Chapter 4601: Haze

Aurundi was still shocked by everything that was happening. He couldn’t understand how Rean had managed to prepare all of this without him noticing. Rean had said he had several weeks to work, but when had that even happened? Wasn’t Rean traveling with him the entire time?

"How...?" Aurundi finally asked, unable to contain his confusion.

Rean smiled. "It was when Roan reduced the speed of his flight by half. I sneaked out and flew at full speed toward Besgol. So, yeah... I had plenty of time."

Aurundi obviously remembered when Roan did that. "But—"

"We can talk about that later," Roan interrupted, his Elemental Intent Scythes appearing in his hands. His expression was calm, but his killing intent had already begun to spread through the surroundings. "Ranged attacks. Make them use their energy even faster."

Everyone immediately heard the plan and nodded. "Understood!"

Rean also turned toward Aurundi. "Aurundi, you can see them, but they can’t see us. However, there is a limit to this concealment effect: twenty meters. If you get closer than that, their Celestial or Godly Senses will detect you. From that point onward, you’re on your own, so make sure you don’t get that close."

Aurundi accepted nervously. He was still trying to process the absurd situation they had found themselves in, but there was no time to ask more questions. "Ri-Right! Let’s finish this!"

—

’Red Death, Crescent Moon!’

A slashing wave of Dark Red Lightning tore through the haze and shot directly toward Doluno. The attack came from an unexpected direction, forcing Krava and Tapoqi to react immediately.

Tapoqi’s bloodline runes circulated alongside his Godly Energy, and a semi-transparent shield appeared in front of him. At almost the same moment, Krava condensed her Godly Energy into a sharp arc of fire and sent it flying back toward the location from which the attack had emerged, hoping to catch the hidden attacker.

*Zuash! Bang!*

The Dark Red Lightning slammed into Tapoqi’s shield. The barrier trembled violently under the impact, but it held. Krava’s counterattack, however, struck nothing but the ground. The hidden attacker had already moved away before her attack arrived.

’Red Life, Crescent Moon!’

’Yin Yang Sky Feather Blades!’

’Frigid Feather Icicles!’

’Voltari Thunder Bolt!’

’Voltari Crack!’

Several more attacks erupted from different directions, one after another. The seemingly endless haze made it impossible to determine where any of them originated. Tapoqi worked nonstop to intercept the incoming attacks, constantly shifting his attention between the various techniques.

Without a doubt, he paid particular attention to the Voltari Thunder Bolts and Cracks. He knew Aurundi was also a Law God, and although Aurundi’s attacks were weaker than they would have been under normal circumstances because he was attacking from a safe distance, they were still dangerous enough to demand attention.

Krava offered as much support as possible, launching counterattacks whenever she thought she had identified the source of an attack. Unfortunately, the haze made such judgments extremely difficult. Every time she believed she had found an opening, the attack came from somewhere else entirely.

*Blang...*

*Blang...*

*Blang...*

Every forty seconds or so, another layer of the Barrier Array was destroyed, only for a completely new barrier to appear behind it.

Initially, Doluno had refused to believe that a protective array could possibly have so many layers. Yet, as he became more familiar with the structure, he started to understand the ingenuity behind Rean’s arrangement.

Rean was an amazing Arrays Master. There was no doubt about that. However, he was still only an Aura God, and his cultivation placed a natural limit on the complexity of the runes he could create. He couldn’t craft Level Three runes, let alone Level Four ones.

Doluno, Krava, and Tapoqi were all exceptional Arrays Masters themselves. More importantly, they had the assistance of their Thousand-Script Race bloodline, which gave them a natural advantage when manipulating and understanding runes. Each of the three was a Level Four Arrays Master.

It went without saying that Rean’s array would have a hard time holding experts who were not only vastly superior in cultivation but were also Level Four Arrays Masters.

Doluno, especially, stood at the very peak of both realms. His cultivation was at the Peak Stage of the Law God Realm, while his attainments in arrays were equally extraordinary.

Rean knew that there was no way he could create a single array capable of holding these three for long. At least not with just a few weeks of work and limited materials.

So... why make only one?

Maybe two.

Maybe ten.

Maybe... 1,277 layers of them?

Each individual layer was simple in construction, but Rean had deliberately made them different from one another. No layer was identical to the one before it, and the changes between them followed no predictable pattern. Because of that, even with his bloodline and vast experience as an Arrays Master, Doluno couldn’t simply use the solution from one layer to instantly solve the next.

His experience allowed him to destroy each layer relatively quickly, but he still had to understand what he was dealing with every single time.

The greatest advantage of Rean’s array was also its greatest weakness. He had created the layers separately, meaning each layer had absolutely no connection with the next.

Such an arrangement came with many drawbacks.

The main one, without a doubt, was that the amount of energy necessary to maintain so many independent array layers was ridiculously high.

That’s why most protective arrays relied on a single main barrier, or perhaps two. Three was already pushing the limits unless the array had access to some nearly unlimited external source of energy.

But for this specific situation, quantity was far more useful than efficiency. Rean had prepared quite a few Godly Predator Crystals to feed the array. He had even added a Godly Horror Crystal as an emergency reserve, just in case.

At the current rate of energy consumption, even if Doluno did nothing at all, the entire array would shut down in at most an hour. However, that was precisely why the array had been designed this way.

Using brute force would be even worse, because the energy required to break through so many barriers would undoubtedly exceed what the three Law Gods could afford to spend.

Little by little, Doluno’s expression became increasingly ugly.

He knew the array had multiple layers. He had already accepted that much. But could it truly have as many layers as Rean claimed?

Krava and Tapoqi continued defending themselves while occasionally attempting counterattacks, but their efforts accomplished almost nothing. Their senses were completely useless inside the array, and their vision was no better.

They couldn’t see their enemies. They couldn’t accurately locate the source of the attacks. They couldn’t even determine how large the battlefield really was. The only thing they could do was defend and keep destroying the barriers.

Finally, after Doluno had already spent more than half of his reserves and felt the energy being drained from his body at an alarming rate, he made a decision.

"You asked for this!"

His bloodline runes immediately retreated into his body as he reached into his Spatial Ring and pulled out an item.

It looked like a small blob of blood, but countless tiny runes continuously flowed through it. The strange object seemed almost alive as Doluno held it and poured his Godly Energy into it.

The blood immediately spread across his hand before flowing into his body.

The bloodline runes covering his skin turned an even deeper red, and even his eyes changed. At this moment, Doluno looked less like a member of the Thousand-Script Race and more like some ancient beast awakening from its slumber.

The runes covering his body accelerated, moving faster and faster until—

*Vruzaaahh!*

Countless crimson runes suddenly erupted from Doluno’s body and spread in every direction.

Roan immediately narrowed his eyes. He recognized that this was no ordinary technique. Without hesitation, he swung his Elemental Intent Scythes at the incoming runes, attempting to destroy them before they could reach him.

However, something strange happened. The scythes seemed to pass right through the runes. It wasn’t that Roan had missed. Rather, his attacks simply couldn’t interact with them.

The crimson runes continued forward and struck Roan’s body. They also passed through Rean, Celis, Kentucky, Lukay, Kachia, and everyone else.

Yet no one felt anything. The runes simply disappeared into their bodies.

For a brief moment, nothing seemed to have changed.

Then—

The haze surrounding the battlefield began to weaken. Roan’s expression immediately changed. The concealment effect that had hidden the twins’ group from Doluno, Krava, and Tapoqi... was beginning to disappear.

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