The high elf’s eyes were tightly shut, her focus on nothing but the spell at hand.
This was it. The most powerful spell of the most powerful magic user in Orario. The true ultimate spell that would take every ounce of Mind she had.
“Get your magic swords ready!” Raul shouted at the other three supporters even as they warily eyed the building waves of magic power forming behind the elf. They needed to prepare for the multitude of monsters drawn to the massive magic power building around Riveria and approaching her without so much as a glance at Aiz, Bete, and Finn. The army of caterpillars and violas kicked up a storm of dust and smoke behind them.
“Aim for the caterpillars! Don’t let a single one through! Then we’ll take on the violas behind them!” Raul called, sounding more and more like Finn.
The three Level 4 adventurers nodded. They only needed to take out the acid-spewing caterpillars from afar with their ranged weapons. The remaining violas could then be taken out using any means possible.
Gripping their long magic swords with their superior power and endurance, they took aim, then let their power fly.
“Gust before the twilight.”
Flame, lightning, ice, then flame again—the rounds of magic ammunition hit the oncoming caterpillars with godlike precision.
Again and again they launched their elemental salvos, the sound of Riveria’s chant in their ears. One by one, the caterpillars exploded until finally Raul’s magic sword reached its limit and shattered in his hands. He quickly kicked open the backpack next to him and grabbed a bow and arrow.
A true jack-of-all-trades, he deftly aimed his arrow into the throng, shooting first one, then two, then three of the oncoming caterpillars right through their hearts, piercing their magic stones and turning them to ash.
“—Raul! Behind you!!” one of the other supporters screamed. Try as they might to take them out, the army of caterpillars was almost upon them.
“!”
Indeed, when Raul turned around he saw a new swarm of caterpillars and violas a ways behind Riveria but pressing closer every second.
The green wall that should have been blocking their path back to the fifty-eighth floor had gone up in flames together with the rest of the jungle thanks to the spirit’s earlier inferno, leaving the passageway open for monsters from the upper levels.
They were caught in the middle of a pincer attack, and they only had one magic sword left. Raul’s voice stuck in his throat—he had no idea how to proceed. It was at that moment that Tsubaki rose to her feet with a swish of her red hakama, her right arm fully restored.
“Leave those critters to me.”
“Huh?!”
“Toss me one of those, will ya?” she said as she motioned to the weapons left behind by Gareth and the others. Having stripped herself of her battle clothes to heal her arm, she stood now in nothing but a single cloth. She took first Gareth’s Durandal ax, then Tiona’s Urga into her hands.
Tan skin bared, she dropped her tachi to the ground and took off running.
“M-Miss Tsubaki, you can’t!!” Raul wailed as the smith headed straight for the swarm of monsters behind Riveria, ax in her right hand and Urga in her left.
It didn’t matter how strong the half-dwarf was, there was no way she’d be able to wield Tiona’s Urga and Gareth’s Roland Ax, two of the heaviest custom-made weapons around, at the same time.
Tsubaki, however, was not one to care about such matters. Ignoring Raul’s cry, she made a beeline for the oncoming monster mass, dodging a salvo of corrosive acid and promptly dismantling three caterpillars at once with a wave of her ax.
“Like hell I can’t,” she stated matter-of-factly before blocking another barrage of acid with her Durandal weapon. Or perhaps block wasn’t the appropriate word, as the mighty swing of the heavy blade never stopped moving and sliced through the skin of one yellow-green caterpillar after another.
Utilizing the subsequent inertia, she sent Urga spinning with nothing but her left hand, slicing and bisecting the incoming violas, tentacles and all.
“Just how many weapons y’think I’ve made, huh?” She laughed haughtily, continuing her double-fisted slaughter as Raul and the other supporters looked on in awe. “Each and every one of ’em got a thorough test run.”
The supporters’ faces gave simultaneous twitches. She was absolutely relentless—no doubt having experienced anything and everything there was to experience when it came to armaments in her effort to one day create the ultimate weapon.
They didn’t let their wonderment last long, however, and quickly returned to their defensive maneuvers as Tsubaki showed them just what a Level 5 could do, a grand smile playing on her lips.
“Fading light, freezing land,” Riveria continued, her eyes closed, as Raul and the other supporters—and Tsubaki the one-woman army—continued fending off the oncoming monster army.
Her words came out faster and faster as the spell of ice and frost formed on her tongue.
“Blow with the power of the third harsh winter—advent of the end.”
Only she didn’t stop. She continued, transitioning directly into another spell.
“A blaze shall soon descend.”
The jade-colored magic circle already formed beneath her grew in splendor as her chant shifted toward magic of complete and total annihilation—her inferno spell.
“Approaching flames of war from which this is no escape. Battle horns blaring on high, all atrocities and strife shall be engulfed.”
Concatenated Chanting.
It was a special magic characteristic possessed solely by the high elf queen, Riveria Ljos Alf. A type of chant that could encompass any of the three spells expressed in her Status.
Just as different levels could exist within a single Status, so, too, did three levels of spell exist within her Magic.
From ultrashort chants to short chants, from short chants up to long chants, and from long chants all the way up to protracted chants.
By connecting the respective levels of chants, one could bolster the total magic output, change the magic’s effects, and amplify their destructive power.
Offensive, defensive, healing—three different types of magic each with three different levels. This made for nine different spells the high elf could concatenate at will depending on the situation, which was where her alias, Nine Hell, had come from—a name of praise bestowed upon her by the gods.
And a name that struck fear and awe into her many elven brethren. It was the name of the strongest magic user in all of Orario.
“Come crimson pyre, merciless inferno. Become hellfire.”
This was no longer simply her ice spell, Wynn Fimbulvetr. With each additional word of the concatenated chant, she focused even more Mind, a colossal amount.
The chant she wove now was a second-tier spell, the longest in her arsenal and boasting the greatest range. It was a spell that would set every enemy within its blast radius ablaze in holocaustic hellfire. The sublimation of ice into flame, short into long destructive power doubling in a spell of catastrophic proportions.
“Purge the battlefield, end the war.”
Behind Raul and the other supporters, behind Tsubaki, her silvery-white staff stood ready. A brilliant light flashed from the cracked magic jewel at its tip as the mammoth magic power was released.
Her hair danced in the rippling waves of magic light flowing from her magic circle, and slowly, ever so slowly, she opened her jade eyes.
“Incinerate, sword of Surtr—My name is Alf!!”
It was complete.
As far, far ahead of her, a small white barrier offset the spirit’s lightning attack, the magic circle at Riveria’s feet grew to encompass the entire battlefield.
The adventurers, the army of monsters, and even the spirit itself—all of them found themselves standing upon glimmering jade radiance.
She had found it. The creature, in the middle of that massive army, threatening her companions even now. Then, she pronounced her spell.<
br />
“REA LAEVATEINN!!”
The eruption was immediate.
Inferno-like pyres of flaming destruction rose from the earth and burst forth from the magic circle.
They incinerated everything. The monsters attacking Raul, Tsubaki, and the other supporters, the army of monsters proliferating the perimeter, the violas approaching Lefiya, Tione, and Tiona on the ground—everything was swallowed by those swelling waves of pure hellfire.
And it didn’t stop there. The raging flames traveled all the way to the ceiling, to the walls, scorching everything and setting the very air on fire with enough power to rival even the corrupted spirit’s earlier firestorm and turning the Dungeon, once more, into a world of blazing red destruction.
“”
The spirit somehow managed to react as the radiating pillar of fire and brimstone erupted from the center of the magic circle, encasing her entire body in armor formed of ten giant flower petals.
Separating herself from her lower, titan-alm half, she prepared for the incoming attack.
Then exploded.
“~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~!”
It hit her ten times. A ten-pillar colonnade of devouring incandescence rocked the spirit’s giant frame.
It was incalculably hot. Immensely powerful. Riveria’s genocidal spell burned, gouged, charred, then ignited the surface of the armor-like flower petals.
They crackled and popped. The very same petals that had stood up to the magic of Lefiya and the magic swords without taking so much as a scratch now burned whole before falling to the ground.
“Riveria…”
Aiz felt every crevice of her body radiate sensational heat as she watched, surrounded by the high elf’s flames of pure magic power.
Then she, Bete, and Finn took advantage of the magic user’s assistance and propelled themselves still faster, their eyes flashing.
“…!”
For the first time, the spirit’s smile vanished. Her defenses were gone.
Thirty meders remained. Nothing but a few short moments between them and the spirit. They hurtled through that world of fire, and as the spirit looked down on them, her lips tightened in rage.
Long green hair flowing, she opened her mouth.
“Aaaaaaaaahhhhh!!”
And the earth responded.
From beneath their feet, from deep within the lower floors themselves, a multitude of green pikes burst through the floor as though summoned by that high-pitched call.
“!!”
The tentacles rose up, forming a mighty dome-like barrier some twenty meders wide around the spirit.
Bete’s and Finn’s eyes widened in surprise, and then the two of them zoomed forward, twin blades and silver spear whirling in an attempt to bring down the wall.
“ “Gngh!” ”
But it was no use.
Their blades sank into the green flesh but neither pierced nor cut the mighty shield. The sight of them rushing at it full tilt with absolutely zero effect made even Aiz shudder.
—All the speed, power, and force they’d built up during their charge was effectively nullified.
And now they’d given her a chance to cast another spell. The tables had been turned.
They’d lost their one chance, and time felt like it was screeching to a halt around them. Only then…
A giant whirling blade came rushing past them to collide with the massive green wall.
An ax?!
The mighty ax plunged into the fleshy bulwark, cleaving a massive fissure. Before they could so much as register the surprise, however, a certain dwarf soldier sailed past them and dove at the wall.
“What? Was all that just talk, Finn?” Gareth goaded, the corners of his mouth turned up in a ferocious smile as he yanked his Great Ax from the green tentacles and promptly plunged it back in with another zealous swing.
The rift in the bulwark widened, though Bete and Finn hadn’t even been able to make a dent.
And then Finn smiled. Eyes still red and all rational thought supposedly wiped from his mind, he shot his comrade-in-arms a wry grin.
“Don’t make me say I knew you’d come.”
“Hah! You wish!” Gareth guffawed before taking another whack with his ax.
The resulting clout was enough to shake the very ground beneath their feet. The rift grew larger still. There was so much force behind each swing of the ax that the blade was beginning to crack.
Aiz and Bete watched in wonder as Gareth abandoned the ax and clenched a boulder-like fist.
“Get outta my way!!”
He punched the great green wall of tentacles.
“I said BEAT IT!!”
Another punch. This time, a hole opened up in the fleshy barricade.
“!”
The spirit inside moved almost instantaneously.
And a multitude of tentacles suddenly burst through the ground at Gareth’s feet.
“”
They impaled him.
One, two, three, a whole throng of them pierced through his body and held him aloft as blood gushed out from the many holes.
But even as the red liquid poured from his mouth, the dwarf only laughed ferociously.
“You’ll have to do…better than THAAAAAAAAAAAT!!”
His bellow reverberated off the walls.
Plunging both his hands into the breach as if he weren’t leaking a waterfall of blood, he tore at the tentacles.
“Bete! Aiz!!” Finn screamed, and the two responded immediately by diving into the opening the dwarf had created.
Finn followed after, his comrade helping him through with a yank of his hand as he made it through the last of the barrier.
“Ngh?!”
They were a mere ten meders away now, and the spirit invested every tentacle she had into intercepting their attack.
The endless giant whips came at them in a frenzy, straight toward Aiz and the incredible wind power surrounding her, but Bete and Finn blocked them.
“Outta my way!” Bete shouted as he whipped out two magic swords from their leg holsters and slammed them down on his Frosvirt. The two boots ignited in the blink of an eye. Re-equipping his twin Durandal blades, he then threw himself at the flailing tendrils, pruning them whole.
“Burn in hell!!” His feet drew flaming arcs in the air as his two swords carved away with great silver gleams.
The four separate killing tools worked in sync, one on each of his limbs, whirling in a veritable blade dance that first lit the tentacles on fire, then severed them with the force of a raging wave.
It was do or die at this point. The two men fought back against the tentacle onslaught with everything they had.
“ “GuuurrrrrrrrraaaaaaaaaaaaaaaAAAAAAARRRGGGHH!!” ”
Their war cries overlapped.
Their armor was gone. Their bodies were riddled with wounds. But somehow they managed it. Twin blades and spear cut a single pathway.
“ “Aiz, go!!” ”
She ran.
Down the single path of survival she sprinted to take on the spirit herself.
It was just her and that thing now.
The cyclone of her Airiel versus that massive, towering creature.
As Aiz turned her gaze upward, her eyes met those deep golden pools.
—I am not Aria.
She told herself as she thought back to those first trembling words of joy the spirit had directed at her.
—And I do not know you.
She knew absolutely nothing about this thing besides the fact that the sight of it made her blood boil.
—All I know is that you shouldn’t exist.
That much she knew.
Her golden eyes flashed as they took in the maleficent, venomous spirit of chaos before her.
Indeed, the blood running through her veins was already whispering to her.
Telling her to consign this monstrosity to oblivion.
With one swing of her sword, she was off, charging straight toward the spirit.
The world above her was bathed in red, embers floating in the rising heat.
Lefiya stared up into that oversaturated world as her arms trembled to life.
A searing pain ransacked her body; devoid of strength, her eyes grew hazy and clouded.
Weakly, she raised a bedraggled arm toward the sky.
“Unleashed…beam of light…limbs of the…holy tree…”
She would sing.
It was the only song she had left in her.
A song that she could hear, even as she waged war against that terrifying enemy so far, far away.
“Loose your arrows…fairy archers…”
Even if she didn’t turn around.
She would hear it, and it would soothe her, protect her, save her as it pushed back the enemy threatening her.
“You are the…master archer…”
Just like a fairy, dancing in the forest. Like a spirit, racing to save the one she loved.
Singing the song only she could sing.
“Pierce…arrow of…accuracy…”
She would deliver her song.
“…Arcs…Ray…”
“—Raaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!!”
Aiz leaped.
Finally, the distance between them was gone. Kicking off from the ground, she sailed toward the colossal frame of her opponent.
Then she directed her sword, Desperate, at the main body of the spirit sitting atop the titan alm.
The spirit herself could only look on in blank amazement as Aiz drew near, cyclone-like power coursing through her—and then…
—She laughed.
“”
She opened those smiling lips to reveal the inside of her mouth, which housed a tiny magic circle.
The dancing tendrils had been nothing but a distraction to keep them from noticing the magic light forming inside her, the tiniest chant summoning the tiniest cerulean magic circle.
Her silence and expression of shock had only served to camouflage her next attack.
Aiz’s features froze in terror upon realizing she’d been led right into a trap.
It was too late now. The spirit released her spell.
Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon? On the Side: Sword Oratoria, Vol. 4 Page 28