Chapter 231: He Had Seen It Coming
Flames were spreading throughout the forest and her clansmen were about to be slaughtered. Meanwhile, another Destruction-rank dream beast was about to appear… Doris felt helpless and was beleaguered from all sides.
She gritted her teeth and made flash steps in the direction of where her clansmen were.
I have to save the clan first!
The fire speedily ravaged the forest, and the magma brought from the depths of the earth seemed to sweep everything away with its destructive power.
“High Priestess!”
A female elf spotted Doris and called out.
She was fl.u.s.tered and her eyes were filled with fear. However, this was replaced with hints of hope and reliance the moment she saw Doris.
“Mother!”
The female elf was accompanied by her child who was fifteen, but by the growth cycle of an elf, he was only a child of about six to seven years old. In correspondence to his age, his appearance seemed very young too.
Even by human standards, he was still just a child.
At this moment, he was clinging onto his mother and crying. Tears streamed down his face and there was a bruise on his leg, one which he must have gotten from falling in panic.
The female elf squeezed out a gentle smile in a bid to soothe her child.
"The High Priestess is here!”
"What should we do now, High Priestess?"
"Ahh! That dream beast is coming!"
"Quick, run!"
More people had noticed Doris and cast hopeful gazes at her, and cries of help resounded all around as they reached out to her for help.
Some of the male elves who stayed started to organize themselves and maintain order. They used basic spells to put out the fire, but the growing flames soon drove them back.
The mages, warriors, and archers of the clan had all been brought to the ambush formation at the other end, while those that stayed here were just ordinary helpless elves.
Although defensive array circles had been set up here, they could only withstand a few Destructive-rank attacks. These arrays could hold out perfectly if it was just one Subterranean Walker…
"Calm down! Don"t panic!" Doris first tapped the ground with the scepter, allowing the sound of the scepter to reach the ears of every clansman, and used magic to soothe their frayed nerves.
"With the defensive array in place, these worms can be held back for the time being. Head to the altar now, the elders will make the arrangements."
There was a teleportation array at the altar, which could directly teleport people to Norzin.
But at the same time, it would mean that they were giving up this forest.
This would be the last resort, but the teleportation array could only send away less than a third of the clansmen.
Doris recalled the others who were lying in wait at the site of the ambush. Since the Subterranean Walkers had already detected them, the trap had become meaningless.
Doris got people in the clan who were able to fight to stay. This way, at least one of the beasts could be eliminated quickly...
But the problem was that there was still one more.
Doris even had a definite hunch that there weren’t just two but even more... This was no longer a Destructive-rank dream invasion.
Was a mult.i.tude of Destruction-rank dream beasts much different from a single Supreme-rank?
If this went on, things would only go from bad to worse...
"This is something unprecedented. The dream realm fissure is still expanding, and the force that has always held back invasions from the dream realm seems to have weakened considerably.
"Something terrible must have happened in a spot that I couldn"t foresee..."
Doris herself was shocked.
She was more than a thousand years old, and even as a long-living race, she could already be considered as an elder.
During this time, from when she came of age, Doris had served as the high priestess of the clan, protecting the clan and its domain, the forest.
Far away from the giant man-made city, Norzin, all kinds of transcendent species that had survived from ancient times were hidden in their respective settlements and on the wane. Only businessmen and desperate criminals would enter Norzin and make contact with humans.
Just dealing with the invasion of dream beasts from the dream realm was already too much for them to cope with.
It was the same for the Iris Clan where Doris was from.
Elves were no longer the valiant warriors of the ancient kingdom that flourished back in the past. Over the long years, they were isolated and basically didn"t face much threats besides dream beasts.
Those who survived the cataclysm weren’t those descended from powerful individuals either and thus, the average elves, were basically ordinary and powerless.
That was why Doris needed to seek the help of Lady Silver who was said to have protected them.
"Wait… Lady Silver!"
Doris suddenly came to the realization that she had already asked for the great being"s help!
In Norzin"s bookstore, where the aura of Silver"s dream realm had descended, Doris had met Lady Silver"s Blessed One, that friendly bookstore owner.
When she had asked for help to restore the Iris Clan"s former glory and receive the blessings of Lady Silver, the bookstore owner had sold her 30 copies of the book, Elder Sign.
He also said that this was preparation for his future work and hoped that Doris" clansmen could take a look first.
Doris once sensed information such as "Resistance" and "Dream" from within that book. After studying carefully, she also established that these were knowledge related to a runic sigil.
She knew that this sigil contained powerful magic, but at the same time, it also had a certain learning threshold.
Over the course of these few months, only a portion of Iris Clan members who had an affinity with aether could peruse it, and in total, there were less than a hundred who had learned how to draw the sigil.
But in the current predicament... It inspired Doris with a new idea.
Had she been misunderstanding it all this time?
Was this rune not actually meant for everyone to learn so as to receive Lady Silver’s help but was instead a means to tide over this current crisis?!
He… had seen it coming!
Doris recalled the young bookstore owner"s mysterious smile and suddenly felt a great sense of relief.
"Wait!" Doris called out to her panicking clansmen. The clansmen had huge trust in their high priestess, so they immediately stopped and looked toward her.
She looked around and said, "I once brought all of you the gift of Lady Silver"s Blessed One! That is the will of Lady Silver and the key to getting us out of this crisis! Those who have learned the sigil from the book, Elder Sign, draw it on yourself and the others at once!"
Rumble...
The defensive barrier was crumbling and the ground shuddered continuously.
Though afraid, the elves acted accordingly to Doris"s order. After almost half of those who learned the sigil had painted "Elder Sign", the barrier was broken through and two Subterranean Walkers rushed in with their mouths gaping.
One of them was stopped by Doris and the warriors, but the other took the opportunity to dive into the ground.
The elves squeezed together, pushing and shoving. The elf child from earlier fell to the ground and burst into tears.
BOOM… GAWRR—
His mother looked over and saw the giant worm burst out of the ground and headed for her child with its gaping mouth with rings and rings of razor-sharp teeth.
"NO!!!"
The female elf rushed over to embrace her child, shutting her eyes tightly and awaited death.
But after quite some time, she didn"t feel the pain she had imagined.
The female elf opened her eyes in a daze only to see that the worm had stopped above her. Its mouth was still twitching and she could almost feel the warm rancid breath blowing on her face. However, the worm did not go any further, even backing away as if it was in fear.
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