Diablo traveled through time and became a necromancer

Chapter 297 The Secret of Rotten Roots

Time seemed to freeze in the purple light of the explosion and the shadow of the claws. The destructive energy was about to consume everything!

Resolve the double kill!

"Wu Ye! Take the shield!" Skeleton Brother's metallic roaring thought sounded like thunder in Wu Ye's mind!

Wu Ye looked up almost instinctively! He saw the massive skeleton shield, wrapped in dark blue soul fire, tearing through the air like a meteorite. With a shrill roar, it soared above his head with incredible precision! The ancient runes on the shield instantly lit up under the infusion of soul fire!

"Command Skeletons: Control!" Wu Ye's mind suddenly shifted, and he thrust his hands upwards! He poured his mental energy into it frantically! The swirling shield suddenly came to a halt, and the soul fire on the shield surface surged, transforming into a giant, translucent, dark blue bone shield phantom over five meters in diameter, tightly enveloping Wu Ye and the clay golems and skeleton mages around him who hadn't had time to retract them!

Almost at the moment the bone shield was formed!

Boom boom boom——!!!!

The Netweaver's swollen abdomen suddenly exploded! There was no deafening roar, only a dull, heart-stopping, terrifying shockwave, as if space itself had been torn apart! A blinding, sticky purple-black light instantly engulfed the space dozens of meters around it! A terrifying toxic energy shockwave swept out like a tsunami!

The purple-black energy torrent slammed heavily into the phantom of the giant skeleton shield thrown by Skeleton Brother!

Buzz—! ! ! !

The shadowy blue bone shield vibrated violently! Runes flickered wildly on the shield, and it creaked under the weight! Countless fine cracks instantly spread! The terrifying poisonous energy corroded the soul fire defense, emitting a sizzling sound! The clay golem beneath the shield's shadow let out a silent wail, its massive body rapidly melting and collapsing like a snowman under the scorching sun! The skeletons of several nearby skeleton mages were instantly corroded by the purple-black energy, turning into ash!

Wu Ye was struck hard! He spat out a mouthful of blood! His mental energy poured out like a flood, clinging to his shaky bone shield. He felt as if his soul was about to be torn apart by the terrifying toxic explosion! But in the end, just before the bone shield completely shattered, the destructive purple-black torrent was abruptly stopped! The remaining poisonous mist permeated, corroding everything around it beyond recognition, but Wu Ye and several of his core skeleton mages survived!

Elsewhere, a thousand-eyed claws, wielding the malice of freezing souls, had already reached over Vera and Leah's heads! Each of those giant claws, composed of countless pale eyeballs, reflected the horrified faces of the two!

"Ice wall! Layer upon layer!" In her utter terror, Leah unleashed her last remaining potential! Without even a moment to think, she slammed her hands down onto the ground! The icy magic within her body poured out recklessly!

Click! Click! Click!

Not one, but three half-meter-thick ice walls gleaming with a cold blue light instantly rose from the ground! Layer upon layer, they blocked the giant claws!

"Holy Light! The final bulwark!" The High Priestess of Holy Light let out a blood-curdling scream! Her tiny soul erupted with an unprecedented, sun-like brilliance! The holy light was no longer gentle, but instead transformed into a solid, golden beam of light, imbued with the aura of divine judgment, which fiercely slammed into the Thousand-Eyed Claws that were grasping at her!

Puff! Boom! Snap!

The Thousand Eyes' sharp claws first collided with the first ice wall! The ice wall instantly shattered like paper! Countless ice crystals splattered everywhere! The claws grabbed the second wall without any hindrance!

At this moment, the Holy Light Judgment ray slammed fiercely into the claw's wrist! The divine and unholy energies violently collided! There was a sharp sizzling sound and a roar of energy annihilation! Countless pale eyeballs screamed silently and exploded under the burning holy light!

The claws' falling momentum was stopped by the pillar of holy light!

It was this momentary delay! Thousand Eyes' sharp claws, with their remaining strength, fiercely shattered the second ice wall! Finally, they slammed heavily into the third ice wall!

boom--!

The third ice wall crackled with a deafening roar! Countless giant ice blocks shot out in all directions like cannonballs! A huge dent was forcibly made in the ice wall, covered with spider-web-like cracks! However, it did not completely shatter!

The moment the ice wall shattered, Vera grabbed Leah, who had collapsed from exhaustion, and rolled backwards on the blast! Shooting ice scraped past their bodies, leaving streaks of blood! The two fell heavily into the mud, their bodies in excruciating pain, but fortunately they avoided being directly grasped by the terrifying claws!

After the High Priestess of Holy Light delivered her final blow, her soul's radiance dimmed completely, and it drifted down like a candle in the wind. Wu Ye quickly caught it with a gentle burst of mental power and carefully stored it in the contract space for nurturing. She had exhausted the last of her strength.

End!

"Gah!" The moment Skeleton hurled his massive shield, he had already anticipated the Tyrant's final madness! His massive bony legs slammed into the ground, and like a cannonball, he charged towards the blazing, lightning-fast meteorite! Just as the Tyrant was about to collide with him, Skeleton's massive frame slid sideways with an extreme dodge!

boom!

The Tyrant's body, ablaze with lightning, brushed past Skeleton Brother's skeleton! Furious arcs of electricity plowed deep scorch marks into the bone armor! But Skeleton Brother also managed to avoid a head-on collision! As its massive bony hand dodged, its long-awaited skeleton sword, slashing upwards with a space-shattering shriek, struck the Tyrant's soft, unprotected underbelly, exposed by its full-speed charge!

"Break the armor! Cut!"

Puff——!!!!

The dark blue blade cut through the relatively vulnerable abdomen of the Compound Eye Tyrant without hindrance, like a hot knife cutting through butter! The armor-piercing power concentrated on the blade instantly erupted! The violent energy raged wildly within the Compound Eye Tyrant's body!

The momentum of the Compound Eye Tyrant's charge came to an abrupt halt! It let out a short, piercing wail! Its eight sapphire-like compound eyes instantly lost all their brilliance! Its massive body, as if drained of all strength, fell forward with immense inertia, slamming heavily into the mud! Filthy blood, mixed with plasma and shattered viscera, surged from its ripped-open abdomen! Its body twitched violently several times before it fell completely still. A faint blue soul fire coalesced into a small ball of essence above its corpse, which was silently absorbed by the Skeleton Brother.

On the other side, Wu Ye endured the severe pain of his spirit being torn apart and the weakness of his exhausted mana, and looked coldly at the Phantom Web Weaver, who was lying on the charred ground with only one breath left after the self-explosion, a big hole blown in the abdomen, most of its eight legs broken, and dying.

"It's over." Wu Ye pointed his staff at it, his voice hoarse but carrying an undeniable sense of finality. "Bone Spear!"

A pale bone spear, far more condensed than any before, exuding the aura of pure death, instantly formed before him! The bone spear shot out silently, accurately piercing the Phantom Web Weaver's head, which shone with a resentful purple light! Dirty green juice mixed with brain matter burst forth! The Phantom Web Weaver's last breath was gone.

Valar struggled to get up from the mud, ignoring the pain on his body, picked up a skinner's short blade on the ground, and stumbled to the nest guardian that was limp in the mud, twitching in pain and whimpering softly. Its huge body was like a ruin with all its supporting pillars removed, and its blood soaked the rotten leaves beneath it.

"Rest in peace." A complex thought flashed across Vera's eyes, but she didn't hesitate. She gripped the short blade tightly in both hands and thrust it hard into the crack where the giant head and torso of the nest guardian met, a crack so deep that the bone was visible. She thrust it down fiercely, the blade sinking all the way to the handle!

The nest guardian's huge body suddenly stiffened, its last whine stuck in its throat, and the light in its eight compound eyes completely extinguished.

With the death of the three Dark Gold leaders, the spider swarm, deprived of its leadership and core strength, instantly fell into complete chaos! They no longer attacked in an organized manner, but instead fled in all directions like headless flies, biting each other and even devouring their own corpses! The Skeleton Warriors, feeling the pressure suddenly ease, began to methodically clear out the remaining spiders, which had lost their threat.

The battlefield fell silent in an instant. Only the pervasive poisonous fog, the smell of burning and blood, and the mess of bones and spider remains scattered across the ground remained. Fatigue washed over everyone like a tide.

However, after being killed, these spiders also dropped a lot of items. Among them were three pieces of dark gold equipment that Wu Ye had never seen before. (Written at the end)

Wu Ye leaned on his staff and walked to the foot of the enormous, tangled, ancient banyan tree that exuded a sickening odor. The brass compass needle still pointed firmly at the deep tree hollow, but at this moment, the terrifying will that lingered within seemed to have largely dissipated with the death of its leader, leaving only a deep, unsettling silence.

His eyes swept around the tree hole. Due to the fierce battle and the impact of the self-explosion, the thick layer of rotten leaves and mud accumulated near the tree roots had been blown away, revealing some buried objects underneath.

Some... stone debris.

Wu Ye's mind shifted, and he signaled several skeleton warriors to move forward to clean up the mess. Rusty bone knives carefully scraped away the sticky mud and rotten roots.

Gradually, a broken, moss-covered, and stained stone tablet emerged. Made of neither gold nor stone, it felt cold to the touch, and carved with intricate, ancient patterns. Even after years and filth had eroded it, one could still feel its former splendor.

The upper part of the stone tablet had been broken and lost, but the remaining text on the lower part made Wu Ye, Leah and Vera, who were struggling to walk over, hold their breath.

It was a kind of writing they had never seen before, beautiful and full of natural rhythm, winding around like vines. But strangely, they could understand its meaning.

"...Mother of Green Shade...Guardian of Carastri...Source of Life..."

"...May your roots remain firmly planted in the earth, your branches and leaves remain evergreen, protecting all living things here..."

"...Elf Era...720th Spring of the Reincarnation...All Wood Elves stand in respect..."

"Elf Age...Mother of Green Shades..." Leah whispered, her icy blue eyes filled with shock and disbelief. "This...this terrifying tree covered in eyes...was once...the sacred tree of the elves?!"

Vera also gasped. She squatted down, stroking the vine patterns on the stone tablet, which, though covered in filth, still pulsed with life. "Karastrei... I seem to have heard this name... in the oldest songs of the Amazon tribes... Legend has it that in the days before darkness invaded the Kurast rainforest, there once stood a great ancient tree connected to the source of life... sheltering the forest and its inhabitants..."

Wu Ye stared at the stone tablet in silence, then looked up at the enormous, decaying banyan tree before him, its trunk covered in strange eyeball patterns and sticky secretions. Upon closer inspection, those so-called "eyes" seemed more like some diseased, twisted tree tumors, or strange runes formed by the erosion of evil forces.

"So that's how it is..." Wu Ye's voice was low and hoarse, carrying a hint of indescribable heaviness. "It's not some 'Ancient Eye Tree'... It was once the heart of this forest, a symbol of life... 'Mother of Green Shade,' Karastri..."

"The demonic invasion... the corruption of Hell..." Leah's voice trembled as she recalled the elven ruins occupied by the Flayers. "Even such a great life... was twisted into a nest that bred evil..."

The truth, like icy rain, poured down upon the weary hearts of the people. The battlefield where they had just fought bloody battles, the bones and filth beneath their feet, had once been the sacred source of life. The glory of history and the cruelty of reality formed a suffocating contrast at this moment.

The brass compass vibrated slightly in Wu Ye's hand, its needle still stubbornly pointing deep into the tree hollow. Perhaps there were still fragments of the Worldstone there, or perhaps... the last uncontaminated core of this sacred tree? Or perhaps a deeper darkness?

Wu Ye took a deep breath, suppressing the turmoil in his heart. "Rest for ten minutes. Then... we'll go into the tree hole."

Skeleton Brother silently walked over to him. With a wave of his massive bony hand, the cracked, dimmed soulfire skeleton shield flew back into his grasp. His massive frame blocked the entrance to the tree hole, its dark blue soulfire gazing into the darkness like a loyal guardian.

The remains of the sacred tree are right under your feet, and the final answer is hidden in the darkness that devours the light.

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Equipment display:

Tyrant's Sting (Javelin)

Requirement Level: 28

Required Agility: 65

Damage: 45-85

Attack Speed: +30%

+1 Amazon skill level

+20% Increased Attack Speed (IAS)

+1-250 Lightning Damage

5% chance to release level 3 charged bullet when attacking