Fresh kobolds had just spawned when they got there. It took a moment for their eyes to form, and when they saw them, they fell down the stairs with their malformed limbs.
"Make way!"
Aire ran ahead, picking up speed, and pushed the ground hard enough for it to crack! She was airborne as she took aim with the point of her blade.
"[Needle Stab]!"
Three thrusts. The range of her blade extended at each instant. When her heels clicked at the top of the first set of stairs, the perfectly headless bodies of kobolds slumped down, where Anne and the White Mage joined her up the steps.
The vantage point gave them a much clearer view of the Second Wall's facilities. Monsters were still climbing out of the river channel. Those that finally touched proper ground had entered the alleys, following the ones who were still blindly searching for her and her party. None would've ever thought there was anyone crazy enough to run straight toward the Monster Spawners.
But as they drew near the tainted spots on the Second Wall, it felt like moving against frigid, dead air.
The White Mage huffed. "This should be close enough. Anne?"
Anne took a deep breath and nodded. She raised a hand. It was shaking.
Nobody could blame her.
The 'holes' of Demontide above them warbled, as if there were entire legions of demons just waiting beyond them. It was eldritch, baleful, and profane. Just being around it made Willow's skin crawl. This thing could not, should not, be cleansed by mortal hands.
But Kyaeris would not have given the children of Crescelias the sacred mission to rid the world of Demontide without guidance.
"O Goddess, hear my voice through the Divine Glass..." Anne whispered. "[Karma]!"
[Karma]
1113
Calling upon one of the four gifts of the Goddess, Anne's Divine Glass made manifest.
The world's System answered her prayers.
Corruption detected.
Initializing [Purification Ritual].
Please stand by.
The System window folded. It took shape and rearranged itself with triangular faces, gently, softly, until a crystalline mass as transparent as an abstract glass sculpture was formed. Inside: a light.
The Demontide recoiled from its majesty.
Anne lifted the crystal into the air, like an offering toward the heavens. There was no running away from the judgment of the Goddess. The Demontide eroded into firefly-like motes wherever the light touched. Bit by bit, mankind was taking back the Second Wall.
The monsters felt it, too. Their heads swiveled their way. All of them.
The air shuddered from the sheer volume of their combined cries. The ground trembled, their voices growing louder and louder as the bulk of their numbers circled back around.
Aire audibly gulped. "White Mage, do we know how long the Purification Ritual will take, perhaps?"
"Ten minutes if the spread is superficial. But if it's deep inside the Wall? Up to three hours." Willow really wished they had more people to help speed things up, but what was done was done. "Hope you two are feeling lucky, because I certainly don't."
"...Lucky? On this fine day, a fateful meeting with a new friend?"
"Are you still on with that?"
"Why, I feel like I'm the luckiest woman in the world!" Aire dashed down the stairs to greet the foul beasts with the tip of her mighty rapier. "When we achieve victory, let's talk about our favorite books together on our return! En Garde~!"
Willow wanted to smack herself with her own staff. A death flag. Why must she trip a death flag?
Well, great! What else was going to go wrong today?!
"Um..."
Willow turned to Anne, who was looking up, trembling.
"They're still coming out!"
Even though the karmic light had reversed its spread, there was still enough Demontide to summon monsters. Limbs wriggled and spazzed out of the holes. Another batch of kobolds would be upon them soon. Aire was already occupied with the swarm of kobolds down below, so it was up to them now.
The White Mage simply adjusted the grip on her staff. "Don't worry about it."
The kobolds fully took shape. Three fell into the water but two managed to slam right on top of the stone railings. Anne stepped back. She raised her wooden staff to invoke a Skill even if it meant canceling the Purification Ritual. But the White Mage?
"Miss White Mage, step back—!"
The White Mage stepped forward. Her staff cratered each of their heads, coldly and methodically. The river splashed with their fallen bodies.
"...Eh?"
"Like I said, don't worry about it."
Sighing, she wiped the bits of blood off her forehead. This was going to be tough, but to keep Aire from getting overwhelmed too soon, she'll need to be more proactive.
"[Barrier]."
Hefting herself up on the stone railing, she gave a tentative step on the magical plane. It held up. Of course it did; it always did, but damn did it feel like she was a mistake away from falling to her death. With an uneasy breath, she raised herself up along the barrier until she was face to face with the Monster Spawners themselves.
Time to play Wack-A-Mole.
Willow wacked, smacked, and smashed. The icky feeling was the worst, with how close she got or how some bits of ichor got on her. But Anne's light wiped it off, thankfully, and Willow had been drenched in monster guts enough times that, at this point, what did it matter she was beating the shit out of the devil's puke hole?
The kobolds had no weapons to speak of. No armor to defend against Aire's enhanced blade or Willow's crude application of her magic staff. Hearing the dramatic battle cries of Aire dueling over countless kobolds at the stair steps, it was safe to say she was doing fine. Absolutely fine.
Glad for her. Really.
The minutes dragged on. Willow eventually had a steady rhythm going. She made more platforms, reaching higher and further places along the Monster Spawner, and executed with extreme prejudice. Kobolds barely had half their bodies formed before perishing under the weight of her staff.
One kobold, growing out head first and moaning with its unhinged jaw, was about to bite her ankle. Willow just lifted her foot and shoved it back in there. But for the one that had the audacity to spawn at the complete opposite of the Monster Spawner, she kicked its head right off! She frantically ran back and forth like this, even when her limbs started to ache.
She liked to think her spawn camping had kept up with Aire's kill count. Frankly, she lost track after a hundred. They probably rack up together over three hundred, with more on the way, as they chipped at the corruption.
But the Purification Ritual was working. The Monster Spawners had shrunk, and the spawn rate had slowed down. Just a little bit more, and her work space should also...
A thump shook the air, like a heartbeat.
It came from the biggest stain on the Second Wall, the one that was the slowest for the Purification Ritual to cleanse away. The Demontide had decided to switch things up as something other than a kobold began to emerge.
It was only just a head, but it was already the size of an adult. Scales, ridges, and a horn on its nose took shape. The eyes were still gooey and glassy, but Willow could make out the serpentine slits of its pupils, swiveling until they looked down on her, promising death and damnation and—
—they went cross-eyed, bashed in the face by Willow's new barrier.
"No! No final boss fight! Your main character is in another damn castle!"