In the end, Lingyue's soul form still left.

Just as she was about to make a move on Alreis, Tini finally forced herself to act, drawing on what little magic power and life force she had left.

Her body had already been torn apart by the ritual. Now it suffered another massive blow.

Still, she managed to drive Lingyue back. And when Lingyue left, she took the still-unconscious Colossal Beast with her.

Alreis saw that Tini had made it over. Her magic power and mental strength had both reached their limit, so she voluntarily entered a dormant state.

"You actually dare fall asleep right in front of me? If I weren't at my limit too, I'd definitely make you regret it!" Tini snapped irritably at the sleeping Alreis.

"Hiss!!!"

Cracks suddenly split open across many parts of Tini's body, and blood gushed out in streams. The intense pain made her suck in a sharp breath.

She planted her staff into the ground. Only by leaning on it could she remain standing and face Lingyue.

If Lingyue had attacked again, Tini would've had no way to stop her.

Sitting on the ground, Tini endured the pain of her body being torn apart, along with the exhaustion from her life force growing extremely faint, and waited in silence.

Both Ascendant Sovereigns couldn't fall into dormancy.

Wude and Elisa had been watching this side the whole time. When they saw the Colossal Beast fall, everything went quiet.

A long time passed, yet there was still no movement.

Neither Alreis nor Tini came to find them.

Sensing that something was wrong, Wude and Elisa finally decided to come over and check the situation. They were deeply worried by the eerie silence.

When they finally reached the place where the ritual had been carried out, they were utterly stunned.

The earth looked as if someone had viciously scraped across it. Pits and craters were everywhere.

There was almost no sign of life left.

"Quick! Elisa, find Alreis and Tini!" Wude said.

The tragic scene filled him with dread. Neither Alreis nor Tini was anywhere in sight, and it felt as if something had clenched hard around his heart. He just wanted to find them as fast as possible.

After hearing Wude, Elisa hurriedly mobilized her magic power and began chanting. A few seconds later, she finished.

"Life Detection!"

It was a very basic spell, used to rescue people after disasters. For researchers of Life Magic, this was one of the first spells they learned.

Elisa closed her eyes and searched for traces of life.

After quite a while, she suddenly opened them and pointed in one direction.

"Big Brother Wude, over there!"

Wude looked where she pointed. In that direction was an enormous pit, and from here they couldn't see what was inside.

"Nice one, Elisa!"

Wude ran toward the pit at full speed, with Elisa following close behind.

Then they saw what was inside.

Alreis was lying on the ground, unconscious.

Tini was sitting there covered in blood, guarding Alreis from in front of her staff.

There in the center of the pit, the two of them formed a scene that was both tragic and strangely eternal.

"Tini! Alreis!"

Wude leaped down from the edge and slid straight along the rock wall into the pit. In his panic, he nearly stumbled.

He steadied himself at once, then rushed toward them again.

Elisa followed behind Wude the whole way without saying a word.

She understood the sorrow in his heart, and she felt sorrow too.

Looking at this, there was no way it had succeeded... right?

Elisa wasn't like Wude, who had only learned some magic from Lingyue. Elisa had received a systematic education.

And because she studied Life Magic, resurrection was an alluring subject within that field.

New students full of excitement always fantasized about things that were hard to achieve. Elisa was the same.

She had once asked her mentor whether anyone had ever managed resurrection.

Her mentor hadn't answered directly.

She had only told Elisa that Lady Blessing of Life had once tried to revive a certain being.

But whether it succeeded or not, no one knew.

So Elisa knew this ritual had a very high chance of failing.

Even so, she still held onto hope.

These were two Ascendant Sovereigns going all out. It should... have been possible.

And if it really was possible, then maybe... maybe she could ask them for help too?

Elisa's pace grew slower and slower.

All of a sudden, she didn't want to walk up to Alreis and Tini anymore.

She didn't want to hear them say it had failed.

The one she respected most was Blessing of Life. Back then, it was because she admired a powerful woman like that that she had chosen this path.

If she had power like that, could she have stopped that tragedy back then?

Or at the very least, could she protect Big Brother Wude in the future?

In Elisa's eyes, Blessing of Life had always been an all-powerful existence.

And yet now, that very existence sat there weakly, covered in wounds.

She had clearly already seen Big Brother Wude and Elisa, yet she couldn't even make a sound.

Elisa suddenly felt that Ascendant Sovereigns weren't as distant, invincible, and grand as she had once imagined.

They had been given a title beyond that of a Sage.

And yet, they still had their own moments of misery.

Alreis got bullied by Big Brother Wude every day. Blessing of Life got bullied by him too.

The only difference was that she could bully Alreis back a little.

These were the scenes of the Ascendant Sovereigns' daily lives.

Part of Elisa's ideal shattered.

But at the same time, the Ascendant Sovereigns began to feel more real to her.

They were no longer separate from the two cute little beings right in front of her.

They were people standing before her eyes.

They were Big Brother Wude's servants.

They were her... friends.

At that thought, Elisa poured the power of life into her legs. Her speed instantly increased several times over.

She caught up to Wude, then rushed together with him to Tini's side.

Only when she got close did she realize just how terrible Tini's condition really was.

The injuries on her body could only be described as horrifying.

Tini merely raised her head slightly, as if she wanted to speak, but no words came out.

Looking at her now, no one could connect her with Blessing of Life.

Elisa immediately used the highest-level recovery magic she could manage.

This was the most basic use of Life Magic.

As green light flickered, the wounds on Tini's body looked a little better.

"Cough, cough!!"

Tini finally seemed able to speak. She tried to say something, but only coughed.

"Boy..."

At last, Tini managed to force out a voice. Enduring the pain, she showed a smile.

"First... let me say this... we... don't count as... having failed..."

Tini gasped for breath.

Wude wanted to stop her from talking, but she waved her hand, telling him not to interrupt.

"Alreis... is fine... just... sleeping... I... also need to sleep for a while... tomorrow... then it will..."

As Tini spoke, she finally closed her eyes and collapsed.

Wude caught her at once.

He carefully handed Tini over to Elisa and had her lay Tini aside to rest.

Then he walked over to Alreis, who was lying on the ground.

Alreis looked to be in slightly better condition than Tini.

But Wude knew the damage she had taken was absolutely no less severe.

Otherwise, she wouldn't have fallen into the "dormancy" Tini mentioned before Tini did.

Wude didn't understand Ascendant Sovereigns.

But he understood Alreis.

He gently helped Alreis up and held her in his arms.

At a time like this, Alreis didn't resist at all. She was like a doll.

Wude stroked her hair, again and again.

"You've already... done enough."

He whispered softly into Alreis's ear.

...

That night, since Wude and Elisa had no way to carry the two of them, they could only put up a temporary tent.

This place had originally been some kind of magic research institute. It was a place Tini had built herself in the past, and there was no one else here.

It was also very remote.

To put it bluntly, without Alreis and Tini, Wude and Elisa had no way to leave at all.

The other facilities of the institute had already been destroyed during the ritual.

Wude and Elisa had no idea what exactly had happened in it.

The only good news was probably that one sentence Tini had mentioned before falling into so-called dormancy.

"We don't count as having failed."

Wude didn't dare guess what those words really meant.

Had they truly succeeded?

And what exactly did "don't count as" mean?

"Big Brother Wude."

Elisa had been sitting by the campfire the whole time, poking at the flames with a wooden stick.

"What do you think... why did Alreis and Tini fight so desperately?"

She voiced the doubt in her heart.

"When you get down to it, wasn't Sister Lingyue Alreis's enemy? The kind who fought to the death. And Tini too, right? She's been Sister Lingyue's old rival for hundreds of years, hasn't she?"

"So why were they willing to go that far for Sister Lingyue?"

Hearing that, Wude fell into thought.

After a while, he smiled a little.

"I don't know either."

And yet that was his answer.

"How about tomorrow, after they wake up from dormancy, you ask them yourself?"

"...Okay. I'll listen to you, Big Brother Wude."