Chapter 227: ·Ailindel’s Assault

“Alright,” Romina agreed without the slightest hesitation.

Having only just escaped the cognitive hell woven from fear and despair, she understood better than anyone how vicious the rotting monstrosity on the dome truly was.

With the now-clearheaded Romina joining the fight, the tide of battle became instantly obvious. The Wood Elves on the ground, still trapped within twisted perceptions, were no longer a threat.

Nolan did not even need to consciously coordinate with her. Romina’s archery and close combat instincts always placed her exactly where she needed to be at the perfect moment. She no longer fired lethal arrows. Instead, she wielded her massive bow like a staff, every swing cutting through the air with a howl as it struck her kin precisely at their joints or the backs of their necks, the force measured with perfect control. Nolan handled everything she missed.

One in front, one behind. One left, one right. The two moved through the chaotic hall in seamless tandem. Heavy thuds rang out one after another. 

In barely a minute or two, the last struggling Grand Elder was caught by Nolan in a chokehold before going limp. Inside the hall, aside from Ailindel still battling in midair, every Wood Elf now lay sprawled unconscious across the floor.

Nolan gently lowered the unconscious Grand Elder to the ground and looked up toward the air above. “Ailin, found anything?”

Ailindel’s voice came through the storm and rain of blood. There was a trace of exhaustion in it, but it remained clear and steady. “Nolan, these blood vines aren’t endless!”

As she spoke, her spear flashed, severing several incoming tendrils.

“They can regenerate, but Rosm can only summon and control twenty-one at the same time! As long as they aren’t completely destroyed, new ones won’t grow. Their total number can’t exceed that limit!”

“That’s amazing, Ailin!”

Ailindel truly deserved her title as the “Heavenly Judgment Knight.” One of the finest warriors among the battle-born moon elves, she had identified the core limitation of the enemy’s ability in an incredibly short time.

It could hardly even be called a conventional weakness.

For ordinary Gold-rank fighters, dealing with seven or eight of those slick, resilient flesh vines at once was already the limit. Twenty-one was enough to wear them down to death while effortlessly turning the battlefield into a nightmare. Only someone at Ailindel’s level could regard “a fixed quantity limit” itself as an exploitable flaw.

“Can you restrain them?” Nolan asked immediately.

“I can try.” Ailindel adjusted her breathing and nodded. “I don’t have much strength left, but I can still unleash one final move.”

Now that her power had recovered to ten percent, the total amount of soul essence within her had grown far greater than before, and her endurance had improved as well. But maintaining restraints on over a dozen Wood Elves for so long, combined with the intensity of the current battle, had drained too much of her fine control over the wind element.

The instant she finished speaking, Ailindel swept her spear horizontally. An enormous cyan wind blade burst forth, larger than any before it, slicing through the sky like a crescent moon.

Slash! Slash!

The flesh vines writhing through the air were wiped out in an instant. Foul-smelling blood exploded everywhere, briefly clearing the entire upper section of the hall.

Seizing the short gap before the blood vines regenerated, Ailindel pointed her spear straight at the dome. Her body floated in midair, white armor gleaming with sacred brilliance beneath the rain of blood. Violent wind elements gathered around her in a visible vortex, condensing behind her.

For the first time, panic appeared on Rosm’s rotten face atop the dome. He felt genuine danger. 

This Moon Elf knight was the greatest variable in the battle. Her unusual soul-essence body rendered his authority of “petrifaction” ineffective at every turn. He could neither corrupt her soul nor weaken her physical form.

The frustration of being unable to exert his power properly nearly drove him mad.

And now she was clearly charging some kind of ultimate attack.

Rosm did not know exactly what it was, but his twisted instincts screamed that this strike would be devastating.

He had to stop her.

“AAAAAAAH!” Rosm let out a shrill, crazed scream. With his remaining intact left hand, he violently tore open the festering flesh over his own heart.

Splurt!

More corrupted blood burst out like a ruptured floodgate, pouring directly onto the blood vines that had just grown from the walls.

Nourished by the blood, the vines expanded at an even faster rate, becoming thicker and more grotesque. Dense clusters of pus-filled sacs bulged from their surfaces like countless eyeballs.

Bzzzz.

The sacs burst open, releasing swarms of pitch-black insects.

【Fetid Swarm】!

These swarms were not ordinary insects, but manifestations of the authority of “petrifaction” itself. The moment they appeared, the wooden structure of the entire hall began groaning under unbearable strain. Large patches of black decay spread rapidly across the walls and pillars, as though the building itself might collapse at any moment.

At the same time, through the Blood Refinement Altar, Rosm poured his twisted will into the Foundation of Life with even greater madness.

“Ugh!” Romina let out a muffled groan of pain. Clutching her temples tightly, she gritted her teeth and endured the agony and irresistible call clawing directly at the depths of her soul.

Then the Wood Elves who should have remained unconscious suddenly jerked upward, as though invisible strings had hooked around their necks and yanked them to their feet. They rose in grotesque, backward-bending motions without making a sound. 

When their eyes opened, only bloodshot whites remained. There were no pupils left at all. Exactly like the Wood Elf civilians outside. Souls completely overtaken by the twisted will became nothing more than puppets on strings, stripped of all humanity and left only with the most primitive instinct to attack.

Silently, they charged Nolan and Romina once more from every direction.

Meanwhile, outside the hall—

The steel defensive line formed by the Holy Hammer Division was enduring increasingly violent assaults.

Fortunately, the terrain at the entrance worked heavily in their favor. A long staircase combined with a narrow passage that could fit fewer than six people abreast completely nullified the Wood Elves’ advantage in numbers.

Behind the massive sacred-word barrier, the Holy Hammer Division soldiers clad in specially designed Raven Type black armor continuously rotated through the front line, forming an impregnable wall.

Every swing of the cross-shaped iron staff in Kayan’s hands carried blazing holy light, smashing charging Wood Elves backward.

Rehanna’s Ice Wolf sword radiated freezing air, coating the ground in frost and slowing the enemy advance.

Vivi’s figure flickered in and out behind them, her crossbow bolts always striking the knees of Wood Elves attempting to climb from the flanks with perfect precision.

But as more and more Wood Elves gathered, even they were beginning to tire.

Inside the hall—

Facing the charging Wood Elf puppets once again, Nolan said nothing. He simply pulled Romina, who was still resisting the mental assault, behind him.

“Stance Release!” he shouted softly as the Mountain’s Resonance in his hand transformed instantly. The blade expanded and widened at high speed, switching in the blink of an eye into a massive greatsword form.

Nolan gripped the hilt with both hands and planted the giant sword horizontally before him.

Hum!

Earth elements surged wildly around him, condensing into a massive semi-transparent yellow-brown shield that protected him, Romina, and even Ailindel in the air within its barrier.

Guardian’s Battle!

Boom! Boom! Boom!

The puppet-like Wood Elves slammed violently into the shield. Those with weapons hacked madly at it using moon blades and curved sabers. Those without weapons punched it, bit it, and hurled their bodies against it. They had completely lost their sanity. Only the instinct to destroy remained. Romina looked at her once-vibrant kin reduced to such a state, grief filling her eyes.

Above them, Ailindel’s power had reached its peak. The wind elements behind her condensed into a pair of gigantic wings so solid they almost seemed real. Every feather was formed from the purest, most compressed wind element imaginable, radiating a terrifying sharpness.

She raised her spear high, her expression solemn like a goddess descending to deliver divine judgment.

“Swift wind, be stilled!!”