Chapter 8
BEFORE THE ANCIENT RING GATE in the depths of the Illusory Corridor, Mira faced off against one of the three heads of Chimera Clausen.
Their gazes crossed and sparked as they probed each other. In an instant, the battle shifted from stillness to motion. Three Dark Knights appeared to surround the man and swung their swords in unison. Mira had used simultaneous summoning.
Although somewhat flustered by the speed of her summoning, the man caught all of the blows with his own sword. He then snatched another sword from his hip and cut through all of the knights in one motion.
“You’re pretty fast,” the man said, sheathing his second sword again as the Dark Knights dispersed like fog. “Too bad for you; golems aren’t the only ones that can cut through spirits.”
Mira caught a glimpse of the blade, and it too was indeed covered in the writhing black fog.
“Yet another topic for the interrogation.” She glared hatefully at the man. The black fog and Chimera Clausen both stood against spirits, and Mira was certain there was some deep tie between them.
“Again, you know I’m not answering a damn thing.”
He smirked boastfully and raised his spirit blade again. He swung it down, slashing directly toward Mira. The sword’s arc gleamed red and spewed fire. A storm of glaring red blotted out her vision. Mira defended herself again with a Holy Knight and, amid the flames, activated a spell in a summoning location she’d fixed ahead of time.
A Dark Knight appeared and swung its sword down at the man from his blind spot as he prepared his follow-up attack.
“Same thing again, huh?!”
Perhaps thanks to his spirit equipment, the man noticed the Dark Knight’s presence without even looking and evaded with a slight turn of his body. He swiftly unsheathed his fogged sword and cleaved through the summons’s torso in one strike.
The fog turned the Dark Knight into dust. But before the man had a chance to draw back from his strike, a black greatsword swung down on his extended arm. It had been timed exactly for the moment he stretched out, giving him no opportunity to evade.
The blade touched his arm with a dull, metallic thud—then the sword disappeared like an illusion before the noise had even ceased to echo. It should have been a direct hit. The man gazed at the spot in midair as he returned his sword to its sheath.
“Did I just see an arm show up out of nowhere? You’re full of surprises, aren’t you?” It seemed his gauntlet, infused with spiritual power, was strong enough to totally defend him against a blow from the Dark Knight.
After the flames disappeared, Mira stood next to her half-destroyed Holy Knight, gazed at the man’s arm, and muttered, “Not so much as a scratch, hm? You’re hurting my confidence here.”
Despite her words, the fearless smirk remained on her face.
The man changed his stance to show off his unharmed arm and smirked back. “You’re one to talk.”
“Cute, aren’t I?” Mira put one hand on her cheek and struck a pose.
“Cute, but not my type,” the man spat and moved to continue his offensive.
“Oh, please.”
He was surprisingly agile for someone in heavy armor. Mira met his attack with repeated Dark Knight summons—yet he fended off the endless, omnidirectional assault of greatswords as he approached Mira. For a mage, he had a surprising range of physical techniques.
In the blink of an eye, he arrived before Mira. Her final defensive line waited: three Dark Knights.
“Do you have unlimited mana or something?!”
“Wouldn’t you like to know?” These Dark Knights moved differently. Instead of striking at once, they surrounded him and kept a careful distance before beginning a wave attack.
Yet he dealt with this, too, handily. His spirit blade fended off the first greatsword, and he cut the Dark Knight clean in half with his fogged sword. He then whipped his arm back to cut down another approaching from behind.
Two had fallen in no time. Only one Dark Knight remained.
It unleashed a full-power downward swing. The man easily caught it with his spirit blade and tensed, his other hand clutching the fogged sword.
A shrill ripping sound rang out and light flashed as metal met metal. It was Sanctia’s power—the final Dark Knight held not a dark greatsword, but a summoned holy sword.
“What?!”
The power of the holy sword tore the spirit blade from his grasp and unleashed dazzling light that robbed him of his vision. In that moment, a hole opened in his iron defenses. The ease with which he’d dispatched Mira’s Dark Knights, and their inability to harm him, had made him overconfident.
“Now, I think it’d be best if you shut that mouth of yours,” said Mira.
The man forced his dazzled eyes open. But Mira was no longer before him, and her voice sounded blurry and distant.
Knowing that he was now at a disadvantage, the man took a defensive posture. He was ready for a combined Dark Knight attack—or perhaps even something worse. Whatever it might be, his armor could likely stand up to it without a scratch—still, he was cautious.
But that caution would be his downfall.
Mira had slipped into striking range directly in front of him. Crouched in a low stance, she looked up at the man with gleaming golden eyes and a smirk on her petite face.
“One more surprise, just for you!” Mira planted her legs wide and lowered her center of gravity. She thrust her open right palm into the man’s torso.
[Immortal Arts Inheritance: Waning Windmill]
A powerful wind sprang up like an explosion.
“What?!”
The air raged like a sideways tornado, engulfing the man and sending him flying to slam against the ground with each whirl.
Mira had created a whirlwind with her hands. It roared and raged like a dragon as it sped along, ravaging everything it touched. Mira’s arm itself was no exception.
Does it hurt this much? Inheritance really is troublesome…
Mira glanced at her bloody arm and furrowed her brow from the intense pain.
Immortal Inheritance was special even among the Immortal Arts. Mira was strong, but even she could not suppress the aftermath of the mana expenditure that led it to hurt the user as well.
But the effects were incredible. She had braced for the pain, then unleashed wind so barbaric that, when it disappeared, it left behind a straight line of innumerable claw marks dug out of the ground.
“Ngh… Didn’t expect that…”
After being tossed by the cruel winds, the man had been pushed back against the destroyed staircase. He put a hand on the edge and managed to stand up, but his expression was warped with agony as he rose.
“It looks like that one worked, hrmm?” Mira boasted as she picked up the fogged sword from the ground and tossed it behind her.
His armor was strong enough to fully block even blows from a Dark Knight. Since it had blocked Pegasus’s lightning as well, it must have had some pretty strong elemental resistance. His defenses were unparalleled.
However, there was no enemy that could stand up to a Wise Man with defense alone. Even with the hardest armor—especially with the hardest armor—being slammed against the ground over and over would come with unavoidable blunt trauma.
“Whoops. Seems they’ve finished things up over there.” Mira looked just in time to see Pegasus kicking and shattering the enemy’s golem with lightning-sparking legs.
“How did this happen…? Did I get too greedy and miss my chance to escape?”
The sound of the golem crumbling to pieces filled the air. The man must have been badly hurt; he gave up trying to stand and watched sidelong as the golem returned to the earth. He then turned his eyes back to Mira, in them a mix of awe and hatred.
“With so much defensive gear, one can hardly blame you for getting a little cocky,” she said.
After seizing victory, Pegasus ran over to Mira while she walked. When it saw her arm, wounded by the recoil of her spell, it panicked and spread its wings, enveloping her in healing light.
“I’m fine. Thank you,” Mira said to Pegasus. “Though this isn’t bad either.”
She picked up the man’s spirit blade with her healed arm as she glowered at the man. She tossed it behind her.
“Too cocky, huh? Maybe that’s right.”
So, Mira was equipped with healing abilities, as well. The man laughed helplessly in the face of her versatility and struggled to climb the stairs, where he picked up the jar and looked inside.
It’s not much…but it’ll have to do. I can use it as a core, at least. Time to report a change of plans.
The man placed the jar in a pouch at his hip as he considered his next move—how was he to get out of this situation? He held out his right hand, and mana began to gather in his palm. The fallen golem began to rise once again.
“What’s this? The shape is different,” Mira mused.
Now the golem was bestial rather than human. But it had no fangs, and its legs were slim—it didn’t look awfully powerful.
What’s he up to? Mira wondered. As Pegasus glared at the golem warily, the golem walked on four legs toward the man.
“Recovering this is our goal, after all,” he muttered. The golem stepped into the casket next to the destroyed staircase. He promptly closed the lid, picked up the casket, and staggered to standing.
“You look like you’re getting ready to leave. Do you think I’ll let you out of here so easily?”
The Ancient Ring Gate was surrounded by a five-meter-high slope. As he trudged toward it, Mira activated her Demon's Eye.
This is… The man was temporarily stunned. I get it. I’d better hurry. Damn, has Isuzu always had a monster like her? Is there any way I can get out of here in one piece?
The cursed power unleashed by Mira’s Demon's Eye was dampened by the spirit-bolstered armor, but it still gradually seeped in and deprived the man of control over his own body.
Having realized what was happening to him, the man looked up to the sky as if in surrender. Then, he took a step forward.
“Well? If you’re going to run, now’s your chance,” Mira said.
He pulled a silver tube off of his belt and showed it to Mira. There was no menace on his face; instead, he had the tragic composure of someone resolved to carry out a final act.
“What is that?” Mira stopped in her tracks when faced with his inscrutable determination and focused in in the tube. It was about as big as a thumb, and a long cord hung from its end.
“Let’s call it a fuse.” The man grinned. He pinched the cord with his fingertips and pretended to tug it as if to say, Don’t get any closer.
“A fuse? Without explosives, it won’t do much of anything.”
Mira knew a bit about these sorts of things thanks to her connections—or, more accurately, because Solomon had forced her to attend a military goods showcase once.
Fuses were only threatening when combined with explosives. Mira looked the man up and down dubiously, checking to see if he had any on him.
Her reaction made his grin widen still further.
“Oh…I’ve got explosives.” He turned his eyes to the ground and clutched the fuse for emphasis before continuing, “This place is full of drops of the Spirit King’s power—and this is a spirit bomb’s fuse.”
Confidence was evident on his face; this bomb must have been especially powerful.
“A spirit bomb…?” Mira frowned and glared as she began to imagine the worst.
“Yeah. Does what it says on the tin.” His lips curled up even more as he savored Mira’s reaction and added in a provocative tone, “It’s a bomb made from either a spirit’s power or the spirit itself.”
That wasn’t just bad…it was an atrocity.
“This isn’t the time for jokes!” Mira yelled, outraged at those who treated the lives of spirits so lightly—as if they were mere tools.
Ecstasy crept onto the man’s face. He laughed derisively as he deliberately pulled the cord.
“Feel its power for yourself!”
Before Mira could move to stop him, he slammed the fuse against the ground. The silver tube bounced with a clang and exploded into a small firework. In an instant, Mira reflexively summoned three Holy Knights and mutated them into Holy Lords—her strongest instant defense.
As the air condensed, she could only hear the ringing in her ears as her vision was dyed white.
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