Chapter 322: The Beholder
Translator: Kris_Liu Editor: Vermillion
It was totally out of Lucien and Adam"s expectation that the old witch would come back so fast.
Before trying to control the crystal ball, Lucien had carefully checked around to make sure that there was no teleportation circle in the core section. However, he did not expect that the witch could directly cast Position Exchange on her mirrored reflection!
If Lucien and Adam chose not to destroy the reflection, she could come back as soon as she sensed that the core section was being invaded; If they chose to attack the reflection, she would immediately be able to get the message and use other ways to come back in time.
Despite the craziness of the witch, she was also a very smart sorcerer!
However, right now Lucien was still working on removing the spiritual imprint in the crystal ball left by the old witch and could not let himself be distracted, so he wouldn"t. Once he lost the chance to control the core, Lucien would never have any opportunities again to fight against the witch, a sorcerer at least of the seventh-circle!
Lucien had made up his mind. He did not even take a look at the old witch. Instead, he focused on the flow of his spiritual power in the crystal ball, regardless of whether or not Adam would run away and leave him alone here or whether or not his defense spells could handle any single attack from the old witch. He had decided to stay focused and seize the slightest hope!
When the old witch started to cast Position Exchange, Adam had to admit that the fear that had been piling up in the past so many years made him take a step backward. His body shook slightly and he felt that he probably would kneel down or run away at any time. However, he felt Lucien"s great determination from the mind bond, and that gave him great courage as well.
Adam clenched his fists tight. He knew that he did not have a way to go back. If he was going to die, he would rather die in a bitter fight as a hero instead of a coward!
As a level five grand knight, his willpower in fighting was never absent, as it was the foundation of being a knight!
With a low growl, Adam turned himself into a cl.u.s.ter of black mist and jumped directly onto the old witch behind the desk, who just finished casting the position exchanging spell. As long as he could handle the first round of the witch"s attack, Lucien would be able to have a few seconds during the witch"s buffering time! That was their only hope!
Seeing the dark mist, the old witch started to scream. The sharp scream brought invisible magic waves that suddenly froze the mist. Like a piece of gla.s.s, the dark ripples collapsed and disappeared.
When Adam"s figure appeared again, his head and the left side of his chest had been vitrified.
The sixth-circle spell, Dulag"s Gla.s.s!
The spell could turn a creature or an item within a certain size into gla.s.s!
A single spell had disabled Adam. Thanks to his powerful life force as a grand knight, Adam did not directly pa.s.s out.
However, the two seconds that Adam earned for Lucien were precious. Lucien"s spiritual power inside of the crystal ball started to spread and vibrate in a strange way all of a sudden. As the spiritual power produced the invisible waves and the waves extended, the whole s.p.a.ce started to shake fiercely.
Spirit Swing, the relatively new research outcome of the Congress in the past fifty years, could help junior or middle-rank sorcerers remove the spiritual imprint in a magic item, and it worked especially well with ancient magic items!
This was why Lucien wanted to try to control the magic tower!
In the core of the crystal ball, the old witch"s spiritual imprints started to break down. However, it was still an imprint left by a senior-rank sorcerer, so Lucien could not completely remove it within those two seconds.
This was a life-and-death fight between the modern magic system and an ancient sorcerer!
The old witch lifted her left hand on which there were two rings. One had a big, purple gem on it. It was Lucien"s ring, Element. The other was a dark blue ring in a unique shape, decorated with many small precious stones.
Surprisingly, the old witch did not choose to cast Elemental Swirl on Lucien. She was probably concerned that the spell would hurt herself and damage her desk and all her precious collections in this room.
The dark blue ring lit up. Countless chains made of flesh and blood howled and lashed out at Lucien.
The sixth-circle spell, Howling Chain, was mainly for interfering with spell casting by constricting and cursing its victim!
The unearthly howl tried to sneak into Lucien"s soul to distract him. However, Douglas" Absorbing Wall could handle the power of most spells under the fifth circle. Therefore, when the howling chain lashed on Lucien, although his Flame s.h.i.+eld instantly went out, the Absorbing Wall did not break into pieces until a second later.
Even one second was very precious for Lucien. As his spiritual power was vibrating more and more fiercely, more and more cracks appeared in the old witch"s spiritual imprint.
The absorbing wall had disappeared. Stone Skin failed as well. The howling chain winded around Lucien"s body and ulcerated his skin.
The howling definitely affected Lucien"s brain and soul. Fortunately, the spell Mechanized Mind helped Lucien a little. Lucien felt that his soul was being pulled in different directions by countless crying ghosts. He felt piercing pain in his soul, that was becoming torpid.
However, Lucien"s soul had become much stronger under the old witch"s electric shock treatment. Right now, the power of his soul had reached the fifth circle. Also, because the power of Howling Chain had been reduced by the layers of protection Lucien cast on himself, he managed to stay focused despite the very uncomfortable feelings in his soul. When the vibration of his spiritual power peaked, the old witch"s spiritual imprint was completely removed!
The old witch"s experiment, in the end, helped Lucien!
In the next second, Lucien condensed his spiritual power and left his own imprint in the crystal ball.
The crystal ball burst out bright light and rose up in the air. In its center, all of the magic circles and symbols in the magic tower were very obvious.
Lucien cast a simple spell with the crystal ball, and instantly a beam of light surrounded by many magic symbols shot out from the wall on the left side. The light beam hit the red-blood chains and the chains immediately disappeared.
The sixth-circle spell, Advanced Dispel Magic!
As soon as the chains disappeared, Lucien cast another spell whose target was the old witch.
The seventh-circle spell, Antimagic Ray. It could remove the magic effects on its target and also produce a small antimagic field, in which the target could not cast any spells!
Although Lucien could only use the powerful spells built in the magic tower by the magic circles, for the first time, he genuinely felt the great power of being a senior-rank sorcerer.
The old witch just recovered from her casting buffering time. When she saw the ray, she angrily screamed again. And a big mirror drawn with many mysterious symbols appeared in front of her. The ray hit the mirror, and when it broke, the ray reflected back and hit Lucien. All of Lucien"s magic effects for protecting himself were removed!
The mirror was the seventh-circle spell, Spell Turning!
Based on the caster"s level and knowledge, the spell could even turn back a ninth-circle spell!
Lucien tried to extend his spiritual power, but it did not work. Fortunately, right now he could control the whole magic tower. He did not have to rely on himself to cast the spells.
Lucien used the seventh-circle spell, Forcecage, and trapped the old witch in the invisible force walls. The cage could only be broken by several special spells, such as Dissociation.
A magic tower did not have to wait for buffering!
When Lucien continued to cast spells, the old witch"s left eyeball suddenly bulged out and became a yellowish-brown, wriggling sphere.
Like a newly-born cub, the sphere was covered with blood. In the center of it, there was a big, yellowish-brown eye. Small eyestalks crowned the sphere and extended out, connecting to the veins in the old witch"s left eye socket!
It was a beholder! It was one of the most famous monsters in the Dark Mountain Range!
There was a seventh-circle spell that could turn the caster into a beholder temporarily. However, the old witch chose to turn her left eyeball into a beholder, as ancient sorcerers were very good at it! Thus, they did not have to wait for the bothering casting buffering time anymore.
Several green rays of the spell, Dissociation, were shot out from the small eyestalks, and at the same time, the big eye in the center released the antimagic ray.