Chapter Ninety-Seven: A Strange Conclusion

"Do you know, Enoia?"

Walking slowly over to the thoroughly ruined patrol, Jann could barely conceal his smug satisfaction. Gazing at the corpses lying in pools of blood, the corners of his lips curled upward into a self-satisfied smile.

It had been a flawless ambush. The dark elves had indeed been quite cautious, but regrettably for them, they had clearly failed to notice the presence of the xenomorphs. The Underdark was riddled with caverns, and for the xenomorphs, these were practically natural hunting grounds. As for the dark elves' divine magic, it could not penetrate the thick layers of rock to scan every location with radar-like precision.

As for Jann and the others, they had been trailing far behind the dark elf patrol the entire time, never approaching close enough to scout, and thus naturally remained undiscovered.

"Having you here means I don't have to bother keeping any of them alive... but..."

Even as he spoke, Jann lifted his head and looked toward the scene ahead. There, the xenomorphs were gathered around a dark sphere, and within that sphere, another dark elf female priest stood glaring at him, drenched in blood. Her eyes looked as though they were about to spit fire.

"Some people just seem to be lucky."

Gazing at the dark elf priestess, Jann let out a cold laugh. Then he walked forward and reached out his hand, touching the dark sphere before him. The instant his hand was about to make contact with the dark orb, a powerful, frigid force suddenly rebounded from its surface, transforming into several vipers that lunged at Jann to tear into him. Witnessing this, Jann's expression did not change in the slightest. He merely let out a light snort, and soon enough, lightning descending from above utterly consumed those darting vipers, reducing them to charcoal.

"A divine power shield? It seems that mother spider does think highly of you after all, my dark elf lady."

"You dare to attack dark elves? Do you not fear the wrath of the goddess, male?!"

Lisa glared furiously at Jann before her, clenching her teeth, wishing she could tear him to shreds. As a priestess greatly favored by Lolth, Lisa's strength was already quite formidable even by Menzoberranzan's standards—some minor house matrons could not even compare to her. But even so, she shared the same weakness as other dark elves. The sudden flash of light, the explosion, and the thunderous roar had nearly left her unable to recover. Fortunately, as a priestess beloved by Lolth, she still had a few little tricks to save her own life.

As for Lisa's furious roar, Jann paid it no mind. He did not even spare her another glance. Although he was confident that with enough magical force he could shatter this divine shield in one blow, he was not on his underground city's turf right now. Merely casting Evil Eye earlier had already consumed a considerable amount of his power. So he did not do so—but to Jann, it hardly mattered. Though the divine power shield was a product of condensed divine energy, it still had a time limit. He could simply wait for the shield's duration to expire, then slowly torment and kill this dark elf, or perhaps offer her to his little puppy as dinner.

"Enoia, get to work. I want to know what these people came here for."

As Jann had said, the advantage of having Enoia here was that he did not need to waste effort interrogating prisoners. You could not expect a bunch of fanatical zealots of an evil god to speak the truth, let alone in a coherent and complete sequence. By contrast, directly extracting their souls and memories was clearly far simpler.

"Yes, Master."

Hearing Jann's words, Enoia smiled and nodded. Then she walked slowly over to the corpse of another dead dark elf priestess, bent down, and extended one pale, delicate finger, tracing it through the air. Soon, accompanied by the welling of blood, the surface skin of that female priest was cut open, revealing the internal organs and muscle within.

Having been mentally prepared in advance, Iris and Bicks had already retreated far away the moment they heard Jann speak. Velna, too, pretended to be examining the bodies of the dark elf warriors, deliberately not glancing in that direction. Only Patilina stood curiously by Jann's side, peering toward Enoia, while turning her head back to ask Jann.

"Master? Master? What is Big Sister Enoia doing? It looks like it might be quite interesting."

"Enoia is gathering intelligence from these people's brains, finding out just what they came here to do."

Even as he answered Patilina's question, Jann reached out and gently patted the little girl on the head.

"You did a good job this time too."

"Hehehe..."

Hearing Jann's praise, Patilina happily narrowed her eyes and laughed with a hint of bashfulness, just like a puppy that had retrieved a frisbee and been praised by its master.

The ambush on the dark elves had of course been orchestrated by Jann, but it had not been carried out by his own hand. In order to avoid being detected by the dark elves' divine magic, Jann had led the others to hang far behind. And these dark elves were extraordinarily vigilant; approaching them at all would very likely have given them away. This place was not within the territory of his underground city, so Jann could not use the system to track their movements. To avoid startling the prey, all he could do was conceal his own movements as much as possible. Under such circumstances, there was clearly no way to launch a surprise attack on the dark elves.

Originally, Jann had planned to determine the dark elves' route and then set up an ambush ahead of them. But upon hearing Jann's idea, Patilina had patted her chest and declared that she could handle it herself. Though he had no idea what Patilina intended to do, Jann also wanted to see the newcomer's capabilities, so he nodded and agreed to her request.

And Patilina had proven through action that her existence was not merely for showing off her cuteness.

[Ultra-Long Firing Range—When Death Descends from the Heavens, the Only Thing One Can Do Is Pray in Despair (The ability to precisely strike targets beyond the visible range)]

At first, Jann had assumed this ability functioned something like anti-aircraft artillery. But when Patilina actually demonstrated it, Jann discovered that this ability truly was exactly what its name implied—the capacity to precisely strike targets beyond the visible range.

In fact, Patilina's [Ultra-Long Firing Range] was not like a cannon or missile, where you fire after providing precise coordinates and the projectile flies over to hit the enemy. Rather, as long as Jann could provide a set of coordinates, Patilina could open a tear in subspace above those coordinates and directly "summon" shells down upon them. This meant that no matter whether the target was on the surface or underground, in a shelter or in a skyscraper, as long as Jann had confirmed their position, they could only wait for the bombardment of death's artillery descending from the heavens!

To a certain extent, this skill of slaying enemies a thousand miles away was indeed quite convenient, but it was not omnipotent. According to Patilina, if the opponent had set up a barrier, it could not be used. Additionally, the spatial fluctuations produced when opening the subspace tear might be detected by certain powerful beings, who could then seal or destroy it. It would be quite difficult to use against relatively more powerful existences.

But for now... dealing with a pack of dark elves was more than adequate regardless.

Lisa did not care how exactly she had been attacked, because all of that no longer mattered. She stared fixedly at Enoia's movements, a hint of panic flashing through her eyes. She naturally knew what Enoia was doing; necromancy was also a widely circulated secret among the dark elves. It required no investigation or testimony whatsoever to obtain the truths others had gone to great lengths to conceal. In Menzoberranzan, only the matron of the First House possessed such an ability.

But now...

Finally, upon seeing Enoia extend her hand, Lisa seemed to make up her mind. She abruptly tore the spider pendant from her neck and cried out loudly.

"Whoosh!"

Accompanied by Lisa's chanted hymn, a burst of flame suddenly erupted from the dead dark elf priestess, transforming in the blink of an eye into a blazing pillar of fire. Witnessing this sudden development, Enoia blinked in surprise and quickly retreated backward.

The flame grew ever fiercer, radiating a myriad of colors. Presently, the fire gradually dimmed, and a slender creature resembling a half-melted candle emerged within the blaze. Nearly at the same moment, a voice that connected directly to the mind resounded in everyone's thoughts.

"Who is it? And for what reason do you summon my presence?"

"Handmaiden of the Spider Queen!"

Gazing at the monster before her, Lisa cried out at the top of her lungs, like a drowning man grasping at a lifeline.

"It is I who calls upon your arrival, hoping to borrow your supreme divine might to annihilate these reckless blasphemers!"

Hearing the dark elf priestess's call, the yochlol furrowed her brow. She turned and looked in the direction of the group. The others tensed up at the yochlol's sudden appearance. Velna in particular—as a dark elf, she knew very well what role the yochlol played within the dark elves' faith. By now, she had long since quietly concealed herself behind the massive body of one of the xenomorphs, trying to evade the yochlol's gaze.

But the yochlol clearly paid no heed to Velna's presence. Instead, she looked at Jann standing before her with a rather astonished expression.

"Prince, why are you here?"

"That is precisely the question I should be asking you."

Facing the Spider Queen's handmaiden, Jann let out a cold snort.

"This is my territory. What business do dark elves have coming here?"

"Your territory?"

Hearing Jann's answer, the yochlol frowned.

"My apologies, I was not aware of this, but the Spider Queen..."

"The ritual has already begun. You know the rules!"

Jann coldly cut off the yochlol's attempt to explain herself. He reached up and pushed up his glasses, fixing the handmaiden of the Spider Queen before him with a gaze of icy cold light.

This time, the yochlol did not immediately answer Jann's question. Instead, her eyes grew dim and vacant as she sank into deep contemplation. Jann did not immediately attack, for he knew that at this moment, the yochlol was communicating with her home plane, seeking guidance from the Spider Goddess.

After several minutes, the yochlol finally opened her eyes again and looked at Jann.

"This is a misunderstanding."

She spoke to Jann in explanation.

"They misinterpreted the Spider Queen's command, and for this they have brought you unnecessary trouble, Prince. I deeply apologize. As compensation..."

With that, the yochlol turned and looked toward Lisa. Then her lips moved faintly, and soon, accompanying the yochlol's chanting, the originally impenetrable divine barrier dissolved into nothing. Almost at that very instant, Lisa let out a miserable scream. She collapsed to the ground, her body convulsing uncontrollably. Before long, the dark elf's originally slender, lithe body began to swell. In no time at all, the dark elf before them transformed into a hideous creature with the upper body of a human and the lower body of a spider. Then, a massive fissure opened beneath her feet, and the next moment, that unfortunate dark elf was utterly swallowed into it, vanished without a trace.

"Well then, Prince, I shall take my leave."

With those words, the flames scattered away at great speed, and the yochlol's form disappeared completely.