“But how are you going to deal with the clouds in the sky?”
Fianna gazed at the moon through the clouds from a distance.
She understood Liyakade’s plan.
But for their operation to succeed, they still lacked the most crucial thing—moonlight.
“Her Highness Sistem has already gone to blow away those clouds. We just need to lure the shadow up there.”
“Her Highness Sistem was acting with you all along?”
Fianna was stunned.
She hadn’t expected Liyakade’s plan to be so thorough.
It seemed that even without her presence here, Liyakade and the others could still defeat Shadow Burial.
She looked into the distance, and it really seemed as if a tiny figure could be seen floating in midair.
“Her Highness Sistem truly has such determination.”
Fianna couldn’t help but sigh.
As the Kingdom’s second princess, not only did Sistem not shrink back in the face of a thousand-meter-high sky and cloud layer, but she even took the initiative to take responsibility and blow away the clouds, providing Liyakade and the others with the conditions needed to defeat Shadow Burial.
Such courage was rare for an ordinary person.
“Let’s go to the back mountain first.”
Gliding smoothly on the stone slab Fianna had raised, they had already arrived at the foot of the back mountain.
Liyakade had also briefly explained the situation with Darkness.
Meanwhile, Sistem’s situation was not so good.
As someone who wielded the Wind Element, Sistem, like Liyakade, had attempted flight and levitation before.
Her level was higher and her mana reserves richer, making her confident in her abilities.
But flying up to the clouds and using Wind Element to blow away dark clouds was something Sistem had never attempted.
Earlier, from Liyakade and the others’ perspective on the ground, they could only tell that the clouds were high above.
Sistem knew that the clouds here would be more than a thousand meters up.
But it wasn’t until she actually began ascending that Sistem realized how much she had underestimated things.
Blue winds surrounded Sistem’s body, lifting her steadily higher.
As she rose, she felt the temperature rapidly dropping.
Even though it was still summer, the combination of night and altitude made the cold bite.
How cold did it feel now?
Almost zero degrees, perhaps?
That meant… she was probably already three thousand meters above the ground.
Yet in Sistem’s vision, those clouds still seemed far away.
They grew larger, completely blocking out the bright moon and hiding its light.
“Cough… So this is how it is?”
Sistem coughed twice, forced to stop and hover in midair for a moment of rest.
She shivered slightly, rubbing her cold shoulders with equally cold hands.
The high altitude brought not only dropping temperatures but also increasingly thin air.
The reason she paused wasn’t just the cold—it was the rush of air created as she rapidly ascended, making her feel even colder.
And as the oxygen thinned, Sistem found herself struggling to breathe, a light pain throbbing in her forehead.
All this was different from Sistem’s usual flight.
At low altitudes, even at high speed, she only needed a bit of mana to shield herself from wind pressure.
But now, flying so high, she had to expend much more mana to protect herself.
Her magic consumption was huge.
Sistem quickly adjusted her breathing.
After hovering briefly in midair, she continued to fly toward the clouds.
This time, she changed tactics.
The blue light around her intensified as she slowed her ascent, focusing more mana and Wind Element around herself for protection.
If she simply chased speed, she might be exhausted before even reaching the clouds.
With her new strategy, Sistem felt much better.
She couldn’t help but glance down.
At this height, she could no longer see Liyakade and the others.
Sistem thought again of her little sister’s words, and of her sister’s lover, Liyakade.
To Sistem, Liyakade was a mysterious existence, someone who could open up her stubborn sister’s heart and even make her fall in love.
Sistem had no objection to her sister liking girls from the beginning.
She’d even tried to bring the two together, and in the end, the three of them really had become close.
What surprised Sistem, though, was that as Field and Liyakade’s relationship grew, Field’s resentment toward her inexplicably faded.
Sometimes she would even call her “big sis” and worry about her.
This made Sistem feel deeply comforted.
And Liyakade’s Demon Bloodline, as well as the Coexistence Strategy proposed by her mysterious ancestor, gave Sistem hope for a new era.
“Then, let me see just how far you all can go!”
Blue gales burst from Sistem’s side, swirling outward.
A ring of wind tore a hole through the cloud that blocked the moon.
The cloud was too vast and dense, and Sistem’s magic was no longer enough to blow it all away.
She could only gamble that Liyakade and the others had reached the mountain top by now.
Soon, other clouds would drift back in and cover the moon once more.
By then, even Sistem would be powerless.
Liyakade and the others had already reached the mountain top.
At the very moment moonlight broke through the clouds, they all looked up in unison.
A gash had been ripped open in the cloud.
“It looks like Her Highness Sistem succeeded!”
Liyakade’s eyes narrowed.
Though Sistem had cleared the clouds for them and let the moonlight shine down, from the sky’s condition, their window of time was short.
Soon, the moon would be covered again, and Sistem wouldn’t be able to clear it twice.
But… this brief time was enough!
Liyakade looked back.
That familiar, terrifying, and bizarre shadow was finally exposed to the moonlight once more.
Moreover, atop the bare mountain, there were no other shadows for it to hide in.
“Alice, do it!”
Golden Light Element flared around Alice.
At the surge of Light Element, Shadow Burial on the ground stirred restlessly, then shot toward Liyakade at a speed faster than before.
It sensed there was nowhere to hide.
If it wanted to escape, it could only burrow into another’s shadow.
So, it had to plunge into Liyakade’s shadow.
But how could Liyakade, who had suffered once already, fall for the same trick?
As Shadow Burial charged, Liyakade retreated quickly, keeping a safe distance so that her shadow was the closest—but never close enough to be entered.
Her primary target was Liyakade, but its escape mechanism sought the nearest shadow.
Liyakade’s tactics left Shadow Burial with no options.
“A shadow that should not exist in this world—burned away and utterly erased. That is the end you deserve!”
Liyakade looked down at Shadow Burial from above.
A sphere of light shot from behind her and struck the impossible shadow with full force.