Chapter 136: The Strength of Weiss

If something bad can happen, it will.

Watching Vess’s soul struggle within the pillar of purple light, this thought inexplicably crossed Katherine’s mind. Only moments ago, her master had mentioned that an eighth-tier dark-element magical beast, the "Enigma," lurked beneath the canyon. Immediately after, they were assaulted by this very entity. The fact that its opening move was an eighth-tier forbidden spell was a chilling testament to the terror of such a pinnacle existence.

When Vess’s soul was ripped from her body, she remained in a daze, likely still unable to recover from the guilt of having inadvertently harmed her aunt. Despite failing to react instantly, she possessed the unique instincts of a Saint-level mage. Even as the lower half of her ethereal form was still being dragged from Vayne’s body, her mental energy surged. In an instant, vast amounts of ice-element mana converged from all directions, forming a smooth, hexagonal ice mirror that blocked the path between Vess and the "Eye of Soul-Snatching" with zero margin for error!

Sixth-tier Ice Magic—Mirror of Reflection!

Although it was touted as being able to reflect any attack, such a hastily erected ice mirror was shattered the moment it met the might of an eighth-tier spell. However, it had successfully interrupted the purple-black beam emanating from that vertical pupil for nearly half a second.

Gaining this precious respite, Vess’s expression turned cold and composed. The face on her soul was no longer the mirror-like surface of the Sin-Spider, but identical to that of a normal girl. Her soul, now condensed to the point of appearing corporeal, flared with a sudden brilliance, and a beam of light as thick as a barrel shot from the crown of her head directly into the sky!

The surrounding environment darkened instantly; the clear, bright morning switched to a pitch-black night in a heartbeat! The stars, previously hidden, appeared one by one. In the northwestern sky, the six main stars of the "Lich Constellation" within the Zodiac shone with dazzling intensity. The starlight connecting them vaguely outlined the figure of a lich in a gown across the firmament! The jawbone of this gowned lich moved, its lip-syncing perfectly matching Vess’s in mid-air, and with that, she unleashed an eighth-tier ice forbidden spell:

Execution of the Goddess of Dawn!

A torrent of ice, covering a radius of at least a hundred meters, poured down from the heavens. It swept over Vess’s head and slammed violently into the massive energy claw below. There was no explosive splash of energy, nor even the sound of a collision. The second these two forbidden-tier spells met, they both vanished simultaneously!

Yes, two massive energy entities capable of devastating everything within a ten-mile radius simply disappeared the moment they touched! It was as if they had never existed in this world at all. The blinding purple light at the bottom of the canyon faded, the phantom of the Lich Constellation in the sky vanished, and the darkened heavens instantly brightened, restoring the world to a state of peace.

Although the crisis seemed averted, Vess’s soul was noticeably dimmer, and her long green hair had turned partially white. She looked at Ling Mo and opened her mouth, clearly wanting to say something, but remained silent. With a "whoosh," she was pulled back into Vayne’s body and vanished.

As soon as Vess’s soul retreated, Vayne turned pale as paper. Cold sweat poured down her forehead like a stream, leaving her as drenched as if she had been pulled from water. Unable to maintain her "Levitation Spell," she plummeted toward the canyon below amidst Katherine’s screams, only to be caught by Ling Mo, who held them both suspended in mid-air.

He crossed the massive canyon in two strides and reached the opposite bank, casually dropping them to the ground. The fleeting look of regret on Vayne’s face did not escape his eyes, but Ling Mo chose not to address it. Instead, he chuckled, "It seems you two sisters aren't entirely independent; in some aspects, you share a remarkably tight connection."

Vayne, pale and struggling to catch her breath, did not respond to Ling Mo’s remark, instead saying:

"Now that my sister has made a mistake, the time it takes for the Enigma to absorb this wave of energy and force its way into the prime material plane has likely been shortened from one hundred thousand years to ninety-nine thousand, nine hundred and fifty."

Ling Mo twitched the corner of his mouth in a silent smile. "You still have the heart to joke; your condition must be alright. Let’s rest here for a few minutes. Katherine, don't lie down so quickly. I didn't tell you to rest; start warming up immediately. Your enemy is in the woods less than two kilometers ahead."

"That’s unfair! I was scared half to death too, you know!" Katherine complained as she climbed to her feet. While warming up, she asked Vayne curiously, "Junior sister, this is the first time I've seen such high-level magic. Based on their forms, they appeared to be the dark-element forbidden spell 'Eye of the Dead' and the ice-element forbidden spell 'Execution of the Goddess of Dawn,' right?"

"Not 'Eye of the Dead,' but a higher-level 'Eye of Soul-Snatching.' It’s a dark-element forbidden spell specifically developed against living creatures. Its effect is to forcibly rip the target's soul from their body, and while draining their mental energy, use that black giant claw to tear it apart. Weaker souls are drained dry or crushed, while stronger ones are severed from their bodies and forcibly transformed into undead creatures while being weakened," Ling Mo corrected from the side.

"Ah?" Katherine turned to look at Ling Mo in surprise, hesitated, and asked, "I remember you said you weren't well-versed in magic, Master. You didn't even know what the Magic Weave was, so why are you so familiar with such advanced spells?"

Ling Mo was concise: "I’ve been blasted by these spells a few times."

Seeing his grim expression, Katherine wisely shut her mouth, swallowed the rest of her questions, and began her warm-up exercises with focus. After this incident, the previously quiet live stream room suddenly erupted:

"Holy crap! If anyone tells me the Magical Beast Rainforest is safe again, I’ll smash their head in!"

"Is the creature below really the 'Enigma'? Legend says this elemental monarch’s body is thousands of meters long; is that actually true?"

"It’s probably true! Didn't you hear Professor Ling? It opens a one-meter space rift every eleven years, and it takes one hundred thousand years to crawl out. Do the math: 9,090 meters~~~~~~"

"That’s not even bigger than Anton, right? Seems about average."

"To the guy above, you’re the first brave soul to describe an eighth-tier magical beast as 'about average'!"

"I don't get it! Why did the Enigma attack suddenly? And why target Lady Vess specifically?"

"Would someone tell you such a secret? Just watch the show and keep your head down!"

"This is the first time I’ve seen a forbidden-tier spell outside of a documentary! It was damn spectacular!"

"The giant energy claw was one thing, I couldn't tell what it was, but the ice-element forbidden spell Lady Vess unleashed was truly gorgeous!"

"I originally expected to see intense explosions and energy floods washing over the area, leaving it in ruins. I never imagined Lady Vess’s forbidden spell would just be sucked away like that!"

"The more you think about it, the scarier it gets! After seeing this, why do I feel like humans are as insignificant as ants compared to an eighth-tier magical beast?"

"Is this the first time you’ve realized humans are so insignificant?"

"You make me laugh! What, did your textbook say humans are the crown of creation and the masters of the Noahfa Continent?"

"The guy above is too pessimistic! Humans certainly aren't as strong as magical beasts individually, but what if you let a Saint-level mage lead a legion of mages and fly in with a Floating City? Seventh-tier spells like pocket change, eighth-tier spells raining down—even if they can't kill the 'Enigma,' it would be enough to make it suffer!"

"Give it a rest! You think too highly of humans!"

"That joke… the Golden Fortress was so amused its engines stalled!"