The winds and sounds of the battle traversed outwards, moving across the wildness as they howled around the trees. However, before they could send out the notice to the others, an invisible barrier appeared after a distance and blocked everything from passing through. As the mastermind had planned a great deal, they would not want any trespassers to ruin their scheme.
In his tattered robe, Forus heavily panted as blood dripped from his face. After sacrificing his hand to crack open the array beneath him, Forus had sustained severe injuries as he had endured the explosive power of its destruction.
On his open wounds, many tiny grey tendrils twisted inside of his muscles, madly sealing the mouth of the injuries and reattached them. After gaining more Death Aura and the sorcery mastery from the journey within the Tower of Succession, Forus had gained greater control over his grey soul, allowing him to manipulate his Death Aura better.
Although Forus had sustained a series of injuries, he refused to retreat and let Ocelia take the lead. Forus continued to exert his best effort to ward away the attacks while allowing Ocelia to focus on observing the rotating array.
Ocelia knew this, and she could do nothing except increasing her pace to break the formation. The longer she remained focused, the more strikes Forus needed to endure for her. Although her body and mind was in a mess because of the destruction of the Leaning Tower of Frost, her speed only kept escalating faster and faster.
Fortunately, after digesting the true essence of the Witch of the Scarlet Snow, Ocelia's formation mastery experienced an unexpected grow, filling her mind with countless attempts and knowledge about various arrays. At this moment, even Forus could not content with her, even with the knowledge from that blue-robed sorcerer.
The landscape around the couple began trembling as hills emerged from the ground, connecting at the top to form a giant dome of darkness. The fog manifested after the absence of the light, shrouding the area in darkness.
In the mist-filled the dome, the couple felt their senses turned numb. The sound from the surrounding turned silent while the vision of the landscape turned black, losing all colour and change. They could not see as well as hear anything, making defending themselves from the random strikes of the formation harder than before.
Losing her vision of the array, Ocelia could only work with her memory about them, making her progress slower than before. Although she had the mastery of the second-ranked sorcerer, her body and mind were only that of a first-ranked sorcerer. She could not bring out the potential of her knowledge yet.
In contrast to Ocelia, the darkness only gave Forus a little inconvenience. He had already learned to adapt to using his sorcery energy and sound to navigate through the world. After losing his eyesight, he had been living in the permanent blindness, forcing him to find a way to fix this flaw. Even without any sound or vision, Forus could use his sorcery energy to survey the surrounding.
Inside the darkness, a faint crack on the space manifested and let a black figure walked out from it. The man had already brandished his sword when he slashed it onto Forus, aiming to snap his life away. Because of the ability to appear in anywhere within the formation, the man could easily bypass Forus' sorcery perception and struck his blind spot.
Using his black spear to block the strike, Forus retaliated by twisting the weapon horizontally, aiming its handle to strike at his enemy. Because of his superior strength, by meeting head-first with the strike and injuring himself in the process, Forus could catch his opponent off-guarded.
However, before he could hit the man, an arrow flew from the darkness, moving towards him without any intent to conceal itself. As Forus had already executed his strike, he had no time to avoid the ambush and got hit by it.
Although the man also got pieced by his magical spear, he managed to merge back into the darkness and disappeared. Forus, on the other hand, could only watch as he vanished before treating his injury. The arrow was growing roots into his body, draining his blood and sorcery energy.
If this was someone else, they might have a hard time dealing with the invasion of the Element. However, Forus had already experienced with the intrusion of the foreign force before, making him more prepared than others.
Using his greyish tendrils, Forus could get rid off the Wood Element and consumed it to restore his power. However, Forus had a plan in his mind and decided not to show his card yet, letting the Wood Element lingered inside his body.
Outside the dome of darkness, space began to distort as another silhouette of a giant burning tower assembled itself. The Leaning Tower of Flame was a lot more sturdy than the Leaning Tower of Frost. It had already exhausted its potential and created the seventh floor, which contained the mightiest Fire Spirit inside.
As it descended onto the dome of darkness, the same familiar portal opened and shot out three same arrows towards it. The Leaning Tower of Flame had higher quality than the Leaning Tower of Frost. It could break through the defence and arrive before the formation after losing a part of its momentum.
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Four portals opened beside the first one, letting out four glowing snakes to coil around the tower. They hissed aloud and inserted their fangs onto the burning surface of the tower, stabbing into it to slow down its movement. However, without the mastermind to control them, the snakes could only work separately and failed to stop it.
In the end, the heat from the tower burned all the snakes, dissolving them into magical dust, before heading straight towards the dome of darkness.
As soon as the dome trembled under the pressure of the Leaning Tower of Flame, the ambushing figures stopped their assault and vanished into the darkness, allowing Forus to gain some rest. However, Forus did not rest and remain vigilance. He could not be sure that the ambushers had indeed left.
With Forus' protection, Ocelia let go of her resistance as she willed her mind to tap upon her unused power. Despite remaining in the all-concealing fog, Ocelia's body could emit the blue and red radiance, lighting the dome of darkness into the colourful scenery.
Her fleshy, human skin turned smooth and reflective as she transformed from a human sorcerer into an Elemental Lifeform. Her thin hair turned liquid-like as their colour changed its shade with time. She looked like a statue made out of gems and glasses that depicted the appearance of the goddess.
Extending her hand outwards, she grasped at the space, causing a tiny copper coin to manifest before her. If Forus could see, he would be able to admire the works of art that emerged before his eyes. Her elegant movement concealed within the simple gesture, coupled with the glowing radiance that refracted from her mirror-like skin, she had unknowingly created the picture worth remembering.
Once her fingertips touched the coin, she immediately sent her sorcery energy into it, channelling its power to manifest. In her Elemental Lifeform, she could replenish her sorcery energy faster than her natural form. However, as the twin Fire-Frost Elemental Lifeform, she could only cast the spells related to Fire and Ice Element, which was why she did not remain in this form all the time.
Ocelia watched as the coin she tossed towards the peak of the dome began enlarging, turning from the tiny coin into a large platform. As its size grew, the ancient and deadly aura it exuded only continued to intensify, forcing the weaker treasures to submit in defeat.
Under the pressure of the Underworld Copper Coin, the dome of darkness finally crumbled as it could not bear the weight of both the Leaning Tower of Flame and the suppressing coin. Despite breaking into pieces, the fragments did not disintegrate into the dust. Instead, they merged and formed into a glowing sphere of white.
The sphere span around the couple, moving faster and faster, leaving the white trace in its path, forming a white ring that rotated around the two. Although the sphere did not send out any strikes, it had spun quick enough to create a chaotic wind system that would mess up the trajectory of the blows.
Without the concealing fog, Forus and Ocelia quickly spotted the masterminds that arranged their trap. Three figures were standing in front of them, not bothering to conceal their appearance in the slightest.
While Glacies and Avidas were standing inside the radius of the white sphere, Abicel kept her distance away from both Forus and Ocelia, aiming to support and ambush the two from afar.
Knocking his cane onto the ground, Glacies walked forwards as the trail of ice manifest behind him. Behind his body, a floating lotus-like statue rotated slowly, swaying its petals as they sent out breezes of freezing fragrance that would move at his will.
Without any verbal exchange, they started to fight, aiming to kill the others. Although killing the heirs of the Sorcerer Family would bring in troubles, in the presence of the treasures of the Fleeting Emotions Ruin, they were willing to risk offending the families. More importantly, the background of Ocelia and Glacies were comparable, lessening the risk of getting bullied by the strong.
While Forus would clash with Glacies, he also got the support from Ocelia, letting him put in more and more pressure on Glacies. However, he also needed to be on guard for the sudden strike of the arrow, which could come from any angle because of the chaotic wind system.
With Avidas setting up traps at the edge of the battlefield, Ocelia also had no way of killing Abicel. Although her Fire Spirits could bring in trouble for her enemies, they could not display their strength in the strong current of the deadly wind filled with the debris of sharp fragments.
As Glacies continued to retreat towards the edge, Forus himself could not do anything as Avidas had laid in many traps, filling the battlefield with danger he could not ignore. However, with the wave of his hand, he expanded his sorcery energy and created the black weapons, shooting them towards both Avidas and Abicel.
Even if Glacies could defend them himself, he could not run around and trying to help his team while Forus was trying to kill him. However, if one of his companions died, his plan would fall apart, and he would surely lose his only chance at getting the treasures.
"Young master, please help me!" Avidas panicked as a spear pieced onto his shoulder, injecting Death Aura into his bloodstream. The Death Aura began to devour his flesh and life force, making him experienced the pain of slowly withering.
However, before Glacies could move, a wind whirl shot towards his back, aiming to hit him with its freezing blades. As soon as it approached him, the lotus-like statue trembled as its petals started to fall off, merging with the others and formed a barrier of ice.
Although the lotus could reduce the force of the wind whirl, it could not stop the blizzard from advancing. The impact blew him away as he stumbled forwards, moving into Forus' range of attack, watching as the black blade came towards him.
Knocking his cane once again, the frozen ground below him crumbled as icy spikes emerged from it, forming a wall that blocked the strike while counter-attacking. However, the wall could not prevent the full attack from Forus and broke down as the Death Aura dissolved the Ice Element.
Glacies, fortunately, had made enough space for him to dash backwards to avoid the strike. At that moment, while Forus was going for the follow-up, a freezing snake shot from the side and bit onto his arm, freezing his hand and preventing him from attacking Glacies.
Although Abicel successfully saved Glacies, she also needed to endure an assault to rescue him. If she did not force herself to defend instead of dodging, she would not have time to fire her arrow to save him.