Eldoria Kingdom. 2 months after the first summoning.

“Another day, another job done.”

Noah released a grand sigh as he threw himself on a luxurious sofa. He occupied the entirety of the right half of the sofa as he fell on it.

“Oh? You're grumbling a lot for a man that was just bait.”

Emma sat on the right arm of the sofa and leaned her slender body on the side of the sofa with a relaxed demeanor, her blonde hair falling down her left shoulder as she mocked Noah.

“In his defense, I would argue that being bait can get pretty hard.”

Evan then walked into the room as well, and sat on the unoccupied side of the sofa.

“Yeah, you're being mean, Em.”

Mia was also present, sitting between Evan and Noah.

“Bleh. Fuck this guy.”

“No, fuck you!”

Emma responded with an expression of disregard and then tossed in an insult, to which Noah replied with one of his own. The two cousins then began to bicker, which continued until a single clap resounded from a pair of fair hands the color of the purest alabaster. Princess Elara had entered the luxurious break room. At this point in time, her brown hair was still in a long dutch braid.

“Hey, Elara.”

“Oh, Ellie's here.”

“Elara!”

“Oh, Elara. What's up.”

Evan, Emma, Mia and Noah responded to her arrival in that order.

“So, from your cheerful and slightly tired expressions, I'm assuming the wyrm subjugation went well?”

“It was a little difficult to allow Noah to get the last blow to add the monster to his catalog, but other than that, easy pickings, I'd say.”

“Like Evan said. Today was mostly easy once Noah pulled out his Ogre form as he always does these days and ran around to grab its attention.”

Emma's words sparked a grin from Noah.

“Fuck yeah. I know that subjugating the Ogre first was not done with any sort of genius foresight from that idiot King, but in hindsight, I have to say, great id-”

“Shh! Noah! We’ve talked about this! Respect royals and nobles! Especially the king, especially in his own palace!”

“Uh. Oops. My bad.”

“It is true that he's sorta shit, th-”

“Emma, please, not you too.”

Emma and Noah just grinned as Princess Elara cut her off exasperatedly, and continued speaking.

“So, Ellie. What's next on the agenda?”

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“Hmm. Some undead that seem to have sprung up in Count Galadrim’s territory, I believe.”

“Count Galadrim? As in the archmage? What is he doing to have undead in his territory? Those come about with weird mage experiments, right?”

“Not necessarily, Noah. It can be a natural phenomenon, though rare.”

“Suspicious. In the first place, how do undead come into existence?”

Evan’s critique then elicited a gentle laugh from Elara.

“Thanks for the segue to our lesson for today for me, Evan. Undead occur when ‘death’ is removed from a corpse. Mana can do this naturally, or a mage can force this to occur with all sorts of methods, most commonly with spells in the School of Necromancy. And the more that ‘death’ is ‘removed’ from an undead, the stronger and more robust it becomes. The removal of ‘death’ is basically like a healing potion for the undead, you see.”

“So the reason why holy spells are effective against them is because it imbues them with the divine mana of Calysta, who has authority in the domain of life?”

“Exactly, Emma. That process directly imbues them with life, eliminating them. However, undead above a certain level, like Bone Dragons or Liches do not possess this weakness of holy magic. They acquire this strange sort of immunity, you see, that comes from their rejection of life. These are figures that must be eliminated with firepower, or with other thaumaturgical means. But just remember, do not take actions that directly imbue them with ‘death’. Such an attack that would be lethal to a living being would become a perfect healing potion.”

This memory from a time long gone flashed through Elara’s mind as she thought about the archlich’s strange regeneration before her.

‘So this is why it is called the Mother Tree of Rot. The removal of ‘death’ from corpses to form undead. Or to nourish undead. On a battlefield, an army of undead forms, and on an undead, an immortal, infinitely regenerating monster.’

Much had changed since then for Elara. Over a year had passed, she had cut her hair to be below shoulder length, and had since encountered countless situations where she had walked the line of life and death in her attempts to flee with Evan from the Eldoria Kingdom’s forces in the Xipil Kingdom. She could now be considered a reliable mage with combat experience honed through experience.

And maybe that experience was what had kept her alive today.

After all, other than the one other mage at the eighth circle like herself and the two other archmages, all eighteen other mages had perished. It was unquestionable that luck had played a role, but her own ability was a significant part of it.

She didn’t want to guess what her survival chances for the coming fight were. Her captivating brown doe eyes reflected the eldritch monstrosity that had black tendrils cobwebbing out its black-robed figure in a hemispherical shape, pitch-black eyes with off-white irises on every single tendril of the enraged tree that had buds aimed at the four mages.

The two archmages who had cast Expansion to Infinity were under the protection of the spell until it was dispelled, but the spell would drain the mana of the caster to artificially stretch the distance between all attacks around the caster. Strangely enough, this spell was not a spatial spell and was not limited by the spatial lock, since it was actually from the Illusion school of magic. To an observer, it would seem as if an attack was slowing as it approached the caster, but with either a vast number of attacks or with enough power behind them, the caster would run out of mana, and the spell would collapse.

It was even worse for the two surviving eighth circle mages, Elara and Jill, who would have to cast a spherical Fifth Circle - Structured Barrier for the tendrils that would soon approach from all directions, the lowest tier spell that could defend against the tendrils. Any higher of a spell, and they might run out of mana, even if they found the time to cast it in advance. Each honeycombed barrier would likely only last a few tendril attacks before shattering. Constant re-casting and desperately dodging would be necessary, and attacking would be impossible.

The four also had to deflect any tendrils that headed towards Seraphina, who levitated at the bottom of the spherical barrier the diameter of a football field around them, constantly reinforcing it with mana. The moment the archlich found the reinforcement to have vanished, he would seize his chance and break the barrier. Her role was, though vulnerable, necessary.

Finally, the archlich. It acted separately from its own spell, and thus likely could attack as well, only choosing not to. The archlich’s spirit was expanding with every passing second and was significantly more dangerous than the currently enraged Mother Tree of Rot. It was not an optimistic situation for the four combatant mages.

And then, once again, without warning.

Tendrils shot out. Hundreds. The sky above them was almost entirely black now.

The figure of a tall man with worried green eyes flickered through Elara’s mind, and a smile unwittingly escaped her, even in this desperate situation.

She would not die today!

‘Fifth Circle - Structured Barrier!’

A desperate struggle for survival ensued.