Ethereal Ascendance: A Journey of Transformation

Without doubt, Adrian's strategy worked well - Lantine Oasis's underground defense system successfully fought off the invasion! Watching the enemy numbers drop on the virtual screen, he couldn't help but smile proudly. He turned to Nicola, the so-called "expert" on Ancient God Religion, and asked:

"What do you think they'll do next? Stay on the ground or retreat?"

"......"

Even Nicola had to admit that this victory came too easily! Nobody expected that Lantine Oasis's thousands-year-old defenses would still work so well.

Based on the death count, some enemies probably survived above ground, but they had learned their lesson - no one dared to enter anymore.

"If it's just soldiers entering the city, Ancient God Religion might have to retreat! But if a Bishop comes in, that's different..." Nicola said with concern.

Actually, she wasn't sure whether she said this because she couldn't accept Adrian's good luck. Plus, they hadn't seen any Bishop show up yet, - maybe only soldiers had entered the city...

"Nonsense! Ancient God Religion's Bishops always hide at the back of their army to give orders. Why would they risk coming forward? Even if they did come, they're still made of flesh and blood! They'd die just like those soldiers when going through our underground defenses!" one of Adrian's men sneered. They had finally gained the upper hand, but she kept being negative, which hurt their morale.

"Your Majesty, there's movement in Channel 8 again. Someone's trying to break through!" suddenly, a voice came through the control panel.

Channel 8 used the same defense system as Channel 6, which had killed enemies by removing all the air. Adrian quickly used his crown to switch the monitoring screen to Channel 8. Now they could see what was happening - only one person had entered!

But this person looked different from the other church soldiers. He wore loose, plain gray clothes not like the battle gear worn by soldiers. He also held a long staff.

"That's a Bishop!"

While others didn't recognize, Nicola immediately knew who it was.

"Oh really? Perfect timing! Let's see what he can do!" Adrian seemed unimpressed. He zoomed in the camera and watched excitedly. After all, so many enemies had died in this channel, everyone totally trusted the city's defense system.

But they had forgotten what Nicola mentioned before - Ancient God Religion's leaders usually had special powers...

When the gray-robed Bishop entered the channel, as expected, doors closed in front and behind him, creating a sealed space.

But unlike the church soldiers earlier, he didn't panic. Instead, he planted his staff firmly on the ground, closed his eyes, and started loudly chanting some religious words.

Through the microphone, Nicola could hear clearly:

"Thank you, great Spring, for giving divine power to us mortals. May Spring's glory shine on every corner of this world and guide me on the path to the holy kingdom..."

"I thought Ancient God Religion always said their god was the ancient creator? They never seemed to have a specific name. How come they suddenly have this new god 'Spring' and want the whole continent to worship it? Is this new god related to the ancient creator?" one of Adrian's men asked curiously.

"About a hundred years ago, Ancient God Religion supposedly contacted some of their lost gods and announced that the gods would return! Spring is probably one of these so-called gods they contacted, but the exact connection isn't known!" Adrian explained. This was old news. Back then, Ancient God Religion didn't reveal any details about these returning gods. At first, people on the continent didn't take it seriously, until they started expanding everywhere.

Usually, after the doors closed, the air would be removed. But the gray-robed Bishop in the defense channel kept chanting more and more excitedly, showing no signs of suffocation. Then he opened his eyes and shouted - his hair suddenly stood up straight, and his staff began glowing so bright it made the whole monitor screen turn white. They couldn't see what happened next.

"What's going on? Did the defense system work?" seeing this, everyone was shocked. Nicola felt something was wrong and quickly asked Adrian.

"I just got a report from the man watching Channel 8. His control panel started smoking from the inside. The whole area's defense system probably got burned out." Adrian's crown had its own communication system. He seemed to have received very bad news and told everyone with a serious face.

This was ancient civilization technology! This clearly wasn't an accident - it probably had something to do with what the Bishop just did.

A few seconds later, the bright light on the screen finally faded, and the monitoring system worked again.

They could see that the doors at both ends of the channel had reopened, and the gray-robed Bishop wasn't dead! He didn't even look out of breath. He just walked confidently through the channel, somehow destroying an entire area's defense system core.

"Not good, someone's coming to our area too!"

Before Adrian's group could figure out how to deal with this person, their control panel started alarming. Another channel's monitoring screen popped up.

"Another Bishop!"

This time everyone easily recognized who it was, and they all gasped - a second Bishop? This one wore yellow clothes instead of gray.

Having two Bishops in one battle was very rare in Ancient God Religion's history. It showed how determined they were to take over Lantine Oasis, this ancient city.

This yellow-robed Bishop would face laser defenses! Like the gray-robed Bishop, he also kept chanting religious words, and walked into the channel without hesitation.

"How is this possible? Is he even human?"

What happened next made everyone, including Adrian, cry out in shock.

Unlike before, there was no white light filling the screen. Though his staff also glowed, it was a gentle yellow light. Under this yellow light, the yellow-robed Bishop somehow wasn't afraid of the laser. He walked through three laser nets!

In the end, his clothes were completely burned off, but his exposed body was perfectly fine, without even a scratch! They could barely see a faint golden glow around his body.

"That's invincibility!"

Nicola blurted out. She had experienced this special power before.

During the earlier fight at Ancient God Religion's branch in the empire, three Elemental Angels' combined power was so incredible that even Ancient God Religion had to back off temporarily. When they finally caught a low-ranking church member and forced him to tell them that high-ranking church leaders were taking Michelle's prison away, a guard priest blocked their chase alone, which meant they never even saw Michelle.

This guard priest had the special power of invincibility!

Nicola and Galadra tried everything but couldn't hurt him at all or teleport him away. He stood like a rock blocking their way. Though his attacks were quite ordinary and couldn't really hurt them, the yellow glow around him had a special effect that made enemies want to attack him mindlessly even though they knew it was useless. Not just six-winged Nicora, even Nicola fell for it.

In the end, only Galadra wasn't affected by this glow. She watched helplessly as the other two kept pointlessly hitting a "hard rock" and couldn't stop them, but she couldn't leave alone. Only after the invincibility effect wore off did they manage to kill the priest. But by then, it was too late.