That meant she needed Shannon, someone to defend the townspeople in place of Midgard, and a plan to keep the creature still.
“You need another sorcerer?” Chris asked from nearby. “Why don’t you ask them?” He gestured at several men who stepped out of the inn.
The men wore ordinary clothes, but Raquel could see their strong builds beneath the outfits. They seemed too fit to be average townspeople.
“This wasn’t part of our mission,” one of them admitted, “but we don’t particularly want to die here. We’ll help you with what you need.”
Shannon bared his teeth. “You!” he hissed. “You’re the ones who-—”
Shannon would have leapt forward to attack if Raquel hadn’t pulled him back. He turned to her in frustration, but she simply shook her head.
Regardless of whether or not those men had been the ones to start the rumors or were allied with the soldiers from the road, it wasn’t the time for a feud. “We appreciate it,” Raquel said with a smile.
The fourth Peacemaker, Galil, looked out of the many eyes of the monster.
He had created the mass of flesh to be his intermediary by giving some of his powers to the bodies of the Purgers. He could control the monster like it was his own body, directing its movements and borrowing its senses, or he could cut off all ties with it and dispose of it if he wished.
“Hmm…” Through the creature’s countless eyes, Galil saw Midgard flicker for a moment. Another sorcerer had taken over protecting the inn.
Galil assumed that the Guardian siblings were preparing a different spell; considering the situation, it was most likely an attack spell with severe destructive power. But Galil knew the disadvantages of such spells well.
All he had to do was keep moving. No matter how powerful the spell was, it couldn’t do any harm if it didn’t hit him.
Dark lines suddenly whipped out above the monster. Galil could feel cold metal as the lines touched its skin.
“What is this…?”
They were chains. Men had tossed them back and forth from the rooftops to wrap them around the monster. The men held the ends of the chains and braced themselves, obviously intending to immobilize the creature.
From their movements, Galil could tell that the men were skilled fighters. They were most likely members of the military’s intelligence division.
“Do you think you can restrain me with these?” Galil mocked, although he didn’t speak through the creature. He laughed silently as the humans frantically tried to delay the inevitable.
If they had obeyed the divine law, Galil would have granted them an easy death. Even in terms of simple physical strength, he could defeat any human easily. He could destroy entire cities. The men’s pathetic struggles only prolonged their suffering.
The tentacles wrapped around the chains, preparing to snap them apart. But before it could do so, white-hot lightning passed through the chains and into the monster.
“What?!’’cried Galil.
The attack magic Thunder Hammer hit the creature full force. Had it been an ordinary creature, blood would have boiled from its ears. The intermediary had once been a living organism, so while its Peacemaker power kept it alive, it still sustained significant injury.
Tentacles charred and fell to the ground.
Galil narrowed his eyes. Moments later, the burned flesh began to grow back. The monster’s healing abilities allowed it to reconstruct itself as long as its central core remained intact. Even if it didn’t have organic material to replace its ruined parts, it could create new tissue from air, soil, or water.
The only disadvantage was that this reconstructive ability took a tremendous amount of energy.
“Why, you little…”
The lightning strikes continued, one after another. Thunder Hammer was a powerful attack spell, but it only lasted for an instant. Several sorcerers likely took turns activating it.
The healing power was set as the highest priority of the intermediary’s abilities, and it activated whenever the creature sustained an injury. The constant attacks meant that the monster was forced to use almost all of its energy on healing and therefore didn’t have enough strength left to move.
The way things were going, the monster was likely to die from whatever was cast.
Galil suddenly realized he was panicking.
The Peacemakers were assigned to reign over the Dustovin Continent by Lord Mauser. Even though he was the lowest-ranking Peacemaker, he was still far superior to any human. That was divine law.
Losing a battle to humans could not be tolerated.
“Pacifica Casull… this is all your fault!” Galil screamed.
Humiliated and ashamed, he had no choice but to resort to underhanded tactics.
Shannon began reciting the words to activate his spell. As he looked out at the monster, however, something made him choke on his words.
A new face emerged in the mass of flesh: that of a young child.
“H-help!” the child cried out weakly, “It… it hurts!”
Shannon’s lips ceased the incantation. He could do nothing but stare at the child’s face.
It’s too late, he tried to remind himself. You can’t save him now. But as he watched that young face, its tiny features twisting in pain, Shannon felt his heart drop to his stomach.
It was his family’s fault. The child hadn’t done anything… and yet the presence of the Casull family had killed him anyway. Shannon couldn’t bring himself to hurt that child again.
“Sorry, kid.”
A short sword flew through the air and right into the child’s face. Shocked, Shannon whipped around.
Chris still had his arm extended from his throw. “We can’t save you,” he said to the looming monster above.
The child’s face looked surprised for a moment, but then it collapsed and sank back into the mass of flesh.
Shannon’s black eyes turned impossibly darker. “Chris,” he hissed dangerously.
“You need to cast your spell,” Chris said without batting an eye. “You know he’s past saving. The only way to end this is by killing that thing.”
Shannon remained silent, his gaze frozen at the younger warrior.
Chris suddenly scowled. “Shannon Casull!” he snapped. “You swore you’d protect her, didn’t you? You swore to protect your sister no matter what! You can’t afford to hesitate!”
Shannon clenched his fist. Chris kept his gaze level with Shannon’s, then looked away and sighed.
“Just do it,” Chris said, his voice suddenly tired. “You can’t hesitate.”
Shannon noticed Raquel watching him from behind. He closed his eyes once, then sent her a small nod.
Shannon evenly recited the end of his spell.
“Release, you are the cane of destruction!”
The complete annihilation attack magic Fenrir activated from Raquel’s hands, its power strengthened by amplification spells.
A sound like an enormous whip cracking shook the air as a giant grid pattern appeared on the ground below the flesh-covered monster. A moment later, countless rays of light shot skyward from the grid. They bent in complicated, overlapping shapes and created a net that completely engulfed the creature.
The chains and tentacles that extended beyond the net were severed; they chinked and splattered to the cobblestones. The beast swung its tentacles at the net of light, but it wouldn’t budge.
A piece of the monster suddenly vanished. It hadn’t been cut or blown off; it simply existed one moment and didn’t the next.
Another moment passed, and another piece of the creature disappeared. It almost looked as if some invisible beast had taken bloodless bites from the monster. The creature tried to escape, swinging its tentacles wildly, but it was no use. With every moment that passed, the monster became smaller and smaller.
It was the force of a molecular disintegration chain reaction, which meant that any matter that was subject to it, disintegrated into particles finer than dust. Growth, healing, and reconstruction were no match for it.
Faces emerged from the dying monster. The Purgers, the Blackhawk soldiers, people from town, and the crying child all burst from the rapidly shrinking mass.
The faces of the dead. They cried out, begging for mercy or shrieking curses.
Shannon bit his lip so hard that a trickle of blood dripped down his chin. Still, he wouldn’t look away.
Look at them, he ordered himself. It’s your duty to look at them, Shannon.
The monster writhed in pain while the faces screamed. Finally, the glowing cage of light folded in on itself.
A bright light flashed.
The next moment, nothing remained…