Chapter 23

When the entire city of Sulphur Mountain was in chaos, the three great figures strangely remained silent.

Rumors even began to spread that the three great figures were taking the opportunity to eliminate their rivals. However, regardless of others, if the single-minded Adam were in the city, how could he not personally take action?

In fact, it was because the three great figures were not in the city at the moment, and even Annie, the acting mayor, was not in the city.

When I informed them that a Fire Elemental God might be sealed beneath Sulphur Mountain, Margaret immediately conducted an investigation and confirmed that there was indeed a demigod-level or higher fire elemental in the mountain.

"It's very troublesome, extremely troublesome. I don't know who did the sealing, but they used the entire Sulphur Mountain Range as a suppression array. Although they cleverly used the underground spirit veins as the energy source for the suppression array, it is indeed very solid. But if we're not careful, the mountain and the city of Sulphur Mountain might explode together."

When everyone was worried, the mysterious voice glanced around... Well, Xiaohong was sleeping, I was playing a ghost game with the city guards, and Adam was laughing foolishly. Yes, let me correct that, at least Margaret was very worried.

The most speechless part was when Adam, who was overjoyed upon hearing the news, shared his "genius idea."

"Natural underground heat source, if we pour some water, we'll have a hot spring! Sulphur hot spring baths are said to be very effective for various skin diseases and can also restore energy. I've always wanted to build one."

Well, actions speak louder than words. He, who "is a typical human gorilla whose limbs and instincts command his brain" (Roland's words), immediately took action. In less than a day, he found the deepest point of the geothermal source, dug a large lake with his holy sword, and even had the druids in the city rain to fill it with water...

But when Margaret and I were about to teach him why the flowers are so red, he finally remembered to explain, or rather, he had prepared his defense.

Why was he still bruised and swollen after explaining? He thought he wouldn't be beaten just by explaining? I took the opportunity to strike first, Margaret took the chance to vent her grievances, and Xiaohong just added to the chaos for fun...

Cough, let's not talk about that pleasant three-on-one fight. Getting back to the main point, Adam's explanation, though foolish, was not a bad solution.

"Phoenix rebirth requires being engulfed in flames to burn away the self. My Fire Phoenix legacy also needs a large heat source. Using this pool, I can directly draw a large amount of heat, which can provide the best legacy for Annie, preserving as much of her power as possible after rebirth and allowing her to mature quickly. Moreover, heat is like stamina and mana for fire elementals. If we drain it, the Fire Elemental God will be greatly weakened."

It must be said that although Adam is usually unreliable, he is indeed a qualified "hero." His luck and intuition are quite good. This seemingly reckless move actually hit the opponent's most painful spot.

For some people with ulterior motives, the unsealing of the Fire Elemental God is directly related to the arrival of the elemental tide, which is a matter of the "historical trend" of the entire world. When they discover that Aroravis is weakening and may no longer be able to trigger the elemental tide, how can they tolerate it!

Thus, silently, the mayor and the president of the administrative institute took the acting mayor to the Sulphur Mountain Range, and for safety, they even chose Xiaohong's dragon lair as a cover.

But clearly, there is no such thing as a completely secret wall in this world, especially in a world where divination magic is extremely advanced. Perhaps they learned of the mayor's departure from a traitor within Sulphur Mountain City, or perhaps they discovered the situation was wrong through an investigation of the elemental god, or perhaps they directly used divination magic to find out.

The three great figures were cornered...

A girl in a cabbage-green robe stood alone, her long wooden staff unadorned, yet as naturally beautiful as its owner, standing there like a timeless, ancient, and profound river.

She could only be described as graceful, with neat blue hair under her hood, and gold-rimmed glasses sliding down her nose, held in place by a silver chain around her elf ears, or they would have long fallen and broken.

The Immortal was quiet and scholarly, with a natural aura of bookishness. If you only looked at her appearance, she seemed more like a librarian who was always engrossed in books and forgot to eat lunch rather than a wise and powerful sage.

But at this moment, this "librarian" was wreaking havoc.

"Heaven above, earth below, by the covenant of the book and the stars, by the command of the Sage Margaret, ancient star spirits, I summon you, Chimera, Leo, Unicorn, and Chariot, descend!"

With a wave of Margaret's staff, the nameless heroes descended with the stars, arriving in the mortal world.

A giant chariot as tall as a tower, a three-headed monster playing with fire, lightning, and ice, a white unicorn warhorse symbolizing protection and sanctity, and a golden-tier lionman battalion...

Legendary heroes became tangible reality, and legendary warriors fought under the sage's command. This was the personal army of a demigod mage, capable of standing against a nation.

But even so, her situation was still not good.

Because this was an unfair battle from the start, a war of individuals against an army... Her opponent, though not a nation, was a more dangerous underground city coalition.

The remaining two thousand warriors of the Blackwater Legion were all here, the city lord of Hmph City, clad in black mud armor, still charging forward despite his position as an underground city lord, and being forced into a frenzy by the hero battalion. If not for the guards sacrificing themselves as meat shields, he would have died many times already.

Before a demigod mage, a legendary warrior like Hmph was just slightly higher-grade cannon fodder.

But the fact that he was willing to be cannon fodder as an underground city lord only showed that the command of the underground city coalition was even more prestigious and influential, capable of suppressing the rebellion of a city lord of Hmph's level.

"Ugh!!"

With the sound of a horn, another thousand-strong beastman battalion entered the battlefield. Some were bloodthirsty lionmen, some were fierce and agile wolfmen, and some were immensely strong elephantmen. The weakest among them were golden-tier warriors, yet they silently entered the battlefield, silently engaged in a bloody battle with the star spirits, and silently died, making way for the reserve forces...

"The black one-eyed badge, it's the veteran battalion of his guard. He's really willing to part with them."

Looking at the tall figure on the distant mountain, arms crossed and looking down, Margaret mused, but her actions were decisive.

"Earth below, man above, by the covenant of the book and the stars, let death descend upon my enemies, the stars fall!"

With Margaret's incantation, the underground world was bathed in starlight, and as the stars slowly fell, they created craters three meters in radius, filled with the blood of beastmen.

The underground world's beastman king, Taotao Nuya, standing over three meters tall, was not particularly impressive among the physically gifted beastmen. His single eye behind a black mask made him seem less fierce. Now, he stood at the edge of the battlefield, coldly watching his own people and warriors die without purpose.

"This feeling, peak saint domain? What a pity. It seems he knows me well and is completely out of my range. If he were in my mage tower now..."

Clearly, even if the entire army was annihilated, the experienced beastman king had no intention of entering the battlefield himself. He just waved his hand, and the horn sounded again, another elite thousand-strong battalion silently entered the fray...

This was clearly a tactic to exploit the sage's strength in replicating and analyzing the opponent's magic, which is powerful in one-on-one battles but lacks explosive power, planning to wear her down with a steady stream of reinforcements.

"It seems I've been underestimated by the younger generation."

Margaret smiled calmly, then gently tapped her staff, surrounded by the seven luminous stones, which emitted musical magic patterns and began to float.

"First to third, chant 'Ice Age.' Fourth and fifth, repeat the magic. Sixth and seventh, magic shield."

The red, orange, and yellow sage stones formed a circle, replicating the ultimate elemental magic from the Grand Duke of Eternal Night, turning the entire world into an ice field. Snowflakes began to fall from the sky, and ice spirits played and frolicked, heralding the activation of a strategic-level magic.

The green and blue sage stones began to automatically chant the magic Margaret had just cast.

"Heaven above, earth below, by the covenant of the book and the stars, by the command of the Sage Margaret, ancient star spirits, I summon you, Chimera, Leo, Unicorn, and Chariot, descend!"

"Earth below, man above, by the covenant of the book and the stars, let death descend upon my enemies, the stars fall!"

The voice was identical to Margaret's, and the summoned stars once again wiped out the newly entered thousand-strong battalion. The star spirit army, identical to the previous one, filled the gaps in her forces, forming a new battle formation.

The most dangerous part was still the strategic-level magic. How could the opponent's ranged units let "Ice Age" be cast?

Countless powerful arrows and magic were shot at Margaret, but she didn't even turn her head, focusing on operating the sage stones. When the last two sage stones circled, the blue and purple magic shields easily deflected these hasty attacks.

Soon, the incantation of the red, orange, and yellow sage stones was almost complete, but a black, nameless arrow suddenly shot towards the ground between the three sage stones.

"Crack!"

Before touching the ground, the arrow shattered on its own, and a black magic storm suddenly erupted, disrupting the sage stones' incantation link. In a distorted moment, the forbidden spell "Ice Age" was prematurely triggered!

White snow crystals suddenly condensed into a ball, then exploded in all directions!

Snow fell, ice spread, and in an instant, the entire world was forcibly turned white. Under the power of the forbidden spell, the boiling volcano became an icy peak. Whether star spirits or beastmen, all who were caught were instantly turned into ice sculptures.

Margaret herself, caught in the range due to the premature explosion of the forbidden spell, was protected by the blue and purple magic shields.

The sage frowned. If not for the sage stones chanting on her behalf, the backlash from the disrupted forbidden spell would have been more than just a few mouthfuls of blood.

"Magic-induced explosion arrow? I didn't expect the famous demon hunter Mien to be here. Isn't he the chief of the centaur beastmen, known for his pride and independence? I didn't think he would join Taotao Nuya and return to the surface. Is the surface that attractive?"

Even with only a third of its power due to the premature explosion, when the entire mountain range turned into an ice field, the distant location of the beastman king also became an ice field. However, two massive black dragons stood in front of the expressionless underground city lord.

The black dragons' nearly magic-immune high magic resistance was still insufficient against the weakened "Ice Age." The two dragons, sacrificing themselves to protect their lord, were frozen into white ice sculptures.

But their sacrifice as a shield indeed reduced the impact on the beastmen behind them.

Even so, the tall scorpion-tailed lionman lord didn't even look at his sacrificed subordinates. He pulled his dragon tail and, with sheer strength, threw the black dragon's corpse to the side.

Even with the ice mountain and frost blades before him, his expression remained calm, as if it was all expected. He then took the horn from the frozen subordinate and blew it himself.

"Ugh, ugh, ugh!"

After three urgent military horn sounds, a gray-green flood seemed to slowly move from the horizon, the sound of hooves and beast roars blending together.

"At least three thousand cavalry? Oh, this is a headache."

Margaret frowned. Even though her side had forced the opponent to act hastily, the opponent's preparation was unexpectedly thorough. No, it was their complete disregard for sacrifice that was truly difficult to accept.

The red, orange, and yellow sage stones that cast the forbidden spell had been shattered by the backlash, the green and blue stones that replicated the magic were drained of power, and only the blue and purple stones, serving as shields, still had some magic left.

"Magic consumption is over half, and the opponent doesn't care about consumption. This is a tough opponent."

But when she looked back, in the midst of the ice and snow, there was a blazing lake of fire. In it, countless fire phoenixes soared, and a pillar of flame reached to the sky, clearly indicating that the legacy was in a critical stage.

"There's no more room for retreat. It's a pity, if I were in my mage tower... Hmph, there are no ifs in this world, and assumptions are meaningless. Number 6, Number 7, replicate! Number 4, Number 5, start recharging."

The same military force as before reappeared. This time, even the expressionless Taotao frowned. The opponent's strength was too great, and the current losses had already exceeded those of attacking any single underground city.

Moreover, their tactics of aerial knight assaults and berserker charges were completely ineffective. How long would they have to keep filling the ranks with lives?

In the sky, powerful griffins and scorpion-tailed lions continued to battle, but in reality, no one was paying attention to them. The powerful predator magic beasts were mere extras in this battlefield.

Crimson flames cut through the sky, and two large, black, fleshy masses fell to the ground, turning into two bodies, at least medium-rare from the smell.

The two black dragons seemed to be planning a side attack on Margaret, but as soon as they entered the range of dragon breath, a higher dragon breath from above roasted them.

In the sky, the intense battle was no less fierce than on the ground. It was also a one-on-many battle, with the massive red dragon facing an entire dragon city!

Using the same tactic of adding reinforcements, twelve young red dragons formed three battle formations, taking turns to fight, using their bodies to drain the ancient red dragon Eynmythius' stamina. But unlike on the ground, they had already achieved their goal.

The reason? The other ancient red dragon, larger than Eynmythius and lurking behind the clan, with a sinister smile, was the reason.

"Moryl, you little wretch, have the courage to come out yourself, hiding behind your clan and ambushing is nothing! You are even more despicable and shameless than before!"

Eynmythius, with a broken right wing and a closed left eye, was covered in wounds but still floated in the air, fighting fiercely and roaring angrily.

"My foolish daughter, you indeed have a brain full of muscles. You consider the war art we red dragons are most proud of as despicable. It seems I did nothing wrong in exiling you from the dragon city years ago."

Yes, the shameless ancient dragon was one of the underground city lords, the dragon queen Moryl.

Eynmythius, while dealing with the close combat of the young dragons, also had to be wary of Moryl's ambush, which was already extremely difficult.

If she wanted to do something, like charging up a powerful spell, Moryl, who knew her well, would definitely interrupt it. In this completely disadvantageous situation, it was already remarkable that she had held on this long.

At this moment, to eliminate the black dragons ambushing Margaret, she was forced to breathe dragon fire, and Moryl, seizing the opportunity, bit her neck hard, causing red dragon blood to rain down on the ground.

Faced with the combined forces of two underground city lords, the three great figures were cornered.

"Hurry up, Adam. If you don't complete the sealing and legacy soon, we might all die here today."

Just as Eynmythius was about to give up, a silver light column suddenly shot into the sky from the direction of Sulphur Mountain City.

"What's going on? Is that the light of order? Did Roland, that old fox, finally get serious?"

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PS. I've been very busy today and only had time to write now. As promised, there will be another chapter tonight, which should be out before midnight. But if you read it tomorrow, it's the same, so you don't have to wait.