Mage Manual
Chapter 519 - 423: Wonder·Spider Web

Chapter 519: Chapter 423: Wonder·Spider Web

Void Realm, main city of Spider Tower.

In this painting where black and white interweave, the oddly shaped knowledge creatures quickly become uniform Spider Tower Soldiers after being equipped by armed species. However, constrained by the Static Domain, they are ultimately just a stagnant shade of gray—if they leave the protection of the main city and lack the nourishment of the Flowing Gold River, they’d have to wring out the very time within their bodies to take even one step forward.

Only native knowledge creatures can move freely within the Static Domain. Knowledge creatures that are armed cannot be recognized by the Void Realm—no taking the shape of a Mage! Turn back now! If you don’t, I’ll freeze you in time!

Other than the Spider Tower, no other forces would arm their species in the Static Domain stage, as species have a limited duration, and their movement speed is generally slower than that of knowledge creatures; thus, most commanders adhere to the basic rule of "travel in original form, arm before battle."

Of course, Spider Tower wouldn’t break this rule.

When they arm their species in the Static Domain, it means—

The Spider Tower Army would burst forth from the stillness of time, directly into the turns of other forces!

Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!

Countless threads descend from the white curtain of spider webs in the sky, latching onto the Spider Tower Soldiers, wrapping them into cocoons, and then pulling them into the spider web. At a glance, they appear to be ascending to Heaven, or plummeting into Hell.

In the next second, countless cocoons appear in the spider webs outside the giant wooden fortress. The cocoon threads quickly gather and converge into armor, and the Spider Tower Soldiers stepping into time regain their color once more; their thoughts instantly connect to the Command Central, corroding the land like venom, and striking the enemy’s main city like bayonets!

Swift as thunder, elusive as shadows!

Such is the combat skill of Spider Tower, and such are its wonders!

Denzel watched as the Spider Tower Soldiers finally breached the wall, now entangled in grueling street combat. The giant wooden fortress was now operating at full capacity; the outside Heroic Soul Army quickly maneuvered to reinforce, all the men-at-arms inside the fortress completed their species’ arming, and the Spider Web Army struggled like they were mired in quicksand, unable to unleash their full potential.

She couldn’t help but sigh, "If it were the complete form of Spider Web, the fortress should have been breached by now."

Spider Web, the war wonder left to Spider Tower by the All-Knowing Weaver.

According to common knowledge, wonders are only supposed to be used by Divine Lords, and the minimum qualification is at least an Angel, while the Time Continent only has Two-winged combat power commanders—it’s like asking a paper figure to jump out of a phone and marry you—not of the same dimension.

In a way, Time Continent is like a closed kindergarten. Don’t be fooled by how fiercely the Heroic Soul Army fights; to a Divine Lord, it’s merely child’s play. But here’s the problem, Divine Lords can’t step in to help the kids fight, so they must circulate controlled weapons into the kindergarten through special channels.

The All-Knowing Weaver created a special system for this: He dispersed the wonders into the Kingdom of Gospel, then allowed the Spider Tower to pick up the wonders and reweave them. It seems simple, but the mechanism is extremely complex, and the cycle is very long—at least 50 years.

The reason why the Great Seal of the Six Kingdoms happens every fifty years is that all the forces need 50 years to complete their strategic wonders. This is not a change that happens overnight but a balance that has been refined over a thousand years. At least when Denzel first became a Commander, the Great Seal of the Six Kingdoms was every hundred years, but all the forces have since accelerated the renewal of strategic wonders in an arms race, stabilizing it to every fifty years in the last few centuries.

With each war game, commanders grow more elite, species more formidable, and strategic wonders more refined.

What, if others attack when your own strategic wonder isn’t ready?

Then you’d better run and save your vitality, bowing out gracefully from the current Seal War.

Through her lengthy career as a Heroic Soul, Denzel has both trampled those who hadn’t kept up with the updates of strategic wonders and been beaten by those who had refined their strategic wonders a step ahead. From these experiences, she gleaned two insights:

One, strategic miracles really determined the outcome of the war.

Two, if it was certain that defeat was inevitable, then there was no point in waiting for a strategic miracle!

Having lost a Concept Avatar, Denzel knew that Spider Tower stood little chance of ranking in the top three this time. Given that, Spider Tower might as well initiate the war of sealing phases right away, dragging all the powers into the mire and triggering their strategic miracles as soon as possible. By bringing everyone’s strength to the same level, seizing victory in the chaos might still hold a glimmer of hope!

However, easier said than done, if Spider Tower thought to storm other forces following White Bull’s approach, that was absolutely impossible.

After all, the other forces were no fools. Once they discovered a large-scale incursion by the Spider Tower army, they would definitely immediately retract their main forces to their capitals, and even arrange ambushes around the capitals, encircling Spider Tower from all sides upon their attack, turning a surprise raid into a total war—fighting a total war on others’ turns, others’ territories, outside others’ capitals, Spider Tower would have been foolish to waste their forces like that.

So, upon discovering that Ash and his companions had a means to cross the Flowing Gold River and that it was basically impossible to retrieve the Secret Avatar, Denzel informed all the forces about how to locate the Secret Avatar.

First, even if the Secret Avatar was destroyed, there was still a time for it to be reborn. But if Ash managed to ascend to the Holy Domain with the Secret Avatar, Spider Tower would truly lose the Secret Avatar forever.

Second, Denzel hated people who were neither willing to die nor to submit the most, and she relished doing things that harmed herself but not others.

Third, Denzel wanted to gamble on a chance, betting that Ash and his team would run to the capital area.

She won the bet.

She knew full well that normal Mages had no way of approaching the capital area, yet Ash and his party were not only able to form a group but also possessed a mechanical creation whose speed far exceeded that of ordinary creatures of knowledge. Hence, they had the power to enter the capital area.

By spreading the information that Ash and the others were carrying the Secret Avatar, she hoped the other powers would provoke Ash and his team. This would not only draw out the capital’s forces but also force Ash to run around desperate, thereby increasing the likelihood of him breaking into the capital area.

Of course, the most ideal situation was that Ash and his companions, driven by anger, would take the initiative to cause havoc in the capital area themselves.

However, Denzel was merely indulging in a light gamble, without much expectation. She usually just cursed them in circles, wishing they would fall for the trap. But to her complete surprise, before White Bull could even complete its rounds, the Mages began to enact the very scene she had most hoped for!

They charged into the capital area with the Concept Avatar!

The moment the Secret Purple spread over the Oasis, Denzel immediately applied to activate the Wonder·Spider Web and requested authority as the Commander!

"Spider Web"

"Active Effect·Weaving: In the area smeared with purple concept, weave a secondary transmission network. The capital’s army can transport from the main web to the secondary web by consuming Spider Silk."

"Active Effect·Entanglement: After soldiers consume Spider Silk, the silk will add an additional 3 layers of armor to them and attach the ’Entanglement’ enhancement. Any enemy attacking the entangled soldiers will suffer from a persistent weakening of 30% reduced speed and 30% slower thought processes; when the entangled soldiers’ armor shatters, it will splash 3 layers of poison onto all entities within 3 meters, and enemy units painted with poison will receive constant damage (layers of poison can stack indefinitely)."

"Active Effect·Corrosion: The secondary web will continuously expand at a rate of 3 meters every 10 seconds, and any enemy units stepping on the web will be bound, all their troops’ skills will be disabled, and they will suffer 3 layers of armor corrosion every 10 seconds."

"Passive Effect·All-Knowing Veil: Spider Tower Commanders can ignore the reversed Golden Rain, with a maximum observation distance reaching 300 meters."

"Passive Effect·Trap Veil: Within the capital area covered by the Spider Web, effects such as ’Weaving,’ ’Entanglement,’ and ’Corrosion’ are permanent."

"Ultimate Weapon·Fate Weaving (Unfinished): Within a specified range, sever the Fate threads of all enemy units, completely annihilate their existence, and make them unable to resurrect; repair the Fate threads of all friendly units, restoring their armor status to its original form, and resurrect any units fallen this turn immediately. Using this skill will consume all Spider Web, and it can only be used when the amount of Spider Web is greater than 50%."