Volume 8, Chapter 27 – The Rewritten Sealing Barrier

An hour later.

“Lin, I’m ready. We can start anytime.”

Having changed into a red and white combat uniform, the red-haired girl looked on with eager anticipation, rubbing her palms together. Unlike the scythe Lin held and the staff in the purple-haired girl’s hands, the red-haired girl’s weapons were her fists—by enveloping her fists in a magic blade, they would become weapons harder than steel. Of course, she couldn’t yet create a magic blade on her hands like Yisi could. She could only create a ‘pseudo-magic blade’ similar to it. Although its hardness was generally inferior to a true magic blade and required several seconds of preparation before use, the advantage was its low magic power consumption. As long as enough magic power was injected, its hardness could briefly catch up to that of a magic blade.

“Is Purple ready over there?”

“Everything’s fine. Those soldiers were like dogs seeing a bone. They rushed over, drooling. But they’re asleep now. We just need to protect a few of them to leave as witnesses—that they were the ones who touched the magic ore in a fit of lust, causing the magic barrier in the cave to go haywire.”

Hearing ‘a few,’ the brow under Lin’s mask furrowed slightly.

“A few? What about the rest?”

“Let the rest disappear in the turbulent magic flow. The more people we protect, the greater the burden on us. We’re not guaranteed to succeed in this mission anyway. It’ll be hard enough just to ensure our own safety.”

As she spoke, the purple-haired girl tossed a few bound soldiers from the hall entrance to Lin’s side. These men had lost consciousness due to the intervention of mental magic and would not wake up for the rest of the day.

After a moment of wordless silence, Lin looked up again.

“How many were left outside?”

“Lin, you’re not thinking of saving them all, are you? Even if they live, they’re just like parasites. We don’t have the ability to save everyone either. Didn’t the Pope often tell us that when both sides need rescuing, you can only choose one? If you try to save both, you’ll end up saving neither. What we’re doing may seem like the work of villains, but as long as the final result is good, as long as we can save all living beings on the continent from destruction, the process doesn’t matter, right? The Pope specifically sent me with you, Lin, to remind you at times like this not to be too kind.”

The purple-haired girl’s resigned sigh made Lin fall silent once more.

“…Bring two more over.”

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“Lin, if you suffer an irreversible injury, humanity is truly finished. They are not as important.”

“I think so too, Lin. Purple is right. You are our hope.”

The atmosphere froze for a moment. After a sufficiently long period of thought, Lin finally let out a long breath.

“Hah—alright then.”

Stretching out her hand, Lin aimed her palm at a blue magic formation at the end of the cave—this end was a vast hall that could accommodate nearly ten thousand people. Like the cave outside, it was dotted with star-like blue ores. But unlike the outside, these blue ores were distributed regularly on the ground, walls, and ceiling, and each ore was inscribed with a very distinct rune. Combined, they formed a large, three-dimensional barrier. These light-emitting barriers seemed to be breathing, the intensity of their light changing rhythmically, and this change would propagate from the magic barrier all the way to the outside of the cave. Just being in this hall, one could feel an indescribably immense pressure.

“‘Those who touch it shall invite death…'” silently reciting the inscription on the stele standing beneath the barrier, Lin gently shook her head. “‘If we don’t do this, we will truly invite death. Your failure will be rewritten by humanity.'”

“Lin, the angels can’t hear you. Don’t waste your breath on them.”

As soon as the red-haired girl’s words fell, Lin infused magic power into her palm. Then, a thin gray stream of air, only as thick as a finger, shot out from her palm. Like a venomous snake tasting the air for its prey, it swayed left and right for a moment before detaching from her hand and plunging into the blue barrier.

It was like dropping a depth charge into a calm, deep pool. The moment the gray stream entered the barrier, the calmly breathing barrier instantly boiled over. The blue light patterns switched rapidly between bright and dark, and the gently fluctuating magic flow turned into a dangerous, vortex-like existence. This scene lasted for less than half a minute. With a series of crackling sounds, blue-purple electric arcs began to flash within the magic formation. The dancing sparks were reminiscent of an overloaded electronic device. It seemed that in just a little while, this hall would turn into a paradise of flames.

“The magic is about to erupt! Red, prepare the magic barrier! As long as we can withstand the first wave of the eruption, we’ll charge in!”

“I know!”

Taking a step forward, the red-haired girl stood in front of everyone. With her outstretched arms as a boundary, a ruby-like crimson wall appeared before them. And the very next second after the magic barrier was deployed, the giant magic formation that occupied the entire wall erupted with a chaotic torrent of magic for the first time.

Boom!

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A stream of blue magic, so dense it was visible to the naked eye, slammed heavily against the crimson magic barrier. Red, who took the full force of the blow, was uncontrollably pushed back several steps. Even though the magic wave was just a tiny sliver of power leaking from this barrier, it forced Red to use all her strength.

The reason the three of them had Red deploy the magic barrier was not a random choice, but a deliberate one. When Lin was investigating this barrier, which had been jointly created by the angels, she had discovered that the existing magic barriers were completely incapable of blocking even a tiny sliver of the turbulent magic flow. Only the barrier formed by Red’s ‘pseudo-magic blade’ could possibly withstand the initial magic wave.

However, even so, Lin soon discovered that her calculations were wrong. The magic wave showed no signs of stopping, and was instead growing more and more intense.

“Red, this intensity is not what we agreed on!”

“I know.”

Her heart sinking, Lin, standing behind Red, could only use her power of death to form a cone in front of the magic barrier to reduce Red’s pressure as much as possible. But this was a futile effort. Her power of death was often torn to shreds by the giant wave as soon as it was exposed to the magic tide, unable to form a cone at all.

“Purple, quick, think of something! I can’t hold on for much longer!”

“You have to hold on even if you can’t! You’re the only one here who can deploy a magic barrier! Take all my magic potions. Whether we succeed or not is all up to you!”

“This isn’t a matter of how much magic power I have, it’s that this is the most I can output at once!” Gritting her teeth so hard that blood trickled from the corner of her mouth, Red, who was struggling to hold on but could only watch as more and more cracks appeared on the magic barrier, drank the magic potion with Purple’s help. “Damn it, if I had broken through level forty, it wouldn’t be like this!”

“Concentrate. Don’t get distracted.”

“I’m trying!”

Crack, crack.

Like glass being smashed by a heavy hammer, more and more cracks appeared on the barrier. The walls of the entire hall also let out a creaking sound like twisting steel under the scouring of the magic tide. It seemed that with just a little more force, the hall would collapse along with the cave.

After holding on for less than five more seconds, the magic barrier finally began to slowly disintegrate. First, pieces of the barrier’s edge began to peel off. Then, after less than half a minute, the entire magic barrier finally gave way. With a faint but terrifying ‘pop,’ it shattered.

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“”Lin!””

Subconsciously, the red-haired girl and the purple-haired girl called out the black-haired girl’s name in unison. The former turned to hug the black-haired girl, while the latter deployed layer after layer of almost useless magic shields between them and the magic barrier. But this struggle was clearly futile. The magic wave, carrying the force of a tidal wave, finally slammed into the three of them.

“Gah.”

An impact as if her chest were being crushed hit her back, and then her body slammed hard against the wall. The double impact made the red-haired girl let out an inhuman scream. Although this was nothing compared to the various hardships she had experienced in the past, pain was not something one could simply endure.

A sweet, metallic taste welled up in her throat, followed by a wave of nausea. Uncontrollably, the red-haired girl spat out the blood that had filled her mouth.

Then, she soon discovered something was wrong.

“Hm?”

The turbulent magic had stopped. And with it, the barrier that had been erupting with electric arcs was now emitting a steady light.

They had failed to take advantage of the turbulent magic to enter the barrier.

They had failed.

The deathly quiet environment made panic well up in the red-haired girl’s heart.

“Lin, Lin! Where are you?!”

“I’m fine.”

Staggering, the black-haired girl walked out of the darkness step by step. She had probably been injured in the impact, as there were clear bloodstains on her black veil. And behind her was the already unconscious purple-haired girl.

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Seeing this, the red-haired girl let out a huge sigh of relief. Wiping the corner of her mouth, a forced smile appeared on her pained face.

“Hah… as long as you’re alive.”

“We failed.”

“It can’t be helped. If I were just two levels higher, no, one level would have been enough. If I had broken through level forty, the magic barrier just now wouldn’t have shattered,” at this, the red-haired girl spat out a mouthful of bloody saliva. “Damn it, if that bastard from the Ymir Church hadn’t snatched the Nectar from the dryad, we wouldn’t be in this situation.”

The black-haired girl first glanced at the red-haired girl, then fixed her gaze on the once-again-quiet magic barrier, her deep purple eyes filled with vigilance.

“Perhaps.”

“Perhaps? Lin, do you think that even if I had used the Nectar to break through to level forty, I still wouldn’t have been able to block that level of force?”

“No. The magic barrier here has been rewritten.”

“Rewritten?”

“This is just my guess. If the magic barrier hadn’t been rewritten, a magic wave of that momentum couldn’t have stopped just as we were blown away. The outcome should have been us being torn to shreds by the magic wave. But the fact is, as soon as we were scattered, the turbulent magic stopped… not only that, but after the turbulent magic ended, the entrance to the barrier also closed on its own. According to our week of observation, although the sealing barrier can heal itself, the speed is so slow it’s negligible. We should be able to enter through the loosened seal now.”

“Then what you mean is, Lin…”

A wavering look appeared in the red-haired girl’s eyes. Lin shook her head, her gaze fixed on the distance.

“We need to reconsider our plan.”