The anomaly in Red Moon City occurred at dawn. The faint morning light shone on this holy city that believed in light, forming beams of light that were almost within reach through the lingering dust in the air.
Everything in Red Moon City has been blessed by priests who have made pilgrimages there for hundreds of years. Even a brick is covered with sacred markings representing the Lord of Radiance.
Therefore, although the earthquake struck suddenly, it did not cause the buildings in the city to collapse; only the clean, white marble floors developed ugly cracks.
But Red Moon City was still in chaos, because at this moment, the brilliance representing the seven elements was splashing out from the cracked ground.
Crimson fire, blue wind, golden light, blue water, white ice, yellow earth, and purple thunder.
It was dazzling and radiant.
"Too high! The elemental concentration is too high! Beware of an elemental riot! Everyone, take note and retreat out of the city! Do not use magic under any circumstances!" An elderly man dressed as a priest climbed the leaning clock tower high in the city and roared hoarsely.
With such a high concentration of elements, if the delicate balance is broken, everyone will be blown to dust.
"Yes, Your Excellency! The Silver Knights, evacuate the people outside the city! The Rose Knights, inform everyone not to use magic!" Upon hearing this, a knight leader wearing a silver helmet immediately drew his sword and used his inner energy to convey the order concisely.
The well-trained knights immediately sprang into action, evacuating the panicked believers and crowds outside the city. Red Moon City was located at the southernmost tip of the Crimson Moon Kingdom, beyond which lay the boundless Southern Forests, so the crowd gradually gathered towards the north gate.
While the still-shaken crowd was blocking the north gate of the city, the child held on his mother's shoulders pointed at the dazzling light in the sky and burst into tears.
Someone looked in the direction of the sound and immediately exclaimed in surprise.
Within the fire elemental orb closest to the north gate, a massive shadow was slowly emerging. When it revealed itself, the noisy crowd fell silent instantly.
It was an enormous eye, as big as a bed, which was slightly closed at the moment. Its sharp eyelashes reflected a metallic luster, and even when it was not open, it brought a heavy pressure to people's hearts.
The one-eyed creature, imbued with fire element, began to twitch and convulse again in just a few breaths, spitting out an identical copy of itself to its side.
Yes, you read that right.
Now, two identical, slightly closed single eyes appeared before people's eyes.
Like twins, they were bathed in a dense cloud of fire elements, almost solidified, trembling slightly, as if they were about to multiply and split into even more eyeballs.
“It’s the Eye of Calamity…” A believer dressed as a mage stammered, his white beard trembling involuntarily, his eyes filled with despair. “The chaotic creatures have reappeared. The Continent of Elements is doomed…”
Eight hundred years ago, when the evil god invaded, it was the same scene.
Eight hundred years later, these chaotic creatures, which could replicate and multiply once they came into contact with similar elements, descended once more.
As if the pause had ended, the people who had come to their senses were plunged into an even more desperate terror. They screamed and cried, they crowded and pushed each other, scrambling to get out of the city.
...
The situation in the dungeon was even more dire. At the very beginning of the anomaly, the damp vaulted ceiling of the connecting corridor collapsed, separating Yun Wei's tomb chamber from the entire underground passage.
"Cough cough cough—" Yun Wei covered his mouth and nose and huddled in a corner of the tomb. Only after the flying dust subsided slightly did he see his perilous situation in the darkness by the dim light.
A bottomless abyss appeared in the middle of the already cramped tomb chamber, and a chilling wind was blowing faintly upwards. The solemn coffin, whose protective seal had been broken, was now leaning towards the desolate abyss at one end.
In the absolutely silent space, the occasional sounds of gravel breaking and rolling made him tense.
Even the slightest movement by Yun Wei would cause the coffin to plunge into a bottomless abyss, and the force of the fall might even shatter the already broken and sunken stone slabs beneath his feet, burying him along with it.
Yun Wei took a deep breath, placed his right palm on the surface of the coffin, and concentrated his spiritual power. The thick dust blocked the coolness upon contact, but the ancient patterns still made his heart tremble.
The Time Branch within its body seemed to breathe, absorbing the meager elemental power around it. As the Time Branch ceased to dim, the vortex-like space of the dead at its root slowly opened—
Yes, necromancy, while not one of the seven elemental magic systems, incorporates mysterious branches such as mental magic, spatial magic, and contract magic.
A level 3 necromancer can already create a small undead space under the Branch of Time within their body to store the undead squad they have summoned and contracted.
Yun Wei's undead space contained no undead creatures, only a jumble of miscellaneous items salvaged from the original space.
As Yun Wei carefully placed the coffin into the cramped space, he searched for the teleportation scroll amidst the chaos. Teleportation scrolls required extremely high levels of spatial magic skill; they were precious legacies from the First Dynasty, long since extinct across the entire continent.
The book "The Dead's Tale," whose date of composition is unknown, records a simple method for making teleportation scrolls. Yun Wei once tried to make some by following the instructions, but never used them.
Unexpectedly, this has become the only way to escape.
Finally, he found the scroll made of ibex hide in an inconspicuous corner of the undead realm. The moment he picked up the scroll with his mind, Yun Wei was taken aback.
Beneath the scroll lay a dimly lit soul box, the remnant of his original undead space. As his rank declined, the original Time Branch withered, and his former undead space decayed into the rusty soul box it was now.
Ah-Dai spent time inside.
Yun Wei subconsciously stroked the Soul Box, but was surprised to find that he could still faintly sense the other party's location through the Soul Box, and that they were not too far away from him.
"There must have been a contract engraved on this, but it doesn't matter, it's not important anymore."
An invalid contract is like a decaying soul box in one's hand, destined to turn to dust with time. Perception is mutual, and he didn't want the other party to come knocking on his door again with a band of knights of light.
With a slight thought, Yun Wei crushed the soul box without expression. A faint light flickered in his palm, and fine dust fell through his fingers in reality.
Everything that happened in the spiritual space was instantaneous. In a short while, Yun Wei collected the coffin in front of him, crushed the former soul box, and took out the teleportation scroll. However, the floor of the tomb continued to collapse into the ever-expanding abyss due to the change in load.
Gazing at the deep abyss below, Yun Wei, leaning against the stone wall, felt dizzy and gripped the rough parchment scroll tightly in his palm. Fortunately, magic scrolls were designed to conserve magic power, requiring only mental energy to activate.
In the empty tomb, the down-on-his-luck mage, dressed in tattered hemp robes, took a deep breath. Forcing himself to stay alert, he unfurled a teleportation scroll. With a blinding flash of light, the dark tomb fell into eternal silence.
...
In the south of the city, a squad of Light Knights is intercepting the surging, manifesting Hurricane Arm. The Hurricane Arm is also a type of chaotic creature, its element being wind. It must be countered with the opposing element of earth to expose its core.
Immediately, the surrounding papal mages began chanting, and various earth-based spells rained down on the enormous arm that was writhing and replicating. Even some knights who had mastered low-level magic awkwardly chanted basic incantations, trying to peel off the monster's skin as quickly as possible.
Suddenly, there were sand traps, thorny rocks, slow movement, and falling rocks...
The metal-like outer skin composed of wind barriers gradually disintegrated under the continuous onslaught of earth elements, revealing its core.
But the red-haired knight, who was carrying a greatsword and waiting in ambush, suddenly froze.
He was suddenly struck by the realization that his seemingly indistinct connection with that person had abruptly vanished.
Could it be that that person met with misfortune?
No! That's absolutely impossible!
The red-haired knight tried his best to maintain his composure, but his hands, gripping the sword, were trembling uncontrollably.
"Hey! Al! What are you waiting for! Go!" On the nearby ruins, the captain was maintaining the guiding magic in his hand. Seeing him in a daze, he couldn't help but shout.
Al then seemed to wake from a dream. He mobilized his battle qi, dragged the giant sword that was almost as tall as him, and leaped up, slashing with all his might at the turquoise core.
The fiery red battle aura swept up the raging flames. It was clearly a simple and unadorned sword strike, yet it demonstrated the warrior's extremely solid basic skills and strength, causing the knights watching to cheer in hushed tones.
After the dust settled, the hurricane finally dissipated.
Cheers erupted from the crowd.
The captain, with a ruddy complexion, walked over, patted Al on the shoulder, and joked in a friendly manner, "Well done, buddy. You were scared just now, weren't you? It's normal to be afraid when facing a monster like this for the first time. May the Lord of Light bless you; your courage ultimately triumphed over your cowardice."
Al forced a stiff smile, his lips twitching. His thoughts were in utter chaos, even more so than when he had just been resurrected.
This feeling is like not having figured out where to go next, but suddenly finding that the path you came from has also disappeared.
"Are you alright, Al?" The captain looked at the silent red-haired youth with some concern. "Did you overexert yourself and get exhausted? It's alright, go sit over there and rest for a while. You'll get used to it."
"Thank you, I'm fine." Al shook his head, trying to appear normal.
A rallying cry came from afar.
"Oh, Lord of Light, please protect us. It's the North Gate; it seems something's happened there." The captain cursed under his breath, then turned and roared at the knights who were sprawled out against the broken wall on the other side: "Silver Moon Squad, assemble! Proceed to support the North Gate!"
Al hesitated as he looked toward the other side of Red Moon City. The once towering Temple Mountain was now dimmed by the rich elemental light, like a huge ferocious beast lurking in the shadows, pressing a heavy sense of foreboding on everyone's hearts.
He wanted to go to the dungeon again to take another look.
Al was shocked to discover how absurd his thoughts were.
But he had to admit that he had originally planned to go to the dungeon tonight, since tomorrow was the Red Moon Festival. Although he still hadn't figured out how to face Claude.
But he really didn't expect it, he really didn't expect it...
No! The necromancer will not die easily!
Claude, you won't die!
Claude!
As he pondered that familiar name over and over again, an image of a fragile, cloud-like, and wind-like handsome Eastern man appeared in Al's mind.
The red-haired knight gripped his greatsword tightly, his rugged face like a taut bowstring, his devout eyes like raging fire, burning with unwavering conviction.
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