The Era of Gods

Chapter 263: Divine Realm Interface, Real Invasion

“What sort of damned ability is this?”

As an outsider, Lin Xiao was acutely aware of the overwhelming ban magic power that surged when the blood array exploded. Any spells within the array’s blast radius were instantly disrupted, and any buffs bestowed upon the enemy were purified, making it incredibly troublesome.

A wide area effect that carried both purification and magic banning, in addition to direct lethal damage—this move was rather terrifying.

Fortunately, the ability belonged only to a few Level 7 blood demon leaders; there were just a handful of them, and it wasn’t a minor trick that could be used incessantly. So, the threat wasn’t too great.

At this moment, the two sides had not yet fully engaged in combat. Bart’s transcendent-level blood demons and Lin Xiao’s Asura Naga had not yet made a move.

However, as the main forces of both sides gradually approached, the blood demons began to stir, and the Supreme Naga gripped their weapons, their thick dragon tails twitching nervously and lashing the ground.

The weapon used by the Asura Naga at this time was a type of long-handled slashing weapon similar to a Guan Knife, with a very long blade. According to the strength of the Supreme Naga, it came in three styles: Level 5 Supreme Naga were four meters tall and wielded weapons nearly eight meters long, with blades reaching two meters.

Naga warriors who reached Level 6 stood over five meters tall, carried weapons up to ten meters, and blades nearly three meters long.

And the Level 7 Supreme Naga were even more gargantuan, bearing weapons fifteen meters in length, with the blades alone measuring five meters—enough to cleave a terrestrial dragon in half with a single full-strength blow. Ever since the gray dwarves began tailoring these formidable weapons for the Asura Naga, Black Dragon Nejelanmu no longer wished to fight with them.

The sight of these cold, gleaming instruments of war made Bart’s eyelids twitch. His gaze swept over the dragon-like figures of the Dragon Descendants, twinkling as he tried to assess the Supreme Naga’s strength based on their physique.

Seeing this, Lin Xiao smiled faintly and said,

“What,scared by the sight of my core race?”

“Ridiculous!”

Bart pointed at the less than two thousand Supreme Naga and snorted coldly,

“Size does not equate to strength. To my blood demons, your core race is nothing but living targets since they can’t fly.”

Lin Xiao smiled slightly and, with his arms crossed, replied,

“Then let’s wait and see if they are truly just living targets!”

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While they spoke, the core races of both sides finally began to move amidst the increasingly fierce battle.

The Supreme Naga approached the frontline of the battlefield with heavy steps, while over two hundred blood demons waved their hands, the blood gleaming on their keratinous claws, and with a spread of their wings behind, they charged…

Not into the battlefield but took a detour and aimed straight for the Goblins Mage Group of Wisdom at the rear. It seemed they were planning to take out the pesky mages first.

Although they had ancient treasures that could nullify magic and ignored spells, mages’ spells were not limited to direct damage, and the diverse array of restrictive and supportive spells were far more troublesome than direct damage.

Vampires were renowned for their speed to begin with, and blood demons were an evolved form of vampires, even faster. The mage team had only about fifteen seconds from detecting the blood demons to raising the alarm, and already more than two hundred blood demons, led by two Level 7 blood demon leaders, had crossed over two thousand meters and appeared above the mages.

Many transcendent grand magicians responded quickly, grabbing their magic wands and thrusting them forward to release expanding circles of luminance that merged into a massive magical barrier while numerous official mages hurried over in this direction.

At the same time, a large number of golems and personal summoned protectors converged, and a swarm of flying creatures met the attacking blood demons head-on.

The two sides rapidly closed in on each other, crossing paths, and the summoned flying creatures fell one by one, while the blood demons were enveloped in radiant blood, crashing towards the growing magical barrier like a swarm of bloody meteors.

“Rip!”

The shadow of bloodied claws flashed, tearing through the magical barrier as if it had no effect, and the blood shadows pounced on the Wise Goblin Mages. Numerous defensive spells burst into light but proved ineffective against the tearing assault, and in a flurry of blood shadows, one mage after another fell in pools of blood.

“This…”

Lin Xiao’s face showed shock, while Bart laughed heartily and said,

“Do you know what nickname I have in the Abyss? Mage Nemesis! My race can ignore any and all of a mage’s spells.”

Two hundred transcendent-level blood demons who could disregard any spell plunged into the magical barrier, and within just ten seconds, there wasn’t a single living mage left in the camp of the mage team.

Of course, that’s not to say they all died; less than one-third perished, the remainder activated their escape spells and ran.

The ability of a mage to preserve life was not for show; each prepared a multitude of life-saving spells, and even when caught off-guard by a surprise attack, they would trigger teleportation spells they had readied long ago. Killing a prepared official mage was no easy task.

“Can they escape? Unless they flee far from the battlefield immediately, they’re as good as dead!”

Bart was not particularly concerned about the escape of so many mages.

If they didn’t die this time, they’d simply be killed the next. With the speed of the blood demons, how far could these little ones run?

But Lin Xiao did not look as grim as Bart had imagined. Instead, he let out a light chuckle and said,

“Do you know the profession of my race?”

“Hehheh!”

“Mage!”

“It’s a mage!”

“It’s a mage from our own ranks!”

Lin Xiao emphasized deliberately, sentence by sentence; it wasn’t until the third phrase that Bart’s smile froze on his face.

“They are real mages, not the kind of mage you become through a Profession Card. Do you know what distinguishes a real mage?”

“Watch carefully!”

In the distant sky that he pointed to, the remaining mages under the command of twenty Grand Magicians quickly took out various casting materials from their storage devices—Mithril Dust, Arcane Crystals, Magic Mercury, and other accumulated rare magic materials, all processing through special spells, bound by mana in mid-air, with points of magical light converging to rapidly form the outline of a vast array.

The Blood Demons rose up from the mages’ camp and looked towards other mages in the distance, falling into hesitation. The mages were too far from the battlefield; the Blood Demons weren’t sure they could guarantee a kill even if they got there.

However, if they left the battlefield, the Supreme Nagas below had no subordinates capable of holding their ground.

As they were caught in this dilemma, Bart suddenly beamed with delight as he looked behind him, and Lin Xiao, sensing something, subconsciously turned his head to look; a mass of blood cloud was swiftly approaching from that direction.

His main force had arrived.

With this, Bart no longer had to be indecisive. With a wave of his hand, two hundred Blood Demons charged toward the mages who were casting spells in the distance, with vampires and Blood Demons arriving from behind splitting into two groups, ready to flank from both sides.

However, before the enemy could encircle them, the Supreme Nagas had already stepped onto the battlefield, pulling out two-meter-long, finger-thick steel javelins from their backs and hurling them fiercely.

A series of sounds of air being torn apart ensued, and a group of vampires about to pounce all took a step back and fell from the sky.

After five volleys of javelins, virtually all the vampires brave enough to fly high were dead. The rest pressed low, two to three meters above the ground, rushing towards the Supreme Nagas in coordination with a unit of Blood Servant Cavalry.

The leading Supreme Naga, with cold eyes mirroring those of a Dragon’s, raised his Guan Knife in a chopping stance, and with a thunderous explosion underfoot, he vanished in a flash, leaving behind a long phantom trail that plowed a straight furrow as he charged into the midst of the Blood Servant Cavalry. Bone-breaking sounds and cries of men being thrown off their horses erupted as he blasted through the cavalry formation, creating a pathway.

Then, the massive body was lifted high and slammed down heavily, accompanied by a resonating boom, the ground within a vast radius, along with the Blood Servants and their mounts, all smashed to pieces—the blood mist and shattered debris mixed together, splattering blood-mud all over the place.

An all-around warrior profession upon advancing to Level 3 would gain a common warrior skill—Thunder Strike.

At first, Thunder Strike’s powerwas limited, and its range was small, but when Professional Level reaches the profession’s limit, with the strength of a Level 7 Asura Naga pushing it, that momentary explosion, to mid- and low-level creatures, was catastrophic.

Led by this Chief Big Naga, over two thousand Supreme Nagas launched into the fray with Salted Fish Charges, and the Thunder Strikes detonated with booming sounds, flinging blood fog all around. The damage was entirely overwhelming.

The superior troops were completely unstoppable for the Blood Servants of average strength Levels 1 and 2. Bart’s core Clan, the vampires, were no different. Seeing five thousand cavalries wiped out upon contact, the remaining vampires took advantage of their ability to fly to distance themselves and shoot with their Hand Crossbows. The dense shower of bolts clinked against their targets with a metallic ring, but the powerful bolts utterly failed to penetrate.

“Fuck!”

The violent display of the Supreme Nagas made Bart involuntarily curse. From just one glance, he knew that his core Clan, the Blood Demons, might struggle in a head-to-head battle against this monstrous race.

To his slight comfort, there were not many Supreme Nagas. Besides, he glanced back at his swiftly approaching main force and felt somewhat relieved:

“Don’t panic. There’s still a chance!”

However, for some reason, he felt a shadow closing in on his heart, bringing with it an irksome feeling.

Before this thought settled, another change occurred in the distance.

The two hundred-plus Blood Demons pounced towards the remaining Goblins Mage Group of Wisdom that were constructing a large array, effortlessly tearing through the Magic Barrier and entering it. A Blood Demon radiating with bloody light and a ferocious expression lunged at a Wise Goblin Grand Magician, who seemed utterly oblivious to the imminent danger while focused on constructing the array. The Blood Demon’s sharp dual blades went down for a rip, but instead of expected splatter, a flash of cleansing light occurred, and the target simply vanished.

Bart, monitoring the situation through his Clan’s perspective, felt his heart drop:

“It’s fake, dammit!”

The numerous Blood Demons swiftly destroyed the Magic Barrier and the array to emptiness, revealing that everything was indeed just an illusion, including the array being constructed.

“Five-ring Illusion Technique spells: Mirage, Constant Phantom.”

Lin Xiao gave a faint smile. Both spells were not high-level, merely fifth ring, and had no combat strength in themselves. But at that moment, they were more useful than a ninth ring spell, Meteor Destruction.

The effect of Mirage was to create a fantastical illusion.

The effect of Constant Phantom was to create a long-lasting illusion that could follow a predetermined script, including conversation, and of course, actions.

Using the two spells together, they successfully fooled the Blood Demons.

Meanwhile, the real Mage team was less than a thousand meters away from there, clearly visible in Lin Xiao’s eyes, but for the enemies, the location appeared to be empty. The Grand Magicians directly used their spell power to distort the space, making it invisible to the Blood Demons, including Bart.