Mobius disappeared from where he stood and appeared right behind Maria with his sword poised to stab her. Maria was about to pull out her Calamity when she suddenly felt her body move without her control. She was abruptly flung towards the Daemon Heart and landed just a short distance from it. She looked back and noticed that Paimon had used his [Levitation] spell to fling her away from Mobius. This was the second time he had used the spell on her but this time, he used it to save her life instead of toy with her.
“Run!”
Maria nodded and did as she was told without hesitation. When she felt Mobius appear behind her, she felt an unnerving sense of dread which convinced her that a single stab of that light sword of his would have definitely killed her on the spot. She ran towards the Daemon Heart and quickly arrived in front of it but didn’t know what to do. Meanwhile, Paimon had intercepted Mobius and was also trying to stop the elite soldiers from pursuing his disciple.
It was hard to do this since the opponent he was facing was none other than the planet’s hero so he shouldn’t even be splitting his attention for anything else besides fighting against Mobius. He swung and twirled his staff around as he multi-cast and instant-cast golem spells and trapping spells.
Multiple [Ensare], [Stop], [Stone], and [Freeze] spells were conjured in an instant which affected all of the soldiers but he had to quickly erect a barrier in front of him and [Warp] away to dodge the incoming Sword of Light that was slashing down on him. After appearing a short distance away after using [Warp], Paimon held his chest and grimaced in pain before using a [High Cure] spell. The Sword of Light that Mobius was using had only grazed him but the damage dealt was tremendous. It halved the effects of any healing spell or item so Paimon’s injury was only half restored but he suddenly felt something enter his body and completely heal his injuries.
Maria had used her [Fallen’s Cruelty] to absorb the life force out of a nearby enemy soldier and transfer it to Paimon. It bypassed the Sword of Light’s special effect and when Mobius saw the accursed magic spell that drained the life out of his soldier, he roared out in anger as he pointed a finger at his old friend.
“You see what she’s capable of and yet you still protect this evil disciple of yours?! You’ve truly gone mad, Paimon!”
“You don’t even know the truth behind what she did and you’re only blindly following orders from your god! Look at her! Do you see any evil in her? Even you can tell that although her body is tainted with the sins of those devils, her soul is pure!”
“...This doesn’t change anything. I will have her head. She needs to be punished and sealed away to prevent a disaster from happening in the future!”
“You are just blinded by your god’s orders! You’re trying to put an innocent girl through the worst form of punishment imaginable! Those devils had been sealed for so long and there was never anything we could do to permanently destroy them but she’s done that and eliminated a few of those evils already!”
“...”
“Instead of rewarding her for her sacrifice, you want to seal her away? Punishing her for all eternity? You and the rest of the gods on this planet are nothing but an ungrateful lot!”
Mobius glared at Paimon before raising his sword at him and saying, “For the crimes of harboring and aiding a criminal, and for blaspheming the names of the gods, I, Mobius Harkot, as the gods’ adjudicator, sentence you, Paimon, the offender...to the Ziggurat.”
Maria didn’t know what this Ziggurat was but it sounded really unpleasant. The Ziggurat was an ancient prison developed by the old gods of Eur and was kept maintained by the new gods of Eur. Over the past thousands of years, many powerful individuals that were on the level of the gods’ chosen heroes would appear from time to time. The same went with unique monsters and other types of creatures.
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These beings threatened the authority of the gods on the planet but most of the time, these beings were usually minding their own businesses and going about their days...until someone or something antagonized them.
The Ziggurat was a place where the gods harbored these dangerous beings to an eternity of imprisonment, even fallen heroes would be placed in this prison in order to be reformed. No one aged or died within the Ziggurat so to some people, it was paradise, while to others, it was eternal punishment. The old gods of Eur didn’t directly kill these beings because they had other uses for them. Such powerful individuals were suitable to become their champions so it was a waste to just kill them. The gods could never get enough of obtaining suitable champions for themselves in order to expand their influence and power so they would imprison the beings that went against them and wait for them to ‘reform’ themselves so that they could see eye to eye.
Paimon was one of these powerful individuals that could rival the current era’s chosen heroes so Mobius sentenced him to the Ziggurat instead of punishing him with death. He also knew about the legend of the Ziggurat but there was no chance in hell that he would ever reform himself to see eye to eye with the gods who were condemning his disciple into a reality that was harsher than the punishment of being imprisoned in the Ziggurat.
“Come on, Mobius!”
Paimon yelled at his old friend and began conjuring multiple spells at once before sending them towards Mobius and his legion of elite soldiers. Maria watched on in awe at her mentor’s immense strength but she was immediately brought out of her reverie when she heard Paimon’s urgent voice in her head.
[Kid, I need you to activate the spell formation located right underneath the Daemon Heart! It’s the spell formation that will teleport us off of this world!]
‘Y-You’re coming with me too, Paipai?’
[Of course, I am! Why would I stay on this damned planet when I know that I’m going to be imprisoned in some legendary prison?!]
‘O-Oh...is that what the Ziggurat is?’
[Enough of this, I can’t hold this bastard for long! Hurry up and activate the magic formation while I keep this fool and his band of idiots at bay!]
‘Roger!’
Maria immediately found the magic formation that Paimon was referring to. It was hidden directly beneath the large Daemon Heart so that Mobius wouldn’t be able to see what Paimon had been planning. Jumping worlds was the last thing Mobius or the gods watching the battle would have ever expected. She moved behind the Daemon Heart as if she was seeking cover from the battle but Maria was secretly injecting her mana into the large magic crystal and activating the spell formation.
“Come on, come on!”
The charging bar that had appeared above the spell formation was moving at a snail’s pace and no matter how much mana she injected, the progress bar continued to move at the same slow pace. She would look up to see how Paimon was doing and she saw that he was slowly losing grounds after being overwhelmed by Mobius and his soldiers. He was fighting multiple people at once so it was only natural he’d be overwhelmed.
The golems he had conjured would only be able to last a few minutes at most before they were destroyed. If it wasn’t for the special magic staff in his hands that allowed Paimon to conjure spells at a rate that seemed as if he had broken the game’s limitations and mechanics, he would have long since fallen to Mobius and his soldiers.
However, even when Paimon was using ‘cheat mode’, Mobius was still able to keep up with him so his existence was similarly a cheat. If Maria hadn’t run to Paimon’s tower she would have been captured sooner or later by Mobius and his army. The large commotion at the mage tower attracted all of the players and NPCs in the city. A few players even began streaming the event so that others could see what was going on.
The top floor of the mage tower had long since been blown away and only the platform where, Maria, the Daemon Heart, and the spell formation were located was left standing, floating by its lonesome in the air. The players and NPCs down below saw the epic battle between the two cheat-like NPCs. One of them was the recognizable Archmage Paimon while the other one was completely unfamiliar.
It was the first time anyone saw this NPC and he was attacking the Archmage, one of the most powerful NPCs on Planet Eur, with an army of soldiers and was slowly overwhelming him. A few of the players soon noticed that Paimon was protecting the large magic crystal that was on the floating platform in the air and some of the players also noticed that there was a person on that floating platform.
“Hey, isn’t that a person up there?”
“Looks like a player to me...what the hell is he doing up there?”
“He? I think you need to get your eyes checked. The person up there is obviously a girl!”
“Hey, you’re right! Wait...is this that person’s quest or something?”
“No way…”
After a few more minutes elapsed, the progress bar finally hit 100 percent and the spell formation activated. The Daemon Heart began funneling all of its mana into the spell formation as it slowly began to disintegrate as it continued to support the opening of the teleportation gate that had appeared.
“Paipai! It’s finished!”
“Then what are you waiting for?! Go!”