Among the Divine Miracles of the Six Nations, only Spiderweb possessed standard teleportation capabilities!
Scenes like the Spider Tower Legion launching a surprise attack on Giant Wood Fortress had played out countless times over the past thousand years! Even Denzel herself had personally planned dozens of such raids!
And the reason a Concept Incarnation was so vital was that, besides enhancing troop types, it served as an extension of the Divine Miracle itself!
In the war of the Six Nations, without the protection of a Divine Miracle, a Heroic Spirit Legion was no different from running around naked. Denzel going through immense hardships back then to snuff out the Avatar of the Stars had definitely been worth it. Because of that, in this Investiture War, Star Hall could only assemble grand legions around their remaining three concepts—meaning they could fight on at most three fronts simultaneously, not a single one more!
With every additional Concept Incarnation, there was an extra strategically deployable unit, and the Divine Miracle could intervene on one more battlefield!
Thus, after losing the Secret Incarnation, Denzel knew that under normal circumstances, they had zero hope of victory. Spider Tower was left with only two concepts, which meant only two grand legions could operate in the field. They couldn't establish any strategic depth whatsoever and could barely protect themselves at best!
Once the White Ox completed another circuit, if Yaxiu and his companions still refused to obediently go die, Denzel would have to dispatch an elite legion to raid Blood Tomb or Star Hall anyway, triggering the war through the Spiderweb. Otherwise, by the time everyone completed their strategic Divine Miracles, Spider Tower would be reduced to mere underlings, watching the other factions bask in glory.
Though Yaxiu and the others didn't know the truth behind the Divine Miracle, as they watched the purple halo radiating from the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit and saw the purple trail the sports car had left dribbling all along the way, how could they not realize they had been used as free labor during an unpaid trial by the Empress?
"Why didn't she use this trick to catch us before?" Diya had somehow swapped back at some point. Perhaps because the Empress had pursued them so ruthlessly earlier, she seemed to have developed Stockholm syndrome, trying to find a tiny glimmer of humanity in the Empress: "Could it be that she actually showed us mercy?"
"Maybe using this move comes at a steep price, not worth wasting just to hunt us down," Yaxiu said. "More likely, only when we set foot in a Main City is the Secret Incarnation's hidden smear function activated... It's my first time seeing a sorcery spirit relieve itself wherever it pleases."
"Purple, green, the mutual repulsion between concepts..." Sonia said thoughtfully. "A Concept Incarnation might be even more important than we imagined, capable of influencing victory or defeat in the Void Realm's war. No wonder the Empress insisted on crushing the Avatar of the Stars, and no wonder she was so relentless in chasing us... But Watcher, why do you have no idea how to use the Concept Incarnation even after obtaining it?!"
"Good question. I also want to know why getting a girl's contact info and becoming friends doesn't immediately lead to marriage," Yaxiu replied. "I have a guess—might not be right—is there supposed to be a step in between where we see each other stripped bare?"
*Vroom!*
Before Sword Princess and the Witch could say anything, the sports car roared to life once more, belching toxic mist as it sped away. At this point, Denzel finally sensed something was amiss. She actually hadn't intended to capture Yaxiu and the others; after all, the sports car was simply too fast, and the Spider Tower Legion could only appear behind Yaxiu, giving them no possibility of intercepting them.
Therefore, seeing Yaxiu and the others stop there, she hadn't immediately split her forces to seize them. Only when Yaxiu fled again did she feel something was off—why were those two women constantly looking back at that man? Was he putting on a performance of eating noodles through his nose?
Although she didn't know what had happened, Denzel was an expert at harming others without benefiting herself, and she keenly deduced that they were in some kind of restricted state. In the span of a breath, Denzel decisively chose to detach a seventh of her forces to hunt them down—if she could seize this opportunity to reclaim the Secret Incarnation, this operation would be a total triumph!
However, right ahead of Yaxiu and his companions, there happened to be a squad from a Heroic Spirit Legion returning from outside to Giant Wood Fortress. The commander inside had no idea how his small squad had attracted the attention of a grand legion, but he swiftly made the right choice—sacrifice his unit to pin down as much of the Spider Tower Legion's strength as possible!
The squad quickly finished equipping their troop armaments and established a defensive line on the spot to brace for the impact!
Looking down from above, it looked like a sports car leading tens of thousands of troops in a charge against an innocent passing squad!
"Get down!"
Yaxiu reclined the front seatbacks, instantly turning the sports car's interior into a flat bed, and the three of them lay flat on it, staring wide-eyed at one another. Out of the corners of their eyes, they saw the car tearing through crossfire. Stray splash damage alone caused the sports car to groan under the overwhelming strain. The "Refraction Curtain Wall" was already completely shattered; if they dared poke their heads out, they would undoubtedly be headshot.
The sports car's "Wicked Edge" had already reached Level 6. Its awakened special effect was "reducing the friction coefficient of collided objects to 0." In other words, whatever it slammed into, even if it couldn't slice right through, the obstacle would simply slide away rather than block the front of the sports car. Thus, their charge remained extraordinarily smooth!
Seeing that the sports car was on the verge of exploding, the three instinctively held hands. With eyes wide open, looking at each other, their fear of death seemed to diminish—just like going to the bathroom, going together made for an entirely different experience.
Suddenly, the car seemed to strike something, followed by a deafening roar resembling heaven's thunder and earth's fire. Then, a wisp of green smoke drifted in from outside, flowing into the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit and turning into green light.
[This sorcery spirit has successfully absorbed an incomplete sorcery spirit of the same name. Unlocked new troop types: 'Temple Apprentice', 'Three-Color Anchor'.]
[Oasis · Temple Apprentice: Melee soul damage +10%, capable of restricting enemy escapes, 3 layers of armor, humanoid creature, comes equipped with scimitar and lasso. Consumes 1 point of soul power per unit.]
[Three-Color Anchor: 3 layers of armor, 40% anchoring, consumes 3 points of soul power per unit.]
Yaxiu froze for a moment, then immediately realized that a nearby commander had died. Perhaps Yaxiu hadn't killed him with the car, but the commander had definitely perished shortly after being rammed by the sports car, which allowed the Soul Summoning sorcery spirit to absorb a sliver of power.
It really was just a sliver; it had only unlocked a single troop type. Even Demilo hadn't been that stingy back then. Still, Two-Color Anchor had upgraded to Three-Color Anchor, raising the anchoring chance to 40%. Now, they would have much better odds crossing the Flowing Gold River!
Before long, however, the three realized they were safe—they had returned to the reverse golden rain!
Seeing the familiar reverse golden rain flowing upward from below into the sky, Yaxiu and the others were moved almost to tears and couldn't help hugging one another in celebration!
*This* was where normal sorcerers belonged! Oasis, Spider Tower, go lock yourselves together in eternal cuddles and stop bothering us normal sorcerers!
...
Inside Oasis, Denzel watched Yaxiu and his companions successfully escape back into the curtain of rain, so she recalled the legion to resume the assault. She felt utterly helpless as well. An Oasis squad had happened to appear right along their escape path, and believing Spider Tower was attacking them, that squad had erected a defensive line to pin down Spider Tower. Although Spider Tower had swiftly annihilated the squad, the battered, ravaged sports car had somehow wobbled its way to freedom.
These sorcerers really were lucky.
Or rather, Spider Tower's luck was beginning to deteriorate.
Because seven holes remained unpatched, the Spiderweb was currently incomplete. Not only was it incapable of unleashing the ultimate weapon, "Destiny Weaving," but its other effects were drastically diminished. If the Spiderweb were complete, effects such as "Entanglement," "Corrosion," and "Curtain of Omniscience" would be boosted by another 2.33 times.
More importantly, because the Spiderweb was woven from threads of fate, an incomplete web meant defects in fate itself. The more Spider Tower used it, the harsher the backlash of fate became, manifesting specifically as a steady decline in luck across the entire faction. A commander heading out just to collect resources might end up getting taken out by a passing sorcerer.
*Boom!*
Suddenly, blazing flames erupted from the spiral structure inside the Oasis fortress, instantly illuminating the entire battlefield. All the vegetation throughout the Main City zone began growing madly, snagging and dragging Spider Tower soldiers as if alive. The Oasis soldiers immediately received an enormous boost, nearly pushing Spider Tower's front line all the way back!
Far from feeling afraid, Denzel broke into a smile, her eyes filled with anticipation!
Oasis had finally activated their strategic miracle: Silent Spiral!
Now, Oasis wouldn't be able to complete their ultimate weapon either!
If nothing else, Spider Tower had thoroughly dragged Oasis down with them. Next, they only needed to capture this fortress, and Oasis would have no choice but to launch the war prematurely alongside Spider Tower!
"We deployed the Spiderweb ahead of time. Even though the ultimate weapon can't be completed, its other effects can still be strengthened," Denzel said, gazing out over the battlefield, addressing someone unseen. "Right now, we can only exploit our information advantage and local superiority to expand our gains... You need to hurry up and update faster! Patch those remaining seven holes as quickly as possible. Don't worry about quality—it doesn't matter if it tears later. The decisive battles will break out over the next few turns; it only needs to hold up for that long!"
After waiting a moment, Denzel seemed to hear a satisfactory reply, and a flush of delight colored her cheeks. "Rest assured, just as in the past thousand years, I will seize victory for you as I always have. Light of my life, fire of my desire, my original sin, my... Yisu."
Chapter 423