A few moments before Lily destroyed the bridge, Vale arrived at a stone platform and approached a formation in the middle of four pillars. As he drew closer, he realized that the four pillars formed a barrier.
Luckily, he had two small glass balls that he had taken from the puppet knight that he had encountered earlier.
"The flash of light, the hum of the storm, piercing endlessly, Lightning Spear."
Suddenly, his outstretched right hand gripped a purple spear with a lightning aura that flashed every second. He then struck the tip of the spear against the barrier in front of him. As the tip of the spear collided with the barrier, waves of air spread out, blowing Vale's puppet body.
He then pulled back the spear and struck it again. This time, the spear cracked the barrier. For the third time, he struck the barrier protecting the formation.
Crack!
The barrier shattered into pieces.
Vale peered into the formation area. Although he was not a formation expert, the Academy had taught him the basics. A magic array was a complex and intricate pattern or design used to manipulate nature mana. As humans couldn't use nature mana directly, they used formations to harness its power.
Teleportation magic, such as the one the Academy used to send fifth-year students to this dimensional fragment, also employed formations that utilized nature mana. If the teleportation magic used magic radiation stones, the cost would be too high.
From what Vale could observe, the formation or magic array replaced humans as generators that harnessed nature mana.
"This formation seems to only function to gather nature mana and channel it to the crystal ball in the middle. In other words, the crystal ball doesn't just channel mana to the large pipes, but also transforms wild and hard-to-use nature mana into mana that can be used. Even if there are some side effects, considering its target use is a puppet and magic item such like magic lamp, the side effects are acceptable."
Vale then walked towards the crystal ball situated in the middle of the formation. At his current level, it would be challenging to destroy the formation. Even if he could, it would probably take a considerable amount of time. Therefore, Vale decided to destroy the crystal ball first.
He suddenly heard Frida's shout.
"How much longer?"
Vale turned to Frida and replied, "Just hold on a little longer."
At that moment, he heard Lily explaining that she also had a considerable amount of mana storage within her, so even if Vale destroyed the formation, the chances of the two of them defeating Lily were still slim.
Vale once again heard Frida's voice, urging him to not be influenced by Lily's words and to keep going with his job, even if Frida herself got injured.
"That was my intention from the beginning. Just focus on your fight," Vale replied.
Returning his attention to the crystal ball in front of him, Vale took a deep breath and recited a spell, "Oh Neptunus, the powerful blast of water that penetrates everything, give me the temporary strength. High-pressure water jet."
Vale puffed his cheeks and released a blast of high-pressure water, hitting the crystal ball with force. The water continued to spin and bore into the crystal, causing cracks to spread until the ball shattered into pieces after just five seconds.
Moments after exhaling a sigh of relief, Vale suddenly felt an excruciating pain in his head. "Argh! What is this? So painful! Has the nature mana spread and directly touched my soul?" he wondered, struggling to endure the pain.
[Ding! The system has detected a source of massive energy. Would the host like to use this energy to upgrade the system?]
In a dire situation, Vale immediately screamed, "Yes," without thinking too much about the system's question.
Just like that, the pain in Vale's head disappeared, allowing him to take a deep breath of relief. The system had successfully upgraded.
[25%…34%…47%…56%…68%…79%…92%…100%]
[Congratulations on upgrading the system! The host has obtained a mysterious box]
As Vale pondered about opening the mysterious box, he suddenly heard a cracking sound from a distance. He looked back to the other side of the bridge, where Frida was agilely dodging Lily's attacks. However, the girl was unaware that the bridge she was on was about to collapse.
"Hidden in the dark, looking for trapped prey, Dancing while watching the death, Spider Dance."
Vale shot a spider web towards the bridge where Frida was standing, leaped, and swung towards her. Just as he reached her, the bridge cracked further and finally collapsed. Frida's body fell towards the magma pool below, but Vale managed to catch her when she was only four meters away. He swung back and brought Frida to the part of the bridge that had not collapsed.
"Are you okay?" Vale asked, concern written all over his face.
Frida's face still showed signs of shock. She shook her head a few times before finally nodding and answering Vale's question.
"Thank you, I thought I was going to die. By the way, have you destroyed the formation?"
Vale shook his head, "It was taking too long to take it down, so I resorted to destroying the crystal orb at the center of the formation. Don't worry, that was enough to sever her mana source," he explained.
Frida nodded in appreciation, acknowledging Vale's efforts to dismantle the formation, despite not being able to fully destroy it.
"Are you two finished with your chit-chat?" Lily interjected, her voice laced with sarcasm. She wasted no time in launching hundreds of reinforced threads towards them.
Vale quickly evaded the threads using the [Spider Dance] technique. He then cast the healing spell [Angle Hug] on Frida, knowing that it could only heal minor wounds, but it would be sufficient to assist Frida, who was fatigued and wounded.
As he avoided Lily's continuous attacks, Vale conjured up his next spell. This time, he utilized [Fire Ball Party], expending a considerable amount of mana to create twenty fireballs that encircled his body.
Vale launched all of them towards Lily, who immediately formed a large, protective red sphere using her threads. Without hesitation, Vale directed all twenty fireballs towards the sphere, causing it to explode into a fiery inferno.
Lily's vision was momentarily obscured, allowing Vale to ensnare Frida with a spider web. "Use your strongest attack!" he commanded, flinging Frida towards Lily.
"What are you doing?! Woah!!" Frida exclaimed, caught off guard by Vale's sudden maneuver.
Gathering all her strength, Frida unleashed her most powerful technique that she could use.
"Sword's Will, Sixth Way of the Sword Breath, Sinking the Red Sun," she declared, as her sword glowed with a brilliant red aura. The sword sliced through Lily and the crystal ball within her with surgical precision.