The Dangerous Stone

Alvin frowned as he hacked away at the pale-faced freak in front of him, over and over, like a hardworking lumberjack.

Malekith had nearly lost his physical form by now. If not for the strange Purple Stone sustaining the Aether's energy consumption, he would have been drained dry already.

Alvin had gotten lucky. He was dealing with a weakened Dark Elf king and an Aether that was running low on power. Otherwise, he would have had to put in a little more effort...

Looking at the Purple Stone floating inside Malekith's half-transparent form, the impatient Alvin summoned a slender Golden Vine. It wrapped around the Purple Stone and burrowed underground with it.

It was the last straw. Malekith let out a bloodcurdling scream, like some poor soul tormented by an Evil Spirit, and thrashed wildly as he tried to shake the Aether off.

The surrounding flames forced the Aether to drain energy from its host to resist the inferno. But a "biogas tank" could only power a few light bulbs at most. How could it replace a nuclear power plant?

Curious, Alvin used the Druid Elemental Skill he rarely employed: "Firestorm." Two streams of flame raced along the ground toward the exhausted Malekith.

The Aether sensed the attack and desperately drained Malekith's life force, trying to "protect" them...

As the Aether acted, Alvin watched in horror as the unfortunate Dark Elf king shrank like a vacuum-sealed bag hooked up to a pump. His entire body rapidly contracted, until he was reduced to a wrinkled, fist-sized mess.

Still baffled by his somewhat inexplicable victory, Alvin tapped his helmet and looked at the pool of Aether floating in the air before him. He hesitated, not daring to touch it, then upgraded and activated his level-40 Path of Flame again. He approached the