The Problem Is Huge; Panicking Won't Help (Continued)

So she rushed over.

She saw them.

In the still-sunlit woods, she saw a pack of ravenous beasts with gleaming green eyes—they weren't native wolves. For the native wolves of Mondstadt would resist the urge to hunt humans. And so, in the instant the hungry wolves pounced on her, she unleashed a torrent of molten fire with the sword in her hand.

The sword was swift.

The fire is very hot.

The attacking wolf pack suffered heavy losses, with seven or eight out of ten killed in an instant. The remaining small group immediately fled in all directions with their tails between their legs, overwhelmed by the attack.

The crisis is over.

The physical damage had also reached a critical point.

It might have been able to last two or three days before, but now its lifespan is probably only two or three minutes. So, before it's completely finished, there's still something it can do.

The girl plunged the sword into the ground.

With an exceptionally long breath, a ring of burning flames formed an incredibly solid protective barrier around Alina.

Then, all the color faded with her last breath. With a scream from Alina, the girl's body went limp and collapsed onto the grass.

"Surtr! You, you—" Elafia even forgot her usual name. She screamed and lunged at her, wanting to hug her, but dared not move.

"It's alright... Alina." Surtr raised her hand with difficulty, wanting to touch Alina's cheek and wipe away the tears that kept falling down her face—her hand reached out halfway but lost its strength, but was held tightly by Alina before it fell.

"Death...is not my end. Wait for me here, I will come back soon..."

She saw Alina shaking her head desperately, her face contorted in pain, tears streaming down her face.

"Stop talking! Surtr, you should rest! Stop talking..."

Ah, it was just a normal farewell, why did it have to be made like this?

—Yes, she didn't know. She didn't know this was the Dream Realm. She didn't know... why I called this place a dream.

A faint smile appeared on his pale lips. Blood seeped from his back, staining the grass beneath him red.

"Don't blame me, Alina," she said softly. "And..."

"... Don't cry."

The pointer of life points to the last position, and the next moment, the heart in the chest cavity stops beating.

She died.

Consciousness blurred for a moment, then returned to clarity. And once she could recognize herself clearly, the gate between the two worlds appeared in Miss Surtr's perception.

Ah, that's right. She's dead. Her physical body in the dream world is dead.

However, this was hardly a big deal... after all, in most dream realms, her exit was through death. And even if her physical body died, it wouldn't prevent her from descending upon the same land in a different body the next time she entered a dream.

Yes...that's it. She knew about this ability, or rather, characteristic, she possessed very early on. After all, in her first dream world, on the bloody battlefield known as Hell's Song, she died more than once—she even saw the corpse of her previous self and gave it a proper burial. This is actually one of the reasons why she can acquire the upper-level combat power of each dream world in a very short time.

After all, these days you need to have some resources to be a tool.

Provided that one can continue playing, going all out and making self-sacrifices naturally become the preferred options.

So--

She glanced at the door; she still couldn't bring Alina through it—she had fought desperately to stay alive while traveling with Frostnova to prevent a disastrous outcome of being sent back to the Frostnova World after her death. However, as their journey through the Dream World continued, what was destined to happen would inevitably occur.

Thankfully, the result this time wasn't bad. At least, I can go back again.

The girl, hovering at the threshold between the two worlds, pondered this, and the next moment, she made herself fall towards the surface of the world once more.

Miss Surtr opened her eyes.

The forest was similar yet different; sunlight filtered through the sparse leaves, and the angle of the shadows cast by the grass blades told her that not much time had passed since the previous body had died. She then rose, and what came into her senses was a body that was considerably weaker than before.

The leather armor was replaced by a high-quality evening gown. The heavy sword she wielded with both hands was replaced by a broadsword held with one hand. Her skin also changed slightly, becoming delicate and soft. If the previous body belonged to an experienced mercenary warrior, then this body should belong to a young noblewoman whose physique was less than two-thirds that of the former.

It's a bit weak, but it doesn't matter.

She stood up, still unable to find any proof of her identity on herself, and also unable to grasp the Eye of God, a unique feature of this world that allows mortals to easily control the elements.

Miss Surtr took a soft breath.

Flame energy surged within her, quickly compensating for her physical deficiencies. And with the resonance generated by this unique flame energy, she sensed her target was only a few hundred meters away.

"Go find Alina," she said to herself.

So she took a step forward, and the sparse woods could not hinder her progress—with each step she took, Yan's breath accumulated more elements within her body. Using the previous failure as a reference, this time, by the time she had taken her hundredth step, she had constructed an elemental fusion furnace within her body that consumed nearly two-thirds less power than before, yet possessed extremely high stability and caused almost no harm to her body.

Step 10: Build the model.

Step 30: The basic structure is complete.

Step 70: Verify and try it working.

Step 100: Power in your palm.

She wasn't quite sure how powerful the holders of the Eye of God in this world were. But if she used the Wind Dragon as a benchmark, then her current combat strength should be enough to fight that injured Wind Dragon in the air—winning was impossible, but losing was also unlikely.

So she continued forward.

As she took her two hundred and thirty-third step, she saw a ring of fire that was about to collapse. A gentle breeze swayed around it, then silently subsided the moment she arrived.

She saw her own corpse being held tightly by the girl from Elafia. And the beautiful Little Deer pounced on 'her own corpse,' weeping mournfully.

It's a bit awkward.

But no matter how awkward it is, you have to bite the bullet and go for it.

She stepped through the ring of fire that wouldn't hurt her, the weeping girl completely unaware of the commotion outside.

"Surtr, Surtr..."—she heard the girl calling her name repeatedly, as if that could summon the sleeping corpse from the depths of death.

"Why are you doing this to me? Why... If this is a nightmare, why haven't I woken up yet? If it's not... if it's not... I haven't said anything to you yet..."

The awkwardness grew even stronger. The Flame-haired Girl couldn't help but cough lightly, but this tried-and-true tactic was completely useless against Elafia, who had stopped paying attention to anything around her—she reached out her hand, only to freeze awkwardly in mid-air.

"If I had known this would happen... I should have told you from the beginning."