Chapter 311: Defending Xerxes Village III

The High-rank spell Telepathy does not require any sort of medium.

As its name suggests, it allows thoughts to be transmitted directly into another person’s mind without the need to speak.

This makes it extremely difficult for other mages to detect.

However, despite its near-perfect secrecy, its range is relatively limited.

On the other hand, the Low-rank spell Mist Communication was neither as instantaneous nor as discreet as Telepathy.

Instead, its effective range depends entirely on the presence and spread of its medium: mist.

As a result, it was far more suitable for the current situation.

While information traveled somewhat slower, the spell’s range vastly exceeded that of Telepathy, especially amidst the blood mist that had currently engulfed the village.

As Pandora focused, strands of mana manifested outside her body before dispersing into the blood mist.

Almost instantly, an overwhelming flood of information rushed into her senses.

The helpless cries of innocent elves.

The sounds of fierce battles between capable elven warriors and demonic elves.

The movements of countless demonic elves prowling through the village.

And much more.

Pandora carefully sifted through the torrent of information, separating what was useful from what was not.

It took nearly five minutes before she finally managed to ascertain the positions of the others.

Meanwhile, as she concentrated, Killian, who had recovered somewhat, and Aurelia, who now also wielded a sword, took turns leaving the mana barrier to eliminate nearby demonic elves before retreating back inside whenever they needed a moment to recover.

Of course, Aurelia’s swordsmanship appeared somewhat clumsy due to her lack of formal training.

However, with the support of her gift, Hand of the Greedy King, which she used sparingly to conserve mana, her battle efficiency was not far behind Killian’s.

Every time a demonic elf attacked her, Aurelia would use her free hand to touch its weapon or limb, turning it into gold and disrupting its rhythm at the most unexpected moments.

At times, a demonic elf would be in the middle of an attack when one of its legs suddenly turned to gold from a single touch, causing it to stumble before Aurelia swiftly delivered the finishing blow.

Other times, a weapon would abruptly transform into gold and fuse with the opponent’s fingers just as it was about to strike, completely ruining the attack and leaving its wielder exposed.

Overall, her fighting style was chaotic and highly unpredictable.

There was no pattern to follow and no warning before her gift took effect, making even the demonic elves wary of approaching her.

Coupled with her natural combat instincts and the lethality of Hand of the Greedy King, her seemingly awkward swordsmanship became deceptively dangerous.

One must remember that Aurelia, despite walking the path of mana, could not truly be considered a conventional mage.

After all, she had never devoted much effort to learning magic spells.

Her primary goal in cultivating mana was simply to build a larger reservoir of energy so that she could use her gift more freely.

It was not for lack of trying.

While her talent for mana cultivation was average, she found learning magic spells unusually difficult.

Coupled with her responsibilities in assisting the Midas Merchant Organization and overseeing much of the Sanguine Order’s administrative affairs, she eventually decided, following Regis’s advice, to focus primarily on her gift.

After all, her gift was already a powerful ability in its own right.

The results she displayed now were only possible because she had spent years tirelessly refining her control over Hand of the Greedy King and experimenting with increasingly efficient ways to use it.

At present, she could not only control the exact part of a target that would turn to gold through her touch, but could also activate her gift through any form of skin contact.

This made it so that Regis would sometimes tease her by saying that, depending on the situation, Hand of the Greedy King might be more appropriately called Foot of the Greedy King.

His teasing never failed to leave Aurelia embarrassed.

While the two were busy fighting, Pandora’s thoughts rapidly traveled through the blood mist towards the minds of their companions.

***

Earlier, seeing the enemy coming from all directions across the village, the Sanguine Order decided to split up.

The main squad, consisting of Pandora, Killian, and Aurelia, headed toward the northern side of the village, where the concentration of demonic elves was the highest.

The Gotun Squad, led by Lesfera, moved west, while the Exemplar Squad advanced east under Zild’s command.

Both of the squads were currently fighting tooth and nail with the endless surge of the demonic elves.

Meanwhile, Marzana, Aeola, and Raxon of the Equilla Squad, together with Vanessa, Brutt, and Perto of the Vanta Squad, remained on the southern side near the village entrance.

Their task was to hold back the demonic elves in the area and ensure that the group’s route of retreat remained secure.

Finally, Auryn and Patti chose to move through the village’s streets and houses, rescuing any trapped elves they encountered while gathering survivors and rallying those still able to fight to organize a more effective defense.

Currently, the two siblings had already gathered around fifty survivors as they moved through the once-bustling streets and areas of the village.

However, at this moment, through the blood mist that had engulfed the village, they all simultaneously heard Pandora’s voice inside their minds.

***

While the Sanguine Order was fighting the onslaught of the demonic elves alongside the forces of Edenelia...

In the middle of the Forest of Eternity, a holy temple covered by vines stood out.

It was none other than the Temple of Life.

The Pontifex, Elysia le Floralith, had a grim expression on her beautiful face as her emerald green eyes gazed upon the Eternal Orb before her.

As an ancient sacred artifact bestowed upon them by the Mother Tree herself, it connects the Temple of Life not only to its various branches but also through all the settlements under the Kingdom of Edenelia.

After all, it had already been a long-standing tradition of the elves that the one to become the Pontifex of the Temple of Life and the direct emissary of the Mother Tree was none other than the Queen of Edenelia herself, who represents all the elves in the world.