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Back at the rooftop garden of the Galarc Castle, Satsuki watched pillars of water rise from the lake in horror.
“What is that ridiculous rain of light...?” she muttered.
Aishia had immediately positioned herself above the golem’s head to deal with the incoming barrage of beams. Like Satsuki had described, it looked just like light was raining upwards.
“She’s being cornered...” Sara suddenly mumbled. It was clear Aishia’s situation had taken a turn for the worse.
“She’s fighting to reduce damage to the castle and city,” Gouki immediately observed.
The mighty spears of light that created explosions upon impact were being strewn about like handfuls of sand. If those spears were directed at the capital, the city would be reduced to rubble in no time at all.
“That lady is protecting us after all!” Latifa shouted in a fluster.
“Say, shouldn’t we fight too?” Masato asked with a serious face.
“D-Dumbass! What can you do out there? You’ll die!”
Worried for her little brother, Aki immediately scolded Masato with a horrified look.
“But there’s nowhere for us to run, right? We don’t know when those attacks will turn on us instead. Besides, I’m a hero now too, and that lady is gonna die at this rate...” Masato clenched his fist in concern.
Indeed, even if they were to evacuate into the castle, they would just be buried alive if it were destroyed. If the spears of light were scattered across a wide area, there was no telling where they would land. There was nowhere safe they could flee to.
Their only options were to evacuate indoors and pray they wouldn’t get buried alive, or remain somewhere they could observe the situation and prepare to run when needed. More importantly, this wasn’t the kind of place they could just abandon and flee from either—it was the castle in the royal capital, a location to be defended.
“But you can’t even fly...” Aki mumbled weakly.
At that, Sara called out to Orphia and Alma. “We’ll take to the sky. Right, Orphia, Alma?”
“Yup.”
“Of course.”
Orphia and Alma replied firmly.
“I shall go too,” Gouki immediately offered.
“No, you should stay here and guard everyone,” Sara replied, shaking her head. “We don’t know how many enemies there are or what their goal is, so the strongest of us should remain in case it descends here. We’re more experienced at fighting in the air anyway.”
“Got it.” Gouki hesitated for a moment, but eventually accepted her suggestion and agreed with a heavy sigh.
“Okay, then. Orphia, call Ariel.”
“Right. Come, Ariel,” Orphia said, materializing Ariel as a giant bird. Sara and Alma climbed onto its back along with Orphia.
“Then we’ll be off,” Sara said to everyone as Ariel rose into the air.
“Look, the light...!” Flora cried, pointing at the sky. The golem had immediately ceased firing spears of light from its hands and wings.
“Look out!” Satsuki yelled.
In the next moment, the golem had moved above Aishia, swinging its fist down with all its might.
Aishia immediately deployed a wall of magic essence to catch the golem’s fist. But the barrier was unable to withstand the impact and shattered in an instant. However, it was able to buy enough time for Aishia to distance herself from the golem.
The golem chased after her right away. At the same time, it manipulated its feather blades to slash at her from every direction.
Aishia used light bullets to deflect the feather blades and stop the golem’s main body from approaching further. However, the golem seemed to have determined that the light bullets weren’t powerful enough to fear from their battle until now. It continued towards Aishia without flinching.
“Ugh...!”
Aishia left the minimal number of light bullets around her to fend off the feather blades and aimed the rest all at the golem.
Several of the bullets struck the golem in succession. But as expected, the golem’s armor was tough. Its speed was reduced a bit, but it didn’t falter as it charged at Aishia.
She was lacking power. Even if she wanted to retreat and gain distance from the golem, the feather blades were flying around to cut off her flight routes. At this rate, the golem would reach her and bring them into a close combat battle. Aishia promptly braced herself for the worst, when a thick beam of light passed in front of Aishia, striking the golem directly. Aishia looked downwards in search of where the unexpected reinforcements came from and saw three figures riding on Ariel’s back.
Orphia, Sara, and Alma...
The shot just now had been fired by Orphia, who still had her hand held out.
“Don’t come closer!” Aishia immediately shouted at them.
The spirit folk girls stiffened in surprise.
The essence shot Orphia had fired was definitely stronger than the countless light orbs Aishia had created. The shot had burst upon impact, creating a surge of shock waves that succeeded in stopping the golem’s approach.
But that was all. The golem’s armor was undamaged as always. The golem seemed to decide the spirit folk girls were to be targets as well, as it included them in the feather blades’ attack.
Aishia controlled her light bullets to deflect the feather blades attacking the three girls. At the same time, she approached the golem to redirect its attention to herself. The golem swung its arm at Aishia, slashing at her body with its sharp nails of light.
But Aishia rose in the air while twisting her body, skillfully evading its nails while landing a roundhouse kick at its face.
It’s so heavy...
She could feel the heavy weight of the golem through her leg. It was like she had kicked a thick steel pillar fixed firmly to the ground. The golem’s torso shook slightly, but it didn’t feel like she had done any damage to it.
Just then, the tail growing from the golem’s back bent like a whip. The end of the tail that was as sharp as a spear stretched forward like a bullet, attempting to pierce Aishia’s body.
“Guh...!”
Aishia twisted her body and avoided the tail. But the golem’s tail wrapped around her like a snake as though it had predicted that.
Aishia instantly turned into her spirit form. Only her mask was left behind, as it began its fall to the ground, but she quickly reappeared and put it back on. The golem moved its tail just as quickly to attack her, swinging its arms at the same time to tear her apart. Aishia used her small size to her advantage and dodged its attacks.
It was at that moment that the feather blades returned to the golem, flying around Aishia as though to encircle her and block her escape. She would be able to escape in her spirit form, but she’d end up leaving her mask behind inside the encirclement. Besides, constantly dematerializing and rematerializing consumed a lot of magic essence, so it was best to avoid doing so without her contractor nearby.
As a result, Aishia was trapped in the spherical space the feather blades had created, forced to fight with the golem.
It was disadvantageous enough having a close combat battle against a giant and sturdy opponent in a spherical space of a few meters in diameter. On top of that, the golem’s tail moved like a third arm.
With limited space to move, it was impossible to keep evading its attacks. Which left her with no choice but to counterattack. She held her hands out in front of her and released a shock wave to push the golem outside of the space.
But the golem similarly held its hands out and created an essence barrier, blocking Aishia’s shock waves.
“Ngh...”
It didn’t even budge. Instead, the golem charged at Aishia, using its nails to slash at her.
Aishia quickly evaded by moving up, just barely evading the blades by flipping midair, then descended back down to stomp on the golem with both feet. There was enough force in her attack to easily crush a boulder to dust, but the golem took the attack easily.
Immediately after, Aishia spotted the golem’s tail swaying in the corner of her eye. It was impossible to continue evading the golem’s attacks in this closed space surrounded by blades. She prepared herself to turn into her spirit form and discard her mask. The mask would fall and end up ripped to shreds by the blades, but there was no helping it.
Just then, powerful spirit arts started flying over one after another, tearing apart the barrier of feather blades. The blades were blown all over the place, creating holes in the encirclement. Aishia quickly accelerated and escaped through a hole.
The next second, a large mass of water dozens of meters in diameter fell from above. It was like a meteor, striking the golem within the circle of feathers directly.
Why...
Aishia looked upwards to see Sara and Alma standing midair on footholds of compressed essence created with their spirit arts; she determined that the attack just now was a spirit art they worked together to cast.
It was no mere water mass: despite being a liquid, it seemed to have properties close to a solid, and capable of keeping its shape without bursting as it made direct contact with the golem and feather blades, swallowing them whole.
“Now, let’s seal it, Alma!”
“Okay! It’s all yours, Orphia!”
It seemed that Sara and Alma were still in the middle of casting their spirit art together, and were maintaining the water prison so that the golem couldn’t escape.
“Yup!” said Orphia, who then manipulated a powerful electric attack to shock the golem in the water mass. The three of them were all first-class spirit art casters and had splendid teamwork from growing up together.
“The three of you, stop fighting. Run,” Aishia said to them with a panicked look. She clearly didn’t believe that they could do something about the golem.
“Please, don’t speak nonsense!” Sara yelled while maintaining her spirit arts.
Aishia’s eyes widened.
“We can tell you’re trying to protect us, but there’s no reason we can’t fight for ourselves.”
After all, to the three spirit folk girls, Aishia was currently a stranger.
“This opponent is extremely dangerous...” Aishia said, frustrated that she couldn’t tell them it was her duty to protect everyone in Rio’s absence.
“We could tell that much by watching it fight. We can also tell you’re much stronger than us... But the monster is stronger than you. You can’t defeat it alone, can you?” Sara replied while gazing at the water prison, as though to ask her to rely on them.
It was true; Aishia wasn’t sure she could defeat it alone. At this rate, the most she could do was buy time, and it was obvious the golem would eventually be released into the city. If Sara and the others hadn’t supported her earlier, she might have already fallen to the golem.
“If that thing isn’t defeated, this place may turn into a pile of rubble,” Aishia said.
“So let’s fight together,”
“We’ll provide you with support.”
Orphia and Alma called out to Aishia firmly.
“We won’t yield regarding this,” Sara emphasized for good measure.
Aishia was hesitant, but she nodded her head heavily. “Fine. Then I will face that thing in the front line. The floating blades are most annoying, so please get them out of my way. The spears of light can be evaded, so ignore those.”
Even if she continued buying time, there was no future for the capital if the golem wasn’t defeated. That was the thought that changed her decision.
“Got it,” Sara replied happily. It was right afterwards that the water prison covering the golem burst from internal pressure.
“Guh...”
The trapped golem had spread its wings of light and deployed its feather blades around itself. Its silver mechanical body was decorated with glittering water spray.
The sight was so sublime, it was like an angel had appeared. But in the eyes of Sara and the others, it probably looked more like a devil.
“Hel!”
“Ifritah!”
In response to Sara’s and Alma’s calls, a silver wolf spirit and lion spirit appeared. The two girls then jumped onto the backs of their contract spirits. Orphia was also riding on the back of her contract spirit, Ariel.
Hel and Ifritah didn’t have wings, but they were able to create footholds of magic essence in the air like Sara and Alma and run on top of them.
“Leave evading to Hel and Ifritah! We’re going to focus on controlling our spirit arts and put up a barrage!” Sara yelled their plan so that Aishia could hear it too.
“Okay!”
“Got it!”
Orphia and Alma replied enthusiastically, before the three contract spirits scattered in different directions. Immediately after, the blades being controlled by the golem dispersed and followed after them.
Don’t die, you three...
Aishia ignored the attacks aimed at the spirit folk girls and charged at the golem’s body.
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