Edgar's hand pierced into her astral body, the cold attack like a rusty sword, its jagged edge slowly piercing into her body.

As a helpless bystander, Gwen watched as her body and mind were encroached upon.

For a moment, she just wanted to end it all, summon all the lightning in the world, and walk out in the brilliant plasma flames.

As far as she knew, she could wake up in the old world, like waking up from a midsummer nightmare. As you can imagine, she is exhausted on stage, and now it is impossible.

Then she felt—it was a very familiar sensation of vertigo, and she saw the particles of black matter that had gathered inside her coalesce into soft leeches, clinging to the intruder like weak white blood cells.

Edgar's astral form suddenly panicked and struggled to break free. With a sense of schadenfreude, she was determined to persevere, tying the man up, tethering him with a rope and letting the creatures wreak havoc. It was her astral soul, her own soul, and she forbade him to leave without paying the price of blood.

Slowly, the tiny specks of dust coalesced and filled her mana pipeline. Gwen instinctively felt another door open. Her evocative pipes dig up something else, something that exists between spaces.

“!“

A soft substance flooded her body.

"Shield!"

With a surge of will, Gwen merged a mana shield made of black energy.

Air shield.

"Ahh

The screams were deafening, and she blinked, then returned to the physical world.

Her body languished.

She knew the feeling, and that was what she had experienced before. Due to the vertigo, she tried to reorient herself, keeping her eyes on Edgar, who was now screaming like a hollowed-out pig. The bastard reached for the potion syringe he had placed in front of Deborah.

You liar!

She watched as he poured precious goods into it, bewildering the stump that was now his right hand, and then turned to her with sheer malice. Edgar began to chant, his voice thick and full of pain, his prayer dark and ominous.

Gwen pushed her body to the side and let go of her arms to cast spells.

Hurry up! Hurry up! Her body moves as slowly as molasses.

The man was now left with the last few words, and he pointed at her, and Gwen had no time to think. She recalled the first thing that came to her mind, channeling dark energy to fill her pipes like a demon.

She invokes, though not the white-hot plasma of elemental lightning that materializes, but a dark, bursting line of nothingness, nothingness, nothingness, a jet-black lightning that makes reality itself nothing.

Gwen's last vitality was depleted with the spell. Her eyelids turned to lead. Her body, now thinner and weaker, almost scrawny, collapsed on the stone table, which was its former shell.

"Terrible W..."...!"

Before Edgar could finish the spell, he heard the familiar voice of Gwen casting a spell in despair. He chose to ignore it because he knew full well that he could recover.

"Thunderbolt!"

Before his final spell, a dark energy stabbed violently into his flesh.

His prayers were shattered, and it was the disintegration of magic. Something had just damaged his astral body, destroying the metaphysical mana pipes that existed in his physical and immaterial forms.

Edgar looked down. He was surprised to find that he now had no legs, no part of his torso, and no arms. In the next heartbeat, blood gushed out from all three wounds.

A mana particle, by accident, turned into an item that he had been wearing around his left index finger, and was immediately activated.

The teleportation hieroglyph, whose destination is preset, is activated below him.

"No!" Edgar shouted, "Leave me here, I can take her, I can take her!"

But the spell didn't notice his cry.

After a while, Edgar was gone.

Edgar was now out of range, and the runes and inscriptions around Menhir stopped spinning and disappeared into the darkness. One by one, the obstacles were removed.

Not far from that giant egg. Gwen lay lifeless on the table, her body pale and lifeless.

Slowly, faint pulses of light can be seen. Moyer's gift beats like a beating heart, tendrils that radiate green energy, looking for something to sustain its owner.

It found food not far away, conveniently in the form of an ancient egg. A green mist poured out of the amulet, taking advantage of the intrusive inscriptions carved into Menhill's surface, providing a passage to the life that existed within. The vitality inside is ancient, rich and nourishing, so the amulet drinks the inside of the egg. It only needs a little bit of this energy to sustain its master, who is only a mortal. As for the excess, it is likely that there will be a windfall for its long-atrophied soul.

A viral glow permeated Gwen's shriveled dermis. Her anorexic, shrunken body began to heal. Her gray cheeks began to plump and return to their usual plumpness. Many of her wounds miraculously healed, as natural as the flood of positive energy that Elvia had infused her. Gwen's heart, just now, its weakest heartbeat, began to beat actively. Her limbs regained their slim, athletic color, and her skin glowed with a healthy glow, more energetic and youthful than ever, soft as a baby.

"!"

As the amulet hibernates again, Gwen inhales. She longs for life, she craves air!

Alicia threw away the fourth potion syringe.

From below, she resembles a flame goddess, glittering in her shimmering crown. Even her hair resembles a flowing red flaming mane, covered in the embers of fireflies.

But even though all her abilities are stretched to the limit, Alicia feels powerless in front of the mythical serpent.

She tried to control her cooldown, alternating between life potions and mana potions, but her body had reached the limits of alchemy. After the first injection, the effect is halved with each additional injection.

She could now see the camp from her vantage point, and that was how close the creature was. In another minute or so, the thing will be rampage nearby. It didn't even need to hit it directly, and a close miss would have completely reduced the camp to ashes, burying the children under mountains of dirt and rubble.

"Bang!"

Fireworks illuminate the nearby hilltop.

They're fine! Alessia's excited heart palpitations regained her calm.

Once again, she faced the creature below her, its scales the color of the rainbow and the gasoline sheen on the neck of a dove.

Why is it attacking? Alicia wondered—even though she realized that the word "attack" was hard to get right.

Creatures of the past do not "attack" like lower creatures. Like the seasons, they are driven by instincts that cannot be understood by humans, and their presence brings unfathomable terror to the frontier cities. Such creatures are neither benevolent nor malicious, no matter how often humans anthropomorphize their existence.

When humans were young, they worshipped these mysterious creatures. This is still true in many cultures: the legendary dragon of China, the Quezakot of the South American Empire, and even the legendary ice and fire giants of Iceland.

This snake is one such creature, an ancient land god. Even when infested by fire and brimstone, it chooses to ignore her, as its resistance outweighs her attacks.

This makes things worse.

The creature in front of her had no intention of her students. It doesn't even realize them. She didn't know why it was moving towards the city, she could only guess its goal.

Whatever the motive was, she had the right to try to divert the snake.

A dagger appeared in her hand, an exotic knife with a mysterious flame pattern engraved on it, which did not seem to come from land. Its handles and stems are inlaid with rubies the size of pigeon's eggs, which are priceless in any case.

"Oh, Vulcan, listen to my call..."

A mandala appeared at the feet of Alexia, and the three circles split in two, forming a trinity that rotated faster and faster until it entered the elemental plane of fire. Alicia was ignited, and immediately burned into a flame that fell into the air below.

As she gathers her will, intense heat from up and down enters the mandala, collating and condensing the energy into her manifestation prayers.

There was a silence that hung over the silence before the fire, then the flames on Alicia's body, the burning air, the forest fire below, all at the same time.

"Maximum Firestorm!"

The core shattered, sending jagged, shattered shards of stone to her hands. Alicia winced as she watched the egg-sized core collected from a rare adult salamander suddenly glow with a fiery glow.

The sky began to churn and turn, and a small sun was born from the energy accumulated in the plane of fire. The snake below raised its head and looked at the new celestial body, which was very similar to the ochre-colored sun that fell on the inland bushes.

The fire fell, first drop by drop, then by piece, and finally by torrent. It struck the snake's rainbow scales, ruining its brilliance. The rest of the storm followed, quickly forming a vortex of flames that landed in the creature's path.

Eventually, the snake spotted her. A big head the size of a mountain, looking up at a small speck of dust burning in the sky.

She could feel its attention focused on her, and the burden of that attention was like molten lead poured into her mind, almost banishing her to the earth below,

"Get out!" she screamed at it. "Hurry up or you'll be cleared!"

The fire storm swirled violently. Alicia could see that it was peeling off some of the snake's scales.

Alexia raised her hand and threw an unlucky fireball at its face, which slid down its face.

The snake stopped.

To her shock and surprise, it stopped.

Then, it stood on its sinuous neck and rose into the sky, an impossible thing to do, 20 kilometers long and as wide as a football field, and stood up to meet her.

That's how I died. Alicia was sadly sullen. I don't even have a boyfriend yet.

She wondered if her master would teleport the tower in time. Only such a superstructure can prevent the myth from existing.

A message spell shone in her ears.

"Alesia, what is your identity! We just passed Gate 47, and we can see all the way from here! What is it doing?"

"I think I'm, Jonas. ”

"What?"

"I think I'm, Jonas," Alexia screamed into the message device.

She thought it was ridiculous. Her master made her an unbeatable battlemage, and now she's dying, saving some nobodies from a public school. Still, there is a worse way to go.

Duel with a mythical creature, a creature that has existed since ancient times.

If nothing else, it's a great commemorative plaque.

"Come at me!" she screamed at the snake. From the right flank, hoping to direct it to the sea. "Get me, you big ugly worm!"

Another message spell suddenly appeared beside her.

"Alessia, Alexia, for fuck sake, stand down and fly towards us. ”

"You're as slow as fucking Jonas," Alexia shouted into her device as the snake chased. "It's all your fault that I'm dead, I'm going to pester you!"

"Alesia...... Please......"

"Oh shit, it's too fast! It's too fast, Jonas! How can such a fat thing run so fast?" Alexia was having fun now, spinning around, running away in both a hurry and a swift manner, and the snake tried to pounce on her with its nose, changing direction from time to time.

"Alesia, don't die!"

"I'm trying, Jonas! It's a fucking myth! Not the dog I want to dodge. Don't distract me!"

"Bang!"

She was distracted.

A thunder hat reverberated loudly from one direction in the southern part of the jungle and exploded in the air like a brilliant blue-purple electric lotus flower.

Gwen! Alicia gasped. She lowered her body, avoiding the mythical snake and slid towards its scales. The creature is beautiful and gorgeous up close, like flying next to a shimmering piece of colored paper.

Why was Gwen's signal so far away from the camp? She didn't know the answer to her question, but Alicia did understand the meaning behind the fireworks. Gwen is in trouble, big trouble - she's calling for help.

"Alesia!" another message spell resonated around her, the voice of her ten-year-old partner Jonas. "I ...... I love you. ”

"Not now, Jonas!" Alexia waved her hand, closing her message screen, avoiding the snake once again, and guiding it off course.

I'm coming for you, Gwen!

“...”

Jonas and his team advance towards the mythical serpent to the maximum that their unmapped teleportation circle has to offer. However, the farther away they are from the city, the less precise the teleportation becomes. Still, it's much faster than flying and much safer than taking ground transportation in the event of an earthquake.

"Good news?" Defendant Taj asked nervously, looking at Jonas' gray-blue eyes moistened.

"She hung up," he replied.

"My condolences," Paul the Teleporter said sadly as he finished the next inscription. "That's it! Grab your hat and let's go!

Gwen was resurrected from death with the glorious vitality of uninterrupted rest. She didn't feel pain or anxiety, just an unnatural calm.

Her most immediate memories came to her mind. She looked frantically towards the spot where Edgar had fallen. The only evidence that her attacker was there was dried blood clots on the floor. Not far from her, lies the unconscious Deborah.

"Debbie!"

Gwen jumped up from the table and ran towards her friend. Gwen carefully placed a finger under Deborah's nose.

Is her friend dead?!no???! She placed her forehead and index finger on Deborah's neck. Thankfully, she felt a weak pulse.

Gwen looked around the room, looking for something that could help. To her surprise, she found the syringe that the mage had used in a hurry. Thankfully, there is one left.

I hope that's enough!Gwen reminded herself that Edgar had stopped the bleeding with this thing.

She slammed Deborah's thigh as instructed. Deborah's face immediately became fairer, leaving her lifeless pale before, healing the electro-burns that had burned her dermis.

"Deborah, Deborah, can you hear me?" she spoke into her friend's ear, though she received no response. Much to her frustration and anxiety, Deborah was not breathing.

Bad luck! Gwen forced herself to keep her composure.

Gwen recalls her first aid training, and as a manager, certification is mandatory. She first massaged Deborah's breasts, repeated more than 30 movements, then examined, and then turned to. R. Gwen there, then retracts Deborah's head, opens the airway of the esophagus, pinches her nose, and puts her mouth on Deborah's chest, sealing her lips. She took two sharp breaths, waited for Deborah's chest to rise, then released her nostrils and repeated.

"Ahem!

"Debbie!"

An indescribable happiness stung Gwen's heart.

[You.] Life Messenger?]

A confused thought breaks into Gwen's mind, causing Gwen to stagnate.

"Hey?" Gwen asked the empty room around her. "Is anyone there?"

She looked over at the dozen or so corpses, which were still scattered around Menhill.

Oh-did one of them come back from the dead?

[Do you know how to sing the song of the dead?]

The voice in her head asked again.

"Where are you, who are you?" Gwen commanded the room, thinking it was foolish to do so.

[Here] the voice said.

Gwen looked into the center of the room and saw an egg-shaped Menhill standing there.

[Let go of me]

"You're... A stone?" Gwen approached Menhill, sensing that she only had a kinship for someone like her brother Percy.

[Unshackles me]

Gwen innately knows that there is no harm in this voice, just as children know that their parents are kind. Gwen approached Menhill, pried open the spent Philosopher's Stone, and stepped on the magic circle.

As she wreaked havoc, she felt Menhill's presence grow stronger, until finally, she was happy as if a weight had been removed from her chest.

Suddenly, she felt the coolness of the downpour, smelled the fresh dirt of the upturned dirt, heard the murmuring of the river, and the yawning of the bloody gums as it grew.

[We are grateful]

"Don't worry...... Gwen said to Menhill, who was now more and more like an egg. "You...... Are you an egg?"

[We are relatives.] ]

"Thank you. Gwen thought it was ridiculous and talked to a protruding stone egg. She searched her brain, scanning the memories of the creatures, wondering what it might be. An earth troll, a sentient soul from the plane of the earth?

[Gift from a relative?]

Gwen looked around. Most importantly, she was worried about Yue and Avia. Did Elvia escape? Did she meet Yue? Did they evacuate?

"Can you get me out?" Gwen asked the egg, wondering if it would grow legs and arms.

[A simple thing]

"Yes. ”

[Here we come]

Gwen looked around, trying not to pay attention to the fact that there were corpses of real people everywhere, trying to keep herself from going insane.

Yes... Nothing happened.

After about two kilometers, the snake gave up.

Instead, it changed direction. A faint light began to permeate the entire length of the snake, illuminating the sky with a stream of colorful southern lights. To Alexia's great shock, the mysterious creature began to shrink and move towards somewhere buried in the valley below.

Gwen's signal is there!

She chased after it, and although the snake was the fastest of the two, its size gave it an impossible advantage, even as it shrank rapidly, leaving a large area of scenery under its waistline. Alessia was amazed at the way it ended up being the size of a city streetcar, forming what appears to be a crack on the edge of a steep sandstone cliff.

She watched the thing slide into the ditch and knew she had to follow.

More tremors shook the cave. As Deborah had done for her before, Gwen opened her fragile shield, hoping it would be enough to keep them safe.

Then she stared at the silent egg.

What does it mean when it comes?

"Crack!"

A stone the size of a sedan fell into the room.

Then she saw a serpent head the size of a car, slipping out of the mouth of the cave above them, and winding towards her, its forked tongue flying from time to time, tasting the air.

"!" Gwen swore by. Complete one's misery.

It's too big, so at least it will take the energy she has poured into Edgar. She felt confident, but for some reason, she was full of mana.

[Don't strike.] Here we are]

There is a scent of anemone.

Gwen looked at the egg, then at the snake.

"Are you a snake?" asked Gwen, confused. A sentient, talking snake!

"Gwen!" a muffled voice echoed through the cavern. Gwen looked over the snake and saw the angelic instructor Alexia, dressed in a fire robe, her hair burning like anything, leaving behind a swarm of fireflies. She's so radiant that it's no wonder people call her the Witch in Card.

She's still alive!!! Oh, happy, happy, god!

But, of course, even now the problem of tasting a glittering snake in the air remains.

"Snake with you?" they both asked, one after the other.

Their eyes met.

The snake looked at Gwen.

Gwen looked at Alexia.

Alicia looks at the snake.

The snake looked at Gwen again.

It hissed.