End of the Magic Era

Chapter 1277: Duel

Translator: Shiraishi Editor: TheAlliance

The molten steel became uncontrollable, Wilder had to wait until it fell to the ground and cooled down to a certain degree before he could manipulate it again.

Wilder hadn’t used a steel spell after wrapping the molten steel around Lin Yun’s Fusion Shield, he had used a steel hardening technique to temporarily cover Lin Yun’s Fusion Shield before controlling the rest of the steel to attach to it. Once the temperature had decreased, he would have kept condensing the steel.

But due to the Fire Protection, the steel just kept melting. It was the first time someone saw through the spell developed by the Rodney Family.

Wilder had an unsightly expression as he glared at Lin Yun in silence. He kept throwing steel spikes and steel balls towards Lin Yun, covering the entire sky. As for Lin Yun, he just floated there with his Fire Protection active and raised his Draconic Staff. The shadow of a huge purple dragon embracing a wheel appeared behind him.

Glaring light shone at the tip of his magic staff and thunder boomed as lightning surged. Clouds and mist suddenly covered everything within several kilometers before condensing into a thick black cloud.

A deep rumble echoed…

He used the Mist Spell to draw in a large amount of moisture before forcibly compressing it into a black cloud. During that time, the strand of lightning at the tip of Lin Yun’s staff had turned into a glaring mass of lightning.

Lin Yun spat out a law rune and hurriedly chanted an incantation. Booming thunder kept echoing as thick snake-like pillars of lightning fell down.

Wilder grew increasingly more worried as he watched Lin Yun’s actions. His steel magic was really powerful, the Fire Protection Lin Yun had released was a 9th Tier Fire Spell. It could be said to be among the best defensive fire spells in terms of temperature and defense, but it was still pierced by Wilder’s steel.

A large amount of law runes kept appearing when Lin Yun’s Fusion Shield was pierced by the steel spikes, it looked like it would be torn shreds at any moment.

But there was no use, he couldn’t get rid of Lin Yun’s defenses even when he used his strongest abilities. And while Lin Yun’s actions didn’t seem to be too impressive, Wilder still felt uneasy.

He watched Lin Yun’s cast with a somber expression, took out a silver piece of metal covered in strange patterns and casually threw it over. The piece of metal transformed into a sharp spike, and disappeared as Wilder cast a spell.

At the same time, countless lightning bolts surged out of that several-kilometer-wide black cloud, falling on the ground like rain. The steel balls and spikes flying in the air were naturally attracting the lightning bolts. As for Wilder’s transformed body, it was no different from a lightning rod as countless lightning bolts fell onto him.

The forest below them had already been set ablaze. 

Four Lightning Shields started revolving around Lin Yun’s body. 

The metal spike that Wilder just threw slowly started deviating from its course, ultimately missing Lin Yun by eight meters.

That steel spike flew into an arc and aimed at Lin Yun once again, only to miss again.

Wilder’s expression took a turn for the worse after missing for the third time. It wasn’t due to the lightning bolts falling on his body, as they barely injured him. It was because he suddenly discovered that he lost control of the silver-marked metal passed down from his ancestor. He could no longer call it back. He had sent it flying towards Lin Yun three times, but he completely lost control of it after that and it started revolving around Lin Yun.

Wilder once again manipulated the large amount of steel into steel spikes and threw them at Lin Yun, but the same thing happened. They would deviate from their trajectory whenever they got within a hundred meters of Lin Yun and would no longer pose any threat to Lin Yun once they were fifty meters away.

Wilder was completely stunned, he couldn’t understand what was happening.

He knew that his family’s steel magic could be restrained by the terrifying temperature of Extraordinary Spells, but this was something new to him. 

‘Why do I lose control over steel when it gets close to Mafa Merlin? It simply can’t get close to him, damnit! What the hell is going on!?’

Lin Yun sneered. The four elemental laws in his Demiplane had formed four extremes recently, and after the four core laws evolved, branching laws started evolving.

Heat and lightning magic were laws that had evolved during this time. Lin Yun’s comprehension of the four elemental laws was the deepest, but he still comprehended the other laws of the Demiplane. 

‘That idiot Wilder definitely doesn’t know that the target of the Lightning Rain wasn’t him, but the steel. After hosting the power of thunder, it would carry a force that might not necessarily be properly understood in Noscent, magnetism.’

Lightning and magnetism could very easily be swapped, let alone in a place filled with steel, magic metal, and silver-marked metal. Temporarily magnetizing them was really too easy. The Lightning Shields formed a repulsive force that easily altered the metals’ trajectory, rendering all of Wilder’s attacks unable to hit his shields.

Clearly, Wilder couldn’t understand why this was happening.

A strange smile appeared on Lin Yun’s mouth when he saw Wilder’s lost expression.

“Wilder, have you ever heard of railguns?”

Wilder had a confused expression as he looked at Lin Yun, he then gritted his teeth and kept casting steel spells. However, the closest they got to Lin Yun was five meters, not a single one reached Lin Yun’s shield.

Countless law runes spurted out of the wheel shadow behind Lin Yun, most of them being lightning runes flickering with electricity.

These runes rapidly gathered in front of Lin Yun, before rapidly condensing into a ten-meter-long cannon flickering with electricity.

At the same time, Lin Yun casually collected the silver-marked metal revolving around him. This was a very precious type of metal which could only be found in small quantities in large natural metal veins. Extracting a small amount was very troublesome, over a hundred tons of metal might have to be extracted to find a few grams of silver-marked metal.

After condensing that cannon, Lin Yun took out a twenty-centimeter-big artillery shell made of magnetic materials, and some hard metals. Those magnetic materials were considered inferior among alchemists and no one would bother gathering them, it actually took him some time finding them.

Lin Yun had already crafted it when he sensed that the Demiplane’s four elemental laws evolved and was only waiting to test it.

Although he didn’t feel any danger, Wilder still protected himself with a Steel Shield and a Fusion Shield when the cannon aimed at him. He was also ready to dodge if he sensed anything wrong.

He didn’t feel any danger when the artillery shell entered the muzzle of the cannon, but he suddenly fell mortal danger when it started spinning at an increasingly high speed, a deep sense of dread suddenly erupted.

He condensed steel into multiple shields in front of him, but his third shield exploded as he condensed it. He didn’t even have time to react before his Fusion Shield was torn apart.

Wilder barely had time to dodge… Only to feel something tear through his right shoulder. 

His right shoulder, right arm, and even the right side of his chest were torn to shreds.

The explosive force even sent his body flying. As for the artillery shell, it flew in the distance, no longer visible.

Wilder felt miserable as he fell to the ground. Half of his chest, his right shoulder and arm had disappeared. Scars could be seen on his head and blood covered his face. If not for the fact that he had already transformed his right side into steel, his body might have been torn apart from the impact.

Lin Yun was also stunned.

Firstly, because there was an idiot who tried to face a railgun head-on.

And secondly, because that spell’s power far surpassed his expectations. The speed of the projectile was so fast that Lin Yun could barely sense it, it travelled over ten kilometers in a mere three seconds.

He completely lost track of that artillery shell after a few seconds.

The railgun developed by magic was incomparably powerful, with a range of at least 100 kilometers. It’s just that the manufacturing cost of the artillery shell was quite high.

If he had to buy the materials for it, it would cost at least 100,000 purple golds, and some of the materials couldn’t even be bought.

After dissipating the railgun, Lin Yun flew towards Wilder. The latter had fallen to the ground, constantly puking blood. Although the destruction of his steel body wasn’t a threat to his life, the left side of his body was still made of flesh and had suffered from a severe impact. He could be considered lucky that his heart hadn’t exploded. 

Railgun was a spell developed based on Lin Yun’s layman knowledge. It was the limits of what he could create at the moment and it was even more powerful than a single-target Extraordinary Spell of a 4th Rank Heaven Mage.

The custom-made artillery shell flew at over three kilometers per second and could go over a hundred kilometers, but its power would be greatly reduced after a hundred kilometers.

Lin Yun didn’t have to spend too much energy on that artillery shell, he didn’t have to add a wind, magic penetration, or haste rune. Railgun only had hardening and the ability to use electromagnetism.

But there was no denying the power of that spell, Railgun was using Extraordinary Power, but the artillery shell didn’t have Extraordinary Power, yet it could still display that power. This truly surprised Lin Yun.

But that spell was only a prototype with a very obvious weak point: the artillery shell would fly in a straight line and would miss if the target managed to dodge by a couple meters. It wouldn’t even shake a Heaven Mage’s Fusion Shield.

But Lin Yun actually didn’t care about that. He had the same issue when he developed the Four-Element Bomb, it could only fly in a straight line and couldn’t explode when it missed.

But the Four-Element Bomb had gone through a lot of research and development before becoming the complete Runic Bomb spell. Moreover, he could use it continuously to create a storm of Four-Element Bombs whose power could surpass a spell flood. The power of the Runic Bombs even surpassed 9th Tier Extraordinary Spells. Most importantly, this was a spell Lin Yun had developed. 

Railgun’s power was even greater than expected, and its power would increase even more if there was some improvement to the artillery shells, if he added some supporting runes, used some precious materials, or even added Extraordinary Power.

Following the evolution of the four elemental laws’ branch laws, Railgun would turn into a complete spell and its power would increase. Lin Yun didn’t know how powerful it would become.

Lin Yun started thinking about this matter. Last time he saw Agalon, Agalon told him that the stronger a Heaven Mage was, the less they would use spell floods, since not using Extraordinary Power was a fatal flaw.

Extraordinary Power was vital in these kinds of fights, the duel with Wilder was a perfect example.

If his opponent had been an ordinary 3rd Rank Heaven Mage, a flood of Four-Element Bombs would have been enough to suppress them, maybe even kill them, but it would have no effect against Wilder.

He originally thought that he would have no problem fighting against a 4th Rank Heaven Mage with his recent increase in strength and didn’t plan on using the Book of Mantras and the Spell Wheel. He didn’t want to use Syudos and Enderfa’s help either, he wanted to test his own strength.

But he hadn’t expected Wilder to be so troublesome, his steel magic was dreadful. Lin Yun would have suffered a lot more if Wilder had enough resources and all the magic metal he used had been silver-marked metal, or materials of higher rarity.

Wilder had been seriously injured after being blasted by the railgun and was now lying down on the ground, blood dripping down his eyes, ears, mouth, and nostrils. That blow had shaken him and covered his body in cracks, even his heart had a dozen cracks. He would have already died if he hadn’t advanced to the Heaven Rank. The extraordinary transformation of a Heaven Rank powerhouse tremendously increased their vitality.

Resentment flashed in Wilder’s eyes as he saw Lin Yun pondering about something while floating in the air.

‘That damned b*stard was actually that powerful?! And his spells just happen to counter our family’s steel magic. Sh*t, how could this be!

‘He doesn’t dare to kill me! Hmpf, that’s right, he seriously injured me, riddled my body with holes, and destroyed half of my body. Any 8th Tier Spell would be enough to kill me, but he doesn’t dare to land the last blow!

‘Killing me would anger my ancestor, right, he is afraid of our Rodney Family’s ancestor! That idiot is an Andlusan country bumpkin after all, how could he dare to kill me?’

Wilder endured the pain of his body breaking down and let his mana surge. At that time, a liquid similar to mercury flowed out of the right side of his body before transforming into a dozen thin needles that flew towards Lin Yun’s heart and head.

Sensing the danger, the four Lightning Shields surrounding Lin Yun instantly came together to form a cube of lightning which forcibly absorbed the dozen needles.

After throwing a cold glance at Wilder, Lin Yun instantly condensed a Runic Bomb and sent it flying towards him.

The runic Four-Element Bomb containing the pure destructive elements of the four laws rapidly flew towards Wilder.

Wilder sank into despair as he looked at the Four-Element Bomb coming towards him, his eyes filled with unwillingness and disbelief.

‘That guy really dares to kill me, he really dares to kill me… He truly wants to kill me..

‘I can’t die, I don’t want to die… The ancestor just took me out of that desolate place! I don’t want to die here! I’m a Heaven Rank powerhouse, the most gifted mage to have appeared in our family!’

“Ancestor… Save me!” The despairing Wilder shouted.

He sounded like a young child being bullied, the fear of death and his despair were clearly audible in his voice.

At the same time, the Rodney Family’s ancestor raised his head inside the rust-smelling forbidden area of the Rodney Family. A cold glint flashed in his eyes as Extraordinary Power surged and distorted his surroundings.

The melted steel in Wilder’s surroundings instantly wrapped around him to form a huge steel ball. 

The Runic Bomb exploded on the surface of the steel ball and caused a terrifying shockwave. The trees still standing within a kilometer were instantly turned into fragments, but the shockwave didn’t stop there and kept spreading for a few more kilometers.

A mushroom cloud soared, reaching close to a kilometer in height. The center of the explosion was still filled with destructive power.

Lin Yun’s expression suddenly changed as a huge pressure was emitted from the center of the explosion. The pressure alone was enough to make him unable to breathe. He instinctively felt a life-threatening dread as thunderous booms echoed within his soul, warning him that this terrifying power could instantly kill him..