Chapter 1407: Saville's Return, Sudden Battle

Although Niya said it might be Saville who had returned, Xia Duo remained fully vigilant; the Tower of Time was originally designed by Saville, and he had built a significant portion of it.

Aside from the eye—the undiscovered summoning magic array—no one could be certain if there were other hidden traps; Saville had been missing for nearly a hundred years, and no one could guarantee he was still the same person he once was.

Beyond his temperament, perhaps even his inner essence, his very being, could have been completely replaced!

"Niya, can you be sure it's your great-grandfather?"

"I cannot, but besides him, who else would appear in the Tower of Time in such a manner?"

Watching the expectant look on Niya's face, Xia Duo could not help but sigh inwardly; he knew that the reason Niya looked forward to Saville's return was not because she held deep feelings for a great-grandfather she had never met.

Rather, it was because of Niya's father—Aipusi.

It had now been two full years since Aipusi entered the Stasis Chamber of the Tower of Time; Xia Duo did not feel much about this state of neither living nor dying, but Niya could never forget it.

However, after becoming a Great Arcanist, Xia Duo had visited Aipusi at Niya's request, but Aipusi was suffering from soul-related aging tissue.

More importantly, two years ago, Aipusi had delayed entering the Stasis Chamber to arrange his affairs; if he had done so earlier, Xia Duo might have had a way.

But now, as soon as Aipusi's stasis state was lifted, he would not be able to live for long, and the stasis state could not accept spell treatment.

Xia Duo also had no way to both lift the curse and repair the soul damage in the short time after the stasis state was lifted.

In his view, Aipusi could only continue to smuggle himself into the future to find possible opportunities for treatment; as long as he was still alive, the future held infinite possibilities.

But Niya might not be able to endure that long; knowing that there was an anomaly in the Plane Exploration Layer, her agitated emotions were written all over her face.

And now, what Xia Duo worried about most was not an invasion by an external enemy, or that Saville could not save Aipusi, but that the person who returned was indeed the original Saville, yet his mindset had completely shifted, ignoring family ties entirely.

If that were the case, let alone whether he could save Aipusi, it would be a question of whether he and Niya could even walk out of the Tower of Time alive.

Previously, Saville had remained silent, so Xia Duo could pretend this problem did not exist, treating the Guidance Beacon here merely as a psychological comfort for Niya.

But now that the person appearing on the summoning magic array was very likely Saville, this problem could no longer be avoided.

……

As the illusory figure on the summoning magic array gradually became solid, Xia Duo's heart grew increasingly tense; he wrapped one arm around Niya and firmly took a few steps back with her.

Then he slowly unfurled his Arcane Fire, using the Micro Magic Net he controlled to cover and encroach upon the normal Magic Net in the surroundings, thereby creating a spellcasting environment more favorable to himself.

Niya noticed Xia Duo's actions, but she did not say anything to oppose them; at this moment, she had placed almost all her thoughts on the person about to appear in the summoning magic array.

"Hum—"

The Magic Net vibrated at a high frequency for the last time, and the figure in the magic array became completely solid; Xia Duo knew this was the moment, and with almost no hesitation, he controlled the surrounding Magic Net to descend a Spell Suppression Field.

At the same time, another Static Field was ready to be unleashed; he had only upgraded this spell to the 9th Circle at the beginning of the month while preparing the David String in the Iolum Laboratory.

The 10th Circle was more complex, and simply stacking energy levels was difficult to achieve a qualitative improvement; for now, the 9th Circle was almost enough.

If the person appearing in the summoning magic array were touched by these two spells, there would certainly be no room for resistance, but unfortunately, the newcomer was not only skilled in spellcasting but also extremely seasoned in the application of spell principles and the accumulation of spell elements.

Almost the instant the Spell Suppression Field descended, the newcomer unfurled their Arcane Fire, squeezing out a sliver of breathing room in this environment that was extremely unfavorable to them.

Immediately following that, they launched an attack with great precision against the Static Field that Xia Duo had not yet fully prepared, striking the key elements every time.

As the saying goes, "creation is far harder than destruction"; soon, Xia Duo's spell became difficult to sustain, and worse yet, before he could dissipate the remaining spell elements that were used but not yet fully deployed and had been damaged into a discrete state, these spell elements were already controlled by his opponent.

At this moment, Xia Duo was certain that even if the other party was not Saville, they were definitely a very powerful Arcanist.

In this situation, Xia Duo had to admit that he had underestimated the other party, thinking that two spells plus the home-field environment would be enough to take them down, but the other party had vividly taught him a lesson.

Now, what Xia Duo had to do was the same as what the newcomer had done before—destroy the opponent's spell that was about to take shape and seize the opportunity to launch an attack.

Thus, the scene immediately reached a stalemate; fortunately, Xia Duo was slightly superior in spell construction and macro layout, so he was not defeated by the newcomer's skilled techniques, rich experience, and more powerful Arcane Fire.

But the situation was not that optimistic; as long as the opponent was smart enough, they could completely obtain the specific attributes of unfamiliar spell elements during the exchange and integrate them into their own knowledge system.

In such a close-range and decisive spell duel, it was almost impossible to encrypt one's own spellcasting operations, and more importantly—

Unless one party moved away immediately, this intense battle could almost never stop naturally; whoever stopped first might be instantly hit by the opponent's spell.

But Xia Duo could not flee; if he fled, wouldn't he be abandoning the Tower of Time?

And his opponent, at this moment, also seemed to be fighting for their life, with no intention of backing down at all, which left Xia Duo in a dilemma.

……

However, Xia Duo, focused on the spell duel, might have forgotten that there was a third person present in the Preparation Teleportation Hall of the Plane Exploration Layer at this time.

Perhaps it was precisely because he subconsciously knew of this third person's presence that he dared to go all out.

At this moment, Niya finally reacted; the two people in the battle were her husband and her suspected great-grandfather, and she did not want to see either of them harmed or killed.

Thus, the defensive mechanism originally designed to guard against counterattacks from Other Plane enemies during the plane exploration process finally activated, albeit belatedly.

In an instant, the turmoil in the Magic Net caused by the battle between Xia Duo and the other person was completely smoothed out.

In this powerful Spell Suppression Field, although Xia Duo could still cast spells with his own Arcane Fire, he was also significantly affected; the most notable point was that his simultaneous spellcasting distance was greatly reduced, and he could only influence his own Micro Magic Net.

This made it impossible for him to interfere with the opponent's spellcasting, which meant—

In this situation, if the two wanted to continue fighting, they had to use complete spells with uncertain actual effects for offense and defense, and could not conduct offense and defense at the level of spell elements.

This caused the intensity of the battle to drop sharply, but the level of danger rose sharply; if a key spell was not defended against, one might be defeated and perish immediately.