"Damn you!"
For the first time, Mograss's roar betrayed unmasked fury, panic, and exhaustion.
He couldn't fathom how the battle had spiraled so disastrously, no matter how he racked his rusty brain.
This was supposed to be the perfect stepping stone to his promotion, a guaranteed victory in a carefully planned ambush.
Instead, the Elf Apprentices—who should have been crushed like ants—had suddenly exploded with superhuman power, as if they'd taken some kind of performance-enhancing drug.
Then, an utterly incomprehensible Pink-Haired Priest had materialized, unleashing a "Divine Spell" he had never witnessed before, instantly vaporizing over a hundred of his elite troops.
Now, his two most trusted lieutenants were utterly defeated: one rolling on the ground in agony, the other cowering in the shadows, afraid to even show his face.
And he himself was being relentlessly pressed by Aeldara, who had moments ago been half-dead but was now fighting with dragon-like ferocity.
His vaunted brute strength seemed crude and clumsy compared to Aeldara's antelope-horn-like sword techniques.
With each clash of axe and blade, he felt his power being skillfully redirected into empty space, while her sword struck his defenses at the most improbable angles, piercing his weakest points.
Even more terrifying was the Pink-Haired Priest's gun in the distance, like a Judgment Lamp suspended above him, ready to unleash its deadly golden rain of bullets at any moment.
He had experienced the full force of that thing firsthand.
This wasn't combat; it was a Blue Bar drain!
Even his immense reserves of Death Energy couldn't withstand such relentless consumption.
He couldn't stall any longer!
Mograss's Soul Fire flickered violently as a desperate idea formed in his mind.
"Aeldara! You've forced my hand!"
With a despairing roar, he completely abandoned his defenses, letting the cold, gleaming blade pierce straight through his chest.
Thunk!
The longsword pierced effortlessly through Mograss's breastplate, exiting through his back.
Yet Mograss let out no cry of pain. Instead, he bared his teeth in a ferocious grin, his empty left hand shooting out to clamp down on Aeldara's sword arm with an iron grip.
"Got you!"
Aeldara frowned slightly, immediately sensing the danger. She tried to withdraw her sword and retreat, but Mograss's arm remained locked in place like a red-hot vise.
Simultaneously, the surging Death Energy in Mograss's pierced chest, instead of dissipating, began to coalesce at an unprecedented speed, forming an impossibly dense black vortex.
"With my primal power as sacrifice! Death and Decay!"
BOOM!
A visible shockwave, saturated with the aura of withering and decay, erupted from Mograss's body!
This wasn't an attack targeting a single foe; it was an indiscriminate, area-wide curse that swept across the entire battlefield.
"No! Retreat immediately!" Lin Qingyue's expression twisted in alarm.
She could sense that the black shockwave contained an extremely virulent corrosive energy, far beyond the level of the Death Knights' previous attacks.
As she shouted the warning, she unhesitatingly aimed her gun at the spreading darkness and pulled the trigger.
Rat-tat-tat-tat-tat!
The golden hail of Holy Light Bullets roared forth once more, attempting to neutralize the encroaching domain of death.
But this time, the Holy Light Bullets slammed into the black waves like mud cows sinking into the sea. They only slightly diluted the darkness, failing to halt its inexorable spread.
Aeldara, at the epicenter of the explosion, bore the brunt of the impact.
An icy, all-consuming force instantly enveloped her body, savagely corroding her armor, seeping into her flesh, and even attempting to taint her soul.
She groaned, the health Lin Qingyue had just restored plummeting anew.
Meanwhile, the Elf Knights, still pursuing the remaining undead, were also swept up by the sudden shockwave.
The armor of the warriors hissed as it corroded, and many paled, their movements growing sluggish.
"Damn it! It's an Area Curse!" Su Wan reacted instantly, slamming her staff into the ground. "Frost Nova!"
A ring of icy blue shockwaves expanded outward, attempting to freeze and block the cursed energy, but its effect was minimal.
"Forget the minions! Xiyue, raise your shield! Xia Lian, cover us! We're retreating!" Lin Qingyue ordered decisively, issuing the withdrawal command.
As chaos erupted on the battlefield, Mograss, the mastermind behind it all, seized the explosion's cover to make a move no one expected.
He released Aeldara's hand, and his Skeletal Warhorse let out a mournful whinny. With a powerful surge from its bony legs, the steed bolted backward, carrying Mograss away at breakneck speed.
He was fleeing!
He had unleashed a devastatingly powerful, energy-draining ultimate move simply to create an escape opportunity!
Meanwhile, Ghost Blade, who had been lurking in the shadows, and The Blighted, who had been rolling on the ground, acted simultaneously, as if on cue.
Ghost Blade's form dissolved completely into the shadows, vanishing without a trace.
The Blighted, using Death Energy to crudely reattach his severed hands to his wrists, pulled a pitch-black scroll from his robes and tore it open with trembling hands.
An unstable spatial rift opened beneath him, swallowing his mangled body whole.
After paying a heavy price, the three BOSSes vanished from the battlefield in mere seconds, each using a different method to disappear without a trace.
Confirming that all enemies had fled, Lin Qingyue let out a long sigh of relief, a thought flickering through her mind.
"Transformation canceled!"
The ornate and cumbersome Deaconess Gown dissolved into shimmering particles, reverting to her simple Priest's robes.
The Sky AK47, which had been spitting divine flames, transformed back into her harmless pink magic wand.
As she moved, the massive virtual screen overhead, still blasting out a fan-made rock anthem, flickered off with a pop, fading into silence.
The world was finally at peace.
A wave of overwhelming fatigue washed over her like a tidal surge.
"Ha... ha..."
Lin Qingyue leaned heavily on her wand, gasping for breath, sweat beading on her forehead.
Her arms felt so weak she could barely lift them, and her legs trembled beneath her.
This permanent Character Card was undeniably cool and powerful, but the aftereffects were brutal.
Just thirteen minutes had left her feeling utterly drained. If she'd persisted any longer, she feared she would have collapsed on the spot.
"Sis! Are you okay?!"
Lin Xiyue rushed over and steadied her swaying sister, Lin Qingyue, her face etched with concern.
"I'm fine," Lin Qingyue waved her hand dismissively. "Just a bit drained, like when I transformed into the Maid Knight before." She pulled a bottle of energy drink from her System Space and gulped it down. "I'll be fine after a rest."
Su Wan and Xia Lian also gathered around.
"Your... your Heroic Spirit's power this time... it's completely insane, isn't it?" Su Wan's gaze was a complex mix of shock, curiosity, and a hint of bewilderment as her worldview crumbled. She knew Lin Qingyue had the trump card of Heroic Spirit Possession, but she never imagined it could be this outrageous.
One person, suppressing three BOSSes single-handedly!
Xia Lian stood beside them, glancing at Lin Qingyue and then at the smoking wreckage of armor left behind by the Purification. She muttered under her breath:
"That video... it was too outrageous... Pulling a Gatling gun from under her skirt? And 'Barbara, Warrior of Love'... it was just too much..."
Even now, she could feel her face burning.
The thought of everyone on the battlefield having watched that humiliating video with her made her want to crawl into a hole and disappear.
Just then, heavy footsteps echoed across the battlefield.
It was Aeldara.
She strode forward and stood before the four.
Her pitch-black armor, further ravaged by the earlier self-detonation attack, was now riddled with corrosive marks. Yet she stood ramrod straight, like a spear.
Raising a hand, she removed the sinister helmet that had concealed her face, revealing her pale yet strikingly beautiful features.
Her complexion, however, was far from healthy. A trickle of blood stained the corner of her lips, evidence of the cursed energy's corrosive touch.
The entire battlefield fell silent. The remaining undead soldiers had been swiftly dispatched by the reinvigorated Elf Knights.
All eyes turned to the enigmatic Pink-Haired Priest.
Aeldara paused for a moment, then spoke slowly in her still-icy voice:
"We thank you for your assistance, visitors from another world."