23 Bloodshed and Forbidden Spells

When the entire Sulfur Mountain City descended into chaos, the Three Heads fell into a state of eerie silence.

There were even rumours afterwards, stating that the Three Heads had made use of this opportunity to get rid of radicals. However, ignoring other people, if that single-cell organism Adam had been in the city, it would be impossible for him to not act.

In reality, none of the Three Heads were currently in the city. In fact, even the city lord successor Annie wasn't in the city as well.

When I reported to them that there could be an Ancient Fire Elemental God sealed under the sulfur mountain, Margaret immediately carried out investigations and verified that there was indeed an Ancient Fire Elemental SemiGod-rank or above living in the mountains.

"Troublesome, very troublesome. I am not sure who was the one who sealed it but he actually used the entire sulfur mountain to suppress the seal. While he skillfully used the entire underground leylines to suppress the energy source of the seal, making it extremely stable, if anything goes wrong, the entire mountain could explode along with Sulfur Mountain City."

When everyone was worried, a mysterious voice slanted its eyes and looked around its surroundings… Alright, Little Red had been still asleep and I was busy playing hide-and-seek with the Town Security. Adam just heartlessly looked at us while smiling himself silly. At least, Margaret was worried.

What made everyone speechless was when the overjoyed Adam decided to express his 'genius creativity'.

"A natural source of underground heat. Then, if we were to add a little bit of water, wouldn't we get a hot spring?! Sulfur hot springs are said to work wonders on all kinds of skin problems. Also, it should help one recover from fatigue. I've been wanting to build one since long ago."

Alright, his actions were even faster than his thoughts, 'definitely an ideal ape whose mind was dictated by the movements of his limbs (Roland's words)' Adam immediately started work and in less than a day, he located the source of the heat and used his sacred sword to dig a reservoir. After that, he even invited the Druids from the city to make it rain to fill the hole up with water…

But just when Margaret and I were about to teach him why flowers were red1Because they were dyed red with blood, Adam, whose nose was already bruised and face swollen, thought of an explanation, or rather had prepared an excuse.

Why was his nose already bruised and face swollen despite having an explanation? After playing with everyone's feelings, did you think that just by explaining he could escape physical punishment? I immediately took the opportunity of the chaos to strike him first, Margaret used this as a chance to vent her long pent up resentment while Little Red was just doing it to create trouble for fun's sake…

Cough, let's not talk about that enjoyable 3v1. Back to the main topic, Adam that fool's explanation was rather convincing.

"The Revival of the Phoenix requires me to burn myself in the fiery inferno. My Phoenix Inheritance also requires large amount of heat. Using this pool, I can use the heat from it to help Annie finish the highest quality inheritance, thus retaining most of the powers after the revival so that she can mature quickly. Furthermore, the heat source is also enhanced with the stamina and mana of the Ancient Fire Elemental. If I were to spend that, that Ancient Fire Elemental God will be as as good as half disabled."

I must say, despite being unreliable most of the time, that fellow Adam was indeed a qualified 'Hero', his luck and instincts were quite spot-on and this action of his might have seemed random, but in reality, he was stabbing where it would hurt the enemy the most.

For some people, the release of the seal of the Ancient Fire Elemental God meant to directly affect the arrival of the Elemental Tide. It affected the entire 'history' of the world. When they would start to realize that Arolaweiss was getting weaker, or worse, unable to quicken the Elemental Tide, they wouldn't be able to accept it.

Thus, the City Lord and Head of Internal Affairs brought the City Lord Successor to the sulfur mountains quietly and for the sake of their safety, they chose to use Little Red's cavern as a cover.

But obviously, there was no news that did not leak in this world. In this world where prophecy-related magic was rather developed, there isn't any absolute secret. Maybe they heard it from Sulfur Mountain City's internal spies that the City Lord was leaving the city, or maybe it was through their investigation about the status of the Ancient Elemental God that they felt something was amiss with the situation, or perhaps, they might have simply used prophecy magic and found out that there was something suspicious going on.

The Three Heads were stuck there…

Draped in a light blue robe, the young lady stood there alone. The long and slender wooden wand didn't had any trace of modifications to it and just like its naturally beautiful owner, simply by existing there, it felt as though it had gone through eternity like the long river of history, old, deep and naturally formed.

Her looks could only be considered decent-looking, on her head was a blue-colored neat short-layered hairstyle. Her golden-rimmed glasses had slid down to the tip of her nose and if it weren't for that silver chain fixed to her Elf ears, it would had probably fallen to the floor.

The Immortal One stood there quietly, but there was the natural scent of books and scrolls. If only judging by the outer appearance, rather than saying that she was a wise Saint with concrete authority in her hands, she looked more like a librarian who buried herself in books and often forgot her lunch.

But right now, this 'librarian' was going on a killing frenzy.

"The Heavens above, the Earth below, as evidence of my contract with books and stars, using the life of Saint Margaret, I plea for the ancient star spirits to listen to my summons, the Chimera constellation, the Leo constellation, the Unicorn constellation and the Chariot constellation, descend!"

With a wave of her long wand, countless Noble Spirits landed on this mortal earth with the descending stars.

The tall and bulky tower-like Chariot Giant. The three-headed magic beast that specialized in fire, lightning and ice. The radiant and white Unicorn which symbolized protection and purity. The Leo army whose members consisted fully of gold-ranks…

The Heroes of the legends transformed into reality. The legend-rank warriors fought under the direct orders of the Saint. It was the power of a single SemiGod Mage who was able to rival a country.

But even so, her condition wasn't very good.

That was because from the start, this battle wasn't fair. She was fighting single-handedly against an entire army… Her enemy, despite not being a whole country, was definitely more dangerous than any empires on the surface, the Underground Alliance.

The other remaining 2000 warriors of the Blackwater army were here. Dressed in a Black Mud Armor, Hng Hng City Lord, despite being an underground city lord, dashed straight to the front lines. Even so, his movements were sloppy in front of the army of Noble Spirits. If it weren't for the guards sacrificing themselves and serving as his meat shield, he would have probably died countless times by now.

In front of of a SemiGod-rank Mage, a Legend-rank warrior like Hng Hng could only be considered a slightly higher tiered fodder.

However, to be able to make an underground city lord like him be willing to serve as fodder, this could only show that the standing of the Underground Alliance army was high and astonishingly prestigious, to the point that an underground city lord of Hng Hng's level was unable to go against their orders.

"Wu huuuuuuu!!"

Following the sound of a warhorn, another thousand-man army of Beastman entered the battlefield. There were the bloodthirsty Leo2, the savage and agile Werewolf and the Elephs3 whose strength knew no bounds. Even the weakest of their warriors were at least gold-rank. Yet, they entered the battlefield solemnly. The solemn bloodless and fleshless star spirits entered an intense meat-grinding blood battle and died solemnly, allowing for other spirits to enter this land…

"The Black Solo Insignia. That's his established trademark army of personal guards. He sure must be commited, if he's willing to utilise them."

Looking at the gigantic figure on a mountain far away with his arms akimbo, Margaret seemed to be deep in thought but her spells were still relentless.

"The Earth below, the Humans above, as evidence of my contract with books and stars, let death rain upon my enemies, Starfall!"

After Margaret's chant, starlight actually appeared in the underground world. Following the slow descent of the starlight, the destruction they caused in their wake resulted in a a 3-meter deep hole. Filled within the holes were naturally, the flesh and blood of Beastman.

The underground world's Beastman Sovereign Shou Nuya. His 3-meter-tall figure wasn't really big compared to other Beastman tribes whose superiority lay in their physique. Wearing a black eye-patch actually made him seem less ferocious and now, standing at the sidelines of the battlefield, he watched coldly at the sight of his tribesman and warriors lose their life worthlessly.

"This feeling... Saint-pinnacle? What a pity. It seems he has some intelligence about me to stay completely out of my attack range. If only I was in my Mage Tower…"

But, it seems that even if his entire army was destroyed, the experienced Beastman Sovereign had no intent of heading to the battlefield personally. With just a wave of his hand, the horns beside him sounded and another elite army of a thousand people entered solemnly…

He was obviously exploiting the weakness of her Saint job. Saints usually analysed their opponent's magic and were excellent at duels. However, they lacked destructive power and he was obviously trying to wear her down with numbers.

"Looks like I've been underestimated by my juniors."

Margaret smiled calmly. Then, with a light wave of her wooden vine wand, magic veins reminiscent of music notes appeared on the Seven Radiant Stones floating around her.

"The first to the third, chant 'Ice Aeon', the fourth and the fifth, repeat my incantations and the sixth and the seventh, apply magic barrier."

The red, orange and yellow Saint Stone gathered together and started to replicate Lord Yongye's ultimate elemental magic, causing the entire landscape to turn into a land of ice. Snow floated in the sky while snow fairies were appearing and playing around. This was the initial phase before the activation of a Strategic-level magic capable of wiping away an entire army.

The green and blue Saint Stone began to automatically chant the magic that the Saint had just casted.

"The Heavens above, the Earth below, as evidence of my contract with books and stars, using the life of Saint Margaret, I plea for the ancient star spirits to listen to my summons, the Chimera constellation, the Leo constellation, the Unicorn constellation and the Chariot constellation, descend!"

"The Earth below, the Humans above, as evidence of my contract with books and stars, let death rain upon my enemies, Starfall!"

That voice was no different from Margaret's own and the Starfall cast casually wiped out the thousand-man army who had just entered the battlefield. At the same time, a completely identical army of star spirits replaced their predecessors, filling up the places of the lost and dead, re-building the defensive formation.

The most dangerous of all was still the Forbidden-level magic. The long-range troops of the enemy couldn't allow 'Ice Aeon' to be fully cast.

Countless sharp arrows and magics were shot in the direction of Margaret but she didn't even bother looking at it. She continued to patiently control her Saint Stones and the last 2 started to circle around her, creating a magic barrier from the intertwined blue and purple. The panicked attacks were easily stopped by the barrier.

Very quickly, the red, orange and yellow Saint Stone's reached the final stage of their incantation. Just then, a black coloured arrow shot towards the ground beneath the three Saint Stones.

"Pacha!"

Without coming into contact with the ground, the arrow disintegrated and a black magic cyclone suddenly appeared, interfering with the incantation of the Saint Stones. A distortion occurred and the Forbidden Spell Ice Aeon actually activated in advance!

The white snow abruptly crystallized into a ball and bursts in all directions!

The snow rained down as the chill creeped further. In an instant, the entire world turned completely white. Under the might of the Forbidden Spell, the active volcano turned into a snow peak and regardless of whether it was the Star Spirits or the Beastmen, anyone who was caught in the area of the spell turned into an ice sculpture.

As for Margaret, due to the Forbidden Spell being activated prematurely, she was also caught in its midst. Fortunately, the blue-violet magic barrier protected her.

The Saint frowned. If it wasn't because of the Saint Stone doing the incantation in her place, she might have suffered magic backlash. Then, it wouldn't end up with just one or two mouthfuls of blood.

"Magic Combustion Arrow? I didn't expect that the renowned Mage Hunter Minial was here too. Isn't he the tribe head of the Centaur Beastman and known to be proud and unyielding to authority? I never expected that he would submit to Shou Nuya. Was returning to the surface such an attractive deal?"

The Ice Aeon which had activated in advance only had a third of its original might, but it was enough power to turn the entire mountainous terrain turned into a land of ice. Even the ground where the Beast Sovereign had been standing froze, but 2 gigantic Black Dragons had blocked it in front of the expressionless Underground Autarch.

Black Dragons were born with nearly complete immunity to magic but it wasn't enough in front of this weakened Ice Aeon. The two Black Dragons who had risked their lives to protect their master had turned into two white ice sculptures.

Yet their sacrifice had taken the brunt of the impact for the Beastmen behind them.

Even so, the tall Scorpion-tailed Lion lord didn't even glance at the subordinates who sacrificed themselves for him. With a tug of their dragon tail, using just brute force, he threw the two dragons' corpses to one side.

Even though the sight in front of him had turned into an ice mountain, his eyes were still as calm as they had been, as though it was all within his calculations. He picked up the horn from his frozen subordinate and personally blew on it.

"Wuuuu, wuuuu, wuuuu!"

After 3 rapid blows on the military horn, a dark-green tide seemed to gradually move in from the horizon and the cobbling of hoofs and sounds from beasts intertwined together.

"At least 3000 cavalries? Sigh, my head's starting to hurt."

Margaret frowned. Though they had forced the enemy to play their hand, it appeared that the opponent had been exceptionally well-prepared. No, it was more like the enemy was not bothered at all with all the sacrifices which made it hard to accept.

The red, orange and yellow Saint Stones had disintegrated after the backlash of the Forbidden Spell. The green and blue ones who had imitated the incantations had already run out of power and only the blue and purple ones, responsible for keeping up her protection had magic power remaining.

"I've expended over half of my mana but the enemy's totally indifferent to their expenses. It's a little troublesome to deal with them."

She glanced behind. Amidst the field of ice, there was a lake of fire which was still burning fiercely. There, the flames formed the image of a fire phoenix flying around and fire pillars burst into the heavens. Evidently, the inheritance was at a crucial step.

"There's no longer any possibility of retreat. If only I was at my Mage Tower… But, there're no ifs in this world, there's no meaning in hypothetical situations. Number 6, number 7, repeat my incantations! Number 4, number 5, begin recharging mana."

An army identical to the previous two appeared and this time, even the expressionless Shou frowned. The opponent's strength was too overpowering. The losses incurred would have been already more than sufficient to conquer any other underground city.

Furthermore, the assaults of aerial troops and the signature death charge of their berserkers were totally ineffective. If they had to use numbers to replace quality, it was unclear how much more they had to sacrifice.

In the sky, the powerful Griffons and Scorpion-tailed Lions were still engaged in bloodshed but in reality, no one's attention was on them. The strong predating magic beasts couldn't even qualify a supporting role on this battlefield.

A vermilion inferno burst through the sky and two pitch black gigantic figures fell to the ground, forming two huge lumps of meat. From the aroma, they were at least medium-done.

These two black dragons seemed to have intended to flank Margaret but just as they were about to get in the range for them to use their dragon breath, a dragon breath from further above grilled them.

In midair, an intense battle that wasn't inferior to the one on the surface, was going on. A gigantic Red Dragon was single handedly taking on an entire dragon city.

Using the same guerilla tactics, 12 young Red Dragons formed 3 teams which took turns to attack. They were using their flesh and blood to wear down the stamina of the Ancient Red Dragon Einz Mezus. But much different from the situation on the surface, their strategy was taking effect.

The reason? On the sidelines, hiding and moving freely behind her people, another Ancient Red Dragon, who was significantly higher than Einz, but yet, was laughing sinister was the main reason.

"Molly, you little bitch! Face me personally if you have the guts! Hiding behind your brethren to assault me, you're much more despicable and shameless than you were back then!"

Einz Mezus's right wing was broken and her left eye could hardly open. Wounds had accumulated all over her body but she continued to fight bravely in the air while roaring, enraged.

"My foolish daughter, you indeed have muscles for brains. For our Red Dragon's prided art of battle to be actually regarded by you as despicable. Looks like I wasn't wrong when I exiled you from the Dragon City that day!"

Yes, that shameless Ancient Red Dragon was another one of the Underground Autarch, Dragon Empress Molly.

While dealing with the young dragons in a close-quarter battle, she had to be on guard for Molly's sneak attacks, making it difficult for her to cope.

The moment she tried to do something, like charge up for a powerful magic, Molly, who was more proficient in the powers of Red Dragons, would interrupt it in advance. In such an unfavorable situation, it was already a miracle for her to last until now.

At that moment, forcefully using her dragon breath to get rid of the Black Dragons who tried to flank Margaret, she had shown an opening and her neck was viciously bitten by Molly. The bright red dragon blood created a bloody rain on the surface.

Against the Alliance Army consisting of two of the Underground Autarch, the defending Three Heads were forced into a corner.

"Quickly, Adam. If you don't finish the sealing and inheritance soon, we might all die here today!!!"

When Little Red was finally at her limits, suddenly a pillar of silver tore apart the sky. The bright light appeared to come from the direction of Sulfur Mountain City.

"What's happening? That's the Light of Order. Roland that that cunning fox… is he actually getting serious?"