“...ina…phina. Seraphina!”

“Oh. Elara. Hey.”

“Your emotions are written on your face.”

While Evan spoke to Draven, Elara noticed Seraphina’s tense expression from the corner of her eye.

“Well, your emotions are understandable. The way this is going, they’re going to fail. Though, what you’re worried about is that Ariel would push herself too far rather than the success of the mission, right?”

“...Yeah. Even if at least one person from all five cavalry units remain by the time they reach the first rendezvous point, they would then have to make it to the second rendezvous point, and to be honest, with the way things are going, only Ariel would be left at that point. What was the size of the monster army that Noah mentioned?”

“A quarter of a million.”

“That is no small amount. With the mental domination of the monsters by the demons, the monsters would act like a single body and all converge on her at the same time. Peak of S-rank she may be, but two hundred thousand monsters is an amount even I, an entire rank above her, would sweat thinking about. This…as a person who understands her power more than anyone else from the countless spars I’ve engaged with her, I know that she will be unable to reach the second rendezvous point, and with her stubborn attitude when it comes to battle, she is more likely to get herself ripped to shreds before she lets the rescue squad save her.”

Elara furrowed her brows at Seraphina's pessimistic lampooning.

“If the situation were so dire, Noah would have intervened, and engaged in a contingency plan. The fact that he didn’t means that we are not yet at that stage, does it not?”

Below, another two of the members of the cavalry fell. On average, it seemed that only about three of the initial ten remained in each of the five units, of whom all were injured.

Seraphina bit her lips, and a trickle of blood dripped out. Ariel was in the best condition as compared to the others of the cavalry, but even she was injured, her blood-stained arm visible to Seraphina with the eyes of her veteran-ranked body even kilometers up in the sky.

“No, I don’t think Noah understands. He probably thinks his wife to be stronger than she actually is. Elara. Please don’t tell the others. I’m going to intervene and cast a spell to help her.”

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“That would compromise us!”

“Archlich and dragon they may be, but their chances of detecting the mana from a spell fired from this high in the sky was slim in the first place, and impossible for any human mage. If I keep it to a simple sixth circle spell, I’m sure the effects would be sufficient to reach Ariel while also not revealing our position.”

“The Archlich is a creature that appears once a century, and the dragon is a peak existence. I’m not sure if this is the best idea, Seraphina. No, I will alert the rest before you do this.”

“Elara. Imagine if it were not Ariel but Evan down there. If they find out that I plan to do this, I won't be able to convince them of Ariel’s inability to do this."

"I'm not going to-"

"Please, Ariel. Imagine if it were Evan. Please”

“...Fine. Sixth Circle only.”

With Ariel's reluctant approval, Seraphina hurriedly brought her wand out of her spatial storage, pointed it downwards off Wyrm Noah's side and aimed at the horde right behind Ariel.

Another member of the cavalry fell.

Seraphina revved up her mana. Then froze.

With shaky eyes, she slowly cast her gaze in front of her. The wyrm-sized Noah had instantaneously wrapped in on itself, and right beside her was a massive red, glowing slit-like eye the size of her entire body, inches away from her. Noah had frozen her with his basilisk eye before she cast the spell.

“Elara. Seraphina. What is the meaning of this.”

All members of the mage unit, Draven, Lirael and Evan were looking at her and Elara. Once Noah undid his paralysis, Seraphina immediately got to fervently defending her position in response to Draven and repeatedly stressed how imperative it was that Ariel be assisted immediately. At this, the members of the mage unit, who were mostly at the eighth circle like Elara, began to show signs of tensing up, the words of a respected archmage bearing weight to them. Though, the other two archmages' rebuttal brought them some calm.

“No.”

“As Lirael so succinctly put it, no. We have several plans in the event that things don’t work out, and in the worst-case scenario, Noah can launch phase two prematurely. Granted, its effectiveness will be diminished, but certainly still effective. Your worries are unfounded and based on emotion. After this is over, we must have a discussion about this.”

Draven and Lirael only had to contemplate for a moment. Meanwhile, Noah unfurled himself again, and the others of the mage unit slowly looked away. The culprit in question bit her busted lip even harder in frustration, more blood trickling out. She clearly was not convinced, but there was nothing she could do in her current position, especially now that Draven and Lirael were sure to be keeping an eye on her. Evan’s next words that he exclaimed broke the three out of their confrontative stupor.

“They’re nearing the first rendezvous point with a total of ten remaining cavalry out of the initial fifty, but Gradias just cast the same monster-accelerating spell again!”