Chapter 756: Sarcasm
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
Even though it was clearly the afternoon, it was still completely dark outside. A human warrior was dying every second. The royal dragon knights’ and White Wolves’ combat strength would be seriously affected in such a situation.
“Something is wrong with this rain.”
The first person to approach me was that familiar shameless former cla.s.smate of mine, Kaid.
Although I was allied with the Mage Country, I hadn’t interacted much with the Cloud Tower for the past century, so I was still a bit distant from the mages of the new generation. As for the older archmages, most of them were far too sly, and preferred to think rather than act. They would be capable of sitting down together for several months without saying a single word as long as there was no need.
Kaid probably seemed really old—fine, he definitely seemed really old—but apart from his shameless personality, he really was an excellent candidate to soften up the p.r.i.c.kly archmages. It was really convenient to have a friendly senior who was easy to get along with.
And now, Kaid was also my mediator with the mages from the Truth Symposium.
As for Harloys? Who was that? The tall elf who was happily laughing at the archmages’ flattery wasn’t my cat at all!
Ahem, getting back on topic, although Harloys and I were both Undead Emperors, why was she so respected and welcomed while I was quietly forgotten in the corner?
“This? How about beauty? It’s your fault for not being a girl or a pretty gay boy. Who would surround a stinky man?”
Alright, Kaid, you actually dared to speak the truth? You’d better watch out for my petty revenge against you.
Although we were continuing to chat quite casually, we reached an accord regarding the current situation. No matter if this torrential downpour was coincidental or intentionally caused by a high-level mage, this rain was far too detrimental for the human side.
I still highly doubted that such an undead army would be able to annihilate our allied forces, but suffering too many losses right from the onset would be too great a blow to the morale.
“Is there any way to dispel this rain? Maybe a water magic archmage?” I asked, but unsurprisingly only saw a head shaking in reply.
Mages would have their limits. Summoning a patch of clouds for rainfall wouldn’t be that difficult. This would only require a water magic archmage or high-level druid.
However, such clouds constructed out of the water element would also be quite easy to dispel. Those clouds also wouldn’t have much rainfall.
Trying to cancel out major rainfall which already existed was something which broke the fundamental natural laws since this was an already existing natural phenomenon. Trying to delete or erase a natural phenomenon would be the equivalent of trying to fight against nature itself and the order of the world.
“There’s not enough time.”
As high-level mages, we would have methods to deal with any calamity, but any forbidden spell or ritual magic would require time to prepare. Right now, there wasn’t enough time for such things.
I could sense that lives were being lost every second. These were elite human soldiers among the elites. They would probably feel quite aggrieved dying to ordinary skeleton cannon fodder.
“Masters, His Majesty requests that all of you help dispel the rain!”
Finally, a messenger from Halent arrived, even if he was rather late. Still, n.o.body had the heart to blame the messenger after seeing that he was covered in blood.
The mages had already begun preparing before he even arrived.
“Use fire magic which is countered by water magic?”
“Do you think that our side isn’t dying fast enough?”
“Maybe we should try the opposite of what’s expected, and use ice magic, a branch of water magic. We should try to freeze the rain!”
“That would just transform the rain into icicle shards or a blizzard, you know? You’re such a genius, increasing the weather’s attack power against our own side.”
“Let’s just directly use earth magic to create a wall to block the rain… Fine, I’ll shut up.”
Sometimes, it would also be a problem to have too many mages since one idea would immediately be rejected by the others. If there were only a few archmages around, the final plan would likely be whoever simply acted first.
“If only there was an Anti-holy Knight here.”
“Are you stupid? They can only dispel magic and divine power. How are they supposed to dispel a natural phenomenon?”
I shook my head as these mages couldn’t be relied upon. If this was a normal time, then I would really enjoy letting them debate and seeing what plan they would finally come up with.
Waiting around would also help to discover what aces our allies had. I was actually quite curious why Halent was so confident that he could suppress all the others and take the leaders.h.i.+p.
But right now, I could sense that someone strong was observing us from high up in the sky. If the undead found that their probing attack was effective, then this attack would transform into an all-out attack.
“…So an Undead Emperor has arrived? Such a fluctuating and impatient magical wavelength actually belongs to an Undead Emperor? Is this ‘Undead Wizard’ Shupnus of the Deathmist Plane?”
The restless power of death was active in the darkness. Various chains of death were being created. Even Shupnus himself probably hadn’t expected that his probing attack would be so effective. Shupnus was currently summoning his personal undead army. If the combat situation continued to favor the undead so much, then Shupnus would launch an all-out attack.
That would be an undead army numbering in the millions. If Shupnus sent his entire army, then the battle would become utterly chaotic, and it would become necessary to win as quickly as possible.
If such a chaotic battle erupted, then having individually powerful mages like us wouldn’t be that meaningful. Large AOE forbidden spells wouldn’t be usable at all, as there was nowhere to cast them, so our only use would be to gang up on the Undead Emperor… which was such a terrible idea that I gave up immediately.
“Holy Light, your enemy is right in front of me, so I shall grant you the properties of Cleansing and Purity. Please protect me!”
The archmages all had looks of astonishment as I clasped my hands together and sincerely prayed to the Holy Light.
Faint wings of light suddenly flashed into existence on my back.
I then directly stepped off the luxurious horse-drawn carriage and tossed myself into battle.
“Did you hear? He really was summoning Holy Light?”
“That light is so blinding. He’s actually a real Holy Knight!”
It was likely that most mages would find it inconceivable how an undead magic expert like me could also cultivate Holy Light. I was intentionally performing in front of them. As for my objective… I would reveal it when the time was right…
“The Holy Church is going to suffer misfortune yet again?”
Harloys managed to guess my objective really quickly. I couldn’t even understand how she had done so.
“Don’t you always try to be a burden on the Holy Church whenever you do something with Holy Light?”
I was rendered speechless. In a way, this was indeed true. Every time I made progress on the path of Holy Light, it would cause the Holy Church’s authority to diminish.
This was probably my last time trying to make trouble for the Holy Church… I wasn’t trying to raise a death flag here, as it was rather that there would be no more need to cause trouble for the Holy Church if I succeeded this time.
Everything before me was still pitch-black. The rain was so heavy that it actually hurt as it fell on my body. The human warriors must have been working quite hard to persist and fight in such weather.
I took a deep breath and half kneeled in the mud while extending my palms. My s.h.i.+ning Dawn magic sword suddenly appeared in midair as glimmering Holy Light slowly burned upon it, making it seem like a beacon in the darkness.
“Holy Light, I praise you, for you bring hope to those lost in the darkness and give them guidance…”
Although I was muttering prayers filled with praise and respect for the Holy Light, I wasn’t praising the G.o.d of Holy Light like a normal Holy Light priest was. Instead, I was speaking my own comprehension and grat.i.tude of Holy Light.
That’s right, my grat.i.tude. It couldn’t be denied how important Holy Light’s blessing and Holy Light job cla.s.s members had been as humans went from weak to strong, from barbarians living in wastelands to ruling over the entire world.
Holy Light provided a light in the darkness and brought order to this chaotic land. Of course I was grateful to it.
As I prayed, my Dawn Holy Light sword gradually rose up into the air like a rising sun.
Back when I used Dawn against Sophocles the Deceiver, Dawn had been in its light-gathering form, but now Dawn was in its light-spreading form, similar to a lighthouse.
At this moment, everyone on the battlefield stopped for a second, undead and humans included. They all instinctively looked in this direction since it seemed like a new sun was slowly rising.
Pure Holy Light, this completely new type of Holy Light, was now showing off its true form in front of the world for the first time ever.
The intelligent undead and Undead Lords all started furiously retreating when they discovered that this “sun” was actually emanating Holy Light. They couldn’t understand why this Holy Light could illuminate the entire battlefield when Holy Light was clearly supposed to have a short range.
They then discovered that this Holy Light wasn’t as scary as they had expected. This Holy Light didn’t directly burn them like normal. Instead, it actually felt warm and comfortable, making them want to soak in it some more…
“Wait a moment, something’s wrong. We can actually sense warmth?”
At this moment, the intelligent undead noticed that something was wrong with the situation. This Holy Light filled with positive energy wasn’t directly harming them, but it was gradually corroding and erasing their negative energy.
Compared to the original Holy Light, the pure Holy Light was far weaker in attack power. However, even the strongest Holy Light priest in the world would only be capable of covering an area of a few hundred meters in Holy Light, while this sun of pure Holy Light illuminated the entire battlefield.
The human warriors also felt warmed. They also discovered that their injuries were actually healing gradually, and as they fought the undead, they also noticed to their delight that the undead were becoming weaker.
This was a combat strategy that I had especially prepared for major battlefields. My Dawn sword would buff creatures of Order in a mega large AOE while debuffing demons and undead in a similarly mega large AOE.
This pure Holy Light wouldn’t have powerful attack strength, but the pure Holy Light would have very little consumption, unlike original Holy Light which was only good for one round of explosive attacks. This lighthouse could be lit indefinitely, so as long as the battle lasted long enough, even the Undead Lords would be weakened and ignited.
Of course, using this ability also had a downside…
“Kill him!”
Furious soul language echoed everywhere. At this moment, all undead, no matter if they were lowly zombies and skeletons or Abominations and bone dragons, focused only on me.
Their originally lifeless eyes suddenly become ignited with soulfire as every single undead targeted me.
What surprised me was that I also heard cries of pain from the clouds. The pure Holy Light was actually dispelling the dark clouds and rain!
The pure Holy Light had the power to cleanse the power of Chaos. This scene was obviously unnatural, which led to only one possible conclusion.
“All of these clouds are actually part of an undead’s physical body? Is this the true body of an Undead Emperor? How fun.”
My mood wasn’t nearly as jubilant as it appeared. While playing a video game, a person would at most be able to taunt an entire screen of monsters. However, I had taunted the entire battlefield. Others would taunt one or two monsters at a time, while I had taunted several hundred thousand… and not only that, I had no tanks to block the enemy for me.
I hesitated for a moment, but decided in the end to maintain this Holy Light sun as it was providing highly important illumination and support for the entire battlefield on top of debuffing the enemy leaders. This would be a battle of attrition to see who lasted longer.
I trusted that others would block the undead for me since I had shown my usefulness.
What if others failed to block the undead for me? That was actually quite easy to deal with. If I was surrounded, then I would turn off my taunt ability and run away…
“Halent, have your people help protect me, otherwise I might just run at any moment!”
Harloys transmitted those words to Halent for me. If we won and he mentioned this to me afterwards, I would never admit what I had said.
And if we lost? I would have run away already, so what meaning would there be in admitting what I said?