A miniature sun shone on Rossbay, illuminating half of the sky with a second star. A kilometer away, within the confines of the cathedral, Gwen and her companions felt a sudden increase in ambient temperature.

There was a scream, sounding like the scream of a half-screaming, half-mad boar, that echoed through the saltwater-filled space, followed by the sound of stones tumbling in the distance, indicating that part of the cliff had fallen off the cliff.

The merfolk stopped their relentless attacks and allowed Gwen to unleash an additional spell.

"Lightning!"

A wave of exhaustion gripped her mind as her bolts snaked through the stone wall, and two burly carapace merfolk exploded, crushing down the three assistants.

"I'm running out of mana," she told the others, her head twitching, a sign of spell fatigue.

"I'm fine, it took about two-thirds of the time," Xiao Yue replied as she shot a pair of scorching rays.

"What about the others?" Gwen wasn't explicitly, but her remaining reserves were passive casting.

"I'm almost halfway there," Huitu announced.

"It's the same here," Elvia said.

"I'm close. "As a melee fighter, Deborah is the most exhausted of them all. Deborah groaned, straightened her muscular body, and wiped the snail-like sweat from her forehead. "As soon as this is over, I should really train Transfiguration. ”

When news of the Leviathan's collapse finally reached the Mermaid Gate, a change prevailed over their enemies. They seem to have lost the enthusiasm that had just consumed them. Instead, the fish-headed warriors, under the cover of crustaceans, began to retreat.

"Do you think the sea monster is dead?" Yue threw a fireball at the merfolk who tried to organize themselves into a phalanx. When the fireball erupted, the armor-clad crab men withstood the onslaught of destruction, leaving behind a pair of insignificant smoking corpses. Yue clicked, unhappy with the bland result.

A roar erupted from the numerous fins and shells. From the tribe emerged a fatty, globular monster covered in sticky slime. It has a set of red, spiky dorsal fins that protrude from its head, giving it the camouflage of a Roman centurion. The thing roared and challenged the girls.

"Coke oven!"

To Xiao Yue's surprise, her spell was completely blocked by its slimy appearance.

The fatty merfolk expertly shed a layer of bubbling, overheated slime to extinguish the flames. It roared triumphantly at them, spat flying, and then turned to charge. Spurred on by the courage of the warriors, the merfolk who followed the centurion stopped their rout and now moved towards the mages again, turning the phalanx like a school of wandering sardines.

Xiao Yue cursed in a low voice.

"Is that enough, Gwen?"

"Eve, put me on top. Gwen formed an empty spell in her mind. The merfolk will soon be within range of her spells.

"Alright!" Ivy began a positive energy channel.

The slimy mermaid centurion was gaining momentum now, a quarter of a ton of muscle and slime pressing on Gwen and a group of young men behind her. If this creature goes into melee range, God knows how many children it will kill before they attack it with enough spells. Worse, its martyrdom could boost the morale of other merfolk in the region, complicating operations that should have gone to sea entirely.

"Black Tentacles!"

Just as the centurion let out a cry of victory, a black, rubbery tentacle erupted from mid-air, hooking its massive form. Its forward momentum suddenly stopped, throwing it off balance. Unlike the appendages on the body that slip off the armor of the slime, the hollow tendrils completely ignore its protective gel. Instead, it digs into the flesh of animals like green roots in search of nutrients.

The fatty mermaid screamed, emitting a raw, guttural grunt, and then began to writhe violently, the tentacles beginning a terrible life-draining labor.

The merfolk who had changed direction to follow the centurion stopped screaming, their faces filled with untold fear and fear.

Gwen decided to give the crowd another boost.

"Caliban!"

Draining life from Elvia, she pushed the last bit of mana into a familiar state, feeling her vitality fade away with the serpentine Netherworld's battle form.

Caliban was spherical and massive, a full two meters tall, its carapace splitting through the smooth obsidian shell, revealing a pulsing mass of purple-pink flesh. With a hiss, her void beast coiled around and rushed forward. It landed on the struggling merfolk, its lamprey's mouth clenching into the bulky fillet.

With what sounded like a man busy drinking soup, Caliban opened his mouth wide and shoved the mermaid headfirst into its bottomless esophagus.

The whole scene lasted for several seconds of pain, and its maddening screams only ceased when the merfolk's flippers finally disappeared into the dark abyss of Kaliban's stomach.

"Shah, Shah, shh!" Caliban turned to the other merfolk, its mouth craving more, its pink throat ready to fire a series of barbed tongues for more food, its insatiable hunger.

The rest of the merfolk fled.

"Hah!" Gwen was exhausted, but still raised her fist triumphantly. She turned to look at her ally, expecting a humorous tease or a witty observation. Instead, Gwen finds them sick with fear and mature with disgust. The young men of Rosebay retreated from Gwen as if she were a mermaid herself, forming a semicircle around Gwen's party, which undoubtedly showed that they did not want any connection with Gwen and his anomalous counterparts.

Without saying a word, Gwen retrieved Caliban's unused mana and watched it return to its original state. Soon after, Ariel joined Caliban, performing a figure-eight around her slender ankles.

"I don't think we'll ever get used to it. She scratched her nose when she saw the horrified expressions on the faces of the Rose Bay mages, and Cali itself was a horror show. It works wonders for the morale of both sides. ”

"I don't care about these little creatures at all," Rittal retorted with a smile that I liked the little one. When the Milming landed in Tauranga, we could have used some electromagnetic waves. ”

At the same time, Elvia regained most of Gwen's life energy as much as possible, albeit only as a stopgap measure. Gwen needs to eat and rest to make up for the excrement on her body. Seeing Gwen's face blood again, Elvia wondered how Elizabeth, another Void Mage who had attacked them, was keeping her alive. The woman was attacked again and again with mass destruction, without even a respite.

"Do you guys, do you need to rest?" asked a magistrate of Rose Bay, a pretty girl with her russet hair tied in a knotted ponytail, carefully distancing herself from Gwen.

"We need to see Judge Ferris," Gwen told her when Margs Alesia returned from dealing with the sea monster. ”

The reddish-brown-haired mage nodded to them, luring them away from the front line. Gwen withdrew her relatives and friends and urged others to follow. The group had been fighting for half an hour now. After the last exchange, Gwen, Yue, and Deborah have now lost their mana.

Ritu and Elvia, who still have some mana, choose to stay. There weren't enough healers or confessors out there, and they couldn't let Mage Rosebe fight alone.

The trio retreated to the cathedral, where most of the older girls were sheltered under the bishop's residence and waited for their turn to descend the narrow staircase that led to the tomb. The young girls left first, now waiting to teleport in the safety of the old underground vault.

No sooner had the guards cleared them up than Gwen hurried back to find her master guarded by a few maggots and a high-ranking mage, wandering around the benches with a pale face.

"He was getting weaker and weaker, and neither healing spells nor healing techniques had improved his condition. "One of the maggots in the tower is worried, telling Gwen that you know what he needs?"

Gwen shook her head sadly. Her master needs his golden mead, even though there is no one to help her now.

Henry sat uneasily on the bench and waved weakly to the youngest apprentice, motioning for her to come closer. Sofina still appeared beside him, but she was unresponsive and motionless, her body was thin and brittle, and all the leaves on her head were yellow.

"My lord?" Gwen formalized her plea, as her apprenticeship had not yet been formalized.

"That'...... Grote ...... "Henry is a little out of breath to inform - Irene, I'm going back to Grote and going to control the tower......"

Gwen nodded, clasping her master's hand. The man seemed to be unyielding, and she was sad to see him so depressed.

"Where's Mr. Ferris?" Gwen asked an older mage, sketching out a diagram as the Rosebay survivors shuffled into the basement. Much to her dismay, she noticed that in every dozen or so names, there was a red mark indicating a fallen mage.

"She's in the atrium, directing the evacuation," replied with concern.

Wow!

The twin doors slammed open. Alessia came in her brisk posture and made a bee line for Ferris. In the haze, Alexia's body illuminates the cathedral. The young mage below made a circular space for her, and the aura of her firefly embers fell to the ground, accompanied by an intrusive hissing sound that scorched the scarlet carpet below.

"The sea monster is gone," said Alexia, in the same tone as the man who had washed the dishes.

The church erupted in cheers, a show of conservative enthusiasm. The girls knew that despite the danger in front of them, Rossby was not out of the woods.

Alicia briefed Ferris on the outside.

As soon as the sea monster is gone, the merfolk lose their advantage. Without a steady stream of reinforcements, they can only serve as seafood for mages.

The flames that burned Alesia began to dim, from white hot to blue, and finally to a crackling ochre color.

Gwen pulled out a robe and walked over to Alessia, who looked forward to her emaciated body, revealing her pale, trembling body. Her sister on the plane suffered several injuries and was bleeding profusely from wounds on her right shoulder and thigh. She had a developing bruise on her right waist that stretched from her navel to her chest and shoulder.

The new students were both grateful and shocked by her injuries. Alexia was none other than the hero of the Coral Sea War, the only scarlet witch who felt even more guilty for their incompetence by seeing her so good physically.

"You're hurt!" Gwen chanted worriedly, turning into reality a healing potion she had received from Alessia Prell.

Alicia took the robe from Gwen's hand and wrapped it nonchalantly. She tore off the needle of the syringe with her teeth and slammed it into her thigh, shivering as the wound healed quickly.

"Here, give you a souvenir. ”

Her handicraft sister made a brisk movement with her wrist. In Ferris's footsteps, more than a dozen heads appeared, ranging from a proboscis swordfish to a ball-shaped, carapace-bearing momarine fish. The largest trophy was an octopus-like creature that has now been completely transformed. From the gray matter oozing from its bursting eye sockets, we can understand that the beast must have been very intelligent when it was alive.

"That's their high priest. Alicia nodded at Ferris, and the sea monster's half-cooked belly floated in the bay. We should take a good rest. ”

Judge Erin Ferris kept her face from feeling visceral shock. While her divination instincts tell her that Alexia de Botton is perfectly capable of taking down a besieged sea monster battalion, the reality is still awe-inspiring. No wonder the old people in the tower kept their voices down when they talked about wizards. No wonder Walken decided to take a slap in the face when De Botton burned down his library. Alicia may not be able to control the utility of magic, create powerful objects, or participate in advanced theoretical research, but this woman is a walking engine of mass destruction.

"How's Master Henry?" Ferris asked. If there is a way to save them from the crisis, it is for Henry to regain control of the tower and reactivate the information network by canceling the interference ritual.

"He's weak and needs to go back to Grote," Gwen replied. Next to her, Alicia put on a tight-fitting combat suit and quickly got dressed, not even noticing that hundreds of eyes were looking at her. "Only by returning Master Kielroy to the grotto of the tower can we hope to regain control of the tower. ”

"Is he awake now?"

"There's a little bit of it, but he's nowhere near the spirit. ”

"This is really disturbing, what solution did Master Kilroy come up with in the first place?"

"We help you and your students, sir," Gwen expertly said that when the school is safe, we can work together to find access to the tower with your unique key. ”

Ferris frowned.

"Will the tower still be safe? I might have told you more if the "subversive" wasn't there, but all the information we had at hand indicated that Walken had taken over the core systems. I doubt he'll give it up peacefully. ”

"Then your Walken is a traitor," said Alexia, her voice full of contempt if we entered the tower, we would have to take care of him. ”

"Eric, traitor?" Ferris lost her composure for a moment, but she couldn't argue with the reality that her precious academy was suffering right now.

"I think the situation speaks for itself. She said coldly to give me some time. ”

Gwen and Alesia waited on the Ferris wheel, and the battle outside began to enter the final stage. Now, it's time for the mages to push the merfolk to the edge of the cliff and back into the sea.

Their temporary calm was interrupted by a high-ranking mage, who hurried into the cathedral to seek Ferris's attention.

"Yes, Sandra?" Ferris turned his attention to the panting mage.

"Mistress, the merfolk are now completely retreating. We don't know if more people are coming, the divination station and the Divita are still collapsing. ”

"I see. Thank you, Sandra, please arrange the number of people. If you are able, recover the body of the deceased. ”

"Yes, ma'am!"

The girls watched Sandra retreat. Two guards opened the cathedral's massive double doors, and the mage disappeared into the gap where the light flooded.

"It's not going to end until we get that tower back," Alexia insisted, looking around you, Erin, do you want to hide and wait for reinforcements to come in? where will they come from? New Zealand? Brisbane? We don't even know if the cities themselves are safe. Do you think they will take their towers with them to retake ours?"

The sound of Alesia reverberates in the cathedral, and the acoustics of the vaulted building make it even greater.

Erin Ferris looked at her surroundings. The injured mages, including the school's girls and faculty members, leaned back on the benches and lay there, their white faces twisted in pain. The young girl, pale as a sheet, looked at her surroundings with frightened, confused eyes. Near the podium, dozens of girls prayed fervently under the statue of the gracious Mother Mary to save them from this crisis.

Ferris said she wanted to take some time to think, but she really couldn't. She is not a mage who rose to fame for her two conflicts in the 70s and 80s, she is a new generation of geniuses who have gained prestige through their contributions to the study of spells and their ability to provide basic goods and services. The warmongers jokingly refer to judges like Ferris as "cherry" mages, a derogatory term that denigrates their equal legitimacy.

Ferris had always thought that the old fools were stupid and useless, outdated and senile. Now she understands that she really has no use in the face of real danger. She can't strategize a battlefield; she can't organize her mages into flying teams to form battle formations. If Alexia de Botton wasn't here, would they have killed the sea monster?, Ferris shuddered at the thought of it, the price they had to pay to achieve the same result.

If Jeremy Lin had been here, or perhaps Guildford at Cairns House, they might have ridden with Alesia and carved a bloody path from here to the breaker. After the divination jammer was activated, Ferris felt embarrassed.

Still, she's a judge. Erin Ferris couldn't show her fragile face under the protection of her formidable opponent.

With a strong heart, Ferris swallows feelings of insecurity and guilt. She took a moment to look around the centuries-old cathedral, looking for solace in the stained-glass statues around her.

Is it right to do here, and should she be part of their wanton, reckless plans?

Erin Ferris did not get an answer from a higher power.

As a soothsayer, Ferris knew better than most that men were responsible for their own choices. Destiny is an insurmountable tree, but without careful watering and careful pruning, the branches of destiny will not grow. The fruit it bears can only ripen by those who are willing to risk climbing its precarious heights.

As Erin was contemplating her next move, there was a commotion inside the cathedral. Henry slowly stood up and looked slowly at her from his thoughts.

"Your Excellency, you need to rest!" Gwen and Alesia immediately left Erin to find a place between the benches littered with corpses.

"Mr. Ferris, my disciple is right. I'm afraid there's no other way. "We have to find a way to restore this tower. Henry's rest allowed him to recover a little, but he was still pale and exhausted.

"What else can you tell me?" said Erin, probing the old judge.

Henry gives a brief overview of Elizabeth's schedule and explains that while her ultimate goal is unknowable, the dishonesty of the tower system and the fusion of mages and Noems are the primary targets of the attackers.

If Sydney continues to be besieged, the inevitable result will be heavy casualties among the mages, as well as catastrophic casualties in any demilitarized zone penetrated by the Mermaid Gate.

Henry coughed then, but nothing could be done. The weakened Sofina was unable to provide her master with the golden mead extracted from her life. The group turned to Ferris, cautiously awaiting her final decision.

Ferris weighed the situation in front of her and knew that Henry's suggestion was the best outcome. Without the towers, they couldn't repel the merfolk. They can't rebuild their shield barrier without fighting off the merfolk. Without obstacles, there can be no end to conflict. Merfolk can withstand the loss of 100,000, 1 million mermaids. Sydney can't. The city has four million souls, of which hundreds of thousands are mages.

Henry and Erin are opposing factions again. On more than one occasion, the old man obstructed their black market trade, arrested her men, and uprooted the seedlings she planted. Can she believe that what she's doing right here and not just playing with Henry's other long-standing misdeeds?

Ferris obsessively hates making decisions that don't know the truth, especially without any help from divination or divination. What if Walken took the opportunity to act on behalf of the gray faction.

"How is your paladin, Mr. Schultz?" Ferris asked carefully, shouldn't he be responsible for suppressing the rebellion?

"Gunther should be in the tower when it falls," Alexia chimed in on behalf of her master, if he wasn't fighting for his life or defending the city right now......

Alicia paused. She didn't want to say the obvious and say it was all true.

As if to suggest, a thunderous murmur resounded inside the church, so loud that it could be heard inside the church. All other sounds were drowned out, and a torrent of rushing mana rolled through the sky.

The twin doors tore open, and a group of female mages stumbled into the atrium, their eyes full of surprise.

"Master!"

"Mr. Ferris!"

Ferris waited for them to approach before allowing them to speak.

"It's incredible! Leviathan was heading towards the city center when suddenly, a huge beam of light pierced the sky and knocked its head flying!"

The girl was so excited that she couldn't breathe, and tried to explain the scene with both hands.

"The waters in the Bay Area are back up! I don't think the Leviathan will be able to go into town on its own!"

The people who recovered in the cathedral let out cautious cheers.

"That's what Gunther gave you," said Henry weakly, his expression beaming with pride.

"Well, that Leviathan still has more than ten thousand mermaids," Alicia interrupted the girl's "good news" Not to mention the ronin, the dragon turtle, and countless creatures hiding in the water. We need you to make a call right away, sir, or I'll go to the front to see Gunther. ”

Ferris gritted his teeth and looked into the hopeful eyes of those around him. Even if the invasion has just been weakened, the conflict will not stop until the merfolk are repulsed. The only possibility of fully achieving this goal is to regain control of the tower.

"If we enter the tower, do you believe you can deal with Walken?" Ferris asked with anxious lips.

"Yes," Alexia replied with a wink of his eyes, saying that his elemental was borrowed lightning, and that even with his expertise in transfiguration and magic, he shouldn't be a problem. ”

"What about his men?"

"Gwen and her team should be able to handle the occasional squire. If you're willing to help us, we'll be more sure of our offense. ”

Ferris turned to face her followers, descendants of the Rossby Private Girls' College. They also had some maggots around them, a dozen high-level mages.

"We're at your command!" everyone knelt down and put their hands on the rose badge sewn into their uniforms, their shrill feminine voices firm and unwavering. Gwen notes with some comfort that Julia and her team are among them.

Ferris turned and stood protective over Henry, who was lying on the bench.

"What happens when we teleport in?" Ferris asked.

"We went to Grote to restore Lord Kilroy. Kill all who stand in our way. As long as the owner of the tower recovers, we can take back control of the entire system. If we can do the best of Walken, Lord Kilroy can replace any of Walken's orders and purge his thug in one fell swoop. ”

However, despite Alexia's urging, Ferris still hesitated. She knew that every minute that Fisheris was pondering in her deliberations was a minute of merfolk rampage through the city, measured in human life.

"Mr. Ferris, may I allow me to speak?" said Gwen.

"You can," Ferris promised her, considering the Eurasian girl in front of her. The Void Magnetic Field has infinite potential, and Ferris wants to see this potential unburied and carefully exploited. After all, this is the highest directive of the tower to ensure that the best bloodlines are preserved. A cold-hearted arbitrator would say that perhaps Rossby only had a dozen spellcasters with unparalleled talent to really need to survive the ordeal of the city. Everything else can be rebuilt, even the school itself can be restored in a generation, but if these young people lose their talents, then disaster will befall the Demon Kingdom.

Gwen began to speak.

"Madame...... I understand your pain and your hesitation. Her voice took on that loud tone on her boyish face.

"I have no doubt that this is a difficult and dangerous endeavour, and we have set out to make it happen. None of us, soothsayers or others, can foresee exactly what path we will take, or what casualties we will suffer. There may be sacrifices ahead, and our tenacity and will will be tested. ”

"But ... Mr. Ferris... The greatest danger is idleness. ”

Ferris felt her chest contract.

"As mages, we have all chosen one path, and my path is the path of radical pacifism, using all my power to ensure peace. I don't like factions. I don't care about profit or prestige, I just want our world to be safe, for my friends, for my benefactors. ”

The soothsayer nodded, at a loss.

"Madame, the price of freedom is always high, but we mages always pay the price. I may just be a junior mage, not even a recognized mage, but there is one path I will never choose, and that is the path of surrender or inaction. Ma'am, I plead with you. I don't know if we're doing it right. But the biggest mistake is inaction. ”

After Gwen finished speaking, the entire cathedral held its breath, immersed in the intense emotions that Gwen's reflective words deeply touched them that they had not known before.

Ferris found himself with nothing to say. The intersection of guilt and courage, hope and despair, action and inaction envelops her mind at once, prompting her to give Gwen her best.

Gwen Song!Ferris was alive. What a girl! A future mage! Maybe even a future mage!

If Ferris helps Henry and his followers in this time of crisis, they will always owe her a favor and they will have to repay her. Even if it was one vote for Henry Ferrin, she would have received a crucial vote. Despite de Botton's babbling about doing the right thing, Erin Ferris was first and foremost a pragmatist.

Suddenly, Erin Ferris no longer felt like her lips were dry. On the contrary, they are full of anticipation and anticipation.

"Alright," Ferris's once conflicted face flushed with anticipation, what are we waiting for? ”