Following a pure look of disbelief, Olivia questioned her own sanity.

What she had in mind was pure folly. Something so grand, no one else but her could ever try to recreate.

"..."

The monster quietly observed the woman pace in a circle again, a finger resting on her lower lip.

Quietly, she continued to create the form and use of her idea, joining the pieces together at a considerable pace.

The main focus of her idea was...

Illusions.

What was bothering her in particular in her plan was the lack of stamina, and magic energy inside her.

With no idea of its magic consumption, and how long she could use it, it was a rather dangerous gamble she wasn't ready to take on.

Yet, her enthusiasm only grew stronger. Finding such an idea, when the result seemed bleak, couldn't be shrugged off impulsively simply because it appeared risky.

Following the worst exemple around her, she took it upon herself to go through it.

"Argh!"

Suddenly, she crouched and ruffled her hair in frustration.

"How am I supposed to even begin?"

Sitting down, she looked at the blue sky.

"I know what I want, but it's how I'm going to get it that annoys me."

In one hand, she let go of a dark haze that warped the air, while the other released a continuous flow of water that flowed down on the creature.

The creature was too curious to butt in, patiently and peacefully observing her movements, and listening to her words.

While manipulating both magics in her hands, she began to shape them in ridiculous shapes.

"It's so simple when I want to create an illusion of myself... so why is it this difficult to make something else?!"

Frowning at her own inability to achieve her goal, Olivia exclaimed to herself, before sighing with a faint smile on her face.

"If it was that easy to break through our limits, we would be long past the point of no return..."

Knowing full well that Orion would be the first to become the most powerful individual in the world just through pure training forced her to re-evaluate her efforts.

Training wasn't her strongest point. In fact, besides doing paperwork at a desk for years, she barely managed her own skills.

The talent she had for water magic came with her blood as a demon. With her constant use of camouflage using both magic and Orianne's ring, she kept its proficiency at a relatively high level.

Which meant that in a situation like such, she was unable to form coherent orders in her mind.

But, instead of feeling frustrated, she began to feel at peace.

'This is another thing I get to experience.'

Olivia understood why Amelia and Karteira also ended up converting most of their time to training.

Not only was it a common practice with Orion, who loved to train, but it also felt strangely fulfilling. Seeing the blood and sweat poured into breaking a bottleneck felt incredibly satisfying.

With her mind focused on creating this brand-new spell, Olivia slowly drifted into her own mind.

"First, order."

In a trance, she spoke out loud.

Her eyes fell on the water pouring from the tips of her fingers, and into her palm.

"One..."

The water rapidly swirled in her hand, before creating a humanoid-shaped doll.

"Two..."

Then, her eyes drifted to the dark magic raising above her other hand.

Moving her fingers as if threads were attached to each one of them, she moved the threads around consciously, and precisely, covering the water doll with them.

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"Three..."

She tried to fuse the two magics together, but they instantly rejected each other, splashing water all over her clothes. Since it was her magic, she was unaffected by it.

"Not good. If I can't make it on such a small scale..."

Olivia stood up, and shook her head.

"Again!"

~

The ashes and burned earth cracked under May's feet as she joined Kamala and Eric.

While the invasion of Horizon had only just begun, the front line of the war was still active.

Facing the Corrupted Lord of Light, Disaster, the trio kept their head high.

With Florian out of the picture, and leaving his place to May, the battle took a different turn.

The bright yellow eyes of the bird stared at May, before moving its tail lightly. Noticing the small movement of her enemy, she started running while paying attention to every detail.

Disaster opened its wings wide, firing numerous beams of light toward her. May dodged them with ease, as they approached slower than Orion or Karteira would.

Originally, May had a keen eye for detail, and an incredible awareness of her surroundings. That's why she was given the position as commander of Turric's army, with only Eric as her superior.

With her talent, she saved many lives during the southern invasions, precious strength that couldn't be expended at will.

Performing acrobatic jumps and side-steps over and around the beams and explosions, May arrived at Kamala and Eric, who were defending against the beams with earth magic.

Sliding inside the dome of earth and sand, May sighed in relief.

"I made it."

"How's Florian?"

Kamala, with a terrible grimace, asked May. His wellbeing was more important to her than anything else at the moment.

'If anything happened to Orion, I would probably feel the same way.'

She straightened and wiped the dirt off her clothes.

"He looked fine. Injured, but not enough to stop him from moving around and order the remaining soldier around."

Her emotions faded, as a long breath of relief entered their ears between the bombarding beams of light.

"Kamala, can we focus on the enemy?"

Eric placed a hand on her shoulder to catch her attention.

"I know how you feel, that's why I left Caroline at home this time. If we don't get rid of this beast, you will return in a body bag."

A deep frown appeared on her face.

"I know. It's not in my plans. You better not either."

"Ah! Good joke."

Eric grabbed his revolver with his undamaged arm. Since his other arm had been rendered obsolete thanks to the previous shower of beams, he could only use this.

With a smirk on his face, he looked at the blue gun.

"Do you know about red flags?"

"Shut up..."

As they bantered for a brief moment, one of the light beams pierced through the dome protecting them, right in between them.

With a serious face, the three broke away from one another, running in various directions away from the dome.

They glanced at it above their shoulders, only to see the entire thing burst into dust.

May continued to dodge the attacks, while Kamala parried them with her wind magic as much as possible.

"This stuff's never-ending!"

Eric slid on the ashes while aiming at a projectile coming straight at him.

"How do you fare against my bullets? Let's see, shall we?!"

*Bang*

A frozen bullet met the light attack, encasing it into a thick layer of ice.

"It's working."

Yet, as he spoke those, his body came to a stop. The sound of cracking ice resounded across the battlefield, before shattering the frozen cage into countless shards.

Eric bent backward to avoid the projectile, which he avoided barely as it grazed his left side.

"Tsk."

On the run once again, he continued to fire at the light beams in hope that they would freeze. Nevertheless, they bought him enough time to carefully plan for his next moves.

Further away, Kamala and May reunited, forced to by the countless explosions around them.

Their back touched, before they glanced at each other over their shoulder.

"This is getting nowhere."

"You're right. We need to find a way to get rid of this thing before it is too late for us."

Noticing the exhaustion on Kamala's face, she knew it had to be done quickly, or else casualties between them would start to appear.

This was absolutely out of the question. If either one of them were to die, she would not forgive herself.

The two crouched at the same time, avoiding a projectile by a thread of hair.

Fast gusts of scorching wind traveled above them, burning their skin lightly. The air had turned hotter than the desert air, caused by the melted ground around them from the constant explosions.

To anyone else, it would be headache inducing, but not to them. May has proven resistant to fire, Kamala cooled off with her wind magic, and Eric barely felt it thanks to the ice particles released by his gun.

What really troubled them was their fatigue catching up, and the inability to easily target Disaster.

*Kaaaaaaaaa!*

A loud bird cry echoed across the battlefield, instantly stopping the beams of light from raining down on them.

"Got you!"

Surrounded by ice particles, Eric stood tenaciously while aiming at the Corrupted Lord. One of his shots managed to break through the attacks, and hit the left wing of the beast.

With its wing frozen, it rapidly fell toward the ground, until it crashed down. Its wing shattered the moment it hit the ground, causing tremendous pain to it for the first time.

"How do you like that?"

Carefully, Eric took a few steps back. The bird glared at him, before flashing a bright light that blinded him.

"Eric!"

May managed to see the bird vanish and reappear in front of Eric as he closed his eyes. Hearing his name, he knew danger was upon him.

"Down!"

Without hesitation, he threw his body toward the ground.

*Whoosh*

The sound of a fast-moving object, Disaster's leg, split the air a second after Eric avoided it.

"Roll!"

Once again, he followed the instruction of his trusted commander, and rolled on the right.

Disaster's long beak pierced the ground, brushing Eric's back as he moved away.

His vision finally returned, making him able to defend himself at last.

While the bird was stuck in the ground, Eric glanced at May before giving her an appreciative nod. She saved his life, and was grateful for it.

Without waiting a single frame, he threw the revolver into the air, and clenched a piece of stone that formed in his hand.

Using earth magic, Eric created an axe that he planned to use to decapitate the bird. Yet, something bothered him.

His instinct told him not to kill it right there. There was no way he would ignore such a dreadful feeling, so instead of executing the beast, he slammed the flat side of the battleaxe on its head.

Disaster's beak broke in half following a very distasteful noise, and flew away before crashing and rolling on the ground.

It recovered from the impact in no time, and took off to the sky once again, its wing healed.

Everyone could see in great detail the hate in the bird's yellow eyes. Eric was his target, and it wanted to kill him.

That was its biggest mistake.

In the corner of its vision, someone else was ready to unleash death upon it.