Chapter 577

Pallas Floating City.

The Duke of Redstone stood alone, watching the wizards clean up the ruins of the tower with a blank expression, and the people around him did not dare to approach him.

"teacher."

Montalin appeared in front of him and called out respectfully.

The Duke of Redstone turned his head and glanced at him, and asked softly, "Has the loss been calculated?"

"yes."

Montalin reported with a sad face: "The attack killed 396 people, 38 of whom were passengers and mechanical craftsmen on the two magic airships, 45 were residents who were killed in various places in the city, and the remaining 313 people... ..."

When he said this, he carefully looked at the teacher's face. Seeing that the teacher's expression didn't change, he continued: "Most of these 313 people are teachers and students of the Magic Academy. They couldn't escape in time when the tower exploded and collapsed."

Duke Redstone's heart twitched violently.

Pallas Floating Void City dominates the entire northern prairie. The actual land area is more than ten times larger than that of other dukes. It almost monopolizes the trade routes to the north and northwest of the empire. It has huge mineral resources and unscrupulously plunders the taxes of foreign races on the prairie. , so the financial resources are strong, even richer than Nether.

Relying on the unimaginable wealth of ordinary people, Pallas Floating Void City recruits a large number of students, invests resources regardless of cost, and cultivates a large number of wizards.

After more than two hundred years of accumulation, the number of Pallas wizards exceeds one thousand, second only to Nether, and ranks second among all floating cities.

Before the Scourge of the Undead, Wezeland only had more than 500 wizards at most.

This is also the capital that Pallas dared to compete with Wezelan.

Now, more than 300 wizards died in a single attack, a reduction of nearly one-third. Years of investment and hard work were all in vain, and the loss could no longer be described as heavy.

Duke Redstone felt that his heart was bleeding.

The loss of the North Tower was dominated by wizards.

The south tower is his magic laboratory and warehouse, which stores wealth worth more than 50 million gold shields, including countless alchemy materials, magic souls, potions and precious magic items. People can't bear it.

Many things cannot be bought even with money, and their value is incalculable.

The overall strength of Pallas went back at least fifty years.

In the next few years, repairing the control circle of Iola's core will require millions of gold shields. If Pallas lands on the ground, Iola's core cannot be used, and the magic protection of the floating city will fail. I don't know how many enemies will be attracted spying.

Pallas suffered such a major blow, and his personal prestige was also affected, especially at the moment when he had just been promoted to one of the three giants of the empire, he seemed to have been slapped severely and lost all face.

The more Duke Redstone thought about it, the angrier he became.

Obviously, just half a month ago, everything went well. According to the plan, I will lead the two floating cities of Pallas and Nesser, become the leader of the Nesser faction, and take charge of the empire.

However, things took a turn for the worse.

Not only did Nether Floating Void City fail to succeed, but even his own Pallas suffered.

Who is it?

A handsome young man's face immediately appeared in the Duke of Redstone's mind, and his anger surged up. Even the will to truth could not be suppressed, and he whispered in a deep voice: "Ren Augustus!"

From the first time he heard the name, the Duke of Redstone was very upset, because Ren broke his record as the youngest legendary wizard, but he didn't pay much attention to it.

Later he kept hearing about this man.

With all kinds of heroic deeds and unprecedented speed of cultivation, people always compare Renn with himself. As a great holy soul wizard, he is the first genius in history, but he can't compare with him, and he becomes a stepping stone for a brat.

The more times he was compared, the worse his impression of Ren was, even though he had never seen him before.

Then came the opening ceremony of the wizard exchange competition.

Ren was once again in the limelight. The Duke of Redstone did not watch the battle between Ren and Elder Nether with his own eyes, but from the images recording the battle process, he judged at a glance that Ren had the same will to truth as himself.

This made the Duke of Redstone feel threatened, and he was already hostile without seeing him.

When I met him face to face, what happened in that small plane, Ren ruined the big plan he had prepared for many years, and threatened himself in front of all the holy soul wizards, humiliated him, and never encountered such a big thing in his life. frustration.

On that day, he swore in his heart that Ren would never give up until he died.

And it won't let Renn die easily.

However, the Duke of Redstone didn't do anything immediately when he returned to Pallas. He had more important things to do, and the liquidation of Ren's hatred came later.

Ren is very annoying. The Duke of Redstone has never hated a person so much, but he has to admit that Ren's talent and strength are extremely strong, faintly surpassing himself, and with Wezeland and Anse Woldas behind him, even if he is Holy soul wizards at the thirty-third level should also be a little bit wary.

What scares him the most is that Ren is protected by the goddess of magic, so he can't do it easily.

So the Duke of Redstone chose to forbear for the time being.

As long as that thing is successful, even if Ren is promoted to the holy soul wizard, even if Ren is a student of Anse Wo Daosi, even if Ren has the grace of the goddess of magic, killing Ren at that time will be nothing but a waste of money for him. A trivial thing, as easy as killing an ant.

However, the whole plan was disrupted.

Today's attack stalled the plan for at least five years, and he was seriously injured. Before the floating city rose again, he was powerless to retaliate.

It was just too much of a coincidence.

As soon as he became enmity with Ren, Pallas was severely injured and his vitality was severely injured.

The Duke of Redstone couldn't help but doubt, could it be that Ren did all this?

Montalin's heart skipped a beat when he heard the name he said, and he said in shock, "Teacher, it was the Earl of Glamorgan who attacked Pallas?"

He has never seen the most popular wizard in the empire, but he has also heard about various deeds. Previously, after the teacher returned to Pallas, he asked himself to send someone to investigate the other party, and instructed him to set a trap in Glamorgan to monitor the other party's every move.

The teacher didn't say why he did this, but he obviously regarded Ren as an enemy.

Duke Redstone didn't respond.

He thought for a long time, recalling the detection of the enemies on the airship just now, his superb mastery of teleportation spells, and the suicide attack black wizard in the control room of the floating city, he finally shook his head.

Ryan Augustus does not have such a great ability.

Not to mention that Ren is just a mere legendary wizard, and Wezelan behind him can't do it either. Such a powerful and crazy move must be related to the gods.

"Probably not him."

Duke Redstone wasn't too sure either.

He opened the portal to enter the control room of the floating city, and Montalin quickly followed.

Nuoda’s control room is like a bright hall. The rune circles on the ground and walls are dim, and more than 70% were destroyed in the explosion just now. The core of Iola hovering in the middle rotates slowly, still like the sun Like emitting endless light, but has stopped outputting energy.

The core of Iola didn't go out, it just stopped working temporarily.

Duke Redstone raised his hand lightly.

An eight-ring spell "Light and Shadow Backtracking" was released.

Montalin also knows this spell, and has used it many times. A few years ago, a magic airship in Pallas was robbed and killed, causing heavy losses. He went to investigate it himself.

At the crash site of the airship, Montalin investigated for a long time.

The robbery obviously happened in the sky, and it flew a long way before the crash, and the height and distance were difficult to judge. Beyond the range of light and shadow backtracking, he only saw the scene of the orc called "Broxka" robbing the wreckage of the airship, but No trace of the battle taking place on the airship can be found.

After that, the murderous orc disappeared.

The Dragonmaw clan also has no clues about this orc. It seems that there has never been an orc named "Broxgar" in the world.

This is still an unsolved case in Pallas.

Fortunately, the teacher has been concentrating on doing magic experiments these years, and only asked a few questions, and did not blame himself for his ineffective investigation.

Montalin withdrew his mind.

The light and shadow retrospective takes effect, and an illusion is created in the control room, as if going back in time, replaying it in the direction of the past, showing what happened.

Soon, the figure of the Duke of Redstone appeared in the illusion. He suppressed the explosion process by "distorting reality", which made Montalin terrified. Only then did he know what happened just now. Pallas almost crashed, and he couldn't help feeling sorry for the teacher. A sweat.

The illusion continues to go back in time, rewinding the scene before the explosion.

A dark wizard wearing a skull mask appeared.

"Dark Sun Sacred Emblem!" Montalin exclaimed in shock, "It turned out that the believers of the Deceiver did it!"

"Not necessarily." The Duke of Redstone said lightly.

The dark wizard in the light and shadow reached out and pressed the black metal box for more than ten seconds, as if to stimulate the energy explosion in the box.

"What it is?"

Montalin stared wide-eyed at the dark box.

With his knowledge, he had never seen this thing before. It didn't look like magic, nor was it a scroll. The principle of operation was also hidden in the box, so he couldn't see it at all. The only thing that is certain is its power, which is more terrifying than the nine-ring extreme pyro-explosion technique, and it was they that blew up two high towers.

Duke Redstone didn't recognize it either.

Apparently, the black wizard intentionally used a black box as the outer shell to cover up the magic item inside, just not wanting others to know its origin.

Going back further, the two saw the black wizard cast the Great Disintegration spell five times in a row, breaking the magic protection of Iola's core.

Judging from the process of releasing the Great Disintegration, the opponent's arcane attainments are extremely high. The eight-ringed Great Disintegration can be cast in only three seconds, and each Great Disintegration hits the weak point of the protective circle. That's why it took only five spellcastings to expose the core of Iola.

Montalin also knows how to disintegrate, but he thinks he is not as good as this black wizard.

For him, it would take at least decades of research.

"Who is this person?" Montalin was very puzzled. A wizard who can master the Great Disintegration to such an extent is at least the peak of legend, and he must not be unknown.

But the other party didn't seem to care about his own life at all, and directly blew himself up to death.

Montalin whispered: "Teacher, he must have a way to resurrect."

"Um."

Duke Redstone nodded, he had already thought about it.

The light and shadow went back to the moment when the black wizard appeared. The two towers exploded and collapsed, causing the control room to vibrate violently, and the magic protection was flawed.

A portal took the opportunity to open, and the black wizard walked out from it.

The light and shadow stopped on this screen.

The two were very puzzled when they saw the Pallas badge in the black wizard's hand. The Pallas Badge is soul-bound, even if you kill the bearer, you can't get the permission to use it. The only person who can grant permission is the Duke of Redstone himself.

"How did you do that?" Neither of them understood.

Duke Redstone frowned, he didn't even notice the abnormality of the badge.

If the badge's soul binding is cracked, it means that there is a huge loophole in the magic protection of the Floating Void City. As long as you kill any Pallas wizard and grab the badge, you can sneak into the Floating Void City.

He carefully looked across the portal.

This should be somewhere in Pallas City, it seems to be a storage room.

Combined with the fluctuation frequency of the portal, after a while, the Duke of Redstone found the place, teleported there directly, and cast "Light and Shadow Backtracking" again in that storage room.

This time the backtracking time is longer.

He controlled the phantom to speed up and rewind until he saw the figure of the black wizard. I saw the black wizard holding the badge of Pallas in one hand, casting spells non-stop in the other hand, opening one after another random doors that were only half a meter high, leading to all parts of Pallas.

Each Dimensional Door was only open for half a second, and the Dark Wizard threw a Kildarin gem through it, before snapping shut.

This precious gem can store spells.

The Duke of Redstone and Montalin could tell at a glance that the Kildarin gemstones thrown by the black wizard all stored six-ring Pyroblast, and would detonate as soon as they were thrown.

It was these gems that caused chaos in the city of Pallas and distracted the wizards.

When Montalin saw this scene, his face was very ugly.

I was misled by the other party, thinking that every explosion point in Pallas City was executed by an enemy, and ordered people to encircle and hunt.

The Duke of Redstone didn't care about that.

What he cares about is that the black wizard can open any door at will in the floating city, and the number of times far exceeds the upper limit of the Pallas badge. This is the biggest problem.

Is the Pallas badge really cracked?

The light and shadow backtracking stopped suddenly, the phantom in the storage room disappeared, and nothing could be seen.

"Arcane Disruption."

The Duke of Redstone said in a deep voice.

This is a seven-ring spell, which can prevent the effects of many arcane spells, including light and shadow backtracking, making people unable to see what happened at that time.

Apparently, there are important clues hidden in the disturbed time.

As for why the black wizard didn't use arcane spells to disrupt it, it's probably because the situation was urgent and he had to race against time to destroy the core of Iola, and he didn't have time to cast another seven-ring spell; Doesn't care about being seen.

Soon after, Montalin received a report from the people below to find out the holder of the Pallas badge.

It was a Pallas psyker.

He was robbed of his badge after performing the Advanced Sleep Technique in Urg City. The black wizard didn't kill him until he was awakened by his Red Flame Sword Guard. He didn't know what happened from the beginning to the end, and couldn't ask any clues.

Montalin rushed to the upper floor of the alchemy material store, and used light and shadow to look back at the process. The other party was in stealth all the way and found nothing.

After listening to Montalin's report, Duke Redstone asked him to step back and stood silent in the control room of the floating city.

He recalled the wizards on the airship.

Everyone was wearing black robes and skull masks, covering their entire body so tightly that not even an inch of skin was exposed, and a lot of cloth was stuffed under the robes to change their body shape, obviously to guard against their own will to truth.

Such a huge and meticulous plan should not be a temporary idea, but a long-term preparation.

I don't have many enemies, and the biggest enemy right now is Ren Augustus. He has the motivation and the strength to do it, but the two have only been feuding for more than half a month, so his suspicion is very small, and it is hardly too serious. Probably he did.

The likelihood of fraudster followers is also low.

Those black wizards wore skull masks on their faces, and their behavior style was in line with the crazy teachings of "Fraudsters". They should have deliberately planted the blame and misled themselves to seek revenge from the "Dark Sun" black wizards.

If it were someone else, they would probably believe it.

But the Duke of Redstone firmly refused to believe it, and denied that the believers of the fraudsters were behind the scenes.

"It's not Ren Augustus, nor is it a believer of the evil god. Who could it be?" The Duke of Redstone pondered for a long time, but there was no result.

The only clue left was the black metal box. He had never seen those pure and violent energies before.

Duke Hongshi has a photographic memory since he was a child, and the will to truth has made his memory stronger. After hundreds of years, he has accumulated a huge amount of knowledge in his mind, which is like a treasure house of knowledge.

However, he thought hard for a long time and did not remember the relevant content.

The black wizard covered it up so well that he didn't even expose a single rune, and he probably didn't have any relevant knowledge, so he couldn't draw a conclusion.

Duke Redstone shook his head and temporarily gave up on the investigation.

The most important thing now is to restore his soul trauma, repair the control circle of Iola's core, restore the energy output, and let the floating city fly again.

At the same time, be vigilant and guard against more attacks that may target Pallas in the future.

The pursuit of the enemy can only be put aside.