"This thing is somewhat similar to the 'Earth Element Giant' that rarely appears in this era... No, the color is different from what is described in the book. A normal earth element aggregate should be yellow, and it doesn't have such strong malice."
Miss Benannis said as the three prepared to fight.
The monster walking in the forest also noticed them at this time. It stopped and roared, then used its huge and hard right arm to block in front of itself, and rushed towards them sideways at a speed far exceeding its slow walking speed just now, carrying a stream of earth-colored light.
“Get out of the way!”
The experienced witch warned loudly and dodged to the side. Because the monster was actually charging at Shade, Luvia dodged easily.
However, Xia De stood still. He planned to test the strength of this monster:
"Hedon Seal!"
The Moonlight Great Sword pierced the ground, and he formed a seal with his left hand. A spherical shield with golden light immediately bloomed beside Shade. But in the next moment, as the giant rock that was half the height of Shade rushed over, the heavy earth-yellow elemental force broke the shield. As the golden shield shattered like fragile glass, the aftermath of the impact sent Shade flying backwards. He rolled twice on the snow before he stood up with difficulty. He felt that he must have suffered internal injuries:
"You can't resist it head-on. This is not a simple physical attack."
"I told you this is an elemental aggregate!"
Miss Benaise cried out:
"Don't try to get close to it and engage in close combat with it. Use ranged thaumaturgy attacks!"
"OK!"
Luvia, who had been prepared, threw the fireball in her hand, which was as big as a human head. The fireball hit the right shoulder of the elemental giant, and after the roaring explosion, it only took away a quarter of the stone on its shoulder.
The broken part of the stone began to grow and heal itself, and as the elemental giants, angered by Luvia, turned to her, Shade also completed his power accumulation:
"Moonlight Wheel!"
The rotating light wheel hit the target from behind the enemy, and the sharp sound of the light wheel cutting the stone was so sharp that it hurt the ears. But even so, the light wheel disappeared after only half of it entered the body of the elemental giant.
"The defense is so high?"
"This kind of elemental creature doesn't have any so-called weaknesses. We have to destroy most of its body at once to kill it."
The witch reminded:
"Shad, get the witch light ready."
As she spoke, she took out three small stone statues from her pocket and threw them in front of her:
"Power of the Earth - Calling the Stone Statue!"
The stone statue that fell to the ground radiated light in the snow, and then three pentagram ritual arrays bloomed. As the stone hand stretched out from the snow, three human-sized stone statues were summoned.
Together, they rushed towards the elemental giant that was about to attack Shade again, and held it tightly in place. At the same time, Shade and Miss Benanis raised their right hands together:
"Feliana's Witch Light!"
The dark golden light slowly melted the elemental giant's body. It roared and tried to rush out of the range of the light, but was held by the stone people summoned by the "power of the earth". In the end, its entire upper body was melted by the light.
After the critical point of damage that the elemental giant could withstand, the remaining body of the elemental giant collapsed into rubble with a shattering sound, leaving only a small pile of black stones like coal on the snow.
"To deal with the fallen elemental giants, you need to use attacks that can destroy more parts at once. Alchemical bombs are very effective weapons, but I didn't expect to encounter this kind of enemy, so I didn't bring them with me."
Miss Benannis said to Shad and Luvia, while Luvia asked about Shad's injuries.
"Just take a breath."
As he spoke, he squatted down and picked up the black stones:
"I sensed the power of the earth's distortion, but that power is fading quickly."
"Is this a monster born from the Crazy Land?"
Luvia asked worriedly.
"It's highly unlikely. I still don't feel any signs of the earth being distorted. This means that even if there really is a crazy land in this area, it is very far away from here. And generally speaking, evil spirits or other monsters born in that area cannot leave casually."
Shade stood up:
"I'm worried that this is the same as the 'petrified plague' in the city. This kind of monster randomly appears in the Randall River Valley area, just like the evil spirits randomly appeared in the city in the late Middleburg incident. It's just that because of where we are now, the serious problems that the guardians mentioned are about to occur, causing the power of the earth to gather, which makes this kind of monster appear so frequently."
The witch took a deep breath:
“If it really is a random occurrence across the entire area, then it will be even more troublesome.”
The three of them continued to move forward along the path the church had taken. Perhaps because the church had already cleared the nearby area, they did not encounter a second fallen earth elemental giant.
The guardian, Mr. Lathers, gave Shade a whole area. When they arrived there, they found that nothing had happened. The hill was quite peaceful. Shade even saw a wolf following a rabbit stealthily.
The church's camp had already been set up. They did not surround the hill, but instead set up camp at the foot of the hill and at the commanding heights on the hillside of a nearby hill.
They did not even try to conceal their tracks, and the smoke from the campfires drifted from the forest into the clear evening sky outside the city. The sky was gradually darkening, and night was approaching.
Since nothing had happened yet, Xia De and the other two hid themselves and set up camp a little further away from the church camp.
Although the three of them were not afraid of the cold weather, they still felt safe sitting by the campfire. Xia De decided to wait patiently, after all, he had no idea what would happen next.
While Shade was talking quietly with Miss Benannis, Luvia wanted to try divination again. She used the rare tortoise shell divination, which was to throw bones or tortoise shells into the fire and burn them, and then interpret the fate based on the cracks.
However, this time, Luvia had just thrown the tortoise shell into the fire when it completely cracked.
"Did you buy defective divination supplies?"
Shade asked in surprise.
"You must be joking. I have always purchased these non-prohibited items from the association."
The female fortune teller frowned, took out the cards, and used her best card divination. Shade didn't see what the three cards she drew were, but Luvia's expression didn't improve because of the results:
"Someone is around to meddle with fate."
"What's the meaning?"
The witch asked, looking around.
"It's hard to tell what it means. Someone is preventing something that should have happened nearby from happening. And the methods they are using look very familiar."
Luvia said, handing her cards to Shade:
"Just pick one?"
"Me?"
He drew the first card:
"Marionette. As I remember, it means that the person being divined is being secretly manipulated, but he or she is unaware of it. Of course, it also means that the person being divined may be caught up in some huge conspiracy without knowing it."
"No, no, that's just a general interpretation. I'm not telling your fortune. The meaning of this card now should be the Puppet Master's Notes."
Luvia corrected, and the "she" beside Shad's ear smiled for some reason.
The blonde witch asked:
"That notebook, is it the relic you mentioned that is in the possession of the Blood Spirit School?"
"Yes, we have encountered this relic many times, and Shad once got a blank page of notebook paper last summer and gave it to me, so I am familiar with the power of this relic."
"Is there anything else going on with the Blood Spirit School tonight?"
Xia De asked suspiciously, because this time the effect of the Puppet Master's Note did not directly affect him, so he could not use the twenty-sided dice of fate to fight back.
"Can you tell me what the other party has changed?"
Miss Benanis asked, but this time Luvia could only shake her head:
“It is a relic after all.”
The dim sun finally completely fell below the western horizon. After the warm sunlight disappeared, the forest in late winter was still unusually cold.
Time passed little by little, and Shade thought that after the sun went down, what the guardians said would happen. But until eight o'clock that night, they were still waiting in the quiet forest.
If Mr. Lathers had not said this himself, and if "she" had not come to prove that Shad had not remembered the time and place incorrectly, Shad would even have doubted whether he had come to the wrong place.
It was half past eight, and Shad was telling Miss Benannis, who looked suspicious, about his experience in raising cats. Before the witch wanted to question that there seemed to be something wrong with Shad's cat-raising method, the three of them suddenly heard a "Huh~" sound.
I stood up and looked towards the western sky. A white light with a flame tail swayed up into the night sky and then exploded into fireworks in the night.
After the fireworks exploded, the ground immediately began to shake. This sudden earthquake was so strong that Shade only felt the whole world shaking for the first few seconds:
"The guardian said that every strong earthquake means that the earth is distorted more severely! It's the third stage! Wait, this feels like..."
Just as Shad supported Luvia, the strong malice unique to the "Mad Earth" suddenly appeared on the hill not far away.
At this moment, the howling wind was like the world itself howling. The dark clouds blocked the starry sky and the moon, and Shade could only vaguely see that there seemed to be a few more people on the top of the hill that was originally empty. At the same time, a small trickle appeared on the top of the hill, and then the fountain on the top of the hill rushed into the night sky and fell to the entire area.
In the dark night and the strong earthquake, this scene was really weird.