Chapter 158: Battle Between Archmages [Please Subscribe]
As Nicole approached, Yi Shen, who was currently busy cracking the strange runes within the Human Emperor's Palace, actually sensed her arrival.
Yi Shen's luck was not too bad. After going through more than 18,000 rounds of brute-force enumeration, he managed to break through the restrictions imposed by these runes. Although every failure subjected him to an attack, such damage was practically negligible given Yi Shen's terrifying regeneration abilities.
Soon, Yi Shen successfully obtained the Human Emperor's Blood located in the third grand hall.
The color of this drop of Human Emperor's Blood was slightly different from the previous ones. Yi Shen tossed it into his inventory, planning to study it more closely after getting out.
The layout of the chambers inside the Human Emperor's Palace did not follow the regular pattern of ordinary palaces.
Aside from the main hall, several other areas were scattered haphazardly in a rather peculiar format.
Having acquired the third drop of Human Emperor's Blood, Yi Shen returned to the main hall.
Watching Nicole slowly approach, accompanied by the two shadows trailing behind her, he could not help but furrow his brows tightly.
At this exact moment, the Heart of the Magic God resting within his body stirred for the very first time in an unprecedented manner!
In the past, the Heart of the Magic God would only activate passively when Yi Shen encountered forces beyond his ability to resist.
Yet right now, merely upon encountering the three entities before him, the Heart of the Magic God within Yi Shen had already begun to pulse with alarm!
Yi Shen carefully scrutinized Nicole, who stood at the center.
Flanking her were a bulky brute and a dark shadow.
However, neither the brute nor the shadow possessed any independent consciousness; they were already entirely under the control of this woman.
Subconsciously, Yi Shen cast a protective barrier upon himself.
He had a gut feeling this was going to be a hard-fought battle.
To his surprise, the attack arrived even faster than he had anticipated, as the woman had no intention of exchanging any pleasantries whatsoever.
The woman in the center simply vanished from Yi Shen's field of vision out of thin air.
The next instant, Yi Shen felt the ambient temperature around him plummet by several degrees.
"A mage!"
Yi Shen raised his hand and cast Blink directly, sensing that his opponent possessed an extraordinarily formidable mastery over magical elements.
What he did not expect, however, was that midway through his Blink, he was blocked by a veil woven into space itself!
Yi Shen could sense this was a thin membrane of ice-type energy.
Yet it was completely unlike any common spell!
[Ice Barrier]
Feeling that the air surrounding him was on the verge of freezing solid, Yi Shen first cast an Ice Barrier to mitigate the incoming damage, and then swiftly deployed the spatial protective veil of the giant tortoise to distort space, finally extricating himself from Nicole's freezing zone.
He promptly cast his Mirror Image skill alongside a summoning of several elemental creatures.
Having established a preliminary defensive formation, he began channeling a forbidden spell.
He had originally expected his spatial veil to hold out for a little while, but mere seconds later, Yi Shen noticed several cracks appearing across his spatial barrier.
Granted, his spatial veil was certainly not as powerful as the giant tortoise's.
Even so, for it to be shattered in a single second still left Yi Shen astonished!
"Whoosh!"
Yi Shen executed several consecutive Blinks in an attempt to put some distance between them, but once his vision cleared, he still found himself utterly unable to capture Nicole's figure!
"Crack."
Yi Shen felt a sudden surge of turbulence within his pool of mana.
Following that, a terrifying damage figure popped up above his head!
"-592192"
Yi Shen's current stamina was over 200,000, bringing his total health pool to around three million. A single skill from his opponent had instantly shaved off nearly one-fifth of his health! This made her undoubtedly the strongest opponent Yi Shen had ever encountered so far!
Furthermore, Yi Shen still had not managed to catch a glimpse of his opponent's attack method. This was not the kind of arcane magic with visible projectiles; rather, it had directly inflicted damage upon his physical body!
[Divine Descent]
[Moonlit Body]
[Hold Breath]
[Magic Shield]
Yi Shen did not panic too excessively.
In a very short span of time, he activated every single one of his buffs.
Lunar energy began to radiate outward from Yi Shen's body. Moreover, this time, bolstered by the blessing of the Heart of the Magic God, he could harness the continuous stream of power channeled from the artifact within him, making his current strength likely twice as formidable as his previous Divine Descent state!
As the moonlight energy dispersed, the entire Human Emperor's Palace was shrouded in a dim, ethereal glow.
Through Yi Shen's perspective, the world transformed into a pattern of specialized lines, allowing him to clearly perceive the flow of energy, and finally, he captured Nicole's trail!
Yet, upon sensing her whereabouts, a deeper shock gripped his heart.
Nicole's position was flickering and shifting constantly at every moment.
It was as if she, too, was continuously casting the Blink skill.
What was more, it was an enhanced version of Blink that completely transcended spatial limitations, ignoring the inherent characteristic of the teleportation spell that restricted movement to straight lines!
[Blazing Wreath]
[Blizzard]
[Withered Life]
Yi Shen's countermeasure was to unleash a barrage of various area-of-effect spells indiscriminately. Boosted by the Heart of the Magic God, these major spells were hurled out as if they cost nothing at all.
His opponent's primary elemental specialization appeared to be ice and arcane magic, and virtually all of her spells were ones Yi Shen had never witnessed before.
Additionally, due to her incessant teleportation, his single-target spells were practically incapable of locking onto the target, leaving him to rely entirely on indiscriminate area-of-effect attacks to produce any results.
On several occasions, Yi Shen should have successfully struck his opponent, but it appeared her shields absorbed the blows, leaving no distinct damage numbers in sight.
Whenever his opponent unleashed elemental attacks, the environment within the entire Human Emperor's Palace was affected.
From the outside, the Human Emperor's Palace actually appeared quite expansive, but after just a few spells, elemental energy was flying about everywhere, to the extent that it even began to impact the guards stationed outside!
Supported by the Heart of the Magic God, Yi Shen did not fall into a disadvantageous position during the fierce battle. Even when he was occasionally struck, his recovery-type spells allowed him to top off his health pool almost immediately.
Finally seizing an opportunity, Yi Shen conjured a Gate of Flames, dividing a fraction of his focus to control the fire in search of Nicole's trail.
To his astonishment, however, the Hellfire, which had rarely met its match in the past, was abruptly and completely blocked by an ultra-thin wall of ice manufactured by Nicole.
Most of the mirror images and summoned minions Yi Shen had deployed had already been annihilated.
His opponent's defensive prowess and output efficiency were both far more terrifying than he had anticipated.
Fortunately, Yi Shen could continuously max out his status, which kept the two sides locked in a stalemate!
"Stay back! Don't get caught in the fallout of this fight."
"Damn, this is way too insane! Are two Magic Gods going at it?"
"Are mages really this strong?? Why do I feel like the ground is shaking?"
"Who on earth is that woman? How come I've never seen her before, and why is she turning on the Dark Mage?!"
Outside the Human Emperor's Palace, the explorers who were still bitterly grinding for points had all fixed their gazes intently upon the battle unfolding inside the hall.
Although they could not clearly see what was happening within, the sheer energy fluctuations alone were evidently far beyond what they could ever hope to endure.
Never did they expect that while they had to dodge exotic beasts outside, they would likewise need to evade the aftershocks of high-tier powerhouses fighting inside.
Clearly, they were all considered high-level explorers within their respective domains, but over the past two days, they constantly felt as though they had become obsolete and worthless.