The sight of the Verena half an inch into death while lying in a pool of her own blood did nothing to alleviate the fury teeming within the eleventh queen's chest.
"If I do not rip your body into pieces and feed you to the lowest of beasts, I can never vent this hatred!"
She roared and aimed her hand toward Verena's bloodied form. Tremendous suction force erupted from her palm to trap Verena's fallen body and lift her into the sky. But as the irresistible force inexorably dragged Verena into the eleventh queen's hands, bright golden light erupted from heaven's vault, releasing a dazzling beam that split the connection between the two of them!
From that beam, a golden gate appeared and opened to release two breathtaking, pale-skinned beauties clad in four-winged black crystal armors. Without delay, the left one stretched her hand toward Verena, pulling her into her grasp and vanishing to lower her on the ground for emergency treatment.
Meanwhile, the remaining beauty's eyes locked on the eleventh queen.
"Blood fiends?"
She reckoned upon seeing those blood-colored eyes unique to the blood fiends and their demonic creators. But soon, the nature of her foe's lineage became wholly irrelevant. Instead, it was the startling cultivation rippling from her form that took her aback.
"A…Paramount Knight? How can this be? When even the Hidden Forest doesn't possess this level of fiend, how could that Jade Dynasty possibly do so?"
None of the information they'd gathered on the Jade Dynasty mentioned the presence of high-level fiends. In fact, besides their emperor, the Ant Queen didn't take anyone seriously. After all, although his cultivation had yet to reach the Divine Rank, his abilities simply were…monstrous!
Therefore, for the sake of their plans, the ant queens temporarily averted direct assaults on the Jade Dynasty, waiting for the completion of their cultivation and the Goddess' awakening to cleanse the world once and for all.
If not for the Ancestral Blood Pool's sensitive origins and strategic importance, they wouldn't have bothered with Verena and Yvonne.
Never did the eleventh queen expect that this move would allow them to uncover another hidden layer of the Jade Dynasty's forces.
"The might of our Jade Dynasty is not what you can comprehend."
The Paramount Knight lady replied with her lips curled into a smile. Thanks to that short exchange, her sister garnered enough time to mend Verena's wounds and pull her out of her critical situation.
After laying her against the barrier, she stood up and vanished to reappear by her twin's side.
"Calisto and Vylsea of the Infernal Legion. As per his majesty's will, we sisters have arrived…to end your miserable life."
They announced in a calm tone that showcased no fear even before the eleventh queen. Faint life essence erupted from her form, closing the wounds caused by the five deceased elders.
Her eyes contorted into a frown. Though the intensity of the two's auras was incomparably formidable, with that alone, they wouldn't fare any better than Verena did. However, that black crystal armor they wore filled the eleventh queen with apprehension. If they were anything like Verena's golden armor, then this battle was fraught with uncertainty.
"Since you're so adamant about courting death, I can only send you on the way."
The eleventh queen replied and lifted her hands. This time, thousands of tree roots rose from the ground to barrel into Calisto and Vylsea. Undaunted, they stretched out their hands, black light erupted from their armors, causing their battle-power to skyrocket while two blackholes appeared before them, and sucked all the tree roots in!
Thereby erasing them from existence!
The ant queen was startled! Although the might of this armor was a step below Verena, it clearly was endowed with its own set of wondrous abilities!
Worse, with their Paramount Knight cultivation and those armors' support, their combined strength would certainly not lose out to hers!
"Hateful!"
She cursed, but the two gave her no time to indulge in indignation. In an eruption of red light, blood-colored longswords appeared within their hands. Wielding them, their might again rose, and they shot toward the eleventh queen whose body bathed in dark-green demonic energies.
"Nihility Flail!"
Not holding anything back, the eleventh queen summoned her lineage weapon and assumed her true form to charge at her two assailants!
*CLANG* *CLANG* *CLANG*
In a succession of ringing, metallic noises, they exchanged hundreds of moves. And it didn't take long before the eleventh queen failed to shoulder the sisters' combined assault. Their infernal armaments broke past her guard, hacking at her thighs, wrists, neck, and causing her dark-green blood to erupt.
As it rained onto the ground, the ant queen endlessly recoiled.
"Earth Law!"
She snarled, causing the earth below to soar into the sky, turning into nine mountains that morphed into an earthen maelstrom before shooting toward the two knight ladies.
Unfazed, they aimed their swords at the sky above…
"Blood Law!"
…and roared in tandem!
Blood colored clouds gathered, bloating the sky as tidal waves of the same color descended, and morphed into legions of blood serpent beasts.
Riding the blood sea, the legions of blood serpent beasts slammed into the eleventh queen's Earth Law, obliterating it and sending her spiraling into the hail, disarmed and wide open.
Lowering their swords, Calisto and Vylsea aimed them at the tumbling eleventh queen and fired two thin blood beams at her. One, aiming for her brain, and the other for her heart.
"RAAAAAAAAAWR!"
But as fatality approached her, the Ant Queen howled and stretched out her hand, firing a leaf that collided with the blood beams, obliterated them, and carried on unhindered toward Calisto.
Another Withering Leaf!
The eleven queen's heart teemed with rancor and indignation.
Although this leaf could solve all her issues, it was a consumable item reserved for critical targets. The Zenith Ants currently possessed less than twenty. Never did she expect that when they'd yet to understand why the leaves didn't affect him, she would have to exhaust one on that damnable Jade Emperor's subordinates!
But since her life was now at stake, she didn't have a choice!
Well-aware of the leaf's property, Calisto didn't sit to await damnation. In a breath, she vanished to reappear several miles away. However, as if animated with a will of its own, the leaf pursued, never leaving her tracks!
Alarmed, Calisto turned into a blood mist, attempting to use that ethereal shape to avoid the Withering Leaf.
Never did she expect that as the leaf approached, her blood mist form collapsed, and she was forcefully brought back into humanoid form.
"Odious. No wonder even his majesty couldn't escape that thing. What am I supposed to do?"
She wondered in fright.
As a Paramount Knight and legionary, her beauty was secondary. Only her cultivation power mattered. Without it, what purpose did she serve?
"Resistance is futile. Once a Withering Leaf locks on you, even if you run to the end of the Ancient Crystal World, it won't let you off!"
The eleventh queen bellowed while summoning her lineage weapon back in her hand. And hearing the derisive words, Calisto chose an extreme road…
"That being the case, let's go beyond!"
…And flew out of the Ancient Crystal World!
The eleventh queen's eyes widened in disbelief.
"She…left?"
And just like Calisto gambled, by the time the Withering Leaf reached the Ancient Crystal World's exosphere, it stopped, neither advancing nor retreating!
It was as if it was telling her, "as long as you return, I won't spare you!"
Thus, though Calisto managed to avoid the fate of sealed cultivation, she couldn't return to the Ancient Crystal World, either!
Aware of her new reality, she summoned the Sun Shooter, and from above the exosphere, aimed the bow at the eleventh queen.
Down below, Vylsea summoned the imperial jade seal, and in perfect synch, the twin sisters unleashed lethal strikes at the eleventh queen!
A dazzling, flaming arrow descended from the sky, blowing her head into smithereens while the imperial jade seal tore through her body!
Hence, her body perished! But as her soul attempted to flee to safety, jade light erupted from the seal, trapping it where it stood while another flaming arrow descended upon her!
"How could I possibly perish…at the hands of such…base and low worms?"
Those were the eleventh queen's last words before her soul burned into nothingness. And with her death, the Withering Leaf tumbled and dropped back onto the ground.
