How could there be anything in this world capable of dodging a hunter’s bullet?
But Aeryn was no ignorant deer. In an instant, she reduced her speed from several times the speed of sound to a near standstill. Even with the support of divine power, her physical frame began to let out a mournful wail, and the muscles supporting her body throbbed with agony.
This was a level of pain Aeryn had never experienced since birth. Any adult human seasoned by hardship would have lost consciousness within two seconds under such excruciating torture.
However, Aeryn endured.
Her silver hair was soaked with cold sweat, and every part of her body was screaming in protest—if we don’t end this battle now, we are going to die.
“Just give me one minute… no, thirty seconds will be enough.”
Aeryn whispered to herself in her heart.
Gilexin watched Aeryn’s strange movements with curiosity, finding it only amusing… Do you really think you can escape like this?
No, I never thought of running away.
The little silver Qilin stood tall. She lowered her head, concentrating her remaining strength into her horn. Even though her entire body was wracked with an unimaginable, bone-deep ache, she stood there with a majestic air, like a king welcoming a hero.
What exactly made her willing to go to such lengths?
This was clearly a human war…
Rosha’s eyes continued to widen. She opened her mouth, wanting to say something, to shout something out loud. But the paralyzed situation left her throat unable to make a sound. Why?
Exactly why?
Perhaps, this was their only chance?
“Do you really think there’s a chance for you as long as we keep fighting?”
Black Mask still maintained that tireless, unhurried appearance, his tone forever concealing a sense of composure. “Then let me increase the difficulty for you.”
Gilexin’s bullets finally hit Aeryn, and blood splattered across the air.
The final assault, the grandest strike. In reality, Aeryn had long since exhausted her strength. The power the God of the Kin provided her was not her own, and it had already been pushed to its limit when she fought those three Tier 7 monsters earlier.
The series of actions that followed were nothing more than her gritting her teeth and persevering.
The enemy’s primary target hadn’t been her. If she hadn’t chosen to come and help Rosha deal with the Demon King, if she hadn’t chosen to use her final strength for a counterattack instead of saving her own life…
In the sky, the web intercepting the magic bullets suddenly failed. Heavenly thunder, purple lightning, and the fury of the sea—all the projectiles exploded against Gilexin’s back.
The intense pain sent Gilexin into a fit of rage. Her chest was drenched in blood, where a crystalline broken horn was lodged. She never expected that Aeryn would rather snap her own horn just to deliver a heavy blow.
This time, she was truly humiliated and wounded, battered and bloodied by a young elf!
“Damn you! Damn you! Damn you!”
Gilexin’s divine descent wished she could swallow Aeryn alive, but she suddenly recalled the Death Carol of the Wheel of Fate. A sense of unease surged in her heart.
Should she not have come here?
“Damn it, if I hadn’t wanted to find that rat Demon King sooner, why would I have come to this wretched human place!”
Gilexin stabilized herself in the sky again, forcing herself to calm down. She was absolutely certain that the other girl’s injuries were far more severe than her own.
Under the influence of that prophecy, Gilexin did not choose to pursue the attack. Instead, she remained at a high altitude, scanning the battlefield for any other potential threats.
But to her surprise, Aeryn made no further moves after completing that single attack, remaining suspended in the air only by a faint, flickering divine power.
The luster of her remaining horn slowly faded. Having fought at such high intensity until now, Aeryn finally lost all strength to resist, swaying as she began to fall from the sky.
Her power was completely depleted—not just the power borrowed from the God of the Kin, but her own innate strength as well.
After her initial wariness, Gilexin began to laugh. She stood in the sky, looking down at her enemy falling like a horse that had been shot.
So that really was a final, desperate strike?
Gilexin rubbed the wound on her chest, pulled out the broken horn, and threw it toward the direction where Aeryn was falling.
But halfway through its descent, the broken horn dissolved into silver spots of light and vanished into thin air.
Deprived of the divine power’s enhancement, Aeryn also reverted to her original form, though the wounds covering her body were a gruesome sight to behold.
Gilexin wore the smile of a victor as she looked at the elven girl falling from the heights.
She could not wait to see Aeryn’s body slam into the ice and turn into a frozen corpse while completely defenseless.
Sensing the weightlessness of her rapid descent, Aeryn tried desperately to reach out and grab onto something, but her hands wouldn’t respond. The consequence of overusing her body’s structure was that it no longer responded to any of her requests.
Divine power was always meant to be a temporary measure; it couldn’t be used for long periods. Yet she had not only used it for a long time but had also used it under a heavy load.
It wasn’t that Aeryn didn’t know she shouldn’t do this, but only by defeating the Demon King first would there be a chance to think about the future. Thus, she placed all her hopes on that final strike.
Unfortunately, she failed.
Although she succeeded in stabbing her horn into the Demon King’s heart, her strength was already spent at that moment. Therefore, she had only managed to drive the horn in… rather than channeling high-level divine power to melt the Demon King’s heart.
She failed to kill the Demon King, and now she was the one about to die.
Rosha’s cries came faintly through the wind, but Aeryn could no longer hear them clearly. Her ears were filled with a buzzing ring, and the entire world spun before her eyes.
Aeryn gave up on saving herself. She wanted to grasp something she cherished before she died, so that her death wouldn’t be so bleak. But the bone flute that had accompanied her the whole way was destroyed, and her bow was gone too.
Subconsciously, she wanted to find the Tracing Light Stone she had brought out from her tribe, to hear the sounds of her hometown one last time.
But after thinking for a moment, she remembered that the Tracing Light Stone had already been given to that human child.
Viel…
I’m so sorry I won’t be able to fulfill my promise…
They say that when a person falls from a great height, time seems to slow down.
Aeryn forced her head to look down… and with that one look, she saw a miracle. An incredible miracle!
A familiar figure burst through the ice from below. Monsters swarmed toward that figure in a frenzy, only to be annihilated in a single encounter.
That Tier 7 demonic fish that had entangled her for so long was punched deep into the ground the moment it opened its mouth to lunge at the figure.
“Vi… Viel?”
Aeryn found it somewhat unbelievable. Even the masked man holding Rosha back was stunned. The sudden commotion shocked everyone on the battlefield.
Viel charged into the sky like a reverse shooting star. Not a single monster dared to approach him.
Aeryn, who was falling at terminal velocity, was caught in a single embrace!
“Goodness, Elf Sister, how did you manage to get yourself into this state? It’s really unsightly… how are we supposed to team up later?”
Viel looked at the dazed Aeryn, placing a hand on her chest as he offered a comforting smile.
“Don’t cry… I’ll lock in your life force first. Once I’ve settled the score, I’ll find a professional healer for you.”
“I… I’m not crying!” Aeryn coughed violently. Looking at the person before her who was both familiar and strange, she struggled for a long time before speaking. “How did you grow up so much all of a sudden?”
“We’ll talk about that later.” Viel turned his head with a smile and let out a whistle. Instantly, a small, translucent aqua-colored flying dragon circled up from below and flew to his side.
Viel placed Aeryn securely on the dragon’s back and patted its round head. “Take her back to the ship and guard her.”
The dragon nodded and flew toward the sky, carrying Aeryn away.
“Hello there, Demon King Gilexin. It’s been many years. I hope you’ve been well.” Viel looked toward Gilexin, who was suspended high in the air, his originally gentle eyes turning cold.