Free Web NovelChapter 548: Chapter 469: Information Warfare and Fortress Construction
Clark cast his gaze toward Dionysius Spencer, dozens of kilometers away.
"What is the result of the fate confrontation?"
Dionysius Spencer hovered high above, the silver-blue starlight robe he wore had tiny constellations that were originally flowing slowly but now appeared slightly disturbed.
At the edge of the monitoring screen before him, data streams occasionally broke off, twisted, or inexplicably jumped to erroneous symbols.
Upon hearing Clark’s inquiry, the wizard skilled in destiny gave a wry smile.
He made a helpless shrug gesture.
Meanwhile, a detailed mental message traveled along the connection:
"I had initially seized the ’high ground’."
In Dionysius’s consciousness waves, there was a clear sense of exhaustion and unwillingness.
"This time, our Nolun Workshop assembled all 170 of the specially Seventh Level Wizards skilled in the Destiny Element, coordinating with three large destiny anchoring arrays. Three hours before the battle began, we started weaving a ’favorable future’. According to calculations, this should have increased our overall victory rate by at least thirty-seven percent."
Clark remained silent, waiting for him to continue.
"But the other side... those lunatics from the Chaos Secret Sect and Tower of Annihilation." Dionysius’s emotional waves were filled with disgust, "They didn’t even try to compete for the control of the fate lines with us. When they realized they couldn’t win, they directly initiated a large-scale fate pollution ritual."
"Pollution?" Clark’s consciousness paused slightly.
"Yes, pollution. Using most of the souls of at least three Seventh Level Wizards as fuel to forcibly inject toxins of ’chaos’, ’disorder’, and ’anti-logic’ into the river of fate in this area. Now, all the fate lines in this abandoned plane have become a tangled mess."
Dionysius sighed:
"Destruction is always easier than construction. They can’t use fate’s power themselves, but they’ve made it unusable for us as well. Now, all witchcraft involving fate peering, future rehearsals, and causal interference are completely ineffective. Even the simplest ’luck blessings’ and ’curse of misfortune’ have become incredibly unstable; they might work, backfire, or randomly affect any target on the battlefield."
Clark closed his eyes.
As a wizard also involved in the Law of Destiny, he could clearly "feel" that the river, which should have been flowing clearly and formed by countless possibilities, had indeed turned into a boiling chaos filled with malicious shrieks.
He reopened his eyes and nodded slightly.
"That’s fine," Clark’s consciousness waves returned to calm, "At least neither side gained any advantage."
With high-tier combat power mostly equal, eliminating such an uncontrollable factor as destiny from the equation, in some way, brought the war back to a more "pure" level.
It’s about who has deeper reserves of witchcraft, who executes tactics more efficiently, and whose will is more resolute.
And... who can seize that fleeting opportunity amidst chaos.
Just as this thought ended...
BOOM!!!
A deafening tremor, accompanied by the quaking of space, came from afar.
That was the "roaring" that could directly affect the soul level, produced when mass and energy were violently distorted.
From the extremely distant horizon, at the edge of the lead-gray sky, four indescribable terrifying waves swept in like a tsunami.
Every wizard below the Sixth Level, whether they were in the midst of casting, flying, or just landing to build a defense, all felt their bodies sink heavily!
It was as if an invisible giant hand pressed against their backs.
Thump, thump, thump...
A continuous sound of kneeling resounded.
Tens of thousands of Fourth and Fifth Level Wizards turned pale, their knees uncontrollably hitting the ground, hands barely supporting themselves from falling over.
They gritted their teeth, trying to resist the pressure, but their bodies instinctively screamed "submit"!
It was an absolute gap in Life Level.
The Third Level Wizards fared worse; many directly collapsed to the ground, breathing became difficult, pupils dilated, consciousness trembling on the verge of collapse.
Even some of the newly-entered Sixth Level Wizards couldn’t help but bend over, cold sweat dripping from their foreheads.
Jeming’s body wobbled for a moment, although he barely managed to stay upright, he was bowed under the immense pressure.
He felt as though a mountain was pressing on his back.
No, it wasn’t a physical weight, but something more fundamental.
It was the "will" contained in those four waves, the natural radiation emitted when Eighth Level Wizards’ control over the world’s laws leaked.
An ordinary Fifth Level Wizard would likely have already knelt like those around them.
But Jeming’s body surface, below his skin, the intricate Body Refining Technique runes automatically lit up with a faint glow.
The adaptability of the Body Refining Technique began to take effect.
Muscle fibers completed 17 adaptive adjustments within one-thousandth of a second, bone density temporarily increased by ten percent, and blood circulation switched to a high-pressure state.
Just like deep-sea fish slowly adapting to water pressure, his body was rapidly analyzing the "frequency" and "nature" of this pressure and generating corresponding resistances.
One second.
Two seconds.
By the third second, Jeming slowly, inch by inch, straightened his body.
He lifted his head, gazing towards the direction from where the waves emanated, pupils reflecting the tremendous clashes happening on the distant sky that no ordinary person could directly behold.
He could distinguish four different "flavors" among them; undoubtedly, it was a battle of four Eighth Level Wizards.
"So... they’ve engaged already."
Jeming whispered to himself, eyes flickering with amazement.
This was the Eighth Level.
The mere oppressive force from the aftermath of their battle was enough to debilitate over half of the wizards in an army of a million.
If they really engage in an all-out war within this plane, it might take only a few minutes for the patched-up abandoned plane to collapse completely from the structural level.
In the sky, Dionysius Spencer’s voice echoed through the amplification witchcraft, resonating within the allied camp:
"Everyone, hold steady!"
At the same time, the High Tier Wizards who had been prepared also activated the arrays in their hands, releasing calming forces to barely offset a portion of the pressure’s impact.
"Lord Nolun and Lord Buchanan have already held off the enemy’s highest combat strength! According to the original plan—we are tasked with building a defense system capable of sustaining long-term combat before the enemy army arrives!"
"Alchemy Element, responsible for the foundation and main structure!"
"Rune Array, responsible for the depiction of defense arrays!"
"Elemental System, responsible for energy supply and environment stabilization!"
"All other personnel, start operations immediately according to the pre-battle assigned groups!"
The Wizards who were initially overwhelmed by pressure forcibly gathered their spirits and began to act.
Clark was the first to move.
He didn’t even chant, simply raised his right hand, spreading his five fingers, aiming at the gray-white land that had been preliminarily leveled.
In his palm, a complex illusion of an alchemical array appeared.
"Reshape."
With the utterance of two words.
The earth began to rumble.
The structure of the ground underwent a fundamental change, the molecular bonds in the soil were violently dismantled, and different elements were rearranged.
In this barren soil, only the basic oxygen and silicon were left, undergoing transformation that defies natural laws driven by alchemical rules.
The gray-white ground beneath Clark’s feet quickly took on a metallic hue.
It was transforming, soil into steel.
Moreover, this steel seemed to grow like living flesh, rising, extending, and differentiating into structures.
Bases, walls, towers, internal support frames...
The semblance of a square steel fortress with a side over three kilometers rose in merely ten seconds, its height breaching fifty meters.
But this was not enough.
Clark waved his left hand, and seven metal ingots glimmering with different lustres flew from his sleeve, hovering in mid-air.
"Jeming." His voice was calm and unwavering, "The ’Composite Material Reinforcement’ module is your responsibility. Design standards should adhere to ’Sixth Level sustained bombardment resistance’."
"Yes."
Jeming showed no hesitation, he swiftly formed seals in front of his chest, his spiritual power mixed with elemental energy surged out, transforming into seven tentacles of varying colors, wrapping around the seven metal ingots.
The tentacles penetrated into the metal, beginning micro-level modifications:
The first ingot, infused with ’Energy Absorption Rune Array’, granting it characteristics of absorbing and dispersing impact force.
The second ingot, embedded with ’Self-repair Catalyst Crystal Seed’, allowing slow regeneration when damaged.
The third ingot, injected with ’Elemental Resistance Deflection Field’, providing extra mitigation against energy attacks.
...
Seven metal ingots were processed within thirty seconds, then Jeming, using profound alchemical techniques, "patted" them into seven critical structural nodes of the steel fortress.
Hum...
The entire fortress emitted a deep resonance, the sheen flowing on its metallic surface becoming more profound and hefty.
Meanwhile, other Alchemy Wizards demonstrated their talents:
Someone summoned a river of lava, casting it over the outer layer of the walls, forming a thick volcanic rock armor upon cooling.
Someone pulled out transparent ’diamond threads’ from the void, weaving them into an energy guiding net covering the top of the fortress.
Someone directly altered local space structure, creating folded layers inside the walls, making the actual thickness far exceed visual perception.
Meanwhile, Rune Array Wizards were already affixed to every inch of the fortress surface like locusts.
They wield special ’engraving pens’ to rapidly inscribe upon the metal.
With each stroke, a glowing rune line lit up, swiftly vanishing, merging into the material internally.
Defense Runes, Anti-stealth Runes, Mental Interference Runes, Energy Reflection Runes, Physical Deflection Runes, Curse Resistance Runes, Space Stabilizing Runes...
Millions of runes were inscribed simultaneously, layer upon layer, forming a complex large-scale three-dimensional array.
Elemental System Wizards placed twelve large elemental gathering arrays outside the fortress, forcefully extracting free energy from this barren plane, while transporting it through laid energy conduits into the temporary Elemental Pool at the fortress bottom.
Three minutes.
In merely three minutes, an entirely black, towering over a hundred meters, and brimming with fierce turrets and rune glows steel fortification already stood in this desolate land.
It resembled a crouching metal giant beast, silently awaiting the arrival of war.
Clark slightly nodded, gazing afar.
There, at the horizon of the lead-gray sky, signs of the enemy’s magic array activation were beginning to appear.
"The first round of probing is over."
He said calmly.
"Next, it’s time to fight for real."
