Chapter 509: Turning Point

“Follow Master Theodore forward!”

The entire high mage formation became a true arrow, smashing into the tide of wind elementals with overwhelming force, brutally carving through the wave-like army of wind elementals.

The dense blue figures shattered before them like paper.

The erupted elemental energy formed rising and falling micro-storms.

Master Theodore led at the front of the formation, Duke Roland and other noble mages flanked the sides, while the rest guarded the rear.

Master Theodore was already very old.

But mages differ from traditional knights—knights weaken with age as their blood and muscles atrophy, their combat power naturally declining.

Mages, however, grow stronger with age, their experience and knowledge increasing, becoming ever more powerful.

Now, as the chief mage of Oakland City, he demonstrated his immense strength.

The obsidian staff in his grip pulsed with wild, flowing light, its tip continuously spewing brilliant, colorful magical radiance.

Master Theodore alone broke through the wind elemental encirclement, never pausing for a moment, preventing the entire formation from being trapped within the wind elemental army.

The mage side recognized the danger and adjusted their strategy in time.

The wind dragon, as a wind elemental that had begun to solidify, also possessed high sentience and intelligence.

Facing the sudden shift in the mage formation, it instantly understood their intent.

Its eyes, formed from swirling hurricanes, looked downward, and its massive wings began to flap.

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

The wind elemental energy in the secondary plane seemed stirred by an invisible giant hand; heavy, bellows-like winds roared to life with its motion, transmitted through the wind network.

Then,

Two towering tornadoes formed, howling through the wind network and sweeping toward the mage formation.

During their advance, the two tornadoes continued to grow; by the time they exited the wind network, they stretched from earth to sky, spectacular beyond measure.

Even wind elementals, with their exceptional control over air currents, were thrown off balance.

The mage formation, as the direct target of the two tornadoes, faced pressure that needed no explanation.

Gao De looked up, watching the two terrifying tornadoes summoned by the wind dragon’s wingbeats.

“Is a fifth-rank creature really this powerful?” he thought, both awed and fired with excitement.

Fifth-rank, in this world’s supernatural power system, was only mid-to-high tier.

What kind of inhuman power would sixth- and seventh-rank beings possess?

He dared not imagine.

But honestly, though terrifying to behold, he felt little real fear.

With the enhanced long-range vision of his Mandora Eye, Gao De clearly saw Master Theodore’s calm expression.

That very expression filled him with a sense of reassurance.

Before the colossal tornadoes, an individual seemed insignificant.

Yet magic’s transcendence allowed an individual to stand against overwhelming might.

The green elemental energy around Master Theodore grew denser, forming a flowing light membrane over his body.

This increased his flight speed another notch—he shot forward at full speed, leaving a trail of green light behind him.

In the blink of an eye, he had left the formation’s spearhead position.

Master Theodore alone charged straight toward the two tornadoes blocking their path.

He swung his right hand, gripping the obsidian staff, with all his strength.

A flame erupted from the gem atop the staff, spreading rapidly, twisting and climbing like a living thing, and in an instant formed a blazing wall of fire across the tornadoes’ path.

The raindrops falling from above evaporated into mist before even touching the wall of fire.

A sizzling sound, like searing flesh, filled the air.

[Wall of Fire].

Fourth-rank evocation spell.

The two tornadoes slammed into the wall of fire.

A deafening roar erupted instantly, making everyone’s eardrums ache with sharp pain.

Flame and gale clashed fiercely; the wall of fire twisted and deformed under the tornadoes’ tearing force, becoming countless burning serpents coiling through the air.

The tornadoes, scorched by the intense heat, emitted thick green smoke, their internal wind elements igniting in a series of miniature explosions.

Master Theodore gritted his teeth; all runes on the obsidian staff flared to life, and he swung the staff downward.

The wall of fire suddenly split and reformed into two great fire dragons that plunged into the tornadoes’ cores, unraveling them from within.

As the tornadoes collapsed, visible shockwaves radiated outward, sweeping away the nearby clusters of wind elementals.

A brief path opened ahead.

“Now, charge toward the wind network!” Master Theodore ordered.

Every mage in the formation activated a green light membrane over their bodies, accelerating rapidly forward.

They surged forward and finally reached the wind network.

It was a massive spatial rift, like the gaping maw of a monstrous beast, its edges churning with chaotic energy.

A swirling stream of green energy poured continuously from its center, emitted by the wind dragon.

This green vortex contained terrifying energy fluctuations, like blades slicing through the air—even a fourth-rank mage who dared face it directly would perish instantly.

Fortunately, the spatial rift was large enough, and vast areas remained unaffected by the green vortex.

Yet the chaotic wind currents leaking from the rift’s edges still warped the air, creating shimmering halos everywhere.

Master Theodore glanced back at the fourth-rank mages behind him and saw they were already being pulled off course by the vortex’s suction, their formation shattered.

“Attack the wind dragon!” Master Theodore shouted, his voice clear even amid the chaos.

His movement was the fastest.

Master Theodore gripped the obsidian staff tightly; its runes suddenly blazed with blinding golden light.

The entire staff seemed infused with the power of the sun—a luminous column thirty feet in radius rose from it.

At first, the column was a faint golden glow, but it exploded instantly into brilliance, like a newborn sun.

The dazzling light dispelled the gloom of the moment.

The column radiated a terrifying pressure, piercing the nearby wind network.

The spatial rift groaned under strain, its dark purple edges writhing wildly as if resisting this immense force.

This was precisely why Master Theodore had led them to the wind network’s edge.

Amid the rift’s instinctive resistance, the column entered the secondary plane and struck the wind dragon hovering before the rift.

The wind dragon’s pupils flickered with unusual light.

But it made no move.

Its focus was entirely on resisting the Oakland Crystal Cannon.

Compared to the Oakland Crystal Cannon, Master Theodore’s spell was clearly something it could withstand better.

Of course, that was only relatively speaking.

The instant the column touched the wind dragon’s body, a thunderous explosion erupted.

Golden energy surged like a tide, engulfing the wind dragon.

The green vortices surrounding the wind dragon shattered into countless tiny wind elemental particles under the golden light.

[Dawn].

Fifth-rank evocation spell.

It was also Master Theodore’s first fifth-rank spell ever cast.

First-rank mages might rely mostly on first-rank spells in battle.

But higher-rank mages rarely use spells matching their own rank—they primarily use spells below their level.

One reason: high-rank spells demand immense casting time and energy, making frequent use impractical.

Another: the higher the rank, the fewer spells exist, and the greater the resources required to construct their models.

Thus, the higher a mage’s rank, the fewer high-rank spells they actually master.

Master Theodore had always followed this principle.

Whether his flame shield or flight spell, neither was a fifth-rank spell.

But now, facing the wind dragon, he finally unleashed his most powerful fifth-rank spell.

The effect was visible at once.

The joy on Master Theodore’s face had barely begun to spread when it vanished instantly.

For inside the wind dragon’s translucent, glass-like head, the green core spun violently.

The wind elemental particles stripped from its body recombined with its form as the core rotated.

Though still somewhat ethereal, no longer as solid as before, it was undeniably “restored,” minimizing damage to the barest degree.

The assault on the wind network was critical.

But on the main battlefield, the battle between low-rank mages and wind elementals was equally vital.

Every wind elemental destroyed reduced the secondary wind plane’s energy.

The war had lasted less than a quarter of an hour so far.

Yet the wind elementals were countless, forcing everyone to cast nonstop, one after another—mana reserves were beginning to run dry.

This was a bad sign.

On one side, mana reserves were nearly depleted; on the other, the number of wind elementals showed no sign of diminishing.

Of all those on the battlefield, the only one who could truly rejoice was Gao De’s Storm Soul, just upgraded to Stage One.

Though not an energy-based lifeform, the Storm Soul had undergone its transformation by absorbing pure wind element energy, and now contained no other elements within its body.

Thus, to the low-intelligence wind element creatures, the Storm Soul appeared as one of their own.

Under this perception, the Storm Soul thrived, absorbing wind element energy with utter abandon and unbridled delight.

Even the wind element energy in this region was no longer sufficient for it, and it began tentatively drifting outward.

Gao De hesitated for a moment.

After all, the battlefield was chaotic.

Though the wind element creatures regarded the Storm Soul as an ally and would not attack it,

spells were blind—its reckless movement across the battlefield made it highly likely to be caught in stray spells from other ships’ mages, potentially forcing it to be reborn from scratch.

But Gao De thought: if he missed this chance, when would he ever find such an endless supply of wind element energy for the Storm Soul to absorb?

Finally, he gritted his teeth and decided to take the risk—granting the Storm Soul freedom.

Freed from Gao De’s restraint, the Storm Soul exploded into wild motion, racing straight toward the fiercest part of the battlefield—the Thorn Crown.

The fiercest fighting meant the most wind element creatures had been shattered, offering the richest reserves of wind element energy.

Though it had only just entered Stage One, a deep emerald-green point of light had already begun forming at its core.

That was the sign of its energy core beginning to coalesce.

Once the energy core fully formed, the Storm Soul would enter Stage Two.

Thereafter, it could draw ambient energy directly from the outside through its core to advance on its own.

In other words, a Stage Two Storm Soul would no longer be a gold-sucking beast requiring Gao De to “feed” it—it would become a self-sufficient “adult.”

Normally, advancing to either Stage One or Stage Two required massive expenditures to purchase corresponding artifacts to strengthen the Wild Soul.

Gao De’s Storm Soul had advanced not only at astonishing speed, but entirely without cost.

How profitable was that?

The Storm Soul moved with incredible speed; after Gao De lifted his restrictions, in mere blinks it reached the region of the Thorn Crown.

The massive beam fired by the Auckland Crystal Cannon soared skyward, still locked in fierce contention with the wind dragon’s emerald vortex.

But the Aurok Crystal powering it had begun to whiten—its magical energy was nearly exhausted.

The area surrounding the straight cylindrical connection between the golden beam and the emerald vortex swirled with the densest concentration of wind element energy.

The Storm Soul, acting almost instinctively, climbed upward along the beam, steadily consuming the escaping wind element energy.

At its core, the emerald-green point of light grew slowly but steadily stronger.

Before the Wind Network.

Wizard Theodore’s expression was grim.

In contrast, the wind dragon’s massive eyes held a faint, almost imperceptible gleam of triumph.

“This Wind Network reduces the power of my spells too severely,” Theodore stated the root cause.

Lord Roland sensed the dire situation: “Wizard Theodore, what do we do?”

Under the Network’s reduction, even a fifth-rank spell could not directly annihilate the wind element energy forming the dragon’s body.

This allowed it to reabsorb its scattered energy through the emerald crystal, minimizing damage to itself.

“Unless we can enter the secondary plane and face the wind dragon directly,” Theodore murmured.

But that was impossible.

The Wind Network was still incomplete, permitting only third-rank wind element creatures to pass through—thus the wind dragon remained confined within the wind element secondary plane.

But this restriction worked both ways.

They, whose lowest rank was fourth-rank, could not enter the wind element secondary plane through the Network either.

Third-rank wizards were unaffected.

But what could a third-rank wizard do against a fifth-rank wind dragon, even if they could pass through?

Any spell cast from outside, upon passing through the Wind Network, suffered drastic power reduction.

“Attack! Attack! Even if the effect is greatly diminished, it’s not useless!” Frustration over an unchangeable situation was pointless—Theodore gritted his teeth and gave the order.

He leveled his staff; light flared again.

【Dawn】!

The fourth-rank wizards, upon receiving the order, unleashed their most potent fourth-rank spells, striking the wind dragon through the Wind Network.

The battlefield was divided into three zones.

One: the high-rank wizard formation launching assaults on the wind dragon.

Another: the wind dragon’s prolonged standoff with the Auckland Crystal Cannon.

The last: the fleet’s brutal battle against countless wind element creatures.

In this chaos, no one noticed a shadow, furtive and creeping, climbing upward along the connection between the emerald vortex and the golden beam, steadily approaching the Wind Network.

(End of Chapter)