Childe was injured.
But a thick, viscous, high-speed swirling shield of azure water, like an egg of absolute defense, firmly protected him within, lifting him above the boiling water.
It was this exact water shield that had blocked that fatal, sure-kill strike at the most critical moment.
Childe slowly raised his head.
His blue eyes locked onto Riveria Ljos Alf in the distance through the watery veil.
He slowly stood up, reaching out to tear off the scorched strips of cloth on his body, pulling at the corners of his mouth to reveal a smile mixed with apology and fighting spirit.
"Sorry, I underestimated you too much before."
His voice carried clearly to everyone's ears over the din of the boiling water.
"My fault. Because you aren't the kind of warrior who slaughters on the front lines, I subconsciously ignored you. What a fatal mistake."
Then, he turned his gaze to Finn Deimne nearby, who was gripping his spear with a grim expression.
"What an excellent leader."
Childe's smile deepened, a trace of nostalgia flashing in his eyes.
"Your decisiveness and layout just now reminded me of the Captain. Although your individual strength isn't as great as his, this commanding ability to twist everyone's power into a single rope really opened my eyes."
He patted the residual scorch marks on his chest.
"You also taught me a good lesson. Ah... making me bleed. Not bad at all."
Childe's tone was flat.
But with his words, the temperature of the surrounding air seemed to drop sharply.
"However, courtesy demands reciprocity. You all must pay the price for this."
He took a deep breath.
The fanaticism of hunting prey and seeking battle in his eyes completely faded in this instant, replaced by a spine-chilling coldness.
"To be honest, fighting you guys is a hundred times more interesting than executing those boring missions. Even though I know I'm just a pawn dragged here by the unknown will of this place, this battle... is worth it."
Childe's voice grew low, yet it boomed in everyone's ears like a thunderclap.
"Your strength is worthy of praise. So, I must also bring out my true, full power to respond. You must absolutely not let me down."
The moment his voice fell, Childe's left hand suddenly pressed against the side of his mask on his right eye.
"Foul Legacy: The Devouring Deep!"
Boom—!
Without any warning, purplish-black lightning, ten times, a hundred times more violent than before, raged out from his body like a burst dam.
The boiling water lake beneath his feet instantly rioted. As if pulled by some terrifying gravitational force, dozens of thick underground water pillars crashed into the sky, lifting Childe's body straight into the high altitudes.
Amidst the interwoven water curtain and wild lightning filling the sky, the power of the Abyss was completely liberated.
Matter as black as ink spread from his chest, instantly covering his entire body.
It was a suit of abyssal armor so deep it seemed capable of devouring light.
The armor's surface flowed with a liquid metal texture, and dark purple lightning crests pulsed madly within it like blood vessels.
Sharp thorns jutted fiercely from his shoulder pads, elbows, and knee joints, exuding a brutality that could tear through anything.
A gradient cape, profound as the starry sky, extended from his back. Transitioning from deep blue to pitch black, the edges of the cape twinkled with starlight, flapping automatically in the roaring wind and dragging out long, dark trails of light.
A dark-red single-horned mask, covered in eerie black patterns, obscured most of his face, revealing only a single eye so cold it lacked any trace of warmth.
His originally vibrant orange hair had turned a bleak, pale white at the roots under the corruption of the abyssal power.
A blue mist of water and purple lightning of thunder spiraled madly around him, forming a devastating energy storm.
Just by floating there, the aura exuding from his body pressed a massive depression into the water surface below, and the surrounding air let out a wail as if unable to bear the heavy burden.
Foul Legacy: The Devouring Deep.
The pitch-black figure suspended high in the sky looked like a true demon king crawling out from the deepest parts of hell, looking down upon the ants below with the might to crush all living things.
Looking at that posture, like a demon god descending upon the world.
Finn Deimne's thumb suddenly erupted with an unprecedented, terrifying pain that nearly tore through his nerves.
That sharp pain instantly robbed him of his breath, causing the Prum hero's heart to clench violently.
His heart sank entirely to the bottom of the valley.
The worst-case scenario had occurred.
The previous battle, even that strike just now that was enough to obliterate a Floor Boss, not only failed to kill the opponent but forced out his true trump card.
This aura of pure destruction, this despair-inducing sense of oppression, had far exceeded the scope of what Finn could comprehend.
Veins bulged on the back of Finn's hand as he gripped the Fortia Spear, a bitter smile bleeding from the corner of his mouth.
Today, their Loki Familia... might truly be completely buried here.
When that deep, pitch-black Foul Legacy: The Devouring Deep completely took form, the entire Twenty-Seventh Floor seemed to fall into stagnation.
It wasn't just a suppression of magic power, but a crushing dominance on the level of life itself.
However, the foundation of the Loki Familia and the decisiveness of Orario's strongest mage were displayed vividly in this moment.
Almost the instant she saw Childe's overwhelmingly oppressive form, Riveria Ljos Alf rapidly made her countermove.
Without a sliver of hesitation, she raised the Magna Alf staff high in her hands, the tip pointing straight at the dome.
"Elf unit, all members prepare!"
As her cold, highly penetrating voice rang out at the rear of the battlefield, the eleven waiting Elf mages rapidly shifted their formation. With Riveria as the absolute core, they unfolded a complex and massive magic circle around her.
Not just them, Lefiya Viridis also joined in immediately.
This young Elf mage, known as the Thousand Elf, gripped her staff tightly with both hands, her orange hair dancing wildly in the turbulent magical airstreams.
"Alf Ring!"
Beneath Riveria's feet, the brilliant light of an emerald green magic circle surged. That light, like tangible vines, rapidly linked the magic power of all the Elf mages together.
As Elven royalty, her unique skill played a leading role at this moment.
She could amplify the magic of her kin within the magic circle, and the mind and magic power consumed by her kin using magic would be absorbed by her to restore her own consumption, forming a virtuous cycle. This was Orario's strongest Elf mage unit.
No monster could resist their combined magical bombardment.
The magic elements in the air were frantically drawn out, forming a visible, colorful magic vortex.
"Oh?"
Childe, suspended high above the boiling water lake, stared coldly through that hideous dark red single-horned mask at the Elf formation rapidly gathering magic power in the rear.
----
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