The Ultimate Evolution
chapter-828

"The eternal sun will guide our way, to keep us from getting lost in the dark."

"The eternal sun will guide our way, to keep our future bright."

"The eternal sun will guide our way, let its light cleanse away all evil."

"The eternal sun will guide our way, to keep our morale forever high."

Melody's voice got louder with each verse she chanted, and the sunlight shone brighter. The sunlight looked as if it was converging around her!

With each chant, the body of the terrifying Devil Tree, Harlech would shake violently, and a burst of flame would explode on him!

Elrond looked on in grief as the hidden card left by his mother howled and shuddered. With Melody's 4th verse, Harlech was turned into what was probably the world's largest torch, burning fiercely!

Even Elrond himself started showing burn marks and letting out smoke. Soon, a few tiny embers even appeared on his body!

Melody dropped back to the ground soon after, looking rather pale. Blood dripped out of her lips. However, the persistent sunlight still pierced the clouds to blanket her protectively.

Melody's actions had completely destroyed Elrond's sense of rationality! Elrond wailed in despair. He didn't even wait to extinguish the flames on his body before charging straight at Sheyan's group. His eyes were bloodshot and he looked to be totally devoid of reason. Facing an Elrond who had completely given up on defence and gave everything he had in attack put Sheyan and Reef under immense pressure.

As the fight neared its conclusion, Elrond managed to kill the dark gold leech. That was a testament to how wildly he attacked! Even more surprising was that he still had quite a few magic items on his body that would activate themselves throughout the battle. The faint green glow of Rejuvenation spells would occasionally appear on his body. Sheyan and Reef could only persistently hang on.

Fortunately, they both had the Twilight Elf's blessing on them. In addition to that, the Elven mage stopped attacking once she saw that the situation was dire with the two, and used her MP to relentlessly cast healing spells on them.

After 15 minutes, Reef's life once fell into a critical state and the 'Life-Link' was activated. Sheyan risked a stab by Elrond on his chest and grabbed onto Elrond's weapon with both hands!

Seizing this opportunity, Melody once again stood up with difficulty!

She had barely recovered some of her divine power. Under the illumination of the sunlight, the green glow emitted from her body turned into golden characters. They were divine ancient Elven runes! 3 divine characters combined into a flaming javelin, and abruptly shot forward!

That was Melody's advanced ability:

Scorching Dictum!

The javelin did not look like it possess a lot of speed, but as it tore through the air, it left behind a blinding trail of flame. The fire on the javelin itself looked even more intimidating and would occasionally form the illusion of a roaring beast!

Everyone there held their breath as if the surrounding air had been sucked away. A scorching heat wave assaulted them like a tsunami!

The Scorching Dictum stabbed into Elrond's chest, and melted away into his body as if it was absorbed by him.

Elrond was frozen in place. He looked down at his chest in disbelief as the defensive magic items on his body went off one after another like fireworks. Next, his whole body lit up into a conflagration with him at the centre.

The next second, Elrond floated up into the air. He released a long wail that contained sadness, pain, despair, relief... in short, all kinds of emotions mixed together. He then started to crumble into ashes bit by bit, which dispersed into the surrounding. This marked the moment Elrond disappeared from this world!

A few rainbow-coloured crystals dropped down from the ashes.

Melody fell hard to the ground after unleashing the Scorching Dictum. She fell into unconsciousness while blood continuously flowed out from every orifice on her face, soaking up her clothes. The Elven mage immediately rushed forward to take care of her.

At the same time, the trio of Sheyan, Reef and Franklin received a series of notifications:

[You have killed a famous storyline hero of Middle Earth, Elrond Idril.]

(ED: Idril was the daughter of Turgon, King of Gondolin, and the mother of Eärendil, making her Elrond's grandmother, it isn't Elrond's actual family name in the LOTR world)

[You obtained 2311 Fate points of the Dark Lord faction.]

[You obtained the mysterious item : Elven Illusion Bone Crystals.]

[You have obtained the relevant qualification. Please remember to visit the outpost of the Gray Dwarves at the outer border of Angmar on time.]

[Because Elrond Idril died under a special circumstance and an event character participated in the attack, the grade of the key dropped by Elrond will be lowered correspondingly.]

[Contestant no. 1018, your Elven lover, Melody Sunstrider also participated in the attack on Elrond and even obtained an extremely important divine equipment of this world - The Ring of Air, Vilya. Therefore, Elrond will not drop a key unless you cut all ties with Melody Sunstrider.]

[Contestant no. 1018, due to your party prestige being Silver, you will obtain some compensation. You and your party members will each get 3 chances to randomly draw from the things Elrond left behind. The scope of the draw will be limited to the contents in Elrond's bag. If you add contestant no. 90 to your party, he will also obtain the chance to draw.]

Seeing the notifications, Sheyan could understand why the realm made that kind of decisions. Melody, who was his Elven lover, had already obtained the biggest reward - becoming the master of the Ring of Air! That was why the reward of the party was limited, or else the key dropped by Elrond would have a chance of drawing another Ring of Air. That's just way too much.

Sheyan took a look at the unknown mysterious items - the Elven Illusion Bone Crystals. The item description was pretty decent:

[This is the bone crystal left by High Elves after their deaths. A lot of people from the Dark Lord's side are interested in this item.]

Seems to be a trade item then.

Of course there's no way Sheyan would be so short sighted and cut all ties with Melody. It's not like he could bear to do it anyway. He could only sigh and throw out a party invitation to Franklin. Next, he went to check on Melody's condition. After confirming that her injuries weren't fatal and she was merely unconscious, he finally prepared himself to loot Elrond.

Franklin was honestly not that happy after receiving the party invitation. That's because Sheyan only gave him a reserve party member spot. The calculative fella was hurt at the way Sheyan treated a comrade who went through life and death together with him just a moment ago. But when he saw the changes in his HP and MP, he was shocked speechless. Next, he was washed over by a feeling of immense joy! He stared at the party skill 'Glory Heal' that the reserve members couldn't use in anticipation.

Now it was time for a contest of luck. Based on the generosity of the realm in allowing each party member 3 draws, 'abundant' would be an understatement to describe the number of things contained in Elrond's bag. There should be some good stuff in there...but there would definitely be a lot more useless things.

Sheyan looked at the first thing he drew, not knowing whether to laugh or to cry. They were a pair of socks. The socks were woven in an intricate pattern and had a grand and luxurious Elvish feel.

But that's not the point. The point was, this thing that was marked as a miscellaneous item had a really long description:

[This is a pair of socks woven with Ice Cicada threads. The complex handicraft was the work of the grandmaster Siclair. They are a work of art. This series of socks had remained the sole choice for Elrond for 300 years.....]

In the end, the hint given was: worth 150 utility points.

When he saw the last sentence, Sheyan who had been forcing himself to read every word of the description coughed up blood. It's fortunate there wasn't a (Dirty) behind the socks' name or he really would have broken down.

Under Sheyan's prior example, Franklin wasn't expecting much from his draw. He only hoped he wouldn't get Elrond's underwear. He certainly didn't expect to draw a black cloak.

[The Lost Cloak]

[Grade: Black]

[World Origin: Lord of the Rings]

[Requirements: 20 Physique, 15 Agility]

[Durability: 55/55]

[Material: Silk, Mithril thread, strong spider thread]

[Effect 1: Physique +3, Agility +2]

[Effect 2: Alchemists imbued a spell within the Mithril to increase your dodge rate by 15%]

[Effect 3: The cloak contains a magical enchantment. Whenever you receive an attack, there is a small chance of producing a magical barrier that can absorb 30 points of damage.]

[Properties: The Lost Cloak will lower your accuracy by 10%.]

[Description: This is an item that belonged to a person who used to be the most famous Alchemist. It disappeared a long time ago.]

Franklin shrugged and handed the cloak to Reef without saying anything. That was the rule of almost every party with an MT. The MT had absolute priority over any equipment with defensive properties. Only after the MT passed on the equipment could it land in the hands of other party members.