The administrator looked down, a trace of panic flashing through her eyes. She could sense the extremely dense Abyssal Aura erupting from the leader’s body.

The leader had been telling the truth. This attack really could kill everyone except her.

But the administrator had chosen to capture the leader first.

It was a disastrous choice.

The leader condensed the Abyssal Aura into a short sword and hurled it. The Blade pierced straight through the administrator’s heart with perfect accuracy.

In an instant, the short Blade, wrapped in Abyssal Aura, severed the flow of Mana. The attack had gathered and solidified all her Mana into the dagger, but after losing the administrator’s control, it dragged her downward at an angle.

The dagger plunged deep into the wooden floor.

The administrator placed a hand over the short Blade buried in her heart. She had no idea when it had entered her chest.

She hadn’t felt any pain.

She hadn’t even seen the flash of the Blade.

It had been too fast. So fast that the elf administrator hadn’t reacted at all.

That woman’s striking speed far surpassed what the administrator had possessed at her peak.

Behind her, the other three women stared at the deep chasm the administrator had carved through the library.

The great library had been reinforced by a Formation. No one except their leader could have broken through it.

Yet this elf had done exactly that.

What did that mean?

That previous attack could have cut all three of them down.

They had been that close to death.

They had underestimated that elf far too badly. Her strength had seemed almost equal to theirs, but her actual power was far greater.

If not for their leader…

They would already have been dead.

“She’s strong. It looks like she was injured and her realm fell.”

The leader glanced at the elf administrator struggling on the floor. She had been stabbed through the heart. Unless a powerful expert treated her soon, her death was already certain.

Their target was the forbidden books here, along with the culmination of elven wisdom and magic.

“Ask her where the Elven Codex is.”

The leader looked at the three women.

They immediately understood.

The three of them turned and walked toward the administrator, who lay on her side and was trying to pull the short Blade from her heart.

“Hey. Where’s the Codex? Elven tongue.”

It was flawless Elven. They were clearly skilled in the language, and they had used quite a few elven Magic Spells as well.

Their purpose was obvious. The administrator had heard every word they’d said.

Their target was the Elven Codex.

It recorded secrets of the elven race that could never be written on paper. It was also the culmination of all elven magic, containing many powerful spells that even the elders couldn’t use.

Perhaps even the elves who had first created those spells could no longer wield them.

Some records even claimed that the Codex could foresee the future.

But the administrator truly didn’t know where it was.

The Elven Codex could never be kept in the library. It would always be carried by the most authoritative elf of the current age, provided the Codex itself recognized them.

In general, the most likely place to find it was in the hands of the elven royal family.

The so-called elven royal family had been born from the Tree of Life. They were elves born with royal marks between their brows.

They were said to stand closer to the gods and receive more of their blessings.

After the disaster, the royal elves had either died or been injured. Only a few young elves remained.

But the Codex wasn’t with them.

The intelligent Codex had to be following some elf, yet no one had obtained it even now.

That was why the elders had concluded that the Elven Codex had been lost.

When the administrator remained silent, one of the three women kicked her hard in the abdomen.

A bitter taste surged up her throat. Bile mixed with Blood and slid down the corner of her mouth.

“She’s got a hard mouth. We can’t get anything out of her.”

The leader nodded. Then she dispersed the Abyssal Aura in her palm.

She couldn’t sense the Codex’s aura. If it truly existed here, the surrounding Mana couldn’t possibly be this thin.

It seemed the Codex really wasn’t here.

Still, there were plenty of valuable things in this place.

So the leader decided to take everything useful with them—especially the forbidden books.

She didn’t care much for those books herself, but they were priceless treasures to the others. She would treat them as rewards.

Used well, they might even save their lives.

After breaking the Formation sealing the forbidden books, she divided them evenly among the three women.

Then she used a special method to erase some of the dense Abyssal Aura clinging to the books.

The three women carefully opened them before stuffing them into the inner layers of their clothes, their eyes shining as though they had found priceless treasures.

Just as the leader had said, these were good things.

They could turn life and death around in the middle of a battle.

“Let’s go. There’s nothing else here… Burn it.”

The leader waved a hand.

They had already taken everything they needed. As for the unimportant history and culture of the elven race, those could turn to ash in the flames.

One of the three women behind her snapped open her fingernail.

A flame hovered above her fingertip.

“No… Don’t! Elven tongue.”

The administrator reached out a hand from behind them.

Those books were the most important things in her life. How could she allow them to be buried in flames?

She had spent half her life protecting them…

And today, they were probably going to be taken from her.

The tongues of flame licked across the spotless books. The exquisite scrolls on the shelves and the ancient book hidden among the stacks all turned to ash in an instant.

The burning books fell helplessly to the floor.

The leader and the other three women didn’t spare them a glance. Their heavy boots trampled across the half-burned pages, leaving one footprint after another.

The flames swallowed those footprints as well.

In the end, nothing remained but ashes scattered across the floor.

The administrator covered her chest with one hand and reached toward the ashes with the other.

Tears slipped down her cheeks.

The charred words reminded her which book it had been:

*The History and Textual Study of the Elven Seven Days.*

It had been one of her favorite books.

*The Elven Seven Days* was a fairy tale about the darkest seven days in elven history.

But then a hero had appeared. She raised her arms and shouted:

“Elves aren’t so easy to defeat!”

All the elves had answered her call and offered her their blessings.

With her help, the elves had ultimately overcome the Seven Days of Calamity.

It was only a fairy tale, but one elven scholar—who had lived too long and grown bored out of his mind—began researching it.

Once he started, he discovered something terrifying.

The events in the fairy tale had actually existed.

The elves truly had experienced the Seven Days of Calamity. This book proved it.

It had been written exceptionally well. Its views, deductions, and conclusions were all clear and precise.

Few people had read it, but without a doubt, it was one of her favorite books.

She would never see it again.

Neither she nor the book would continue to exist.

“O flames, why are you so heartless?!”

The administrator was trapped in the raging fire.

The flames tore through everything without mercy, like a wild beast devouring whatever stood before it.

They burned the books.

They destroyed the library.

They even consumed life itself.

Red and yellow light flickered across the grassland beneath the night sky, as if displaying the flames’ cruelty and coldness to the world.

The leader walked ahead, deep in thought. Her steps were sharp and swift.

She knew the powerful experts in the city would arrive soon.

They had to leave as quickly as possible.

Behind her, the other three women wore mocking smiles. They laughed at the elf’s final words and gestures before death.

They didn’t care in the slightest about the things she had cherished.

“Who?! Elven tongue.”

The Elderly Elf suddenly opened his eyes.

He had only taken a brief nap, but he could already sense the heat in the distance. Violent fire elements were ravaging the grassland.

He swept out a hand.

“Everyone, bring the scrolls! We’re putting out this sudden fire!”

That direction…

It seemed to be the great library.

That was a treasure of the elven race!

He had just sent the administrator to the library to prepare things for Lurie and Night Frost.

Could it be?!

He believed this was probably the most disastrous decision he had ever made in his life.

He rose to his feet. Mana condensed beneath his soles and propelled him rapidly toward the great library.

The flames were still burning mercilessly.

Even when the elves used scrolls to produce water and sprayed it over the fire, it had little effect.

They could only dig away the grass around it until the final patch of material within the area had burned to ash.

All that remained was an empty ruin filled with silence.

The Elderly Elf used a giant hand of Mana to throw the scattered wooden boards aside. Then he hurried downstairs and looked at the half-charred body lying on the floor.

He quickly examined her.

Half her body had been burned black. She had also been stabbed through the heart.

Her legs and one arm couldn’t be saved.

But she still had a breath left.

She could still be saved.

The Elderly Elf hurriedly ordered the others to carry the elf out of the burned library. He planned to use a healing Magic Spell himself and treat the wound around her heart.

“What happened?”

The greatsword-wielding woman who had left not long ago, along with the dual-blade Sorceress, appeared before the Elderly Elf once more.

After seeing the ruined great library, they could roughly guess what had happened.

“Who did this? Elven tongue.”

The woman carrying the greatsword asked.

Before the Elderly Elf could answer, the dual-blade Sorceress spoke first.

“I can smell the scent of my kind… It was that group.”

Sorceresses could sense the scent of other Sorceresses.

No—instead, they could sense that indescribable Abyssal Aura.

“What were they after? Elven tongue.”

The Elderly Elf understood the dual-blade Sorceress’s language and questioned her.

He rarely became this furious.

The elven race had already lost the Tree of Life. Now they could only rely on ** to reproduce.

The royal elves would grow fewer and fewer.

Eventually, the elven race itself would vanish into the river of history.

And now, those women had burned down the great library—the final repository of elven civilization.

More than half of elven history had been severed.

They had also killed an outstanding administrator, one of the last paragons of the elven race.

After what had happened to her, the elves would live even more cautiously in the future.

“The Codex! That’s what they were after.”

The administrator had awakened.

She pointed toward the fortress.