Wizard: I Have a Cultivation System

Chapter 431: Chapter 89: Wind, Lightning, Water

The immense force blasted the raging current, forcing it back and creating a temporary opening.

Several Vilt Royal Knights behind Otto immediately understood, leaping into the water to pull out the victims.

"Quickly! Everyone who can still move, follow Sir Otto and rescue the others!" William IV seized the opportunity to command, his voice booming across the area where the Vilt Kingdom’s delegation was gathered.

Spurred on by the King’s command and Otto’s example, some of the nobles and Knights who had initially been panicking summoned their courage and began to attempt limited rescues, provided they could ensure their own safety.

But not everyone agreed with William IV’s "astuteness."

Not far away, Duke of Orleans, Charlie, his face pale, hid behind Knight Armand. He watched the ravaging wind, lightning, and water in the distance, and Murphy, Otto, and the others desperately performing rescues. He sneered and muttered to his attendant, "Fools... What’s the point of playing hero right now? The most important thing is to save your own skin! The Church Court made this mess, let them clean it up themselves!"

The Phlanis nobles around him also looked terrified, nodding in agreement as they urged their guards to form a tighter circle around them.

The Ironspine Duke, however, remained standing with his hands clasped behind his back in a relatively safe location. His gray-blue eyes calmly observed the chaos, his face devoid of expression, as if this horrific disaster were merely a play that had nothing to do with him.

However, the rescue was no easy task, nor was it something that could be accomplished by courage alone.

A Viscount from a certain duchy, himself a formidable Knight, led two of his guards in an attempt to cross a stretch of knee-deep water swirling with the Withering Wind. Perhaps moved by the atmosphere or by his sense of noble honor, he wanted to save several women and children trapped on a roof on the other side.

They did indeed make it to the middle of the flooded area.

But just then, an almost invisible, dark green vortex of wind skimmed silently across the surface of the water and touched the leg armor of one of the Viscount’s guards.

The guard didn’t even have time to cry out a warning. His entire lower body, armor and all, instantly lost its color and vitality. It crumbled like a terracotta statue weathered for a thousand years, and his upper body, an expression of shock frozen on its face, toppled into the water and was swiftly swallowed by the murky current.

The Viscount and the other guard turned pale with horror. They scrambled backward, not daring to take another step forward.

Elsewhere, a few caravan guards from the Jade City-States Alliance were trying to use ropes and planks to build a temporary bridge to rescue residents from a two-story building about to be submerged by the floodwaters.

A bolt of blue lightning, no thicker than a finger, snaked down from the sky like a viper and struck one of the guards who was fastening a rope.

There was a flash of blinding blue light. The guard, the rope in his hands, and the plank beneath his feet all vanished without a trace, leaving only a shallow, scorched pit and a wisp of curling smoke.

These gruesome examples were like a bucket of ice water, instantly extinguishing any desire to help among the nobles and Knights who had just been spurred to action by William IV’s encouragement or their own conscience.

Fear overrode everything else.

"Quick! Fall back! Protecting His Lordship is what matters!"

"Don’t go! It’s a suicide mission!"

Similar shouts and orders to retreat rang out all around.

Most of the nobles and their Guard Teams began to pull back resolutely, focusing only on self-preservation. They even started looking for safer retreat routes on higher ground, turning a deaf ear to the cries for help right next to them.

Only Murphy’s wheelchair continued to weave swiftly through the chaotic waters and ruins.

His white Mana would sometimes form a long whip to snatch victims to safety, sometimes a giant hand to push away falling rubble, and other times it would condense into a dense Shield, narrowly blocking streams of the Withering Wind or stray bolts of lightning.

He was extremely efficient, but he focused his rescues on areas that were within his capabilities and where the risks were relatively manageable. He did not blindly venture into the core area where the storm of wind, lightning, and water raged most fiercely.

At the same time, Murphy spared a sliver of his attention to keep a close watch on the pure white figure upon the altar.

Ever since ringing the Morning Star Bell, Elizabeth seemed to have been drained of all her strength and spirit. She stood silently at the edge of the altar, facing the Ancient Bell which still pulsed with a sacred aura.

She wasn’t participating in the Cardinals’ fierce struggle against the storm, nor did she react in any way to the tragic scene unfolding below.

Her pure white Saint’s Robe fluttered gently in the chaotic currents of Energy. Her exquisitely beautiful face now held only an almost vacant serenity. Her jet-black eyes stared, unfocused, into the void, as if her soul had been pulled from her body, leaving behind only a beautiful shell.

Occasionally, a stray gust of Withering Wind would touch the edge of the altar, making a sizzling, corrosive sound. Once or twice, small blue serpents of electricity shot up the steps, bursting into tiny sparks not far from her feet.

She remained completely oblivious, as motionless as a Holy Image that had lost its master.

If not for the several Temple Knights who formed an Iron Wall around her, using their own Life Energy to construct a solid protective barrier that blocked every aftershock from the storm, this Saint who had just rung the Holy Bell would have long since perished in the chaotic torrent of Energy.

"Saint! Please retreat into the Holy Hall for shelter!" a Knight Captain of the Temple Knights in charge of her protection shouted anxiously, turning back after cleaving through an approaching gust of the Withering Wind.

Elizabeth gave no response, her vacant gaze still fixed on the distance.