By the time Alicia woke up, the sky had already mostly darkened.
She immediately sat up straight on the camel's back, swept her gaze over the surrounding servants and guards, and finally looked in the direction of the oasis.
There, greyish-yellow dust was churning, staining half the sky a turbid color.
“Your Highness.”
The voice of the captain of the guard came from her side. He knelt on one knee, his tone laced with clear guilt. “This subordinate took the liberty of bringing you away from the oasis. Please punish me, Your Highness.”
The guard's words did not anger Alicia. The absence of Elon in the group was enough to explain everything, so she said in a low voice, “Rise.”
The captain of the guard did not move. This behavior made the princess feel somewhat irritated, and her tone sharpened. “I said, rise.”
Only then did the captain of the guard slowly stand up, but he kept his head lowered, not daring to look at the princess.
“Was it Instructor's order?”
“...Yes.”
The guard did not dare to hide the truth. Alicia nodded without saying more. She of course knew why Elon had done this, but the more she understood, the more irritated she felt.
The wind from the oasis had already reached this far. Even as the scorching wind blew against her face, Alicia remained silent.
“Your Highness, should we retreat?”
After a long pause, the captain of the guard carefully asked.
Meanwhile, Alicia was thinking. She pondered whether she should insist on defying her instructor's decision to go back and help them, or simply head to Greystone Post to preserve her current core team and personnel.
This was undoubtedly the safest choice, but she found herself completely unable to voice it.
Ultimately, she made her decision. “We stay.”
The captain of the guard looked troubled. Just as he was about to advise her further, the princess continued, “We will stay here and see just how far they can go.”
The princess pulled up the hood of her sand-resistant robe to cover half her face, but her violet eyes remained fixed on the distant oasis.
Meanwhile, at the very center of the storm, Shane was crouching behind a bone wall, his mouth and nose tightly wrapped with cloth strips.
The wind was so strong that even opening his mouth slightly would cause countless grains of sand to flood in.
Shane searched for Ksaz through the howling sand and spotted him near a few skeletons.
He was currently pulling Karu and the others close, warning them to be careful not to be blown away by the sandstorm, while the skeletons around him had already been knocked askew by the gale.
Shane cut off the mana flowing to the skeletons and walked over to Ksaz, shouting over the wind, “Leave this place! I've set up some bone walls where the wind is weaker. Take your clansmen there to shelter from the sandstorm!”
But Ksaz did not leave immediately. Instead, he reported the progress of laying down the straw checkerboards to Shane. “Sir, most of the unlaid wheat straw has been blown away! The rest that could be buried in the sand has already been buried.”
“Good, that's enough. Hurry and lead the others over there!”
Shane pointed out the direction to Ksaz, watching him lead his clansmen behind the bone walls for shelter, while he himself continued forward.
Before long, he spotted Elon.
The old druid's upper body was covered in sand and dust, and fine red welts had even begun to appear on his exposed skin. His dark green hair was a disheveled mess in the wind, but he still tightly clutched two Living Soil Pouches in his hands.
“I've used five of them. There's no time left for the rest.”
The moment he saw Shane, Elon reported the situation, but the sandstorm immediately forced a mouthful of dust down his throat. He coughed violently several times before continuing, “The core area is basically covered. I've done my best for the outer areas.”
Shane nodded and shouted back, “I've set up everything I can as well! I had Sara retreat first; she can't help much in this situation anymore.”
With that, both of them looked at the surrounding sandstorm. Their vision had begun to blur, and only the howling of the wind and sand could be heard. Only a few straw checkerboards and a handful of plants occasionally appeared in their line of sight.
“It's the final step.”
Shane turned his head to look at Elon again, his tone solemn. “Just like last time with the quicksand, use the force of life and the strength of the plants to stabilize the chaotic mana particles.”
Elon froze for a moment, then let out a bitter smile. “This time is different. I can feel that the power contained in this wind is on a completely different level compared to the quicksand.”
“But... perhaps it is worth a try. After all, it hasn't fully formed yet.”
Then, Elon turned around. Allowing the sandstorm to batter his body, he searched for the direction of the pool and took a step forward.
Shane squinted and steadily followed behind Elon.
The two of them bent their waists, pushing against the wind and sand as they slowly nudged their way toward the pool. What was clearly a distance of just a few steps took them nearly two minutes to cross.
When they finally stepped onto the edge of the pool, the scene before them made Shane's heart tremble.
The pioneer species he had accelerated with death magic were currently swaying violently against the howling gale, their leaves rustling loudly in the wind.
Yet, they still stood tall, refusing to fall.
By now, Elon was standing by the edge of the pool with his eyes closed. He raised both hands, palms facing upward, as a vibrant green light surged from his body.
Then, Shane felt it—the surrounding plants began to respond to Elon.
The seabuckthorn, Red Willows, and Suosuo were all trembling slightly. A majestic force of life seeped from every single plant, flowing along their roots and stems into the ground, surging toward Elon.
“Hah...”
Elon let out a low grunt, his entire body beginning to tremble, but he did not stop. The vibrant green light began to rise from the ground, enveloping him entirely and growing brighter by the second.
Then, a sapling composed entirely of vibrant green light emerged from the surface of the pool's center. It sprouted, grew, and rapidly shot upward. Within just a few breaths, it had risen to seven or eight meters high, and it was still growing.
What started as a small tree saw its trunk thicken and branches stretch outward, transforming into a massive tree. Countless leaves sprouted, and the canopy grew dense, until finally, a towering tree nearly a hundred meters tall stood majestically over the pool.
“Hymn of Life!”
Elon suddenly snapped his eyes open, a low roar bursting from his throat.
Instantly, a vibrant green shockwave erupted from the trunk of the giant tree, spreading in all directions with the tree at its center.
Wherever the light passed, the wind and sand ceased, the dust settled, and the greyish-yellow barrier of the sandstorm was forcefully torn open, leaving a gaping rift.
In the distance, the princess, who had been staring intently at the scene, widened her eyes.
“What is that?”
The guards were also stunned. Everyone looked up, watching the vibrant green light explode from the center of the storm, pushing away a massive expanse of the dust filling the sky.
But at the center of the storm, this miraculous sight lasted for less than ten breaths.
The leaves of the giant tree began to fall, and the entire tree withered at a speed visible to the naked eye. A moment later, it dissolved into a shower of spring rain, scattering all around.
Elon collapsed to his knees, panting heavily. Supporting his exhausted body, he looked around.
The wind and sand seemed to have stopped, and a clear sky appeared.
“Did we succeed?”
Behind a bone wall, Karu carefully poked his head out to look around. Seeing that the sandstorm had stopped, a hesitant look of joy appeared on his face. “It... it stopped!”
He raised his arms, unable to contain his excitement as he shouted, “The wind has died down! We—”
His voice cut off abruptly, and the expression on Karu's face completely froze.
For in his line of sight, high in the sky above the oasis, a crack suddenly split open in the otherwise darkening heavens.
The crack slowly opened like an eye, its pitch-black void fringed with a dark purple glow. The surrounding air was stirred by it, producing a grating, teeth-aching hum.
“W-What is that?”
Karu's voice trembled as he instinctively shrank back behind the bone wall.
In the next second, the wind and sand that had stopped began to swirl once more, even more violently and furiously than before. Sand, carried by waves of wind, crashed down on everyone like a solid wall.
Even the bone walls that had been petrified by Sara began to develop cracks under the onslaught of the wind and sand.
Elon lay flat on his back on the ground, staring up at the pitch-black crack slowly opening in the sky. His lips parted, but his words ultimately dissolved into a soft sigh:
“As expected... is it still not enough?”
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