“I’m skilled with such spells, myself,” said Zoras. “My specialty in fact, everything from standard uses to detecting the spell’s target location. Best to assume you won’t hit me with such a powerful attack.”
“If so, then Gravity!” I created a black transparent box enclosing a large area in front of me. Since Zoras was in the field, his movements slowed, and he was pulled sharply closer to the ground.
Gravity was a level 7 space-time spell that increased the force of gravity in a given area.
“Hm…”
“Got him!” I said. Low-level spells could be cast quickly and were easy to use. This spell was also easy to hit with since it had a wide area of effect. Slowing him down with this meant we could hit with other gravity-based spells.
“Gate.” A magic circle appeared around Zoras, and he disappeared while Lunaère was pulling together the magic circle for her next spell. He took barely any time between preparing the spell and casting it.
“Behind you,” said a voice, and I spun around. My eyes met his as he gave me a disturbing grin.
“Agh!”
I swung my sword to try and hedge his movements while I leapt backward to put distance between us, but he swung his staff at me without concern. My blade passed through his chest.
“That’s the Garden of the Muse effect!” I cried as Zoras’s staff slammed into my gut. It dug in deep, I could feel bone breaking as red liquid surged up my throat and out of my mouth, and my vision tinted crimson.
“Kanata!”
I was on the brink of passing out, but Lunaère’s voice snapped me back. She teleported to where I was sent flying and caught me.
“Lunaère-san, I’m sorry…” I said.
“It was my miscalculation. The caster of that spell shouldn’t be able to physically touch anything while it’s active…” She glared at Zoras.
“It depends on how the caster manipulates it,” he said. “You seem like you’re a higher level than me, but you didn’t even know that. I think I’ve found your limits. I apologize…but there is no one in this lowly world of Locklore that can rival me in magic.”
He came straight for us.
I forced Lunaère away as I stood. My body groaned and my consciousness wavered, but Zoras wasn’t going to be nice enough to let me recover.
“Space-time Magic Level 11: Primordial Predator.”
Zoras formed a magic circle which glowed with rainbow light as a beast with a vague ovular outline appeared. Its body was long and simple, and its tooth-filled maw gaped wide. I wasn’t sure if it was really a living creature…but I was sure it was creepy.
“Aaaaaah!” The thing let out something resembling a scream and came at the two of us with its mouth wide like it was trying to swallow us both whole.
“Impossible!” said Lunaère, looking panicked. She’d claimed that you couldn’t use other spells effectively while using Garden of the Muse, but apparently Zoras didn’t care.
Lunaère dove to the ground and pushed at my back, getting us both out of the way of the oval creature’s teeth. The moment its jaws clamped onto nothing, it melted into thin air.
But just as we avoided the Predator’s attack, we found ourselves face-to-face with Zoras, who’d used another Gate spell to head us off.
“It’s not wise to fight me while protecting someone who only slows you down, lich girl,” he said.
I rushed to put together a magic circle. We weren’t going to win against someone using Garden of the Muse if we fought head-to-head. For now, our only choice was to throw out gravity spells to force him to dodge, giving us a moment’s breathing space to get back on our feet.
It used a lot of MP, but I threw out a Gravity Bomb knowing it wouldn’t hit.
“Wind Magic Level 19: Boreas.” Zoras created a magic circle, summoning a black wind that blew away my own.
“What the—!”
That was clearly against the rules. There was no way we were ever going to hit him while he was using Garden of the Muse, which made him immune to everything but gravity spells. It didn’t help that he could use a quick succession of Gate and Boreas, which destroyed our magic circles. His defense was flawless.
“Hm, can you dodge this?” he said, swinging his staff at my head. He didn’t just have magic, his strength was on par with his level too. I’d be a goner if I took a direct hit to the head.
I automatically thought of blocking with my sword but realized the next moment that his staff would just go through my block, and his staff was swinging closer the entire time I thought.
Lunaère quickly threw herself between me and the staff. She apparently thought I wouldn’t be able to take the attack and instead decided to use her own body as a shield.
I grit my teeth. This fight…it was just me holding her back as she protected me.
“You’re the crying martyr type, aren’t you? I just hate that sort of person, mindlessly, pointlessly devoted,” said Zoras, his staff passing right through Lunaère toward my head.
My vision cut out, and I went flying backward. I felt myself crash into the roof, but I also felt detached, like an outsider watching this happen to me.
“Huh…?” I heard Lunaère make a sound of confusion, the sort of thing that didn’t suit her. I lifted my head and could just about barely make out her face, tears welling in her eyes.
“Ah ha ha ha! The look on your face!” gloated Zoras. “I’m sorry.”
Lunaère was looking at me, but then her brow furrowed in blatant rage, and she turned back to Zoras.
He pointed toward me. “You’re going to prioritize fighting me over saving him? That is the correct choice. Because right now…you can’t risk turning your back on me.”
“Be quiet. Your entire existence is unpleasant,” she said with a glare.
-3-
MY CONSCIOUSNESS WAS FADING, but I endured the intense pain and urged my body to move.
I couldn’t do it.
Not even a finger. I couldn’t think, I could barely breathe. I was at my limits just keeping my head raised.
I watched as Lunaère flew around and unleashed a kick at the back of Zoras’s head, but it passed through because of Garden of the Muse, which he still had activated.
“I do think it was wise of you to prioritize fighting me over saving him, but you seem agitated,” he said. “That was a pointless attack. Do you really think you’ll find a way to break through Garden of the Muse with those kicks? You’re just opening yourself up for attacks from me.”
Light engulfed him, and he appeared above Lunaère while swinging his staff. It struck her right shoulder. There was a dull thud and she grimaced in pain.
But she grabbed onto the tip of the staff at the same time.
Zoras could use Garden of the Muse to choose whether or not to allow physical contact. He could make all attacks toward his body pass through, while making one-sided attacks of his own.
However, he had to choose between being corporeal or not: it couldn’t be both. Lunaère could grab his staff at the same time he attacked.
“You are desperate, lich girl,” he said.
Lunaère had the staff in her hand for a moment, but then it just passed right through. She ducked to evade his oncoming swing, but his leg snapped up to kick her while she was crouched. That kick passed right through her arms and legs and squarely struck her abdomen.
He flung her defenselessly into the air, then followed with a merciless slam of his staff.
“Gah!”
My consciousness was moving further away, but Lunaère’s cry made it snap back.
What am I doing here, groveling on the ground? How long am I going to stay down?
I felt my finger move, just a tiny bit. I put all my remaining strength into my arm.
As Lunaère soared through the air, Zoras pointed his staff at her and said, “Fire Magic Level 20: Apocalypse.”
A massive dragon of raging flame passed through his magic circle and rose straight up as it aimed to consume Lunaère.
Apocalypse homed in on its target—there was no way for her to dodge.
She created a huge magic circle of her own. “Space-time Magic Level 25: Ruler of the World!”
She disappeared from the sky just as the fiery dragon snapped its maw around her. Then she reappeared behind Zoras, already working on her next magic circle.
“A spell that stops time…?” he said. “But you can’t cast another spell while in a world where time has stopped. How unfortunate… It doesn’t do anything against my Garden of the Muse, which shuts out all but a few specialized spells. You can’t touch me even if you do stop time. Isn’t that a bit too draining to use for a one-off evasion spell?”
He turned back to face her.
“Space-time Magic Level 20: Gravity Witch!” Lunaère reached her arm toward Zoras. There was a large, spectral arm overlaying hers that looked made of black fog, and it kept reaching toward him.
He pulled back to dodge, but the black arm almost seemed to suck him in, catching him in its powerful gravitational pull.
“Oh my, look at me, caught by this juggernaut,” he said with clear confidence on his face.
Lunaère’s black arm grew bigger, thicker, wilder as it tried to crush Zoras.
“Gate.”
He was swallowed by light and disappeared. Lunaère black arm swung through the air, pointlessly clenching its fist.
Zoras appeared in Lunaère’s blind spot and swung his staff at her. She tried to block with her arm but was flung back. Lunaère regained control and landed, then fell into a stance that would keep him in check as she maintained the black arm of her Gravity Witch.
“Ha ha, I just do not understand why you fight so desperately. Do you even understand why?” he said. “Lunaère—the lich girl—I heard a little about you from Naiarotop. Born into a famous family of magic users, died as you killed a Demon King for your country…became a lich out of concern for your mother who was left all alone. What a poor girl. I also know what happened next.”
He spread his arms and shook his head.
“Your mother tricked you, and you were captured by a group of church magicians researching taboo magic… And they put you through living hell. They never allowed you to die, not with your unclean soul. They beat you, tortured you…they even carved off pieces of your flesh and drew your blood to use as ingredients in potions! Ah ha ha ha! Is there a more comical tragedy than that?!”
My mind jolted.