With that, Annabell suddenly let go of her hand and shoved Charlotte toward the ball of soulfire.
“Now, sit down right now! Follow whatever that crappy jade pendant of yours tells you, and swallow this fire!” Annabell lifted her pale chin, speaking in a tone that sounded to Charlotte like a tsundere faking cruelty.
“I don’t raise useless trash. If you can’t recover your magic today, then don’t even think about following me anymore!”
Charlotte staggered two steps and fell to sit in front of the soulfire.
She stared blankly at Annabell’s deliberately fierce and cold expression, and tears burst forth again.
‘She’s lying again…’
‘Charlotte sobbed in her heart.
‘This is obviously a heaven-sent opportunity, yet she deliberately dismisses it as worthless. She clearly wants to help me rebuild my magic circuits, but she uses such a nasty excuse to hide her kindness. Miss Annabell, just how much do you want me to owe you before you’re satisfied?’
Charlotte no longer hesitated. She wiped away her tears forcefully, her eyes filled with unprecedented determination.
“I will definitely not let you down!”
She sat cross-legged, casting aside all distracting thoughts. Guided by the secret technique the old woman had taught her in her dreams, she closed her eyes and extended her mental force into the cyan flame, beginning the extremely painful and lengthy process of soul synchronization.
Seeing Charlotte enter a meditative state, Annabell finally let out a sigh of relief.
She gripped her staff and stood quietly beside Charlotte.
‘Phew, I finally shoved this greatest opportunity onto the female lead. This should max out the affection level, right?’ Annabell gloated inwardly.
***
Meanwhile, on the other side of the main hall, the situation had already turned into a true hell on earth.
The eight remaining embers, scattered about, had lost the suppression of the Elf King’s aura and had completely entered a berserk, indiscriminate attack mode. They zipped back and forth through the air, each impact bringing a vast sea of flames.
Charles, Rosalind, and the others were besieged by these eight fireballs, battered and disheveled.
“Holy Light Shield! Block them!”
Rosalind’s face was pale as paper. Blood trickled from the corner of her mouth as she desperately channeled her divine mana.
One after another, golden shields of light rose around her, but under the impact of the berserk embers, they shattered like glass.
Even this Saintess, ranked second on the Prodigy Ranking, had exhausted all her trump cards. Her left arm was charred black, and she could only barely hold on.
Charles’s situation was even more dire.
“Aaaaah! Help! Prince, save me!”
The adviser was grazed on the right arm by a crimson ember. The fire instantly adhered to his flesh and bones, spreading rapidly throughout his body.
“Useless! Get away!” Charles himself was burned, his clothes tattered and hair curled. He had none of a prince’s dignity left. He watched coldly as the adviser was engulfed by the flames. Instead of saving him, he kicked him away.
The adviser let out a desperate scream. To save himself, he drew a dagger from his belt and, steeling himself, chopped off his own burning right arm with a crack! Blood gushed out as he rolled on the ground in agony.
“I can’t hold on! If this continues, we’ll all die here!” Common Noble C cried out in despair as he futilely released water magic.
Faced with such a hopeless death trap, a flicker of extreme pain and madness flashed in Charles’s eyes.
Forced into a corner, he finally reached up and tore off a pure gold necklace from his neck.
“Annabell! And you useless trash! You forced me to do this!”
Charles roared, crushing the necklace.
In an instant, a terrifying dragon roar and pressure descended upon the hall!
With a piercing, high-pitched dragon cry, a phantom golden dragon several dozen meters long coiled up from behind Charles!
This was the ultimate life-saving trump card granted to him as the crown prince by the Imperial Emperor—a Saint-domain defensive apparition: the Guardian Dragon Soul!
The golden dragon soul spread its massive wings, instantly shielding Charles beneath it. No matter how the embers bombarded it, they could not budge the dragon soul even a fraction.
Seeing this, Rosalind, who had been barely holding on, saw a glimmer of hope.
“Prince Charles!” Rosalind shouted loudly. “If we just passively defend with the dragon soul, we’ll die once its energy runs out! Use your dragon soul power to help me reactivate the Light’s Sealing Sword!”
“Only by actively suppressing these scattered embers can we survive—and even claim the opportunity for ourselves!”
Charles hid beneath the dragon soul, his eyes gleaming with cunning.
He glanced at Rosalind, then at the struggling Common Noble C not far away, and a cruel smile curled at the corner of his mouth.
“Fine! Saintess, I, the Imperial Prince, agree to share the opportunity and jointly activate the magic array!” Charles replied with feigned righteousness, putting on a cooperative front.
Rosalind breathed a sigh of relief and began to gather holy light again.
But in that split second!
Charles’s figure flickered eerily under the cover of the dragon soul, like a venomous snake lurking in a swamp, suddenly striking!
He didn’t go to help Rosalind at all. Instead, he dashed straight behind the unsuspecting Common Noble C!
A dull sound of a blade piercing flesh echoed.
Common Noble C’s eyes bulged as he looked down in disbelief.
A bloodied hand, wearing an imperial ring, had pierced through his back and out his chest, and in its palm, it clutched his still-beating heart!
“P…Prince… y… you…” Noble C spat out torrents of blood, his eyes filled with horror and confusion.
“An opportunity? Do you think you deserve a share?”
Charles pressed his lips close to Noble C’s ear, letting out a sinister sneer.
“With fewer people, I, this prince, can take an extra portion of soulfire. And the high-grade magic crystals you’re carrying—I’ll gladly take them.”
Charles cruelly crushed the heart, snatched the storage ring from Noble C’s finger, and then kicked his unblinking corpse into the sea of flames.
Murder and robbery, clean and efficient!
Charles licked the blood splattered on his lips, then slowly turned his gaze toward Annabell.
In the corner of the hall, where heat waves rolled, Charlotte’s assimilation had reached the most critical moment.
Her eyes were tightly shut. Her long eyelashes trembled slightly under the terrifying heat. Sweat evaporated into white steam as soon as it beaded on her forehead.
And on her chest, the emerald jade pendant containing the Elf King’s law was emitting an unprecedented, brilliant green glow.
This gentle yet powerful aura of nature acted like an absolute protective barrier, not only isolating the terrifying heat that could melt steel, but also turning into countless strands of cooling energy, guiding the berserk Medicine God’s Soulfire to slowly merge into Charlotte’s once-drained magic circuits.
In the shelter of this vibrant green light, Charlotte’s breathing gradually steadied, and a rosy flush of magical recovery returned to her pale cheeks.
She could clearly feel that the power which had lain dormant inside her—the power everyone had declared completely broken—was like a withered tree finally receiving rain after a long drought. It began to sprout anew, greedily absorbing this divine-level gift.
Meanwhile, in the center of the hall, the scene was completely different.
With a piercing dragon cry that shook the dome, a phantom golden dragon several dozen meters long hovered in the air.
Its dragon eyes, burning with golden flames, radiated supreme authority.
Beneath the dragon soul, the Saintess of the Church of Holy Light, Rosalind, gritted her teeth. Ignoring the blood constantly seeping from her lips, she channeled every last bit of her remaining divine power into the ancient magic card.
“Light’s Sealing Sword, form the array!”
Rosalind let out a sharp cry.
In an instant, dozens of massive light swords made of pure holy light descended from the sky, forming an unbreakable cage.
Combined with the terrifying dragon might of the Guardian Dragon Soul above, they forcibly suppressed the eight wildly rampaging embers.
“Hahaha! We did it! We succeeded!”
Charles, standing under the protection of the dragon soul, burst into a manic laugh of glee.
“The Prince is mighty! The Prince’s blessings are endless!”
The adviser, who had just cut off his right arm and was pale as paper, ignored the pain of his wound and immediately fell to his knees at Charles’s feet.
With his remaining left hand, he clutched Charles’s thigh tightly and began to fawn madly: “With the absolute suppression of this Guardian Dragon Soul, these Ancient God’s embers are as good as yours!”
“As long as you subdue all eight divine fires, what are those so-called Empire prodigies or Sky Academy Chief Students? They’ll be nothing but insignificant ants before you! You are the one true god in this world!”