820 Just How?
The crack accelerated, causing a blistering heat to waft through the Angel Clan. But, they remained unmoved, in complete sync.
BOOM!
The dome violently quaked, sending force winds and overbearing earthquakes through the battle field.
Veles and Laura looked very pleased with themselves. They knew that this attack wouldn’t wipe out the Angel Clan army considering they had plenty of dao formation experts on their side as well, however, their only goal was the destruction of the barrier. As long as that happened, there wouldn’t be any issues.
Minutes passed by before the explosions finally settled and the smoke slowly cleared.
As expected, the Angel Clan warriors were completely unscathed. Not a single one of them was injured and they all looked as though nothing had happened.
However, the dome that was supposedly about to collapse, the very same one that had cracks running through it just moments ago, stood tall!
“Tsk,” Dyon shook his head as he saw the ashen expression on the elder’s face. He had been so confidence that it almost reached the point of complacency. Where had this small Planet Haven ever seen a formation capable of blocking an attack from a dao formation expert?!
“I offered you a chance, but it seems you didn’t want it.” Dyon twirled the ring his mother-in-law gave him before his eyes flashed with a deadly light.
All this time, Dyon had been struggling. Although he knew array alchemy up to the comet level like the back of his hand, he was heavily restricted.
In his normal state, with his soul unsealed, he could form thousands of weapon’s hell arrays without even batting an eye. It didn’t even drain on his stamina. But, now? Even if he had a Lower Blossom stage aurora stone and used the most basic weapon’s hell array, he would be lucky to withstand creating ten or so. This was because the toll on his body was far too much. He simply couldn’t withstand the violent nature of ancient aurora flames.
He had racked his brain to come up with a solution, but that was when he was hit with inspiration, inspiration that actually came from one of his older ideas, no less.
During his very first campaign, he wanted his entire army to have communication arrays. Unfortunately, even with his soul talent, supporting so many arrays at once would be a huge drain on him. This was because he not only had to sustain conversations between him and others, he also had to sustain inter-squad conversations as well. While weapon’s hell arrays were a one time cost, communication arrays were a constant drain!
In order to circumvent this, Dyon implemented what he coined a ‘parallel circuit’ method as opposed to the regular ‘serial method’. This allowed him to spread out the burden over multiple souls instead of just his own, thus making his plan feasible. In fact, he used that very same concept here although he used Amphorae’s soul as the center instead of his own, for obvious reasons.
So Dyon thought, why not use something else to withstand the burden my body would have to?
Although the idea was good, he still didn’t know what he could use. What would be able to give him enough mental control over the flames, while also taking the burden off of his body? And that was when it hit him: crystal will!
Dyon had long since known that Celestial Deer were lauded for their crystal will, and that that very crystal will was an amazing medium for array alchemy in the very same way special kinds of wood were for magic and high-level beast skins were for runic vein theory.
Usually, this idea would be a problem. After all, Dyon’s wills were locked away along with his soul. However, that was where the spiritual vein and the abilities of the Energy Core began to play their role. With the help of high-level Absorption Stones, not only could Dyon construct arrays with no burden to his body, he hardly had to use his own stamina either because he had comet level aurora stones powering it!
The only true requirement of Dyon was on his focus, which could be a mental drain after some time. After all, the secondary name of the aurora was the ‘mind’s eye’. This was because aurora flames were manipulated by mental energy. However, with Dyon’s speed of thought, he didn’t even bother to worry about such a thing.
However… This wasn’t the truly devastating result of Dyon’s intelligence.
When Ri and Madeleine almost died in a blast of saint energy during the World Tournament arc, it was a crude form of Absorption Stones that their opponents had used. But… Dyon not only had the peak achievement of Absorption Stones, he also had an unmatched power source: The Angel Clan Spiritual Vein!
In that instant, a staff standing at just above Dyon’s height appeared in his hand. It was marked with arrays Dyon had personally drawn to allow better communication from himself to the staff, and the very top was fitted with a sphere that looked like none other than a comet aurora stone!
Seeing Dyon suddenly stand with a pristine crystalline staff, the expression of the elder suddenly flickered.
Dyon silently chuckled to himself. He felt slightly ridiculous holding the staff, almost like he was some sort of medieval wizard. If he used it in the future, he’d definitely have to think of a more modern form for it. But, it seemed it was having quite the intimidation factor currently.
To the surprise of the opposing army, the moment Dyon raised the staff, the barrier disappeared!
“Don’t say I didn’t warn you.”
The expression of the elder froze. Should he charge? Should he run? Why did facing a child put such pressure on him?!
However, Laura wouldn’t give up this opportunity. No matter what Dyon had planned, even if there was a massive loss of life, as long as they got inside the range of the domes, it would be worth it. If they never even touched the Angel Clan, wouldn’t that be too much of a joke?
“CHARGE!” Veles and Laura suddenly roared at the same time.
Without hesitation, the million and a half remaining warriors surged forward, aiming to enter the range of the dome as quickly as possible. Considering their cultivation levels, they were much faster than those essence gatherers had been before.
There was a simple reason the barrier disappeared: Dyon wanted it to.
While the barrier allowed him to attack those within its limits, if he tried to attack those outside of it, he would end up damaging his own barrier since it only allowed things in through one side. In addition, if Dyon wanted to conjure arrays to attack outside of the barrier, the mental strain would be far greater if he had to do so through the barrier. Lastly, the barrier itself was being powered by the Spiritual Vein, while Dyon’s attack was also being powered by it. There was a limit to the output of energy in order to keep their arrays under Dyon’s ability to control, therefore dealing with two outputs would be too much.
In the back of Dyon’s mind, he also knew that his barrier could at most withstand 3-5 attacks from a dao formation expert of the lower level, and likely not even one from one at the middle levels. Therefore, since his enemies had decided to use their experts so soon, he might as well save the barrier for a desperate situation.
“Formation!” Dyon roared. He only taught the Angels a single formation, so they all immediately knew what he meant.
In an instant, over a hundred thousand angels leapt into the air, forming up into perfectly formed squads of five. Two thrones hovered in the middle with 17 red clad elders standing silently in the air behind them.
Seeing the impeccable formation, Veles’ face couldn’t help but contort. Dyon had already told him about his plans, but those were things he thought just sounded nice on paper. However, seeing it deployed before him now, he couldn’t help but be shocked. Just how did he manage to keep them all organized?