BOOM!!!
The Floating City shook violently, as if struck by a magnitude-9 earthquake. Those with quick reflexes immediately cast Fly and lifted off the ground.
Among them, the Illusion Tower Master used a Mage Hand to snatch the unconscious Enchantment Tower Master into the air, while the Necromancy Tower Master tucked Pela under her arm, cradling her with one hand as she flew.
The only exception was the Conjuration Tower Master. Still dazed from being strangled by the Necromancy Tower Master, he failed to react in time. Now, with the ground trembling so violently, he couldn't even stand steady, let alone chant a spell.
From above, the others watched as the Conjuration Tower Master swayed wildly. After a few desperate seconds, he finally lost his footing and crashed to the ground, rolling around like a ball.
Seeing this, the Prophecy Tower Master couldn't help but sigh helplessly. He cast a Mage Hand, grabbed the Conjuration Tower Master by the collar, and hoisted him into the air. "Unlike that old crone, the Necromancy Tower Master," he explained, "this kid is genuinely too young."
The current Conjuration Tower Master was only twenty-three years old. Mastering ninth-level Arcane spells and becoming a Tower Master at such a young age undoubtedly marked her as a prodigy.
Of course, her ascension was also due to another reason: the previous Conjuration Tower Master had vanished during a Plane-traveling expedition and had never returned.
Returning to the matter at hand, Heinrich gazed intently at the distant beam of energy and swiftly cast several spells, attempting to remotely control the Floating City. However, he found his magic utterly ineffective.
Frowning slightly, Heinrich then cast a Communication Magic spell, attempting to contact the Wizards responsible for maintaining the core. This attempt also failed. Finally, he resorted to Teleportation Magic, opening a portal.
He hesitated to use teleportation initially because the sheer magnitude of the energy itself was interfering with magic. Accurately pinpointing a destination and teleporting there became an exceptionally difficult and dangerous task.
Possible consequences included teleporting to the wrong location, such as an unknown Demiplane, or having the portal suddenly close mid-teleportation, both of which posed mortal threats.
Despite the risks, Heinrich steeled his nerves and stepped through the portal. Just as the others moved to follow, the portal vanished.
Anaxa paused for a moment, then extended his right hand and swiftly chanted an incantation, casting an identical spell. Just as before, having observed Heinrich's casting, he calculated the destination coordinates. A new portal materialized before the group, and Anaxa strode through without hesitation.
But again, as the others prepared to follow through the second portal, it abruptly closed.
The Tower Masters stared in stunned silence.
This time, however, Anaxa had intentionally closed the portal. The instant he stepped through, the sight that greeted him made his brow furrow. The chamber, filled with pulsating flesh and writhing tentacles, was deeply unsettling. Even standing there, he could sense a chaotic will attempting to burrow into his mind.
Merely witnessing this... it's already causing contamination!
"It's the Mother of Flesh," he murmured gravely. "One of the Evil Gods beyond the world."
After all, Aglaea had just dealt with this Evil God at the All Nations Alliance recently, so she was intimately familiar with it. What she hadn't expected was that this Evil God had already extended its reach into the Arcane Federation.
But didn't we intercept and eliminate all the Artemis Believers trying to infiltrate the Federation? How did this corruption spread?
Of course, those details no longer mattered. The immediate priority was how to resolve this mess. Anaxa's gaze swept rapidly across the room. The Diviners he had clashed with earlier were now pinned to the ground, red Force Spears piercing their hearts. Yet even in this state, the Diviners were still alive, struggling relentlessly.
No wonder they were immune to my paralyzing ammunition, Anaxa thought. They were already corrupted. It seems this entire situation was orchestrated by them.
Anaxa then focused his attention on the brown crystal at the center of the room, encased in writhing tentacles. At first glance, he recognized it as a Sorcerer Divine Artifact, sharing the same origin as Okhema's Air Element Crystal.
His second glance revealed that the artifact had reached a critical state. To put it simply, it was like a nuclear weapon that had already triggered its chain reaction—it was now in the process of detonating.
Unlike a bomb, this device didn't explode. Instead, it concentrated all its energy and channeled it upward. Anaxa looked up and saw the beam of light aimed precisely at the barrier 9,000 meters above.
"Seventh-Level Abjuration School: Ultimate Mind Barrier."
"Eighth-Level Transmutation School: Wide-Area Disintegrate."
Heinrich swiftly cast two spells. The first created a shield to protect himself from contamination, while the second unleashed a crimson wave that radiated outward from him. Everything touched by this wave—the Diviner pinned to the ground, the writhing tentacles, even the muscular tissue on the floor and walls—instantly disintegrated into primordial dust.
In an instant, the entire room reverted to its original pristine state, almost unnervingly clean. Nothing remained except the Earth Element Crystal at the center, continuously spewing energy.
After completing this, Heinrich pressed a hand to his forehead, his gaze fixed on the crystal. "Damn it," he muttered, "it's the 'Observation at 9,000 Meters Altitude' project!"
BOOM!!!
Another thunderous explosion erupted, this time from the sky. The beam of light slammed into the Barrier head-on, creating the illusion that the heavens and the earth had been fused together in that instant.
Anyone who looked up could see a towering, brown pillar of light piercing the horizon.
Heinrich's mind raced. Can we stop it?
Anaxa replied, "It's unlikely. Or perhaps... there's no need to."
Roughly four or five seconds after Anaxa spoke, the energy eruption from the Earth Element Crystal ceased. The beam of light gradually dissipated, for a simple reason: the 'explosion' was over. The crystal's energy had been completely and irreversibly depleted.
In other words, the object was no longer a Divine Artifact, having completely degenerated into an ordinary crystal, a mere ornament.
All the Divine Artifact's energy had been unleashed in a fleeting instant. The previous strike had reached the level of Greater Divine Power. Just then, Hyacine, riding Little Ica, returned near the Floating City. Soaring high above, she had witnessed the attack clearly. The strike had barely affected the barrier at 9,000 meters altitude; the barrier was far more resilient than she had imagined.
That makes sense, Hyacine thought. While beings of Greater Divine Power are rare in this world, they do exist. If an attack of this magnitude could shatter the Barrier, it would be far too weak.
Just as she had this thought, Hyacine faintly heard another thunderous roar from the sky. Startled, she looked up and saw a hazy crimson glow spreading across the area where the brown energy beam had struck moments before.
The rumbling persisted, echoing in her ears like the muffled roar of a passing train as she stood near the tracks with earplugs in—a deafening, muffled resonance.
After a moment's hesitation, Hyacine immediately realized what was happening. If a single attack from within couldn't breach the Barrier, what about simultaneous strikes from both inside and outside, focusing on the same spot?
Moreover, the Earth Element Crystal wasn't just a Sorcerer Divine Artifact; it was also the core of the Four Elemental Planes, one of the world's vital pillars. Its destruction would naturally have a profound impact on the world itself.
It was like a cloth stretched over four wooden pillars, and one of the pillars had been chopped down.
Roughly ten seconds later, accompanied by a crisp crack, Hyacine clearly saw an irregular rift, about ten meters across, appear in the azure sky, revealing an utterly black void beyond.
The Barrier had been breached!
"Not good!" Hyacine immediately raised her right hand, unleashing a rainbow-hued light that illuminated the breach. In the next moment, crimson eyes, each roughly the size of a fist, began to materialize within the pitch-black void. Their numbers were staggering, quickly filling every corner of the rift, causing Hyacine's brow to furrow deeply. She felt her trypophobia about to flare up—the sight was truly repulsive.
The eyes continued to writhe and squirm, as if trying to force their way through the breach, but they were blocked by Hyacine's rainbow light. As the Sky Demigod, she excelled not only in offense but also in defense. After all, in the Honkai: Star Rail game, the Sky Titan symbolized the Path of Preservation.
What's the point of having high attack if you're just a stat monster? She not only had high attack power, but also high defense, a thick health bar, and could even heal others—no weaknesses whatsoever! That's what a true stat monster looks like!
Crack—
The sound of shattering glass continued to echo. Apart from the breach Hyacine was currently blocking, signs of imminent collapse were appearing elsewhere as well.
Bang—
Soon, a second five-meter breach, a third eight-meter breach, and a fourth fifteen-meter breach materialized in succession. Hyacine had no choice but to unleash more of her 'Rainbow' to seal these breaches as well.
But she quickly realized this wasn't a sustainable solution. She could only provide temporary patches, and the breaches would only continue to multiply. She couldn't spend the rest of her life here mending the sky, could she?
She needed to find a permanent cure!
After sealing the latest breaches, Hyacine mounted Little Ica and swiftly descended.
With the Earth Element Crystal's explosion, the Floating City had lost its energy source and was beginning to plummet. If it crashed to the ground, it would be a devastating blow to both the Wizards aboard and everything below.
If the city fell, it would be a catastrophe resulting in at least a million casualties!
Since the Earth Element Crystal's beam had pierced through the Floating City's center, Hyacine didn't need Teleportation Magic. She simply flew straight down to the core.
Heinrich was still pondering how to resolve the energy crisis when he saw a rainbow descend from the heavens. Then, a pink-haired girl riding a Pegasus slowly emerged from the rainbow, appearing before him.
Heinrich suddenly remembered having seen this Pegasus before. At the time, he had wondered why such a mythical creature would appear in the sky. Now, realizing it was a god's mount, its presence made perfect sense.
Hyacine hopped down from Little Ica and ran toward the Earth Element Crystal, reaching out to grab it. But even on tiptoe, she couldn't reach the crystal. After a moment of hesitation, she floated into the air and clutched the crystal with her small hand.
Then, a torrent of divine power surged from her, replacing the Earth Element Crystal as the energy source for the entire Floating City!
At the same moment, Anaxa turned to Heinrich and said, "The recent attack tore a small hole in the Barrier at 9,000 meters. Come with me—we need to find a way to seal the breach and repair the Barrier!"
They immediately switched roles: Hyacine would handle the Floating City's energy crisis, while Anaxa would repair the breach in the Barrier above. As for how to deal with the monsters that might break through at any moment while they were occupied? The solution was surprisingly simple.
Anaxa produced a fist-sized, silver-white oval stone—a Philosopher's Stone of exceptional quality. He held the stone in one hand and gently placed his other hand on Hyacine's head.
He wanted to create a Titan Body on the spot!
He'd been planning this for a long time but never had the chance to try it. Now, with Hyacine's divine power as his material and the Philosopher's Stone as his medium, Anaxa recalled the appearance of the Sky Titan Aquila from his memories.
Alchemy! Reshape! Construct!
This wasn't like assembling a figurine. It was more like meticulously piecing together countless tiny parts by hand to build a Gundam!
Once the energy input was nearly complete and the design had solidified in his mind, Anaxa left the Dungeon Core and emerged onto the surface of the Floating City. Cupping the silvery-white Philosopher's Stone in his hands, he grinned widely. "Ha ha ha ha ha! Witness the mighty power of alchemy!"
Accompanied by his inexplicably manic laughter, the Philosopher's Stone soared into the sky and began to rapidly expand. First, two pairs of massive, metallic wings unfurled from it, followed by a bird-like tail, a serpentine head, and, at its chest, an 'eye' etched with concentric patterns.
Supreme, radiant, the embodiment of the sky!