As Harita hacked away at the gravity monster like a crazed gardener, using his watersteel dagger, and the monster's own gravitational field against him to deal heavier blows, Bian pulled out her silver rapier and positioned for a powerful strike, with her footing even and struggling, and her breaths laboriously ragged. There was a glimmer of cold determination in her eyes that he had cone to recognize, like a lonely star in the boundless expanse of the Sky Beyond.
It was slightly lonely, if not somber. Gritting her teeth and flexing her muscles, the lustrous woman's silver rapier flashed.
The very next second, her weapon had already pierced through the gravity monster's tough hide, and it let out a ghoulish scream in return, as if accepting the wound as its cue.
As Harita continued to hack away at the monster's hide, chipping and cutting apart its tough hide continuously, lowering the gravitational field to a considerable degree. His hand had turned white from squeezing his dagger's hilt too tightly, and there was blood dripping from his mouth like a crimson tear. The gravitational field had been too much, even for him. And while he had a spell that could more or less perform the same function, it could not do the opposite, and would only make things worse.
Though, as a last card, it did seem like a very appealing option… for now, at least. Swallowing a bad feeling churning his stomach, Harita moved forward, cutting through a precise amount of hide, where there had already been quite a lot of puncture holes in. It was very impressive that she managed to pierce through so much hide even with the gravitational field constantly active.
For a moment, Harita felt victorious. Adrenaline was pumping through his veins and his heartbeat was pounding his ears. Still, he was exhilarated.
At this rate, if he just — no, if they just…
But fate had other plans.
Despite their merciless onslaught, and the amount of damage they had done to the monster, it still had other cards it had yet to play.
A cold shiver, one that was especially bad, ran down his spine like a bolt of lightning.
"Bian, watch out—"
But before he could finish, a ghoulish scream tore from the gravity monster, and force comparable to a cannonball collided against the lustrous woman with a heavy thunk.
"Wha—"
*crik*
The faint sound of bones shattering upon impact resounded. Bian flew back several meters, fell on the roof with a loud crash, and continued to fly, her back scraping against the roof, the friction of it singeing her back with irritating burns. Before Harita could leap in to help her, she thundered with indignation:
"I'm fine! Go deal with that thing, first!"
Piercing the roof below with her silver rapier, the lustrous woman halted her slide and got up, on her knees. She had slid back quite a lot, out of the most dire zone of influence the gravity monster had, and was able to stand up shortly after. There was a blazing expression on her face as she glared at the gravity monster with hate-filled eyes.
"Kill him." She muttered quietly, more of an order than a request.
And Harita did not hesitate to do so.
Gripping Silent Reverie with one hand, he swung furiously and without the slightest hint of humility as his bloodshot eyes glared at the monster with a scorching gaze. While his mana had not been drained too much, his stamina did. And without conscious augmentation, then his body would collapse at the drop of a pin. He was in such a horrid state, that, just breathing caused his lungs to burn like molten metal.
And that wasn't even the worst of it.
Performing seven slashes in the span of a second, he wore down the gravity monster with proficiency, the countless days and weeks he spent obsessing and analyzing the dagger and what its utilities can be once again coming to his aid in a time of great need. Several gravitational pushes shot out of the monster, but Harita evaded all of them — at least, barely.
Using his intrinsic agility and the full power of his augmentation spell, he used instant bursts of speed to evade the crushing strike. The added weight he was bearing made the task significantly more powerful than it should normally be, straining his legs and bones. And it didn't seem that the suspected offensive spell had very long of a cooldown, since the gravity monster used it very frequently.
"...."
Dodging all of them had not been an easy task by any measure, putting more strain on his already exhausted body.
Luckily, he had not been alone in this battle.
Raising his dagger in the hair, the watersteel blade reflected the sun's merciless rays and fell down on the gravity monster, cutting it in twain in a gruesome splatter of blood, bone, flesh, and brain matter. It was a truly horrid sight. It was too bad there were various holes for the blood to drip down to on the roof they were currently on.
"Hah… hah…"
As the last vestige of light left the monster's eyes, so did its influence. The gravitational filed had been lifted!
"Finally… that took much too long. I — we need to get back on schedule."
Turning to Leo of Exousia, Harita swallowed his fear and braced for another bloody battle.
◇◆◇◆◇
Pain. So much pain. His mind felt like it was being grounded up, bitten, and reformed hundreds upon thousands of times. It was like he was being remade.
That was, until he wasn't. Looking up at the crushing heavenly weight, Lieren could only pray that he would be enough.
Raising his arms, he prepared for the worst. Detaching mana from his body had never been his strong suit. He was even worse in that regard compared to other newly-Adorned. His mana was a mystery in itself. He instinctually knew what made it different from others' and nothing else. It was like hitting a wall and expecting it to suddenly answer, maybe even retaliate.
He wad just hitting it endlessly and without cause, just as a matter of course… not doubting himself even for a single second. It was an arduous, herculean task. One far beyond his capabilities as a mage and as a person.
Creating an emitted magical construct with his Resistance — his greatest weapon — acting as his disability, would require a miracle.
"Well… here goes everything, I guess."
And so, he did. If it was a miracle he needed, then a miracle he'll make.
Concentrating inward, within himself and deeper still, a frustrated and anguished knot creased his forehead and beads of sweat flowed down his face as he contained the abyss within and pushed it away, drawing on the power inside if him on his own. Normally, with a little prodding, his mana would flow on its own as he opened the gates of his channels, which was almost like second nature to him now. The rather unruly and indomitable trait of his mana made it significantly harder than its should be.
Without his Resistance, Lieren would have no hope whatsoever calling upon his own power, instead continuously draining out of him like a geyser, wasted and unused. Granted, it was his mysterious ability that allowed for such a mutation to happen in the first place.
This special trait that his mana possesses made it exceedingly hard to use Detachment, the more basic and straightforward category of magic. Even a small dose of Emission is wasted, as more than ninety-percent of any emitted wild mana he uses is dissipated into the atmosphere, gone and wasted. As such, his proficiency in this category is significantly lower than his main category, which seems to be Augmentation, the practice of strengthening and bolstering certain attributes, like the human body or a sword's sharpness.
Looking closely at his remaining mana reserves, Lieren opened his eyes and disabled Manavision. If he's going to do this, then he's going to need as much mana to spare as possible. Besides, concentrating on any other spell would be impossible.
Gritting his teeth, he sighed finally and looked up and opened the gates of his channels, towards the center of his open palms. The better image he has of it, the more control he'll have over his magic.
Opening the final gate in his body pensively, Lieren's mana reserves rushed to leave his body, circulating from his soul to the open gates in his palms.
"Tch…!"
As soon as it did, he suddenly felt sick and empty, like some kind of hollow jar, all the water drained by some animal. His head spun as his reserves bottomed out at horrifying speed, mana rushing out of him like a flood and exiting like a waterfall. It flowed like water or blood, out of him like a river.
Gritting his teeth, Lieren willed for the mana to form, solidify, and harden into the form he desired.
It did not listen.
Still, he did not give up.
Tired of requesting and suggesting his wild mana, Lieren switched gears and ordered it, instead.
He was getting very, very annoyed.
And that was when the miracle started.
Time seemed to slow as the uncontrollable outpour of energy rushed forth like an unstoppable geyser. After what felt like an eternity of internal cursing and silent wishing, the u controllable outpour of energy finally listened, slowly and gradually forming into a rough dome above his head, which expanded outwards like an umbrella, covering the entire room and the two attendants outside of it, which have been bearing this weight, as well.
The swirling, pulsating, rippling field of pure white met the crushing weight, meeting and beating it completely, not letting down even once. Several cracks appeared on the pure white surface, eventually forming a branching fracture on the nascent barrier, but it soon reformed and hardened, even stronger than before.
*creak*
The barrier was as unrelenting as its wielder.
*crack*
"I… I can't keep this up for long."
Time passed like a broken faucet, one slow, tiresome drop at a time. It was like a turtle's walk, barely making any progress as his reserves inevitably emptied out. And yet, the barrier never let up. It was like his Resistance, in a way, obsessive and stubborn by a fault, desperate to protect him at all costs.
*SMASH!*
And then, his world broke.
As the sound of shattering glass reached his ears, his viewpoint crumbled info broken shards. It was like he was trapped in a mirror, shattered and broken. The world in his eyes was slightly off, pieces drifting from each other, never quite aligning.
Everything was wrong. So very wrong. This shouldn't be here. That shouldn't be here. Why was that part there? It should be here instead.
None of this made any sense.
Then again, did it need to?
The off-putting scene tested his sanity and mental fortitude, but he ultimately held, albeit barely.
"…Huh?"
And then, it came back, good as new. It wad like it was never broken in the first place. At the same time, Lieren felt himself detach from the world more than ever before. It was as if he was in another world, watching that scene from a magic mirror, standing alone and cold in a cabin in the middle of nowhere.
'How… appealing.'
That image forever permeated in his mind, engraved in his soul for years to come.
It was then, to his surprise, did he finally lose consciousness.
"Ah… I almost got it."
◇◆◇◆◇
Harita's eyes shot wide as a crystal ball as his eyes drifted eastwards, where Eavesdrop was — more importantly, where the inquisitive boy, his master, was.
'…What was that?'
Feeling a cold and familiar feeling creep up his skin like a spider's crawl, Harita grinned and felt the lingering effects of the monster's gravitational field and every other magical ailment he had disappear as a nascent power enveloped his soul and clung to it… Rather, borrowed.
The distant clangor of spiritual chains echoed in a realm past and away, far from where aby of them were.
It would seem that he had won, just as planned, but not without heavy losses. Their final and most dreaded trump card had been played, and the servant — Harita, plans to follow through with his Oath and continue serving.
"Damn, kid, leave some spotlight for us adults."