Chapter 302: The Cause of the Plane's Destruction

Just as the dragon race was divided into white dragons, gold dragons, and others, elves also had many different subraces. Moon Elves were an upper-tier race among the elven peoples.

This came as a slight surprise to the group. Worlds inhabited by Moon Elves generally had a fairly high planar level.

Soon, through Heloise's explanation, everyone understood what had happened to this plane.

This plane was named Rodoro. It was a medium material plane that originally had two High-Tier Legends. However, the pair had traveled somewhere together and never returned.

Without the deterrence of High-Tier Legends, the various factions grew restless. This gradually escalated into mutual conquest until war and chaos broke out everywhere across the continent. The legendary lich, Isaac Hill, seized the opportunity to rise to power. He gathered a massive horde of followers and unleashed the undead scourge.

As the undead army slaughtered town after town, the many factions finally woke up. They began to unite and fight back against Isaac's evil minions, but clearly, they failed.

And so, the Rodoro plane fell!

Those who could flee did so. Those who couldn't were turned into undead. Heloise Percy had died in battle while defending her homeland, corrupted by the power of death and twisted into a banshee.

After becoming a banshee, Heloise Percy initially still sought revenge. But not long after the plane was conquered, Isaac Hill used the plundered essence of the entire world to break through the Legendary Rank, becoming Rodoro's sole High-Tier Legend.

With her hopes of revenge rendered bleak and the world gradually losing its vitality, Heloise lingered near her homeland. Eventually, she was completely corrupted by the power of death, losing her sanity until she later encountered the White Dragon Lord.

The group from Nordhill felt deep sympathy for Heloise's story. If the Continental Allied Forces hadn't beaten back the demons of the Abyss back then, the Nordhill Plane would have suffered a fate even worse than Rodoro—it likely would have ceased to exist altogether.

Sharing a similar experience, the group's attitude toward Heloise warmed considerably.

"Rest assured, Heloise. We have four High-Tier Legends with us this time. We will definitely kill Isaac and avenge your fallen compatriots," a Legendary Mage of the elven race comforted her.

Heloise nodded. Four High-Tier Legends truly gave her hope for revenge.

Priest Sinod spoke up.

"Right now, our greatest concern is the power of the Tower of Bones. If it is strong enough, even the four of us working together might not be able to handle it."

Everyone looked at the banshee, hoping she could provide some useful information.

At the mention of the Tower of Bones, Heloise could not help but shiver, overcome with grief.

"The Tower of Bones was built after Isaac broke through to High-Tier Legend. He used a secret art to smelt all the living prisoners who resisted him together. The flesh and blood of the living were fused as one. At the time, the screams of those innocents could be heard across the entire plane. It wasn't until they died and their flesh rotted away that the Tower of Bones was formed."

After finishing, Heloise glanced at the White Dragon Lord.

"The last to die was the white dragon at the top of the tower. It screamed for hundreds of years."

The White Dragon Lord frowned, a surge of fury rising in his heart.

Excellent! Another reason to kill the lich!

Knight Magellan, the holy knight who had returned not long ago, angrily drew the longsword from his waist after hearing Heloise's words.

"Such an evil existence must be purified."

Priest Sinod prayed to the God of Justice and Light, his eyes revealing firm conviction.

The Cat-Woman frowned. She was so disgusted by the construction method of the Tower of Bones that she couldn't even eat her dried fish.

After Heloise shared everything she knew, the group gathered to discuss.

The White Dragon Lord spoke first.

"I once read about this evil forging method in a record of secret histories. The living are fused together using a secret art, their bones and blood connected, and are constantly tortured until death. Having suffered endless agony in life, they mutate after death into wraiths that hate all living things. Bound to their corpses with no hope of release, they become the guards and power source of the Bone Tower."

"Lord Amos, does this kind of Bone Tower have any flaws?"

"It does. Once, a being from the Justice Pantheon purified the resentment of the wraiths, triggering a backlash. The lich who forged that Bone Tower was directly devoured by the myriad souls and died. It is precisely because of such a glaring flaw that the Tower of Bones is rarely seen nowadays."

After speaking, the White Dragon Lord looked toward Priest Sinod, who had asked the question. The rest of the group looked at him as well.

Priest Sinod understood what everyone was plotting and shook his head with a bitter smile.

"Purifying millions of wraiths all at once? I don't have that kind of ability. Lord Amos, is there any other way?"

"While the Tower of Bones would collapse at a single blow from a higher-tier entity, it is extremely troublesome for those of the same tier like us."

The White Dragon Lord continued.

"We have to wipe out all the wraiths in the Bone Tower, reducing it to an empty shell. Only then can we drag out the lich hiding inside."

"The method is feasible," Sinod said with worry. "But there are millions of wraiths inside the Bone Tower. If they swarm out all at once, even we won't be able to handle it. Furthermore, there's a High-Tier Legend lich inside. He won't just sit by and watch us slaughter the ordinary wraiths."

Heloise added.

"The lich also has a group of Legendary Rank subordinates and servants."

"I can infuse soul attacks into my Dragon Breath. Leave the massive horde of ordinary wraiths to me."

The White Dragon Lord took charge of the massive horde of ordinary wraiths. An endless sea of wraiths might truly be troublesome for the others, but for the White Dragon Lord, it just took a mouthful of Dragon Breath.

"Good!" Knight Magellan said loudly. "Leave the Legendary Rank small fry to me."

"That works too. I will cover the two of you from the rear."

As a spellcasting cleric, Priest Sinod knew a vast number of healing and buffing divine spells. With him providing support from the rear, everyone felt very reassured.

The Cat-Woman raised a paw.

"I will act according to the situation and be ready to provide support at any time."

According to the agreement, the ten mages would join forces to lock down the space around the Tower of Bones, leaving the lich with nowhere to run.

With this, the tasks were assigned.

The ten Legendary Mages stepped aside to discuss how to set up the lockdown barrier later, while the four High-Tier Legends gathered to discuss the specifics of their coordination.

"Everyone, this rapid forging method for the Tower of Bones was invented by an archdevil. I suspect the lich is in contact with the devils of Hell. In fact, the fall of the Rodoro Plane might even be the handiwork of devils."

The group nodded solemnly. Hiding behind the scenes, playing with conspiracies, and leaving their targets dead without ever knowing why—this was indeed the style of devils.

The White Dragon Lord continued.

"Therefore, I'm somewhat worried that the lich might summon devils from Hell. Just to put our minds at ease, let's reveal some of our trump cards. I can summon a High-Tier Legend Ice Elemental to aid in battle."

The White Dragon Lord took the lead, and Priest Sinod spoke up.

"I can also summon a High-Tier Legend divine guard."

"Don't look at me, I can't summon anything," Knight Magellan threw his hands up. "But I can borrow my god's power to unleash a tremendously powerful single-target skill—the Hammer of Judgment. The Hammer of Judgment is even more effective against undead creatures. Even the lich will struggle to escape death if it gets hit."

"Meow?!"

The three shifted their gazes to the zoned-out Cat-Woman.

"Trump cards? I don't have any trump cards. I only know the cycle of life and death, meow."

The three directly ignored the Cat-Woman's flippant remark. What did she mean by 'only' knowing the cycle of life and death?!

Indeed, among the four High-Tier Legends, the strongest was actually the Cat-Woman, who looked incredibly weak. As for the other three, the gap between them wasn't large, making it hard to say who was stronger.

Soon, the group finished their discussion and flew toward the Tower of Bones.

...

In the ash-gray sky, the White Dragon Lord gazed at the distant target. On a wilderness scattered with dry bones, a towering spire forged of white bones thrust up from the ground. Its height even surpassed the distant mountains, its tip piercing straight into the gray clouds.

Soon, the White Dragon Lord drew closer, and the Tower of Bones appeared more clearly in his vision.

The bones forming the tower were of various shapes, both beast and humanoid, twisted into different postures. Some curled up in resignation, some reached out in struggle, trying to escape purgatory, while others were tangled together, melted into one inseparable mass.

A sickly green glow flashed across the bones from time to time, tinged with a streak of crimson. This was the movement of the wraiths bound within the Bone Tower.

Perhaps the Holy Sanctuary duo had beaten the grass and startled the snake a month ago, because the Tower of Bones was now heavily guarded. Squads of death knights patrolled the ground in circles. In the sky, black gargoyles fluttered back and forth. The White Dragon Lord also spotted five Legendary Rank banshees and two Legendary Rank bone dragons.

As for the dragon bones at the top of the tower, the cloud cover prevented the White Dragon Lord from getting a clear look.

The ten invisible Legendary Mages silently surrounded the Tower of Bones. Each held a sphere the size of a basketball.

This was a magical marvel created by an alchemy grandmaster of the Council, using the Spatial Lockdown Magic Array as a blueprint—the Portable Space-Locking Orb. Relying on the Space-Locking Beads, Legendary Mages could cast a massive-scale Spatial Lockdown Magic Array.

Although the power of the bootleg Spatial Lockdown Magic Array couldn't compare to the original, it still wasn't something a High-Tier Legend lich could break.

Soon, the ten Legendary Mages took their positions and simultaneously activated the Space-Locking Beads.

Ten pillars of white light shot into the sky, piercing the ash-gray clouds. The Space-Locking Beads resonated with one another, spreading a membrane of light that formed a massive barrier in the blink of an eye, enveloping a ten-kilometer radius around the Bone Tower.

Once the barrier was complete, the ten Legendary Mages sat down where they were. The Space-Locking Beads hovered above their heads, covering them in a Protective Shield. The barrier cast by the orbs to protect the casters was something even a High-Tier Legend couldn't shatter anytime soon.

Now, the ten Legendary Mages' task was complete.

The White Dragon Lord dismissed the Invisibility Barrier, and the figures of the four High-Tier Legends appeared in the sky.

The alert perimeter set by the lich was only one kilometer around the Bone Tower, yet the barrier covered ten kilometers. Thus, the undead were thoroughly bewildered when they saw the barrier rising on all sides.

While the undead were momentarily stunned, the White Dragon Lord and his group certainly were not. They charged straight at the Tower of Bones.

The White Dragon Lord and Knight Magellan took the front, while Priest Sinod and the Cat-Woman brought up the rear, maintaining a two-in-front, two-in-back formation.

Actually, it could also be considered a one-in-front, two-in-back iron triangle formation, because Knight Magellan was clutched in the White Dragon Lord's claws. Originally, Knight Magellan had wanted to try being a dragon knight, but after seeing the White Dragon Lord's murderous glare, he had no choice but to drop the idea.

Inside the Bone Tower, the lich, Isaac Hill, was the first to notice.

"Damn it! You two bastards actually dare to come knocking on my door! Don't even think about leaving this time!"

Isaac roared, clutching his head. His voice, amplified by the magic tower, reached the ears of the four-person group.

If one were to ask who the lich hated the most right now, it was undoubtedly Priest Sinod and Knight Magellan.

During the previous ambush by the Holy Sanctuary duo, the lich's skull had taken a sword strike from Knight Magellan. If defensive magic hadn't blocked some of it, and if the lich's skull hadn't been tempered to be incredibly tough over the years, the result would have been far worse than just a cracked skull.

Having narrowly escaped death, the lich naturally hated the Holy Sanctuary duo to the bone.

"My servants! Kill them!"

The jagged, fang-like gates of the Tower of Bones swung wide open. A squad of ten dread knights soared into the sky on nightmare warhorses.

Dread knights were a peculiar type of alchemical undead. Although they wore armor, there was nothing inside it; the armor was piloted by incorporeal wraiths.

Hooves blazing with blood-red flames trampled the air. Blood-red energy drifted from the eye slits of the dread knights' helmets. They raised greatswords burning with blood flames. Ominous, blood-colored runes were carved into the ink-black blades.

"This lich has quite the thick treasury. Looks like we'll each get a bigger cut after the battle," the flying White Dragon Lord joked. As he spoke, he threw Knight Magellan from his claws!

"Screw you!"

Knight Magellan let out a tragic cry as he was sent hurtling forward at high speed.

The White Dragon Lord swore he merely wanted to help Knight Magellan enter the battlefield faster. It was absolutely not revenge for him wanting to be a dragon knight.

A pair of golden wings sprouted from Knight Magellan's back. He held his legendary longsword high, the dense holy power making the blade itself invisible.

This was the favorite move of all melee enthusiasts—the leap strike!

The White Dragon Lord flapped his wings and sped up. With Legendary Flight, an Advanced Light body spell, and a series of other buffs, on top of a dragon's natural flight speed, the White Dragon Lord pushed his speed to the absolute limit. Arriving first despite launching later, he flew directly above Knight Magellan and unleashed the Dragon Breath he had been brewing in his mouth.

A five-hundred-meter-long fan of Ice-Blue Dragon Breath blasted the rear of the dread knight squad. One invisible banshee after another was struck. Before they could even scream, they shattered into specks of ice dust and dissipated in the air—the crystals formed by the frozen and shattered souls of spectral undead.

Under the White Dragon Lord's terrifying breath, the spectral unit led by a Legendary Rank banshee was instantly halved.

Below the White Dragon Lord, Knight Magellan swung his longsword down. The sword, already a top-tier legendary weapon, had previously been enchanted with Legendary Keen Edge by the White Dragon Lord and a Legendary Rank weapon blessing by Priest Sinod. It directly sheared through the dread knight's greatsword, cleaving both horse and rider in two.

Knight Magellan swung his longsword, initiating a massacre. In the rear, Priest Sinod kept his eyes glued to the battlefield, ready to reinforce them at a moment's notice. The Cat-Woman, looking down at the ranged undead firing arrows and magic from the ground, scattered a handful of plant seeds and rapidly chanted a spell.

Emerald thorns as thick as buckets grew wildly, drowning the small fry on the ground like a tidal wave washing ashore.