Azure Scepter

Not only the elves' expressions and voices, but everything around them froze. The dust falling from the mountain, the pebbles knocked down by the rain, the blood droplets flowing from the sword blade, and even the fleeting sparks on the Balrog's body seemed to be trapped in viscous resin, completely frozen.

In Edith's hand, the hilt of the Holy Avenger sword from her teacher Oris suddenly became extremely hot. In a daze, she suddenly realized the reason for the strange scene in front of her—an extremely powerful spellcaster had cast "Time Freeze"!

She is immune to the effects of "time stop" because she possesses the Holy Avenger!

Besides the Balrog, there is another very powerful spellcaster enemy!

P.S.: It's a bit late, feel free to point out any bugs.

Chapter 151 Chain Reaction Technique

—A few minutes ago, on the third curtain wall of Longwen Pass, in a quiet room.

"Snapped!"

The air suddenly rippled like water, and a group of figures appeared abruptly in the room as if they had teleported.

The silver candlesticks burning quietly on the table were shaken and hummed. A wisp of blood-stained ash fell from the rafters and landed on a pair of iron gloves that were also covered in blood.

Trier casually brushed the dust off his gloves and quickly scanned the room.

Just as he had anticipated, the group teleportation spell transported them directly to the watchtower on the last wall of Dragon's Kiss Pass. The view from here was excellent; through the floor-to-ceiling windows on the north side, they could overlook the entire battlefield. This excellent view meant that he could directly control the course of events through magic.

However, one thing was different from what he had expected—

“Glory, why are there so many desiccated corpses here? Ugh…” Hult, who had also been swept up by the mass teleportation spell, suddenly grabbed the table and began to vomit hysterically, his putrid vomit splattering onto the dehydrated corpses scattered on the ground.

“Because this is the guard room.” Trier walked to the window and looked down at the ravaged Earl’s Garden. “The demons secretly eliminated the guards here before the attack to prevent them from ringing the alarm bell.”

"Should we still knock?" Hult shook his head and asked directly.

Trier was taken aback. He was silent for a moment, then said, "Of course not. The battle has already begun. Look, one of the towers has been set on fire."

"Trier, what should we do now?" The bald vampire inquisitor shoved aside the officer's corpse on the chair and sat down in the wooden chair. "Should we just rush down and join the battle?"

Trier did not answer. He pushed open the window, and the noisy rainy night rushed into the room again. The lamp on the silver candlestick was extinguished instantly by the wind.

He leaned out and, relying on his high level of perception (20 points), quickly located Futia's position. Relieved to be safe, he then slowly began to observe the entire battle.

Overall, the raging demons resembled a crimson dragon as they charged and devoured the gray-black human guards, who relied on the ruins of the connecting corridor and the small chapel on the west side of the garden to form a temporary, loose defensive line.

The cold rain pattered on Trier's forehead, and he squinted slightly.

—The Six-Armed Serpent Demon, the Vega Demon, the Temptress Demon, the Flame Demon...

The transmigrator couldn't help but take a deep breath. There were far too many high-ranking demons among the demons. The number of high-ranking demons in this garden was even enough for them to launch a small-scale battle in the "Demon Rift" region. This was very strange.

The human guards retreated slowly and steadily, like sausages being gnawed on by a crimson dragon, in a loose formation. The overall situation seemed rather dire.

But the next moment, Trier slightly raised his gaze and looked at the Stag Gate on the north side of the curtain wall. The dark steel gate was unusually quiet, and even the guards on the walls beside it did not provide any long-range flanking support. As the battle lines retreated, the demons' weakest flank had been completely exposed to the Stag Gate.

In an instant, Trier understood the defenders' tactics—behind the Stag Gate were heavy cavalry, quietly and safely assembling under the cover of the city walls. Once they had assembled, the heavy shock cavalry would charge down the King's Road from the high ground, tearing apart all the demons along the way with their steel torrent.

"Master, if we don't hurry, they might be doomed." Noy's voice echoed in Trier's mind, her tone unusually tinged with anxiety. "There are just too many high-ranking demons. We should rescue Futia first; she's too close to the Balrog!"

“Don’t worry, the outcome is already decided, the battle is about to end.” Trier pointed to the Buck Gate, “That will definitely be the starting point for the heavy cavalry charge.”

Trier's words seemed to possess a certain magic. Before he finished speaking, a melodious yet deep horn sound swept across the entire night sky. The next moment, the Stag Gate was suddenly shattered from the inside out. The fragments of the gate, accompanied by deafening shouts and a forest of gleaming spears, rushed towards the crimson dragon formed by demons!

"How is this possible?!" The dragon Aurelius's withered, wrinkled face contorted in shock. He stammered, "Uh, did you use a divination spell? Speaking of which, does that mean we don't have to do anything? Great! How about you explain why your mass teleportation spell can travel so far? Or, how about we tell a joke?"

“The effect of multiple layers.” Trier answered succinctly, as he took out a large pile of materials for ritual spells from his backpack. “Of course, we have other things to do as well. Feel the winds of magic, Auris.”

Unlike the demon army that ambushed the judge earlier, the scale of the attack here is astonishing; even the Balrog has come out. It's clearly illogical for demons to put up such a massive attack just to die.

Moreover, aside from using various magical abilities and supernatural powers, the demons did not unleash any spells or blasphemous magic; and at this moment, the magical wind in the air was too calm. The battlefield was awash with blood, with countless dead and wounded, but the wind of death did not ripple at all. This most likely meant that the demons were brewing a conspiracy through magic.

The reason it's described as "highly probable" rather than "certain" is because demons generally behave in extremely chaotic and evil ways. They do have a certain possibility of meticulously planning and doing some rather absurd, self-destructive things...

Therefore, out of caution, Trier decided to take precautionary measures as a last resort. Since humanity had already won the battle outside of magic, he only needed to create a large number of "magical countermeasures" to deter any potential demon spellcasters.

After a period of rest, the tools and materials he used to draw the ritual spells were updated compared to when he was in Beaver Town. Therefore, as a master of ritual spells, he completed the drawing of the "magic counter" ritual at an extremely fast speed.

He drew six "magic counterspells" in total. If all of them were triggered, it would cost 3000 XP points. Trier glanced at the remaining experience points. After the fierce slaughter of the demon ambush just now, he had enough experience points to reserve for the release ritual while leveling up again.

Therefore, he did not hesitate to invest his experience points back into his Paladin class level.

"Upgrade!" the transmigrator silently chanted.

The next moment, cobalt blue information flashed across his eyes like mercury spilling across the ground.

[Paladin lv11→lv12]

[Based on your main profession advancement, you have acquired the profession skill "Solidified Belief"]

[Solidified Faith: The sacred oath grants you divine immunity, and after a long trial, the protection of your faith has become tangible. Based on your Justice bonus from "Protection of Faith," you gain additional damage reduction. Current Justice bonus stack: 5. Damage reduction: 15/Desecration]

15/Desecration means that, in addition to blasphemous damage, he will receive a full 15 points of damage reduction when facing attacks.

"Conviction Resistance" is an important feat for paladins in Azure Scepter. In a game where everyone is a glass cannon and damage is seriously overflowing, a paladin with this damage reduction feat can at least be described as an A4 sheet of paper folded in half - when the Justice bonus reaches 7 stacks, this feat can provide a full 21 points of damage reduction!

Trier knew that this was an extremely high number.

If Noy hadn't applied any priest-type buffs and instead had instead struck him on the head with a flail, he wouldn't have died at all, and might have only suffered minor injuries.

[Based on your Intelligence modifier and primary class upgrade, you have gained 42 free skill points.]

Trier casually threw all his skill points into "Orco Cross Sword Technique," and this upgrade directly gave him a very useful feat—[Insightful Penetration].

[Insightful Penetration: Sensing enemy weaknesses has become second nature to you. With each attack, you can perform a focused assessment based on the opponent's defense level. If successful, you gain additional damage penetration.]

Unlike the last upgrade, this time no special phenomena occurred around him, and he didn't even have any special feelings. However, in the darkness, a certain natural change still happened.

Trier shook his head, dispelling the strange thoughts in his mind, and then took out a purple magic storage stone and a green magic storage stone from his pocket.

The two storage stones are "Chain Accident Spell" and "Disintegration Spell".

Inside the magic storage stone, boiling magical light flowed like mercury. Trier glanced at the terrified Auris, then crushed the purple magic storage stone without hesitation.

"Let's be on the safe side. We still have plenty of storage stones, so there's no need to be stingy with them," he thought.

He unleashed a "chain reaction" on himself.

As the name suggests, "Chain of Accidents" is a spell that triggers other pre-prepared spells when an accident occurs.

This spell is extremely powerful. Generally speaking, in high-level battles, the reason why physical melee classes have difficulty dealing with the caster is that even if they manage to attack the caster through a sneak attack, the caster will most likely trigger a pre-prepared "Chain Surprise Spell," thereby instantly reversing the situation.

The "Chain of Surprises" spell in the storage stone already contains three spells; Trier only needs to set the trigger conditions.

After a moment's thought, Trill chanted a spell softly, inputting three conditions for triggering the Chain of Surprises spell.

P.S.: This is to make up for yesterday's post. I'm sorry, I drank too much yesterday. There will be another update for today later, but it will be very late.

Chapter 152 Spectating the Battle

The three conditions Trier input in the Chain Accident spell were: 1. He was incapacitated; 2. He suffered a fatal injury; 3. A caster cast "Time Stop" within 334 meters of him.

If any of the three conditions is triggered, the "Chain Surprise" spell will trigger "Time Stop", "Heroic Prayer" and "Water Curtain" in sequence.

The first two of the three conditions Trill entered are quite easy to understand. In The Azure Scepter, incapacitation is defined as "being unable to perform actions or reactions," so this condition is used to prevent being under the control of magic; as for being fatally wounded, that goes without saying.

The reason Trier included "a caster casting Time Stop within 334 meters of himself" as a trigger condition is that, in the game, "Time Stop" doesn't actually stop time; its effect is to accelerate the caster to the extreme, creating a near-time-stopping effect. Therefore, this spell doesn't affect others and cannot be considered a "disabled state," hence the need for this additional setting.

The 334-meter (1000-foot) setting is because if the caster who casts "Time Stop" moves more than 334 meters away from the point where the spell was cast, the acceleration effect will be automatically canceled.

As the magic storage stone was crushed, a green aura symbolizing spellcasting emerged from the fragments, only to vanish without a trace in an instant.

The invisible winds of incantation were restrained by the spell's form, and then, as if bound by heavy iron chains, were tied to the distorted soul cloak produced by the "Higher Decay Domain".

Trier opened his hand, and cold fragments of the storage stone fell like grains of sand through his fingers, rustling as they hit the ground. At that moment, he felt a sense of security he had never felt before.

“Now there shouldn’t be anything missing.” Trier stood by the window, quietly looking down at the fierce and chaotic battlefield in the courtyard.

Torrential rain poured down, and blood flowed like rivers.

The demons had clearly spotted the shock cavalry that had suddenly appeared on their flanks, but it was too late. Some continued their charge towards the surviving guards, some turned and fled, and others launched what could only be described as a suicidal counter-charge against the cavalry that had begun to accelerate.

However they chose, they were all the same before the knights' cold, heavy lances. The weak, monstrous demons were crushed by the armored horses' hooves, the monstrous demons were sent flying by the impact, and the slightly stronger seductive demons were simply smashed into mincemeat before the lances.

Suddenly, Trier's gaze froze as he saw a long, fiery whip lash across the night sky, then lash out and blast a Hateful Demon to pieces.

—At the edge of the battlefield, the enraged Balrog was hysterically wielding his multi-sectioned chain whip, lashing the retreating demons as if venting his anger.

"Go back! Cowards! Go back!" The Balrog roared furiously in the language of the Abyss, its voice seemingly ignited by rage. Its blazing decapitation sword and multi-sectioned chain whip crushed the fleeing demons like a millstone, but it still could not stabilize the battle line that was dissipating like a tide.

In an attempt to escape, some demons even launched attacks against the powerful Balrog...

"No wonder it's chaotic evil." Trier thought to himself as he looked at the demon in disarray.

His gaze flickered slightly as he glanced at his dwindling experience points on the information panel. Then, he scanned the magic storage stone in his hand that held the "Disintegration" spell. After a moment's hesitation, he turned his head to look at Noy.

—Among the crowd, Noy stood out. Everyone else was drawn to the scene of the demons' defeat outside, and even the dragon Aurelius craned his neck. Noy ​​was an exception.

The nun stood gracefully by the table, the flickering candlelight illuminating her bright, ruby-like eyes. She was staring intently at the intricate ritual lines drawn on the floor, occasionally frowning and nodding, as if the drawings on the floor were not elaborate magic circles, but some kind of interesting storybook.

Seemingly noticing Trier's gaze, she slightly raised her head and revealed a gentle and bright smile.

A fleeting sense of guilt crossed the transmigrator's mind, but the next moment, he whispered in Noy's heart, "Noy, do you want to become a legend?"

Noi frowned slightly, blinked subconsciously, and the next moment she seemed to have figured something out, and the bright smile on her face suddenly froze.

"You...you don't mean for me to kill the Balrog, do you?" Noy's voice trembled with disbelief.

Trier nodded with satisfaction—as expected of Noe, she actually understood what he meant directly.

"Kill the Flame Demon? Me?!" Although Noi had become a Bound Spirit, her forced smile was still masked by a stiffness in her face, as if her muscles were cramping.

“The Balrog isn’t that scary. Look, you’ve even soloed a legendary monster,” Trier coaxed in his mind. “Just cast a few divine spells on the Balrog, and that demon is finished. It’s simple, isn’t it? And the hanging corpse will cooperate with you.”

Back in Beaver Town, Sister Noy had always maintained impeccable composure, but upon hearing Trier's outrageous request, she could no longer remain calm. She froze for a moment, then pursed her lips in deep distress, a thin mist seemingly veiling her red eyes.

“If this is what you ask of me,” Noi said softly in her mind, “I will do whatever you ask of me. Goodbye, Master, goodbye.”

Based on Trier's understanding of Noy, he knew very well that Noy was using a feigned retreat as a tactic to try and get away with it by acting cute.

So he said mercilessly in his mind, "Then go quickly, don't be afraid, you can be resurrected."

"Radiance, are you communicating through your eyes?" The female barbarian scratched her head, quite puzzled. "Is this the effect of magic?"

“Of course not, Garbel.” Noi’s aggrieved expression vanished instantly, as if her face had changed. Holding the holy emblem, she solemnly declared, “It is time for the holy judgment of evil.”

Before she finished speaking, she pushed through the crowd and jumped straight out of the guardhouse window!

In an instant, the sudden change swept through everyone else's hearts like a chill.

Jiaerbei rushed to the window, her calloused, thick fingers suddenly hooking onto the railing. She leaned out, trying to search for Noi, but Noi vanished as if dissolved mist, leaving only the pouring rain and deafening shouts of battle.

How could a priest whose sorcery skills rivaled those of a high shaman suddenly commit suicide?!

The barbarian woman was utterly horrified and hesitated to speak. She looked up at the judge, whose face was filled with shock, and then turned to look at Trier, who had a strange expression on his face. A sense of confusion welled up in her heart.

"What...what happened to her? Why did she suddenly..."

“Don’t worry, she has the Light Feather spell.” Trier coughed lightly, interrupting her thoughts. “Let’s continue watching the battle below.”

P.S.: There will be another chapter at 9 PM. I'm so sorry for the long delay QWQ

Chapter 153 Triggered

The clock in the guardhouse ticked away, and as the candlelight flickered in the silver candlesticks, the fierce battle in the garden gradually came to an end.

Just as Trier had predicted, once the Stag Gate was fully opened, the heavily armored shock cavalry hidden behind it unleashed a textbook, devastating charge. The crimson demons were torn apart like maggots pinned to the ground by spears. As the cavalry charged, the guards who had been suppressed near the ruins quickly followed, their blood-red color representing the demons being rapidly devoured by the dark gray color representing the guards.

The only thing that surprised Trier was the paladin who served as the vanguard of the charge.

He had assumed that the brave man who dared to fight the Balrog alone must be Oris, but when the knight's hood was torn apart by the wind of the sword, he was astonished to find that under the hood was a young and unfamiliar face.

The face looked somewhat familiar, and the memory that was about to surface seemed like a phantom appearing and disappearing behind a hazy glass.

After pondering for a full three seconds, Trier finally managed to find the identity of this dashing paladin from the corner of his vast and complex memories.

Edith Lorinman, the eldest princess of the Kingdom of Orco, the core of the entire Blood Plague conspiracy, and a key figure in Losevie's destruction of the resistance.

This was the first time he had ever actually seen an important figure from the history of the game, but at this moment, the time traveler felt no emotion whatsoever.

The princess's behavior perfectly matched his past perceptions—she was weak-willed, had limited abilities, and also possessed the impetuousness typical of young people.

From the moment the heavily armored shock cavalry launched their charge from the Stag Gate, the outcome of the battle was practically predetermined. With such a sure win, there was absolutely no need for her to risk a one-on-one fight against the Flame Demon. In fact, she only needed to wait for the others to be in position, and then she could easily deal with the seemingly powerful Flame Demon.

In short, from a purely military perspective, her going to fight the Flame Demon alone was a risky endeavor with no potential benefits.

From a political perspective, as the crown princess of the Kingdom of Orko, any mishap during the battle would have extremely negative consequences. Therefore, from this angle, this renowned princess seems to be far from being a suitable heir.

Although the charge she led was unstoppable and textbook perfect, behind this devastating advance lay either the chaotic and disorganized nature of demons, or, more likely, the demons plotting something else.

She seemed to have completely disregarded the latter possibility; she simply led the charge without a second thought.

"In short, we should stick to the strategy we've already decided on. It's best to keep her away from potential moral dilemmas, either by persuading her or by imprisoning her. If none of these strategies work, then we should consider killing her—the bottom line is that we cannot let Laurence control this body with her special origins."