Versatile Mage: Get the Desert Emperor clone at the start

Chapter 23 Sphinx vs. Lord of the Giant Lizard
When the netherworld fire at the top of Khafre's pyramid and the roar from the depths of the desert erupted simultaneously, the two demonic empires, the yellow sand and the undead, began a head-on collision.

"Rumble--"

Tens of thousands of giant magic sand scorpions took the lead in charging. The purple magic patterns on their shells burst out with dazzling light, and their tail stingers poured venom to the undead army like a rainstorm. The shrouds of the mummy warriors were corroded and emitted wisps of green smoke, but they still waved their bronze spears and advanced mechanically.

The Bull Demon Legion in the front row roared and swung their giant axes. Every chop would be able to cut the giant scorpion in two, and the smelly green body fluids gathered into streams on the sand.

Suddenly, the sand layer surged violently!
Those long-lurking sand giant lizards finally bared their fangs, their rugged backs breaking through the sand, and the intricate magic patterns on their scales suddenly lit up, creating a strange resonance with the desert.

Every attack of the giant lizard was accompanied by a violent sandstorm. The yellow sand swirled around them, forming small vortexes of death. Wherever they passed, the formation of the Undead Legion was torn apart!
"Click——!"

Dozens of mummified warriors were swept high into the sky by the sandstorm, their withered bones twisting and breaking in the hurricane, ultimately turning into a cloud of bone fragments that tinkled and clattered to the sand. The Ox-Ghost Warriors roared and swung their great axes, trying to steady their position, but the giant lizards in the sandstorm were incredibly fast, bursting out from the sand, their sharp claws easily tearing through the decaying bodies of the undead.

The left wing of the Undead Legion collapsed instantly.

At this moment, twelve bronze lion statues awakened from the base of the Menkaure Pyramid.

These monsters had blood-red flames dancing in their eyes as they flapped their wings and flew towards the battlefield. They stretched out their sharp claws and pounced on the scales of the giant lizards. The netherworld fire spewed from their mouths burned the sandstorms into charred marks. They fought with the giant lizards and temporarily reversed the defeat.

Suddenly, a low tremor came from deep in the sand, as if some ancient beast was awakening.
“Boom—!”

A giant sand lizard, much larger than any of its kind, broke out of the sand. It was several meters long, with the barbs on its back like black spears. The magic patterns on its scales were no longer the ordinary dark red, but a deep dark purple. The patterns were as complex as ancient runes, exuding a suffocating sense of oppression.

It is the leader of this group of giant lizards and the overlord of the sand sea!

The Giant Lizard Lord ignored the fighting lions and instead locked onto the Pyramid of Khafre at the rear of the battlefield. Its amber pupils were cold and ruthless.

"roar--!!!"

It suddenly opened its mouth, and a ball of violent sandstorm energy condensed from the depths of its throat, and then spewed out! This breath was not ordinary sand, but contained a powerful destructive force. Wherever it passed, even space was faintly distorted!

“Buzz!”

At the critical moment, the hieroglyphs on the surface of the Pyramid of Khafre suddenly lit up, and a translucent dark light shield took shape instantly, blocking the attack.

The moment the two forces collided, a circle of energy ripples visible to the naked eye erupted, shocking the nearby undead warriors to the ground.

The Lord of the Giant Lizards missed the attack, but he was not discouraged. He roared and suddenly his huge body drilled into the sand at an incredible speed.

The sand layers parted around it like flowing water, as if the entire desert was making way for it.

The next second—

"boom!!!"

It broke out from the sand right in front of the pyramid, and its tail rolled up two violent sandstorms, like two giant sand dragons, lashing towards the base of the pyramid!

Just as the Lord of the Giant Lizards' attack was about to hit, the Sphinx in front of the pyramid - the Sphinx stone statue that had been silent for a thousand years - suddenly opened its eyes!
"roar--!!!"

The stone on the statue's surface crumbled, and its eyes shone with a deep, dark blue that seemed to freeze the soul. It rose up and slammed into the Giant Lizard Lord!
"Bang--!!!"

The collision between the two triggered a small energy storm, with sand and underworld fire raging.

The Sphinx suddenly raised its head, a dull roar echoing from its chest as a dark blue fire swirled and coalesced in its throat. The flames were no ordinary blaze, but rather the eternal fire of the underworld. Within each flame, the twisted howls of the dead could be vaguely seen.

When its huge mouth opened, a torrent of underworld fire with a diameter of more than three meters gushed out. The sand in its path instantly crystallized and condensed into strange dark green glass in the air.

The dark purple magic pattern on the back of the Giant Lizard Lord suddenly burst into a dazzling light, and the sand around him spun rapidly as if receiving some mysterious call.

It raised its head and let out a deafening roar. The sands for hundreds of kilometers swelled up in response, forming a spiral storm composed of billions of sand grains. The netherworld fire and the sandstorm collided in mid-air, erupting in a deafening roar.

The crystallized sand poured down like a rainstorm, reflecting a strange colorful halo in the sunlight.

The Sphinx seized this fleeting opportunity and exerted force with its hind legs.

Its body, weighing hundreds of tons, displayed astonishing agility. Its front claws, gleaming with cursed runes, went straight for the Giant Lizard Lord's throat. Its sharp claws traced five dark blue trails in the air, causing subtle ripples in the air.

The Lord of the Giant Lizards dodged sideways with an agility that was inconsistent with his huge body, and his long tail covered with barbs swept out like a battering ram, hitting the Sphinx's breastplate hard.

"clang--!"

The loud noise of metal collision ruptured the eardrums of the low-level demons watching the battle from afar.

The Sphinx was repelled by this brute force, and spider-web-like cracks appeared on its breastplate, but what oozed out of the cracks was not blood, but sticky water from the River Styx.

The Lord of the Giant Lizard was also in pain. Several scales on his tail were shattered by the recoil force. The dark purple devil's blood dripped onto the sand, corroding the sand into a hissing deep pit.

Every clash between the two triggered a sudden change in the world. When they collided again, the shockwave flattened the sand dunes within a radius of several meters.

The undead warriors and desert monsters watching the battle retreated in terror, and some low-level demons who were unable to retreat in time were directly shattered into pieces by the aftermath.

The two giant beasts were evenly matched for a while.

Just as the two ferocious beasts were fighting fiercely, the towering black shadow that had been silent all the time in the depths of the sandstorm finally moved.

Its movements seemed slow, yet they carried a terrifying pressure that changed the very sky and the very earth. The entire desert suddenly fell into an eerie silence, even the raging sandstorm froze.

The dark figure slowly raised a massive palm formed from a pure sandstorm. Its fingers, spread out, obscured half the sky. Three ancient runes swirled in its palm, and each time a rune illuminated, the dark light on the surface of the Pyramid of Khafre dimmed a fraction.

The sand at the base of the pyramid suddenly turned into a vortex of quicksand, and tens of thousands of tons of yellow sand clung to every huge stone of the pyramid like a living thing.

A creepy "cracking" sound was heard, and this sanctuary of the dead that had stood for thousands of years began to slowly sink.

(End of this chapter)