Chapter 416: First-Stage Form

The rank of this wind dragon was at least fifth-rank, and it was at least an "elite" among fifth-rank beings.

Although there was no direct way to discern rank, most of the mages present quickly reached this conclusion.

Because this wind dragon could, by its own power, confront the Oakland magic crystal cannon head-on.

Compared to the wind dragon's combat power and appearance, what truly concerned all the mages was that through its semi-transparent, glazed body, they could clearly see a cyan crystal core at its head.

This cyan crystal core was no longer composed of wind elements; it had already solidified into a physical substance.

"It wants to become a true material creature," Chief Mage Theodore said, staring at the terrifying eyes floating deep within the void behind the wind rift.

Count Roland's expression changed upon hearing this.

Looking again at the wind dragon's indifferent pupils, which seemed devoid of any emotion, he now seemed to perceive a hint of greed contained within them.

That was greed for the Mage Plane.

All the doubts and anomalies were explained the moment the wind dragon appeared.

Gao De had previously been unable to understand one question:

Why were these wind elemental creatures so "desperate"?

Even if the wind rift stabilized completely, opening a channel between the Mage Plane and their own secondary plane, it would bring them no benefit.

Wind elemental creatures, as energy beings, only needed wind elemental energy to survive.

Although the Mage Plane contained extremely rich wind elemental energy, their own plane already had more than enough; why go to such trouble?

In fact, their own plane was even better suited for their survival.

As a material plane, the Mage Plane contained energy that was too complex, meaning it was filled with "impurities" useless to wind elemental creatures.

Now, everything had a reasonable explanation.

It was because the most powerful wind elemental creature in this secondary plane had reached the stage of transforming into a material creature.

To truly transform into a material creature, it could not be done in a pure elemental secondary plane.

It had to enter a real material plane like the Mage Plane.

It was even highly likely that the wind rift itself was pushed into existence by this wind dragon.

Over an infinite span of time, after countless attempts, the wind dragon, which had almost no lifespan limit, finally found a weak point where its own plane intersected with the Mage Plane.

This was fortunate.

With its immense power, it successfully opened this weak point.

Unfortunately, the location of this weak point was too close to Oakland City.

If it hadn't been 180 kilometers away, but rather 800, perhaps by the time the wind rift had stabilized, Oakland City would still have been completely unaware.

Moreover, at a distance of 800 kilometers, a wind rift like this would not have posed a major threat to Oakland City.

But unfortunately, there were no "ifs."

To cross this dragon gate and possess true flesh and blood, the wind dragon had to protect the wind rift, and then, once the rift stabilized, enter the Mage Plane.

For the mages of Oakland City to protect their city, they had to destroy this wind rift.

Both sides had reasons they could not retreat or yield.

It was simply a matter of whose fist was harder.

Boom!

The golden beam of the magic crystal cannon and the cyan vortex spat out by the wind dragon collided violently, one above and one below, in a continuous, intense clash.

The released energy tore the entire sky into a dual-colored visage.

General against general, pawn against pawn.

If the magic crystal cannon and the wind dragon were the "generals" of the two planes.

Then the wind elemental creatures pouring endlessly from the wind rift were the wind dragon's "pawns."

The mages on the ships were the "pawns" of the Mage Plane.

And now, whether at the general level or the pawn level, the Mage Plane side was showing signs of disadvantage.

It wasn't that the Oakland magic crystal cannon, a war-grade alchemical weapon, was weaker than the wind dragon, but that the cannon required a continuous consumption of magic power from the Auric crystals to operate.

But on the wind dragon's side, while it spat out cyan vortexes, the cyan crystal core at its head was constantly absorbing the abundant wind elemental energy from the plane.

It wasn't quite a perpetual motion machine, but given an "energy" supply, the Oakland magic crystal cannon would certainly be drained first.

On the other side, the combat power of the mages was stronger than the wind elemental creatures, which were at most third-rank.

But the problem was the same.

Whether fighting or defending, it consumed mana and the magic power of the Auric crystals.

The wind elemental creatures, however, poured out endlessly, backed by an entire plane, seemingly infinite in number.

The only good news was that both the formation of the wind elemental creatures and the wind dragon's breath were consuming the wind elemental energy within the secondary plane.

Therefore, it was visible to the naked eye that the stabilization of the wind rift had begun to stall, and the spatial rift was no longer expanding.

If they could just keep this stalemate going, the wind rift would naturally collapse on its own.

The question was, could they hold out?

Splash!

All the warships were shaking violently due to the aftermath of the collision between the cyan vortex and the golden beam.

The light shields covering the surfaces of the warships were constantly rippling due to the impact of wave after wave of wind elemental creatures.

Boom!

Another wave of wind elemental creatures slammed into the light shield, and the ripple-like energy fluctuations spread along the ship's hull, causing the vessel to sway.

On the ships, the mages gritted their teeth and cast various spells.

Conjuration and Evocation spells were undoubtedly the mainstream.

Fireballs and ice spikes erupted from their palms, bombarding the wind elemental creatures in the air.

Everyone spared no mana and held nothing back.

These wind elemental creatures seemed endless and impossible to kill, but the formation of every single one required the consumption of wind elemental energy from the secondary plane.

Once they were killed in the Mage Plane, the wind elemental energy that composed their bodies would not return to the secondary plane, but would be ruthlessly and completely digested by the Mage Plane.

If this continued, the wind elemental energy in the secondary plane would constantly decrease, and the wind rift would slowly dissipate.

The only unfortunate part was... this wasn't a game, so there was no "mission progress bar."

No one knew exactly how many more wind elemental creatures had to be killed to reach the critical value that would cause the wind rift to collapse.

The defeated wind elemental creatures turned into wind elemental energy, the vast majority of which dissipated like mist, returning to the Mage Plane.

But a small portion was absorbed by the Wilderness Soul.

"Cyan 96.7%... 97.5%..."

In Gao De's Mandora Eye, the proportion of cyan on the Wilderness Soul's body was beginning to approach one hundred percent infinitely.

In fact, such a precise value wasn't even needed, because it was visible to the naked eye that the transparent soul parts of the Wilderness Soul were being devoured and stained by the cyan, and were gradually becoming invisible.

The very next instant, strange patterns of light flashed across the surface of the Wilderness Soul's body.

Gao De scanned the Wilderness Soul several times with his Mandora Eye, and could no longer see even 0.1% of the transparent part.

This meant that the Wilderness Soul had absorbed enough wind elemental energy and was about to enter its first-stage form, formally completing the transformation from Wilderness Soul to Storm Soul.

A wave of intense magic fluctuations emanated from the Wilderness Soul's body.

Cyan, fine streams of light rose on the surface of its soul body, spreading upward from its feet.

Wherever the streams of light passed, the originally illusory soul body gradually became solid, as if injected with the power of life, turning into a physical entity with a glazed luster.

At a glance, it actually bore a few similarities to the terrifying wind dragon circling behind the wind rift.

But the difference was that the wind dragon was stuck in a state between illusory and physical, while the Wilderness Soul completed its materialization without any obstruction.

The cyan streams of light traveled all the way up.

After they flashed past the head of the Wilderness Soul, the Wilderness Soul... or rather, the Storm Soul, opened its eyes.

Its pupils were no longer empty, but had turned into two materialized storms, within which seemed to be contained some inexplicable emotions.

This was the first-stage form of the Storm Soul.

But now, with the battle raging, Gao De had no time to explore the Storm Soul's abilities.

However, the very next instant, the Storm Soul showed Gao De something extraordinary about its first-stage form.

It opened its mouth toward the void, as if inhaling, and made a "hissing" sound.

An abnormal suction force spread out with the Storm Soul at its center.

Not only from the warship Gao De was on, but the wind elemental energy released by the wind elemental creatures defeated on the three or four surrounding warships surged toward it like a boiling tide.

The moment this wind elemental energy injected into the Storm Soul's body, it turned into streams of cyan patterns that roamed its surface, outlining its silhouette more clearly.

This absorption efficiency wasn't just doubled; calling it a tenfold increase would be an understatement!

From the part, one could see the whole.

With its "eating" speed increased so much, its other aspects certainly wouldn't be weak!

Some were happy, some were worried.

Just as Gao De was pleasantly surprised by the Storm Soul entering its first stage, the atmosphere on the *Thorn Crown* was exceptionally heavy.

"We can't go on like this..." Chief Mage Theodore muttered, staring at the wind rift above the horizon.

The stalemate continued.

No one could be certain whether the magic power of the Auric crystals would be exhausted first, or if the wind rift would collapse first due to the rapid consumption of wind elemental energy.

If it were the latter, that would naturally be good.

But if it were the former, then what awaited them next would be a catastrophe.

Not only would the entire fleet present be wiped out, with few survivors, but once the wind rift stabilized, Oakland City would also cease to exist.

Therefore, they couldn't gamble; they had to take the initiative and do something.

"Mages of fourth-rank and above, prepare yourselves. Follow me to charge toward the wind rift and face the wind dragon head-on," Chief Mage Theodore said, after much deliberation, finally biting the bullet and making this difficult decision.

Just as the wind dragon could not transform into a material creature in a pure energy plane, once a material creature entered a pure energy plane, it would face all sorts of discomfort, and even be eroded by energy and turned into an energy creature.

Therefore, this wind elemental secondary plane was absolutely a dead zone for human mages, not a place to linger.

Even at the entrance of the spatial channel, they had to endure the erosion of wind elemental energy.

Not to mention that there was also such a powerful wind dragon inside.

But now, they had no choice.

To win, they had to take the risk.

Chief Mage Theodore's decision quickly spread throughout the entire fleet.

But in reality, most of the fourth-rank mages were concentrated on the *Thorn Crown*, while the other warships either had one or two fourth-rank mages in charge, or none at all.

For instance, the warship Gao De was on had no fourth-rank mages.

All the fourth-rank mages, whether willing or unwilling, responded to the call.

Even Count Roland was already standing beside Chief Mage Theodore, ready to go.

—As the nominal lord and chief administrator of Oakland City, his mage rank was also as high as fourth-rank.

Within the Angevin Dynasty, when executing such dangerous missions, nobles had no privileges; in fact, they were expected to lead from the front.

Count Roland was very self-aware.

Whether for the sake of the doctrines he held in his heart, or for the glory and future of his family, he could not escape this charge.

"For Oakland, kill!" Once he saw that everyone was ready, Chief Mage Theodore shouted once more.

As soon as the words left his lips, he raised the obsidian staff in his right hand and took the lead, plunging headlong into the ocean of wind elemental creatures like a bolt of lightning.

As he flew at high speed, a brilliant ring of flames suddenly erupted around Chief Mage Theodore's body.

Even though the wind elemental creatures surged like a tide, covering him, they still could not hide the scorching red light of the flame ring.

These wind elemental creatures, at most third-rank, no matter how numerous, how could they block a fifth-rank mage?

The overlapping layers of wind elemental creatures, as long as they were grazed by the flame ring around Chief Mage Theodore, immediately burst into flames and turned into the most primitive wind elemental energy in an instant.

Count Roland followed closely behind, followed by the other fourth-rank mages, whose speed was clearly a notch, or more than a notch, slower than Chief Mage Theodore's.

Everyone had dazzling, brilliant spell light shining on their bodies, of different styles and colors, but what they all had in common was the powerful magic fluctuations surging within them.

Rank suppression in the supernatural power system of this world was extremely strict.

With a fifth-rank mage as the arrowhead and a phalanx composed of fourth-rank mages, the wind elemental creatures could not block them; they couldn't even pose the slightest obstacle.

Everyone knew this in their hearts.

The true danger of this operation would come after they reached the location of the wind rift.

(End of chapter)

Even though the wind element creatures surged over like a tide, covering it, they still could not hide the scorching red light of the flame halo.

These wind element creatures, at most third-rank, even if they were numerous, how could they block a fifth-rank mage?

Those overlapping wind element creatures, as long as they were grazed by the flame halo around Master Theodore, would instantly burst into flames and turn into the most primitive wind element energy in an instant.

Marquis Roland followed closely behind, followed by other fourth-rank mages; their speed was clearly a notch, or more than a notch, worse than Master Theodore's.

Everyone was shining with dazzling magic light, in different styles and colors, but what they had in common was the powerful magic fluctuation surging within them.

Level suppression in the supernatural power system of this world is extremely strict.

With a fifth-rank mage as the arrowhead and a phalanx composed of fourth-rank mages, the wind element creatures could not block them, or even cause them any obstruction.

Everyone knew this in their hearts.

The true danger of this operation would be after reaching the location of the Wind-Link.

(End of chapter)