Translator: imperfectluck Editor: Kurisu

When the black floating castle suddenly appeared over Starwood City, not only were the undead scared off, the ordinary people on my side were even more frightened.

Well, it was only natural. Compared to the aerial undead, this floating city was right on top of Starwood City, and its pitch-black magical defenses appeared extraordinarily evil and dangerous. And if the castle city descended any more… the entirety of Starwood City would likely be squashed.

In order to avoid any misunderstandings, I generously opened up my city and permitted anyone that wanted to enter and explore inside. However, very few actually dared to do so.

Still, having a floating city and a ground city cover and protect each other was indeed an effective defensive formation.

“…All targets locked on. All coordinates have been set. Forbidden spell—Lost Intersection.”

Perhaps nobody expected that the first attack of today would come from the defending human army. Harloys had just finished her long incantation, and her spell became a powerful attack powered up by all the countless mage towers within Yongye City.

What, you’re saying that we should have conserved mana since the undead retreated? You’re too young, too simple… Cough, cough, the elders were correct, people shouldn’t try to create major events, as being practical was more important. If we really missed this excellent chance to ambush the undead, that would instead expose the fact that our mana reserves were running low.

If you exposed your own weakness like that, then the enemy would take advantage of it with a fierce barrage of attacks.

Indeed, we were quite low on mana. That was why I unhesitatingly told Harloys to use up every bit of mana remaining in Yongye City to cast the most dangerous spell in her arsenal.

Another foundational difference between Legend- and Saint-ranked mages was that Saint-ranked mages were capable of casting forbidden spells. Of course, the power and effects would still depend on the individual.

A pitch-black magical ring appeared at a certain location. Two abnormal black rings intersected with each other and began spinning by themselves, resembling a black ball that absorbed the light. They started spinning quicker and quicker, and soon, sixteen spinning black balls appeared in the sky.

“What’s this for?”

This strange magic made the undead retreat even quicker. They all knew that the mage towers wouldn’t waste mana for no reason.

However, Harloys had taken their retreat into calculation from the very start. Considering Harloys’ nearly unending treasure trove of magical knowledge, the forbidden spell she chose to cast here would definitely be the single most dangerous possible spell that a Saint rank could cast.

The black ball of light kept expanding as strange wavelengths spread through the air. All the flying bone dragons and gargoyles did their best to flap their wings and escape from the black ball. The result… was that they flew directly towards the black ball instead!

The panicky aerial undead tried to fly upwards, but instead landed meteorically on the ground. The more they flapped their magical wings, the faster they crashed into the ground.

*Boom!*

An unfortunate gargoyle smashed himself into tiny pieces. A bone dragon knocked over a tower. Before it could even determine which direction it was facing, the human warriors and defending cannons that it previously looked down on burnt it to death.

The sky was now in chaos. The great majority of aerial undead was flying backwards at an extremely quick speed. Their flying patterns seemed random as they were flying horizontally, diagonally, backwards, and in every direction except forward… I retract that statement, for I saw an undead flying forward. That undead felt that he found the correct method to deal with this chaos, and smiled viciously. And then, he happily flew straight down into the ground…

*Boom!*

It was as if the sky was filled with headless chickens. Their abnormal flight paths were completely impossible to predict. Those undead who smashed into the ground would either directly die, or be shot dead by the human defenders.

In fact, I even witnessed some powerful Undead Lords crashing into each other or directly crashing into the ground.

I now understood what was going on. The black ball in the sky probably had zero attack power of its own. However, it was likely capable of altering gravity around it. No, it probably wasn’t so simple, as high-level undead weren’t so easy to deal with. This forbidden curse probably used multiple different types of magic, and likely even included subconscious influencing magic that would make the undead lose their sense of direction and balance.

“…59 points. You fail by one point because you missed the critical point. This is a triple overlapping forbidden spell that also has hallucinatory magic. From what they can see, everything still appears to be normal. But, in such a chaotic state, thinking that everything is normal will be fatal.”

With a fatigued expression, Harloys walked down from the spellcasting platform. As she walked, she transformed from human to cat form and jumped onto my shoulder, yawned, and started napping. I could tell that she was completely drained, both through my soul connection with her as well as seeing her physical appearance. It would seem that this spell indeed took everything she had.

I had a sudden epiphany. By triple overlapping, Harloys meant that she was influencing the flying undead in the three realms of vision, sense, and gravity. Although the undead were highly resistant to these magic types, this actually made the magic’s effects even harder to predict. This was a forbidden spell that became more difficult to deal with if the individual was quite clear what was going on. The best way to save oneself from this spell would surprisingly be to do nothing but wait for the spell’s effects to pass. The more you tried to save yourself from this spell, the more likely it was that you would meet your doom.

Vision would be hallucinatory magic, sense would be mental magic, and gravity magic was a rare and unpopular branch of magic to learn and study. Incredibly few people would know that gravity magic was actually the gateway to one of the highest levels of magic, space magic.

“…Basically, casting this spell as is requires one to be simultaneously Saint rank in hallucinatory, mental, and space magic. This might even be more difficult to achieve than being SemiGod. You’ve truly worked hard to cast such a spell right after entering Saint rank.”

Feeling how weak the silly cat was after casting that spell, I felt a mysterious sense of displeasure… Of course, I would never have my heart hurt because of her or feel bad for her! I was simply feeling displeased for no apparent reason. And so, I also went up to the spellcasting platform and started casting a spell.

“You can’t find your direction? Alright, I’ll point out a direction for you. Listen to my command, eternal Ice Aeon…”

“As the battle entered stalemate, the living’s city’s walls were destroyed. Right at the critical moment that the undead were about to begin their slaughter of the living, a young hero led a small adventuring team right into the heart of the enemy camp, assassinating the Undead Emperor and saving the world! This is a scenario right out of a myth! But, this type of scenario sounds rather familiar…”

“Of course it does. Wasn’t the Yongye Calamity from a century ago ended like that? Could it be that we’re the heroes this time?”

Although the mercenaries were trying their best to lower their rough voices, they weren’t able to hold in their excitement. The great majority of mercenaries risked their lives in this profession for the sake of potential fame and wealth. And, what would possibly be more profitable or make them more famous than a task that could make them heroes of legend? As long as they obtained fame through this, money would naturally come as well.

‘…None of you realize that the same Emperor Yongye from those legends is right behind you in Starwood City. He even personally created this attack plan that we’re carrying out.’

Barton, the leader of this adventuring team, kept that thought to himself. But, he let his anger show, and with a single glare, the gossiping mercenaries were cowed into shutting up.

Right now, they were in a forest on the outskirts of the ruins. Although the undead didn’t post any sentries or patrol the forest, it would still be idiotic to create too much noise and draw the undead’s attention.

That was so, Barton knew about my real identity. Since I knew through my System about Barton’s incredible future, not only did I tell him the truth, I even told him about my future plans, and offered him a position that was far beyond his current abilities.

“The Dawn Plan and the overall commander of the Dawn Army? Roland really thinks on such a large scale…”

Although Barton had received such an offer from a legendary individual, he still didn’t take the invitation seriously. This wasn’t because he looked down on Roland. Instead, it was because the Barton at this current point in time still had the attitude that nothing in the world had to do with him as he only wanted to live a peaceful life. But, what he didn’t realize was that sometimes fate wouldn’t allow you to refuse the call.

Not only was his adopted daughter actually an artificial human soul, Roland also informed him that the very fact that he had successfully taken this baby out of the ruins was actually the scheme of another powerful existence. This meant that Barton had gotten involved in this mess from the very start.

As Barton looked at his adopted daughter who appeared so fatigued even after a deep sleep, he couldn’t help but recall what Roland had told him when he left Starwood City to lead this adventuring team.

“If things get truly dangerous, you’ll still be able to run away, because you’re not as important in the grand scheme of things. However, your daughter Katerina will be hunted down to the end of Eich by the Undead Emperor and the spirit of the ruins. That’s because Katerina is the true successor of those ruins!”

Barton’s blood was boiling and swirling in his veins. He was no idiot, nor was he a coward. He also loved his adopted daughter dearly, to the extent where he would be willing to challenge the Gods for Katerina’s sake. Thus, he knew that he absolutely had to protect his extraordinary daughter, and that he would have to abandon his thoughts of leading a normal life.

“Perhaps, no matter how this incident ends, I should reconsider Roland’s invitation for me to lead his Dawn Army. I need to protect Katerina from various threats…”

Barton then glared again at the mercenaries who were trying to flirt with Katerina.

“No matter what type of threat it is, I need more power!”