Sigrid paid Askesan no heed. She merely ensured Lanqi remained safe behind her, her violet eyes fixed upon Askesan like a predator locking onto its prey.
The two Bishops' brief, cold exchange of stares was the silence before the sky-splitting thunder roared; a clash between supreme powerhouses was about to erupt once more in this northern city-state.
In the distance, an invisible connection of magic power had already formed between Lanqi and Sigrid.
This was the Tier 8 Purple Rare spell she used to protect him, [Life Link]. It shared health status with the target, dissolved only beyond a substantial distance, and granted a slight bonus of her own physical and mental attributes to the linked party.
The cost: whenever the linked subject took damage, the caster bore it equally.
In addition, a Tier 8 summon, the [Telekinetic Golem], remained by Lanqi's side.
Though this humanoid golem, woven entirely from condensed silver light, had no face, its silhouette—identical to Sigrid's—radiated immense, oppressive might.
Even without appraising its effects, Lanqi could guess that this golem replicated most of Sigrid's attributes. Even without her equipment effects and spells, it was virtually equivalent to an avatar of Sigrid herself.
After all, she was a Cardinal who fought relying primarily on peak physical might; even an ordinary punch held the power to shatter city walls.
The carrying capacity for soul-binding magic cards in any living creature was ten times their own tier.
At Tier 8, the combined tiers of all the magic cards Sigrid carried could not exceed eighty. Spending two Tier 8 cards just to protect Lanqi meant her direct combat prowess was compromised to a degree.
Lightning once again illuminated the snow-flurried air and ground. Behind the mana barrier, Askesan opened his palm. A pitch-black vortex formed at its center as godlike, terrifying mana converged toward him, compressed relentlessly until it began radiating a cocoon of black electricity that cut off all ambient light.
If swept up by this damaging sealing spell—at least Tier 8 in rank—even the grandest imperial army would likely be reduced to nothingness.
The mere mana storm caused Lanqi's skin and cheeks to sting. At the same time, the silver golem grabbed Lanqi and, true to Sigrid's usual pattern of behavior, whisked him rapidly away from the battlefield.
Lanqi could only watch as Sigrid, confronting Askesan in the distance, did not flinch in the face of this destructive ultimate spell.
The lucid radiance clinging to her remained undiminished, like a moon goddess or a martial deity, capable in her calm serenity of smashing through every obstacle with fists whose reach knew no bounds!
The silver golem shielded Lanqi from the aftershocks, steering clear of the battlefield's center amid the collapse of Bandera City's upper tier.
Even so, Lanqi's vision flickered between dark and light amid the billowing dust and violent gusts. Echoing with a tremendous roar that shook the northern snowfields, the shockwave nearly blew Lanqi and the silver golem away together.
Only when he managed to regain his footing and look back into the distance did he see:
Like an age of gods reborn, the two Bishops engaged in a cataclysmic collision of Cardinals above the teetering Bandera City!
In an instant, the entire upper tier of Bandera City near the gates was reduced to a war zone. Shockwaves battered every structure relentlessly, leaving once-sturdy buildings and watchtowers ravaged by ash-wrought beasts into ruins.
The battle raged with mounting intensity. The entire city-state was smothered in dense smoke and dust, where firelight, explosions, and distant sky thunder intertwined. Storm clouds gathered and swirled overhead; nature itself seemed shaken by this abrupt outburst of violence, and the atmospheric pressure high above surged violently.
With every clash, vast cloud decks were illuminated from the ground up.
Ordinary powerhouses, to say nothing of approaching the battlefield, could not even make out the Tier 8 death match between Bishops if they looked up.
At the center of this battle, though neither Cardinal was in peak condition, Askesan—having taken greater injuries at the outset—was gradually falling into a disadvantage. Sigrid clearly gave him no chance to recover!
Sigrid had an unprecedented chance of settling the score with Askesan this time.
Yet she harbored no love for prolonged battle.
She knew full well that she had to gravely wound Askesan here before she could escape this eerie city-state with the Holy Son.
Being pursued by Askesan would be the worst-case scenario. He possessed countless tactical tricks to manipulate the field and was impossible to shake off. The long trek southward would prove grueling; even she was unwilling to fight a running pursuit against Askesan, let alone while keeping the Holy Son safe.
Conversely, once she managed to bring the news of Bandera City in the Northern Border Province back to the imperial capital, Herrom, the grand conspiracy behind the Bishop of Extinction would come entirely to naught!
"Sigrid, did you think your only opponent was me?"
Askesan's smile was chill-inducing in its calm composure.
Even though he had temporarily fallen into a disadvantage in their clashes, he merely smiled as though an adult indulging a child at play.
"..."
Sigrid carried no weapons in hand. No matter their tier, magic armaments could not compare to her own body. Each step she took shook the ground like thunder, dragging away vast currents of air to form crushing gusts. Her eyes, cold and trailing violet brilliance, were fixed with single-minded resolve on driving Askesan into a corner.
As Domination's longtime rival, Extinction remained equally methodical. Every snap of his fingers unleashed potent sealing talismans, forging zones of dark gray forbidden space that met Sigrid head-on.
The distance between them opened and closed, yet at every turn, it looked like two world-ending cataclysms colliding. Every blow from the Bishop of Domination poured down with the fury of a torrential cataract, seeking to crush the Bishop of Extinction, while Extinction flitted like a deft dancer amidst the inescapable snares he had laid, releasing seals in an attempt to pin Sigrid down and weaken her!
Although Askesan's stalling did little to halt Sigrid's advance, his more intricate spellcraft was fully prepared. The entire space began to distort; dark gray vines surged from the earth while gray eyes plummeted from the sky, threatening to swallow Sigrid in an instant.
Just then, Sigrid's form began to radiate a dazzling, nearly translucent silhouette of light, her pupils shifting to silver. As though entering an entirely new state of selflessness, she threw a punch of unprecedented force. In midair, the silver radiance collided with the dark gray curse, erupting into a colossal blast of energy along a sharp, distinct fault line.
Moments later, Askesan went flying back until he crashed down, clearly coming off worse in this direct clash. He had never been suited to a head-on brawl against Sigrid, yet a smile still curved on his lips, as though he were merely playing along with her.
At last.
Just as the battle between the Bishop of Domination and the Bishop of Extinction reached its fever pitch, a colossal shadow suddenly eclipsed the sky. A frigid wind swept past, smoothing the gravel on the ground.
The plunge in temperature caused the dewdrops on the ground to freeze visibly before their eyes. This sensation of the unknown sent a sudden shiver down even Sigrid's spine.
"..."
A figure had appeared from who knew where, having arrived without warning. He landed silently, clad in a raven-black robe, his face veiled so deeply that even the lightning could not illuminate it.
Though his presence was a total unknown, Sigrid could still sense the danger radiating from him—danger that far surpassed even Askesan's.
"You're finally here."
Seeing the robed figure, Askesan's eyes filled with delight and relief. The instant the robed figure made his move, a pitch-black magical chain yanked Askesan out of Sigrid's attack range. Almost simultaneously, another black chain lashed out toward Sigrid.
Sigrid possessed rich combat experience, yet this mysterious black chain did not feel like mana. Before it even touched her, it generated an indefensible repulsive force, slamming her heavily into the ground. Amid the city-state's continuing collapse, coughing blood, Sigrid fell into Bandera City's lower tier.
She adjusted her breathing with all her might, doing everything to stay alert.
She knew that facing Askesan alone, she had the upper hand.
With this robed figure added into the fray, however, all bets were off.
More troublesome still, the robed figure's true identity was already complicating the entire situation within the Protos Empire.
Sigrid rose from the rubble in Bandera City's lower tier. Her long hair streamed in the wind, her gaze blazing like torches as she confronted the two formidable foes floating slowly down from the sky, the aura rolling off her remaining resolute and unyielding.
"The Bishop of Domination..."
The robed figure's voice was steeped in a psychedelic, distorted quality with a touch of metallic rasp. He seemed to be pondering something—such as why the Bishop of Domination was here, in defiance of the Prophet's divination.
Of course, the Prophet's divinations were not guaranteed to be infallible every time. Slight deviations were usually normal, but rarely did an error of this magnitude occur.
Furthermore, if multiple powerhouses with prophetic abilities in the world conducted divinations and laid schemes based on their visions, they would interfere with one another, resulting in outcomes none of them had foreseen.
"Could it be that Marquis Heriteer of the Blood Clan in the Southern Continent has meddled all the way over into our Northern Continent...?" the robed figure finally murmured under his breath, barely audible.
Askesan paid no attention to the robed figure's pondering, keeping his eyes fixed on Sigrid in the distance.
"Apostle, do not waste time. If we let this woman stall until nightfall, it will become very troublesome," Askesan said coldly to the robed figure beside him.
"Heh heh."
Yet the robed figure only chuckled as he looked toward the sky, as if thinking Askesan had told an amusing joke.
He flicked an Orange Epic card bearing a massive crimson fissure from his sleeve.
Immediately, amid the warped space high above, a monster shrouded in darkness slowly emerged. It looked like a modest-sized disc-shaped larva, its entire body covered in a hardened carapace engraved with bizarre patterns. The creature's eyes emitted an indifferent blue glow; merely looking at it stirred an innate sense of malice and toxicity rising from within.
At once, a terrifying, crushing pressure bore down upon Sigrid, forcing her to stumble two steps forward.
She stared intently at the monster. Even as her eyes stung, she strained to force an appraisal spell to analyze the epic summon's attributes.
The strangest part was that the robed figure had brazenly summoned this aura-type creature right in front of her, without the slightest concern that she might obliterate it on the spot.
Gradually, from her physical sensations and the fragmented data produced by her appraisal spell, she pieced together its basic profile:
[Abyssal Black Worm]
[Type: Summon Card]
[Rarity: Orange Epic]
[Tier: 8]
[Effect: Cannot move or attack. The closer an enemy target is to this summon, the stronger the gravitational suppression they suffer. Upon defeating this summon, ▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇▇.]
[Description: The power that brings extinction to all things.]
From high above, the robed figure looked down at Sigrid and asked Askesan beside him:
"How long do you think she can last?"
Askesan did not speak. He merely shook his head with a smile, looking upon Sigrid with pity.
Before them, Sigrid had become prey with nowhere to run.
Today, Bandera City on the northern border of the Protos Empire was an exquisite grave for Sigrid, the Bishop of Domination.
Chapter 331