Amber Wind

All people are like stars—

After Iver unconsciously uttered those words, the ground of Eagle Cape Village suddenly began to tremble.

The tremor was incredibly clear and sudden; almost no one present had time to react.

"An earthquake?"

Hai Na blurted out, "How is that possible?"

"No, it's not an earthquake."

Still in wolf form, Lily spoke in human language, "I did not trigger any danger premonitions."

The gift of Path of Adaptation is the ability to foresee various natural disasters. Whether it's a tsunami or an earthquake, one can sense the impending catastrophe. It's like the sensitivity of a small animal.

After another three or four seconds, the vibration finally stopped.

Immediately afterwards, a dark yellow, overwhelming Death Qi swept in like a tidal wave from the distant horizon!

Like a sandstorm, it made people instinctively cover their faces. Even Iver's hair was blown around as a result.

As Death Qi enveloped his body, Iver immediately felt intense discomfort.

It's like the feeling of weakness that comes from being bedridden for a long time, where even the slightest movement makes your heart pound uncontrollably—a weakness accompanied by a bone-chilling cold seeping into your internal organs, making you tremble uncontrollably.

A somber mood follows, making one unable to stop overthinking, remembering deceased relatives, or even their own death.

Lily also felt unwell.

Perhaps because her wolf form was too weak, her reaction was the most violent—the gray wolf was swept away by the Death Qi, staggering backward like a dog tumbling in a storm, almost rolling away. It was only after reverting to its original form that it felt slightly better.

Only Hai Na remained calm, though she frowned slightly due to the discomfort.

Seeing that the wave of Death Qi seemed unlikely to end anytime soon, Iver immediately took out the mirror and switched back to his original form.

He raised his right hand high and chanted the name of the Pillar God: "I beseech the candle keeper, the god of the Sacred Number three, the God of Thorns Binding the Body, the God of Burning Body Chasing Darkness— "

"Give me the light of protection!"

As Iver prayed, a Holy Radiance emanated from his right hand.

A pure white radiance emanated, forming an irregular sphere within the dim, Death Qi that enveloped the group. Iver, lacking a papal crown and without the aid of a sacred artifact, saw the radiance constantly shift and teeter under the onslaught of the Death Qi.

But the feeling of chills and uncontrollable shivering, like when you have a bad cold, also subsided. A warm feeling rose in their hearts, dispelling their gloomy thoughts.

"Here you go!"

Hai Na was the first to react, handing the holy sword in her hand to Iver.

Iver took the holy sword with his left hand and handed it to his right.

As expected, the radiance immediately stabilized after he gripped the holy sword high in his right hand.

Not only that, it was even steadily expanding outwards—like a motorcycle speeding into a rainy night, an arc-shaped protective shield opened in front of it, shielding it from the seemingly endless waves of Death Qi. The intense friction caused the light to even make Iver in front of it appear as a blur, making him look like a complete mess.

This continued for more than ten minutes before the Death Qi aura gradually weakened and disappeared.

Iver, confirming that the radiance emanating from the holy sword in his hand had not been obstructed again, slowly lowered the sword. The light then went out.

"This is...!"

Hai Na exclaimed in surprise.

It's no wonder she was so startled.

If Iver and Lily weren't not the outgoing and carefree type, they probably would have exclaimed in surprise right now.

—A layer of dim yellow shell, seemingly appearing out of nowhere, covered the entire Eagle Cape Village.

Whether it's the earth, the forest, the buildings, the rivers... everything here seems to have been washed away and stained by that Death Qi, covered with a thin shell.

Even the night sky turned a dim yellow—not because time had returned to dusk, but because the night sky had frozen.

If you look up, you can even see the twinkling stars.

They even stopped flickering, turning into beams of light seeping out like thin cracks. It was as if the sky had been shattered, with light seeping through the gaps. And under the storm, the raindrops were stretched into thin lines, like teardrops suspended by threads, frozen in the dim yellow night sky.

The whole world fell into absolute stillness.

It was as if the entire Eagle Cape Village was enveloped in amber by the blowing wind.

Iver reached out and tentatively touched the raindrops floating in mid-air, but they melted upon contact with Iver and turned into an ordinary drop of rain.

"... Hai Na."

"Um?"

"Punch the ground."

"Iver commanded."

Upon hearing this, Hai Na didn't ask why, but cautiously confirmed, "What kind of force?"

"Just enough to create a dent is fine."

"Iver replied."

Without hesitation, Hai Na punched the ground.

"--ah!"

Hai Na immediately cried out in pain and bent over to cover her finger bone.

Iver went straight over, grabbed Hai Na's right hand with one hand, and projected his consciousness into it to check the injury. Under that merciless blow, her finger bones were slightly cracked, but not broken.

Normally, this punch would be enough to shatter the earth, and she wouldn't be injured in the slightest.

Iver first touched her chest with his shining right hand, instantly smoothing out her injury with Illumination Spell.

He frowned slightly, feeling somewhat uneasy about this sudden phenomenon. "The earth has been frozen."

After Hai Na was healed, she touched her finger bones and looked in the direction from which the Death Qi had come. "It seems to be coming from the swamp."

"There's no rush yet."

The Card Making had consumed too much mana, and now, in order to resist the Death Qi, he had burned off some of his mana. Iver's mana was completely depleted, but fortunately, he was not in combat at the moment, so he could still use the Prayer spell to replenish his mana.

"Please wait a moment while I offer a prayer."

Iver took the red candle from Sherlock's Ritual Pack.

The Giant King is Grand Wizard, and it's highly likely he's not quite dead yet. After all, he's a survivor who's been alive all along in the game until the current version... even his demonology mentor in Star Antimony has entered the instance, and he's still alive.

That's why Iver didn't rush in to finish off the Giant King when he saw the Wild Hunt King about to defeat him.

Based on Iver's understanding of this kind of old tortoise, he definitely didn't die this time.

The Grand Wizard possesses a range of escape methods, including using a substitute, feigning death, resurrection, and reincarnation. According to Iver's memories, this leader of the Noble Red died three times in total, being reborn into the body of a Black Goat during the third instance. This was also his final form.

Given the cautious nature of this old tortoise, he would most likely set his respawn point far enough away. In other words, the opponent wouldn't be able to return to the scene immediately—which is why Iver dared to leave the combat-incapable Sherlock alone there to loot the corpses.

Because the Giant King certainly didn't know that the Wild Hunt King here was Hellerchein.

He probably didn't know the information that even Iver didn't know before. And if he did know, he certainly wouldn't have been so bold as to come here.

This is the leader of the rebels who was executed on a large scale by the giants for the first time. On the giants' blacklist, he's probably a sinner who can rival Arthur and Lancelot. It's obvious that he must have a blood feud with the giants... which means he's unlikely to be prepared to die this time, so he must have something valuable on him.

First of all, he definitely has some equipment. Iver can most likely use the equipment from the Ritual Mage series. And even if you take away the human materials, he should still have some other rare ritual materials on him.

Even if he's not allowed to "run back to his corpse" to retrieve it, Sherlock should still strip him clean! But the current situation has left Iver somewhat perplexed.

They did almost nothing here, and suddenly there was an earthquake? And such a huge and unusual phenomenon occurred...

Could it be that the Giant King's "resurrection" ability is conflicting with the power of amber here?

It couldn't have been that I sealed away the Punishment Demon myself and triggered some special mechanism, could it?

However, to be on the safe side, Iver cautiously decided to replenish his mana first before going over to check.