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“Now, it’s time to fix the divergent futures,” Miharu said to Celia with a smile.
For a brief moment, Celia was stunned into forgetting the current situation they were in. Then, she detected a surge in the essence source high overhead and looked up with a gasp. The sky was dim and the golem was so far away, it wouldn’t have been visible even in the daylight, but it was clear which direction the source of the essence was in.
Magic essence that normally needed training to be visualized had been condensed so much, it formed visible rays of light. Immediately after, enough magic to wipe out the mansion and surrounding area was fired from the golem.
The sight was like a full moon appearing at early dawn.
“No way...” Celia muttered, freezing as she stared at the light falling from the sky. In fact, everyone in the garden was still with despair, as though they were watching the end of the world take place.
There were only two exceptions: Aishia, who was rising into the sky while preparing her essence to face the golem, and Miharu.
“Dolus Magus: Excelsus Magia Castrum Murus.”
Her hands were held up towards the sky as she recited a spell. As soon as she did so, ten enormous magic circles appeared in the air above Aishia.
Remote activation of magic?!
Celia instantly understood what Miharu was trying to do. The remote activation of magic was extremely technical. Spells were normally cast by forming the circle right by the caster’s hands, but those that excelled at essence control were able to cast their magic circle anywhere within their field of view.
But the farther the distance from the caster, the more difficult that was to accomplish. When it came to advanced magic, that difficulty increased even more—especially when deploying multiple circles at once.
The multiple magic circles Miharu had just cast were located fifty meters away from her, and the formula appeared to be incredibly complex.
At any rate, a total of ten magic circles activated, forming a thick defensive wall of light around those in the garden of the mansion.
Aishia gazed in wonder at the barrier of magic essence that had suddenly appeared above her. For a brief moment, she wondered if she should activate something too, but promptly determined that the wall was enough and ceased her casting. No sooner had she did, the blast from the golem struck the essence barrier Miharu had deployed. Blinding light filled their field of view, illuminating the entire city.
With a rumbling roar, a storm blew over the area. In the midst of their obscured vision, the sound of a barrier shattering could be heard four times in quick succession.
But eventually, the sound slowed down to a stop with the ninth shatter. Celia still had her eyes closed against the light.
“This isn’t the time to be standing around,” Miharu said from right beside her.
“Huh?” Celia cracked open her eyes and glanced to her side.
“Transilio,” Miharu said, having grabbed Celia’s shoulder. A magic circle appeared under their feet, and the space around them distorted. The two disappeared from where they stood.
“Wha?!”
Multiple voices screamed as a thunderous sound like a falling meteorite could be heard. The golem had rapidly descended and landed on the ground. No, it was more like a fall than a descent. A violent shock wave spread from its point of landing.
It was at this point that Celia finally realized her surroundings had changed. Moments ago she had been with Miharu away from the rest of the others in the garden, but now they were in the middle of the group. It was as though they had both teleported.
“Lady Celia, Lady Miharu, when did you both...?” Gouki gasped. But his attention was soon drawn to the golem that had descended. Celia looked as well—and realized that the golem was where she had been standing moments ago.
A cold chill ran down her spine. If she hadn’t moved, she would have been crushed into a lump of flesh.
This time, Aishia was the one to descend rapidly upon the golem, stomping down with the momentum of her fall. The sound of forceful impact rang out. But the golem had raised its right arm to easily block Aishia’s feet. Feathers from the wings growing from the golem’s back separated from the wings and floated into the air.
Aishia immediately distanced herself from the golem. Each feather was shaped like a sharp, triangular blade, connecting together to form the shape of wings. In separated form, it was like having countless knives floating in the air.
Satsuki materialized the spear that was her Divine Arms.
“Y-You’ve gotta be kidding me...” she muttered with dread in her voice.
“Stand back!” Aria yelled at the others. She grabbed her enchanted sword and stood before Liselotte to protect her. The others similarly grabbed their weapons to protect those who were unarmed. Aishia positioned herself between the golem and everyone else.
Satsuki’s feeling of dread was on the mark. The feathers floating in the air began flying, aimed straight at the residents of the mansion.
“I won’t let you,” Aishia said.
She immediately deployed countless light orbs of essence. Each one moved all at once to intercept the approaching blades. Her aim was so accurate, it managed to strike and deflect every single blade.
However, while the orbs Aishia released had struck the blades and deflected them, they hadn’t been able to harm them. The blades were knocked off trajectory, some falling to the ground, but they all quickly readjusted and started flying at the residents of the mansion again.
Aishia quickly tried to make more light orbs, but the golem moved to attack her directly. It moved in front of her in an instant, raising its metallic fist and swinging at her face.
“Guh...!”
Aishia crossed her arms in front of herself and deployed an essence barrier at the same time. The golem’s fist made smashed into the barrier and shattered it. Aishia was sent backwards with the momentum, nearly flying away. She wasn’t able to kill the force of the impact completely, and her arms bent in a disturbing way.
She nearly proceeded to crash into Latifa behind her, when Aishia turned into her spirit form just before making contact.
“Wah! Huh?!”
Only the mask she had been wearing remained, which fell to the ground. Latifa blinked, wide-eyed in shock.
But Aishia promptly reappeared, grabbing the falling mask and putting it back on. Her arms were restored by rematerializing, although a dull pain remained. However, by that point, the feathers of the golem were about to reach the residents of the mansion.
“Ngh...”
Aishia’s normally inexpressive face was now panic-stricken. She must have thought there were too many people for her to protect alone. Despite that, she quickly tried to deploy more essence orbs to do something about the flying blades.
Just then, without any warning, countless magic circles appeared all across the ground. Each one was cast in the way of a flying feather. A light bullet of magic shot vertically out of every magic circle, striking the golem’s feather blades and deflecting them upwards. Setting aside the matter of who had cast the magic, Aishia immediately fired her orbs of light too. The essence flew through the air like it was being sucked towards the feathers, deflecting them all further.
But her attention on the blades had distracted her from the golem’s main body, and the golem had used that chance to vanish.
With the disappearance of the golem, everyone including Aishia looked around on high alert. The next moment, a fist swung down upon Celia’s head. The sound of a fierce impact rang out, but the golem’s fist was prevented from reaching Celia by a wall of light. Celia flinched belatedly as she realized the golem had been closing in on her from above.
While the others were also reacting with their own shock, Miharu was the only one staring up at the golem with a completely calm look. Then, a crack appeared in the barrier above their heads.
“No! Hmph!”
Gouki immediately readied his katana, but a new magic circle appeared between them and the golem. Magic essence fired from that circle, but the golem reflexively dodged the extremely close-ranged blast at high speed without any issue. But another magic circle appeared where it moved to, as though its evasion had been predicted from the start. A new blast of magic essence was fired from there, but the golem was able to evade that one easily too.
The magic circle was positioned in what appeared to be the golem’s blind spot, yet the golem had reacted as though it had seen it. But more magic circles appeared in rapid succession, forcing the golem to keep evading.
“Huh...”
The continued deployment of circles with no verbal casting made it confusing to tell who the caster was at a glance.
Miharu is casting all of those...
While everyone else was staring at the golem’s movements in astonishment, Celia was the only one who was watching Miharu’s side profile with bated breath. She understood that Miharu was using the highly advanced technique of wordless magic activation.
Aishia had also noticed that Miharu was activating magic without using verbal spells and came to stand beside her.
“Alis Luminis.”
Just then, Miharu recited a spell, and wings of light grew from her back. Her body rose into the air, ignoring gravity.
She can even use light wing flying magic...
Celia’s surprise intensified. Light wing flying magic was an ancient spell she had only just obtained recently herself.
Satsuki and the others were taken aback as well. “Miharu...?”
Meanwhile, there was a change in the golem’s movements as well. It drew its feather blades back towards its body while readjusting its posture, then swung its arms to send a sweeping shock wave at them. It seemed to have determined that Miharu’s attacks weren’t powerful enough to bother avoiding.
“The odds will be stacked against us at this rate. Aishia, can you do something about the blades in the air? Celia, gather everyone in a single spot and stop them from acting on their own.”
Miharu gave orders to Aishia and Celia, who were on either side of her. Then—
“I will lead that thing away from here,” she said, charging straight at the golem in the air without waiting for their reply.
“Huh?! Wha— Miharu?!”
“I’ll be back,” Aishia said, ignoring Celia’s shock and taking off after Miharu.
“F-Fine, jeez! Everyone, come over here! I think Miharu has a plan!”
There were a million things on Celia’s mind, but she raised her voice and called for the people in the garden first. However, they were more hesitant than Celia herself.
Everyone was slow to react. Part of it was because they couldn’t keep up with the situation, but they also didn’t have any trust in leaving the battle to Miharu. While she could use simple spirit arts, she was a delicate noncombatant and had a personality unsuited for war. That was the common opinion between the residents of the mansion.
But at the same time, Miharu was most certainly showing abnormal combat prowess right now. She was using magic she shouldn’t be able to use, flying through the air with magic wings of light.
Miharu deployed several magic circles around her wordlessly while rapidly approaching the golem. The golem also charged straight forward to crush Miharu. But before the golem could reach her, one of her magic circles fired a blast.
The golem instantly vanished, evading the blast. It reappeared right before Miharu, swinging its fist.
“Look out—!”
Sara and the others on the ground paled. But Miharu deployed another barrier of light to her side and blocked the golem’s fist. The golem’s feathers closed in on her from behind to pierce her in the back, but Aishia manipulated her orbs of light to deflect the feathers.
“Well done,” Miharu said with a pleased grin. She then shot Celia a glance to urge her into gathering everyone up faster.
Celia startled, then raised her voice. “C-Come on, everyone! Gather here!”
At that, everyone finally started approaching Celia in confusion. The battle above their heads continued as they did so.
The golem was flying around at a speed faster than the eye could follow. No human body would have been able to withstand the recoil, but that didn’t affect the golem. It rapidly repeated its sudden acceleration and sudden braking, attempting to attack Miharu from her blind spot.
Yes, attempting.
Miharu was casting spell circle after spell circle without moving in the air. She was only using two types of magic: one that fired a blast of magic essence, and one that deployed an essence barrier.
She prevented the approach of the golem using these two spells alone. She wasn’t even looking at her surroundings, yet she was able to accurately block the golem no matter which direction it came at her from and aim her essence shots perfectly every time. It was almost like she knew which direction the golem would come from.
Sorcerers were weak against soldiers in close combat. That was common sense, yet the way she was fighting right now overthrew such concepts completely.
Amazing...
Celia was so captivated by the sight, she nearly forgot about the situation they were in. But just then, the golem’s magic essence increased. Those on the ground who could detect it stiffened.
Immediately after, the golem charged straight at Miharu. Miharu deployed a barrier of light to block the golem’s fist, but the moment the golem made contact, the barrier shattered like glass.
Miharu rose diagonally upwards to distance herself from the golem. But the golem flew right after her, closing that distance once again.
Looks like this is as much time as I can buy. At least everyone’s gathered as planned.
Miharu took one glance at Celia and the others on the ground and grinned. She then cast a magic circle in front of her, aiming a blast at the golem below her.
The golem swung its left fist and swept away the incoming blast. It then held its right hand up at Miharu and released an intense heat ray. The heat ray spread in a conical shape starting from its palm, swallowing Miharu and blocking her escape route.
“Look out!” Sara and the others yelled from the ground.
But at that moment, Miharu was already enveloped by the light. The beam converged and eventually faded.
“No... That can’t be... Miharu...”
Unable to see Miharu anywhere, Satsuki paled in horror. She feared that Miharu had been erased without a trace by the heat ray, but—
“I’m right here,” Miharu’s voice said from beside her.
Satsuki and the others whirled around with a gasp to see her standing there with them.
“What?!”
The group was stunned speechless. Just when did she get there?
The golem had also noticed how Miharu had moved to the ground, its gaze following her there. Aishia had also noticed Miharu and Celia moving and positioned herself between the golem and everyone.
“Aishia, you can’t fight freely with all these hindrances, right? I’ll get everyone away from here, so you deal with that thing,” Miharu said, raising her voice to call out to Aishia.
After a brief pause, Aishia nodded. “Got it.”
At the same time, the golem aimed its blade feathers at those on the ground. Aishia reacted immediately, sending out light bullets to deflect the feathers, but Miharu chanted first.
“Universus Transilio.”
A gigantic magic circle immediately appeared beneath everyone’s feet.
“What’s this?!” Celia gasped as her vision distorted; everyone who had been standing in the mansion garden vanished, leaving only Aishia and the golem behind. Her eyes widened at their disappearance and suspended the light bullets she was in the middle of casting. The golem’s blades also froze in place, having lost their targets. In the sky above, the golem was glancing around in confusion.
Aishia used that chance to fire all her light bullets at the golem instead. She then rose to a higher altitude herself and vanished, reappearing right beside the golem, and released the essence she built up in her right hand at close range. But the golem reflexively evaded the blast by a hair’s breadth.
However, the light bullets Aishia had been controlling at the same time drew a complex trajectory and directly struck the golem’s body. The impact did barely any physical damage, but the metallic material of the golem’s body swayed the slightest amount.
And that was enough for the golem to change its target. The gaze that had been drifting in search of the vanished mansion residents locked onto Aishia instead.
“I won’t let you leave. You will be defeated here.”
It was unclear if the golem could understand her, but Aishia uttered her words of provocation anyway.
It was right after this that her mask creaked quietly.
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