Chapter 640 - Forbidden Spell
Chapter 640 - Forbidden Spell
Chapter 640: Forbidden Spell
Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu
At dawn of Month 12, Day 10, the third morning after the demon wave invasion began, the entire elven territory had become corrupted by the Chaos Abyss. The elves were in a dire crisis.
The blood moon was now ruling over this area. The elves were forced to use all of their aces. Meanwhile, the Chaos Faction simply sent out more and more cannon fodder without any care, no matter the number of demons sacrificed.
Even if you weren’t paying attention to the combat situation here, the meteor showers that kept happening every few hours were something unignorable as all existences could instinctively sense that Gods were dying.
The Elven Gods were dying constantly. The entire Elven God Faction was finished...
Not only would a God need astonishingly good luck and outstanding personal talent, the God would also need to create their personal Divine Kingdom while growing. After that, the God’s people and other mortals who agreed with their teachings would become the God’s power in the mortal plane. Belief from those who worshipped the God in life, and the souls of dead worshippers would all help the God to grow.
This was why the Gods of Eich were typically limited to only one specific species. Every God had been raised by countless resources from their people. History had given the Gods their position, but this didn’t mean that the tremendous resource expenditure used up during the process of becoming a God could be ignored.
If the species was flourishing, then that species’ God would be powerful. This seemed to be quite logical. However, even more logical would be that if the God was powerful, then the species would flourish.
There was a faint symbiotic relationship between the God and the God’s species. Most ordinary people didn’t realize this. However, True Gods and the truly powerful individuals all understood this.
That was why it was impossible for the Elven Gods to sit back and watch the Moonwheel Capital be conquered. That would mean losing all of the elven power of belief, making so many long years of accumulation turn into nothing.
Looking at it from the moon elves’ angle, if all Elven Gods perished, or if most of the Elven Gods perished, that would also be unacceptable as it would mean that the moon elves would become a third-rate species with no or only few Gods’ protection.
After the Beastmen Empire and all the Beastmen Gods perished, the beastmen had been exiled to the Northlands and the Underground. This was the best evidence.
From the very start, I had been absolutely confident that the Elven Gods would intervene, even if this would mean certain death for them.
That was just how it was for Gods who had ascended through the power of belief. They would succeed or fail all thanks to the power of belief. While such Gods might enjoy great power due to their believers’ worship, they were also bound by that same worship.
On our way to the Moonwheel Capital, we met some true inferno dragons. That was an evolutionary job class that a true dragon could choose after joining the Chaos Abyss. These berserk beasts had also come up to the mortal plane to taste new flesh and blood. Without a doubt, this was only more bad news on top of everything else.
Just like in the mortal plane, dragons would be some of the highest-level combat strength in the Chaos Abyss. Being able to meet several demonized dragons like this simultaneously was probably no coincidence. It was likely that some Demon Lord had intentionally brought them to strengthen the demon wave’s aerial combat strength.
Also, ever since a dozen or so hours ago, when I started preparing a certain something, our airship squadron started proceeding at an even slower pace.
This wasn’t because we were intentionally slowing our pace. It was that we met with more and more obstacles. Previously, the demon wave had ignored us, but now, even the berserk demons on the ground were trying to jump up and get to us.
“...Ice Aeon is about to descend upon us; the new generation will bring about change...”
As countless snowflakes fluttered around us, my incantation could be heard everywhere. A tremendous snowfall began in the sky. Our airships were already completely covered in snow.
Countless ice fairies danced in the air. They played with each other while tossing snowballs and sculpting the snow crystals, compressing the power of ice here, transforming this location into a place similar to a snow mountain.
Even though our people were prepared beforehand for this, the engineers and airship crews were still freezing. They could only deal with it by enveloping themselves in the warmest and thickest clothing they had.
That was correct, I had been using a full 24 hours to prepare for Emperor Yongye’s signature attack: the forbidden spell, Ice Aeon!
As I previously mentioned, the greatest difference for me entering Myth rank was becoming much closer to my previous peak of SemiGod. While I was still incapable of casting the complete Ice Aeon, I could now cast a simplified version of it.
A minimum of Legend rank was all that was required to start casting a forbidden spell. Mages had always specialized in making weaker versions of forbidden spells that could still act as major killing weapons.
A particular Law Incantation that I’d used multiple times before had the effect of temporarily raising my power level. With double assistance from the airship’s mage tower and Harloys, I had now completed 75% of my forbidden spell incantation.
Considering how my current bloodline strength and my personal power level had far surpassed myself at this stage back then, not to mention the high magic environment’s strengthening effects on all magic spells, my simplified Ice Aeon was likely to equal or even surpass the original... But the fine details didn’t matter all that much. Perhaps a hydrogen bomb and a prototype nuclear bomb would have differences in overall AOE size and destructive force, but there would still be zero difference for those struck by the impact.
“How to deal with an endless wave of cannon fodder? The only solution is to forcefully use the largest AOE attack possible.”
The elves also had forbidden spell mages. However, they wouldn’t be foolish enough to cast forbidden spells, as that would mean forcing the enemy to attack them at all costs. Additionally, the more powerful the forbidden spell, the more time would be necessary to prepare. Three hours would be a small forbidden spell, and 24 hours wouldn’t even be considered long.
I was still quite far away. Yet, those demons which had lost all sense of logic and reason could still sense a powerful threat on the elemental wavelengths. They all instinctively attacked our airship squadron. Our warriors were quite fatigued from dealing with the constant attacks.
“Of course they would try their hardest to attack us. Otherwise, they’ll just all die.”
From a certain standpoint, this design of having mage towers on airships was quite wonderful. Perhaps the original intent was just to have magical defenses on the airship, but if the mage tower held a forbidden spell mage instead, that would be the equivalent of giving mobility to “nuclear weapons”. If a slow forbidden spell incantation could be prepared in a relatively safer location like this, the threat would be magnified more than tenfold.
To use an analogy from Earth, just the existence of nuclear weapons alone still wouldn’t be that much of a threat. It would be impossible to shoot them farther than the explosive radius. An overly powerful bomb with too large of a radius could only thus be used in a way that would bring nothing but destruction to both sides.
However, when nuclear bombs were put onto bomber aircraft capable of delivering them to the target, this meant that the nuclear bombs had gained mobility. This tremendously increased their threat level, meaning that nuclear bombs became a serious tactical threat.
Forbidden spells required incredibly long incantations. It would be impossible to complete one while riding on a steed. However, not only did mage towers have gravity balance mechanisms, there would also be plenty of mage support buffs. The main attack mage tower of the airship provided an excellent place for me to cast my forbidden spell.
What? You’re asking me why I didn’t use the mage tower in my personal Yongye City floating castle to cast spells from instead? When considering the flying speed of my floating castle... just forget about it.
“Perhaps the future battles will all be about airships carrying forbidden spell mages and exchanging long-range powerful attacks!”
The long incantation made me rather fatigued. Thankfully, I still had my soul connection, and could chat with Harloys to relieve my boredom. She could also keep me updated on the latest developments.
“That type of future won’t happen. Nobody is an idiot. People will be on guard against it after seeing it one or two times. What do you think you’ll do if some SemiGod rank assassins suddenly come for you while you’re incanting?”
What would I do? I would simply die! Casting a forbidden spell would be a double-edged sword. Simply interrupting a forbidden spell’s incantation could cause a magical backlash strong enough to make the caster self-destruct. Right now, I was unable to move or talk. I was basically a defenseless target.
Harloys indeed made sense. While this strategy might work the first few times, after people knew about it, they would be trying their very hardest to kill the forbidden spell mage at all costs.
Still, that didn’t mean that this strategy would be meaningless. Smaller forbidden spells requiring only three hours of incanting could still be used. Also, it would still be easy to use such a strategy against any enemies who didn’t have airships or aerial combat strength.
“How much longer until we enter the stable period?”
“Three hours. We’ll probably also arrive at the Moonwheel Capital at that time.”
“Such an exact calculation for timing both simultaneously. You already expect that we’ll meet with more obstacles?”
“Not at all. I’m just accustomed to leaving some extra hours of time just in case... Actually, that’s not even what’s important here.”
“Yeah, the most important is the explosive period after the stable period. That’s the most dangerous time.”
Forbidden spell casting would be completely different from normal spell casting. Forbidden spell casting wouldn’t use only the mage’s personal mana. Forbidden spells would also draw power from the sky, earth, and Elemental Tide for a onetime powerful effect. This had great requirements on the mage, and not a single mistake would be allowed during the process.
The first step would be preparing beforehand, constructing the magic formula and preparing the mana necessary. Only after repeated confirmations would the forbidden spell casting then begin. Mages were used to categorizing forbidden spell casting into several periods. This one was known as the only safe period, the preparation period.
The second step was naturally the long incantation period. During this portion, countless elemental fairies would be summoned, and the power of the elements would be rearranged according to the mage’s will. Sometimes the power of the elements would be compressed, while at other times it would be arranged into a magic formation. All of the elements would then finally transform into an exquisite magic formula and enter a relatively stable status.
That part was where the forbidden spell’s formula would be formed and prepared for casting. This period before the forbidden spell’s casting was termed the stable period.
Meanwhile, the most dangerous, final step was known as the explosive period.
Casting the magic formula wasn’t an instantaneous process. In order to cast a spell capable of changing the entire world around it, the spell would need to connect itself to the surrounding natural environment and use the entire power of the world to destroy the mage’s enemies.
It would be impossible to cast any forbidden spell instantaneously. Also, since the mage would need to connect the spell to the world around it at this time, it would be absolutely impossible for the mage to move. In fact, even any distractions could be fatal here.
Since I was going to cast a forbidden spell in the Moonwheel Capital, I obviously needed to enter the final explosive period in the Moonwheel Capital... and I would also have to face Donatis in his true body there.
“How long do we need to last? I think that at least ten minutes shouldn’t be a problem for us,” Harloys informed me.
“I have some good news, and I have some bad news for you...”
“I don’t want to know either.”
“Er, the good news is that thanks to various influences, such as my understanding of ice, the buff effects from having an ice magic mage tower, and so on, this simplified version of Ice Aeon should be equal or even greater in power to the original version. The bad news is that...”
“...The bad news is obviously that the explosive period will take even longer than we originally thought. How long, then?”
Harloys’ words were filled with anxiety. At this time, every single minute would represent countless dangers and potential changes to the situation.
“A minimum of an extra 30 minutes, to a maximum of an extra three hours.”
“...Can we still stop right now?”
“If you want to see our airship squadron exploding together with me, sure.”
“You want us to defend against Donatis and the demon wave for three hours? I, I’m going to kill you first!”
“Cough, cough, please don’t mess around, we’ll all blow up.”
I teased the silly cat to pass the time, but I was also secretly praying.
Since we already knew that we were facing the demon wave, of course I would make preparations beforehand. However, some schemes relied more on the heavens to work. There were far too many examples of overly calculating individuals who had messed up and gotten themselves killed out there. Since there were far too many people and uncontrollable factors involved, I had absolutely no guarantee of my plan’s success.
“I hope that Elisa can succeed. Otherwise, I’ll truly have a wrongful death this time.”