The Queen's attention was fixed on a massive crystal orb displaying the ongoing battle outside her domain. She didn't seem to mind Ren and the other's presence like she had expected them.
She greeted the group, stating that the battle had already begun and could no longer be stopped.
The clash between Queen Titania and the Queen of Air and Darkness had extended to the material plane, with their armies fighting fiercely.
Fey and servants from both sides sought each other out wherever they could, engaging in deadly combat even in unfamiliar cities.
The fey realm was being torn apart by the ongoing war as casualties mounted and devastation spread across the land. The armies clashed, but the primary focus was on the Queens themselves, with their lieutenants fiercely on the forefront.
Queen Titania sought out the Queen of Air and Darkness while their lieutenants fought fiercely to keep others at bay. The fate of the fey realm hung in the balance, and only one Fey Queen could claim victory in this high-stakes battle.
Ren was surprised to realize that the dragon he expected to find on the throne chair was already out on the battlefield.
It felt like they had been exploring the lair for only an hour, yet the battle had already begun. Time must have flown by unnoticed.
The Queen of Air and Darkness pointed a hand at Ren, demanding the Exile Blade. Her tone was menacing, threatening to take it even if it meant killing him.
Ren was undeterred by her warning. "If you want the Exile Blade, you'll have to take it from our corpse."
The Queen's eyes narrowed to a tiny dot as a wicked smile formed on her face. "So be it," she replied, rising from her throne with a chilling grace.
The atmosphere around her turned ominous as she prepared to face them in battle.
"This is it. Are you ready?" Elena asked and with a nod from everyone, the [ENGAGE] button was activated.
There was no turning back now.
An ominous cloud of fog enveloped the area, and to Ren and the others' dismay, they found a [Exhaustion] mark over their heads. This meant that their AGI, STR, and INT would be halved.
The status effect was one of the most annoying and troublesome to remove without the right spell. What's worse, the Queen could easily cast it on everyone, making it challenging for a regular healer to counteract.
The Queen's aura and regional effects added to the ordeal of the impending battle. Her aura removed resistance to cold damage, causing characters who were typically unfazed by frigid weather to now worry about gaining multiple levels of exhaustion before the fight even began.
The battle had just started, but the Queen showed she meant serious business. If Ren were alone, he wouldn't be confident in his ability to defeat her, especially with Pii on cooldown.
If a regular army were to face her, they would have to bring as many healers as they could, as the Queen would dish out status effects every few minutes.
Fortunately, Ren's group was not just a regular army. With Elena and the Prince by his side, it felt like he had both the white and dark elves supporting him from behind.
Their combined strength and abilities made them a formidable force against the Queen's onslaught of status effects and attacks.
Elena stepped forward, raised her staff high, and began chanting an incantation in the ancient language of the elves.
Her voice resonated with power, and her staff glowed with a bright, radiant light. As the incantation reached its crescendo, a shimmering, transparent barrier enveloped the entire group.
The barrier pulsated with gentle, soothing energy, and the oppressive weight of the status effects lifted from their bodies.
Elena had cast the spell known as "Aegis of Clarity." It was a powerful protective ward that could nullify all status effects on the targets within its range for a limited time.
The Aegis of Clarity was a rare and advanced spell that only skilled spellcasters like Elena could wield.
"I'll take care of her status effects and heal you. The Prince will attack her using the [Exile Blade] while you guys keep attacking her nonstop and reduce her HP," Elena instructed.
That was Ren's plan from the start.
With the [Exile Blade] in hand, Prince Zeroth unleashed all his skills to attack the Queen, reducing her HP to thousands in just a single strike.
And when he unleashed a skill, he could perform dozens of strikes in a second, further reducing the Queen's HP. This also prevented the Queen from using any of her spells, giving Ren and Isolde time to barrage her with attacks of their own.
If a regular player wielded the [Exile Blade], they might have dealt around a thousand damage, but the Prince's attacks were on another level, especially with the sword's extra attack +1000 bonus at every hit against a Fey Queen.
The Queen had hundreds of thousands of HP, but Prince Zeroth quickly scaled it down with his immense strength.
He was like a cheat, and Elena was just as powerful.
In Ren's previous life, it took armies of players at Level 200 or higher to defeat the Queen. But now, Ren's plan made the battle much easier, and they were handling it well without Pii's help.
But this works out well too.
The Queen was clever and would retreat several times before engaging the party to force them to trudge through the cold or expend resources to catch up to her.
She was always accompanied by a group of minions. Once the battle had begun, the Queen used [Multiattack] on every turn unless she was dealing with an abundance of troublesome magics.
[Wintertide] was her solution to spells, dealing damage and dispelling magic in a huge area.
When choosing targets for [Winter's Grasp], she prioritizes targeting the arms of weapon-dependent warriors like Isolde and targeting the legs of agile foes like the Prince.
Even with the [Exile Blade] nullifying her spells, she still has a few tricks up her sleeves, not to mention powerful items that would null the effect of the blade on her.
She was prepared, from the looks of it. Ren mused.
