Chapter 79: Seven-Star Sanctified Assassins Launch a Surrounding Attack! Bladeborne Splits the Crystal Mountain in Half with a Single Sword Strike!

Chapter 79: Chapter 79: Seven-Star Sanctified Assassins Launch a Surrounding Attack! Bladeborne Splits the Crystal Mountain in Half with a Single Sword Strike!

Ophelia picked up where he left off, her voice cold.

"The Great Descent of the Gods."

Arno nodded.

"Yes. The gods unleashed their divine punishment."

"At first, they merely issued a warning, demanding that we bow down and submit. To pressure us, they summoned a Heavenly Nail and suspended it above our heads."

He raised his hand and pointed toward the incongruous gray-black stone pillar floating above the palace.

"We refused."

"You should know that we can conceal ourselves within shadows. Since they couldn’t easily capture us, they sealed the entire mountain inside a crystalline shell."

"That left the entire Mistshadow Mountains without a single shadow or even one dark corner. All our concealment techniques became completely useless."

Arno’s voice remained calm, but John could hear the anger simmering beneath his words.

"That wasn’t a warning at all. It was humiliation."

Ophelia frowned and asked, "What happened after that?"

"After that?"

Arno didn’t answer.

Bladeborne froze for a moment before suddenly remembering something. His gaze drifted downward, as though he had realized something.

"That enormous pit we passed through before entering..."

Arno stopped walking. Only after taking a deep breath did he slowly nod.

"Yes."

After that, even Ophelia, who was usually quick-witted, understood without needing any further explanation.

She fell silent.

John changed the subject.

"So, does that mean we might encounter the divine servants who were sent to hunt you down back then?"

Arno shook his head.

"No. It might be even worse."

The moment Bladeborne heard that, his pupils contracted sharply. He stopped in his tracks and drew his sword with a metallic clang.

"I knew something was wrong! I’ve felt it ever since we started climbing..."

He raised his head, his gaze sweeping across the strange patches of reflected light scattered over the surrounding crystal walls.

"Show yourselves!"

The instant his words fell, the light spots on the crystal mountainside began to distort.

One translucent figure after another peeled away from the reflected light.

They were slender and tall, dressed in tight-fitting dark outfits, with half-masks covering their faces.

Aside from their coloring, everything about them was almost identical to Arno.

The only difference was that their exposed skin was covered by a thin layer of crystal.

Their silhouettes flickered in and out of existence, as though they had merged with the light itself.

Arno’s pupils contracted sharply. He spun around and shouted:

"Watch your backs! Don’t let them catch you off guard!"

Before his words had even finished, a crystal assassin silently appeared less than three meters behind John. Its curved blade thrust straight toward the back of his heart.

But Bladeborne’s sword was even faster.

A flash of silver-white sword light slashed diagonally downward.

The assassin was sent flying backward, along with its weapon.

Crystal fragments scattered everywhere. The assassin flipped through the air and landed on its feet, only to twist its body and merge into the surrounding light and shadows in the next instant.

"Don’t expose your backs!"

John had nearly been killed and wasn’t about to take any chances.

With a low growl, he flipped his left hand and retrieved a defensive scroll from the spoils of war taken from the Judgment Alliance.

He crushed it.

A translucent shield expanded outward from his body, instantly blocking three curved blades that had simultaneously slashed toward him from different directions.

Ripples spread across the shield’s surface as cracks rapidly branched outward.

It lasted barely two seconds before shattering, but that was already enough.

John swept his right hand outward, and a spatial rift immediately opened in the Legion Space.

"Dragon Knights, take to the skies!"

Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!

Hundreds of undead Dragon Knights emerged from the spatial rift.

The skeletal dragons spread their wings and immediately took control of the sky above the palace.

Only then did the status panels of the assassins finally appear before John’s eyes.

[Monster: Sanctified Assassin]

[Faction: Divine Servants]

[Star Rating: Seven-Star]

[Level: Lv. 18]

[HP: 3,200]

[Attack: 2,800]

[Defense: 350]

[Skill 1: Light and Shadow Backstab (Passive) — Attacks launched from behind a target are guaranteed critical hits. Critical damage is increased to 400%, ignoring Defense. In illuminated environments, the critical damage multiplier receives an additional 500% increase.]

[Skill 2: Lightmeld (Active) — Merges with surrounding light, completely concealing its presence. Movement generates no detectable fluctuations. No cooldown.]

[Description: Assassins who lost their self-awareness after being sanctified by the gods. Forever trapped within the light, they have become one with it.]

"Seven-Star Assassins. Their critical damage is already extremely high."

John’s voice turned cold.

"And in an illuminated environment, their critical damage multiplier increases by another fivefold."

Arno’s earlier composure had completely disappeared. The anger he had been suppressing finally erupted, and he slammed his fist into the crystal wall beside him.

"These are the bastards who did this back then!"

But there was no more time for conversation.

The Sanctified Assassins were incredibly fast.

Almost all of them were Seven-Star units. Once they activated Lightmeld, their movements were practically instantaneous. They could appear directly behind a Dragon Knight in midair and strike with a single blade.

-21,473!

-24,906!

-23,742!

[Your unit "Undead Dragon Knight" has been killed ×47!]

[Your unit "Undead Dragon Knight" has been killed ×63!]

[Your unit "Undead Dragon Knight" has been killed ×52!]

The Dragon Knights began falling from the sky in waves.

"Resurrect. Recall."

Under the effect of 10,000× Acceleration, the fallen Dragon Knights were instantly reconstructed and revived. John immediately recalled every one of them into his Legion Space.

With a wave of his hand, he summoned another batch of Undead Sentinels, which had now been upgraded to Four-Star.

"Surround us!"

More than a hundred Undead Sentinels immediately rushed forward, forming a protective circle around the group.

[Iron Wall]

The skill activated.

The Sanctified Assassins’ curved blades struck the shields, leaving one mark after another across their surfaces.

-3,274!

-3,105!

-3,663!

The damage had dropped considerably, but the defensive formation wouldn’t last long either.

Seeing that John was now protected, Bladeborne no longer held back and charged straight into the enemy formation.

[Holy Light Charge]

A flash of silver-white sword light appeared.

He had already materialized behind a Sanctified Assassin, his longsword sweeping horizontally through the air.

-8,642!

Before the assassins could even react, they were sliced cleanly in half at the waist.

Bladeborne didn’t stop.

His figure flashed repeatedly, each sword strike landing precisely at the instant an assassin revealed itself.

-7,421!

-9,103!

"Can’t you fight fair and square for once? All you know how to do is hide!"

Ophelia let out a deep roar.

Purple flames exploded around her, transforming into a hundred-meter-long giant dragon in midair.

With a single sweep of her wings, she sent more than a dozen Sanctified Assassins flying. They had only just appeared and hadn’t even had time to strike.

-12,480!

-10,653!

Dragonflame erupted from her mouth.

A massive purple waterfall of fire poured downward, instantly turning the entire area into a sea of flames.

The Sanctified Assassins struggled within the inferno, attempting to merge with the surrounding light to evade the attacks.

But Ophelia’s Dragonflame covered such an enormous area that there was simply no way to dodge everything.

-15,630!

-13,247!

Arno was also fighting desperately.

His white figure merged into the shadows, and with a backward thrust of his blade, he killed one assassin after another.

-11,873!

-9,847!

However, ironically, his efficiency was the lowest of the group.

There were simply too many assassins, and every single one of them could merge with the light.

His attacks were primarily single-target, so no matter how efficiently he killed them, it was still a drop in the ocean against hundreds of Seven-Star Assassins.

"This isn’t working! There are too many of them!"

Arno growled as he drove his blade into the back of another assassin’s neck. Crystal fragments burst outward.

"They’re hiding inside the light! My abilities are being severely restricted!"