Chapter 1379: The Gathering Point
Eldran sensed the temperature rising ahead and deliberately checked his step.
The red beam swept past the newly formed stair and expanded directly in front of him. Threads at Eldran’s side converged, weaving themselves into a golden longsword that slashed down into the laser.
The blade bit into the red beam, scattering gold and crimson sparks from the point of contact. Energy spilled outward on both sides, making the nearby thread stairs sway under the impact.
High above, Andona continued gathering power.
The Angel behind her was growing more solid by the second. Even the patterns on its Greatsword had become clearly visible. The fraction of Divine Power leaking from it was enough to make the surrounding air feel heavy, and the soldiers fighting below unconsciously slowed their movements.
A brilliant column of golden holy light descended from above.
It pierced through the thread stairs, aimed directly at Eldran. Elira immediately broke off her struggle against the golden longsword and adjusted the Divine Sovereign Moth’s wings. The remaining laser split apart and spread out behind Eldran, cutting off his retreat.
Eldran merely glanced up.
The threads laying the path ahead stopped extending and pulled back around him. Countless golden strands overlapped to form a curved shield that enclosed both him and the stair beneath his feet.
The holy light struck the shield, sending golden ripples across its surface. Threads snapped under the pressure, only for more to replace them from behind. The beam continued forcing its way inward but never broke through the final layer.
Elira’s attempt to seal off his retreat missed again.
Gritting her teeth, she drove the wings into a powerful beat and circled behind Eldran.
The Divine Sovereign Moth’s wings spread to their full extent, covering a vast stretch of sky. An even larger phantom of the Divine Sovereign Moth appeared behind her. Runes activated across both wings at once, their multicolored light weaving together with enough pressure to bend the nearby threads downward.
For the first time, Eldran slowed.
His body remained hidden inside his armor, making any change in expression impossible to see, but his grip tightened around his spear. The threads around him also abandoned their attacks and shifted into a defensive formation.
His reaction only made Elira angrier.
After fighting this long, Eldran still hadn’t truly looked back at her even once.
The runes on the Divine Sovereign Moth’s wings accelerated. Each one fired a thin laser, but none of the beams attacked directly. Instead, they converged in front of Elira’s chest.
Red, blue, and golden light compressed into a single point. It kept shrinking as the power within it continued to climb. The spreading pressure swept over the battlefield, pressing the sand below into a clear circular space. Even the two armies in the distance began looking up at the sky.
Divine Sovereign Moth had never been just a name.
Eldran finally changed course.
A spear took shape in his hand. He abandoned the frontal defense holding back Andona’s holy light, and the golden threads gathered behind him instead, quickly weaving themselves into a pair of wings.
The wings spread. Eldran shattered the stair beneath his feet and shot upward toward Elira.
With the shield gone, Andona’s holy light immediately burned into his left arm. The armor turned red, then melted away layer by layer, exposing the damaged flesh beneath.
Golden threads continuously poured into the wound.
The holy light burned some away, and the threads repaired what it destroyed. Both forces worked on his arm at once, but the destruction clearly couldn’t keep pace with the regeneration. Eldran didn’t slow. The thread wings drove him even faster.
Elira watched the spear closing in, her breathing tightening.
But she refused to let another attack miss.
To make sure she released every bit of the power gathered before her chest, Elira closed her eyes. She brought her hands together from either side, and an energy shield rose around her, enclosing both her and the converging light.
If she couldn’t see what was coming, she wouldn’t waver at the last moment.
Eldran didn’t stop.
He gripped the spear at its midpoint, adjusted his aim, and hurled it upward with all his strength. It tore from his hand with a piercing shriek and shot toward the shield. A mass of threads streamed behind the shaft, continuously accelerating it while sealing off Elira’s escape to either side.
Andona immediately cut off the holy light.
The golden beam vanished from above. She raised a hand in front of Elira, and a new shield swiftly took shape. The spearpoint arrived an instant later and struck its center head-on.
Golden light spread as the air rippled outward.
Andona didn’t look back. She focused on the steadily rising energy behind her and tightened her grip on her blade.
The power she had gathered had reached its peak.
Now she only needed Elira to complete her attack.
Inside the white domain, Ethan was beginning to regret pulling Valric in here alone.
The golden threads under his control stabbed toward Valric again and again from different directions, but none could reach a vital point. The sword covered in fleshy growths hovered beside Valric, slashing on its own whenever a thread entered its range.
The golden strands were cut apart section by section, and the Ethan projections throughout the domain continued to disappear.
When the last projection was swept away by the sword light, Ethan formed another energy ball in his hand. Instead of throwing it at Valric, he pressed it into his own body.
White energy spread from his chest, and the edges of his body broke apart into black particles. With no fixed shape, the particles dispersed throughout the domain’s white mist and blended into the surrounding space.
Valric opened his eyes.
He looked around but saw neither Ethan nor any other figure he could attack.
Golden threads poured from across his body into his hands, compressing between his palms. Valric rose, lifted both arms over his head, then smashed the condensed mass of threads into the ground.
Boom!
The floor of the domain caved in. Weblike cracks spread outward from the point of impact.
Ethan, still dispersed as black particles, had barely begun congratulating himself on making the right call when a second tremor shook the entire space. The threads driven into the ground hadn’t stopped. They burrowed into the domain’s structure and followed the cracks deeper.
Tiny fissures appeared across the white walls.
At first, they were no wider than strands of hair. Then the golden threads pulled them longer and longer. The white mist inside the domain streamed toward the openings as a continuous grinding sound filled the space.
The golden threads reassembled at the center of the fracture.
They coiled around one another, forming a massive hollow drill. Its point aligned with the deepest part of the crack and spun at high speed as it bored downward. Every bit of progress sent another tremor through the domain, while more fractures spread from around the drill.
Valric stood to one side, his golden eyes calmly watching it work.
The sword hovered beside him.
The fleshy growths on its hilt continued to squirm.
Valric waited beside the fissure, silently observing the golden drill.
Threads spun rapidly along its outer surface. Every inch it advanced into the depths of the space extended the surrounding cracks. The dense snapping sounds soon merged into a single continuous noise, and the white domain began trembling with the drill’s rotation.
Only when the fissure had widened enough did Valric step forward.
The threads at the rear of the drill split to either side and wove themselves into a thick handle. Valric gripped it with both hands, and the armor along his arms bulged. He raised the drill, aimed at the center of the fracture, and brought it down with all his strength.
Crack!
The sound of something breaking tore through the entire domain.
Blinding white light erupted from the fissure and swallowed everything.
When the light faded, Valric was standing once more amid the yellow sands of the Bingling Mine.
The blazing sun overhead was painfully bright. Its light struck his armor and reflected off it in a heavy golden sheen. The threads making up the drill swiftly unraveled and flowed back into the armor through his arms and shoulders, leaving only a few points of moving light between the plates.