"Your Majesty!" Baroque's voice was laced with urgency.
"Hold the line!" Ilanier's voice remained calm, yet it carried the oppressive weight of a storm about to break.
"However..." Gyrus's tone suddenly shifted, his face twisting into an even more grotesque smile.
"Overwhelming you with numbers is far too crude, unbecoming of an artist like myself. Allow me to present my future queen with a far more... spectacular welcoming ceremony!"
He snapped his fingers.
His small, darting eyes erupted with a blinding psychic light!
"Come, my most loyal guards! Greet... your queen!"
His voice possessed a bizarre, magical quality, echoing directly within each person's soul.
The change was instantaneous and horrifying.
The entire squadron of Royal Guard knights forming the shield wall at the forefront of the Elf Army suddenly froze.
"Ryan?" a knight frowned at his comrade beside him. "Your shield is crooked..."
Before he could finish his sentence, he watched as the light of intelligence in Ryan's bright eyes was snuffed out by an invisible hand, leaving them instantly dim and hollow.
Then, a sickening, eerie green glow ignited from the depths of his pupils, as if a puppet had been infused with a malevolent soul.
Ryan's head twisted around with a stiff, inhuman creak.
His vacant green eyes locked onto his former comrade.
"Ryan! Your... your eyes!" The knight's voice cracked with terror.
He could only watch in horror as Ryan—his brother-in-arms, with whom he had trained and fought for over a century—slowly raised the sword that had countless times been aimed at their enemies.
The tip of the blade pointed directly at his heart.
And it wasn't just Ryan.
The entire squadron—twelve Royal Guard knights renowned for their iron will—had become soulless husks.
Mechanically, in perfect unison, they turned and aimed their gleaming weapons at their unsuspecting comrades behind them!
"No!"
"They're being controlled!"
The Elven Frontline erupted in chaos. This sudden betrayal from within was more chilling than the charge of any monster army!
For the first time, uncontrollable fury blazed across Ilanier's frost-covered face.
The rage was so intense that her pure silver domain began to boil around her!
This was no longer a provocation.
This was the most venomous desecration of her and the entire Elven Race!
"Hahahahahaha!"
Gyrus watched the scene unfold, letting out a sick, maniacal laugh.
"Do you see, my dear Queen? This is true art! What's the point of conquering the body? Conquering the will—that is the highest form of taste!"
"Soon, all your subjects will become my perfect collectibles, just like them! And you... you will be the most dazzling jewel in my entire collection!"
The spark of amusement in Lin Qingyue's eyes was doused by a bucket of ice water, leaving only cold ashes.
Mind control...
Her knuckles turned white as she gripped her pink staff, the wood creaking faintly under the pressure.
So that's it. His twisted mental power isn't for defense, but for offense.
Collectibles?
Twisting living people—their wills, their souls—into toys to satisfy his own twisted desires...
Lin Qingyue's gaze shifted.
It was the look one gives to an inanimate object—cold, devoid of emotion, purely analytical.
This guy... he's no mere clown.
He's a madman who plays with people's minds.
And I despise trash like him—so vile they even ruin the fun of watching.
She looked at her former comrades, now puppets forced to aim their weapons at each other.
This had crossed her line for "enjoying the show."
"Heh. Cleanse Spell, it's time you showed your true purpose."
Lin Qingyue murmured, tightening her grip on the staff.
Her mental power surged like a tide, no longer the casual casting she usually employed, but now driven by a will so resolute it bordered on ruthless.
No incantation, no complex hand gestures.
Instead, her wrist flickered twelve times in rapid succession, moving at an impossible speed.
Swoosh! Swoosh! Swoosh!
Twelve sakura-pink orbs of light, trailing playful spiral tails, shot out as twelve streaks of light, smacking precisely onto the faces of the twelve controlled Elf Knights.
The light was as soft as cotton candy, yet it carried an incredible purifying force.
The knights' eyes, once filled with green light, trembled violently as the pink orbs struck.
The malevolent green glow sizzled and hissed, like heavy makeup being wiped away by remover, rapidly fading and dissipating.
The knights' rigid bodies jolted.
They blinked in confusion, clarity swiftly returning to their eyes as if waking from a long dream.
"What... what happened to me?"
"My sword... why is it pointed at you?"
After a brief moment of chaos, the twelve knights' gazes refocused, their faces etched with the shock and terror of having survived a nightmare.
But in the next second, the entire battlefield fell into an eerie silence.
Because, under the baptism of the pink light, the twelve knights' elegant long hair—originally silver-white or golden-brown—was rapidly being dyed, starting from the roots, at a speed visible to the naked eye...
A shade of sakura pink so eye-searingly bright, so outrageously flamboyant, so utterly mind-polluting!
Twelve muscular elves, each over 1.9 meters tall and clad in elite armor, now stood dazedly at the front lines, crowned with manes of brilliant pink hair.
The epic war movie atmosphere instantly warped into a children's fantasy comedy.
[Ding! Ally Aeldara's spirit has suffered a massive shock from recalling a dark past. Elation Value +666!]
[Ding! Ally Ilanier feels a pleasant surprise. Elation Value +888!]
[Ding! True elation must stem from free will. Void Observer Aha approves. Elation Value +648!]
This is so Aha!
"How... how is this possible?!"
On the throne, the smug smile on Gyrus's greasy face froze solid.
His prized mental control had been broken!
But what he found even more unacceptable was—
"You! You lowly dowry maid! What have you done to my masterpieces?!"
"This vulgar! Inferior! Utterly unaesthetic color! You've defiled them! How dare you offend the aesthetic sensibilities of the great Captain Gyrus!"
He shrieked, his voice shattering into a screech as grating as nails on a chalkboard.
His carefully constructed facade of elegant gentility vanished, leaving only a beast whose tail had been stomped on.
"Me? Lowly?"
Lin Qingyue raised an eyebrow, a dangerous curve playing on her lips. Inwardly, she thought:
Oops, forgot the Cleanse Spell has a 'forced hair dye' side effect. Still, the results are outstanding.
Before she could retort, two swift attacks had already launched, hurtling straight toward Gyrus.
"Noisy."
Su Wan's voice was as cold as ice. The moment the words left her lips, the ice crystals coalescing at her fingertips transformed into a razor-sharp icicle that tore through the air with a piercing whistle.
Simultaneously, Xia Lian's figure flickered like a phantom. She drew her shortbow, Dark Night Starwhisper, to its full extent.
Silently, an arrow imbued with the Star-Concealment effect shot forth like a meteor in the dead of night, aimed precisely at Gyrus's brow.
The icicle and the arrow—one from the left, one from the right; one forceful, one subtle—carried two distinct killing intents as they locked onto the arrogant goblin.
Gyrus's pupils contracted violently.
He hadn't expected the two women to strike so decisively, much less for their attacks to be so swift.
Yet, just as the icicle was about to pierce his chest and the arrow was about to penetrate his brow—
A massive dark shadow abruptly appeared in front of Gyrus.
"ROAR!"
The yeti, Noinam, let out a deafening roar.
Its enormous palm shot forward, instantly materializing a thick ice shield in its center.
BOOM!
The icicle slammed into the ice shield with a heavy thud.
Violent frost energy erupted outward but failed to even budge the shield.
Immediately after, the silent arrow struck the shield with a faint tink, its tip blunted by the shield's hardness and harmlessly bouncing away.
Noinam stood as steady as a mountain. Its crimson eyes, fixed on Su Wan and Xia Lian, radiated a predatory ferocity.
"Not bad, my champions."
Gyrus peeked out from behind Noinam, his oily "everything's under control" smile back in place. Yet, deep in his eyes, a trace of lingering terror remained.
"Is this what you call resistance?" he sneered. "So crude, not elegant at all! But... I do enjoy this kind of wild challenge!"
He licked his lips, his gaze sweeping over Lin Qingyue and her teammates once more, filled with a sick, greedy hunger.
"Since you love to play so much, I'll indulge you... in a game of death!"
Gyrus abruptly raised his hand and pointed at Lin Qingyue's group, his voice laced with a chilling cold. "Noinam! Noth! Korrak! Tear these unappreciative 'dowry gifts' to shreds! Then, forge their souls into my most perfect collection!"
At his command, the three terrifying BOSSes began to advance simultaneously.
With each step, the yeti Noinam's massive body made the cavern floor tremble. It exhaled chilling frost as it charged straight toward the shield formation where Lin Xiyue stood.
The lantern in Plaguebringer Noth's hand flared with an eerie light. A thick, ink-green plague aura slithered like a living venomous snake toward the Elven Mage formation.
The Frost Troll Korrak raised its crudely crafted metal club. Furious frost energy gathered at its tip, aimed directly at the Elven Ranger line.
At the same time, the tide of monsters surging forward let out earth-shattering roars and launched an all-out assault on the Elven Frontline!
The battle was about to erupt!
"All units, heed my command!" Ilanier's voice was as crisp as ice, yet carried an undeniable authority.
"Knight Order, hold the line! Mage Order, concentrate your fire, purify the plague, and support the front! Ranger Order, fire at will, prioritize enemy command units!"
Lin Qingyue suddenly spoke up:
"Leave the Plaguebringer to me. I specialize in dealing with the undead!"