Chapter 9: In the Nick of Time
Hearing Augus mention him, Linley couldn't help but sneer inwardly.
Just moments ago, when he killed his three men, Augus had shown no mercy at all. Now, even Desri's divine earth clone had been destroyed! Yet now he said he wouldn't kill Linley, only wanted to kill Olivia. Clearly, he was somewhat afraid of Tarossa and Dillin.
"You want to kill Olivia, but not Linley?" Dillin deliberately pondered for a moment.
He had no feelings for Olivia. But Linley was different. Back then, when he and the Three-Headed Six-Eyed Golden Lion fled back to the Yulan Continent plane, it was related to Linley. In the Necropolis of the Gods, Linley had also saved his son, and especially, Linley had given him a divine spark for free.
Dillin naturally wanted to protect Linley.
"This Olivia has nothing to do with me," Tarossa said with a smirk, looking at Augus.
Augus felt a slight relief in his heart.
"But... what does that have to do with whether I intervene?" Tarossa said with a wicked grin. "You tell me not to interfere, and I just obey? If others hear about it, they'll think I, Tarossa, am afraid of you. If you're smart, you'll scram right now, and I might spare your life. Otherwise..."
Tarossa extended a single hand, and a cyan long whip appeared in it. At first glance, the whip looked like a cyan snake, naturally radiating a cold aura that even seemed to condense the air. Tarossa casually flicked the whip, producing a crisp crack.
"Are you leaving, or do I have to drive you away?" Tarossa showed no regard for Augus at all.
Augus's gaze swept past Tarossa and Dillin, then landed on Olivia, his eyes seeming as if they wanted to devour Olivia alive.
Augus hesitated for a moment.
"Fine. Since you two are like this, I'll give you face. I..." Augus said as he spoke, but then very suddenly, his right index finger pointed at Olivia. A white finger beam instantly streaked through the air, even causing spatial afterimages. This white finger beam shot directly toward Olivia not far away.
"Crackle~" Where the finger beam passed, space emitted a trembling sound.
The finger beam was extremely fast.
"Hmph." Tarossa squinted his eyes and let out a disdainful snort.
"Snap!" The cyan long whip swung like a snake, simultaneously lengthening automatically from its original three or four meters to thirty or forty meters, as thick as a bowl. This whip, like a giant python whipping its tail, directly struck the finger beam. The cyan long whip, surrounded by faint cyan light, directly dispersed the white finger beam.
"Thank you, Lord Tarossa," Olivia said in a low voice. Olivia knew to repay kindness.
But Olivia also understood that he had no relationship with Tarossa or Dillin. Their willingness to act was purely for Linley's sake.
Olivia looked at Linley beside him.
Linley smiled at him. "Olivia, since Lord Tarossa is willing to act, there won't be any problems today."
"Of course. I am Lord Tarossa," Tarossa said with a carefree, smug laugh. At the same time, he swung the cyan long whip, his entire body moving like an illusion as he effortlessly exchanged attacks with Augus.
After a brief probing, Augus determined that the Tarossa before him was also a strong one among mid-level gods.
Given Augus's personality, he wouldn't do things without certainty, and he definitely wouldn't fight Tarossa to the death like this. But... his son was dead. For countless years, besides pursuing the limits of cultivation and gaining greater strength, he had been raising his son.
His son was Augus's lifeline.
"Tarossa, you forced me!!!" Augus's face gradually twisted with ferocity.
"What's wrong? Got any powerful moves? Bring them out!" Tarossa flew directly into the high sky. Augus chased after him at the same time. Once these two mid-level gods started fighting desperately, the residual shockwaves could reach Linley and the others, seriously injuring or even killing them.
Augus's subordinates.
"You go first," Augus's voice echoed in the minds of the two surviving lower-level gods. Of the four lower-level gods, Augus's son and the black-robed man had died, killed by Linley and Olivia respectively. Only two remained.
"This doesn't look good. Let's go quickly," the two surviving lower-level gods exchanged glances, then immediately followed Augus's order and fled.
Linley, Olivia, and Dillin carefully watched the duel between the two mid-level gods in the sky above.
"Oh? They're running," Dillin was the first to notice.
"Where?" Linley immediately reacted. The two lower-level gods had already disappeared over the horizon.
Linley's face darkened, and he said urgently, "Desri's divine spark! Desri's divine spark is on that silver-robed man." Once a divine clone was destroyed, even if the main body understood the Laws of Light, it could no longer receive a gift from the heavens to condense a light-attribute divine spark.
But...
The main body could still refine that light divine spark.
Refining it would take a short time, and the main body's strength could recover quickly. However... if he did that, Desri would never be able to cultivate any other laws.
"Oh? Don't worry." Dillin's figure moved instantly, intending to chase after the silver-robed man.
"Whoosh!"
From within Augus's body in the sky, a fiery red figure suddenly shot out. This fiery red figure actually held a fiery red knight's spear and stabbed directly at Dillin. Dillin was immediately entangled by this fiery red figure and found it hard to break free.
"This Augus has two bodies!" Linley was greatly shocked.
Linley and Olivia exchanged glances, both with shock in their eyes. Augus not only had a light divine clone but also a fire-attribute divine clone. The two divine clones fought against Dillin and Tarossa respectively, and for a time, they were evenly matched.
Augus's strength was indeed astonishing.
Although Linley wanted to chase the silver-robed man, having used 'Wind's Gentle Whisper' once and then blocking Augus's killing blow for Olivia, Linley's spiritual energy was almost completely exhausted, and his soul had been shaken.
In fact, Linley could have used 'Wind's Gentle Whisper' twice and still had some spiritual energy left.
Most importantly, Olivia had killed Augus's son, so Augus naturally went berserk.
That blow of his was truly vicious. Fortunately, Linley had the incomplete defensive main artifact, allowing him to barely withstand it and survive.
"Desri's divine spark." Linley felt helpless. He wanted to chase, but he had no confidence in dealing with the silver-robed man.
He still remembered the scene of the silver-robed man killing Desri. That dreamlike slash... was too powerful. Linley also had a feeling that among Augus's four original strongmen, the strongest was probably that silver-robed man.
"Tarossa and Dillin joining forces should be able to handle Augus."
In terms of soul strength, Linley's divine clone was far inferior to his main body, after all, his main body had refined twenty million soul essences.
Linley's main body had stopped fleeing.
Linley's main body released his divine sense, spreading it out. In this short time, even a Saint-level couldn't fly a thousand miles. Linley's divine sense instantly found all the family and friends who had fled in various directions: "Everyone, the danger is over. Come back now, to Dragonblood Castle."
The people of Dragonblood Castle, who had been painfully scattered in various places, were overjoyed upon hearing Linley's divine sense transmission.
One by one, they immediately turned back.
Above Dragonblood Castle, Tarossa and Augus had already begun a bloody fight.
"Is this all you've got? Haha..." Tarossa's loud laughter rang out.
"Whoosh~" The cyan long whip in Tarossa's hand coiled like a snake, and at the same time, the temperature of the surroundings suddenly dropped. Cyan ice flowers actually appeared out of thin air, suspended within a radius of several miles. Under the refraction of sunlight, they looked magnificent.
Within a radius of several miles, all water elements were under Tarossa's control.
Augus's face changed.
Immediately, his entire body emitted a dazzling holy light. The giant sword surrounded by holy light in his hand trembled slightly.
Around the giant sword, countless hair-thin spatial cracks appeared.
"Hmph." Tarossa snorted coldly. An invisible ripple spread from his head, directly absorbed by the cyan ice flowers.
"Crackle~" Each suspended cyan ice flower shot out cyan light. The cyan light from each ice flower connected, merged, and amplified. With each merge and amplification, the power grew greater... until finally, it all converged.
"Break!" Seeing the situation was bad, Augus directly slashed his sword at one of the ice flowers.
"Boom!" The ice flower shattered, but in the blink of an eye, another ice flower condensed, and the wondrous formation was completely unaffected.
"Pfft!" Gathering all the energy amplification, a certain cyan ice flower suddenly emitted a black light.
The target was Augus.
A low roar came from Augus's throat, and a white horn slowly emerged from his forehead. At the same time, Augus slashed his sword with all his might at the rapidly approaching black light. The giant sword and the black light collided head-on.
The black light shattered.
"Pfft!" Augus spat out a mouthful of blood, and even his arms made a 'crack' sound of bones breaking.
Augus glared viciously at Tarossa, then turned into a streak of light and flew directly westward. Even the fiery red figure that had been entangled with Dillin merged back, and the two became one. Augus instantly disappeared over the western horizon.
"Olivia, I, Augus, swear I will kill you!!!" Augus's roar echoed over Dragonblood Castle.
Seeing Augus retreat, Linley and Olivia finally breathed a sigh of relief.
Tarossa and Dillin both flew back.
"This Augus, what's his background? His strength is really impressive. If he fought me one-on-one with all his power, I'd at most be able to tie with him," Tarossa said admiringly. Tarossa had also noticed that Augus had another mid-level god divine clone.
Dillin nodded slightly.
"But this fire-attribute divine clone is clearly not as strong as the light divine clone," Dillin said with a sigh. "The fire-attribute divine clone could only entangle me when fighting. Unfortunately, I've just entered the mid-level god realm and can't apply the laws of the mid-level god perfectly yet."
Reaching a certain level of understanding made one a mid-level god.
But understanding didn't mean one could apply it well.
"Both divine clones are mid-level gods. This Augus is really hard to deal with," Linley also felt a bit of trouble.
"Both divine clones being mid-level gods isn't that big a deal," Tarossa shook his head dismissively. "Become a god independently, have one divine clone reach mid-level god, and as for the main body... just find a divine spark to refine. This Augus probably spent a long time in the Gebados Planar Prison. First, let his main body become a lower-level god, and if he got lucky and obtained a mid-level god divine spark, then having two mid-level god bodies is easy, right?"
As they were talking.
Several figures flew over from afar. It was the cold Martial God 'O'Brien', the High Priest 'Catherine', and Hisset.
"Linley, congratulations." The Martial God's stern, stone-like face squeezed out a smile.
Seeing the Martial God, Linley sighed inwardly.
"Martial God, do you know about the situation in your O'Brien Empire?" Linley said.
"I know some, but not the specifics," the Martial God shook his head and said. "I didn't expect that when I came out of the Necropolis of the Gods, I'd get such bad news."
"By the way, I haven't had a chance to ask. How did so many strong ones escape from the Gebados Planar Prison?" Dillin asked curiously. "Even the place in my Magical Beast Mountain Range is just a spatial weak point, very hard to detect."
"It was me."
Olivia spoke up. "I accidentally opened the passage of the spatial gate."
"Opened the spatial gate passage?" Dillin, the Martial God, and the others were all greatly shocked.
This spatial weak point was like a crack in a dam, occasionally letting through a few drops of water. But opening the spatial gate passage was like the entire dam collapsing, naturally causing a massive flood. The number of strong ones released was astonishing.
"Oh?" Linley looked at Dillin in confusion. "Lord Dillin, how did you know we were in danger?"
Linley had seen Dillin transform into his true form and arrive first. Even Tarossa was a bit slower than Dillin. As for the lower-level gods like the Martial God, the High Priest, and Hisset, they were much slower, only arriving after the battle had ended.