Chapter 725: Nolan
A raging torrent of spells crashed against defensive shields, and within just a second or two, the Dark Elf was completely engulfed.
No screams, no cries of pain—when the magic finally faded, only the burning trees remained in the forest. The Dark Elf was nowhere to be found.
Elsa stared at Leon, her body still poised as if mid-dodge, unable to process how quickly Leon and the others had wiped out their foe.
Corrosive Arrowstorm is a fourth-level spell, and what just hit us was a Limit Spell—its power cranked up to the absolute maximum. It can even eat through other spells. Any standard shield would be left with a gaping hole after a single volley.
And this wasn't just a handful of corrosive arrows—it was an endless rain of them!
How could Flame Arrows possibly stand up to Corrosive Arrows? That's just impossible.
Elsa stood there in a daze. Leon glanced at her and asked, "Did you know that wraith just now?"
"What? Wraith? You're saying that was a wraith?" Elsa exclaimed, shocked.
No one could tell that Dark Elf was a wraith. He looked nothing like a spirit without a body.
Leon nodded. "It was a wraith, just not a typical one. Only a wraith could get that close without being noticed."
This wraith truly was different—not a living being, but not quite undead either. There was almost no death aura about him. Aside from lacking a physical body, he could easily pass for the living, and he had all the unique advantages of a wraith.
Without a body, his ability to hide was unmatched. Unless he cast a spell, even Leon couldn’t detect him from a hundred meters away.
Elsa hesitated, then began to speak about the wraith.
"I do know that wraith. When I was little, I met him. He was a Seventh-Rank Title Archmage in life, a captain in our tribe’s mage corps. But when I was very young, he died during a hunt against a Rank Thirty-Eight Jungle Viper. He was best at dark magic, and he’d pushed the Corrosive Arrowstorm spell to the level of an Ultimate Rune..."
When Elsa finished, Leon frowned slightly and quietly reminded everyone, "Stay alert."
Leon had known these Dark Elf wraiths were powerful—maybe even stronger than the living Dark Elves—but he hadn’t expected them to be so stealthy. Of course, the universe had a knack for making him regret every assumption. If there was a cosmic law about things getting worse, it was probably written in Dark Elf blood.
With bodies as elusive as ghosts, yet immune to undead detection, and paired with the Dark Elves’ instant-cast Ultimate Runes, their ambushes were every enemy’s nightmare.
No one had noticed before the ambush. Now, the group wore matching grimaces—like a parade of condemned souls, marching deeper into the woods, shields up but hope wearing thin.
With shields raised, the group slowly advanced through the forest. Leon even summoned ten Flame Elementals to spread out as scouts.
Sure enough, after less than a kilometer, a surge of magical energy rippled above everyone's heads.
Over a dozen massive boulders, each four or five meters across, rained down from above. The greenish-brown Bluesteel Stones gleamed with a dense luster, each weighing at least ten tons.
As the boulders crashed down, the ancient trees couldn’t even slow their descent. In the blink of an eye, every last one was smashed to splinters.
A crushing pressure loomed overhead. Leon instantly cast a dozen Mage Hands—normally a simple spell for picking things up, but in his hands, each manifested as a giant palm over a meter wide.
The Mage Hands appeared at the sides of the boulders, and though they seemed easily crushed by the weight, all the massive stones were shoved aside.
With a deafening crash, a thousand-year-old tree just ten meters away was buried under a pile of Bluesteel Stones. In an instant, it was reduced to splinters, and deep cracks split the earth itself.
The compressed air formed wave after wave of white shock fronts, the immense pressure causing explosive booms as it squeezed the air.
Anderson watched, his three faces twisting in alarm. He’d been right in the center of the falling stones—if he’d been hit, even the Arcane Wheel would have been damaged.
"Damn, that’s a Limit Rockfall! And it’s Bluesteel Stone!"
Ordinary Rockfall is just a fourth-level spell, but as your mastery grows, the summoned stones get denser. Bluesteel Stone is even heavier than steel—four or five meters across, each weighing at least twenty tons. A dozen of these falling would make even a dragon cough up blood!
Moreover, the Limit Spellmark for Rockfall usually summons only two or three massive boulders. But this—over a dozen? That’s just absurd.
Elsa’s face went pale. If Leon hadn’t reacted so quickly, at least one of them would’ve been crushed half to death. Against such raw power, spell shields were about as useful as tissue paper. None of them could withstand a direct hit from a Bluesteel Stone boulder.
"Nolan—it’s Nolan! Everyone be careful, it’s definitely her wraith! She’s the only Dark Elf in history who could turn earth spells into Limit Spellmarks. Besides Rockfall, there’s also Earthspike Storm, a fifth-rank earth spell..."
Elsa shouted, her voice tight with urgency. But before she could finish, a surge of mana erupted from the ground.
Leon’s expression hardened. His Mana Harness whirred to life, instantly locking onto the source of the magical surge. He shot upward, propelled by mana, and in midair, the dragon’s head on his Doombringer Staff opened its jaws and spat out three blazing blue fireballs.
Each fireball, over two meters across, trailed a long tail as they crashed in a triangular pattern into a spot deep in the forest. The blasts thundered through the woods, and for a moment, Leon glimpsed a Dark Elf silhouette flickering in the blue flames before it vanished.
On the ground, Anderson reacted to the surge of mana by casting Mass Levitate. Even the Alchemical Golems floated upward as if gravity had lost its grip.
A split second later, massive earthspikes—nearly two meters long—erupted from the ground, launching skyward in a frenzy. The air was filled with the violent crack of stone, each spike tearing through the atmosphere with a piercing, explosive shriek.
In an instant, the ground within a dozen meters was covered in jagged spikes, like the back of a monstrous hedgehog—terrifying and grotesque.
Leon drifted down from midair, his expression grim.
Seth gripped his staff, his face pale as a sheet. To be ambushed by a Limit Spell, and unable to detect the enemy before casting—nothing could be worse.
With his strength, aside from casting Crystal Balance for defense, there was almost no way to resist. Never had he envied and resented the Dark Elves’ talents more—instant-casting Limit Spells for ambushes was simply deadly.
Had he known, he’d never have entered the God-Demon Dominion. Nothing was more important than his own life. He’d finally regained the rank of Title Archmage, and now he might die here, his soul unable to rest. The universe really did have a twisted sense of humor.
Still, Merlin’s power kept growing—his reactions were now so fast he could even interrupt instant-cast spells. It was terrifying. How did he do it? In the moment the enemy cast, he pinpointed the wraith’s location and wiped it out before the spell could fully unleash its power.
Seth wiped cold sweat from his brow. Thank Merlin he was here—if that Earthspike Storm had gone off, Seth would’ve been the first to die.
Damn it, aren’t earth spells supposed to be the hardest to master and the most unreasonable? How could these Dark Elves wield a Limit Spell of earth magic…
Everyone was still shaken. After a long pause, Elsa finally continued, "Nolan was an Eighth-Rank Title Archmage in life—the greatest earth-magic genius in our tribe, no, in all Dark Elf history. If not for the suppression of earth magic in the God-Demon Dominion, she might have reached the Heavenly Rank before dying in a battle against the Ashen Beastmen…"
Leon frowned slightly. It seemed Curis Quinn’s notes were reliable—barely inside the forest, and already they’d been ambushed by two Dark Elf wraiths. But he still couldn’t be sure the magical incarnation of the Life Sigil Crystal was here.
After thinking for a moment, Leon looked at Elsa. "Have you ever been here before?"
Elsa shook her head. "There’s hardly any prey in this forest, and even edible plants are rare. Our tribe’s tracks go no farther than the outer ring of rainbow flowers. The God-Demon Dominion is full of dangerous places, and we almost never come to places with no value like this…"
Leon nodded but said nothing.
The group pressed deeper into the forest under Leon’s lead. According to Curis Quinn’s notes, they were almost at the very heart of the woods.
Along the way, they were ambushed by scattered Dark Elf wraiths again—the attacks grew more frequent. Each time, though, Leon was the first to sense them and destroy the wraiths instantly.
As they reached the forest’s depths, the silence grew heavier—so quiet it was eerie, with an unsettling atmosphere everywhere. The kind of silence that made you wonder if the trees themselves were listening, waiting for the next tragedy to unfold.
Shuban’s pounding heartbeat was now loud enough for everyone to hear. Even each person’s breath sounded like thunder exploding in their ears.
"Something’s wrong…"
Leon muttered quietly, but the others clutched their ears in pain. Shuban cried out, dropping his slaughterblade to the ground, "Master Merlin, please—quiet down…"
Seth’s face twisted in agony as he clutched his ears. "Merlin, keep it down! I think I’m going deaf…"
But when Shuban and Seth spoke, their voices thundered in everyone’s ears like rolling thunder, leaving their heads ringing.