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Chapter 769: Mutual Slaughter
Ria flared her wings and darted aside with lightning speed, her palm slick with sweat as she gripped the Silver Sword—but she made no move to strike back.
“Catherine the Moonwalker, snap out of it!”
In desperation, the half-elf called out the queen’s name, repeating it again and again, her voice trembling with anxiety.
But it was useless.
Catherine, having missed her first strike, launched herself forward once more, dagger aimed straight for Ria’s chest. The attack was swift, brutal, merciless.
Ria raised her Silver Sword in defense, but the force of the blow sent her flying backward, her sword clattering against the air. The dagger swept past her throat in a lethal arc.
Empowered by Divine Power, Catherine—though now devoid of reason, consumed by madness—had strength rivaling that of a half-divine entity. Terrifying.
Her other hand clawed toward Ria, crimson moonlight spilling from her fingertips, washing over the half-elf like a poison tide, eroding her flesh.
Boom!
The surge of chaotic Divine Power hurled Ria backward like a ragdoll. Her armor tore apart, her body riddled with wounds. Blood trickled from her lips as she gasped for breath.
“Catherine, Your Majesty… you are the Queen of Serrynia. You promised peace for the Elvenwood Forest. You swore to bring安宁 to your people. Have you forgotten all of that?”
Her voice cracked.
But all she received was a wild, deranged laughter.
Catherine’s face twisted in distortion, her eyes blood-red, her back erupting with eight ghostly, spectral limbs—sharp as spears, lashing out at Ria.
Shush—
Ria snapped her wings open, ascending a dozen meters in a desperate evasive maneuver. The limbs passed inches from her, missing by a hair.
But Catherine grinned—a feral, cruel smile. Her six long limbs folded together before her, swirling with chaotic Divine Power. The energy coalesced, forming a massive, regal sphere of deep purple-black light.
Boom—
A thick beam of purple-black light erupted from her chest, tearing through the air with a roar. The shockwave shattered the sky, splitting the clouds, carving a path through the heavens.
Ria was unprepared. Even as she poured every last ounce of her remaining Moonlight Divine Power into a desperate dodge, the beam struck her full force.
Her left arm, along with half her shoulder, was vaporized in an instant. Her left wing reduced to ash.
Black light seeped from the wound, devouring her flesh, spreading like a plague.
“Catherine, Your Majesty…”
The avenging angel plummeted from the sky, her face streaked with blood, yet still bearing a look of stunned disbelief.
Though Ria knew Catherine had been taken by Ros, she never imagined she would be struck down—by the very queen she had sworn to protect, the one she trusted most.
The realization crushed her. Despair surged through her, mingling with the searing pain in her left side, her mind reeling as if she were already in Hell.
The sky darkened—Ros’s shadow now draped across the heavens.
Shahanini… is this your trial?
Or has even the Goddess of the Moon been powerless against this catastrophe, forced to watch helplessly as Serrynia falls into ruin?
If even the queen—blessed by divine favor—could be so utterly controlled… was there truly any hope left for victory?
“Ria!”
An ancient golden dragon, Titus, roared and surged forward. With a mighty sweep of his dragon wings, he summoned a gale that lifted the wounded half-elf into the air.
He seized her with his massive claw, gentle despite his power, and used a healing spell to purge the black light from her wounds. Then, turning toward the mad queen, he bellowed:
“Catherine, Your Majesty! Wake up! You are meant to be Serrynia’s savior—not its destroyer!”
Ria clung to Titus’s claw, one hand gripping her sword, the other trembling. She stared at Catherine in the distance, her silver eyes burning with sorrow and resolve.
Soon, Mountain Lord Zhen, “Whisper of the Night” Mellisandra, and the sage Emerson from the Arcane Hermitage silently joined Titus’s side, their expressions grave.
Once, Catherine had been their unquestioned leader—chosen by the Goddess of the Moon, the last hope of Serrynia.
Now, they stood on the opposite side, forced to face her as an enemy of unspeakable danger.
“Hahahaha!”
From afar, Ros laughed—cold, cruel, reveling in the malice flooding his being.
“Ah… betrayal, revenge, slaughter… such a delightful spectacle.”
He turned to the pale-faced Silver Moon Elves, smiling.
“See? This is your queen. She disarmed that half-elf’s arm with a single flick. That was her most loyal dog—her most trusted follower—and she broke it like a twig!”
“Think about it. If she treats her inner circle this way… what hope do you have when she turns on you?”
“Liar!” The King of the Dwarves roared, his face flushed with fury. “You’re the one inciting chaos! You’re the villain who’s enslaved Catherine!”
But Ros only smirked, turning his gaze back to the frenzied Elven Queen, his lips curling in mockery.
“Catherine… I’ll let you witness a true masterpiece. Watch as your most trusted subordinates—your closest allies—kill you with their own hands.”
The Spider Queen extended her monstrous limbs, weaving a vast, crimson-red web that spanned the sky, stretching across dozens of kilometers, ensnaring the entire Elvenwood Forest.
Countless spider horrors descended along the silken threads, greedily devouring everything—unicorns, pegasi, great stags—crushed by their toxic fangs. Even ancient trees, centuries old, were swarmed and consumed, reduced in moments to lifeless, toxin-laden husks.
The forest echoed with screams and wails. The air reeked of blood and poison, thick with the stench of decay. It felt like the end of the world had arrived.
“The Weave of Magic is sealed,” Emerson said, his voice heavy with despair. “We can’t escape. The entire region has been overtaken by the Spider Realm. Soon, that dark deity will rule here as a goddess of magic.”
“Once that happens… even the gods may not be able to stop her expansion.”
Mellisandra sighed, surveying the devastation.
Titus, the ancient golden dragon, spoke with grim finality:
“Our only priority is to awaken Catherine. Only she can save the Elvenwood Forest.”
Mellisandra glanced at the queen, still writhing in black light. “But she’s already under the dark deity’s control…”
Silence followed.
Then, Ria raised her remaining arm—her body trembling, her wounds bleeding—her voice steady, resolute.
“I agree with Titus. The Goddess of the Silver Moon is distant, intangible. Only Catherine can commune with her.”
“So I must awaken her. Even if it costs me my life force.”
Her silver eyes blazed with unwavering determination.
Seeing her resolve, Mellisandra could only nod in silence.
Zhen, meanwhile, stood with eyes burning with battle intensity. He wanted only to follow his father’s legacy, to save Serrynia, restore the Sacred Alliance, and become a true dwarf hero.
“Kill them!”
From above, Catherine roared, her body pulsing with black light, her eyes bloodshot, her form a storm of madness.
The allied forces’ legendary warriors exchanged glances—then stepped forward in unison, preparing to confront the deranged divine chosen.
Emerson raised his staff. The crystal at its tip flared with radiant light.
[Radiant Purification]
[Evil Banishment]
The beams struck Catherine—but the chaotic Divine Power swallowed them whole, corrupting the light and hurling it back in a deadly backlash.
Emerson barely raised a spell nullification barrier in time, shielding himself from the corrupted energy.
“Die—!”
Catherine howled, vanishing into a dark afterimage, charging at the fragile mage. Her divine energy coalesced into a blade-like foot, poised to slice through his defenses.
At that moment—
Swoosh—
A streak of emerald-green spiritual light pierced the sky.
An arrow, glowing with natural power, streaked toward Catherine’s shoulder.
From afar, Mellisandra held her bow taut, eyes locked on the queen.
But Catherine only grinned. She reached into the air and caught the arrow mid-flight, then snapped it like a twig.
The arrow exploded into a burst of green energy—but it was nothing against her chaotic power. The light was devoured instantly.
The fragments hovered, wrapped in dark flame.
Catherine flicked her hand.
The shards tore through the air, moving with devastating force, hurtling toward Mellisandra.
Mellisandra instinctively tried to flee into the Astral Plane—but the space around her was already trapped, sealed by the Spider Realm. She froze, paralyzed.
In that instant—the fragments reached her.
They glowed with eerie black light.
“Watch out!”
Titus roared. A torrent of sacred fire rained from the heavens, scorching the ground, incinerating the deadly fragments in an instant.
But Catherine had already vanished—reappearing as a blur of shadow, trailing black light, charging toward the ancient golden dragon with a snarl.
“I will annihilate you all!”
Her limbs, forged from chaotic divine energy, slashed through the air, threatening to cleave space itself.
Titus flared his left wing, raising a shield of shimmering stellar radiance.
But Catherine’s foot-blade pierced through the spell, tearing open the dragon’s wing membrane. A gash, several meters long, split the golden scales.
Roar—
The dragon howled in agony. Black light burrowed into his wound, spreading like venom, turning half his wing black.
Yet in the midst of battle, Titus ignored the pain. He seized Catherine with his claw, pinning her in a prison of scales, runes glowing across his hide.
[Dragon’s Grasp]
Catherine screamed—her eyes wide, her body thrashing. The eight limbs lashed out wildly, slashing at Titus’s throat, his eyes—anything vital.
Even the Dragon’s Grasp, capable of crushing an ancient red dragon, could not hold her.
“Ria! Hurry! I can’t hold her much longer!”
Black light pulsed. Poisonous mist swirled. The dragon’s claw began to rot, decay, rotting away before their eyes.
His body was torn—wounds everywhere, golden scales scattering like rain.
Emerson raised his staff, chanting a high-level spell.
[Eternal Restraint]
A web of ancient runes appeared around Catherine, forming a chain of stars that bound her in place.
But she fought on—her limbs slashing through the chains, severing them one by one.
“Then there’s only one way.”
Mellisandra bit her finger, letting warm blood drip onto her bow. She nocked an arrow—drenched in natural power—and fired.
The arrow struck Catherine—then exploded into a storm of vines and branches, bursting forth with the edict of nature.
The forest’s life force wrapped around the queen, binding her.
“For the Sacred Alliance!”
Zhen roared, swinging his Pillar of Stone Hammer. He leaped high, and with a mighty crack, a stone pillar erupted from the earth, shattering the soil. Debris flew, encasing Catherine in a massive, living stone sphere—charged with the power of the Earth Deity.
At last, she was pinned—motionless, trapped in the golden dragon’s claw.
But the black light within her still raged—like a caged beast, howling to be free.
Even the combined might of multiple legendary warriors could only hold her for a few seconds.
“Ria! It’s your turn!”
Ria stepped onto the stone pillar Zhen had created, rising into the air. She leapt, her remaining right arm raised high—Silver Sword gleaming.
With her legendary peak life force as fuel, she channeled the last of her silver moon Divine Power into the blade.
[Sacred Anti-Evil Slash]
A blinding silver light descended from the heavens—radiance that banished evil, purity that cleansed all corruption.
The black light dimmed. The cracks on Catherine’s body faded. The eight terrifying limbs dissolved into nothing.
“Success!” Ria’s face lit up with hope.
But then—her expression darkened.
Her eyes widened.
She saw it.
On Catherine’s slender neck—still visible—was the mark of the black rose.
It pulsed with evil Divine Power.
The imprint of Ros. The wound of the Chilashar Rose.
Without the silver moon’s power to suppress it, Catherine would awaken again—madness returning.
From afar, Ros’s avatar’s eyes gleamed.
As if he’d been waiting for this all along.
He watched with cruel delight.
“Half-elf… that pitiful trick won’t purge the Chilashar Rose toxin.”
His voice dripped with mockery.
“This is my masterpiece. Even the Elf Divine Manifestation cannot resist it. And there’s only one way to remove the toxin…”
He paused, letting the silence stretch.
His crimson eyes flared with malice.
“Pierce her heart. Cut off her head. Just as you slaughtered beasts, monsters, fiends… kill her. Completely.”
(End of Chapter)
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