Chapter 201: Chapter 199: Hilia: What? The One Fighting Me Is a God?

From above the sky, waves of thunderous rumbling echoed.

Hilia was quite curious, but she kept her head down, cracking the array and trying to gain control rights.

"Just a little bit more, but if the City Lord uses the array, I feel like I won’t be able to operate it..."

Rose gave a subtle smile: "If the City Lord uses the array, that’s perfect. You make your move quietly, and he’ll think it’s the array’s natural reaction—might even believe the array is powerful."

"Well... I’ll see if I can manage it."

As Hilia spoke, she continued to immerse herself in invading and grasping the array’s control.

After a few minutes, she let out a breath and wiped sweat from her brow. "Finally, it’s done."

Her spiritual power transformed into Mage’s Hand, then into countless threads, following the array’s patterns into the core, then spreading from the core throughout the city.

Once she had complete control of the array, Hilia couldn’t help but furrow her brows: "This array feels like it has so many flaws—not just fatal defects from little details, but its external defenses, internal detection... All sorts of issues, big and small."

After venting, Hilia added, "Feels like the old patched-up clothes sewn by a lot of people; looks whole, but in reality, there are gaps everywhere."

Rose nodded, "This array is similar to the one at your school. They’re both centuries-old arrays. The school’s array is fine, rarely changed, but this one keeps getting modified to match the times, so now it seems complete but is full of loopholes. Seems formidable, but one big event could destroy it."

Saying that, he glanced toward the distant battle.

"Like right now."

At this moment, the City Lord was gradually faltering under the siege of three opponents.

Rose sensed clearly that the City Lord’s face was full of disbelief.

The entire Southern Border City’s array could completely suppress those two heretics.

But against that mysterious Shadow Mage, it seemed almost useless.

Instead, he had to constantly guard against the other’s assassination. 𝗳𝚛𝗲𝕖𝕨𝕖𝗯𝚗𝚘𝕧𝕖𝗹.𝗰𝗼𝕞

If not for the array’s protection, he’d likely have ended up like the bishop by now.

And as he scrambled, those two suppressed mages seized the chance to slip out of pressure, hiding in the shadows for sneak attacks, making things even tougher for him.

Hilia could sense the City Lord’s predicament through the array.

She couldn’t resist saying, "Does the City Lord not know how to use the array? Even though it’s patched-up, it’s not like he can’t handle mages of the same tier. He’s not doing nearly as well as I could... Eh? Why do I sense magic fluctuations from Vanessa’s mom?"

She looked to the distant sky and saw a streak of sacred light shining outside the protective array.

The City Lord noticed this light as well, instantly energized.

"Is this reinforcements from the bishop? Please come in!"

Vanessa dashed into the array.

Shadow Mage Jode noticed her arrival too.

"Time... wasted... too much..."

A deep blue light glowed from his body, then gradually faded.

The whole person disappeared.

Over here, Rose said, "Take out the divine... the Heart of the Magic Puppet, and use your spiritual power for resonance."

Divine?

"Okay." Hilia was confused, but still complied, taking out the Divine Fragment and resonating with it by spiritual power, but not listening to the voices inside the Divine Fragment.

As she resonated, the indistinct presence sensed within the array seemed to notice something, and its figure suddenly appeared, then sharply looked this way.

"Hide yourself using the array, don’t let anyone find you," Rose said.

"Alright!"

Hilia’s figure gradually vanished from the plaza.

Actually, she wasn’t gone—just hidden by the array.

This was a rune added to the array at some unknown time, its purpose being to hide the controller. No one knows why it’s there.

After Hilia hid herself, the shadow mass rushed over as well.

But before it could reach the plaza, mysterious runes suddenly appeared in the sky.

Six in total, covering the shadow from all directions.

Then lightning streaked out from the runes, shooting at the shadow.

Jode’s figure appeared from within the shadow.

These lightning strikes weren’t something he could withstand.

So—

Deep blue magic power surged from within him, merging with demonic qi pollution and turning him into a glowing figure of blue-black light.

A droplet-shaped blue magic wrapped around him.

The droplet’s pointed tip dangled downward, extending a thin stream of water to touch the ground.

Inside the droplet, a vacuum formed, isolating him from the droplet itself.

Countless bolts of lightning struck the droplet, loading it with massive electrical currents.

The currents followed the water thread into the ground, electrifying everything around.

But Jode, inside the droplet, was safe and sound.

"That... is it really this conductive?" Hilia was stunned.

Rose said calmly, "The one fighting you now isn’t the Shadow Mage anymore. The Shadow Mage can’t fly; this one moves through the air with ease."

"Then who is it?"

"Who knows, maybe it’s their Deep Sea God."

Hilia’s hand trembled, "No, can’t be, right?"

Rose smiled faintly, "I’m kidding—not some Deep Sea Evil God ’Roster.’"

It’s the lord of the ocean, Sea God Ethel.

He added silently in his heart.

Watching ’Ethel,’ untouched under the droplet’s protection, Rose recalled the battle where he was sealed—he couldn’t help but feel...

What a disaster!

Buddy, after you sealed me, just what did you all experience?

Surely the Twelve Main Gods didn’t end up with their entire pantheon devastated, even my sealed kingdom turned into graveyards of gods?

Rose felt it just wasn’t possible.

"The things I left behind shouldn’t have caused five hundred years of calamity. Even with the side effects of my sealing, I doubt it."

Unless a third party joined the battle.

Thinking of a third party, Rose could only come up with the Nether God and the Netherworld.

It wasn’t impossible...

While pondering, Hilia had already made adjustments—she stopped directly using the array’s lightning to bombard the opponent and instead changed the array’s magic form, creating ice magic, trying to match Rose’s Tier Four spell—Frozen Everything—from memory.

The runes’ purple patterns gradually turned icy blue, and the air filled with chilling waves of ice magic power.

By now, the reinforcement Vanessa had joined the City Lord in subduing the Caros, who had been nearly beaten to death by Jode’s abandonment.

Afterward, they looked up at the sky where lightning kept flashing.

Oh no, it had turned into crystalline ice.

Nobody was more bewildered than the City Lord.

"What happened? Why does the array suddenly act like it’s got the Heart of the Magic Puppet—so smart, and even changes element type?"

Vanessa noticed the City Lord’s expression and said in surprise, "City Lord, weren’t you operating the array, attacking that mage?"

The City Lord was totally lost: "I have no idea."

Through the array, Hilia could sense the conversation between the two, suddenly realizing, "Oh no, this is way beyond what a normal array’s automatic attack should do!"