Chapter 1166: Section 1167: The Pearl of Illusion
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Whoosh—
After a sound of tearing through the air, Monty turned around abruptly.
But to his surprise, Aoluxiya, who had been several hundred meters away from him, suddenly appeared behind him, gently slicing through the air where Monty was with her porcelain white arms, as if they were mantis limbs.
The hissing sound reached everyone’s ears. Upon closer inspection, Aoluxiya had actually sliced open the void with her bare hands!
As soon as Monty spotted Aoluxiya’s figure, he had already transformed into a gust of icy wind, accompanied by the twinkling light of Star Frost, and dodged to the other side.
In the next second, while Monty was still in a daze, Aoluxiya was already at his side.
If previously, others could catch a glimpse of Aoluxiya’s afterimage, now that she had transformed into her porcelain white true form, others couldn’t even see the afterimage.
It was like true spatial displacement!
Time and again, Monty barely managed to dodge Aoluxiya’s deadly attacks, evading them with very awkward and desperate movements.
Faced with this situation, Monty immediately made an adjustment. Since Aoluxiya’s speed was so unimaginably fast, Monty simply stopped trying to compete with her in speed.
One could see Monty waving his scepter, with a transparent bead appearing in his hand.
This bead looked ordinary, but if Angel were to see it, he would realize its extraordinariness.
The material used was Void Essence Ore and Illusionary Spirit Diamond. Void Essence Ore wasn’t expensive, being an intermediate material; Angel had also used it before, as it’s the main ingredient for making Colored Glaze that cuts through Interlayer Space. But the Illusionary Spirit Diamond was special—a high-rank special material, rumored to be a bizarre material synthesized by Legendary Wizards capturing illusory essences.
Both of these materials bore the characteristic of “Illusion,” so the final effect of the bead looked solid. Yet upon a closer look, one could vaguely feel that it wasn’t truly there.
After Monty took out the bead, he drew a strange symbol out of thin air. A spark of frost light fell from his forehead and melded into the bead.
Then Monty casually tossed the bead. It described a parabolic arc in mid-air and then, without any warning, vanished from sight.
In the instant the bead disappeared, Aoluxiya was already by Monty’s side, swinging her sharp porcelain white ‘mantis limbs’ in a plain and indifferent manner, as before.
But this time, Monty didn’t dodge; instead, he turned around and raised his fist, carrying with it a Frostbite Storm, and smashed it fiercely into Aoluxiya’s chest.
It looked as though Monty was making a desperate final stand.
On seeing this, Aoluxiya simply left a cold remark, “Overestimating oneself.”
When Monty’s fist struck the streamline figure of Aoluxiya’s porcelain white body, there was a loud thud, but it didn’t leave any cracks in her porcelain shell, just a slight trace of frost.
And soon, the traces of frost turned to vapor and disappeared into the world.
Meanwhile, as Monty swung his fist at Aoluxiya, her ‘mantis limbs’ had slashed open the body of the Frost Giant.
Even though the Frost Giant was in an Elemental State, she still cut it in two halves.
The tearing void created a huge suction force. It pulled in the ripped halves of the Frost Giant into the darkness… And soon after, the spatial Restoration properties of the Abyss rules slowly healed the crack in the void, until the crack vanished, and Monty hadn’t reappeared either.
Seeing this, the human wizards had their eyes wide open in shock.
Monty hadn’t reappeared, which meant something that everyone understood perfectly well.
No one had imagined that Monty, the strongest wizard of the Southern Domain, known as “Endless Frost Cold,” would actually be devoured by the Void?
“Have we… lost?” Rivetta had been using her pen to record this earth-shattering battle, surrounded by gentle breezes with several recording devices displaying the condition of the battlefield in all directions. But at this moment, all the recording devices fell to the ground. If Lord Monty had died, then what awaited them here seemed to be nothing but a dead end?
Grief and confusion instantly enveloped the floating ice above.
On the other side, Aoluxiya watched the crack in the void slowly healing, let out a long breath, and turned to fly towards the top of the Void Tower.
But it had only flown a couple of steps when it saw Tandin, the butler at the far end of the tower, point at her with a shocked expression, and at that same moment, Aoluxiya also heard a sound of air being torn open from behind her.
It instinctively dodged to the side; although it evaded the attack successfully, an odd stream of frost wind still grazed one of its hands.
After Aoluxiya settled, the sound of cracking could be heard.
Looking down, where her left hand had transformed into a porcelain white curved scythe, for the first time, cracks appeared.
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Although it hadn’t shattered, Aoluxiya knew that if he continued to use it, it would inevitably break to pieces next time. A true body can always heal from injuries; however, when a true body is damaged, recovery depends on chance and coincidence.
This meant that for a short time, Aoluxiya would not be able to use his left hand again.
Suppressed rage simmered in Aoluxiya’s eyes as it slowly lifted its head to look at the one who had ambushed him… it was still Monty! It was still that frost giant!
Monty was completely unharmed, the previous so-called lacerations were nowhere to be found!
Moreover, compared to before, there was a hint of colder aura faintly emanating from Monty. Aoluxiya’s gaze slowly drifted and finally settled on the greatsword that Monty held in his right hand.
Monty had mostly used his fists in combat before, with the greatsword almost always on his back. Aoluxiya had always been on guard, but he had not expected Monty to draw it now.
Presumably, the chill frost wind that ambushed him from behind came from this greatsword.
It was no surprise to Aoluxiya that Monty hadn’t died.
At the half-step legend level, it’s actually quite difficult to die. Often a mere thought is all it takes for the Consciousness Spark to travel to the distant void; it’s not so simple to just die. Unless, of course, you are unguarded.
Therefore, it didn’t astonish Aoluxiya that Monty didn’t die. However, he was curious; he clearly saw Monty’s incarnation as a frost giant fall into the crack, so how had he returned, and without a single injury?
The answer, Aoluxiya soon found out.
He had torn Monty to pieces several times, but each time Monty returned, a pattern had become apparent after the repeated occurrences.
It was the bead! The transparent bead that Monty had thrown out before!
Inside was the actual Elemental State of Monty; what appeared outside was not Monty himself, but Monty’s Elemental Creature—the frost giant spirit.
All apprentices, upon becoming Official Wizards, must first capture and nurture their own Elemental Creature. This makes casting Spell Techniques much easier. Monty had been an Official Wizard for a very long time, and his frost giant spirit had been nurtured for thousands of years. An Elemental Creature, at the stage of Monty’s frost giant spirit, has its core fused with Monty himself; as long as Monty lives, with a thought, the frost giant spirit will be reborn!
Monty had sealed his Elemental State within the bead, which wasn’t present in reality but faintly hidden between reality and illusion.
Monty could bring his Elemental State into the frost giant spirit at any time, and likewise, retract it back into the bead.
In this situation, Aoluxiya found it impossible to harm Monty.
On the distant ice floe, the atmosphere gradually returned to normal. Someone let out a sigh of relief, “With the years of planning by Lord Monty, how could he possibly lose so easily?”
“You can tell from the fight with the demons, they are indeed much stronger than us overall. In Lassudral, I actually didn’t see a single demon below Wizard Level, which says a lot.” The speaking wizard paused before adding, “Only, the weapons they use are still inferior to those of a human apprentice, just sharply effective, a waste of fine materials.”
“The difference between the civilized and the uncivilized.”
Rivetta also resumed her recording, listening to the discussions around her, she scoffed, “The overall power level of the Abyss is higher than that of the Wizards’ Realm in the Southern Domain, that is a fact. Don’t forget, standing here, we represent the pinnacle of the Wizards’ Realm in the Southern Domain, but these demons, they are just a common representation from the countless Demon Cities. Moreover, we have been preparing for so many years.”
To some extent, wizards have indeed gone further than demons in pursuit of “knowledge”.
But sometimes, it must be admitted, sheer power can overwhelm technique.
Demons don’t need to understand that much; their claws and tails are as formidable as Alchemy Weapons, their scales comparable to the finest Defense Spells… If demons were really weak, why would so many human wizards want to transplant demonic organs or demon Bloodlines?
For a moment, everyone on the ice floe fell silent.
Suddenly, someone exclaimed, “Look, what is that?!”
Everyone followed the voice and saw that previously, Lord Monty had placed his Elemental State inside the illusory bead, supported by alchemical tools. Barring accidents, he should have gotten the upper hand next. But as they watched, it seemed the situation had reversed yet again.
In front of Aoluxiya’s flawless porcelain true body, a tall figure had unexpectedly appeared.
Bone wings flapped, sending a deluge of wind and rain cascading down. The bone armor gleamed coldly, with mysterious patterns flowing over it.
The newcomer was Yadasai!
“Not only has Nitotipu arrived, but why is Yadasai here too?” Atop a distant tower, the young fire demon Greerwu looked at the bone-armored figure in surprise.
“Nitotipu has a reason to come; Yadasai must have its reasons too,” Butler Tandin murmured softly. “Perhaps their reasons are the same, one can never be too sure.”
Yadasai stood in front of Aoluxiya, facing Monty on the other side, with its aura gradually intensifying.
Aoluxiya watched quietly, and after a long while, he said softly, “As expected, is it an external factor?”
Yadasai looked quite pleased and responded with a light smile, “No, I have come because I need to leave this birdcage trapped by flames.”