The Paladin in the Abyss

"That’s quite an interesting name, and it certainly brought me... cough, cough, cough..."

Lancelot’s bitter sigh was interrupted by a sudden coughing fit, causing little Elsa to pat his back repeatedly in a fluster. After a long while, the severely injured Human Knight finally calmed down.

"Are you alright?" Soveris looked at him worriedly, "Has Alamir run out of Divine Arts..."

"I did everything I could, but this guy’s body is quite different from ordinary people." The Elf Priest’s voice echoed from the other side of the cave, "You can’t just rely on Healing Divine Art to restore a severely injured Giant Dragon to health, you get what I mean?"

"Thank you, little Elsa... Don’t worry, friends, I’m not dying yet." Lancelot attempted to squeeze out a reassuring smile and turned his face to Kalalin, "Let’s go back to our previous topic. What exactly is this Chain Contingency spell?"

"The Ninth Circle spell Chain Contingency, sometimes called Chain Trigger Technique, is considered one of the most powerful Sculpting Energy Spells in the history of magic. Its effect is to store up to three spells not exceeding the Eighth Circle, which will be cast simultaneously when a preset condition, such as the caster receiving damage, being submerged in liquid, or seeing a certain type of creature, is met. The three spells must have the same target, usually set to the caster to avoid fatal damage, but can also be used as an offensive measure, though it’s rarely done..."

"Three Eighth Circle spells? Acting at the same time?" Lancelot rolled his eyes in disbelief, "Seriously?"

"They could be spells of a lower Circle Rank, depending on what the caster needs." Kalalin shrugged, "Given the situation you described, the Lich likely set it to cast ’Protective Magic Weapon,’ ’Greater Reanimate Necromancers,’ and ’Greater Teleportation Technique’ simultaneously upon taking lethal damage. So, unless you knew what spells Peyton had stored in advance and made corresponding preparations, there is no way you could stop him from escaping..."

"Alright then... cough, cough, cough..." Lancelot started coughing again, but this time he quickly stopped, "But I have another question. When I charged towards the Lich, I had already unsealed the Anti-Magic Stone, which theoretically should disrupt all magical effects within a certain distance. Why did his spells still work?"

"If you had asked me this question a month ago, I wouldn’t have been able to answer." The Scholar almost showed a proud smile but suppressed it when he saw Lancelot’s miserable state, "... Generally speaking, magic works by distorting the Magic Net to achieve various transcendent effects; the Anti-Magic Stone disrupts the operation of the Magic Net, but the spells stored by the Chain Contingency are already completed, so they cannot be interrupted by the Anti-Magic Stone (note 1)…"

"... Can you be a bit more specific?"

"Suppose you need a cup of hot water. Normally, you fill a kettle with cold water, put it on the stove to heat it, and then pour it into your cup. In the presence of an Anti-Magic Stone, the heat from the flame can’t transfer to the kettle, so the water inside can’t heat up. However, the Chain Contingency stores the hot water in advance, ready for when the condition of ’needing a cup of hot water’ is met. Then you will find a kettle of hot water waiting. Is that specific enough?"

"Got it." Lancelot sighed again, "So this spell can ignore the effects of anti-magic? That’s terrifying..."