As a wave of dust reverberated outwards, the two fighters could no longer be seen.
Ikaros and Astrea flapped their wings, blowing the dust away, their augmented vision kept track of the fighters, the dust cloud be damned.
When the dust touched the dark barrier of isolation, the dark barrier repelled the dust from spreading beyond it. Soon, one could see only a giant crater at the center of the fight, a testament to the desolation brought upon this place.
Meanwhile, Wu Yan and Marcus emerged from the chaotic scene as they wrestled for supremacy with their weapons, claws of darkness, and a sword of light. They pressed against each other while sparks flew off their weapons.
“Arghhh!”
Marcus groaned while putting more weight behind his claws. He wanted to blow away the sword of light in front of him. Like an unbreakable wall, the sword of light resisted. Then, the wings unfurled slightly.
Bam
The resulting force was transmitted into Marcus through his claws, staggering him even when he’s empowered by his dark qi.
“Bastard!”
Marcus yelled when he fell back down on the ground. Angered by his ineffective attack, he raged on while Wu Yan unleashed another wave of attack, this time, in the form of two giant walls of light that crashed down upon Marcus.
Marcus’ expression changed and he quickly jumped back as the wall missed him by just that much. When the walls plowed through the ground, it left deep gorges that canceled out the potholes from before.
Then, the walls of light crashed against the dark isolating barrier. The barrier shook as if a giant battered it with a battering ram.
Alas, the dark barrier proved to be more sturdy than it looked. It dimmed down a bit but it quickly recovered its previous sheen. If the barrier got dispelled, the whole base would come after Marcus, ending this fight with Marcus’ hasty retreat.
After this attack, the wings of light fluttered around Wu Yan, making him look like a spider that’s weaving a web of light and lasers.
The formless wings behind him took the shape of a giant pair of wings.
Fwoosh
The wings of light expanded outwards, without using teleportation spells or any other supernatural powers, the wings arrived near Marcus.
Then, one of the wings sliced down at Marcus like a sharp knife.
Bam
The wing made contact with Marcus’ claw, he managed to block in time.
But, this wasn’t the end, not yet.
The other wing smacked at Marcus, blowing away the surrounding air with a heated explosive gust that made the temperature inside this barrier rise in tandem. If this attack hit Marcus, he’s going to be seriously injured.
Marcus steeled himself up as he used his brawny reptilian arm to take the brunt of the wing attack.
Claws met wings as the two collided in a storm of sparks and booms. The barrier trembled with the shockwaves emitted from the brutal exchange of attacks.
He used his strength to resist, he felt like he’s a meat patty squeezed between two incredibly hard buns. He endured the wing attacks as the scales on his face and arms stood up due to his exertion.
As Marcus struggled with a dark look, his anger clouded his vision. He couldn’t see the source of this trapping attack, he couldn’t see Wu Yan chanting a spell with an unknown language in the air above him.
His magic power started pouring out as Wu Yan chanted a spell of divine origin. When he spat out the last magical verse, a robe that looked as regal as a king’s and holy as a bishop’s materialized on Wu Yan’s body.
His dark casual shirt got covered by this white and golden feather robe. Like a priest from an unknown religion, he looked divine and pompous.
When his robe fully came into existence, Wu Yan opened his eyes.
“Walking Church, completed!”
Indeed, this luxurious robe is a magic armor with astounding defensive capabilities known as the ultimate barrier.
Casting magic spells is serious business.
A magician cannot escape the requirements to cast a spell, for example, a magician usually requires magic tools or chants to cast spells. Some potent spells require a magic formation to cast. Mess up a single step and the spell execution might fail, even a mispronunciation would cause a spell to fail.
He might have 103,000 grimoires at his disposal, the spells range from esoteric ones like Yin-Yang Arts, Barrier spells, sealing jutsus, and various other spells. Powerful and mighty spells require tedious set-up.
For instance, chanting.
For an advanced spell like the Walking Church, he needed to chant without interruption. The Eternal Arms Mastery helped him with that but he couldn’t bypass the chanting part. Only Magic Gods of fable can do something like casting magic chantless.
Aleister is one of them.
Back then, Wu Yan used his Meteor Shower bow to threaten Aleister. However, without his equipment, and when Aleister isn’t restricted by his life-sustaining machine, Wu Yan would have lost even if he brought 100 clones of himself back then.
A magic god, that’s a league of its own, it isn’t something he can do at his current level.
He can know the grimoires like the back of his hand and he still wouldn’t be a magic god.
To evoke the Walking Church, he needed to express the words of power through his chanting.
Wu Yan isn’t a magic god, however, by virtue of casting a high-level spell only by relying on chanting, he is already standing near the summit aimed by all magicians.
In the world of this spell’s origin, there are other stringent requirements to cast this spell. Otherwise, Index wouldn’t be one of the few walking around with a Walking Church.
The downside of this spell is obvious, the lengthy cast time and the restrictions around it…
Because he skipped some of the requirements, he needed to continuously supply the Walking Church with mana or risk the spell running out on him during combat. This is inefficient when compared to Index’s walking church that can supply itself with mana because her magic armor went through all the proper steps.
In view of this, Wu Yan used his wings of light to restrict Marcus and buy himself some time to cast the magic armor. Unbeknownst to Marcus, the wings of light pinning Marcus down are autonomous.
He used the Walking Church because he wanted to do something else. It wasn’t for defense, as a True Ancestor, he didn’t need the extra defense…
