Chapter 926: Sonic Boom
At this moment, Difo didn’t dare hesitate any longer. He frantically fled into the distance, but the Forgefire Ancestor—perhaps still enraged by Difo’s earlier assault—now ignored the attacks from other Title Archmages, relentlessly pursuing Difo alone.
As a colossal spirit entity, the Forgefire Ancestor wasn’t fast, but its hundred-and-fifty-meter tall frame meant every stride covered dozens of meters. Each step whipped up howling gales.
Though its stride frequency wasn’t much faster than a human’s walk, it stayed glued to Difo’s heels, refusing to let go. Flaming meteors rained down in pursuit, leaving Difo scrambling to keep up.
Dodging without pause, Difo’s face grew paler by the second. The constant bursts of magic drained his mana at an alarming rate.
If this keeps up, getting smashed to death by the Forgefire Ancestor is only a matter of time.
Suddenly, Difo caught sight of Leon battling an Orc Warlord wielding a massive sword in the distance.
Leon Merlin...
Ha! Talk about bad luck. Damn bastard, you dared to oppose me—so what if you command an army of Alchemical Golems? You’re still going to die here.
This damned Forgefire Ancestor has gone completely mad, chasing me without end. Fine, I’ll just lead it straight to Leon Merlin...
If the Forgefire Ancestor kills Leon Merlin, all the better. Dying on a battlefield like this—no one would know the truth. And if Leon Merlin ends up dead, would that idiot Heron really risk turning against me for a corpse?
Once I lead it over there, I’ll finally be rid of this damned Forgefire Ancestor...
Perfect. Absolutely perfect...
With this thought, a hint of joy crept across Difo’s face. He cast Flight in midair, dodging wildly as he edged closer to Leon’s position.
Once he was within forty or fifty meters, Difo calculated the distance, positioning himself, Leon, and the Forgefire Ancestor in a straight line. He even paused there, risking a fiery meteor from the Forgefire Ancestor for the sake of his plan.
Difo’s eyes darted back and forth, tracking Leon’s movements. Suddenly, as the Forgefire Ancestor hurled another flaming meteor, Difo unleashed his magic at full force and dodged away.
With Difo out of the way, the flaming meteor—too fast to change course—hurtled straight toward Leon’s position...
At this moment, Leon was locked in a critical battle with the peak Black Iron Orc Eight-Rank Sword Saint.
The Orc Warlord’s Sacred Fang sword was a nightmare. Its trace of supernatural aura amplified the blade’s piercing and slashing power to the extreme—any spell could be cut down. Single, powerful spells were now useless against him.
So Leon had no choice but to keep laying traps, casting fire spells to increase the concentration and activity of fire elements here, holding the Orc Warlord firmly in place.
Once the fire element concentration and activity reached a certain threshold, Leon unleashed his mana, activating the runes he’d set up earlier. He drew in all the surrounding fire element power, condensing it into hundreds of Detonation spells that encircled the Orc Warlord.
But these blue-tailed fireballs didn’t strike the Orc Warlord directly—instead, they formed a ring, bombarding the area just a few meters around him.
The explosive force of hundreds of Detonation spells was pure power. When unleashed, all that energy compressed toward the center—a force even the Sacred Fang sword couldn’t cut through.
Pure, unadulterated suppression—brute force crushing everything. It was enough to pin down the Orc Warlord, who hadn’t yet reached Ninth-Rank Sword Saint, and kill him outright, Sacred Fang or not.
But just as Leon finished condensing hundreds of Detonation spells, every hair on his body stood on end. A deadly sense of danger erupted from deep within, like a volcano suddenly detonating—his soul trembled with dread.
The next instant, Leon sensed a terrifying force rapidly approaching from behind. He glanced back—and his scalp tingled with fear.
An eight-meter-wide flaming meteor, trailing a monstrous distance, had lost its long tail of black smoke—replaced by a white shockwave stretching hundreds of meters, and a cone of white cloud behind it, like the meteor was wearing a flowing white dress.
Leon was all too familiar with those streaks in the sky—they were Sonic Boom Clouds.
The meteor’s impact speed had already broken the sound barrier!
At this point, Leon couldn’t care less if the Orc Warlord with the Sacred Fang sword survived the shockwave. All his focus was now on the flaming meteor hurtling toward him.
Mana exploded from within Leon, surging out in waves—dense, deep ribbons swirling around him like layers of ethereal silk.
At the same time, Leon gripped the Death Tome in his left hand. The tome fluttered open to the Elemental Chapter, radiating icy blue light, while the Dragonbane Staff in his right hand blazed with dazzling brilliance.
Behind him, the Arcane Wheel materialized—a massive spectral disk, composed of interlocking rings, each ring formed from countless rune-filled cells.
Now, the rings spun wildly, and the runes seemed to come alive—combining at breakneck speed, as if countless spells were being assembled in an instant.
Runes poured endlessly from the Arcane Wheel’s spectral form, merging with Leon’s unleashed mana—instantly transforming into dozens of spells...
Every spell was charged with wild, violent power, all surging toward the flaming meteor. And it didn’t stop—Leon retreated rapidly, while the Arcane Wheel kept spitting out runes without end.
Every instant, dozens of spells crowded together, forming a terrifying torrent that slammed into the meteor.
With the impact of this fearsome torrent, the meteor’s speed began to drop sharply.
But even so, the slowdown was still too slow...
The meteor was simply too fast—if Leon had even three seconds, no, just a little over a second, he could have shredded it to pieces.
But that terrifying speed brought terrifying power. It was as if an invisible force shielded the meteor’s surface, preventing most spells from even touching it...
In less than a second, the meteor’s speed was halved—but it still wasn’t enough to withstand the impact.
Leon’s expression darkened. The Death Tome fluttered open to the Sage’s Chapter, and two marks above the Sage’s emblem suddenly lit up.
Leon poured his mana in without hesitation, and instantly a ten-meter-wide Magma Shield materialized before him.
The Magma Shield solidified into a dark red barrier, covered in intricate patterns, with streams of molten flame slowly flowing across its surface.
Then, behind the Magma Shield, a colossal gate more than twenty meters tall rose from the ground. The gate was deep brown, gleaming like metal, its top adorned with sculptures of earth-type magical beasts, and its front carved with the ancient face of a stone giant.
Gate of Earth!
Both spells had been inscribed in advance on the Sage’s Chapter—now unleashed at their full, Limit Spell power.
Pure defensive strength—comparable to Leon’s Rune Shield!
It’s important to note: the greatest limitation of the Rune Shield is the number of runes. Right now, Leon’s rune count far surpasses every Title Archmage of this age—even those newly ascended to Sky Rank. In terms of sheer quantity, none can match him.
Leon’s magus rune array requires far more runes than any other magical array of this era—multiple times more than even the highest standard.
That’s why his Rune Shield’s defensive strength rivals the strongest eighth-level defensive spell—and it’s instantaneous!
But these two Limit Spells unleashed from the Sage’s Chapter are genuine—true Limit Spells, not mere imitations conjured by mana and technique!
Though their spell rank was only boosted by two levels, their power far exceeded that—defensive strength was astonishing!
Even so, when the meteor—slowed only by half—struck head-on, the Magma Shield exploded into fragments. The only result: a bit of the meteor’s force was dispersed.
The Gate of Earth only held for an instant before shattering as well.
But this time, the flaming meteor exploded too...
The shattered meteor turned into countless fragments, like a storm of arrows fired by divine archers, slashing toward Leon...
Leon spat out runes, rapidly condensing Frost Shields before him—but the meteor fragments instantly tore them apart.