The vegetation around them was growing thicker and thicker, the grass gradually rising past Viktor's waist, surrounding everyone.
Several huge flower buds emerged from the sea of flowers and suddenly bloomed in the air.
"This is…"
"Flourishing Fragrance of the Forest."
Viktor said the name of the field for everyone present.
Just like the ability of the Fire Calamity, Guldon,
Druja also possessed the power to alter terrain.
At this moment, Druja's three pairs of eyes stared straight at Viktor, observing him for a while.
On Viktor, it sensed the scent of its own kind.
But its kind… looked incredibly weak.
So weak that it didn't seem capable of taking even a single normal attack from itself.
Viktor didn't bother showing any reaction. His hands slowly began constructing a complex fourth-tier array.
Four layers of circles gradually merged between his hands, and the patterns once again overlapped after so long.
Soon, the empty four rings were inscribed with countless runes and intricate markings.
Golden light began rising slowly from under Viktor's feet.
Attack, defense, mana, agility…
Countless buffs started stacking continuously on Viktor's status bar.
Feeling the warm strength gradually spreading throughout his body, Viktor fixed his gaze on the Calamity of Wood before him and smiled faintly.
Vega stood on his shoulder, looking quite relaxed too.
After all, having fought alongside Viktor so many times, it no longer felt the panic it did when it first encountered a Calamity with him.
In fact, it was excited.
"Viktor! Smash it to bits for me!"
And the reason Vega so badly wanted to beat up Druja, was because the Calamity of Wood was the very one that had helped Vega revive Viktor.
The surrounding mana and natural energy tangled together, becoming chaotic.
In such an environment, Viktor couldn't easily locate Druja's core essence in a short time.
So Vega flew up to Hyjal's canopy, using its eyes to peer into Hyjal's magical weak points.
Through the connection with Vega, Viktor was able to use the power of the Fire Calamity to awaken the sleeping Druja.
This being, once imprisoned inside Hyjal by the Grand Archmage, used as an endless source of magic, had now been reawakened.
Finally, as if realizing how long it had been imprisoned, it let out an ear-splitting roar that echoed throughout the depths beneath Endymion.
Haim's eyes widened. He couldn't believe what Viktor had just unsealed.
The pressure from the beast's roar alone made his whole body tremble uncontrollably.
At this moment, he couldn't even ask for outside help.
Hundreds of his phantom clones stood around the barrier's perimeter, channeling all of his magic to maintain the defensive field.
All he could do now was ensure that this terrifying creature's power didn't leak out into Endymion itself.
Cocotte wasn't doing any better either.
She almost fell off her cloud, now kneeling atop it, her heart pounding like a drum.
If it had been any other Calamity, she wouldn't have reacted so strongly.
But this one was the embodiment of Wood-element energy.
Most of Cocotte's strong natural magic was also wood-based, if this Calamity got even slightly displeased, she wouldn't even be able to form a magic construct.
Sitting on her cloud, she was on the verge of tears, muttering softly, "I believe you now, bro. I really do."
Viktor hadn't lied to her, he really had fought a Calamity before.
The battle was about to begin.
A massive health bar gradually appeared before Viktor's eyes, stretching farther than the eye could see.
Above the start of that bar, a level marker appeared.
[LV55!]
That was a full five levels higher than Guldon before.
After all, Guldon had been in a slumber for ages, even after being awakened, it hadn't fully recovered its strength.
But Druja was different.
It had always been under Endymion, so even after just awakening, the magical contamination of Endymion made it even stronger than the newly-awakened Guldon.
But unfortunately for it, Viktor stared calmly at the massive Calamity before him.
In the game's storyline, this Calamity's first appearance came after the Dark Archmage attacked the base of Hyjal.
When Endymion was about to crash, Druja revived.
Upon revival, it used endless vines to re-anchor Endymion back in the sky.
All seven layers of Endymion were invaded by Druja's vines.
For a while, Endymion became a long-term dungeon.
After the Dark Archmage's death, players could challenge each of Endymion's seven layers daily.
Countless strange plants awaited players on every level, each one serving as a boss challenge until the seventh layer.
By then, players could enter Layer 0, Hyjal itself, and face the fully-formed Level 60 World Boss, Druja.
Which meant that to Viktor, this newly revived Druja
was nothing compared to the one he'd fought countless times before.
Suddenly, countless roots and vines dove underground, then erupted upward again, lunging toward Viktor like wild serpents.
Several huge flowers bloomed at once, releasing thick pollen clouds that continuously weakened Viktor's many buffs.
Indeed, the Calamity of Wood's environment made it particularly nasty.
Within Druja's field, not only were wood-based spells greatly enhanced, but player buff durations were also cut in half.
Because of this ridiculous debuff, many players had raged on the forums in disgust.
Unfortunately, the boss's difficulty wasn't adjusted.
In fact, that only fueled the determination of elite players, who kept testing new skill combos and team builds until they finally defeated this verdant monster.
And coincidentally, Viktor was one of those elite players.
Now, however, he didn't need a party.
He himself was already an army.
Viktor only glanced once at the Calamity's offensive, and the two iron plaques at his waist shot out.
They instantly transformed into countless blades, like an army of soldiers, launching an assault on the enormous foe before him.
They became a storm of spinning metal feathers,
whirling around Druja's massive body.
Its nine green arms slapped repeatedly at the "mosquitoes" surrounding it, but every time, the blades dodged intelligently, exposing new openings.
Under Viktor's relentless assault of hundreds of flying blades, every weak spot on Druja's body was targeted.
Soon, a small sliver of its HP bar began to drop.
Intense pain struck through its massive body, and its roar made every flower, tree, and blade of grass around them tremble violently.
Druja's three pairs of eyes suddenly flared with a strong green light that slowly spread toward its wounds.
Before their eyes, the wounds began closing, and the bit of lost HP refilled, soon, there was no trace of any injury left at all.
This was the second most disgusting part of the Wood Calamity, every 3 minutes, Druja automatically regenerated 5% of its missing health.
With a health pool already that massive, this ability dragged the battle into an endless grind.
Under such oppressive conditions, countless players had given up on challenging it altogether.
Viktor's face didn't change, he'd anticipated this already.
If it wanted to recover, then he'd simply keep pounding on its weak points during the downtime.
Druja stopped healing and instead thrust its nine green hands into the void, tearing open four enormous green rifts.
"It's coming," Viktor murmured.
As soon as he finished speaking, countless monsters surged from those glowing rifts.
Flower sprites, tree demons, and endless strange creatures flooded into the area, such as hyenas whose eyes were replaced by blooming flowers, and leeches with red, fruit-like sacs on their tails…
Wave after wave of monsters swarmed toward Viktor.
Viktor left a hundred flying blades around Druja to keep draining its health, while he himself raised his black magic staff, Ulust.
Planting the staff before him, he began channeling magic.
The runes along the shaft pulsed with red light, and soon, the red gemstone at its tip gleamed brightly.
[Fourth-tier Spell: Phoenix]
A massive magic array formed in front of Viktor, radiating scorching heat even in its initial stage.
The array began to spin faster, and a phoenix's head slowly emerged from its center.
It cried sharply toward the void and burst forth, its flaming body soaring from the circle.
The enormous flame phoenix dove straight into the swarming monsters above.
The lesser ones were instantly burned to ash as it passed.
Only the bizarre-looking creatures managed to endure, pushing through the fire toward Viktor.
Once Viktor's spellcasting speed buff kicked in, he quickly formed another new spell.
[Fourth-tier Spell: Flame Reversal]
The array formed instantly. Several magic circles appeared in the air, and a spiraling flame like a drill pierced straight through a monster's body.
A flying leech was impaled through the core, plummeting to the ground. The red fruit on its tail began to swell rapidly.
Viktor jumped backward, he knew what was coming next.
A few seconds later, all the red fruits exploded in the air, turning the sky into a fiery storm.
The phoenix soared through the countless explosions, incinerating the rest of the cannon-fodder monsters.
Watching the sky erupt like fireworks, Viktor lowered his staff and recalled his flying blades.
The monsters had all been wiped out in moments.
At that instant, Druja, seeing Viktor unharmed, roared again in fury.
Its three giant green hands lunged at Viktor.
This time, Viktor didn't dodge, his eyes gleamed slyly as he let Druja's attack land directly on him.
By the time Druja realized something was wrong, it was too late to stop.
A powerful burst of energy erupted on Viktor's body, but the one taking the damage wasn't Viktor, it was Druja.
Because of the Mage's Robe's effect, Viktor's shield reflected massive damage back, inflicting a heavy blow.
Catching Druja in its moment of rigidity, Viktor launched his hundred flying blades directly into its chest.
In an instant, they tore through its multiple layers of defense with ease.
Blood burst violently from its wounds, Druja was actually injured.
Haim froze, unable to comprehend how Viktor had enough power to fight a creature akin to a demigod,
and even hold the advantage.
But soon, a green glow enveloped Druja's body again.
The wounds it had just suffered healed almost completely in the blink of an eye.
That terrifying regeneration left both Haim and Cocotte stunned.
"This kind of thing…"
"Is it really something that can be defeated…?"
———
The surroundings grew quiet.
After everyone else had left, only Aurelian remained in the Mage Council's hall.
It wasn't at all what she had imagined.
At first, she'd thought the Council of Mages would be some grand, luxurious place, a palace of gold and silver bricks symbolizing the mages' nobility.
But it wasn't.
The living, breathing walls around her made her mind ache just from a glance, she didn't dare look again.
"Teacher will be back soon. I'm not afraid… I'm not afraid."
As she whispered to herself, a soft sobbing sound came from behind. Aurelian jumped in fright.
Truth be told, she was timid.
If Viktor hadn't been with her before, she'd never have dared fight such monsters.
"Uuh… teacher…"
She was scared enough to want to shut her eyes,
but as she lifted her head slightly, she saw something appear before her.
A strange door had materialized.
The mysterious door slowly opened, as if inviting Aurelian inside.
She sensed something wrong, shaking her head hard to stay awake.
"No. I should stay here."
"I mustn't cause trouble for Teacher."
But the door's allure made the space beyond feel so peaceful, so comforting.
Resisting the temptation, she shut her eyes tight, refusing to think about it.
Yet the moment she closed them, the world around her shifted like a shooting star.
Even Aurelian herself didn't realize it.
Soon, a faint ringing echoed in her ears.
Hearing it, she opened her eyes in a daze, and froze.
What appeared before her looked like a library.
But it was bizarre, a spherical space where staircases and bookshelves twisted chaotically along the inner surface of the sphere.
They were scattered and disordered, forming a kind of floating labyrinth.
Looking up, she saw the ceiling mirrored the same sight, only upside down, as if forcibly twisted to fill every inch of this hall with an impossible geometry of shelves.
Some opened books floated midair, filled with strange runes she couldn't understand.
"Where… is this?"
Aurelian couldn't make sense of it. She hadn't moved from where she stood, so why…?
Suddenly, a flood of memories was forced into her mind. Her head throbbed painfully as she looked around this surreal place.
Within those memories, a single word appeared,
Aurelian whispered it aloud, "Magic… Library?"