It seems we've found our target... Caine drew back his gaze and formed a general judgment. With no portrait to guide him and the adventurer burned black from head to face, Ailran clearly did not recognize him as one of the intended targets. After observing the situation and listening for a few seconds of unnerving laughter, he pointed to a group of three or four military personnel lying not far outside the house and said in a steady voice: "Bring them back first. Once the other teams arrive, we'll launch our attack. "Or..." He hesitated, then looked up toward the approaching deep-blue airships. Ailran said nothing further, nor did he issue any instructions to Caine or Daniz. Instead, he strode directly toward the military personnel who had grown unconscious and turned bluish-purple from the cold. Steadily, then, then again—his steps grew increasingly weak as he drew nearer. By the time he reached them, his body had stiffened, and each step required great effort. Erlan, a former chief officer in the Royal Navy, was experienced and decisive. He halted immediately, turned slowly, and took deliberate steps backward. As he walked, his movement grew more fluid, yet his body remained uncontrollably trembling, with a light layer of frost forming on his eyebrows and temples. An illogical sudden freeze—disaster-level extreme cold—had struck. Through Erlan's efforts, Caine now grasped the severity of the danger in that region, and silently remarked to himself: "Unfortunately, the 'Sun Pin' can't generate true warmth; it offers only a mental stimulation. Though it produces clear physical reactions, it merely allows one to endure such a cold catastrophe for an additional few seconds—three or four at most." Glancing at Erlan, whose teeth were chattering and who struggled to speak, Caine turned his gaze to Daniz. He set down his staff and said, in a low tone, "Fire." Fire? Daniz was momentarily taken aback, but soon understood what Generalman Sparrow meant. He also witnessed the entire process of Elran's failed rescue! Danyz gathered a cluster of moderately bright crimson flame in the palm of his right hand and threw it toward the side of the military personnel. The fireball traveled nearly twenty meters before landing gently on the ground, without exploding—merely rising steadily with a quiet flame. The crimson column emitted a continuous hissing sound, gradually shrinking and fading quickly. Suddenly, it expanded abruptly, as if struggling to breathe in its final moments. From within, Cline, dressed in a black wool coat, leapt out and landed precisely beside the military personnel. He bent down, extended his hands, and grasped the person's clothing. Then, with a sudden push from his feet and a powerful twist of his back, he launched the individual outward. The military personnel soared smoothly, landing ten meters away, now clear of the most severe cold. And after all this, Caine snapped his fingers, lighting a match he had carefully set aside in his pocket just as the cold seeped into his flesh. A crimson flame surged outward like a flowing tide, instantly engulfing him. When everything faded, Caine was gone. One by one, flashes of light rose and flickered—Caine, using the fireballs from Daniz and his own matches, kept reappearing in the extreme cold, simply sending several military personnel stumbling out. After two or three such relays, he carried the last one back to his original position. Ailran had clearly stabilized, and he nodded with a satisfied smile. "I'm truly grateful and honored to have made the decision to ask for your help today," he said. Captain, I really appreciate that gentle praise of yours... And remember to increase your pay. Caine nodded politely, half-turned, and looked out the open window of the house, hearing the laughter inside growing increasingly odd. Danzel sighed beside him, quietly cursing Elran: "Did you not see my contributions? Even if my fireballs have become mere props in a magic show, they've still made a real difference! This so-called 'Just Elran' is anything but just!" As he muttered, the shadow fell over the area, and the airship moved into position on the opposite side of the sky. "Evacuate the residents from the nearby houses!" a officer on the airship called out from a distance. After Elran and the two arriving teams cleared several houses in the vicinity, the airship descended, adjusting its cannon aim. Boom! Boom! Boom! The cannons fired in rapid succession, targeting the house that had been emitting an eerie laughter. With each explosion and the flashes of intense flames, Caine, holding his staff, found himself momentarily moved by emotion. This is the "firepower envelopment" tactic he has long championed, first proposed in Tinggen but previously unrealized—now, the overseas colonial forces have presented him with a vivid demonstration. Amid the thunderous cannon fire, Ailran and his team held firm at various positions, guarding against any breakout from within—whether by people or monsters. The buildings quickly collapsed, smoke rising from the piled bricks and timber, and all the snow and ice had vanished. Suddenly, a massive lightning bolt surged, striking the airship with fierce force. At first, he felt the deep cold and saw the male explorer reduced to ash, thinking he had encountered another witch—someone who wielded the "witch's potion" formula. Having interacted with several witches before, he knew that exceptional beings starting from Sequence 7 could command frost and black flame. But the lightning just now had convinced him otherwise; he now believed Latisia was indeed a genuine woman from either the "Moses Ascetic Order" or the "Elemental Dawn." As his thought settled, the stacked stones and timber suddenly gave way, and a figure composed of both crimson and charred hues emerged, propping herself up on her elbows and crawling out. She was a woman, and though he could barely make out Latisia's original features, this revelation left Elan and the others astonished—having finally identified their target. Yet compared to before, Latisia now appeared not only terrifying but profoundly tragic: her body was covered in black spots, torn open repeatedly by cannon fire, each wound pulsing with white, living tendons that seemed to have their own vitality. Her head split open, and brain matter gushed out, clinging to the surface like overlapping little children's palms. Her gray-blue eyes lost focus—one pupil held a flame, the other flashed with electric light. At her abdominal region, below the chest, two heads of the other two male adventurers were embedded, screaming in agony. It wasn't just loss of control—there was also a sense of contamination... After that round of bombardment, she had been severely wounded, her breath reduced to its very lowest point... Klein did not intervene, watching the military exceptionalists launch their attacks in a well-ordered sequence. "Psychic piercing," "Bulwark of Suffering," purified bullets, and small-caliber artillery fire... After this sequence, only Laticia, the one who had lost control and whose ground had cracked and spread outward, collapsed completely and turned into fragmented remains. Crash! Her torso fell to the ground, and the two heads of the male adventurers rolled out. Klein narrowed his eyes, noticing a yellow-brown sheepskin book hidden within the flesh of Latiria's abdomen. On the book's surface, in Elvish, a single line read: "The Book of the Cataclysm." These books and notebooks always seem to find their way into people's bodies—last time, it was the Antigonus family's records as well. Klein muttered a comment of disbelief, then began to suspect that this very "Book of the Cataclysm" had been taken by Latiria, the pseudo-archaeologist, from the "Sea God" sanctuary. At that moment, a military officer seized the brief window when the two male adventurers seemed still able to speak, and urgently asked: "What did you do in the 'Sea God' sanctuary?" "The 'Sea God' sanctuary..." one of the adventurers replied, both in pain and confusion, "We never visited it..." He strained to move his eyes, trying to assess his condition from his neck down. "The 'Sea God' sanctuary on Ximim Island," the officer reminded. “No… no… not that… not that!” The male adventurer wanted to shake his head, but he could not. "We went to the ancient elven sanctuary… Latissia found a book inside… she loved it so much… she began studying it immediately… she, she went mad! She went mad!" He screamed, his remaining spirit finally collapsing. Not the temple lost to the sea god, but the sanctuary of the ancient elves? That’s not what I expected… While Kline had just been listening intently, Elran had already approached, politely asking him and Daniz to step away from the scene. Turning down another street, Kline slowed his pace, reflecting on the entire matter: "Why does Latissia’s retrieval of the book, *The Book of the Catastrophe*, from the ancient elven sanctuary cause the sea god Cavituva to lose his very existence and gradually collapse? What is the connection between the two?" "The elves... 'the sea god'... According to the young 'Sun,' the ancient deity King Sunyasollem of the elves currently holds the powers once attributed to the present 'Lord of the Storm.' That means, without a doubt, the elves possess a rank 3 'Sea King,' and even higher, rank 2 deities. Could it be that the sea serpent Kavitova, by chance, discovered an elven sanctuary buried beneath the ocean floor, consumed the extraordinary traits left behind by a high-ranking elven being, and, through luck, successfully endured both sudden collapse and loss of control, thereby attaining a semi-divine status and gradually earning the faith of the native inhabitants of the Rosthede islands?" Klein slowly began to form a clear picture in his mind—something he had to thank the 'Emperor of the Hanging Man' for. Initially, the young 'Sun' had not revealed the specific powers corresponding to the eight ancient gods. It was only through the repeated guidance of the 'Emperor of the Hanging Man' that the details began to unfold, including the general account of King Sunyasollem of the elves. As for those who directly consumed extraordinary essences or corresponding materials to enhance themselves—such instances have indeed occurred. Before the magical potion system was fully established, early human ancestors attempted similar endeavors in pursuit of transcendent power. Yet only a very fortunate minority survived, becoming extraordinary beings rather than monsters, madmen, or those who perished instantly with their flesh and tissues collapsing. The success rate of such attempts ranged from one in a thousand, one in ten thousand, or even lower. Since the advent of the potion system, no one has been willing to undertake such a significant risk anymore. "If that's truly the case, Cavituvah was indeed extremely fortunate back then... of course, there's also the factor of its sturdy and robust physique... Yet its intelligence seems to have improved only slightly—it could only deceive the faithful, never realizing that there was another elven ruin on Ximim Island, one intimately connected to the one where it had taken refuge. 'After Latisia and her party took the Book of the Cataclysm, that ruin collapsed, triggering a transformation in Cavituvah's sanctuary, which, already struggling to survive, could no longer maintain itself. This indeed explains why Latisia and her companions were able to succeed so smoothly—there were no resistance forces or followers of the Sea God guarding the site until the crisis struck, and only then did Cavituvah realize the connection between the two ruins.' Based on this line of reasoning, Caine attempted to explain the aspects of the entire incident that still puzzled him." And this includes why the dying "Sea God" Cavituwa refuses to allow his devotees to become vessels—this would reduce many unforeseen complications and simplify matters, a choice entirely justified by Cavituwa's evident brutality. Klein's answer is that the body Cavituwa seeks to contaminate and claim must possess a certain elven bloodline, only then being able to endure the transfer of extraordinary properties to some extent. When Cavituwa touches them, the gray mist and the bodies' inherent uniqueness immediately present him with a more favorable target.