Chapter 5: Cutting Edge
It took some time to grasp the situation.
Mika, pale and unable to fight, stood beside Angelica, who continued her incantation. Each of her long spells was a guaranteed one-hit kill.
And there was Eris, tirelessly clashing with the boss, fighting to maintain the front lines.
The battle among the three of them felt precarious, as if the balance could tip at any moment.
The greatest threat, however, loomed right before me—a nightmare incarnate wielding overwhelming destructive power. The name of the boss they faced was the Crystal Humanoid.
“This can’t be real—”
I couldn’t even take a moment to think this was some kind of mistake; I felt a chill run down my spine.
“Angeeeeeeeee!! Stop the incantation!!!”
My desperate shout was in vain as she completed her spell—
“Hinokagutsuchi!”
Angelica’s ultimate magic was unleashed.
For some reason, a memory flickered in my mind. It was a conversation I had with Ange. “Even diamonds, as hard as they are, can’t withstand extreme heat,” I had said.
Eris sensed the magic being activated and swiftly retreated. In that instant, Angelica’s lethal strike surged toward the boss—only to be reflected.
The one caught in the line of the reflected magic was—Eris.
Flames that would never extinguish until they consumed their target roared forth, closing in on Eris. Blown away by the explosion, she struggled to regain her footing, and before she could react, the flames engulfed her.
I activated Autobahn.
—My thoughts stretched.
In the almost frozen moment, I began to activate Out Strider del Sole. Meanwhile, I continued to think.
To be honest, this was the worst-case scenario.
Hinokagutsuchi—one of the most troublesome spells alongside Narukami, was Angelica’s magic.
There were two troublesome aspects to it.
The first was the spell’s persistence. The second was its high difficulty, requiring precise control.
First and foremost, the spell she created incorporated several distinctive mechanisms, similar to Narukami.
Angelica skillfully saturated the boss room with a high concentration of fire mana. Moreover, she adeptly manipulated it to surround the boss without dispersing it. Each of these was at the level of Basic Magic, but their numbers reached the high hundreds. Controlling all of them was no small feat.
And this was the crux of Hinokagutsuchi’s spell.
The persistence of the spell was achieved through a mechanism where the vast amount of fire mana, upon dissipating, would automatically draw mana from Angelica to restore the spell. This allowed the magic—Hinokagutsuchi—to be cast semi-permanently as long as her immense mana lasted.
Furthermore, by incorporating the target’s information during activation, it could sense the enemy’s presence and continue to burn until it was annihilated, leaving no blind spots.
At the moment Angelica activated Hinokagutsuchi, the target was the Crystal Humanoid.
Now that it had been reflected, the target of Hinokagutsuchi was us—our six-member party.
As I activated Out Strider del Sole, I unhesitatingly scooped up Eris in front of me. I quickly set her down next to Sensei and rushed to intercept Hinokagutsuchi.
However, the force was no longer something we could handle against the Crystal Humanoid.
“Rain!!”
Uncertain if it would even affect the persistent flames, I unleashed one of my light magic spells in a torrent.
—Roarrrrrrrrrr!!
The flames continued to surge, undeterred.
No way!!
Guaranteed no damage!!
Of course, it makes sense!!
I’m such an idiot!
Throwing light into the flames won’t do anything!!
This is bad! This is bad!
The way to stop this spell was to either burn the target completely, suppress it with overwhelming force from the outside, or—have the caster deactivate it.
To communicate effectively, I checked the distance to the flames and temporarily deactivated Out Strider del Sole, hoping to improve the situation.
“Sensei, please take care of Eris!!”
I called out to her with all my might.
“Ange!! Deactivate the spell!!!”
But this was a grave mistake on my part.
For Angelica, there was overwhelmingly little time to understand what was happening. Already on edge, my urgent call made her realize the gravity of the situation, causing her to completely lose her composure.
As a result, the spell that required precise control slipped entirely from her grasp.
Consequently—flames erupted from all corners of the room, and from beneath her own feet—Angelica herself was engulfed.