Chapter 892: Gaia's Hand
The earth trembled, and it felt as though the sky itself might collapse.
Endless flames and smoke engulfed an area over a thousand meters wide, saturated with the destructive aura of the Abyss. The pungent stench of sulfur had already driven out most of the air.
Faced with a power that had clearly surpassed the limits of Title Archmages, the George Family had no way to escape. All they could do was fight.
Every member of the George Family was gripped by terror. This force hadn’t reached the Sky Rank, but it already contained transcendental power—able to change the heavens with a mere gesture. No ordinary Title Archmage could ever hope to do this.
Dragged into the fray, Wagner’s face was pale, but he knew that if they kept running, the Blood Avatar would hunt them to the ends of the earth. Not a single person here was a match for that thing—even if everyone fought together, they wouldn’t stand a chance.
This was a Blood Avatar of an Archfiend from the Abyss!
And if this dragged on, who knew if that Archfiend—who’d only glanced at them before—might send over a will-projection? With the Abyssal Gate open, they were as good as dead!
Wagner’s heart pounded with dread. He’d destroyed that sacred relic himself—his mana signature, his aura, there was no question the Archfiend already knew. If he didn’t die, the other side would never let this go...
“Damn it, attack! Attack! Hold off that blood demon!”
Wagner gritted his teeth and ordered the George Family to attack. He himself pulled out a spindle-shaped magical artifact, its surface etched with flowing runes.
It was an escape artifact given to him by the George Family, able to teleport one person a certain distance in an instant. As long as you knew the exact location and coordinates, within the same plane, it could send you as far as four or five kilometers.
It was the ultimate tool for running away—its only flaw was that it could be used just once. After activation, all its energy would be spent, and even the material itself would be destroyed.
But now, Wagner knew their only chance was to destroy the Abyssal Gate. The mountain had already exploded, and the blood demon still lurked by the shattered peak. Charging in headfirst would be suicide.
The only way was to use the escape artifact to teleport directly to the original hall, destroy the Abyssal Gate there, and sever the connection to the Archfiend. Only then could they truly escape.
“Damn it, Daug, what are you doing? Hurry up—go command the troops, stall that blood demon!”
Wagner grabbed Daug by the collar, spitting in his face as he barked orders. Then, glaring at the blood demon closing in, Wagner gritted his teeth and activated the spindle artifact with all his strength.
In the next instant, the artifact shattered into starlight, wrapping Wagner in its glow. He vanished, his body dissolving like a mirrored fragment of light.
Daug was left dumbstruck, clutching his staff and stammering out a spell. He cast Dragonfire Roar at the blood demon—a thick pillar of ice shot toward its body.
The blood demon turned its gaze, eyes burning with crimson flame, and reached for Daug from two or three hundred meters away.
From the demon’s wrist—drenched in blood—rivers of crimson surged forth. The blood demon’s hand, severed as if by some invisible blade, stretched several meters wide, trailing a bloody afterimage as it appeared above Daug’s head in an instant.
Boom!
With a thunderous crash, the earth shook violently. Daug’s Rune Shield was shredded like paper, failing to slow the blow for even a moment. He was swallowed whole by the blood-soaked hand...
The blood-drenched hand vanished, leaving no trace of Daug. Only a handprint several meters wide remained on the ground, with a smear of indistinct blood at its center.
Instant kill...
In a heartbeat, Daug was obliterated—without even a chance to scream. And that was just a casual strike from the blood demon.
As a Blood Avatar, the blood demon didn’t have a true body. Its form was merely a conjured demonic shape, and if the Archfiend wished, it could split this avatar into hundreds of level-thirty blood demons.
But for an Archfiend, a Blood Avatar that surpasses Title Archmage level but hasn’t reached Sky Rank is already the weakest force it can muster. Crushing a random ant beneath its heel is about all it’s good for.
Wagner teleported to the base of the shattered mountain, while the new commander, Daug, was killed before he could say a word. The rest of the George Family hadn’t forgotten how to fight.
Spells, battle qi slashes, and magic arrows all converged on the blood demon. Everyone knew that if Wagner failed to destroy the Abyssal Gate, they’d die horribly—and drag their whole family down with them.
On the other side, Wagner teleported to the bottom of the original cavern. It was already a ruin, but near the Abyssal Gate, wisps of crimson energy continued to swirl—seemingly untouched by the destruction.
Wagner raised his staff and pulled out a potion, downing it without hesitation. Instantly, his magical aura surged, mana boiling over as if a fountain had erupted inside him—if he didn’t act fast, it would tear him apart.
Face flushed, Wagner channeled the swelling mana and rapidly recited a spell. The explosive energy flowed out at breakneck speed.
The earth trembled madly as the stones on either side of the Abyssal Gate seemed to come alive. Countless fragments gathered and fused, forming two colossal hands over ten meters wide.
As Wagner chanted, the stones continued to compress and merge. After five seconds, the two giant hands—each made of countless rocks—became smooth and gleaming with a metallic sheen, like a titan reaching up from the depths.
Gaia’s Hand—an eighth-level earth spell, one of the strongest pure force spells for siege warfare. When it comes to breaking defenses, nothing compares.
But the spell required a long incantation and massive mana. Wagner had only managed it by downing a Berserk Mana Potion.
The two Gaia’s Hands clamped down on the Abyssal Gate, crushing it with tremendous force.
Endless crimson energy erupted into a storm, wrapping around the Abyssal Gate and pressing the Gaia’s Hands back. As the resistance intensified, abyssal power spewed out like a volcano, making the hands tremble—along with hundreds of meters of earth around them.
Crack—
Cracks began to spread from the Gaia’s Hands, multiplying rapidly until they covered more than a hundred meters.
Centered on the Abyssal Gate, over three hundred meters of earth started to collapse. In less than three seconds, a muffled groan echoed—the earth itself seemed to cry out in pain as everything shattered into fragments.
Wagner’s expression changed completely. Gaia’s Hand, an earth spell of pure force, was rarely used, and though it looked like just two giant hands, it actually manipulated hundreds of meters of land.
But this wasn’t just the surface—the destruction reached dozens of meters underground, channeling the true power of the earth. No force below Sky Rank should have been able to break Gaia’s Hand by brute force!
But now, hundreds of meters of earth were shattered...
Gaia’s Hand lost its source of power and crumbled into debris, while the crimson storm swirling around the Abyssal Gate erupted outward like an elemental tempest.
Wherever it passed, the rocks seemed to be eroded by the winds of time, weathering away in an instant. The earth turned to desert, its strength utterly drained within hundreds of meters.
Wagner’s Rune Shield flickered, then was torn apart. Terrified, he clutched the Blue Necklace at his throat, channeling mana into it. Instantly, a blue curtain of water enveloped him, shielding him from harm.
Faint ripples shimmered across the water curtain for four or five seconds. Just as it was about to be ripped open, the crimson storm finally subsided.
Crack—