Clack!
Sheathing with a dragon's cry alongside the ruby rapier was the blood lake sword light suspended upside down above the woodland stadium. Only when every last ray of sword light had flowed back did the tens of thousands of spectators in the stadium relax their taut bodies. Many found themselves drenched in cold sweat, and the sorcerers among them were no exception.
The entire arena was dead silent. No one dared cheer or utter an opinion; everyone was simply rejoicing at having survived the calamity. Perhaps years from now, this experience would become bragging rights to boast about for decades to come, but right here and now, they wished they had never laid eyes on a clash between legendary sorcerers.
They knew legendary sorcerers were powerful, but when the legendary sorcerer in question was Sonia Servi, a young sorcerer who had just been singing and dancing onstage moments ago, it was hard not to assume she belonged to the weaker end of the legendary echelon. They knew Sanctuary sorcerers were formidable, especially with Captain Alexis of the Star-Flicking Unit stepping forward alongside six other Church Sanctuaries. Even if Sanctuary sorcerers couldn't match a legendary sorcerer, surely seven Sanctuaries could hold their own against one young legendary sorcerer, couldn't they?
On one side was a beautiful sword sorcerer who had been a sorcerer for less than a year; on the other were seven renowned Sanctuaries occupying exalted positions. The vast majority had expected a splendid, breathtaking sorcerous duel.
Then, with a sky full of sword light, Sonia showed everyone that the vast gulf between Legendary and Sanctuary was not a chasm that numbers could ever bridge.
It was true that seven Sanctuaries like Alexis could not be routed in an instant, but time was never on their side—time belonged only to the strong who could dominate the battlefield. By the time they realized Sonia's blood lake sword light would not disperse, but instead hung inverted above the grounds to alter the sorcery environment, Sonia had already established absolute dominion over the field.
Although Sonia had never engaged in a true legendary duel, nor had she ever journeyed to Ruby Mountain, that didn't stop her from transforming her combat style. She excelled at learning, and Diya's Gospel God was arguably the mortal realm's finest tailored mentor.
The decisive difference between Legendary and Sanctuary lay in a legendary sorcerer's ability to reshape the battlefield environment. Beyond obvious changes like a fire sorcerer setting the field ablaze or a water sorcerer summoning a torrent, there was a far deeper transformation: when heterochromatic sorcery mana fueled a miracle, it could lightly dye the colors of the surrounding environment.
Every environment possessed sorcerous colors; even an empty void undeniably held "time colors" and "spatial colors."
A favorable casting environment was one whose colors bolstered one's sorcery; an adverse casting environment was one where environmental colors clashed with the colors of the miracle, attenuating its potency. But physical sorceries like swordsmanship generally existed in conventional casting environments—neither bolstered nor dampened.
Yet what truly made legendary sorcerers so terrifying was not just their ability to swiftly alter the environment's colors, but that they could make the environment cast spells automatically, brazenly imprinting their own will onto the heavens!
It sounded profoundly formidable, but the underlying principle was quite simple: take a fire sorcerer who sparks a blaze. Once that fire expands beyond control to a point where nature cannot quell it, the conflagration will continue to burn even if the sorcerer stops casting. That is the environment casting on the sorcerer's behalf.
When confronting a legendary sorcerer, if you cannot crush them in one decisive blow, you are no longer facing a mortal disaster—you are facing a natural catastrophe!
The entire battlefield becomes the legendary sorcerer's minion and accomplice!
From the very beginning, the one pressed for time had never been Sonia, but the seven Starry Sanctuaries!
By the time Alexis and the others realized this, Sonia's blood lake battlefield had fully formed. Notably, it wasn't that Alexis and her companions were ignorant of how legendary sorcerers fought; they simply refused to believe Sonia had already mastered a battlefield miracle.
While the brilliance of any legendary sorcerer guaranteed they would eventually master a battlefield miracle, Sonia had been a sorcerer for less than a year! Even if condensing a fourth virtual wing could be called a miracle, where would she have found the time to develop a battlefield miracle?
Yet Sonia had actually encountered battlefield miracles very early on. Back when she was merely a second-wing sorcerer, she had already set her sights on the embryonic form of an extraordinary battlefield miracle. Through her and Yaxiu's research, that miracle had grown increasingly refined, until now, it was fully realized in her hands.
The original version of this miracle was called Heart Pen.
After Yaxiu gave his Heart Sword sorcery spirit to Sonia, the Paw-stretching Sword Saint integrated Heart Sword into her combat repertoire. Coincidentally, Diya explained the combat dynamics of legendary sorcerers to her, and the Extinction Resentful Blazing Dragon taught her how to harness emotional power. From all this, Sonia developed her exclusive battlefield miracle: Love Letter.
Love letters knew no distinction of high or low station, only sincere feelings or hollow deceit.
Depending on which miracle Sonia used to write her love letter, the battlefield's ultimate effect varied. A "Shattered Lake Love Letter," penned with the direct-offensive Blood Moon Shattered Lake, inflicted sustained swordsmanship damage on all hostile targets; a "Water Moon Love Letter," penned with the counter-focused Blood Blossom Water Moon, allowed Sonia to automatically parry and retaliate against every attack within range.
Though there remained much room to polish Love Letter, it was more than enough to deal with Sanctuary sorcerers.
Sonia looked down at Captain Alexis, who was embedded in the wall. The captain's Sanctuary had not yet fully depleted, but its perimeter was swarmed with blood lake sword light; Alexis could either stay put meekly or be ground down to nothing by the sword light.
The Paw-stretching Sword Saint turned and flew back toward the stage.
Diya clapped her hands and said, "A total success on its debut! Your Love Letter is almost on par with Yaxiu's Heart Pen."
"It's stronger," Sonia said calmly. "When he gets back, I'll crush him with his own specialty."
"Huh? Why?"
Sonia glanced at the Witch. "Isn't making Yaxiu bow his head reason enough?"
Diya imagined the scene: Yaxiu staring in shock as his Heart Pen battlefield was completely overrun by her Love Letter battlefield, collapsing to his knees in despair, clinging to the Sword Princess's thigh and wailing, *'Sword Princess, you're so amazing! Even my strongest miracle can't hold a candle to yours. I'll never dare defy your will again, and I'll never go chasing after the Witch or anyone else...'*
*No way. I have to find a way to beat Yaxiu to a pulp too. Even if I can't crush his pride using his favorite miracle, I at least have to beat him until he submits to Her Majesty the Empress.*
"Felix..." Sonia asked.
"Yaxiu and the others haven't woken up yet." Diya shook her head, pointing upward. "And the Astral Canopy hasn't shattered yet, either."
Although it had weathered countless impacts and a massive hole had indeed been punched through it, the starry canopy still stretched across the firmament. Night was bleeding into day, struggling to mend the gap in the sky.
"Don't fret," Daedalose said leisurely. "Though the miracle arts stored by sorcerers across the nation have been exhausted, the scars on the canopy exceed its capacity to mend itself automatically. We can construct miracle arts directly to bombard the canopy, and sorcerers elsewhere will do the same. Its destruction is only a matter of time."
"Then there's no time to lose," Sonia said. "The anomaly earlier was likely Yaxiu striking the Starry Canopy. Heaven only knows if the Divine Lord of Stars has any trump cards left. We have to shatter the Astral Canopy as fast as possible."
Daedalose nodded, switched on her microphone, and addressed the audience. "Our apologies, but due to force majeure, the Starry Beauties Concert must conclude here. Please remain calm and exit in an orderly fashion according to instructions to prevent a stampede.
"And finally... congratulations on witnessing the end of a great era."
The audience stared dumbfounded as the three beauties on stage bowed to them. But just as the concert was brought to a picturesque close in an unexpected way, a beam of starlight suddenly descended into the stadium.
"It's not over yet."
Sonia turned her head and saw Alexis tearing her way out of the blood lake sword light, while the other Church Sanctuaries regained their combat capability one after another. Alexis was clad in an azure set of blue-flame armor, while the Church Sanctuaries were draped in deep-blue robes. The Sword Princess and the Witch recognized the origins of these appearances at a single glance—
Star Hall Tier 5 Unit: Pray-er of Stars!
Star Hall Tier 6 Unit: Star-Flicking Warrior!
"'Stars' Decree: All Starry Nobles are hereby commissioned as Star Hall Warriors to assist the Church in repairing the canopy, resisting rebels, and preventing destruction.'" Alexis enunciated each word clearly: "The Divine Lord of Stars is watching over His loyal realm. You rebels shall receive no favor from destiny.
"The stars guide our path!"
Daedalose glanced at her and sighed softly. "Don't you understand even now? Our Four Pillar Cult only stirred the winds of a changing era; the force that truly desires to shatter the canopy is none other than you Starry sorcerers yourselves.
"The Divine Lord of Stars has favored this land for 1,668 years," the most beautiful woman beneath the starry skies said, pointing at the Star-Flicking Captain. "Yet no reign lasts forever. Hearts yearn for change. Everyone has grown sick of looking at this starry sky; everyone is weary of these mental shackles."
Was the Starry nobility system good? Of course it was good. It thoroughly embodied "with greater power comes greater responsibility" and "selfless devotion to the public good." While providing sorcerers with welfare, it kept their conduct strictly in check; if sorcerers wanted more benefits, they had to contribute more to society.
During the developmental stages of a nascent civilization, sorcerers had had no reason to rebel against this system. But after more than a millennium, the land's resources were nearly exhausted and class calcification had reached its limits. The lower classes lay flat, waiting to die; the middle class hungered for a reshuffling of the deck; and the upper class wanted nothing more than to cast off their chains. Everyone was waiting for a ray of dawn.
Idealized aristocracy had become an antiquated relic out of step with the times. Its efficiency was still world-leading, but the problem was that it could not satisfy the sorcerers' growing spiritual desires.
The Four Pillar Gods were able to spread through the Starry Country not because Daedalose possessed exceptional competence, but because these ungrateful wolves fed full by the Divine Lord of Stars had gone starved for too long.
Statecraft encompassed many facets, but governing sorcerers was inevitably the heaviest topic on the examination. The Four Pillar Gods were like examiners, repeatedly grading the test papers submitted by the divine lords: there was the Blood Moon Extreme Lord, whose marks on paper were mediocre but whose performance remained stable; and there was the Senluo Azure Lord, whose past scores had been stellar before abandoning the exam halfway through.
Now, it was the Divine Lord of Stars' turn to hand in His paper.
"I know," Alexis said coldly. "But once the Divine Lord of Stars achieves a higher echelon, He will surely carry forward the glory of the Stars! When that time comes, all societal problems will be readily solved, and the era of the stars will never end!"
"That notion of yours—believing a great being can solve every single problem—actually makes you quite suitable for our Four Pillar Cult..." Daedalose unfurled her virtual wings. "Sword Seat, Witch Seat, leave these remnants of the old era to me."
"Until the Church finishes repairing the canopy, none of you are leaving," Alexis said resolutely, dropping behind the Sword Princess and the Witch to cut off their retreat. "Starry sorcerers shall hold up this starry sky!"
Chapter 972