“Sorcerer Solomon’s party is in grave danger now.”
This sudden turn of events had terrified Della and the others into hastily retreating, yet some couldn’t help but feel secretly delighted, despite a sense of helplessness. The fine frost flame flower was about to be buried in the magma.
It was unlikely that another frost flame flower existed in the multicolored pit.
This trip might turn out to be in vain!
If they really came back empty-handed, the folks from Belizi’s family were far from as calm as they claimed.
…
Around the frost flame flower, Doug didn’t blame Ivan for being too rash; given the behavioral patterns of the two Alien Race lords, a chaotic situation was bound to arise sooner or later, not to mention that he couldn’t be sure he would withstand the next attack from the ruler of the frost lake.
“It’s coming.”
Soon, both of them sensed it—the lord of the molten lake launched a ferocious assault, while the ruler of the frost lake made no other move.
Perhaps the frost lake lord was biding time for the right opportunity.
For the two of them, this was a good thing, as they did not have to face both lords at the same time.
“Sorcerers, we need to hold on a bit longer,” Solomon was certainly monitoring the surroundings, but he still needed some time to harvest the core of the frost flame flower.
At this moment, he and his clone Pidel were each flying on one side. They had set up a steeple at each of the four cardinal directions around the frost flame flower; bases of the steeples were just over two meters wide but were only slightly shorter than the frost flame flower itself.
It was not hard to tell that all four steeples were high-level magicalized items.
Among them, there was one flame steeple, one frost steeple, and two ice-fire steeples.
Under the control of the two, the four steeples slowly absorbed the ice and fire energy from the petals, causing the outer petals of the frost flame flower to wither one after another.
So far, the whole frost flame flower had visibly shrunk to half its original size, yet it still needed a bit more time to completely strip away the petals.
“Leave it to us.”
“Hurry up. Otherwise, when the energy torrent comes pouring down, the frost flame flower might not last until the end.”
Despite the dire situation, upon hearing Solomon’s words, Ivan and Doug remained resolute, ready to protect this final stretch.
As time went on, waves of heat surged outside. The Heaven and Earth Net quickly succumbed to chaos, with fires, explosions, violent thunder, and malicious winds emerging and starting to press inward inch by inch.
For a moment, it seemed as if the sky was falling.
“Prepare the defenses.”
“I have a set of ‘Ant King Sky Shield’ here; it should protect us for a while.”
Ivan retreated to the side of the steeple, where five metal rings floated up from him, all black with white runes. The rings rose and rapidly expanded, enveloping the steeples and the frost flame flower within.
Energy shields emerged from the rings, connecting with each other and forming an upside-down dome of energy on the ground.
The energy dome protected the entire frost flame flower.
“Is this a runes sorcery array?”
Doug was also within the energy shield. He stared at the striking white glow on the exterior of the shield, which was clearly a protective layer of spatial nature, and by no means thin—this was actually a technique controlled by a Level 2 Sorcerer.
“No, just a high-level magicalized item,” Ivan shook his head slightly.
The Ant King Sky Shield was undoubtedly a magicalized item. After mastering spatial energy, the runes bundle contained in the metal rings increased to 24.
With plenty of materials, he had crafted quite a few Ant King Sky Shields and even devised several defensive tactics, the current one being only one of them.
To be honest, he had never thought such a combined tactic would be useful.
However, the combination of five Ant King Sky Shields was the limit; any more would not provide greater defensive power, but rather increase the consumption.
“Are you selling them? I’ll trade with valuable materials,” Doug couldn’t help asking.
“Let’s talk about that after we get out of here,” Ivan glanced at him, speechless.
“Ha-ha, that’s true. My defensive means are not as comprehensive as yours. When you can no longer hold, I’ll support for a few more seconds. For everything else, we can only leave it to fate.”
Such an opportunity was rare, and Doug knew he didn’t have such an impressive defensive item at hand, fortunate that he had opened up the conversation, a point that was also meant for Solomon to hear.
When all defensive measures were breached, it would mean that they had truly done their utmost, and by then, no blame could fall on them.
Having said that, Ivan and Doug then saw the chaos quickly approaching from outside.
“Boom, Boom, Boom—-“
Heavenly fire, explosions, wild thunder, and wicked winds all surged into a tangled mess, pressing down on the energy shield formed by the Ant King Sky Shield combination, which shone brilliant white, swiftly guiding the raging energies downward.
In the flow of the frenzied energy, it seemed to add an extra layer of protection from the outside.
Under such protection, the energy shield was as indestructible as a metal fortress.
“Impressive. It looks like it can hold up for a bit longer,” Doug praised generously, his eyes growing even greedier for those metal rings.
“This is only the beginning. You should get ready to provide support at any moment,” Ivan wasn’t so optimistic, knowing well that the evolution of chaos always started at its lowest level and would intensify step by step. Stay connected via My Virtual Library Empire
Besides, there were two highly skilled Alien Race lords outside.
Hearing this, Doug fell silent.
As time ticked by second by second, indeed, after only a short while, the energy shield began to tremble slightly, and the pressure from outside grew increasingly intense.
“Solomon, are you able to pick the Frostfire Flower now? If it’s truly impossible, let us lend a hand.”
The steeple was absorbing the ice and fire energy from the petals far too slowly, and seeing that there was still another layer outside the flower core and Solomon showed no sign of moving forward to pick it, Doug couldn’t help but grow anxious for him.
At this rate, they might end up with nothing.
“Your help is of no use, hold on a little longer,” Solomon remained unmoved.
“As you wish, but don’t regret it later,” Doug said helplessly.
Ivan also had no other choice, the current situation was beyond human control, and all he could do was to endure, to persist for one more second if possible.
Outside, the five-colored chaos turned into a sky-toppling force, and the pressure on the Ant King Sky Shield became even more intense, with the energy shield changing over time.
The energy shield began to oscillate significantly.
Fine specks began to emerge within the pure white light of the energy shield.
“Ding!”
Soon, a light ring sounded off from the metal rings, striking the ears of those present like a thunderclap.
The bearing capacity of the Ant King Sky Shield reached its limit, and Ivan was already feeling weary.
“Doug, it’s over to you.”
“Alright.”
“Seven—six—five—four—three—two—one.”
Accompanying Ivan’s voice, the sound of metal splitting rose in succession.
As he counted down to one, the metal rings broke upon cue, and the Ant King Sky Shield completely shattered.
Doug had prepared to take over, he and Kang Mang stood on either side, each holding a white stone slab, with alien black light rising from the slabs, similarly enveloping both the steeple and the Frostfire Flower within, adding an extra layer of white stone protection on the outside.
Outside the white stone protection was the alien black light.
This layer of protection just managed to block the bearing force coming down, and the next second, the sound of ‘crack, crack’ shattering echoed out, as minute cracks already appeared on the white stone protection.
“Sorcerer Solomon, ten—nine—eight—–“
Doug, while striving to pour strength into the protective layer, signalled the time they could hold out.
Without a doubt, only the last few seconds were left for Solomon.
In that moment, Solomon finally peeled off the final layer of petals, revealing the flower core. He took out a flower made from some sort of high-level crystal and tossed it towards the core of the Frostfire Flower.
The crystal flower landed on the flower core, beginning to absorb it on its own.
The white stone protection cracked open.