Bill instinctively moved to cast an advanced Shield Charm.
Douglas, however, brightened, as though he had spotted an interesting research topic.
"Soul-devouring lightning? Interesting."
Facing the terrifying black lightning, Douglas advanced instead of retreating.
He raised his wand to guide it. At the same time, concealed beneath his sleeve, his left thumb swiftly pressed against the base of his ring finger-an ancient Eastern Daoist hand seal, the "Thunder Formation."
"Crackle-!"
The torrent of black lightning swallowed Douglas's figure in an instant.
But the expected charred remains and screams never appeared.
When those violent black arcs touched Douglas, they became like tamed beasts.
They did not explode. Instead, they were forcibly channeled into the stone slabs beneath his feet, dissipating into nothing.
Douglas was completely unharmed, without even a scorch mark on the hem of his robes.
"Your lightning arts have taken the wrong path."
Douglas shook his head, a note of academic disdain in his voice.
He looked toward the astonished shadow and spoke in an almost lecturing tone:
"In the Eastern theories of the Daoist Canon, thunder is heaven's command. It governs life and death and embodies the utmost yang and unyielding force."
"True lightning arts use righteousness to overcome evil and yang to transform yin. Pure, and majestic."
He pointed at the dark clouds that had yet to disperse beneath the dome:
"But your lightning forcibly mixes in such filth as secrecy, malice, and curses. Its power seems to multiply, but in truth, it is utterly polluted and has lost the true essence of thunder."
"It isn't that Yin Thunder is bad. Rather, this inferior Yin Thunder has a jumbled structure. Anyone who understands the fundamental principles of thunder can easily channel it into nothingness."
Douglas's critique did more than dismantle the attack. It devalued Ankh-Ka's spell at