Chapter 550: Storm

She felt the magic take effect, flying to close the distance between herself and the two fighting titans.

Time.

She knew it, not just by the way it felt to her.

The Daughter had started moving faster, its moves accelerated by the enormous spell. Its claws clashed more frequently with the Elemental’s ice.

The behemoth of ice pushed back the spirit time and time again, the blizzard freezing large parts of it but without permanent damage.

Let me see if I can do something about this, Ilea thought and displaced herself, blinking right after as her wings brought her towards the slowly moving tail that now circled around the whole city more than once.

She created ash, spraying it in a broad cone towards the pale blue tail before the flames of creation ignited it all.

Ilea managed to set alight several hundred meters of the tail before the Daughter moved, disengaging from the Elemental to once again rush at her.

Not just a tickle, she thought with a wide grin. The lower regeneration would already be fucking annoying for the massive being, she was sure of it.

The Ice Elemental didn’t let the Daugther get far, keeping pace with the timeaccelerated being.

It sent a push to Ilea’s mind, a warning.

She didn’t need to be told twice, blinking upwards to get out of its line of sight.

Ilea felt the air stand still, her heartbeat audible as she continued to push upwards, the monster below her following as its eyes charged another spell.

The Elemental was faster, a wave of power rushing out as a beam of glacial energy flowed out in an entirely silent but instant spell.

Everything was frozen, a line of a thousand meters turned into ice.

Ilea breathed out, regenerating some mana as she watched a downright mountain of ice form above the entirely frozen Daughter of Sephilon. Its volume increased exponentially, forming an upside down pyramid reflecting the pale light of the eclipse.

It’s not dead yet.

The Elemental let go of its massive creation, pushing it downwards and onto their enemy.

Ice broke and shattered as the loud crash resounded through the city for the better part of a minute, the pyramid breaking apart on itself.

Everything below had been flattened, the Elemental now back on top of the monolith, its gaze once more focused upward.

Why not fini-

Ilea’s thoughts were interrupted when she gazed at the creature floating in from above.

A squid like being with its tentacles stretched out for hundreds of meters, a thousand eyes on its central body as it gazed at everything. It lacked a mouth or other discernible features.

Hundreds of flashes lit up around it, bird like forms of astral energy that quickly sped up, most of them focused on the Elemental and the monolith.

They seemed to have their own mind, flying in circles and wide arcs with flapping wings of pure energy.

Ilea didn’t focus on them, blinking towards the prone form of the first spirit, her ash spreading out as she set it aflame once more.

The creature twitched and moved, its body shattering in parts before it reformed. It tried crawling when Ilea appeared right in front of its head.

The eyes alone were as large as her whole body.

She sacrificed another few thousand health and released Heart of Cinder in a concentrated beam into one of the organs.

The Daughter didn’t react when its eye was burned through. Its whole head now burned with the pale white flame.

Ilea jumped back when she felt the energy condense again, beams already forming once more.

She watched as its eye reformed slowly, the flames burning on. Ash formed in front of her as the two beams were released.

They didn’t connect.

A sudden all encompassing power pushed down from above, her wings unable to work against it.

She tumbled down and watched as the Daughter was hit, its projectiles slamming into the frozen debris with bright explosions. The monster’s body bent and crashed into the frozen ground, bones breaking as it kept its eyes on her.

Ilea too hit the ground, her back crashing into frozen stone as all the air was pushed out of her lungs.

She screamed as her body was pushed into the stone, cracks forming below her as she was pushed farther down.

Fireworks, she thought, unable to form a smile under the increased gravity.

Hundreds of bright birds had reached the city, the Ice Elemental lighting up in astral energy as its defenses were hit by several hundred projectiles all at once.

Shields and defenses flared up on the Monolith, parts of it broken through with deafening explosions of energy.

The rest of the birds crashed into the city.

Ilea felt the heat around her, saw the birds coming for her.

Phaseshift activated once more, Ilea blinking out but not able to escape the aerial bombardment fully.

Her health declined as the birds exploded, turning the remains of the city into glassed rubble. The bombardment didn’t stop for the better part of ten seconds.

Ilea’s third tier healing kept her alive through it all, sentinel core returning a large chunk of the astral energies in the form of mana.

Her form returned to normal space a second later, the gravity not as overwhelming as before.

At least not an aura, she thought and focused again onto the injured Daughter.

It had been hit hard by the bombardment. She assumed the only reason it remained alive was because it had been astral spells.

The creature stood up and staggered, half of its six limbs nearly gone.

Ilea had to keep it distracted while the Elemental kept the floating eldritch being busy. One glance had been enough to know that she couldn’t even annoy the massive creature. It may have even been stronger than the Ice wolf.

She displaced herself in front of the Daughter’s head, straight up punching it with Destruction. Her ashen limbs added both fire and cinders to the mix, slowly building up within the being.

Her mana was draining quickly but the bombardment had nearly topped her off again, so ridiculous was the power.

Not like I have enough mana to supply this monster.

Ilea blinked back to avoid a swipe of the creature, her small form to her benefit in this case.

Three beams formed and shot out, all focused on her.

Now would be a good time for some increased gravity, big guy.

It didn’t come, Ilea instead flying through the frozen ruins. Her wings and teleportation allowed for some crazy maneuvers but the beams didn’t let up quite as easily.

Instead she formed condensed ashen spheres she sent behind herself, the ash expanding into shields that tried to slow the homing beams.

She glimpsed at the Daughter and saw it form another three spells. Motherfucker.

Ilea rushed it again, the spells on her trail as the next wave was released in front of her.

She let them get close enough to damage her armor and displaced herself, having slowed down enough to let the six streaking beams hit each other.

Ilea was thrown to the side by the ensuing explosion, four of the spells having detonated as they hit each other.

Two were still coming for her. Two I can handle.

Phaseshift was on cooldown but she just focused on her ash and healing, boosting her resilience with sacrificed health.

The Daughter’s legs had healed by now, the creature now running towards her in mid air.

Ilea held up her arms, taking the first beam as she kept moving backwards, feeding her ash and flame of creation into the astral power.

Her armor and wings disintegrated before she fell, keeping herself angled towards the beam as her skin melted.

The rest of the spell burned past and into the ground close to her, Ilea’s skin reforming with her ash on top.

She displaced herself to get a little more time.

The second beam reached her before either of her teleports became available again, likely sped up too by the time magic provided by the monster’s tail.

Ilea was hit by the full force of the spell, her ash and fires doing little to impede the energy.

She was pushed backwards, rag dolled through the frozen debris as her body disintegrated. Her healing pushed against it, slowly losing out.

Before she went below a third of her health, the astral energies subsided.

She reformed quickly, blinking away when she perceived the massive claws striking at her prone position.

Her mana situation would soon be dire again had it not been for the direct hit and subsequent activation of Sentinel Core.

Just have to prevent more than one of those beams hitting me with full force and I’m golden.

The Daughter kept up with her through sheer size and speed, swiping its claws with increasing speed.

Was that a feint?

Ilea kept flying through the monster’s claws, avoiding its somewhat rudimentary attack patterns.

A creature like that would’ve never met something it had to use technique to beat.

It also proved that the monster wasn’t particularly intelligent. Otherwise it would’ve just used its beams continuously.

Ilea activated phaseshift when she felt the gravity increase again.

She didn’t have time to look up, instead avoiding a few more strikes from the enemy in front of her.

Both her and the Daughter were pushed down a moment later, Ilea blinking up once before she was taken by the magical force again.

Her spell activated before she hit the ground, the rest of her momentum taking her there.

The Daughter close by was crushed, slowly embedded into the frozen ruins.

Ilea looked up, seeing a thousand birds once more.

The Elemental looked to be missing a few parts of its body, slowly regenerating as a blinding beam of frost shot up at the floating spirit.

The second Daughter reacted by forming a shield of astral energies, the birds flying down towards them.

Ilea prepared her teleportation as she watched the spectacle.

More birds had focused on the Monolith this time, exploding in bright flashes as they punched through the enchantments set up by Meadow, digging into the stone and wood below.

Large chunks of stone fell from the monolith, whole sections now remaining unprotected.

At the same time, the massive astral shield shattered, half of the creature freezing up from the remains of the Elemental’s spell.

The Ice Elemental turned, leaving its momentarily stunned opponent behind as it ignored the birds exploding on its massive body.

Ilea took the hits when the bombardment reached ground level, watching with a smile as the Daughter close to her was ripped apart once more.

She looked up, feeling a massive spell form.

The Elemental was charging energy in front of its crystal snout.

Ilea saw the floating Daughter do the same and displaced herself up as far as she could.

She blinked right when the Elemental released a large scale spell towards the prone spirit.

Her third tier Displacement was ready once more, activating in the form of a massive spacial field in mid air. The second end came to life where she had stood before, aimed at nobody else but the downed Daughter of Sephilon.

She grinned, feeling her back freeze due to the proximity to the Elemental. Ilea watched as the second Daughter released its spell, a surge of astral energy booming through the sky as if a god had chosen to strike down at a mortal creature.

Her space magic didn’t mind the nature or power of the enemy spell, simply letting it pass into the gate.

The cone was so large, a part of the energy moved past, singeing her wings and ash.

Ilea didn’t see the result behind her, keeping her gate up until the monstrous spell dissipated.

A shock wave hit her from behind, pushing her through the air and towards the massive ten armed eldritch entity.

[Daughter of Sephilon – lvl ????]

It had already been obvious but the creature was significantly more powerful than the first one.

She heard a ding within her mind and couldn’t help but grin.

‘ding’ ‘Your group has defeated [Larinis – Daughter of Sephilon – lvl 1740]’

More messages appeared in her mind but she ignored them, quite concerned about the gravitational situation she had found herself in.

She was floating upwards, her wings pushing against the forces with futility.

Hundreds of beautiful astral birds flickered to life as the spirit shook off the ice that still covered a large part of its body. Hundreds of eyes looking at its prey.

Ilea kept her teleportation ready, watching the projectiles move in.

She blinked, letting dozens of the birds hit each other. She followed up with displacement, increasing the distance between her and the spirit once more.

The birds however kept coming and they moved at a pace she couldn’t outrun.

Her second spell had displaced as many of the things as she could move but they simply homed in on her again wherever she had placed them.

Ilea formed ash in front of her, setting it alight to slow the energies.

Before a dozen spells could hit her, she felt an all encompassing cold.

Massive ice teeth caught her, pulling her away as the Elemental was hit by the spells, shields of ice forming from thin air as it jumped down towards the ground.

Ilea felt her body go numb, the monstrous power overwhelming her resistance.

Heart of Cinder had been active during the whole battle, now fighting hard to keep her core from freezing over.

She kept healing herself, her mind not blanking out despite the creeping cold.

Ilea saw the ground through her sphere, the massive jaws opening to let her out.

She fell, landing with the sound of glass hitting stone.

The Elemental nudged her carefully.

Take care of yourself you big dummy, Ilea thought and displaced herself, activating heart of cinder to break the layer of ice on her body.

She sacrificed health to her auras and flexed, breaking most of the remaining ice.

Her left arm cracked and broke off.

Oops.

She reformed it quickly, cracking her neck as she looked up at the flickering lights in the distance.

The spirit had once more targeted the monolith. Waves of air and energy exuded from the impacts, the stone structure reduced to rubble as the astral energy dug down towards Meadow.

The Ice Elemental turned as well, dents and cracks obvious on its massive body.

Ilea went close again, extending an ashen tendril to the creature.

It glanced at her when the healing flowed into it, its crystal eyes not revealing any of its thoughts.

“Let’s go protect our friend,” Ilea said and charged Monster Hunter.

The intent was clear.

She looked up and howled, imitating a normal wolf both to appeal to the Elemental and to taunt the powerful spirit floating kilometers above.

The Elemental did the same. It looked up and howled, the sound flowing out like a wave, vibrating through her with overwhelming force.

I’ll regret it forever if I don’t at least try.

“Let’s go,” she said and blinked on top of the monstrous creature’s head.

She held on with ash, continuously healing the Elemental as it charged towards the remaining stone and wood protecting Meadow.

Ilea would have thought it a little more epic if her ass didn’t literally freeze off.

She displaced herself towards the rubble when they had gotten close, shattering her frozen legs and lower torso with her own ash before it all reformed.

So fucking worth it, she grinned.

The Elemental seemed slightly amused but it was hard to tell with the old lady.

In the distance, she saw another form clad in fire enter the atmosphere, soon impacting a mountain range with a deafening crash.

The corpse of the Daughter they had killed slowly healed and the spirit above was already forming another set of birds, gravity magic pushing down on them all the while.

“How’s it coming along?” she asked. “I don’t think we can hold out for much longer.”

“Impeccable. Timing,” Meadow replied a few seconds later, another bombardment stopped by ice and ash. Mostly ice.

The Meadow had sounded focused, and exhausted.

Ilea watched the next Daughter approach, a ball of snake like protrusions, floating slowly towards them.

Her attention turned to her surroundings, the space around them condensed in a way she had never perceived before. One moment later it all vanished.

‘ding’ ‘Space Awareness reaches 3rd lvl 3’

Ilea’s perception slowed down, her head turning towards the location of the gate where white lightning appeared out of nowhere.

The arcs hit stone, disintegrating the material instantaneously.

A ball of black energy surrounded by a layer of white cracking lightning started to manifest, lashing out farther with each passing millisecond.

“Thank you, my friend. I’m afraid this is goodbye,” Meadow said, sounding relieved.

The Ice Elemental vanished, coming back a few hundred meters away where it appeared running, its massive form taking it away from the gathering power.

“And you, Ilea. Just stay where you are and enjoy the show,” Meadow said, sending a grin into her mind.

Pure arcane barriers flashed to life in a dome around her, thickening with each moment that passed.

She added her ash, activating phaseshift as she watched the expanding lightning.

One arc thrummed into the shields, shattering two layers in an instant.

“Your gates need a safe way to be closed. This is surely against wormhole guidelines,” Ilea said.

Phaseshift manifested, Ilea starting to push health into her auras immediately. Her perception was still slowed down, letting her observe the expanding storm of white lightning.

“Why use that spell? Do you think so little of my barriers?” Meadow asked, seriously insulted. Definitely.

“You’re not the only god around anymore, Space Tree,” Ilea said.

“That’s not the worst name,” Meadow said and laughed.

The arcs of lightning now burned into the approaching spirits, their need for mana overwhelming their other instincts as they kept approaching. Smaller versions came too, now unimpeded with the absence of the Elemental.

Meadow added more and more shields, Ilea adding more health into her auras.

“Will it take them out?” she asked.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen this,” Meadow admitted.

“And yet you’re so confident?” Ilea asked, smiling in her phased form.

“Of course. It’s mostly space magic. And a little lightning. If anybody can survive here, it’s the space mages,” it said.

The spirits were close now, their entire focus on the growing sphere of energy.

“Will they eat it up?” Ilea asked, seeing the Daughter they had killed stand up once more, its three eyes too focused on the sphere.

Lightning burned through the creatures, their bodies shredded and reforming, faster than anything before.

“They’re draining the energy, yes. But the remains are far too unstable. Cover your ears, little human,” Meadow said.

Ilea didn’t care, watching as space distorted once more, a flash of white washing out, blinding her despite her resistances.

Her eyes adjusted near instantly, seeing the stunned and burnt spirits. She knew that hadn’t been it, focusing on the sphere before it cracked and shattered.

Ten continental storms, condensed into one small city, flashed out in an instant. A sphere of lightning and pure energy, wind, and space itself. Arcs and shock waves washed out, shredding through everything they touched.

Her eardrums shattered, a dozen barriers cracked and broken near instantly.

Ilea spread her arms and watched the enormous power expand, leaving the spirits dead, unconscious, or heavily injured. Bits and pieces of pale blue skin and blood the size of houses floated around, gravity and space distorted in the whole vicinity.

The small variants had been removed from existence entirely, disintegrated to pieces she could not perceive.

Two thirds of Meadow’s barriers had shattered, the rest were cracked and damaged.

“See, absolutely no problem,” the creature said.

“That was close,” Ilea said.

“Oh, you have no idea,” the creature said. “Now come, we don’t have much time.”