Chapter 2830

But that insect was much luckier than the griffin from just a moment ago; before it could hit the ground, it managed to vibrate those cicada-like wings and take flight once more. By now, the insect's body had completely solidified, and the white mist on its surface, which symbolized temporal instability, had vanished without a trace under the moonlight.

As its wings beat, the night sky centered around it seemed to lose its color and began to congeal. The colorless world spread outward, and so the swirling mist, the flying leaves, the cat frozen in a jumping posture atop a trash can, and even the halo of light beneath the gas streetlamp were all solidified in the frozen passage of time.

Looking out, everything within sight had lost its color, and in this world where time had completely paused, only Xia De, Yin Yi Yi Lu Na, the three thirteen-ring sorcerers, and fewer than ten high-ring sorcerers from the church and the witch's team who possessed sufficient temporal resistance were still able to move.

Standing on the golden steps, he immediately thrust the scepter in his hand into the steps beneath his feet:

"Stability Principle of the Ancient Elves!"

The holy emblem of the Tree, the Moon, and Chaos flashed as it overlapped in the air. Following this, a great tree, centered on the 【Staff of Yggdrasil】, grew and hovered beneath the starry sky. It not only radiated a verdant light, but streaks of golden light also flowed across it.

In the area shaded by the tree canopy, the fading "Time Stop" effect was neutralized, but immediately, the "fading" attempted to make the tree lose its color as well. The power of frozen time and the power of stable time thus began to entangle.

The paradox insect, having already taken flight, reached a higher altitude once more. Seeing that it still maintained its physical form and could still move, the people who were still active immediately launched another round of attacks. However, before most of the spellcasting was completed, a gray-white light flashed on the insect's body, and the dense barrage of arcane attacks from several minutes ago reappeared—only this time, they were striking at the ring sorcerers who were currently still able to move.

The "Keeper" then continued to fly toward Xia De, who was high above. Xia De, wearing a red tailcoat, felt the surging spirit from having merged with Miss Jia Lin Na, and so he raised his right hand toward the high sky. The green light misting beneath the tree and the powerful moonlight converged into his hand:

"Moonlight Wheel!"

The spinning, massive wheel of light slid through the night sky toward the paradox insect, but it was deflected by the insect back toward Xia De. Xia De, having been prepared, immediately summoned the great moonlight sword, held it, and leaped. After the tip of the sword made contact with the "Moonlight Wheel," he spun his body in the air, forming a bright silver trail of light, and immediately, a silver thunderbolt was whipped from the long sword toward the insect that continued to fly forward.

Because the attack itself had been rebounded by the power of time, this time the paradox insect could not make it return directly.

After a "Hum—" sound, the insect used its own body to brace against the lightning. The lightning clung to the surface of its body and, as the insect lunged, it flew toward Xia De once again. And under the cover of that dazzling lightning, black and golden chains had already woven together in the air.

Amidst the clattering sounds, the rapidly spreading "Chains of Great Sin" and the "Witch Secret Art: Order Chains" crossed and wove together. At the same moment the rebounded silver lightning struck Xia De, the spiderweb-like cluster of chains had already completed the initial blockade of the 'Keeper' beneath the verdant great tree.

As for being struck by the bright silver lightning, Xia De did not care at all:

"Would I be afraid of the power of moonlight?"

The layers of dual-colored chains formed a sphere in three-dimensional space, enclosing the black insect. As each segment of the chain vibrated against the others, it even influenced time through the elements.

The insect vibrated its wings, wanting to rush out before the cluster of chains completely enclosed it, but it was struck head-on by the Sunlight Spear thrown by Yin Yi Yi Lu Na, and immediately, it was entangled by the black-gold chains.

The insect struggled violently, the clattering sound growing louder and louder under the moon, but like a fly that had fallen into a spiderweb, the more it struggled, the less it was able to move. The moonlight cast the shadows of the great tree and the web onto the ground; the insect's shadow on the ground trembled back and forth with smaller and smaller amplitude. The moment its figure became completely still—

"Sunlight Spear!"

The golden thunder pierced through the insect's body. Amidst the golden lightning after landing, Yin Yi Yi Lu Na stood up, panting and bracing herself against the ground.

When she looked up, the torn-apart "paradox insect" had already had the various parts of its corpse pulled in different directions by the black and golden chains.

The power of time reversal attempted to piece the insect's body back together, but Xia De, standing high under the moon and casting the spell, finally opened his arms wide. And so, amidst a harsh sound like fingernails scraping a chalkboard, the "insect corpse pieces," which had been trying to attract each other with great force, finally turned into ash and were scattered by the wind in the night sky, leaving only a single pitch-black carapace that was still bound by chains and pulled toward Xia De.

The fading world gradually regained its color due to the disappearance of the spellcaster. Yin Yi Yi Lu Na had just thought the battle was over, but she saw that amidst the ash flying all over the sky, a stream of light fell toward the ground. Immediately, amidst the familiar "buzzing" sound, from the insect eggs that had fallen to the ground after the relic 【Dream Tree】 collapsed, an adult-sized "paradox insect" tore through the sac and crawled out. After looking up at the bright red figure high in the sky, it dove directly into the ground and disappeared.

"It didn't die even like this? This thing wouldn't be absolutely immortal as long as there are still dormant paradox insects locally, would it?"

Yin Yi Yi Lu Na sighed and covered her forehead.

The time-stop effect completely vanished. People who did not realize what had just happened all looked at the most conspicuous thing at this moment.

The massive three moons hovered in the night sky above the city. On the golden steps extending from that silver moon, no one could see the specific appearance of the man wearing the red tailcoat.

The great tree hovered in the air, and the canopy of that verdant tree trembled slightly above his head due to the night wind. The green and golden light spots drifting from the canopy were shining, along with the cold moonlight of this night, upon this night that was gradually returning to calm.

At the window on the third floor of the Accordion Hotel not far away, Ajielina and Aimiya stood side by side, watching this scene in the night sky.

The pointed-eared elf girl widened her eyes, her heart filled with both excitement and nervousness. The excitement was naturally because of Xia De, and the nervousness was because she would probably also have to participate in such battles before long.

She did not notice that the little red-haired princess beside her had widened her eyes and opened her mouth wide. This scene under the moon indeed had a stunning beauty. Ajielina had originally just watched with an appreciative attitude, but not long after this scene entered her eyes, "Silver Moon" and "Xia De" suddenly produced a strange feeling in her view.

It was as if watching Xia De was watching the moon, and it was also as if watching the moon was watching Xia De. The moonlight gently embraced him, and his figure seemed to have already become a part of the moonlight.

"It really is very similar~"

Thinking of this point in her heart, it was as if a thunderbolt exploded in her head. Ajielina Cavendish only felt heavy fog dispersing before her eyes, and world-shaking wisdom emerged at this moment:

"So that's how it is, so that's how it is!"

She suddenly covered her head and laughed wildly uncontrollably. In fact, she didn't know what she was laughing at, but in any case, after reaching that conclusion, she just wanted to do so.

This somewhat manic laughter immediately scared Aimiya, who was beside her, so much that she almost jumped up:

"Ajielina, what has happened to you?"

She wanted to hold Ajielina down, but the little princess still covered her head and laughed wildly, and then with a "Ga~" sound, she twitched and fainted.

Aimiya, who was scared out of her wits, hurriedly ran to the door to call for people. And because of this, she failed to hear Ajielina's delirious words in her dream:

"I understand, I understand everything—Xia De is Suren, Suren is Xia De!"

(Little Mia is running...)

"Oh, what happened to Miss Jia Lin Na? Hmm? Why did Ajielina also faint?"

At 4:30 on Friday morning, following the arrival of everyone in the city, the witches who had received the news in advance hurriedly went to meet them. Because other places had also received news that something had happened in Vista City, the great witches who were far away from Vista City also appeared in the Council. The people in the city did not explain the specific situation just now, only saying that Miss Jia Lin Na was injured in the battle.

Xia De held Miss Jia Lin Na and jumped onto the deck of the Radiant Messenger. Flora and Miss Silvia followed by his side, Dorothy held Ajielina and followed closely behind, and Tifa and the other maid ladies also quickly arrived at this ship on Yulun Lake.

At this time, the Duchess, who was being held by Xia De in a bridal carry, squinted her eyes and leaned in his arms. Her face was flushed, her lips were pale, and she was covered with a red cashmere blanket.

Vanessa and Xivi both walked out of the cabin. The former touched the Duchess's forehead with her hand, while the latter went to check on Ajielina's situation, and then discovered that the little princess seemed to have just fainted purely from receiving great mental stimulation, and she would be fine after resting for a while.

Vanessa asked Dorothy:

"Didn't you say that the matter in the city had already been resolved? What happened to Miss Jia Lin Na? And what is going on with Ajielina? Did you let her join the battlefield too? Or is it that she was subjected to... by the relic 【Trembling Contract】?"

"Xia De used a mystery lock and merged with Miss Jia Lin Na. After it disintegrated, she became like this."

Dorothy said quite worriedly. Princess Lei Qianya had already gone back to rest, but she also regarded Miss Jia Lin Na as a relative:

"Ajielina has already understood her own thoughts in her dream, so there is no need to worry about the relic. We also don't know what happened to her. Aimiya said that she suddenly covered her head and laughed wildly, and then she fainted."

"The ones who merged with me using the mystery lock 【Clock Tower Lover】 in the past were either the Butterfly Wing Chosen One or Sister Daifulin. Their souls were all stronger than Miss Jia Lin Na's, not to mention Adele at the Battle of Moon Bay... This is my mistake. I originally thought that the soul of a twelfth-tier great witch should not be... by me..."

"Let's not talk about these things for now."

Xivi held Xia De's arm and let him walk toward the cabin entrance:

"Let's go into the cabin first. Miss Yi Laise and Grandma Cassandra are preparing mental therapy potions. Miss Jia Lin Na should be fine. If you really want to make a meaningless apology, just say it to her in a while."