Chapter 85: Watch Yourself—Don't Get Blown Up
The white light gradually faded. The 2 opposing terrains on either side were instantly reduced to a field of utter devastation, black smoke billowing through the air.
The burning flas had been cut down by half from that ferocious white light. The lava had been completely stripped of its energy, slowly solidifying—eaten away by the fierce wind until it was barely recognizable.
The dense jungle and sea of flowers on the opposite side of the scorching terrain looked equally lifeless.
The flowers and grasses that had been robbed of their vitality by the impact of that white light were now jagged and withered, wretched in their ruin.
Stray sparks drifting through the void settled onto the dried-out branches and caught, kindling fresh tongues of fla.
Dust and smoke gradually dispersed into the air, completely obscuring everything before Viktor.
Heim and Cocotte, still reeling from the intense shockwave, poked their heads out and swept their eyes across the devastated scene. From behind a crumbling section of rock free of lava, they called out to Viktor in trembling voices:
"Is it……is it over?"
The blazing white radiance from that terrifying strike had left the barrier the 2 of them were jointly sustaining on the verge of collapse.
Had it not been for the Magic Potions Viktor had provided them—combined with the extraordinarily powerful defensive properties of Hagar's Pocket Dinsion itself—
Under an attack of that magnitude, their Magic Power would have been completely insufficient to hold the barrier together.
As the debris and dust over the scorching terrain gradually settled, they followed the trail of the curved Lava armor Coat and found Viktor—standing atop a towering slab of rock, gazing down at what lay before him.
The Coat behind him continued to drift gently in the void. Viktor's face looked sohow slightly more gaunt than before, faint red patterns spreading across it. The eyes that had appeared on the Coat still flickered with red light.
His silhouette remained as resolute as it had been from the very start—as though the powerful attack that had torn through space monts ago hadn't touched him in the slightest.
"Viktor……won!?"
The weight on Heim's chest slowly lifted. Viktor's strength was truly extraordinary.
He had barely straightened up and let out a breath of relief—
The next second, Cocotte yanked him back down behind the enormous floating slab of rock.
"It's not over yet."
"I can feel it."
Cocotte's expression was grim. She could feel it clearly—the powerful natural energy was like a blade pressed against her neck, radiating a bone-deep chill.
All at once, from beneath the sparks and settling dust in the distance, a thunderous roar rang out and sent Heim sprawling.
He scrambled back to crouch beside Cocotte, quietly sensing the imnse pressure emanating from nearby.
The burned-out withered grass and dead flowers were replaced once more by vivid blooms and lush green growth—garish and jarring amid the red and green chaos.
The scattered sparks still clinging to them were smothered and extinguished by the dense surge of life energy.
The several enormous flower buds had regained their color and were once again releasing pollen into the void.
Heim looked at the verdant, teeming landscape—and felt not the slightest joy. Only a wave of dread and anxiety.
"That thing……it's still not dead……"
He had no idea that the Druga before him was nowhere near death—not by a long shot.
Viktor looked at the imnse, mountain-thick Health Bar of the Calamity of Wood before him and considered for a mont.
With a Health Bar as massive as a mountain, even under such an extraordinarily powerful assault just now, it had lost only approximately 20% of its HP.
Druga stood motionless within that green ocean. Viktor also retracted the Throwing Cards and waited quietly.
Druga tilted its enormous serpentine head toward the sky, its massive forked tongue flickering in and out in a continuous trembling motion.
5 antennae extended from its head, vibrating in ti with the forked tongue—as though performing so mysterious ritual.
Like a single drop falling into an ocean, the effect of those 5 antennae spread like ripples. The surrounding flowers and wild grass began to tremble gradually as well, and even the several enormous flower buds swayed together in unison.
A faint green breath rose slowly from the plants, spreading toward the antennae on Druga's head.
Tens of thousands of thin, gossar threads of breath swiftly enveloped Druga's entire enormous serpentine body—growing denser and denser, until not a single gap remained visible.
Soon, in a silence like death, Druga burst free as though shedding a cocoon. The serpentine body was gone.
In its place stood a 6-eyed giant—its green body seeming to be covered by a thick layer of black armor. The 3 pairs of compound eyes atop its head remained as familiar as ever. The 5 antennae gradually folded back down.
The sea of flowers beneath its feet was stripped of its life, reverting once more to withered ruin.
The natural energy radiating from its body had even begun to encroach slightly on the environnt around Viktor.
Atop the lava, green flower buds materialized from nothing—flaunting themselves at Viktor as if in open provocation.
Viktor looked quietly at the transford Calamity of Wood before him.
That was Druga's final and true form—Lush Complete Form.
"What!? That form just now wasn't even its full appearance!?"
Heim and Cocotte stared at the transford Druga—now radiating surges of green energy—in absolute shock.
The overwhelming pressure from just monts ago had already left them both feeling utterly crushed. And now it was growing even stronger!?
"Viktor……can he still win……"
That monster seed to have only just stepped into its pri form, yet Viktor at this point had already played every last card he had.
With a gap like that—how could he possibly defeat sothing like this?
Unless.
"Unless Viktor can still use that powerful Natural Magic from before."
The staggering pillars of lava were a magic Heim and the others had never witnessed—never even heard of—a power that seed to draw upon the most primordial natural force in the world.
Heim felt a stubborn reluctance well up within him. He refused to accept hiding behind this rock while Viktor faced sothing so terrifyingly powerful alone.
If he joined the fight, that was 1 more source of strength—and 1 more chance of defeating that monster.
Even if that existence seed utterly unconquerable in his eyes.
He leaned half his body out from cover. Cocotte read his intent at a glance and pulled him straight back, shaking her head:
"Heim, if you go out there now, you're just going to die."
"Am I supposed to just watch Endymion get destroyed by that thing!?"
"No no no, Heim, you've got it wrong."
Cocotte waved her hand and said:
"That's not what I an. What I an is……"
"If you charge in carelessly to help, you'll probably get blown up by Viktor's magic."
Heim: "?"
He turned to look.
At so point without his noticing, the aura emanating from Viktor had spiked sharply. An extraordinarily dense web of intricate Formations now enveloped him completely.
The core red Formation hovered at the very center, with countless smaller Formations orbiting around the massive Magic Formation like satellites, spinning in constant rotation.
The complex patterns upon them continuously aligned and interlocked—like a series of clasps linking all the magic together into 1 whole.
The intricate Runes seed to take on physical form, continuously rging and replacing one another across the multiple Formations.
Heim stared at the magical Runes before him, his jaw slack with disbelief.
"This……these magical Runes……it's like an infinite combination of magic. How on earth is he doing this?"
From between the complex patterns, wave after wave of dense Magic Power erupted—vast as an ocean. It was absolutely not the kind of Magic Power a 4th-Tier Mage should be capable of wielding.
Heim couldn't understand it. The Viktor before him now felt even more powerful than before.
He couldn't help but tremble, murmuring:
"Viktor……just what exactly are you trying to do?"
Viktor stood atop the shattered rock, letting the Lush Form Druga casually release its skills. Before long, the area was once again blanketed by a dense jungle of vegetation—though this ti the towering tree trunks seed to push against the very do of the space.
Druga lifted its head. The HP it had lost earlier began to recover rapidly, wrapping itself in a shimring green glow.
Viktor kept his gaze fixed on that mont—the very instant its recovery began.
The countless Formations behind him launched an all-out barrage against Druga.
Fire Serpents……Phoenixes……blazing radiance……they poured out from the Magic Formations in a torrent, all at once, each rushing ahead of the other.
In an instant, the entire void beneath the barrier transford into a chaotic sea of fire. Countless fla particles hamred relentlessly at the sa target.
In this mont, Viktor had beco a pure Spell Machine Gun—an unceasing, uninterrupted assault that rapidly drained his Magic Power.
Druga's thod of attack was entirely unlike Gulton's. It relied primarily on regeneration, attrition, and the summoning of Magical Creatures to pressure its opponent—counting on its imnse natural defense and adaptability. Compared to Gulton, who had focused purely on offensive power, Druga was far more difficult to deal with.
Viktor could only keep unleashing the most powerful magic at his disposal, maintaining a constant output of damage.
The HP Druga had just recovered was almost entirely negated under the world-ending montum of Viktor's assault, rendered effectively aningless.
Drifting embers of fla energy kept falling around Druga's feet, swallowing the dead grass and flower buds below in fire.
The surrounding energy grew more and more intense. The sea of fire beneath Druga transford into surging, violent lava—searing through Druga's Wood-attribute Magic Power like a blade carving slashes across its heart, sending waves of agony through it.
All 3 pairs of compound eyes could no longer make sense of the environnt. No matter where they turned, there was nothing but red encircling them—not a single place to retreat.
Cocotte stood rooted to the spot, staring. The Viktor before her was already sothing beyond a Mage.
He cast spells as if without any limit whatsoever—as though even Magic Power itself had beco an unnecessary condition.
"It's as if he……doesn't need Magic Power at all."
Heim stood in a daze, murmuring as though puzzled.
Why?
Magic was undeniably powerful—but the most fatal constraints on a Mage were the casting required for spells and the depletion of Magic Power.
This ant that the higher-Tier a Mage was, the longer the Casting Animation required for powerful magic, and the greater the Magic Power consumption.
And so Viktor was an anomaly.
He cast as though casting was unnecessary—the mont each magic was released, the next one would slot in with perfect timing.
It gave the impression of sothing completely uninterrupted.
Cocotte glanced sideways at Heim and gave the blue bottle in her hand a little wave.
"If you stocked up a pile of these things, you could use magic without interruption too."
Heim snapped back to himself—all the confusion in his mind dissolving at once.
He had nearly forgotten. This extraordinary Magic Potion—
Was made by Viktor's own hand!
Realizing this, he hurriedly pulled out 1 of the remaining potions and took a swig.
Feeling the Magic Power within him recover, Heim was filled with renewed confidence.
So he continued splitting off more and more Phantom Doppelgangers, sustaining Hagar's barrier and channeling energy into it……
……
After erging from the vision, Auréliane wandered through the Magic Archive for a long ti.
She had never encountered magic so profound and strange. Moving through the Archive felt like stepping into a treasure vault she was free to browse at will.
The deeper she went, the more absorbed she beca. By the ti a dull ache began to press at her temples, she gave her head a small shake.
It seed this was as far as her magic learning would go for today.
She looked up—and there, nestled within the labyrinthine Archive, was a dark and shadowed fork in the path.
Driven by curiosity, Auréliane slowly made her way into the darkness.
She pressed deeper, exploring step by step. The farther she went, the less she could make out the walls around her—until only darkness remained.
Walking with one hand trailing along the black wall, Auréliane rounded a bend and ca to a stop.
Before her, suspended in the air, hung a golden scale.
A lightning-flash of inspiration surged into her mind.
Auréliane stared at the scale and murmured softly:
"The Goddess of Justice's……Scale?"
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