The long fifteen minutes passed quietly. For these immortal elves with nearly endless lifespans, they can say without exaggeration that this was definitely the longest and most suffocating fifteen minutes they had ever experienced in their lives.
The black death air in the sky is like rolling boiling water, frantically eroding the only remaining shelter below.
At this moment, Elf Queen Misel must focus all her energy and will on mobilizing her own magic power and the power of Holy Tree Valido, in order to desperately strengthen the last defensive barrier surrounding the city.
Behind her, the white-haired elf elders also showed no reservations.
They even did not hesitate to overdraw their own life sources and continuously poured the magic power in their bodies into the queen, trying to alleviate the high-pressure situation that could cause the front to collapse at any time.
However, when the tormenting fifteen-minute mark was ruthlessly passed, the faces of everyone present turned extremely ugly, as pale as the dead.
In their original plan, fifteen minutes was more than enough time for the Arcane Empire, who was far away in the horizon, to receive the distress signal across the galaxy, and quickly assemble and deploy a huge interstellar rescue fleet to come here.
This almost blind confidence is not due to their whims in Extremis, but is supported by extremely solid data.
In the brutal interstellar meat grinder wars of the past few years, there have been too many real battle reports from various planets and civilizations circulated in the universe Skynet.
Countless forces that have surrendered to the Arcane Empire and requested military assistance are all crazily praising Arcane Empire's super-dimensional rescue efficiency that can be called Godspeed on the Internet.
According to public data, the Empire fleet's fastest cross-system rescue record is only an outrageous 3 minutes and 23 seconds!
Arcane Empire even packaged the rescue ability of this noble soldier Godspeed into an extremely successful political marketing, showing their unparalleled protection to their allies to the entire universe.
Among all the recorded calls for help, even the longest one only took 11 minutes and 18 seconds.
But now, a full fifteen minutes have passed, and Vedant Star's space is still dead silent, and nothing has happened. There is no Floating City tearing apart Void, no Golem Legion filling the sky, not even a trace of arcane magic power!
"Perhaps... there was some sudden change that slowed them down," King Arion forced out a smile, trying to maintain a positive attitude and stabilize the morale of the army at this desperate moment.
The elders around them nodded stiffly, but anyone with a slightly more keen observation could clearly see that the light of hope that originally flickered in the eyes of these old men was dimming at a speed visible to the naked eye.
Time crawled by with difficulty for another five minutes under the shadow of death. Under the queen's tremendous efforts, which could be described as self-mutilation, the crumbling energy shield was still firmly supported.
"Something is wrong, the situation is very wrong." A very senior female elder who was considered the wisest in the whole clan suddenly spoke. Her old eyes that had experienced many vicissitudes of life were shining with the light of ultimate wisdom as she stared at the sky that was covered with death.
"Isn't this obvious?" An elf next to him responded with a wry smile, thinking she was talking about the Empire's delay in coming.
"No, I'm not talking about reinforcements, I'm talking about this undead attack! Why can we last so long?" The wise female elder's voice trembled slightly due to extreme fear, "I definitely don't mean to underestimate the power of Her Majesty the Queen and Haligtree, but in the face of the absolute gap in rank, those high-level undead should have easily torn apart our defense line!"
As soon as these words came out, the royal court, which was still whispering, instantly fell into deathly silence.
"What you said... is really too abnormal. The weirdest thing is that the monster Guznader didn't actually take action himself. With his terrifying strength that is superior to all living things, if we can survive his attack for five minutes, it will be a miracle." Another elder wiped the cold sweat from his forehead and agreed.
These usually aloof and knowledgeable elders immediately began to frantically analyze this fatal sense of inconsistency as if they were grasping at straws.
"Is there a possibility... In fact, the person who came here is not Guznader's true self at all? He just sent a clone to threaten us, and left directly after showing his face?" One of the elders' tone was full of almost pleading hope, trying to paralyze himself with this unrealistic fantasy.
However, this fragile illusion only lasted half a second.
"No, he is here. I can clearly sense that his terrifying self is dormant in the space outside this planet at this moment." Queen Misel's cold and tired voice once again ruthlessly extinguished everyone's newly ignited hope.
"I understand... We are not his main target at all. We are just bait." The wise female elder's face was ashen, but when faced with this destined Extremis, her expression became extremely calm.
"You mean..."
"That's right. The reason why Guznader surrounded us but refused to kill us and refused to completely destroy us is to lure Arcane Empire's reinforcements to show up! His real plan is to prepare an ambush in space to severely damage Empire's core force!" The old elder revealed Necromancer Emperor's conspiracy sharply.
Hearing this cruel truth, all the elders had a look of despair on their faces as they suddenly realized that they were nothing but scraps on a chessboard played by two cosmic behemoths that could be discarded at any time.
"No, if you think about it from another angle, this may be great news for us!" King Arion, who had been refusing to give up hope, suddenly his eyes lit up and he said loudly.
"What do you mean?" Everyone looked at him in confusion.
"Think about it! Arcane Empire possesses the most terrifying 'Intelligence Collection Bureau' and the unfathomable 'Prophecy Department' in the universe. It is very likely that they have already known about Guznader's ambush plot through Law of Causality or the intelligence network!
That's why they didn't rush into the trap, but lurked in the dark, waiting for the perfect opportunity to launch a fatal counterattack!" The king became more and more excited as he spoke, as if he had seen the dawn of victory.
"So, as long as we grit our teeth and hold on long enough, we can survive until that moment! Empire's army will definitely descend from the sky at the last moment and give that bastard Guznader a fatal blow!"
This theory is indeed logically perfect and makes perfect sense. However, if you want to realize this grand plan called "counter-kill", it means that Arcane Empire must keep their patience to the limit. They will keep watching with cold eyes until Guznader is convinced that Empire will not come to the rescue and then they will take action brazenly.
And by that time, Elves, who was used as a bait... I am afraid that he has been completely pushed to the edge of the cliff of genocide, and will die without a trace of him left.
What's even more desperate is that the king's theory is based on an extremely fragile premise - that is, Arcane Empire did not choose to abandon them completely because of their previous arrogance.
"Stop taking chances, this is the only chance we can seize at the moment. We must fight to the end!" Queen Misel's voice was sonorous and powerful. At this moment, her spirit and will were forcibly sublimated to an unprecedented peak, like an inviolable female goddess of war.
In the forty minutes since the distress signal was sent out, under the unimaginable pressure, the shields of the thirteen cities miraculously held on. However, the aloof undead monarch in space had obviously lost his last patience.
"Buzz--!"
There was no earth-shattering roar, only the soul-rending roar of death. A huge black scythe, which was completely condensed from the rich death energy and Void Law, crashed down on the planet from outer space like a meteor falling to the ground!
This Death Scythe accurately hit one of the core cities that the Queen was struggling to protect.
The originally indestructible silver dome shield was like a layer of ridiculous window paper in front of the Divine Tier scythe. The scythe's blade cut through the defense extremely smoothly, and the process was as smooth as cutting through a piece of soft butter with a red-hot hot knife.
The moment the shield shattered, the scythe erupted with a terrifying jet of dark poisonous gas. This poisonous gas instantly flooded the entire city in an overwhelming manner, completely Carnage wiping out all the elves in the city in the blink of an eye!
The next second, the sickening sounds of bones twisting came one after another. The elves who died tragically were forcibly deprived of their right to rest by this evil force. Their broken bodies began to twist and mutate, and were eventually transformed into various terrifying undead monsters of different ranks and shapes!
The entire Carnage and transformation process was as fast as lightning, leaving no room for the defenders in the city to react, resist, or try to negotiate.
But this was only the beginning of a mass extinction. The black energy released by the death Divine Artifact, like a living virus with Self consciousness, began to expand crazily in all directions at an extremely terrifying speed.
Whenever this black mist touches a city protected by a shield, it only takes a few seconds for it to shatter the shield with devastating force, and then ruthlessly replicate the tragedy of slaughtering the city and transforming the undead.
Twelve cities fell one after another. This one-sided Carnage continued until there was only the last piece of Pure Land left on the entire planet that had not been swallowed by the death breath: the elven capital--Kleimno.
In order to hold on to this last position, Queen Misel made the most brutal resistance. She completely ignited her Sun Elf Bloodline and life source!
Her originally plump and proud body shriveled up at a speed visible to the naked eye, shrinking into a withered mummy in an instant; her blond hair, as bright as the sun, instantly turned into a deathly pale color, and her beautiful face was covered with criss-crossing horrific wrinkles.
But as a price, the magic power fluctuations and pressure that erupted from her also experienced a terrifying surge at this moment!
The shield, which was already full of cracks and on the verge of breaking, was forcibly re-reinforced with the Queen's desperate support, giving her people a few more seconds to survive in this Shura field.
Then, without any hesitation or flinching, King Arion and all the elders resolutely followed in the Queen's footsteps. They burned their souls and lives crazily, just to let the shield last one more second.
"Click..."
Accompanied by a scream that seemed to shatter the soul, Holy Tree Valido, which carried the endless faith of Elves, was completely drained of the last trace of life in just a few seconds, completely withered and turned into charred wood.
At the moment when Haligtree fell, all the surviving elves in Kleimno city felt a huge grief deep in their souls that was enough to completely crush their sanity.
It felt like a close relative who was connected to them by blood died tragically in front of their eyes, like the loving mother who gave birth to them had just lost her mortal body and returned to the sea of stars.
The whole city suddenly fell into desperate wailing and crying. All the elves understood a cruel fact in tears: their Haligtree no longer existed.
What makes them feel even more suffocated is that they know better than anyone else that the entire elven clan has truly been pushed to the edge of the abyss of complete extinction, with no way to retreat.
Looking at the queen and elders who had exhausted all their energy, the older elves in the city who had reached the Sixth Tier level had a flash of determination in their eyes. They roared and rose into the sky, like moths flying into a flame. They chose to follow the steps of their elders without hesitation, and took the initiative to use their bodies and Soul Sacrifice as shields.
Seeing her people dying one after another, Queen Misel was heartbroken. She opened her withered lips and wanted to shout loudly to stop this unnecessary sacrifice.
However, she also knew very well in her heart that this was the only way they, a group of lonely ghosts, could take in order to allow this race to exist in this universe for even one second longer.
What's more, she was already extremely weak at this moment, and even the strength to make a sound was completely drained away.
The sacrifice of this group of elders indeed gained more energy for the shield. However, sadly, this only bought a few insignificant seconds.
Once the valve of blood and sacrifice is opened, it can no longer be closed. When the older generation of Sixth Tier strong men all fell, those young boys and girls who had just stepped into the Sixth Tier position embarked on this path of sacrifice without hesitation.
This seems to have triggered a desperate chain reaction. When the young generation of Sixth Tier died, those elves of Fifth Tier (Tier 5) immediately rose into the sky and turned into nourishment for the shield.
Fourth Tier, Third Tier, Second Tier... This tragic relay of sacrifices continued until finally, it was the turn of the children who had just been born into this world.
As a species that is favored by nature in the universe, all Elves babies are born with magic in their bodies from the moment they are born.
However, these young lives are too weak. The pitiful magic power in their bodies is not even enough for them to be rated as First Tier.
They were unable to fly in the air like their elders, and they did not know how to perform the forbidden secret technique of burning life. They could only lie helplessly on the ground, looking at the bloody sky with ignorant and frightened eyes.
At this moment, Queen Misel, the supreme monarch who once ruled one of the strongest kingdoms in Milky Way Galaxy, turned out to be the only remaining solitary person in this huge Empire who still had fighting power.
She lowered her head with difficulty and glanced at the desolate ruins below with only a few hundred babies and young children left.
If there was even a drop of water in her shriveled body, she would definitely shed two lines of bloody tears again.
It's a pity that now, she is only relying on her unwilling obsession and crazy will to hold on to this broken shell.
Queen Misel used her last bit of strength to raise her head and stared at the pitch-black Void, as if she wanted to see through the stars and see through the Coldblood tyrant sitting on the throne:
"Arcane... Emperor...Ian(! If... you are... watching all this with cold eyes... I beg you... save... my people! As long as you are willing to take action... I... will... pay... any price!"
A piercing Void wind blew through the ruins, bringing no miracles except the howl of evil spirits. The last glimmer of light in Misel's eyes was finally completely extinguished.
With complete mental collapse and death, her exhausted body could no longer maintain the concept of existence.
Misel Queen's body began to rapidly disintegrate and dissipate like a rock that had been weathered for millions of years, turning into extremely fine sand and dust particles flying all over the sky.
'It was me who... ruined my people with my own hands.' The moment before her consciousness completely dissipated, this painful thought flashed through Misel's mind. Then, an extremely strong unwillingness and resentment solidified on her beautiful withered face.
So, before she completely fell into the endless eternal darkness, she burned her last soul and cast the last magic in her life extremely abruptly.
This is a vast, white, borderless, and seemingly endless strange space.
Following a slight spatial fluctuation, the figure of Ian descended into this pure white without any warning.
"Oh? Someone can forcefully summon my soul and will to a place like this?" A trace of surprise flashed across Ian's silver pupils. He immediately entered the highest level of alert, looking around like an eagle, "What kind of gap in dimension is this?"
Soon, he saw the figure standing not far across from him, and instantly recognized the other person's identity. "Queen Misel? It seems that this is your masterpiece."
"Why?! Why don't you take action to save my people?!" Misel stared at Ian, her eyes burning with anger that could not be extinguished even by pouring water from three rivers, and she roared with almost all the strength of her soul.
Ian did not immediately answer her hysterical question. His almost god-like brain was still calmly analyzing the situation in front of him and the surrounding environmental parameters: 'The laws and structure of this space gave me an extremely strong sense of déjà vu.'
'Moreover, the power of law that can ignore the numerous causal defenses on my body and forcibly complete this kind of soul summoning... This is definitely not the first time this has happened.'
His brain completed hundreds of millions of calculations and comparisons in an instant, and finally came to an extremely firm conclusion: 'Klonai--this is the handwriting of Cosmic Will.'
"Answer me!!" The queen's roar sounded like thunder, finally forcing Ian's attention back to her.
"You just... actually have been watching our demise from a high position, right?!"
"That's right." Facing Wrath, the king of the subjugated country, Ian's expression remained as calm as water, without even a trace of hypocritical guilt.
"In that case, how could you Coldblood reach this point?! You are obviously powerful, why are you unwilling to send down divine grace to save my people?!"
The extreme despair in her voice that almost tore her soul apart caused even this mysterious pure white space to tremble violently.
"Is it... just because I showed arrogance that disgusted you in that diplomatic meeting with you? I know I was wrong! But is that enough reason for you to sit back and watch a great race be completely wiped out?! I thought that as an emperor who rules the sea of stars, your mind should be broader than this!"
"I have always been broad-minded." Ian responded calmly, his tone seemed to be stating an irrefutable Truth.
"Liar!"
"Then why did my people die?!"
Ian looked at the woman who was on the verge of collapse with deep eyes, and slowly said, "From a strict biological and magical perspective, they are not dead."
"What do you mean?" Misel was stunned.
"Before the war broke out, I had secretly extracted and obtained pure blood samples from more than 80% of your Elves population. So one day in the future, when Empire's territory is completely stable, they will Through the most advanced cloning technology, he was reborn in a petri dish and became the most loyal legal citizen of the Arcane Empire." Ian coldly revealed a grand plan that made Misel shudder..
"I understand..." Misel laughed miserably, his eyes filled with the sorrow of seeing through everything, "In your calculations, our Elves's original deep-rooted worldview and ridiculous arrogance make you think that directly integrating us into the Empire is an 'extremely low cost performance' thing.
"So, you chose this heinous and extreme method! You deliberately used Guznader's hands to destroy us, and then used cloning technology to create a large number of new elves like a blank sheet of paper! Because this kind of blank paper without memory is the easiest to be completely brainwashed by your totalitarian ideas, and the easiest to be perfectly integrated into your so-called Arcane Empire!"
"You summarized it very accurately." Ian admitted without hesitation, and he did not need to make any false cover-up on this matter.
Misel fell into complete chaos. Faced with this cruel logic that was cold to the core, she didn't even know what emotions she should use to respond. From an extremely twisted level, her race did not encounter "extinction" in the true sense, as Ian said.
However, when these new clones are born, they will receive the brainwashing education of the Empire. They will have completely different values, cultural heritage, and even living customs that are contrary to their ancestors. Can such a group of bodies without soul inheritance still be called the noble Elves?
"Could it be that... in your huge deduction, can't you really find a better solution that doesn't require such extreme and desperate measures?" Misel's voice was extremely weak, with a hint of desolate pleading.
"For example, a solution that not only allows your tribe to survive, but also allows you to continue to sit on the throne and give orders safely?" Ian pierced her thoughts mercilessly with a sarcastic sneer. Misel bit her lip, unable to refute.
"Even... even if I am no longer the queen, as long as they can survive..."
Ian's eyes became extremely sharp, like a scalpel, peeling away the stubborn diseases of this civilization little by little. "After the last conversation, my Think Tank has come to the final conclusion - your ethnic group simply does not have the ability to peacefully integrate into the Empire The possibility of E. Your culture, your customs, and your proud historical heritage are too ancient and too noble. This arrogance of claiming to be a higher being in the universe has long been engraved deep in your souls and genes like a poison!"
"Once I forcibly admit you into the Empire, you will never be grateful. You will only be like greedy Parasite insects, frantically absorbing Empire's cutting-edge knowledge and massive resources, trying to recreate your ancestors - the ancient Sun Elves The supreme glory of the era! And when your wings are full, you will either choose to defect and try to restore your ridiculous independent sovereignty, or you will set off Civil War within the Empire to overthrow the imperial power and try to stand at the highest point of the universe again!"
"No matter which choice you make in the end, in my territory, you will become a time bomb that can explode at any time, an extremely dangerous and unstable factor. And I, as the supreme Overlord of the Empire, will never allow my country to deal with this kind of mess caused by stupid kindness in the future!" Ian's tone is unquestionable, it is the absolute reason of a dictator.
Misel fell into a long silence. She closed her eyes in pain, because she knew better than anyone else that what the cold emperor said was right. If they were really peacefully recruited back then, with Elves's arrogant temperament, they would definitely embark on a dead end of rebellion in the future just as Ian deduced.
Misel exhaled a long breath, as if letting go of the heavy shackles he had carried for thousands of years.
"Perhaps... being completely cleansed by someone like you Coldblood is the best ending for this universe." She murmured, and her figure began to become more and more transparent in this white void, and finally completely dissipated and returned to nothingness.
"Wait a minute," Ian suddenly frowned as he looked at Misel who had completely disappeared, and shouted into the empty white space, "You haven't told me yet, how on earth did you forcefully summon me here under that kind of Extremis situation?"
"Please allow me to answer this question for you."
A completely unfamiliar voice, but with a strange aura that towered over all things, suddenly sounded behind Ian.