From the moment I was chosen by the holy relic

The air in the canal grew increasingly cold and damp, a stench of decay mingled with a metallic, acrid smell. Eric slowly raised his hand to signal them to stop.

"I sensed it," Leah said softly. "There's magic flowing ahead, not a defensive barrier, but a corruption spell."

She closed her eyes, a faint light flashing between her fingers, as her senses probed into the stone wall in front of her.

"Let's go up." She opened her eyes. "The magic circle is up there."

The group carefully climbed up the shaft, and an iron cover slowly slid away, revealing a shadowy area behind the city hall. Firelight, shouts of battle, and the pulse of magic emanated from the direction of the plaza ahead, indicating that another group of comrades was successfully holding back the majority of the dark forces.

Before them stood the enormous black magic core.

It was a black crystal suspended in the air, its shape constantly twisting like a vortex, surrounded by tentacle-like black mist. Several black-robed sorcerers surrounded it, chanting incantations, and an eerie red light flashed between their fingers from time to time.

"Five enemies," the elven warrior reported in a low voice, "one of whom should be a high-ranking mage."

"I'll draw the fire from the front." Eric gripped his sword hilt. "Leah and you provide flank support. Focus on taking out the spellcaster."

"Understood." Leah raised her hand, and a purification mark quietly landed on Eric's back. "Although I can purify their magic, it's best not to let it touch your skin."

"I'll try my best." He raised the corner of his mouth, then swiftly moved forward, his sword flashing!

"Enemy attack!"

The leader of the black-robed sorcerers suddenly turned around, waved his hand, and released a cloud of black smoke. The smoke corroded upon touching the ground, causing grass and trees to wither and stone bricks to crack.

Eric leaped into the air, slashing down with his sword. A thunderous roar erupted as he cleaved the black smoke, creating a gap. He landed and rolled, his right hand twisting to deflect another corrupting curse.

"Leah!"

"exist!"

A beam of pure light swept out, like the first rays of dawn breaking through the night, instantly dispelling the black aura clinging to Eric's armor.

A rain of elven arrows followed, and three mages fell to the ground, struck by arrows before they could even turn around. The remaining two let out shrieks, and one of them detonated a corruption spell around himself, his flesh exploding as if petrified.

The last person knelt cross-legged beneath the demon core, chanting incantations at an accelerated pace, clearly intending to detonate it!

"Oh no! He's going to destroy the core of the formation! He wants to take us all down with him!"

"I'll do it!" Eric roared, charging straight forward.

His sword seemed to cleave through time and space, leaving a golden sword mark aimed straight at the enemy's head. In that instant, Lia's purification barrier unfolded, enveloping the entire square.

After Eric killed the man, he pulled Leah back into the shaft. Leah also cast various protective spells at the shaft entrance. Once everything was ready, the elves' powerful arrows pierced the magic core.

"Aaaaaah—!"

As the magic core exploded, black magic surged up like burning night clouds, then shattered and dissipated into countless glimmers of light that drifted into the night sky.

The roars of those wild beasts seemed to gradually fade away.

A horn sounded somewhere in the city; it was a signal from Elotian.

He successfully drew away the enemy's main force, and Eric and his men finally severed the Dark Core.

With the magic core shattered, the city seemed to break free from some kind of constraint. The long-suppressed space began to loosen, and even the clouds in the sky seemed to be torn open, allowing a faint but real beam of starlight to shine down and fall on Eric and Leah's faces.

"Is it over?" Leah's breathing was still unsteady, and the residual light of the purification spell circle still lingered in her hand.

"Not necessarily." Eric looked up at the outline of the city walls in the distance. "We only cut off their claws, but that beast... is still there."

They quickly selected a few relatively intact black robes and light armor from the pile of corpses to conceal their figures and weapons. Leah even added a light illusion spell to them, making it difficult for outsiders to detect their true appearance.

"Use their shells as shields for our surprise attack." Eric nodded to Leah as he tightened his belt. "Let's go, we can't let them fight alone."

The two hurried along the broken streets, their footsteps barely making a sound. Several times along the way, they encountered black-robed figures entangled with out-of-control beasts. The beasts raged wildly like puppets with broken strings, indiscriminately attacking friend and foe, and even the black mage could hardly withstand their massive claws.

"The control over the magic cores has failed, and they've started to backfire," Leah said in a low voice.

"Then we'd better get there before they tear everyone apart." Eric's gaze was cold. "Elotian won't be waiting for us for long."

They moved silently through the ruins and bloodstains, each step treading on the ashes of the lingering flames of war. The fires in the southwest of the city drew ever closer, shouts and roars intertwining as if in an approaching nightmare, until they scaled the last collapsed stone wall.

The scene was shocking and awe-inspiring.

Before an abandoned plaza, several broken stone pillars served as gallows, from which several elves were suspended, their blood dripping from their foreheads, wrists, and ankles, soaking into the magic circles on the ground. In the center, Elotian was suspended high between two pillars, his long hair and hunting robes stained crimson with blood, but his eyes remained as cold as frost, fixedly staring at the black-robed woman below.

She stood at the center of the formation, tall and slender, with black hair cascading down to her waist like poisonous vines. Beneath her mask, only her cold chin and a pair of scarlet eyes were visible. She held a long staff with snake-shaped joints wrapped around it, and a magic crystal radiating a deep purple light pulsated at its top like a heart.

The Black Witch.

"You forest insects," she said in a low voice, as if coming from the depths of death, "you foolishly trespassed into my hunting grounds, and today I will wipe you all out."

"You will not succeed," Elotian replied weakly, still looking up. "True darkness will never allow such lowly voodoo magic to be practiced."

"Heh..." The black witch chuckled, turning to walk towards the altar. "You think that demonic core is everything? It's nothing more than a finger bone of my lord. You think destroying a bone can stop the mountains of corpses and seas of blood?"

She suddenly plunged her staff into the ground, causing the entire altar to tremble. Blood-red light rose from the ground, and whispers could be faintly heard from underground, as if some ancient will was slowly awakening.

Eric and Leah, hiding behind the broken wall, gazed at the scene before them, their hearts filled with emotion.

"She actually had a second magic core hidden." Lia whispered, her fingers almost trembling.

"We can't wait." A cold glint appeared in Eric's eyes. "If she really completes the summoning, even if we have three times the manpower, we won't be enough to tear those beasts apart."

"So, shall we launch a surprise attack?"

Eric grasped Leah's hand: "We can't confront her head-on; her attention is too focused on the magic circle. Can you disrupt her summoning?"

Leah bit her lip and nodded: "She used a corruption spell. I can cast a cleansing spell to disrupt the core of the magic circle. It will reveal our location, but it will buy us time."

"Enough," Eric whispered. "I'll go and kill her."

Having said that, he took a deep breath, as if he had become one with the night, and silently climbed over the broken wall, hugging the ruins and slowly approaching the black witch and the altar.

Lia followed closely, hiding at the boundary between light and darkness on the outer side of the magic circle, quietly setting up a triple halo to disrupt it. She tore her robe with her fingertip, dripping a drop of blood; where the blood fell, a glimmer of light flashed, hidden but not spoken.

Dozens of steps away, the black witch had already raised her staff high, and the entire altar slowly rose under her magical power, with countless dark magic patterns and necromancy spells appearing in the air.

Eric gritted his teeth and, taking advantage of the fact that the Black Witch's guards were also preoccupied with the berserk beasts and had no time to attend to them, quietly approached from the side. He walked step by step on the edge of a knife.

Finally, he was no more than ten feet away from her.

The black witch seemed to sense something amiss, and her crimson gaze suddenly shifted, sweeping towards the direction where Eric was.

But at that very moment!

"Break!" Lia shouted softly, and the Pure Wave Formation shattered!

The ground beneath the altar trembled violently, the runes momentarily went haywire, and the black witch roared, "Who dares!"

But then a silver light slashed out from her left wing!

Eric arrived like a whirlwind, aiming straight for the Black Witch's throat. His footsteps shattered the blood array, and the residual magical power from the sword's edge stirred up a raging wave of blue light.

Before the Black Witch could react, Eric struck her in the shoulder with his sword. The sword, which could have pierced her heart, only managed to pierce her shoulder. Amidst the howling wind and shattering runes, one side of the Black Witch's robe was torn by the sword energy, revealing her grayish-purple skin and the corpse runes wrapped around it. Powerful magic exploded within her body, causing her to stagger back several steps. The magic array trembled, and the second magic core that had appeared in the air suddenly shattered!

The entire square fell silent. Then, the execution stakes hanging high above the elves snapped and broke. Elotian landed, caught an arrow thrown by an elf, and shot it straight through the heart, piercing the witch's personal guard!

"What have you done!" Her voice was no longer calm, as if anger was mixed with fear. The shock of the interrupted plan, along with the magical backlash from the shattered magic core, caused the mask on her face to tremble slightly, revealing a horrifying crack.

She slammed her long staff into the ground, and a thick, foul-smelling black mist immediately surged up from the ground, like a swamp churning, engulfing the entire area.

One of the elves standing closest to the front didn't have time to dodge. He inhaled sharply, and in the blink of an eye, his face turned from white to green, then as black as ink. His pupils rolled back, and he spat out green liquid. His body went limp and he collapsed to the ground!

"Tefen!" Iser exclaimed, struggling to rush toward the elf, but was grabbed by Elotian.

"Wait for Leah!" he said in a deep voice. "Only she can cure this poison."

Sure enough, the next moment, a silver-white light came from the flank, and Lia rushed towards the poisoned person like a morning star. She drew five Pure Wave Marks with her fingertips, quickly placing them on the unconscious elf's limbs and forehead, then placed her hands on his chest and whispered:

"Purifying from decay, cleansing from filth, returning to clarity—the Purifying Technique: Five-Ring Incantation!"

As the incantation was cast, a ripple of white light spread from her palm, forcing back the putrid aura. The putrid poison was gradually drawn out of the elf's body, turning into a thick black miasma, which she then guided into a small bottle made of pure silver in her palm.

The elf's breathing gradually stabilized, but he remained unconscious.

"He's still alive!" Leah raised her head, her hair fluttering slightly from the intense flow of magic. "But he can't inhale even a wisp of miasma anymore."

At this moment, the battle situation suddenly changed.

Seeing her attack fail, the black witch's rage intensified. She stopped chanting and instead raised her arms, roaring as she unleashed a corrupting magical domain!

The air hissed as if being corroded, the stone bricks on the ground began to crack and dissolve, and even Eric's longsword emitted blue smoke as soon as the blade was touched by the eerie mist.

"Her magic can devour gold and silver." Elotian shot an arrow, which was corroded into dust by the black mist in mid-air. "If I hadn't seen it with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed that such poison could exist in the world."

"What should we do?" Isel asked, while tending to the still unconscious Tefen and keeping an eye on the footsteps of the enemy soldiers around them.

From the distant streets and alleys, the Black Witch's subordinates came in droves: armored black knights, black-feathered sorcerers, and some grotesque, half-human, half-beast monsters. Wielding hook blades and magical artifacts, they lined up at the edge of the square, gradually closing in.

Eric slashed down a Blackfeather mage with a single sword strike, but felt a heavy, aching pain in his arm. He knew his strength was waning. The destruction of the magic core had drained too much of his energy, and now, after a series of grueling battles, engaging in another direct confrontation would be tantamount to suicide.

"Let's retreat," he said in a low voice.

Elotian turned to look at him, her gaze complex: "Okay."

"It's not that we're afraid of dying," Eric said, looking at the black witch who was activating the second wave of poison. "It's that we're afraid of dying meaninglessly. She's not fatally wounded and has reinforcements, while we only have a few of us who can fight. If we continue fighting, we'll just be worn down to death."

"I underestimated her." Elotian gritted her teeth, her tone filled with regret and anger. "She's stronger than I expected."

"Escape route?" Leah asked, putting her cleansing bottle away.

"We'll retreat through the western drainage ditch, where we left our coordinates on the way here," Isel said in a low voice. "But that'll require crossing half the square, and we'll have to take Teffin with us."

"I'll carry him." Eric walked over, lifted the elven warrior up with one hand, and hoisted him onto his shoulder. At that moment, the armor on his shoulder creaked under the weight, and beads of sweat appeared on his forehead, but he gritted his teeth and didn't utter a sound.

"We'll cover you." Elotian waved her hand, wedging the last three cold iron arrows between her fingers. "Go!"

Leah deployed her light shield, creating a narrow path for Eric.

The enemy is closing in.

The black witch's eyes blazed with fury. She suddenly raised her hand and roared, "Don't let them escape! Let them turn into mud in this poisonous blood!"

Before she could finish speaking, Issel suddenly pulled a bottle from his pocket and smashed it hard on the ground. Instantly, a bright light flashed, and the entire square was filled with white light. While the enemy was still in shock, Eric had already carried the elf on his back and rushed into the western passage covered by stone carvings.

Lia followed closely behind, while Elotian and Issel brought up the rear. Three cold iron arrows drew a resolute trajectory in the night sky, accurately piercing the throats of three enemy sorcerers.

"Chase!" the black witch roared, summoning three black-winged demonic shadows from the tip of her staff, which plunged into the night and gave chase.

However, she did not dare to chase after him personally. Although her magic was strong, the backlash was not yet subsided, and the fragments of the magic core within her body were still causing a backlash. In the end, that sword strike damaged her very essence.

She stood on the altar, stained with blood, her lips trembling slightly, murmuring to herself:

"You just wait."

In the depths of night, Eric carried the elven warrior through the ruins, with Lia close behind, and Elotian and Issel protecting them as they ran toward the only rift leading to safety.