Above the "Golden Trident," the radiance of the "Azure Secret Key" suddenly softened considerably, as though another ocean lay dormant within it. A faint, rippling sound drifted in and out of perception, evoking the feeling of an eternal, ceaseless flow.
Behind the altar, the "Azure Gate" also shed some of its transcendent, untouchable "holiness," its pale light shimmering as it answered the faint glow of the Secret Key.
In an instant, the void carved out by the Azure Gate took on a layer of pale blue—empty, ethereal, hovering between reality and illusion.
Lucian's extended spiritual field touched that pale blue membrane and was repelled as if by an electric shock, severing his connection to the outside world.
His heart sank slightly, and his expression turned grave. Helix's timing was truly impeccable. He had just prematurely triggered "Spell Sequencing" and hadn't yet managed to cast any other arcane spells to extract himself from the Azure Gate's range before being trapped by this strange "barrier." Had Helix been half a second slower, Lucian would already have used a precision teleport to appear at Natasha's side.
Grave as he felt, there was not a shred of despair or dejection in Lucian's mind. While his strength was still some distance from the absolute peak of the Legendary realm, holding his own against Helix for a while was no great difficulty. As long as he could weaken the barrier in that time, combined with Natasha's assault from outside, breaking free would not be hard. After all, he hadn't come alone. And if the barrier didn't appear to be a space-time type, a single "Positron Cannon" would have been enough to resolve the matter!
"But the fact that he can actually draw on the Azure Gate's power even slightly means this barrier is not to be underestimated," Lucian mused silently. A Dawn Crystal Ball appeared in his left hand, and he activated a divination spell to search for weak points in the barrier. At the same time, he uttered the arcane words of an incantation: "Reversal Spell!"
Since the barrier had to be dealt with first, he had to consider defense in advance.
A mirror inscribed with strange, intricate patterns materialized before Lucian, as if it were a passage leading to another world.
Helix, however, did not attack immediately. Instead, he frowned slightly as he looked at the "Dark Jellyfish" Tiers within the State Transformation Formation. Tiers's body had already been completely suffused with a ghostly, pitch-black hue—neither corporeal nor intangible, writhing ceaselessly, like a mass of aggregated negative emotions that was perpetually tainting everything around it.
Thin, almost imperceptible black threads extended from this aggregate into the vacuum, linking with all nearby negative emotions, making it impossible to distinguish subject from projection. It was like an omnipresent "probability cloud," where the particle's information could only be confirmed after the final collapse. The only difference was that the mass formed by the Dark Jellyfish's transformation was constantly interacting with its surroundings without any sign of collapsing.
Of course, it also lacked the peculiar quality of the Immortal Passage—that endless cycle of collapse and diffusion, the attendant sense of transcendent detachment, of looking down from on high. It was still a considerable distance from the Quasi-divine level.
"Transformed so quickly?" Helix was slightly surprised, but lacking a frame of reference, he could only judge based on his own experience and keen intuition.
"If I don't regain control of Tiers before he adapts to this state, it'll become troublesome..." Helix decided to shift his focus to the State Transformation Formation. It wasn't that he feared Tiers in his ancient demon form, but rather that Tiers might use this bizarre mode of existence to escape or "self-destruct," causing his plan to transform states without hidden dangers to fall apart.
His deep crimson, cold eyes fixed on Lucian, who had just cast the Reversal Spell. The Golden Trident swept forward, and layer upon layer of empty azure appeared before him, completely separating himself from Lucian.
"This is your chance. If you can break through the Azure Bindings and escape before I succeed, that will show you are blessed by fortune today and will not die at my hands. But if I complete the transformation and you are still here, don't blame me." Though Helix's words were lengthy, the strange vibrations produced by his voice conveyed his meaning to Lucian in an instant.
Lucian remained calm and unruffled, unaffected by Helix's provocation. He did not throw himself against the barrier between them in a desperate attempt to stop the transformation. Instead, he cast an arcane spell without hesitation:
"Grand Disintegration!"
As long as he could escape the Azure Gate's range, even if Helix completed the transformation, he and Natasha could withdraw at their leisure. Moreover, even if Helix succeeded, the path to the Quasi-divine level was still long. At most he would be on par with the Chairman—hardly an urgent crisis. So why take the risk of blocking him and waste precious time?
Crack, crack, crack—the empty azure light shattered in a series of crisp pops under the Grand Disintegration, and the water ripples trembled violently. But the Azure Gate stood unmoved, weakening the entire barrier only slightly without shattering it completely.
"Brute force will take five or six Grand Disintegrations. That time might be enough for Helix to complete the transformation with the Dark Jellyfish..." Lucian judged the situation based on the feedback from his assault, and prepared to cast another Grand Disintegration augmented by the "Hand of Uncertainty"!
While this would drain his spiritual energy severely, with his current strength he could manage a dozen or more casts. In a race against time like this, there was no need to hold back.
Just then, Helix suddenly let out a furious roar that sent the surrounding seas into violent upheaval.