boyutpedia Page 81
Page 81
"Tell them not to worry about damaging the armor, but to teach and train the armor users without reservation, especially regarding overload capabilities. Make sure they squeeze every last bit of combat potential out of the armor in the upcoming battle..."
The deal was done, and Casalos returned to Tunaras with Valeris and Napeka. The duration of the unknown forces' attack on the Githyanki, and whether the counterattack in Tunaras would succeed, were all unknown to the rebels. They needed to seize the opportunity when the main Githyanki fighting force was engaged in frontline combat to launch their uprising and capture the Lich Queen Velakis in one fell swoop.
Even so, the forces resisting the Lich Queen were not a unified entity. Coordinating a full-scale attack with 37 factions, large and small, including Shashahawk, would take time. Upon returning to Tunaras, Valeris and Napeka were busy traveling throughout the great city, having little time to spare for Casaloz, the wealthy tycoon of the City of Mark who supported their cause.
Casalos could only leisurely be "confined" to the junkyard, watching the Spirit Pivot Armor instructors and logistics maintenance team he brought with him busily training the armor wearers selected from various factions. This was also a way to familiarize them with these systems as much as possible—serving the Dragon Territory was its sole and supreme principle, and all the achievements of the Spirit Pivot Armor technology line were of course a technical verification of its new dragon armor. Otherwise, why bother with something like "magical power armor," which could only improve individual combat capabilities, had very limited uses, and had a pitifully low cost-effectiveness ratio?
The core objective of war is to destroy the enemy's resistance. Why risk sending your troops to face the enemy's spittle when you can accomplish something without their awareness?
Surely no one thinks the half-dragons stormed the Githyanki's astral fortress by hacking and slashing with knives, right? No way!
Well, that's exactly what the Gith Yankees and their queen, Vairakis, really think. They can't yet comprehend the kind of enemy they're facing, nor do they understand the power that would be unleashed when a galactic floating island is pulled into the void, accelerated to one or two percent of the speed of light by the "wish-granting" gravity slingshot, and precisely smashed into their fortress.
As for the Red Dragon Knights who were sent back to deliver the message and die in front of the Queen... Has anyone ever said that they were the garrison knights of the fallen fortress? Zechariah, who was in charge of all military affairs in Tunaras, may have noticed something unusual, but this great rebel, whom even the radical Shashahawk thought was too radical, probably deliberately concealed this unimportant news.
Unfortunately, the method of throwing stones currently only works in the Astral Plane, which has specific rules governing wish fulfillment, and most of the enemies Casalos faces are beyond the scope of warfare at this level. What the future holds, nobody knows.
Regardless of what Valeries and the others had sacrificed, and regardless of the situation on the front lines, Shahawk and the various resistance forces within Tunaras finally managed to assemble before the Red Dragon Knights and the Githyanki army returned, and launched a final assault on the Whispering Palace where Queen Velaski resided.
"Are you sure you want to come with us?" Valeries couldn't help but ask, looking at the wealthy man from Sigil who had followed them. "We're not here to observe. The battle that's about to begin will be intense, and it's not something someone like you can get involved in. We don't have the resources to protect you."
"This golden elf is truly kind; otherwise, she wouldn't have endured such hardship and infiltrated Tunaras for thousands of years to save the Githyanki," Casalos thought to himself, but still declined her offer. "You should know that every Githyanki undergoes the most brutal combat training from birth. And I am also a Githyanki."
As it spoke, it pulled a two-handed greatsword from its dimensional pouch, twirled it with one hand, and carved a golden dragon head into the rock face. The power, agility, and control it displayed caused even the legendary monk Valeris to narrow her eyes. She nodded and no longer hindered Casalos's journey.
Thirty-seven rebel groups raised an "army" of five hundred men, emerging from the underground passages scattered throughout the city. They met with an inside agent arranged by Zechs and swiftly and covertly eliminated the Queen's Guard outside Whispering Palace before gathering at the foot of the towering statue of Gis.
The Whispering Palace is completely encased in a thick obsidian wall, with the only entrance being the main door beneath the legs of the Geese statue. From this point onward, there is no longer any possibility of covert operations.
14.Broken Bamboo
Faced with the sudden onslaught of the rebel army, the two red dragon knights guarding the palace gates did not back down. They issued a mental alert and drew their silver swords from their backs, charging forward with their red dragons to meet the attack.
However, their figures, which had been charging forward with the red dragon, suddenly and bizarrely reversed along their previous path, as if a scene had been replayed in reverse, returning to the moment when they had just discovered the rebels. The alarms that had been sounded also mysteriously disappeared. Faced with this bizarre situation, before the two Gisyanki could even show their horrified expressions, they and the red dragon's chests exploded into a spray of blood.
"They did train a few good dogs, but unfortunately they foolishly pledged allegiance to the wrong king." Valeries's voice drifted out from behind the two men and two dragons, and then the corpses slowly fell to the ground.
Changing fate? Casalos was impressed but didn't bother to investigate whether it was reasonable for such an important ability to be revealed prematurely. He was at least several thousand years old psychologically; he certainly knew how to fight, so why should Casalos interfere?
Twelve Weaver Core Armor units simultaneously charged, their Spirit Crystal Resonators transforming psionic energy into a spiraling burst of solar flares that swept across the palace walls, shattering the runes inscribed upon them and creating a breach in the dual arcane and psionic defensive barrier. The Abyss Fury armor units formed a wedge formation and stormed into the palace corridors, their Phase-Folding Axe Blades cleaving open the Star Iron gates imbued with necromancy. The rebels, like silver blades, pierced into the Whispering Palace.
The roar of the red dragon echoed, and the blasphemous energy of the underworld spread everywhere. The palace guards, composed of red dragon knights and liches, gathered to fight off the enemy amidst the psychic screams.
Without dismantling the barriers, they advanced, lowering psionic anchors and unleashing ice barriers and psionic deflection shields. This deflected the oncoming red dragon's breath onto the dome, where a torrential downpour of molten obsidian rained down on the heads of the guarding liches. The red dragon knights chuckled and mocked their comrades, only to be swept off their backs by a resonant shockwave, joining the liches in a lava shower. Githyanki knights howled as they were burned to ashes by the lava, only to be killed by the liches' area-of-effect spells before they could even fall, reshaping themselves into blazing lava skeletons, which then stood at the forefront, wielding their original silver swords as human shields.
The suspicious Queen of Vyrakis feared that the Gith Yankees would rebel if their individual power grew too great, so she fabricated a grand lie. She promised to grant Ascension to every Gith Yankee whose overall class level reached 11 or higher, sending them to the beautiful land discovered by Gith to enjoy eternal paradise. In reality, every Gith Yankee eligible for Ascension was drained dry by her corrupt crown; all their power and essence became nourishment for the Lich Queen, allowing her to use wish spells with impunity to awaken the remaining divinity of the corpse of the god, yet she never succeeded.
The surviving souls of the Githyanki, consumed by the corrupt crown, were no longer guided by the underworld and became ghosts wandering the Whispering Palace. Vairakis then used magic to create alien liches completely loyal to her, which is the origin of the "Kra" Guardian Liches.
For thousands of years, under the tyranny of the Lich Queen, the Githyanki, once a powerful and ruthless race that dominated the astral plane, had become outwardly strong but inwardly weak, and their resistance...
Chapter 256
The army has already touched the dawn of victory.
The data on the armor was collected by the grey dwarves disguised as Gith Yankees. Casalos's attention was mainly focused on Valeris—this gold elf was a Zethian cleric who possessed some kind of power to manipulate "time" and fate. Without armor, she strolled through the battlefield like a phantom, ignoring the liches' various immunities, crushing one lich's soul core after another, and ignoring the red dragons' innate defenses, shattering one red dragon's heart after another.
Since the start of the war, the total number of kills by the entire resistance army combined doesn't even equal the number of kills she's achieved alone.
If you encounter such an enemy on the battlefield, how should you deal with it?
Casalos pondered, only to find that Dragonlords currently seemed to have no way to counter this expert at slaughtering minions. She was too slippery; legendary units had a hard time touching her, yet she absolutely crushed non-legendary units. Unless there was a unit to counter her, or they completely disregarded the lives of their minions, anyone who encountered Valerias would have a headache.
Unfortunately, Queen Verakis was the latter.
"Insects!" Countless mental spikes suddenly attacked, sweeping across every corner of the palace. Whether they were rebels or palace guards, they were all stunned by this overwhelming mental attack.
"What a pathetic farce..." An even more powerful psychological shock drilled into the depths of the souls of everyone present through the "holes" opened by the mental spikes. The palace pillars suddenly burst open, revealing one by one the ghostly souls imprisoned in chains. These were the souls of the rebels from all generations, imprisoned here and enduring the Lich Queen's eternal torment.
"Behold the echoes of these old fools! Your golden elf 'savior' is nothing but a stray dog who can't even hold up the dust of his homeland!"
The cries of the Golden Elves and other races enslaved by the Githyanki echoed in the ears of every member of the alien resistance.
"As for you, Shasha Hawk's mad dogs..."
Napeka witnessed his mentor being transformed into a Horcrux container in the Royal Laboratory, while other Sasha Hawkges Yankees also witnessed the torment of their loved ones.
"Thirty-six tribes of scum dare to call themselves an army while wearing stolen iron shells? Five hundred ants dare to shake the stars? You pathetic worms! Do you really think this pile of scrap metal can change your predetermined fate?"
The obsidian ground cracked open, and the mangled corpses of the rebel leaders from different generations rushed toward their former followers; half of the rebel fighters suddenly turned their guns around, their eyes bearing the imprint of their souls; the nerve pain of the uncontrolled was amplified, and a wounded Tifelin sorcerer could not bear it and committed suicide on the spot; the Spirit Armor raised its weapon and slashed at its comrade beside it.
"Look, even the weapons you rely on are puppets in my hands..."
"Idiot!"
A discordant taunt suddenly rang out from the Gith Yankees watching from behind the rebels. The chaos on the battlefield had reached its peak, and only Valeries and Queen Vellachis heard this incomprehensible muttering.
The next moment, the harmonic field of the Perpetual Harmony Armor suddenly shifted frequency. Ancient Faragosian ballads, the declaration of the Geese leading all Geese against the Mind Flayers, and hymns of liberation for all races from oppression transformed into a psychic purification hymn, forcibly awakening everyone. All the Nexus Armors were forcibly and automatically rebooted and entered overclocking mode, burning away the parasites that had been implanted at some unknown time.
"Found you!" Valerith roared suddenly, then vanished completely. The sound of the Soul Box shattering, the furious roar of the two-headed red dragon, and the Lich Queen's agonizing screams echoed simultaneously.
15.Face the Queen
History has long proven that liches are immortal unless their phylactery is destroyed; even the gods themselves cannot kill them. Normally, the general way to kill a lich is to first find and destroy its phylactery, and then force the lich into a final battle to destroy its physical body.
Since entering the palace, Valeries had been searching for Vairakis's death box in hopes of delivering a fatal blow. She succeeded.
Vairakis's phylactery was well hidden, and a fake phylactery was even placed in his study as bait, but it still couldn't fool the legendary Zers who could foresee the future. By touching the threads of fate with the mental shock emitted by Vairakis, Valeries successfully found the Lich Queen's true phylactery. And by using her ability to traverse the timeline, she bypassed numerous magical traps and defensive barriers, as well as the final protection of the old two-headed red dragon, and destroyed this source of all evil with a punch of adamantite-level aura.
But did it really succeed?
The Lich Queen's projection appeared simultaneously at the rebel army and the broken casket. She shouted angrily, "You vile flea, how dare you touch my casket with your filthy tentacles? Do you think you can harm me?"
"I am a true god, how could you insignificant insects possibly comprehend my existence? To punish your blasphemous act, I hereby grant you instant death!"
Four wishes were unleashed with the Queen's howl. The first reshaped the shattered phylactery, the second transferred the repaired phylactery to an unknown location, the third landed on Valeris and transformed into some kind of instant-death spell, and the fourth became a meteor shower of unknown level, falling on the heads of the rebels.
The young golden elf's body stiffened, turning ashen, unable to escape the instant death caused by the wish spell. But the next moment, she regained her life, and the wish spell returned to a state where it hadn't yet taken effect. She was once again "returned" to the point of fate, trying to change her destiny, but how could she escape this terrifying wish spell?
Valeries's body, soul, and all traces vanished completely. Even Vairakis could no longer sense any trace of her presence. The incantation, which had not yet taken effect, lost its target and became a failed spell that backfired on the Lich Queen, which then resisted it at will.
A few breaths later, Valeries reappeared in her original position, maintaining the same state she had when she returned to the point of destiny—she had crossed time and jumped into the future, and she had not existed during those few breaths, so even the wish spell had lost its target.
But Valeries' crisis was not over. After a high-level magical confrontation that transcended time and fate, the old two-headed red dragon guarding the Lich Queen's phylactery had reacted. Its two heads tilted back and then stretched forward at the same time, and two breaths of dragon fire gushed out in an instant, engulfing the gold elf's petite body.
In the front hall corridor, the rebels could only withstand the relentless barricades and massive fireballs raining down upon them. With all their individual class levels below 11, they were utterly powerless to resist the Lich Queen's magic on their own.
Queen Vairakis easily turned the tide of the battle with a single move.
“Well, throwing out wish spells like magic does qualify as demigod power…” Casaroz, hiding under the fire-protected barrier erected by the half-dragon sorcerer, commented leisurely, “Strange, in a war where individual strength determines the course of the battlefield, why bring along such a bunch of burdens?”
As the meteor exploded, the rebels suffered heavy casualties. Including those who lost battles with the palace guards and the internal strife triggered by the psychic attack from Vyrakis, less than half of the rebels remained operational, and a large portion of those were wearers of the Spirit Armor. Had it not been for the Spirit Armor gifted by Casaloz, this wave of spells might have wiped out the entire rebel force.
"What exactly is this rebellion against? Should we slip away... huh?"
The aged two-headed red dragon's aura abruptly ceased, and Valeries appeared before the rebel ranks, still full of vigor. The remaining rebels, as if injected with adrenaline, sang their tribal war song and blasted open the last door of the corridor.
"This is... a demiplane?"
Beyond the gate lay not the legendary Lich Queen's palace, but a void enveloped by a backdrop resembling the astral plane. Twenty-seven massive obsidian platforms floated in a tiered formation, hundreds of meters apart. Two rows of obsidian pillars stood atop the stone...
Chapter 257
The Taichung Line, with its clusters of branches, forms a broken passage leading directly to the highest level, the Bone Throne, constructed from countless mind flayer skulls.
"Insects, your presence here is indeed somewhat unexpected. Considering that you have added a bit of amusement to my boring eternity, I will make an exception and allow you to become members of my divine kingdom's supplicants. Kneel down! Thank you for my mercy and grace."
A much stronger mental shock than before swept over them again, but it could no longer shake the indomitable resistance. The aliens, shouting slogans, launched their final charge towards the throne. However, those who charged the fastest twisted their legs and fell, creating a series of astral rifts beneath each fallen resistance member. Those who couldn't regain their footing were thus banished to the unknown.
"It's an ethereal curtain! Everyone, be careful to control your movement speed!" Someone recognized the field magic fixed on the obsidian platform and shouted to remind everyone.
The Lich Queen's withered eyes burned with icy, emerald-like flames as she let out a hysterical shriek: "Since you are so ungrateful, then I will grant you the cruelest death!"
The psychic scream sent strange ripples across the platform and the void, striking the unique astral backdrop of that demiplane before reflecting back and overlapping. An unknown fear spread among the rebel members, even affecting the half-dragon beside Casalos.
Vairakis rose from his throne, his purple robes, adorned with gold embroidery, billowing even without wind. He slightly raised the golden scepter inlaid with rubies in his hand, and the red dragon head at the top of the scepter let out a roar. A portal to another dimension opened, and an extremely old red dragon with a greedy expression emerged from it. Upon seeing this, the dragon's expression froze, and it shivered as it tried to retreat back into the portal. However, the Unyielding Domination spell on the scepter took over, and it dazedly emerged from the portal, blocking the Lich Queen's path.
This was not the end. The black thorn crown woven from withered tentacles on the Lich Queen's head murmured, and obsidian pillars burst open one after another. Powerful undead broke free of their chains and emerged from them, instantly forming an army of a thousand.
Then, a huge, twisted ball of flesh made up of mind flayers emerged from the void and floated above Vyrakis's head, each pulsation unleashing a mental storm.
"How are you going to fight this?" Casalos looked at Valeris with great interest.
16. Peak Showdown
Valerie glanced at Casalos, showing no intention of answering the questions posed by the wealthy man from Sigil—although Casalos had donated a large amount of supplies to the Rebels to support their cause, including a hundred sets of Spirit Armor that greatly improved the Rebels' survival rate, she didn't really trust Casalos's charade of a wealthy man.
Some unseen force told her that Casalos's funding had ulterior motives, and that it only temporarily shared the same enemy as the rebels.
The golden elf turned her head away, her bare feet creating ripples in the void. With each step, she traversed the distance of several platforms. The chains connecting her ankles, waist, wrists, chest rings, and neck vibrated in the astral storm. The twelve magical gems she wore on the shackles lit up different spectra with each step.
With twelve steps, all twelve gems lit up, and the golden elf girl, roughly twelve years old, arrived before the Bone Throne. Her delicate body was covered in whip marks and other random marks, but her emerald pupils burned with the soul fire of a thousand-year-old monk. She spun around, dodging the green flames of the Withering spell, and chains drew silver arcs in the air, shredding the head of that unfortunate old red dragon that was forcibly controlled by the Ephilomon Scepter.
"Another one-on-one duel?" Casalos was increasingly confused about what Valeris was trying to do. She said that killing the Lich Queen was not the key to liberating the Githyanki, and that she was no match for Vairakis, yet she organized this seemingly meaningless decapitation operation, making this group of rebels, who had been crippled by a spell, watch her face a powerful enemy alone...
“A disgusting mercy.” Vyrakis’s voice came from the Bone Throne, the Lich Queen’s withered fingers tracing the surface of the Mind Flayer Orb: “These chains were meant to be fastened to the corpses of your people, but now they’ve become your pathetic toys.”
You should thank those gems—the wails they absorbed were far more pleasing to the ear than your naive sense of justice.
Valeries flipped and leaped over the suddenly appearing vortex of negative energy. The chains connecting her hands and chest abruptly extended and pierced the obsidian platform, propelling her towards the throne. A colossal phantom of an unknown red dragon materialized from the top of Ephromon's scepter, its infernal dragonfire weaving a rift in the astral plane that trapped her.
"A toy?" The girl suddenly tugged at her collar, the taut chain deforming her rounded breasts, which were stretched into rings by the metal clasp. The blue gemstone shone with golden light, transforming into seventy-two icy runes that coiled around her arms: "This is the oath forged by the seven hundred souls of the Twilight Star family, burned by the red dragon's breath!"
Avandor's ice extinguished the dragon flames of purgatory. Casalos, who was watching the battle, blinked and admitted that he had misjudged again. It turned out that the chains that had been imprisoning the gold elf were also a set of artifacts, a set of vengeful artifacts of the high elves.
"Wail?"
The girl continued her tirade, while the amethyst swaying beneath the camel's hooves unleashed a storm barrier, vaporizing the black psionic arrows. Using the momentum, she leaped onto an inverted obsidian pillar, topaz illuminating the ends of her chains, transforming into three hundred blades of light that pierced the throne: "This is the war song of seven hundred souls regaining their freedom!"
Her fist pierced through the barrier created by the Bone Throne, seeping into the Lich Queen's robes and leaving radiating cracks.
With a light tap of her scepter, the golden ripples of the wish spell distorted reality. The blade of light suddenly changed direction, but was swallowed by the gravitational vortex of the orange gem before it could touch Valeris. The Lich Queen narrowed her eyes, noticing the obsidian pendant between the girl's collarbones—the energy hub of all the sub-stones.
“An interesting little trick.” The Corruption Crown fired thirty-six strings of negative energy, binding Valeries’ limbs: “Now let’s see which will break first, the gem or your bones.”
The skull of the mind flayer, which was used to build the throne of bones, suddenly projected countless phantom images into the cushion woven from the main brain. The psionic energy of the string aura surged, instantly cutting through the shackles that were blocking their progress, revealing the celestial language markings hidden beneath—it seemed to be some kind of divine forbidden spell written with dragon blood.
“This is truly a pleasant surprise.” The Lich Queen licked her dry, cracked lips with her scarlet tongue. “I’ve changed my mind. I will turn you into a living artifact, preserving this savage beauty.”
The psionic strings, capable of severing even artifacts, dissipated with the Lich Queen's words, replaced by yet another wish spell, weaving a vivid illusion and implanting it into the golden elf's mind. As it itself stated, Vairakis intended to completely control Valeris's body, mind, and even soul.
The unseen illusions left Valeries in a daze; her breathing became erratic and her heart raced. Taking advantage of this, the Death spell invaded, turning her left hand into the withered white color typical of the undead.
Just as Casalos was about to rescue her, Valeries suddenly stopped struggling and completely "squeezed" into the illusion of the wish spell, the lapis lazuli at her ankle still intact glowing.
The Lich Queen was alarmed to discover that her mental link with the Bone Throne had been reversed—the Gold Elves were using illusions as a medium to invade the Bone Throne with their consciousness.
"The first one!" the girl's sharp cry rang out, and blood-stained chains slithered into the rift in the astral plane like venomous snakes. A corner of the Bone Throne shattered in response, and the souls of imprisoned mind flayers surged forth from the collapsing runes. She flipped to avoid the red dragon's breath that the scepter emitted once more, and leaped over the wailing ghosts to the second corner.
Vairakis instantly activated a triple wish spell. The first rewrites reality: prohibiting any form of dimensional jump; the second distorts probability: increasing the miss rate of all melee attacks; the third summons the vengeful spirit of the Golden Elf.
However, the white gem on Valeries' navel ring suddenly unleashed a disintegration spell, dispelling the first wish spell; then the two semicircles...
Chapter 258
Runjian's rose quartz refracted rainbow light, piercing the vengeful spirit; most fatally, the white diamond on her right breast shone, releasing a certain power of touch and destiny, which, in conjunction with her Zess's ability to modify and change fate, forcibly corrected the probability of being rewritten by the wish spell.
“Little rich girl,” Casalos murmured, Valeries giving it an increasingly strong sense of familiarity.
The golden elf had already stepped on the fallen bone fragments and transformed into seven phantoms, appearing simultaneously around the Lich Queen. The penetrating force was stacked into seven layers at the same time—this was not a monk's combo technique, but a unique attack by the Zeth monk that stacked different timelines, which was simply incomprehensible in certain situations.
However, her target is the Lich Queen who dares to call herself a true god.
Vairakis brandished his scepter, and a time-stop barrier was suddenly created, freezing all seven Valeries' figures before the attack could reach them. The higher level of "time rules" brought by the higher spellcasting level erased Valeries' time power, which was only at level 5 Zess. The phantoms from different times disintegrated, leaving only the real body in the "present".
"Let me correct this mistake. It's time to end this, little toy!"
17. Free Will
This time, Casalos didn't worry about Valeris as much as it was concerned for her. Unlike Vairakis, who was still kept in the dark, the situation was already very clear to it.
The resistance fighters, who had been largely ignored by the overwhelming presence of high-level combat power, finally managed to carve a path through the undead army with the help of the Spirit Armor and free magical equipment and items. They crossed layers of obsidian steps and climbed to the location of the Bone Throne.
The wearers of the Spirit Pivot Armor all removed their armor and knelt on one knee, their naked bodies inscribed with the same Celestial runes as those worn by Valeris's shackles, all inscribed with dragon blood.
None of that matters. Without the defense of the Spirit Armor, the Lich Queen could wipe them all out with a single wish, but it probably won't have that chance.
The crisp sound of obsidian shattering reverberated throughout the demiplane, but what overflowed from it was not energy, but the ancient dragon language mantra that Faerûn had long lost.
Valeries's emerald eyes transformed into golden vertical pupils, and her tattered slave attire vanished into an unknown dimension in the golden light, revealing her body covered in neatly arranged scales. Her body exploded with each joint, breaking free from the shackles of time stop. Her true form, a golden dragon over twenty meters long, tore through the dimensional barrier created by the wish spell, and twelve gems, like constellations, were inlaid throughout her dragon body.
"I knew it! There's no such thing as a golden elf that good. Who else but you golden sprites would like to infiltrate evil forces, adorn yourself with jewels, and wield the power of fortune?"