A scraping sound blended with the howling wind. Everyone looked at Lucia, aghast that she would cast a wide-scale annihilation spell over her friend.
She cleared her throat. “A spell like this is nothing to Ansem,” she explained.
A roaring silhouette moved about the ice storm. This was a spell that frequently turned monsters into ribbons, but he was used to this. Honestly, I felt he had the right to complain a bit.
“Is that really an organic creature? Sir? He’s moving inside Lucia’s spell,” Kris said, her face twitching.
I thought she was going a bit far with that, but I had to admit, I also struggled to believe Ansem had once been on the small side.
Lapis narrowed her eyes, a troubled look on her face. “But with this spell, nobody on the outside can offer any assistance.”
“Look, human weakling! Even Ark doesn’t know what to do! Sir!” Kris added.
It wasn’t just Ark; Franz and his knights were equally befuddled. Because of the Hailstorm, no ranged attacks could reach their target, not that anyone could get a clear shot anyway. Though anyone not used to fighting alongside Ansem wouldn’t have been able to help out in the first place.
“Krai, use your brain!” Gark shouted from the front of the hunters. I didn’t know why this was directed at me.
“Yeah, about that, sorry about Lucia,” I said. “It’s just, this is how we approach every fight.”
Lucia didn’t say anything, but simply hung her head in embarrassment. The scale and duration of a spell generally depended on a Magus’s skill, and her Hailstorm didn’t look like it would be going away anytime soon. Just like there was no bringing back a fired bullet, most spells couldn’t be undone once they were cast.
Grieving Souls ran on a “you snooze, you lose” mentality, which was what led to this. Lucia may have appeared levelheaded, but she absolutely had muscles for brains. She wasn’t as bad as Liz or Luke, but she was still more bloodthirsty than your average hunter. And you could say the same thing about Ansem. You couldn’t become a high-level hunter without a strong sense of love for the battlefield.
Ansem let out another thunderous roar. He followed up with more attacks, taking advantage of Marin and the black knight’s fear of the Hailstorm. A black silhouette and a white silhouette mingled in the twister. I couldn’t see much, but I could tell that Ansem was applying pressure. I assumed Marin’s screeching was just being drowned out by Ansem’s roars.
His habit of roaring during attacks was a habit he developed shortly after Grieving Souls started hunting. It was apparently his way of overcoming his timidity, but now that he was a giant, he just looked like he had gone berserk.
Reaching the end of his endurance, the black knight was tossed from the Hailstorm. Given the dents in the top half of his armor, I was pretty sure a human would have died long ago. He slammed into one of the pillars, which was now mostly blackened.
Then...
“Wha?!” Lucia cried in a doltish voice. She probably felt the same way I did.
“Ah. It broke.”
The thick pillar fell over, and the layered barrier magic circle disappeared. The magic circle wasn’t just there to keep the curse from escaping; it was there to weaken it. A section of the barrier vanished, causing the temperature to suddenly drop. I felt a foreboding chill down my spine. One of my Safety Rings activated out of nowhere. Everything was shaken by an earsplitting wail. The blood drained from the faces of the knights and hunters. Some of them fell to their knees as if they had lost their strength.
Marin’s Lament got her name from her ability to cause destruction through her wails. That must have been what my Safety Ring had protected me from. The defensive utility of these rings was praised for good reason.
Hailstorm wore off, causing the tornado to fade away, revealing Marin. She had dark eyes and messy hair. Her form hadn’t changed, but the aura around her had intensified. Her humanoid outline only made her that much more unsettling.
“I don’t believe it.” Edgar gulped. “How can she still have so much power left?”
Unfettered, Marin’s Lament stood on unsteady feet, then darted off. Roaring violently, feet cratering the ground, Ansem gave chase and took a swing at her. Marin screamed as she just barely managed to evade the blow. She flew to the battered, unmoving knight and picked him up in her arms.
Ansem was powerful, but one of his few flaws was his poor accuracy. The trade-off for taking more swings was that fewer of them found their target. He attacked the (what appeared to be) girl cradling the knight. With a Paladin throwing boulder-like punches, the fearsome curse took advantage of her freedom to run away, screaming as she fled. The other people present seemed unaffected by the curse, which meant those were probably just plain old screams she was emitting.
Gravely, Marin quickly scanned the crowd surrounding her, then looked up at me, sitting atop the exit. Our eyes met. I shook my head on instinct, but she glided towards me. Carrying the knight, she ran through the air. There was absolutely nobody in front of the gate, yet she came to me atop the ornament. She didn’t even hesitate.
What are you coming over here for?
This always happened. Nobody ever listened to me.
Marin let out a frantic wail. The sound alone was enough to freeze your soul, and the swarming priests trying to stop her all fainted. There was nothing I could do but smile.
Good grief. I know I say this a lot, but this wouldn’t happen if you people used Safety Rings!
I crossed my arms and looked down at the encroaching curse. Time seemed to slow down, making a single second feel like ten or twenty. I didn’t run or hide. I knew how these things worked. She’d chase me even if I tried to flee or take cover!
Marin’s Lament continued to sprint. Behind her, Ansem ran like a wild beast, attacks from Ark, Lucia, and Starlight closing in from all angles. I thought that I might be in hell.
Not that there’s anything I can do about it!
Marin’s Lament held out her hand, as if begging for help. With a hand thrust before me, I automatically held out my own. It was a terrible habit of mine.
Then, Marin’s eyes widened and she came to an immediate halt. Frozen in midair, the chain pierced her from behind. She vaguely watched as the luminescent object burst from her chest.