Chapter 649: Ember of Glory


    Zac was almost in a reverie as he led the group through the forest. Each breath brought new insights, each step was a revtion.


    However, the tranquility was suddenly broken as Rhubat roared Attack!


    Everyone reacted instinctively, and Zac conjured his energy forest and hundreds of leaves even though he couldnt see what Rhubat was talking about. Unfortunately, by the time that the Zhix leader had sensed that something was wrong, it was already toote.


    Layers uponyers of ming barriers sprung up around them, trapping them in a fiery inferno. Altogether a full eighteen barriers were trapping them, with the first one being just a thin film of fire and the outermost being over a meter thick. They towered over a hundred meters into the air as well, so jumping over was probably impossible.


    Zac wildly looked around for a way to break out, and he soon spotted the perpetrators through the walls of mes. It was unsurprisingly the cultists, and their cloak had been pretty much perfect. However, the camouge was shattered the moment they unleashed their trap, and Zac figured the best course of action was to start breaking barriers to reach them.


    The ground cracked beneath his feet as Zac pushed forward, mming straight into the first barrier. A wave of heat grilled his whole body, but the thin film couldn''t impede his momentum and immediately cracked. But a huge flower of mes bloomed the moment the shield cracked, engulfing Zac before it continued toward the others.


    The Anointed had thankfully already erected thick earthen defenses, which blocked out the iing mes. However, by this point a small smoldering ember had appeared in the sky in the middle of the entrapment, norger than an apple. But that small me made Zac''s soul shudder and filled him with a sense of dread. He might be able to survive that thing, but the others wouldn''t. Worse, it seemed to be umting power.


    The small me definitely couldnt be a skill judging by its power. It had to be some sort of Spiritual me, and its grade was probably Half-Step D-Grade judging by the immense spirituality and force it exuded. Zac couldn''t imagine the cost of bringing something like that through an Incursion. Was this the ultimate treasure the Church of Evesting Dao had brought to Earth?


    Not even the Anointed would be able to withstand that me, and Zac exploded his aura to quench the mes covering him as he shot toward the nextyer. There was no time to waste. Zacs body was quickly getting covered in blisters and sears as he mmed into one barrier after another, but each of them became increasingly stronger. Meanwhile, the me in the sky kept growing, and nothing the others did seem to work.


    Ogras shadows, Rhubats stone attacks, even theser beams of Kenzies drones. They all got incinerated long before they reached the growing me in the sky. But it was also clear that it took a huge effort to control it since a storm of fiery attuned energy swirled around the leaders of the Church of Evesting Dao. They were all standing around something on a pedestal, barely even sparing Zac a nce. They seemed to barely be able to control that thing.


    The others were quickly forced to give up on destroying the fire in the sky and instead joined Zac in his effort to break out. Ten seals mmed into the thick walls of mes, causing the ground to shake. However, it was getting harder and harder to break through as the barriers got thicker. Not only that, the entrapment array was clearly designed to unleash increasingly powerful waves mes when they broke apart.


    Soon, only Zac, Rhubat, and Ogras were able to withstand the fallout from when a barrier broke apart. The others were forced to fight from a distance or rely on the three powerhouses.


    Zac had easily withstood the first six barriers just by blocking the mes with <strong>[Love''s Bond] </strong>and enduring the parts that got through, but his sister didnt have his defenses. From the seventh barrier, he had been forced to enclose himself and Kenzie in the defensive charges of <strong>[Hatchetmans Spirit]</strong>.


    Two charges out of four had already been expended by this point, but Zac wasnt sure hed be able to use all four as the golden leaves at the crown of the holy tree of <strong>[Hatchetman''s Spirit]</strong> were already aze. The ember was still well over a hundred meters in the air, but just its growing presence was enough to severely damage the core of his skill.


    A sense of worry filled Zacs heart when he realized that they wouldn''t make it with their current approach. There were ten more barriers to cut through, and there was nowhere to hide inside the trap. The safest spot to avoid the retaliatory waves of me was right in the middle of the entrapment array, but that would put them in the crosshairs of the even scarier ember above.


    They could either stay on course and unleash their ultimate skills to break through the barriers quicker, perhaps even in one go. As long as the others had some ultimate defensive skills, they would probably get out of it in one piece, but doing things this way would expend a huge number of their cards even before they reached their real enemies. After all, these cultists were probably the weakest party in this ce.


    Alternatively, they could move back and try to defend against that terrifying ball of mes and deal with the barriers and cultists afterward. But were they even able to do that? That miniature sun was already terrifying, and it kept umting more power. There would definitely be casualties if they went that way. But Zac suddenly had an idea.


    Was there perhaps a third option?


    Zac gauged the distance between himself and the cultists, and <strong>[Veruns Bite] </strong>lit up in a sanguine glow as heunched a furious assault on the next barrier barring his path.


    Keep going, just a bit more! Zac shouted, and a thicknce of shadows caused the whole barrier to shudder.


    With the empowerment of the second rune of his Spirit Tool and the renewed efforts of Ogras the barrier quickly crumbled, drenching the group in yet another shower of torrential heat. However, several floating Memorysteel eggs suddenly appeared and generated a series of barriers, protecting the group at the cost of their own safety. Molten drones rained down from the sky as the group mmed into the next one.


    The luster of Verun''s rune was draining fast, but Zac knew they were almost there. One more barrier fell, at which point there were only eight me walls between them and the cultists. Zac had used his third defensive charge to things over, but <strong>[Hatchetmans Spirit]</strong> finally crumbled at that point since the whole core tree had been reduced to a ball of mes.


    The remaining barriers looked extremely sturdy, but Zac had already aplished his goal. Breaking thatst roadblock had put him squarely within fifty meters of the group of cultists as long as he pushed against the wall of fire. Those fifty meters would be an unbreakable chasm to most, but was that really the case for him?


    Could this array really block somethinging from the Void?


    There was no buildup and no warning as a huge wooden hand exuding a primordial aura appeared out of nowhere just a few meters above the cultists and their altar. It immediately mmed straight down as it gained the empowerment of Zacs Dao, turning it into a terrifying hammer of carnage.


    It was naturally <strong>[Natures Punishment] </strong>activated with the help of <strong>[Force of the Void]</strong>. Zac hadnt actually tested this yet, but he was filled with a surge of relief when he saw that his gambit had worked. The barriers couldnt stop him from summoning the skill outside, allowing him tounch a surprise attack.


    Judging by how confident the cultists had looked, they clearly believed that the shields would protect them from any attacks. And Zac already knew high-quality barriers and arrays could seal off space to prevent one from circumventing the shields. For example, how effective would Town Protection Arrays be if one could simply conjure ranged attacks inside the protective bubble?


    The entrapment array the cultists had set up seemed to possess the same abilities, but his odd Bloodline Talent hadpletely circumvented it somehow.


    The cultists immediately noticed the massive hand appearing above their heads, but <strong>[Natures Punishment] </strong>exuded a tremendous pressure. It was enough topletely immobilize middle F-Grade warriors, and even E-Grade cultivators would find themselves toiling under the weight of a mountain, drastically slowing their reaction speed.


    Things should have ended with the elites turning into a paste then and there, but the Incursion Leader suddenly snatched something that had been blocked from Zacs view by the thronging cultists. It was a small ssntern with a weak me inside. It looked like a small gust of wind could snuff out its mes, but Zac felt a far greater fear when he looked at itpared to that descending ember behind him.


    The leader desperately swung thentern at the descending hand and Zac grit his teeth as he prepared to infuse <strong>[Natures Punishment] </strong>with as much Dao and Cosmic Energy as needed to make sure the attacknded.


    Pain.


    Blinding pain made Zac fall down screaming as the skin on his left hand sizzled like it was boiling. It felt like his whole arm had been dipped in molten lead, and the torment cut all the way to his soul. What was that me? Zac desperately refocused his mind and pushed down the agony, only to see the enormous hand full of seemingly endless life-force get reduced to ash in an instant as the small me spread like a wildfire.


    However, the cultists didnt fare well even if their leader had managed to utterly destroy Zacs sneak attack. The weak and isted me in thentern had turned into a terrifying cmity that rained down upon the zealots as the few remaining pieces of woods from Zacs skill had turned into small burning meteors.


    Any cultist that was touched by that mysterious fire turned into a human torch and not even a husk remaining after just a second. There were almost over thirty cultists outside the shields, but that number had been reduced to less than ten in an instant. Zac couldnt believe what he was seeing, and he figured that the effect might even be more devastating than if his own attack hadnded.


    However, the leader himself managed to block the raining mes thanks to a defensive treasure that conjured a shield around him. Most of the other survivors were just lucky and stood far away from the impact zone, but one other seemed to forcibly resist the mes. Zac hadnt seen that man before, but he wore a different set of robes than any other cultist he had met so far.


    Perhaps he was the second-inmand to the Incursion Leader, considering his aura was almost as strong as the one of the man Zac had fought in the Dead Zone. In either case, while he had barely survived getting burnt by the mes, he was clearly on hisst legs. One of his arms had turned into what looked like a burnt-out log, and simr burns covered most of his torso and half his face.


    Zac wasnt sure if even he would survive something like that, and it almost seemed that the poor man was only hanging on through sheer willpower.


    You! the dying warrior screamed with a guttural voice of pain and rage, but it didnt actually look like Zac was the target of the generals ire.


    Zac looked on with iprehension as the zealot actually took out a goldennce andunched an extremely swift strike at his leader. The Incursion leader had managed to block out the mes, but he had been right beneath the wooden hand and he had taken the brunt of the mes. The shield managed to block out most of it, but the Spiritual mes had caught on at the hem of his robes.


    He was desperately trying to stomp out the appalling mes before he turned into yet another torch, and he didnt even realize something was wrong until after the sharp tip of the goldennce pierced the back of his head. The leader arduously looked back with incredulity, just in time to see the traitor spontaneouslybust, not leaving even a scrap behind.


    A secondter the leader copsed as well, and the bursts of Cosmic Energy confirmed that they were both dead.


    Zac looked at the turn of events with confusion, but he didntin. It reminded him a lot of Ogras'' back at the Tree of Ascension, though the oue was mutual destruction this time around. Zac''s energy gain wasnt very impressive since the cultists essentially killed each other, but his attack had been the source of the cmitous chain of events so he did at least get some.n/?/vel/b//jn dot c//om


    The fact that most of the zealots had fallen less than a minute after the battle started didnt mean they were out of the woods just yet. The ember in the center of the array was going haywire with no one to control it, and the remaining shields didnt show any indication of copsing any time soon. They seemed to be actual arrays rather than something conjured by the cultists themselves, and there was no time to break through them one by one judging by how quickly the miniature sun destabilized.


    There was no time to waste and Zac immediately transformed into his Draugr-form as the anointed desperately started digging a hole to hide in from the impending st. <strong>[Profane Seal]</strong> sprung up around them, quickly followed by <strong>[Immutable Bulwark] </strong>acting as a roof for their bunker as Zac grew into his hulking form through <strong>[Vanguard of Undeath]</strong>.


    Its copsing, we probably just need to withstand it for a short moment, Zac shouted as he rejoined the group. Use everything you have!


    The fire in the ember was very simr to the terrifying candle that had snuffed out the lives of most of the cultists, but their chance at survivaly in the fact that it hadnt beenpletely activated. The cultists had been using that Spiritual Fire as the source through the altar outside, but the ritual had been canceled mid-way.


    Layers afteryers of protection were put in ce, mostly thanks to Kenzie and the Anointed. Zacs miasmic bulwark was reinforced by multiple walls wrought from stone, and Kenzie had actually taken out a small mountain of Memorysteel from her Cosmos Sack, quickly transforming it into a dome that the Anointed ced on top. Billy and Ogras didnt have any skills to help in this situation, so they could only help with the digging efforts.


    They kept adding more and more until the time finally ran out.


    There was no explosion, but Zac suddenly felt his miasmic cage copsing without being able to resist at all, and a shocking heat hit them even though they were protected by tens of meters of rock and Memorysteel. The heat quickly grew unbearable, and it was like the heat was even spiritual in nature as Zac felt a searing pain in his soul.


    It wasnt only his imagination, unfortunately, and he helplessly watched as one Anointed after another suddenly fell andbusted, their eyes turning into fiery infernos as even their souls were set aze.


    Hold on! Zac could only shout.


    There wasnt anything that he could against some terrifying invisible me that seemed able to pass through anything. Finally, thestyers of earthen defenses shattered, exposing a sea of mes above them. Only Zac''s miasmic Bulwark remained, but it cost shocking amounts of miasma every second.


    Thankfully it looked like they barely would be able to tide things over as the mes spread outward after roiling across the bulwark''s surface half a minute, exposing the sky once more. No one dared to move for a few minutes, but the squad eventually crawled out of their bunker to look at the aftermath. The shields had unsurprisingly all copsed, and over a kilometer in each direction had been turned into a wastnd. The forest was gone, reced by burning husks and storms of ash.


    The only thing left of the cultists were the fire-resistant robes of the Incursion Leader and a handful of Spirit Tools. A few of the cultists had survived the fiery fallout from thentern exploding, but Zac couldnt imagine they had survived the following st.


    It looked like the cultists were finally over and dealt with.