"Patriarch Thorne, what do we do now?"
In the distance, Erishelde, hidden in the shadows of the forest, nervously watched everything unfolding by the lakeside through the gaps in the branches and leaves.
Seeing that purple figure calmly walking towards the lake, and the clansmen lying on the ground around the wooden house with their fates unknown, her heart sank.
So she immediately used the communication leaf to urgently report to Patriarch Thorne on the other end, her voice carrying unconcealable anxiety.
The other end of the communication was silent for a moment before Patriarch Thorne's aged voice came through, carrying a trace of disbelief and solemnity:
"...We mobilized so much of our guard forces, and even Maria was present... yet we still couldn't stop her for even a moment?"
Erishelde's gaze swept over those elven compatriots slumped on the ground again, her throat feeling a bit tight.
She was silent for a moment before answering with a somewhat dry voice:
"Patriarch, the facts are right before our eyes. We... do not have enough power to stop her in a frontal confrontation. Her level of power far exceeds our estimations."
"If there's no way... you must come up with a way!" Patriarch Thorne's voice suddenly rose, carrying a tone of resolve, but he immediately forced down his agitation and ordered rapidly, "Listen, Erishelde! I will immediately gather the other three elders and rush to Crescent Lake as fast as possible! No matter what, before she reaches the center of the lake, you must find a way to stall her! Buy us time at all costs! We absolutely cannot let her step into the central lake area right now and interfere with the seal!"
Before he could finish, the communication was one-sidedly and urgently cut off, and the light on the leaf in her hand completely dimmed.
Erishelde held the disconnected leaf, standing alone in place, only feeling a heavy pressure rushing toward her face.
She raised her head and looked at the purple figure that had already stepped onto the shores of Crescent Lake.
She saw a platform formed from the flowing, deep purple water of the river of souls materialize out of thin air beneath Castorice's feet. Carrying her, it was moving steadily toward the center of Crescent Lake at a speed that seemed slow but was actually very swift.
"You want me to stop her alone? Are you kidding me..."
Erishelde muttered to herself in disbelief as she watched Castorice's back.
The feeling of death she experienced through her avatar earlier still lingered in her heart. How much time had passed since then? Why did she have to go stop her again?
"Forget it, isn't it just... stalling for a bit?" She muttered to herself again, as if to encourage herself, and her tightly clenched fists slowly loosened. "It's not like I really have to fight her to the death... Ranged interference, delaying her steps, I should... still be able to attempt that, right?"
With a thought, a staff appeared in Erishelde's hand.
Her gaze once again locked onto the purple figure getting further and further away on the lake surface. Her eyes turned sharp, and she no longer hesitated.
She raised the staff high, and the pure mana within her body surged into the staff like a rushing stream. The emerald gemstone at the tip erupted with a dazzling light.
"Kanta Shelune!" (Trap her!)
The moment the incantation sounded, the ground of the lakeshore in front of and around Castorice erupted with a violent roar! Countless massive and jagged hard rocks seemed to be endowed with life, breaking through the soil and rising from the ground!
They grew, stacked, and closed together madly at an astonishing speed, like a resurrected rock behemoth. In just the blink of an eye, they constructed a small, solid rock mountain in front of and on the flanks of Castorice, completely sealing her and the purple platform beneath her feet inside!
Seeing the spell successfully cast, temporarily trapping that terrifying figure, the tense strings in Erishelde's heart relaxed for a moment, and a subtle smile of relief couldn't help but appear on her face.
"Since vines full of vitality are vulnerable before you..." she thought, tightly gripping the staff to maintain the mana output, "then this rock barrier, completely devoid of life aura and composed entirely of the earth element, should at least be able to stop you for a while, right? Let's see you..."
However, before her self-comforting words could fully dissipate in her mind, a sudden change occurred!
A slender, straight purple mark appeared without warning on the smooth rock wall of the stone mountain facing her.
Immediately after, before Erishelde could react, an intensely blinding purple light violently burst forth from that mark, like the dawn of death finally erupting after being suppressed to the extreme!
Rumble—!!!
A deafening explosion suddenly detonated, as if causing the entire valley to tremble! That seemingly indestructible rock mountain, at the core of the purple light explosion, was cleaved in half as if by an invisible giant blade. The upper half instantly turned into countless bits of powder under the massive impact, sweeping outwards accompanied by a berserk airwave!
Thick smoke and dust soared into the sky like a yellow curtain, completely shrouding that area, making it impossible to see anything for a moment.
"Pfft! Cough, cough..." Erishelde coughed repeatedly from the dust blowing in her face. She hurriedly waved her sleeve to dispel the smoke and dust in front of her, but her heart had already leaped into her throat, her gaze locked dead onto that rolling dust.
"Lusta!" (Dispel!)
She suppressed the horror in her heart, waved her staff again, and hurriedly chanted another incantation.
A powerful whirlwind arose in response, precisely sweeping across that area and rapidly blowing away the permeating smoke and dust.
When her vision cleared again, Erishelde saw the scene after the dust had settled, and her pupils instantly shrank to the size of pinpricks due to extreme horror!
That rock mountain, from that purple mark upwards, had completely disappeared, leaving only a massive, smooth cross-section.
And right on that cross-section, defying common sense, clumps of enchantingly beautiful purple-white flowers had grown out of thin air. They swayed gently without wind, emitting a bizarre aura where tranquility and death intertwined.
That outsider named Castorice was standing quietly on top of these flowers born from the Power of Death.
She held a purple scythe even larger than her height. A ghostly light flowed on the blade, as if capable of devouring all vitality. Her gaze was as calm as water, piercing through the distance between them and landing precisely on Erishelde.
At the exact moment their gazes met, that bone-deep, soul-freezing terror of death from when her avatar was destroyed surged back like a cold tide, instantly submerging all of Erishelde's senses. The hand holding the staff trembled slightly uncontrollably, almost dropping it.
At this time, Castorice slowly opened her mouth. Her voice wasn't loud, but it clearly crossed the space and entered Erishelde's ears. It was so flat that there wasn't a single ripple, yet it carried a suffocating sense of oppression:
"Do you also want to take me out?"