Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 332 City in the Mirror

The space of the prime material plane is relatively stable, and even if it is temporarily torn or distorted, it can always recover itself.

However, the small planes embedded in the tower, or even plane fragments, do not have this kind of fault tolerance and stability. Once they are subjected to excessive damage or bending, it is perfectly normal for them to break, collapse, or even crack.

So what happens to the mage tower, which serves as the container?
A sealed earthenware jar filled with soybeans will not fare well, whether the soybeans suddenly expand due to water or the jar suddenly disappears and a vacuum is created inside.

Of course, if the jar is sturdy enough, such as if it were cast from refined gold, then that would be a different story.

It was precisely to avoid the tragedy of his mage tower becoming a broken pot that Akram spared no effort in activating almost all protective measures. In an instant, various magical barriers and fields covered the surface of the tower, and the undulating arcane runes and magical auras complemented each other, making the originally bizarrely shaped arcane tower quite lively.

"A large-scale LED light show?"

At this moment, Zhang Yuan had already piloted the Sea Wolf into the seabed, sailing south to Wudong Port via the ocean currents of the Baojian Outer Sea.

In the depths of winter, Luskan is already covered in a blanket of white, embraced by the goddess of ice and snow. Even the flowing Mirar River and the two ports are brought to a standstill by the frost-covered ice.

But how could such a small trouble be difficult for the well-prepared Canaan team?

The intense heat of Asanaga and the continuous burning of the pillars of fire quickly melted the ice layer. The Seawolf, which activated the internal temperature-regulating magic array, then began to fill the water tanks with water and slowly submerged.

Sitting comfortably in his rocking chair, watching the live stream from the perspective of the Void Mask, Mr. Zhang felt that it was truly an eye-opening experience. Putting aside everything else, the scene of the thundercloud storm that struck the Astral Barrier just now, which was like a natural disaster, made him feel shaken and a little nervous and worried.

However, experience counts, and now that the tide has turned, he is quite curious about the methods the old dean and his team are using, and how the other side plans to respond.

The old dean merely smiled at the Brotherhood's serious preparations, raised his hand, and hurled the long black blade. It moved with the speed of a shooting star, like a black lightning bolt slicing through the sky, its sharp edge aimed directly at the Arcane Tower. However, it was aimed at the western branch of the tower.

That was the West Tower, the very tower occupied by Blasca.

blocked!
Under the intense gaze of two pairs of eyes, the black lightning was blocked by the complex barrier at a distance of more than ten meters. No matter how restlessly its extended tendrils and threads swayed, it could not advance an inch.

Our belongings are safe!
Blasca subconsciously breathed a sigh of relief, feeling he had escaped a close call. He instinctively looked at his guild leader, only to find that the other seemed to sense something as well and turned back to look at him with a gloomy expression…

Their eyes met, and Blaska couldn't help but feel a little awkward. After giving a forced smile, he straightened his face and adopted a solemn expression.

Akram was too lazy to pay attention to this guy right now, and he was somewhat suspicious.

Although the mage tower's defenses seemed to have successfully blocked the opponent's attack, the ominous-looking black blade failed to achieve anything. This unexpected surprise made him suspicious.

Then he saw the black blade that was wrestling with the protective barrier suddenly shatter and dissipate into the air—or rather, dissipate but not disappear.

The black blade that had originally coalesced into a solid form decomposed into countless black cracks, which then began to move rhythmically like black snakes, twisting and entwining themselves on the dazzling shield barrier, resembling cracks on a gemstone or scars on a beautiful woman, extremely abrupt and conspicuous.

The scattered black lines not only did not disappear, but even began to multiply and increase. Countless black cracks spread and extended, and the original fissures now almost formed a gaping abyss with no bottom visible.

This wasn't the black markings multiplying and replicating; rather, the power gathered by the magical ritual was finally erupting, plunging the affected space into annihilation and fragmentation. "Those guys from Wudong are really cunning; they actually came up with such a troublesome spell. Luckily, we..."

A Brotherhood mage standing nearby initially spoke with some ease, but then fell silent.

The strange expressions on his colleagues' faces made him realize something. He suddenly looked at the black crack, which was still blocked outside the barrier, but!

Cracks spread out from the black fissure, like tentacles being spat out, all pointing towards the West Tower inside the barrier.

However, the protective barrier of the mage tower was powerless to stop this spreading trend. Various anti-magic and anti-curse spell barriers were completely unresponsive, as if what was eroding was not a fatal spatial rift at all, but someone's stockings had come undone.

Apart from the space stabilization device's feeble attempt to mend the ever-increasing, almost countless cracks, the rest of the protective barrier fell into an eerie calm.

The most oppressive situation is the one where you are acutely aware that disaster is imminent, yet your body is unable to respond or obey your commands.

As the cracks continued to extend, a black mark approached the tower from the outside, like a shadow cast by the gaping maw of an abyss about to engulf the West Tower.

Despite repeated attempts by the Brotherhood to stop them using various means, they made no progress. They couldn't even withstand the protective measures of the Mage Tower, let alone an individual's monkey trick.

Unlike the other members, Archmages Akram and Quelta noticed something amiss.

It's true that the spell barrier blocked the black blade, but the opponent never intended to use this move to directly destroy the mage tower's defense mechanism.

The spell itself was isolated, but the spatial fragmentation and collapse it caused spread uncontrollably into the space within the barrier. This change seemed not to be caused by the spell, but rather by the collapse and splitting of the space itself.

In this situation, the seemingly indestructible mage tower is like a miniature castle built on a mirror, no matter how hard you hit it with a hammer, it remains unmoved.

But suddenly some scoundrel doesn't knock on your castle, but instead smashes a mirror next to the castle with a hammer!

The cracks caused by the shattered mirror spread out like a spider web, trapping the foundation beneath the castle. But what good is the castle's sturdiness if the foundation is broken?

Fortunately, the situation wasn't completely dire; the cracks were clearly pointing towards Theta.

Needless to say, who was most anxious at this moment was Blaska. He felt as if his internal organs were being ravaged, and his heart, liver, spleen, lungs, and kidneys were all convulsing.

Once the black marks invade the West Tower, the main structure of the tower might be preserved, but what about his small plot of land...?

The prime material plane is indeed relatively stable and has a certain self-healing ability. Such spatial changes caused by magical rituals are ultimately difficult to last.

But that's all for later; the current situation is an urgent matter.

(End of this chapter)