Chapter 2999: The Failed Shedding

As he spoke, the serpentine bulge rose again in Xia De's sleeve, and the sealed worm poked out from his sleeve, but instead of attacking the body of the worm being roasted by three different flames, it shot toward Vanesa's direction.

It bit the tail of the giant worm—the only part not yet on fire—and then swallowed the tail whole.

In this era, apart from sealing, there was no method that could completely resolve a Pantanal Pantanal Xiewu like the "Gravel Worm"; otherwise, the witches of the Fifth Epoch would not have sealed that worm and tossed it into the "Gravel Gold Sand Sea."

But Adair had said more than once that apocalyptic Pantanal Pantanal Xiewu could grow stronger by devouring Pantanal Pantanal Xiewu of the same type, so the sealed "Gravel Worm" in Xia De's hand possessed the ability to completely annihilate its own kind through devouring—this was something Xia De had already tested when he had summoned the worm earlier.

It did not need to truly eat the entire body of the burning worm; it only had to bite its tail and give a fierce suck, and immediately a layer of black gravel appeared on the surface of the heavily wounded worm, and this gravel rapidly gathered toward the tail region.

As the gravel drained away, the worm, which had no ability to resist, struggled for only a few short seconds before its once-fleshy writhing motions grew increasingly stiff, and the entire worm rapidly transformed into actual stone.

By this point, the dark "Paradox Worm" embedded in the worm's carapace, having foreseen the "Gravel Worm's" impending defeat, finally detached from the worm's body and flew toward the sky.

Sister Sister Daifulin then vanished instantly from the shoulder of the giant Xia De, reappearing above that pitch-black insect, and with a light swing of the black scythe in her hand, the fleeing insect dropped straight to the ground without moving.

As most people breathed a sigh of relief, Amelia, who had once again overexerted herself from using the Labyrinth Lock, had already fallen back to the ground. However, because the Labyrinth Lock was still active, she could not tell whether this place was the outskirts hillside of ancient Saint Byronse or the woods outside the southwestern suburbs of modern Vista City.

But in any case, after she lay prone on the little unicorn's back and landed, she discovered that the black insect-man that had been slapped flying by the red dragon's claw earlier had also fallen here.

Just at that moment, Sister Sister Daifulin swung her scythe and sliced open the insect attempting to flee, so Amelia saw the black insect-man, which had been lying motionless on the snow, tremble once, then rapidly scramble to its feet.

"Oh~ shedding its shell early to escape—could this insect-man actually be the true body of the 'Guardian' now?"

The little elf sighed inwardly, but maintaining the enormous Labyrinth Lock had almost completely drained her. In fact, if this Labyrinth Lock had not been borrowed through the rules of the "Time War," she could not have used it at all.

At this moment she felt she could only manage a simple Light spell, while the armored little unicorn, quite brave, carried the elf as it paced through the snow, nostrils continuously puffing white breath at the insect—in truth, it could not beat this insect-man either.

"Meow~"

The cat's cry was rather conspicuous in this long night, but Amelia found that Xia De's cat was only baring its teeth at the insect-man that looked as though it wanted to walk toward them, still showing no intention of transforming into the "Big Golden Kitty" from Moon Bay City.

Fortunately, however, someone soon noticed this place. The worm had already been basically brought under control, so the five-colored giant dragon transformed in midair into five streams of light that plunged down, then struck the little elf on the unicorn's back dead-on.

The abundant power instantly lifted Amelia from little Lianna's back into the air; she was overjoyed, thinking she too was about to transform into a giant dragon, but in fact she did not. Instead, a very gentle touch came from behind her, and while many hands helped support her body, a familiar voice asked beside her ear amid the heartwarming feeling:

"Amelia, be brave, or how will Xia De ever look your way?"

Amelia looked behind her and discovered that her familiar dragon maids, at some unknown point, had all gathered behind her with smiles.

"You......"

"Amelia, we can only help you this once. Now raise your right hand."

The "Pipe of Time" was raised high, and then the five dragon maids behind the little elf together with Amelia gripped that sword.

The simple-drawing patterns of the five-colored giant dragons floated in sequence along the blade, and at the tip of the sword, although Amelia was very reluctant to admit it, the simple-drawing pattern of an elf that she had once drawn also appeared.

The elf and the dragon maids together swung the longsword downward, and the five-colored mixed sword-light locked onto the insect-man trying to fly into the sky. This was not the "Sword of Light," but rather the "Time Severance" jointly swung by the dragons possessing the power of time and space and the inheritors of time. The flying insect was completely frozen at the very second of takeoff, and then it was utterly vaporized within that brilliant sword-light.

The panting Amelia now felt she could not even stand steadily; she wanted to lean on the sword and slowly sit down, but a black "beetle" the size of a fingernail flew straight at her right eye.

"Meow~"

This time Amelia did not even need to trigger "Life-and-Death Instant" before she saw little Xiao Miya's furry paw wave in front of her, and the "beetle" was slapped flying by the cat standing on the elf's shoulder.

After it landed on the snow and tried to take off again, the descending 【Right Arm of the Angel】 pierced straight through it. The insect's bursting bodily fluids disgustingly splattered across the snow. At this moment Amelia closed her eyes and was about to plop down into the snow, but was hurriedly caught and supported by Xia De after he landed.

This time, the "Guardian" really did look to be truly dead.

"Amelia, are you all right now?"

Xia De spoke softly while raising his fist above Amelia's head; the curse "Sunlight Healing" activated, and warm sunlight showered the little elf's whole body. She let out a small moan, then leaned directly into Xia De's embrace.

Amelia felt this was what she deserved right now.

In the woods behind the two of them, the "Curse-Eroded Great Tree" was slanted in the forest, burning fiercely in the raging fire. And as the Calamity Card · Gravel Worm flew back into Xia De's pocket, the other giant worm, now completely turned to stone, crashed to the ground under the simultaneous attacks of the Circle Mages, then broke into several pieces that scattered throughout the suburban forest.

Because the insect's body was not perfectly straight, it was like a series of crooked arches appearing in the wind and snow.

Only Xia De did not observe these at the moment; his gaze passed over the cat on Amelia's shoulder and looked toward the five phantoms behind Amelia. The Labyrinth Lock was gradually fading, and as the nightscape of ancient Saint Byronse vanished, the suburban scenery of modern Vista City was reappearing. But the five dragon maids who had revealed their forms remained incomparably vivid.

"I am not a phantom."

The blue dragon Miss reminded him, then lifted her skirt and voluntarily withdrew to one side. Although she lived in the era at the end of the Fifth Epoch, she indeed appeared to have spent quite a long time in Saint Byronse during the middle of the Fifth Epoch.

As for the remaining four dragon maids who had already taken human form and wore uniform maid dresses, black leather shoes on their feet, and white lace maid headbands on their heads, with big tails—Xia De actually only recognized the red dragon Fiona and the green dragon Miss Veld; he did not recognize the black dragon and the pink dragon Miss.

But at this moment they all had their hands clasped together in front of them, smiling at Xia De who was embracing the little elf, and Xia De thus confirmed that these were not phantoms formed by power:

"Projections of time? Fiona, are you really watching me?"

The sound of his speaking startled Amelia, who had been squinting and wanting to take another nap, but she quickly realized this was not directed at her.

"By borrowing the rules of the Time War, we can form such brief projections. Of course, this mainly relies on Amelia's resolve and power. Teacher Felianna said that Amelia would definitely be able to do it."

Fiona smiled as she looked at Xia De; although she regretted that her own teacher had been dispatched to the Sixth Epoch this time, being able to meet like this was already very good:

"We cannot exist for too long. Amelia, wish you all the best. Xia De, look forward to the next time we meet—don't forget us~"

The four dragon Misses bowed together to Xia De, then in the wind and snow dissolved into scattered specks of light and vanished.

And among the drifting specks of light, the sound of boots crunching in the snow kept rising; after Xia De, the others also descended to this place one after another.

Seeing that Xia De was holding Amelia and had no free hand, Vanesa voluntarily walked over to the black insect-man's corpse. Sister Sister Daifulin also descended now, waved her hand to set the corpse ablaze, and then Vanesa retrieved from the burning ashes that branch-like object wrapped in mud:

"So when it spat out that cocoon earlier, the insect had already shed its shell."

She said this, and no longer paid attention to the insects still wantonly flying overhead or the elf troops and Church Circle Mages who had turned around to join the next battle—on this trip they were only responsible for defeating the "Guardian":

"Although the process was a bit complicated, we won after all. Amelia performed very well—that Miss is truly tough. So shall we return to the city now, or head straight for the ship? I see our ship is not far from here."

Xia De carefully helped Amelia over to the unicorn, and after the little unicorn voluntarily lay down, he helped the little elf lie prone on its back as well:

"Any news on the 'Clockmaker'?"

"Not yet."

Hand in hand, Grace and Helen appeared amid a swarm of red butterflies, equally unconcerned with the battle still raging in the sky:

"Mr., the Diviner wants you to return to the city first. Although the Guardian's death will throw the insect tide into chaos, the third wave of the insect tide will arrive soon. At that point the Church may not be able to hold the city. Miss Annatt's meaning is that we must resist the vanguard of the third insect tide together with the Church, and only then go handle other matters."