Chapter 284 - 278: Death of a Neighbor
Chapter 284: Chapter 278: Death of a Neighbor
Allen returned to the Meditation Room.
The dark gold lead box opened, revealing a Crystal Tube containing the "Astral Spring" resting quietly on a velvet cushion. It didn’t look like anything special.
But the moment he uncorked it, the mere wisp of aura that escaped sent a violent ripple through Allen’s Sea of Spirit.
It was like something had tickled him from the depths of his soul.
"Such a potent effect."
The Astral Spring, as its name suggested, came from the Astral Plane. It was a natural wonder that was even somewhat effective for Second-level Wizards.
He tilted his head back and drank it all.
There was no burning sensation, nor any sweetness.
The instant the potion went down his throat, it transformed into an indescribable sense of ethereality that shot straight to his brain.
It felt as if a hand had plucked his soul from his body and tossed it into a zero-gravity sea of stars.
"Jarvis, monitor my vitals and cerebral data."
[Vitals stable. Cerebral activity increasing by 300%... 450%... Spiritual Power threshold is breaking the critical point.]
The Deepsea Echo Conch glowed, its amplifying effect undiminished by the Astral Spring. The two stacked perfectly.
Allen closed his eyes, his main consciousness sinking into his Sea of Spirit.
The fifth Core Matrix, the twenty-third Rune.
The intricate patterns, which would have originally taken half a month of painstaking effort to inscribe, were now as clear as the lines on his palm. The carving knife formed from his Spiritual Power moved without the slightest resistance.
Formed in a single stroke, perfectly closed.
’This is the power of money.’
The two wonders seemed to accelerate time itself.
He began to inscribe the twenty-fourth Will Rune. The progress bar shot forward as Allen squeezed out every last drop of the Astral Spring’s effect, wasting nothing.
Time lost all meaning in his Meditation.
「Six days later.」
[Warning! High-priority event!]
A side communication from Jarvis broke Allen’s meditative state.
His eyes snapped open, the residual blue light in his pupils quickly fading.
[Data received from northern reconnaissance nodes. The defensive line in Zone 17 has collapsed. Its core workshop has suffered a devastating blow.]
A projection lit up. To the north, red dots representing the Magical Beasts spread across the map of Zone 17 like an overturned inkwell.
"Bring up the live feed."
The light screen flickered, and the high-altitude feeds from three Demon Eye IIIs merged into a single image before Allen.
It was brutal. And foolish.
Green’s defensive layout was a complete disaster.
He had tried to use his limited Golems to protect every single asset, stretching his defensive line perilously thin.
The vanguard of the black tide—thousands of Crystal Shell Giant Scorpions and Rock Armor Earth Dragons—had torn that flimsy defensive line to shreds in a single charge.
Tens of thousands of Magical Beasts then flooded into the area where his workshop was located.
Several Molten Core Lizards, each over fifteen meters long, clung to the workshop’s exterior, spewing incandescent magma that melted away large sections of the sturdy outer walls.
A Demon Crystal Shell Scorpion King waved its mountain-sized pincers, snipping the low-level Guardian Golems that tried to resist into scrap metal as easily as if they were aluminum cans.
Flames soared into the sky amidst billowing smoke.
"Foolish," Allen commented, his face expressionless.
He had warned Green to contract his defenses, abandon the periphery, and protect his core. But the newcomer obviously couldn’t bear to part with his mineral resources and ended up losing everything.
On screen, the workshop collapsed with a tremendous BOOM under the assault of several Earth Dragons.
Just then, a gray figure shot up from the smoke and dust of the ruins.
It was Green.
He had cast the Witchcraft [Wings of Raging Wind], clutching a black metal box to his chest. That must have been a spatial item containing all his high-tier resources.
He didn’t fly south toward Allen’s Zone 18 for help, but instead fled in a panic directly toward Forged Fire Fortress.
[Target’s speed: 210 km/h. Number of pursuing Flying Magical Beasts: 27.]
Allen watched coldly as the pathetic speck of light fled across the screen.
However, less than ten kilometers from the workshop, something unexpected happened.
On the wasteland below, a Rock Armor Earth Dragon that had been charging forward suddenly stopped in its tracks.
It hadn’t been attacked, but the thick scales on its back were violently ripped apart from within, sending blood and shattered armor flying.
A figure completely shrouded in a black robe emerged from the mangled flesh of the Earth Dragon, like a poisonous moth breaking free from its cocoon.
A Black Wizard.
Allen’s eyes narrowed.
’He was hiding inside a Magical Beast!’
This method of disguise was beyond Allen’s expectations.
By parasitizing the Magical Beast and completely synchronizing his life signs and Magic Power fluctuations with the host, he had completely deceived the Demon Eye’s multiple scans.
The gray-robed man stood on the Earth Dragon’s corpse and unhurriedly raised his head, looking at the figure desperately fleeing in midair.
A pale face was revealed from under the hood. The corner of his mouth curled into a cruel arc as he slowly raised his right hand.
At his fingertip, a ghostly green light quietly bloomed.
[High-energy reaction! Magic Power peak: 5500! Second-level Wizard!] Jarvis’s warnings blared frantically.
A green ray, as thin as a strand of hair, instantly crossed a kilometer and accurately struck Green as he fled for his life.
On the screen, Green didn’t even have time to let out a scream.
The shield of Magic on his body shattered like a soap bubble the moment it touched the green light.
Immediately after, his body froze in midair.
Visibly, his skin rapidly shriveled and turned ashen. His flesh withered as if all his life force had been drained in an instant.
"A [Withering Ray]."
Allen recognized the infamous mid-tier Magic.
Green’s corpse fell from the sky like a rag doll, smashing heavily onto the rocks below and disintegrating into a pile of grayish-white powder.
The black metal box tumbled to the side.
The gray-robed man’s figure blurred, and in the next second, he appeared beside the powder.
He bent down, picked up the metal box, tossed it casually, and let out a chilling chuckle.
Then, he lifted his foot and ground Green’s ashes into the dirt.
After doing all this, the gray-robed man’s movements suddenly paused.
He slowly turned his neck, his gaze piercing through the clouds to look directly into the high sky.
He was looking in the direction of the Demon Eye.
Across a distance of hundreds of kilometers, through the cold light of the screen.
Allen’s gaze met that of the Second-level Black Wizard.
The gray-robed man raised his hand toward the sky and slowly made a throat-slitting gesture. Then, his figure dissipated like mist.
Allen stood before the sand table, his breathing perfectly steady, his eyes terrifyingly calm.
But his right hand had unconsciously come to rest on the "Wailing Wall Protective Talisman" on his chest.
Green was dead.
A zone supervisor with the power of a First-level Wizard, backed by a workshop, had died like an ant crushed underfoot.
"My enemy is a Second-level Wizard again," Allen muttered to himself, his voice devoid of any warmth.
Zone 17 had completely fallen.
On the sand table, the red tide to the north, having lost its final obstacle, began to spread eastward along the terrain like a flood from a broken dam.
The buffer was gone. Zone 18’s northern defensive line was now completely exposed.
"Jarvis." Allen turned and strode toward the central control console of the underground factory.
[Here, Commander.]
"Seventh Defense Legion, move to preset positions."
"The twelve PX-1B main battle Golems that just came off the line for the Sixth Legion are not to be stored. Divert them all to the northern front to fill the firepower gap."
"Notify all Mining Golems to take every detonable Fire Elemental Crystal Stone and all high explosives from the inventory and plant them in the thirty-kilometer buffer zone on the northern front."
Allen’s gaze was as sharp as a blade.
"Don’t let a single Magical Beast get through."