Chapter 266: I'm Coming to See You Now (3)
Chapter 266: I'm Coming to See You Now (3)
Tap, tap.
Iona skipped lightly across the rooftops.
She was essentially carrying the entire group by herself, but thanks to her Levitation Magic reducing their weight, she didn't look particularly strained.
Leaning into Iona’s hold, I stole a glance downward.
The roar of destruction and thick clouds of dust rose from below—the aftermath of monsters rampaging through the area we had occupied just moments ago. They clearly knew there were intruders but, unable to find us, were venting their rage on the surroundings.
Let’s see… three Ogres, two Minotaurs, two Cyclopes, and one Orc Variant.
The Orc Variant was small, but its strength would be on par with an Ogre’s. The crown-like horn sprouting from its head was the signature trait of an Orc King.
So, eight large-scale monsters had gathered in that short span of time.
With Iris’s support, we might have been able to take down two or three, but handling the rest ourselves would have been a burden. It wasn't impossible, but wasting the strength we needed for the cultists—or attracting even more monsters with the noise—was a risk we couldn't afford.
Yeah. This was definitely the right call.
I nodded to myself and looked straight ahead.
The Great Temple was rapidly drawing closer. My heart fluttered slightly at the thought of getting closer to Helena. But then—
"Huh? What’s that...?"
Iona slowed down and landed on the roof of a relatively intact building. No one hurried her, though.
The Red Curtain, the shroud surrounding the Great Temple’s barrier, suddenly swelled and began to soar upward at an incredible speed.
"Are you kidding me?"
Our original plan was to leap through the top section, which the shroud hadn't covered yet, and drop straight into the ritual site. But somehow, the ritual’s progression had suddenly accelerated.
It was still low enough to jump over, but...
"You’ve all noticed, right? If we fail today, there won't be a next time."
"Tell me about it. Anyway, I found the altar's location. Maybe the stealth function deactivated when they accelerated the ritual?"
"Ah, that’s a relief. Can we go in immediately?"
"Yes. But the inside is their domain, you know? It’ll be hard to maintain invisibility like this! So, what I’m saying is..."
"Since the invisibility is going to break anyway, you want us to prepare a big one in advance, right?"
"Exactly! If this were an exam, I’d give you a hundred points!"
Iona smiled brightly and patted my head. Her touch calmed my racing heart.
...Was I that obvious?
I let out a short laugh and turned to the stiff-faced Holy Knights.
"What do you think? I’m planning to prep something big and drop it the moment Professor Iona gets us inside."
"Understood."
"May the Righteous Light watch over us."
"As you wish."
"Finally, we can face the cultists instead of monsters!"
Their answers differed, but the meaning was the same.
Holy power began to concentrate on their respective weapons. The invisibility, which could be dispelled by even a slight disturbance, began to tear from the inside out.
Though they were drenched in the blood of their enemies, they showed no signs of exhaustion; they looked completely fired up. It was likely because they, like me—though perhaps not to the same extent—were constantly recovering stamina through the Sun God's Blessing.
Not wanting to be outdone, I channeled my mana.
Wrooooom—
The ambient mana began to swarm toward me, responding to my will.
After obtaining Mana Affinity, my magical prowess had grown exponentially. It had reached a level where I could somehow mimic things I once thought impossible.
"Come, little ruin."
A massive chunk of rock manifested at the tip of my staff. It wasn't just a normal boulder; it was a rock that was burning from within. The fire wasn't just on the surface; the rock itself was combusting, as if it were an ore made of pure flame.
"This is the divine punishment held in human hands."
Conventional Element Combination involved splitting an element into its essence and form, then combining them as desired. For example, a rock that flowed like water, or lightning that scattered like wind.
However, this was ultimately a forced union of two incompatible natures, held together by elemental affinity and mana manipulation. It was like putting oil and water in a bottle and shaking it violently; they might look mixed, but in reality, they were just broken into tiny droplets.
That was the general gist of it.
Naturally, that method had its limits. To reach the next stage, one had to find a way to transcend that...
Fortunately, I had an excellent teaching aid in Iris.
Beyond just picking and choosing essence and form, I had to fuse two essences into one. Not fire that was hard like a rock, but a spell that was simultaneously fire and rock.
It sounded like a play on words, a trivial difference, but this was the true next stage of Element Combination.
Simply mixing intermediate spells was like getting a better result because the ingredients were better. This, however, was more like the process itself evolving, making the result fundamentally more powerful.
To put it in gamer terms, it was a massive increase in the damage multiplier!
"Wait for your time, and grow your strength within my hands."
Finally, I added a holding and charging spell to overcharge the mana, then looked at Iona.
She looked quite surprised, her eyes widening as she asked, "That... can you maintain that even with all the turbulence?"
"If there's one thing I'm confident in, it's movement casting."
"That’s a relief. Because things are about to get very shaky."
Iona had apparently finished her own preparations in the meantime, as dark red currents were pouring from her entire body.
I was slightly worried when her Levitation Magic deactivated as she went all out, but... she’d be fine as long as she funneled that much mana into body strengthening. A vampire’s base physical stats were already formidable.
We changed our formation: I wrapped my arm around Iona’s waist, and the other Holy Knights lined up behind me, gripping the person in front of them. To make it even more secure, Iona wove her mana into ropes to bind us all together.
It looked like we were playing a game of human train, but since the Levitation Magic was gone, the recoil would be intense. We had no choice. One slip, and we’d be sent flying into the distance.
As everyone prepared their finishing moves with one hand and Iona concentrated mana into her legs, she lowered her stance and spoke in a low voice.
"Here we go."
A moment of silence. Then, an explosive acceleration.
BOOM!
I heard the building we had been standing on collapse from the sheer counterforce of her leap, but I didn't have the luxury to worry about that.
In an instant, my field of vision rose high enough to look down upon all of Solaris. With the Great Temple’s barrier and the shroud beneath her feet, Iona’s eyes locked onto a single point.
Her gaze sharpened. Simultaneously, Iona kicked the air—more accurately, she kicked a wall of mana she had generated in the void.
Bang!
Not just once, but multiple times. She kicked off again and again.
Bang! Bang! Bang!
To an onlooker, her zigzagging descent, trailing dark red energy, must have looked like a bolt of crimson lightning.
And where did this lightning-fast Iona land?
There was no need to ask. Naturally, it was right in front of the altar where the ritual was in full swing.
Just before we hit the ground, I decided it was time and released the spell I had been holding.
"Little Meteor!"
The burning rock shot straight toward the altar. Of course, it couldn't compare to an actual Meteor, which was a Great Magic, but...
Combined with Iona’s falling speed and the spell’s own velocity, it produced power far beyond my expectations.
KABOOOOM!
The translucent force field protecting the altar shattered instantly. Perhaps because of that, the trajectory shifted slightly.
The spell, still carrying momentum after breaking the field, slammed into the arm of the man performing the ritual instead of the altar itself.
"Aaaaaagh!"
Was he as tough as his rugged, half-orc-half-human appearance suggested? To think that after taking such an impact, only one of his arms was broken...
However, the unholy incantation he had been chanting was cut short. The ritual had been interrupted with a single strike.
I felt a bit dazed. This result was only possible because I could add Iona’s falling acceleration to the spell.
But it was too early to celebrate. That was just the opening move to signal the start of the battle.
Just before touching the ground, Iona extended her dark red energy toward the rest of us. I had wondered how she’d handle the fall damage, but it seemed she intended to take the entire burden herself using Blood Shift.
Thud!
A heavy impact shattered the ground, yet I felt no pain rising from my feet.
Iona, having absorbed all the recoil alone, seemed unable to move for a moment as she recovered from the shock...
But there were four other people here besides her and me.
The Holy Knights lunged forward from behind us as if they had been waiting for this moment. Their steps were light, as if the weight of their thick armor and massive heavy weapons meant nothing.
However, the holy power infused into those weapons was anything but light.
The one-armed man, realizing what we were aiming for, shouted desperately, "The altar! Protect the altar!"
"As if we'd let you!"
"I'll cleave you all in two, you cultists!"
Brilliant white flashes of light erupted as they flew toward the altar. The followers of Reckless Roar threw themselves forward to block the path.
Crash!
Though they possessed muscles harder than steel thanks to the Evil God's grace, it seemed blocking the full power of the Holy Knights without proper preparation was too much for them.
When I closed and opened my eyes against the explosion of holy power, I saw half-dead bodies, their entire forms tattered.
They had managed to protect the altar and were somehow clinging to life, but that was it.
The only one left capable of fighting was the man whose arm I had broken while he was presiding over the ritual.
His face, twisted in rage, looked quite familiar.
Unwavering Jeff.
He was an Archbishop of Reckless Roar, a man who, if not dealt with now, would reappear later as a Cardinal.
This mission was likely his promotion task.
He possessed martial prowess beyond the level of an Archbishop but fell short of a Cardinal; since he hadn't become a Cardinal yet, he was currently just incredibly durable.
In other words, he was no match for a strike from Iona, who had just finished recovering.
Just as I let my guard down for a second, thinking the mission was a success, the rage in his eyes vanished, replaced by an instantaneous, eerie calm.
That was impossible for a follower of Reckless Roar. Trusting my instincts, I forced my mana to rise.
I wasn't the only one who sensed something ominous; Iona also hurriedly threw the spells she had prepared.
"Thunderbolt!"
"Bloody Thorn Spear!"
Crackle!
Thwack.
Jeff’s relatively soft internal organs were seared by electricity, and his neck was skewered by a blood-red pike.
Yet, perhaps due to the tenacious life force suggested by his epithet, Jeff spat out blood and foam while shouting in a booming voice.
"O... Reckless Roar! Hear my final roar!!"
Then, with his good hand, Jeff ripped out his own heart.
He thrust his hand toward the sky as if offering it to someone. The moment I saw that pulsating heart, I knew.
Something had gone horribly wrong.