After being forced to step down, the once-annoying nun eloped with me.

The magic of elves lies in their ability to transform the terrain.

Moreover, the core casters of elven magic are not elves, but those ancient trees.

With a thunderous roar, the ground on the left side of the passage was covered with an excessive amount of magical energy. A large amount of magical energy was converted into the [Wood] element of the four major magic systems, causing thick vines to rise from the ground. Under the power of nature, they pierced through the stone armor of the corpse soldiers, forming a natural [roadblock] in front of the cavalry's path of charge.

Subsequently, the vines grew further under the influence of magic, completely altering the terrain of the left passage in less than a minute.

There is no longer any "left-side passage". The entire trench on the left is a thing of the past, and even the zombies that once howled within it are now a thing of the past.

What appeared before the Knights of the Faith was a living city wall more than ten meters high, composed entirely of living vines.

Caught off guard, the knights charged into the vines, smashing through the foremost thorny tendrils and sinking deep into the mire. Fueled by magic, these vines possessed the power to pierce even stone armor, and naturally, they could also extend to penetrate the knights' armor. They took root in the knights' armor, burrowing into its interior amidst terrified screams, using the knights' flesh as a new base to grow new vines.

The vines, intertwined and sprawling, slowly extended towards the edge of the forest. The remaining archers of the Northern Expeditionary Force instinctively tried to use fire arrows to fight against the unruly vines, only to find that their arrows did nothing more than mark the vine wall.

Not only were the soldiers of the Northern Expeditionary Force stunned, but Yang Hao himself was also stunned.

"If the ancient elven tree's magic can achieve this level, why didn't it do this sooner?" He muttered, looking at the hellish scene of vines and undead soldiers before him, then quickly realized the problem: "These vines are directly... draining the entire area of ​​magic?! No... although it seems like the vines are replenishing magic, the entire area's magic was already drained at the beginning of their release. Even if they could replenish magic..."

The magic of the ancient elven tree drained the entire region of its magical energy.

If the initial magical reserves of the Monster Forest allowed the elves to use healing magic to ensure the wounded were healed and Finn to use magic to provide support on the battlefield, then after the Ancient Elf Tree released authentic elven magic, the magical energy of the entire region was drained and turned into wood-type magical blocks.

Now all the elven spellcasters must either cast water magic according to the theory of the four elements, or they will have to fight melee with their enemies for the foreseeable future—this seems to be more harmful than beneficial, but for some reason Yang Hao has a premonition.

The elf's magic was not over yet.

And that is indeed the case.

As Bishop Stephen watched in disbelief as half of his knightly order and a third of his undead soldiers were annihilated, feeling his divine power diminish significantly, he noticed the living wall of vines beginning to split apart...

"What is that? What on earth is that?! My knights, my undead soldiers, have been completely engulfed by these vines?! And the vines are splitting... they're... they're splitting into... people with limbs?!"

Bishop Stephen muttered to himself as he cast a spell of illumination. Having suddenly lost a large source of divine power, his spell of illumination no longer burned human skin and animal fur as it had before.

Illuminated by the light, he watched as the living wall split into giants hundreds of meters tall. These giants were still entangled with the remains of countless undead soldiers and knights. The roots on their limbs trembled unnaturally, each tremor lengthening them by a segment, and with each extension, these tree-men became more agile.

This is the second stage of elven magic.

“We can use regional magic to create Treants...that’s why the connection between elves and ancient trees is so strong in Gaparia.”

Finn, pale-faced, stood beside Yang Hao and explained. She seemed about to collapse from being drained of her magic, but she straightened her back, looking towards the left passage where they had switched from defense to offense, her eyes gleaming with the pride of an elf.

"Outsiders do not understand the significance of the coexistence of elves and the Elf Forest—now, Your Majesty the Regent, Mother Teresa, you should understand."

Elves create ancient trees, and ancient trees replenish elves. Elves depend on magic for survival, and ancient trees also provide us with the magic we need.

When most needed, we can choose to channel this magic outwards... to shape the landscape, to create new forces that degenerate over time, and then to regain magic as these forces degenerate, thus continuing the cycle.

This is the true magic of us elves—a magic that transcends the conventional magic of the four elements, a magic that belongs only to us elves!

It's a pity we're not fighting on home turf... If we were within the Elf Forest, we might not be having such a difficult time—but that would mean the Elf Forest would be permanently destroyed.

Looking at the tree-men rapidly advancing towards the Central Army Corps of the Northern Expeditionary Force in the distance, Yang Hao simply raised the command sword in his hand.

He knew Finn was proud, but the war wasn't completely won yet—and she had also said that this was a force that would deteriorate over time, and that the elves' magic would have a weak gap every time it was used.

The enemy commander has already proven his ability, so Yang Hao must take advantage of their shock and confusion to deliver a fatal blow—eliminate their priests at the front line and completely remove the undead soldiers from their control!

"Riflemen—! Open your enchanted ammo pouches! Attack from the left flank alongside the demon golems! Archers, use enchanted arrows as well to increase ranged firepower. Suppress the other two flanks of undead soldiers before they can react, or harass their central force directly!"

Elves are a race skilled in magic and enchanting. Yang Hao had already seen the enchanted staff that Viya used when she beat up Arthur, so naturally, elven arrows and Japa 1404 bullets could also be enchanted.

The former enchantment is more numerous, but Yang Hao requires the elves to use it at the beginning of the battle. The latter is already scarce in production, and the limitations of manual enchanting further reduce the number of enchanted bullets available.

Yang Hao cherished these enchanted bullets, knowing they had to be used in the most crucial situations. Therefore, he didn't have the riflemen use them when the priests cast countless layers of divine shields on themselves. He also didn't have them use them when the left passage was about to be breached.

But as the call to fight back sounds, it's time for these bullets to take the stage.

In addition to 75 rounds of regular ammunition, a rifleman carries an extra 25 high-penetration bullets specifically designed to counter magical or divine barriers.

In addition to the standard 30 arrows, a longbowman also has 10 arrows enchanted with [High Explosive] or other area-of-effect spells.

Just as the elves hadn't guessed that the parish's trump card was the God of Light's [Corpse Creation Divine Art] system and the corpse soldiers created from corpses, the parish also hadn't expected the elves to unleash their magic at the most dangerous moment, let alone that they would hold onto their enchanted arrows and bullets until the very last moment.

They were still casting divine shields on themselves according to the original standards, frantically providing buffing divine protection for the soldiers and guardians in front of them, while simultaneously directing the undead soldiers to retreat immediately to stop the allied forces' left-side punch, and also having to maintain order according to the bishop's orders—and then, caught off guard, their barrier was pierced by enchanted bullets loaded by riflemen.

As one priest after another was swiftly and accurately shot down by rifles in a moment of terror, by the time the last few priests realized what was happening, it was already too late.

The hordes of undead soldiers before them, now sluggish from the priests' control, eventually became the mindless, laughing wrecks they had envisioned when Bishop Stephen created them. The priests attempted to control the undead soldiers to protect them, but after casting too many divine barriers around themselves, the surrounding ecclesiastical guards and soldiers, lacking such protection, were instead routed.

Just then—the treants' degeneration seemed to have reached its limit. Before losing their mobility, they knocked down the last few knights protecting the priest, causing them to decay into mud. After they decayed, magic once again flowed through the area of ​​the monster forest.

This time, the ancient elven tree did not cast any spells. It simply stood up, carrying the eloquent elven archmage across the allied fortress, and launched an attack together with the demons.

Upon sensing the lightness of returning magic, the mage on the ancient elven tree immediately unleashed a second elven spell on the northern expeditionary force located in the central region.

If the first type of elven magic was designed to create a chance for survival on the left side of the passage and thus open up a counter-offensive route, then the second type of elven magic was designed to completely annihilate the enemy's main force.

This is a life-giving rain falling from the sky—just as drinking too much water can cause poisoning, eating too much nutritious food can lead to obesity.

These magical rains, brimming with an excess of life force, brought not healing to the parish's ailments, but rather further suffering.

The original wounds on his body healed and scabbed over in an instant, and then countless granulation tissues suddenly grew out of them.

The limbs, which had been withered from hunger, suddenly became full of vitality, and in the next instant, they either burst through the armor due to absorbing too much magic power or simply exploded inside the armor.

Some people even find that while their left side remains as withered as before, their right side suddenly becomes abnormally "muscular".

The rain of life bestowed upon life the disharmonious "health," and this health entered its second phase after the rain stopped and they wailed over it, their morale collapsing.

Every living organism contains countless fungi or parasites that coordinate or disrupt the host's life activities.

Those fungi lurk in the intestines and throughout the body, working together with the host to maintain a fragile balance. The parasites, on the other hand, suck the host's blood and eat its flesh, making the host appear emaciated, but overall, they pose less of a threat to the host's life than one might imagine, existing in an extremely delicate balance.

But the elves' "Rain of Life" shattered this balance.

"Aaaaaah—!! My stomach! My stomach!!!"

Some people clutched their cramping, swollen bellies and wept uncontrollably, completely ignoring the demons and golems nearby. Even the urge to turn and run was less pressing than the excruciating pain in their stomachs: the beneficial bacteria that had been lurking in their organs, originally intended to help humans, had gone berserk under the influence of the Rain of Life. They had broken free from the body's control, multiplying rapidly and recklessly throughout the body, even growing a mushroom inside their hearts.

Some people even collapsed to the ground with their eyes rolled back, their faces turning an unnatural purple, and countless fingernail-sized parasites crawling out of their nostrils and ears—the rain of life also benefited the parasites. Stimulated by the vitality of life, the parasites completed the process of reproduction and growth in a very short time and continued in an endless cycle, eventually even giving birth to extremely large individuals under the influence of the vitality of life.

It's like a cockroach laying eggs inside a perfectly healthy human body in just two seconds, and then in less than a minute, all the cockroach larvae are released from those eggs, and these larvae complete their growth in less than a minute as they climb all over the human body.

Cockroaches that merely crawl in the stomach and intestines may not pose a fatal threat to humans, but what if a swarm of cockroaches crawling in the heart, skull, or even lungs suddenly grows large? What if those cockroaches suddenly swell up beneath fragile nerves?

To be directly stimulated to death is already a blessing from God. Not to mention losing control of one's body while half-dead, one must also experience the agony of countless reptiles swimming and devouring one's flesh while still fully conscious.

This is the elf's second area-of-effect elven spell, [Rain of Life]—a beautiful name.

With the release of the Rain of Life, the cycle of the four elemental magics has come to an end. Now the elven mages must wait for the magic to regenerate, but they have already contributed more than enough to the battlefield.

The earlier treants tore open a path for a counterattack, while the current rain of life directly crushed the morale of the regular army—in terms of how difficult they are to deal with, living people with morale are always easier to handle than dead people without morale.

As for Bishop Stephen, seeing the allied forces launching an attack with demons as the vanguard, golems as the backbone, and elves wielding longbows and longbars as the rear guard, he knew that defeat was just one step away.

The "Corpse-Giving Divine Art" is the parish's greatest secret. If they were to flee like this, not only would they be unable to escape the judgment of Bishop Peter, but the corpse soldiers left behind would become the best material for the Elven Kingdom to use against the parish.

Even if we assume, hypothetically, that the diocese is not afraid of criticism from the Elf Kingdom, the military, or the royal family, and even has a way to suppress the concerns of its followers, so what?

There's a ticking time bomb within the diocese that could split the Church of Light! It's the saint Cecilia, who lives deep underground, and her ascetics!

The elves will definitely do everything in their power to reveal the church's greatest secret to that reclusive saint! And once the saint learns this information, what does it matter if the diocese has wealth surpassing even the kingdom of heaven? What does it matter if the diocese has the largest number of believers? What does it matter if the diocese can quickly muster armies of two hundred thousand men?

Saint Cecilia is the spokesperson for the God of Light on Earth! Even worse, this spokesperson doesn't even know what the God of Light is doing...

It's like a mob boss's most beloved daughter becoming a police officer, and not only that, she unknowingly uncovers her father's dark secrets...

Yes! Perhaps when this daughter finally catches her father, she will only make him punish himself with three cups of wine, and the God of Light will let his daughter wreak havoc on his organization, and then the matter will just pass.

But what if we lowly underlings get caught?

Would she let us punish ourselves with three cups and that be the end of it? She'd kill us all! After all, with such a scandal in the Church of Light, scapegoats are bound to be found! A few unfortunate high-ranking officials will inevitably be burned at the stake to restore the believers' confidence! And I, as the leader of the expeditionary force, will undoubtedly be the one hung on the highest pyre and burned!

Therefore, no matter what... Bishop Stephen cannot fail.

Now, as a bishop, Bishop Stephen still has the divine power provided by his Papal Army, the troops in the rear that have not yet joined the battle, and the increasingly out-of-control corpse soldiers at the front.

He can unleash divine magic, he can fight—and he's a bishop!

The bishop possessed multiple forbidden spells that could determine the key course of the war... If he hadn't been forced to this point, the bishop would not have been willing to risk having his soul burned by divine power to use such spells.

After all, forbidden spells are the power of gods. Only elves and gods' representatives can release forbidden spells with a mortal body without damaging their souls.

Looking at the fleeing soldiers before him, and the demon axemen and golems who were forming ranks behind them, he saw...

He watched the corpse soldiers gradually lose their ability to move, and the dwindling divine power they were passing on to him.

Bishop Stephen commanded the remaining Knights of the Faith and all the soldiers to form a shield before him. He loudly proclaimed the name of the God of Light, and golden light emanated from his body. An unbearable burning pain emanated from his body, indicating that his soul was beginning to burn. It was estimated that before long, Bishop Stephen would go from a healthy bishop to a half-paralyzed old man.

But being an old man... is better than being dead. Being paralyzed is better than being burned at the stake.

"Great God of Light—grant me a hammer to destroy the earth, grant me matches and light to burn the world—"

A great deal of light gathered around Bishop Stephen. The divine barrier around him was gradually weakening due to the extraction of divine power, but the golden barrier was still too thick.

The hammer that destroys the earth, the match that burns the world's light and fire—this is a forbidden divine spell known as "Burning the Earth" in the Church of Light.

It has only two steps—praising the incantation, choosing an area to launch the gathered divine power, and then the divine power will transform into the iron pendant and matches of the God of Light, first smashing the earth to pieces, and finally igniting the entire land.

This level of divine magic is almost impossible to resist by any magic, let alone intercept—therefore, when Bishop Stephen, who had been burned from a fat man into a hunched old man by the burning of his soul, recited all the hymns in a hoarse and aged voice, all that was revealed in his eyes was weakness and a final bit of confidence.

The elves suffered heavy casualties under the power of the forbidden spell, and the demons were no longer a threat. Therefore, the target of this forbidden spell must be chosen to be the enemy's own territory...

Only in this way can we eliminate the enemy commander. Only in this way can we deliver a devastating blow to those mages while they are still unable to circulate their magic or even escape using teleportation magic!

In this way, the diocese can be considered to have won. Furthermore, the forbidden spell of the God of Light can completely erase any trace of the corpse soldiers, meaning that even the saintess residing deep underground would not be able to receive such intelligence...

In this way, he will win! No matter how many priests and friars he loses, he has completed the mission of Peter the Great, and he will return to St. Petersburg in glory to enjoy his old age there!

In his daze, Bishop Stephen saw what appeared to be small, flashing white lights on the Allied positions.

He instinctively assumed it was the elven commander signaling to the front lines. He grinned maliciously, thinking how wonderful it was that the enemy general was an idiot—

I was just wondering how to find your location!

Go to hell.

You sinner who brought me humiliation and suffering! You demon!

Bishop Stephen hurled all the divine power he had gathered into his body toward the tiny figure shimmering with white light on the allied lines. A blazing beam of golden light pierced through the air above the allied counter-attacking forces and struck the small, white-glowing figure to their astonishment.

There was no hammer, no matches, no earth-shattering explosions, and no earth-burning flames.

Bishop Stephen stared blankly at everything before him. He watched as his golden divine power vanished without a trace, like a stone thrown into a lake. He felt the lingering pain of his soul being burned, and looked at the divine power still being released in his hand, a power that had brought no result, like a child's game.

Overwhelmed with pain, he looked up at the sky and let out a heart-wrenching roar of despair: