Chapter 215: Divine Miracle
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Pranav
Karo’s skies were always a yellowish gray, and every day, endless sandstorms would rage against the city’s barrier. Although the residents of the city didn’t need to prepare against the wind and sand like they would need to if they were outside the barrier, it was only natural that the city’s skies would darken as long as there was a sandstorm outside.
At such a time, Karo City’s magical lights would all be lit, but Karo could no longer afford to use such a luxurious, resource-consuming item when supplies were limited, as the Earth Elemental Plane was recently cut off from the mortal plane. So, whenever the sandstorms occurred, the entire city would be pitch-dark and everyone would only be able to stay home and sleep.
This was only a small part of how terrible this environment was. Since the Earth Elemental Plane lacked vibrant colors, this world seemed too simple, and in order to prevent psychological problems, according to the Mage Country’s rules, the head archmage in Karo was supposed to be switched out every three years. Yet, with this sudden incident of the teleportation between planes no longer working, Kaid who was in charge was destined to remain for quite some time.
Currently, however, in this world that only had the simple colors of black, gray, yellow, and brown for the most part, there was now a different color—a patch of endless white.
Frosty ice was filling Roland’s temporary guest room. The ice crystals spread all the way to the corridor, but there was a gap in the center of where the ice gathered, where the knight of ice was currently retracting his ice magic.
“Whew! I’ve finally gotten used to it. This Death Chill spell that I’ve newly mastered is definitely a lot more useful than the ‘Frost’ spell. Now, my next target shall be learning the Ice River Sword.”
Of course, I would never be a teacher for free like that. To be honest, I also needed a large amount of actual combat to get used to my new abilities.
My “Frigidwinter Earth” was confiscated and maintained by my System, and I couldn’t use most of its abilities, but there were still two abilities that remained and were evolved forms of my original abilities. Just mastering them alone took up much of my time and energy.
Even right when it awakened, my “Frost” spell had already proved its potential. Its immitigable damage and its capability to be endlessly stacked were akin to the original nature of winter, but its greatest weakness was that it required physical contact to activate. At the time, there had been an additional explanation on it saying that it would evolve when I reached the Gold rank.
Now, it had indeed evolved into “Death Chill,” a strange area-of-effect ice damage ability. It wasn’t limited to that—every tick of ice damage would decrease the enemy’s ice resistance level. I performed some experiments and found that an unprepared Gold-ranked mage would need about 30 seconds for him to be sleeping with ice cubes forevermore.
Simply speaking, this “Chill” inherited the same effects of “Frost” to stack limitlessly and cause immitigable damage, and I felt that I would even be able to freeze an Ice Dragon to death if the battle extended long enough. Since this ability was connected to my “Frigidwinter Earth,” it seemed that even the True G.o.ds would be unable to ignore this ice damage that was seemingly rather low.
This was doubtlessly a strong ability and would perhaps become the core of my future combat strategies. As long as I wore some heavy armor, I was already an outstanding tin can knight. Add on support abilities like holy healing, and it quickly became obvious I had the advantage in sustained, drawn-out battles.
My recent duels against the mages were evidence of how abnormally powerful my new ability was. They would be halfway through chanting a spell when they would suddenly be interrupted by a cough, or their well-prepared defense barrier would suddenly become useless, weak pieces of ice. The advantages became even more obvious while fighting against other melee opponents. The closer the opponent got to me, the greater the power of Death Chill. After exchanging blows, my opponent would start getting bothered by the ice crystals that would form on his sword—it was evident that my Death Chill wouldn’t spare sword wielders. Although I still needed to find more uses of this ability, these functions alone were sufficient for me to deal with the average Legend.
The most important was that this ability wouldn’t be affected by this world. If I could even use my ability to the fullest in the Earth Elemental Plane where the water and ice elements were incredibly rare, I would probably be able to use it in other True G.o.ds’ Divine Domains as well.
Yet some people had some objections to me.
“Hey—hey—hey! Back in the day, wasn’t it you who said that warriors were all muscles and no brains? How come you went and leveled up in a job cla.s.s that you previously called barbaric?”
With old friends who know all about your past—especially your dark history—you wouldn’t be able to help feel rather helpless, just like I was at the moment.
When faced with such a sarcastic inquiry, I really didn’t know how I was supposed to respond.
“It’s a long story. Right, did the Mage Country reply?”
“Yep. We barely managed to get in contact. Although the transmission lasted for only a few sentences, the Truth Symposium’s reaction was quite quick, and they gave us some good news. Basically, I have full authority to deal with this sudden situation, which means whatever I say, goes.”
Kaid was chuckling in delight as he said so. In a way, this also indicated the Mage Country and Truth Symposium’s trust in him; they viewed him as important.
This was to be expected. I nodded and didn’t say anything, but Kaid kept laughing.
“By the way, they also transported a small present for you. Just a little something.”
A present for me? I should have left that year without saying goodbye; I had run off instantly after reporting Amelia, so how could there possibly be a present for me?
“Your graduation diploma. Congratulations! After over two hundred years, you’ve finally graduated and can go look for a job now. By the way, you’ve also broken the records at our school for how long you’ve failed the same grade and for being a truant.”
Fine then, that sky-blue booklet really did have my name Roland written on it, and it even had the Truth Symposium’s emblem stamped on top. I didn’t know whether to be angry or to laugh, but that was when I came to a sudden realization.
“You’re saying that…”
“Some things, you only need to think and not say out loud. Oh, by the way, remember to thank our teacher Aloso, as he even went through the trouble of getting you a special teaching certificate.”
This seemed like an unimportant joke, but it was the recognition that the Mage Country was giving me. “A student who forgot his graduation diploma when he left” would no longer be an outsider, and now that I was officially recognized as a former student—even a teacher—I now had an ident.i.ty as a member of the Mage Country. Taking command of these juniors here would be only natural with this new ident.i.ty of mine.
“…Teacher Aloso? That nice fellow who’s an ice magic specialist? Okay, got it, to pay him back, I’ll write and give him a copy of the ‘Ice Aeon’ spell.”
“…You really were Yongye, after all. Forget it. Everyone has their own troubles, and I won’t mention it. In that case, I’ll thank you on Teacher Aloso’s behalf for the time being. After all, this is the only forbidden spell developed for ice magic in the past three hundred years. Even if more than ninety-nine percent of mages won’t be able to learn it, it’s still nice to improve the stock of our library.”
After the message arrived from the Mage Country, all of Karo got busy with preparing for battle against Emordilorcan. After all, every mage was worried about their country’s upcoming war against the Bardi Empire, and they all wanted to take care of the trouble before them as quickly as possible so that they could return to their homeland and protect their country.
After Karo began its preparations, some other local factions like “Shadow Tower” and “Hand of Tiso” that had good relations with Karo also accepted our invitation and joined in, making full preparations for combat. I was also patiently waiting for this destined battle.
“Emordilorcan, I still remember the death you wrought at Red Maple Castle like it was yesterday. It’s time for your reckoning!”
In a way, an Elemental Plane’s Elemental G.o.d counted as the plane’s master. Countless elemental creatures would be under the G.o.d’s management, and only incredibly strong elemental creatures would be able to resist the G.o.d’s summoning. That’s why, from the very start, this was going to be an incredibly dangerous large-scale battle.
Therefore, in order deal with that nearly endless amount of elemental cannon fodder at Emordilorcan’s disposal, we also needed to prepare a sufficient amount of cannon fodder, separated by type. Each member of my small team was also giving it their all.
Normal wind and water elemental creatures would essentially be useless here, which was why Camdian had been spending his time tricking the Elemental Lords here into becoming cannon fodder.
Those ambitious existences had long since been unsatisfied with Emordilorcan’s rule, especially after he had been sealed for such a long time. Now, he hadn’t shown up after he obviously returned, and there were even rumors that he was seriously injured to the point of death—of course he wouldn’t seem as scary as he usually did.
The new generation of Earth Elemental Lords were all the ambitious type, and they had long desired to replace Emordilorcan. The older Elemental Lords didn’t dare to underestimate Emordilorcan, but since they knew all the more how strong he was, it meant that they wanted all the more to seize this once-in-a-thousand years opportunity.
By the end, Camdian didn’t even need to personally visit and persuade the Elemental Lords. Those Elemental Lords started creating factions of their own and kept ma.s.sively adding to their numbers. The Earth Elemental G.o.d had never done anything that would cause his citizens to respect and venerate him. After being missing for thousands of years, he was now about to meet the danger of his citizens’ rebellion.
Meanwhile, Reyne was working hard in her own way, gathering a larger and larger demon army, which was already turning into a ‘secret’ major catastrophe for this plane. If it weren’t for the fact that the Elemental Lords wanted to deal with Emordilorcan first, perhaps their allied armies would immediately turn around and first fight with this demon leader who was messing around in the Earth Elemental Plane.
As for the two SemiG.o.d mages in my little party, they didn’t relax in their tasks either. In their dictionaries, there was no such thing as too much cannon fodder, as they only kept working at the tasks a.s.signed to them. Those countless runic giants and earth element demonized plants were piling up like mountains, and when you add all that on to the other allied reinforcements we had recruited, Emordilorcan was likely going to be in for a world of pain.
As for Emordilorcan, there was nothing but silence on his end. Although it could be felt that the mountains and cliffs were slightly trembling, as if there was some frightening existence breathing between them, apart from that there was no other movement from him. No Elemental Lords were summoned, and Emordilorcan himself hadn’t shown up at all—it was as if he was still in a deep sleep.
“Ahh! That Roland, he really knows how to treat us like servants! Making us the scouts.”
“Well, being able to see this is indisputably useful. It will make our chances of victory go up.”
Before she even finished speaking, Margaret had taken Adam and vanished. It was no wonder they were chosen as the scouts; Adam, the strongest tank, combined with Margaret’s instant teleportation and defensive capabilities would allow this duo to successfully retreat even in front of Emordilorcan himself.
It was to be expected that Emordilorcan wasn’t on guard. For an Elemental G.o.d, just having his physical body be destroyed would be enough for him to go into a long hibernation. Add on the fact that in order to vent his anger on us, he even used his Divine Soul to cast two spells that were at the level of a forbidden spell.
The first one was to destroy Red Maple Castle’s walls, and the other one was to give the beastmen from the plains a path to attack us. His spells indeed changed the entire combat situation; however, since he didn’t even have a physical body when he cast those spells, it was no different from him self-destructing his Divine Soul, and he had paid a tremendous price. Without several hundred or even several thousand years of hibernation, he’d probably be unable to recover his power.
In his eyes, that should have been enough to secure the situation. He probably never expected the beastmen to lose in the end, and when his weakened Divine Soul returned to the Earth Elemental Plane, he didn’t dare appear in front of the other Elemental Lords. He went straight into hibernation back in his old nest.
Without a doubt, this was a correct decision on his part. By simply hibernating for a while and borrowing the endless replenishment power of the Earth Elemental Plane, he would have enough strength to protect himself, which would obviously be much better than appearing in front of everyone in a weakened state and letting the ambitious Earth Elemental Lords discover his weakened state.
He had only miscalculated the importance with which his opponents viewed him—they viewed him with such seriousness that they were all willing to stop what they were doing and spend every effort on eliminating potential problems down the road. In the end, due to his hibernation, Emordilorcan lost the chance to be proactive.
The deadline of two months had only half a month remaining. This slowly gathering anti-Emordilorcan army already had approximately half the total combat strength of this entire plane. Without even needing to mention the countless amounts of cannon fodder, we didn’t lack high-level combat strength either. As I would put it, “With so many people, who needs combat strategy? All we need to do is attack.”
But I was saying that mostly to raise morale, as a majority of our army was still cannon fodder. After all, even if we had about half the entire plane’s combat strength, Emordilorcan had the entire plane’s strength available to him.
As the master of this Elemental Plane, the Elemental G.o.d would be able to use elemental power as he pleased within his own plane. To make an a.n.a.logy, the entire Earth Elemental Plane was similar to a Divine Domain, and Emordilorcan would be stronger than any Middle True G.o.d in here—much stronger than Felix who I faced a while ago.
If it weren’t for the fact that Emordilorcan was so seriously injured in the mortal plane, those veteran Earth Elemental Lords wouldn’t even dare to think of rebellion. They knew, however, that this was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for them.
Yet as for truly how strong an Elemental G.o.d was in his home turf, n.o.body would know unless we actually fought him. After all, the last time an Elemental G.o.d was changed out was five or six thousand years ago, so it was quite difficult to check recent history.
Ask the Water Elemental G.o.ddess or Wind Elemental G.o.d? That would have been a nice idea but not a realistic one. To be honest, I had asked them before we split up, but they both remained abnormally silent. It was obvious that neither of them intended to reveal the full extent of their power in their home planes.
“Today’s the Earth Elemental G.o.d’s turn, so they’re worried about the next time being them? How… cautious.”
We used to be enemies to begin with, and now we were only in a temporary alliance against a mutual enemy. I, too, didn’t have the confidence if tomorrow they would turn on me, so it was more than reasonable for them to remain cautious. I also hid a large part of my abilities and powers, and it was only natural for them to hide information about themselves. I didn’t even feel like I should say anything about it.
“To be honest, since all the elements have different properties, all of us have different fighting styles, and we can’t provide any useful information to begin with. Besides, Emordilorcan’s power and experience is far above ours, so there’s even less to work with. In that case, rather than giving misleading information, it’s better to not say anything at all.”
Honesty? This excuse sounded quite reasonable, but I’d be a fool if I really believed these words. But, it was still a nice excuse that would save face for both sides and allow us to still act friendly.
And when the two-month deadline was almost here, I finally received a piece of excellent news.
“Harloys woke up? Wonderful!”
Oh, did I forget to mention someone? I definitely didn’t! I definitely didn’t, but you insist that I did? Fine then, you’re the one that’s going to suffer. Let us see what that existence whose name had become a forbidden term has been busy with recently…
In a distant desert, a half-dragon wearing a piece of tattered cloth was currently sitting down and smiling. Around him were stone giants, sand worm kings, sphinxes, and other various earth elemental creatures.
All these elemental creature species were each other’s natural enemies, but now, they were actually sitting together peacefully. The only one who could pull of such a miracle was, of course, the half-dragon who was currently spreading his way of life.
“Physical appearances are all fake. Everything is empty, and emptiness is everything. All lives are created equal, and appearances of the heart are the most important. All creatures in the world can have beautiful souls. Just because of some differences in physical appearance, you all hated each other and killed each other, which is the path of becoming a demon.”
“Everyone is equal, and true love is limitless. Perhaps you all have different species and genders, but as long as you have a heart that seeks true love, all of you are foundationally brothers and sisters, with no differences whatsoever.”
The Legend-ranked half-dragon was actually teaching his way of true love to the residents of the Earth Elemental Plane, and after hearing his way (or brainwas.h.i.+ng), more and more elemental creatures began following him, believing in this way of mutual peace and love that didn’t originate in this plane.
“I can feel how much effort you’re all putting into this. I hereby solemnly swear that I shall walk to the ends of the heavens and earth to spread the way of true love, and I wish for all lives in this world to put down their biases, to ignore all species, gender, and physical appearances on their search for true love. I’m willing for nine bolts of lightning to strike me in order to test my will! Confirm that my will is sincere!”
*Boom!*
Right after the half-dragon said that he was willing to be struck by lightning to confirm his will, lightning really did strike him. Was it really to test him, or was it that the heavens couldn’t stand the sight of him anymore and wanted to strike him dead? That was unknown.
This sudden lightning caused all his new disciples to exclaim in astonishment. Lightning was extremely rare in the Earth Elemental Plane, and this energy-filled lightning element indicated that this was indisputably real lightning.
The earth elemental creatures had intended to rush forward and save him, but right then, Beifeng’s blackened skin molted, and new skin was revealed beneath it. After that b.a.s.t.a.r.d was struck by lightning, he was actually undamaged, and he even flashed his signature faint smile.
“Just as everyone has witnessed, my sincerity has moved the heavens! The heavens sent lightning down to test my will!”
Just as Beifeng was acting all grand and roared at the sky, the dark clouds that continued gathering in the sky indicated that these “nine bolts” of lightning were just the beginning, and his trial of lightning hadn’t ended yet…
His disciples were all panicking, and they tried to dodge the thunderstorm. Yet seeing how Beifeng simply pointed at the sky and smiled, seeming like he didn’t mind at all, they all calmed down.
All the creatures around Beifeng had devout expressions as they bowed towards him. But only Beifeng himself knew that it wasn’t that he didn’t want to run, it was that he couldn’t run.
“I sat down for too long and my legs are all pins and needles. After being struck by lightning, they’re now completely numb, and even the smile on my face has frozen. Um, can I retract my words from earlier?”
*Boom!*
Fine then, the heavens used its own method to reply to him. All the earth elemental creatures admired this mega-level thunderstorm that wouldn’t be seen even once in a thousand years. According to the stories, there were over a thousand lightning flashes streaking through the sky that day, breaking the record for most lightning ever in the Earth Elemental Plane.
The part that made people feel the most speechless of all was that this scene actually became the Divine Miracle of this abnormal religion. An abnormal religion and philosophy had indeed begun taking root and growing.