Once I recovered from the blow I gave to that strange Storm Mage, I turned my attention back to the battlefields. I saw Qin Yue creating her special mech again in the middle of a bloody hole. There was no way that she did that, so there’s a possibility that this was done by the Beastkin woman.
I also noticed something similar to what was about to happen with the Storm Mage. A tornado was taking shape in the middle of the base, near to where we were supposed to enter.
“Oh damn,” Hana said, flying close to me to look down at the tornado. “Whoever’s inside that tornado is in big trouble.”
“Then I guess we should go and help them,” I replied, and without waiting for her response, boomed straight ahead into it.
Hana followed after me, and as I approached the tornado, I saw one of Althea Sanctus’ friends desperately fighting inside, launching Holy Spell after Holy Spell, all of them failing to hit their targets. He wasn’t going to last long like that, and while I still felt somewhat angry about losing one of my comrades to help Althea, there was no reason to allow such a thing to happen to her.
I pulled out my piledriver and aimed it at the tornado, straight at the place where the enemy’s magic signature felt the strongest. This time, I was going to use a normal spike, since I didn’t want to waste more Arretium spikes if I didn’t need to.
The trigger on my weapon clicked and the spike broke the air with a booming sound as it went straight into the tornado. There was an explosion of deep green magic and my spike was completely destroyed.
“Damn it,” I cursed. It seemed like I might have to use another Arretium spike.
“Heh, don’t get so discouraged,” Hana said once she caught up with me. “Qin Yue is about to join the fight. Let's all just get this over with.”
“Right,” I said and looked down at the silvery mech, whose head was looking up to me. I nodded and the mech turned to look at the tornado.
Hana created another one of those Mana Explosions that cleared the clouds before, and Qin Yue jumped into the tornado with her mech. Meanwhile, I summoned more common spikes and fired them quickly into the tornado.
While all of that was being used, I saw Althea’s friend looking back up to us with a furious glare. It wasn’t directed at us, but I could feel the frustration in it; in being forced to withdraw from combat. He turned and went looking for the base. It was better this way, since with the three of us here, he could go help Althea.
“Watch out!” Hana exclaimed and my attention turned back to the tornado.
From it, a tentacle-like current of green wind was coming out, moving directly to us. However, I didn’t move from my spot and just looked straight ahead at the wind coming closer. Hana dodged away from the arm, almost going around the tornado, and I just created a dense barrier of mana.
It hit me and a bubble of mana formed all around me, leaving me unharmed by the attack. Though, I could feel my mana being drained with each passing second, so it wouldn’t be good to stay here and allow it to hit me.
Hana noticed that as well, and took the opportunity left by that attack to create several meteors at the same time. They illuminated the sky and the tornado, causing the wind that was hitting me to lessen as the whole tornado seemed to stir and move the density of the winds in the direction of the meteors.
Hana wasted no time dropping them, and all of them were quickly absorbed into the winds. The meteors, however, didn’t land anywhere as they were just swept up and turned around in the winds. Without a proper target, all that Hana could do was to just cause them to explode.
A bright and loud shockwave of fire spread inside the tornado, causing it to lose its shape and the winds to lower in intensity. I took that opening to look for the person responsible for this tornado, but no matter where I looked, all I saw was just fire and winds losing speed.
They might have just been at the ground, so I looked down, only to see Qin Yue’s mech standing around and doing the same thing. Whoever we were fighting was really good at keeping themselves hidden… it seemed…
As if to answer our questions, from the middle of the remaining winds of the tornado, several golden lights of Holy Magic were fired. They came from seemingly out of nowhere, and just as quickly as they appeared, they went for all of us. I managed to raise my large piledriver and block the shot, which forced me to fly back several meters away from the wind.
Hana was quick and managed to block with a barrier of her own, leaving her untouched and unmoved, but Qin Yue’s mech was nearly torn to pieces as the shot pierced right through the side of the robot when she was trying to dodge away from them.
Thankfully, she quickly fixed the missing parts with her own special Metal Magic, which meant that she was unharmed, but that didn’t mean that we were out of danger at all. I turned a sharp look at the place from which the shots were fired, and saw how the winds were picking up speed once more, and the green hue that composed turned brighter once more.
The fires from meteors were quickly cleared, and in their place, powerful winds spun, all of them flying at us with as much speed as the Holy Magic that was used before.
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“Urrghhh!” I let out and summoned another Arretium spike into the piledriver.
It was going to be so painful to use such expensive ammunition, but the way things were going, I wasn’t sure that we were going to be able to take down this person.
I turned my gaze over to Hana, who was also looking at me. She nodded, understanding that I needed a clearer target than a big tornado, so she placed her hands forward, and from them, a similar magic to the one that composed the tornado was summoned.
It was Air Magic. The winds of the tornado suddenly slowed down, and I focused my eyes on anything or anyone that could be producing them.
Time passed, but I saw no figure that could tell me that it was coming from them, and the winds weren’t slowing down anymore.
Hana carried a strained expression on her face, which meant that whoever was behind it all, was quite capable to even fight back Hana’s magic and not show their face… That friend of Althea was stronger than I initially thought if he managed to stay alive for this long.
I’d have to use my weapon soon, otherwise, Hana was going to lose control, a retaliation would be certain, and my best shot would be gone. There was no more time, I prepared myself to fly straight into the tornado, however, as I did, an explosion from the ground forced me to look down.
Rocks were flying into the sky in every direction and a black hole had opened up. For a moment, I thought that it was Qin Yue, but she wasn’t in that place, and judging from the surprised movements of the mech, she didn’t do that.
A dark shadow with a golden light in the middle of it was flying higher and higher into the sky, and I quickly realized that this was a different kind of power. This was very similar to the kind of power that both Althea and that Eletha elf had, which meant that… they were fighting already.
We didn’t have any more time to waste with this enemy. We had to deal with the one that we came all the way here to deal with, but this tornado wasn’t going to make things easier… so I still tried to focus on finding the one responsible for the tornado.
It was made harder when from the sky, close to where we were, an explosion of both darkness and golden light spread in every direction. My attention was once more brought away from the fight to what just happened, and I couldn't help but raise my eyebrows in surprise.
I was certain that it was Althea and Eletha, but from what I could see, there was the elf girl and a demoness that I didn’t remember coming with us… Or could it be that that was Althea?
The person behind the tornado also noticed what was going on and the tornado suddenly changed directions, forcing even the spiral to go in the opposite direction and using the force from Hana's magic to launch itself higher and to the place where that demon Althea and Eletha appeared. It was clear that our enemy found something else to hunt…
“Huh!?” Hana exclaimed, with an annoyed expression on her face and her eyebrows furrowed. “Are you seriously turning your back on us without showing your face!?”
As the tornado was turning to go towards where Eletha and that strange Althea where flying, Hana flew herself into the tornado. From inside, she started shooting mana beams in every direction where a condensed amount of mana could be felt, but it all just fired into the sky, the horizon, and the ground, hitting nothing.
I followed after the tornado as well and like I had been doing, I tried to locate our target in between the mana beams that didn’t hit anything, but all I saw was just turbulent green winds.
Eventually, the tornado got under that demonic Althea, and the large demon-like being that she was got swept into the winds. The wind pressure surrounding that demon increased and I could see the long black hair of that being violently shaking in the air.
“You shall fall here, Icon of Darkness!” shouted Eletha, her large weapon glowing with a golden light and pointed straight at the tornado.
The demon-like Althea turned her face into the tornado, and suddenly, in a puff of dark smoke, she appeared in the middle of the tornado. In her hand, gripped by the neck, was a woman with a military uniform of the people we were fighting. The green tornado started to slowly fade, and I could get a good look at who that strange Althea just grabbed.
It was the person behind the tornado. She struggled with a strained look on her face, grabbing the large claw-like hand that Althea was holding her with as she tried her best to pry herself free. Blades of green magic hit the strange Althea, but all they did was cause her hair to sway one way and another. A green mist appeared from that woman, but nothing caused Althea to let go.
“No! Let her go!” shouted Eletha, and with a booming explosion of Holy Magic, rushed her way to save the person that Althea was holding.
However, the elf didn’t get even half-way there, as from Althea’s hand, a bright red fire spurred, and the woman being gripped by her neck was immediately engulfed in those fires. There was no way for that woman to survive, as even from this long distance, I could feel the burning sensation in the air.
“No!” shouted Eletha once more, and in the next moment, crashed with Althea.
An explosion of golden light followed, and red fires followed with an explosion of its own, covering the sky with a near blinding light of Holy Magic and Hellfire.
Hana flew over to where I was, with her eyes set on the current explosion. “What do we do now…? Do we join in that or…?”
The mech from the ground also flew up to where I was, looming behind me with its large metallic frame. “I say we go in and kill the holy one as soon as we can.”
“But is that a good idea…? I mean… look at that demon…” Hana answered, and as the explosion cleared up, a new one followed.
Beams of pure darkness fired in every direction, going to the sky, the horizon, the ground, and even to us. Hana joined me in creating a barrier, where the large beams hit and both barriers immediately cracked. Qin Yue moved her own metallic pieces and placed them in the way, but they melted right away. Luckily, the beam of darkness wasn’t directed at us, so it faded quickly; however, it let us know something about that demonic Althea.
She wasn’t fully in control of what was going on.
Another beam was fired, this one made out of golden light, and unlike the darkness ones, it fired only in one direction, which was that of the demonic Althea. It managed to push her back, and send her a certain distance away from where they were, and in that time, our enemy—our target—turned her face this way. She was serious and at the same time somewhat anxious.
“You’ve seen the demons that you’ve sided yourselves with!” she shouted, her chin raised up as if she was talking down to us. “It doesn’t differentiate friend from foe! And with time, it’ll consume the whole world! Join me! We must stop that demon, the darkness that it spreads, and bring the light of the Holy Gods to the world!”
“What?! No way!” Hana exclaimed, “That bitch killed our friend, and nearly tore down half the city! If we join her, she’s just going to put a chain on our necks. Let's help the demon.”
“But…” Qin Yue followed up, her mech’s head turned to the demonic Althea that was already returning. “That thing did attack us just now…”
I wasn’t certain on what to do, and as I considered their words, the demonic Althea once more clashed with the current Holy Hero, sending waves of both darkness and golden light through the sky.
We would have to pick a side.