While Lin Jun began rallying Puchi forces at the bottom of the dungeon, the battle at the entrance had reached fever pitch.
Aside from the two combatants, the nearby elves had long since fled.
Those who hadn’t grasped the situation and stayed were already corpses; no one knew whose stray spell or blade had killed them. The rest could only wait far away for the fight to end.
After realizing he couldn’t fully handle Ilos’s dual casting and was being suppressed, Eko’s fighting style grew increasingly reckless.
Trading heavy blows, he left two gashes on Ilos.
But that was all.
The wounds were deep, but under max-level [Natural Magic], they couldn’t truly threaten Ilos.
Eko, on the other hand, had taken severe damage twice. Even chugging healing potions, he was gradually faltering.
He knew he had only one chance left.
As Eko moved at high speed, roots controlled by Ilos burst from the ground, slowing him a fraction.
At the same instant, a searing beam shot from the tip of Ilos’s staff!
Facing the killing strike, Eko hurled one curved blade with all his might.
The blade spun into a silver wheel straight at Ilos’s face. Ilos was prepared; massive vines lashed out, accepting being severed to deflect the blade.
Losing one weapon would cripple Eko’s combat power. Ilos prepared to finish him and retrieve the artifact, only to hear the crisp clang of metal from the deflected blade’s direction.
Ilos realized something was wrong and turned. A spinning silver edge instantly pierced his shoulder!
His left arm flew off, landing far away with the first blade.
Only then did the second curved blade fall powerlessly to the ground.
“Aaagh! You brute!”
Ilos never imagined that, facing a lethal beam, Eko would throw both blades; using the second to strike the deflected first and redirect it.
The price…
When the smoke cleared, Eko was charred black. His breastplate was melted inward, metal and flesh fused in a scorched stench.
Ilos wasn’t even sure he was still conscious.
He staggered back two steps and collapsed into the dungeon’s spiral. By the time Ilos reached the edge, nothing was visible below.
He ignored his severed arm. Eko’s blades had the “Ruin” property; reattaching was impossible. Even the two gashes on his body were only barely suppressed by constant healing spells.
Time was short. After simple hemostasis, face pale, Ilos raced downward.
After he left, the other elves—who had seen the commotion finally stop—hurried over. Seeing battle scars everywhere but no one at the entrance, they fell into bewildered silence.
After searching, they found only Eko’s twin blades and Ilos’s severed arm.
“They… took each other down?”
If true, the Elven King, Chief Mage, and Guard Captain all dying in one day would be like the sky falling for the elves.
Eventually, the palace guards rushed back to report the disastrous situation to Princess Galadriel, who had remained in the royal city. The rangers entered the dungeon to search for the missing pair.
…
Three days later.
As the giant trees’ movements grew slower and weaker, the trapped ranger forces could finally move again.
Not long after, they ran into Ilos hurrying down.
“T-Teacher?” Salian stared in disbelief. He had never imagined reuniting with Ilos in this state.
Pale, disheveled hair, and most critically, an empty left sleeve; he had lost an arm.
“Salian, you’re here too…”
Ilos’s other mage student craned his neck from the crowd, but Ilos didn’t notice him.
“Salian, I know you have much to say, but I must first retrieve the stolen artifact. Don’t stop me!”
“The artifact was stolen?!”
Salian had no desire to oppose his teacher. Even in that situation, Ilos hadn’t tried to kill him; they merely disagreed.
If his sister ultimately came to no harm, the conflict wasn’t irreconcilable.
In fact, had everything gone as Ilos planned, when he finally released them, Eko might have resisted, but Salian would probably have grudgingly accepted reality.
Hearing the artifact was stolen and seeing his teacher’s wretched state, Salian instinctively stepped aside.
But not all elves cleared the path.
Eko’s deputy blocked Ilos, cold eyes fixed on the severed arm.
“If I’m not mistaken, that wound was made by the Guard Captain’s blades?”
At those words, every ranger’s gaze locked onto Ilos’s stump.
They might not recognize the wound themselves, but they trusted their captain’s deputy.
“Lord Chief, could you tell us where Guard Captain Eko is?” The deputy’s hand rested on his curved blade. The sound of swords leaving sheaths rose around him.
Ilos gripped his staff tightly, no longer able to suppress the fury that had built up inside.
“You idiots! Every single one of you! Can’t you just stay put instead of jumping out to trip me at the critical moment?!”
Massive vines erupted among the rangers. Magic and blades clashed amid shouts and screams.
By the time Ilos finally reached the Sacred Tree sapling at the spiral’s center, he had gained several more wounds.
The deepest, at his waist, was courtesy of Eko’s deputy; the deputy himself had been impaled through the chest by Ilos’s branches.
Ilos’s goal had only been to break through, not to fight the rangers to the death. Facing the Chief, not every ranger could attack without restraint. In the end, Ilos escaped them and reached his destination.
His tracking mark had vanished here. It was obvious where the artifact had been taken.
The other party could hide in abyssal space; the one who released Eko was almost certainly the same.
Ilos realized he had been played!
Everything felt like a conspiracy. An unknown existence had used him!
He didn’t yet know who, but hatred in his heart had reached its peak.
So had wariness!
The opponent might be weaker, but was incomparably cunning with unfathomable methods. Even if Ilos couldn’t have the artifact, it absolutely could not fall into enemy hands!
He knew his current state was abysmal; he hadn’t been this weak in a century. Ahead might be a trap.
But he had no choice. The arrow was loosed; there was no turning back.
Success or death!
He set up the ritual, layered several enhancement spells on himself, and downed the potential-explosive potion at his waist.
Under the drug’s stimulation, stamina and mana surged. Aside from the missing arm, Ilos returned to peak condition!
Time was short. He skillfully activated the array. The next moment, he stood in the empty abyssal space.
(End of Chapter)
