Chapter 74: Abyss Reversal Formation

"Steady mind, calm spirit, Ma Luo, you must stay calm."

In the dim basement, crimson light illuminated Ma Luo's face; he inhaled deeply to rally himself, knelt on the ground, and with trembling hands began carving runes.

Khloma

Summoene

"What was the next word? Think carefully, Ma Luo! What is it? What is it?!"

Ma Luo frantically pounded his head with his fists, his eyes blood‑red as he recalled the dragon's entrusting voice in his mind, anxiously on the verge of tears.

KhlomaSummoeneRejector

From somewhere unknown, a gentle female voice whispered beside his ear, singing each word of the incantation; the voice was so tender, holy yet filled with merciful compassion.

Silvery moonlight, at an unknown moment, fell around Ma Luo, silently dispersing the crimson glow; it was cool and graceful, like a thin veil separating Ma Luo from everything else.

What was that? Ma Luo stared, raising his hand to grasp the moonlight, which slipped through his fingers like sand; his eyes ceased being blood‑red, his agitation faded, and he quietly listened to the female voice in his mind.

"Oh merciful Selennye"

He bit his own finger, blood staining the ground, and painstakingly wrote the ancient draconic script—an enigma even time cannot erode, recorded in the spell of every sentient world: the Abyss Reversal Formation.

When the three‑tier altar is covered by the spell's incantation, the Abyss's power will reverse, because the core of the Abyss Reversal Formation is itself the counter‑spell to the Abyss‑summoning ritual.

Extract, reverse, reject.

No one knows who devised the Abyss Reversal Formation, yet it exists in most worlds of the Multiverse, as if an unknown force has spread it everywhere.

It is the Arcane masterwork of counter‑spells, the only known method that can break an Abyss ritual beneath the gods.

Perhaps the Abyss sensed the altar's shift; the demons on the ground erupted in revolt, the lesser demons daringly surged toward the positive‑energy mist, unstoppable even if burned to ash.

In the sky, more demons flew in, their forms a blend of vulture and humanoid traits, bearing twisted beastly bodies and a pair of broad wings that constantly emitted foul stench.

Those were Fro Demons, the core of the demon army's air force, seventh‑level demons whose screeches can intimidate nearby creatures and who can unleash clouds of highly toxic corrosive spores.

Above their circling, a portal expanded rapidly; a massive hand emerged, followed by a gigantic demon leaping out.

It resembled a neckless frog, its body covered in sharp spines and disgusting sores.

"Berserker Demon"—Naimi Xisi, circling in the air, narrowed his pupils; this hulking creature was no simple foe, each Berserker Demon is the most mad warrior in the Abyss, wielding power comparable to a 12th‑level Warrior.

The Berserker Demon that had landed on the ground, upon seeing the mist, showed no fear; instead it bared its fangs, dripping green viscous saliva.

"Delicious Dragon"

It crouched like a frog, then leapt explosively like a rocket toward the mist; the positive energy in the fog rubbed against its skin, producing a "sizzle" sound, yet the Berserker Demon was unfazed, charging out of the mist after its skin was charred to ash by the energy.

Naimi Xisi frowned; this Berserker Demon had already entered the eleventh‑level bracket, its Physical Quality greatly enhanced. Fortunately, the demons of the Abyss are instinct‑driven brutes with no class bonuses.

Otherwise, combined with the Warrior's exemplary power—Superfast Regeneration—this demon would be even harder to handle.

Advanced Mirror Image Technique! Naimi Xisi uttered the incantation, and his figure instantly split into twelve mirror images; the Berserker Demon that had just burst from the mist stared bewildered at the surrounding thirteen Juan Ce Long, clueless why the food had suddenly multiplied.

"Roar!!"

It didn't waste its barren brain pondering the cause; it chose a nearby target and charged, the Berserker Demon's speed surpassing sound as it leapt in an instant before a mirror image.

"Eh?!"

It greedily slashed its claws at a Juan Ce Long, only to find the area it struck yielded no flesh or screams; the claws passed straight through the seemingly tasty dragon body.

All thirteen dragons chanted the spell in unison; unwilling, it scratched at the dragon before it again, yet nothing changed, and it realized it had been fooled by magic.

Three‑Ring Transformative Spell—Fear Spell! Thirteen green beams struck it, one genuine beam taking effect; the spell's power greatly weakened the Berserker Demon's magic resistance, and as its name suggests, from now on it will fear the power of spells.

Naimi Xisi chanted again, the waning necromancer energy gathering at his fingertips, emitting a nauseating gray glow. "Weak Energy Spell"! The gray mana coiled around the Berserker Demon, sucking its strength like a leech, and its power rapidly drained under the combined effect of Fear Spell and Weak Energy Spell.

With a casual flick of his dragon finger, a positive‑energy vortex shot out of the mist toward the Berserker Demon, and countless intense light beams radiated from the vortex, striking the demon's body.

The Berserker Demon roared in reluctant pain; after being doubly weakened, its body could no longer ignore positive‑energy attacks, and the intense light beams drilled tiny holes into it, oozing foul green blood.

"No! Ku Lu Lu won't just go back like that!!"

The Berserker Demon exhausted its remaining strength, lunging at another massive dragon's silhouette, but under its hopeful, wise gaze, its claws missed again.

It chose wrong again.

The Berserker Demon, unwilling, fell to the ground, its body disintegrating into dust—the result of excessive positive‑energy exposure.

The air twisted briefly, then another Juan Ce Long emerged slowly; it was the real Naimi Xisi, who had hidden himself with Advanced Invisibility Technique after splitting the mirror images.

That pitiful Berserker Demon would never pick the correct option from those thirteen dragon shadows, even if it chose for a lifetime.

Having dealt with the Berserker Demon, Naimi Xisi was about to clean up those Fro Demons when his eye caught the mages guarding the black cocoon struggling fiercely.

The whole city of Degun was already engulfed in war; demons swarmed every direction, not just along Naimi Xisi's path. Every church protected its fleeing citizens, and the city guards fought the demons with all they had.

But it was a drop in the bucket; the teleportation array constantly rained demons, which slipped through the guards' lines and approached the plaza from another direction.

"Losrien! Is the protection spell not ready yet! Hurry!!" the Necromancer shouted, while commanding Skeletons and Zombies to fight the lesser demons, turning his head to roar.

The half‑elf was drenched in sweat, carving dense runes into the ground; several mages nearby fought the lesser demons with their lives at his side.

A mage just launched a Fireball, the explosive flame wiping out dozens of lesser demons, and in the next instant more swarmed up like endless locusts.

"My Spell Slots are exhausted! I only have one Ring Spell Slot left! Losrien, how much longer!" the Plastic Energy mage gasped, shouting wildly; his magical power was drained completely, unable even to cast the simplest trick.

Losrien drew the final stroke, sprang to his feet, loudly reciting the incantation; countless protective runes linked into white chains that whirled around them, finally forming a golden‑white shield.

Ritual casting—Protection Against Chaos! Losrien panted, his magical energy all but gone; he had spent a great deal of time to inscribe the ground array, which represents a special kind of spell—a ritual spell that requires extremely intricate steps and the highest Spell Slots of high‑rank casters to forge a potent spell.

The most representative spell of the Protection school is the array before them; it can shield chaotic beings, celestial beings, evil beings, and even righteous beings, among others.

This ritual spell employs the Protection school's core concept—refusal: refusing harm, refusing approach; as long as the target falls within the spell's defined scope, it cannot cross the protective circle.

Demons are typical chaotic‑evil beings; Protection Against Chaos effectively suppresses them.

As the protective array was completed, everyone exhaled, sitting on the ground unceremoniously to catch their breath; the surrounding lesser demons lunged with snarling claws, but were firmly held back outside the protective circle.

Losrien cast a somewhat complicated glance at the black cocoon beside him; logically, if the entity belonged to the chaotic camp, it would be expelled from the protective circle the moment the array formed.

But the cocoon before him remained completely still.

This suggests either the cocoon does not contain a chaotic creature, or it houses a being whose rank far exceeds his.

"So, Chief Losrien, shouldn't you explain to us what happened with that dragon? And that newly‑joined mage—he called us here, then vanished at the crucial moment?!" the Necromancer asked, his face displeased.

Luosi Lien glared at him in a bad mood; at a moment like this, the decorum that half‑elves usually strive to maintain was tossed from his mind.

"Don't ask about matters that aren't your business."

The Necromancer, angry, was about to argue, when the enchantress beside him murmured, "That dragon is none other than Lord Naimi Xisi."

The mage's words made everyone pause, then they realized that this wild guess, though crazy, had a traceable basis.

Luosi Lien could only say helplessly, "Lord Naimi Xisi is my master, a Scroll Dragon. I believe you are well‑versed in this kind of dragon; they are born with terrifying Arcane Power. If you wish to go farther on the path of a Mage, trust me, attaching yourself to a Scroll Dragon is the wisest choice."

Luosi Lien's words left the crowd thoughtful; Mages are exceedingly proud beings—if it were any other dragon, even a Golden Dragon, they might still hesitate, but a Scroll Dragon that roams the Multiverse as an Arcane Dragon, the master of Spellcraft and prophecy, the guardian of mysteries within time fissures. Thinking of the titles recorded in the books about such dragons, the Mages' eyes lit up.

No wonder that Luosi Lien was so decisive in recognizing the other as his master; the Mages looked at Luosi Lien with the gaze of "well, you thick‑eyed, bushy‑browed fellow," each scheming their own little calculations.

(End of chapter)