Dark Magus Returns

Chapter 1716  An Impossible Wall (Part 2)

As the area was blanketed in a heavy, unnatural darkness, Raze could already feel his Demonic Qi taking effect. The Eternal Night formation acted like a vacuum, starting to absorb parts of the ambient energy from the mages surrounding them. He wasted no time in layering his techniques, activating the Abyssal Wing formation for flight and the Nightmare formation to sow chaos among the enemy ranks.

Raze began to swing his sword in wide, violent arcs. From the shadows trailing his blade, nightmarish creatures began to manifest. These dark entities leaped through the air, clashing with the mages. Upon impact, they didn't just bite or claw; they exploded in a burst of volatile Dark Magic, shattering the mages' defensive barriers.

Using the confusion as a cover, Raze pushed forward. He moved like a phantom through the smoke, striking as many enemies as he could by hitting them from behind before they could even register his position.

Lifting his sword high into the air, he brought it crashing down on a concentrated group of mages. The force was so immense that their bodies went flying through the air like ragdolls. As he landed, he spun around to find a fresh wave of reinforcements coming from the outer area of the fortress.

He immediately unleashed his Void Pulse, a wave of distorted space that hit the incoming mages and sent them sprawling back. The others, Kelly, Alen, and Londo, were trying their best to clear the enemies from the sides. They fought with a desperate intensity, knowing full well that Raze was already doing a large part of the heavy lifting and they needed to keep his path clear.

Seeing a brief moment to breathe, Raze turned his attention back to the source of their problems. He looked at the shifting structures in the distance.

'They are the main reason for the struggle,' Raze thought, his eyes locked on the moving towers. 'If I get rid of them, the rest of this army will be manageable. Rather than wasting everything on one large attack that they can just dodge, I'll have to take them down bit by bit. I'll hammer away at them until they break!'

Now that there was a small amount of breathing space, Raze flew back up into the air. He began to swing his sword in a rapid, arc-like fashion, sending out several crimson slashes that sizzled through the sky, each one infused with his Dark Magic.

He adjusted his aim, spreading the slashes out. With the way the Dark Magic was set, there was no way for the tower to simply slide out of the way this time. And just in case it tried to move again, he kept a Dark Pulse charged in his off-hand, ready to be thrown straight ahead at the moment of impact.

The crimson attacks whistled through the air and crashed into the side of the nearest tower simultaneously. A massive explosion of soot and sparks covered the structure. However, Raze's victory was short-lived.

Almost immediately after his spells hit, a series of glowing projectiles shot back out from the smoke. They were heading directly toward Raze, moving with the exact same trajectory and speed as his own slashes.

He reacted instinctively, flinging his sword and using the flat of the blade to break several of the attacks that had been fired right back at him. The recoil vibrated up his arm, numbing his shoulder.

'The towers... they have the same enchantment that some of the mages have,' Raze thought, his brow furrowing in frustration. 'They are reflecting back the attacks. It's not just a simple physical barrier.'

He analyzed the situation quickly. 'A barrier and an enchanted item always have a limit to how much they can absorb. A single, massive attack would probably work to shatter it, but the tower would just move and dodge. But these smaller attacks... they just get reflected back at me.'

Raze wanted to take a moment to plan his next move, but he didn't even have the luxury of time. The towers were already lighting up with energy again, recharging with a speed that defied logic.

"Stay close together!" Raze shouted down to his team.

He dashed down toward the ground just as a new beam of energy erupted from the spires. His god-tier blazer started to expand, its fabric glowing as it consumed the majority of the beams aimed at the center. However, the group was being forced to spread out to avoid the mages, and Liam and B found themselves overstretched and out of the blazer's immediate protection.

In the chaos, B had to take the brunt of one of the attacks. She roared, using every ounce of her Qi to create a physical buffer, but the pressure was immense. Her body was pushed back several meters, her heels digging into the earth. The sheer heat and radiation from the beam were so intense that the skin on her arms was starting to peel and blister.

Despite the pain, she held her ground, surviving another direct strike from the tower's artillery.

"Hey, white-haired kid!" B shouted, her voice strained as she shook off the embers on her clothes. "I don't think I can take another one of those hits! This body is weak, and that beam of energy is too consistent for me to phase through it. The effect of the sword will do me more bad than good if I try to cut that much power. You need to figure out something and do it fast!"

Raze knew B was right. They were being whittled down. Every step further he thought he was taking, it felt like two steps were being taken back by the fortress's overwhelming defenses.

And that's when a deep, low rumbling started to shake the entire area.

The ground groaned and cracked, the vibrations so violent they threatened to knock the group off their feet. Off in the distance, Raze could see massive shapes forming from the very floor of the Noble Land.

They grew taller than the buildings around them, earth and stone swirling together to form giant, human-shaped figures. It wasn't just one; eight of them rose simultaneously, matching the number of the towers. They looked nearly as large as the puppet Harvey had used in the past, but these were constructed entirely of dense earth magic and reinforced by the land itself.

"Giant golems..." Raze claimed, his voice tight. "He's really pulling out all of the stops. It's almost as if they have an unlimited supply of beast crystals to power all of this!"

And that wasn't all. From the central palace itself, several flying vehicles, entire fleets of magical airships, were starting to emerge from the hangars. They soared into the sky, their decks crowded with mages who specialized in quick-fire, long-range spells.

The fleet moved with high speed, beginning to circle the battlefield like vultures. The situation was no longer just a struggle; it was becoming dire.

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