Forest Queen

"You idiots! Look what you've done!"

This voice carried such powerful magical fluctuations that even the Shadow Energy raging through the air stalled. Jialan felt as though an invisible hand had seized his heart, cutting off his breath. The mana within him spiraled out of control, and he could no longer maintain even the most basic spell.

Argyle's face instantly went pale. His lips trembled as he forced out a few words. "It... it's her..."

Before Jialan could ask who "she" was, a blinding green light suddenly flared in the distant sky. The light was so pure that it held not a trace of impurity, as translucent as the finest emerald. Wherever it passed, the raging Shadow Energy melted away as swiftly as snow beneath the blazing sun. At the center of the green light, a slender female figure could vaguely be seen standing in the air, her long hair streaming behind her like a waterfall.

"Who... is that?" Jialan asked with difficulty, his voice hoarse with shock.

Argyle stared fixedly at that figure, his voice filled with unprecedented reverence. "The being that has slumbered in the deepest part of the Misty Forest... a Treant that has achieved complete transformation."

Jialan was utterly shocked. As a mage, he naturally knew what "complete transformation" meant. For magical beasts and magical plants to take human form, they needed to at least reach the Archmage level, and they usually retained some traits of their original form. But "complete transformation," becoming entirely human in appearance, required at least the strength of a Magus!

Across the entire continent, there were only a handful of beings at the Magus level. Some small kingdoms could not afford to support even one Magus with all their resources. A powerhouse of this level stood at the pinnacle of magic, second only to the legendary Archmages.

The green figure drew closer and closer, and Jialan finally saw her clearly. She was a woman who appeared to be only in her early twenties, dressed in a flowing emerald-green gown, her skin so fair it seemed almost transparent. Her features were exquisite beyond mortal measure, yet her eyes were as deep as an abyss, as if they contained all the age and vicissitudes of the forest. Most striking of all was the emerald diamond-shaped mark on her forehead, which radiated heart-pounding magical fluctuations.

"It's... the Forest Queen..." The black-robed Archmage's voice trembled visibly. This expert, who had been so arrogant moments ago, now seemed incredibly small. Although there was only one rank separating an Archmage from a Magus, that gap was like a bottomless chasm. Even if he exhausted his entire life, his chances of crossing it were nearly zero.

The woman hovered in midair, looking down at the devastation below. Her gaze swept across the expanded spatial rift, the berserk Sun Fruit Trees, and the creatures undergoing mutation. With every sight she took in, the anger in her eyes deepened.

"Foolish humans." Her voice was no longer raised, yet it carried an even more terrifying calm. "For the sake of a few Sun Fruits, you dared destroy a balance that has endured for a thousand years."

She slowly raised her right hand and lightly tapped with a slender finger. A pillar of emerald light descended from the heavens, striking the berserk Sun Fruit Trees with perfect precision. To everyone's shock, those mutated trees, which even Raymond's battle aura had struggled to destroy, rapidly withered and disintegrated beneath the beam before finally turning into piles of black ash.

Then she swept her left hand, and countless emerald motes drifted down like snowflakes. When they landed on the creatures infected by Shadow Energy, their mutations actually began to reverse. Their blackened skin regained its healthy color, and their twisted limbs gradually returned to normal.

At last, the Forest Queen's gaze settled on the four high-level professionals. Simply being watched by her made even someone as powerful as Raymond involuntarily take half a step back. Calvin and the Dark Council's Wind Element mage fared even worse; their knees buckled, and they nearly fell to their knees.

"You," she said, her voice as cold as ice, "will pay the price for what you have done today."

With that, the Forest Queen turned her gaze toward the spatial rift, her brows knitting slightly. She formed a complicated hand seal before her chest, and the emerald mark on her forehead shone brilliantly. An even more dazzling green beam shot from her hands and pierced the spatial rift like a sword.

A horrifying scream came from within the rift, and the black tendrils stretching out of it rapidly recoiled. The rift began shrinking at a visible rate, while the dark-red patterns on its surface gradually faded.

At that critical moment, an abrupt change occurred. An inky-black beam of energy suddenly shot out from the depths of the rift, smashing through four or five protective shields in succession before striking the Forest Queen squarely in the chest. The Queen let out a muffled groan and swayed, while the green light maintaining the seal weakened with her.

"Hahaha..." A hoarse voice, like sandpaper scraping together, came from the depths of the rift. Its laughter contained chilling malice. The voice seemed not to travel through the air, but to ring directly within everyone's minds, making Jialan's temples throb.

"How did that strike I so carefully prepared for you taste..."

For the first time, a grave expression appeared on the Forest Queen's exquisite face. Her emerald eyes narrowed slightly. "It's you..."

The spatial rift twisted violently, like a canvas being torn apart by invisible hands. A blurry black figure slowly emerged from within. Its outline constantly changed, sometimes humanoid, sometimes like a giant beast. The only thing that remained unchanged was its blood-red eyes, which burned with pure hatred and a desire for destruction.

Before the Shadow Figure had even fully emerged, its terrifying pressure had already made everyone present feel as though they were suffocating. Jialan felt as if a massive boulder were pressing against his chest, making every breath exceptionally difficult. Worse still, he felt the mana within his body beginning to spiral out of control, while his mental power ached as though pierced by countless fine needles. Argyle beside him was in slightly better condition, but his face was also deathly pale, and bead-sized drops of sweat seeped from his forehead.

"Three hundred years..." The Shadow Figure's voice was steeped in bone-deep hatred, every word landing upon their hearts like a heavy hammer. "You exiled me to the Shadow Realm for a full three hundred years..."

The Forest Queen hovered in the air, her emerald-green gown fluttering without wind. Her hands rapidly formed seals, and the diamond-shaped mark on her forehead burst with dazzling light. "You should not have returned..."

"Should not?" The Shadow Figure let out a shrill laugh, mixed with countless anguished wails. "When the three of you joined forces to ambush me back then, why didn't you say 'should not'?"

As the Shadow Figure spoke, Jialan discovered in shock that the spatial rift the Queen had suppressed was beginning to expand once more. Pitch-black energy surged from the rift like tentacles, fiercely clashing against the Queen's emerald light. The shockwaves created by the collision of the two forces tore deep, bottomless ravines across the ground.

"Not good!" The Queen clenched her silver teeth, and the light of the mark on her forehead flickered brightly and dimly...