Over the next few days, Night Frost successfully broke through the purification Formation. She didn’t bother deciphering the remaining two layers and simply smashed through them by force.

Thus, all four outer layers of the Formation were broken. What remained were the Formation’s core and three ever-changing offensive Array Patterns displayed on the surface.

Attack, amplification, and corrosion.

Night Frost was very familiar with attack and amplification. They were the fundamentals of the fundamentals. But she had never encountered corrosion before. She’d only seen it in her notes and had never used it in actual combat.

To dispel these three Array Patterns, Night Frost had to step into their center. She would inevitably face their fierce assault. Combined, the three Array Patterns were far from weak.

If Night Frost wanted to decipher them, she would have to pay a price.

A considerable price.

Even the old elf from 【Chapter Three】 might be injured trying to break this Formation. Since she’d hit a bottleneck, Night Frost decided it would be better to take a walk outside.

“I’m going out for a walk. Are you staying here, or coming with me?”

Li Dogegg refused to go outside. It wanted to sleep. It was even more of a Palu than Palu itself.

The Eye Orb, meanwhile, planned to analyze the Array Patterns Night Frost had given it. For once, it didn’t go out with her.

The moment Night Frost stepped onto the street, she sensed that something was wrong.

It was clearly dusk, yet the streets were still deserted. A large number of wounded had gathered at the city gates. She had no idea what had happened.

Night Frost encountered Lurie at the gates. Lurie was bandaging the wounded.

Most of them were humans. A small portion were elves and Halfbeasts. Every one of them moaned in pain. Some were even tied to pillars, struggling weakly.

“What happened? (Elvish)”

Night Frost asked Lurie.

Lurie froze. Her lips parted slightly. She hadn’t expected Night Frost to learn the elven language in such a short time.

“A few days ago, the Elder sounded the alarm. A group of Sorceresses had invaded this place. Their movements were secretive, but the Dual Blade Sorceress still caught them in the act. Then the two sides fought.”

Night Frost caught the key word.

Sorceresses.

According to Lurie and Li Dogegg, the Sorceresses here clearly weren’t part of the human faction. They had pursued power too far and forgotten their roots.

“What was the result? (Elvish)”

A powerhouse like the Dual Blade Sorceress should have been able to defeat the other Sorceresses and keep them here.

But Lurie only shook her head.

Naturally, both sides had suffered heavy losses.

“The leading Sorceress was evenly matched with the Dual Blade Sorceress. The Elder tried to provide support, but took five Forbidden Spells head-on. Only after the God of War intervened were we able to drive those Sorceresses back.”

Lurie’s description was brief, but Night Frost roughly understood what had happened during her absence.

A war caused by the Sorceresses had left two 【Chapter Three】 elves in the city crippled.

“Then were these people injured by the battle’s aftermath? (Elvish)”

Lurie shook her head again.

According to her, these people hadn’t been injured by the fighting. They had been driven to kill one another by something strange the Sorceresses had left behind.

Those shadows originally had fixed forms. Yet they could burrow into living bodies and bring out their ferocity.

Shadows?

Night Frost thought of the shadows that had torn apart the moon before.

Those shadows had been extremely powerful. She hadn’t expected the Sorceresses to be able to control such creatures.

At Night Frost’s request, Lurie led her to one of the wounded.

Perhaps because he was possessed by a shadow, an ominous aura radiated from his body. Night Frost felt uncomfortable the moment she approached him.

Enduring that discomfort, Night Frost leaned closer to the man tied to the pillar.

If she listened carefully, she could hear a faint chewing sound.

There was no way she’d mistaken it.

Had that shadow taken the man as food?

Was it eating his mind, or his body?

Lurie seemed to realize what Night Frost was thinking and explained that the man’s spirit was being gnawed away bit by bit.

Since it concerned the spirit, Night Frost had an idea of her own.

Crimson Gold Flame surged from her palm. Her crimson-gold eyes immediately saw the shadow before her with perfect clarity.

It was something that resembled a deer, but wasn’t a deer, and resembled a wolf, but wasn’t a wolf.

It licked the coldness from the corner of its mouth, looking as if it wanted to swallow the man in one bite. But perhaps it knew that delicacies were hard to come by. It slowly fed the man into its mouth, piece by piece.

A truly exquisite delicacy.

The soul of a living human.

A trace of disgust surfaced in Night Frost’s eyes.

This thing was even more excessive than the Calamity Dragon. She almost threw a ball of flame at it, but forced herself to hold back.

Her flames could burn souls. There was no guarantee they wouldn’t kill the man’s soul as well.

The worst possible outcome was that the man died while the shadow continued living.

“I might be able to kill that thing, but the man will die too. Do you have any way to save him? (Elvish)”

Night Frost looked at Lurie.

Lurie shook her head.

“No. We can heal the body, but purifying the spirit is the Tree of Life’s duty. The Tree of Life was destroyed in the disaster long ago. The only person who can heal them now is the Elder, but the Elder is trapped by the Forbidden Spells. It may be a while before she can break free. (Elvish)”

Night Frost was a little dazed.

Too many words had piled up at once, and she couldn’t process them all. She hadn’t understood part of Lurie’s explanation, but she knew one thing clearly.

The elves had no way to drag the shadows out of the human bodies.

“They’ll only leave after they’ve eaten their fill. By then, the victims usually become idiots… or they die outright. (Elvish)”

Night Frost silently mourned those who had already died.

“Urrrgh—aaahhhhhh!”

A shrill scream came from the distance.

Night Frost turned toward it. Through the flames, she saw that the man’s spirit had already been completely devoured.

The culprit was trying to tear itself free from the man’s body and pounce on a nearby human.

Perhaps Night Frost’s flames had given it a hint of danger. Perhaps it was too weak. Or perhaps the nearby human simply smelled better.

Whatever the reason, it had no intention of confronting Night Frost head-on.

How could Night Frost let it harm someone?

She hurled out a ball of flame.

Night Frost’s flames could erode other people’s souls. The shadow before her was devouring a soul, which meant it was connected to the spirit.

As long as something involved the spirit, Night Frost could burn it!

The flame landed on the shadow.

Its body instantly caught fire. The pain drove it into a heart-rending howl.

“Roar!”

Night Frost’s flames devoured the shadow’s soul bit by bit.

The creature gradually collapsed in agony, until it finally turned into a wisp of blue smoke and vanished into the air.

Lurie couldn’t see it clearly, but she knew the creature was dead. It had been completely consumed by Night Frost’s flames.

Her flames could burn the spirit.

Perhaps Lurie had found a way…

Near the street, Lurie brought over another elf.

This elf knew a certain protective Magic Spell. It could be applied to the body as well as the spirit, making her one of the few 【Cantata Two】 elves among their people.

“My effects are very weak… Bringing me here won’t help at all. (Elvish)”

The elf looked rather depressed. Heavy dark circles hung beneath her eyes, making it clear she hadn’t rested in a long time.

Over the past few days, she had been improving her Magic Spell, trying to make it more effective against the spirit. But so far, she had made no progress.

She had absolutely no talent for Magic Spells.

Although her strength had improved quickly, she only had two or three usable abilities. She was someone who couldn’t possibly be sent onto the battlefield.

This was the first time she’d felt that she might be useful to the elves.

Yet she couldn’t protect them.

That only made her even more depressed.

Night Frost proposed a method.

Their goal was to force the shadows out. As long as the elf could place a protective shell around the human soul, she only needed to buy Night Frost enough time to drive the shadow away.

It might work.

Regardless of the outcome, they had to try.

“Th-then… let’s try it. But they’ll be injured. (Elvish)”

Night Frost rubbed her forehead and looked at Lurie.

She seriously doubted the ability of the elf Lurie had brought over. But at the moment, this seemed to be the only way to save them.

Night Frost had the elf begin while she condensed her flames.

They decided to start with the weakest shadow.

The shadow was just opening its mouth when the protective barrier appeared a step faster. Its row of teeth landed firmly against the barrier.

Night Frost released her flames.

They burned the Monster away with ease, but the protective barrier was also incredibly fragile. It melted beneath Night Frost’s flames in only a few seconds.

Still, the result was encouraging.

At least the experiment had worked.

When combined with the elf’s protection, Night Frost’s flames could drive out or kill the shadows before them. The only problem was that the barrier lasted far too briefly.

If it could hold for longer, they might be able to eliminate every shadow nearby.

Perhaps because two shadows had died in an instant, the surrounding shadows began to stir restlessly.

Some of them tore free from their hosts and tried to escape. Night Frost killed every single one.

For a moment, the intelligent shadows were thrown into chaos.

Night Frost, however, was surprised.

The shadows she had encountered before were powerful enough to send her flying. But these shadows were incredibly weak—so weak that a single burst of flame could kill them.

Something was wrong.

Very wrong.

“Lur—”

Night Frost hadn’t even finished speaking when she felt a pair of cold, ancient hands pat her shoulder.

She whipped around.

At some point, Lurie and the elf had fallen unconscious.

Behind Night Frost stood a short, humanoid shadow.

“You can’t treat my children like this… (Elvish)”

The old man’s shadow wrapped around Night Frost. He tried to gnaw at her soul, only to discover that it was far stronger than he’d imagined.

It was almost top-tier.

If he clashed with Night Frost, he wouldn’t gain the slightest advantage.

So the old man waved his hand, withdrawing all the shadows.

“These unruly creatures… Why have they come here…? I understand now. It was that group. (Elvish)”

The old man searched through the shadows’ memories and learned that the Sorceresses were responsible.

And at that moment, those very people were nearby.

“We’ve been discovered. Let’s go.”

“That elf is quite strong. The Codex might be in her hands. We should dispose of those little jars and bottles too. She’ll follow those dead spirits straight to us. I don’t want trouble clinging to me.”

The leader tore her gaze away from Night Frost and swept her sleeve through the air.

She led the three Sorceresses behind her away.

For now, it was better not to clash.