Chapter 714: Still Alive, Still Fighting

His mana reserves were decreasing rapidly.

’I haven’t even started yet, and the consumption is already this high.’ The problem was that the main part of his plan had not even begun.

[ Warning! Your Mana Has Fallen Below 20%! ]

He took out another elixir and immediately drank it, then took a calm breath.

’Then I need to act faster.’

At that moment, White Oblivion raised his right hand, and a concentrated flow of mana formed around his fingers.

Lian immediately recognized its nature.

Borrowed power.

The Calamity was trying to use the abilities of his subordinates to reduce the pressure on the corruption network.

But his problem was that every time he directly interfered, he lost part of the concentration he needed to continue the sacrifices.

Lian glanced at him and then gave a very faint smile.

’If you want to interfere, you’ll have to take your attention away from something else.’

Naturally, he was not going to let the Calamity achieve his goal so easily.

Unfortunately, that thing could not afford to focus on him right now either, because his plan was at its most critical point, and if it failed, hundreds of years of planning would be destroyed.

He increased the power of the Core of the Fallen Star.

The gravitational field around the ritual area became more concentrated, and White Oblivion was forced to change the mana flow around himself for a moment.

And at that moment, one of the corruption flows that was trying to pass through the seventh Seal stopped.

Lian noticed this change.

’So I can force him to choose between continuing the ritual and defending himself.’

He did not wait any longer, and cold spread around his body.

[ Frost Dominion ]

A thin layer of ice formed on the stone ground beneath his feet, and then the cold spread outward.

The cracks in the ground were covered with ice crystals, and the remaining moisture in the air turned into small particles of ice.

But this time, he did not limit the Domain to the area near himself, he expanded its power to its maximum established range, a radius of ten kilometers.

Farther away, the surfaces of huge cliffs became covered with white layers.

The broken pillars of the plateau cracked under the extreme cold, and ice crystals formed one after another on the huge masses of stone floating in the sky.

The surrounding air quickly became colder.

But Lian did not intend to stop there.

[ Eternal Frozen Apocalypse ]

At that moment, the cold within the Domain entered a new stage.

The first huge wall of ice rose from the cracks in the ground, forming a tall and thick structure that soon rose above the surface of the plateau.

Then the second wall emerged from the eastern part of the ground, and after that, more ice structures formed in different directions.

But this time, Lian’s goal was not to create a few defensive barriers.

He wanted to turn the entire environment into an area where the movements of his enemies were under his control.

Sooner or later, he would be forced to fight the two Unholy and White Oblivion directly again, and when that time came, if the Domain favored him, his chances of winning would be higher.

And now was the best opportunity to make sure of that.

Large sections of the stone ground disappeared beneath thick layers of ice, and farther away, huge cliffs and deep drops slowly disappeared among the ice structures.

The huge masses of stone floating in the sky became surrounded by white crystals under the extreme cold.

And within a short time, the plateau no longer looked anything like the previous battlefield, instead, a vast land of ice, floating rocks, and frozen pillars had replaced the cracked stone ground.

In its sky, thousands of Withered were still floating at different heights.

But Lian was still keeping the cold’s final deadly power away from their bodies, it was not time to kill them yet, not yet.

He looked at the two remaining Seals of the Crown.

The corruption network had been restrained, but it had not been completely cut off yet, and this was delaying the most important stage of his plan.

’First, I need to finish dealing with those connections.’

Lian moved his hands apart, and dark energy began gathering around his right hand.

And in his left hand, thin black threads appeared.

The Eclipse Core and the End Core, two different powers that were now going to be used at their highest possible output.

Young Vorhelm looked at the energy flows for a moment and then closed his fingers, increasing the power of both cores.

Eclipse Energy became more concentrated around Lian’s right hand, and the threads of End became thinner and denser.

At first glance, the black lines were difficult to see against the white light of the battlefield.

But the more energy entered them, the more a strange pressure formed around them.

Lian had focused his attention on the corruption network.

Eclipse Energy’s first task was to destroy the concentrated sections of the mana structure that White Oblivion had created to collect the corruption.

On the other hand, End Energy had to end the active connections between the Withered and the corruption transfer path.

He did not intend to release these two powers without a purpose, each had a specific task.

He increased the output of both cores, and at that moment, a sharp pain passed through his right forearm.

He glanced at his hand, and a thin crack had appeared on his skin.

Then a second crack appeared, followed by a third, and for a moment, blood flowed out from one of the cracks.

Hmm.

Lian opened and closed his fingers, moving his hand had become painful, but the energy flow continued.

’My body is getting close to its limit.’

Under normal circumstances, such a sign would have been enough for him to reduce the output of his skills.

But now, all eight Seals of the Crown were still active.

The Core of the Fallen Star was maintaining the huge gravitational field.

Frost Dominion was active across a ten-kilometer radius, and Eternal Frozen Apocalypse was also ready to release its full power.

If Lian stopped now, White Oblivion might be able to stabilize the corruption network again.

’Then I can’t back down.’

He released more energy from both cores, this time, the pain spread from his right hand to his shoulder, and several thin cracks appeared on his neck.

Blood flowed down from the corner of his mouth.

But young Vorhelm did not even try to wipe it away, and his gaze remained fixed on the restrained connections.

[ Warning: Excessive Energy Output Detected! ]

[ Warning: Severe Physical Strain! ]

He saw the messages and then dismissed them without changing his expression.

’I’m still alive.’

’So I can still keep going.’

But his mana reserves were no longer in good condition.

[ Warning: Mana Reserves Critically Low! ]

Young Vorhelm took one of his mana recovery elixirs out of his inventory, opened the bottle, and drank its contents all at once.

A fresh flow of mana formed inside his body, but despite drinking the elixir, his mana reserves only increased for a few moments.

The eight Seals of the Crown, the gravitational field, Frost Dominion, and the two active cores were all continuing to consume energy.

A few seconds later, another message appeared.

[ Warning: Mana Reserves Critically Low! ]

Lian dropped the empty bottle.

He took out the second elixir and then the third, and this time, he drank both without stopping between them.

Fresh mana flowed through the energy pathways in his body, but the simultaneous pressure of several huge powers caused the pain in his joints to increase.

One of the cracks on his forearm spread, and blood dripped onto the outer part of his armor.

Lian took a short breath.

’If I keep going like this, my body will fall apart before the network is destroyed.’

But at that moment, his gaze fell on White Oblivion, that thing had now turned completely toward him, and his emotionless smile was no longer visible, and a considerable part of his attention had been drawn away from sacrificing the Withered.

’So you finally decided to deal with the root of the problem?’

He could sense anger, hatred, and frustration coming from the Calamity.

That thing could not even attack him directly, if it stopped paying attention to the structure of its plan for even a moment, everything would fall apart.

On the other hand, Lian had even taken the Withered hostage and was only waiting for the structure to be completely destroyed, after which he would kill them without a moment’s hesitation.

Even if the Calamity attacked him, the entire Domain was under his control, and he could create hundreds of layers of gravitational or ice defenses in an instant.

White Oblivion raised his right hand, and a concentrated flow of energy formed around his fingers.

Lian immediately recognized its nature.

His subordinates’ power again.

The Calamity was trying to use one of the borrowed abilities to destroy the Seals connected to the network.

But Lian was prepared for such a move, he activated the Core of the Fallen Star with greater power, and gravity changed direction around the ritual area.

The huge masses of stone floating in the sky shifted for a moment, and enormous pressure formed in the area near White Oblivion.

This pressure was not intended to destroy Roderick’s body, its only purpose was to disturb the Calamity’s position and concentration.

White Oblivion was forced to change his mana flow to resist the gravitational pressure, and that moment was enough.

Lian released Eclipse Energy, and the dark flow struck the concentrated section of the corruption network.

The mana structure trembled for a moment and then cracked.

White Oblivion immediately tried to repair it, but at that exact moment, the threads of End Energy entered from the other side.

Lian slowly closed the fingers of his left hand.

Now.

On the western side of the plateau, the Forsaken Apostate finally managed to open one of his wings halfway, and the sound of stone breaking came from beneath his feet.

But just as he was about to release more power, Three’s voice echoed across the battlefield.

"Where do you think you’re going?"

Despite his severe injuries, Dreadmaw approached the knight from the left.

[ Crimson Decree ]

The Crimson Decree struck the damaged part of the armor, and the Apostate was forced to change his sword’s movement to defend himself.

But the four Seals of the Crown were still attached to his body, and this small change placed even more pressure on the armor’s joints.

Three laughed in a rough voice.

"It seems you aren’t even allowed to move today."

But before he could say another sentence, one of the knight’s wings moved toward him.

Three immediately retreated, he still had deep injuries and could not take a direct hit.

On the other side, Vesperis tried to use Preceding Echo to get around one of the restraining paths.

But Two emerged from behind the ice structures, and one of his eight eyes turned golden.

[ Skyless Howl ]