The two of them pushed open the stone door. What was revealed inside the chamber was a circular elevated platform, six or seven meters high and two to three meters wide. At the very top of the platform rested a black iron box. The sacred relic required for the mission was clearly inside it.
To obtain that item, they would first have to defeat the four guardians stationed around the platform.
"Those who trespass upon the Sanctuary shall be put to death."
All four guardians were clad in finely crafted armor, each wielding a jet-black metal spear. They spoke in unison, then immediately charged forward, spearheads gleaming coldly as they thrust toward the two intruders!
"I'll handle them—go get the relic!" Kizmel said. With a swift motion, she swept her hands across her waist, and two curved blades appeared in her grasp. In the next instant, she leapt forward to meet the attack, her twin blades flashing repeatedly as she deflected every incoming spear point. The clash of metal rang out without pause.
Lillian hadn't expected Kizmel to be this formidable. The hand he had resting on his sword hilt relaxed. Since she could hold them off for now, it made more sense for him to secure the relic first.
He dashed to the base of the platform and looked up at the towering structure. For an ordinary player, climbing it would have been impossible. Most likely, the intended mechanic was to defeat all four elven guardians, trigger some mechanism, and have the platform slowly descend.
However, that mechanic was meaningless to him.
He took several steps back, bent his knees, and gathered his strength. By now, he had mastered precise control over his jumping power and had a good sense of height. After a brief moment of preparation, he sprinted forward. When he was three meters from the platform, he leapt high into the air. The several-meter-high platform was cleared in a single bound, and he landed steadily atop it.
The guardians noticed this instantly. Two of them let out strange, furious cries and hurled their spears straight at Lillian. He drew his sword and blocked them, the impact numbing his hands from the force.
"Hurry and take the relic!" Kizmel urged from below.
Lillian immediately opened the black box at the top. It wasn't locked, and the lid came off easily. In an instant, a gentle glow spilled out. Inside, resting on a soft grass mat, was a peculiar horn.
He reached out and lifted it. A strange sensation coursed through his body. Looking down, he saw numerous patterns carved along the horn—these had to be the magical inscriptions Kizmel had mentioned. A red thread was tied to the top, though it was broken in the middle. Only then did Lillian realize that the red thread Kizmel carried earlier had once been part of this horn, which explained how it could sense the relic's location.
Without overthinking it, he instinctively tried to store the horn in his inventory. A system prompt immediately informed him that the item could not be placed there. Apparently, merely obtaining it wasn't enough—the relic had to be successfully brought back to complete the mission.
He jumped down from the platform. Seeing that he had taken the sacred relic, the guardians all swarmed toward him at once. This suited Lillian perfectly. If they had all focused on Kizmel, it would have been hard for him to leave. But since they targeted him instead, he simply accelerated in a straight line, made a sharp-angle turn, and left them far behind before regrouping with Kizmel and fleeing the chamber together.
By now, the outside was nothing like the calm they had encountered earlier. Dozens of Forest Elves were converging from all directions. Seeing this, Kizmel smashed the bottle containing the Spider Queen's poison onto the ground. Both of them covered their mouths and noses and sprinted forward. Throughout their escape, sharp whistling sounds tore through the air—it was arrows. Players couldn't use such convenient long-range attacks, but NPCs certainly could.
Thud!
An arrow struck Lillian. There was no pain, just a powerful impact that caused him to stumble. He checked his HP—about one-fifteenth had been lost. That was a significant amount. His total health far exceeded that of other players; if even he lost that much from a single arrow, an average player would likely lose a quarter of their HP in one hit.
"Go on ahead!" Kizmel grabbed Lillian's hand and shoved him forward, staying behind to slash at incoming arrows with her curved blades. Her reaction speed was faster than his, but even she couldn't block dozens of arrows indefinitely with just two short blades.
Whoosh—whoosh—whoosh!
Unable to catch up, the Forest Elves continued firing arrows. As Lillian ran ahead, he suddenly heard a muffled groan. He turned back to see two arrows embedded in Kizmel's shoulder. Her face had gone deathly pale.
"This won't work!" Gritting his teeth, Lillian came to a halt. He apologized to the stunned Kizmel, then scooped her up in his arms. Like a runaway train, he burst forward at full speed!
To match Kizmel earlier, he had deliberately slowed himself down. Now, there was no need. At full speed, even arrows were left far behind. Forest Elf arrows were fast—perhaps the fastest—but they couldn't outrun Lillian, nor could they escape a fate already decided.
Whoosh—!
All Kizmel could hear was the rushing wind. She looked up at Lillian's face, then down at the elven sacred relic—the Prophecy Horn—that he had just placed in her hands. Her fingers tightened around it.
They sprinted wildly onward. Whether enemies ahead or behind, all were either shaken off or bypassed. Lillian burst out of the castle, accelerating even further outside, and in no time, they had completely shaken off the Forest Elf pursuit. Only when they were near the Dark Elf camp did he finally stop and gently set Kizmel down.
"Hah…" He let out a long breath. "We're finally back."
"..."
Kizmel didn't know what to say. She hadn't expected the mission to be completed in such a simple, almost brutal way. Then again, with that level of jumping ability and speed, a mission that only required retrieving an item—without mandatory combat—really was trivial for him.
"Sorry about earlier… I acted without thinking," Lillian said. At the time, he had been too frantic to think of anything. Now, in hindsight, he could still recall how light she had felt—how unexpectedly soft and resilient her body was. Those thoughts vanished the moment he saw the wound on her shoulder. "Your injury…" He instinctively took out a healing potion. "Can elves use human potions?"
She shook her head.
"Then let's get you to your camp's healer immediately," Lillian said.
"Alright."
They returned to the camp. Yui had fallen asleep after playing too much, and they didn't wake her. After the elven healer treated Kizmel's wounds and confirmed there was no serious danger, the two of them went to report to the commander.
Upon learning that the horn had been recovered, the commander was overjoyed. He immediately gathered all the Dark Elves in the camp and activated a large teleportation array. Before long, hundreds of Dark Elves emerged from the array—many faces Lillian had never seen before.
Finally, an elf of extraordinary beauty appeared, wearing a crown. All the elves, including Kizmel, dropped to one knee and spoke in unison:
"King."
The king?
Lillian did not kneel. He wasn't a Dark Elf. Even if it were a human emperor standing there, he wouldn't kneel—his immersion in the game wasn't that deep.
"Rise," the Elf King said. Everyone stood. The commander stepped forward and spoke to him in Elvish. The king's gaze immediately shifted to Lillian.
"So that is how it is," the Elf King said, approaching slowly. At nearly two meters tall, he looked down at Lillian. "Recovering the sacred relic was thanks to this human, was it not? You have my gratitude for what you have done for the Dark Elves."
"You're welcome."
"The Dark Elves do not mistreat their benefactors. Please wait here briefly. Once the ritual is complete, I will grant you an appropriate reward."
"Ritual…?"
The Elf King said no more. The elves seemed to know what to do and spread out, forming a circle. The king walked up to Kizmel and spoke a few words to her. She nodded and stepped into the center of the circle.
What is this? Lillian watched, confused. But seeing no sign of danger for Kizmel, he chose not to intervene.
The Dark Elves began chanting in Elvish, their voices rising and falling like a hymn. The Elf King joined in, his deep voice the most distinct. Soon, strange patterns emerged on the ground and flowed toward the sacred relic in Kizmel's hands. Instantly, the magical inscriptions on the horn glowed softly, enveloping both it and Kizmel in light.
Sound from inside and outside the barrier was completely cut off. Kizmel could not hear the outside world, nor could anyone hear her voice.
Then, an astonishing sight appeared.
A phantom formed before Kizmel—its upper body human, its lower body a fish's tail. It resembled a mermaid, yet sharp horns jutted from its head.
So this was a sea siren.
Lillian understood. The Dark Elves were performing the prophecy immediately, afraid the Forest Elves might reclaim the relic. Using it outright was the safest choice.
All the Dark Elves stared intently at the barrier, Lillian included. The siren phantom bowed to Kizmel and waited silently.
After a brief pause, Kizmel spoke. Though no one outside could hear her, every Dark Elf knew what she was asking:
Can this floating city return to the land?
Lillian thought the same—then froze.
That expression on her face… was she really just an NPC?
At that moment, she looked undeniably human.
Kizmel's red lips parted. Silent words left her mouth. Watching her, Lillian's heart skipped a beat as an instinctive thought surfaced in his mind—
Was that really the question she asked?