The Ghost King Diasnexus had launched an attack from below ground while we were busy battling his minions. As a result, I’d lost my left arm, and Penusa her left leg. And it had done so with the briefest of touches from that bony hand.
Well, he was one of the Four Heavenly Kings—not taking any chances, and not even trying for a fair fight, opting instead for a full-force surprise attack against us.
Now, the only ally by my side was the wounded Penusa. The rest were engaged in clearing out the skeleton troops. We were in trouble.
“Perish, summoner,” Diasnexus commanded, extending his bony, mist-wrapped hand toward me. A direct hit would be fatal, I had no doubt of it.
“Transposition,” I instantly cast, swapping places with Sha-Lau. If he caught on to what I was doing, this should…
Having been warped to the roof of a red building, I quickly turned back to the battlefield. An explosion went off as Sha-Lau’s lightning strike and Rushia’s flames collided with Diasnexus’s misty hand. Both Sha-Lau and Rushia had perfectly understood my move, thanks to the trust we’d built together through days of fierce battles. Although our efforts didn’t damage Diasnexus, we’d managed to push back his hand slightly…
The Ghost King’s form stiffened for a moment.
Then, Penusa beat her angelic wings and charged bodily into him.
“Barrier Break!” she called as she detonated her trump-card magic. Something pale and glowing scattered around Diasnexus, erasing the multiple anti-magic barriers surrounding him in one fell swoop.
“Now!”
Before I could stop myself, I was shouting, convinced that the magic would take effect. The white beam, synchronized between Heavenly Turtle Nahan and Kayla, struck the Ghost King, piercing through his nebulous body.
“Take that! Don’t you dare bully Papa!”
Apparently, Kayla and the others, who had been observing from above, had a clear view of what was happening on the ground. Nice support, my girl.
Just then, we found ourselves in the White Room.
✦ ✦ ✦
I was instantly down on one knee, clutching my arm—from which blood was still spurting.
Ah… as soon as I let my guard down, the pain became unbearable… I feel like I’m about to pass out…
“K-Kazu-san! I’ll heal you right now!”
Arisu rushed over in a panic, regenerating my arm with magic.
“Phew, that was really close.”
“What the hell happened, Kazu-kun?”
“Kazu-san, are you all right?”
Shiki and Tamaki, who hadn’t been there with us, had gone pale with worry.
It wasn’t surprising. When we first arrived here, we were in high spirits, thinking it was going to be an easy victory.
All of this had happened in less than thirty seconds.
Shiki sighed after hearing our story. “Maybe it means our opponent is so cornered they can’t afford to care about appearances… From their perspective, you guys are a formidable unit that’s taken down two of the Four Heavenly Kings. Especially you, Kazu-kun; you had the audacity to challenge Azagralith with just your familiar, and you won.”
“I mean, that was because a few different conditions were met, and we specialized in the best tactics for the situation…”
“Even so, you made some incredible achievements. You’re just too strong, and he’s scared.”
I wish, I thought. In reality, we were only strong enough to be ambushed and battered like this.
“Papa, are you okay?”
Arisu had already regenerated my arm and begun the healing process, but there was still a bad wound on my shoulder. Of course, once we left this room, I was likely to get seriously injured again…
“Arisu, it’ll be okay if you just heal me after the fight’s over,” I said.
“But… you’re bleeding so much; we need to treat it right away.”
I shook my head. “If we did that, we’d only be giving Diasnexus an opening to exploit. We should strike at the enemy all at once now.”
Several people responded at once, their tones vehement.
“I do not agree with that.”
“Okay, so you’re putting up a brave front? Is that it?”
“You seem pretty dissatisfied, Kazu-kun. Do you think everyone can fight with peace of mind knowing you’re so close to dying?”
“That’s…”
I briefly observed everyone in the room. Arisu, Tamaki, Rushia—needless to say—and even Kayla were all looking at me with concern. Although my arm had been regenerated, they kept glancing at the wound on my shoulder.
“You’re the commander, aren’t you? Do you think you can make good decisions while you’re losing blood and in pain?”
I dropped my shoulders and surrendered. “All right, this is annoying, but you’re right.”
Kayla said something unnecessary like, “Papa, you’re being scolded!”
“Right. Arisu, just ignore the small fries and come heal me right away.”
“Got it! I’ll be there in a flash with Shape Lightning!”
“Ah, but which of the enemies are left? There should be about one more, right? Godbreaker or High Mage, which one is still alive?”
“Only the Godbreakers are left. We took down the mage first.”
“Good call. That’s a relief. Then we can leave those guys be.”
“Right!”
Arisu grew visibly happier at the chance to come to my aid.
It was really heartwarming to be so cherished. However, I hoped she wouldn’t make any wrong decisions out of blind faith… Being the commander was a huge responsibility.
“Kazu, it’s exactly because you’re okay that we can fight much at all. It’s because you’re here that everyone can come together. You understand that, right?”
“Yeah, I’ll try to remember that.”
“But no matter how careful we are, it’ll be really hard to prevent surprise attacks like that one we just experienced. It will be really important to always have reserve forces near Kazu.”
This time, we had been saved by Penusa’s dedication. If she hadn’t thrown herself in front of me, I would have been killed instantly by an attack from the ground.
Facing the Four Heavenly Kings head-on means just that.
“Maybe we should have summoned Strass, too.”
“I thought the armored knight wouldn’t be useful in this battle.”
“I get that. After all, there’s a limit to Kazu-kun’s MP.”
Shiki was right; my MP was the main issue here. Currently, I was summoning Phantom Wolf King Sha-Lau, Heavenly Turtle Nahan, and Divine Winged Apostle Penusa with Familiar Enhancement 6, and Familiar Sustain Magic Reduction 3. For each one, my MP was reduced by 91.
At the start of the battle, I was at Level 60, so my maximum MP was 600. Nearly half of that was being used just to maintain my familiars…
“Using 91 for Familiar Awakening and another 182 for Familiar Synchronization, I essentially become a frontline fighter at Rank 11 and can use my magic…”
“When we fought Azagralith, it was that combo that won us the battle,” someone remarked.
“That time, I pushed it to the limit, bringing it up to Rank 11.5, but it was still a close call. Whether Diasnexus is weaker in close combat than Azagralith, we still don’t know.”
The Ghost King seemed like a sorcerer, but that didn’t necessarily mean he couldn’t fight up close. After all, he’d nearly one-shotted me just now.
“What’s different from that time is that now we have Arisu, Rushia, and Kayla with us. With everyone’s support, we might be able to hold our own.”
“It’s wishful thinking, but it looks like that’s all we have to hold onto.”
“Just touching that hand caused my arm to be torn off, so we can’t be careless.”
Penusa seemed unharmed even though she’d plunged her entire body into the mist to cast spells. Probably, there was some sort of magic applied that destroyed whatever part it touched. Mia would probably have called it something like “Whatchamacallit Finger.”
“The important thing is not to give the opponent any time,” I noted. “There’s also the fear that he’ll dive into the ground and escape, just like when he attacked us. He seems like the type who doesn’t care at all about the pride of the Four Heavenly Kings.”
“Was Azagralith strict about that sort of thing?”
“Yeah; after all, he was a battle maniac to the bone.”
With Plant King Aga-Su, he had been mad from the start. In a berserker state, he probably couldn’t even consider the option to flee.
Diasnexus, the Ghost King, was different from the other two Heavenly Kings: all he cared about was winning.
“Is there any way we can make him float in the air…”
“We could use Serenity,” Arisu suggested.
There was a Rank 8 Healing Magic barrier spell called Serenity that enveloped a square space of about twenty meters on each side. Inside the barrier, unclean things—like the undead—became weaker. Additionally, the barrier was closed to both entry and exit.
Unfortunately, for Serenity to be cast, the entire space needed to be open. As long as Diasnexus was touching the ground—and he could do more than that; he could dive into it—it would be impossible to contain him inside the barrier.
“Well, in that case!” Kayla raised her hand enthusiastically. “Leave it to me!”
“Ah, right. With Gravity or Reverse Gravity…”
“Yeah! For a moment, it’s possible!”
The moment the enemy’s feet leave the ground, Arisu can deploy Serenity…
Sweet, I’m starting to feel like this could work.