"Hmph, though it's just remade from that machine's wreckage, it's stronger than before. Originally meant to deal with that Monster, now you'll test its performance." Potimas sat in the machine's internal Control Room, though in reality, his operation wasn't needed. The machine itself had a high-level Combat AI that would perform adequately once the target was locked.
The elves outside looked at this towering figure like a giant god, each showing admiration. In a sense, this race was Potimas's followers, as his long-cherished wish was to Become a God, and the Elf Race was essentially cultivated by him as followers. Now, this giant fortress, in the elves' eyes, was the divine might Potimas displayed, destined to crush the enemies invading the Elf Race!
Facing such a massive entity, even Purgatory—which was highly effective against machines—was useless because it couldn't reach the core. After several attempts without any change in the behemoth, Tsukasa decisively gave up on using Purgatory. Although Purgatory's effects were powerful, its skill damage was the lowest among all magic. Even with Tsukasa's current maximum output, she couldn't raise Purgatory's power above ten thousand points.
As for the fortress before her, although the Appraisal results were all question marks, it was clear that the opponent's HP and defense had definitely surpassed ten thousand, and that was a conservative estimate.
"Tsukasa, let's act separately."
"..."
Tsukasa looked at Eidor with some surprise.
Ever since they met, they had never acted separately.
Eidor said, "The most important thing right now is to destroy the barrier. I think your teacher's side will also encounter quite a bit of trouble. I'm the only one who can act independently now. With my abilities, it won't be a problem to secretly destroy the barrier nodes."
She was right.
Eidor was very powerful. Although she didn't seem to have much combat capability, her magic was the strongest among everyone Tsukasa had ever seen—so strong that Tsukasa once suspected Eidor might have been the God of Magic in ancient times.
It was basically impossible for the mere Elf Race to crack Eidor's techniques.
"Then I'll leave it to you."
Tsukasa had no other choice at the moment. Although she didn't want to separate from Eidor—since Eidor was now her life-saving charm, and as long as Eidor was there, they would surely escape no matter how dangerous the situation—she agreed.
But she hadn't encountered real danger yet. The most important thing now was to break the barrier. Otherwise, even if the teacher's side rescued the people, they wouldn't be able to escape. They might even be restricted in combat because they had to look after those Reincarnators who lacked fighting strength.
Eidor left.
She didn't think as much as Tsukasa did.
In her view, Tsukasa could handle these problems herself. While Tsukasa knew she had become somewhat overly dependent on Eidor, Eidor felt that Tsukasa was a very independent person who could solve any problem and wouldn't be stumped by such things.
Eidor's intuition was correct.
After all, Tsukasa had come this far on her own.
A shield formed of mana defended against attacks from above. Those fighter jets soared in the sky like flying dragons, constantly launching missiles to bomb the target's location. Although that was the location of the teleportation array, Potimas clearly didn't care if the array was caught in the crossfire, as its mission had long since been accomplished.
Tsukasa gazed at the massive fortress.
Evil Eye activation failed.
The outer walls of that fortress possessed strong
anti-magic properties.
In other words, the damage magic could deal to this thing was negligible. The only way to defeat it would be to find a way inside and destroy its core. However, she didn't think a guy like Potimas wouldn't have a backup plan. It was possible that an even more powerful trump card was hidden inside that machine.
"Summon Fire Spirit!"
"I'll leave those fighter jets to you!"
The Fire Spirit took the order and flew into the sky, transforming into a flaming typhoon to strike the fighter jets. Although the jets' firepower was fierce, those attacks had little effect on the elemental Fire Spirit. Furthermore, the jets didn't have such strong anti-magic resistance. Seeing that the Fire Spirit could deal effective damage to the jets, Tsukasa's mood relaxed slightly. But it wasn't time to relax yet; more fighter jets were constantly emerging from the fortress. It was clear the opponent could mass-produce them.
Tsukasa didn't want to gamble on the opponent's material reserves.
After all, the opponent had stolen more than enough energy to repair the world once over; who knew how much they had stored? But it was definitely more than her own MP. The Fire Spirit required a constant supply of mana, and she had no way to keep consuming resources against the opponent.
It seemed she had no choice but to use her ultimate move.
Tsukasa pressed her palms together, and a halo of light immediately appeared around her body.
"Celestial Realm."
Invincible Territory!
Standing inside this invincible territory,
Tsukasa began to cast spells on herself continuously.
If there were system prompts at this moment, one would likely see various stat-boosting BUFF effects appearing on her. With each BUFF stacked, Tsukasa's average magic attribute value rose from twenty thousand to sixty thousand points. Although attributes gained from stacking BUFFs weren't as powerful as truly leveled-up attributes, they were enough.
After boosting her mana and magic attributes,
Tsukasa began to cast her spell.
A flaming cross slowly emerged behind her, and intense heat spread to the surroundings. The nearby grass instantly turned to ash, and the entire area began to die under the extreme temperature. Members of the Elf Race nearby who couldn't escape in time were caught by the power of the flaming cross and spontaneously combusted, turning into human torches.
Sitting inside the machine, Potimas saw the scene like an apocalyptic catastrophe and instantly thought of the description in the prophecy. The flames of dusk would bring the end to the Elf Race; could it be referring to this scene? Potimas became even more excited. In his eyes, this power was the power of a god—a true divine power that a lucky monster could never possess. As long as he obtained this witch's soul, this power would belong to him!
"It's useless. The prophecy didn't mention the existence of the fortress at all. That's because I never intended to restore this thing in the first place. But because of that guy and your existence, I restored this giant machine at any cost. With its anti-magic properties, even the highest-tier magic cannot break its defense!"
"Besides, after using this power, how much strength will you have left? As for those robots from before, I still have several thousand of them!"
Potimas wasn't worried at all.
Since the opponent couldn't hurt his Main Body, and no matter how many clones he lost, it wouldn't hurt him. Even if this fortress was truly defeated, it didn't matter. As long as the final victory belonged to him, that was enough.
As long as he could become a god, it didn't matter how many of these things were sacrificed, nor did it matter if the Elf Race was destroyed. These were all just pawns to realize his long-cherished wish.
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