Chapter 212: Chapter 66. Gustarte (4)
Krithli felt a little sympathy for Rakikan. She could hardly imagine how helpless she would feel when her enemies were right in front of her, but she could not stop them.
She had taken more than half of her master’s army. There was no way Rakikan would be able to defend his castle against this attack. Krithli had seen other archdukes’ dungeons, and she was confident that the army, which she was leading, was powerful enough to threaten even archdukes’ dungeons.
It did not take more than an hour for Krithli and her monsters to penetrate through half of the dungeon, which had 20 floors. They advanced swiftly that it felt as though they were simply passing by.
“He’s trying to play tricks…”
Looking at the outer wall of the dungeon, Krithli found some monsters flying in the air, and she clicked her tongue. The dark elf suspected that Rakikan had sent the monster to send a message to Archduke Ufa.
Krithli would not let the monster escape the dungeon.
When she swung her cane, a black crow appeared and flew towards the monsters. Then it quickly snatched the few monsters that just escaped the dungeon. The poor demon failed to call for help again.
‘Now it is just a matter of time. I must think of ways to trap Gustarte,’ she thought.
Krithli did not care about Rakikan’s resistance in the first place. All she had in mind was Gustarte, the Wizard of the Moon.
Her dungeon master warned her many times. He told her that Gustarte was very powerful and that she must review her strategies multiple times before confronting the wizard.
The dark elf needed to move very carefully.
She had to decoy and capture the wizard with no mistake.
Conquering the dungeon was not her purpose—it was the wizard.
The dark elf expected that she and her army would suffer some damage while carrying out this mission. She would try her best to minimize casualties.
Krithli had taken most of her master’s forces with her, and if she lost all of them, the loss would be critical to her master.
Without these monsters, Randalf would be cornered. The dark elf had faith in her master that he would come back no matter how severe the loss would be. However, Krithli wanted to prevent any threats for her master in the first place. She was determined to do her best and accomplish her mission successfully.
Boom!
The dungeon shook violently.
It seemed that the highest monsters and Rakikan’s monsters started fighting against each other.
“I need to prepare,” Krithli muttered.
The dark elf took out small stones that contained her mana.
Krithli inherited the power of Ganak, the King of Death.
His power was somewhat special that he always had to focus his mana in one place.
Following Ganak’s legacy, Krithli had been accumulating her mana into these stones ever since she had awakened. The dark elf was going to release all of the sealed mana in this mission. The amount of accumulated mana was so large that it would easily knock off one of the highest monsters at once.
The dark elf spread the stones on the floor, and she created three portals. In the center, she stuck her cane.
The preparation was simple, and Krithli was now ready.
She needed to wait until the fight between her monsters and Rakikan’s monsters ended.
‘How long will they hold? Ten minutes? Twenty minutes?’ she wondered.
Her monsters were dominating their enemies with their overwhelming power. The dark elf did not like such a strategy, but she admitted that it was one of the most efficient ones.
Her dungeon master could have employed this strategy and conquered many more dungeons. However, he refrained from using this approach because he valued efficiency more than a large number of dungeons. A large number of dungeons would be hard to manage. If he conquered a dungeon or two at a time, he could slowly expand his territories without getting caught by other archdukes.
Krithli’s prediction turned out to be true. The fight did end shortly—in about 15 minutes—and the dungeon became quiet.
The dark elf knew that her monsters would not stop unless their enemies were wiped out, so she considered silence as the sign that the battle ended.
‘Now I need to lure Gustarte,’ Krithli thought.
Half of her plan had worked out so far.
At that very moment, the dark elf frowned.
She felt the flow of a tremendous amount of mana. It was so pure and powerful that it broke down the protection of the dungeon at once.
Crack!
The dark elf heard a sudden, loud cracking sound.
The next moment, Krithli realized that the 20th floor vanished without a trace.
The sky darkened, and the moon appeared.
Gustarte was released at last.
Boom!
Titan fell to the top floor of the dungeon. When the large body hit the floor, the earth shook as though there was an earthquake.
The monster was not breathing, as though it were dead. Not only was its body not moving, but also one of its arms was gone.
“What the…?”
Krithli knew that Gustarte attacked Titan, but she did not expect that Titan would be defeated so easily.
Soon, the highest monsters, which Krithli had brought with her, went wild. Griffin started to continuously spit lightning and flame. Hydra also attempted to fight the wizard. However, seven of its heads were chopped off, and only then did the monster surrender.
Krithli could spot neither Rakikan nor his monsters anywhere nearby.
“It’s not going to work,” she realized.
Now that Rakikan and his monsters disappeared, the dark elf did not have to block the flow of mana from the dungeon. She collected the mana, which she had spread in various places, and the dark elf concentrated her mana to the three portals.
Gustarte’s attack was much more powerful than she had expected, but she was also prepared, too.
The dark elf had instructed her monsters to gather around her when the wizard appeared. Krithli’s monsters panicked for a moment, but they soon regained their composure and started to retreat.
Krithli concentrated all of her mana even more, and she took out the small stone.
This was her secret weapon. Her master gave it to her. It was made of special material. The dark elf had received this stone not long ago, and she did not want to use it. However, the situation was urgent, and she did not have any other options.
“If this works, my monsters will have some time to escape,” she deemed.
The three magic portals started to shine brightly. Then the mana increased dramatically, as though there was an explosion. Krithli directed the flow of the mana to the stone.
The stone devoured the mana.
When the stone finished absorbing the mana, Krithli spoke out loud, “The Queen of the Sun and the Moon.”
She was about to use the most powerful skill that she had, which was the Queen of the Sun and the Moon (Epic).
The dark elf added two contradicting types of mana to the stone, and it kept on burning and cooling down.
Now, the amount of the mana contained in the stone was beyond what Krithli could control.
If the stone absorbed the mana at this rate, it would explode soon.
Krithli looked at Gustarte, and she activated her skill towards the wizard.
Buzz!
Soon, the stone emitted a beam, and it struck Gustarte at a tremendous speed.
The wizard, who was casting spells, paused for a moment.
Gustarte had been invisible so far. He had canceled all physical attacks and neutralized most of the skill attacks. However, the beam, which came from the stone, caught him off guard.
The mana, which came from the stone, burned the space where Gustarte could barely fit. It froze the rest of the area around it. Such a process was repeated many times in the blink of an eye.
“It’s working,” Krithli observed.
Krithli realized that the power of the stone made the mana even more powerful. Had it not been the stone, the mana could only tease the wizard.
“Spread out!”
When Gustarte stopped moving, the rest of the monsters started to escape. All of the monsters, except for those who had feet, had to exit the dungeon according to Krithli’s plan.
“Come on…,” Krithli urged.
Gustarte was starting to move slowly. Krithli realized that her skill would not hold the wizard for long.
She did not have any backup plans. All she could do that this point was to hope that the ends would meet.
The monsters successfully got out of the dungeon. As soon as they left the dungeon, Gustarte became free. The escape was very close, and Krithli’s hand sweat while watching the scene.
The dark elf dispersed the monsters on the ground, and she tried to decoy the wizard with aerial monsters that could move faster than those on the ground.
Her dungeon master told her that he could have gotten away from Gustarte by flying at the speed of a dragon. The dark elf remembered his words, and she devised her plan accordingly.
Krithli believed that Griffin and King Wyvern could fly as fast as a dragon and that they would be able to decoy the wizard. In addition, she brought a dragon with her to this mission.
The dark elf found it odd that she had to retreat with such powerful monsters. Had it been some other enemies, she could have easily crushed them. However, Gustarte was a different creature, and Krithli had to play it safe.
“That’s good enough.” Krithli was satisfied.
The dark elf then started to execute the second half of her plan.
Gustarte seemed to have lost himself completely. Furthermore, he did not seem to be able to think.
Anyone could tell that Krithli was trying to lure the wizard, but Gustarte did not stop chasing her.
She had planted hundreds of small stones in a location, and she was going to bait the wizard to that place for the final attack.
The dark elf thought that if one stone could hold the wizard for a couple of minutes, hundreds of them could seal the wizard almost permanently.
“I never knew that large slime would work on a god,” she commented.
Krithli snickered at Gustarte, who was now riding Griffin and following her from behind.
The large slime had been a headache in the past. It caused a lot of troubles to the count and his dungeon, but her master transformed it to armor.
Randalf collected the residue of the slime, broke them down to even finer pieces, and put them together. The result was the stones that Krithli had just used, and they worked quite well on Gustarte.
Her master had a chance to fight the wizard in the past. After the fight, Randalf was hurt in some areas of his body. However, the parts covered by his armor, as well as the armor itself, remained intact. Based on such an observation, Randalf decided to make a specialized weapon for Gustarte from the parts of the slime where his armor was made out of.
Krithli respected her master for he was quick and bold enough to transform his experience into a specialized weapon.
“It’s working,” she noticed.
Krithli nodded.
She successfully deceived the wizard and led him to the prepared location.
She and her army did suffer some damages during the process, but they were not too bad. If she could seal the wizard, then the mission would be completed.
When Krithli neared the mountain range, where her stones were prepared, the dark elf thought about the activation word that would mobilize hundreds of stones at once.
Activating the stones was very simple since the mana of the stones were all linked to Krithli.
Soon, Krithli spoke, “Activate.”
Boom!
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