Chapter 1125
Heron gripped the potion bottle, his eyes slightly reddened...
"Lord Merlin, I can't accept this. Actually, it was Lord Joey who persuaded me this time, and before, I...
Leon shook his head and looked at Heron.
"Lord Heron, whatever happened before is in the past. To be honest, I've come to see you in a new light this time—I'm surprised, but it won't affect my decision to give you both the potion.
You two should hurry. The Blazeforge Orcs can directly fuse with the Beast God's Blood to complete their transcendental transformation, and not only do they avoid side effects, they also gain additional benefits from the Beast God's Blood.
But we human mages can only use the Beast God's Blood to make potions and achieve transcendence.
Even if we break through to Sky Rank, we can't wield transcendental power; we're innately weaker than the orcs, so all we can do is race against time.
After Leon finished speaking, Joey looked at the potion in his hand with a sigh and said solemnly,
"Lord Merlin, this favor is so great that I don't even know how to thank you. All I can say is, no matter what difficulties or troubles you face in the future, I will stand by you unconditionally. Maybe that's all I can do..."
Heron's eyes were a little red. After countless years—ever since he set foot on the path of a mage—he hadn't felt this moved. Words crowded in his heart, but he found himself at a loss for how to express them.
He said this dryly, and even Heron felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment.
Leon quietly watched their breakthroughs, his magitech array whirring. The appearance of rule runes during their breakthroughs was a rare opportunity.
Leon smiled and looked at the two of them.
"Gentlemen, time waits for no one. Who wants to go first? I'll help guard you both."
Heron and Joey exchanged glances and both laughed.
"Let's do it together. Ever since Lord Heron became chairman of the Black Tower, we've been rivals. So if we're breaking through to Sky Rank, we should do it together—otherwise, he'll say I only broke through first because he let me."
"Where's Leon Merlin? Tell him to come out and see me."
"Let's do it together. This space is big enough, anyway..."
The Black Tower and the Cloudspire Tower were the two strongest factions in the Andalusia Kingdom. Naturally, they were usually at odds, and the feud between the Cloudspire Tower Sanctuary and the Black Tower Sanctuary had lasted until now, carrying over to the towers themselves.
If we're talking about conflict, the rift between the two Sanctuaries runs deeper. The Black Tower and Cloudpeak Tower are mostly rivals—there's nothing like the bitter hatred between some other mage towers.
If not for that, the two factions would never have cooperated. Besides, Heron and Joey's relationship isn't that bad—they often undercut each other, but ever since arriving in the Blazeforge Realm and entering the Blazeforge battlefield, they've grown closer.
Especially lately, they've been hunting together, storing their harvested magic crystals together—something none of them would have imagined before.
On opposite sides of the cavern, the two each took their Golden Temptation Potion.
In an instant, a terrifying surge of magical energy erupted, as if some force was forcibly expelling the mana from their bodies.
Around Joey, countless points of light appeared, as if he had turned into a starry sky. Dim, endless rays surrounded his body.
Almost instantly, Joey's body vanished, leaving only a massive sphere of light over ten meters tall. The sphere spun, drawing all the light in the cavern toward it, illuminating a hundred meters around—there wasn't a shadow to be found.
Within the sphere of light, the aura of magical laws emerged, and the mana that escaped began slowly fusing with the power of rules, collapsing inward toward the center.
With every surge of light, the aura inside grew stronger...
On the other side, Heron's body was enveloped by a massive sphere of darkness, repelling all the surrounding light. For hundreds of meters, it was as if a veil of night had descended, and within that darkness, something monstrous seemed to be taking shape.
Darkness churned, countless runes of shadow condensing within, merging into the great sphere of night with every rolling wave...
The cavern was split in two: one half blanketed in endless starlight, so bright not a shadow remained; the other pure darkness, filled only with the swirling runes of night.
Leon watched quietly as the two underwent their breakthroughs, magical engines whirring around him. The rule runes appearing during their ascension were a rare opportunity.
Joey's core meditation law, 'Starry Reflection,' once completed, formed rules based on the Law of Light, laying a foundation far stronger than his previous core meditation technique.
With starlight as its manifestation, it's the most expansive branch of the Law of Light. Building a foundation with this rule means his spells will cover a vast area, with casting range far surpassing other mages of his rank.
Especially on a large battlefield, a single spell could cover the entire field. Combined with 'Starry Mirage,' his power could rival two or three other Sky Rank mages.
As for Heron, he's a dark mage, but he hasn't taken the path of nurturing dark fiends in a demi-plane. Instead, he's followed the pure path of dark magic.
He's lost the aid of dark fiends, but his personal power will reach terrifying heights—a feat only a handful of dark mages can achieve.
After all, purifying dark mana and completely removing its negative effects is extremely difficult—far harder than breakthroughs for other mages.
But once he breaks through, his dark spells will naturally rise in rank. Any spell below level four will automatically become an ultimate spell, and even level five or six spells could become ultimate spells for those he’s mastered most deeply...
At this moment, the rule runes swirling around their bodies were the perfect manifestation.
Each rule rune was three-dimensional, and from different angles, it appeared as a completely different rune.
Recording these runes was a rare opportunity for Lin Yun.
His accumulation of runes was already enormous—so far, he'd collected eight hundred thousand, and the number kept growing...
With such a vast quantity of runes, mobilizing them became challenging, and even the speed of activation was greatly slowed.
Last time, while watching Rafael's breakthrough, Lin Yun had an idea.
If he could develop a method to construct rule runes, compress his own runes, and fuse them into rule runes—even if not possible, simulating it would do.
That way, not only would each rune become far more powerful, but the speed of activation would also increase significantly.
A hundred level-one spells could never match the power of a level five or six spell.
The same logic applies to runes.
The magitech array's power required a massive number of runes for support, but now, with too many basic runes, it actually slowed down the array's operation and dragged down overall strength.
Observing a powerhouse's transcendental transformation and the construction methods of rule runes—researching these methods was the best opportunity...
Countless runes flowed in Lin Yun's eyes, constantly pairing up, then increasing the number of combined runes, failing and recombining again and again...
As the number of rule runes around Joey and Heron dwindled, the chance for such direct study would soon be gone—neither Joey nor Heron could easily replicate it again.
These rule runes only evolved thanks to the rule fragments in the Beast God's Blood. Ordinary Sky Rank powerhouses couldn't do this at all...
While Joey and Heron were breaking through and Lin Yun busied himself researching rule construction, Stongge finally flew to the temporary camp...
Stongge arrived at camp, his eyes flashing with confidence. Then, in an instant, he put on a stern face, flying directly over Lin Yun's temporary camp before slowly landing in the center.
"Where's Mafa Merlin? Tell him to come out and see me."
Stongge stood in the center of the temporary camp, face stern, gazing arrogantly at the crowd around him.
Xiu Ban hefted Slaughter and strode out, baring his teeth as if ready to smash Stongge's head in. Arno hurriedly pulled him back.
"Don't do anything. This guy's from the Burning Tower—his name's Stongge. Apparently, he's recently gained Lord Dida La's trust and is a Ninth-Rank Title Archmage. He's pretty strong."
When Xiu Ban heard Stongge was from the Burning Tower, he regretfully stepped back. He might be lazy, but he wasn't stupid—he knew the Burning Tower was the strongest faction among Odin Kingdom's forces this time.
If he killed one of their people just as they arrived, the two factions would definitely go to war, and even more people might die.
"Damn, I really want to smash this idiot's head in..."
He muttered, and was promptly dragged away by the mage corps.
A hint of pride flashed in Stongge's eyes as he looked at the surrounding mages. Not one dared to touch him, nor even blame him for landing in the camp from the sky. This made him even more confident in his plan.
A bunch of Andalusian bumpkins, groundhogs who've never seen the world—do they dare go against Burning Tower? Even with Sky Rank powerhouses here, they still won't dare touch me. Whatever I do, they'll just have to endure it.
Besides, Lord Morgan may be Sky Rank now, but he's still one of us from Odin Kingdom. No way he'd help Mafa Merlin, that guy from Andalusia...
Surrounded by people, Stongge still held his head high, waiting arrogantly and quietly.
"Where's Mafa Merlin? Hurry up and get him out here. I'm only here because Lord Dida La ordered me—otherwise, who'd want to come to this dump!"
Stongge unfurled Dida La's banner, prompting the mage corps to quickly notify Leon. After all, Dida La was considered the strongest human on the Blazeforge battlefield—even Morgan had said that, even after reaching Sky Rank, without transcendental power, he might not be a match for Dida La.
Fear or not, none of the subordinates wanted to cause trouble for Leon without reason. Whatever the matter, Leon would have to handle it himself—as followers, they absolutely couldn't make decisions for their leader.
As the mage corps went to notify Leon, the rule runes swirling around Joey and Heron in the cavern had nearly vanished. The moment they were interrupted, the countless runes spinning in Leon's eyes shattered suddenly...