It seems we've found our target... Klein withdrew his gaze and made a rough assessment.
Because there was no portrait and the dead adventurer's face was burned black, Elland clearly didn't recognize him as one of the targets. After observing the situation and listening to the chilling laughter for a few seconds, he pointed to three or four military personnel lying not far outside the house and said in a deep voice:
"Drag them back first, and then launch the attack once the other groups arrive."
"Or..."
He hesitated for a moment, then looked up at the dark blue airship that was approaching.
Elland said nothing more, nor did he instruct Klein and Danitz to do anything. He rushed towards the military personnel who had frozen unconscious and whose faces were bluish-purple.
Step by step, step by step, step by step... The closer he got to that side, the weaker his steps became. Eventually, his body became stiff, and every step he took was extremely difficult.
Having served as a Royal Navy Sailor, Elland was experienced and decisive. He stopped moving forward, slowly turned around, and began to walk back step by step.
He walked more and more smoothly, but his whole body still trembled uncontrollably, and his eyebrows and temples were covered with a light layer of white frost.
The illogical rapid freezing... the catastrophic extreme cold... Through Elland's experiment, Klein grasped the level of danger in that area and couldn't help but sigh inwardly:
"Unfortunately, the ' The Sun Brooch ' can't generate real heat; it's more of a mental stimulus. Although it will still produce a noticeable physical reaction, it can only help someone endure the cold for three or four seconds longer at most..."
Klein glanced at Elland, who was teeth chattering and trying to speak but couldn't, then his gaze swept over Danitz.
He tossed aside his cane and said in a low voice:
"Fire."
Danitz was taken aback at first, but quickly understood what Gehrman Sparrow meant.
He also witnessed the entire process of Elland's failed rescue attempt!
Danitz condensed a not-so-bright crimson flame in the palm of his right hand and threw it a short distance to the side of the military personnel.
The fireball traveled nearly twenty meters before landing on the ground. It didn't explode; instead, flames quietly rose upwards.
The crimson pillar of fire hissed and shrank rapidly, quickly fading into darkness.
Suddenly, it expanded as if in a death throes.
Klein, wearing a black wool coat, leaped out and landed right next to the military personnel.
He bent down, reached out his hands, and grabbed the other person's clothes.
Then, he braced his feet against the ground, used his waist and back muscles to violently swing outwards.
The military personnel immediately took to the air, flew smoothly, and landed ten meters away, away from the area with the most severe cold.
Having done all this, Klein snapped his fingers and lit a match he had deliberately taken out of his pocket before the chill seeped into his flesh.
Crimson flames surged forth like water, instantly engulfing him.
When everything faded into darkness, Klein had vanished from the spot.
Flames leaped out, flickering on and off. Klein, using Danitz's fireball and his own matches, Blink repeatedly in the frigid region, easily tossing several military personnel out.
After two or three relays, he carried the last military personnel back to their original position.
Elland had clearly calmed down and gave a thumbs-up, saying:
"I am very fortunate and honored to have made the decision to ask for your help today."
Captain, I love your subtle compliments... And remember to increase the pay... Klein nodded politely, turned halfway around, and looked at the open window of the house, hearing the laughter inside growing increasingly strange.
Danitz, standing to the side, curled his lip and cursed Elland inwardly:
"Didn't you see the contributions I made?"
"Although my fireballs have become like props for a magic show, they have made a real contribution!"
"This guy's nickname Fair Elland,' but he's anything but just fair!"
As he muttered to himself, shadows enveloped the area, and the airship arrived in mid-air opposite.
"Evacuate the people in the surrounding houses!" an officer on the airship shouted from afar.
After Elland and the two teams that arrived later cleared several nearby houses, the airship lowered its altitude and adjusted its cannons.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
The cannons fired in rapid succession, bombarding the house from which the eerie laughter was coming from.
Hearing the explosions and seeing the Blink of intense fire, Klein, holding his cane, was momentarily overcome with emotion.
This is the "firepower coverage" tactic he admires, which he proposed in Tingen City but could not put into practice. Today, the overseas colonial military is showing him a real-life scenario.
Amidst the deafening roar of cannons, Elland and the others took up positions to guard against the people, or rather the Monster, breaking through.
The house collapsed quickly, and smoke rose from the piles of bricks, stones, and wood. All the snow and ice had vanished.
Suddenly, a thick bolt of lightning flashed and struck the airship with a menacing thud.
Klein frowned as he saw the airship come to a complete stop and heard the teeth-grinding sound of the Steam boiler.
The dark blue aerial Monster seemed to have lost control, emitting a moderate amount of smoke as it drifted to the side.
It seems there was ammunition isolation and outer protection for the airbags... I thought it would explode and blow the airship to pieces... Klein turned all his attention back to the collapsed house.
When he the Original felt the deep chill and saw the male adventurer burned to a crisp, he thought he had encountered another Witch who possessed the " Witch " Potion recipe. Having dealt with Witch a few times, he knew that Beyonder on this path could control frost and black flames starting from Sequence 7.
But the lightning he just witnessed made him reject that judgment, and he believed that Latiz was indeed a member of the " Moss Ascetic Order " or the " Element Dawn," and a genuine woman.
The moment Klein had that thought, the pile of bricks and wood was overturned, and a figure, a mixture of bright red and charred black, crawled out, supporting himself on his elbows.
She was a woman, and it was vaguely possible to discern Latiz's original appearance. This surprised Elland and the others, who realized that their target had been found. However, compared to before, Latiz's current state was both terrifying and miserable.
Her body was covered in black spots, torn open by shells with one bright red gash after another, inside which white fascia seemed to writhe as if it had a life of its own.
Her head split open, and brain matter gushed out, sticking to the surface like overlapping children's hands.
Her bluish-gray eyes lost focus; one pupil held flames, the other flashed with lightning.
Embedded in her abdomen, below her chest, were two heads screaming in pain—the heads of the other two male adventurers.
It wasn't just out of control, but also a feeling of being corrupted... She was severely injured in that round of bombardment, and her life force had dropped to its lowest point... Klein didn't make a move, watching as the military's Beyonder launched their attacks in a structured manner.
" Spirit Piercing ", " Whip of Pain ", Purification Bullets, Small-caliber Artillery Fire... After such a round, the out-of-control Latiz, who only had time to make the ground crack and spread outward, completely collapsed and disintegrated into pieces.
Snap!
Her torso fell to the ground, and the heads of two male adventurers rolled out.
Klein narrowed his eyes and discovered a yellowish-brown parchment book hidden inside the flesh and blood of Latiz's abdomen.
On the surface of the book, a line of words was written in Elvish:
" The Book of Calamity."
Why do these books and notes always end up inside other people's stomachs? The Antigonus Family Notebook were the same thing last time... Klein complained first, then began to suspect that this " Book of Calamity " was something that the pseudo- Archaeologist Latiz had taken from the " Sea God " ruins.
Just then, a military officer, seizing the opportunity while the two male adventurers were still able to speak, urgently asked:
What did you do inside the ' Sea God ' ruins?
"The Ruins of Sea God..." one of the male adventurers replied, both distressed and bewildered, "We've never been there..."
He tried to move his eyes to check the condition of his neck and below.
"The ' Sea God ' ruins on Simim Island," the military personnel reminded them.
"No... no..." The male adventurer tried to shake his head but couldn't. "We went to the ancient Elf ruins... Latiz found a book inside... she loved it... she quickly started studying it, she, she's gone mad! She's gone mad!"
The male adventurer screamed, his remaining spirit completely collapsing.
Not the lost temple of the " Sea God," but the ruins of the ancient Elf? This is not what I thought... Just as Klein was about to listen carefully, Elland came over and politely asked him and Danitz to leave the scene of the interrogation.
Turning onto another street, Klein slowed his pace, pondering the whole affair:
Why did Latiz's removal of the Book of Calamity from the ancient Elf ruins cause the ' Sea God ' Kavithua to lose his existence and gradually collapse? What is the connection between the two events?
" Elf... ' Sea God '... According to Little ' The Sun ', the Elf King Soniathrym, this ancient god, holds the same authority as the current ' Lord of Storms,' meaning that there is undoubtedly Sequence 3 ' Sea King ' among the Elf, and even higher Sequence 2..."
"Could it be that the sea serpent Kavithua accidentally discovered an underwater Elf ruin, directly Devouring the Beyonder Characteristic left behind by a high- Elf, and luckily survived both sudden death and loss of control, thus successfully obtaining Demigod status and gradually gaining the worship of the natives of the Rorsted Archipelago?"
Klein slowly began to have an idea, which made him grateful to Mr. " The Hanged Man ".
The Original, the little " The Sun " did not reveal the corresponding powers of the eight ancient gods. Later, under the repeated guidance of the " The Hanged Man," he told some of them, including the general situation of the Elf King Soniathrym.
As for directly Devouring Beyonder Characteristic or corresponding materials to enhance one's abilities, it has happened before. Before the Potion system was fully developed, early humans made similar attempts to obtain extraordinary power, but only a very lucky small group of people survived and became Beyonder. They did not turn into Monster or Lunatic, nor did they die on the spot or have their flesh and blood disintegrate.
Such an attempt has a success rate of one in a thousand, one in ten thousand, or even lower. With the Potion system in place, no one is willing to take such a big risk anymore.
"If that's the case, Kavithua was indeed very lucky back then... Of course, its robust physique also played a part... However, its Wisdom doesn't seem to have improved much; it can only fool the faith, and it never discovered that there was an Elf ruin on Simim Island, and that it was closely connected to the ruin where it was hiding..."
"After Latiz and her group took the Book of Calamity, the ruin collapsed, causing an anomaly in Kavithua's hiding place, making it impossible for it to continue operating even though it was already barely clinging to life. This explains why Latiz and her group were able to succeed relatively easily. There were no rebels or ' Sea God ' followers guarding the place. It wasn't until something went wrong that Kavithua discovered the problem and realized that the two ruins were connected."
Based on his previous line of thought, Klein tried to explain the parts of the whole affair that he found most puzzling.
This includes why the dying " Sea God " Kavithua didn't use his followers as vessels, which would have reduced many unexpected events and simplified things. Given the brutality Kavithua displayed, it was only natural that he should make this choice.
Klein's answer was that the body that Kavithua wanted to corrupt and possess must have a certain Elf bloodline; only in this way could it withstand the transfer of Beyonder Characteristic to some extent.
When he touched it, due to the Gray Fog and its unique properties, Kavithua immediately found a better target.