Chapter 180: Evolution (4)

“Pram!”

Desir ran over in an instant and checked Pram’s condition.

He had been knocked unconscious by a strong shock. His body was covered from head to toe in abrasions.

Desir paid particular attention to Pram’s abdomen. Besides the clearly broken ribs, he was losing a substantial amount of blood at a concerning rate. It seemed like there wasn’t much time before this deteriorated into fatal injury.

*Clash*

The sound of Adjest’s sword striking the homunculus pierced Desir’s contemplation.

Desir rushed to administer first aid.

‘What the hell was that?’

Obviously the situation had been favorable for the Starling Party. It was enough to say that it was going smoothly.

At some point though, Pram was struck by the homunculus.

The injury was the result of a bizarre attack. It wasn’t as though they had lost sight of the homunculus, nor did it feel like the homunculus had suddenly accelerated. There was only the injury left on Pram as proof of the assault; no one had seen the homunculus move.

Desir was confused.

‘Zod didn’t say anything like this happened during his duel.’

*Bang*

There was a loud noise.

Adjest was slowly being pushed back.

Desir clenched his teeth and moved Pram to a safer location before forming a spell aimed at the homunculus.

[Lightning Strike]

[Gravity Control]

The level of magic he was invoking had increased by one circle.

Up until now, he had been conserving mana in anticipation of a long battle. He was hoping to stall for reinforcements, but he now couldn’t afford to.

He had to fill the support role that Pram left vacant. Adjest urgently needed assistance.

‘This is bad. We won’t be able to endure for nearly as long as I had planned.’

‘My mana consumption has increased exponentially too.’

His mana reserves were rapidly depleting.

With just Pram out of the battle, the difficulty had soared. If someone else were to be taken out by that attack, then truly, all hope would be lost.

‘And we can’t afford to move too aggressively.’

They now focused solely on defense and evading the homunculus’s attacks.

While Desir didn’t know how the homunculus’s attack worked, they couldn’t afford to take any additional risks.

This was a huge obstacle.

[-Adjest, it’s about to shoot a beam. Run left.]

*Baaang*

This change in tactics wasn’t without benefit though. The homunculus quickly lost control of its emotions and had begun to rampage. Obviously thoroughly enraged, it now dedicated all of its resources on going on the offensive, and put its entire might into pressing the Starling Party.

However, all it took was an unguarded instant. Avoiding a critical strike from Adjest, the homunculus used the force behind her strike to bounce over towards Desir.

“What do you think you’re doing? Did you think I would ignore you?”

In a flash, the homunculus approached Desir. It punched down on the floor, instead of attacking Desir directly.

*CRAASH*

The floor had accumulated too much stress as a result of the all-out battle conducted on it. Desir and the homunculus were in the center of the collapse, both falling out of sight of Adjest and Romantica.

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[Raise Wall]

A wall of mana was projected below Desir, soaring up from the floor below to break his fall.

Desir rolled away, feeling an oncoming wave of killing intent. A limb of the homunculus smashed down where he had been just a moment prior.

*Boom*

The wall burst apart.

Desir looked around. The aftershock rumbled through Jormungand Citadel, shaking the castle at its foundation. Thankfully, Desir’s Clothes Line was able to absorb the shock and eased the impact.

‘It managed to get me into a one-on-one situation… !’

Desir, who immediately rose up, deployed detection magic. It was drastically inferior to Romantica’s, but it was able to pinpoint the opponent’s approximate location.

‘She’s on my right!’

*Boom*

Desir chained several spells in quick succession.

[Flame Vortex]

[Wind Press]

[Fire Spear]

The chain of attacks were more than capable of dealing serious damage to the homunculus, no matter how powerful it was.

‘I’ve bought myself some time. While it’s dealing with those spells, I can back up and begin to prepare a new strategy.’

Desir had made a prediction of how the homunculus would behave, and formed a strategy based on that.

*Boom*

*Crash*

But the homunculus moved beyond Desir’s expectations. It crossed its arms and took the attacks head-on without avoiding them.

‘Seriously? If it’s taking my attack directly, it must want to end the fight quickly.’

With this shift in tactics, any attempts to buy time in order to invoke a strong spell would be meaningless.

Desir stopped shooting randomly and poured all of his concentration into invoking a single spell. The homunculus drew closer to engage him head-on.

[Parie Arund]

Originally a Third-Circle spell, but now with the power of a Sixth-Circle spell after his effort re-working it.

For a moment, in the small area around Desir, the atmospheric pressure rose as though gravity had increased several fold.

The homunculus’s body was torn away before it had a chance to react. Its blood splashed onto Desir.

‘This sense… !’

At that moment, he felt like time was slowing down. He recognized the feeling, and dread filled his heart.

This was the signal that the homunculus was doing something heaven-defying.

He had a brief opportunity.

He calculated defensive magic without delay. At the same time, he stared at the broken body of the homunculus.

He couldn’t begin to imagine what its plan was.

[Sigh of Kizard]

A mere moment later.

*Crack*

Desir felt violent pain in his upper body. Shards of ice exploded everywhere. The Clothes Line was torn asunder without even giving off a warning alarm.

He managed to pull himself together.

*Cough*

Desir vomited several mouthfuls of blood. Along with the iron-life taste of blood, his mouth soon filled with bile as his body forced him to throw-up.

His arm seemed to have dislocated, but the good news was that miraculously, he didn’t seem to have any open wounds. It was all thanks to that defensive magic he invoked just in time.

Desir looked forward.

Clearly, his spell hit the homunculus and destroyed its body. It would have needed to recover using its power over causality.

But at some point or another, it had perfectly recovered and attacked in a single instant.

It was a situation that defied all common sense.

It is an entirely unreasonable result.

“How in the world… ?”

He couldn’t remember the last time he had felt this kind of powerlessness before. He cast his mind back, and recalled feeling something similar, but far more overwhelming, when he faced Dadenewt.

If he felt like an ant facing off against an elephant when dealing with Dadenewt, he now felt like an ant against a sparrow.

Not as overwhelming as an elephant, but he still couldn’t find a way to cope.

“Give up. You don’t understand the meaning of controlling causality.”

Desir desperately put his brain to work.

There was too little information to work from. If he had any clues to deduce what was happening, he could have continued struggling onward somehow, but…

‘This is nonsense.’

Desir could only attempt to get back up on his feet, while swearing against the heavens. His entire body was in a disgraceful state.

It was hard for him to even stand up properly, let alone walk. He coughed and found more blood mixed in it, as well pieces of internal organs.

It was when Desir was about to spread his hands to wipe the blood off and start invoking more spells, when he suddenly noticed something strange.

‘There’s no blood?’

There was no blood on his clothes.

Of course, the wounds he suffered at the hands of the homunculus were not external, but internal. Other than the blood he had coughed onto the floor, seeing a lack of his blood was only natural. But it wasn’t a lack of his blood that made him suspicious.

Something was wrong.

Desir had been drenched in the blood of the homunculus.

‘Why?’

This was a vital clue.

The homunculus wouldn’t stand by idly any longer, now moving to finish him off.

“You should feel honored. I have done everything within my power. I didn’t even use this power when dealing with Zod Exarion.”

As it finished gloating, a sword appeared out of nowhere as it pierced its abdomen.

The body of the homunculus began to freeze on the spot, and rapidly collapsed.

Adjest fell in from the ceiling between the homunculus and Desir, forming a division between the two. At the same time, ice columns burst forth from all around them.

[Ice Empress]

[Frozen Palace]

It was Adjest Kingscrown.

A sovereign palace of ice formed around her. This was the combination of both Adjest’s Ice Empress and her Frozen Palace, her two signature techniques working perfectly in harmony, two imagery spells being invoked simultaneously, each amplifying the ability of the other.

This was Adjest’s full power.

She struggled desperately to protect Desir.

It was a struggle that indicated the willingness to throw away her future to protect the present.

Numerous spells poured down on the homunculus. Though the homunculus desperately attempted to reach Desir, the exchange between her and Adjest had quickly put a wrench in her plans.

“Hmm, I was a little bit too slow.”

The homunculus and Adjest began to clash. Tapping into her future potential through a stronger than normal Ice Palace, she instantly reached the level of strength that the homunculus possessed.

Using the Ice Empress to engage in close combat with her strengthened body, and at the same time firing countless spells with the Frozen Palace, she persevered.

She desperately fought back, doing all she could to attack the homunculus while defending both herself and Desir.

Desir clenched his teeth and stood up.

[Summon Lightning]

*Boom*

There was a massive impact.

Desir invoked spells and began to defend Adjest. Moreover, Romantica also took up a new position and was once again able to support them. For the moment, they had the upper hand.

Desir again felt as if time were slowing down. Desir knew what catastrophe it heralded.

Only the result of this action would exist. It was impossible to respond to it by any means.

Yes, it was impossible to cope with it, no matter the cost.

But now it was strange.

*Boom*

In an instant, the homunculus jumped over and attacked Adjest, but Adjest successfully fended it off. Of course, it was still a powerful attack with both terrifying speed and precision,, and Adjest’s posture collapsed as a result.

‘It didn’t attack straight away… ?’

The homunculus rushed toward Adjest again. Dozens of defensive spells had been deployed through the Frozen Palace in front of Adjest.

In the gap between it and the spells, the homunculus threw a punch, crushing the walls of ice completely.

Desir approached with an unsteady gait.

[Parie Arund]

Desir’s magic quickly homed in on the homunculus..

Magic with the power of a Sixth-Circle spell, magic that was even capable of crushing the homunculus’s body in one hit.

But the homunculus was seemingly unphased.

It continued its assault on Adjest.

Desir’s attack hit the mark and smashed the homunculus’s body into smithereens.

‘… It’s not enough.’

It quickly controlled causality and reversed the damage. In an instant its appearance returned to normal.

And one more time.

A sphere of pure energy formed in front of the homunculus. It omitted the gathering process and produced a ball of mana that could instantly unleash a powerful force.

“Urgh!”

*Boom*

A huge shock swept through everything. Adjest’s Frozen Palace and Ice Empress were cancelled in the aftermath.

Adjest collapsed on the floor, unconscious.

The homunculus then looked over to Desir. At that very moment, an incredibly powerful spell hurtled towards its face.

Without the assistance of any imagery magic, it was a spell that Desir had developed on his own.

Once again, the form of the homunculus collapsed, but soon recovered.

“You had better save your power, Desir. Your mana pool can’t keep up with all these high-tier spells.”

Desir’s anger flared up.

“Don’t worry, Adjest is still alive.”

“I’ll kill you first, Desir. Then, I’ll take care of the rest of your friends after. You deserve that much mercy as the enemy commander. It’s obvious that all of your party members are going to die anyway.”

Desir sneered in response.

“Don’t bluff. You don’t have much mana left, do you?”

It was as he said. The homunculus’s mana, which seemed to have no end in sight, had been used to such an extent that only a fifth of it remained, at least in comparison to the beginning of their fight. The homunculus nodded, before laughing, seemingly unconcerned.

“It certainly is. I’ll have to make my escape after dealing with you lot.”

“I’m sure you need a huge amount of mana to use that ridiculous ability.”

“Just because you’ve noticed, doesn’t mean anything has changed. I still have more than enough mana to continue manipulating causality. The amount of mana I have left is still more than enough to kill the two of you.”

The homunculus took up a battle stance once again. Its mana began to move.

“Let’s get this over with.”

There was surely no hope left for Des1r. But he didn’t give up. He began to operate communication magic while swallowing a mouthful of blood.

[-Focus on my instructions from now on.]