Chapter 1844  Contact

The situation was far from ideal - or at least that's how it appeared to be. Whether it was Lex himself, or Giselle, or the formation, all three were weak points. Whichever one of them the enemy neutralized, the result would be the same which was a failure of the plan to disrupt the storm.

If Lex fell, the shields protecting them would fail, thus destroying the formation and injuring Giselle. Heck, Lex didn't even need to fall, just suppressed to the point where maintaining the shield was impossible.

If the formation was destroyed, then their presence here was pointless. If Giselle fell, then Lex alone could not make the formation.

To make matters worse, only Giselle could defend against the enemies, because Lex was too overwhelmed just defending them. Of course, that's only how it appeared on the surface.

"I really don't get why bad guys don't just adhere to common sense," said Lex casually. "Wouldn't it be easier to target a non-occupied planet? Or even if they needed countless lives, it would be easier to purchase a few billion criminals and kill them rather than trying to fight against an empire and then hoping you don't get caught or discovered. The only thing the Defiler is defiling is his credit rating with those much stronger than him."

"Defilers, by nature, need to corrupt and destroy things. They are wholly selfish, caring about only themselves, entirely incapable of doing something that might benefit someone else," answered Giselle. "Also, can you stop talking? I'm trying to fight here."

Jack rolled his eyes because Lex had to maintain a serious, struggling face. Tiny-Sparkles, who was giving him a briefing about how they survived encirclement, suddenly felt confused and lost. Had they done something wrong?

Lex and Giselle continued their performance, struggling and making progress at a snail's pace. Yet progress they made, just barely. Just enough to convince the Defiler that they weren't a serious threat.

The actual problem that Giselle anticipated was fighting the Defiler in the strom once he showed up. Even if they dropped the facade, the interference from the storm was real. Even if Lex could put shields around them, he couldn't put shields around their attacks - that would kind of defeat the point.

So then, once the Defiler showed up, it would be Lex's job to finish the formation and actually dissipate the storm while Giselle kept him occupied. It was a fairly well thought out plan with only one critical flaw they couldn't account for. If the Defiler didn't show up, there was nothing they could do.

For 30 hours, they continued, fighting wave after wave of monsters until even Profanites actually began showing up. They held on, despite the seeming disadvantages, until about 80% of the formation was done.

Then… the attacks suddenly ceased. As if sensing the incoming danger, Giselle began to work even faster for about fifteen minutes. That's when Lex sensed a shadow in the storm approaching quickly.

"He's coming," Lex said aloud this time, not bothering with spirit sense.

Instead of working even faster, Giselle stepped away from the formation and readied herself for the fight.

It only took a few seconds for the Defiler to reach them. Lex didn't know what to expect, but it most certainly wasn't what he saw when the Defiler appeared before them.

The Defiler was just… blackness. He, or rather it, couldn't even be described as a shadow, for it was not.

It was just a clump of darkness, neither liquid nor gas, moving through the sand, until it eventually took a form. It chose to morph the blackness that made up its body into a vaguely humanoid shape - one that might have been drawn by a child using coloring pencils.

His body had no defined borders, and though he vaguely resembled a human, there were parts of him that blurred out… that connected to other parts of the body in ways it shouldn't have.

The only part of it that wasn't black were its eyes. It looked like two holes had been forcefully ripped out of fabric, replacing the blackness with pure white, though from time to time the fluid nature of its body caused fragments of darkness to float through the witness of its eyes.

"Giselle, I always knew I would kill you - just didn't imagine it would be soon," the Defiler spoke, its voice like a screech constantly changing its pitch. Listening to it was both uncomfortable and irritating. Lex wanted to just slap the creature and be done with the task… but it was clear that Giselle needed the catharsis of taking it down herself, so he stayed out of her way - for now.

"If you have any last words, don't bother saying them. No one's interested," said Giselle, before launching into an attack.

From the moment that the Defiler had appeared, Lex had locked down the surrounding space. No barriers were put up, and there seemed to be no interference with the storm, but if the Defiler tried to escape, it would discover that it was unable to.

Lex, meanwhile, appeared to retreat as he struggled to both protect them and make the formation. Just because the trap had been sprung did not mean that they needed to reveal their whole hand yet. This way, the Defiler would stay distracted as well, partially focusing on trying to stop Lex.

It all seemed straightforward, but was it really going to be that way? Almost every realm Lex had ever been to, they maintained a strict 'no Defiler' policy, and there had to be a reason for that. Most likely, he was about to find out why.

A moment later, Giselle clashed against the Defiler, and the consequences of that attack caused Lex's expression to change.

Giselle herself was fine, pristine even, but nothing else was. As the Profane energy spread out, the ground began to corrupt, the sands began to mutate, the winds gained a life of their own. But none of that was enough to startle Lex. No, what took him by surprise was how the laws around the two of them began to mutate!

Profane energy alone was not enough to do that, but when a Defiler used that energy… he could defile the laws themselves!

Guys, I fixed the previous chapter. Please clear cache and read again if you got the wrong version.