Chapter 546: It Was Just Impossible
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The World Impaler was the highest pinnacle of High Elf magical worksmanship. It was made from the oldest branches of the World Tree.
This sword had two particularities that defied conventional understanding. Firstly, it could pierce through anything that existed in Firuman. Be it ethereal or physical, it could pierce through anything. Even space was not immune to it. It would be able to kill anyone you wanted dead if supplied with enough Legendary-level power.
There had been historical accounts of High Elves wielding the World Impaler with all their power to strike down their enemies 50 miles away.
Secondly, the sword was incredibly fast.
Due to its unimaginable speed, it was usually used in ambushes. A competent enough wielder of the sword would be able to strike their victim's vital points, ending them on the spot before they even realized what had happened.
A High Elf poet once wrote a poem in praise of the sword: "Swifter than time, it was the God of Light's divine retribution, the herald of the end of days!"
In fact, this sword was also known as one of the strategic-level weapons forged by the High Elves, a national treasure of the Isle of Dawn. It rarely saw any use, and still, Link never imagined that he would see it so soon in Ariel's hands.
The sword's target was Celine. If Link was not standing beside her, Celine would surely have been dead!
Link realized what his opponent was aiming for. If something happened to Celine, Link would lose his composure. Taking advantage of this, the Ethereal Prince Haromed would be able to turn the tables on them. At that point, Link's squad would be decimated.
He was now seething with anger, but still his mind did not stray. On the contrary, an extreme calmness had cleared his mind. His mind was now working at twice its usual speed. He had now entered his Ultimate State.
Before his eyes, the world around him had slowed down so much that everything seemed to have come to a complete halt.
Under these circumstances, Link's Dragon Power flared up. In a thousandth of a second, he had spent 1000 Dragon Power points. A portion of this Dragon Power was used to maintain Link's current accelerated speed of thought, while another portion was used to repair the damage that was spreading across his body while he was in his Ultimate State.
The only thing that was still moving in this standstill was the World Impaler, ripping through the air like a sewing needle.
In an instant, the sword inched closer towards Celine's back. It was simply too fast. Celine had realized that something was wrong. Her body moved, instinctively trying to dodge the fatal blow coming from behind, but Celine's speed was nothing in comparison to the World Impaler's.
She then saw Link and stopped, ignoring the threat behind her. She turned and fired a shot from her magic rifle at Haromed the Ethereal Prince.
Bang! A streak of red light extended out from the rifle's barrel towards the Ethereal Prince's head.
At the same time, Link drew out his Dragon King's Fury sword. The sound of wind and lightning erupted from it. With Dragon Power blazing fierily from its blade, Link swung the sword in an arc at the World Impaler.
The World Impaler's wielder seemed to be unaware of the sword's current state, as it pressed on forward without dodging or parrying Link's attack.
An instant later, there was deafening clang. Link's sword collided against the World Impaler, sending out an explosion of energy.
While the Dragon King's Fury sword did not stand on equal ground with the World Impaler in terms of quality, it did not collide head-on with the World Impaler and was able to come out relatively unharmed. On the other hand, the World Impaler's wielder was not as powerful as Link. Under such circumstances, the result was a stalemate.
When the two swords rebounded from each other, the bullet from Celine's magic rifle had flown nine feet through the air. It was still another nine feet away from the Ethereal Prince.
Link managed to match the World Impaler's incredible speed at that moment.
When the explosion of energy occurred, Link had a hand pressed gently against Celine's back. A spatial barrier appeared behind Celine, shielding her from the shockwave.
Its attack impeded by Link, the World Impaler retreated immediately from him, as if trying to regain its momentum and strike a second time when it was ready.
I'm not letting you go! Focusing his will on the Dragon King's Fury sword, Link sent it flying out. Stacks of runes appeared on the blade, and the Dragon King's Fury sword pursued the World Impaler.
Link activated four Despair Balls which appeared in the air 50 feet from each other. After zipping in and out of the magic spheres, the Dragon King's Fury sword finally appeared about 100 feet away from Link.
At that moment, Link sensed that the World Impaler had stopped moving. He took it to mean that it had returned to its owner.
He quickly estimated his opponent's position and sent his sword hurtling towards where she would most likely appear in the next second.
An instant later, Link felt that the sword had pierced something. Judging from its impact, it was probably flesh that the sword had struck. But the sensation only lasted for a moment. Link felt the sword budge slightly, and the resistance to the sword's tip was gone.
Link summoned his sword back. He saw fresh blood stains on the sword's tip. With another nudge of his will, he activated a simple Magician's Hand. The blood stain floated up from the blade and was then stored away by Link in his spatial pendant.
In the field of Secret Magic, blood was purported to be the soul's vessel. Through even a drop of blood, Secret Magicians could easily track down its owner.
Link was not too familiar with this branch of magic. However, Eleanor, Evelina, Vance, Elin, and the others had accomplished much in this field. Tracking their enemy with a drop of blood should not be a problem to them.
When Link was done, he immediately came out of his Ultimate State. Though he had only been in it for five-thousandths of a second, he had already spent 5000 Dragon Power points. An indescribable pain now gripped his head. He was also rendered incapable of casting any spells for a short period of time.
The world around him now returned to its normal speed.
A short while later, Celine's bullet had reached the side Haromed's head.
Haromed had just come out from the spatial door. Before he could even react, Haromed was already surrounded by his aggressors in an instant. He panicked and instinctively activated his trump card: Polyclone.
Polyclone.
Level-12 Ethereal Spell
Description: With its affinity for spatial magic, an Ethereal is able to easily feel its way through spatial nodes. Through these nodes, Ethereals can bypass the limitations of most spatial spells.
(Note: The secret art of using these spatial nodes is difficult to master. Not even the Ethereal Prince has a complete mastery of it.)
There was a sudden flash from the bracelet on the Ethereal Prince's wrist. In a flash, his body was split into three. The three clones were ten feet apart and were identical to one another. What boggled everyone's mind at that moment was the fact that Celine's bullet passed harmlessly through one of the Ethereal Prince's foreheads.
Seeing this, Eliard activated his own trump card without a second thought. The runestone in his hand shone brightly as he began infusing his power into it.
A brilliant red streak of light flashed out towards one of the Ethereal Prince's clones.
Before letting out his attack, Eliard adjusted the streak of light's trajectory beforehand so that it would hit the other two clones.
A Level-13 attack was a force to be reckoned with. Ripples spread out from where the beam of light had passed through. The ripples were caused by the surrounding air that had been heated up, though some of them were also due to the slight spatial turbulences in the attack's trajectory.
Once a Spatial Magician's power reached a certain stage, any of his or her attacks could visibly affect the integrity of the surrounding spatial fabric itself.
When this beam of light sprang forth, Eliard had already thought of a follow-up attack. If my attack passes through the first two clones, that means the last one should be the Ethereal's real body. Celine will just need to open fire another time at it, and the Ethereal Prince will be as good as dead.
The beam of light had served its purpose. It passed straight through the first two clones, which shimmered for a moment and then disappeared. Only one Ethereal clone remained in the room.
Celine did not disappoint Eliard. She saw the last Ethereal clone and fired a shot at it.
Ever since she had received her magic rifle, Celine had been training hard every day, especially during her time in the Girvent war. She had spent thousands of bullets during her training. As of now, Celine's focus and precision were second to none.
She remained unfazed by her first shot that hit nothing. When Eliard's attack isolated the last Ethereal clone, she had a sudden premonition. Acting immediately on it, she pulled the trigger.
When the beam of light headed straight for him, Haromed began to panic. At the sight of Celine's barrel aimed squarely at his real body, he instinctively activated his Polyclone technique another time.
In that instant, his body split again into three more clones.
He had thought of making a run for the cellar's exit, but the spatial imprisonment around him was way too secure. He was still able to use his Polyclone technique, but his power was sealed up effectively by the spatial imprisonment.
Under his current circumstances, the Ethereal Prince could not find any spatial node around him that would be able to facilitate his escape. He could only conjure up more clones of himself to evade his aggressors' attacks.
Just then, instead of escaping, Haromed decided to retaliate.
But then, tragedy struck!
Just when one of his clones appeared, and his real body was trying to squeeze itself through a spatial node, he suddenly had a sense of extreme danger. What's going on? What's going on!
His body shook all of a sudden when he reappeared in another corner. He lowered his eyes and saw that there was a huge bloody hole in his chest. He turned around and saw that the barrel of Celine's magic rifle was still glowing.
"I've been hit? How did she know where my real body was? How is this possible?"
In a second, he had produced 1000 clones of himself, each as real as the other. He did not understand how the woman was able to see through his cloning trick, which was, as far as he knew, faultless.
It was just impossible.