While the scared Kiva was busy hiding in his own shell, everyone within the safe zone looked at the entity that was responsible for causing so much trouble to the entire Demon Horde. The Minotaur Lord did not falter at their stares and instead stood proudly as if he was the only righteous person around.
Without a word, Moloch took out a blank card as he performed a simple magic trick, and suddenly his card turned blue with an ice symbol on it. As the Firestorm approached within 50 meter radius, both Jin and Moloch did not flinch. (Although it was a different story on the System Channel.)
“WHERE THE HELL IS THE ICE, FROST ECHO?!” Jin shouted in his mind as he knew it was getting too close for comfort while Moloch was doing the same.
“MY TAIL IS GONNA BURN OFF IF IT GETS ANY CLOSER! HURRY IT UP!!!” Moloch yelled as he pointed the card towards the demons in the safe zone, hoping that his ‘wonder magic’ would work as timed. Yet to his dismay, Frost Echo was having difficulties conjuring anything since he had been disturbed by the sudden appearance of the Demon Horde as well.
“SHUT IT! I HAVE DEMONS ON MY ASS, AND THE TWO OF YOU SCREAMING IS ONLY MAKING IT MORE DIFFICULT TO CONCENTRATE!” Frost Echo grumbled back as he decided to hasten the process by sacrificing some blood of the demons which Flame Ripper had annihilated.
Were it not for the Avatar of Ifrit acting as his bodyguard, the process of conjuring a magic equivalent to stop a world tier class spell would be even slower since Frost Echo had to contend for his life while prepping his magic for Jin. It did not help that Shiva was not particularly supportive in this current phase.
At the same time, King Baal was looking at Moloch with much curiosity ever since he had emerged from the human’s clothing. However, the closer the Firestorm came, the more he became disappointed since it would seemingly finish the work for him.
Prince Stolas, on the other hand, was having an internal struggle on whether or not he should aid his seemingly troubled mentor. As his former student, he had learnt to pick up on some of his mentor’s…distress. He clearly recognised the nervous twitch of his Moloch’s left ear, indicating that he was outside his comfort zone.
A quick scan using his magical eyes further revealed this to be the case. Stolas couldn’t see any aura or sense the smallest traces of magic being emitted out of the card despite all of Moloch’s entertaining theatrics.
“ALRIGHT! IT’S READY!” Frost Echo celebrated as he tore the head of an incoming demon soldier and smashed it with his bare hands. Even he was frustrated by the lack of assistance from his ice patron and wanted to see if his current powers could match up with the Firestorm that was summoned by King Baal.
At that moment, Moloch, who had his ice card pointed at his audience, immediately enlarged it with magic and threw it behind him. The giant ice card flew towards the fiery tornadoes and was thoroughly burnt by it. Realising that it was all a joke to waste time, some of the mages who saw it laughed and criticised how Moloch had fallen …Until they saw several wide block-shaped pillars of ice dropping behind Jin and Moloch, defending them from the impending Firestorm of doom.
At first, they were bewildered by it but some of them with more acute perceptions, especially Stolas, saw that the ice was being melted by the intensely heated tornadoes.
“Shit!” Frost Echo cursed to himself as he wondered if there was not enough sacrifice to power up the pillars. “I did get the size correct but not the strength!”
“With that kind of measly sacrifice? You are already lucky that the ice had not vanished right at the start!” Shiva suddenly spoke out in Frost Echo’s mind, and before he could ask any questions, she had taken over his body.
“If people were to know that I reside in a body that cast such poorly done ice spells… Nevermind, I shall show you how this Queen does it!” Shiva confidently raised her fingers, and with a snap, those melting ice blocks turned solid once more.
Not only that, but they also started growing again until they became as large as the tornado itself and began to fall towards the direction. As if the Firestorm was a physical entity, the block pillars literally consumed the fiery tornadoes in one fell swoop.
However, the moment the pillars consumed the Firestorm spell, it disappeared as allowing it to fall to the ground would be equivalent of sending the pillar to crash onto the islands. Especially when the ice pillars were stretched to the skies to consume the tornadoes.
“Still, you got to admit, the spell wasn’t that bad.” Ifrit who had similarly possessed Flame Ripper, appearing simultaneously as Shiva, commented on the World Class Magic that King Baal had cast. Without Frost Echo knowing, Ifrit had also lent them a helping hand by absorbing a portion of the fire tornado and converting it into fire chaos energy.
Unlike Dread Reaver who did not know how to handle the corrupted energy, Ifrit was very well versed in converting that corrupted energy into his very own without any sign of affection. Flame Ripper who was merely a consciousness in his own body, queried how Ifrit was able to do that and his only answer was that they were Shaitans.
“We were born from corruption before turning into masters of elementals.” Ifrit explained as he turned and looked at the massive amount of demon soldiers roaming around. Without caring to check for friendlies and defenders, he hurled the fire chaos energy haphazardly towards the largest concentration of demons before returning the body back to the Flame Ripper.
Shiva did the same as if they had completed an objective of sorts and left their Avatars to their own devices.
“I hope that was enough!” Frost Echo panted as he turned and helped Flame Ripper up after punching one of the demon soldiers away. “Come on, buddy, let’s hunt some demons. If we cannot keep it up now, how will we defeat those rats?”
“Urgh, don’t remind me about them. I had enough sorties at the outskirts of Wecha. Those rats were a pain in the ass.” Flame Ripper sighed as he pulled his bow out from his storage ring.
“Hah! You think my Orcs will be satisfied with just one war? Maybe you Goblins should exercise more.” Frost Echo playfully used the race card on Flame Ripper, rendering him to roll his eyes. (Though that did not stop him from successfully hitting one of the demon soldiers right between its eyes.)
Separately, the demons in the safe zone were slightly stunned. They did not expect Moloch to have the capability to stop a World Class Magic, especially one cast by their King. Only a few fell for his theatrics, yet even the doubters understood that someone on his side certainly had the capabilities to achieve such a feat.
The Demons subsequently heard a slow clap coming from the front… the one clapping was none other than the King himself. “Rather entertaining. Now proceed with the main show. Only one of you will leave alive. If it isn’t you, it will be Kiva.”
Kiva who eventually realised that the storm somehow had passed stuck his head out of the Sand Golem and started to stare at the cotton toy with intense hate.
“Molo…ch!”
“Ah, if that is the case, then I shall get my ‘subjects’ to fight instead. As an owner of a Dungeon Core yourself, I sincerely hope that you do not mind.” Moloch suggested, but even before his request could be answered by King Baal, two shadows teleported right in front of Jin.
“So, it’s a ‘scientists vs scientist’ fight?” Ayse confirmed as she stretched her hands a bit.
“Its seems a little unfair, though.” Weslie emerged while slapping the dust away from her casual long sleeve coat. Despite the hot weather, she had insisted on wearing it which baffled a number of them who were watching this.
“Since when have we ever fought fair? Isn’t our whole job to ensure that we have the advantage over the other side?” Ayse replied with a raised eyebrow.
“She’s right. There’s no such thing as fair in war. Besides, your enemy never played fair too.” Moloch agreed as Jin stepped backwards, allowing the scientists to battle against each other while beckoning King Baal to make his move too.
