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Chapter 27: Blooming

Unfortunately, even though Miss Vilyric wasn’t sure how to counter such tactics, she still managed to break through with sheer force.

In battles of equal level, the scene and battle environment are incredibly important; fighting on home turf is something to be avoided at all costs.

And the battlefield, or rather, the magic barrier was precisely Miss Vilyric’s expertise.

Her usual spell, Radiant Protection, a sixth-tier magic, only had a maximum range of two kilometers and was rather low in grade. Under these conditions, she might be a bit tight on resources.

The Priestess paused for a moment to think.

Among her teammates, even the weakest had legendary-level abilities, so the information flow damage from high-level magic shouldn’t be too severe, meaning there was nothing to worry about.

She spread her arms wide and unleashed a brilliant flame of light that blossomed like a flower at her feet.

“Eternal Sanctuary Light.”

The radiant flame flower enveloped Miss Vilyric’s petite frame, transforming her into a heart of the flower, and then, a transparent and clear wave of golden crystal suddenly burst forth!

That wall of light extended endlessly, growing outwards, upwards, and into the distance, layer upon layer of new petals blossoming and expanding, growing and growing.

Growing without limit.

It broke through the oppressive gray clouds, dispersing the mist, turning the world into a sacred and exalted hall of radiance.

The darkness of night couldn’t suppress this infinite pure light; in the blink of an eye, the golden flowers burst forth into a light screen that soared over a thousand meters high, illuminating the night as if it were a brilliant day.

The entire Disaster Forest, both the inner and outer circles, tens of thousands of square kilometers of land, were thoroughly enveloped by this holy light screen in just a few breaths.

The residual glow even illuminated the entire southern border of the Bolt Kingdom.

Then, countless layers unfolded at the core of the light screen—an exquisite flower gradually revealed itself, and a black-haired girl in a white robe gracefully ascended on flapping wings, gazing down at her surroundings.

The thick gray mist had been completely purified under the power of the tenth-tier magic, and as a fusion skill of high-level holy light and barrier magic, the might of “Eternal Sanctuary Light” was undoubtedly formidable.

But…

“?”

Despite how oddly mysterious this “Southern Disaster” was, Miss Vilyric, though silent, was taking a very cautious approach as if treating it as an equal opponent; otherwise, she wouldn’t have started with the tenth-tier magic right away.

Could it really have been eliminated just like that? That didn’t seem right, did it?

Although Eternal Sanctuary Light was powerful, it was purely a defensive and barrier spell and had no offensive capabilities. Even if Phantom Cloud was only around level 70, it couldn’t be instantly wiped out by the attached purification effect; at most, it would merely be weakened.

After all, it was being released from within, not being attacked directly by Phantom Cloud.

The black-haired girl looked around.

The surrounding area was still shrouded in thick mist; in the heart of the Disaster Forest, Miss Vilyric even spotted Edwina and others looking lost on the ground, along with Little Dragon Daughter rapidly flying towards her.

But that dragon breath had already vanished without a trace, causing no destruction on the ground.

Xiao Guang’s dragon breath, while only akin to her initial innate skill, worked just fine; even if it didn’t go all out, its power could at least rival eighth or even ninth-tier attack magic.

Phantom Cloud managed to nullify it without a trace, yet it couldn’t withstand a tenth-tier defensive barrier spell?

That was clearly unreasonable.

“…Did it escape?”

All the seeds left behind by Phantom Cloud, that gray mist known as “Disaster,” should have been purified by Miss Vilyric. Leaving aside calamity beasts, most plants should have returned to normal.

The Southern Disaster certainly wasn’t eliminated; it was feigning defeat.

In many places along the earlier path, Miss Vilyric had vaguely sensed an unusual feeling similar to being watched, like the eye on Epunya’s chest; the sensation was even more pronounced in this Disaster Forest.

And now, that feeling hadn’t disappeared, just dimmed significantly, as if… spying.

“Master! Did you get attacked?!”

Little Dragon Daughter was familiar with the Eternal Sanctuary Light, the tenth-tier magic. This was already one of the strongest barrier spells Ms. Vilyric could utilize without spending spiritual points.

Upon arriving by Miss Vilyric’s side, Xiao Guang immediately used her skill, Dragon’s Eye, to check the Priestess’s hit points. Seeing they were full, her expression gradually relaxed.

“No, it was just that fighting on visitor turf isn’t very convenient; I thought I’d cast a field spell to increase our advantage, but then this… Forget it, what’s the situation on your end?”

This kind of tactic was something the master-servant pair often employed, so Xiao Guang had no doubts and nodded.

“When I released my breath just now, the surrounding environment underwent a special change; it felt like we were temporarily transported to a special space similar to a barrier. The dragon breath didn’t feel like it hit a solid object, and I was just about to investigate further when you took action first.”

“Hmm… So it was like that.”

During the time when Phantom Cloud appeared, Miss Vilyric hadn’t felt the fluctuations of spatial magic at all; both she and Xiao Guang had resistances to spatial teleportation.

Previously, Phantom Cloud must have created a temporary illusory space in some unusual manner, similar to Miss Vilyric’s Iron Blood Colosseum ability.

But this illusory space wasn’t very high-level, merely crushed directly by the barrier magic of Eternal Sanctuary Light.

That meant it wasn’t Phantom Cloud’s true full strength; it was simply forced into a corner and created an illusion of defeat.

What a cunning thing…

“Let’s go down and regroup with them. Things won’t be that simple.”

“Alright, Master.”

As soon as they landed, Miss Vilyric saw Edwina and the others standing on the outer petals of the radiant flower of Eternal Sanctuary Light, looking over here.

After Phantom Cloud’s illusory space was dispelled, the four nearest people immediately spotted the black-haired girl rising like a star from the magnificent thousand-petal flower over a hundred meters away, instantly realizing it was Miss Vilyric’s doing.

However, the Priestess felt that their gazes were noticeably off compared to usual.

Besides the awe, amazement, and disbelief that Miss Vilyric had grown accustomed to, the four expressed varying degrees of fervor that resembled the reverence mortals show when encountering a deity, particularly Edwina, who was already a believer.

Under her armor, the girl’s body trembled slightly, overwhelmed with excitement, tears streaming down her face, as if this were a moment she would never regret in her life.

Were it not for the inappropriate timing, Miss Vilyric suspected she would not hesitate to drop to her knees and pray.

How strange…

Edwina, or Leila and Renée, could be excused; after all, they were believers in a certain deity, possessing a reverence for the divine or incomprehensible beings woven into their very bones.

But Epunya had clearly stated before that he was a non-believer; surely he wouldn’t suddenly believe in the gods simply because he saw a tenth-tier spell?

This was absolutely abnormal.

Was it… the pollution of information flow?

With her mind racing, Miss Vilyric quickly thought of the true reason.

It seemed that even legendary beings could not completely avoid the influence of tenth-tier magic; indeed, her decision to avoid using high-level spells before lower-tier beings was correct.

This information flow pollution was not simply a negative state or damage; the consequences were entirely unknown.

To be honest, even Miss Vilyric herself didn’t know how to quickly eliminate it.

However, recalling how Liliya and others had witnessed the ninth-tier spell, “Heaven’s Blessing,” without any unusual reaction afterward, she felt there shouldn’t be too much of a problem, right?

Wait!

At that moment, Miss Vilyric suddenly recalled that she had, in a moment of excitement, cast the tenth-tier magic, “Creation of Flowing Clouds,” on a group of ordinary people in the Iris Flower Orphanage’s cell.

However, those people had been half-conscious at the time and hadn’t given any response. After they were cured, Miss Vilyric didn’t follow up on what happened afterward.

Now that she thought about it…

Surely there wouldn’t be any issues, right…

Forget it, it’s none of my business!