“That la.s.s…”

Hurial and Rebethra watched the girl walking toward them, and they started to calm their breathing while flexing their shoulders.

It was because they could not help but to acknowledge her power.

It was her… who used the Seven Circles level s.p.a.ce reversal magic without even flinching her face by just waving her arm.

‘Just what changed?’

When Hurial acquired Astroa’s body, he acquired all of his memories as well. He crumpled his face.

‘She was well on her way to the grave, yet she is still alive. How? Also, as if that was not enough of a surprise, she came back with a step higher Circles. How?’

Literally, they were mysteries.

He could not even begin to guess how this was possible.

‘Huk!’

Rebethra was narrowing his eyes and glaring at Nainiae who was walking toward them. Rebethra suddenly gasped for air and quickly tilted his head back.

‘Her reciting speed is?’

Rebethra panicked because magic attack came at him before he could even feel any mana movement.

Going past his hair, an icicle got stuck in the dirty water far behind him. The icicle was exuding white mist as if it was showing off how cold it was.

‘This… I better get a grip.’

Their opponent just sent them the first attack. Now that this happened, they could not just sit politely and die. So… Rebethra and Hurial exchanged looks and nodded.

‘First, we will use the corpses to draw her gaze away. After that, we can either prepare flame magic for the counter, or… we can choose to use the instant teleportation to escape…’

Their plan was for Rebethra to prepare the best barrier that he knew and Hurial to choose between the two options. 

“I do not know how you were revived, but…”

Nainiae’s scarlet coat was waving. She pulled her left hand back and swung it in a large motion. When she did, a wave of flame rushed toward Rebethra and Hurial from their rear.

“… it does not look like the situation calls for a congratulation, so…’

Having heard the sound of flame burning up from the back, they took quick looks behind their backs.

‘From the back?’

It was a wall of fire, it was between beginners to intermediate level flame type magic. However… The wall was very wide as if it was pulling the burning path to the back. This kind of arrangement was not in Rebethra’s or Hurial’s memories. 

‘What a bizarre thing!’

Rebethra had his barrier focused to the front. He tumbled and turned his gaze to block the wall of fire that was coming toward them from the back. However, he suddenly felt heat coming from the front. He held his breath.

“Uuuughk!”

Before anyone realized, there were dozens of boulder-sized fireb.a.l.l.s colliding with Rebethra’s barrier.

“Tsk!”

Having realized his ally was in trouble, Hurial promptly prepared water magic and had it overlapped on top of Rebethra’s barrier. Hurial then started to recite another magic.

‘Is the Young Master not going to step in?’

The defense became a little easier with Hurial’s water magic. Anxious, Rebethra looked at Riley who was standing with his arms crossed.

“…”

He had a vacant look on his face.

He was even yawning occasionally.

Riley was leisurely looking at where Rebethra and Hurial were standing. Having noticed this, Rebethra ground his teeth hard.

‘Those eyes. He looks like he knows how this battle will turn out already.’

Riley could not look more leisurely than this. Rebethra clicked his tongue as if he acknowledged that he really lost this one time, and then he started to prepare another blessing magic that he could use as an Archbishop.

‘… They got us this time.’

Rebethra lived for a very long time.

At the moment, he was the Archbishop of the Holy Temple who was revered by the citizens of Solia. However… Throughout his past, he had tricked many people.

He tricked commoners. He fooled n.o.bilities. He even tricked a king. He even tricked a priestess.

Just like how he had been successfully lying to everyone, he figured he could be sly and fool everyone again and could make even the great G.o.ddess to bite on her handkerchief. He was thinking that.

‘Looks like I got very dull. I became dull.’

However, it was arrogance.

Because the boy named Riley was infamous for being lazy and even had the t.i.tle of Lazy-Sword from the Iphalleta House, Rebethra underestimated him although he was the one in the divine message that the Priestess received.

“Hurial.”

Rebethra, who was preparing the blessing, called Hurial, who was on a tug war of magic against Nainiae.

“Kuk.”

Hurial was not able to answer.

Nainiae was continuously bombarding them with magic. Against Nainiae’s magic attacks, all Hurial could do was. .h.i.tting back with barely enough magic to neutralize them.

Nainiae was pouring out endless bombardment of magic. It was as if she was trying to not give Hurial any time to recite long spells. Because of this… Hurial could not even dream of using Seven Circles magic that Astroa could use.

‘How is it possible for her to cast magic like that?’

Hurial hit back and neutralized Nainiae’s magic attacks once again. He was sweating like a pig. He had a look of disbelief on his face.

He combined his own knowledge and Astroa’s knowledge on magic and thought about this. However, he felt that what Nainiae was doing at the moment was impossible.

‘She didn’t even recite any spell, so how?’

Waving her scarlet coat in the air, she moved her finger around in the air or briefly moved her lips. However, doing just those resulted in barrage of magic attacks. Hurial crumpled his face, thinking this was impossible. Meanwhile, he completed a long spell he had been reciting.

“Flame Strike!”

It could not be said that this was the most powerful attack he could use. However, it was a pretty destructive flame type magic. It was completed and shot toward the target. Hurial smiled contently.

‘I did it! She cannot sto…’

It looked like Nainiae was not doing anything in particular to respond to the attack. Hurial thought he was going to be able to finally get a good shot at her, so he smiled. However, the tip of Hurial’s smile flinched.

“…?”

Whooosh. Pop!

The flame swallowed her body in an instant. Along with a sound that felt like something huge was being popped, it became quiet all of sudden.

‘Just what is that…’

With his two ears and eyes, Hurial definitely heard his magic hitting the target, and he definitely saw his magic hitting the target.

However, it seemed Nainiae was not affected by it at all.

‘What the? Am I just seeing things?’

Although she was engulfed in flames, she was firing barrage of magic attacks again with a leisurely look. Hurial and Rebethra quickly raised barrier and protected themselves.

‘It cannot be…’

Hurial looked outside the barrier. He saw that some of the flame that he shot at Nainiae still remained on her.

What was odd about it was that the flame was on… the scarlet coat on her shoulders.

‘That coat… The flame?’

The flame died out on the coat as if it was absorbed by the coat. Hurial crumpled his face.

‘That coat is no ordinary item.’

Nainiae mumbled her lips again, and six magic circles of the very magic that Hurial just shot at her were drawn behind her.

‘That crazy… She is at a different height.’

That perfectly described the situation.

Hurial thought that her way of casting magic and her efficiency were completely different from the people of the Magic Tower.

‘At this rate, we won’t be able to last 10 minutes. No… we won’t even last 3 minutes.’

Rebethra quickly glanced at Hurial looking anxious. As if he was feeling this cannot go on anymore, Rebethra said,

“Hurial.”

It seemed Hurial heard Rebethra. He was fully focused on the barrier, but he turned his head and looked at Rebethra.

“We will need to use ‘that.’”

Crack!

The barrier developed a crack from Nainiae’s magic attacks colliding with it. Hurial cringed and asked Rebethra,

“You are going to bring that out already? You don’t know what’s going to happen if you bring that out now. You are going to do it here?”

“Given the situation, we have no other choice.”

“…”

“30 seconds.”

Rebethra whispered to Hurial and asked him to buy some time. After saying that, Rebethra gently closed his eyes and focused on imaging in his mind.

‘What is this?’

Of the two layers of barriers, one layer disappeared. Having noticed this, Nainiae’s eyebrow wiggled slightly.

She was not sure what they were up to exactly, but as if she judged that it would be no good to let this drag on any further, she started to rotate the magic ring of mana inside her heart to prepare a spell that was going to be a little taxing to herself.

‘Nainiae, I am temporarily forbidding you from using magic that would overexert your body. Use lower Circles magic if possible.’

Nainiae thought about what Andal, her master, said. Thinking this could not be helped, she bit her lips and completed a Seven Circles magic. She held the magic floating on her left hand.

‘I am sorry, master. I will overexert myself just this once.’

Fire, ice, poison, lightning…

Because of the influence from her, all of them had almost ash-like color. Four spheres, each with different elemental type, circled around on top of Nainiae’s left palm.

Hurial knew that this spell was a Seven Circles level magic. He opened his eyes big and opened his mouth.

‘… Insane?!’

It seemed it was going to take all of the mana he had, mana he didn’t have, and all mana that he would be using in the future to keep his life through this.

He didn’t have long to be surprised. Hurial tumbled and prepared a Seven Circles level barrier that could withstand Nainiae’s magic. He gritted his teeth and extended his arm.

‘I need to block this!’

‘I’m going to break through them!’

Nainiae and Hurial each had opposing thoughts as they showed gleam in their eyes. At that moment, the magic that Nainiae shot collided with Hurial’s barrier.

‘Uuuuk?!’

It was significantly more powerful than what Hurial expected. With his arm to the front, he had been maintaining the barrier. However, with his cheek swollen up, he got pushed and dragged back.

“Uuuuuweeeek!”

Hurial had been standing his ground as he coughed blood. With his eyes cringed, he looked at Rebethra.

‘Just a little longer.’

“…. Ugh.”

It seemed that holding out longer was not possible. Hurial was on his knees with pale face. The barrier, although it had cracks on it, was barely holding until just a moment ago. However, now, it was shattered into pieces.

‘I did it!’

‘I did….’

Although both sides shouted ‘I did it!’ inside, the side that could relax the face was… Rebethra’s side.

“…?”

The magic attack hit them right on.

As a proof, along with the explosion sound, there were flame, mist, lighting and poisonous gas dancing around where Rebethra was standing.

‘What is this?’

However, Nainiae was not able to relax her face.

It was because she saw that Rebethra tilted the tip of his lips just before the magic hit them.

‘… Huh?’

Because of the aftermath of the magic attack, she was not able to see the surrounding very well. With the scene calming down slowly, she was gradually able to identify what was happening. She narrowed her eyes and then soon opened her mouth vacantly.

“This… What?”

It was not just Nainiae. Riley, who had been watching this with his arms crossed from the back, also opened his mouth vacantly.

“…?”

It was a gigantic head.

As the dust settled, they were able to see things in the area, and the one thing that stood out the most was a gigantic head that rolled its tongue out all the way to the front. It was dead.

“Ugh… Ugh…”

Next to the gigantic head that came from a dimensional s.p.a.ce, there was Rebethra who was breathing hard. However, they were not able to notice him.

The thing was… The gigantic head that showed up was that shocking to see.

‘… A dragon?’

It was a dragon.

Just its head was out through the dimensional s.p.a.ce, so it was shocking for the people to see.

‘By any chance…’

Its tongue was outside its mouth. Although it was directly hit by Nainiae’s magic, its eyes were not moving. Its eyes were completely white. The dragon was definitely a corpse.

“Huhu… Huhuhu…”

Someone’s arrogant smile could be heard. Along with that sound, the corpse’s eyes started to turn pitch-black.