The Owrou's hood shifts, and the face of a handsome… man? Woman? Is illuminated by the crashing spells before it.
["Ohhhh, Master, is that little girl for me?"] A multitude of voices emanates from it. Its lips curl to reveal perfectly white, shiny teeth as it stares at Aki. ["You rarely summon me, and now I'm being treated to massive power and a child? Goody!"]
Shadows coalesce beneath Aki and begin to drag her beneath.
"Necra, stop! She's my friend, don't hurt her!" Winter scolds the great death entity forcefully.
If Aki wasn't terrified of vanishing into an endless void, this may have been funny.
"I'm running out of mana, so hurry and break that spell source, or else I'm never summoning you again!"
The Owrou appears to panic at this thought and releases Aki. It turns its full attention to destroying the cube. Even summoning a second massive hand to help.
The cube begins to fracture, and the knight that was grappled emits an ear-piercing wail before finally breaking.
With its final defender gone, the cube breaks completely. It releases a thick cloud of miasma, nearly blocking all vision entirely. Moments later, a force sucks in everything.
Even without trying to sense it, Aki feels all the mana and miasma within the necropolis being pulled into the broken source.
No, it wasn't just the necromancy being sucked in; it was everything. She could feel herself being pulled off the ground by the force.
"Grab the wall!" Aki frantically claws at the floor.
Her nails break, and her fingers bleed, but she manages to manoeuvre herself to the tower's battlements.
By this point, she's completely off the ground. Only managing to keep herself from being sucked in by holding onto the stones for dear life.
The sound of the vortex is too loud to hear anything, but she's certain she heard Winter respond from somewhere nearby, shoved between the crenels.
Then, just as quick as it began, it ended. Aki's body swings painfully into the stones. She gets the wind knocked out of her, and something that shouldn't be bruised probably was. Regardless, she survived.
"We did it!" Aki says breathlessly.
"Yeah!"
Phoebe's tired voice comes from the direction of the trapdoor. Aki can barely move her neck to look, but she manages to anyway.
Beaten, bloody, and missing chunks of clothes and flesh are Phoebe and Mirra. They hang on to each other for support as they approach.
In between the two adventurers and Aki sits Winter, looking seriously ruffled by the vortex but completely okay. His shadow looks a deep black and appears to bubble up but nothing more. The Owrou returned to where Winter called it from.
"Uh, one question," Phoebe asks weakly. "Since we won, is it supposed to look like that?"
The other three follow Phoebe's finger to see the monochrome energy pulsing light and picking up speed.
"No!" Winter shouts, panicked. He struggles to his feet and attempts to channel his mana to no avail. "I should've known he'd have a safeguard like this! The one responsible set up another spell to destroy everything as a failsafe!"
Without a second thought, the shadows around Winter take shape and encircle the ball of energy.
"I dunno how long of a timer it has, but I can make sure the blast delay's longer, but that won't last forever. For now, we gotta figure out what to do without losing anyone."
"Ya mean the mass necromancy spell was also a safeguard for a destruction spell? What an unfair event," Mirra stomps the floor angrily. "So we're just supposed to die? Can't think there's any way outta this one."
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(Tactician Lv. 1 - Insight granted)
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"I've got an idea. Er, two ideas. Both of them crazy but doable. Maybe" Aki puts out. "Do you think you could open a hole in the cavern all the way to the surface and move the tower up, Phoebe?"
Phoebe stumbles back at the idea. "I'd have to use my last potion plus all the mana I have now to do it, but I'd only do one of those. If it's the hole, I'd only be able to make a small one. I dunno about the tower."
Aki shakes her head and points down the tower and at the others. "We're still alive. So are the soldiers. Winter's a necromancer, so he can turn whatever miasma's left into extra mana. If we all channel our mana to you, Phoebe, plus a support spell to increase your power, then it's possible."
"That's crazy! Will that even work? No, before that, can I even do that much? Using Terra Control for two completely different, HUGE, things at the same time?" Phoebe starts to panic.
She lets go of Mirra and stumbles forward, falling to her knees at the dias.
Mirra takes a tentative step toward her and places a hand on Phoebe's shoulder.
"It's worth a try, and way better than doing nothing, ya think?"
Phoebe violently shakes her head, uncertainty clear in her eyes. "Those other guys aren't even near here. How are they supposed to give us mana if they're not visible?"
"Title switch!" Aki clasps her hands together. Glancing at Winter, whose shadow magic is starting to weaken its grip, she leans over the edge of the tower and shouts into the crumbling necropolis below. She forces mana into her vocal chords and shouts.
"Soldiers of New Pinacca! If you can hear me, we need help! Give us as much of your mana as possible so we can destroy this thing, or else we're all dead!" It wasn't a refined and rousing cry, but she felt like it carried the message through well enough.
Thankfully, so did the soldiers because moments later, Aki could feel her body swelling with benign magical power. Moving over the rooftops, she could see the figures of the soldiers with an arm raised and coming closer.
Behind her, the other three gasped as the soldier's mana connected.
"Step one, done. Step two, Boost!" Aki empowers Phoebe with as much power as she can.
Phoebe glows a brilliant gold, strengthened by the spell and enriched by everyone's mana, a resolute expression comes to her. She looks between Winter, Mirra and Aki and claps her face together. Hard.
"I- I'm still not sure this is doable, but we're already this far, right? I'll do my best!"
She lifts her staff overhead. With a pop, it separates into two shorter staffs. She holds aloft one end and stamps the other on the floor.
"Terra, form to my will. Terra, move to my will. Earth Shape!"
Golden light shrouds Phoebe. Her tippet floats just above her flowing cloak. The green and red of her clothing blend with the illuminating light. Directly above them, the cavern ceiling begins to quake. Loose dust falls in thick layers as the cavern ceiling opens above them.
At their feet, the tower stones shake and shudder. The tower begins a slow ascent. Phoebe strains as her magic fluctuates, causing the dual-casted spells to stutter for a moment. Mirra and Aki redouble their efforts, feeding more mana into Phoebe than before.
"I… I can't do it. Mirra!" Phoebe struggles to turn her head enough to look at her friend. "This kinda thing wasn't in the game. How am I supposed to do it…"
"Hold strong, Phoebe. If you can't raise the whole tower, just take the top. You don't need to move everything, right?" Mirra flashes a strained grin. She motions at the two kids with them. "Can't let 'em down, eh? NPCs or not, I wouldn't feel good if a couple of kids outshined us."
Phoebe is silent for a moment. She is just barely able to give a nod in response and follows Mirra's advice.
The tower shakes again, violently now, as the stones shudder and break. Stones grind themselves apart, and then in a sudden jolt, the top is separated and rising quickly toward the growing opening in the cavern ceiling.
Winter shouts, pain twisting his young face.
The shadows wrapped around the pulsating spell loosen, revealing the orb of energy had changed into a reddish-white colour, though the pulsating had yet to change in speed or intensity.
Aki takes a staggering step toward Winter and places a hand on the nape of his neck.
"Hold on, lemme Restore Stamina." The skin on her hand dries slightly as power redirects into Winter.
Aki carefully spends her mana, unwilling to take too much away from what Phoebe is receiving. Still, it seems to be enough for Winter to continue. His shadows darkened, allowing them to retighten their grasp.
The speed of their ascent increases, tunnelling through the ground, matching how fast the hole widens.
Battlement edges crumble, and stones loosen in contrast to the speed at which they climb. Mana wanes as the soldier's granted source of power is cut off from the four.
Aki strains herself now that it's only herself and Mirra giving their mana over to Phoebe.
Winter no longer has access to extra mana either.
Noticeably so.
His childish features warp in intense pain as he feeds everything into delaying the failsafe. Yet, even with his efforts, a rapidly pulsating red light can now be seen through the deep darkness of his shadow magic.
It's unlikely he will be able to delay it much longer, let alone be capable of containing the blast.
Fortunately, the ground opens just moments later, revealing a starry sky painted by sinking dusklight.
Aki and Mirra stopped the transfer of mana now that they have reached the surface.
However, Phoebe hasn't broken her spell trance. Now that she isn't actively attempting to open the ground, her spell has redirected its power into raising the crumbling tower roof.
They are rocketed high into the sky, overlooking a heavily forested area. Beneath them is a clearing, now marred by a large, deep, dark hole. Aside from Phoebe; Winter, Mirra, and Aki hold on for dear life the higher they go.
The rapidly pulsating failsafe has brightened so much that the shadows holding it can barely contain them any longer.
Winter rapidly scans the skyline before turning his whole body and using as much strength as possible to throw the destructive magic behind them. Mere moments after it leaves Winter's long shadowy grasp, the spell explodes, releasing an incredible shockwave that destroys nearly all of the stones of the tower roof.
Below them, the trees shake violently as the shockwave indiscriminately hits everything.
The night becomes illuminated by the cruel red. Not just from behind but also off in the distance as well. Before them, the four can see New Pinacca's distant silhouette cross lit by two explosive spells.
It's a gorgeous sight, so enticing Aki wishes she could enjoy it longer, but the most pressing matter now is that the explosion's shockwave had sent them careening into the forest below.
For the second time in one day, Aki and company have no control over their landing and painfully crash through the thick forest canopy.