Chapter 3349: Synchronous Progress, Crisis Misdirection

If it were Xia Duo casting the spell himself, he could of course use perception dimensions that an Archmage would not think of or would find difficult to avoid to conduct the detection, but since he is currently using a field team to cast, this is the only way.

To think that a group of half-baked ordinary Mages could handle an Archmage standing at the peak of magic in the Main Plane—even Xia Duo would not dream such a dream.

But two large-scale Archmages "cobbled together" by a group of half-baked ordinary Mages through Mind Link and Coordinated Casting are enough to go toe-to-toe with an Archmage for a little while.

Reinforcements from the rear are already on the way; by delaying slightly, there might be a chance to eliminate an enemy of Archmage level. Capturing them alive is unlikely unless Xia Duo takes action himself, and even then, it would only be possible with a sneak attack.

Xia Duo is currently directing Spellcasting Team 1 to use conventional Scrying spells to inspect the bottom of the lake, with the goal of lulling the ritual officiant into a false sense of security and stalling for time until the reinforcements arrive.

Of course, it is even more important to wait for him to develop a proper plan to handle those four Magic Artifacts and the related ritual. If he cannot even come up with a handling plan, going to stop them with nothing but hot-blooded passion might end up being counterproductive.

Xia Duo does not do such things; he would rather do less or nothing at all than rashly undertake something that has a high probability of being a trap, unless there is truly no other way in the end, in which case he would have to force his way through despite knowing it is impossible.

……

"Mage Bangdi, how much longer do you need on your end? We can't drag things out at Tear Drop Lake for much longer!"

"Almost there, give us a little more time."

Western border of Yierlan, Tear Drop Lake.

Mu Hou has to be responsible for both research and communication coordination, so the task is also very heavy.

In fact, according to the various countries of the Alliance, the ideal situation is not a direct exchange of pieces; even if it is a ten-for-one trade, as long as the Darkness Society can be resolved, it is quite cost-effective for the Alliance.

That team is led by a veteran Mage and composed of seventeen Elite Mages; even without Xia Shao, it is enough to compete with an Archmage.

The final decisive battle between the Alliance countries and the Darkness Society is about to begin; in such a situation, being able to clear out a strong main force of the opponent in advance is completely acceptable even if the Alliance has to pay a certain price.

If it were not for the assistance of the intellectual brain and the Computing Power Pool, Xia Shao would not doubt that he would fall into a system crash; even now, he feels a bit overwhelmed.

Unless the opponent has planned it out long ago and leaves when the time comes, otherwise it is still very easy to make the opponent relax their vigilance.

Time passed bit by bit, and the newly arrived reinforcement team had already begun to set up a spellcasting home field in a relatively distant place outside the lake surface. With a veteran Mage leading, there is no need to worry about this bit of spellcasting distance.

It can be seen from this that the Darkness Society's plan is effective and has already been dragging down the mobile forces of the Northland Alliance, including Xia Shao, bit by bit.

……

At the current time node, if Tear Drop Lake were not the first true Time-Involving Signal source that Xia Shao noticed, he might not have been able to wait for such a force!

Besides Tear Drop Lake, other places have also discovered true Time-Involving Signals, and those Time-Involving Signals also require Xia Shao to direct nearby field teams to investigate, or even design spell sequences and direct spellcasting.

Of course, considering the suspicion of the ritual officiant at the bottom of the lake, Xia Shao will not let the newly arrived reinforcement team check exactly according to the Scrying method of Spellcasting Team 1 before, and has slightly increased the intensity.

The current support force is still a bit thin, but this is already the greatest effort of the Alliance countries. At present, various countries are still recruiting support forces within their own countries, but this requires time.

To be rigorous, Xia Shao cannot even conclude that the four Magic Artifacts on the altar at the bottom of the lake are definitely left for him.

Of course, winning is still almost impossible, unless it is a Strategic Support Mage troop that has undergone long-term training and mastered War Magic Artifacts, but that would include at least three veteran Mages and more than twenty-five Elite Mages.

But just a little bit, carefully maintaining a little sense of crisis for the opponent, without being too stimulating, makes the opponent feel that the situation is still under their control.

The Spellcasting Team 1 by the lake has announced its dissolution and returned to its original establishment, and the newly arrived reinforcement team has replaced Spellcasting Team 1 to begin a new round of Scrying on the bottom of the lake.

The Magic Artifact he studied before is not the same as the four discovered under Tear Drop Lake now, and there is not even much commonality; it is more of a similarity in the style of the Magic Artifacts.

In such matters, Xia Shao alone is no more useful than nearly a hundred Mages combined, even though he has done some research on the Excited State Magic Artifacts of the Darkness Society before.

……

Coordinated Casting Scrying with the participation of veteran Mages is just different; Xia Shao's methods can almost be perfectly reproduced on the front line by these support Mages.

On the contrary, lengthening the distance can reduce the probability of being discovered by the ritual officiant at the bottom of the lake; it is precisely because the opponent is still in a hidden state and unable to effectively detect the surrounding environment that Xia Shao can prepare in advance so unscrupulously.

Therefore, to properly handle those four Magic Artifacts and the variant Time-Involving Magic, it still requires the great assistance of other Alliance Mages, just like Mage Bangdi, who is a member of our Alliance's Time-Related Magic Research Laboratory.

There is a lone one right now; although Xia Shao is not sure whether the opponent is an Archmage, being able to preside over this ritual alone means they are at least a veteran Mage. Taking them down is definitely a profit, and if they can be captured alive, it is an even bigger profit.

It is just that if the intensity is increased now, the ritual officiant hiding at the bottom of the lake might run away immediately, and Xia Shao wants to try to capture them; at the very least, he must kill or force them to death.

In such a situation, even conventional Scrying is not impossible for a group of Spellcasters to avoid.

If the opponent's core cannot be found before being completely dragged down, the result will likely be very bad.

Of course, Xia Shao's task is not light at all; Tear Drop Lake is just one typical case initially determined to be true among the large number of Time-Involving Signals detected by the Alliance at the moment.

"Bangdi, how much longer? I am in the Time-Related Magic Research Laboratory network; you first synchronize your current research progress. I have already received the progress from the other Mages; it is just you left."

"Five minutes at most; if I don't have it, I can only start the operation."

Either it is a single Spellcaster, or it is a more powerful special Magic Artifact; no matter which one it is, as long as it is taken, it can add a little more weight to the subsequent decisive battle between the Alliance side and the Darkness Society.

If the opponent appears, mastering the surrounding environment will become the primary goal of the opponent's spellcasting. In such a situation, Xia Shao would have no chance to set up, or rather, in such a situation, it would directly enter the "hand-to-hand combat" of a Spell Duel.

As for the possibility that the opponent is not one person, that possibility almost does not exist; one must know that the just-dissolved Spellcasting Team 1, under Xia Shao's command, was almost equivalent to a large-scale Archmage, and an Archmage with peak Plane magic attainments at that.