Chương 91: CHAPTER 89: THE LIGHT OVER THE HORIZON

The heavy iron emergency bells on the northern watchtower were still ringing across the dark valley, their sharp metallic sound echoing off the steep mountain slopes and cutting through the cold night air. Down in the outer woods, five miles north of the lower delta slums, the dispatched guild rescue party moved through the dense pine forest at full speed. The team comprised six veteran adventurers from the central town guild.

At the front ran Garrett, a tall, broad-shouldered vanguard warrior whose steel plate armor clattered rhythmically with every long stride. Beside him was Varis, an elven grand mage wrapped in midnight-blue robes, holding a polished ash-wood staff tipped with a glowing cyan mana crystal. Behind them followed two high-tier scouts holding short hunting bows, a cleric with a wooden shield strapped to her arm, and a young runner carrying the emergency rescue lantern.

"Keep your pace up!" Garrett called over his shoulder, his iron boots sinking deep into the damp pine needles.

"The watchtower signal flared red three minutes ago! Sector 9 has suffered a total subterranean collapse! If the Mother Slime hive or the cave beast stampede breaks past the lower tree line, the whole town will be overrun before morning!"

"The mana density in the air is rising too fast!" Varis said, his long ears twitching as he felt the heavy pressure rolling through the dark forest. His eyes scanned the shadows between the massive pine trunks, watching the cyan crystal on his staff flicker erratically.

"This isn't standard beast magic or a simple cave-in, Garrett. Something is draining the ambient mana straight out of the soil. The wild mana lines beneath our feet are twisting toward the center of Sector 9!"

"Could it be the royal mages?" the cleric asked, breathless as she struggled to keep up with the vanguard's long strides.

"The messenger said Duke Vane's envoy brought an arch-mage team into the lower vaults!"

"No," Varis answered sharply.

"Imperial fire magic produces heavy heat trails and thick sulfur smoke. Look around you. The air isn't getting warmer. It's turning freezing cold." The team pushed through a thick patch of wild thorn bushes, breaking out onto a wide, open clearing directly above the deep rocky ravine where the Sector 9 mining shaft was located. The view before them made every single adventurer freeze in their tracks. The entire forest basin below was silent.

The terrifying roar of the thousands of stampeding beasts that had been screaming through the trees just moments earlier had completely ceased. There were no growls, no thudding of monster paws on the dirt, and no snapping of tree branches. Even the night wind had died down to absolute zero.

"Where... where are the beasts?" the young runner stammered, his hands trembling so violently he nearly dropped the brass lantern.

"The watchtower scout said there were over two hundred Level-40 cave crawlers and rock golems coming down the ridge! Why is it so quiet?!" Garrett slowed to a halt at the edge of the rocky ledge. He drew his massive silver broadsword from his back sheath, his knuckles turning white around the leather grip.

"Stay sharp," Garrett warned, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the dark ravine.

"This isn't normal. A stampede doesn't just stop mid-chase." Before Varis could cast a basic scrying rune to check the subterranean shaft, the ground beneath their boots stopped vibrating altogether. The sudden silence was unnatural, heavy, and suffocating. Then, from deep inside the rocky mouth of the Sector 9 shaft, the sky exploded. It was not an explosion of orange fire. It was not a burst of thunderous kinetic force or a wave of black smoke.

A SILENT, OMNIDIRECTIONAL FLASH OF BLINDING WHITE LIGHT ERUPTED FROM THE RAVINE. Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit. The light did not shoot upward like a beam. It burst outward in a massive, perfect sphere of pure energy, rising over two hundred feet into the night sky in a fraction of a second. It passed through solid granite cliffs, ancient pine trees, and deep dirt layers as if the physical world did not exist at all.

The sheer visual intensity of the light illuminated the entire northern ridge, turning the pitch-black night into a blinding, shadowless midday for miles in every direction.

"DOWN!" Varis screamed. The elven mage did not wait for his party members to react. He slammed the butt of his polished ash-wood staff hard against the rocky ledge beneath his boots.

"AETHEL-VALE: ABSOLUTE MANA SHIELD!" Varis chanted frantically, his voice strained as he channeled every ounce of his elven mana core into the cyan crystal. FLASH-THUMMMMM! A massive, six-inch-thick dome of translucent purple light erupted around the six adventurers, locking into the bedrock just a split second before the shockwave of light hit their position. The wave of energy struck the barrier with terrifying force. BOOM-CRACK!

It was not a physical wind that hit the dome, but a wave of raw energy pressure so heavy that it felt like a mountain had collapsed on top of them. The ground beneath the barrier buckled downward three inches. The massive pine trees standing outside the purple dome did not break or snap—the light simply passed straight through them, causing their green needles to instantly lose their color, turn gray, and dissolve into fine dust in mid-air.

The young runner screamed, dropping to his knees inside the dome while holding his ears. The two scouts fell backward against the dirt, their hands clamped over their eyes to block out the terrifying, colorless glare. Varis gritted his teeth, his arms shaking violently as he held his staff upright against the crushing pressure. Cracks webbed across the surface of the cyan mana crystal, and thin lines of dark blood leaked from the mage's nose as his mana core strained to maintain the defensive barrier.

"Hold... the... barrier!" Garrett roared, stepping up beside Varis and pressing his heavy steel shield directly against the inside of the translucent dome to reinforce the structure with his physical aura. For twenty long seconds, the world outside the purple dome ceased to exist. There was no sound, no shadow, and no movement—only the blinding white light swallowing the mountains, the ravine, and the forest. And then, exactly twenty seconds after it had begun, the light snapped back inward. WHIRRRRR—THUD.

The blinding white sphere collapsed back down into the mouth of the Sector 9 shaft, vanishing into the deep earth as quickly as it had appeared. The night sky returned instantly, cold, dark, and filled with pale moonlight. Inside the purple dome, Varis let out a harsh, gasping breath. The cyan crystal atop his staff shattered into a dozen useless fragments, and the protective barrier dissolved into faint purple sparks that drifted harmlessly onto the dirt.

The elven mage collapsed onto one knee, resting his hand against the cold stone as he wiped the blood from his lip.

"Varis!" Garrett gasped, sheathing his broadsword and grabbing the mage's shoulder to steady him.

"Are you alright?!"

"My mana core... it's completely drained..." Varis whispered, his voice trembling as he looked up with wide, terrified eyes.

"Garrett... that wasn't elemental magic. That wasn't fire, wind, or holy light. Something inside that cavern just completely erased the biological energy of everything within a two-mile radius." Garrett turned his head slowly to look outside the area where the barrier had stood. The six adventurers gasped in absolute horror. The dense forest that had covered the ridge just moments ago was completely transformed. The ancient, fifty-foot pine trees were still standing, but they were no longer green or brown.

Their bark, needles, and branches had turned a pale, chalky gray, looking like fragile statues carved out of dry ash. On the ground lay the stampeding beasts that had been charging toward the town. There were no bodies, no blood, and no wounds. Hundreds of Level-40 Iron-Clawed Cave Crawlers, Mutated Hounds, and giant forest bears lay frozen in the dirt in the exact positions they had been running—except their flesh, hides, and bones had completely turned into fine gray dust.

As a soft night breeze blew across the clearing, the gray dust lifted off the ground, scattering into the cold air and floating away like gray snow.

"Mother of mercy..." the cleric whispered, dropping her shield onto the ground as tears filled her eyes.

"They... they were erased. Not even their skeletons are left." Garrett's face went completely pale. He took a slow step forward, his iron boot stepping on a gray ash pile that used to be an eight-foot cave crawler. The ash collapsed under his boot with a soft, hollow crunch." The rescue coordinates..." Garrett muttered, his voice barely audible over the soft wind.

"The signal came from the bottom of Sector 9. The rogue doctor... the royal knights..."

"Nothing could have survived that," the lead scout said, his voice shaking with fear as he looked down into the dark, ash-filled ravine.

"If a Level-40 rock golem was turned to dust in two seconds, a human body wouldn't even last a fraction of a second inside that light." Varis slowly pulled himself to his feet, relying on Garrett's shoulder for support. He looked toward the horizon, where the mountain pass led back down toward the town and the lower delta slums.

"We have to reach the shaft," Varis said, his voice flat and tight.

"The High Guild Master needs to know what happened here. If that light was a weapon... or a skill... the entire valley is no longer safe." Garrett nodded silently, his face set in a grim scowl. He raised his broadsword, signaling the remaining five members of the rescue team.

"Form a tight line," Garrett ordered.

"Scouts at the flanks. We descend into the ravine and check the shaft entrance. Look for any sign of survivors... or whatever released that light." The six adventurers stepped carefully off the rocky ledge, their boots crunching softly through the thick blanket of gray ash that now covered the silent, dead forest, moving steadily down into the dark abyss of Sector 9.