The sound of the explosion and Dylane's roar echoed throughout Dragonblood Castle.
"What's happening?" The Martial God, the Grand Priest, Hsi Se, along with Dilia, Wotton, Gates, and the others all rushed over immediately. When they saw Dylane facing off against Orgavin and Hanbury in midair, they carefully positioned themselves around Lin Lei.
Dilia affectionately took Lin Lei's hand and whispered, "Lin Lei, that Orgavin has come again?" She looked worried.
The previous time Orgavin had attacked, Lin Lei had ordered Dilia, Wotton, and the others to hide inside the pocket dimension chamber. So Dilia and the rest had never seen what Orgavin looked like. But in her view, the only middle-level god who would come charging in like this had to be from Orgavin's side.
"It's him. He brought a helper this time, but Lord Dylane and Lord Tarosha are more than enough to handle them," Lin Lei said softly, comforting her.
Dilia nodded.
The two of them looked up into the sky.
"Haha..." Tarosha also flew up at this moment, laughing loudly. "Orgavin, I can't believe you've got the nerve to come back. Seems like you didn't take my words in the imperial capital last time to heart."
As Tarosha spoke, a cyan whip appeared in his hand.
"Hsss hiss~~" Cold mist emanated from the whip.
Orgavin's two divine clones and Hanbury were both shaken to their core.
"Orgavin!!!" Hanbury roared through divine sense communication, furious. Things were unfolding nothing like what Orgavin had predicted.
Orgavin also felt that things had gone wrong.
Both of them were struggling desperately to resist Dylane's devouring suction. Orgavin had split into his two clones, and even combining forces with Hanbury, they could barely hold on. In this state, they couldn't move freely at all. If Tarosha were to strike with his whip now... they'd be nothing but sitting ducks!
"Ha ha, take a few hundred lashes first!" Tarosha laughed as he cracked his whip.
Hundreds of lashes?
Orgavin and Hanbury, who were straining to resist the suction, both turned pale. How could they possibly take a middle-level god's attack head-on?
"Whoosh~~"
The long cyan whip danced through the air like a giant serpent, transforming into brilliant streaks of cyan light. The surrounding temperature plummeted to freezing in an instant, and a layer of frost naturally blanketed the ground. The cyan whip lashed out like a python's tail, striking hard at Orgavin and Hanbury.
"Fall back!"
Orgavin and Hanbury gritted their teeth almost simultaneously, surging the energy within their bodies. Despite suffering injuries, they forced their way out of Dylane's devouring range.
"Boom!" A violent shockwave erupted in midair, generating a powerful gust of wind out of thin air. Even some of the ornamental plants and flowers around Dragonblood Castle were snapped. Orgavin's two clones and Hanbury hovered high above the castle, all of them pale-faced.
Dylane cursed under his breath: "Hmph, if my divine power weren't so impure and lacking in quantity, do you really think you two could have escaped?"
Above Dragonblood Castle, Orgavin's two divine clones and Hanbury hovered in the air.
"You two had better scram far away, or I won't hold back anymore," Tarosha said with a grin, looking up at the somewhat bedraggled pair above.
Hanbury, however, turned to Orgavin and communicated through divine sense: "Orgavin, that Dylane is the 'weakling' you told me about? Hmph, I think we should just leave." Hanbury didn't want to leave immediately though — after all, he'd already received a divine artifact as payment.
Orgavin glared coldly downward, fury raging in his heart.
His gaze fell on Olivia, who stood beside Lin Lei. Orgavin trembled slightly with rage and transmitted through divine sense: "Hanbury, this is my fault — I didn't investigate the other party's strength properly. But... I must kill this Olivia. If I don't, I'll die unable to accept it."
"Have you lost your mind?" Hanbury looked at Orgavin with great displeasure.
Orgavin's eyes blazed as he stared downward, merely transmitting: "Hanbury, don't worry... Dylane's devouring can only pull from one direction. Here's what we do — we split up and attack the area below. This time, I'll draw Tarosha and Dylane's attention. You must kill Olivia. Hanbury, I'm counting on you."
With that, Orgavin looked at Hanbury solemnly.
Hanbury hesitated for a moment, then sighed.
"Fine, I'll do it," Hanbury said. Then he added, "But if I run into danger, I'm leaving first. Don't blame me for that."
"Of course I won't blame you," Orgavin said, looking at Hanbury with gratitude. "Thank you."
"Get ready," Hanbury said.
Orgavin's Light divine clone and Fire divine clone unleashed their power simultaneously. Brilliant holy light spread downward, aimed directly at the area where Lin Lei stood below. This holy light was actually Purification Light — even a Saint Realm powerhouse would be injured upon being struck by it.
Back when Orgavin had destroyed the imperial palace of the Baruch Empire, he had used this very move.
That attack had killed nearly everyone in the palace. Only Anke and Xini had survived, and Xini had been gravely wounded.
"Oh no." Seeing this, Lin Lei didn't hesitate for a moment. He slammed both fists into the ground.
"Rumble~~~~" The entire earth shook. A peculiar wave of energy materialized in the sky above the group of several dozen people, forming a transparent dome-like barrier that shielded Lin Lei, Wotton, and everyone else within.
Earth System Forbidden Magic — Pulse Guard!
Pulse Guard was a large-scale defensive spell. It could generally be used to defend an entire city. For example, if the enemy cast Meteor Descent, sending countless boulders crashing toward a city, one could deploy Pulse Guard to resist it.