It made sense to have Warner show the power of the Book of Life and practice it in front of everyone. Anfey could not rush out of the city and then put all the hope on Warner. That would be irresponsible. However, Anfey did not expect Warner’s practice to be so noticeable.
The Book of Life was a holy object in the Church of Light. The power of the Book of Life was so great that magic surges created with it covered a larger area and were more pure and clear than the magic surges created by Light Series magic. Against the sensation of gloom and death in the air, the magic dome Warner released was bright, like a torch in the dark. The intense element surges could even reach dozens of miles away.
When Slanbrea had the Book of Life, countless Knights and Priests of Light had claimed their loyalty to him. Unfortunately, Warner was just a regular priest. Everyone knew someone would want to kill him to take the Book of Life. They would never work together with Warner, not to mention claiming loyalty to him. His background and fighting ability were very weak, which could not ignored.
When Warner showed up in Moramatch with the Book of Life in his hands and showed his power by killing groups of death spirits, Anfey, as a layman, was not fooled, so there was no way he could fool the people in the church. What the Book of Life represented concerned the Knights and Priests of Light.
An incapable person with treasure would be considered a criminal, while capable people with power and treasure would help him become a person of high morals. Warner had weak fighting ability, so he would be seen as a criminal. If he had strong fighting ability, he would be seen as a person with high morals.
Anfey wanted to let his league rest a little and try to avoid a fight at night, when death spirits’ fighting ability was stronger. The s.h.i.+eld of Light legion planned to fight again early the next morning. This time they started to fight with full force as soon as the horn was blown, when the moon just rose above the trees.
At necromacers’ orders, about a hundred Death Knights led a group of specters and countless death spirits back to Zagreen City.
At the same time, Anfey was standing on the city wall north of Zagreen City. He gathered the fire elements as he was watching what was happening ahead of him. Anfey’s Fire Sword had been ruined by Deswright, so he had to make a new one. A few mages from the mage group were stunned as they watched Anfey’s make the Fire Sword. They were newbies and had never seen anyone control the fire elements as well as Anfey. Yet the people who had been in the mage group for a while no longer saw it as anything special.
"Anfey!" Blavi hurried over from the stairs. "Now? Are you sure?"
"I do not want to fight at this moment, but Fernando has started the fight already," Anfey said quietly.
"Can’t we just wait a little bit more?" Blavi said bitterly. "We do not have to worry much about the low level death spirits, but specters at night would…"
"I will handle the specters," Anfey said. "If they have death knights, Suzanna will handle them."
"Yes," Suzanna responded.
"I feel it is too risky." Riska did not want to fight with death spirits at night either.
"We are far from the Country of Mercenaries. We are here for the adventure. Besides, we do not have any other options at the moment," Anfey said. "I just do not understand why Fernando started the fight at night, since he should hate to fight at night even more than us."
Blavi and Riska looked at each other and both shook their heads.
Anfey thought for a moment, frowning, but he could not figure out the reasons. He had never lived in the church. He would never understand how Fernando and church people would think. It was nothing different than a blind man trying to feel an elephant: in other words, a person making an overall judgement on the basis of partial understanding. Whoever had possession of the Book of Life would be the legal successor of the pope. Possessing the Book of Life did not guarantee a person would become a pope, but without it, that person would have no chance. To ambitious priests, the Book of Life was as important as the current War against the Dead.
Anfey stopping thinking and slowly looked up. Fernando must have his own reasons to start the battle at this moment. It would not matter anyway, since he would fight his battle as Anfey fought his own battle. Even if Fernando won the battle, they would be long gone from Zagreen City.
Fire b.a.l.l.s merged into Anfey’s Fire Sword one after another. The temperature around the Fire Sword had gone up a lot. Blavi and Riska had to release a magic dome to fight against the heat, while some mercenaries and mages had retreated back down to the city to give Anfey s.p.a.ce on the city wall.
Anfey suddenly paused. His memory was amazing. He remembered he had released over a hundred fire b.a.l.l.s up to that point. In order to make the Fire Sword previously, he used about that same amount of fire b.a.l.l.s, and it had been very challenging to gather fire elements at the end. This time, he used more fire b.a.l.l.s than he had used on his previous Fire Sword, but he did not find it difficult to add more fire b.a.l.l.s to the Fire Sword.
"Master, we are ready!" Orsie yelled at the city gate.
All the mercenaries in Zagreen City stood in square formation by units. This time Orsie would start the fight. Ozzic and Thompson stayed in the middle and s.h.i.+nbella stayed in the rear.
"Warner!" Anfey called out.
"Master, I am here." Warner walked up the stairs. He only walked about a dozen steps before he covered his face and stepped back. He looked at Anfey in surprise. He was still about 30 yards away from Anfey, but already felt the burning on his skin and dared not to walk any further.
"Warner, your show time!" Anfey said.
"Don’t worry, master! I got it!" Warner answered immediately.
Anfey heaved a sigh. He continued to warn Warner because he was worried. However, he had no other options. He took a deep breath, as three big fire b.a.l.l.s surrounded him. He swirled the Fire Sword. The three big fire b.a.l.l.s seemed to be attacked by the Fire Sword and attached themselves to the sword. The battle was about to start. He had not exhausted all his telepathy on the Fire Swords and did not want to deplete it now. The Fire Sword seemed to be able to take more fire elements, but it would work as it was.
"Blavi, Riska, can you protect Warner with your mage group. Please make sure he is well protected. You cannot have anything happen to him." Anfey emphasized the last part and then yelled, "Open the gate!"
The sand bags at the city gate had been removed. A few mercenaries had chopped the twisted chain off and slowly pushed the door open.
"We got it!" Blavi yelled. Riska was ready to turn around to leave but suddenly screamed. "Anfey, look at your sword!"
In fact, Anfey did not need to look. He had already felt the change in the Fire Sword. When the very last fire ball merged into the Fire Sword, the dark red crystal-like blade started to shake and made a rattling sound. Flares and flames were everywhere on the blade, out of control. In the end, the blade turned a bright orange.
"This is…" Anfey stared at the Fire Sword in his hand.
"Guys, are you ready for battle?" Orsie yelled. His mercenary group had not completely pa.s.sed the gate, but a group of dark death spirits had rushed over under the moon light.
Anfey was shocked and suddenly realized something. He put the Fire Sword back into the sheath and jumped off the city wall.
Orsie, who rushed to the front, had performed combat power, and then he realized it was just a false alarm. A light screen as clear as water spread out quickly, covering a s.p.a.ce about a thousand of cubic meters. The countless running death spirits were killed in the blink of an eye.
Warner raised the Book of Life and flew into the sky. People with value would have a future, so Warner had been waiting for this opportunity to show off his skills for a long time. He would wait no longer.
Warner chanted as he peered at his surroundings. He trusted the power of the Book of Life, so he was not worried about the death spirits surrounded him. He had been scared last time when he hurt his own people, which made him worry about it all the time. He knew it would not happen again, but he was still worried mercenaries would hit him.
Blavi and Elizabeth ordered hundreds of mages to fly into the sky with Levitation magic. They flew at different alt.i.tudes around Warner and surrounded him with protection. The enemies they faced were not only zombies, but also specters, death knights and necromancers. Necromancers were the most terrifying ones. Warner probably could be killed by one bone spear if he had been alone. Mages dared not get distracted at all. In addition, Anfey asked them to protect Warner at all costs. The mages used to hide behind their peers in battle, but not this time. They had to counter any attacks to protect Warner at their center, at the risk of their lives.
Zombies were low-level death spirits without any intelligence and judgement. As necromancers herded them forward, they rushed ahead group by group. Unfortunately, they immediately turned into ashes once they got under the light screen. The necromancers did not seem to understand the power of the Book of Life. The more death spirits the Book of Life saved, the more power the Book of Life would have. If they wanted to exhaust the power of the Book of Life with zombies, they made an essential mistake.
Mercenaries in Orsie’s unit did not receive any resistance. They ran as fast as they could. Those mercenaries quickly covered a few miles. The light screen had created a very wide and pure path among the sea of death spirits. It was hard to estimate the number of zombies that had been killed.
"Suzanna," Anfey called out loudly. He saw a group of about one hundred death knights and specters rus.h.i.+ng from the side. Suzanna turned around and rushed towards them, following Anfey. Anfey looked he was struggling a little bit compared with Suzanna. He needed the Fire Sword to make a path through the death spirits, but for Suzanna, who had advanced to a higher level, these death spirits were no different than ants. She could crush the zombies with combat power. Their flesh splattered everywhere.
