Chapter 0121: Victory and Defeat

At this moment, Alice was absolutely furious.

Once she unleashed her full potential, Alice, gifted with an affinity for space, fully demonstrated the terrifying nature of spatial sorcery. With a light tearing motion of her delicate, fair hands, she fashioned spatial rifts that resembled strings of black pearl necklaces, then kneaded and molded them into various unimaginable weapon forms.

"Crescent Moon Blades," "Dark Spears" resembling javelins, spherical "Blast Orbs"...

Following Alice’s shrill screams, a barrage of bizarre weapons, far beyond what Greem had imagined, whistled toward "them." The cutting and piercing power of these spatial fragments was truly horrifying.

A "Crescent Moon Blade" silently swept past Greem’s side, slicing two of his mirrors clean in half, while the Flame Shield and high-temperature force field it grazed suffered an inexplicable, perfectly shaped void matching the weapon.

It seemed that ordinary defensive sorcery was utterly ineffective against the spatial sorcery Alice conjured so effortlessly. Before the higher-order fundamental rules of spatial magic, any elemental sorcery was like a soap bubble, popped at the slightest touch; they were simply not on the same level.

If Alice were allowed to bomb them at will, even if Greem summoned a sea of magical constructs, he would struggle to save his own life. Seeing that he could not defend against her attacks, Greem gritted his teeth and ordered his construct squad to counter-attack, using offensive pressure to disrupt the frequency of Alice’s strikes.

And so, a magnificent firework display erupted within the "cramped" confines of the birdcage.

Almost every time Alice reappeared in a new position via spatial teleportation, the Lightning Giant, fast in pursuit, would inundate the area with violent arc lightning. Immediately following that would be the Fire Djinn’s long-range flame throws and the Water Elemental’s Frost Nova.

Although the spatial barrier around Alice was once touted as "impenetrable," it faced a Greem who could discern its "weak points," supported by a group of fearless combatants. A newly erected spatial barrier rarely lasted more than a single round before shattering into fragments. And in that brief window, she could usually only complete one long-range attack.

Although she managed to teleport away before her barrier collapsed each time, this constant cycle of teleporting and attacking placed a heavy burden on Alice. Every time her barrier broke, she had to retreat to a distance to repair her defenses before beginning the next round. Once she teleported to Greem’s side, even with her swift casting and sharp spatial sorcery, she only had time for one strike before she had to flee. Any slight error in movement would result in being scorched by explosive fireballs or frozen by deep-blue ice rings.

Even more terrifying was the bombardment of high-voltage electricity!

After only seven rounds, Alice’s lovely pale yellow dress was reduced to rags, and her beloved golden hair stood on end, scorched by the violent current into a pitch-black, frizzy bird's nest. Her exposed skin was covered in burn and frostbite marks, turning blue and purple—a truly heart-wrenching sight.

Conversely, on Greem’s side, nine of his twelve mirrors had been destroyed. The remaining three were mixed in with his true form, making it difficult to distinguish the real from the fake. As for the construct squad, they stood guard firmly by Greem’s side, waiting for Alice to throw her life away.

The Lightning Giant hovered in mid-air, crackling with lightning and thunder, its cyan body occasionally flashing with blinding electrical arcs. Above its head, a massive thunderstorm was brewing; the funnel-shaped black clouds covered nearly half the birdcage’s interior.

Looking at this imposing Lightning Giant, Alice clenched her small fists in resentment, wishing she could wipe it from existence with her most violent spatial sorcery. She had suffered such severe injuries precisely because of this hateful giant.

It had to be said that the speed and frequency of lightning-based sorcery were the highest of all. Every time her spatial barrier shattered, the one capable of catching her silhouette and striking her was the Lightning Giant’s cursed lightning blast. Moreover, its arc lightning possessed a slight numbing effect.

This slowed Alice’s escape just enough to result in a brutal beating by elemental sorcery.

As a direct descendant of Endor, Alice possessed countless hidden sorcery amulets and elemental charms. Yet, even so, she could not withstand such violent elemental devastation. The amulets used to insulate against elemental attacks shattered within three rounds. The elemental charms used to boost resistance were likewise destroyed one by one under the overwhelming assault.

Eventually, with her elemental resistance steadily declining, Alice was fighting purely on stubborn willpower. When her mental energy neared exhaustion, she would retreat to the perimeter to gulp down a large bottle of sorcery potion, and moments later, she would be back, revitalized and bursting with energy. When her mana ran low, she would guzzle a mana potion and return to full capacity.

Supported by bottle after bottle of potions, Alice turned into an "indestructible cockroach," crazily charging Greem’s construct squad again and again. The Fire Djinn was sliced apart by spatial blades twice, only to be summoned a third time by Greem. The two water elementals were also riddled with holes; if they were not elementals capable of absorbing stray energy to repair their forms, they would have disintegrated long ago.

The only one in the construct squad looking relatively intact was the Lightning Giant. But even so, under successive rounds of spatial attacks, it had become maimed and broken. When Alice realized it was difficult to strike Greem directly, she shifted her target, focusing her attacks on the Lightning Giant, which posed the greatest threat.

This tactical adjustment yielded immediate results. One of the Lightning Giant’s arms vanished. The wind-element crystal core hidden within the arm was shattered by a spatial blade, causing that part of its body to disintegrate, beyond the ability to reform.

Unfortunately, she changed her guerrilla tactics too late. Just as Alice successfully destroyed the giant's left arm, its swift lightning whip shattered her spatial protection and wrapped around her petite frame.

The next second, a violent pillar of scorching flame and a frost crystal explosion engulfed her position. Before Greem could see the result of the beating, a thunderous, egg-shaped shockwave erupted from where Alice stood. The area swept by the shockwave saw the very space shatter like a mirror. With space fractured and the void vibrating, all matter in that area was annihilated and reorganized; all living beings within it were instantly wiped from existence.

The Lightning Giant was the closest; though it fled early, a large portion of its body was still caught in the spatial collapse. With a flash of light, it reappeared 300 meters away, but only half its torso and head remained. The rest had been sliced away by the spatial fissures. The Fire Djinn’s battered body collapsed once more.

Greem, hiding in the distance, felt his facial muscles twitch. The charges for summoning Fire Djinns on his Flame Lord’s Scepter were exhausted; there would be no more today.

The violent spatial shockwave expanded rapidly. Even with his Haste spell, Greem barely managed to escape its range. The two water elementals dissolved into waves of water to flee, but one was overtaken by the shockwave and instantly turned into a spray of mist. The last one managed to escape, reformed its body by Greem’s side, and stood guard, alert.

Once the spatial fissures at the core of the shockwave began to slowly mend, Greem stopped and looked back through the dense swathe of spatial fragments to find Alice.

At this moment, Alice looked as fierce and violent as a goddess! Her dress was torn to shreds, revealing her delicate, lovely frame. She kept her eyes tightly shut, fists clenched, head thrown back in a silent scream. The shockwave that had swept half the cage was the final strike she had unleashed under the stimulus of extreme danger.

After that attack, the spatial energy within her was completely depleted.

Blood-red tears leaked from the corners of her tightly shut eyes. Her tender, frail body drifted down from the air like a withered leaf shivering in the cold wind.

She had lost!

She had been defeated in the fairest of duels by an enemy she had looked down upon! This ruthless reality stung Alice’s heart, leaving her so drained of strength that she only wanted to fall and die right there in the cage, never having to face the reality she refused to acknowledge!

However, the next moment, her cold, frail body was caught in a warm embrace. Then, a robe with an unfamiliar scent was draped over her.

Opening her blurred eyes to look at that indelible figure, Alice murmured, "You... jerk," before gracefully fainting. Greem, looking at the frail little girl in his arms, couldn't help but scream internally: "You can't die! You absolutely cannot die! Otherwise, that witch grandmother of yours will surely go berserk..."

Space rippled.

The scenery changed, and Greem felt his arms grow light; Alice had been snatched away by the Hag Endor.

After placing Alice on the ground and checking her repeatedly to ensure her faint was merely due to excessive exhaustion, the Hag finally eased her mind. She turned to stare at Greem for a long while, until he felt his skin crawl, before she wore a sinister smile, more hideous than a cry: "Kid, you're good! You're very good... I'll remember you!"

After delivering these cryptic words, the Hag picked up Alice, mounted her broom, and vanished into the horizon in an instant.

Only the swamp group remained, staring at each other in stunned silence.

Today’s events were just too damn bizarre!