Wizard: Stronger through Marriage

Chapter 1204: Chapter 557: Joint Arts Battle Against Heart Corrosion (Part 2)

In an instant, countless fine and intricate ripples spread out from his palm in all directions, and at the same time seemed like crystal-clear Xiaoxue drifting down from the sky; each flake bore information signals of different frequencies, forming a strange interaction with the surrounding environment.

This spectacle made the breathing of everyone in the tent freeze along with it; they could almost feel the ripples in that anomalous space responding to the summons—a grand drama, invisible yet reaching into the deepest layers of the Soul, was about to unfold!

Suddenly, the resonance trajectory snapped tight; a thick beam of black-violet mixed with ghostly blue lightning soared into the sky, rolling up a tornado tempest from the distant void, then crashed down upon that fracture entrance gaping like a cavern, shrouded in nether mist and covered in bizarre Rune marks!

The Earth quaked, the atmosphere howled back like a torn throat, and ominous portents surged in overwhelming waves.

Zelros drew his sword and held it horizontally before the formation; his muscles bulged like towering mountains, forging an indestructible bulwark for the protection maneuver, while Amy cast the Spell of Soul Cleansing, straining to reinforce the mental defensive line and block the lurking demonic interference and corrosion.

Liliana swung her ritual staff, a small Shield crystalline and moist with cold radiance shooting from her fingertips; after spinning and shifting patterns, it formed an impregnable Barrier. At the same time, hidden between her brows was not only worry, but also a prescient terror toward the unknown future of battle; yet she still stood firm, guarding the mission placed upon her shoulders!

As the curtain of battle slowly rose, boundless darkness interwove with phantasms of stars and wrapped around them.

One after another, grotesque, uncanny beings—seeming as if from other dimensions—began to stir at the edges of the rift. Their bodies were composed of void-drawn ink and drifting clouds, with no tangible substance, yet they carried a terrifyingly corrosive Magic Power that seeped through the surrounding air, driving the temperature down to over a hundred degrees below zero, accompanied by an indescribable pressure that made the bones of any who approached tremble!

Yet even such horror could not stop the Warriors of the Star Pupil Race from advancing bravely!

They met each other’s gaze, their faith sustaining their strength, willing to forge the final defensive line with their lives!

In that instant, the iron vows carved upon every face burned like blazing Flames, and heaven and Earth themselves seemed to give a subtle answer to their mighty will...

...

After several hours of patrol, the resonance instruments fed back more precise data: at the center of the web-like Maze structure lay a large passage, its construction abnormally complex, wreathed in turbid, twisted, surreal patterns, defined as one of the main control nodes.

And that place was where the corrosion was most severe, one of the core regions with the greatest concentration of enemy forces, and the primary reinforcement-and-strike target of this tracking operation!

David’s features were firm, yet concealed an utterly exhausted countenance; he rubbed the sweat at his brow ridge, while his vertical pupils flashed with a cold, keen light, showing that the anger in his Soul had not diminished in the slightest.

He rose slowly, the Bone Armor covering his body emitting a faint ghostly glow that echoed the dimly awakening dawn on the horizon, casting a shred of hopeful light over this long and perilous journey of the hunt...

Reina followed close behind, adjusting her gear while fine-tuning the instrument’s parameters and data; tilting her head to glance at the sky outside the window, gradually turning pale, she said, ”Though there’s still some distance to the target, by relying on our current technology and master’s bloodline ability, we still have a chance to seal this gate that leads to destruction...”

Amy silently prayed, hoping the Guardians would at last weather this calamity, trading their lives for the eternal dawn of their race...

Zelros stepped forward, sword in hand: ”Let us hack our way through thorns, fear no perilous road ahead, and write the future in blood!”

The vast Wilderness once more fell back into silence, leaving only scattered birds and beasts startled back to their nests, and the Gale brushing past branches, making them tremble and rustle...

At the mouth of the Abyssal Shadow rift, the black void was like the blood-red maw of a Giant Beast yawning wide, exuding a chilling breath that suffocated.

Time Space warped and twisted here, as though an endless Abyss were devouring all light and order.

The Gale raged, mingled with Ice Crystals and fragments of Shadow, forming a sinister vortex at the edge of the rift, as if this were the coldest and most secret forbidden ground under heaven.

David stood before the rift, clad in Bone Armor; the light of Runes where ghostly blue intertwined with Flame flickered uncertainly.

His vertical pupils fixed on the depths of the void, a nameless unease settling heavily in his chest.

He drew in a slow breath of icy air, fingers clenching around the sword hilt as though grasping the last hope of survival.

”Here... this is the place.” His voice was low, yet carried an undeniable resolve.

Reina and Zelros stood silently to either side; their gazes were like torches, catching every minute change in the desolate, thickly uncanny air.

Liliana, pale-faced, was supporting Amy; the two were responsible for unleashing protective Barriers and providing healing support.

”The fragment Energy is still active.” Reina pointed to the data oscillating on the instrument’s display in her hand. ”The ’Shadow Council’ has exploited the extreme Chaos Energy here, disguising it as ordinary spatial distortion—standard detectors can’t penetrate it.”

”We can only rely on your bloodline resonance, David, to find the true passage.” Her tone carried a trace of tension, but in her eyes flickered a glimmer of expectation.

David nodded. He knew that what awaited him ahead was not only the enemy, but possibly the darkest terror in the depths of his own Soul and the test of his Limit in resistance.

He stepped forward, every stride sinking into a shudderingly cold, snowy ground, yet his face remained steely, without the slightest retreat.

All at once, a gust of icy Shadow surged from the edge of the rift, savage as if it had grown from the void itself.

They were a host of humanoid beings wreathed in black nether-flames, their faces blurred yet faintly showing twisted smiles—the ”Heart Eaters” dispatched by the Shadow Council.

Silent yet swift, they swept down like a storm, turning thick negative emotions into solid substance and, without a sound, encircled David.

Coils of black mist swirled between them; every wisp seeped with Power of the Soul-corroding force, thickening the air into something foul and viscous, laden with a baleful pressure that shattered the mind and broke the will!

”Alert!” Zelros shouted, swinging his sword at the nearest Heart Eater—but the moment the blade struck, the foe scattered into countless Shadows and vanished, leaving only suffocating chill saturating the surroundings.

Amy immediately cast the Soul Cleansing Spell; hands pressed together, her pure white moonlight Magic Power condensed into a halo that temporarily suppressed part of the spreading corrosion.

Yet it still could not stop those nether Shadows from twining and assailing, plunging the entire battlefield into a suffocating, feverish unease!

David’s chest heaved violently; he tried to rouse the Flame and frost within his body to repel this psychic assault, but was suddenly hit by a sorrow beyond words—a familiar despair that tore at the deepest recesses of his Soul, driving him to the brink of collapse!

His vision blurred, as though some force were drawing him away from reality.

Layer upon layer of hallucination slowly unfolded: an endless, pitch-black sea, shredded and broken by bone-gnawing gales; at its center, the vague figure of a man bound in chains, writhing in agony—his father, a shattered phantom trapped in this eternal Abyss!

His father’s lips trembled, calling out in silence, and the despair and sorrow in those eyes seemed to smash through Time Space and crash into David’s chest.

He felt that anguish pierce his bloodline core like a keen dagger, every heartbeat like a blade slashing flesh, pain biting down to the lungs!

Tears blurred his sight, yet the Runes on his Bone Armor flared with intense blue-violet light in resonance with his father’s pain, producing a strange reaction with the ruined space around him.

This force brought shock, yet also rose like a Flame of salvation, granting him the last courage to resist the shackles on his mind as sorrow spread.

”Stop!” He ground out the words through clenched teeth, bellowing from the deepest pit of his heart, ”I will not submit! I will not let you use these phantoms to destroy me! You... ’Heart Eaters’!”

His voice rang and reverberated above the dead Wilderness, driving away part of the invading gloom.

Yet the Shadows coiling around them did not fully retreat.