Chapter 303: Tide of Wraiths

Working in seamless coordination, the four High-Tier Legends cut down the ordinary undead with effortless ease. Even the Legendary Rank undead could not last long against them.

Inside the Bone Tower, the High-Tier Legend lich, Isaac Hill, watched the scene outside with a sinking heart.

Four High-Tier Legends!

Two old rivals, plus a White Dragon and a druid. This was absolutely the strongest force Isaac had ever faced. Coupled with the Magic Barrier set up on the perimeter, it was clear the enemy had come prepared!

He would have to fight for his life!

Fortunately, he still had the Bone Tower, keeping him from true despair. He rested a skeletal claw on the Pitch-Black Skull in front of him.

Through the Bone Tower's Control Core, Isaac released the spell binding the wraiths to the tower.

While dealing with the ordinary undead, the four kept a close eye on the Bone Tower. Faint, scattered specks of bloody light began to emerge from its surface. In the blink of an eye, the blood-red glow intensified, turning the entire Bone Tower into a giant, radiant pillar of crimson.

Harboring an intense hatred for all living things, the wraiths broke their restraints and rushed the four like floodwaters bursting from a dam.

A tide of wraiths!

Within the red wave of wraiths, a dense mass of squirming souls emitted low, piercing, and sorrowful wails. The cacophony of their spirit voices merged into a single deafening wail, leaving the group dizzy and making their hearts feel ready to explode.

Soul-Disrupting Sound!

The Soul-Disrupting Sound was normally just the unconscious howling of wraiths venting their torment, causing only minor negative effects. But with millions of wraiths crying out in unison, sheer quantity triggered a qualitative change. Even High-Tier Legends were significantly affected.

The White Dragon Lord hurriedly steadied his mind. Rapidly chanting a spell, he enveloped himself in a magic shield designed to protect the soul. The howling remained deafening, but it could no longer affect his sanity.

The other three employed their own methods. Radiant holy light erupted from Knight Magellan, making him shine like a thousand-watt lightbulb. The Cat-Woman was the most relaxed; the howling of the wraiths seemed to have no effect on her whatsoever.

Priest Sinod enveloped himself in a golden Protective Shield. He rapidly chanted a spell, his sharp glare fixed on the surging red tide of wraiths. Last time, this very tide had forced the Holy Sanctuary duo to retreat.

Inside the Bone Tower, black, mist-like necromantic mana gushed from the lich's pale skeletal claws and poured into the levitating Black Skull. Pinpricks of crimson light flared in the skull's hollow eye sockets.

"Last time, you two ran fast enough! This time, you won't be so lucky! Gahahaha!"

The lich increased the energy input. The Bone Tower lit up with a ghastly green radiance as it absorbed death energy from the earth and channeled it toward the peak.

The terrifying energy gathering at the top swept away the gray clouds, revealing the summit. A massive Dragon Skull was fused to the Bone Tower. Crimson wraith energy surged within the skull, pouring out from its gaps like burning blood-flame.

As the ghastly green death energy poured in, the red wraiths inside the Dragon Skull were gradually dyed a sickly green. The Dragon Skull opened its jaws in a silent roar.

It was completely silent!

Yet, the White Dragon Lord heard a dragon's roar filled with profound grief. The roar acted directly upon their souls. The sorrow it conveyed made everyone shudder, raising a wave of despair in their hearts.

The group was alarmed. They hadn't expected the Dragon Skull atop the Bone Tower to directly affect their emotions.

But this was merely an appetizer. The surging death energy completely dyed the red wraiths a sickly green, and the open dragon's maw spat out a ghastly green energy bomb the size of a football field.

Trailing a long tail, the ghastly green energy comet barreled toward the four. Given its blistering speed, it would undoubtedly arrive first, crashing down upon their heads before the tide of wraiths could reach them.

Priest Sinod's long-prepared divine spell was complete.

Mass Holy Shield Art!

A brilliant golden, oval-shaped holy shield enveloped the four. It was the signature divine spell of the Church of Justice and Light—the Holy Shield Art!

The Holy Shield Art was jokingly referred to as the invincible spell, touted as indestructible. But nothing in the world was truly indestructible; it was simply far tougher than ordinary defensive spells. Once the damage reached a critical threshold, it would shatter all the same.

The Cat-Woman watched the meteor-like energy bomb shoot from the dragon's maw, her casual gaze turning solemn for the first time. She spread her hands. Green life energy and black death energy continuously transformed into one another between her palms, giving off terrifying energy fluctuations that would make anyone's heart palpitate.

"Meow!"

A furious cry rang out—one that lacked any real deterrent force and instead sounded rather cute. The Cat-Woman merged the energy spheres from both hands, forming a single, massive orb.

If the two smaller spheres had been enough to make hearts palpitate, this larger one made their scalps tingle with dread. The unstable energy writhing within it looked like a bomb one second away from detonation.

The Cat-Woman launched the violently trembling energy sphere. Having perfectly calculated the timing and distance, her attack collided with the comet directly above the White Dragon Lord.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The Cat-Woman intercepted the Bone Tower's energy bomb, detonating it mid-air. Rings of shockwaves expanded outward. Chaotic energy swept in all directions, crashing against the outermost spatial-lockdown Magic Barrier before annihilating into nothingness.

The resulting shockwave swept over the White Dragon Lord and Priest Sinod at the front of the group, but the thunderous explosion did not faze them. Both remained utterly focused on the approaching tide of wraiths—a sea of blood-red phantoms.

Seeing the wraiths about to enter the range of his Dragon Breath, the White Dragon Lord reared his massive head back. His enormous nostrils flared, drawing air deep into his lungs. His already broad chest expanded rapidly like an inflating balloon, swelling to nearly twice its normal size.

The clawing, shrieking tide of wraiths breached his attack range. The White Dragon Lord thrust his head forward and straightened his neck. The Dragon Breath brewing in his throat erupted violently, blasting a stream eight hundred meters long—roughly twice the perimeter of a standard synthetic athletic track.

The fan-shaped Ice-Blue Dragon Breath slammed into the vanguard of the wraiths. Struck by the Soul Energy infused within the breath, the wraiths instantly disintegrated. Their Soul Crystallizations were coated in frost before crumbling into starlike motes of freezing dust that dissipated into the air.

But there were simply too many wraiths. They filled the sky, the ground, and everything in between, blotting out the world and consuming everyone's line of sight.

The White Dragon Lord swept his head from side to side, shifting the trajectory of his breath. The blast blanketed a massive swath of the area in front of the group. Unable to advance a single inch, the wraiths were reduced to icy dust and vanished.

Inside the Bone Tower, the lich's heart bled at the sight. These millions of wraiths were his trump card, cultivated over thousands of years. He had poured endless effort into them, sourcing flesh for them to feed on and relentlessly torturing them to deepen their hatred, all to make them stronger.

Now, these millions of wraiths were all at least High Tier undead, with no small number having reached the Master Tier, alongside around twenty at the Legendary Rank Level. Yet, with a single blast of the White Dragon Lord's breath, thousands of them had vanished in an instant.

"Raaargh!"

The lich channeled the surging mana within his body into the Black Skull.

The White Dragon Lord's breath had obliterated a vast number of wraiths, but their sheer volume was insurmountable. Furthermore, while the wraiths had lost their sanity, their instinct to avoid danger remained. Detouring around the range of the Dragon Breath, they continued surging toward the four.

The agonizing howling battered the group, inducing splitting headaches. As the distance closed, the power of the wails intensified. Knight Magellan was already feeling the effects, and the holy energy radiating from him grew somewhat unstable.

"Gather around me!"

A mental transmission echoed in the minds of the other three. They quickly moved toward the White Dragon Lord.

The White Dragon Lord cut off his breath attack. He established a spiritual barrier to dampen the effects of the wraiths' wails, then rapidly chanted a spell. He recited it so fast that even the three beside him couldn't distinguish the syllables.

The tide of wraiths was drawing closer!

Priest Sinod cast a domain of holy light to purify the resentment clinging to the wraiths, but its effect was minimal.

Knight Magellan unleashed streaks of holy light with his blade. The lethality was sufficient, but the area of effect was too small.

The Cat-Woman released an emerald-green mist of life. When the wraiths touched it, it was as if they had plunged into acid. Plumes of black smoke rose from their bodies as they shrieked in agony, pushing through the life mist to keep charging at the group.

A hundred meters!

Fifty meters!

Twenty meters!

Just as the group was about to be swallowed by the tide of wraiths, the White Dragon Lord's chant concluded.

Soul-Sweeping Wave!

An invisible, intangible, yet very real wave of Soul Energy rippled out in all directions from the White Dragon Lord. The moment the wraiths touched the energy wave, they melted away like ice dropped in boiling water. The swarms nearing the group were wiped out instantly, leaving only a handful of Legendary Rank wraiths wailing within the ripples.

The true essence of a wraith was its soul, wrapped in negative energy formed from resentment and traces of the power of death.

Apart from the White Dragon Lord, who wielded magic targeting the soul, the other three High-Tier Legends only had spells capable of purifying resentment and suppressing death energy. Using such magic against the wraiths heavily reduced their damage, which was why the group had initially been helpless against the tide.

Soul Magic, however, targeted the very core of the soul. Thus, the tide of wraiths that the lich had always relied upon met its crushing defeat against the White Dragon Lord.

Inside the Bone Tower, the lich's eyeballs would have popped out in shock—if he still had them.

Soul Magic?!

The lich couldn't believe it. As a High-Tier Legend and an advanced lich, Isaac had also studied Soul Magic, but his knowledge barely scratched the surface.

It was precisely because he understood it that the lich knew how brutally difficult it was to research.

Though it bore the name 'magic,' Soul Magic fundamentally wasn't magic at all, because the energy source used to cast it was not mana, but the power of the soul.

A living creature's soul was delicate and fragile, exceedingly difficult to mend once damaged. Studying Soul Magic ran the constant risk of injuring one's own soul from a single misstep. At worst, the soul would shatter entirely; at best, it would lead to memory loss.

For thousands of years, the lich had only dared to carefully probe the domain of the soul, following the experience of his predecessors. Yet, the White Dragon Lord was already applying Soul Magic in actual combat. Incredulous, the lich cast spells like a madman, launching a relentless barrage of highly destructive magic.

The Bone Tower acted like an oversized magic wand, massively amplifying the power of the lich's spells.

According to tier classifications, the Soul-Sweeping Wave was a legendary magic spell, but it sacrificed lethality for a wider attack range. As a result, the Master Tier and High Tier wraiths were instantly obliterated, while the Legendary Rank Level wraiths were still wailing as they closed in.

Knight Magellan knew it was his time to act. Wielding his longsword blessed by the God of Justice and Light, he unleashed volley after volley of holy light slashes, blocking the frenzied Legendary Rank wraiths head-on.

But two fists cannot fight four hands, and Magellan couldn't stop them all. Several Legendary Rank wraiths bypassed his defensive line and lunged at the gargantuan White Dragon Lord.

Although the Soul-Sweeping Wave couldn't instantly kill the Legendary Rank wraiths, it still inflicted immense damage upon them. It was like shoving a person into boiling water, and the wraiths locked their sights onto the White Dragon Lord who had caused their agony.

The White Dragon Lord paid them no heed. He concentrated entirely on sustaining the Soul-Sweeping Wave to keep the outer army of ordinary wraiths at bay. In this moment, he felt he could trust his teammates.

The most terrifying aspect of the wraith tide was the boundless sea of ordinary wraiths. Now that this horrific swarm was being held back by the White Dragon Lord, the group was more than capable of handling the remaining dozen or so Legendary Rank wraiths.

The wraiths clawed sharply at the Holy Shield Art, failing to inflict any damage on the White Dragon Lord. Instead, the death energy within their bodies was partially purified by the shield's holy power, sending plumes of black smoke rising from their claws.

It would take considerable time for a few Legendary Rank wraiths to break through the Holy Shield Art. Priest Sinod wasn't panicked in the slightest. He rapidly chanted a spell, and a towering golden Portal materialized in the air.

A High-Tier Legend holy guard, sporting two wings on its back, stepped out of the Portal. Wielding a longsword ablaze with holy fire, it charged into battle against the Legendary Rank wraiths.

After summoning his helper, Priest Sinod first cast several defensive divine spells on the White Dragon Lord, then unleashed a dazzling array of offensive divine spells, continuously purifying the death energy clinging to the wraiths.

Once their death energy was completely stripped away, the energy balance within the wraiths collapsed, and they crumbled apart. Priest Sinod even had time to assist the fiercely embattled Knight Magellan.

Meanwhile, the Cat-Woman remained deeply vigilant of the Bone Tower's movements, intercepting every attack spell fired by the Dragon Skull.

Amplified by the Bone Tower, even the weakest attack from the Dragon Skull reached the tier of legendary magic. However, as the strongest powerhouse among them, the Cat-Woman forcefully withstood the lich's frenzied bombardment with the aid of Priest Sinod's buffing spells.

Seeing that his offensive spells could do nothing to the group, the lich changed his strategy. He switched to amplification magic to boost the combat strength of his undead, ordering the remaining forces to charge into the battlefield.

But this was merely delaying his defeat. The group pushed slowly but firmly toward the Mage Tower.

Inside the Mage Tower, the lich surveyed the battlefield outside. The Legendary Rank wraiths had suffered a massive drop in strength within the Soul-Sweeping Wave. Furthermore, the enemy had a perfectly balanced structure—they could deal damage, absorb hits, and heal. A White Dragon maintained a massive area-of-effect spell, while a terrifying Cat-Woman intercepted his magic.

With clearly defined roles, the four High-Tier Legends trusted and cooperated with one another. The resulting power they displayed was far beyond simple addition. Several Legendary Rank undead had already fallen in battle. If this continued, his undead army likely wouldn't last much longer.

The lich grew agitated. He wanted to flee, but the Magic Barrier set up by the ten Mages had locked down the surrounding space. The moment he left the Bone Tower, he would lose his magical buffs and the ability to pin down his enemies. Without that support, the freed-up Cat-Woman and the other three would instantly wipe out his undead army.

Ever since the two High-Tier Legends of the Rodoro Plane had disappeared, the lich had never been backed into such a corner. The soul fire in his eye sockets flickered frantically. He made up his mind to risk it all on one final gamble.

"You forced me to do this!"