Tida ran toward the innermost part of the cave system. She knew exactly where to go—all she had to do was follow the repulsive mana she sensed. The terrain was rough and her visibility was poor, but despite these conditions, Tida was still much faster than most adventurers could have been.
“I guess I’m better off alone for this mission. Miss Ellie’s a good person, but she couldn’t be further from being a pious woman,” she said to herself.
Tida understood why her friend lacked faith, considering her upbringing. While Tida believed that nothing else was of greater importance, as far as Ellie was concerned, faith was just another political tool. Tida knew the way Ellie thought full well, and she had no intention of arguing or rejecting her point of view for two reasons. First, she agreed that faith could be a political tool—that was one of the many aspects of religion. Second, denying other people’s beliefs was against Tida’s own faith.
“God loves everyone, regardless of what religion they follow or whether they even believe in anything.” Tida paused. “Wow, I sound like a true cardinal! I should write that down so I don’t forget!”
Even as she giggled to herself, Tida used her magic-reinforced staff to shatter a boulder that was about to impact her head. The gallery was shaking—an earthquake, Tida assumed. A goblin suddenly jumped in front of her, coming from God-knows-where. It must have been running around, startled by the tremors. Without slowing down, Tida crushed its skull with a single hit.
“Oops! A goblin? Hmm...” Tida saw a group of unsightly green creatures farther down her path. They seemed too big to be regular goblins. “No, they’re hobgoblins, aren’t they?”
The hobgoblins seemed to have finally noticed her approaching, and they readied their weapons. Tida leaped and kicked off the wall of the cave to reach the ceiling right above the monsters’ heads. Then, she pushed off the ceiling and swooped down on them.
Tida’s staff wasn’t sharp, but whenever she reinforced it with magic, it had enough destructive power to tear through monsters’ bodies. She pushed it into the chest of one of the hobgoblins, and the creature fell to the ground with a groan. Without missing a beat, she pulled her staff back, swung it, and shattered another monster’s knees.
“GUUUUH!” The hobgoblin let out a cry of pain that was quickly silenced permanently by Tida’s next blow to its jaw.
Tida then skewered the skull of the last hobgoblin with the tip of her staff. She couldn’t sense any more goblins around, so she relaxed her posture.
“Looks like this was a pretty small group,” Tida said, looking at her staff. It was drenched with fresh blood. “Wild hobgoblins don’t really put up much of a fight. Compared to the trained ones I had to deal with last time, this was a piece of cake.”
With the hobgoblins out of her way, Tida started running once more. She continued on her way, lighting up her surroundings with magic and fighting the packs of hobgoblins she encouraged. Despite the repeated combat, she reached her destination in only ten minutes.
“This must be the cluster the archangel told me about,” Tida said. She grimaced as she looked at the massive crystal in front of her. It was taller and wider than two adult men. “That’s a spirit crystal, isn’t it? How can it be so ominous?”
It closely resembled the crystal inside which Alice had been trapped before Ellie had found and adopted her. The most glaring differences were the color—this one was pitch-black—and the peculiar way in which the mana within stirred.
“I guess it doesn’t really matter. All I have to do is destroy it. Divine Artifact, Harvest!”
Mana surged from Tida’s palm and took the form of an oversized pure white scythe. She swung it at the crystal, but the blade bounced off its surface with an unpleasant noise.
“What?!” Tida exclaimed, astonished.
Tida’s Divine Artifact, Harvest, had the ability to cut through mana itself and convert it into Tida’s own mana. And even without that ability, the edge of her scythe was incredibly sharp. Tida knew that better than anyone.
“I can’t believe I wasn’t able to cut through it with Harvest.” She slammed her Divine Artifact into the crystal several times, yet it didn’t even leave a scratch on it.
Tida scratched her chin and studied the crystal pensively. Sinister black mana swirled inside of it. It swelled and contracted rhythmically, almost like a beating heart.
“I have no clue what this is, but it looks super-duper dangerous,” Tida whispered.
As soon as those words had left her mouth, the dark mana surged, covering the crystal entirely. Its shape shifted until it took the form of a black lion.
“Wha?!” Tida yelped. “What in the world is this monster?! Hang on, is it even a monster?!”
The instant the black lion opened its eyes, it swung a heavy paw at Tida. The lion’s movements were so swift that her eyes almost failed to follow them.
“AAAAH!” Tida shrieked, barely managing to dodge the blow.
The black lion’s paw hurtled through the space right next to her and smashed a rock to pieces. A shard flew at the nun, grazing her cheek.
“That could have been instant death,” she said. Tida twirled her white scythe as she activated Physical Boost to its maximum. “It looks like that crystal has become this monster’s core.”
The black lion pounced at Tida, and she dodged while slashing at it with Harvest. However, the lion’s fur was so thick and resilient that not even the pure white, holy scythe could cause any significant damage. On top of that, even the shallow wounds Tida had managed to inflict began closing up before her eyes.
“And it can regenerate itself instantly too. Great. Still, its body isn’t just incorporeal mana; it’s taken physical form. I could feel it.”
Tida slipped behind the lion, but its tail whipped at her. She parried the blow with her scythe before jumping back to widen the distance from her foe.
“This monster formed around this spirit crystal as though it were a magic stone, but its physical body somehow feels just like a spirit. On top of that, the entire process resembles the materialization of a Divine Artifact... Just what is going on?”
Tida cocked her head in confusion, but the black lion didn’t give her any time to think. It was already back on the offensive, jumping at her with its sharp claws. Tida evaded, and the lion’s claws dug deep trenches into the ground where she’d been standing seconds prior.
“This isn’t something I can figure out just by thinking a little... Actually, if I don’t do something soon, I’ll die before I can understand any of it!”
Tida had hoped to solve this mystery on the spot, but she had begun to realize that her life was in serious danger. Instead of ruminating about the true nature of this lion, she had to get her head in the fight.
She roared a battle cry, leaped toward the lion, and made a flurry of cuts with Harvest. Every wound was superficial, but Harvest absorbed some of the monster’s mana through it, gradually becoming stronger. This fighting strategy had allowed Tida to triumph over dragonkind monsters several times in the past, but the black lion’s regenerative abilities exceeded her expectations.
“This isn’t looking good for me, is it?”
In theory, the black lion should have been an opponent that Tida was well suited to fight. Its body had been formed with mana, so Tida’s Divine Artifact could absorb great quantities of it with each hit. And yet, she was still struggling.
By nature, spirit crystals could suck up the natural mana that surrounded them. Since the lion had one of these at its core, it had access to a practically infinite source of energy to regenerate itself. While Tida had a similar ability—the power to heal herself with the mana she absorbed through Harvest—there was a fundamental difference between the two of them. Her healing magic could mend wounds but not restore stamina.
“If this turns into a battle of endurance, I’ll collapse first.”
Each of the lion’s blows had the potential to be fatal, so Tida had no choice but to keep weaving out of the way. Her concentration and stamina gradually wore thin. The lion swatted at Tida in irritation, and it caught her left shoulder.
“Urgh!” Tida moaned in pain as she slammed against the wall of the cave. She rolled on the ground in an attempt to distance herself from the black lion. Her entire body was awash in pain. “High Heal!” she managed to cast.
The powerful spell closed her wounds but didn’t do anything to mend her clothes. Tida’s skin showed through the torn fabric of her nun’s habit. The flesh was marred with peculiar marks.
“I didn’t want to use this, but it looks like I have no choice. It’s this or death.”
Tida ran her fingers over the marks that stretched across her left arm. They were her stigmata—the proof of God’s grace and the symbol that made her an envoy.
“O God, lend your envoy your strength,” she whispered.