-13-
PHILIA, IN DRAGON FORM, flew around above Reniement.
“We’ll distract him as much as we can!” called Pomera from where she was riding on the dragon’s head.
“Pomera-san, Philia-chan…thank you!”
Both Pomera and Philia had decent levels thanks to their training in the Cursed Mirror of the Warped Realm. Attacks from them weren’t so weak that the Jonas spirit could just ignore them. Philia was also tougher than normal for her level. I knew because I fought her once as Zolophilia. Just as she healed herself in an instant from the rotting of the death magic, she could recreate her body using the Sand of Dreams, essentially writing off damage done to her. This did drain her MP a similar amount, but it meant she wasn’t going to die as long as she had MP left.
I didn’t want to drag the two of them into a fight against an enemy with a level in the five thousands, but I couldn’t turn down the help either. I didn’t know what would happen to Lunaère or even all of Locklore if I lost here. I could not accept defeat now that I was fighting against the higher beings.
“Insects shouldn’t get full of themselves… Death Magic Level 16: Spear of Mammon!” cried Reniement as he raised his staff.
A giant golden spear launched toward the dragon up in the sky. She twisted her body to try and evade, but the spear dug deep into her shoulder. Rainbow light ran over the wound, but it didn’t heal. With the base of her wing torn, the dragon’s flight became unsteady, and she lost altitude.
“Philia-chan’s Sand of Dreams isn’t working?!” I said.
“This is a demonic spear that bores into the soul of the target, not their body, cursing them…” said Reniement. “I doubt it will be easily healed.”
I gulped.
With her wing not working properly, it would be better for Philia to give up on fighting an aerial battle.
Reniement simply had a lot of skill with magic, and the ability to adapt. Philia might be tough, but he would seek out her weaknesses as the fight dragged out, and that was dangerous.
If this turned into a battle of endurance, then Reniement was the winner. He had the highest-level person on his side in the form of Jonas, so I needed to come up with a way to get the Staff of the Saint from him.
But no matter how we attacked Reniement, Jonas protected him. And he had several fast, powerful methods of attack. I was not seeing a way in.
“Gravity Bomb!” I pointed my sword toward Reniement.
Shimmering darkness spread out around him. Firing attacks at him without thinking was just going to drain MP, but this was the most effective spell out of the ones I’d thrown at him. If I hit, then I could stop him moving for a couple of seconds. That should be plenty of time for Philia to get her footing again.
“Short Gate!”
Reniement and Jonas disappeared, then reappeared somewhere else. The Gravity Bomb did nothing.
“Supplementing the slowness of the primary explosion with gravity… I won’t be hit with that spell again,” said Reniement, grinning so wide I could see his gums.
“Dammit!”
It was a wasted spell. Reniement first appeared to be running around wildly, but he was cautious about the actions he took for the process leading to his goal. He also likely realized that he had the advantage in levels, but he didn’t allow that to make him drop his guard. With each move, he responded in a way that took advantage of my weaknesses, and he definitely didn’t overextend himself.
He might be laughing and lamenting—equally overboard in turn—but his actions were still calm and collected. How could I find a chink in the armor of someone like that?
I saw the dragon land on a roof and instantly transform into Philia. Blood was running from her shoulder. Pomera stood beside her. It seemed Philia really couldn’t regenerate the wound in her shoulder caused by Reniement’s Spear of Mammon.
“Ph-Philia! I’ll heal you with—” started Pomera.
“It’s okay, Pomera. Philia can still fight.” Philia steadied her breathing, and rainbow light engulfed her body. The next moment, she turned into a tall, long-haired man holding a large staff that looked similar to the Staff of the Saint.
“What’s this…?” I wondered. Who was she copying? I felt like I’d seen him before. Then I remembered I’d seen a similar looking face in engravings throughout Luperm. “Is that Jonas…?”
If Philia transformed into someone with a higher level than her, she also benefited, allowing her to adjust her level several times. She must have decided that without her wings, it was more beneficial to copy Jonas than to be a dragon.
“Death Magic Level 15: Gehenna!” cried Philia in Jonas form as she raised her staff. Countless skulls flew toward Reniement, and Jonas’s skeletal arms knocked them aside.
While Philia did turn into a weaker version of the original, she could copy Jonas’s spells. And it was a big help that she could use the tracking skulls of Gehenna. That should pen Reniement in a bit at least.
“Damned child! What is with that appearance?! You look exactly like my master! How dare you sully Lord Jonas’s form with your petty games! Die!” howled Reniement, his face bright red. He had clearly lost his cool, and his attention was now fixed completely on Philia.
He’s open!
“Wol!”
“Woof!” Wolzottl responded immediately to my call and rushed toward Reniement’s blind spot.
As he did, I readied my sword and formed a magic circle. This spell had a short range and took some time to cast, but Reniement was distracted. This spell should be able to hit Jonas with his master like that.
“…It seems you are up to no good. Perhaps you thought this piddly trick would throw me off?” said Reniement, his head twisting nearly backward to look at me.
Jonas’s skeletal arms reached in my direction.
Damn, we were so close!
Then a beast made of lighting slammed into Jonas from behind. That was Pomera’s spirit magic, Laelaps’s Fang. The collision jolted Jonas’s arms off target so they only grazed my head.
“Agaaah?!” Reniement grimaced.
Between dealing with Philia’s death magic, the emotional distress of seeing her in Jonas’s form, and me approaching from behind, Reniement couldn’t keep track of it all, which meant he didn’t even notice Pomera’s spirit magic spell.
“Space-time Magic Level 20: Karma Breaker!”
A great beam of white light erupted from the magic circle I’d formed and engulfed Reniement.
The space-time magic spell Karma Breaker blocked the flow of bad luck, removing powerful spells or curses affecting the target and damaging them with a holy light.
“Karma Breaker?! A troublesome spell!” cried Reniement. “So…you were planning on releasing Lord Jonas’s soul from the Staff! But a spell from someone like you couldn’t possibly purify Lord Jonas now that—!”
A fissure ran through Jonas’s form, then his skull shattered into tiny pieces and his arms burst off. Tiny cracks appeared in the Staff of the Saint moments before it crumbled to sand.
“I-impossible… This can’t be! How? Why?!” Reniement fervently tried to clutch at the sand slipping through his fingers, but it was no good. The sand disappeared into the wind.
“Jonas probably could have withstood that if he really tried. But your master didn’t want that,” I said.
“Impossible…! My curse destroyed Lord Jonas’s essence! And that was two thousand years ago! All that should have been left was a puppet, a vessel to receive faith! Lord Jonas couldn’t possibly choose to accept the spell!”
A gust of wind blew, and the scattered light of Jonas’s spirit body gathered together, reforming. But this time it wasn’t a skeleton but Jonas as he was when he was flesh and blood.
“M-Master…?” Reniement took an unsteady step toward him.
“I had hoped to give you a normal happiness. But it seems that did not come to pass. I at least pray that you may rest in peace,” said an echoing voice that must have been from Jonas.
Despite Reniement’s curse, despite the two thousand years, Jonas’s essence wasn’t completely lost.
“My master! Why? Why would you stand in the way of my faith?!” Reniement tried to grab on to Jonas, but his hands passed through, and he tumbled clumsily to the ground.
It ended up being more difficult than I thought, but, in the end, we successfully destroyed the Staff of the Saint.