High above the battlefield, Garon looked down at what seemed to be a foregone conclusion, feeling that the war should now come to an end.
Not just him, but the high-tier casters of the Golden Alliance felt the same.
As mages pursuing the truth, no one wanted to die in a senseless, losing battle.
However, what happened next changed the expressions of all the high-level powers present.
The highest-ranked caster from Dimos, an eighth-circle Sculpting School mage named Kelvin, showed no change in expression at Aiseya's earnest words. His pupils seemed unfocused, a look not typical of a wise caster.
He looked up at Aiseya, his lifeless eyes causing her to frown slightly.
Then, Kelvin extended his right hand.
A flash of light, and an ancient, yellowed spell scroll appeared in his hand.
Without uttering a word, the high-tier caster tore open the scroll in silence, locked his mental focus on the densest part of the remaining Golden Alliance troops, and began to pour his magic into it recklessly, without regard for his own depletion.
At that moment, every creature present felt a tightening in their chests, and the atmosphere turned oppressively heavy, signaling an impending storm.
The few true dragons in the sky changed their expressions as they felt an overwhelming pressure descending from above.
Elemental energies from miles around began to converge wildly, forming a terrifying elemental tide that gathered together in the high sky, miles above the ground.
"This feeling, it's..."
A seventh-circle Sculpting caster from the Golden Alliance paled, looking up into the sky.
Hum! Hum! Hum!
Nine massive, sky-covering magical arrays unfolded in succession, lighting up the battlefield under the night sky as bright as day.
These arrays, varying in size and arranged in descending order from top to bottom, looked like a massive concentric circle with nine rings when viewed from above. Each ring was covered with mysterious runes and patterns, rotating slowly in different sequences and speeds.
"This is a ninth-circle Sculpting spell, Meteor Blast!"
"Stop him!"
A seventh-circle Sculpting caster from the Golden Alliance gasped, his heart nearly stopping as he shouted.
A ninth-circle spell scroll was something even legendary casters found difficult to create.
And this was among the most terrifying ninth-circle Sculpting spells.
The casters of the Golden Alliance paled and hastily employed various disruptive spells, trying to interrupt Kelvin.
However, using a spell scroll was inherently much quicker than casting spells on the spot.
Moreover, the high-tier casters from Dimos, disregarding their lives, burned their magical and mental energies to shield him from the spells of the Golden Alliance.
High above the ground, Garon's expression was grave as he said in a deep voice, "Leave this spell's area!"
Meteor Blast. This ninth-circle spell was mentioned in Maldon's notes.
It was a ninth-circle variant of the Fireball spell.
Among ninth-circle spells, it was one of the most lethal, even more so than Maldon's own creation, the ninth-circle Fireball.
Though only one tier higher, the destructive power of the ninth-circle Meteor Blast was greater than all the eighth-circle spells used on the battlefield by both the Golden Alliance and Dimos forces combined!
The higher the tier of the spell, the greater the difference between each tier.
And Meteor Blast was infamous for its cataclysmic destructive power.
Without hesitation, several true dragons flapped their wings and, at their fastest speeds, turned into streaks of light moving away from the area engulfed by the giant arrays.
Seeing that they couldn't stop it, the high-tier casters of the Golden Alliance started to use their own means, preparing to face this already completed ninth-circle Sculpting spell.
Soon, a massive amount of elemental energy coalesced into a blazing orb at the highest point in the sky.
The moment it appeared, the blazing orb began to fall.
With each ring it passed through, its size and falling momentum grew.
In just the blink of an eye, after receiving the enhancement of the last ring, the blazing orb transformed into a huge meteor trailing flames, plummeting towards the earth.
The tremendous fiery meteor fell from the sky, its terrifying force and pressure rendering the ordinary soldiers below stiff and unable to move.
Faced with such a spell, the ordinary soldiers of the Golden Alliance had no choice but to wait for death.
Outside the spell's area, Garon took a deep breath, his eyes filled with wonder as he watched the flame meteor, which seemed slow yet fell quickly, tearing through the clouds and plummeting towards the earth.
In an instant, the fiery meteor crashed into the earth.
The world seemed to freeze for a moment.
The next second, blinding light and heat erupted with a massive explosion.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The deafening sound shot up into the sky, and the shockwaves rippled through the air.
At the same time, at the impact
site of the fiery meteor, a hemispherical giant energy vortex rose, whirling and howling, spreading outwards with overwhelming force, engulfing soldiers and casters alike, swallowing everything within its range.
Dirt, grass, steel, flesh—in the face of this catastrophic ninth-circle spell, there was no distinction, all were fragile objects shattered upon contact.
After more than half an hour, the destructive effects of the Meteor Blast finally ceased.
From high above, a vast crater appeared before Garon's eyes.
The crater was incredibly deep, still radiating high temperatures and billowing thick smoke, with the surface soil and rocks that had contacted the space turned into a glass-like solid crystal due to the high heat.
The ground around the crater was cracked and devastated, with soil and rocks upheaved and the grass scorched black.
Bones mixed with melted metal armors were scattered around.
In the crater itself, not even a ghost could be seen; those directly hit were vaporized instantly.
From an original strength of over 600,000, the Golden Alliance army, after the battle with Dimos and the attack by the ninth-circle Meteor Blast, was reduced to around 100,000.
The casualties were so severe that they were hard to articulate. Even if the many principalities that formed the Golden Alliance divided the fruits of victory, they could not compensate for the tremendous losses incurred by this war.
Human power in the entire southern region would struggle to return to its peak for a long time.
The only consolation was that the Meteor Blast, despite being a ninth-circle spell, had a long preparation time, which allowed most of the high-tier powers to survive, with only a few of the weakest unlucky ones perishing.
Moonlight refracted and condensed into Aiseya's figure.
Her face was pale, her eyes filled with clear anger, as she stared intently at Kelvin and the other high-tier casters on the ironstone defense line.
"You!"
"Why would you do this!"
If the Golden Alliance had known Dimos still had such a trump card, they would never have attacked the ironstone line in this way, and might even have continued to suppress their ambitions.
Dimos, almost pushed back to their doorstep, used Meteor Blast only to cause massive casualties and suffering on both sides, without changing the outcome.
Kelvin could have just demonstrated that he had the Meteor Blast spell scroll and threatened the Golden Alliance to retreat.
The Golden Alliance would have had to pull back until they found a suitable defense against it.
This war could have been avoided.
But he chose to use Meteor Blast in this devastating way without saying a word.
Aiseya furiously questioned him.
But the other side remained silent.
"Fine! Fine! Fine!"
"If you are so obstinate, then there is no need for you to live!"
The high-tier casters of the Golden Alliance looked grim, their gazes becoming dangerous.
At the same time, Aiseya gathered her remaining magical power and used her most lethal spell once again.
Eighth-circle Illusion spell—Mind Tomb!
Illusion school spells often deceive the senses and mind, with few that cause direct harm. Her only ninth-circle illusion, Superior Invisibility, had no lethal capability.
Mind Tomb could directly crush an enemy's spirit and mind, causing death.
Aiseya's eyes shone with brilliant colors as she stared at Kelvin.
Unexpectedly, when Mind Tomb hit Kelvin directly, his expression remained unchanged, as if unaffected.
"This"
Aiseya paused, her expression changing slightly.
"No! You are not Kelvin. Who are you!"
Silence.
But suddenly, things took a turn.
The shadows of eleven high-tier Dimos casters twisted abruptly, and a thick deathly aura emerged from them.
A figure, as thin as a mummy with skin tightly stretched over bones and seemingly devoid of muscle, stepped out from the deathly aura.
Despite his vastly altered appearance from his human days, due to the many legends and feats associated with him, and the abundance of sculptures and paintings, all the high-tier casters were stunned and disbelieving at the sight of him.
"Ha you are Harris!"
Aiseya exclaimed in shock.
The pale figure smiled with a mouth devoid of lips, his pale teeth clacking together to produce a deadly, grating sound.
"Decree: Death!"
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