Chapter 603: Time for the Counterattack!

"Damn it! Truly damn it! Oh! Accursed Thorns, accursed Blazing Birds, why haven't you brought out your trump cards yet? How much longer do you intend to wait!" Luther wiped away the tea that had nearly sprayed across the table with a tissue, adjusting his disheveled appearance while pacing up and down the room like an ant on a hot pan.

In such a situation, how was he supposed to face the general public?!

"To end up like this against such lowly, despicable natives?! How on earth do these people do their jobs?!" Luther swore violently within the room.

Then, adjusting his mindset once more, he straightened his bowtie.

Houses like the Thorns and the Blazing Birds were outstanding even among those who believed in the God of Radiant Arbitration, naturally concealing many unknown trump cards.

Although they had initially believed that the means they displayed on the surface were enough to crush these natives, this war was meant to showcase the military might of the Arbitration Temple and the Radiant Divine Kingdom to all nations under the guise of a rescue.

It was also an excellent opportunity for their two great houses to swiftly elevate their reputation and status on this continent.

Therefore, it was obvious that the two houses attached extreme importance to this, and most of the deeply hidden treasures originally kept within the families had been brought along.

And now, it was finally time for them to reveal their full power.

Within the magical projection, Luther saw that man known as the "Thorn of the Earth," a man as steady as the soil beneath them, clad in black robes, slowly stand up.

At this moment, the final knight guarding the front of the palace, the ninth-tier black-armored knight Audu, had unleashed his complete strength; with his ninth-tier divine power, he had reached his absolute peak.

If they still hid their strength at this juncture, they wouldn't even need to fight this war; whether they won or lost, their reputations would be utterly ruined.

They were now in desperate need of a flawless victory to redeem the poor impression created earlier.

At this time, Luther finally witnessed what he had been longing to see.

For instance, that blood-drenched warrior had at last collapsed, his body covered in massive sword gashes; it was clear that a martial artist who had only just reached the seventh tier could not resist a transcendent ninth-tier knight, even with the blessing of a holy knight.

Seizing the opportunity to snap the neck of this frenzied martial artist, Audu the "Divine Punisher" breathed a sigh of relief; his once pristine armor was now tattered and broken, with several wounds left on his body—a total disgrace.

But it was over; as long as this accursed native died, he would face the remaining two alone, the pressure would plummet, and they would no longer pose a threat.

He casually flung Gabriel's body, which had turned entirely into a bloody mass, away like a torn sack.

"Please forgive us, everyone. Our magical projection experienced a minor malfunction just now, but we will now resume." Luther finally cast out the magical projection once more after a long absence. "Oh, look there, what an arrogant native! His recklessness will drag his companions down with him, leaving them with no choice but to surrender, because they are facing none other than Lord Audu."

"Yes, the valiant and fierce knight you see clad in black dragon armor is Lord Audu, Audu the 'Divine Punisher'! However, I believe surrendering might not be a bad outcome for them."

Just as Luther was prattling on about the current state of the battle, many people in White Dove Square suddenly cried out in shock, "Look, what is that?!"

Gabriel, who had just been completely silent and seemingly dead, suddenly crawled back up from the ground in a bizarre manner.

His body had been strengthened by dragon blood, making him far harder to kill than an ordinary human, and now...

His eyes were crimson, and his gaze held nothing but madness, seemingly completely oblivious to the concept of pain.

It was as if, on the very precipice of death, when life hung by a single thread, the boundless potential hidden within the human body cracked open a fraction, emitting a faint glimmer of light that merged with a massive surge of blood vitality to form a fountain of life.

The fatal injuries from just moments ago were all, inexplicably, fully repaired.

Death Resistance!

For certain warriors, even if their bodies were shattered to pieces, they would still challenge the enemy before them; they were a breed of people who cast everything aside in pursuit of a single moment of absolute, furious power.

The closer they drew to death, the stronger they became, like a candle burning itself out to produce energy.

And the terror of death followed close behind.

Berserkers who frequently teetered on the edge of demise gradually learned an instinct to reject death.

This was only natural; obtaining greater power was ultimately just for the sake of survival.

The blood-red figure leapt high into the air, resembling a demon god emerged from hell, as the greatsword in his hands smashed downward with a devastating, howling screech.

Boom!

With a resounding clash of metal and iron, this grand ninth-tier high knight actually took a step back!

He even felt as though what he faced was not a human at all, but a frenzied beast.

"You court death!" Audu's face contorted in rage; he had actually been pushed to such a degree by a mere seventh-tier ant!

The two were now locked in extreme proximity; condensing his battle qi in his left hand, he thrust his rigid, armored knight's gauntlet forward with extended fingers.

It pierced straight through his opponent's chest almost instantly.

Yet at that exact moment, the blue-robed middle-aged man in the rear chanted another incantation.

Fountain of Life!

The eyes that had already turned dull and lifeless once again blazed with the brilliance of vitality.

"This man... is he unable to die?!" Seeing this, almost everyone roared in their hearts, and even a trace of impatience welled up within Audu.

He was confident that the damage he inflicted on the opponent was enough to kill a dozen such ant-like seventh-tier warriors.

But far from killing him, the opponent's onslaught grew fiercer and sharper with every passing strike.

Countless surges of blood vitality condensed behind him, seemingly forming the shape of a half-broken blade.

The sword shadows, resembling blood phantoms, were so incredibly swift that they turned into a massive crimson shroud, nearly swallowing Audu whole!

"A madman! Truly a madman! He won't live long, I can guarantee he won't live long!" Luther shuddered almost instinctively. At that moment, he saw the other side of the battlefield, where the "Shadow Killer" took out a parchment scroll that emanated a dark aura from top to bottom. "To force me to use this divine spell, you can die without regrets!"

"This is..." At this time, even within the Saint Hein Grand Hall, many people revealed expressions of astonishment. "This is...?!"

"'Darkness Beneath the Divine Light'! This is 'Darkness Beneath the Divine Light'!" Someone recognized it soon enough. "It seems the Thorns family has made ample preparations for this war!"

The "World Mage" Hermatton also nodded and said, "The path of skill is nothing more than perceiving an opponent's movements from subtle changes in sound, wind direction, and so on; at most, one can only perceive their presence through their energy, just like a mage."

"Encountering 'Darkness Beneath the Divine Light,' it looks like this native has met his nemesis."

Darkness Beneath the Divine Light was an incredibly powerful spell capable of stripping a person of their five senses; rumors said it could even sever one's perception of magic power (spiritual energy), and even high-tier powerhouses could not escape its effects!

If this divine spell were deployed, even if these Knights of Dark Arbitration were tasked with assassinating a tenth-tier Saint, they might not be entirely without a chance!

Yet now, they were actually using it against an ant who hadn't even reached the eighth tier.

Between the foreheads of several Knights of Dark Arbitration, the golden exotic sigil bloomed almost instantly right through their pitch-black armor.

Terrifying power erupted like a volcanic explosion.

A gloomy, mud-like aura flew out from that ancient parchment scroll; that power seemed colder and more sinister than anything else, like a soul-locking demon straight from hell.

Yet it was more bizarre than anything else, silent and imperceptible, and no one could see it.

Crack!

A bolt of heavenly thunder struck down, and dark clouds gathered in the sky, causing the entire heavens to grow increasingly bleak and heavy.

Almost simultaneously, Zong Wu inexplicably felt a bizarre and incomparable force suddenly thrust upon his body, so abrupt that one wouldn't even know how to react.

That power was icy cold, and in an instant, he felt as though he were being dragged into a dark abyss.

There was not only no light around him, but not even a sound; he couldn't even feel the wind, as if his entire being had been completely isolated from the outside world.

"Let's see how you dodge this time!" This time, all they had to deal with was an ordinary man who had fallen into a dark abyss.

Covered in terrifying power, they no longer seemed like assassins hiding in the dark, but knights standing under the light.

They had no need to hide anymore, because their opponent had been stripped of the ability to know they even existed.

Gradually restraining that dark and gloomy aura, only then did Luther dare to turn the magical projection back to this location.

Four Knights of Dark Arbitration against a native martial artist completely deprived of his senses; he could already foresee the outcome of this battle.

But almost at the exact moment Luther shifted the audience's perspective of the magical projection, what everyone sitting in White Dove Square—including the Golden Gryphon Knights and Sera—saw was a terrifying sword qi condensing, turning into a pair of luminous sword-qi wings behind Zong Wu!

Just like an Immovable Wisdom King standing proudly in the void!

Dark Side Burst Eye!

Unlike the game, where a skill was fully mastered the moment it was learned, practicing these "combat arts" in reality clearly required a gradual process—Zong Wu, for instance, had only comprehended half of it.

Awakening was by no means easy to master, even though Zong Wu already had one foot inside the realm of the Martial Emperor.

He had only learned how to cast the Dark Side Burst Eye prior to opening the eye!

But it was already enough.

Above the heavily armored knights of the Judgment Tribunal of Darkness, countless rifts seemed to tear open across the sky, and a terrifying sword qi erupted like a volcanic explosion!

With a casual sweep of Zong Wu's blade, the sword qi transformed into a swirling vortex that swept outward.

The divine spell scrolls produced virtually no effect; together with those two eighth-tier Knights of the Dark Judgment, they were instantly dragged into the vortex of sword qi!

"How is it having no effect?!" Everyone privy to the truth was genuinely, utterly shocked at this moment!

"What of absolute darkness? To us, the waves are the entire world!"

"Ahhh!" Only a chorus of gasps remained in White Dove Square. Virtually the entire world was watching this scene right now—that Asura, the Grand Dark Sky, standing proudly high in the heavens with wings spread wide like a deity!

"Comrades of Lingzhou, the time for our counterattack has come!"

At this moment, almost the entire world was shaken to its core. A counterattack?! Even under these circumstances, they were actually going to start a counterattack?

This group of people was truly... beginning their counter-offensive!