Meanwhile, deep beneath the Galarc Castle, Celia and Miharu stood facing each other in a room with a high ceiling and a giant crystal floating in the middle.
“Summon him... You mean Rio? You’re summoning Rio to the castle? But we don’t even know where he is. How would that be possible?” Celia asked curiously.
“He should be in the Holy City Tonerico, in the Holy Kingdom of Almada. So we’re going to use summoning sorcery.” Miharu answered in a calm tone, but summoning sorcery was legendary sorcery even spirit folk couldn’t use.
“Summoning sorcery...” Celia’s eyes widened. She only knew of the summoning sorcery used on heroes.
“I know his general coordinates, but precise coordinates are required to designate someone specific for summoning. You’re going to help me.”
“All right. What should I do?”
The battle aboveground was ongoing even now, so Celia pulled herself together with a serious look.
“Come over here,” Miharu said with a smug smile, approaching the crystal floating at the center of the room.
Isn’t this crystal a spirit stone?
The crystal was glowing a pale gold, a color she had never seen in a spirit stone before. Celia followed Miharu to the crystal and observed it up close.
“Think of it as a spirit stone with extremely high purity. We call it a mana crystal. It has a ridiculous amount of magic essence in it, so it’s perfect as a catalyst for maintaining large-scale sorcery,” Miharu explained, as if she could anticipate Celia’s question.
“Mana crystal...” Celia gulped.
“There’s summoning sorcery and other necessary sorcery sealed in this crystal, so we’re going to activate it all in order.”
Miharu held her hands over the mana crystal. The light flowing from the crystal slightly grew in intensity.
“Now synchronize your essence with the crystal,” she said to Celia.
“Like this?”
Celia held both her hands over the mana crystal and poured her essence into it. This kind of essence control was necessary for extracting essence from enchanted gems and spirit stones, as well as for using certain artifacts.
“Yes. I’ll do the necessary steps to activate the sorcery... You just focus on synchronizing with the crystal.”
“Leave it to me,” Celia said with a firm nod.
“It’ll require a high degree of essence control, so don’t let your mind wander.”
Miharu smiled sweetly and increased the amount of essence she was outputting. At that, the mana crystal glowed even brighter. Celia’s eyes widened.
What is this...?
The essence inside the mana crystal began swirling like a violent storm. If she didn’t focus, she would fall out of sync and suspend the activation of the sorcery.
“I’ve commenced the search for his exact coordinates. I’m going to increase the processing speed—keep up!” Miharu said lightly.
“R-Right...”
Increasing the search speed meant increasing the difficulty of the essence control required. A cold sweat broke out along Celia’s forehead as she nodded.
“You can do it. You’re the descendant of my best homunculus, whom Lina created, after all.”
Celia’s eyes widened, startled by the sudden revelation of her ancestry.
“Let’s hurry. Before it’s too late.” A look of sorrow flashed across Miharu’s face.
“Of course.” Celia stiffened and nodded.
◇ ◇ ◇
Meanwhile, in the sky above the Galarc Castle, a fierce battle was taking place. At this point, the golem controlled several hundred feathers; each one flew as though they had their own will, attacking the target the main body had designated. That target had been Aishia earlier, but was now split between Sara, Orphia, and Alma. Sara used water bullets, Orphia used light bullets, and Alma used fire bullets to deflect the feather blades flying at them.
She was dealing with all these feathers by herself...
The spirit folk girls’ faces were grim. The contract spirits they were riding were handling all the evasion, allowing them to focus on unleashing a barrage. But their hands were full even after splitting the duties like that. Just now, Aishia had been taking on the golem’s main body while intercepting the feather blades using light bullets and avoiding the light spears at the same time. The spirit folk girls could keenly feel the difference between them as spirit art casters.
“Guh! How hard are those feathers?”
Each feather was roughly a dozen or so centimeters long. As long as they made contact, it was easy to knock them off their trajectory. But no matter how many times they were deflected, they couldn’t inflict any damage. They immediately corrected their path and resumed flying, so there was no end to the number of attacks.
However, just drawing the attention of the feather blades was a boon; Aishia was able to fight the golem’s main body more freely with less burden.
The golem spread its wings of light as Aishia approached from overhead, firing spears of light at her. Aishia weaved through the attack and closed the distance to the golem. When she was right before it, the golem swung its right arm at her.
A direct hit had enough force to reduce any other living creature to dust. It would be more damage to Aishia’s physical body than she could maintain too.
Aishia came to a sudden stop before the golem and turned like a spinning top to get around to the golem’s back. Immediately after, powerful destructive energy was released from the glowing wings of light on the golem’s back. Aishia swiftly retreated to evade the explosion, but the golem moved right beside Aishia and swung its fist. Aishia twisted her body to evade it, stepping on the golem’s arm for footing and leaping to increase their distance.
But the golem immediately caught up to Aishia and swung its fist again. Aishia smoothly moved aside, having no intention of being caught in the attack.
That marked the start of the game of chase between them. The golem swung its fists and tail in an attempt to punch and tear Aishia apart, which she continued to evade by a hair’s breadth.
Of course, as a spirit, Aishia could regenerate her spirit body to perfect condition even if she sustained a serious wound in her physical form. However, when a spirit’s physical form was wounded to that point, it took far much more magic essence to materialize again than when materializing normally.
From their battle up until that point, she knew that the golem couldn’t easily be harmed. In order to kill the golem, a considerable amount of essence needed to be expended in an attack. Aishia wasn’t sure she had enough essence to regenerate her body in case of a serious wound and defeat the golem once regenerated.
I can only evade its attacks for now.
While she wanted to distance herself and take her time carefully refining her essence, creating too much distance could cause the golem to attack the spirit folk girls instead.
Sara and the others had to focus on dealing with the feather blades. That meant Aishia had to keep the golem’s main body focused on herself. She maintained a distance that was neither too close nor too far, refining her essence without counterattacking.
However, putting on a united front with the spirit folk girls seemed to be putting a substantial burden on the mask. It began to peel and crumble apart.
There’s no time, but...
She had no intention of making a half-hearted attack. Aishia evaded the attacks while focusing on refining her magic essence.
Just a little more...
Haste makes waste. Landing an attack on Aishia when she was focused on evasion was quite the backbreaking task. That being said, did it become suspicious of Aishia for approaching but never attacking?
The golem suddenly ignored Aishia. Perhaps it decided to tip the current equilibrium by going after the weaker Sara, Orphia, and Alma first, as it suddenly moved towards Sara, who was the closest.
“Ah!” Aishia immediately chased after the golem. However, once the golem began its acceleration, even Aishia couldn’t catch up. The golem arrived where Sara was located over a hundred meters away in the blink of an eye.
Its initial velocity alone was close to the speed of sound. A solid object over two meters long moving at a speed like that didn’t need any petty tricks to destroy something. Just a mere tackle was enough to crush Sara, but the golem gathered its destructive power in its fist and aimed at her body.
“Wha?!”
By the time Sara was able to react—even with her physical body enhanced—the golem was right before her.
Since she was a wolf werebeast, her highest initial velocity when running with her physical body enhanced easily surpassed a hundred kilometers per hour. Her fastest speed was over double that, and it was even higher right now with Miharu’s magic raising her potential.
However, that was nothing to boast about against the golem, and her agility couldn’t be put to use while riding her contract spirit anyway.
I’m going to die...
The moment Sara realized that, her body jerked upwards. Hel had suddenly leaped up to prevent her from being killed. As a result, the golem’s fist was unable to land against Sara’s body. Instead, the fist dug into Hel’s side. Hel was immediately unable to maintain its material form and shattered into particles of light.
“H-Hel?!” Sara screamed as she was sent flying by the shock wave of the attack. As a spirit, Hel was able to regenerate unharmed with enough magic essence, but the invisible pain from the damage it suffered would linger.
Right now, Hel was still reeling from being smashed apart. How much pain was it in? The damage would remain on its spirit form, hindering its movement even after regeneration, but the golem was unfazed. It closed in on Sara, who was still falling through the air, and swung its fist.
“No!”
Aishia flew over at a speed close to the speed of sound, using her kinetic energy to stomp down on the golem. She attempted to stomp the golem down and away, but a sharp pain coursed through her legs, making her frown.
“Guh...”
No matter how sturdy her physical enhancement made her body, the legs of humanoid living beings weren’t made to withstand a stomp made close to the speed of sound.
Heavy...
Indeed, the golem was extremely heavy. Even though she had stomped on it at such a speed, the golem didn’t even budge, much less fly away.
Furthermore, the golem’s feather blades took that moment to target Aishia’s back. It was only the portion that Sara had been dealing with, but the current situation meant they were free to move as they pleased.
Aishia noticed the incoming feather blades with a gasp. She hesitated, uncertain whether she should evade them.
“I won’t let you!” Sara moved around behind Aishia, putting up a barrage. Water bullets fired at a rate of dozens per second, blocking the approach of the feather blades.
“Don’t worry, I’ve got your back! Just focus on that thing!” Sara called out solemnly.
“Sorry.” Aishia nodded and increased the force she was using to stomp down on the golem with.
Sara was speechless for a moment, then pouted. “You’re meant to say ‘thank you.’”
“Thank you,” Aishia corrected herself with a soft smile.
Just then, the golem’s tail extended towards Aishia’s abdomen. It writhed just before making contact, which Aishia saw out of the corner of her eye.
“Wha...”
The golem’s tail pierced sharply through Aishia’s stomach. Sara gaped as she watched.
“I-I’m fine...” Aishia muttered. She then released the magic essence she had been saving up from her right hand. The essence instantly transformed into condensed destructive energy.
This is what Celia used...!
Sara thought with a sparkle in her eyes. The destructive energy released from Aishia’s right hand resembled the light flowing from Durandal that Celia had once used. No, the amount of essence appeared to have surpassed Celia’s.
The golem instantly realized the danger of the attack. It attempted to withdraw its tail from Aishia and create distance between them, but Aishia grabbed its tail with her left arm to stop it. The golem tried to tear her away.—
“Ngh...”
The golem moved with an initial velocity close to the speed of sound and rapidly began to descend. No sooner had it done that, it changed directions and moved to the side, then diagonally upwards, then vertically—darting through the air, drawing a complex route. Despite flying with zigzag movements, its speed didn’t fall in the slightest. If anything, it was getting faster and faster in the short span of time that had passed.
Still skewered by its tail, Aishia was violently flung around. A heavy force attacked Aishia’s body with the complex change in trajectory. A roller-coaster ride was nothing in comparison. Any regular human would be long dead. Even Rio and Aishia normally avoided taking complex routes while moving at speeds close to the speed of sound. The burden on their physical bodies was too great, even when they enchanted them.
And yet, they had long surpassed the speed of sound. A sonic boom occurred, attacking Aishia’s physical body.
“Y-You won’t get away...”
Aishia’s face twisted in pain as she clung onto the golem’s tail. She hadn’t expected the golem to obediently accept the attack in the first place. It was obvious it would attempt to evade any attack with actual force behind it.
On top of that, the golem’s highest speed surpassed Aishia’s. Although she had activated her spell to make the golem alert, she had no confidence in being able to hit it with her attack. But she still couldn’t afford to miss.
Aishia took the majority of her remaining magic essence and gathered it in her right hand as destructive energy. There would be nothing left for a second shot, so she had to make sure this one hit her target.
“This way, it’ll hit for sure.”
This situation where they were closely stuck together was advantageous for her. Aishia pulled the tail towards her with her left arm and took aim with her right hand.
The golem changed its trajectory while shaking its body fiercely in every direction. Sensing that Aishia didn’t want the surface to be damaged, it gradually approached the ground using vertical and diagonal downwards routes. However, like threading a thread through a needle, Aishia took aim with perfect timing. Then, she released the destructive energy in the shape of a slash. She swung her right arm faster than the eye could follow, creating a glowing silver slash measuring a dozen-odd meters in length.
In the span of two to three seconds, the silver slash Aishia released dug into the golem’s back. The sun was yet to fully rise in the dim sky, but the area was blindingly bright. It was as though the midday sun had appeared.
The force behind the slash was tremendous, digging deep into the armor that had been undamaged until now. Eventually, the light slash disappeared, leaving behind the golem’s head and a portion of its lower body.
“I-It’s over...” Sara muttered, gazing on from a distance.
With the disappearance of the main body, the feather blades the golem had been controlling started falling to the ground.
“Ugh...”
Aishia also drew out the tail pierced in her abdomen and toppled off-balance. She released the tail and began to fall.
“Look out!”
Sara, Orphia, and Alma all yelled at once, rushing to save Aishia from falling. While they were doing so, the feather blades and tail of the golem turned into particles of light and faded away.
The fastest was Orphia, who was riding Ariel through the air. They made a sudden descent to get ahead of Aishia, allowing Orphia to catch her in her arms.
“Are you okay?!” Orphia asked in a fluster.
Aishia replied weakly, pressing her stomach. “Yup. I’ve just used up my essence. The wound in my stomach isn’t serious enough to force me out of my physical form. My legs hurt, but I’ll be fine.”
“I see... Thank goodness...” Orphia sighed in relief.
Her gaze was naturally drawn to Aishia’s face peeking out from beneath the mask. The mask Aishia wore was over sixty percent cracked, allowing her divinely beautiful features to peek out.
Pretty...
Orphia’s eyes widened in surprise.
“You did it!”
“Good job.”
Sara and Alma arrived belatedly, cheering in joy.
“Wonderful,” Orphia agreed. She nodded with a relieved smile.
Immediately after that, enough essence to shake the atmosphere swelled near the four of them.
“Wha?!” Aishia gasped while the spirit folk girls paled. Their gazes were all drawn to the origin of the magic essence.
“Don’t tell me...”
The worst possible scenario flashed through their heads—and emerged in reality. Like a spirit regenerating itself, the golem reappeared completely unharmed. Fallen, yet it had revived itself, and with it, disaster.
“No way...”
The spirit folk girls were at a loss for words. Aishia also frowned in silence. So this was what it meant to feel despair. Aishia had barely any essence left, and her mask was at its limit. There was no way she could fight it again.
As the sun rose over the capital, an invisible black barrier fell, but the hopelessness had only just begun.
“Huh...?”
Another source of essence shook the atmosphere; it appeared high above the capital.
“We were barely able to defeat one...”
And that one hadn’t even been defeated properly—yet now there were two?
Sara, Orphia, Alma, and even Aishia were all at a loss for words. Aishia didn’t have anything to say either.
How did they get out of this situation? Even if everyone could be evacuated, where could they run to? If only this were all just a bad dream. Many thoughts flashed through her mind, making one moment feel like infinity. But that one moment was quickly approaching its end...
Two calamities moved at once.
Like a god or a devil, here to punish humanity...
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