Chess Mage of Faerûn

Chapter 331 Black Blade
These are the remains of a god!

Even legendary-level experts are not to be trifled with. Putting aside the incredible luck required to stumble upon a divine corpse, is a divine corpse really that easy to deal with?

Leaving aside the remaining supplicants, the various creations and rules left behind by the original divine kingdom, or the residual memories and lost dreams belonging to that god, are all extremely troublesome and difficult to deal with.

Even in the rarest and most terrifying situation: a divine abomination born from the remains of a deity, or a deity maintaining its consciousness and lingering on through some means.

That would be hilarious!
Therefore, it is conceivable how difficult the process was, and one had to overcome numerous difficulties and obstacles. Who would be willing to use the divine essence that had been obtained with great difficulty to set up a defensive barrier?

It can only be said that it is a long-established legend that has lived for a long time. The fact that it brought out a piece of its heritage made Akram's eyes turn red with envy and jealousy.

The exorbitant price paid has resulted in this almost unsolvable situation.

It's not that Akram was truly helpless; a massive mage tower has far more than just those few methods and trump cards, and there's no such thing as a perfect defensive barrier in the world. The key issue is that breaking through the astral barrier in the short term is truly perplexing. The arcane tower's attack methods are mostly based on spells and energy, making it completely countered by the opponent.

Akram now regrets not setting up more ballistae and catapults on the mage tower, as these things could break through the astral barrier. But that's just wishful thinking; even if he had, wouldn't the enemy have counter-spells?

The most efficient way to break through this barrier is with the Githyanki's Silverblade, which is renowned even in another universe. Using this weapon, known as the Key to the Astral Plane, as the core, a high-level spell ritual can completely sever the barrier and break the connection between the Astral Plane and the Prime Material Plane.

Unfortunately, Akram wasn't from Karacha in Sihanoukville, so that path was blocked for him.

Another direct and brutal method is to use constructs as an army, sending golems with no life characteristics and high magic resistance to the outer edge of the enemy's barrier. Even if it is impossible to defeat the enemy in one fell swoop, it is enough to force the enemy to interrupt the ritual and free up their hands to deal with it.

Unfortunately, the entire Arcane Brotherhood doesn't have many masters of construct crafting. The few golems that serve as personal guards for mages don't even qualify as a legion.

In this situation, the only option becomes to break through the barrier step by step, using certain specific spells to tear it apart.

For example, the ninth-circle spell of the Conjuration system: Large-scale Plane Collapse.

However, the casting time of these ritual spells was really excessive, not to mention that they couldn't solve the problem with just one spell. During this time, the possible actions the opponent might take made Akram keep a tight rein on his mind.

Actually, quite some time has passed. Could it be that the ceremony on the other side is already about to be completed?

Akram suddenly had a bad feeling, but quickly suppressed it.

Pah, pah, pah! I'm such a jinx, always thinking nonsense.

It's too late. I don't know if it triggered some kind of causal element. Even though Akram isn't a specialist in prophecy, he always seems to come true when he encounters such disheartening things, which makes me very angry.

The spellcasters, who had been busy maintaining the magical ritual and had ignored the earth-shattering attack from the outside world, had stopped what they were doing and stood with their hands behind their backs, neither speaking nor showing any extra expression. Only Barras's face revealed a hint of excitement and amusement.

The swirling, ethereal light and shadow that had enveloped the ceremony had now dissipated, and the ever-increasing black threads, now unmasked, were even more striking. Countless jet-black textures intertwined and tangled, making the entire space resemble a shattered mirror. The old abbot, who had presided over the ceremony, remained composed, extending his right hand and grasping without hesitation the area where the black threads were most concentrated, as if it were not a terrifying gap capable of cutting through space itself, but merely fine black hemp threads that had been dyed.

Strangely enough, the restless black lines, which were originally filled with destructive intent, did not swarm and attack when they first encountered the outstretched hand. Instead, they swam back and merged together like tadpoles that had found their mother.

The countless black lines merged into one, forming a blade that resembled a jet-black blade, or the thunder javelin wielded by Talos.

Grimwald grasped the black blade and slowly pulled it from the core of the magic circle. His aged hand was now as firm and resolute as an eagle's talons.

With one hand, the old headmaster retrieved the black blade, looked up at the tower ahead, his face calm, his somewhat cloudy old eyes seeming to pierce through the obstacles and meet Akram's gaze.

Although he was inside the tower, Akram felt a jolt in his heart when he met that gaze.

It wasn't that the other person's gaze was particularly cold or sharp, but rather that his damned sixth sense had kicked in again.

Such a high-level spell ritual could not possibly be ordinary, but each top spellcaster has their own research and innovations. If one were to delve into it, the sheer variety of privately created spells would be countless, far exceeding what a general spell template could possibly encompass.

Even with Akram's abilities, he couldn't immediately identify the spell the other party was casting; he could only deduce something from the current scene.

In his eyes, the long blade, with its undulating shape and constantly radiating black tentacles, was simply a materialization of an unstable spatial gap. Its very existence was enough to cause the surrounding space to tremble and shatter.

The sheer amount of power leaking out is already immense; imagine what would happen if the entity bound by the incantation ritual were to unleash its full power…

Through the spell's outward appearance, Akram could vaguely guess its connection to spells such as the Blade of Calamity, Plane Collapse, and Separation.

What are you trying to do? Do you think my mage tower doesn't have protective spells or force field shields?

These spells involving planes, space, and dimensions sound very sophisticated, and in fact, they are indeed a very profound art form with infinite possibilities when explored in depth.

But precisely because of this, how could mages, as experts, allow their most important stronghold—the Mage Tower—to be threatened in this way?
Various anti-teleportation spells, dimensional anchoring devices, spatial stabilization instruments, and other magical measures are intended to prevent those spellcasters or transformation alchemists from launching a central attack, or even destroying the very foundation of the space where the mage tower is located.

It's important to understand that any true mage tower is never just the size it appears from the outside. Methods such as spatial folding or embedding small planes within the tower greatly expand its actual internal capacity.

However, this inevitably creates some hidden dangers.

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(End of this chapter)