[Vol. 7] Chapter 276: The Eternal Scepter and the Heart of the World
It actually worked...
Seeing Carinvega’s confused face as she kept trying and failing again and again, the priestess who started it all was actually secretly surprised too.
The skill [Iron Blood Arena] is a hidden ability that can only be activated by using three specific items together, the [Necklace of Sacred Healing], the [Bracelets of Holy Protection], and the [Ring of Divine Aid].
The effect of this skill is to forcibly pull up to ten people, including the user, into a special arena. While inside, no one is allowed to use any offensive abilities or weapons, nor can they summon anything. However, defensive, healing, and support skills are still allowed.
Although these three holy accessories are only Semi-Divine tier individually, they became part of Violet’s main gear not just because of their good stats, but mainly because of the powerful combined skill they unlock when used together.
The priority of this skill is very high, equal to the unique abilities of true divine weapons or artifacts. For example, the [Feather Robe Graria] Violet used earlier has a passive skill that allows the user to completely block any kind of damage up to three times a day. [Iron Blood Arena] is just as powerful, with an “absolute success” effect.
Because the effect of [Iron Blood Arena] is so strict. Once inside, someone has to win or lose, even Violet herself can’t turn it off. The only way to end it without a result is to kill someone and then revive them. So normally, she avoids using this skill and prefers simpler ways to solve problems.
Before this fight started, Violet hadn’t planned to use [Iron Blood Arena] at all. But when Carinvega used [Fate: Life and Death in an Instant] and instantly shattered [Light Protection] Barrier, even triggering the [Feather Robe Graria] passive skill, it really startled her.
Even though that was just a sixth-tier spell, the way it broke the defense so quickly showed it had some kind of special element. Violet realized that even stronger defense spells might not stop it.
In the game, whenever Violet faced strong enemies with unknown fighting styles, but still had to win, her usual approach was to drag them into the [Iron Blood Arena], seal off all their flashy and weird attacks, and then deal with them at her own pace. It became a kind of instinctive battle habit for her.
So when Violet noticed that the enemy was about to use that strange, hard-to-understand attack again, she didn’t even think twice, she immediately used [Iron Blood Arena].
At first, the priestess only wanted to restrict Carinvega a little, since this opponent was clearly unusual. She hadn’t expected that [Iron Blood Arena] would completely block the strange attack. That was an unexpected bonus.
It now seemed that these in-game gear skills might actually be even stronger than she had thought.
Even if an attack came from divine power, it was still an attack, and in [Iron Blood Arena], all attacks are banned. In some situations, this could be a really powerful hidden trump card...
Of course, Violet wasn’t about to explain how her skill worked like some dumb villain. The enemy in front of her was the most mysterious she had faced since arriving in this world. The less Carinvega understood, the better.
While the red-haired girl was still confused, the black-haired Violet spread her six wings again, and attack without warning!
“Boom!!!”
With a loud blast, she charged straight forward and swung her staff with full force. Carinvega, caught off guard, quickly raised her hand to block.
But now that they were in a space where no bystanders could get hurt, Violet had no reason to hold back.
The 9th-tier magic [Ten Radiance of the Holy Light] instantly wrapped around her, and combined with the full activation of [Divine Wings], all of Violet’s abilities were boosted to several times their normal strength!
A heavy, echoing sound, like a huge hammer smashing a giant bell, shook the entire arena.
“BOOM!!!!!!!!!”
It looked like the ability called [Fate: Beyond All Things] really was a pure defense skill. Even inside the [Iron Blood Arena], the ripple-like shield still appeared and completely blocked the swing of her staff.
But under this suddenly multiplied, terrifying strength, even the untouchable red-haired girl was blasted away like a cannonball.
She crashed right into the invisible barrier at the edge of the arena, and even her powerful repulsion field, which usually destroyed everything in its path, couldn’t stop the holy force behind the blow.
The arena edge made a terrible cracking sound under the pressure, and then shattered like glass across a wide area!
“Cough... cough...”
The red-haired girl, slammed deep into the “air wall” by several meters, finally moved her lips for the first time. She let out a heavy cough. Not through telepathy, but a real sound. Her silver eyes looked down toward the bright, glowing figure who had somehow already appeared beneath her, and for the first time, that calm silver light in her gaze began to ripple with emotion.
[That staff... it’s not the same as your divine power. Is it a Primordial Artifact?!]
[So what if it is?]
"Grrrrrrrrr..."
Think of a stretched trampoline around the arena. Violet's attack hit it so hard that it bent inwards, even though Carinvega tried to block it. The wall began to slowly bounce back to its original shape.
Carinvega finally slipped out of the wall and floated back to the air, just a few feet above the ground. But as she came to a stop, she swayed slightly. Barely noticeable, but Violet saw it.
Although the invisible wave from her [Fate] Authority was still faithfully protecting her body, making her look completely unharmed on the surface, her reaction and Violet’s own feeling when the hit landed clearly showed one thing, the strike had done some real damage. The hidden effect of [Eternal Scepter of the World's Heart] was starting to take hold.
This weapon had two special abilities, [Eternal] and [Heart of the World].
[Heart of the World] had two parts. An active ability, "Give soul to lifeless things." A passive ability, "Constantly restores a large amount of the user’s HP every second."
Both were extremely powerful and rare.
Compared to that, the [Eternal] ability, which simply made the weapon “impossible to break in any way,” seemed less amazing on the surface.
But actually, Eternal was far from simple.
The real reason [Eternal] made the weapon indestructible was to support its true power. A passive ability that was basically a game-breaking cheat.
Here’s how it worked.
Every time the staff was used in a physical attack, even if it didn’t hit the enemy directly (for example, if it hit a magical shield instead), as long as it could confirm who the target was. It would immediately, without exception, absorb 0.1% of that target’s maximum HP, MP, and SP, and transfer it all to the staff’s owner.
There was no cooldown, no limit, and no way to block it.