"