Chapter 022: Five Thousand Layers of Barriers

Layer after layer of barriers surrounded Mephisto. Sensing something amiss, Mephisto released a massive amount of magical power in one go. The formidable energy swept out, destroying everything in its path.

Wang Bo's barriers shattered one after another.

In an instant, over a dozen layers of barriers had been destroyed.

But Wang Bo remained very calm. He cast the barrier spell again. For every layer Mephisto destroyed, he added two more. In just a few breaths, Wang Bo's magical power was nearly depleted.

After all, he had already consumed a great deal of magical power earlier to summon Lady Gremory.

Now, having painstakingly cast the barrier spell to trap Mephisto, the drain on his magical power was naturally immense.

At the same time, however, Wang Bo suddenly remembered that he still had a treasure he hadn't used... the Philosopher's Stone!

This was a treasure he had obtained from a lottery draw, originating from the world of *Slayers*. In that world, there were various theories about the Philosopher's Stone's origin: some said it was a product of an ancient super-magical civilization, others claimed it was a fragment of the pillar supporting the world's gods. But what was certain was that it was a magical amplifier of extraordinary potency.

Every time this stone appeared, it caused significant upheaval in history. There had even been a real incident where an apprentice sorcerer used it to destroy an entire country.

Wang Bo had once used a strengthening stone to enhance this Philosopher's Stone, making it even more powerful than in the original story.

Wang Bo immediately took the Philosopher's Stone from his four-dimensional pocket.

"Bind!"

He cast a barrier. Amplified by the Philosopher's Stone, barriers sprang forth one after another, instantly adding dozens of layers.

Wang Bo was astounded. After amplification by the Philosopher's Stone, the power of a single barrier spell had surged dozens of times. This thing was really a damn good item.

Even Hela and Lady Gremory were drawn to the Philosopher's Stone in Wang Bo's hand, their gazes involuntarily sweeping over it.

Wang Bo said, "Give me some magical power."

Lady Gremory nodded. With a flicker, she appeared beside Wang Bo, placing her right hand on his shoulder. A surge of powerful magical power instantly poured into Wang Bo's body.

Wang Bo's nearly depleted magical power was instantly replenished.

It was through this connection that Wang Bo saw the extent of Lady Gremory's power. His own magical power was already formidable, but compared to hers, it was like a mere drop in the ocean.

If Wang Bo's magical power was like an ocean, then Lady Gremory's was an abyss.

An abyss that could easily swallow the ocean.

Wang Bo nodded and cast the barrier spell again. Amplified by the Philosopher's Stone, each casting produced dozens of layers of barriers surrounding Mephisto.

Mephisto's speed of destroying barriers could not keep up with Wang Bo's speed of creating them.

But what surprised Wang Bo was that Mephisto's pace of destroying barriers never slowed down. His magical power seemed inexhaustible, as if he could expend it freely.

Lady Gremory saw through Wang Bo's confusion and said, "He is a Lord of Hell. He can draw upon the power of Hell. As long as Hell exists, his magical power will never run dry."

Wang Bo finally realized that being a Lord of Hell came with such advantages.

Just how immense was the magical power of a hellish dimension? Wang Bo couldn't imagine, but he believed it must be an astronomically large number. Defeating Mephisto through a war of attrition was simply impossible.

Even after a long time, once their magic power is exhausted, they would be effortlessly slaughtered by Mephisto.

So fighting Mephisto is best done quickly.

Wang Bo released thousands of layers of barriers around Mephisto in one breath, trapping him inside.

But even so, Wang Bo still felt it was a bit risky, so he spent some time increasing the barriers to about five thousand layers.

Seeing the dense barriers that were unsettling to the mind, Mephisto's sense of crisis grew heavier.

If at first he paid no attention to these barriers, then when the barriers increased to a hundred layers, Mephisto felt a sense of crisis, as if these barriers could injure him.

When the barriers increased to a thousand layers, Mephisto's crisis escalated to a level of terror, because he felt that these barriers could severely wound him.

Finally, as the barriers increased, Mephisto's sense of crisis grew more and more.

He became increasingly terrified, releasing his magic power like a mountain collapse and a tsunami, but he found that his speed of breaking the barriers was far slower than the speed at which the barriers grew.

When the barriers rose to five thousand layers, the shadow of death easily gripped his throat.

At this point, Mephisto had gone mad. He released his magic power recklessly, hellfire, and thousands of rays of light pierced through layer after layer of barriers.

Every second, dozens of layers of barriers were destroyed.

But even more barriers appeared.

Wang Bo saw that the timing was about right, so he shouted, "Annihilate!"

In an instant, over five thousand layers of barriers collectively collapsed.

The barrier technique Wang Bo knew was not just a magic used to trap people, but a magic with great destructive power. When the barriers collapsed, everything inside would also collapse and return to chaos.

This power of destruction could not be withstood by humans, nor even by steel.

Moreover, the more barriers there were, the greater the power when they collapsed.

Over five thousand layers of barriers—without the help of the Philosopher's Stone, even if Wang Bo exhausted all his magic power, he could not have deployed them.

After all, each additional layer of barriers increased the consumption of magic power slightly.

But with the help of the Philosopher's Stone, Wang Bo accomplished this feat. The simultaneous collapse of over five thousand layers of barriers had a destructive force that, even if not comparable to a galactic explosion, was not much less than a supernova explosion.

Mephisto, bearing the brunt, had his terrifying body destroyed in an instant amidst his roar.

Even a Hell Lord, at the center of such a supernova explosion, would be destroyed. A terrifying light exploded in Hell, sweeping in all directions for thousands of miles.

It seemed that the entire Hell could see this terrifying light.

At the same time, the Hell dimension trembled because it had lost its master.

But Hela seized this opportunity. The moment Mephisto fell, she released her magic power to seize the Hell dimension, aiming to become its new master.

When everything calmed down, Lady Gremory looked at the place where Mephisto had disappeared and slowly said, "I lost out."

This time, she had gone so far as to cross the multiverse in her true form to come to this Hell—for what?

Naturally, it was for Mephisto. But now, with her help, Wang Bo had directly taken down Mephisto with a big move, and she got nothing in return. If that's not losing out, what is?