The battle between Fourth Grade powerhouses was a shocking experience for the ordinary elves!
The two dozen elven vessels quickly weighed their anchors and ran far from the Echo Isles.
In fact, they could still sense the intensity of the energy explosions through the chaotic winds blowing across the hull of the ships, even when they had sailed four to five nautical miles away.
There was no longer a single cloud in the blue skies.
Thick, dark clouds gathered from every direction, forming into a dense and roiling cloud of mist over Echo Isles and firmly trapping the isles within. The elves all ran up to the deck and glanced in the direction of the Echo Isles, waiting with hope for their god messengers to return victorious.
The waves gradually became more tumultuous and treacherous, and their ships started bob even more furiously.
Some elves who had never experienced such conditions immediately exhibited signs of severe seasickness and started vomiting. Meanwhile, the elven leaders gathered at the bow of the ship, anxiously awaiting the conclusion of the battle.
Even Third Grade powerhouses didn't dare to get involved in a battle between Fourth Grades, much less ordinary elves. The terrifying Wail of the Banshee at the start of the fight had easily covered an area of one and a half kilometers. All First and Second Grade elves within this territory had already died, their souls having been ripped to pieces.
Even the Third Grade elf that had barely managed to escape had been inflicted with great soul injuries. He had to be sent back to Greenwater City to recover immediately.
That was why the commander of the fleet and the leader of the Windrunners pulled the fleet six nautical miles away from Echo Isles due to safety concerns. They would silently wait here for news from the frontlines.
Yet, while no news arrived, a horrifying natural disaster did!
No one knew if it was a phenomenon caused by the witches' magic or the intensity of the fight itself, but the Echo Isles in the distance had been tightly locked down with a dense black mist. Violent lightning blasts and fearsome elementium tremors erupted inside the opaque fog, stunning every elf to their very core.
While the elves anxiously waited, a piercing voice, due to its owner's nervousness, rang out from the bow of the ship.
"Quickly erect a shield. Hurry up and have them erect a Natural Ward."
The elves all turned back in surprise and were shocked to find the owner of the scream to be a Second Grade elven diviner. This diviner belonged to the Temple of Luck and was a female elf with pretty looks and elegant movements.
At this moment, all the color had faded from her face, seemingly because of some vision from the future. Two thin streaks of bloody tears were crawling down from her tightly shut eyes. Still, she seemed ignorant of this fact and continued to yell and scream wildly.
Even though the profession of a diviner didn't have any combat power, no one in the elven kingdom dared gloss over their opinions.
The fleet commander immediately had the signal troops order all ships to activate their Natural Wards.
As standard ships of the navy, all these vessels had been specially carved with an elven array in a secret room at the bottom of the boat. This array could activate a massive Natural Ward. To save energy, these barriers weren't usually opened. Now, though the commander sensed no incoming danger, he still decided to lean on the side of caution and listen to the warnings of the elven diviner.
As expected, just as the elven ships erected the green Natural Wards that shielded their hulls, a massive wave of water several meters tall silently surged toward them from the horizon.
Even before the wave had arrived, a suddenly advancing hurricane stormed through the area above the sea.
The ships protected by the Natural Wards were relatively untouched. They had not sustained any damage other than being tossed around a little too intensely. However, the aerial forces responsible for scouting the seas and the skies met an unfortunate fate.
The savage hurricane was like a wall of wind that smashed at them, instantly dragging the hippogryphs, chimeras, and silver pegasi into its vortex. The poor flying creatures were like tops being wickedly whipped by children, tumbling and falling from the sky without any chance to resist. The elven archers and knights upon their backs also fell into the sea like dumplings being dropped into a pot.
The wall of wind had just passed by, and the wave arrived soon after!
The two dozen ships were dragged along by the rising wave and smashed into one another. If it wasn't for the Natural Wards, this single wave alone could have capsized nearly half of the elven ships.
For a moment, the elves were thrown into complete disarray.
Yet this still wasn't the end of it.
Once the wind wall and the wave had passed, a pattering black rain poured down from above.
This black rain carried with it a thick and pungent odor of corrosion and landed on the Natural Wards. Wisps of black smoke rose into the air as the rain neutralized the nature power.
The entire elven fleet was in a state of chaos.
All of the First Grade elves were hurriedly hiding in the cabins to prevent the hostile environment from wounding them. The only ones that could move around on the deck had to be Second Grade at least.
The Third Grades gathered at the bow of the ships. They didn't seem to care about the damage of this phenomenon to the fleet, choosing instead to focus on the black mist in the distance.
These were, after all, only the shockwaves of the Fourth Grades' fight. The true 'disaster' was still locked within that layer of mist.
There, the Echo Isles that had been preserved for over a thousand years was facing an unprecedented calamity!
Outside the Isles, the reef formations that had endured hundreds of years of tidal corrosion were slowly being chipped away by the violent gales, inch by inch. Apart from the parts covered by the adept tower's energy shields, all of the Echo Isles' reefs that were exposed above water were non-existent now!
Be it the nature magic of the god messengers that was mixed with divine power, or the immensely powerful spells that the Pale Witches were unleashing through the tower's strength; everything was dealing tremendous and irreparable damage to the environment.
Compared to the child's play of Second and Third Grade powerhouses, every single ability of Fourth Grade fighters was a calamitous finishing move that could destroy the world around them. The area covered by their spells and magic was also exceedingly large, often extending up to ranges of two kilometers.
There was no apparent disparity of energy intensity in the area enveloped by their spells either. That fully demonstrated the fact that the understanding and mastery that Fourth Grade fighters had of their magical powers were at a shockingly unbelievable level!
The fight between the Pale Witches and god messengers had also finally provoked another large faction.
The surface of the sea around the Echo Isles started to bubble as if the water itself was boiling. A gigantic sea monster that measured six meters in height rose from the water.
It had a large and muscular body as well as humanoid arms and a torso covered in dark, green-gray scales. A spindle-shaped head grew above its neck, and a wicked face sat upon it. Two especially sharp and long fangs protruded out of its lower lips as two fleshy extensions hung from its chin.
The lower half of the sea monster's body was a flat, long snake's tail covered in fine indigo scales.
This siren that had emerged from the sea was also a Fourth Grade powerhouse.
Its green webbed hand held a rusty trident as it floated above the surface of the water. The siren raised its trident and shot a towering pillar of water at the few individuals engaged in their messy fight.
The Pale Witch and the god messengers immediately split up after witnessing the intervention of a foreign force. They each took up a spot and glanced coldly at this new challenger.
"Elves, witches; I don't care what reason you have. None of you are allowed to fight within the territory of us seafolk!" The siren roared.
The seafolk of Faen used a unique mariner creature language. Fortunately, all the individuals present were important characters of their respective factions, and all had a particular understanding of the seafolk's language. Thus, there was no concern about incomprehension.
The arrogant and proud seafolk had always been at odds with the land species, even since the ancient times.
Even the elven kingdom, with all their might, had to offer large numbers of offerings to these seafolk if they wanted their elven ships to sail across the boundless deep sea freely. Otherwise, becoming wreckage was the only fate that awaited them!
That was why the two god messengers had no choice but to suppress their fury and argue in the face of this unreasonable Fourth Grade siren, "We didn't start this fight. As a member of Faen, I trust you, sir, to also have an obligation and responsibility to keep the peace of the plane! Why don't you join us and help us exile these otherworldly invaders from our world?"
“Kehkehkeh…you lot might not like these witches, but we have taken quite the liking to them. They have offered us quite a lot of good things."
Rage appeared on the faces of both god messengers when they heard the siren's words. Zyvere even lashed out furiously, "How could you trade with a bunch of otherworldly invaders? Can you still call yourselves a member of Faen now?"
The wicked siren simply betrayed a mocking expression in response to the elf's reprimand.
"No more than a group of witches. You fear them, but I don't. If they truly found the courage to find trouble with us seafolk, we would crush them to bits and mince them to pieces. Not a single shred of their corpses would be left." The siren narrowed his murderous eyes and looked up and down Zyvere's curvaceous and bountiful body. He then revealed a lecherous look.
"Girl, if you are willing to come shag at my coral sea for a few days, I can decide to chase this witch away from the island for you. How about that?!"
The two elves' expression changed utterly upon hearing this.
Zyvere's body was even trembling from anger. Her eyes were practically spitting fire.
"Mind your words, seafolk. You are insulting a god messenger of a great deity! You…do you intend to provoke a war between two great pantheons?" Ursol hastily stood in front of the berserking Zyvere and coldly spat out his words.
"Pantheon war?" This siren seemed to be a brazen thug as well. He simply curled his lips in disdain and said, "Those weak beansprout gods of yours? You think they even qualify as a challenge to the great Atri? Hmph."
The two elven god messengers almost went insane from the provocation, but instantly realized something from the siren's words.
"You…you are the god messenger of Atri?"
It was only at this moment that the two god messengers could sense a vaguely familiar aura from the siren's sinister and obscure energy flux. The opponent was actually also a god messenger. In fact, he was the messenger of the most brutal and savage god of the sea– Atri, God of the Sea Beasts.
The discovery was both shocking and enlightening!