Translator: AnubisTL
Let's rewind to an earlier time, to another region of the Elosia Plane.
At the edge of a swamp, Berta Vera Augusta led a small team, trudging through the muddy terrain with difficulty.
Besides her, the team consisted of two fellow apprentices from Noren Academy No. 13, both exceptionally skilled in their respective fields. These were geniuses carefully selected by Augusta herself.
Just a few years prior, Augusta's team would have been far more impressive. But during her years of focused study, Horn had poached most of her followers, leaving only these two, who remained solely due to their shared Augusta Family lineage.
Yet Augusta felt little bitterness about this now.
Upon arriving in the Elosia Plane, she secretly gathered intelligence and successfully advanced to become a first-tier wizard during her journey to the Wizard Camp.
Unlike Jieming's team, Augusta, from the moment she set foot in Elosia, had leveraged her exceptional judgment and family connections to adopt a far more efficient strategy.
As the most gifted scion of the Augusta Family in this generation, she easily located a fellow wizard within the camp—her aunt, a seasoned third-tier wizard stationed there.
Leveraging this connection, she quickly established her own network of contacts and intelligence within the unfamiliar camp.
Augusta's current mission was to eliminate the "Corrupted Swamp Fortress," located deep within the marshlands.
This fortress served as one of the core centers of worship for a powerful Evil God on the Elosia Plane. Within its walls dwelled a formidable "fallen priest"—a second-tier being—along with hundreds of swamp creatures and fanatical followers corrupted by the Evil God's power.
In the past, these Evil Gods and heretics had been relentlessly suppressed by the Gods of Elosia, forced into the darkest depths. However, with the outbreak of the Planar War, they not only resurfaced onto the historical stage but even forged an alliance with the gods to jointly combat the wizards.
Compared to the followers of Orthodox Gods, these heretics, who employed any means necessary and clung to their beliefs with fanatical fervor, proved to be an even greater headache for the wizards.
In the rare instances of second-tier wizards falling during the Elosia Plane War, these heretics were invariably involved.
To the wizards, these heretics were like venomous insects, their attacks unpredictable and deadly.
Consequently, missions targeting these heretics were abundant within the Wizard Camp.
With detailed intelligence, Augusta easily located their fortress.
However, as she led her squad closer, Augusta couldn't help but frown. "Attention!"
The Corrupted Swamp Fortress radiated a dense, corrosive aura, an invisible poison that began to drain the wizards' life force.
As the fortress's defenses were triggered, corrupted creatures crawled out from the swamp's depths. Vast in number and fearless in battle, they surged toward the wizards like a relentless tide.
The heretics summoned toxic mists and corrosive acid rain, and continuously drew divine power from the fortress's core to rapidly heal their wounds.
Though Augusta's teammates were powerful, they struggled against the overwhelming tide of enemies and the priest's unnerving regenerative abilities.
Their mental power drained rapidly, and their attack efficiency plummeted far below expectations.
The swamp's mire, the air thick with the stench of decay and corrosive energy, made every spellcasting attempt agonizingly difficult.
"We can't keep this up! We'll be worn down to nothing!" one teammate shouted.
Augusta glanced expressionlessly at the fortress before her and slowly raised her hand.
As Augusta moved, the sky began to transform.
The clouds above the fortress rapidly gathered under the pull of her mental power, forming a massive, pitch-black vortex.
Lightning crackled within the vortex, and the thunder grew deafening, as if a thunder god had been awakened by her call.
"Heavenly Punishment Thunder Prison!"
Augusta raised both hands high, like a deity wielding the power of thunder.
Her immense mental power surged forth like a dam bursting, resonating with the gathering thunderclouds in the sky.
In the next instant, dozens of tree-trunk-thick bolts of purple lightning tore through the clouds, descending with earth-shattering force!
Each bolt carried destructive power, striking the Corrupted Swamp Fortress with pinpoint accuracy.
The first wave of lightning slammed into the swarm of corrupted creatures surrounding the fortress, instantly vaporizing them and leaving behind smoking craters. The putrid swamp stench was burned away.
The second wave of lightning precisely targeted the fallen priest, who was surrounded by heretics.
The priest let out a piercing scream as the poisonous mist and acidic rain she had summoned were instantly evaporated by the lightning. The divine power shield protecting her shattered like glass under the relentless bombardment.
Augusta's body transformed into a massive lightning-electric nexus, drawing each bolt into herself before unleashing it with even greater force.
Her hair danced wildly, arcs of electricity crackling around her body. Her skin glowed with a translucent quality under the electric light, as if she might transform into pure lightning at any moment.
The wizard's staff in her hand grew scorching hot, its runes flickering erratically. This apprentice-crafted staff was simply unable to withstand such immense energy.
But Augusta paid no heed, completely immersed in the extreme state of resonance with the thunder, like a luminous wellspring.
Vast swathes of lightning effortlessly annihilated the tidal wave of corrupted enemies before her, vaporizing the pervasive corrosive black mist and relentlessly pounding through the fortress's sturdy outer defenses.
When the fortress's interior was finally exposed to the trio's eyes after the outer defenses collapsed, Augusta and her teammates couldn't help but gasp in shock!
For what lay before them was not merely the severely wounded second-tier fallen priest. Behind him stood over a dozen other transcendents, all second-tier beings!
They included undead clad in bone armor, barbarian chiefs wielding totems, fanatical knights wielding holy light, and even a few seemingly hidden native mages.
"Damn it! This is a trap!" Augusta realized instantly.
The situation had suddenly plunged into unprecedented peril.
A dozen second-tier beings launched their attacks simultaneously, unleashing a torrential downpour of divine arts, martial qi, magic, and curses.
Though the trio immediately activated their high-tier defensive spell artifacts, erecting shields that blocked the initial onslaught, the enemy had also deployed countermeasures like anti-flight barriers and energy suppression fields, preventing their escape.
Even as the eldest daughter of the Augusta Family, Berta Vera Augusta lacked Jieming's vast wealth, which allowed him to casually wield high-tier wizard artifacts.
The high-tier defensive spell artifact she carried was a trump card granted by her family as a last resort.
If this stalemate persisted, her death seemed inevitable.
Staring at the cautious yet predatory enemies surrounding her, like wolves poised to pounce, Augusta couldn't help but close her eyes.
The proud, unwavering figure of Jieming during the academy trial flashed before her mind's eye.
She knew she had worked tirelessly, and her innate talent rivaled that of most others.
Yet ever since that trial, Jieming had remained a shadow perpetually ahead of her, advancing in ways she couldn't comprehend.
No matter how hard she pushed herself, he always managed to stand at an unreachable height, achieving even more astonishing feats.
"I'm... not defeated yet!"
Augusta's eyes snapped open, her pupils blazing with blinding electric light, as if lightning were detonating within them.
She ceased her conventional lightning magic, and the qi surrounding her underwent a cataclysmic transformation.
"Come... witness the fruits of my years of effort!" she murmured, her voice crackling with a faint electrical hum.
Ever since witnessing Jieming's overwhelming power during the trial years ago, Augusta had abandoned her former arrogance and dedicated herself to rigorous study, like a true ascetic.
She no longer settled for pre-made Witchcraft Models.
Through years of relentless learning, she dismantled all the Witchcraft Models she had previously purchased. Drawing upon her profound understanding of lightning-electric principles, she independently constructed three entirely new lightning-electric spells.
Later, guided by her own insights during her advancement to first-tier wizard, she merged these three spells into a single, unified entity, ultimately forging her fourth and most core Witchcraft Model—Electromagnetic Domination!
As Augusta unleashed her full power, the earth trembled violently, as if responding to her call.
The muddy swamp revealed its hidden layer of fine sand.
Countless grains of black metallic sand, under the control of her potent electromagnetic force, levitated from the earth, rapidly converging around her like iron filings drawn to a magnet.
Seeing this, the surrounding enemies tried to scatter the sand grains or incinerate them with divine power fire.
But mere destruction of form couldn't disrupt Augusta's control. As long as the metal itself remained, she could continue manipulating it.
Metal sand from across the mountains and plains converged behind her, emitting a faint grinding sound like a black tide.
The second-tier beings lying in ambush couldn't help but swallow hard at the sight.
Augusta coldly raised a finger. Under her command, the metal sand surged toward the enemies like a tsunami!
The numerous enemies were instantly overwhelmed by Augusta's relentless assault, forced to flee for their lives.
Under the stunned gaze of her two attendants, the battle transformed into Augusta's personal showcase.
The iron sand, shaped into whips under her control, lashed out with a sharp hiss, shattering the bones of her enemies.
It would also instantly solidify into sharp spikes, piercing enemies from all directions.
As time passed, the amount of metal gathering around her grew exponentially.
At its peak, Augusta simultaneously controlled over a hundred flying shuttles, each more than ten meters long and two to three meters wide at their widest point, all constructed from metal sand!
These shuttles orbited her body at blinding speed, carving trails invisible to the naked eye through the air as they delivered high-velocity impacts against the enemy.
(End of the Chapter)
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