The small injury on his body was also a reminder that he had weakened and could now be killed. As this reminder rang in his head, he saw green vines and lightning bolts trying to bind everyone.
The vines couldn't bind him and were burned to ashes by his plasma shield. But the lightning bolts were able to bind him.
In the past, the lightning bolts would have also been destroyed by his plasma shell, just like he did to the green vines. But his strength has fallen, so even though the plasma shell was still burning the lightning bolts and disintegrating them, the lightning bolts were able to regenerate faster than they were destroyed.
The lightning bolts bound him tightly and restricted his movements. This reminded him of the golden chains and how he almost died. This reminder caused him to panic.
Without thinking too much, he resorted to following his instincts. His instincts screamed danger and for him to detonate his outer shell again.
He followed his instincts, so he became a great big ball of fire. The big ball of fire exploded and destroyed everything around him. Not even his allies, the five gem kings, were spared from the power of the explosion.
The explosion freed the sun king from the lightning bolts binding it. He took this opportunity to escape. He didn't even look back as he ran for his life.
As he ran, he said, "I shouldn't have let them talk me into entering the territory of the invasive world spirit. This is all their fault."
His decision to explode was rash, as the situation hadn't reached the point of no return. The situation didn't warrant risking his life to escape yet, but what he did was the correct decision to make. This was because if he hadn't escaped early, it would be too late for him to escape when he became desperate.
The priority of the three patriarchs was to kill the Sun King. The binding of the five gem kings by Lady Evergreen was to let Thunder Drake and Sword Flash concentrate on the Sun King.
They wanted to kill the Sun King in the domain, which would allow the Ethera tree to steal his power completely. This power would then be used to elevate the Snow Kong to the peak of the fourth step, which is 100C.
Sword Flash was still preparing the golden net, and this time, he had learned his lesson. He was preparing a way to counter the Sun King's self-detonation so that the Sun King wouldn't be able to escape easily like last time.
This extra preparation was one of the reasons why it was taking Sword Flash so long to prepare the golden net. But once the golden net is prepared and activated, the Sun King would have no way out.
Fortunately for the Sun King, he had also learned his lesson and knew to run away at all costs once someone was trying to bind him. He left the five gem kings behind to deal with Thunder Drake and the others.
The explosion had destroyed about half of the mobile fortress because not every part of it is made of rank 5 material. Not only that, but the explosion also killed the vast majority of the troops on the mobile fortress.
This kind of damage halted the advancement of the mobile fortress completely. But it also made Thunder Drake very angry.
He said to the five gem kings, "That makes two that you've successfully destroyed. You must pay with at least two of your lives."
He spoke directly into their minds like gem emperors do, which scared the gem kings. But they didn't back down from a fight. This was because there were five of them while there were only two enemies. They felt confident because they had the advantage of numbers.
The explosion had injured the five gem kings, but it didn't damage them much. They could still fight well.
On the other side, Thunder Drake and Lady Evergreen were completely fine. Their golem body was very durable, so they were still in peak state. The only effect that the explosion had on them was to destroy their lightning bolts and green vines.
The destroyed lightning bolts and green vines were quick to be replenished as Thunder Drake and Lady Evergreen began their second round of attacks. Lady Evergreen created a large vine plant that tried to ensnare the five gem kings, while Thunder Drake focused solely on dishing out pure damage with his lightning.
The destructive power of wood is very low, but its ability to bind and restrict movement is very high. The vines could also heal and regenerate when injured.
The worst part is that the gem people couldn't use any elemental attacks to resist the green vines. They could only fight with pure physical strength, which isn't something one should use to fight something that is good at subduing physical strength.
They roared in anger as their four arms ripped vines apart with great strength. But there were far more vines than their arms. There were far too many vines for them to snap.
The green vine plant that Lady Evergreen made was able to easily bind the five gem kings. The vines dealt negligible damage to the gem kings, but they kept them from working together to resist Thunder Drake's power.
Lady Evergreen even used the Wood Burial spell, which caused a large amount of thick roots to emerge from the ground. This wasn't her true body and she wasn't at the peak of her power, but she was still able to create a large ocean of roots that is capable of ensnaring a whale.
The roots were thick as the trunks of trees and tougher than steel. They gripped four of the gem kings and dragged them underground, where they were sealed.
This was something that wouldn't have worked on the Sun King, even though the Sun King was weaker than the gem kings. This is because he could control fire and use it to burn away the roots.