I continued to watch the battle from Gwan's position, but he mostly bombarded the enemy base with shells.
The allies were still waiting nearby, since most of their abilities were effective only in close combat.
But before the massive shelling began, Shindler sent his own live trackers to clarify the situation. It seems that the cultists are preparing some kind of ritual, most of the civilians have already been killed, so the captain gave the order not to take into account the victims.
Suddenly, a bluish magical barrier visible to the eye spread a hundred meters from the cultists' base. A huge and dense accumulation of magoparticles, blocking any magical action. Gwan stopped firing.
"A familiar barrier," Shindler mumbled. "I think it's that runaway aristocrat, Lid Hex."
"His soul core must be really big if he can afford to create barriers of this size," Skell nodded.
"But why is he so strong?" Anji asked.
"Those who originate from the Immortals have strong souls from birth. They received the gift of immortality from godlike Angels," Maximilian replied.
"This barrier looks strong, we won't be able to deplete it with Gwanrom alone, we need to infiltrate the base and strike before they perform the ritual," Captain Shin said decisively.
"What kind of ritual is this anyway?" Vector asked.
"There was a circle drawn from blood with a diameter of 50 meters with a very complex and strange composition. All these outgoing lines, shapes and structures resembled a drawing of some kind of entity. They want to summon something very powerful," Shin replied.
"Are your trackers OK? How much time do we have left?" Max turned to Shindler.
"I've lost contact with the trackers and I can't restore it because of the barrier. If I send new ones, they will also fail," the captain replied. "From what I could see during the shelling, we have about 6 minutes, no more, we have to attack. Follow me!"
With that, he used wind magic again and soared several meters above the ground.
"Gwanrom, stay here, Veronica, guard him," Shin commanded, then headed towards the barrier.
Along with him went Skell, Vector, Max, and Anji on her leader's back.
Suddenly, there was a bang – the shot from a firearm.
Veronica rushed to Gwan and pushed him aside, which caused him to fall down from a thick tree branch, but he was able to stay in the air using either wind magic or telekinesis.
Veronica also fell after a while and Gwan was able to catch her in time.
"Oh Gods!" exclaimed Gwan.
Hanging in the air, Veronica's body was convulsing. Almost the entire top of her head was destroyed. Only the lower part of her nose, her lips, and everything below were left, but the entire back of her head seemed to have been torn off, along with some of the skin on her neck, revealing her spine, open throat, larynx, and molars.
The bullet was charged with strong energy. Perhaps with the energy of the soul.
Gwan laid the body on the ground and went down to her himself, kneeling down.
"I am... alive..." she croaked. She seems to be able to use her soul as a thought center. If she gets help, she will survive.
Gwan could only close the open wounds with flesh magic, but he couldn't do more.
Another shot rang out, this time the bullet struck nearby, destroying the very tree where everyone had been a minute earlier.
Gwan did not let the tree fall, after which he picked up the girl with the help of telekinesis and flew away with her to the side. He stopped holding the tree, which caused it to fall and raise dust.
The shooter fired again at a place nearby, but Gwan and Veronica had already flown away.
At the same moment, the sound of a battle was heard in the distance. The Defenders reached the barrier and gave battle. The shooter can get distracted.
But very soon a winged figure appeared in the sky, uttering a battle cry, it headed towards the collapsed tree.
Fire crows and insect-like flesh entities flew after her. Help from Max and Shindler.
"Do you have any other hidden abilities?" Gwan asked quietly.
"Yeah... but here... they won't help," Veronica hissed. "What... is happening?"
"Noctua is coming."
"Hide..."
Gwan picked up Veronica again with telekinesis and went away, staying as close to the ground as possible.
A loud scream came from the sky, deafening my tracker.
Being in the room, I took my head in my hands, after which I summoned the soul. The fragments were gradually moving away from the core, which indicated my weakening. I'll have to finish the surveillance soon.
I went back to the tracker again. This time Veronica was not nearby, and Gwan himself was unconscious in the clutches of Noctua, which was flying high above the forest. Many of the fire crows had disappeared, and the pursuit was mostly continued by the large Shindler's beetles, but they were clearly slower.
My tracker began to grow in size, detaching itself from Gwan and approaching the paw holding him. Of course, there was still some of my flesh on his hood, so my surveillance was still going on.
Noctua felt my parasite clinging to her leg, so she tried to shake it off, which woke Gwan up. At this, Noctua squeezed his shoulders, which were in her paws, crushing them.
Gwan let out an inhuman scream of pain, after which he used his magic, unclenching Noctua's claws in the opposite direction and twisting them. She also let out a cry of pain, releasing the victim, who had stabilized his fall halfway to the ground.
But Noctua didn't care about that right now, she was trying to get rid of me. But my parasite had already squeezed her leg, even though it couldn't crush her iron limb. I was moving higher, getting bigger, which slowed her down. Shindler's beetles flew closer.
I need to kill her so that my secrets will never be revealed, but already I can feel my soul moving towards collapse. If it were intact, I could have a much longer distance fight.
At that moment, my parasite rushed to the goal, fulfilling my will. It climbed up her leg and entered her intestines. The internal organs remained soft, so the parasite easily made its way through them straight to the heart.
At some point, a strong soul energy began to emanate from her heart, which caused me to lose control of the parasite.
***
Does she want to enter the form of the Absolute?
The form of the Absolute is a form that can be obtained by absorbing one's own soul. As a result, the soul transforms a person, enhancing their abilities dozens of times, changing their appearance based on a person's subjective idea of themself and their magical path.
The reinforcement is given at best for an hour, after which the person burns in the flame of their own soul. Usually, in this form, a person has only a couple of memories that will move them until they die. This may be a feeling of hatred towards the enemy, or a desire to save loved ones.
I crouched down by the nearest tree, no longer able to conjure. My arms were broken and my magic reserves were depleted. I could only watch Noctua writhing in pain in the air.
A parasite was crawling up her leg. Most likely Shindler's. The opponent tried to continue flying, but incredibly decreased and slowed down. At one point, it even seemed that Captain Shindler's bugs would catch up with her and finish her off.
But suddenly a strong energy began to emanate from her, which drove the parasites out of control. The beetles flew down, and the one on Noctua's body began to detach, and as a result partially released her.
But this did not help Noctua and she flew down.
***
At this moment, at the cultists' base. Skell, fully clad in bone armor, held a bone sword in his hand, fighting against a full-length lion-like creature in a hooded robe.
Lion used fireballs, Skell defended himself with the help of earth magic: he picked up pieces of dirt, throwing them at fireballs, causing an explosion and saving his own magical reserves.
Sometimes he would get closer, challenging the lion to a duel. But the man had a sword in his hands, and he returned the blow with a blow.
Sometimes loud shots rang out from different points in the forest, and Skell was hit by them once, but quickly recovered. It would have been better not to get into such a situation in the heat of battle anymore, but he couldn't get rid of the shooter because he was somewhere three hundred meters away.
Max was fighting a very thin, but a short man who cut his veins and used his own blood as a whip.
The leader of the Red Roses used his abilities to completely cover his body and sword with fire. Sometimes he threw fire projectiles at the enemy, but he dodged with the agility of a cat or used the same tactics as Skell.
Max decided to strike the ground with his sword, after which he directed his magical energy into it, heating the earth to the limit in a narrow strip towards the enemy.
The magical reaction was very fast, the enemy did not have time to react and was doused with intense heat, after which the lava hit him.
But in the same second, he evaporated, as if he were a liquid and not a human. A moment later, he appeared not far from Max, sharply hitting him with a bloody whip. Max's body temperature was not enough to evaporate the blood immediately, so there was an obvious mark on his back from the blow.
At this time, Anji had already walked around the battlefield, looking for one specific target – a caster who would be engaged in summoning an entity. When she was able to figure out this person, guarded by a detachment of armed entities similar to zombified civilians, a boulder flew into her back, throwing her into an open space.
She had an iron plate under her T-shirt, which softened the impact, but she must have been very badly hurt. Only adrenaline kept her on her feet.
The caster saw her and ran away. A man came out of the shadows, who most likely threw a projectile at her.
Anji didn't believe that this was the real version, so she turned around abruptly and, using fire magic, threw a fireball back.
The opponent repelled her attack with a water ball.
"Not bad," the attacker replied. A man in dark green camouflage, whose tired-looking face was half covered by a cloth mask.
"Thanks a lot," Anji replied, running sideways from her place and throwing several knives at the opponent.
Vector, at that moment, was fighting with a giant with bluish skin, about 3.5 meters tall. His robe covered only the top of his body, and then left half of his arms open.
He used lightning balls and teleportation to fight Vector.
To protect himself from the lightning, Vector pulled out a bone shield from his cloak, on which the runes of reflection were inscribed, holding it in his left hand. Each projectile hitting the shield will be sent back towards the attacker at the cost of the holder's magical energy.
In his other hand, Vector held a staff with a bluish crystal on the top. It allowed his bearer to teleport up to 6 meters away, and also allowed to use ice magic up to and including level 4.
At the moment when the giant appeared behind him, Vector shouted teleporting behind the enemy, "Ice!.."
"...Storm!" Vector finished his spell.
The storm carried the giant far ahead, tearing off its limbs and turning into a frosty hurricane. Lightning began to rage in its epicenter, which indicated that the giant was still alive.
Shindler took the form of a giant centipede: the upper part of his body was filled with arms of different lengths, and the lower part with legs. He was 8 meters tall, but despite this he moved very fast, both parts of him bent at different angles, trying to destroy the magic circle, but each time it was restored thanks to the blood magician – Lid Hex.
Shindler opened his huge mouth, from which dozens of tongues poured out, moving in the direction of the hovering enemy. The latter, for protection, used the blood of the ritual circle, piercing them.
The same blood wrapped around Shin's limbs and body, but he abruptly jerked towards Lid, destroying the blood bonds.
Blood wings appeared behind Lid's back, and in his hands was an poleax charged with his strong magical energy. Along with these attributes, he tore towards Shin, slicing his huge body into pieces.
The gushing blood rushed towards Lid, trying to chop him into pieces, but he emitted a strong wave of soul energy, disorienting Shindler. At the same time, he took control of the blood that was under his feet, piercing the lower part of his body.
He was trying to restore the destroyed parts of the circle, but at that moment he noticed something.
A man in a white robe and a mask of the same color rushed towards their summoner. This huge centipede was just a clone, distracting attention!
After restoring the circle, Lid rushed at the enemy, but he put a thick-looking arm protected by bone armor as protection.
"Get started!" Lid shouted to the summoner.
"The Spirit of Vengeance from the underworld!" the caster shouted, to which the circle responded with a small glow.
Shindler used his other hand to grab the enemy by the neck, but he eventually disintegrated into a pool of blood in his hands.
The opponent appeared behind him, striking with an poleax.
"The Blood Emperor from Ancient Times!"
Shindler defended himself with his bony hand, then pointed his other hand towards the caster, shooting at him with pointed phalanges of fingers, like crossbow darts.
"The God of War, thirsting for Resurrection!"
Suddenly, a completely icy body with severed limbs appeared in the path of the phalanges, which took the blow on itself. The circle was already glowing so brightly that it dazzled absolutely everyone on the battlefield.
"Come to this world!"
The light suddenly went out. The blood that made up the ritual circle began to gather at one point, from which a huge bloody body with wings began to form.