Flames blazed across the land. The scorching heat devoured the verdant plain as magma overflowed from the fissures of the melted land like creatures raising their heads with self-awareness. The sea of flames grew wider as Canary stood in its middle silently. The high temperature and violent gales congested the space around her, roaring as though they were about to destroy all living beings in this territory.
Shing!
A shimmering ice spear flitted across the air, fixing on the young lady. Without turning around and gazing at it, Canary pointed her right hand in its direction and almost immediately after, the surrounding flames whirled into a wall that defied the ice spear. Shortly after, two streaks of magical radiances flashed and dispersed the white mist instantly. At the same time, Canary twitched her brows slightly and leaned her body to the left subtly as a razor-sharp blade airflow burst out of the mist ferociously, aimed at her chest. If she were any other spell caster, she would be bewildered by this close-distance ambush. However, there wasn’t the slightest trace of panic on her face at all, not even when the razor-sharp blade was about to penetrate her chest and cut off strands of her hair. Canary raised her left arm and with this motion, the winds whirled around her arm like an obedient pet jumping onto her hand gently and morphed into a sturdy barrier in front of her.
Clang! Clang! Clang!
A series of rasps sounded as the blade collided on the wind shield, splattering flares in all directions. The formidable shield coalesced from mighty winds deflected the blade. The human swordsman who had missed the opportunity to take her down turned around and thrust his left leg at her calf. Canary took a step back, evading his attack immediately. However, she didn’t expect the human swordsman to continue his aggression and a dazzling flash of light appeared beside him once again. It was another fluctuating blade light that came striking at her like a specter.
Flame sword!
Canary witnessed the shimmering blade light but the motion of her hand didn’t come to a halt. She stooped over slightly, reached for her waist with her right hand. Along with this movement, the wavering flames gathered around her waist and quickly coalesced into a scarlet sword. She clutched the hilt and slashed forward.
“———!”
The delusive blade light split the space open, only to be stopped by a bright, scarlet ray of light. In the blink of an eye, the human swordsman and Canary collided. But shortly after, the former shuddered and his head flew up into the sky as a stream of pitch-black blood sprayed from his severed neck. Before his corpse crumbled to the ground, the impatient magma in the surroundings metamorphosed into the shape of tentacles, binding the corpse tightly and dragging it into the sea of magma. Without even making a sound, the corpse melted as it submerged. Canary didn’t even glance at her defeated enemy. She swung the sword coalesced from flames without any hesitation. Shortly after, in a loud explosion, the sword transformed into multiple meteorites that launched forward. The elf mage in the distance witnessed this scene and grimaced. She grunted, lifting the staff high up and striking it on the ground with force. The vast land froze instantly. A crystal-clear ice barrier expanded like a blooming flower with her in the middle. The blazing meteorites whistling across the air crashed onto the transparent ice shield.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
White steam spurted upon impact, enveloping the elf mage entirely. Due to this reason, she didn’t witness Canary bending over again into a sword-drawing stance. Canary stared sharply at the dense white mist before her. Even though the white mist concealed her vision, her gaze was sharp, as though she saw through everything that was behind the mist. At that moment, another fiery sword took shape on her waist. This was the skill that made her famous, and also the one that she taught Marlene.
The Sword-drawing Assault.
As a spell caster, Canary didn’t learn ordinary and cumbersome spells. She also didn’t need to learn defensive or offensive sword skills. After all, she had unique offensive spells and as a spell caster, she could never match up against pure swordsmen in terms of swordsmanship. It would be truly foolish of her to compete against a pure swordsman. This was why she only needed to learn how to kill with a sword. Just this alone was enough.
And this swordsmanship of hers was designed for that very purpose. There was only one move in her Sword-drawing Assault, and she couldn’t retreat after slashing the sword. This was Canary’s choice as a spell caster in fights at close quarters.
Gazing at the mist ahead, Canary’s eyes glinted inexplicably. At the next moment, she vanished swiftly and a shiny, scarlet line passed through the ice shield. The wind pressure from this phenomenal speed scattered the mist in an instant. Before the elf mage knew it, Canary was already standing behind her, clutching her blazing sword and staring at her in silence. The elf mage maintained her fighting stance. She lifted the staff and gazed grimly ahead. Around her were countless ice crystals that had merged into a sturdy, defensive barrier. At that moment, both of them had as though come to a pause. But shortly after, a straight line emerged from the ice barrier and the late, powerful pressure raised the ice barrier that was split into two. Then, blazing flames fluttered and devoured the shattered ice barrier.
The battles continued, but they weren’t looking favorable for Chaos.
Even though the elites that the Chaos Creatures devoured were indeed powerful or perhaps were ‘once’ powerful, time was a butcher’s knife, after all, and 65 million years wasn’t merely as simple as 65,000,000 years. The string of 0s in the back wasn’t only for show. After being restrained and sealed for such a long time, they had become extremely weak, which was why they were struggling and enraged after being attacked by Rhode’s group. This forced them to release the elites they devoured and attempt to gain an advantage using numbers to eliminate these pesky bugs.
But it was a pity that Agios was totally unaware that the beings it devoured were nowhere as strong after its very own power had declined greatly. Moreover, the beings were people of Order to begin with, so it wasn’t surprising that their strength plummeted after being contaminated by Chaos. In this case, the elites who should have been level 90 fell into a range between level 75 and level 80. Although this wasn’t too bad, the average level of Rhode’s group was level 85. Furthermore, with the two ‘By the God’ beings of Lydia and Erin around, the enemies hardly stood a chance. At the very most, they could only make Lydia and Erin exert more energy in battle.
That was why Chaos would always be Chaos. It was impossible for them to learn how to think things through logically.
But even so, Agios also seemed to realize the situation was getting out of hand. Not only were the elites eradicated by Rhode’s group, but its strength was also declining quickly. Lydia and Canary were informed beforehand by Rhode about the current situation. Therefore, they would never let the black mist circling around the puppets off. It was apparent they clearly knew that the black mist was the source of energy for the enemies.
“All you damned maggots!”
Agios knew this couldn’t go on. He let out an outburst of anger and at that moment, its puppets attacking Rhode’s group disintegrated into black mist and retreated instantly. In a few moments, they gathered and morphed into a human-shaped thundercloud. Compared to the aggression when it first appeared, it was apparently much weaker now.
“Take that thing down!”
Seizing the moment to take down a weakened opponent was always the norm for players. As soon as the puppets transformed into black mist and coalesced, Rhode dashed ahead with a sword in hand that had metamorphosed into an incomparable, holy white light striking straight at the black mist. At the same time, Canary, Mini Bubble Gum, Erin, and Lydia followed him closely and launched all-out attacks on the black mist. In an instant, the glaring brilliance of flames, gales, and holy light blasted in all directions, turning into an enormous net that enveloped the Chaos Creature ahead.
“Oooooh!”
Not even the most ancient creature could withstand the agony brought upon by this menacing attack. But Rhode didn’t feel assured even after witnessing this reaction because they did not have much time left. If they didn’t defeat Agios before it fused into this world entirely, he couldn’t guarantee that upheavals wouldn’t ensue. After all, Rhode didn’t understand the authority of void enough yet. If he didn’t receive his younger sister’s help earlier, he wouldn’t even have known how to open up a new space. In such circumstances, it was much better for him to listen to people who were more experienced than him.
Rumble…!
Even though Agios’s body began to shrink under the continuous attacks, an odd rumble sounded from within its body. Upon hearing the sound, Rhode’s heart sank instantly as he sensed an extreme danger approaching.
“Full defense!”
Rhode commanded, withdrew his sword, and swung his left arm forward. A shield engraved with a humiliating pose of a young lady appeared in front of him. At that moment, Rhode couldn’t care less about feeling ashamed anymore. He was certain that this wasn’t a deathbed struggle by Agios. Upon hearing his warning, the young ladies stopped their attacks and set up layers upon layers of defensive barriers around them swiftly. To Canary and Mini Bubble Gum, refusing to listen to commands during a BOSS raid was the behavior of one seeking death. Even though Lydia and Erin weren’t aware of this, it didn’t stop them from making the correct judgment.
Indeed. As soon as Rhode released the defensive shield, the wild, roaring purple thunderbolts exploded, breaking free from all restraints and scattering everywhere. In an instant, Rhode felt like a tiny boat trembling in the raging waves. One by one, thunderbolts that were thicker than arms bombarded the entire world mercilessly. Be it the sky, land, or space, they were all crushed by the thunderbolts. The land fissured and the earth’s crust crumbled. The azure sky tore apart like cracked, shattered glass. Everything fell apart, perished, and disappeared in this pounding of thunderbolts.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Rhode didn’t know how long the thunderbolts lasted. He did not have much time left to analyze the situation. All he could do was to hold up the shield before him in vain. Fortunately, even though this piece of shield was extremely humiliating, its quality was assured as he was completely unscathed even after the series of thunderbolts came to an end.
But it seemed like the enemy wasn’t in a perfect condition. Rhode clearly witnessed the body coalesced from the black mist crumbling. The surroundings were covered with twinkling purple lightnings like robots in movies when their armor was blown into bits and their internal parts were revealed.
“You… lackeys of Order!”
Agios swung his arm furiously. In this movement, a long, purple whip coalesced from lightning appeared in a flash and lashed at Rhode ahead. Facing this attack, Rhode dashed forward. In such a situation, the dangers of taking the initiative to get closer than fighting from a distance were much smaller.
“———!”
But at the same time, a golden light beam descended from above, piercing through Agios’s body. Lydia widened her wings comfortably, hovering in midair while raising her hands parallel to each other. Innumerable sacred runes revolved around the young lady, before transforming into an enormous mirror that were as though storing the power of the sun. Perhaps sensing that this was the crucial moment of the battle, none of them held back any longer. Facing this enemy, the young ladies gave their all.
“Ahhhhh!”
The holy radiance dissolved the black mist and penetrated through Agios’s chest, causing it to howl in agony. Before it retaliated, the earth rumbled. Erin gripped the sword with both hands. At that moment, the sleek sword that was merely one-meter-long metamorphosed into a gigantic light blade that was over ten meters in length. She flourished the light blade at the Chaos Creature from above in earth-shattering airwaves, slashing through Agios’s body and slamming into the ground.
“No———!”
Agios had expended all its energy on this attack, but didn’t expect these people to escape entirely unscathed. It had lost the strength to continue maintaining its form any longer. If it had more time, perhaps it could find an opportunity to launch another attack. But now, be it Rhode or Lydia, none of them were gracious enough for a fight to the death after it returned to its senses.
The holy radiance and flames erupted from the flat ground. At that moment, Mini Bubble Gum and Canary exerted all of their strength. The turbulent magma merged into a giant snake, widening its wings and barging into the body of the black mist. On the other side, along with Mini Bubble Gum’s movements, the enormous magical ritual on the ground surged with several chains appearing from within, binding tightly onto Agios.
“Big Brother, now’s the chance!”
“Everyone stay away!”
Upon hearing his younger sister’s direction, Rhode also noticed the crumbling presence in the center of this small world. He extended his arm and sensed the entire world taking shape in his hand. Chaos was like indestructible cockroaches. If he were to let Lydia purify Chaos, who knew how much time was needed. Fortunately, he had no intention of counting on his strength to defeat Agios either.
“Shatter!”
Rhode yelled, widening his eyes and staring at the routed part of Agios’s body. He extended his right hand and clenched with force.
Along with this action, the center of Agios’s body shattered like pieces of debris scattering from smashed lenses. At the same time, powerful streams of airflows blustered, absorbing everything in the surroundings. After losing its balance, the space here was about to collapse completely. Agios extended its arm in vain as it had already fused into this world completely. It couldn’t break free from the restraints at all. It would perish alongside this world.
“Retreat now!”
Rhode didn’t stay behind for long. He swung his arm abruptly and the fragments swirling in the air emanated brilliant radiances, intertwining into a gigantic net of golden lines that shrouded the four young ladies. Then, they disappeared entirely.
Shortly after, the space crumpled.
Everything was heading toward the end.
