Novel Full Chapter 870: The Drain
Chapter 870: The Drain
The sky had turned dark.
It was filled with arrows.
Hundreds of them.
Dark shafts fell from above like a violent storm, each one wrapped in dense mana that distorted the air around it. The arrows screamed as they tore through the sky, carrying enough force to shatter stone.
Prince Rui’s eyes widened.
Even before the first arrow struck the ground, his instincts screamed danger.
Almost subconsciously, Rui dashed backward.
His body moved in a blur as he abandoned his position beside the summoning circle and shot several meters away.
The first arrow struck the ground a heartbeat later.
BOOM.
The explosion tore through the ruined terrain.
Stone shattered. Dust and debris erupted into the air as the arrow detonated with terrifying force.
Then the rest followed.
A rain of destruction crashed down.
Arrows slammed into the ground one after another, each impact releasing violent bursts of energy that blasted apart the surrounding area.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
The attendants feeding mana into the ritual barely had time to react before the bombardment reached them.
Screams filled the air.
The earth shook as explosions tore across the ritual site.
Rui raised an arm to shield his face as fragments of rock flew past him.
For several seconds the bombardment continued.
Then it stopped.
Dust slowly settled over the ruined clearing.
Rui lowered his arm as a terrifying realization came to him.
"The circle!"
His eyes immediately turned toward the summoning circle.
The magic formation was still there.
The runic lines flickered weakly, their crimson glow unstable after the violent assault.
But it had not been destroyed.
Relief flashed through Rui’s eyes.
However, his gaze quickly shifted to the attendants who had been sustaining the ritual.
Only three remained standing.
One more knelt nearby, barely conscious, blood running down his face as he struggled to stay upright.
The other four were gone.
Their bodies lay scattered across the ruined ground, torn apart by the explosions.
Rui’s eyes narrowed slightly.
Eight attendants had been required to stabilize the ritual.
Now only three and a half remained.
Yet instead of anger, Rui felt something else.
Satisfaction.
The summoning circle was still intact.
That was the only thing that mattered.
The remaining attendants looked pale as they continued channeling their mana into the formation.
They had all realized something.
With half of them dead, the only chance they had to survive was to last until the ritual ended.
But the circle was already draining their life force.
Their fate had already been decided.
Rui ignored them.
His eyes remained fixed on the circle as the unstable portal flickered above it.
Before Rui could even begin to consider what had launched the first attack or where it had come from, the air shifted again.
Another whistle cut through the sky.
Then another.
Rui’s expression darkened as he looked up.
The sky had filled with arrows again.
"Bastard!" Rui cursed under his breath.
This time he did not run.
The portal above the summoning circle had already widened further. The spatial distortion had grown thicker, and Rui could clearly sense that someone from the other side would appear at any moment.
If the ritual was interrupted now, everything would be wasted.
He could not allow that.
Without hesitation, Rui reached into his robes.
His fingers closed around a small object.
It resembled a smooth shell, pale silver in color, no larger than his palm. The surface was covered in extremely fine runic patterns that glowed faintly even without activation.
Rui’s expression twisted slightly as he brought it out.
Even for him, using this precious treasure pained him. But there was no time to hesitate.
"This better be worth it," he muttered.
If everything went well, his father would favor him.
Mana surged from his hand into the shell.
The moment the artifact activated, the runes across its surface flared to life.
A powerful wave of energy erupted outward.
In the next instant, a translucent barrier spread across the sky above the ritual site like a massive dome.
Just as the arrows descended.
BOOM.
The first arrow struck the barrier.
The impact exploded outward, releasing enough force to flatten the surrounding ruins, but the shield only rippled slightly.
Then the rest followed.
BOOM.
BOOM.
BOOM.
The sky filled with explosions as the rain of arrows collided with the defensive dome.
Rui remained standing at the center of the formation, his expression cold as the barrier absorbed the attacks.
The shell in his hand glowed brighter.
This was a treasure personally given to him by the Emperor himself.
A defensive artifact capable of blocking the full power of a peak Great Being for an entire minute before entering a cooldown state.
Against attacks below that level, the treasure would appear almost limitless and create the illusion of infinite energy.
Above him, arrow after arrow crashed into the barrier.
But none of them passed through.
Rui looked up at the bombardment with narrowed eyes.
"Let’s see how long you can keep this up," he muttered coldly.
Behind him, the unstable portal continued to widen.
High in the sky, Michael, coated in dark smoke from using his Fade state to hide his presence, had an ugly expression on his face.
After taking care of the awakener, he had rushed here immediately to disrupt the empire’s plans. But he had not expected the circle to be so resilient.
No.
It was probably because it had absorbed the life force of the four Rank Two attendants the moment their life signals began to fade.
Even from far above the ground, Michael could see the situation clearly.
It was also how he realized something frustrating.
For a short period of time, there was nothing he could do against the protective dome on the ground.
At least not within a single minute.
However, that was only the case if he was operating alone.
And he was not.
There was no competent necromancer without assistance.
And he happened to have plenty of it.
*
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