Chapter 876: A Hair's Breadth: To Kill or Not to Kill

Under these circumstances, Xia Duo not only did not relax in the slightest, but instead became even more vigilant. Through the sensory information shared by other High Mages in the Mind Link, he monitored every move of every Elf in a nearly all-encompassing manner.

This included their spellcasting, words and actions, and even their expressions; he did not let a single detail slip by.

Just like that, while maintaining his vigilance, Xia Duo methodically initiated the final closing of the net. Naturally, the first thing to do was not to attack them directly, but to restrict teleportation and flight.

Once the balance was broken, the Elves could no longer stop this.

Very quickly, when the restricted field created by the 【Forbidden Spell】 was projected onto the location where the Elves were, the Elves had already collapsed before Xia Duo could cast another spell to restrict their flight.

There were over thirty Elf Mages in total, the vast majority of whom were Moon Elves, with only four being Gold Elves. The moment the Forbidden Spell descended, the Gold Elves holding Scepters immediately chose to teleport away.

However, they did not forget the other two Gold Elves who had lost their Scepters when they left.

It was just that, due to the limitations of the position of the Joint Casting core node, one of the Gold Elves was still a few steps away from the two Gold Elves with Scepters.

Although the distance was not far, at a moment like this, that was the difference of a single instant.

As it happened, he had just pushed aside the two Moon Elf Mages blocking his path, wanting to rush to his companions' side to leave together. Even as a Spellcaster, he was still an Elf, and his movements were very agile, but it was just that one instant short, and their companions did not wait for him.

Seeing this scene, Xia Duo felt even more tense. In fact, he had hoped that this Gold Elf would be able to run away along with the other three.

In that way, without the Gold Elf who was clearly a superior and might possess unconventional means, the remaining Moon Elf Mages could be handled at will.

However, the scene that followed almost made him drop his jaw—

"My granduncle is a close minister to the Crown King, the Advanced Mage Jialanuode! I have a death curse on me! I have positioning magic! You cannot kill me!"

There was not much noise in the battle between Mages; one could even say it was completely calm. Yet, on such a calm battlefield, this sharp, almost voice-cracking shout suddenly erupted, immediately attracting everyone's gaze.

It was that last remaining Gold Elf Mage!

Even though Xia Duo was in a Mind Link with everyone and could share the burden of thinking, this situation still caused his thoughts to stall for an instant.

The sudden appearance of this situation truly made him very surprised, and he even had the thought that "Elves are nothing more than this"!

And those Moon Elf Mages, almost at the same time they heard this voice, unanimously gave up resistance. Since it had come to this, what was there left to resist?

In fact, after those three Gold Elf Mages left, the Resonance state had ceased, and these Moon Elf Mages understood that they had been abandoned.

Not just here; even if they were lucky enough to survive and return to Keman, they might not necessarily have a good outcome.

And upon hearing this last Gold Elf Mage's desperate cry, they felt a wave of sorrow in their hearts, feeling disheartened and completely losing the will to resist.

……

The Gold Elf Mage's plea for mercy was naturally not just a plea; perhaps he still harbored thoughts of finding an opportunity to escape. However, after the other Moon Elf Mages gave up resistance, Xia Duo placed most of his attention on him.

More accurately, it was placed on the Magic Items on his person.

As the Elves surrendered, Xia Duo also freed up more manpower, focusing on this sole Gold Elf Mage.

The influence of the previous 【Spell Breaking-2-1】 was still present, and the magical aura of the Magic Items on this Gold Elf Mage was dim, clearly still unusable.

Because he was unclear about what kind of trump cards the other party was hiding, and the title of being the grandnephew of an Advanced Mage was indeed quite intimidating.

It was not until the basic procedures of blocking teleportation, restricting flight, and physical confinement were completed that Xia Duo ordered people to remove the other party's Magic Items.

Before that, Xia Duo had ignored any of the other party's rhetoric, instead expressing his vigilance even more straightforwardly.

When everything finally settled, a question was placed before Xia Duo, and that was—

Should these Elves be killed, or not?

If not killed, one must keep an eye on them at all times. Spellcasters are not like ordinary people; one cannot just use some shackles to restrict them.

The key to a Spellcaster's casting lies in the will's distortion of the Magic Net String; this relationship is very difficult to isolate.

In other words, to truly restrict a Spellcaster, one must restrict the Magic Net or restrict their will.

It is indeed quite difficult to change the Magic Net environment, and the key is that it is hard to sustain. However, one can take shortcuts; for example, restricting teleportation + sealing the environment is actually equivalent to a Mage prison.

As for restricting the will, there are many ways, the simplest being to knock them unconscious, and for more Insurance, one can use Mind Magic.

But whether it is building a prison or using Mind Magic, neither is of much help in the current situation. The former requires time, while the latter requires Xia Duo to appear in person.

It would be no problem for Xia Duo to go over, but once he casts spells himself, his focus would inevitably be on the casting, and relaxing his control over the Mind Link would be almost certain.

That is to say, when he teleports over, what he might see is not Elf captives waiting obediently for him to cast spells to restrict them, but a group of human Mages panicked by the escape of the captives.

It is completely less trouble to just kill them!

……

However, after a brief thought, Xia Duo still decided—do not kill!

In fact, one could tell from the previous words of Archmage Fusitemu that the higher-ups did not mind killing Elves in battle, and even encouraged killing as many as possible.

But if the Elves surrender, or if it is outside of combat, then they cannot be killed. Not only can they not be killed, they cannot even be humiliated, and must be given certain treatment.

The Main Plane might need these captives to exchange for some other benefits.

Furthermore, considering it more realistically, between "can kill" and "can not kill," not killing leaves more room for maneuver. After all, if you kill them and then really need them, would you have to find a way to resurrect them?

Perhaps for some high-value and troublesome captives, one could choose to kill them first and resurrect them when needed, but clearly, these Elves were likely not worth the cost of resurrection.

In Netheril, Xia Duo only knew that a Death Priest in Seventon had the ability to resurrect, and the cost was not cheap, with extremely high thresholds.

It was impossible to use it as a standard method.

Therefore, sometimes captives are truly a troublesome matter. Fortunately, Xia Duo had originally planned to notify everyone to withdraw, but the Elves arrived too quickly, forcing him to stop.

Thus, in the Mind Link, he had Angelin contact Archmage Fusitemu again to ask how to handle these Elf captives.

Before that, Xia Duo could only work hard and watch them himself.