The four legendary figures of the Enlightenment Society—Farion, Serantia, Langustu, and Campion—had no interest in the remaining elven resistance in the plaza.
Their only goal is the Heart of the Elf.
After Campion pinpointed its location beneath the Temple of Eternal Rest.
Without hesitation, the four transformed into four gray shadows, ignoring the desperate gaze of the Elf Queen Eliria behind them and the sporadic attacks.
It tore through the chaotic battlefield and sped toward the deepest part of the royal court, an area shrouded in ancient barriers and deathly silence.
The Temple of Eternal Slumber, the resting place of three epic elders of the Elven race.
It is hidden deep in the core area of the Fountain of Life, with a magnificent presence yet appearing lifeless.
Constructed from countless massive ancient trees inscribed with dim runes, it exudes a chilling aura that blends vibrant life with decay and decay.
Outside the palace, the elven guards who once protected this place had long been transferred away during the previous raid, turning into corpses on the vine-covered walls.
The four figures moved like ghosts, arriving at the outer perimeter of the palace in an instant.
They had just stood on the emerald-colored floor tiles, which were covered in cracks and exuded a withered aura.
An invisible, terrifying pressure, as if a giant beast that had been sleeping for millennia had awakened, suddenly emanated from the deep, dark palace gates!
This oppressive aura carries an absolute sense of crushing power originating from the very essence of life, as heavy as a mountain and as deep as the sea.
The air seemed to solidify into a viscous gel, and the space groaned under its own weight.
Even the four legendary sages of the Enlightenment Society, as powerful as they were, felt as if their hearts were being squeezed by an invisible giant hand.
The surging magic within his body instantly became sluggish and stagnant, as if he had sunk into an invisible swamp.
The four people's expressions changed slightly, and they stopped in their tracks simultaneously. Their gray robes fluttered without wind as they struggled to resist by channeling their respective domain powers, barely managing to stabilize themselves.
This is an epic!
Even in his old age, nearing the end of his life, his remaining power is not something that legends can easily contend with.
"presumptuous!"
"Who dares to trespass into the forbidden land of the Elves?! Disturbing our long slumber!"
"How could Queen Arielia be so incompetent?! She allowed foreign invaders to break into this place! It's an utter dereliction of duty!"
Three aged, hoarse voices, yet imbued with terrifying power, like the friction of a broken bellows, roared from the depths of the Hall of Eternal Slumber, carrying thunderous fury, causing the ancient trees outside to tremble.
His voice was filled with furious anger at being disturbed, as well as overwhelming dissatisfaction and rebuke towards the current queen.
Immediately afterwards, two other equally decaying yet authoritative voices rang out, filled with an unquestionable conclusion:
"How can such an incompetent person lead my elven race? He should be deposed!"
"Excellent! It's time for the Elven Royal Court to elect a truly virtuous queen who knows how to maintain the peace of the ancestral lands!"
Outside the palace, the enormous eye pattern beneath Farion's hood gleamed with an eerie light.
Serantia's whisper paused almost imperceptibly in her throat for a moment.
Even the silent Langustu and the manipulative Cambane seemed to show a hint of surprise under the shadow of their cloaks.
The ugly power struggles within the Elven race were laid bare at this critical juncture of life and death with an external enemy at hand, and the first to be held accountable was their own queen.
Such utterly corrupt practices even struck them as absurd, despite the wisdom of the Enlightenment Society, who were accustomed to intrigue and deceit.
However, the goal of the Enlightenment Society has never been the succession of the Elf King's throne.
They had absolutely no interest in the Elven people's messy internal affairs.
"Lamplighter" Farion stepped forward, his voice, cold and direct, emanating from his cloak like a beam of light piercing through illusion, rudely interrupting the incessant rants of the three old monsters in the hall:
"Three old fogies, save your energy."
He called him "old codger" without any respect in his tone, only the clear objective of the mission.
“We are the wise men of the Enlightenment Society. We have come here only to take one thing. Hand it over obediently, and we will leave immediately, never disturbing your peaceful dreams.”
His words were forceful and clear, laying bare the purpose of his trip, instantly shifting the topic from the infighting among the elves back to the cold reality.
The air of decay seemed to freeze before the Hall of Eternal Rest.
Farren's words, "You old codger," echoed through the ancient wooded halls, like a boulder thrown into stagnant water.
The terrifying pressure surging within the hall suddenly froze, then transformed into a furious rage like a landslide and a tsunami!
"You ants—how dare you insult me!"
"The Enlightenment Society? A bunch of clowns I've never heard of dares to set foot in this sacred place?!"
"Desecrating the eternal slumber... Die!"
Three decaying yet furious voices exploded in unison, shaking the massive trees that surrounded the palace and sending choking dust rising from the cracks in the jade floor tiles.
One of the auras suddenly surged, like a dying volcano erupting for the last time!
boom!
From the cracks in the tightly closed gates of the Palace of Eternal Slumber, a blinding torrent of emerald green water suddenly gushed forth!
That was not vitality, but a terrifying energy containing the will to wither and decay to the extreme.
Where the green light passed, the space groaned under its own weight. The air was instantly sucked out and annihilated, and even the light seemed to be stripped of its existence, leaving only a death trail that devoured everything!
Life stripped away, light of annihilation!
This is an epic forbidden technique that touches the very essence of the laws of life. The elven elder's furious strike is enough to drain all the life force of a legendary peak expert in an instant, turning him into a handful of timeless dust!
The green light was aimed at the four arrogant figures in gray robes outside the hall!
The attack came too fast and too fiercely!
Serantia's whispers were forcibly cut off, and Langustu's silent force field proved incredibly fragile under such immense power. The mental threads that wove the illusion in Campbell crumbled inch by inch!
The eye pattern on Farion's cloak flashed wildly, trying to pierce the weak point of this destructive torrent, but what it returned was the despairing, all-encompassing law of death!
There's no escaping it!
Unstoppable!
The insurmountable gap between legend and epic is now laid bare!
Just as the emerald torrent was about to engulf the four people—
"Buzz!"
A deep and vast tremor did not originate from inside the hall, but rather from the center of the four wise men!
A thick book, seemingly crafted from solidified night, appeared out of thin air.
The book cover was made of an unknown material, as black as a starless night, with a huge, slowly rotating vertical pupil embossed on its surface, and a viscous abyss flowing deep within the pupil.
The pages turned on their own without any wind, making a hoarse sound, like the weeping of millions of souls.
The Abyss Codex!
It hovered above the four people's heads, and the destructive emerald torrent crashed violently onto the open pages of the book!
The anticipated annihilation did not occur.
The black cover suddenly lit up with vertical pupils, which widened greedily!
The terrifying green light containing the law of life stripping, like a hundred rivers flowing into the sea, was frantically devoured and absorbed by those deep vertical pupils!
The lines on its vertical pupils writhed greedily, treating the epic magic that the elven elder was so proud of as the sweetest nourishment!
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