Chapter 418: The Last Stand (2)
Sansa Valerion’s new demonic instincts shouldn’t have cared about someone like Frey, who seemed like an insect compared to her when she stood there above.
But despite that ..
Frey had been staring up at her just a second ago...
But in the very next moment, Sansa vanished from the sky, leaving the battle behind her. She emerged from the shadows below, suddenly standing right in front of him.
Face to face with the demonic princess, the first thing that caught his attention was the pair of long horns that now made her the same height as him.
But her appearance was the least of his concerns right now...
The princess, too, gazed at him in silence. Unlike her, however, Frey was still the same person .. the same familiar face she had always known ..
And that alone made her suppress her monstrous instincts, regaining a sense of reality and remembering their situation.
"Sansa..."
Grabbing her slender yet incredibly sturdy shoulders ..
Frey wasted no time getting to the point.
"I need your power."
Hearing that, a smile unconsciously returned to Sansa’s face.
"Wow... is that all you have to say to me right now?"
With a faint chuckle, she pointed to the dark horns sprouting from the top of her head.
"Look... I’m a demon now. Maybe you should be a little more cautious about getting this close to me."
Hearing that, a hint of a frown crossed Frey’s face, but he said nothing.
Despite everything, Sansa could clearly read the emotions written across his face.
Her senses and awareness of reality had grown incredibly sharp .. especially now that she had become a demon.
She had already noticed the reactions of the Elite Class members to her new form.
Even though she was one of them, their gazes revealed a complex mix of emotions:
Fear. Disgust. Even hatred.
All of it directed at her new demonic nature. It was expected.
The Sansa they knew—the human Sansa—had been their comrade.
But this demonic Sansa... the princess knew full well that if she returned to the Empire, no human would welcome her after what she had become.
She had already been met with discrimination by those who learned of her powers when she merely possessed demonic abilities.
It wasn’t hard to imagine their reactions now that she had fully turned into a demon.
Without even realizing it, Sansa no longer saw the Empire as her home. This was why her instincts had driven her to fight with such unrestrained brutality.
Somewhere deep inside, perhaps she simply wanted to fight and die here... to bury the filthy form she had become.
But despite all of that, Frey was different.
Even after she had turned into a creature all humans despised without exception, he still looked at her the same way he always had.
That was the only reason she had left the battle above and descended to him now, of all people.
Frey was crazy, a little strange compared to other humans. This was expected of him.
In the end, without grand speeches or dramatic declarations ..
Frey had drawn the princess to him with nothing but the expression on his face.
Sansa made her decision.
"I’ll help you. But I’m warning you—they won’t leave us alone."
Turning with that same smile, Sansa stood in front, facing Beatrice and Gavid, who were closing in to attack.
But Frey wasn’t too concerned about them.
"It’s fine. We’ll handle it."
Frey urged the princess to stay close to him. As a result ..
Only Gavid Lindman charged in for close combat, while Beatrice continued bombarding them from a distance, refusing to take another step forward.
Anti-Magic Field: Activated.
The moment he activated it, the area around Frey became an anti-magic zone, forcing Beatrice to keep her distance.
"If you stay close to me, that witch won’t come near. That leaves Lindman as your only concern!"
Frey shouted, trying to keep up with Sansa as she rushed forward to clash with Gavid.
But there was little need for him to worry. Sansa wrapped a dark hand of shadows around Frey, holding him protectively as she continued fighting.
"That’s... pretty amazing."
Now that she faced Gavid one-on-one, she was no longer surrounded. She could fight much more freely.
Tendrils of shadow erupted from all directions, trying to tear the Lord of the Ultras apart.
"You think you can take me down with attacks like these?"
Forming more and more black holes around him, Gavid’s whirlpools swallowed Sansa’s strikes effortlessly as he cut through the shadows with his sword, its blade glowing with dark light.
In response, Sansa gathered a terrifying amount of shadow Aura into her hand and blocked his sword with her bare fist.
The collision triggered a violent explosion of destructive energy that shook the battlefield.
Trading blows at incredible speed, the two engaged in close combat, each trying to break the other’s defenses.
Gavid Lindman was incredibly strong, dodging most of Sansa’s attacks.
But breaking through her defenses was nearly impossible, especially with those shadows moving around her like a sentient being with a will of its own.
Trapped in close-range combat, all Gavid could do was curse in frustration.
"What the hell is that damned whore doing?!"
And by "that whore," he meant Beatrice .. who had pulled back without warning, content to continue attacking from a distance, her spells deflected by Sansa’s shadow blades.
Glancing at Beatrice, Frey realized his plan was working ... at least for now.
"Beatrice doesn’t know the actual range of the anti-magic field. She won’t risk getting close..."
Unaware that the anti-magic field only extended five meters at most, Frey was certain that the ever-cautious Beatrice wouldn’t dare approach.
But that wouldn’t last long. It was only a matter of seconds before she figured it out.
"Hurry, Sansa..."
"I know!" she snapped, clearly annoyed, forced to deal with both Gavid and Beatrice at the same time.
Gathering the power of her shadows, Sansa prepared a devastating attack against Gavid Lindman, who stood before her.
"Shadow Maelstrom!"
With a single gesture, the shadows around her spun violently, forming a massive vortex of cutting blades and writhing tendrils that stormed toward Gavid Lindman without mercy.
The Lord of the Ultras had no choice but to retreat from the devastating range of the attack, pulling back to safety.
Sansa’s strike destroyed everything around them, creating the perfect cover.
And in that moment, neither Gavid nor Beatrice noticed as both the princess and Frey vanished, slipping away into the shadows.
Sansa Valerion’s shadow enveloped the entire battlefield. And then, out of nowhere ..
Dozens of dark hands emerged, grabbing the members of the Elite Class one by one and forcefully dragging them into her shadow.
Seeing this, Beatrice instantly realized what Sansa was trying to do.
"I won’t allow it."
Hovering high above them, Beatrice wasn’t foolish enough to risk getting close to that shadow, afraid that Frey might ambush her at any moment.
So she chose the simpler path .. obliterate them all in one devastating strike.
"You will all die here and now!"
With a violent wave of her staff, she began to cast one of the most terrifying spells in her arsenal.
The sky trembled and split open, as if tearing a gateway to whatever monstrosity lay beyond.
From that rift, a pair of sticky hands began to claw their way out with overwhelming force.
And in mere moments, everyone on the battlefield saw it ..
A crimson eye peering down from the heavens, belonging to some grotesque creature Beatrice had summoned from the void.
"Kill them for me."
The thing was enormous.
It wouldn’t spare friend or foe alike, filling Gavid Lindman with mounting fury.
"Is that wretched witch planning to kill everyone on the battlefield with this attack?!"
This was no simple spell.
The sky itself had become a portal, unleashing the creature’s monstrous hands upon the battlefield below, aiming straight for the shadow beneath them.
Beatrice intended to crush them all in one fell swoop.
But at that critical moment, a torrent of roaring flames erupted between the monstrous hands, burning them violently and halting their advance toward Frey and his allies.
It was none other than Phoenix, soaring into the sky, his body ablaze.
"Phoenix..."
Beatrice immediately recognized him .. the strongest talent of his generation.
Phoenix Sunlight was powerful enough to repel both Godfrey and Gvardiol, who had been fighting him at the same time.
And now, he was targeting her.
With Sansa gathering all the Elite into her shadow and Phoenix shielding them from above ..
The battle had become a race against time.
Would they reach the portal and escape?
Or would Beatrice strike first and wipe them all out?
In that moment, the fate of the Elite rested solely in the hands of Sansa and Phoenix, ready to bring this desperate struggle to its conclusion.