Five Seconds Is More Than Enough
That was enough.
What exactly separates a spirit mage from a summoner?
Most people unconnected to either profession can't feel the difference between the two. And honestly, you can see why — at their core, both 'summon' something, and both have that summoned creature fight on their behalf.
If there's any difference at all, it's only the divide between the 'non-combat summoner,' who leaves the fighting entirely to their summons, and the 'combat summoner,' who relies on the Combat Assist System to fight alongside them.
For that reason, the two seem like nothing more than branches of the same class, split apart by whatever kind of being happens to answer the call.
Nonsense.
The difference between them is very real.
Spirit mages share a part of their mind with their spirits. It's an ability on an entirely different plane from that of summoners, who simply issue commands and skim a few stray emotions or thoughts off the surface.
Because of this, mages who deal with spiritual beings are extremely rare compared to other classes — and most people write them off as a few cards short of a full deck. Look closely and nearly every one of them carries some kind of penalty, or thinks in ways an ordinary class player never would.
Communing with spirits does that. It changes the mind in profound ways.
"Now then, shall we do this properly?"
Three spiritual beings who had shared their minds with Taebaek emerged into the light. Each one was strong enough to stand toe-to-toe with rankers in the 1000s.
A smile spread across Taebaek's lips as he dreamed of the future that awaited him.
The first thing I felt upon arriving was something spiritual blanketing the entire fortress. A field-type skill, most likely. I didn't examine it closely, but it seemed more like a simple enhancement skill than a summoning formula.
And there he was — Black Moon's vice guildmaster. Gray hair spiked up in short bristles and jet-black eyes. His light, easygoing outfit and the spiritual beings circling his body told me he was something close to a spirit mage.
He stared at me, unblinking.
A gaze I didn't like. One I'd seen a hundred times before — deeply, unpleasantly familiar.
Eyes steeped in greed.
I knew better than anyone exactly where that greed was aimed, even without being told.
"Lami. Kai. Den."
I lightly deflected the bird and the tree fairy's root strikes, then summoned three more spiritual beings of my own.
Taebaek's expression grew even more expectant.
I reached for my hammer instead of my spear.
The hammer felt oddly heavier in my grip — as if it demanded just a little more effort than usual.
Crack.
The floor of the fortress beneath my feet began to cave in, bit by bit.
Behind Taebaek, a colossal golem of pale gray stone burst up from the ground. A giant sentinel with eyes of blue.
When the guardian's thick fist slammed into the floor, shards sprayed in every direction.
BA-BA-BA-BOOM—!
I knocked every last fragment out of the air with the hammer. And in the very moment they ground to powder, a single ferocious swing of it obliterated the guardian's head.
Taebaek flinched and looked up at me.
That gaze, unchanged. If anything, staring up from below had only made it burn brighter.
Whooong—!
"You're actually insane."
Heh. Taebaek let out a short laugh, and then his body vanished.
My hammer, abandoned, struck nothing but air.
I whipped my head around and hurled the hammer straight at where Taebaek had gone invisible. His eyes nearly splitting wide open, Taebaek barely managed to retreat, using the ghost clinging to his shoulder as a shield.
That wasn't the end of it. I willed the thrown hammer to charge forward, caught it as it wheeled back around, and brought it down in one motion.
Taebaek dodged again.
Kiiiiiing… KRA-KASHING!
But the reckless maneuver cost him — his mirror fairy, one of his own summons, shattered into pieces.
One troublesome ability… but this is the end of it.
After all, I'd broken the rest.
I rested the hammer naturally on my shoulder.
"Throw everything away like that and what's left for you? The psychological damage alone has to be considerable."
"There's plenty left. That's why I can afford it. Right, Lily?"
Still at his leisure, Taebaek gave a sly grin.
I want to kill him.
"And who said anything about throwing them away?"
I'm merely making efficient use of them.
Taebaek's fingertips moved.
The spiritual mana in the field surged, and the shattered fragments of the stone guardian began to gather and fuse back into a single whole. The mirror fairy and the ghost both returned to their original forms as well.
His full strength, restored as if nothing had happened.
Resurrection? Or body replacement?
"You look confused. Although, the sight of Lily confused is quite magnific—"
KWAGAGAGAGAGA!!!!
"......."
"I wonder what exactly you thought was confusing."
The freshly restored summons were shredded to pieces once more.
Taebaek's summons were genuinely useful creatures — defense, evasion, concealment — but they weren't made for offense. If anything, those very abilities left the summons themselves with low durability, and the one summon that could actually attack, the stone guardian, was agonizingly slow.
Laughably so, for something that had tried to grab me and do whatever it intended.
It shouldn't take more than this.
Still, Taebaek was a fairly high-ranking player in his own right. He might not measure up to Vlack or Leo, but he was a ranker around the top 100 — on the same tier as Redberry or Devil.
He had to have more cards up his sleeve.
"...Impressive. Truly. You recognized Phantomization — something even ranker mages couldn't identify."
"If that's all you've got, I'm a little disappointed."
"Oh! So Lily expected something? Of me?"
Waaah! Look how excited he's gotten.
I really do want to bash his skull in, just once.
"This one has a rather long cooldown... but I think it's time to use it now."
Having finished his shouting, Taebaek cleared his throat, composed his voice, and drew something out.
A stark white flute, no longer than a handspan.
A chill crawled up my spine, and I fell back a step.
That's—
Taebaek smiled.
"No need to be so tense. It plays quite a fun little melody."
Piiiie~♪
An otherworldly sound rippled out through the space around us. No — it wasn't otherworldly at all.
A Mythic-grade debuff manifests. The 'Abyss' effect is applied to the area.
All physical stats are reduced by 70%. All stats of the caster's summons are increased by 70%.
My body sank.
In an instant my flesh could no longer support its own weight, and the hammer I held drooped toward the ground.
No.
It had been a long, long time since my body's balance had been thrown this badly out of whack.
This is a demon's—
Strength and body were pulling apart from each other. This was unmistakably the sorcery of a mid-tier demon — the Demon of Bewilderment. So I needed to find a counter, or flee—
WHACK!
I smashed my own skull.
"?"
It's not a demon.
My mind cleared. The moment the confusion washed out of my head, the situation came back into focus.
Whether it was an effect of the Mythic-grade item or not, a window had appeared offering information like a boss-fight advisory, alongside a reduction in every physical stat. My base physical abilities had almost certainly dropped across the board too.
Ordinarily, thanks to the influence of the Celestials' blood, the reduction to my base stats was remarkably small — but a Mythic-grade debuff was a different animal entirely.
For a fleeting moment, it was convincing enough to mistake for a demon's power.
Granted, the difference in raw strength between the two was the gulf between an ant and the Dragon Lord — but a similar ability was something to take very seriously. Especially now, when I myself had been reduced to something not much bigger than an ant.
"This'll be a little different from before!"
Grgrgr…!
The stone guardian charged at me, moving incomparably faster than before, lunging to seize me. At the same time, the bird swooped in to drag down my already crippled movement speed, and the great tree hurled a storm of roots my way.
Far off in the distance, Taebaek laughed under the protection of his ghost and mirror.
Swinging the hammer was going to be a strain. Instead, I drew my spear.
"Ron."
Piiieeeet!
Crackle.
The space around the spearhead itself began to warp.
So this has gone sideways.
"Haa…"
Roots wound around my body, binding it.
"Given up, have you? Perfectly understandable. No matter how strong Lily may be, a difference like this—"
"I was starting to think everyone had forgotten too much. It's not supposed to work this way."
"...?"
An unexpected frost in my voice.
I had the advantage. That much was true.
I had the advantage in stats, and I had the advantage in circumstances. By every measure I held the upper hand — and yet for some reason an unease crawled over Taebaek, and he wrapped himself in his defensive summons and fell back.
Lily's green spear began to bleed blue.
The one thing that had never diminished — mana — was amplifying, little by little. And at the same time, my body began to burn from deep within, kindling outward from the marrow.
War is something you fight with your life on the line.
Five seconds?
That was enough.