Chapter 615: The Ban

Luo De glanced at the battle between Cardinal Davide, flickering with lightning, and the Scorpion Woman Hera.

Both were speed-focused types, but Hera clearly had the upper hand.

Davide was occasionally blasted away, crashing into the ground and churning up dirt.

Hera, after all, had once been a ninth-rank, and the adaptation period meant nothing to her—she simply pounded the aged, weakened Davide.

Luo De relaxed.

He turned his gaze toward the distant Piercing Mage Vincent.

At the far end of the crisscrossing land of massive bone spikes, he sat upon a throne forged from a giant vertebral spine.

His eyes half-lidded, he looked down with cold arrogance.

"Eighth rank? So what? With your current Dragon Scale Art, can you still resist my domain, Luo De?"

Above, the Winged One Caroline seemed to have entered a state of nonexistence—neither magic nor physical force could touch her, and thus the dispelling effect of 【Flash Dispel】 could not be removed.

Luo De sneered, walking forward slowly and calmly.

"Go ahead and try."

"Just talking big."

A bone-white spiritual light flickered.

Several 【Bone Teeth Wandering】 erupted from the ground, roaring upward.

Before they could even roar, as Luo De took a slow step forward, his massive Hundred-Eyed Demon War Soul manifested behind him.

His withered, elongated arms instantly pierced the skulls of the Bone Teeth Wandering, then the withered yellow eyeballs in his palms turned red, firing 【Flame Rays】 straight into their bodies.

Sparks erupted.

In an instant, all the Bone Teeth Wandering were reduced to bone powder.

The first effect after reaching eighth rank.

All War Soul skills increased by +10!

A spiral bone spike stained with crimson blood suddenly shot upward from beneath Luo De's feet.

He stepped back as if foreseeing it, and the thick, waist-sized spike spun wildly just inches from his body.

Boiling lines of hellfire magma rose along his arms; he punched the spike into shards.

The fragments became buckshot, exploding against Vincent's spell shield with a crackling din.

Vincent's face twitched, his eyelid spasming involuntarily.

The power and spiritual quality of this attack far exceeded the limits of eighth rank.

Eighth-rank peak?

Are you fucking kidding me?

Jumping straight from seventh-rank peak to eighth-rank peak? No way.

He raised his bone-constructed staff, his expression icy.

Behind him, the Ring of Truth began to rotate, emitting blinding light.

【Arcane Empowerment】 · 【Lightning Storm】!

This spell had an enormous range, and with Empowerment boosting it two ranks to a ninth-rank spell, its power and area became catastrophic-level.

You think you can withstand it, right?

Fine, fine, let's see how your woman behind you handles it!

The staff blazed brightly; casting a seventh-rank spell was second nature to him—he completed it in an instant.

"Heh… Luo De."

At that moment, he noticed a grotesque, ugly fungal War Soul emerging behind Luo De.

A flash of green light struck his staff directly.

CRACK!

The staff shattered into powder instantly.

The 【Lightning Storm】, bound to it as a medium, abruptly cut off.

"Dispel Magic?!"

How is that possible?! I already set up a counter to Dispel Magic!

He stared in disbelief, eyes wide.

A streak of green spiritual energy appeared in the air.

"Spiritual energy?! This is still within the borders of Dusk Hills—how are you ignoring that bitch's ban?!"

"Guess."

BOOM!

With a thunderous explosion, Luo De shattered the ground and shot forward like a cannonball, slamming into Vincent's face.

In his hand, 【Sword of Devotion】 instantly turned black-gold.

Blue spiritual dots rapidly gathered along the blade, shimmering and transforming.

Vincent recognized it—the 【Giant Slash】 that had shattered his Empowered shield back in the Colosseum.

But back then, because the Colosseum's back exit had been breached, its power had been amplified tenfold.

You leveled up—I don't believe you still have this much power!

Vincent's face twisted with fury; he slammed his fist onto the armrest of the giant vertebral throne and rose to his feet, roaring at him.

"Come on!!!"

The attack coming at him was indeed the 【Giant Slash】.

But it was the 【Giant Slash】 amplified by 【Twelve Flashes】 + 【Strike Burst】 stacked together + 【Blessing of the Ancient Sky Tree】, massively enlarged.

Luo De had never used it before because the spiritual cost was absurd—draining a person completely in an instant.

Even Luo De, with his seventh-rank spiritual quality exceeding norms, couldn't complete it.

But now, things were different.

Eighth-rank peak!

【Water Spirituality: Individual Spiritual Capacity +3545%!!】

【Sharpness Spirituality: Spiritual Cutting Ability +525%, Strike-Type Spiritual Art Effects +638%!】

【Mature Spirituality: Strength +424%, Agility +288%, Constitution +588%, All Spiritual Art Effects +438%】

Luo De took a moment to test on the Brass Spiritual Gauge.

There's still the -50 mark reduction from 【Fabio's Soul-Gazing Gaze】.

Mystera's spell of dispelling was already active—it would fully wear off in half a day.

Without it, Luo De's raw physical and spiritual power alone would already exceed 800 marks!

The numbers are bloated, man.

CRACK!

The blue transparent defense field shattered.

Vincent's face twisted in horror; his fierce rage vanished instantly. He frantically pulled out a palm-sized stone carving.

PSSHH—

The blade pierced through; spilled sharp silver threads tore through space, and blinding swordlight cascaded from the heavens like a meteor shower, each arc slicing the air with a metallic hum.

Vincent's body was ripped into over a dozen pieces.

Then the stone carving in his hand shattered, his body dissolved into a shadow, leaping backward a hundred meters before reforming.

He knelt on the ground, his gray-white bony skin cracked and shattered across the earth.

Tick—

Cold sweat dripped straight onto the ground.

He stared at Luo De in terror, as if seeing a ghost.

"Why?! Why do you have this power at eighth rank?!"

Luo De said nothing, only sneered.

The swordlight faded; he walked forward slowly.

Vincent made up his mind.

If Luo De could use spiritual energy, then that bitch's ban must not run deep—it might not reach into the labyrinth, even if they were still within Dusk Hills.

Perhaps that bitch favored this man?

Impossible!

That foul woman was rigid as stone, spent her entire life studying the Weave, and looked down on non-mages.

Even if she favored anyone, it would never be this spiritual warrior!

Thinking this,

his palm split open, revealing a bloodied, rotting mouth at its center, oozing foul spiritual energy.

Vincent sneered.

"You think only you can use spiritual energy? You're dead wrong, Luo De."

BOOM!

At that moment,

the clear sky above the labyrinth darkened violently, thick clouds swallowing the heavens.

A deep-blue magical net stretched across the sky, a thread of magic gliding as the starry phantom of the Goddess of Magic, Mystra, took shape—majestic and indifferent to all beings, holy and equal.

Three aligned tear moles flickered as she declared once more without mercy:

"The Twilight Hills prohibit arcane aether."

Vincent's eyes bulged with rage.

Why? Those three words surfaced again in his mind.

"Why—"

The words were not yet finished.

A bolt of lightning crashed down, shattering him in an instant.

(End of Chapter)