Chapter 680 679. Magic Meets Science
Gravity can bend light. So, what were the magical attacks before it?
Sylvester knew that very well and used his vast array of skills to his advantage. While focusing on derailing Raz's strike, he focused all his magical power on increasing the effects of gravity on Julius's body. Since it worked on the Demon Zama'tar, there was no doubt it'd work on Julius, too.
Shwooo!
Julius found his body dragged straight down into the sea, while the bone blade on Raz's arm was blocked by Sylvester in a resounding exchange. Sparks flew, and Sylvester quickly countered, swinging back at Raz.
Clash!
Raz used his own skull to block Sylvester's strike and hit back with his bone spears that instantly grew from his ribcage.
Every move they made was devastating, causing destruction on an unknown scale as they remained in the sky. However, Sylvester went all out, attempting to finish Raz before Julius could find a way to return, since holding a Supreme Wizard back was burdening on his body, too.
'Suppressing one Supreme Wizard with physical might while the other with magical might. This seems doable, but what happens where there is a third one?' Sylvester evaluated his own performance in real-time and sometimes knowingly made mistakes to give himself more of a challenge. 'I know their talents, but what happens if I meet a Supreme Wizard whose abilities I can't comprehend?'
Wanting to make it more challenging, he stopped keeping Julius at bay and removed the effects of gravity from him.
Boom!
The water exploded underneath them, and a massive crater appeared that took some seconds to fill up with water once again. Julius came out flying, his face somewhat appearing annoyed as he hadn't been able to defend against Sylvester's invisible attack. There was simply no way to counter it.
"What you did made me feel helpless like never before," Julius said and launched at Sylvester right away, his body radiating with a dark aura, with two longswords of hardened dark element in his hands.
He struck with all his might.
Clash!
Sylvester created a shield of light magic behind himself. But the shield quickly showed signs of cracking, which prompted Julius to strike even more vigorously.
But Julius had too many attacks in his arsenal. He once again created millions of swords in the air all around them and made them fall on Sylvester, while from down below, he created a black inferno, blazing with black fire which flames attempted to engulf Sylvester, locking him on all sides with that.
'They're trying to pull me into their Supreme Void as well,' Sylvester noted as his own transparent Supreme Void that he had maintained in the air continuously fought against the pressure. But that placed more strain on his magic reserves.
Crack!
Boom!
Sylvester gritted his teeth and accepted the pain, "Ugh…"
Julius' dark blade struck him on the back and pierced through the skin on the black of his shoulder. It was burning and painful, but Sylvester saw that as an opportunity.
"Haaaaa!" He roared with his mouth wide open and spewed flames like a dragon at Raz, who remained in front of him. The undead was pushed back by his flames, giving him time to step up with his light sword.
"Gah!" Julius received the strike on his belly, but it was much more painful and burning than the black sword of his.
Snap!
Sylvester didn't end it there and looked ahead at Raz. The Emperor Lich was coming back towards him with greater force. His ribcage opened up and revealed a dark abyss from where tentacles started to come out, filled with sharp spikes and poison.
"You can't stand my fire anymore," Sylvester said and raised his palm at him before sending a storm of fire. A multitude of rune circles formed before the fire went out, mainly belonging to air elemental, to give the fire more speed and vigor.
"Wraaaa!" Whatever creature it was inside Raz's chest, it growled like a demonic beast while swaying its tentacles around in search of some prey.
Boom!
The fire exploded on Raz's face and sent him flying back, albeit the strange tentacle creature showed resilience and ate the fire itself. Raz was mostly fine and even talking when that happened.
'What Eldritch Horror is he hiding in his body?' Sylvester wondered and pushed forth. 'Maintaining the Supreme Void is getting hard now.'
"What is that thing?"
"Oh, this?" Raz turned lively instantly and proudly placed his claw bones on his bony pelvis. "I caught this thing when I was lost in the frozen north for three hundred years. There's an ocean under the deep sheet of ice. This little one was playing there alone, so I kept it."
'There's an ocean under the north ice?' Sylvester was hearing that for the first time. 'He was lost for three hundred years? No wonder he's so lively with people.'
"This is probably the ancient ancestor of today's Krakens. Its flesh is extremely resilient. That's how it remained alive for so long—millions of years, perhaps." Raz proudly revealed, introducing his pet. "I've named it Deathbringer. Isn't it cute?"
"..."
'Anything named Deathbringer could be cute,' Sylvester thought and focused on the battle once again as Julius had freed himself from the impaling light sword in his stomach. He was clearly bleeding, but not wavering.
Crack!
He caught Julius' sword with his bare hands and cracked it with destructive power. But Julius didn't stop and threw his fist at Sylvester, and it landed.
"That's new," Sylvester muttered, feeling blood ooze out of his nostrils. "Then, take this."
Bam!
Sylvester grabbed Julius by the throat and threw him at Raz, where he fell onto the tentacles. But the tentacles threw Julius back. The former leader of Anti-Light looked like he had turned into a flying superhero, his fist out, aiming in front of him.
"Two can play this," Sylvester kicked a Light Tile and launched himself similarly, fist out.
BOOM!
They both collided, and the soundwave from their collision echoed so loud that it resonated at the shores of both continents. However, they didn't stop and kept kicking, punching, or wrestling, trying to choke each other. Raz joined the fray and started throwing hands around.
The three didn't even realize when the battle turned from a one versus two, everyone for themselves. They hit each other mercilessly, kicked, and threw each other around. Far from the graceful battle from before, they simply brawled like madmen—a brawl that could destroy kingdoms, however.
"My jaw!" Raz groaned.
Bam!
"My back!" Julius felt the effects of his age.
"Ah!" Sylvester was the same. "Don't you pull my damn hair!"
It was a mess. Sylvester even stopped deploying his Supreme Void, and none of them used magic. With just their physical might, they continued, and Sylvester seemingly inched closer to victory as he was also peak Platinum Knight.
But one thing was clear. Their brawl had done more damage to each other than their previous magical battle. Bruises on the face, swollen eyes, and cracked bones were a common sight. Their blood drops also fell into the sea underneath them as the creatures of the water all escaped as far as possible from the area.
Bam!
Crack!
"Who took my elbow!" Raz roared frantically.
Julius smirked and threw something in the water, "Go, fetch!"
"Heh, I'll just grow another one!" Raz glared at Julius with his hollow eye sockets.
Sylvester wasn't even fighting at that point. He watched the two Guardians of Light brawl with each other for no particular reason.
'How did it turn into this?'
"Alright, calm down, both of you." He had no option but to meddle and stop them from fighting further. "Let's go back to the Holy Land now. I've assessed my strength well enough."
"Indeed, we shoul—"
Ting!
Just as Julius was speaking, a shocking, eclipsing flash of light appeared far in the distance from the direction of the Holy Land. The flash was so bright that everything turned white for a split second, followed by a massive mushroom cloud of fiery blaze and dust that rose so high into the sky that it was visible to even them.
BOOM!
"Such power!" Raz exclaimed.
Sylvester only frowned as soon as the shockwave and crackling sound of the explosion reached him. He knew the Holy Land was in that direction, and such an explosion wasn't possible unless a Supreme Wizard caused it.
"Quick! Fly back as fast as possible!" He ordered and rushed before the other two.
Cleaving through the high waves of the sea, the three flew or jumped back to the Holy Land faster than they had left. Not minding talking or thinking, they followed the mushroom cloud that still kept on going and going higher, telling them just how vast its size was.
'An attack?' Sylvester felt his heart drown in fear for Xavia and the others'. All those he cherished.
In no time, they got closer to the Holy Land and saw where the explosion happened.
"It's not at the Pope's Peninsula," Sylvester realized, breathing a sigh of relief with the rest. "But... Why did it happen at the Training Peninsula?"
The Training Peninsula was desolate and only filled with nature as it was used to train the various groups of the Holy Land. But, the size of the explosion was such that nobody training there could have caused it. Heck, from the sky, it appeared the peninsula was almost destroyed.
Sylvester and the two made their way to the Training Peninsula and landed amidst piles upon piles of rubble. They curiously went to inspect the crater of the explosion to see what caused it.
Cough!
Sylvester heard the faint coughs and looked around. He activated his Elder Magic and sensed the solarium in the air. Right away, the first thing he noticed was the massive spike in solarium where the crater was. But then he looked towards the coughs and saw two bodies stuck under the pile of rubble.
"There!" He pointed.
Bam!
He and Julius dug their hands into the ground and caught some clothes. So, with a good pull, they dug the bodies out, keeping them dangling in front of themselves.
"Cardinal Jin… Cardinal Robert?!" Sylvester recognized the two. The head of the research and development, his two cherished scientists with a knack for innovation. "What did you do?"
Cough!
The two were in pitiful condition, coughing and panting, their clothes torn and looking utterly dirty. But Jin was in a better state as he had magical and knightly talents, while Robert was just a simple human with a scientific brain.
"Your Holiness," Jin voiced, fear evident in his voice. "W-We were… We read your advanced books about chemistry and physics. We were inspired by the Particle Theory of Matter that you wrote and decided to test it by isolating solarium particles. We succeeded."
"That can't cause this explosion," Sylvester reasoned. "What did you do?"
Jin started sweating, just remembering what had occurred. "After reading a few more explanations of how the sun works, we saw solarium particles match the description and tried Fusion on it. We… It was all so perfect! We made the chamber safely, isolated solarium, and used the finest source of heat—But the chamber couldn't hold onto that sudden burst of energy."
"..."
Sylvester's brows rose, jaw fell, and heart pounded. He glanced at the massive crater, the mushroom cloud, and back at the two men.
"You created a fusion bomb?!"
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