Chapter 2007: True Colors, Xia Duo Enters the Field

First, the Magic Net in the surrounding area rapidly became ordered, and then the small forest hidden by the fortress was quickly leveled by a powerful force that emerged suddenly from an unknown source.

A massive fortress, whose structure appeared complex even just from looking at it from the outside, appeared in the center of the area where the forest had originally been.

Beneath the fortress was a square terrace foundation that gradually tapered upward, possessing distinct Ancient Aruivanda characteristics. Based on a preliminary estimate using data from Xia Duo Perception, the base had a side length of at least one New Li and was nearly one hundred meters high.

The top of the terrace was like a large plaza with many functional buildings, the most eye-catching of which were the suspended platforms extending outward from the south of the plaza, as well as the Golden Spire that towered into the clouds in the center.

Xia Duo noticed that a group of spellcasters, whose specific faces could not be clearly seen, were gathering on that suspended platform. Their spellcasting fluctuations resonated with the Golden Spire, and an invisible force that rapidly altered the form of every Magic Net String along its path extended far away to the south.

It was also because of this that Xia Duo discovered the location of the main force of Yierlan; in fact, it was not far from Adofeier Fortress. This was easy to understand: a spellcaster's casting range is limited. Although the range of a spell's effect can be extended almost infinitely, the further it is from the source of the spell, the more difficult it becomes for the spellcaster to control the details of the spell.

This is like a person holding a long pole to poke a small dot; the longer the pole, the harder it is to control. If there is the slightest error at the end held by the hand, the other end will be magnified accordingly.

If this is conventional combat where only the result of the spell is needed, then being further away does not matter; once the spell is completed, there is no need to worry about it. If it involves the nature of spell confrontation, the further the distance, the lower the fault tolerance.

In such situations, it is often necessary for the spellcaster to get close to the battlefield, or even be at the core of the war.

The main force of Yierlan's spellcasters was in a small agricultural city on the plains south of Adofeier Fortress. Of course, that small city had already been occupied by Yierlan, and even some facilities within the city were being used as spellcasting aids.

The current situation is that the main force of Yierlan has been locked onto by the Siluwende side. If nothing unexpected happens, apart from those who can leave, the other mages assisting in the spellcasting will basically not be able to escape.

One must know that to be able to cooperate with an Advanced Rank mage or operate a War Magic Artifact, one must be at least an Elite Mage. By the standards of the Netheril Arcane Union, that is a High Mage of level 10 or above.

A Senior Arcanist compared to Netheril would be an Archmage or a Senior Arcanist.

Losing such a batch of elite or even senior mages would, for Yierlan, even if it does not hurt their foundation, at least be heart-wrenchingly painful.

Perhaps there are future Advanced Rank mages who will die young today.

Xia Duo knows that as the war has progressed to this point, with various countries having decided to intervene, because there is already an occupied area in the south to haggle over, Yierlan will likely choose to end the war even if they are unwilling, but the premise is that they have not suffered too much loss.

If this batch of elite mages is lost here, the Yierlan side, even if they have to bite the bullet, might have to insist on continuing the war.

At that time, it would be unknown how much determination the various countries would have to intervene.

This is clearly inconsistent with Xia Duo's plan, so even if Xia Duo is extremely reluctant in his heart, for the sake of the big picture, he needs to prevent Siluwende's counterattack from causing too much loss to Yierlan.

As long as the loss is not great, they can sit down and talk slowly. As long as they can talk, the Demon Descendant's plan will likely suffer a heavy blow.

For a group of existences that have been treated as outcasts for thousands of years, wanting to change all this—even if it is not changing history, but just changing the attitude of the Northland Elf—is probably hard to hope for without some extremely special coincidences.

In other words, as long as Xia Duo can keep the Northland Alliance in a controllable state, even if he eventually lets the Demon Descendant obtain the qualification for legal existence, this is what they deserve.

From his heart, Xia Duo is not repulsed by the Demon Descendant themselves, and even has a certain amount of sympathy. As long as they do not think about changing history or destroying the world, whether there are Demon Descendants or not is none of his business.

As for the competition between magic systems or "bad money driving out good," Xia Duo has confidence in himself, or rather, if the Demon Descendant's magic energy system really shows incomparable superiority, then changing sides is not an unacceptable choice.

For Xia Duo, magic is originally a new thing. There is no saying that a certain magic system must be orthodox. Whichever is more advantageous and has more potential, that is naturally the one to choose, without any psychological burden.

Or rather, this is the scientific view of development.

……

"Let me witness the power of Arivanda Fortress!"

Seeing that the mysterious third party that suddenly appeared was easily captured alive by the Siluwende side, Xia Duo knew it was the turn of the Yierlan main force.

But Yierlan is, after all, a hegemon of the Northland; they shouldn't be without any power to resist! Xia Duo wants to see the performance of Yierlan's spellcasters in adversity; this will become an important indicator for him to measure Yierlan's potential combat power.

In addition, what he is going to do next is ultimately going against Yierlan, so giving a personal favor first will make it easier to talk later. And if he wants to earn a favor, he must choose to appear at the moment when the other party is in the most critical situation.

Otherwise, how could the preciousness of the favor be shown!

Although he says so, Xia Duo has already activated the Jump System of the Floating City. At first, he prepared to cut directly into the battlefield, and for this, he even specially chose a place in the Ether Plane that had a closer connection to the Material Plane.

But the full awakening of Adofeier Fortress right now makes him somewhat wary; cutting directly into the battlefield is no longer the best choice.

As for how to intervene, Xia Duo is not too particular. He first let the Floating City detach from the Ether Plane and return to above a certain sea area of the Material Plane, and then performed an intra-plane teleportation.

Compared to the huge presence of the Floating City Flight Control System, teleportation is not a very big movement, and it can even be said to be pitifully small.

In fact, the moment Xia Duo's Floating City appeared in the Material Plane, multiple Priests at the Northland Alliance Headquarters were like madmen looking for their respective superiors.

"A large number of dense Supermagic Events have appeared in the western sea area; it is suspected to be an invasion by an external enemy!"

The Material Plane is not unique, nor is it supreme; it is just a slightly larger Habitable Plane. This is not only the consensus of Netherese Mages but also the consensus of most Elf mages.

Since the Material Plane can go to so-called Sub-planes for travel, sightseeing, and even exploration and conquest, why can't other more powerful Material Planes turn around and conquer the Material Plane?

But this point is truly a misunderstanding.

The Floating City Flight Control System designed by Xia Duo will periodically apply a Levitation Spell to the Floating City according to the flight altitude to ensure that it has at least one chance to levitate before it falls, allowing it to land smoothly. (Levitation reconstructs inertia; levitating a second before landing is also in time.)

The higher it flies, the lower the frequency at which the Levitation Spell is automatically activated; and correspondingly, the lower it flies, the more frequently it must trigger automatic levitation.

This is just levitation; the Flight Control System also includes other spells for attitude control. If calculated by the actual number of spells or the volume involved, the relevant data would be several times higher.

Moreover, although the position where he appeared this time is above the sea, it cannot be said to be very high (referencing free-fall time calculation, a height of 1 kilometer requires refreshing every 14 seconds). Given the volume of the Floating City, it is almost stuck to the sea surface.

This makes the Flight Control System need to trigger frequently, and after he appeared in the Material Plane, he started teleporting toward Siluwende without the slightest delay.

Due to the huge volume of the Floating City, Xia Duo chose short-range, high-frequency teleportation with a high safety factor, rather than arriving directly near the battlefield.

But the short range of the Floating City is still worlds apart compared to an individual spellcaster. With just one jump, he left the sea area, and with another, the World Spine appeared within the effective range of the 【Wide-Area Prohibition】.

If Xia Duo were willing, he could now help Yierlan completely clear the threat of the Orc Tide, but he is too lazy to do such a thing that is not strenuous but also earns no gratitude.

Continue teleporting.