Chapter 392: Celt I
“Hmph! Ignorant mortals—how could they understand the power of the great gods…”
Seeing the morale of his own rebels plummet, the Radiant Divine Messenger couldn’t help but retort. But he was soon enraged by another mocking remark from the legendary mage.
“You’re nothing but a puppet in the hands of the gods. If you had the guts, try fighting without divine power—any ordinary legendary warrior here could crush you!”
Even gods aren’t immune to pride and anger, let alone a mere messenger at the legendary level. If it weren’t for borrowing some of the power of the god he worshipped when descending, he would never have been able to overwhelm the three legendary realms and unleash that boundless radiant power!
Thus, Colin easily angered his opponent and achieved his goal.
The Radiant Divine Messenger came at full fury, his massive light sword emitting scorching light. Ordinary people would be turned to charcoal just by approaching, while lower-tier evil or dark faction creatures like demons or undead would be annihilated and purified into ashes by the intense positive energy of that light before even a fight began.
Faced with such a fierce opponent, Colin didn’t engage head-on. Relying on the spells he had cast before battle, he dodged skillfully like a thief. Meanwhile, taking advantage of the opponent’s unfinished charge, he sent several spells in return.
This was the proper way for mages to fight against warrior-type enemies. Of course, some mages preferred to confront foes directly with powerful spells, but those were the exception, requiring great skill and strength. Without such ability, attempting such tactics could easily lead to death at the enemy’s first attack!
The Radiant Divine Messenger’s web-like domain power had already surrounded Colin, but the legendary mage’s spell barrier miraculously resisted its pressure, allowing him to move freely within it.
Ordinary mages at the legendary level generally didn’t possess domains like warrior legends. But thanks to their legendary spells and their understanding of laws, they could create spell barriers using transcendent techniques, making them completely unafraid of domain powers.
Collin’s fighting style was a refreshing change for Donald. Even after breaking through to the legendary level, he still hadn’t adapted to the true combat style of a legendary archmage. The numerous powers at his disposal meant he didn’t focus as intensely on his craft as ordinary mages, failing to develop a unique fighting style. Realizing this, Donald decided that upon returning, he would go to the House of Time to hone his skills and address this weakness.
In fact, Donald knew Collin’s combat style wasn’t entirely suitable for him, but it had many aspects worth learning from. The ordinary spells cast by legendary mages were largely neutralized by the radiant barrier surrounding the Light Messenger—power bestowed upon each by the Lord of Dawn. Unless it was a ninth-level or legendary spell beyond ordinary levels, even thousands of ordinary spells could be endured as long as they weren’t launched simultaneously.
Quantitative changes could lead to qualitative shifts. Thousands of medium-powered attack spells like lightning bolts, combined together, could rival a ninth-level attack spell. The combined force of such powerful energy could shatter the spatial barriers of the main world, creating spatial rifts.
Yet even legendary warriors might be able to unleash equally powerful attacks, but they couldn’t release thousands of lightning bolts at once. Thus, the battle between Collin and the Light Messenger was unfair from the start, making victory almost impossible for the latter.
However, Collin’s goal wasn’t to win outright. The experienced legendary archmage tried various tactics to provoke the Light Messenger into using most of its combat methods, only for Collin to evade them each time in thrilling fashion. Though the Light Messenger appeared in a desperate situation, Collin himself suffered little real damage. Instead, the Light Messenger revealed quite a bit about itself.
As powerful as the Light Messenger was and despite its strong combat instincts, it was ultimately a fighting machine created by the Lord of Dawn, lacking most of the emotions of ordinary intelligent beings. It failed to detect the enemy’s probing attempts. In its mind, aside from endless worship for its godfather, there was only the desire to defeat and destroy its opponent.
Although the Light Messenger’s strength wasn’t much greater than Collin’s, one side could rely on the power of a mighty true god—even just a small fraction—enough to determine the outcome of the battle. Both Collin and those watching knew his defeat was imminent. No matter how hard he tried to stall, he couldn’t hold out much longer.
However, Colin had essentially achieved his goal of testing the enemy’s strength, so Donald, who was holding back in the rear, stepped forward voluntarily. Together with Mage Colin, the two legendary mages faced off against the Radiant Divine Messenger before them.
Unlike most other mages, Donald indeed possessed his own domains, and not just one. The first was the domain seed that automatically formed when the Hunter class reached the legendary level; after gaining initial control over it, it evolved into the Sacrifice Domain. This domain featured the characteristics of the Sacrifice Fire—any hostile targets that entered its range were subject to its rules, with their souls and bodies constantly burned by the fire. Although it couldn’t cause fatal damage in a short time, sustained exposure could accumulate massive harm, even beyond what a dragon could withstand.
Moreover, due to the Hunter class’s nature, creatures with abyssal traits would face additional severe suppression in all aspects of their strength once they entered the Sacrifice Domain, dropping at least one major rank. Yet, since the Hunter’s Sacrifice Domain was essentially a domain transformed by borrowing demonic power, it might not seem evil, but it couldn’t escape its chaotic attributes. It would suffer some attribute suppression when facing forces of light and order, so he didn’t intend to use this domain’s power this time.
The second domain was the natural domain emitted by the Spear of Natural Wrath, which connected to the world of consciousness through natural divinity. Its prototype was the purifying power used at the Green Tree Ruins on the Totem Continent. The Spear of Natural Wrath was a legal authority bestowed by the true will of natural wrath, equivalent to half the status of a earth deity, or a totem deity. The difference lay in its potential to develop into a true divine artifact or be used to comprehend divine domains—though this authority was currently incomplete.
Even though incomplete, it still possessed immense power, far beyond that of ordinary forces. The domain released through natural divinity and this legal authority was almost like a true divine domain, far stronger than those emitted by ordinary legendary sword saints or even demigods.
Yet precisely because of its strength, Donald did not unleash his incomplete natural domain but instead used only the mental domain associated with the Sub-Divine Supreme Light Brain.
This mental realm, transformed by the Book of Truth, removed the extra rules originally added by Aesonsien, leaving only the laws of order-neutrality. Its power became purer and stronger, without being suppressed by the radiant forces of the same order faction. Thanks to the secondary artifact, Donald, based on his strength as a legendary warrior, could fully unleash power on a semi-divine level. As expected, once the invisible mental realm appeared, the Radiant Envoy, who had previously dominated Colin with his power, found himself constrained. He was hit repeatedly by Donald and the other’s level-9 spells, causing the radiance around him to visibly dim. Seeing their tactic working, Colin and Donald exchanged a glance before continuing to engage the Radiant Envoy, periodically using powerful spells to drain his strength. If the Radiant Envoy unleashed his full power, he could exert destructive force surpassing that of an ordinary semi-divine being. However, since he was borrowing the power of a true god, such strength could only be used once. The power of true gods is too immense—especially that of a supreme deity like the Lord of Dawn. Even a special being like an envoy cannot borrow such power multiple times in a short time. If all the power carried during this appearance were unleashed, the envoy would explode like a powder keg, destroyed by the divine force along with his enemies! This was not what Donald and the others wanted to see. “Attack—” Seeing that the Celt side had reinforcements, the higher-ranking members of the enemy church, who had been watching, also took action under the orders of their lead archbishop. Aside from the Radiant Envoy, the Lord of Dawn’s church only had two legendary-level warriors: the archbishop and the legendary paladin beside him. These two faced off against the two legendary warriors, Carlisle and Nozdorm, on the left and right wings respectively. Clearly, the higher ranks of the Lord of Dawn’s church had been preparing for this decisive battle. They gathered the power of hundreds of lower and mid-level priests and infused it into a secondary artifact, or rather, a sacred object of the church. This artifact then empowered a Golden Paladin, instantly raising his strength to the legendary level. Although this paladin only possessed legendary strength without reaching the true legendary realm, his opponent, Prince Duri, also relied on the power of numerous knights and his own sacred object to unleash domain powers. Thus, the two were evenly matched. The real decisive factor in the battle lay between the Radiant Envoy and the several high-ranking legendary warriors.
“Your Highness, we can’t delay any longer!”
Earl Dawson analyzed the situation ahead with great accuracy and immediately spoke to the one facing him—the pseudo-legendary holy warrior wielding a sacred artifact.
If this delay continued, even just the remaining Temple Knights and holy warriors of the Dawn Church could eliminate the allied forces’ effective resistance. Even if the higher-ups won the battle, it would still cause tremendous losses to Celt.
Therefore, the allied leaders could not allow the Dawn Church’s schemes to succeed. As the royal representative, Duri had no choice but to summon his side’s ultimate ally ahead of time.