Chapter 1374: When Gold Fights Gold

Ethan was still rubbing his eyes.

Fine sand had mixed with his tears, grinding against them every time he blinked. The pain was unbearable. He could only squint and struggle to make out what lay ahead.

All he saw was an endless curtain of yellow sand.

To protect his eyes, Ethan raised another shield in front of himself. Sheltered behind the white barrier, he closed one eye and carefully sensed the changes within the dust storm.

Elsewhere, Eldran and the others watched with growing resignation.

Ethan and Valric were already fighting at full intensity. If the rest of them kept standing around, they would look rather out of place.

Eldran led the group toward another open stretch of ground.

His hands slowly curled into fists.

Golden armor grew outward from his skin, covering his chest and arms before spreading down his legs and over his head. Each plate snapped into place with a crisp metallic click.

Eldran stopped and gave the others a slight nod.

"I am Eldran."

The sand beneath his feet was already sliding outward.

"Forgive my discourtesy!"

The moment he finished speaking, Eldran shot forward.

The spear in his hand flew ahead of him, streaking into the distance like a line of golden light. At the same time, Eldran formed a strange gesture with both hands and guided the airborne weapon from afar.

One spear split into two.

Two became four.

In the blink of an eye, countless golden spears filled the sky. Their points turned in unison, then rained down across the entire area occupied by the others.

Andona wasted no time.

She raised one hand, spreading a pale golden shield above the group. A curtain of light rose from the ground and quickly enclosed the entire area.

With the defense in place, Andona began to ascend.

A pair of radiant golden wings unfurled from her back. They beat gently, scattering flecks of golden light into the wind.

The blade in her hand began to glow as well.

It slipped from her palm and floated upward until it hovered before her chest. Rings of energy spread from the blade, driving the surrounding air into a low, resonant hum.

Andona pressed her hand downward.

The blade turned and dropped vertically, plunging into the ground beneath her.

The instant its tip touched the earth, the pale golden shield solidified completely.

The countless spears struck a moment later.

The first volley hit the barrier and was deflected, burying itself at an angle in the surrounding sand. More spears followed, sending ring after ring of ripples across the shield’s surface, but none managed to break through.

Before long, the ground around the group was bristling with spears.

Eldran showed no sign of discouragement.

He clasped his hands behind his back and pushed his speed to the limit, weaving through the field of spears. One foot landed atop a shaft embedded diagonally in the ground.

The spear bent beneath his weight.

Eldran used the rebound to launch himself upward. He stepped across several more spears in succession, using them like a staircase into the sky.

His final step brought him level with Andona.

Eldran brought his hands out from behind his back.

Two new spears condensed in his grip.

A colossal phantom appeared behind him. The giant held an even larger spectral spear in both hands, mirroring Eldran’s every movement.

Eldran swung his arms forward.

The giant phantom raised its spear and brought it crashing down toward Andona with enough force to compress the air.

Andona said nothing.

She raised a hand, and golden blades appeared around her one after another. Every point turned downward as dense Divine Power flowed along their edges, pressing pale golden ripples into the air.

Behind Andona, the phantom of a massive Angel spread its wings.

The Angel gripped a Greatsword in both hands and drove its broad blade down from above. As the phantom attacked, the golden blades surrounding Andona shot forward as one.

A rain of swords fell from the sky.

Eldran swept his spear through the air, tracing a golden arc. The spears embedded throughout the mine and surrounding sand answered his mental command, tearing free from the ground and rising into the air.

He pointed at Andona.

The massed spears attacked from every direction.

Some met the Angel’s descending Greatsword head-on. The rest bypassed the frontal clash and struck Andona’s shield from the sides and rear.

The golden Greatsword collided with the spears in midair.

Clang—!

Two equally brilliant yet fundamentally different powers burst outward. The Greatsword forced the foremost spears downward, only for more to surge in from both sides and hammer against its edge.

At the same time, the first spear to slip past the Greatsword struck Andona’s pale golden shield.

The barrier caved inward. Ripples from the impact raced toward its edges.

A second spear struck, then a third.

Golden waves overlapped in the air, and every collision drove the pressure down toward the ground. The ice crystals along the edge of the mine trembled incessantly, while shock waves swept the yellow sand of the plains high into the sky.

Eldran continued controlling the spears.

Rather than concentrating on a single point, they took turns striking from different directions, probing for the shield’s weakest spot.

Andona remained suspended at its center.

She never retreated, nor did she turn to face any of the attacks.

One by one, the spears exhausted their energy and dissolved into fragments of golden light. When the final volley ended, Andona’s shield remained intact. Not even a crack marked its surface.

She raised both hands.

The Angel phantom behind her slowly faded. The remaining blades around her dissolved back into Divine Power and gathered before her chest.

Andona interlaced her fingers.

The sky, darkened by the battle, cleared once more. The clouds parted, and pure golden radiance converged high above, forming a point of light that grew brighter by the second.

Then a blinding pillar of holy light shot down from the heavens.

Its target was Eldran.

Andona had no intention of testing him any further.

She meant to end this quickly.

The attack forced Eldran to reveal more of his strength.

He dropped from the air and landed hard, his feet punching two deep pits into the sand. When he looked up, the golden holy light had already pierced the clouds and was descending straight toward him.

Soft golden threads emerged from Eldran’s palms.

They wound around his arms, then spread over his shoulders and torso. More and more threads intertwined until they formed a sealed barrier around him.

Some of the threads remained outside the shield.

Instead of retreating, they rose toward the holy light.

As they climbed, the flexible threads straightened and drew together, weaving themselves into a massive golden spear.

Its point locked onto the center of the descending light.

Eldran thrust one hand upward. The enormous spear accelerated again, shooting from the ground into the sky.

Andona stood high above.

Her mask concealed her expression.

Just before the holy light and spear collided, she turned away from Eldran and began walking off.

The spearhead pierced the beam.

Neither force gave way. Waves of different frequencies spread from the point of contact—one traveling upward through the holy light, the other running down the spear toward the ground.

Golden radiance illuminated the entire ice crystal mine.

Crystals along its perimeter reflected the light, bathing both earth and sky in dazzling gold.

At first, the giant spear managed to hold back the holy light.

But as the force from above continued pressing down, the golden threads forming the spear began to snap. Its glow steadily dimmed as its energy dispersed.

The holy light finally broke through the spearhead.

Just before the spear collapsed completely, the remaining threads suddenly contracted, compressing all its remaining power into a single point.

Boom!

A golden explosion erupted in midair.

The blast forced the holy light aside, knocking the beam off its original course. Most of the pillar grazed Eldran’s shield and struck the ground beside him, carving a long, scorched trench through the mine.

Even so, the outer edge of the holy light still engulfed the barrier of golden threads.

The entire shield buckled inward under the pressure.