Chapter 24: The Power of Law
Translator: StarveCleric Editor: StarveCleric
“Kill them all!!”
Or perhaps, in this instant, my orders were excessive.
The one leading the frontlines is without doubt, the one known as Guardian of Steel, Xueti. As the Head of Hall of Enforcement, the Town Security army can be considered his direct subordinates. They were the one he came into contact with the most often and he was even able to name out each and every one of them in the 800 men strong Town Security. Now that they were getting injured in front of his eyes, how can he not be enraged! How can he not feel hatred towards the enemy!
Xueti’s eyes rolled to the extent of showing only white and the final sanity in his head turned into bloodshed. After he decided to go into a frenzy, the role model of a good man completely disappears. The one charging now isn’t the one who can’t retaliate under the pursuit of the Town Security but a mad bull driven by vengeance.
“Heroic Charge!”
This is one of the simplest skill of a warrior. It simply rockets its user forward like a fodder but in the hands of the Guardian of Steel, it became a charge of death that destroys everything in his path.
Taking it upfront? He simply charges over you unreasonably.
Using spears to stab him? Even the sharpest enchanted spears are unable to penetrate his steel body.
The strong Blackwater army was as weak as a bunch of chickens in the face of the Legend-rank old bull. As though finding that the usage of weapon wouldn’t appease his anger, he grabs a Pig Tribe Beastman with each of his hands and crushes them together to form two pile of meat soil. Afterwards, he moves on to the next target…
“Sorcery.Frog Hex!”
An old Shaman whose head was filled with chicken feathers used its most vicious sorcery on the old bull but with just a fierce glare by the Guardian of Steel, the sorcery was reflected back to the Shaman.
“Ribbit ribbit”, a frog that jumps randomly around appears on the ground. Then, he was stepped to his death by a mad bull.
Iron Bloodline, Copper Body, Silver Dignity, Golden Will, Respected Legend. Upon reaching the stage of a Legend, one could forge their own Soul Imprint and using their imprint as the core and the power source, they can significantly strengthen a component of their abilities.
“Steel Heart” is the name of Xueti’s Soul Imprint. He believes that his body is like metal, his soul forged by steel, indestructible and flawless.
Fine, its side effect is that one would be overconfident of his perfect physique and would think that not stripping to show to the entire body would be the regret of the world. Thus, he formed the bad habit of exhibitionism…
Cough, we are at the battlefield now, so let’s be a bit more serious. Let’s speak less of the gossips and get back to the main topic.
A Gold-rank expert can use their will to affect their physique and the world and with this pure enhancement type of Soul Imprint, Xueti only has to gather his own will, coupled with the basic abilities as a Legend-rank Justice Knight, he would be an infallible steel fortress.
If so, destroying a few inferior weapons and reflecting a few low-level sorceries is just a piece of cake!
Against the formation of the Blackwater army, he is like an unblockable meat grinder. The slow but determined march, charge, assault and suppress then what is left behind him is a floor of broken weapons and lumps of scattered meat.
“Accept the judgement of law! Criminal! Incantation of Law: Judgement!”
Compared to Xueti who was rushing in a frenzy, at least Kelvin remembers to use the one-circle spell that all Justice Knights must know.
This incantation was modelled over the Holy Knight’s Divine Art, Detect Evil, but there is great difference in its effects. Divine Art Detect Evil seems like a skill to differentiate the good from the bad, but if good and bad can be differentiated so easily, then why do we still need police and law enforcers? We could just send Holy Knights to check everyone and throw all evil people into jail. Then, we would have everlasting peace.
What Divine Art Detect Evil truly detects is the energy within one’s body and their bloodline. If it is sided towards Chaos, then naturally, the red light representing evil will appear. Otherwise, if it is sided towards Order, then a white light representing justice will appear…
It might be unreliable but in certain senses, it is quite effective. At least, for Liches which is filled with the Power of Death and the Dark Elves who have a bloodline sided towards Chaos, it would definitely shine bright red and admittedly, they are normally up to no good.
As for my Incantation of Law: Judgement, it looks into the mind of the one who had the spell casted on them and judges them by the Codex of Law based on their actions within an hour. If guilty, the spell would shine red. Otherwise, if he is innocent, the spell would shine white.
Of course, I would be extremely pleased if I could further the time the Incantation of Law could probe into. This way, our legal system could save a lot of hassle. However, it is a power derived from the laws of Order and I am unable to change it as an individual.
In front of him, as the divine light of Judgement falls, all of the Beastmen naturally shone bright red. This would increase the might of the Incantation of Law cast on them afterwards by several folds.
“Incantation of Law: Silence!”
The gavel strikes from midair, followed by silver ripples spreading outwards. The light of silence disperses and all of the Shamans find themselves unable to chant magic. Immediately after, all of the Berserkers realized that they are unable to release their warcry!
This Incantation of Law was a 2-circle magic that was used to keep silence in a court. Naturally, it can shut the mouth of the sinners!
“Incantation of Law: Proof of Crime Lock On, Equipment Strip!”
This Incantation of Law is famous for being the most shameless spell of Justice Knights. If the opponent is a criminal that was currently breaking the law, the Justice Knights are able to pinpoint an equipment as evidence of the crime, preventing the opponent from using it. (5-circle magic, spends quite a huge amount of magic. The prerequisite for the spell is that the person has been judged guilty)
The duration of the spell might be short and it is single-target, but just think about it, if your weapon and armor suddenly leaves you in the middle of a battle…
“Sin-Splitting Strike!”
It was impossible for the experienced Justice Knight Kelvin to miss the opportunity provided when the enemy lost his weapon.
Kelvin strikes with his longsword, bringing along a silver light on the sword from the buff of Incantation of Law originating from the Origin of Codex’s Power of Order. A criminal who is hit by this blow would suffer a damage several folds higher.
Under the ordinary longsword, the Pig Tribesman’s prided thick skin was as easily cut through as paper.
With another strike from his sword, the silver light shoots out in the form of a spinning chakram. Aiming at more valuable targets, he kills numerous prestigious military officers at one go.
The classical combination of something resembling the Holy Knight’s Divine Arts and physical attacks. The most commonly seen battle style of Justice Knights as a law enforcer were physical attacks and lower-circle magic that were exceptionally effective on those who broke the law.
As for the mad bull Xueti, he is an exception. Ignoring the fact that he doesn’t use spells or weapons, he actually finds his clothes in his way and started stripping his own protective gears…
Cough, it is good that a warrior has passion for battle. As long as you’re tougher than your armor, then you’re free to decide on whether you want to use weapon and protective gear or not. There is nothing stopping you from going nude on the battlefield.
Actually, as a rarely seen Legend-rank Warrior whose abilities were purely in physical enhancements, the durability of his body might be close to Adam’s, these normal weapons aren’t really necessary to him. Anyway, getting ripped apart or sliced apart isn’t much of a difference to the victims.
Perhaps, the reason why Xueti’s true identity as the Battlefield Exhibitionist hasn’t been revealed is only because those who have seen him in his mad bull state has been reduced to meat lumps by him…
“What a splendid fodder.”
Looking at how the two-men fodder team charging ahead had captured the attention of most of the opponents, I couldn’t resist sighing.
The other two Mages, Kale and Elisa flashed smiles of agreement.
In the Eich Continent, there is a common saying that roughly means that Mages look down upon others not of their own. In their eyes, there are only two main distinctions of all jobs. Mage and non-Mage fodder…
This is another argument for the supremacy of magic but I must say, thus opinion is biased.
“In this old man’s eyes, it is obvious that there are 3 categories. Mage, useless fodder and useful fodder and Kelvin and Metal Lump (Xueti’s nickname) inevitably belongs to the category of the most useful, classical and limited-edition fodder that should be well-cherished! Look, due to their charges, those dumb pigs actually forgot about our existence, forgot about the Mages who are at the core of the battle.”
As a Mage who pursues the truth, Kale.Diya’s reply is satisfactory as always.
“Actually, I categorize them by their power ranking. Xueti is a Legend-rank fodder and if we look at his Soul Imprint, his value can be upped one notch, putting him at the level of classical collection worth stashing away. Kelvin is slightly inferior… Alright, Elisa, don’t glare at me like that, I know we are working on serious matters. Cough, since our fodder have attracted the liveliness of our enemies and fulfilled their purpose, then let’s destroy them in one go.”
“Alright, let this old man go first. Incantation of Magic: Stripping of Freedom.”
This is a single-target 4-circle magic. Normally, it restricts the movement of a criminal within an area. But, in the hands of a Saint-rank Mage, it has evolved into a powerful AOE magic that restricts the movement of a group. In an instant, all of the Blackwater soldiers who were marked with a red light within sight became unable to move.
“Hng! What’s going on!! Hng hng!”
“Hng hng! Let me go!”
An individual Mage is often treated like a cannon but in reality, it is only when Mages form groups and work together do Mages show their true prowess.
The Saint-rank Kale.Diya spent large amount of his mana to restrict the enemy’s freedom. In fact, to sustain the spell, he was unable to move himself. This was all so that Elisa and I could cast our magic on the frozen enemies as we please.
Since the conditions are good now, then the spell we should use now should naturally make use of the enemy’s inability to move to the fullest.
“Ice Carving!”
As a Half-Demon, Elisa was born with a strong Chaos bloodline, which makes it difficult and ineffective for her to utilize the Power of Law which was a subsidiary of the Origin of Order. Thus, I imparted to her my expertise when I was still Lord Yongye — Necromancy and Ice elemental magic.
For an Ice Mage, creating a few ice sculptures is a piece of cake but these products of ice do lack offensive power. However, if these ice sculptures appear in the wrong positions…
Fine, I will get straight to the point. In this instant, beside the feet of all of the Beastmen, icicles were slowly growing and the sharp edges were aimed at the Beastmen’s reproductive organs…
Glancing at the corpses of the Town Security who were defiled, I secretly wiped away my cold sweat and made a mental note not to offend women. I know that this time, Elisa is really furious.
Maybe it is to make those Beastmen regret their actions before their deaths, so the icicles grew at a slow pace. But, looking at the sweat beads on Kale’s forehead and hearing the cursing of those Beastmen, I felt the necessity to give them a hand.
“Extreme Magic.Soaring Spell!”
Compared to the 2-circle Floating Spell which Mages use to jump from high locations, the 3-circle Soaring Spell is its upgraded version, allowing people to fly slightly higher, around 1 to 2 meters.
In this moment, even after I used the Extreme Magic Technique to convert it into an AOE spell, it only turned into a 6-circle commonly used mystical spell. Very quickly, the entire group of Beastmen were enchanted with the Soaring Spell and due to the restriction of movement from the Incantation of Law, they can only move up or down…
The current me cannot be compared to the SemiGod tier top-class Mage I was then. It might just be a 6-circle mystical spell, but this Lich also don’t have much mana to waste, so…
“Pataa!” With a snap of a finger, the effects of the Soaring Spell were released and all of the Beastmen dropped down rapidly. Then, they met with the icicles which had been waiting for them for a long time…
“This is too tragic! I can’t bear to watch it any longer.”
The scene in front of me made me recall the candied apple that were skewered together with a stick. I decided that I would never eat this kind of food again. Then, I realized that I already no longer need to ingest food, it was all excessive thoughts…
“Hng hng! Demon!! Hng!”
“Quickly run! Hng hng! Run!!”
When half of an army faced the other half of an army which had been converted into ‘Pork Candied Apple”, even the most elite of soldiers would escape in despair.
The panicked dispersion of the Blackwater army before me was within expectations.
“Not chasing them?”
“Don’t, forcing them to retreat from the city is sufficient.”
If I went by my style of doing things normally, I definitely kill every single last one of them. Even if they managed to escape from the city, I will pursue them to the ends if the world. But, I decided to shelve it aside temporarily because of an unease I felt, a feeling that I was missing out a crucial factor.
Truthfully, when I saw the devastation outside the city gates and the Blackwater army, my first reaction, other than anger, the more dominant one was surprise.
“Why did they send the Blackwater army who serve as the Royal Guards. If it was a bunch of elite thieves sneaking in to cause trouble, he could still argue his way out of it. But, if he sent his Royal Guards, it become an obvious act of war. Hng Hng’s head must have been dunked in water, or else why would dare to fall out with Sulfur Mountain City and start an all-out war with us. Just what kind of back-up does he has.”
But soon, when I realized that I was unable to communicate Margaret who was outside the city, I could roughly guess what happened.
“The Underground Alliance and the Underground Autarchs huh? Looks like Hng Hng has really decided to fall out with Sulfur Mountain City completely. I underestimated our opponents. The attack by half of their army was probably just to stall our internal firepower… Aren’t they afraid of Adam getting back at them? To offend 3 independent and free SemiGod experts at one go? If they don’t solve the root of the problem, they would just be seeking their own deaths. So, it seems like the Underground Autarch is intending to weed our roots out. The fact that I am unable to communicate with Margaret probably indicates that they are in trouble, deep trouble.”
At this point, I made up my mind.
“Let’s go back to the court. Let’s begin the hearing.”
“Begin the hearing? You intend to use the Origin of Codex? Lilith just reported that the situation in the city is still under control, even so, you intend to use our trump card? Is it worth it?”
“Of course, it is worth it. There are changes in the situation. Elisa, go and prepare the God Equipment and the ritual. We must immediately halt the internal strife. In the worst-case scenario, our great City Lord might still be waiting for our rescue.”
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