738 In Vain

In San Ivansburg…

When the shooting stars passed the sky and hit Allyn like a storm, Belkovsky, the pontiff of the North Church who was inside the cathedral, sensed something although he did not see anything. Looking at the ceiling, which had beautiful embossments, he said to himself in shock, "Has Viken taken action? They're planning to capture an artificial planet?"

He and the Grand Cardinals of the North Church had already made a plan to "claim" one of the artificial planets when the South Church was capturing them. They were even scheming to bolster the progress behind the curtain in case the South Church procrastinated and gave the artificial planets a better opportunity of performance. However, when it really happened, he remained absolutely still and did not even summon the saints and the other Grand Cardinals.

That was because the South Church took action too fast for the Congress of Magic to react. Naturally, the huge battle that they envisaged did not take place at all. If they were to jump to the orbit through the preinstalled transmission circles at this moment, they would see nothing but the back of the Grand Cardinals of the South Church who were leaving, encounter the reinforcements of the Congress of Magic who had come late, and bear the fury of the Congress of Magic instead of the South Church!

Who would ever take somebody else's blame without earning any benefits from it?

"The Congress of Magic cannot so inert, can they? However strong Viken is, he cannot stay out of Lance for long, or how can he suppress so many top legends and grand arcanists?" Belkovsky frowned as he sensed the anomaly in the matter.

Under normal circumstances, Viken should've attacked Allyn to stall a few top legends and most grand arcanists, but since he could not block all of them, the remaining arcanists would lead the other legendary sorcerers into the orbit and fight the Grand Cardinals such as Melmax. Although they could not stop the South Church from taking away the artificial planet because they had been slowed, a huge battle that the North Church looked forward to would inevitably break out. However, as it turned out, the sky was absolutely quiet at this moment! Where were the grand arcanists of the Congress of Magic?

Without the navigation of grand arcanists, it was impossible for the other legends to arrive at the orbit through projections because they were two levels away from Melmax and would be crushed. If Melmax had "Purge Cross" with him, they would probably be killed!

A prophecy divine power was performed immediately. Since the thing was happening, and nobody tried to interfere with or cover the trajectory of fate, Belkovsky immediately understood what was going on. The Will of Abyss had arrived at the northland without a sign!

"He's working with Viken?" Belkovsky felt as hilarious as if he had seen his own death notification. Not believing it at all, he knew that there was only one way to cooperate with the Will of Abyss, which was to establish a ritual that could summon him and open the barrier of planes, and if the ritual happened to be near the enemies that needed to be dealt with, the Will of Abyss would not hesitate to kill them.

Therefore, Belkovsky would rather believe that Viken took advantage of the brainlessness of the Will of Abyss, but how exactly did he summon him? Allowing a demigod that did not belong to the main material world to arrive had a great cost. However, there was no sign before the incident, and there were no disguises such as "Paradise on Earth" on the surface…

Belkovsky considered Viken's approach in case he was dealt with in the same way in the future. Suddenly, his heart of faith rippled again. The strange feeling prompted him to blink to the window and look at the sky.

In the gloomy afternoon of a winter day, a glittering light seemed to have flashed in the high sky.

It might've escaped everybody else's attention, but Belkovsky, as the strongest top legend, certainly had no trouble distinguishing it. He squinted and said, "Has the artificial planet exploded?

"Also, the explosion is as powerful as legendary!

"Those heretics of the South Church did not even cast any divine power to eliminate the effects? They couldn't have been that dumb, could they?"

He suddenly felt lucky that they did not take action just now. Otherwise, not only would their effort have been in vain, but they would have also exposed their intention and pissed of the Congress of Magic.

Although other interests would still maintain their cooperation, it was possible that the Congress of Magic would return the "favor" someday.

......

On the empty orbit, Saint Kati, Astira, and the other people, who stayed on alert far away, sensed the anomaly of the artificial planet when they sensed the overwhelming heat coming at them. The surging energy storm swept out like a torrent.

"Damn it!"

"How could this happen?"

Their divine items were triggered as they exclaimed to themselves, before they were all drowned by the storm of energy.

Fernando and Hathaway's fission reactor was mostly based on reverse engineering on "Atomic Fission" and their own studies on the fission reaction. They had a rough idea about the role that neutrons played, but they were still far away from utilizing it steadily. To quote Lucien, the core of their fission reactor was essentially an atomic bomb, whose energy was slowly released by magic. That was why accidents happened all the time and legendary explosions were generated.

When the Purge Cross eliminated the magic circles outside and stopped magic from blocking the reactions, the "failed reactor" inside the artificial planet began to function. At this moment, the elimination effect hadn't reached the core and could not eliminate the reactor magic circle inside.

By the time the fission reaction began, it was already a natural course and therefore could not be eliminated. The magic circles that could be eliminated, on the other hand, were the parts that eased the release of energy so that it could be utilized. Therefore, the explosion after the loss of control was even greater and more powerful!

Dazzling light swept across everything around them with overwhelming energy. The artificial planet at the center was completely vaporized, and the area was savaged by the trickiest "curses".

When the light died down, Melmax, Philip, and the other Grand Cardinals reappeared. Some of them were fully enshrouded in the Blessed Realm, and some had six white wings covering their back.

Melmax, who stood at the front, held the longsword, "Holy Avenger", with both hands and nullified the invisible curses covered in light.

"Thankfully, it is not Eternal Blaze…" he said to Philip and the rest of them in a low voice. It was hard to tell how he felt. "Beware of the curse. Don't be careless. Although they seem not too harmful, their consequences may be dire."

Although "Atomic Fission" could reach level three of legendary if the caster and the materials were good enough, the previous explosion was only level-one legendary because the artificial planet could only accommodate limited magic circles and materials. It could not hurt Melmax, a top legendary knight, at all.

However, it did not mean that Melmax was not scared. If it were "Eternal Blaze" that happened in the explosion accident just now, he would've been heavily wounded again after having just recovered from the harm. It was even possible that irrecoverable diseases could be caused due to the consecutive injuries.

Behind him, Philip had messy hair and looked rather frustrated. If Melmax hadn't blocked it for him, he probably would've been heavily wounded. He said in fury and disbelief, "Why did the magic circles detonate themselves after they were eliminated by the Purge Cross?"

He could not think through it at all!

If they hadn't eliminated the effects with the Purge Cross, it would've taken a long time to suppress the peripheral magic circles of the artificial planet and haul it back, and the odds of encountering legendary sorcerers would've been higher. However, little did they foresee such an unbelievable situation after they used the Purge Cross!

"Perhaps, a legendary spell that had been cast earlier was sealed inside. After you eliminated the seal, it naturally burst out," Melmax speculated based on his experience.

"That's impossible. We're talking about a legendary spell. The artificial planet is not a legendary item. Also, under the elimination, whether or not it has started, all the legendary powers should've been removed." Philip shook his head in confusion and fear.

"Stop!" In the channel of communication that was similar to the telepathic bond, Saint Kati spoke solemnly, "Let's not bother why it happened for now. The most important thing at present is what to do next. Are you going to capture the other artificial planet nearby, or should we simply evacuate? We don't have much time. I do not want to fight the grand arcanists!"

They had chosen this artificial planet because there was another candidate not far away.

Philip calmed down. He puckered for a while before shaking his head and said, "Let's evacuate. The time that the Congress of Magic cannot react has passed, unless His Holiness is willing to continue his suppression. However, that will give the Silver Moon and the Lord of Hell an opportunity to attack His Holiness. If His Holiness is heavily wounded because of that, we will be caught in a subtle situation since the Angle King does not respond to us now."

It was obvious that the pope was more important than the artificial planet!

Frustration and anger consumed the Grand Cardinals, but there was little they could do. Such operations verged on failure once the abruptness and the time gap were broken, unless they were willing to turn a temporary operation into a total war.

Ivory light glittered, and the Grand Cardinals disappeared from the orbit as fast as they came but with additional helplessness.

On the other artificial planet not far away, silver lines glowed and constructed a weird magic circle, which blurred the surroundings as if it was connected to different worlds. Some of the worlds had furious storms, and some were the harmonious nature.

Through the magic circle, Douglas, Fernando, and the rest of them arrived with their projections. Then, connecting their own demiplanes, they transformed the projections into their real bodies.

"They did not come here. What a bunch of fast runners." Seeing that the artificial planet was as quiet as before, Fernando did not hesitate to mock the enemies.

Douglas smiled. "They are not possessed by the devil of greed. How could they not have reached the conclusion that it was dangerous to come here? If they did come, at least one of them would be killed."

"I, for one, wished that they had come. We can let them 'loot' the remains of the artificial planet after a huge battle," said Lucien, not without regrets.

"Why?" It was impossible for Hellen to be devoted to her arcana and magic studies right now, so she showed an unusual interest in Lucien's remark.