Chapter 594 - 592: Hilia Runs Away

The underground tunnel network was extensive, allowing passage to block the demons even without heading to the node where Hilia was.

The Elf Royal City was submerged in pollution, leading to a lockdown of the entire city. The Elf King took it seriously and quickly dispatched a large number of personnel to investigate the pollution source here.

Initially, there were even Elf Elders involved.

Later, it was discovered that sometimes lower-tier mages were better suited for underground investigations than those of Tier Six, as the presence of Tier Six mages caused many demons to fearfully avoid confrontation.

In regions where pollution was rampant, a Tier Six mage was like a shark charging through a school of sardines—appearing mighty but catching not a single fish (meaning demon), so it was better to send mages below Tier Five.

The demons’ fear was not a good thing; if a Tier Six mage maintained a presence for too long, those fearful demons would start to evolve, and soon high-tier demons would appear, posing significant pressure even for a Tier Six mage.

Although, even without Tier Six mages, demons would naturally spawn and evolve according to the environment, the speed would be much slower. At that point, upon discovery, calling a Tier Six mage to eliminate them would be much better than a constant presence.

Therefore, the camp leader became Aiman, a Tier Five mage. Generally, those entering the underground were only Tier Four—the rank suitable for defeating enemies without causing the demons to evolve aggressively.

These days, Aiman has rotated many teams, exchanging most of the Tier Four mages from the Elf Royal City, roughly mapping the tunnel routes around the rift and inputting them into the map.

At this time, Aiman, accompanied by a Tier Four squad, took another path to bypass the node, arriving at an area where demon attacks were most chaotic.

Watching the demons, oblivious to them, continuously charging the area where Hilia was located, Aiman said sternly, "You have all seen, at such a critical time, a mixed-blood elf, whom you usually look down on, has turned the tide, slaughtering countless demons. Without her stopping these, these demons would soon escape to the Elf Forest, initiating a bloodthirsty massacre."

Hai Wei’er muttered, "I don’t discriminate against mixed-blood elves, don’t involve me in royal affairs."

Aiman glanced at her, pretending not to hear, and said lightly, "Alright, it’s our turn now. You’ve heard what Miss Xi said, our goal besides reducing her demon count and pressure is to research how to find the demons’ weak points. She is a Tier Four mage, as are you; if she can do it, so can you."

Aiman charged out first.

"Come on! Let these creatures, attempting to pollute our surviving Elf Forest, witness the wrath of the elves!"

...

On the other side.

Hilia’s ears twitched, sensing the distant waves of battle.

"It seems they’ve engaged with the demons."

Hilia perceived a rapid decrease in the number of demons on several pathways.

Her pressure eased significantly.

"They seem to consist of four Tier Four mages and one Tier Five mage, a luxurious setup. But, I wonder how long they can last."

By now, time had passed by half a day.

Hilia assessed her total Magic Power and found that more than half remained.

Three times deep into the Divine Realm had granted her a Magic Power amount far exceeding Tier Four, surpassing even most Tier Five mages, coupled with teachings from Rose, instructing her to conserve Magic Power while casting Magic, allowing her prolonged combat capabilities.

Compared to Tier Five mages, she lacked only Magic strength, input efficiency, and the additional enhancements belonging to Tier Five.

Relying on Rose’s precise teachings, Hilia felt she could hold her ground against irrational Tier Five heretics evenly.

Regular Tier Five mages were not unbeatable either.

Yet what suited Hilia most was this attrition warfare.

She was not afraid at all.

"Will all the underground demons come here?"

Hilia manipulated the Magic Puppet to gather the accumulated Lancelot Stone dust, compressing it with Magic and throwing it outside.

By now, the passage Hilia used to dispose of ’trash’ had been completely blocked with metal dust.

"Feels like I could start a demon mining operation," Hilia grumbled.

Rose’s apparition appeared beside her; Hilia looked over and hurriedly asked, "Master Rose, what do you think? Do these demons have an end?"

Rose nodded, "They do, but your Magic Power likely will not sustain that long."

"Does it mean I’ll have to keep killing for a long time?"

Hilia surveyed her output efficiency; countless demons poured into the dozens of passages every second.

Spiritual Power swept like radar, capturing weak points, then an icicle deftly took out frozen demons.

Every second, dozens of demons died.

This place was already enveloped by rampant pollution, forming a strong pollution source.

The dense pollution attracted more demons, agitated by the battle waves, continued to charge, forming a positive cycle... no, a vicious cycle.

Hilia needed to divide her attention using the Purification Skill to drive away this pollution.

Indeed, "drive away," not purify or disperse; despite containing potent life elements, pollution didn’t directly cleanse through Purification Skill, but under its radiance, pollution naturally reacted by spreading out and away.

"Based on your kill efficiency, it’s estimated that you’ll need to keep up the killing for ten days to eradicate all incoming demons," Rose said.

While Hilia played a real-life version of vampire survivor, Rose wasn’t idle; he directly explored this underground using his spiritual form, attempting to sketch its Array patterns, meanwhile testing Hilia’s potential maximum exploration range to find the hidden region where Divine Format fragments resided.

However, Rose ultimately didn’t find any.

From the mark’s perception, a considerable distance remained.

Since Hilia reached Tier Four, Rose could do much more. He could condense a spiritual entity and use its gathered eyesight to directly observe the world with normal perception, possessing five senses instead of merely using Spiritual Scan for simulation imaging.

Moreover, the exploration range was multiple times broader than initially.

Upon contract binding, Rose’s scanning range was just a few kilometers and only relied on a radar-like approach; now, his extremity surpassed one hundred kilometers.

Despite severe interference hindering exploration of far distances underground, it sufficed for Rose.

At this moment, after completing the exploration, Rose re-materialized before Hilia, sharing the findings with her.

Hilia sank into contemplation.

"I can hold on for half a day at most, ultimately insufficient."

She surveyed the still surging demon hordes around.

"At this point, it’s time to run."