Lin En gripped the two Soulbinding Resonance Crystals emitting a faint glow tightly in his hand.
He did not waste a single second and turned directly to face all the uneasy Dark Elves.
“I have a method that might be able to eradicate it completely.”
His voice was not loud, but it was like a heavy hammer, striking the dead waters of everyone’s hearts and stirring a faint ripple.
“But I need time—to prepare an unprecedented magic with all my strength.”
“During this period, I can’t spare any effort to suppress it anymore.”
All eyes instantly ignited, then grew heavy again with his next words.
Lin En’s gaze swept over the crowd and landed firmly on Magis’ aged and weary face.
His voice was deep.
“So, I need you all… to use the Isolated Remains to buy me time. No matter how it regenerates, you must suppress it in that Pit. Do not let it take a single step out!”
The final hope required the final sacrifice.
There was not a trace of hesitation on Magis’ wrinkled face.
He glanced at his right hand, now entirely reduced to bone, then nodded heavily.
His voice was hoarse but as resolute as iron.
“Rest assured, even if I have to stake this old life, we will buy you enough time!”
With that, he was about to drag his battered body once more toward the Source of Power and Curse.
“Lord Magis, you mustn’t!”
A shout erupted.
Captain Caron of the Dark Elf warriors strode forward like a tower, blocking his path.
“Your body has reached its limit. The Clan can survive without us, but it cannot go on without your leadership!”
Caron’s eyes were bloodshot, filled with urgency and determination.
Immediately after, another surviving Dark Elf warrior, still stained with blood, also stood forward.
He was just an ordinary soldier, but at this moment, his face was written with the same conviction.
“Lord Magis, Captain Caron is right!”
“We are soldiers personally trained by you. Now is our turn to make sacrifices.”
“The Clan cannot be without your leadership. For the Clan, please let us take the field.”
His words seemed to ignite a fuse.
“We are willing to die for the Clan!”
“We are willing to die for Lord Magis!”
In an instant, all the surviving Dark Elf warriors, regardless of rank, dropped to one knee in unison.
The clash of armor against the ground echoed solemnly and uniformly.
They were the last elites of the Clan, the final line of defense.
At this moment, they would stake their lives on the future of their people.
Looking at these familiar faces, at their young and steadfast eyes, Magis’ cloudy old eyes finally brimmed with burning tears.
He opened his mouth to speak, but immense grief and emotion clogged his throat, so that all he could do was choke out a hoarse and trembling voice.
“…Good children, I’m counting on you.”
A tragic duet had thus begun.
The first warrior to step forward showed not a trace of hesitation.
He took the Isolated Remains from Magis’ hands.
Turning back, he saluted Magis and all his kin with a standard warrior’s gesture, then turned decisively and strode toward the terrifying abyss, where flesh and magma churned.
“For the Moonshadow Clan!”
He roared, pouring all his strength and vitality into the Sacred Relic.
Vmmm–!
The Isolated Remains erupted with a towering black radiance.
A visible energy barrier, suffused with the aura of life-devouring, surged forth like an invisible giant hand, pressing down hard upon the bloody tentacles that had just emerged and threatened to spread.
“Roar–!”
The Broodmother emitted a howl of pain and fury as newly formed flesh withered and disintegrated under the gray barrier.
But the cost was devastating.
The warrior’s body was ravaged by the power of the Sacred Relic at a speed visible to the naked eye.
His skin lost all color, turning paper-white, then his flesh shriveled and eroded, revealing stark white bone.
In mere seconds, a vibrant life had utterly vanished.
Even his skeleton was reduced to dust by the overwhelming force, dispersing into the wind.
The Broodmother’s power surged back, and the gray barrier wavered.
“I’ll do it!”
The second warrior stepped forward without hesitation, seized the falling Isolated Remains, and repeated the same battle cry, the same tragic sacrifice.
They relayed their lives one after another, building an invisible Wall of Flesh and Blood to block the nightmare.
But this wall was crumbling, one after another, at a heartbreaking pace.
Tears streamed down Magis’ old face as he choked out a prayer for every fallen child.
At the same time, Lin En had entered a state of absolute focus.
He stood with his back to the tragic sacrifice—not out of indifference, but because he understood that the weight of giving their deaths meaning rested on his shoulders.
He quickly explained his plan to Fiona, Elaine, and the others beside him.
“I’m going to forge a spear, send it ten thousand meters into the sky, and then let it crash down!”
The words sounded like sheer fantasy, leaving everyone present momentarily stunned.
“Send it…ten thousand meters up?”
Fiona’s face was filled with disbelief.
As a seasoned warrior, she knew what that height meant.
It was a Death Domain that even dragons could not reach—a forbidden zone for all life.
“Lord Lin En, how is that possible? And…from such a height, how can you ensure it lands exactly here?”
Elaine also furrowed his brow.
As the Kingdom’s chief Alchemist, he was widely read, but had never encountered such madness in any text.
It defied all magical logic he knew—more like the delirium of a madman.
But seeing the unshakable resolve in Lin En’s eyes, he forced himself to calm down and try to comprehend the reasoning, but his mind was blank.
Lin En ignored the others and began to move.
Step one: forge the projectile.
He shaped his hands as if holding something, and the earth around them rumbled.
Vast earth elements were forcibly drawn from the ley lines, gathering and compressing in his palms, tighter and tighter!
In just a few breaths, a spindle-shaped projectile, ten meters long and about a meter in diameter, flashing with dark golden metallic luster, floated in the air.
Its surface was as smooth as a mirror, exuding a minimalist yet deadly industrial beauty, with a density surpassing any known metal in this world.
Step two: implant the beacon.
He extended a finger and gently tapped the projectile’s midsection.
A precise groove opened soundlessly on its indestructible surface.
Lin En carefully placed the Sub Crystal that Elaine had given him into the slot.
Then, complex magical runes flowed from his fingertip, sealing it completely and fusing it as one.
This would serve as the control core of this Spear of Divine Punishment.
Step three: construct the secondary rocket.
Finally, Lin En formed a massive, hollow combustion chamber at the projectile’s tail.
He suddenly spread his palm wide.
A torrent of fire elements, visible to the naked eye, was drawn from the air and condensed into a crimson flood, pouring wildly into the combustion chamber.
There, the volatile energies were crystallized, compressed to the limit, solidified, and packed inside.
“First, I’ll use earth magic to create a Launch Shaft and then use a directional blast to fire it skyward like a shell.”
Lin En explained rapidly.
“Second, once it’s at altitude, I’ll ignite the solidified fuel like a rocket, sending it even higher!”
The entire concept was beyond Elaine and the others’ understanding, but they could clearly sense the world-shattering power contained within the spear.
On the ground, one Dark Elf warrior after another turned to ash before the Isolated Remains, the number of survivors dwindling, the defense line on the verge of collapse.
The gray barrier flickered, and the Broodmother’s howls and struggles grew more frenzied.
“Lord Lin En! We can’t hold out much longer!”
Fiona cried as another comrade disintegrated amid screams, her voice brimming with urgency and sorrow.
“I know!”
Lin En’s eyes flew open, shining with divine light.
He had completed all preparations.
He gently planted the massive, earth-penetrating projectile he had named the Staff of God upright into the ground.
Before the stunned gazes of all, the rock and soil around the Staff of God seemed to come alive, rising and molding themselves.
Within seconds, a massive Launch Shaft emerged—half-exposed, wrapped in a thick, earth-yellow magical glow.
The dark golden spear sat perfectly ensconced in this makeshift barrel, only its sharp tip jutting toward the sky.
He didn’t wait any longer.
He knew every second of delay meant another life lost.
He stomped down hard and shouted to the last remaining warriors who were barely holding the line.
“Everyone! Prepare for the impact!”
“Primary booster—ignite!”
BOOM—!!!
A thunderous roar, as if a giant’s warhammer had struck the mountain.
The Launch Shaft erupted in sun-bright light, the ground trembling violently as debris was hurled skyward by the shockwave.
The dark golden Staff of God, like a meteor defying the earth’s shackles, trailed a blazing white tail as it tore through the air, shrieking with a piercing scream.
It shot straight toward the clouded sky.
It broke through the thick clouds, soon becoming a tiny, rapidly ascending point on the horizon.
On the ground, the remaining Dark Elf warriors still fought on, using the last of their strength to wield the Isolated Remains, clearing away the Broodmother’s final resistance to ensure nothing could interfere with the spear’s ascent.
Lin En had no more attention to spare for the earth below.
He was fully focused, eyes closed, one hand raised high.
The warm Core Crystal in his grasp radiated a light that echoed the tiny beacon in the distant sky.
His entire mind and spiritual perception seemed to follow the projectile—piercing the wind and clouds, soaring to the ten-thousand-meter heights beyond mortal reach.
He whispered, in a voice only he could hear—calm and precise.
“Secondary booster primed…adjusting trajectory…entering target orbit…Staff of God is ascending.”