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<01/27/1972 – 23:30 | The Outback {Alpha Zero}, Junon Region, Sprawn Valley>

The smoke and flames left behind by the destroyed sentry turrets momentarily masked the other scent of burnt carbon mesh in the air as Jane walked by the cliff, proceeding far past the stone arch. She let only ten minutes pass before moving on from where she last stood, but her body ached everywhere from the previous damages, wounds turning into scars, burning her skin through the mercenary outfit. The healing orb was able to slightly ease most of those pains Jane felt linger in the battle, but she also figured that the time spent passively standing by might have had the same effect otherwise. Every moment she walked, her right leg's shift sent shocks of flaming sensations through the side of her hip, and every time she got to move her arms, her shoulders both felt blundered of their strength.

The shoes attached to the mercenary armor were destroyed already in the last battle, leaving Jane's feet completely bare in the burnt sand beneath her. The suit itself was damaged, compromised with several small cuts, gashes, and burn marks mostly around the leggings and gloves. Despite such material being resistant to physical and Leray damage, it seems that even dress spheres are no match for real time damage. In just two battles only, it seemed as if Jane walked into and out of a warzone still live with flying ash and gunpowder. Every step Jane took to the bottom of her soles felt like the scorched earth had an extra layer of musty volcanic dirt. She was lucky that the socks on her feet themselves resisted the intense heat on the floor, but the air alone was enough to make anybody sweat. She had to stop several more times on the way to the Den of Purity just to drink something fresh from her supply sphere and rest her tired bones.

The dark and silent winds still managed to brush around without changing much of the weather above her. The sky was covered entirely with puffy grey clouds, but they seemed more like a darker shade of red, since all light from the sun and the sky from above was blood red too. Jane was still in amazement from that lone detail. How could simple infusion of dark magic to land alter the skies above? It seemed too much of a dramatic change from one different element alteration.

Jane couldn't decide whether this was the work of Brightworth himself, or if the incident is more of an accident somehow. Brightworth is supposed to be the one and only person in Sprawn Valley who can turn back spells. Well, other than his heir, if he has any children, but nobody ever spoke about it. Jane never really learned enough about it from her school, and it's not as if Danny and Taylor were a wealth of information either. That guy could have done something by mistake, trapping himself somewhere in his own place without the ability to turn back the damage... But then, according the laws of physics of dark magic, it only takes less than hours after infusion stops where the land returns to normal; at least, the dark magic source fades. So perhaps he is responsible for this carnage.

Arguing and complaining in her mind for minutes, the area around her suddenly wasn't so silent. Jane calibrated her perception of the smoky area. A lot more had changed actually in the next twenty minutes of her slow walk. There were not any large cliffs around anymore, though a few big boulders populated the dry and lifeless land. Despite the area being completely flat, inclines, hills, and even some sinkholes surrounded the only walkway path Jane used. Somehow, Jane was still able to see within seven hundred feet of her. The thick fog veiled the rest of the place. Out of nowhere, the echoed sound of a monstrous wail broke the only sense of concentration Jane had.

She focused on the unidentified noise anew, for whatever made that screech could not have been human. It sounded like some sort of large animal in severe distress distances away, but she has been ambushed before. Mindless cretins and spawns of demonic monsters can be created in the dark zone where Jane now stood. First, she encountered an unknown behemoth-like animal, some sort of mutated giant tiger that held only the sense for hunger, the smell of blood stained into its mind. Then there was a mindless defense system, comprised mainly of non-sentient mechanical guns shooting at any large intruder, but the turrets had to have special sensors for that, because the red shield that trapped Jane into the last fight was fixed into a certain position, only to be disabled after the turrets were non-responsive. I don't care what anyone tells me. Mechanical machines do not spawn from evil magic. Somebody placed them there. It has to be somebody who wants people such as Jane to stay away from the Den of Purity. Maybe Brightworth is doing this to hide something going on there. How much further is it anyway?

Jane risked another peek behind her. The stone arch which stood miles high into the air was completely swallowed up by the fog, as well as the distance she put between herself and that area. Jane knew she had to be closer, but how much closer could she go before finding out what made that noise? Would there be another behemoth? Perhaps a mutated giant bird? Maybe a swarm of giant spiders was on its way here. Jane had never heard of these imagined creatures before, though her imagination ran wild with what could appear in this place. Sprawn Valley's Leray magic has only ever mutated a few species of animals and creatures to adapt to the magical effects, and even as that happened, only one of which species evolved with new appearances and different instincts; the Cran.

Jane could wish all day long that Cran was all she would have to fight, for Cran don't use dark magic. They are not strong, not dangerous, and they are only territorial to specific locations with a dwindling population anyway. But what of this place? Jane could encounter anything in here, come back alive to speak of it, and nobody would believe her.

"Wheieieieieie!"

Jane's breath escaped her, what left trapped into her lungs. Whatever made that sound was much closer than before, and it matched what she heard moments earlier. The fog in front of her intensified with a much darker color, reducing the visual field from 700 meters to 200 meters, but only in that direction. Jane stood stone still, both hands hovering above her pockets to reach for her daggers should she need them. But there wasn't any unusual thing Jane could see. No movement anywhere around her registered in her eyes, and she hunched down a little lower to prepare herself. The high pitch in the creature's voice hurt her ears the moment it wailed.

Another sound followed, much smaller, quieter, and nearly unnoticeable without Jane's current alertness. It was a footstep? Something was moving, somewhere right in front of her, and then she heard the noise again. Another footstep, then another. Whatever creature is stomping out there must have some large and flat feet to make such a distinct noise upon walking. Something is just past the fog in front of Jane somewhere, walking towards her without a clue in the world. Jane pulled the daggers from her suit, preparing her MP energy for a counterattack. She waited however before enabling her energy scope, as it would only raise her visibility to the enemy. It could be a person walking around out there, but Jane didn't think anyone else would have come in this far with her. Even if they did, they would not have an easy time surviving, let alone breathing this toxic burning air.

Finally, the legs of what creature had been bothering the calm stepped forward from the fog, outlining itself in Jane's eyes. The structure, shape, and texture of the legs were hardly the same of human flesh, and the creature's entire body was deformed with an enlarged torso. This was defiantly some different otherworldly creature. The monstrous beast was two legged, walking around, barely balancing its heavy upper body, which was stained with a black color. And its arms...

Jane needed to stare a little longer. She could not believe how the unusual monster formed before her. The beast has no head or face, that or it was hidden in a place tucked away behind its charred chest. The arms were certainly the best confirmation she had so far that this beast was anything but normal. Its left arm was thinner, consisting of little cartilage, but the end of its hand had claws longer than the behemoth she fought against before. The right arm was merely the opposite composition. Thick, well-built with loads of cartilage in the beast's right arm, the monster's entire upper body was slightly glowing with the embers burning inside of itself. Especially at the end tip of the monster's right arm did such embers glow the brightest, forever burning a radiant orange-yellow color of suspended fire inside. Jane found the beast to be so unusual and so mutated that there was a need to give this thing a name, just for now. Was it a cross between a massive ghoul and a headless bear? Or was this simply something that had its own origin from the depths of hell? The monster's skin seemed as hard as a rock from this distance, though somehow stained with burns and ashes so deep that the discoloration was permanent. It's inner and outer skin seemed all but charred up from something burning further down the road.

Charred... That's it. I'll call you a Char Monster. Where did this thing come from anyway? Jane did not notice a summon glyphring for this creature to come crawling out of. Perhaps creatures just spawn in random locations, totally inadvertent from where live targets are. If this thing had been walking around for so long undisturbed, her very presence here would become the start of a massive scene. Jane suspended her thoughts quickly, for the beast suddenly changed its slow walking speed and its bodily movements. By now, it did not surprise Jane that the monster was able to see her and realize that she is a living breathing creature that doesn't belong here. Just like the behemoth she fought earlier, the beast was only able to focus on eliminating her completely. Would this thing even eat dead human flesh, or did it just strive to burn up everything in its path? Whatever the case was, Jane decided to act fast in response to being discovered again.

Despite being unstable in its own body shape and mass, the Char monster somehow managed to steer its torso using its legs, stepping in place to match up with Jane's movements. Jane stopped quickly, realizing that the monster was able to see her somehow, even without a head or a face. Maybe it was hidden in its body somewhere, or made nearly invisible by all of that burnt skin, but as Jane wanted to try and outsmart the monster, her enemy made a move of his own.

Without much of a sure warning of what might happen next, the monster lifted its thick arm, opening the fiery lit hole at the end of it. The arm then aimed a bit higher into the air, shooting something massive out of the hole as if it were designed to be some kind of cannon. Jane only got to see this for a second, but the body of the monster sort of lit up just as it shot some sort of bright projectile into the air. The light coming from within the beast was emanating from some sort of fiery biological furnace, as if the beast lives on fire itself.

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Chapter Theme Shift: Enter the Royal Palace ~ Dracovallis

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The projectile that the monster shot was about the size of a large rock, but the sphere shaped object looked like a massive condensed fire ball of lava mesh, drooling drops of molten granite to the ground. It shot into the air, flying towards Jane...

No, it wasn't flying; it was falling. This wasn't some kind of Leray magic trick. It was real magma, shooting in the form of condensed burning rocks like a catapult driven projectile, and it was sure to land on top of Jane if she did not move in another instant. She had no time to think, Jane only reacted with what instinct she had available for self-defense. Luckily for her, the action of throwing up her hands and sending MP energy outward was her instinct's choice, as it projected another force field aura around her body. Just a moment before the lava ball smashed into her body, the blue translucent aura pushed it back, reflecting the force of the projectile enough to send it bouncing away and towards the ground in front of Jane. Her shield aura suddenly became composed of little hexagons all in the frontal area where the rock was bound to hit her. Just like that, she was able to realize what just happened in the last few seconds. The ball of lava suddenly exploded and then faded with its light shortly after, failing to penetrate Jane's shielding aura.

The Char monster wasn't joking around about trying to kill Jane. It simply attacked her whenever it felt ready, and would go to more dangerous measures to do so. Jane already knew a lot about a battle such as this one. Even if the monster has unknown skills and abilities, it was easy to remember how dangerous it was to take damage in Alpha Zero. Running out of HP will result in death! And taking damage at all will hurt five times more than it would anywhere else in Sprawn Valley. Jane's shielding aura is all she has to rely on for her defense, though it was the plan for the dark zone all along.

Jane lowered her shield intentionally, hoping that the monster would not attack her relentlessly second by second. She would need time to fight back as usual. The first thing Jane did was reactivate her energy scope. Then she created an artificial energy scope above the monster himself. The name tag displayed as unknown, until Jane forced it to become whatever she wanted it to. There would be no way of knowing just how tough and resistant he may be to magical damage, such must be learned the hard way.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/Y9sc5Hmd/S2-Jane-AV-023.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/nzYZg5G5/S2-Charmon-000.png]

Afterwards, Jane forced the secondary creation of an artificial action display center specific to the monster, hoping it would work on creatures even in this place. The brightness of both energy scopes holographic text made it slightly easier to see things in the darkness created by the fog thickening from the smoke swirling out from the center of the monster's core, but only slightly. Jane knew that it was her time to strike back. There would be no room for mercy against such a terrible beast like this one. It would be as ruthless as the behemoth, and perhaps more dangerous than before.

Jane hunched down a little, putting away her daggers to prepare another Leray magical ability. After squinting her eyes and aiming her arms towards the ground underneath the monster, Jane chanted the name of her power while visualizing it in her mind. "Blast Wave!" As her MP consumption created a large spinning blue glyphring in front of her, the barrage of random explosions on the ground followed. The explosions happened with no origin of projectiles, using pure magic to create powerful blasts under the monster's feet. Jane was only standing 25 meters away from the enemy upon invocation, but the distance was enough not to get harmed by her own power. Blast after blast left her ears tied, each shockwave carrying the boom at a high volume through the land. Shortly after the small explosions died down, Jane checked the changes on the energy scope of the Char monster to see how well she had damaged the thing.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/KjGF2N9Y/S2-Charmon-001.png]

For a powerful attack, the damage was pitiful according to Jane's analysis, but taking in the circumstances of the spawned demon, and the fact that Leray damage is cut in half here, it really wasn't that bad after all. Even so, the monster was resilient where it stood, totally unfazed by all of those small explosions. It had to have felt something with the last attack, but its deceptively scrawny legs held it up without a hint of wobbling down. The Char monster must have a lot of hidden muscular dexterity under its volcanic skin.

While watching the artificial ADC to see if the monster's next move might be shown there, Jane failed to realize that the beast did not even need to use magic to attack, nor would it have much of a mind for chanting its skills aloud. If the creature moves around and just does what feels natural, relying on instinct alone, then the ADC will be completely empty the entire time no matter what! This is the disadvantage to using the ADC system on invalid creatures. The fight against this thing was far unlike a battle against another human, a battle with no warnings between attacks. Jane would simply have to take best guesses of when the right time is to dodge or put up a power shield.

The Char monster used its thinner arm this time, slashing it through the air with a faint glow. At first it seemed like it was just bluffing an ability, but Jane was suddenly bombarded with barely visible Wind Slashes. A dozen small grey lines of wind slashed through her, magical air damage in the form of slashing attacks that flew through the air like bullets. They sliced through Jane's mercenary suit, cutting up her arm, her stomach, her left leg, and scraping a few other places. The impacts were so sudden, and she had no time at all to deflect or dodge. Jane could feel the physical sensation of cuts in multiple places, fresh slices into her skin. Her arm and leg drew but a little bit of blood, failing to become a severe wound of immediate attention, and the pain level was nothing compared to what she experienced in the last battle. Jane knew it still put more strain on her HP levels. The attack sort of seemed similar to a magical spell known as Wind Sheer, said to use a barrage of Wind Slashes in just one invocation. The monster didn't need to warn Jane at all before using anything, and this proved it could invoke magic in the dark zone as well.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/NF2hYz6B/S2-Jane-AV-024.png]

It was a shame to see that Jane's maximum stats were so far reduced from the previous battles. Half of all incoming damage was registered as real time damage inside of Alpha Zero, and that's what makes the place so dangerous. This is why Claudia and the others are so against letting non-military personnel into the area, though even military recon units don't make it back. Jane had to laugh at her amazing luck, how she was able to survive this place only using her power shield ability for a trick. What's more interesting is that the known power shield ability is not even an official useful skill, rather a personal modified version of the skill. It only works for Jane this effectively because of this crest on her right hand. Jane glanced at her hand, realizing that it was already slightly glowing through the suit's material, visible if not hidden by her own clothing. It's activating again! At least, it's about to if it hasn't transgressed into full power yet. The buzzing sensation and tingling nerves on the top of her hand proved activation was at least imminent, but she could tell that her symbol was holding itself back this time.

Crest or not, Jane would have to conserve MP this time around, which means getting risky and closer. She pulled out her daggers, already certain of a physical maneuver she was saving for a moment such as this one. "Charge attack!" she chanted. Jane's action formed a small pistol in her hand through a quickly invoked yellow glyphring. She pointed at the Char monster while running straight at the beast, firing a single bullet from the chamber. It must not have done much to upset the monster, but Jane had other plans than to just aimlessly shoot. She quickly changed direction, sliding in the ash filled ground to make a ninety degree right turn. Now running away from the beast, Jane used both of her daggers as long range weapons, charging and releasing MP energy into each of them. The dagger's tips each fired narrow blue beams of magic, the same skill as her well-trained Mako Beam attack. Still, the beast didn't seem to be bothered by her magical attacks. Jane turned around again, heading for the monster while unloading the rest of her small magazine in the pistol.

It was in her hopes that her random running and action changing might confuse the monster too long to try and interrupt her Charge Attack chain. Jane threw her daggers into the frontal skin of the monster, causing enough piercing pain to make the thing step back a couple of times. Jane then got in close, using her bare fist to try and punch the monster as hard as she could.

This turned out to be another big mistake! The punch to its rough skin hurt her hand more than it hurt the Char monster, and being so close to something with this brute and solid black body made Jane's heart race more out of fear than it did fatigue. Jane instead pulled her daggers out from the beast, and then kicked off of its torso to try a backflip. Jane wanted to put a little bit of distance back again by flipping upside down, using the beast's own body as her jumping stool. She had trained so well to jump and flip, that doing such came second nature for Jane, but it still wasn't easy. Just before Jane landed, she forced two more yellow glyphrings to create two sub machine guns in her hands, making it hard to hold them both with her two daggers. Jane landed on her feet again then quickly aimed at the monster to fire the entire clip of each handheld gun into its rough skin.

Bullets either bounced off or pierced the dark armor of the Char monster until her magazines were emptied. Jane tossed her weapons to the side except for her daggers, then backed away to carefully assess how much damage she did.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/1XvS5qTr/S2-Charmon-002.png]

Still not so much! Physical attacks don't work all that well either. The monster screeched a very powerful high pitched wail into the air, forcing Jane to grab her ears. The monster didn't sound too happy about the way Jane was fighting for her life. Instead of trying to run towards her like before, the beast suddenly created a red glyphring on the floor beneath itself. "It's using magic!" Jane already knew something destructive was coming her way, without knowing which magical attack the monster was going to use. She put her daggers away for now, and charged enough MP energy into her hands to ready another power shield.

Just as the glyphring formed and activated, eight large spheres of fire shot out from the ground in front of Jane. The Fire Bolts all seemed to be traveling high into the air, straight up in a line, coming from below the ground. Jane used this moment to project another shield around herself, shrouding her body in another magical aura. From there, she watched curiously as all eight fire spheres quickly changed direction after achieving a higher altitude. They were traveling straight up, now winding downwards towards her current location. All eight Fire Bolts knew to aim for Jane, despite the strange way they appeared from below the ground. At last, Jane was able to at least identify the ability. Disillusion: with a power level of 5.6, the magic shoots eight Fire Bolts from the ground and then changes course to slam into the opponent. It's designed to be tricky to avoid or dodge based on how it forms and changes speed so rapidly with a slightly reduced power level, but Jane wasn't interested in dodging anything.

The fire balls all exploded into Jane's shield, falling short of damaging her body. Each little explosion left a mist of embers in its place, and hexagons formed in several places from the inside of Jane's power shield. She could already feel her concentration on this aura dropping, but after the Fire Bolt barrage was over, the shield was still holding strongly. She realized that it was hardly powerful enough to bypass her personal aura, and the Disillusion spell was over. Jane disabled her shield, doing as much as possible to conserve her energy. Her energy scope was unchanged, and the attack was again thwarted by her unique power to block all damage.

There was something else Jane noticed now about the creature. There was much lag between the time of each of its attacks. No way was a monster like this giving turns to Jane. It either had to be massive and slow moving, or unable to adequately walk on those two legs. Just after her shield dropped, Jane realized that now was the best time for a great counterattack, one that would have no problem against a slower moving target. She already began releasing her energy, creating a glyphring around her wrist as she chanted the magic aloud and concentrated on the effects it formed. "Star of Darkness!"

The magical energy was still draining from Jane's MP reserves, the magic casting outward in a new wave form to gather its energies. From below where the beast was standing, Jane's magic began to conjure a solid red neon circle of fiery light, a circle which bordered the monster where it stood for five meters all directions. After the circle formed, the shape of a red colored star took shape inside of the circle, forcing all of the connective lines to light up brightly in the thickened fog. Jane was still exerting her energy through her glyphring, standing perfectly still and focused in place.

The one disadvantage to Star of Darkness is that the user must constantly exert the energy needed to use it over time with concentration placed into the attack spell, and that means the entire process could technically be interrupted before the end of the spell. Star of Darkness is a power level seven attack spell, one that utilizes dark magic in any particular zone. It's the one and only legal spell that can deal in the potential of real time damage, yet isn't as dangerous for humans as it is for monsters. Dark magic against monsters is rumored to be more effective, but since most dark magic is illegal, it seems redundant to send anyone into Alpha Zero to test such claims. After all, illegal criminals would be the ones supporting a hell zone like this one.

Jane would have to keep it up, the glyphring on her wrist would constantly be communicating with the circle in the ground in order to drain the opponent's HP over time. This is what the spell does, slowly degenerates the MP of the user to a degree, while draining the HP of the target as well as their stamina. Even a creature such as this Char monster would not be immune to its incredible power to drain life energy.

The Char monster took but two steps forward before the symbol below it activated. Once it did, the monster stopped in its tracks, noticeably taking damage on its energy scope. Star of Darkness doesn't really harm in a painful form. It's a massive HP energy drain. So the creature had to be confused to a degree, even if human flesh was the only thing on its mind. It certainly stopped moving and steering its torso like it was before. Jane could see the effectiveness of her spell taking hold, but in a few more seconds to go, it would be time to end the spell. It doesn't last forever, nor would it with a limited supply of MP power. Jane used the ability before, yielding a high success rate with a nice surprise twist at the end.

With the timing now at hand, Jane directed more MP energy through her glyphring, focusing her eyes higher up from the grounded star-shaped symbol. Sitting just above where the Char monster stood, a faint holographic red glyphring appeared aiming downward. Communicating with the last portion of her spell, Jane let the beast have it. Triggering the last part of the spell she learned how to use, Jane's actions forced a Lightning Strike to smack down from above, red electricity zapping the monster in a jolt hold while the damage level exceeded what the original spell had done before. Just after the Lightning Strike ended, the Star of Darkness spell under the monster quickly faded, as did Jane's glyphring she held around her arm. She briefly confirmed the damage on the energy scope of the monster, and kept watchful eyes on anything that might come next.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/59gbmh0Q/S2-Charmon-003.png]

Apparently dark magic really does the trick on these creatures after all, but it left Jane a bit drained of her MP capacity too. Despite taking that heavy bolt of red lightning, it was still surprising to see how incredibly resistant to falling down the creature was. The monster was defiantly capable of flinching, as it had done so in the very last bolt of electrical energy. Though it still continued to stare at Jane, thinking about what evil magic it will try next.

This time, Jane was ready for whatever was coming her way, watching the monster's actions carefully. It didn't take long for the Char beast to bend back its torso, only to wail and lean forward again. As he did, the color of the fog behind him changed to a faded crimson-orange. Little black squares and floating groups of ash burrowed through the wind, passing right by the monster and heading for Jane. It didn't look like an attack as much as it did a gust of hot dirty wind, but Jane didn't take that gamble. She lifted her arms up again, bending her elbows and crossing each arm over one another. It was a different yet easier posture to carry while emitting more MP energy from each hand into a directional aura. Jane chanted the procedure in her mind, "Power Shield!" and allowed the energy to surround her in an auric bubble of protection.

In short of time, the small floating pieces of burnt ash soared and swept past Jane, carrying a gust of wind that was not natural a few moments ago. As a result, Jane's shielding aura summoned hundreds of small hexagons all in the frontal area, spanning to the sides until the entire bubble was covered in them. That many hexagons, enough to completely cover the auric shape itself proved just how powerful the damage would have been if Jane fell into the trap, but nothing visible was hitting her aura either. There were no projectiles or magical spells of spectral energy slamming her shield. Something else must have been carrying the damage though, right with the wind. It was very powerful too, draining her own energy for every half-second she defended herself.

Perhaps it was applied heat from a spell summoning volcanic mist, or perhaps the magic itself used against her was totally invisible. Jane didn't care right now. She could only keep her eyes open and her mind concentrated on the power of her aura. She could feel it failing already, and desperately fought to keep it up. After only six more seconds passed, the damage on the air-based attack was subsiding, weakening with time and allowing Jane to drop the shield at the last moment that it ended.

As the shield collapsed around Jane, she checked to see how the monster was responding. Its MP had been lowered, and the beast looked to be tired or fatigued. It could have been bluffing the exhausted posture, but Jane decided to strike back again. After drawing her daggers, she quickly infused some Leray energy into each blade, causing them to glow with a deep red aura before throwing them sideways in a cross. "Armor Breaker!" Jane threw her knives before chanting the name, not that it mattered anymore. Her daggers drove through the air with grace, chopping right through the monster's skin. The force of the entry was enough to push the Char monster back as it struggled on its legs to lean forward again. The daggers drove right through the tough and hardened armor of the monster just like the attack was designed to do, and shortly after, her blades returned to Jane's hands via matter transference.

A thought sparked in her mind again. It was something such as matter transference that once again proved to her that some sort of magical power other than dark magic lingers in this land. If not for the Leray protection veil, such a thing could not happen, as would be with the creation of any Siriean dome, but now wasn't the time for theories. After checking the damage to the monster, Jane noticed that the beast was changing its speed and direction, hurtling and limping towards her direction.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/Wb4jY5FW/S2-Charmon-004.png]

Against what she thought, Jane watched as the monster stopped in its tracks, using what little momentum it had to lift its giant arm high above is own body, revealing some of its deceptive joints. The monster then slammed its fist into the ground with as much force as possible, shaking the ground beneath both of them. The blast from the hit created a shockwave that grew with a direction heading for Jane's location. She didn't expect a fist in the ground to create a shockwave through the earth, one that traveled and uplifted the rocky dirt and ash form the ground like a spring. This was much more like an artificial version of Earth Glave. The wave blew up the ground as it levied its way towards her, shooting rocks at Jane. The wave was too quick and unexpected for Jane to react, though she tried to move her arms in a position to make another power shield.

Instead of dodging or blocking the attack, the blast of earth shot up right below Jane, pushing her off her feet and sending her back a few feet into the air. Aside from the bruising hit of large hot rocks that slammed into Jane's front side, she had no choice but to land on her back, scraping her skin into the earth with what little protection her mercenary outfit provided. To make matters worse, Jane was immediately being crushed by several hundred chunks of rocks, blocking her only method of standing back up from the crisis.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/sxkk24mS/S2-Jane-AV-025.png]

Jane lifted her arms through the crevasse of the chunks of small boulders, until she lifted them off her chest and her legs piece by piece. While pushing the stones off her body, the monster in front of her wailed and bent its body, possibly indicating the prelude to another attack. Jane knew she was vulnerable, so she tried to perform even faster. The pain from that last hit was surprisingly low as far as its destructive capability held, but she was still trapped on the ground like this, pinned for another powerful attack against her. Jane would not be able to shield herself sitting down.

Before much else happened, the monster turned its body again, throwing its arm around itself. The reaction immediately released another barrage of visible Wind Slashes like before, blades made out of fast flying air magic all hurling towards Jane. The sharp projectiles were not bound to lock on to her position, but there were plenty of Wind Slashes on their way, the same spell as Wind Shear. Jane threw her arms in front of her face as a body shield. She had no way to send out another protective aura like this, and braced herself for the additional damage put on by the imminent magic cuts. She could feel them slicing into her skin. One sliced the tip of her right arm, and the other put a slight cut into her stomach, but that was only two out of ten shears. Jane knew how many were in the average invocation, and it was a bit light of what was supposed to hit her. After lifting her arms form her face, she realized that the accuracy of that last skill wasn't as great as it seemed. All of these boulder chunks partially protected her body. Being this low in the ground helped as well.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author's consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/nVXMCVTc/S2-Jane-AV-026.png]

"Nagh!" She groaned. The cuts did not run very deep, though they still stung her nerves where they hit. Finally clear of oncoming attacks for another good moment, Jane pushed the last clump of earth off of her, forcing herself back on her feet in front of the enemy. The Char monster was still standing even after all the hits it was taking, a cursed creature of hell indeed. It was a spawn of Alpha Zero, designed for the task of killing her. Jane needed a tide turner, sooner than later.

After deciding with what little choices she had, Jane's hands began to glow a dark yellowish color, just before invoking her next spell. "Gyrobreak!" After releasing the small energy needed for the spell to take effect into the ground, the earth shook at an incredible Richter force below them both. It created the illusionary effect of seeing and feeling as if the entire world were shifting on tilt left and right, forwards and back. Jane was mostly used to the whiplash induced by the Gyrobreak spell after the practice, and she hoped that the Char monster would have terrible times aiming from here on.

It was hard to tell however who was having an easier time holding their balance and ground, for the monster was nearly immune to falling over or losing its own hold on its legs. Jane did her best to keep up the balance too, but then a few rocks began falling on top of her. After glancing straight up, she noticed a massive swarm of falling rocks and boulders heading down here from the sky, no magical glyphring or glow in sight. Jane immediately recognized the magical spell nonetheless. The Char monster must still be capable of using magic as it was. Despite not being able to aim well, one wouldn't need to when using the ability known as Rockfall. Rockfall summons a swarm of falling rocks upon the target, rarely needing the assisted control of aiming, and it often does not require a glyphring to activate. Jane knew she had but a second, and reacted with what time she had by crossing her arms over each other, shooting magic through her pores and chanting the spell name in her mind again.

With the immediate creation of her power shield, Jane was now protected by the falling rocks that bounced right off the top of her aura. It was strange too, for at the same time she was protecting herself, Jane could still feel the distortion effect from her Gyrobreak, making it harder to concentrate at all. A moment just before the shield was formed, two rocks had hit her shoulders, putting each joint in irreversible pain. Jane could hear the numerous noises of shield deflection pulses, which were supposed to be rocks bouncing off her shield. Instead, she could only feel how much loss in power her shield was taking with damage being added to it. But at last, the rocks stopped falling on their own, eventually allowing Jane to drop her power shield again. At the same time, her Gyrobreak spell subsided too, making her only tide turner go into effect for nothing.

It wasn't in her mind to give up. Jane came up with as many different types of skills and spells as she could. There has to be more ways than one to break through that toughened charred armor the monster uses as a body for itself. With the spell already in mind, Jane opened her hands facing upwards, forming a yellow glyphring to hover over her. "Crystal Arrow!" The yellow glyphring pulled into phase the Bow of Fate, falling into Jane's hands along with one single arrow. The arrow was tipped with a sharpened crystal of unusual material. As Jane loaded her arrow into the bow and began to pull back against the string, she started applying extra magic into the crystal of the arrow from her memory of before.

Crystal Arrow usually fires three arrows, one of which are made of crystal and deals more damage, but all arrows only deal non-magical piercing damage, which of its kind is the weakest in potential. With the way Jane tried to modify her spell before, her crystal arrow now explodes on impact, effective against highly armored targets such as a sentry turret. Hopefully it would work this time too.

Jane released her arrow, firing after aiming at the beast's chest with a lot of force. The arrow flew through the air, striking the monster and piercing its flesh already. With less than a millisecond afterwards, the entire crystal tip of the arrow exploded with about as much force as she would expect from a hand grenade. The explosion rang loud in her ears, for Jane was not very far away from her target either. The bow in her hands faded away into nothingness as the end of her spell elapsed, but after the explosion, Jane noticed a large rip under the right arm of the horrible creature. It was more than just armor piercing. The Crystal Arrow attack did a lot more damage than she could have hoped for. The monster wailed in response to its sudden wound and pain. Jane had but that much time to read its new stats and prepare to defend herself again.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/Z5Bm40L6/S2-Charmon-005.png]

"Crap," she swore. Her explosive damage didn't even register as much on its energy scope as it should. What is this thing really immune to?

The monster didn't stop to give Jane another chance to throw in another attack. Instead, it wailed a low-tone scream through its pours, throwing its large arm around itself in the sequence of another magical attack. For whichever reason, the Char monster favored one of its special abilities known as Wind Sheer, shooting magical thin slashes of air magic towards Jane like it had done so before. It happened so fast that Jane barely had enough time to throw her arms across each other and emit another shield around her body.

Despite having enough MP energy to continue shielding on, Jane didn't feel like she had the energy to keep this battle going. Then the Wind Slashes all struck the shield with incredibly accuracy; all ten of the slashes bouncing and disintegrating into the protective aura, turning into small hexagons of damage indicators for Jane's own eyes. The attack was done and over with quickly, but the damage inflicted into the shield threw her own concentration off again. Jane's power shield suddenly collapsed in front of her, her physical stamina drained further than it would have been if she just cut it off afterwards.

This time, it was so intense that Jane held her hands to her knees, panting and coughing to keep her breath up with a potent drain and her quickened heart rate. Her stats were not really that bad, but they were no better than the stats of the enemy either. In her quick exhaustion to take another second to try and breathe, Jane sensed more movement and imminent action within the beast. The monster wasn't as tired out as she was now, preparing to assault her with its own magical attacks. The creature was nothing at all like the behemoth she fought the first time. The first monster was all physical and quick on its feet, attacking Jane with its sharp teeth and claws, rarely keeping its distance, but this Char monster fights so differently. It uses mostly magical energy to fight back, all to utilize symbols and dark magical invocations while keeping its distance entirely, and Jane was failing to keep up.

Moon Shadow wasn't going to work this time, for the dark zone has some sort of anti-weather alteration magic in effect here. Gyrobreak didn't affect the monster's aim or balance either. Jane didn't believe Harmonics would pierce the monster's ears, especially since it turned out not to have any. No other support spells could help her out right now. Redemption is too harmful for her own health. Even using Dark Strike was risky because of how close it would put her to that thing. The time to think about it was over with. Whatever kind of glyphring and magic it was about to unleash now was already happening, the glyphring formed in front of the monster's body, aiming straight at Jane. Even now, she didn't feel so good with moving around a lot.

There wasn't a choice anymore. Jane has to do something, and it has to be now. Just one good ability came to mind, but it was an ability she had not learned yet, one magical power so strong that Jane had never successfully invoked the skill before. She even doubted her luck to try it again right now. It's one of those fight or flight moments; Jane could either make it work somehow, or run away in fear cowering for her life. There is no protective dome shield right now. Jane really could just make a run for it, get out while she still can by following Alyssa's advice of returning alive - though in failure, but then the thought of everything came back to her on her own. How valuable was her own life, in her own eyes?

Jane always wanted nothing more than to become a Leray master, but things have changed now, things that were not so different before. She had friends, people back home who care about her, and she cared about them too, more than enough to do everything in her own power to protect herself. If this next ability wasn't going to work, then running away back to the normal land would be her only remaining option. The fact that this monster threatened her with so much to lose already angered her, fueled the rage inside of herself. It was at least enough to try, try her absolute hardest without even thinking how it might be done. With one large inhalation of hot ashy air, Jane conjured up as much magical energy as she could, charging that energy into this one moment before the enemy's magic could trigger.

In just a moment's burst, Jane chanted the name of the powerful spell, shouting its process to the top of her lungs while releasing all of her stored energy. "Zero Zone!" This was the usual point at which nothing at all would happen, but what Jane's eyes witnessed was a new miracle. Upon releasing a ton of her remaining MP energy which had made Jane feel so much more drained, everything around her changed in color and process. A blue aura of transparent light flew from the origin of her body, spanning outward in a spherical wave of direction of travel, consuming everything in sight. As every single particle came under the influence of this aura of blue light, the color of everything thus changed again.

In her eyes, Jane watched the entire world darken, colors all degrading into nothing but black, white, and grey. It became harder to see, and impossible to feel anymore. The wind didn't make a sound. Come to think of it, there was no more wind. No more heat surrounded Jane. The total absence of heat replaced all; it felt colder than she would have imagined, sending chills of non-existent breezes down her spine. The glyphring in front of the monster froze, stopped spinning and glowing even though it remained visible in a solidified form. The monster itself was frozen too, not moving a micro-meter, not even to breathe. Jane finally came to the realization that this was the end result of the incredible spell that she had never got to see before. It's only possible for a user to know what this spell is like, because only that spell master is unaffected by the time distortion field.

That's right! Zero Zone is one of the rarest and most powerful aura spells known to man, capable of stopping all time for a few moments referenced by that same user. It would not last forever, but stopping time for even a single moment would give people an immense kind of power they've never known to exist before. Zero Zone is that power, creating a field of distortion so potent that it stops all time around the world, in the galaxy, even in the universe so it is said. All things become black and white since color cannot travel long enough for the eye to see. It's a miracle that Jane was able to see anything at all, though in theory stopping time would stop all light, making the conscious either frozen with the world, or blind in every other way. So technically, the distortion field must really just slow down time to as low as it can possibly go without reaching absolute zero, allowing light to at least exist.

Jane was immune to the rule. She could move her limbs, breathe the air around her, and feel the absence of heat as a different kind of cold. Jane could see everything around her, frozen as stone while her consciousness ran its course. She could still think about stuff, move about the field she was stuck in. As far as Leray battles go, she could start attacking this monster right now, beating it up while it remained isolated in this defenseless state, unable to do anything about it, even unable to feel or notice the damage it would be taking until the distortion field wears off...

Jane realized it too. The distortion field wears off soon. She had to attack the creature right now, or forever miss her last chance to change the tide in the battle completely, but she was also taken by surprise. This was the coolest spell she has ever invoked so far, the very moment she was living through was its own montrum. Zero Zone was not just an ability Jane practiced at Lennith's training facility. She practiced this spell before even meeting Danny and Taylor, never to produce a single result. It was no wonder why, with a spell that has a support-power level of ten, and a high ME usage. Jane literally spent most of all her remaining MP just using the spell, beginning with thirty percent of her total capacity. Look at everything now. With one powerful burst of energy and courage, all of the world is frozen!

Time would bend to her every will. Jane alone would be able to use her Leray magical powers even in a zone such as this. Only her magical energy and other stats would register for right now. Everything else was completely vulnerable. Jane took her opportunity at hand, rushing in towards the monster at full sprinting speed. Jane used some of her magic to create two yellow glyphrings above each of her extended hands, grabbing hold of the sub machine guns following her until they dropped in her hand. It was her signature charge attack, randomized by her ability to mix up physical and magical skills in a quick motion of maneuvers, much more effective than Dualcasting.

Jane begun by firing each machine gun into the monster, bullets shooting straight into the beast's toughened skin. Jane couldn't believe this at all. Her bullets were not stuck frozen in time; they completely flew through the air, passing the monster or entering its flesh! Jane wasn't a great shot this time however, for the gun's recoil made it harder to aim. The massive shooting sound of the small explosions of the chambers also surprised her. There was no sound from anything at all, but there was sound associated with her magical spells and her own guns. In other words, time didn't stop for her or the spells she used in the field. "Cool!" Jane could even hear her own voice as she spoke to test herself.

Following the depletion of each mag, Jane threw down her arms and swapped the guns with her daggers instead. She swept her feet in the ground, indicating a slight attempt to dodge nothing specific. Jane used more magic, shooting blue Mako Beams from each dagger's tip. Jane didn't need to dodge anything right now, but it's not as if her attacks would be enough to stop the magical invocation. The moment time starts back up again, Jane will be right in the way of whatever incoming attack the Char monster had planned for her. With this continued opportunity, Jane decided to try and change that.

She continued her charge attack, rushing in towards the monster with each dagger pointing outward at the creature. Jane then openly slashed her blades at the monster, trying to conserve what little MP energy she had left. Only her energy scope was still working right now. The Char monster's energy scope was frozen, unresponsive to the damage it was actively taking. To be fair, Jane's damage would only kick in the moment Zero Zone's spell ends. With three strong slashes into the beast's chest, Jane backed away to the side, getting a different angle behind the monster. At the same time, she threw her two daggers at the creature, infusing them with the same magical aura used with Armor Breaker's spell. The daggers went right through the creature, and immediately brushed a small explosion right in front of the enemy. The time distortion was already ending.

Right in front of her eyes, the entire world was brightening, returning to full color. The recently absent sound of a low pitch hollow wind found its way to her ears. The coldness around her began to fade, being replaced with instant heat from the Alpha Zero's natural climate, while everything began to move again. The speed up in time was not instantaneous. The movement of the monster was incredibly slow, but was speeding up by time acceleration. It felt to Jane like three seconds before everything was moving at full speed again, but not before Jane noticed another explosion just in front of the creature. At the same time, its glyphring collapsed completely, the spell of the monster failing to invoke correctly. Jane was standing a bit behind the creature right now, so it had no idea what just happened. As an extension to Jane's guesses, the damage hitting him all at once must have somehow interfered with his glyphring, making it explode and collapse in on itself. If that was true, she had no complaints. All it did was cause more damage to the hungry beast, its energy scope reporting a drastic decrease in health and stamina.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/SNt4Bccy/S2-Charmon-006.png]image [https://i.postimg.cc/sfbxSF0P/S2-Jane-AV-027.png]

It was too obvious right now for Jane that she had a lot of time at present, time to either come up with another counterattack, or to regain her strength and wits. She was still having a hard time concentrating, for her MP energy was getting lower than she wanted it to be, but what suddenly became a distraction for her also acted as the remedy for her current energy crisis. It was the symbol on her hand again, that same oval planet looking thing on the top of her hand, glowing with a bright blue glow even through the broken fabric material. Her right glove had a large open cut in it, likely dug in by the Rockfall spell she suffered earlier. The symbol's light and projection still pierced entirely through the pieces of fabric that would have blocked the light partially. Jane felt like a little bit of a buzz had zapped her, as if very low voltage of electrical energy was recharging her strength, her will to keep on fighting without end. Or maybe the crest was giving her some kind of adrenaline injection. Who the hell knew?

Contrary to what Jane wanted to think though, the MP stats on her energy scope drastically regenerated in just a few seconds, slowing back down just as the light from her hand began to fade. That's all the crest did in that moment. It appeared just to recharge her MP supply, even though this was a side effect that Jane never encountered before from this crest!

image [https://i.postimg.cc/VLM6W73x/S2-Jane-AV-028.png]

"What? How did I do that?" In just a moment, Jane felt recharged, but only to a condition slightly better than a few minutes ago. Thanks to the distraction, it wouldn't last long. The Char monster didn't stop to try and figure out what the girl was up to. In a whirling toss of its arm, the monster threw a piece of its own skinny arm off. A chunk of unknown flesh flew towards Jane, landing on the ground just in front of her. Before she could figure out what the intent of the dead projectile was for, the hunk of what was thought to be monster flesh shot thin spikes in every direction imaginable.

Jane was stuck with several sharp needles before comprehending the sound that the flying spikes had echoed in the air. Each and every splinter pierced into her skin, halfway sticking out and shinning slightly with the reflected gaze of the red star above her. Though the sharp piercing feeling of those needles were enough to stop her movement, Jane was still quick to remain resilient to that pain and damage.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/HkgLZwmV/S2-Jane-AV-029.png]

Jane even went as far to ignore the spikes in her arms and legs, only taking out the ones sticking in her sides, but she couldn't help but cringe from the intense hurt the attack put her in. She then aimed both hands towards the Char monster, already channeling energy and a will of vengeance into a new glyphring. "Return Fire!" The clear translucent glyphring faded into reality and horizontally aimed towards the creature, Jane's arms channeling MP energy into the ring, well after she yelled the name of the spell. Return Fire is a conditional free-form attack spell that responds against the enemy - using analysis of previous damages taken by the user, creating an automatic damage type advantage if possible, as well as tripling the power level if possible. Even Jane had absolutely no idea what kind of spell was going to come out of this glyphring, nor did she have much control of the amount of MP energy it would suck up to try, but in just a second of time, her MP levels only dropped by two percent.

As a result, two spheres of water formed into thin air, as if teleported here from another dimension. The balls of water were already flying towards the beast, one from the front and another form above. Jane immediately cured at herself for going with such a random and reckless spell, but soon after the weak attack slammed the body of her foe, she learned something new.

The attack that came through the glyphring resembled an easy spell known as Water Blast, which doesn't even deal damage in Leray fights, but it can get the opponent soaking wet with water for whatever that is worth. Jane never stopped to consider that the hot-based interior of the monster itself might be weak against water elemental attacks. Humans are immune to water because they are not made of fire, naturally, but this is a creature that shouldn't exist in the real world, thus it has unique resistances and advantages. The spheres of water slammed the monster with nearly enough force to knock it down on its back, and the impact left a massive forming cloud of steam that hissed above its pitiful body. The Char monster immediately began wailing and screeching in agony, which was almost potent enough to put Jane through the same agony in her ears. The steam cloud quickly swallowed up view of the monster, except for its feet. Jane got to keep an eye on the whereabouts of the Char monster, and check its scope for damage at the same time.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/XYRbJ32m/S2-Charmon-007.png]

The enemy could barely stand up anymore, and Jane could clearly see it. Even through the thick cloud of smoke emanating from all of the cool water splashing on the interior of the creature's boiling blood of molten material, Jane noticed the wind around the monster shift. The cloud of smoke quickly blew itself away, until turning into a massive visible whirlwind of grey wind slashes quickly expanding and drilling past the ground. The beast unleashed Whirlwind upon Jane to get rid of the steam and attack her at the same time.

Jane had a defense for such things again, preparing her crossed arms to create another shielding aura. There was not a problem emitting such an aura, automatically protecting Jane from the pillaging strikes of air magic thrown from the monster. Hexagons formed everywhere on the inside of the shield, but the attack itself didn't last very long either. Whirlwind isn't a powerful magical attack, no matter who gets to use it, and Jane already figured out what spells to use in order to finish this thing off. It wouldn't be long now.

After dropping her shield, Jane charged more MP energy into her hands, simultaneously yelling aloud the next name of her attack spell. Her transition from protecting herself form damage and then shifting into a long-ranged magical spell was much quicker than before. Jane finally had the focus she needed to keep going in this never ending battle. The monster would have to die sometime, and with its critical HP stats reflected in the energy scope itself, this spell should be the one to do it. "Photon Burst!" Jane lifted her right arm high, shoving it down while channeling her magical energy from her glowing blue hand until the rain of photons ripped downward from the sky, bombarding the monster with powerful magical photonic rays.

The small blue particles of falling spheres smashed into the ground in various places, all around and on top of the Char monster. Jane was checking to see the damages before the spell had even ended, but the monster itself only continued to wail in frustration, standing up to the attack like it was next to nothing.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/fLZQcCQv/S2-Charmon-008.png]

Jane hunched down, preparing to take on another imminent attack while contemplating the error in her mind. "I don't get it!" Photon Burst is an incredibly powerful spell which Jane learned to perfect easily. How is it possible for this creature to survive so many hits, even after Jane was successfully able to invoke the Zero Zone spell?

It wasn't long until Jane's analysis of the pattern was confirmed. The Char monster raised its right fat arm in the air again, its tip glowing hot with a lava like interior aura to it. It was about to use the same ability to shoot a fiery ball of lava in Jane's direction, but she was still ready for it this time. Concentrating on her own aura, Jane prepared to enable her power shield just before the fiery projectile was fired her way. The monster shot the lava sphere from its arm as if it were a projected cannon, the sphere of oozing lava free falling in the air due to gravity. The monster was clearly able to aim perfectly at Jane's body despite all of the suffering it has been through. Jane cross her arms again, ejecting more energy to create another strong transparent aura, and blessing Claudia for showing her of this hidden defensive tactic.

The ball of lava smashed into the shield, creating a ton of small little hexagons everywhere in the place of where the ball hit. The lava ball quickly exploded and melted, evaporated from its own loss in magical potential, and Jane's power shield took a hard hit in damage, but she didn't dare let the aura fail before the attack sequence was over.

This isn't working! Jane was going to need a more powerful spell, something that would ultimately knock this beast down in one last hit. It was time to test another one of her new abilities. Jane began charging all that was left of her MP energy supply just after dropping the shield around herself. She had invoked the ability only once before with supervision from Claudia, but it's a powerful ability that sucks the user dry of most MP energy. "Ultima!" Jane began charging such energy, as the invocation time for this skill was longer than most other spells. Seconds passed, and Jane felt so much more drained than ever before.

Ultima is a power level 9.2 ability, making it much stronger than the spell known as Mega-Flare. Though surprisingly, it is the same type of attack as the skill. Ultima simply amplifies the radius, intensity, and damage of the light screen attack skill known as Mega-Flare, blinding the entire battle field with a flare of light so bright that it carries a massive damaging heat element with it as well. It was time for Jane to unleash all of her stored magic, blasting the entire area around her with a bright hot magical light. Even she wasn't able to see anything once the flare blasted her eyes and that of the opponent's. The light became so incredibly hot, that despite the normal protection from being damaged by one's own spell, Jane's skin felt like it was on fire for the few seconds the light screen attack was working. Dealing pure magical damage with the high element of heat, the monster Jane was using this against would not be able to withstand such a high power level ability. At least that is what Jane thought.

The moment that light faded only served to crush her spirits even further. For now her MP supply was only at 5% remaining, and the HP status of the Char monster had actually gone up instead of down.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/KzNSJTZh/S2-Charmon-009.png]

The Char monster didn't even seem hurt or disrupted by the attack, but it somehow absorbed that light, using it to restore a small amount of life force energy and stamina. With so much MP from Jane thrown down the drain, things were not looking so good anymore. The Char monster was defiantly using its new found energy to support a counterattack, creating an unusual red glyphring in front of its body. From that, a larger symbol - the size of five meters wide was created below Jane's feet. Jane noticed it quickly, but the symbol itself was somewhat out of phase. After a few more seconds, nothing in particular happened, but the monster was standing in that same spot, using its own magic to make something happen. It almost looked like Star of Darkness, but this was different somehow, a different kind of spell that obviously takes a really long time to invoke.

Jane figured she could use that time to her advantage. She pulled out her daggers, knowing she would be unable to use magical skills with it, an instead threw them at the monster without any magical infusion. Jane doubted that a simple Knife Toss attack would interrupt the monster's magical invocation, but it was at least worth a shot. Her MP energy would passively recharge in the meantime, but not enough to allow her to shield against what was coming her way. Jane's daggers flew through the air with grace, slicing into the monster's left arm, only to blow the muscular hinge right off. The monster literally lost its left arm and took more damage than Jane wished for, but it still had its right arm, capable of much more. The Char monster screeched loudly again, but it did not try to stop invoking its unusual ability against Jane. Before Jane began to brace herself, she wanted to know the stats of the monster's health, which sadly was not a big improvement for her.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/xdLSN7hC/S2-Charmon-010.png]

At last, the giant red symbol surrounding Jane came out of full phase, spinning slowly. Jane was then suddenly electrocuted with a bolt of lightning colored red, much like her Lightning Strike when used with the Star of Darkness spell. The volt of electricity jolted Jane in place, heating up her body and shattering all of her nerves inside. But it only lasted for a short second, and while it did further drain her stamina, Jane didn't feel as if she couldn't go on anymore. After checking her own energy scope, she realized that in some way, the damage dealt to her was minimized.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/L838rJ4v/S2-Jane-AV-030.png]

Such a long fought spell to use a high voltage attack, yet Jane barely felt any real damage from that attack. It did hurt and drain her, but not in a dangerous manner compared to what she had been through before. Who cares? There isn't time to figure that out right now! After quickly recovering into counterattack position, Jane used more magic, infusing it with her entire body this time. "Quantum Beam!" The invocation was so quick and easy. Jane fired a massive beam of bright blue energy the size of her own body, plummeting into the monster's chest and forcing it to slide back in the ash. The beam didn't last long either, but at least it ripped a hole in the beast's right side of the torso. It was a miracle that that thing could still move around.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/QCdLPMt9/S2-Charmon-011.png]

The monster took a step forward, not even thinking about what to use to try and attack Jane back. Jane prepared herself to use another power shield, hoping it could hold up with such little energy left, but she knew that she was currently ahead of the monster by stats. Yet, anything could change at any moment. The Char monster used its bigger remaining arm to smash into the ground. It was the same messed up version of Earth Glave as before. Jane had a taste of it in the past, and was determined not to let it happen again. With her arms already crossed into shielding position, she used more of her MP energy to project a new protective aura around herself, blocking out the incoming ground burst and flying hunks of rocks being swept into the same attack.

After the hexagons from the attack went away, Jane dropped the shield to assess how messed up the entire ground in front of her became. Some of the rocks were still falling down from being thrown up, but luckily she wasn't being hit upside the head with any of the debris. Jane immediately held out her arms to invoke another magical ability, giving absolutely no time to try and recover her magical potential. Her MP was running low for sure, but it wasn't low enough to stop this ability. "Lightning Strike!" Shouting the name as usual gave Jane the quickened invocation time she needed in creating the jade colored glyphring around her wrist. From her open hand, she fired a horizontal bolt of blue electricity using what little Leray magic she was able to supply. The monster was immediately affected, tripping backwards on itself just as the jolt hold had ended, but despite how much the bolt affected the monster, the damage was still so minimal.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/prcNtth0/S2-Charmon-012.png]

Jane didn't stop there. Her heart was pounding, and her breathing was heavy, but she knew she had to persist. Now was the time to keep hitting the beast while it was down, which is what Jane did with another magical attack, putting her MP reserves down to 3%. "Earth Glave!" Perfecting the skill the monster tried to hit her with earlier, Jane forced the ground to violently shift in front of the Char monster, only to slam the beast upward at the end, adding on to a lot more damage inflicted from the last hit.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/nV3fmqRv/S2-Charmon-013.png]

Jane couldn't invoke another ability right now, she was just too weak and lightheaded, and what worse, the monster was already invoking another kind of spell. This time, the beast didn't really move all that much, making its intent much more elusive. When Jane noticed a bunch of black flying particles of ash heading her way quickly into the hot wind, she immediately tried to shield herself. After using what energy she had left to generate another shielding aura, the shield collapsed on itself in just one second before much damage was able to set in.

The monster invoked the ability of Volcanic Mist, something Jane didn't have the misfortune to feel before, but now she would, as the air around her turned into a blazing inferno while her MP ran at zero percent capacity. Jane was sweating more in milliseconds, while the flying embers in the air began to bounce off her skin. Jane cringed from the immediate burning sensation sparking everywhere on her through the battle suit, and she struggled to breathe any available non-toxic air.

This time it was the Char monster who decided to fight unfairly, firing another ball of lava through its powerful right arm at Jane. There was virtually nothing she could do about it, as the ball of fire splashed right in front of her, burning and bubbling her skin even more from the hot liquid splashes. It finally reached a point where Jane was screaming in agony again, unable to stand up anymore because of how insane the damage was to herself. On the stats of her energy scope, Jane helplessly watched as her own HP declined rapidly, and her consciousness struggled harder to keep itself in Jane's control. For another long moment, Jane wasn't able to stand back up. The volcanic mist attack was fading away already, but the pain of the heated burns lingered, making it harder for Jane to move any part of her body. She knew her skin would be solid red or even black after examining herself with the end of this match, if she can ever get through this place and into the Den of Purity.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/DzfwF78h/S2-Jane-AV-031.png]

Jane couldn't move on her legs, and she began rubbing her arms to try and use friction to change the current temperature of her skin, not that it did very much. Even right now, her health was slowly declining from the remaining lava that was bubbling and boiling her flesh. Screaming didn't help at all, and by the time she got the molten fire off of her, she felt ever so weak and faint.

The monster was once again trying on another attack, creating a smaller red glyphring in front of itself. Jane needed to power shield again, but knew it would be stupid with the little energy she had. She was still tied up at the moment, trying to recover herself from the last painful blast of fire. The attack turned out to be a barrage of Fire Balls, which in a way was weaker than Fire Bolts, yet still with so many of them at once would be devastating should they all hit Jane. Jane sucked it all up and blocked out the pain as best as she could, realizing she would die otherwise. With a quick and immediate thought to adapt her own power shield, Jane held her hands both out in front of her, projecting what little energy she had left into a different kind of aura. Instead of creating a power shield to surround her entire body form the incoming projectiles of fire, Jane instead created a solid wall of magic only in front of her. By adapting the shield's photons to a concentrated area and reconfiguration, Jane managed to create an economy grade energy shield that only worked in front of her instead of all around while simultaneously reducing the overall size, conserving a tiny bit of MP energy while blocking the projectiles heading her way.

Jane didn't even know she could do this until now, her new format for a power shield valid in this case, but as she held up the shield, the rest of her entire body continued to burn and sting with heavy intensity from all of that previous fire damage. It was hard to concentrate at all given the circumstances. There were four, four flying Fire Balls that dissolved into Jane's small power shield which she disabled on her own after the attack was over. Now she had but little MP energy left, as did the monster itself. This is where it all ends.

Standing up and trembling from the severe damages and third degree burns that set in, Jane prepared herself. "Hrah!" Jane puffed while throwing her daggers at the monster again. She did so only as a distraction, using the last percent of her MP energy to create a small yellow glyphring, putting a blaster weapon in her hand. Jane aimed the gun at the monster, and fired the weapon the way it was designed to be used in a Leray match. "Scatter Beam!" The small beams of energy shot from the small blaster as if used by a shot gun, the beams all dispersing and going everywhere. Jane's MP fell down to zero again upon using the blaster, this causing the gun to fade away immediately after using it. Several of them hit the monster, going right through its weakened skin until the figure standing in front of Jane collapsed and exploded into smaller segments of body parts. Jane found the death of the Char monster rather gory, but the thing bled more ash and lava than it did blood anyway. At last, the fight was finally over.

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Chapter Theme Shift: Kamihama Polyphonic ~ Magia Record OST

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Jane couldn't stop panting just yet. With all of her energy spent, she felt like falling down and passing out. A long nap was overdue, and who knew how much time had passed since this stupid quest began? Jane could not effectively tell time in a dark evil place such as this one. The light available is about the same all the time, though right now it was so much darker and foggier than before from all of that burning volcanic mist and ash. Though the monster was slain, it didn't go out the same way it did with the behemoth creature. Everything was suddenly quiet again. Somehow all of that battling did not attract anymore creatures of the land, but Jane needed more health again, struggling to pull out another med kit orb from her supply sphere.

Like always, Jane had to struggle with the device just to get it to work, and after it did, Jane was most unimpressed with how much the crappy tool helped her recover. She had once again sustained a heavy amount of real time damage. It was evident even now, for after recovering only partway, the various third degree burns on her skin begged to be bathed in something that would magically cure her skin or take away from the stinging sensations. At this rate, she could be dead within one more fight. "Next time, I'll just run," Jane promised herself. There is no need to stop herself from running away in fear.

image [https://i.postimg.cc/g0Mk21ZZ/S2-Jane-AV-032.png]

Not a single stat point was budging up further, and yet Jane still felt so much alert and energized, just from the rejuvenation in her MP reserves. All of these cuts and burns stuck under her own suit were devastating. She would have a lot of explaining to do after getting back. Even the outfit had taken quite a high amount of damage, and it was specifically designed to withstand all magical damage for all eternity. Dress spheres have special magical energy enchanted into the material which lasts forever to block out damage, but apparently that effect only carries through when protected by the veil.

Jane would have to stand up straight and keep moving on. There still wasn't a great way to know where she was, even with the official map in her hands. The map was local, containing no real directions other than natural land marks, but these land marks were also part of the Outback that existed before now. No mapping data has so far been collected of the Alpha Zero, the same place trapped in a vortex of forbidden magic. Anyone who has ever tried was killed in the process, so the stories say.

Jane had a hard time believing in half the stories she heard. Almost all of them were from her teacher, Claudia, but Claudia allegedly heard them from the guards, the sentries that block the northern road into the dark zone. What did they know? Have they seen how horrible and hot this place is? Have they traveled in far enough to see the entire sky above them shift to a red haze? Did they hear the crying wails of monstrous beasts capable of invoking magical spells and razing everything into fiery ash? Did they know that Leray magic can still somehow be invoked in this place, even to function other unusual rules such as the supply spheres and the energy scopes? And did anyone else know about the manmade machinery in this zone; the sentry turrets and automated defense system somehow set up in the middle of nowhere, bent on screening which creatures are allowed through? After seeing all of it for herself, Jane found her thoughts following the same trance, her legs shuffling forward on the blazing dirt while nothing of movement crowded her forward visual field.

Even with new evidence cropping up, Jane found it even more difficult to believe than ever before. How could a place as hostile as this exist right in Lennith's back yard? The military of Sprawn Valley should have been all over this, either reversing the effects of the magic, or destroying the zone entirely, assuming that is even possible. The horrifying fact that all of this is real, and not some creative nightmare born of her subconscious gave Jane the chills, despite all of the sweat dripping from the back of her hair. This is what made the entire situation unbelievable. Hearing it from people in school was the easy part. Walking into this place alone, only to firsthand witness that everything is worse than what others could possibly imagine, to have her own dreams and memory of this place crushed in the end; that is the difficult part. Jane paced herself on her burnt legs carefully as minutes passed, jogging her mind to stay awake.

Nothing about this was normal. Professor Brightworth; the name of the man Jane had been searching for ever since she obtained this hidden crest on her hand... He is supposed to be the one and only mage in the entire world capable of reversing spells such as this one with his knowledge and advanced research, but is he also the one also responsible for this damage, this chaos?! What kind of terrible research did he do on the side? "Mmhm!" Jane cringed at the thought, nodding her head. There was no way, no possible way that her only cure to all of her problems was to make a deal with the devil. There is no way that Brightworth is the criminal mastermind behind the transformation of the Outback. It just doesn't purpose anything!

There wouldn't be a means to answers going backwards now, nor by making blind assumptions. Jane knew it in her gut; the only way to learn the truth about what happened here was to advance forward ever cautiously. Next time, running from random encounters will be the better option.

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