The Amber Sword

v4c23

The Holy Lance of Heaven(5)

Ten meters.

Seven meters.

The room was now filled with pebbles and sand that had been whipped around by the twister. The entire underground hall boomed and roared with the sounds of it. This entire space was being drawn by an inexplicable force towards a single point. Brendel squinted, enduring the sharp rocks and stones cutting across his face, but at last, he determined the predicted position.

The blade flashed quickly. The next second, Brendel vanished from where he had stood and appeared next to Ovina. The girl of lightning didn’t seem to notice. She looked up in surprise, but mockery flashed across her platinum eyes.

Brendel observed her carefully and immediately realized something was wrong.

“How shallow.”

Before he had a chance to use the Halran Gaia, he heard Ovina’s chilly words of judgment. The next moment, Brendel felt the sword in his hand clang against an indestructible wall. Since the wall was transparent, it looked as if the blade of the Halran Gaia was stopped about a meter away from the girl of lightning, unable to move any closer.

“What is this?” Brendel stood in awe. He had never heard of anyone being able to cast a magical shield around themselves while they were still in the middle of channeling. Did that leave anyone room for success?

“This is not a magical shield, human.” Ovina raised the tip of her lance and pointed it at his chin. “That is because your inability to defeat me is destined. It is like a predetermined fate. That is why you hesitate,” she answered calmly.

Brendel understood immediately. This was part of Ovina’s Elemental Powers. This was another manifestation of the Power of Destiny; it planted a subconscious thought in every one of her opponents, making them think that they couldn’t defeat her.

In other words, there weren’t any magical shields around her, but since he believed he could not defeat her, his sword halted right there.

Everything was merely an illusion.

And yet, the illusion felt so real that he was powerless to fight against it. No matter how much effort Brendel exerted, his sword always stopped a meter from the girl of lightning, as if he was fighting against himself.

This power was unbelievable and bizarre. Brendel had never heard of anything like it, be it in this world that he transmigrated into, or from the game in his previous world,

He had heard other players hypothesize over how terrifying the Power of Existence was. Now that he had encountered it, it was even more formidable and frightening than they had thought!

“Understand now?” Ovina asked.

Brendel smiled bitterly. This was indeed a power that he couldn’t triumph over, because he saw the girl lightning begin to gather up the last bit of energy needed to unleash her attack.

Only then did the Mage from the Silver League begin chanting his spell.

Brendel turned around and caught sight of William’s grave expression.

But right then, a figure entered Brendel’s vision from behind the endless storm. It was someone he had never dreamt of seeing here.

A ponytail the color of fiery flames billowed and fanned out, following after its owner. The lady spun the spear in her hands. It was merely a standard spear from the White Lion Legion. It couldn’t even be counted as a magical weapon. However, the tip of the spear pressed against Ovina’s back in just a moment.

It was Scarlet.

The girl of lightning quickly detected the sneak attack. She whipped her hand back and directly sliced off half of the spear. When she turned around, she looked at Scarlet in puzzlement. “How odd; you’re so weak. How did you escape my lightning cage?”

“Because I’m lightning too!” The girl with the ponytail shouted in anger. “Let go of the Lord!”

“Is that so?” Ovina had already seen the electricity floating and arcing around Scarlet. She raised her eyebrows slightly. “What pure electrical power. You too have Divine Blood in you, and it is even from Kesu…

“But unfortunately, this is far from being sufficient.” Her palm was already flying towards Scarlet’s neck even as her last word fell. This Elite Elf from the Azure Knights had probably realized that Scarlet was weak and decided to finish off this pest first.

“Watch out!” Brendel was still next to Ovina. He already knew that it was futile to attack this self-proclaimed Elite Elf of the Azure Knight. As long as they were under the influence of the Element of Destiny, even if she offered her own neck, he wouldn’t be able to cut through it. Even so, he still had many ways of interfering with Ovina’s actions.

Brendel dodged around the girl of lightning and thrust the Halran Gaia downwards. He shouted, “Rise up, Power of the Earth!” The power in the Halran Gaia exploded in an instant and the ground of the great hall shattered upwards in multiple layers. The floor underneath Ovina looked like it would be completely pulverized the next second.

Ovina’s fury reached new heights, but she had to stay her attack. She pushed her hand downwards and another Time’s Reversal flew out. This hall was her greatest weakness. She certainly would not allow Brendel to destroy it.

But as she turned around, she left herself open for the ponytail girl to attack again. Scarlet did not care that her abilities were worth less than that of an ant’s to the girl of lightning; she just kept using the blunt end of the spear that the Ovina destroyed to stab at Ovina’s back.

“Scarlet, move aside!” Brendel called out in dismay. He knew that Ovina’s Elemental Power was very special. Nevermind Scarlet, he himself was momentarily powerless against Ovina. Scarlet would just be more burdensome by remaining here.

However, clearly it was too late. Scarlet and Brendel’s relentless attacks infuriated even the normally good-natured Ovina. More importantly, the Archmage William’s gathered magical energy was slowly becoming a threat as well. Of course, William was far from being able to hurt her, but if he was set on damaging the great hall, she would have to expend time and effort to repair it.

“Waste of energy, waste of time!” the girl made out of lightning commented coldly. At the same moment, she adjusted her lance’s trajectory and thrusted her weapon towards Brendel.

Ovina could be said to be rather logical. Scarlet was clearly not a threat to her. On the other hand, Brendel, who possessed the Halran Gaia, was a pain.

But as soon as she followed through with the stab, she realized she had made a huge mistake.

Because she felt Scarlet’s staff connect solidly with her back. Ovina’s eyes betrayed her incredulity – how could a mortal who hadn’t even reached the Golden Peak manage to strike her?

What happened to her Destiny’s Privilege?

Scarlet’s attack took all of her effort and while she did strike Ovina’s back, it did not damage the Elite Elf in the slightest. On the other hand, Scarlet herself flew through the air due to the rebound, but according to the Power of the Law, this hit, regardless of whether it dealt damage, has completely interrupted Ovina’s channeling attempt.

With a ‘bang’, the black singular point that had been gathering at the tip of the lance belonging to the Elite Elf of the Azure Knight completely dissipated.

An opportunity!

Brendel didn’t know why Scarlet could pierce through Ovina’s Elemental Power, but he knew without a doubt that this was the best opportunity they had. Taking advantage of Ovina’s momentary surprise, he lifted the Halran Gaia and slammed it down violently.

A cacophonous crash sounded. The sword had been gathering Earth’s Power and, in a single moment, that power spread throughout the great hall. Cracks appeared on the stone floor and the layers of earth underneath the stone made crisp cracking sounds as they broke. The entire underground hall crackled and boomed as it started tilting to one side. It seemed it was about to completely collapse.

“Preposterous!”

Ovina finally responded. While she had declared that she possessed the Azure Knight’s powers at her peak, Brendel could tell that this Elite Elf had only inherited that legendary hero’s powers. However, when it came to her combat experience and her ability to control the battleground, she was way too far below the Azure Knight’s level.

The great hall was visibly collapsing. It was only then that the girl of lightning started to panic. She spread her arms and immense Elemental Power covered the entire ground. The collapsing great hall immediately repaired itself, but soon started cracking again. Cold sweat dripped down Ovina’s brow. She slowly came to the realization that she was reaching her limit.

Because William the Silver Storm had joined the battle.

He injected an enlarged Earthquake magic spell into the ground, making the entire great hall shake once again. The columns in the hall fractured and pieces of the shattered ground lifted into the air. Canine-like cracks criss-crossed along the ground. The ground then sank, sliding into the unseen depths underneath the ruin along with the earth and rocks.

The girl of lightning seemed to have finally realized that her defeat was imminent, but she still lifted her head and bit out through gritted teeth. “Don’t think this means you have won!” she declared in fury.

As the entire great hall was breaking into innumerable pieces and crumbling down around them, Ovina stood on the largest rock and looked down at Brendel and Scarlet condescendingly. She reached out a hand and gathered up the Elemental Power that spread throughout the hall before calling out, “Destiny, Fountain of Sparkling Light!”

History unfolded itself like a screen behind her. Countless heroes and legendary shining moments in history became reality, and then appeared before Brendel.

Brendel couldn’t even place a name for some of them, but there were even some who came after the Azure Knight’s time. Brendel did recognize the Four Wise Men, mainly because he was far too familiar with Sanorso. These summoned beings were formed by fragments of history, but Brendel couldn’t exactly name what kind of existence they were. Rather than Elite Elfs, he thought they were closer to physical representations of some sort of Law.

But clearly, whatever Ovina had summoned wasn’t here to host a tea party.

The girl of lightning pointed downwards with her lance. Her deep and penetrating voice almost overpowered the booming sound of the great hall collapsing. “Heroes are but beings bound by destiny and desire. Their very existence is to ensure that the world follows the predetermined trajectory of destiny. Human, accept their challenge!”

Ten heroes who looked like they walked out of legends rushed towards Brendel. Brendel paled in fright. While he didn’t know how much of the originals’ powers these summoned caricatures possessed, Ovina wouldn’t have let them out if they were too weak.

Destiny’s Elemental Power was a bug. Brendel re-examined the order of the Elemental Powers. In the past, there were actually quite a few players who possessed Destiny’s Privilege, but he had no idea that this Elemental Power would morph into this when it reached the highest limit of the Power of Being.

This was practically having your every heart’s desire brought into existence.

The first to arrive in front of him was the illusion of Sanorso. Perhaps it was a coincidence, but the Wind Empress clearly exhibited her true powers. Just as Brendel raised his word in preparation to counter the powerful elf’s attack, Sanorso took a step back and pulled out a series of illusions in front of Brendel.

Nine Luminaries Sword Art!

Brendel instantly realized that his version of Nine Luminaries Sword Art was all but useless in front of the real one. First of all, the magic power wasn’t even on the same level. The ‘Wind Empress’ in front of him seemed capable of producing endless Nine Luminaries Sword Arts and every illusion lasted for a long time so that you couldn’t tell what was real and what was an illusion.

And that wasn’t all, because there was the Flame King Gretel who looked like he was ready to attack at a moment’s notice on the other side. Brendel recalled this king’s Flash Strike Sword Art very well.

Luckily, Brendel had one last trick up his sleeve.

The great hall was disappearing under everyone, but he took a step back. He held onto the arm of the girl with the ponytail with one hand. Scarlet paused momentarily and subconsciously withdrew her hand. “Lord.”

“We can’t win, withdraw!” Brendel answered. He never figured himself as an elite. He lifted his head and took one last look at Ovina above them. All he saw were more and more heroes surging out from the screen of light behind her. His scalp crawled at the sight.

This was a battle that was impossible to win. He didn’t know which game designer came up with this scenario, but what made him more upset was that this scenario actually existed in this world as well.

How was this reasonable?

Brendel shook his head and called out in the direction he remembered William was standing in. “Sir William, we’ll take our leave first!”

Having said that, he held Scarlet’s hand and jumped into the darkness below.