In the rooftop garden of the Galarc Castle, Rio had just closed the distance to the golem to draw its attention. Both his hands and legs were wrapped in wind spirit arts as he attacked fiercely.
However, the golem wasn’t about to take things quietly. When Rio appeared before it, it responded by thrusting its right hand out, aiming to pierce Rio’s body with its claws.
Rio shifted to sidestep the attack. He tried to take out the golem’s arm while doing so by aiming a sharp blow to its joint.
So heavy...
A dull sound echoed loudly. The golem didn’t budge at all.
Then, as though it had predicted the moment of immobility after the punch, the golem’s tail shot out past its side. It writhed like a snake as it swiftly neared Rio in an attempt to stab him. Rio used his opposite hand to grab the tip of the tail and smack it away.
Without any warning, the golem’s left arm swayed with minimal movement, taking aim at Rio’s face.
“Ugh...”
Rio twisted his body, evading the fist by a hair’s breadth, before the feather blades being controlled by the golem shot at him from every direction. However, Rio turned like a spinning top, releasing a tornado from his body. The feathers were blown off track, unable to tear apart his body.
The golem’s raging attack continued. Rio had originally approached the golem in an attempt to draw it away from the rooftop garden, but before he knew it, he was forced to focus entirely on evading its attacks.
There was barely any time to breathe; it was clear why Aishia had struggled with this situation. Rio was experiencing firsthand how formidable of an enemy the golem was.
What was most troublesome was how it had a humanoid shape, yet it made free use of its nonhuman parts like its tail and feathers in addition to its arms and legs to attack. It made actions and attacks that weren’t possible for humans, so it was harder to predict its movements. Yet at the same time, it made movements like a martial arts master, making it extremely difficult to fight. In fact, it wasn’t an opponent that should be faced one-on-one in the first place—the difference in attack number was far too great.
It’s so tough...
His attacks were striking the golem directly, yet it was completely unwounded. The golem continued making its attacks while receiving all of Rio’s without batting an eye.
Despite that, Rio held his ground and even attempted to make counterattacks as he endured the golem’s attacks. He had no intention of falling back. Satsuki was behind him, unconscious after receiving a fatal wound. He couldn’t afford to retreat.
Meanwhile, Latifa and the others had fallen back behind Rio. Status was irrelevant: those who could use magic and spirit arts worked together to create essence barriers, maintaining the safe zone. Among them, Flora and Charlotte were busy casting healing magic on Satsuki’s chest.
Christina was one of the ones casting the barrier. Although they were in the middle of a battlefield, her eyes were fixed on Rio as though time had stopped. An indescribable feeling of restlessness filled her chest.
What is this feeling? When I look at him, I feel...
Guilty? Grateful? Curious? There was an intense feeling of unrest in Christina’s chest. It was as though feelings that had been suppressed for a long time had reached their limit and were threatening to burst.
There was something she had to tell that unfamiliar person fighting over there. She wished to return something to him that couldn’t be returned. Christina moved the right hand she had held up to activate her magic and clenched her fist around the fabric of her dress as though to grasp that wish.
At the same time, there was someone else who was feeling strong emotions towards Rio: Latifa, who was casting an essence barrier beside Christina. Tears were flowing down her face before she knew it.
“Huh?” Latifa wiped her tears with her right sleeve in confusion. She didn’t know why she was crying herself. She just knew she felt an intense emotion when she looked at Rio.
Why? I don’t know that person...
Latifa didn’t know Rio. So why? Why was she filled with the urge to run over and hug him, even though it clearly wasn’t the time for that?
“I...” Liselotte mumbled beside Latifa. “I think I know that person...”
A name that didn’t exist in her memory was on the tip of her tongue, yet she couldn’t say it. Desperate to know the answer, Liselotte moved the hands she had stretched out to cast the essence barrier towards Rio and clenched them.
Latifa turned to her with a gasp. “You too, Liselotte?!”
“Both of you as well? Me too...” Christina said, joining their conversation.
The three exchanged a look of confusion.
Just then, Aishia landed on the floor near the barrier the three of them were casting. She glanced at the barrier to check what was happening within.
“Um, would you like to come inside?” Liselotte asked.
“No, it’s fine. I’m going to fight too.”
Aishia shook her head and began to help Rio.
“Whoa!” Celia appeared within the barrier via teleportation.
“Celia?!”
“Where were you all this time?!”
Everyone inside the barrier reacted with shock.
“Ahaha... Sorry, I was busy activating some sorcery...”
How do I even begin to explain things...
Naturally, everyone rushed towards Celia, making her shrink back. Just then, she spotted Aishia standing outside the barrier.
“Ah, Aishia!” she called hurriedly.
“What?”
“I have a message for you: At the signal, use your powers on the enemies. If you erase the magic essence stored within them, they’ll cease moving. But stay within the barrier!” Celia passed on the message Lina had given her to Aishia.
“Signal?”
“Apparently a large-scale sorcery is about to be activated, so that’ll be the signal. She also wants you to retrieve the cores once you’ve defeated them.”
“Got it.”
“One last thing! Your powers can only be used twice in succession. If possible, try and defeat both of them in one go...” Celia’s brow furrowed slightly as she stared at Aishia—she was worried about the burden of using the powers that would fall on Rio.
“All right. I’ll be off now.” Aishia nodded firmly in understanding and leaped up lightly. She then headed to where Rio was fighting the golem and approached from the side.
The golem was still making its fierce onslaught of attacks on Rio. Feather blades flew at Rio while the main body attempted to beat him up with close combat.
Rio deployed countless orbs of light around himself to fend off the golem’s attacks. The incoming feather blades were deflected and flew around in wait for a new opening. Rio was aware Aishia had descended near them.
“Guh...”
He moved so that the golem was unable to see her. Aishia made her way around to the golem’s back and aimed a jumpkick at its head. The sharp strike from its blind spot made the golem lose postural control, and its upper body swayed violently. Out of caution against a follow-up attack, the golem immediately distanced itself from them.
“Haruto, I will fight with you.” Aishia landed beside Rio. Rio took her hand and immediately began to transfer the essence in his body to her.
“Thank you. The other one above...”
“Is being handled by Sora.”
The two shared information while holding hands.
“I see. It sure is reassuring to have her around.”
Rio glanced overhead to see Sora fighting the other golem far in the distance.
“I have a message from Celia. A large-scale sorcery is apparently about to be activated. Wait for it, then use your transcendent power to erase the essence within the golem. But make sure to stay within the barrier.”
“Is the ridiculously large barrier also Celia’s doing?”
“It could be Miharu’s. She was acting funny earlier.”
“Miharu...?”
Rio’s eyes widened. Now that he thought about it, he hadn’t seen Miharu anywhere. He assumed she had been somewhere else.
Could it be Lina...?
“Let’s talk about it later. Our first priority is to deal with this thing. We just have to buy time until the next sorcery is activated, right?” Now wasn’t the time to be chatting away. Rio quickly pulled himself together.
“Yup. I destroyed its body earlier, but it repaired itself immediately. It can’t be hurt by any superficial attacks. Be careful.”
“Got it. For now, let’s get it away from everyone else.”
Just as Rio said that, the golem that had distanced itself sent its feather blades flying over to them.
“I’ll create an opening. Leave the feathers to me too,” Aishia said, releasing Rio’s hand.
She had recovered a considerable amount of the essence she had consumed, and was able to deploy an abundant number of light orbs around them. Each one struck the incoming feather blades with perfect accuracy, deflecting them away.
“Thank you.”
Leaving behind those words of gratitude, Rio started running. He condensed his magic essence around his fists as he closed the distance to the golem. Since he didn’t have to worry about the feather blades anymore, he could afford to activate powerful arts.
This guy’s armor is thick.
An art that was merely big in scale wouldn’t be enough—it needed the power to break through the armor.
In that case...
What he needed was penetrative power at a single point. He aimed to reduce the scale of the art and focus more on the might instead.
Of course, the golem wasn’t just waiting patiently for him to move. It made use of their size difference and the hardness of its armor to force Rio into a corner.
Just then, the orbs of light being controlled by Aishia started falling on the golem like a meteor shower. It did barely any damage, but the golem’s movements were slowed.
That single instant allowed Rio to sneak right up close to the golem, but the golem’s tail reacted by sliding across the floor towards Rio. However, one of Aishia’s light orbs struck the underside of the dimly glowing tail. Her unparalleled accuracy caused the tail to veer into another direction.
Amazing as always.
Rio was able to freely move close to the golem. The essence gathered around his fists was so dense, its blinding light was visible to the naked eye. He first swung his right arm, aiming a sharp punch at the golem’s belly.
However, the golem seemed to deem that single blow capable of doing harm and made its first attempt to evade. It twisted its body with nimbleness that was unimaginable for its heavy metallic appearance. Rio’s fist soared through the air.
It’s not only big, but fast...
Rio’s eyes rounded. The golem proceeded to spin away from him before making a sudden approach again. But Rio had already moved back within reach, and the destructive energy wrapped around his right fist was still present.
Rio took aim and swung his arm again. The golem bared its pointed claws and gathered magic essence at the tips, thrusting them out at Rio.
As a result, Rio’s fist collided directly with the golem’s claws. The essence they had both collected was released, creating a surge of light upon impact.
“Ngh...!”
Rio was sent reeling backwards through the air, but regained control of his balance with a single flip.
It’ll be impossible to face this thing with pure strength... he thought as he was upside down.
Rio pushed off the floor with his right hand and distanced himself from the golem. He spotted the golem approaching him—its inherent weight had made it indifferent to the impact of their collision, allowing it to pursue him freely.
The next moment, Rio slid to the side while in his handstand position. The movement should have been impossible under the laws of physics, but he had activated his flying spirit arts to do so. The feather blades showed signs of raining down upon him, but Aishia obstructed them using her orbs of light.
“Ugh...”
In the blink of an eye, a dazzling exchange of blows happened. Rio and Aishia showed off their advanced teamwork, and the onlookers within the barrier held their breaths in awe.
“Wow...” Masato mumbled. The battle unfolding before him was at such a high level, it felt like it was on another dimension. His gaze of admiration was fixed on Rio, who stood undaunted before the fallen angel wreaking havoc.
Rio corrected his posture upon landing and approached the golem again. Essence was once again gathered around his right fist, which he released in an extra large blast.
The golem swung its fist, repelling the blast attack easily. But the blast had another purpose: stalling and distraction. Rio lowered his posture and ran beneath his blast towards the golem.
Wary of Rio’s approach from its blind spot, the golem flew backwards to distance itself from him. But just as the golem started to rise up into the air, it lost balance as though someone had yanked on its leg. Its leg had been frozen to the ground. Rio had activated the spirit art by touching the floor as he ran.
Immediately after, Rio’s left fist slammed into the golem’s jaw with an immense amount of magic essence. The condensed destructive energy flowed out of his hand and swallowed the golem’s head. He had saved as much of his essence as he could in his left hand and released it in a single blow. The essence had been condensed to the point of bursting out of control and dispersing, so maintaining it had been a backbreaking effort in itself. A single mistake when activating it could have resulted in an explosion that would have destroyed Rio’s hand, so there was no doubt it packed a punch.
A sound resembling crackling lightning could be heard before the light Rio released faded. The golem’s head had completely vanished.
“All right!” Masato yelled, pumping his fists in celebration.
But the next moment, the missing head began to repair itself. It must have been emitting an intense heat, as the ice at its feet melted instantly. Furthermore, the golem was still swinging its fists in an attempt to attack Rio.
“Guh...!” Rio quickly leaped backwards.
It repaired its missing head in an instant. Good grief...
When Aishia said it had repaired its destroyed body instantly, he had hoped they would have better results by blowing apart its head, but...
Does it not have any weaknesses?
There was no telling whether there was a limit to how many times it could repair itself, and he couldn’t imagine himself one-sidedly destroying it. If he suffered any injuries, it would be difficult for him to continue fighting. Rio immediately understood that it would be disadvantageous for him if this battle dragged out.
Aishia. Let’s assimilate and fight him together, he called out to Aishia telepathically.
By assimilating with a spirit, Rio’s combat power would rise dramatically. Fighting separately had the benefit of allowing them to divide roles, but he believed they were better off improving his individual combat power even if they had to abandon that.
Got it. But keep the degree of assimilation low until you use your power.
Of course, there was a reason Aishia gave a conditional agreement.
Assimilation was, as the word implied, when the spirit and their contractor fused into the same heart and body. In other words, by assimilating with a spirit, a human became a nonhuman existence. The stronger the degree of assimilation was, the further away from being a human they became.
It would be the first time Aishia and Rio assimilated since the battle with Saint Erica. There was no telling what kind of changes would happen to Rio’s physical body after a high degree of assimilation. Depending on the situation, it was possible for trouble to occur when everything was over, turning Rio into a nonhuman existence. After all, the first time they assimilated, Rio’s hair and eyes changed color.
I’ll leave the degree of assimilation to you, Aishia. Just keep in mind that we may have to use our powers before the signal arrives.
Celia had asked them to wait until the next large-scale sorcery activated to use their transcendent powers, but there was a chance they wouldn’t be able to wait that long. That was how powerful the golem was. Rio’s brow furrowed.
Okay, let’s go!
Yup.
Aishia canceled her materialized form and vanished. The nearly broken mask she had been wearing fell to the ground.
“Huh...?”
That made Liselotte and the others react with shock. But as they were doing that, Rio’s and Aishia’s assimilation completed. While there was no change in his appearance—
“This is amazing as always...”
A tremendous sense of omnipotence surged within Rio. His body felt lighter than ever before, and his senses were all heightened to their maximum potential.
There were several benefits to assimilating with a spirit. First, he had a far higher affinity for ode and mana, and could control far more powerful arts. Next, even when his physical body was wounded, he could repair himself without dying easily.
Okay, materializing Spirit Arms.
By assimilating with a spirit, he was able to use a unique spirit weapon. A single sword appeared in Rio’s hand out of nowhere. It looked exactly like the phenomenon of a hero materializing their Divine Arms.
Of course it did—the Divine Arms that the heroes used were actually the Spirit Arms from assimilating with upper high class spirits. Considering the way he had appeared, it was only natural for those who knew nothing about assimilation to assume he was another hero.
“Wha...”
Everyone watching on was so dumbfounded, they held their breaths in shock.
But whether Rio was a hero or not was irrelevant to the golem. It didn’t possess the emotion of surprise. Instead, as soon as it finished repairing its missing head, it charged at Rio. It closed in on him in an instant and immediately swung its sharp claws. Rio held his spirit sword up and blocked the claws. The golem attempted to sweep him away with force, but Rio stood his ground in opposition.
Its strength really is on another level.
Thanks to the assimilation, Rio’s physical strength had risen significantly. He had blocked this attack from front-on to check how well he could compete against the golem, but he could feel he was still at a disadvantage.
He could only compare based on his own experience, but it felt like the golem’s physical strength was comparable to when Erica was possessed by the upper high class spirit. In order to fully compete against the golem, Aishia would have to raise the degree of their assimilation.
If it’s like this, we still have a chance...
Rio had just enough strength to put up a fair fight for now. Besides, it wasn’t just his physical abilities that had increased.
“Look out!”
Just then, Sara’s voice could be heard. She had just landed sometime after Aishia, and yelled to inform Rio of the feather blades flying at his back.
However, an orb of light floated behind Rio’s back. Without a single glance backwards, Rio steered the orb into intercepting the feather blades.
“H-How is he able to knock those down?”
Sara, Orphia, and Alma were all rendered speechless. There were far more than just ten or twenty feather blades, and each one flew at a tremendous speed. Knocking them down without even looking at them was such an amazing feat, they wondered if he had eyes on the back of his head.
Of course, Rio didn’t actually possess a third eye. His senses were merely sharpened by the assimilation—almost like a sixth sense. He didn’t even need to use spirit arts to search his surroundings since his senses extended outwards.
It was almost like he had become one with nature. The position and shape of anything with magic essence could be clearly seen in his mind.
That was why he could tell the golem’s tail was sneaking towards him from below. On top of that, the golem also thrust out its free left arm in an attempt to stab Rio. It would be difficult to deal with all those attacks with a single sword.
Rio temporarily retreated and distanced himself from the golem. The golem wrapped essence around its claws and slashed them at Rio. The sharp slash of light extended from its claws, closing in on Rio from outside of his attack range.
Rio immediately moved upwards and out of the range of the slash. In exchange, the slash struck the rooftop garden and smashed the floor, sending pieces flying through the air. The golem then took to the air after Rio.
If it’s going to follow me, then...
Rio flew even higher to get away from the golem. The golem immediately rose to close the distance, so the space between them didn’t change. However...
With this, I can lead the golem away from the roof.
He succeeded in drawing the golem away from the rooftop garden as planned. The feather blades the golem was controlling also rose into the air after the main body, shifting the battlefield to the sky.
Rio continued rising to create as much distance from Latifa and the others as possible. The golem spread its wings of light and fired countless spears to shoot him down. Rio flew in a zigzag pattern to avoid them.
The transcendent powers have to be used within the barrier, right?
If they had to fight within the barrier, the capital would be exposed to their battle. In order to minimize the damage to the castle and city, it would’ve been better to leave the Galarc Kingdom like this. But there must have been a reason he was told to remain within the barrier.
All right, then let’s go that way.
There were multiple uninhabited areas included within the wide barrier that covered the capital. Rio glanced around quickly and selected an area where there would be little damage even if they fought intensely. However...
The golem accelerated endlessly, closing in on Rio at a speed faster than the speed of sound. Rio reacted instinctively and evaded the charge, but that allowed the feather blades to surround him.
It seems like I won’t be able to move so freely...
With no other choice, Rio prepared to fight back at their current location. Just as he did so, the mask on his face creaked.
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