Chapter 379

Chapter 379

For Sale. Fallen Lady. Never Used.

Episode 379: Paracelsus’s Spirits (4)

“Elemental Burst.”

“Elemental Circle.”

A low-level incantation.

The world briefly went white.

First, Iris’s Elemental Burst. This was Iris’s signature magic, which I had seen several times before.

Of course, the shape and power were vastly different from then and now.

The original form, which forcibly combined and exploded three of the four major attributes, was nowhere to be found.

The magic was so distorted that even the original attributes were unrecognizable.

It looked like a child had roughly kneaded clay, but I felt everything within it.

Not fire, water, wind, or earth, but something before it became anything.

The attributes, forcibly regressed to their past state, repelled each other but didn’t easily separate.

…Perhaps that’s why the impact of forcibly detonating them was so immense.

Kwaaaaaang!!

Whiteout. The sheer amount of light burned my retinas, and my eardrums felt muffled as if filled with water.

The world briefly went white.

It was a sight that could only be described that way. The result was equally astounding.

“The spiritual pressure of the large monsters…?”

The large monsters rushing towards Iris weren’t just one.

Two Behemoths, horrified by the sight of their kin being hunted, and one Abomination Chimera, which looked slow but was surprisingly fast, were charging.

Three large monsters, each boasting a size comparable to a building, vanished in an instant.

All that remained were deep pits in the ground and black marks stuck to the bottom.

In terms of raw power, it was probably similar to the Punishment spell I used in the battle against the Grotesque Proliferation.

Of course, with Dragon Heart, my power had increased, but the fact that the magic at that time could wound a god remained unchanged.

Iris’s magic also possessed power that transcended the difference in levels.

The declaration of the uninvited guests, who had interrupted the endless battle, was truly loud and spectacular.

Only one monster died, but perhaps the power of the newly improved Elemental Burst was too strong.

The golems, unsure whether we were allies or enemies, and watching us carefully, began to rush towards us.

Their mission was to protect the small cave at the end… Paracelsus’s workshop.

Whether we were enemies of the monsters or not, they probably considered someone with Iris’s skill a threat to the workshop.

That’s when Elisha stepped forward.

Elemental Circle. Although she chanted the incantation, nothing came out of Elisha’s staff.

It was a new magic she had created after organizing her insights, as I hadn’t heard the name before.

I was worried that it might have failed, but I realized what was happening when I saw Elisha’s back as she took a step forward.

The elemental shadows, a characteristic of the Elemental Core that floated behind her head, were rotating, with the brightly shining forms of the four elements arranged in a rhombus.

I was wondering what it meant, but then Elisha extended her staff. And a wave of fire poured out without any warning.

“No casting…?”

No, it was too powerful to be no casting. Conversely, it was too weak to be magic she had been preparing from the start.

Countless thoughts ran through my head, but it was too early to question.

The golems’ bodies turned red-hot, but they calmly moved forward against the wave of fire, probably because they had countermeasures for the high temperature.

Just as their entire bodies were sufficiently heated, the pouring fire suddenly turned into a storm of cold, engulfing the golems from behind.

Kwaaaaaa!

It was as if the fire had turned into a blizzard. The stream of fire from the staff had long since cooled.

Perhaps due to the rapid temperature change, the smoothly moving joints of the golems began to creak.

Since golems of that size would have repair functions, it was probably a temporary phenomenon. But that was enough.

In a moment, Elisha’s cold had become a huge rock, striking the golem knights.

Thwack!

I didn’t understand what was happening. Just like the fire had turned into cold, the cold had turned into rock.

The rock, shattered by the impact, crumbled into wind, lifting and pushing away the golems that couldn’t block it.

Then, unnatural lightning, generated in mid-air rather than from the clouds, struck the falling golems.

By now, the remaining golems were slowing down and stopping, probably due to internal problems.

Thud.

I understood when I heard the sound of their wreckage falling to the ground.

That natural transformation was the magic called Elemental Circle.

It wasn’t just casting multiple spells in succession. It was a single spell that could transform into multiple forms.

And with minimal mana loss.

Elisha’s magic continued. The golem knights were just large humans, but they were fast and sturdy.

Whether they approached for close combat or fired from a distance, it didn’t matter.

Every time Elisha flicked her raised staff, storms and flames filled the view, and the ground overturned, spewing destruction.

She looked like a conductor orchestrating natural disasters.

The slowly rotating elemental shadows gradually sped up, and at some point, the patterns of the constituent elements became unrecognizable.

The elemental shadows, now a single ring, illuminated Elisha from behind.

The sight, reminiscent of a halo, suddenly brought to mind Elisha’s previous words.

She had said that there were magics that allowed one to understand the caster just by looking. Elisha’s magic was exactly that.

A vast, unbroken cycle. A sense of overviewing the entire event, not just a fragment.

The total amount of mana driving all these phenomena didn’t change much. Instead, it continuously changed its form according to Elisha’s will and raged on.

The elemental magic that Elisha envisioned. A being who unleashes power comparable to a spirit without one.

That fragment had finally sprouted.

“Ah…”

So this was it. The world Elisha saw, the emotions she felt, felt as close as my own.

Even as everyone despaired, saying it was impossible, even when she was falsely accused and fell into slavery.

Elisha silently walked her own path and finally proved herself.

There were still many immature aspects, and the maximum output remained at the level of intermediate magic… but even so, it was clearly a path leading to a truth.

Elisha’s joy spread like wildfire, igniting my heart as well.

This was it. This was the Elisha I knew. The sight of her taking her first step towards her goal was so beautiful.

I was momentarily lost in admiration of Elisha’s back, but she glanced back at me with a faint smile.

A smile filled with gratitude and affection for the person who recognized her and believed in her all along.

I see. Now I understand why Elisha and Iris became so friendly after the subjugation of the Grotesque Proliferation.

Anyone would fall in love seeing this sight. Just like I did now.

However, I couldn’t indulge in sentimentality for long. After all, this was a battlefield.

Perhaps they saw Elisha’s turning around as an opportunity, as the golems now rushed from all directions.

It felt like they had put all the leeway Iris had created by defeating several large monsters into attacking us.

Of course, it was a very hasty decision.

“Don’t ignore me!”

Iris, who had already prepared the next spell, raised her staff. At the same time, unnatural dark clouds covered the sky.

It was a characteristic of the Thunder Calling magic, which I was familiar with.

But what flashed and fell from the clouds was not lightning.

The mass of power created by the forced attribute fusion, which I had seen a moment ago, took the form of lightning.

The lightning, which would have been pale blue originally, was white-hot, and it not only burned the target with a deafening roar…

Crack!

Lightning struck every golem that entered under the dark clouds.

Like precisely aimed shots, or like electricity drawn to metal, the lightning hit every target without fail, causing grand explosions.

Poof!

Though the scale was smaller, it was no different from the Elemental Burst that had been launched at the large monsters.

It was unlikely that the golem knights, who didn’t have the same durability as large monsters, could withstand Iris’s magic.

Although she hadn’t solidified her enlightenment as firmly as Elisha, Iris had definitely achieved something.

There were still impurities of doubt mixed in… but that couldn’t be helped.

To become a higher, better being, one had to overcome walls, and those walls stemmed from the accumulated experiences.

Just as I, who had always chosen the safe path, reached the level of an intermediate magician by reaching for the impossible for the first time.

Iris, too, could only complete her current magic by truly overcoming her numerous failures and setbacks.

And perhaps she might even reach the level of an archmage, which she so desired.

What Iris had partially realized was a very high-level magic.

…Perhaps it’s because my own level has increased? Or maybe it’s because of the Dragon Heart. I seem to have a much better eye now.

Ironically, I still can’t see the path to becoming an archmage myself.

Well, these kinds of problems are usually difficult for oneself but trivial for others.

I chuckled inwardly and dispersed the mana I had raised just in case.

It seemed I wouldn’t need to step in.

Indeed, shortly after, Elisha and Iris succeeded in clearing out all the golems and monsters.

At the cost of depleting their mana and collapsing.

With the limp duo under my arms, I proudly declared,

“Our battle starts now!”

It’s true.

We haven’t even entered the workshop yet.