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Start Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QVu1_xET65I
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Reaching the end of the corridor, he saw a huge room. No, even more - a huge square hall with a flat floor. There was an entrance in each wall, through which he had come.
In the center was a pyramid with four sides. It looked like a temple itself, and stairs were visible on one side. At the beginning of the top, there was a flat place where there were many stone fragments. The base made it clear that it was once a throne.
And on what was left of the throne, a butterfly was sitting. Its wings were raised up where they met, making it look like it only had one wing. The faint light that surrounded the Butterfly disappeared, and she turned to Vallynor.
Looking at him for a few seconds, she screamed. Emitting light, she spread like a wave and quickly turned into a dome. Vallynor realized he had been caught and could not escape. But he didn't need to - he had come to kill her and take her soul.
Vallynor came to kill the Butterfly for several reasons. Firstly, she was holding his pet captive. Secondly, from his conversation with the old woman, he learned that she was very vindictive and would not leave him alone after what he had done. Thirdly, he needed a strong soul to draw a rune for his path as a soul mage.
The Butterfly spread her wings and, making a flap, rose into the air. Then she swooped down on Vallynor. Her speed was not very high but not small either.
Vallynor held swords in his hands and had soul runes on his head, preparing to defend against the enemy's attacks. When the Butterfly approached, she attacked him with all six legs. He protected the first two legs with a sword, and blocked the third with the soul runes. But the other three passed through his runes as if they did not exist.
Three strikes made Vallynor take a few steps back. When he regained his balance, the Butterfly was already moving away from him. Trying to use the soul runes, he realized that the spell had ended, and that a small amount of soul energy had been spent.
He couldn't understand why the spell had ended just because the energy had run out. But thinking, he guessed what had happened. The Butterfly accelerated the time for which the energy was needed to maintain the spell. The spell had its limit of time, and she accelerated it so that for Vallynor, only one second had passed, but for the spell, several days had passed.
Realizing this, he quickly looked at his swords and the places where he had been hit. Two small rust spots appeared on the swords, but his body remained unharmed. However, when he tried to move the parts of his body that had been hit, he realized that it was becoming more difficult to move them, as if they were frozen.
"She accelerated time for the spell and the sword, but slowed down the time of my body," he said. He couldn't even comprehend how strong Butterfly was during the flourishing of this world. She could do such things even when everyone else was weak.
But he was no longer too scared because he was prepared and knew about her abilities. Butterfly had already turned around and attacked again. Using his sword, Vallynor was able to block three strikes, but the other three hit his body again.
Butterfly flew away, and after a few rounds, attacked again. This time he was able to block three attacks and almost the fourth. Butterfly attacked with all six legs. Vallynor had to defend himself, study her tempo, and find a way to get rid of the time-freezing seal.
Every time, Vallynor blocked Butterfly's attacks. At first, he could only block three attacks, then slowly increased the number of blocked attacks: first four, then five. Only one strike hit his body, forcing him to take a step back.
In his mind, Vallynor thanked the granny who made him train his body and the art of weapon mastery, as well as Annino, who caught those three creatures that were made of thread. Thanks to this, he could learn to use weapons faster.
If it weren't for those three creatures that copied his attacks, he wouldn't have been able to fight this terrifying creature as well as he was now.
Slowly, Vallynor began to adjust to Butterfly's rhythm. With each round where Butterfly attacked and Vallynor defended, he became more skilled in defense.
But each of Butterfly's strikes left a small seal that slowed down time. It not only slowed down the light armor, but also made it heavy and sluggish. This created a feeling of heavy armor.
Her power penetrated through the armor and went straight into the body, affecting the skin and muscles. Luckily, I wasn't alive, but I wasn't dead either. My internal organs weren't working, as confirmed by my little friend who hadn't moved since the beginning of the journey. So, if he's not working, then neither are the rest, except for the heart.
After another attack, Butterfly waited for the moment when the man wouldn't be able to move anymore because of all the seals. But seeing how skillfully he used his sword, she thought the battle would take more time.
However, with each passing time, the man became better. And only now did Butterfly realize how problematic the guy was. Understanding that further fighting was pointless, she changed her plan.
Stepping back, she began to circle around, and in the center sat Vallynor, who was waiting for Butterfly. But quickly realizing that she was no longer approaching and wanted to use another method, he quickly created a Fireball in one hand and a Necrotic Ball in the other, which he then threw at the enemy.
Seeing the magical balls, Butterfly felt insulted. "Is the puppy trying to bite me?" she thought, spinning around and avoiding the balls, and began to emit dust. Vallynor, watching the dust, saw that it disappeared when it fell to the ground, but nothing happened afterwards.
"Did nothing happen? Was her attack useless?" even if she did nothing, he still didn't want to touch her, which is why he avoided her as much as possible.
Throwing a magical ball at Butterfly, it flew through the dust and immediately stopped. She no longer emitted light, warmth, or fiery and necrotic tongues.
Only then did he understand what this dust was doing. It completely stopped time. He realized that he was in big trouble, and if he fell under the dust, he was done for. If her previous attacks slowed down time and the person themselves, it still gave Vallynor some chance to defend and attack. But if he fell under the dust, he would become a living statue.
Thinking, he decided to use the wind to move the dust that surrounded his spells. And quickly cursing himself, he realized he didn't know any spells with the element of wind.
Quickly creating a Fireball, he threw it right at the other spells. Filling the Fireball with energy, it quickly inflated and when it reached almost to where the dust, where his magical balls were now, it exploded.
A magical explosion emitted a strong wave and wind that spread dust and cleared the area. All magical spheres that were once captured flew in all directions.
Due to the chaos, Butterfly couldn't dodge and received several spheres to the head. Angry, she looked at the man and lunged at him, attacking with her little paws. But two beams of light came out of her two antennae, heading towards Vallynor.
Realizing he couldn't block the attack and recalling Butterfly's power, he quickly ordered the Dead Earth to move. He walked quickly, not far from there. He understood that Butterfly had sped up time again, and the spell was complete.
Quickly creating the Dead Earth, he ordered it to stay in the ground for the next dangerous Butterfly attack.
Creating 50 new soul hands, he quickly created Fire and Necrotic spheres, which flew out of 50 invisible hands and headed towards Butterfly. As if snorting, she emitted light that enveloped her. The spheres approached her quickly, diminishing. But before they disappeared completely, they exploded. This caught Butterfly off guard. Many waves of explosions injured her, causing her to spit out some black blood.
Injured and in pain, she became angry and began emitting rays like a disco ball.
The rays were transparent and almost invisible, except for the pitch-black darkness. This huge hall had no source of light. And Butterflies with her rays were very visible.
The rays moved neither quickly nor slowly. And wherever they hit, there was a small hole almost 2-3 millimeters in size. A continuous line was made.
You might be reading a pirated copy. Look for the official release to support the author.
"Damn it," seeing Butterfly turn into a disco ball and understanding how dangerous her rays were, Vallynor quickly activated the Dead Earth.
While the spell was activated, he threw Fire and Necrotic spheres at the Butterfly. Some disappeared on contact with the rays, while others missed. Only a small part of them hit the Butterfly. But even if they hit, the damage received was not significant.
When Dead Earth appeared and bony hands emerged from the ground, he quickly ordered them to take him and move him under the Butterfly.
When he was completely absorbed, he felt like he was in a matchbox. In the next second, he was moving between skeletons, as if pushed from all sides, and only where there was space, he flew from the pressure. "Thank goodness I'm not fully alive," he thought.
Having been trapped under the butterfly, he quickly grabbed his spear and aimed for the enemy's belly. When the spear hit the butterfly, it quickly began to rust. But before it could become a piece of garbage, it still managed to pierce and wound him.
Screaming, it stopped screaming and released a wave that, upon contact with him, restored the entire floor as if time had been rewound. Sensing danger, he quickly exited the Land of the Dead.
In the next moment, the spell disappeared completely, as if it had never existed. Vallynor was scared, thinking that it was a wave that had touched him, but fortunately he realized that it was the butterfly's abilities that affected everything except living beings.
The butterfly turned to him and flew away. Rising into the air, it again began to emit dust, but this time less. Vallynor watched its movements and avoided the dust. And when he couldn't avoid it, he used small magical spheres, causing them to explode.
Seeing the butterfly approaching, he quickly created fire and necrotic spheres, then combined them and threw them at the approaching enemy. When she was close enough to the spheres, the magical sphere exploded, creating strong magical waves of fire and necrotic energy. This severely wounded the butterfly, and it fell to the ground, screaming.
Vallynor, seeing how strong the effect of the combination of fire and necrotic energy was, wanted to throw spheres at the enemy several more times. But unfortunately, his mana and, more precisely, his fire energy had run out. Only mana without fire and necrotic energy remained. Vallynor had energies of different types, such as wind, light, dark, and so on, but they were useless to him because he did not know any spells that used Dante.
When Vallynor was ready to attack the butterfly, a blue panel appeared in front of him with the words: [Urgent Mission]. Feeling curious, he opened it, and luckily, the butterfly had received a serious injury and did not start attacking. And while there was little time, he quickly read the message on the panel.
[Your rotten heart is full of desire and greed. It pushed you to fight a strong enemy. To survive and save your companion, you will have to kill the enemy.
Goals: Kill the Time Butterfly Farfalla.
Reward: Technique for making runes from the souls of powerful enemies for the soul base.]
The window quickly disappeared, and before Vallynor's eyes appeared the Butterfly, ready to strike again with its legs. Vallynor dodged the first two strikes and, as they flew towards him, summoned his swords. He then blocked the remaining attacks.
After the last strike of the Butterfly, Vallynor counterattacked and managed to cut off one of its legs. Screaming in pain, it lunged at the enemy, but he blocked its attacks.
The Butterfly only grew stronger and wanted to kill and devour the soul of its enemy. However, at some point, another leg was cut off, and Vallynor's sword completely fell apart.
Looking at the remains of the sword and handle, he replaced it with a katana. Even though it looked like a sword, this weapon should still be used using techniques intended for this weapon.
It cannot be used like an ordinary sword. Secondly, you can block a blow with it using the non-cutting side.
Fortunately, Vallynor trained a bit with this weapon, mostly because he always wanted a katana. He even made it himself from his grandfather's scrap metal. Although after that, he got beaten up quite a bit.
The wounded butterfly flew towards the center, where the throne lay in ruins. And some kind of web wrapped around it like a cocoon. [Time song-4 minutes 23 seconds]
Emitting waves in all directions, small holes appeared in space, which increased with each passing second. Out of each hole came butterflies and caterpillars. Some butterflies were young, while others were old, almost dying. The caterpillars were also both young and old, losing their color.
But all the butterflies looked exactly like Farfalla, only some were younger, and others were older. Likewise, the caterpillars in the pattern were exactly the same as the butterflies.
"Are they all versions of her from another time?" he asked himself, analyzing what he saw before him. Reluctantly, he accepted it as the truth, seeing their next attack.
Everyone turned to Vallynor and shot beams straight at one person. But before they hit their target, the person was swallowed up by the ground. In the next second, he appeared next to a caterpillar and cut off half of its body, and one of Soul's hands attacked the severed caterpillar. Catching the soul, she pulled to swallow it, but an unknown force took the soul and headed for Farfalle, who was hidden in a cocoon.
New beams flew towards Vallynor, but he disappeared again, and a crater appeared where he had just been. Then he appeared next to another caterpillar and killed it. Trying to take the soul, he failed again, and it flew to the enemy.
Vallynor realized that it was pointless to attack the entire army of clones and better to attack the Butterfly herself. But she was on an altar or throne, which was on a small pyramid.
Butterfly parts circled around the cocoon, emitting dangerous dust and shooting beams at the enemy.
Vallynor couldn't get closer, and while he thought, he killed caterpillars and butterflies. Fortunately, they were weaker than Farfalle herself and could not speed up and forcefully complete her spell.
After killing another caterpillar, the dust began to slowly fall next to him. Frightened, he quickly moved using the Earth of the Dead. But when he appeared, the dust slowly began to fall on him, and his already tattered armor began to crumble. But this process was very slow. Quickly surveying the area, he realized that the entire hall was covered in this dust.
Many beams flew, and Vallynor disappeared in Vallynor again. When he appeared, he created necrotic spheres and threw them at the nearest enemies, creating waves that repelled the dust for several seconds. He emitted over 52 spheres at once, and strong waves didn't let the dust fall evenly.
Moving from one place to another, Vallynor began to get used to using the Earth of the Dead. He also increased its radius, realizing that it did not suffer much from dust and beams.
He did not try to resurrect the undead from the bodies of enemies for one simple reason: after half a minute, the bodies of the slain enemies disappeared, not turning into dust or exploding but becoming transparent and disappearing.
Some butterflies that did not guard the cocoon not only emitted dust and beams at the enemy but also attacked with their legs. But Vallynor always ran away and did not defend himself. He did not want to be attacked and wounded.
Vallynor threw more than 52 necrotic spheres at his enemies, quickly disappearing into the ground and reappearing in another location. Some butterflies and caterpillars fell immediately, while others could withstand one or two hits.
But none of them even suspected that by attacking so frequently with 52 spheres, Vallynor was slowly approaching the cocoon.
Vallynor slowly approached, killing everyone in his path. It was difficult at first, but with each time he killed them faster, learning their weak points.
When he got close enough to the cocoon, all the butterflies and caterpillars went crazy and attacked him.
Bony hands came out of the destroyed floor and caught several caterpillars and a few unlucky butterflies. The hands tore apart several caterpillars and one butterfly, and most of the caterpillars were destroyed, held by the hands, which then attacked Vallynor.
As Vallynor fought and killed the caterpillars and butterflies, holes appeared in space, from which caterpillars and butterflies emerged. All of them attacked Vallynor, but some of them were slowed down by the bony hands coming out of the ground.
A soul emerged from each killed caterpillar and butterfly, flying like an arrow into the cocoon. Understanding that they would deeply regret it if they did not pay attention to the cocoon, Vallynor created 52 neurotic spheres.
He threw more than half of them at the cocoon. The caterpillars and butterflies could not think of how to stop the flying projectiles, so they jumped in front of them, becoming living shields, blocking the spheres. But they were too filled with necrotic energy, which caused small explosions that struck those around them.
Three such spheres exploded near the cocoon. All three waves hit the cocoon, and the necrotic energy, like poison, began to slowly destroy it.
Everyone who saw the cocoon being destroyed by the destructive necrotic energy went insane. Every single one of them attacked Vallynor. But he quickly went into the ground and emerged three steps away from the entrance. Unfortunately, the entrance was still blocked, which meant that Farfalla was still alive.
The cocoon was completely destroyed, and from the remnants of the cocoon emerged Farfalla. But she looked terrible, like a flower that had grown but could not fully develop and show its beauty to the world. And Farfalla knew that if she had been able to fully develop, she could have become a very beautiful butterfly. But she looked underdeveloped; one wing was larger than the other, the patterns were blurred, and the legs were so thin that they seemed like they would break at any moment.
"Did she try to transition to the second phase?" said Vallynor, realizing how much Farfalla had changed.
Farfalla, seeing her form, went insane. A strong scream filled the entire hall, and all the butterflies and caterpillars fell. Their souls flew into Farfalla, and their bodies disappeared.
Releasing beams, she pierced the ceiling, and light appeared from the control room. Flying away, she made a circle, after which all the light that entered the hall through the hole was directed to the butterfly's wings. All the sunlight fell on the butterfly's wings and came out the other side, like a magnifying glass of light coming out through the wings. The light fell directly on the floor, where Farfalla herself was flying.
Where the beams fell, everything began to disappear. Trenches began to appear on the floor, which deepened until the light left them. After that, the butterfly began to fly wildly in all directions, drawing attention to where Vallynor was.
Realizing that the entire floor was already deadly dangerous for him, he made the land of the dead go deeper into the ground and appear on the walls. Bony hands caught their owner and drowned him in the ground. And after a few seconds, Vallynor emerged from the wall halfway and looked at the butterfly, which was frantically destroying the floor. But within twenty seconds, she stopped and began looking for him.
Creating "Necrotic Spheres," he brought his 50 invisible hands closer to the butterflies and waited until they came close enough for the spheres to hit them head-on.
He didn't have to wait long before Butterfly approached the spot where he was. When she got close enough, more than 50 orbs appeared in front of Farfalla's face. She couldn't even understand anything before she was enveloped in an explosion.
When the explosions subsided, a wounded Farfalla emerged from it. She made her way to Vallynor, pounced on him, and pulled him out of the wall. Attacking the 50 orbs, he thought she would die or be severely injured, but he couldn't anticipate her lunging at him, causing him to miss the danger.