Chapter 1258
Behind him, a natural demi-plane instantly restored his spent mana, and the trembling in his soul gradually settled.
Anderson and Theo drifted back to Leon's side. All three of Anderson's faces were twisted in fury, his teeth bared as he glared at the Sky Rank Alchemical Golems and spat curses.
"Those damn tin cans, pulling tricks like that—bastards, truly damnable! I'll rip every bolt and gear from their bodies!
Leon, are you alright...?
Leon took two slow breaths and shook his head.
"I'm fine."
The tactics of these Alchemical Golems hinge on their natural advantages—their computational power. Whether it's their power cores or combat modules, everything relies on calculation.
Their combat modules are terrifyingly strong, and their computational capacity even more so. They grasp the nuances of the battlefield to a frightening degree.
The massive cannon on their right arms only unleashes its strongest attack when the perfect opportunity presents itself—every shot is lethal.
Just now, I overlooked the most crucial point: these are Sky Rank Alchemical Golems!
Each has awakened intelligence, and their combat modules allow for seamless coordination. Their ultimate goal is to eliminate the intruders—not to compete over who gets the kill.
The blast of the Frost Ray weakened the Rule Rune Shield. The Burst Ray followed up, unleashing a devastating strike that overwhelmed the shield's defenses. Then, almost simultaneously, the Heartpiercer Golem—helped by the Ironwall Golem—crossed over a hundred meters in a flash, using its momentum and strength to unleash its deadliest blow.
In an instant, it tore through a Rule Rune Shield composed of seventy or eighty thousand Law Sigils!
A flawless attack, flawless coordination—even for Leon, it was a killing combination!
But at the final moment, Leon grasped something different. With that insight, he managed to delay the Heartpiercer Golem's attack, and when its strength was nearly spent, he blocked it with a simple mana shield.
For the first time, the Rule Rune Shield was violently torn apart. No matter how strong the previous opponents were, the Rule Rune Shield had never been breached like this.
That brush with death lingered in his heart, but Leon sensed something wholly new. At last, he saw the key to transcending Sky Rank.
He'd always thought it was about battle intent, about never having fought with abandon. Every fight had been under his control—the rhythm, the outcome, even the process—he'd held the reins too tightly.
But breaking through to Sky Rank is something no one can control. And no one can place the process of transcending on someone else's shoulders.
Except for those mages who rely on the Golden Transcendence Potion, every mage's path to transcendence is unique—the key must be discovered by oneself.
But now, Leon finally understood what he needed to break through to Sky Rank.
From the very start, every step had been flawless—the strongest arcane sigils, the most powerful meditation laws, even the skull of Constantine, the Lord of Wisdom, said to be the source of all knowledge.
So the mage's path was already perfect, the foundation strong enough to rival the barrier of a great world. That door deep in his mind was a shackle he had placed on himself.
Such a powerful foundation made transcendence even harder—the stronger the base, the more difficult the breakthrough.
That ancient door, which even he couldn't break, Leon now finally understood how to open.
It's not about control, but about primal instinct—the instinct to become a stronger being, or simply, the will to survive!
That is his greatest strength—a force utterly beyond control. And this is the key to transcendence: the fiercer the battle, the stronger the opponent, the more the door shakes. It's the will to live, to not die, to truly never die again.
This power is the true source of all potential and strength.
Leon hovered in midair, eyes bright, slowly raising the Doombringer Staff.
An ancient balance appeared beneath his feet. Anderson solemnly controlled the Arcane Wheel, placing it on the right pan, while Theo placed the Spellbook of Ages on the left.
In an instant, endless colored light enveloped him, the power of the Elemental Chapter driven to the extreme by the Death Tome, transforming into radiant hues that shrouded Leon.
The Violet Dragon Avatar roared skyward, elemental power surging on the wheel's illusion in its arms. Countless Law Sigils gathered around Leon, forming a Rule Rune Shield.
On the ground, the Ironwall Golem raised its tower shield, the Heartpiercer Golem stacked behind it, and two caster golems lifted their arms, firing scorching and freezing rays from their right arms.
On the ground, the remaining dozens of Level Thirty-Nine Alchemical Golems continued casting spells.
A barrage of spells struck Leon's shield, but most ray spells twisted away, veering off at odd angles as they neared his body.
The illusion of the wheel behind Leon slowly turned, spewing countless Law Sigils. Four-element bombs formed and exploded like rain.
Anderson's Arcane Wheel reached the power of a Mythic Artifact. Elemental storms and Theo's fire torrents raged together, devastating the battlefield. The Level Thirty-Nine golems stood no chance against two berserk artifacts and were quickly annihilated.
The two Mythic Artifacts, combined with Leon's four-element bomb barrage, suppressed the four Sky Rank Alchemical Golems, temporarily pinning them down.